The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow

The two dark-complexioned men stood menacingly in the mountain cabin, their long knives in their hands. As Bob and Pete backed slowly towards the wall, Pete clutched the lantern, ready to hurl it in self-defence if necessary.

One of the men shook his head at Pete, speaking in a harsh guttural voice:

“No! You no understand. We friends. Come to help.” Bob stared. “You speak English?”

“Si, a little. I Natches. This my brother Nanika.”

“If you want to help, why did you steal the statuette?” Pete demanded hotly.

“We see you find little gold man on road. We think it holds words from our little brother Vittorio. We follow you, take gold man, but no words in him.”

“We kept the message,” Pete blurted out.

“So?” Natches said. “What words tell?”

Pete told them the message, and Natches began to nod in excitement. The two dark men put their knives away.

“Is what we fear,” Natches said. “Our little brother is in danger. This Harris liar, bad man!”

“You are Yaquali Indians from Mexico, aren’t you?” Bob asked. “And Harris has your brother prisoner.”

“Si, yes,” Natches said. “We come to find brother. We are afraid. We no like city. But we must find Vittorio and other boys.”

“Why didn’t you try to talk to us in English when you chased us?” Bob wanted to know.

“When excited, cannot remember the English,” Natches explained sadly.

“Why does Harris have your brother? What is he doing?”

In halting English, Natches told his story.

A month ago Harris had come to the Yaquali village deep in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico and offered to take four of their boys to America to perform climbing feats at a public amusement park. It seemed to be a good opportunity for the boys. Vittorio was one of them.

“We are poor,” Natches said. “Our young boys must learn new ways. Mr. Harris tell us they will make much money, will see America.”

Harris took the boys, and the village was happy. The boys would see a new world, and there would be money. Then, a week ago, a letter reached the village. It came from Rocky Beach and revealed that Vittorio needed help. Somehow, the boy had managed to get it posted.

“We leave, get old car, come here,” Natches went on. “We find Mr. Harris at fine hacienda in mountain. We think we hear Vittorio cry for help. We watch, see you find gold man. Next day we follow your big car — first to big studio, then to house where we get little man from you. When gold man not have letter from Vittorio inside, we look again for Mr. Harris. We find him in big house. Try to make him tell where are boys. He fights with us and calls the police to put us in jail. We scared, run away.”

“You mean Mr. Harris started the fight to get you arrested?” Bob began to understand.

“Si,” Natches agreed. “So we watch more and next day see you boys come out of big house. We chase, but you fool us. We watch again, see Harris put two boys in truck. We follow to here, wait, climb cliff to talk with you. You tell us where Mr. Harris go now.”

“We don’t know,” Pete said.

“What is he doing with your boys? Do you have idea?” Bob asked.

“Some bad thing,” Natches said grimly. “We think he use boys for evil, then maybe kill them. They know what he do.”

Pete exclaimed. “He must be using them to get the Hoard! They’re expert climbers. And when he gets it, he sure won’t want them around to tell about it.”

“We’ve got to get out and call Chief Reynolds,” Bob said.

“You wish to go out?” Natches said. “We go then.”

“How? There’s a guard out there, and we couldn’t get near him,” Pete explained.

“We go down cliff,” Natches said simply.

Nanika nodded eagerly, gesturing at the rear window and pointing down — down the sheer cliff to the jagged rocks far below.

“Down the cliff?” Pete drew back from the window.

“There is no danger with us, muchacho.”

Bob looked at Pete, then back at Natches. “We’ll try it,” he said. “It’s the only chance we have.”

“Let’s send out some signals first,” Pete said, resigned to this new danger.

He and Bob carried the lantern to the window, and with the help of the flat sheet of tin, sent out a series of SOS signals in Morse code. Then all four of them climbed through the window, and Natches and Nanika threw thin rawhide ropes down the face of the cliff. They wedged two thick wooden stakes into the rocks at the top and motioned to the boys.

“We have straps on chest and shoulders,” Natches instructed. “You will grasp shoulder straps very tight, and climb on backs. That way we carry you down.”

Pete clung to Natches, and Bob to Nanika. Then, without another word, the two Yaquali dropped over the edge of the cliff. Pete’s head seemed to spin as he felt himself falling into space, and Bob clutched tightly to the straps in Nanika’s back.

The two Yaquali bounced down the sheer cliff with the speed and agility of flies on a wall. They slid down the ropes, bouncing from rock wall to crevice as they descended swiftly and without pause. At times they swung far out into open space while Bob and Pete clung desperately to their backs. Then the two Indians would swing back to the cliff face at exactly the right spot to continue their unhindered descent. They went down the cliff face in the darkness as easily as other men walk a city street.

The boys hung tight, their eyes closed. It seemed as if the trip down would never end. At last they realized that the Indians were on flat ground again. Cautiously they lowered their legs and opened their eyes.

“We made it!” Bob cried in relief.

Natches grinned. “Is not so bad. That easy.”

“Don’t tell me about the hard ones then,” Pete declared weakly. “But we’d better hurry. Where’s your car, Natches?”

“Road to left. We go for police? They will help?”

“They sure will when we tell them what we know Bob declared.

They all hurried along a trail towards the place where Natches and Nanika had parked their old car.

Just as they reached the road, the bright lights of a truck flashed on, blinding them.

Mr. Harris stepped out of the shadows, holding a rifle “You two boys are beginning to become tiresome. But at least you have brought me my Yaquali friends. I was just a little worried about them running loose.”

“How… ” Bob stammered, “how did you… ”

“Find you? Simple, I saw your signals and came to investigate.”

“Oh, no!” Pete groaned.

Mr. Harris laughed, turning to speak to his burly assistant, Sanders, who stood behind him with another rifle. In that instant, Nanika muttered something and leaped at Mr. Harris. The fake vegetarian stepped adroit]y aside, striking Nanika on the head. The Indian fell to the ground and lay there, motionless.

“Mr. Harris!” Sanders cried. “The other one!”

Harris whirled, but Natches had vanished into the night. He was nowhere to be seen. Mr. Harris glared furiously at the boys. His confident manner vanished for a moment. Then the thief and confidence man laughed coldly.

“No matter, let him go. We’ll soon be far away and, one missing Indian won’t bother us.”

Sanders looked uneasy. “You sure, boss?”

“Of course I’m sure, you idiot! Go and get Carson from his post in front of the cabin. We’ll have to take these meddling fools with us. I’m tired of them bothering me. We’ll put an end to that!”

Sanders went off into the night. Nanika still lay silent the ground, and Mr. Harris continued to glare at Bob and Pete. In sudden fear, they realized that this time they could not get away.