The Clue in the Crossword Cipher Read online

  Before Dr. Benevides had a chance to make any further comment, Bess gave a shriek of delight.

  “Look!” she cried out. “There’s our monkey with the spiral taill”

  CHAPTER XIX

  Desert Mummy

  EVERYONE in the helicopter gazed down at the monkey figure. It looked exactly like the one on the plaque and the spiraling tail matched perfectly.

  Nancy was thrilled. “Oh, I’m sure that figure was carved long ago by the Ponces’ ancestor Aguilar!” she thought.

  When Nancy told the others her idea, every one agreed, and Carla said, “I want to see it again!”

  The pilot circled the area several times, then asked Señor Ponce if he wished to land.

  Before he had a chance to answer, George cried out, “There’s a giant cat figure! Cats remind me of Luis Llosa.”

  Ernesto looked back for a moment. “Did you say Luis Llosa?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  The pilot said that when he was attending a Peruvian flying school several years before, one of the students there was named Luis Llosa. “He had a cat tattoo on his upper arm.”

  His listeners were extremely interested. “Please tell us more,” said Nancy.

  “Luis was a very good parachutist, but as a man he was a troublemaker,” the pilot replied. “Finally he was expelled. I have never heard what became of him. Do you know this person?”

  “Yes, we do,” Nancy answered, and told Ernesto the story. “If you ever see or hear of him, please get in touch with the police immediately.”

  Ernesto promised to do so, then at a signal from Senor Ponce he landed his helicopter close to the spiral-tailed monkey. The steps were lowered and everyone got out.

  “Oh, it’s hot!” Bess exclaimed.

  Dr. Benevides told her that the temperature in this desert varied little. She would soon become adjusted to its warmth.

  “Sometimes in the early morning there’s a slight mist here, but never any rain or wind.”

  The archaeologist’s prediction that the group would soon adjust to the warm air proved to be true. The poles were set up and the canvas canopies put in place. Then the digging tools were unpacked. The girls expressed their eagerness to start work, but Señor Ponce suggested that they eat lunch first and stay under the shelter of the canvases while the sun was high.

  “You will have plenty of time to search,” he said. “The sun goes to bed late here.”

  During the rest period Dr. Benevides, the Ponces, and their friends discussed where to start the dig. The desert figures had been etched into the ground by removing the top layer of pebbles and piling them along the edges of the wide paths. The two sides of one of the monkey’s arms were as far apart as a narrow street!

  Although Nancy felt that the tip of the tail was the place where a treasure might be found, Dr. Benevides asked them to start digging in the area where the tail started to spiral.

  “I believe that since the monkey is on one side of the plaque and most of the tail on the other, this fact has real significance. Perhaps Aguilar intended to indicate that the clue to the mystery is at the joining of the two.”

  Because of the distance between the two paths outlining the tail, he had the searchers start digging in separate places. Work began with a will. Except for the noise of the tools as they hit the stony ground, there was not a sound.

  The upper layer of pebbles was about two inches deep and below this lay a stratum of brownish-white stone. Because of the terrain it was evident that if Aguilar had hidden something here, it would not be buried very deep. After going down a couple of feet, each digger would move to a new position. Hour after hour went by with no results.

  “This is discouraging,” Bess complained.

  At six o’clock Señor Ponce decided that they should cease digging for the day. Just then his daughter cried out excitedly:

  “Come, everybody! I have found a mummy!”

  “A mummy!” her mother exclaimed.

  Everyone hurried to Carla’s side. She had uncovered only the head, which was rather well preserved. Quickly the men helped to unearth the rest of the clothed body from its shallow grave. Because of the dry, even climate it had not disintegrated.

  Meanwhile, Dr. Benevides studied the face. “This is not the mummy of an ancient Indian,” he said. “He belongs to the white race.”

  The clothing of the man in the shallow grave proved to be that of a Spanish explorer.

  “Whoever buried him did a careful job,” the archaeologist remarked.

  During the past few seconds Nancy had been thinking hard. Finally she said, “Do you suppose this could possibly be the mummy of your ancestor Aguilar, Señor Ponce?”

  The others were startled by the suggestion, but agreed it was quite possible. Aguilar’s Indian companion who had delivered the plaque to the Ponce family could have made the burial.

