Though he struggled to move ahead, he could make no headway. He was too big to move another inch. He heard a sudden noise to his left and ahead. In panic, he switched on his flashlight and saw a figure with a large rock in its hand ready to hit him.
“Bob!” he cried.
“Pete!” Bob grinned. “Boy, am I glad to see you. I tried to tell the boys you’d all come for us, but I don’t think they understood.” Bob laughed, a little nervously. “You sure look funny stuck there. I barely got through myself.”
Pete moved his flashlight around and saw that he was two feet short of the cave itself. Then he shifted the light again and the beam fell on four small, dark boys who were standing near Bob, grinning at him.
“Shine it farther back,” Bob said.
Pete aimed the light at the rear of the small cave. “Wow!” he cried.
All across the rear of the cave, piled in mounds, everywhere, was a vast, shining mass of gold and glowing jewels. The gold was of every possible shape, gleaming and sparkling in the beam of light. The jewels were every colour of the rainbow, dazzling and glistening in a riot of colour.
“The Chumash Hoard!” Pete cried, amazed. “We’ve found it!”
Alfred Hitchcock beamed at The Three Investigators as they sat in his office the next afternoon.
“So, the Chumash Hoard was indeed ‘In the eye of the sky where no man could find it!’ Old Magnus Verde told the exact truth, and therefore fooled everyone, for two hundred years.”
“No one thought about him telling the truth,” Jupiter agreed.
“Until you boys came along!” The famous director looked pleased. “Well, your Mr. Harris and his henchmen will have much time to regret their devious ways.”
“And when they get out of our jail, the Australians want them,” Bob said.
“Their future is not bright,” Mr. Hitchcock said drily. “Did they confess all their nefarious actions?”
“Yes, sir,” Pete said. “Mr. Harris was a very smart man. He heard about the legend of the Hoard and figured out the answer to Magnus Verde’s riddle. But after he spotted Indian Head Mountain and found the cave, he couldn’t get inside. He’d been at the Yaquali village while he was in Mexico, so he went down to get some Indian boys to climb for the gold.”
Bob added, “He’s admitted that he didn’t want any American boys because he planned to do away with them afterwards. He was sure that four boys from a remote Indian village in Mexico would never be traced to him.”
The famous director scowled. “A complete villain! You boys have done well to stop his black career.”
“But,” Jupiter took up the story, “the little brother of Natches and Nanika understands a little English, and he overheard Harris talking. He realized that Harris had some crime in mind and was going to dispose of the boys later. So he wrote a letter, and managed to toss it out of the truck. Luckily, someone found it and posted it.”
“The factor of fortune — chance!” Mr. Hitchcock pointed out. “Never underestimate it, my boys. It operates in all human actions. We’ll never know who that unknown person was who posted the letter, but he certainly saved those boys.”
“Yes, sir, he did,” Jupiter agreed.
“I wonder about one aspect of the affair,” the famous director mused. “Harris seems to have delayed a long time before making his move to steal the Hoard.”
Jupiter nodded, “Yes, he did. That was because he knew that it would be best if he could get the Hoard totally unseen. He didn’t want anyone to know he had it. So he was waiting until he could get Ted and Miss Sandow off the estate. He was all ready to persuade them to go to a vegetarian meeting in San Francisco the very day we found the amulet. As soon as they were gone, he was going to get the Hoard, dispose of the boys, and escape in a private plane he had engaged. If it had worked, no one would ever have known he had the Hoard, or that it even existed, and he would be safe in South America.”
Pete took up the story: “Only they took little Vittorio out to the cabin by himself one afternoon and he escaped. He was lurking around Miss Sandow’s house when he spied the amulet through the library window. He stole it because he thought the gold might be useful.”
“It was useful, too,” Bob broke in, “but not because of the gold. He discovered the secret compartment and hid a message for help in it.”
“Later he was caught,” Pete interrupted again, “and that was the cry for help we heard. Vittorio hoped his brothers would find his note, but we found it instead.”
“And fortunate it was!” said Mr. Hitchcock. “You boys solved the mystery well with little to go on. Tell me, were those amulets clues to the Hoard?”
“No, sir,” Jupiter explained, “except that they proved there really was a Hoard. Of course, Natches wanted the first amulet because he thought it might have come from Vittorio. I’m afraid I committed a grave error about the second amulet, and Mr. Harris led me on. Everything he told me was a lie.”
“An error, young Jones?” Mr. Hitchcock said, eyebrows raised.
“Yes, sir,” Jupiter admitted sadly. “I assumed that Ted was guilty and the amulets were clues. That blinded me to the truth. It also made it easy for Mr. Harris to fool us. He simply encouraged me to continue believing what I had already assumed was true.”
The famous director nodded slowly. “Yes, that is the worst error an investigator can make — assuming something to be true before it is proven. An open mind, always, that is the only way to escape being fooled. Now, explain one more point, young man. What caused you to realize that the laughing shadow was a kookaburra bird, and thus led you to Harris’s Australian origin?”
“Well, of course, I was still fooled at the time, and thought the shadow was Ted. But his accent reminded me that there are British-type accents that don’t come from England.”
“Yes, I see that,” Mr. Hitchcock agreed. “But what led you to the kookaburra and Australia in particular?”
Jupiter grinned. “It was the way no one could agree on what the shadow sounded like when it laughed. We all heard it differently. I remembered Edgar Allan Poe’s famous story, ‘The Murders in the Red Morgue,’ and… ”
“Thunderation, of course! In that story no one could agree on what language the unseen murderer had been heard to speak. None of them could recognize the speech — because the murderer was an ape and was speaking no language at all!”
“Exactly, sir.” Jupiter looked pleased with himself. “I suddenly thought that perhaps the laugh wasn’t from a person at all. That’s when I remembered an Australian animal that laughed. At first I couldn’t remember exactly what animal, but when the bird came flying out of the dark I suddenly remembered the kookaburra bird.”
Mr. Hitchcock laughed. “Splendid! The Laughing jackass had the final merriment at Mr. Harris’s expense. Ah, the sight of that Hoard must have been magnificent.”
“It was, sir,” Bob agreed, “and we’ve brought you a piece.” He laid a dazzling gold goblet on the desk. “With Miss Sandow’s compliments, sir.”
“Thank the good lady, lads. This will join my growing collection of mementoes of your exploits. Now, what of rest of the treasure. It belongs, I suppose, to Miss Sandow.”
Pete said, “Professor Meeker is studying it. I believe the State has to determine its final disposition. Museums are eager to have pieces for their displays.”
“Miss Sandow hopes that the Indians will realize some benefit from it,” Bob added. “It would be nice if the Yaqualis could take some money back to their village.”
Mr. Hitchcock nodded. “So the case ends. But, my young friends, I fear it is not complete. I detect a loose end.”
“A loose end?” Pete exclaimed.
Jupiter was baffled. “I can’t think what, sir?”
“Unless I missed something in your report, E. Skinner Norris is still to be dealt with.”
