“Yeah. It was great,” Pete said. He could have eaten another whole plateful, but Dusty had already started toward the door.
“Come on,” he called. “I’ll show you over the ranch.”
Outside, he quickly led the way around the end of the house to a wide fenced-in field. On one side of the field was a small wooden shed.
“Like to see my burro,” Dusty said. He wasn’t asking them. He hurried the three guys toward the shed. Before they reached it a small donkey, what Mexicans call a burro, stumbled out of the shed and skittered shyly away from them.
Except for a black line down its back and across its shoulders, it was so light-skinned it was almost white. It had huge ears, which it kept twitching nervously, and a long tufted tail. Its front legs had been hobbled with a rope so that, although it seemed anxious to run away, it could move only with short, unsteady steps.
Pete, who liked all animals on sight, started quickly forward. He held out his hand to pat the burro’s neck, Dusty stopped him.
“Don’t touch her and don’t say anything,” he told the three guys in a low, urgent voice. “She’s very young. Less than two years old. And she hasn’t been tamed yet.”
The burro had managed to get several yards away by then. She kicked out suddenly with her hind legs as though warning them not to come any closer.
“Quite a lot of wild burros live in the mountains. This one strayed onto my land a couple of months ago and I decided to keep her,” Dusty explained. “I call her Blondie. You can guess why.”
He looked at Pete. “You can try calling her now if you like,” he said. “Just say, ‘Come here, Blondie.’ Let’s see what she does.”
Here he goes again, Pete thought resentfully, telling us what to say like we were third graders. But Pete really liked the little animal, so he played along.
“Come here, Blondie,” he called in a gentle voice. “Come here.”
The burro laid her long ears back so that they were almost touching her neck. Pete knew from his experience with horses that this meant Blondie was wary. Or angry. He called her again, but all she did was hobble a few more feet away from him.
“You try,” Dusty told Bob.
“What for?” Bob shrugged. “All I’ll get is the same put-down from her.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Dusty did his best to smile. He looked at Jupe. “You mind trying to call her for me?” he asked politely.
Jupe could take animals or leave them. He didn’t care if the burro came to him or not. But he could tell from the worried look in Dusty’s eyes, the way the rancher suddenly gripped Jupe’s arm, that this mattered a lot to Dusty. Jupe was curious.
He freed his arm. “Come here, Blondie,” he called in a bored voice.
The effect was astonishing. The burro’s head swung around instantly. She looked straight at Jupe. Her ears twitched once and then pointed forward.
“I don’t believe it!” Pete said.
“Again!” Dusty whispered excitedly. “Say it again!”
“Come here, Blondie.” This time Jupe’s voice sounded a bit more interested.
The burro strained against the rope that hobbled her front legs and ambled toward Jupe as quickly as she could. She stopped less than a foot away from him. Stretching her neck, she prodded his chest gently with her nose.
“She’s fallen for you!” Bob said, slapping his friend on the back. “How do you do it, Jupe? Three little words and she’s crazy about you.”
Jupe stepped back. The burro’s response to him had caught him by surprise. And Bob’s kidding made him feel embarrassed.
“Stroke her.” Dusty was gripping his arm again. “See what happens if you touch her.”
Out of sheer curiosity, Jupe stretched out his hand and stroked Blondie’s neck. Her ears stood straight up. She rubbed her nose against Jupe’s chest again.
Dusty let go of Jupe’s arm. He was smiling like a man who had just won first prize in a quiz show.
“I bet she’d even let you ride her,” Dusty said. “Go on. It’s okay. Even at her age, she’s a very strong little animal. She can carry you. Easily.”
Jupe hesitated. He didn’t particularly want to ride the burro. But Dusty’s excitement had started a whole train of questions in his mind. Something was going on here that he didn’t understand. As an Investigator, he had to follow every possible lead.
He swung his right leg over the burro’s back and settled astride her. Blondie turned her head and tried to look up at him with her huge soft eyes. Her ears were bolt upright. She seemed to like the idea of having Jupe as her jockey.
“Say, giddyup,” Dusty whispered urgently.
The words stirred a sudden memory in Jupe’s mind.
“Giddyup,” he said. “Giddyup, Blondie.”
He had to hold on to the burro’s neck to keep his balance as she clumsily ambled forward. Memory had given him a clue. He decided to try a little experiment.
“Whoa, Blondie,” he said. “Whoa!”
The burro obediently came to a stop.
“Well, she certainly seems to have taken a shine to you,” Dusty told Jupe as he got off the burro’s back.
“Yeah, it’s your animal magnetism, Jupe,” Pete put in. “That’ll do it with blondes every time.”
“Very funny,” Jupe said. “Maybe I remind her of somebody.” He was looking at Dusty.
“How could you?” Dusty shook his head. “That burro was quite wild when she strayed down here. The only people she’s ever known in her life are me and Ascención. And you don’t look anything like either of us.”
“No, I don’t look like you,” Jupe admitted. He reached up and pinched his lower lip. It was a habit he had when he was trying to figure something out. He claimed it helped him to think.
He was still pinching it half an hour later as he sat on his bunk in the large, comfortable room he was sharing with his two friends. Looking out the window, he could see the field with the shed in it. The white burro was standing close to the fence. She looked toward the house and brayed softly, as though calling to Jupe, wanting him to come back and stroke her again.
“Blondie!” Pete, who was assembling his fishing rod, said suddenly. “Dagwood’s wife. In the comic strip. ‘Blondie’ was one of the answers in that crossword puzzle.”
“Yeah, it was,” Jupe agreed. “But it isn’t just Blondie. There are the other clues too.”
“What other clues?” Bob was unpacking his tote bag. He folded his spare jeans neatly away in a drawer. “Clues to why this blonde finds you irresistible?”
Jupe ignored him. “The words Dusty asked us to say to that little burro just now. They were all answers in that crossword puzzle.”
“Yeah?” Pete said. “Which ones?”
Jupe leaned back against the wall and half closed his eyes.