“There are two more steps, Cluny,” Jupiter said, and took out the thin journal.” On November 21, 1872, Angus wrote, Word from the Ortega brothers that my order is now ready. I will need the large wagon. And the next day he wrote. Returned from Rocky Beach with Ortega order. They do the best work, every piece the specified size — a miracle in this raw new land! Then, until the next step, there are his usual laconic entries about ‘work progressing’ — plus two strange comments.”
Jupiter looked up. “November 23 — Noted two strangers in area. Seafaring men. And November 28 — Strangers gone. To report to the Captain, I think.”
“That’s when he knew he was being watched,” Bob said.
Jupiter nodded. “I can see him, fellows — alone out here, waiting for his wife and son. Unable to run, and maybe tired of running anyway. He had a premonition, perhaps, that he wasn’t going to escape, so he decided to hide the treasure. There wasn’t much time, so he used what he was building for Laura as a message to her.”
“You said one more step to go?” Cluny reminded him.
Jupiter said, “On December 5 he wrote. To Santa Barbara for last touch to Laura’s surprise found a nice one, got it cheaply because establishment recently gutted by fire. One man’s tragedy is often another man’s fortune! I wonder if Angus was thinking, when he wrote that, of the wreck and the treasure.”
Jupiter closed the thin journal. “I looked up the Ortega brothers last night. They were well-known owners of a brick and stone yard in Rocky Beach, so Angus must have bought a load of bricks or stones for what he was building. There’s still an Ortega Building Supplies Company, perhaps they have records!”
“Then we’ll go there!” Cluny cried.
“We will,” Jupiter agreed, “but we’ll split up and go to Santa Barbara, too. We know that Stebbins photographed the journal, so we’ve got to hurry now! Bob and Pete will go to the Ortega Company in Rocky Beach. Cluny and I will drive up to Santa Barbara with Hans. If we can discover what Angus bought up there, Cluny might recognise it.”
“Is Uncle Titus going to let Hans drive you, First?” Bob asked.
“He will — as a favour to Mrs. Gunn.” Jupiter grinned. He turned to Cluny’s mother. “If you could sell us some old stuff from your house, Mrs. Gunn, and ask Hans to drive Cluny up to Santa Barbara as a favour.”
Mrs. Gunn laughed. “You have a devious mind, young man. But I’ll do it; I have a few things your uncle might like. On one condition — you boys will carry this hibiscus out to the front for me! I was going to call Rory from the house, but since you’re here you can help.”
“We accept!” Jupiter said eagerly. “Come on, fellows.”
The big redwood tub was very heavy, so they set it on two long two-by-fours that they found in the old stone shed. Each boy took an end of a two-by-four. Struggling, they carried the hibiscus round to the front of the house. As they set it down in place on the steps, they heard a car coming fast, and Professor Shay’s station wagon drove up.
“I had to come and warn you, boys,” Professor Shay said as he walked up quickly. “I reported young Stebbins to Chief Reynolds, and he checked the rascal’s record. He was released on parole six months ago, and if he did break into your headquarters, that is a parole violation! Stebbins knows that, boys, so he could be quite dangerous. Capture would mean return to prison!”
“Six months ago?” Pete said. “That’s when the break-ins started here, Jupe!”
“Yes, Second, it is,” Jupiter agreed grimly. “I think —” He stopped, his eyes suddenly alert. He sniffed at the air. “Fellows — Do you smell something? I —”
Pete sniffed. “Smoke! Something’s burning!”
“It’s from behind the house!” Cluny cried. They ran to the corner of the house. After a moment they saw it — smoke billowing from the old stone shed.
“The shed’s on fire, boys!” Mrs. Gunn exclaimed. All at once Jupiter began to feel the pockets of his jacket and to pat at his trousers. He looked at his hands as if surprised that he wasn’t holding something. Panic filled his eyes.
“The journal!” The First Investigator said in despair. “I put it down when we carried the tub! It must be in the shed!”
They ran to the old shed. The smoke was thicker now, but there were no flames reaching outside. The stone shed wouldn’t burn easily.
“Only the timber inside is burning!” Pete yelled.
Cluny ran up with a fire extinguisher. Pete and Bob tore off their jackets and, with Cluny leading the way, carefully entered the burning shed.
“It’s all in the loose timber pile!” Cluny cried.
Outside, Jupiter, Mrs. Gunn, and Professor Shay listened to the sounds of the fire extinguisher and of jackets beating at the flames inside. Moments later the smoke thinned, and then all but stopped. Pete came out triumphant. He held the thin journal.
“Barely singed, Jupe!” the Second Investigator crowed. “Lucky, too, because it was very near the fire.”
Jupiter took the journal and flipped through the pages to be sure they were all right.
Suddenly they became aware of someone running towards them. It was Rory! He was shouting and pointing off behind the stone shed.
“O’er tha’ way! The rear o’ the shed! I saw him, ye fools! Watching he was, no’ a minute ago!”
“We can stop him!” Professor Shay cried. They all ran past the shed towards the thick brush and trees at the end of the valley. Rory was in the lead.
“There! In wi’ the trees!” Rory shouted. “Making for the high road he is!”
Spread out, they all plunged in among the trees, crashing through the heavy brush. Professor Shay was over to the right in an attempt to head off the escaping arsonist. Rory was somewhere up ahead. Jupiter and Bob, bringing up the rear, stopped a moment to scan the dense undergrowth under the grey-green live-oaks.
There was a sudden silence, as if everyone had stopped the chase to listen. Up ahead a voice muttered that the scoundrel was hiding. Jupiter and Bob began to move cautiously on again. They went some fifty yards in the shadowed brush and trees. Something snapped in the brush! “Bob!” Jupiter whispered, peering around. The cry came right by Jupiter. A figure leaped out of the brush, and Jupiter went down in a tangle of arms and legs and loud yells.
“I’ve got him! Fellows! I’ve got him!” Pete called.
“Help!” Jupiter echoed.
“Pete!” Bob groaned. “It’s us! You’ve got Jupe.”
Jupiter blinked up at Pete on top of him. “What?”
“Ulp,” Pete said. “I thought… I mean heard… ”
“Get off me!” Jupiter said, struggling to get up. He brushed at his clothes. “Try to look before you jump, Second.”
Pete grinned. “Well, you thought I was a criminal too, didn’t you?”
“Boy, did you two look funny!” Bob said.
All three Investigators were laughing when Professor Shay, Rory, and Cluny came slowly back and found them. The professor’s eyes jumped with anger behind his rimless glasses. His round pink face was almost comic with frustrated fury. Rory glowered.
“Got clean away, blast him,” the Scotsman said. “I saw him clear, though. That Java Jim it was, from the way you’ve told about him.”
“Stebbins, you mean, McNab,” Professor Shay disagreed. “I saw —”
“Ye’re daft, man!” Rory snapped. “I saw the beard ‘n all the sailor garb the boys described!”
“Moustache, you mean,” Professor Shay insisted. “That black hair must have —”
“Don’t ye think I’d know that Stebbins having seen him?”
“But —!” Professor Shay began, and then seemed to think. “Well, I could be mistaken, I suppose. You saw better than my glimpse.”