Jupiter glanced around the dark cavern. Shadows in the wall indicated more passages leading from the cavern.
“We’d better try to find a way out,” Jupiter decided. “Light your candle and we’ll test the openings.”
“Now that’s what I like to hear,” Pete said.
He lit his candle and followed Jupiter. They tested two of the passages without success. Pete started to move on, but Jupiter stood still.
“Pete,” he whispered.
Pete followed Jupiter’s gaze. At first he could see nothing.
“There, against the wall,” Jupiter hissed. “It’s… it’s… ”
Then Pete saw it — or rather, him! In a dark recess just inside the second passage, seated against the wall with his legs straight out in front of him was a small man, dressed all in black, with a sombrero on his head, and black boots on his feet. In his right hand the man held an ancient pistol, and his face was grinning straight at the boys.
Except that the face looking at them was not a face at all — it was a skull! And the hand that held the pistol was not a hand, it was five bones — a skeleton!
“Yow!” Pete cried. Both boys turned and ran. They reached the tunnel which had led them into the cavern and tried to scramble through the opening together. Both of them went down in a heap. “Where are we running to, Jupe?” mumbled Pete, on the bottom. “We can’t get out this way!”
“Of course,” replied Jupiter. “We weren’t thinking clearly.”
“I wasn’t thinking, period,” Pete said in a muffled voice. “Maybe you better get off me for a start.”
“I would, but you’re holding my leg,” Jupiter said.
The boys untangled themselves, and sat up on the cold floor of the cavern. They were still shaking, but Pete began to grin.
“Boy, we’re a couple of brave investigators!”
Jupiter nodded solemnly. “We panicked. A natural enough reaction under the circumstances, I believe. The accumulation of dangers resulted in a degree of nervousness that made us lose our rational responses. A skeleton is probably the least dangerous menace we have faced. We were simply at the point of panic.”
Pete groaned. “It’s too bad Bob isn’t here to tell me what you just said.”
“If he was here he’d tell you I said we were so tense from what’s happened that we blew our tops,” Jupiter said.
“You could have said that the first time.”
“I could have, but it isn’t exactly the meaning I wanted to communicate. However, that isn’t what we should be concerned about now. I want to inspect that skeleton.”
“I was afraid you’d want to do that.” Pete followed Jupiter rather unwillingly over to where the skeleton seemed to grin at them from beneath the black sombrero. Warily, Jupe reached out and touched the sombrero. It crumbled into dry pieces.
“Golly!” Pete exclaimed, and touched the black jacket.
The jacket, too, crumbled and fell away from the skeleton. As Pete pulled his hand back, he brushed the bony fingers that held the gun. The fingers snapped off, and the pistol dropped to the floor with a loud, echoing clatter. Pete jumped back, but Jupiter bent closer to the skeleton.
“It’s very old, Pete,” Jupiter observed. “And that pistol is ancient too… I would say that there is very little doubt about it.”
“Very little doubt about what?”
“That this skeleton is El Diablo — the real El Diablo!” Jupiter’s words echoed from the high ceiling of the cavern like some ghostly voice from the past.
“The real El Diablo?” Pete said. “You mean he was in here all the time but no one ever found him?”
Jupiter nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he died the very night he came into the cave. His wound must have been worse than anyone realized. Of course, in those days men often died from wounds we would consider minor today. Medical science has made great progress.”
“But what makes you think he died that night?” Pete asked, puzzled. “I mean, maybe he hid in here for years before he died.”
Jupiter shook his head. “No, I don’t believe so. First, you will notice that there are no signs of any food around the skeleton. He could have drunk water from the pool, although I would guess that the pool is salt water. Anyway, even if he had water there should be some evidence of food: bones, dried seeds, something.”
“Maybe he ate and drank somewhere else,” Pete suggested.
“Perhaps, but then what killed him? If he was in good health and was attacked there should be signs of a fight, and perhaps another skeleton or two. Also, if anyone had found El Diablo in the cave and killed him, surely the historical record would show that.”
“Gee, I guess you’re right,” Pete agreed.
“In addition,” Jupiter went on, “note the position of the skeleton. He literally died with his back to the wall. He was seated here ready to fight if any enemy appeared, but I don’t think an enemy ever came. Look at the pistol.”
Pete picked up the pistol. “It’s full, Jupe. No shots fired.”
“Just as I thought,” Jupiter said in triumph. “His place of hiding was never discovered and he died alone in here of his wounds, just as the historical record states. Everything is consistent with that conclusion. El Diablo did know the cave better than anyone else.”
“Maybe it would have been better for him if he hadn’t known it so well,” said Pete. “I mean, maybe if they’d found him they could have taken care of his wound.”
“Perhaps, but you’ll recall he was under sentence to hang anyway. I imagine he preferred dying in his cave to being recaptured. He may even have guessed that if he was never found his legend would grow, and perhaps in some way help his people.”
“It sure grew,” said Pete.
Jupiter nodded. “So much so that someone is now using it to scare us — and anyone else who comes into the cave. The question is why?”
“Maybe someone wants to make Mr. and Mrs. Dalton lose their ranch,” Pete suggested.
“That’s possible,” Jupiter conceded, “but I don’t think so. I think someone is trying to scare people away from the cave. Remember that the Daltons have been here for some time, but the moaning only started a month ago.”
“Golly, Jupe, if someone is trying to scare people away, how come no one saw the phoney El Diablo until to-night? I mean, why didn’t he appear when the sheriff and Mr. Dalton explored the cave?”
“I don’t know that yet,” Jupiter admitted. “But until to-night the moaning always stopped when anyone entered the cave. To-night we managed to enter unseen, the moaning did not stop, and the fake El Diablo appeared! This leads me to the deduction that we saw El Diablo to-night because the moaning had not stopped.”
“That makes less sense than anything else,” Pete protested. “What do you think it means?”
For once Jupiter looked completely baffled. “I don’t know, Pete. But I do know that there is more to the mystery of Moaning Valley than some natural cause for the moaning. We have to find out what that digging we heard earlier was all about.”
“Gosh, I’d forgotten all about the digging. Do you really think there’s a diamond mine in the cave?”
“I think someone is trying to conceal something,” Jupiter explained. “Last night I found a diamond. To-night we heard somebody digging. Logic indicates that a diamond mine must be involved somehow.”
“Maybe we should tell Mr. Dalton what we know, Jupe,” Pete said uneasily.