The shrill whistle came again. The dogs stopped snarling and leaping, and lay down under the trees.
“Look!” Bob said. “Skinny and that ranch manager, Cody!”
Their thin enemy and the stocky cowboy were trotting across the dam. Skinny was grinning with delight at the sight of the boys high in the trees. When the two came up, Cody ordered the dogs back sharply. They lay at his heels, alert and quivering, as he looked up at the boys. His small eyes sparkled, and he smiled nastily at them.
“So we’ve got some trespassers, eh? These trees just happen to be on Norris land!”
“Your dogs chased us here, and you know it!” Diego cried.
“What were you and your dogs doing on Alvaro land!” Pete said hotly.
Cody laughed. “Now how you going to prove that, boy?”
“All I see,” Skinny said innocently, “is three trespassers up a tree on my dad’s land.”
“Like we told the sheriff,” Cody said with a smile, “We’ve been having trouble with trespassers.” He nodded towards the dirt road on the Norris side of the creek. A sheriff’s car was coming up it. “I guess he’ll believe us now.”
The sheriff’s car parked, and the sheriff himself got out with a deputy. They strode up to Skinny and Cody.
“What’s going on here?” the sheriff demanded.
“We’ve caught some trespassers, Sheriff,” Cody said. “The Alvaro kid and two buddies. I told you the Alvaros and their friends act like they think it’s still all their land! Running their horses on our land, breaking our fences, making illegal campfires. You know how bad a campfire is out here now.”
The sheriff looked up at the boys. “All right, you boys, climb down. Cody, hold those dogs back.”
The boys climbed down as Cody controlled the growling dogs. The sheriff looked closely at the two Investigators.
“I know you two, don’t I? Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews of The Three Investigators! From what Chief Reynolds has told me, you two should know better. Trespassing is a serious matter.”
“We weren’t trespassing, sir,” Bob said quietly. “We were on Alvaro land when those dogs chased us here.”
“Oh, sure.” Skinny sneered. “They’d have to lie, Sheriff.”
“You’re the liar, Skinny Norris!” Pete raged.
“Sheriff,” Bob went on, “if we were on Mr. Norris’s land when those dogs chased us, how come the dogs are soaking wet? It isn’t raining just now.”
“Wet?” The sheriff looked at the dogs.
“Yes,” Bob said firmly, “because they swam the reservoir to chase us, and that pond, and the whole creek above the dam, is on Alvaro land!”
Cody reddened and blustered. “You gonna listen to them kids, Sheriff? The dogs got wet earlier, yeah.”
“Well,” the sheriff said, looking hard at Cody, “those wet dogs make your story kind of shaky, Cody. I hope the evidence you got me out here to see is better.”
“It is,” Cody growled. “Come on, I’ve got it in my wagon down the road.”
“What evidence?” Bob asked as Cody and the sheriff walked away down the road.
“Wouldn’t you like to know!” Skinny sneered.
The boys and Skinny glared at each other as they waited under the oak trees for the sheriff. When he returned alone some fifteen minutes later, he was carrying a large brown paper bag. He nodded grimly to Diego and the Investigators.
“All right, you boys can go for now. I don’t know who’s telling the truth, but I’ve already warned Cody to keep his dogs on his own land, and now I’m warning you not to trespass.”
Diego and Pete opened their mouths to protest, but Bob spoke quickly first:
“Yes, sir, we’ll remember.”Then he added innocently, “Can you tell us what’s in that bag, sir?”
“That’s none of your business, Bob Andrews,” the sheriff snapped. “Now get out of here!”
Reluctantly, the three boys left. They circled the dogs warily, and went back across the dam to the road and their bikes. The rain began to fall heavily again as they rode down the Alvaro’s dirt road to the ruins of the hacienda a mile away.
As they passed the ruins, they saw Pico. He was walking slowly around among the burned rooms of the house as if searching for anything that might have been spared by the flames. “Find anything?” called Pete, as the boys rode up towards the burned-out hacienda.
Pico looked up, startled and then embarrassed. “I’m looking for the Cortés Sword,” he admitted. “It occurred to me that if Don Sebastián had hidden it, he might have hidden it in the hacienda. And with the house burned out, it might be revealed now. Metal does not burn in a wood fire, so the sword would be easy to find. But,” and he looked around at the skeletal walls remaining, “there is no sword here.” He kicked angrily at some roof tiles on the floor.
“But Condor Castle is here, Pico!” Diego cried. “We found it!”
The boys quickly reported their discovery of the old map and the location of Condor Castle, and their search of the ridge near the dam. Pico’s dark eyes gleamed at first, but slowly faded as the boys had to admit their failure to find any trace of a hiding place near the big rock on the ridge.
“Then what good is your location of Condor Castle? You found nothing! You’re no better off than you were.”
“No, that’s not true,” Bob declared. “Next to finding the sword, we’ve made the most important discovery of all.”
“What is that, Bob?” Pico demanded.
“That Don Sebastián did plan to hide the sword for his son José!” Bob said. “Condor Castle was only on the very oldest map. It had nothing to do with where Don Sebastián was or where he lived, so there was no reason to put it on that letter except as a clue. A clue to tell José where to look for something, and the only thing worth all that was the Cortés Sword!”
“Perhaps,” Pico acknowledged, “but you still — ”
Before Pico could continue, two cars came up the dirt road of the ranch and roared into the hacienda yard. The first was the Norris ranch wagon, and the second was the sheriff’s car. Cody and Skinny Norris jumped from the ranch wagon.
“There he is!” Cody cried.
“Don’t let him get away!” Skinny called.
The sheriff got out of his car. “I told you two to let me handle this,” he said. “He isn’t going to run away.”
The sheriff still carried the large brown paper bag the boys had seen earlier. He walked slowly up to Pico.
“Pico, I’ve got to ask where you were on the day of the brush fire.”
“Where I was?” Pico frowned. “I was at the fire, as you know. Earlier, I was with Diego at the central school in Rocky Beach.”
“Yes, you were seen then. That was around three p.m. Where before that?”
“Before? On the ranch. What is this about, Sheriff?”
“We found how the brush fire started. Someone built a campfire back on the Norris ranch, well before three p.m. That’s illegal this time of year, and it wasn’t properly put out. The Norris fence was broken — ”
Cody burst out, “And we found tracks of your horses!”
“You went after them and started that fire!” Skinny cried.
Pico’s voice was cold. “If your fence is broken, and our horses stray on to your land, we go to get them. Good neighbours do that. But I and my friends do not build fires illegally!”
The sheriff opened the paper bag and took out a flat, black sombrero banded with silver conchos.
“Do you recognize this hat, Pico?” the sheriff asked.