  “Perhaps we can find some identification,” Dr. Benevides suggested. He kneeled on the ground and very carefully unbuttoned the jacket. He turned back one side. A paper stuck out of an inside pocket. “I’m almost afraid to touch this,” he said. “It may crumble.”

  “We must take that chance,” said Senor Ponce.

  Dr. Benevides was used to working meticulously on digs, and the girls marveled at the deft way he lifted the paper out with forceps. To the onlookers’ amazement, the writing on it—in Spanish—was still legible.

  Carla’s father read it, then said quietly, “This is an honorable discharge from the Spanish army to—” he paused, then finished with a catch in his voice, “to Renato Aguilar.”

  Everyone looked at the mummy with reverence. No one spoke until Señor Ponce said, “We will reinter the body. Perhaps it can be removed from here later.”

  When the brief ceremony was over, the group picked up their tools and walked back to the tents. Soon Rico had supper ready.

  “And I am hungry,” declared Señor Ponce. “The desert air has given me an appetite.”

  Later, when the girls were preparing for bed, Nancy remarked, “I am more convinced than ever that Aguilar came here to bury his treasure. He did not dare entrust it to his Indian servant because he might have been attacked by bandits and the object—whatever it is—stolen from him.”

  George nodded in agreement. “I doubt that Aguilar thought it would take so long for his family to figure out the crossword cipher.”

  Nancy smiled. “We haven’t figured it out yet.”

  “But in the morning,” said Bess, “we will!”

  The campers were awake early and as soon as breakfast was over the searchers walked to new digging positions. Before they had a chance to reach the spots, they became aware of an approaching plane. It was flying low and slowly.

  As they watched, a parachutist jumped from it. In a few moments his chute billowed out and he drifted down to land near the camp.

  “What does he want?” George asked.

  Within seconds, another chutist dropped from the plane; then, one by one, several more. When all had hit the ground they quickly unharnessed themselves and hurried toward the campers.

  The leader was a thin, heavily bearded man with bushy black hair. In a deep voice he said, “I am sorry to disturb you, but in the name of the Peruvian government you are under arrest. Get into the copter and my men will take you back to Lima.”

  Nancy and her companions were stunned. Immediately Dr. Benevides said, “But we have permission from the government to dig here.”

  “The permission has been canceled,” the bearded chutist said. “Now do not make any trouble. Leave everything here and get in the copter.”

  Nancy had been watching the beady eyes of the leader and strongly suspected that he might be Luis Llosa in disguise. She edged toward the pilot and his copilot, and whispered her suspicion to them. Instantly they lunged forward and seized the intruder.

  “Now,” said Ernesto, “we’ll see if you have a cat tattoo on your arm.”

  “And maybe that hair and beard will come off,
” added Canejo, reaching toward the whiskers.

  “Leave that man alone!” barked one of the suspect’s companions as they closed in belligerently.

  At the same time, their leader jerked free and swung a blow at Ernesto. Instantly the other chutists leaped on the pilots and Rico.

  Señor Ponce was yelling at the top of his voice for everyone to calm down. “We want no trouble!” he cried out.

  Another chutist, a very tall, heavy-set man, picked Nancy up in his arms and raced toward the helicopter. There he whirled and called out:

  “You will do what I say or I will take this girl away as a hostage!”

  CHAPTER XX

  An Impostor’s Story

  “OH, Nancy! No! No!” Bess shrieked. “Don’t let them take you away!”

  “They won’t!” Ernesto cried.

  The parachutists had not counted on the strength of the men in Nancy’s group, nor George’s knowledge of judo. Ernesto dashed to Nancy’s rescue. With a stinging blow, the pilot knocked out the big fellow who was holding her.

  By this time Luis Llosa’s disguise had been yanked off and he stood clean-shaven and short-haired. One of his khaki shirt sleeves was ripped, revealing a cat tattoo on his arm! He stood alone for a moment, panting, while Canejo went to help subdue the intruders. Suddenly Llosa started to run.

  Bess whispered to her cousin, “Get him!”

  George did not hesitate. To Llosa’s utter surprise, she rushed up and used one of her judo holds on him. He went head over heels—and even Señora Ponce, startled as she was, had to smile.

