“Of course,” Pico said, “it is mine. I was afraid it had been burned in the fire. I am glad you — ”
“You mean you hoped it was burned!” Cody snarled.
“I mean, Mr. Cody, what I say. Is that clear?” Pico’s eyes blazed as he faced the burly ranch manager.
“Pico?” the sheriff said. “When did you lose the hat?”
“When?” Pico thought a moment. “At the fire, I suppose. I — ”
“No,” the sheriff said. “You had no hat at the fire. I remember that. So do firemen I’ve asked.”
“Then,” Pico said, “I do not know when I lost it.”
“Pico, this hat was found at the site of the campfire that started the brush fire.”
“Then why isn’t it burned?”
“The brush fire moved away from the campfire in just one direction. This hat was on unburned ground nearby.”
There was a silence. The sheriff sighed.
“I’m going to have to arrest you, Pico.”
Diego cried out, but Pico silenced the boy. He nodded to the sheriff.
“You must do your duty, Sheriff,” Pico said quietly, and walked towards the sheriff’s car. “Tell Don Emiliano at once!” he called back to Diego.
The sheriff turned to Cody and Skinny. “You two have to come and make your statements.”
“You bet we will,” Cody said.
“It’ll be a pleasure,” Skinny added. He laughed at the boys as he followed Cody to their ranch wagon.
Stunned, the Investigators and Diego watched the two cars drive away. There were tears in Diego’s eyes as he turned towards Bob and Pete.
“Pico couldn’t have started that fire!” he cried.
“No, of course not,” said Bob. “I know there’s something wrong with the sheriff’s story, but I can’t think just what. And I know I’ve seen that hat before. But when, and where? Oh, why couldn’t Jupiter have been here!”
The slim Investigator sighed with frustration. “Well, now we have two problems to solve, fellows. We must find the Cortés Sword, and we must free Pico!”
Diego rode off to Emiliano Paz’s, and Bob and Pete hurried back to Rocky Beach. The two Investigators tried to call Jupiter for the rest of the day but got no answer at the Jones house. As Jupe had predicted, his great-uncle’s birthday party was keeping him away till late. Finally Bob and Pete gave up and went to bed.
As Bob came down the stairs to breakfast the next morning, his father looked up from the morning newspaper.
“I see that your friend Pico Alvaro has been arrested on suspicion of causing a brush fire,” Mr. Andrews said. “That’s a very serious charge, Bob, and I’m surprised. Alvaro is an experienced rancher. He shouldn’t make such a mistake.”
“He didn’t, Dad! We’re sure that the sheriff’s made a mistake, or someone is framing Pico, and we’re going to prove it!”
“I hope so, son,” Mr. Andrews said.
Bob gulped his breakfast and then called Jupiter to report what had happened. Jupiter took the news about Pico poorly.
“Of course Pico didn’t set that fire, and you should know why! You could have stopped the sheriff yourself, Bob. Can’t you remember anything? We saw Pico’s hat ourselves.” Jupiter was grumpy because he’d missed all the excitement.
“Well, thanks a lot,” replied Bob, stung. “I just don’t happen to have a photographic memory like you. So when did we see the hat?”
“Oh, I’ll tell you at school,” said Jupe maddeningly.
“Great,” said Bob and slammed down the phone, now in as bad a mood as Jupe.
But the Investigators were too busy at school all day to even talk. Bob and Jupiter both regained their good humour and by the end of school were friends again. Classes ended early, so the boys had most of the afternoon free to pursue their investigation.
“Did anyone see Diego today?” asked Jupiter as the boys cycled through more rain to the salvage yard.
“I looked for him, but I didn’t see him,” said Pete. “I don’t think he made it to school.”
Diego hadn’t. He’d spent the day with Emiliano Paz trying to arrange for a lawyer for Pico. The slim boy was waiting outside Headquarters when the Investigators arrived at the salvage yard. As soon as everyone slipped inside the hidden trailer, Diego filled in the detective team on what was happening.
“We can’t afford a private lawyer, so the Public Defender’s Office is helping,” Diego said. “They say that it doesn’t look good for Pico.”
“We know he didn’t do it, Diego,” Bob said angrily.
“But how do we prove it?” Diego said, tears in his eyes. “And how can we save our land now? With Pico in jail he can’t do anything. We don’t even have enough money for bail!”
“What is bail?” asked Pete.
“It’s money that you leave with the court as a guarantee that you’ll show up for your trial if you’re let out of jail beforehand,” said Jupiter. “If you can raise bail, you don’t have to wait in jail for hearings to take place or for your trial to start.”
“The judge set Pico’s bail at five thousand dollars,” said Diego.
“Five thousand dollars!” exclaimed Pete. “Hardly anybody has that kind of money!”
“You don’t have to put up the whole amount in cash,” explained Jupiter. “Only about ten per cent. For the rest, you can pledge property — your house, say. Then if you don’t show up when you’re wanted in court, the court keeps the money and property. If you do show up, you get your bail back. Most people do show up — they don’t want to get in even bigger trouble.”
Diego nodded. “Pico would show up. His pride would not let him run away. But we haven’t got the bail anyway — either the five hundred dollars cash that the judge demanded or the property to pledge for the rest.”
“What about your ranch?” asked Pete.
“That’s mortgaged to Don Emiliano, so we can’t promise it to the court. We are trying to borrow bail money from friends. But for now, Pico has to stay in jail!”
“I think,” Jupiter said grimly, “someone may have counted on that. I don’t think that this is an accident. That hat was stolen somehow and placed near the campfire.”
“But how do we prove it, Jupiter?” Diego wailed again.
“We don’t even know when Pico last had his hat,” Bob added.
“But we do know, fellows,” announced Jupiter, “that Pico had his hat around three o’clock last Thursday, the day of the brush fire. Don’t you remember? He was wearing it when we met him outside school!”
“Of course, of course,” cried Bob, striking his forehead.
“And that means that Pico couldn’t have left the hat by the campfire! Before three o’clock, he had the hat. After three o’clock, he was with us, and then fighting the fire. If the sheriff is sure Pico didn’t have his hat at the fire, then it was lost — or stolen — some time between our leaving school that day and our arriving at the site of the brush fire!”
“Jupe?” Bob said slowly. “What if Pico lost his hat while we were on the way to the fire? He was riding in the back of the truck. What if the wind blew his hat off and carried it to the campfire?”
“Pico’s hat could not blow off,” Diego stated. “It has a draw-cord under the chin. Pico always pulls it tight for a ride.”
“And there was hardly any wind that day,” added Pete. “That’s what kept the brush fire from getting out of control.”
“Anyway,” Jupiter said, “that brush fire was certainly started before we arrived at the ranch. So if the hat
