“I simply don’t know.”
“Did they say anything?” Jupiter queried.
“Not in English. The rascal shouted a great deal, but it was all gibberish to me. I tried to capture him, but he eluded me. Both men were gone before the police arrived. I assume they were some fanatics who hate vegetarians. We’ve had to face that kind of ignorant prejudice many times. People often hate someone just because he is different from them, I’m afraid.”
“I know that, sir,” Jupiter said, “but I don’t think those men were against you because you were a vegetarian.”
Mr. Harris looked startled. “No? Then why did they attack me? Do you mean that you have some theory about it?”
“We sure do!” Bob said firmly. “We know… ”
Bob stopped, suddenly aware of a faint sound somewhere in the office. Mr. Harris heard it, too, and began to look around with a puzzled frown. It was a very low
Jupiter had heard it, too. He stood up abruptly. “I’m sorry, sir, but we have to go. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
“Of course, Jupiter,” Mr. Harris said. “I’ll be here for a little while before I get to see Miss Sandow. I visit the dear lady every day. After all, without her I wouldn’t have been able to start our league here in Rocky Beach.”
“Yes, sir,” Jupiter said, as he turned and hurried out of the office.
The boys knew that Pete could not reach them on their walkie-talkies while they were inside a building — at least not from such a distance. They walked rapidly through the haphazard stacks in the entry hall, and out into the sun of the open front garden. Jupiter found a large bush between the door and the gate, and the two of them crouched down.
Jupiter pressed his sending button. “First here. Come in, Second. Come in, Second. We are receiving. Over.”
Pete’s voice came faintly from the small walkie-talkie. Jupe and Bob leaned close. “Second here. Do you read me? Come in, First! Do you read me? Over.”
“First and Records receiving. Come in. Over.” Jupiter spoke into his transmitter.
“Jupe?” Pete’s faint voice sounded excited. “A report just came in on the Ghost-to-Ghost. A kid saw the dark men! They’re in their car parked on Las Palmas Street near… ”
Bob shouted, “Jupe! It’s them! There they are!”
Jupiter jumped up. His finger came off the receiving button, cutting off Pete’s voice, but neither Bob nor Jupiter was thinking about Pete. One of the dark men in the strange white clothes stood beside their bikes at the gate. The other was standing between them and the door of the house.
Both men began to move menacingly towards them, brandishing ugly knives. The boys could not reach their bikes. And they were also cut off from the house.
“Run!” Jupiter cried. “To the hills, Bob!”
They turned and raced round the corner of the house. The two men stood there uncertainly for a moment, shouting. At the end of the garden, near the dry brown hills, the fence was low. The boys went over it without looking back.
“Up to the hills!” Jupiter panted.
They ran across the road and reached the first steep slope of the low mountains that ringed Rocky Beach. With Bob ahead, and Jupiter puffing behind him, they crashed their way up through the stiff, dry brushwood. The hard, thick, grey brush tore at their clothes. Behind them, they could hear the two dark men giving chase.
“What are they shouting?” Bob panted.
“I don’t know,” Jupiter cried. “I don’t understand any of it! Just keep running!”
“Can we outrun them?”
“I… hope… so.”
t the top of the first steep slope, they reached an old dirt road. They had gained on their pursuers. Out of sight for a moment, they turned and ran along the dirt road. They were running away from Rocky Beach, the Vegetarian League house, and their bikes, but there was no other way they could go. So they pounded along the dirt road looking for a way to escape.
“Oh, no!” Bob suddenly exclaimed.
The dirt road ended in a deep ravine. There had once been a bridge, but it was gone, and the steep sides were much too dangerous to climb down. The boys stopped in dismay.
“The bridge washed out in a flood!” Bob cried.
“Up the hill!” Jupiter pointed.
They began to climb up the slope of the mountain that towered hot and dusty above Rocky Beach. Below, they heard shouts. The two men had seen them and were pointing upwards. While the boys were still looking back, their pursuers began to climb the slope with amazing speed and skill.
“They’re gaining, Jupe!” Bob said.
“Keep climbing!”
They climbed and crawled upwards in the blazing sun on the scorching slope. Their hands were bleeding from the sharp, iron-hard brushwood. At last they reached a high shoulder of the mountain. Jupiter dropped, panting, to the dirt. Bob looked back down.
“They’re still coming!”
Jupiter groaned weakly. “Let them come. I’m dying.”
Bob shaded his eyes. “We’re faster runners, but they can climb better. They climb like goats. Hey, maybe they’re two of those Yaquali! The Devils of the Cliffs.”
Jupiter struggled up, revived by the prospect of seeing two Yaquali. “Maybe they’re speaking Yaquali. No wonder we can’t understand them.”
“I don’t care if they’re speaking Eskimo,” Bob declared. “How do we get away? Do you suppose Mr. Harris saw them chasing us?”
“I doubt it,” Jupiter said, peering across the distance. “Everything is quiet around the house.”
“If we could only get back to our bikes!”
“We can’t. They’ve cut us off. We’ll just have to keep running.”
“Where?” Bob said in despair, looking round the barren. scorched shoulder of the mountain. Then his eyes lit up. “Jupe, come on! I know where we are now. I think there’s a way to get away.”
Bob started running along the shoulder that curved round the mountain. Jupiter puffed along behind; once more they were momentarily out of sight of their pursuers. Some fifty yards away, round the corner of the mountain, Bob ran straight for a thick. dense growth of twisted live oaks and the impenetrable brushwood.
“Where are we running?” Jupiter was panting.
“Right there,” Bob said.
Jupiter stared as Bob ran straight at the wall of dusty green trees and brushwood. “Where? I don’t see… ”
Bob vanished into the heavy brush before Jupiter could finish his question. The First Investigator plunged after the smaller boy — and suddenly found himself running in empty space!
He fell and landed with a thump at the bottom of a narrow gully totally hidden on all sides by the trees and the brushwood. Panting and bruised, Jupiter sat up, dusted himself off gingerly, and glared at his chum.
“You could have warned me,” he complained.
“There wasn’t time. I fell into this gully once when I was chasing a bull snake. They won’t find us in here.”
