Brit looked at the card for a long time. He frowned and then began to read aloud in a slow, groping way.
“The three investigators,” he said. “The three. ”
He handed the card back to Jupe. “I guess you’d better read it to me,” he said.
Jupiter didn’t need to look at the card. He recited what was on it aloud.
“Oh.” Brit looked shyly away at Blondie. “It isn’t that I don’t know how to read,” he explained. “It’s just that I have dyslexia. You know what that is?”
“Sure.” Bob nodded sympathetically. “It means you see letters or words in the wrong order. They’ve been doing a lot of experiments on it lately, using colored lenses.”
“Yeah. My mom wants me to see a specialist about that when I get home. But right now it’s kind of hard for me to read or write letters. What we usually do is tape messages and mail each other cassettes when I’m away from her.”
Jupe didn’t say anything. The computer in his head was scrolling back — fast.
Another piece in the puzzle had just fallen into place. That tape he had found in his mailbox. “Please don’t come to Mexico. You’ll be in terrible danger. ”
It must have been Brit’s voice on that tape. Maybe part of a longer message he had sent his mother. She or someone else had erased all but a few sentences, then placed the cassette in the Joneses’ mailbox. A warning to him. And a clue.
He smiled at Brit. “Is your mother in Los Angeles now?”
“Yeah. I sure hope so. But she’s awfully stubborn and. ” He looked away again as though he didn’t want to say any more.
Jupe hated to press him. But there was one other thing he had to find out.
“Do you look like your mother?” he asked. “Does she have blond hair like you?”
“Yeah, she does. She has blue eyes like me too. Why?”
“Just wondering.” Jupe yawned and stretched. “What do you say we all hit the sack?”
The others agreed. A few minutes later they had blown out the candles. The blanket over the entrance to the cave had been taken down and the four guys were in their sleeping bags.
When Jupe woke up early the next morning a faint light was seeping in through the tunnel from outside. He looked around for Blondie. She wasn’t in the cave.
He scrambled out of his sleeping bag and went to search for her. He saw her at once about twenty yards away at the foot of the path that led up to the cave. As Jupe watched, she raised her head and brayed. She didn’t sound wary, just friendly. A moment later he heard an answering bray from farther down the mountain.
Mercedes’ burro, he thought. He stepped quickly back out of sight behind a rock. A moment later Pete, Bob, and Brit joined him. They had heard the braying too.
The soft calls continued back and forth between Blondie and her invisible friend. Then the other burro appeared, climbing a steep gully. Blondie trotted forward and the two rubbed against each other.
Mercedes’ burro still wore its rope bridle, but the packs were missing from its back. The sky grew brighter as the sun rose. All four guys looked careful“ around in every direction.
They didn’t see Mercedes.
“Let’s take them both back into the cave,” Pete suggested. “If Mercedes sees Blondie, she’ll know we’re around.”
Brit and Jupe led the two burros inside. Pete and Bob followed.
“You don’t trust Mercedes, do you?” Brit asked.
“She’s another puzzle,” Jupe admitted. “She did ask us to warn you about Dusty. But she also told us she was a close friend of yours. And you’ve never set eyes on her. As Bob says, she’s one tricky lady.”
Both burros were hungry. Brit fed and watered them as soon as they were safely hidden in the cave. Then Pete cooked up their usual breakfast of beans and rice. Jupe was beginning to look forward to salads again. They didn’t all eat together. Jupe kept watch at the end of the tunnel while he had his breakfast. He lay flat on the ground, well out of sight, scanning the country below for any sign of Mercedes. The other guys would take turns, an hour at a time.
He felt it first in his chest. A slight trembling of the hard-packed earth. It was enough to make him drop his fork. He had lived through enough earthquakes in Los Angeles to know this wasn’t like that. He didn’t feel any sudden shock. This was more like standing on a sidewalk when a heavy truck rumbles by.
He told Bob about it when his friend relieved him on watch an hour later.
“Yeah,” Bob agreed. “We felt it in the cave, too. Like the bass when the amps are turned up too high. These mountains can be mean. Hey, what’s the deal on that forest fire we spotted yesterday?”
He turned and looked up behind him. But the mountaintop was hidden by the sheer face of the cliff above the cave entrance.
“
Two hours later Pete was on watch when he thought he saw something move way below him. He whistled a bird call to his friends in the cave.
“Where?” Jupe whispered as they all flattened themselves in the entrance to the tunnel.
“Down there.” Pete pointed over to the left.
He didn’t need to say any more. They could all see the distant figure now.
A man wearing a Stetson and carrying a long-barreled rifle was climbing slowly toward them.
Dusty.
“There’s no point hiding in the cave,” Jupe whispered. “Dusty will track us right to the tunnel. If he comes in shooting. ”
“Maybe we could ambush him somehow,” Bob suggested.
“Yeah.” Jupe nodded. “I’ve got an idea that might work.”
“Okay, spill it,” Pete said softly.
“Let’s get some privacy.” Jupe was already crawling back into the cave. The others followed him.
A minute later Jupe, Brit, and Bob emerged. Brit crouched, holding his rifle across his chest. Waiting until Dusty had moved out of sight, he scrambled down the twisting path and disappeared among the rocks below. Bob quickly followed Brit and disappeared too.
Jupe remained lying in the entrance to the tunnel. Keeping his head
