On the way up, they pa.s.sed the mule train of the CHACO MAKES A FIND 111.

day before. But this time it was coming down and had , no bananas, so there was no close brush at the trail's edge. They reached the Hotel Pico well before dark. There, Mrs. Brewster and the twins heard the story of Biff's adventure on the way down the trail. To Ted and Monica it was quite wonderful; but Biff noted his mother's worried frown and saw his father shake his head in a way that was by no means rea.s.suring, Biff realized then that things might be much more serious than he had supposed.

The next day the surgeon from the valley gave his opinion on Dr. La Vega's condition. He agreed with the local medico and said that there had been a severe concussion but no skull fracture. The surgeon advised, "More rest." When leaving, he added: "Don't expect Dr. La Vega to remember what happened just before the cave-in. His mind will be a blank on that."

That ended any chance of learning what Dr. La Vega had intended to say about the missing slips. Whether "man-what silver-gold-red" referred to Kirby and his mining projects was still a question.

Mr. Brewster brought up that subject a few days later, when he told the boys: "I asked Kirby about gold when we were down there in the valley. He said that so far he had found none. When I spoke about copper, he admitted he had struck some. He almost had to say so, because copper is so frequently found with silver.

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"I am doubtful, though, about Kirby's talk of buying up worthless mines in order to control good ones. That sounds very much like a fake promotion, a scheme to sell stock in some new mining company."

Professor Bortha, meanwhile, had men working round the clock digging out the rubble at the excavation. As the hole grew deeper at the foot of the rugged, towering cliff, only a few men could go down into the pit at one time. Bortha had fenced off the area to keep other persons out, and he was living there in a small tent equipped with cot and cookstove.

"I'll soon be at the bottom of it," Bortha declared. "Until then, I intend to stay here day and night. If Tizoc appears on the scene, so much the better."

Significantly, Bortha slapped a holster containing a revolver. But his straight face showed worry when he looked up toward the overhanging cliff.

"I only hope el Castillo doesn't come tumbling down on us," he commented. Bortha was referring to the cliff as "the castle"-a term which the natives frequently used in describing it. "Some of those cracks are big, and a few of the ledges may be shaky."

With Kirby still down in the valley and with no new reports of Ramonez in El Cielo, Mr. Brewster decided to fly into Mexico City on a plane that was coming in the next day. He also decided to take Mrs. Brewster and the twins with him, as they were finding life monotonous at the Hotel Pico.

Biff saw the family off at the air strip. Mike was CHACO MAKES A FIND 113.

with him and in parting, Mr. Brewster said to the two 'boys: "I should be back tomorrow, so if anything happens in the meantime, be sure to tell me. But I think things will be quiet-for a while. Otherwise, I wouldn't leave here."

That same morning, Biff and Mike watched another mule train wend its way from El Cielo on beyond the mountain, carrying more of Kirby's silver to the railroad, two days' journey farther on. An idea promptly struck Biff.

"Those mules must have come up from the valley yesterday," he said, "so they were corralled in El Cielo overnight. I wonder if Kirby came up with them. If he did, we might find him at the Sitting Bull or whatever they call the village inn."

"And that," returned Mike, "is one place where we should never go, unless Senor Kirby personally invites us."

They walked through other parts of the town, however, but saw no sign of the mariachis. It was too early in the day for the musicians to be out strolling in their colorful costumes. On the way back to the Hotel Pico, Biff remarked: "The twins told me they forgot to take their word game with them. I said I'd look after it for them. Maybe we should play a game ourselves. It's probably about the biggest excitement we can stir up today."

So Biff thought, until they entered the patio. There, 114 .

Chaco was waiting for them. His tawny face, usually as stolid as a stone carving, was actually flushed with eagerness.

"I have something for Dr. La Vega," Chaco told them. "But his new nurse will not let me see him."

"Of course not," declared Mike. "He still needs rest and quiet. No one can bother him, Chaco."

Chaco turned appealingly to Biff: "Tell me where to find your father-Senor Brew-ster-so I can talk to him. It is very important. I have found what Dr. La Vega wanted to give to him."

"Dad has gone to Mexico City," explained Biff. Then, a bit puzzled, he added: "Can't you show me what you've found?"

Chaco hesitated, then nodded.

"While everyone has been digging," he declared, "and taking things they find to Professor Bortha, I have been looking for these." He reached in the pocket of his blouse. "Una-dos-tres-cuatro-cinco-here they are. They belong to Dr. La Vega, so I give them to you to give to him."

Chaco opened his hand and let its contents flutter to the table. It was the five missing slips from the torn sheet of paper that Dr. La Vega had been holding when the ground had swallowed him.

Added to the four that Mr. Brewster had retained, those torn fragments could spell out the answer to the riddle of Tizoc!

CHAPTER XIII.

On Tizoc's Trail EAGERLY, Biff and Mike spread the five torn slips on the table, hoping that they would quickly complete the message; but they were due for disappointment. The five slips showed these words: LOS VENDE.

AFUERA NOS.

DEL T EL DIGA.

"Los Afuera," read Biff. "That would mean 'the' and 'outside.' But the two don't fit. The los must belong with some other word."

"I can't see what it would be," returned Mike. "The ITS.

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next slip says, 'Vende nosj which means 'Sell us'- but who is going to sell us what?"

"Del T," mused Biff. "That means 'of and after it, a word beginning with T."

"The other two are easy," decided Mike. "One is '/' for 'the,' and the other is 'Diga' for 'Speak.' But where do we go from there?"

Chaco, who was standing dumbly by, came up with a simple but sensible answer.

"Maybe if you put those other pieces with these," suggested Chaco, "you can read the whole thing."

"Unless these are from a different sheet of paper," commented Mike glumly. "They're very likely to be, because they don't seem to fit at all."

