"That's not like you, Gary," admitted Tuck. "Now me, I'd do a thing like that."
"Lije isn't supposed to know how to shoot a rifle," said Gary thoughtfully. "But supposing he did?"
"You mean he might have shot at us?"
"I mean, maybe he shot it sometime later during the night. Maybe someone really did shoot at us in there. But how can we know that?"
Tuck nodded. "I've always said Lije probably knows a lot more than we give him credit for. He's smart enough not to have to work and yet he gets by. The rest of us have to work hard for a living."
"Well, well never know," said Gary. He looked again at The Needle. More mystery. The place seemed to breed mysteries as it did thunderstorms in the summer and pouring flash floods in the fall and winter. "I'd like to know what Lije sees in there."
"Or what sees Lije," added Tuck softly.
Gary shivered. "Let's eat. We've got a long, hard day ahead of us."
Gary was kept busy cooking for the two guests. Voracious as Tucker C. Browne was, he was an amateur compared to the thin and gaunt Lije. Tuck finally conceded defeat after Lije started on his third plateful of flapjacks. When they had finished eating, Lije arose. He looked at Gary. "Map," he said.
Gary knew what Lije wanted. He went into his room and brought out the large local map he had bought the summer before and upon which he had made notes, corrections, and additions for his personal quest for the Lost Espectro. Lije knew Gary was interested in the Lost Espectro. Gary placed the map on the cleared table, and Lije leaned over it. He nodded in satisfaction. Lije might not be able to read but he knew well enough the shape and size of the Espectros. He placed a dirty broken fingernail on a watercourse and traced it to a huge bluff that had forced the watercourse to change its channel. "Arrastres," he said. He stabbed his finger down hard, denting the thick paper.
Gary stared at the map. The watercourse flowed out into the wild desert southeast of the range. He had been in that area the year before as wrangler for a small party of dudes who had been looking for cliff dwellings. They had found a few crumbling structures, but Gary had not seen any arrastres in there. Arrastres were primitive ore-crushing mills, used by the early Spanish miners to crush the gold ore. Where there were arrastres, there should be, or had been, gold or silver mines. He looked up at Lije. Gold and silver meant nothing to this child of nature. There was no expression on the man's thin face, but Gary realized that Lije was paying for his meal in the only way he knew.
Lije walked to the door. He turned and eyed the two boys. "Be careful," he said. He swiftly drew his left hand across his throat in a gruesome gesture. "Asesino!" Then he was gone from the house.
Tuck shuddered a little. "Cheerful hombre," he said.
Gary eyed the map again. "Arrastres," he said thoughtfully.
"Maybe he was kidding us."
"No."
"Then we may have found a clue to the mines!"
"Arrastres weren't always near the mines, Tuck. The arrastres used in crushing the ore of the old Peralta Mines, believed to be the lode that the Dutchman found in the Superstitions, were quite a distance from the mines. The ore was brought down in aparejos by mule train."
"Well, it's better than nothing!"
Gary grinned. "You can say that again. You want to take a crack at it today?"
"That's why I came out here, amigo. After last night I want no part of The Needle for some time."
"Yeh," said Gary dryly.
They were loading the jeep when the wind shifted. Gary quickly raised his head. "Listen!" he said.
The sound of a car engine came to them from the northwest. Gary whirled. There was only one road in there — the road he and Tuck had traveled the night before. It went in toward the western ramparts of the Espectros, then ended at Massacre Springs.
"Dust," said Tuck.
A thin wraith of dust hung over the desert, moving toward the northwest.
"Wonder who it is," said Gary.
"Which way did Lije go?"
"Quien sabe? He can't drive anyway."
"Sure, sure! Lije can't shoot! Lije can't read! Lije can't write! Lije can't drive!"
Gary turned. "What do you mean?"
"I've always said Lije knows a lot more than folks give him credit for, Gary. How do we know he isn't in that car right now?"
"He can't drive, I tell you!"
Tuck lowered his voice. "Sure, he can't drive, but he can sure ride with someone else who can drive."
Gary was puzzled. "I see what you mean."
"So we go chasing off after a wild goose to the east of the Espectros for some beat up old arrastres while Ol' Lije goes the other way."
Gary whirled again. He snatched his father's binoculars from the jeep and ran to the windmill. He swiftly climbed the ladder to the platform at the top, took the glasses from their case, and raised them to his eyes, focusing them on the dust that seemed to be moving more swiftly. But the vehicle was below a low rise of ground, and there was no place where the road crossed an open area where Gary might catch a fleeting glimpse of it. He slowly descended the ladder. "No fish," he said to Tuck.
"Mysteriouser and mysteriouser," said the lean one.
The telephone jangled insistently. Gary ran to the house and picked up the phone. "Gary?" his father said. "Listen! Sue Browne wants to come out and spend the day with you and Tuck."
"Oh, Lord," groaned Gary.
"Your mother will drop her off up at the highway in about half an hour. Pick her up there. I wasn't sure you'd be home yet. Glad I caught you."
"Yep," said Gary.
"She's a nice kid," said Pete Cole. "She'll be good company for you boys."
"Oh sure, Dad."
"O.K. Pick her up in about half an hour to forty-five minutes. 'Bye, son."
Gary replaced the phone on its cradle. Tuck thrust his owlish face into the room. "Who was it? Asesino? Hawww!" he brayed.
"Worse," said Gary. "That was my father. Seems like your beloved cousin, Miss Susan Browne, is to spend the day with us."
Tuck paled. "We still got time to pull out?"
"My mother will drop her off up at the highway. We have to pick her up there."
Tuck seemed trapped. "Let's vamoose!" he said.
"My father told me to pick her up. I'll have to do it, Tuck."
"Why'd you have to answer that phone anyway?"
"How did I know Sue was back in town?"
"Yeh. She was away at some summer camp or something. Sure was quiet around town with her gone. By golly, I'll just bet she knew what we were going to do! I wouldn't put it past her, amigo!"
Gary nodded. "And just the day we get a solid lead on the Lost Espectro too."
They walked outside to the jeep. Gary whistled for Lobo. The huge dog leaped into the back seat and settled himself with a proprietary air. Gary drove out onto the gravel road and toward the main highway. Gloom rode along with them. "Sue Browne," groaned Tuck. "Sometimes I'm not even sure she's kin to me. No one else in the whole family is quite like Sue, odd as they all are."
"I'll buy that," said Gary gloomily.
They waited at the junction of the highway and the gravel road. In a short time they saw the familiar, battered green pickup truck. Mrs. Cole drew off on the shoulder of the road. The look in her blue eyes was sufficient for her to warn Gary without opening her mouth. Mrs. Cole well knew the effect Sue Browne had on the boys.
The fifteen-year-old object of all the trouble got out of the truck, waved good-bye to Mrs. Cole and walked quickly toward the jeep. She opened her mouth in a wide smile, and the early morning sun glinted on the braces she wore. "Brought my own lunch, Gary!" she cried happily. "Got some extra for the Hungry Dragon too!"
"That's me," said Tuck unhappily. "I'd rather go hungry, so help me, Gary."