"Where are those other slips?" queried Biff. "Dad didn't take them with him to Mexico City, did he?"

"He might have," returned Mike. "Perhaps he wanted to show them to my uncle."

Biff decided to take a look in Mr. Brewster's room, knowing that his father would not object under the circ.u.mstances. Some clothes were hanging there. With them was the jacket that Mr. Brewster had been wearing at the time of the cave-in. But its pockets were empty except for a favorite pipe and tobacco pouch that Mr. Brewster carried with him on long hikes.

A search of table and bureau drawers produced nothing. Biff came from the room and called to Mike: "No luck." Mike, still studying the five slips on the table, called back: ON TIZOC'S TRAIL 117.

"Maybe your father gave them to Professor Bortha. Why not look in his room, too?"

Biff tried Bortha's door and found it open. He decided that if the professor hadn't locked it, he wouldn't mind if anyone looked about. Apparently, Bortha had taken most of his belongings to the tent, for the only thing of importance was the recording machine.

With the recorder, Biff found some tapes, all new and still sealed in their boxes except for the one on which Bortha had dictated his notes, and which was still in the machine. The rough notes were there, too, but in looking through them, Biff found no trace of the missing paper slips.

Biff came from Bortha's room more glum than ever.

"I guess Dad did take them," Biff told Mike. "The last time I remember seeing them, Ted and Monica were trying to piece them together like a word game-"

"And maybe that's where they put them!" interrupted Mike. "With the word game! Didn't they say they forgot to take it with them?"

"They sure did!"

Biff started looking through the other rooms. On Monica's table, he found the game box. He yanked it open and there, with lettered cards and counters were the four torn slips that Mr. Brewster had saved from the cave-in.

Soon, Biff and Mike were playing a really serious game, as they tried to match Mr. Brewster's slips with 118 .

those that Chaco had just brought in. But the more they studied them, the more puzzling the words became.

Biff tried them one way; then another. Finally, he laid the four old slips in a row, as before: HOMBRE QUE ORO ROJO.

PLATA.

"We're just sure of one combination," declared Biff. "That is 'Oro Rojo' or 'Red Gold: The words fit, and so do the torn edges of the papers."

"Then let's not bother with the other words," suggested Mike. "Just put the slips together and see how their edges fit. Then we'll know if we have all of them, or if they all came from the same torn sheet."

"A good idea, Mike."

Still, they couldn't keep their minds entirely off the words. Mike kept saying, " 'Vende nos.' 'Sell us.' But sell us what?" To that, Biff returned: "Sell us what? 'Que plata.' What silver. That's what somebody wants to sell us."

Only it wasn't that at all. By finally forgetting the words and going only by the torn edges, which showed just enough difference to make a perfect fit, Biff and Mike finally completed the message: ON TIZOC'S TRAIL.

119.

DIGA EL HOMBRE.

QUE VENDE LOS.

PLATA NOS AFUERA.

DEL TORO ROJO.

"Why, silver is out of it!" exclaimed Biff. "Instead of plata and nos, we have one word: Platanos."

"And platanos" put in Mike, "means bananas. Gold is out, too. The 'T' in front of oro makes it toro, bull."

"And so," added Biff, "instead of talking about red gold as copper, we should be thinking of a red bull."

Mike nodded. He read the entire message in Spanish; then translated it into English: "Dz'ga el hombre que vende los platanos afuera del toro rojo. That means: 'Speak to the man who sells the bananas outside the Red Bull.' "

Chaco, who was listening intently, gave a very knowing nod.

"El Toro Rojo," he repeated. "The Red Bull. You have seen him, maybe? The bull with the big head and the little feet that kick up the ground like this"- he made a pawing action with his hands-"in the picture over the posada in El Cielo."

"The old inn where Kirby stays!" exclaimed Biff.

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"The one that Professor Bortha thought was called the Bull's Head or the Fighting Bull. Remember the banana seller outside?"

"That's it," Mike agreed. "The Red Bull. Professor Bortha's mind was so tied up with complicated Aztec inscriptions that he couldn't remember a simple name like that."

"And while Bortha has been wondering where his workers have been going," put in Biff, "they've been getting directions from the banana seller outside the old inn."

"And that," reminded Mike, "is the place where Kirby always stops."

"Don't forget that we saw Ramonez there, too," a.s.serted Biff, "along with his mariachis."

Mike gave a broad grin.

"We're back to the same old question: Kirby or Ramonez-which?" Mike looked over the roof of the patio and saw that the sun was above the summit of the castellated cliff. "It's getting late, but not too late to go down to El Cielo and see what's happening outside the Red Bull."

Eagerly, Biff accepted the suggestion. Five minutes later, he and Mike were on their way down to the village, positive that at last they had gained a slim but sure lead that would take them along Tizoc's trail.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Ancient Cavern ALL was the same in El Cielo, the village where time seemed to stand srill. The banana seller looked like a fixture outside the inn with its painted sign of the red bull, as though both had been put there at the same time.

Now, the question was how to approach him. Biff and Mike hadn't exactly thought of that until they were almost on the spot. Rather than rouse the squatting man's suspicion, they had to form a quick plan of action.

Mike came up with a suggestion: "Walk right into the Red Bull, Biff, and ask for Senor Kirby. That will give me an excuse to wait out here."

"You go in, Mike," returned Biff. "You can talk to the innkeeper better than I can."

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"But he might recognize me. He never saw you, because you were hiding in Kirby's closet."

"Suppose Kirby is staying at the hotel now?"

"All the better. Tell him your father went to Mexico City and that you thought you'd just stop in and say h.e.l.lo."

Mike practically shoved Biff in through the doorway, then gave him a parting wave, at the same time calling loudly, "Ti espero aqui!" meaning, "I'll wait for you here."