  As Nancy came running back to the other girls, Ernesto joined the fight again. It was about even, with neither side winning.

  Then, suddenly, Luis Llosa got up from the ground and called out, “I give up! Cut the fighting!”

  The melee stopped and the smuggler faced the Ponces and their friends.

  “I want all of you to stand back and listen. We mean no harm. All we want is to get out of here. My friends and I will take the copter and send someone back for you.”

  “The nerve of him!” George burst out.

  “He’s afraid we’ll overpower him,” Nancy thought, “and turn him over to the police.”

  Quickly she stepped forward and addressed Luis Llosa’s companions. “Do you know that this man is a smuggler wanted by the police? That he’s a thief?”

  “It is true,” Carla spoke up. “And he tried several times to injure my friend.” She put her hand on Nancy’s arm.

  Luis Llosa’s eyes blazed. “Do not believe what she says!” he shouted to the other chutists.

  But by now his so-called friends were backing away from him. One of them declared he knew nothing about any of this.

  “Llosa told us if we would come along, he would show us where a great treasure was buried in this desert. He said he was a government official.”

  “He is nothing of the sort!” George retorted. “He’s El Gato!”

  Llosa gazed from one to another of his grimly silent companions, then looked back at the other group.

  “I see I am cornered,” he said bitterly, realizing that there was no one to help him. “I will tell my story and then leave.”

  Nancy suppressed a smile. “That’s what you think,” she murmured to herself.

  She had noticed Ernesto going to the helicopter. When he had climbed inside, she was sure he was going to radio the federal police to come and pick up the intruders.

  “I admit,” said Llosa, “to being El Gato, head of a smuggling ring.” He turned to Nancy with a sneer on his face. “Thanks to you, several of my men are in jail.”

  She made no comment except to ask if Senor Jorge Velez was entirely innocent. Luis Llosa assured her he was.

  Carla asked, “Why did you use the arrayánes wood and where did you get it?”

  Llosa said that the small pieces of it had been taken regularly—but unobtrusively—from the forest by Wagner and shipped to him.

  “Since it looked very different from the other wood used for the salad forks and spoons, Wallace could identify it easily in New York when he opened the shipments. Besides, it was a clever way to send the quinine.”

  Llosa revealed that Wallace had asked a friend who had visited him at the jail to phone the message about the girls’ canceled flight. And it was Sanchez who had thrown the rock that hit Nancy.

  “What about the plaque?” she asked. “How did you become interested in that?”

  The captured man said he had overheard Senor Ponce and Senora Ponce talking about the plaque in a restaurant. They had said it might lead to something valuable if deciphered. The couple were a little concerned that they had let their daughter Carla take it with her, but she had wanted the plaque to remind her of home.

  “When I learned that the girl had gone to River Heights, I wrote my friend Harry Wallace to get it. Everything seemed to be going all right after he scared her by sending “the cat” note. And he followed her a few times and eavesdropped.

  “That is how he knew she took the plaque to Miss Drew’s house. When Wallace heard she was a girl detective, he had to think up some way to get the plaque so she could not find out its secret.”

  Llosa admitted that Sanchez had been able to make a sketch of it at the Hotel Llao-Llao. “But he had some bad luck there. That stupid shop owner hung it on a wall and of course Miss Drew discovered it.”

  “Who was the man who tried to kidnap Carla,” Nancy asked, “and why did he do it?”

  “He was Wagner’s friend, Ramon Ruiz,” Llosa answered. “Sanchez sent him to pick a few pockets at the casino, but when the girl started asking questions about Sanchez, he thought it would be a good idea to take her along and find out what she was up to.

  “He is the one who tampered with the plane door,” Luis added, and explained that Ruiz was a petty crook who worked as a part-time mechanic at the Bariloche airport. “Before Sanchez was arrested, he gave Ruiz orders to loosen the door’s hinges. The police can pick Ruiz up any night at the casino.

  “I had even worse luck,” the smuggler went on in a whining tone. “I hired an Indian boy from a mountain village to follow Miss Drew in Cuzco, but he was frightened off by the earthquake. A man at Machu Picchu failed me too.”

  Luis stopped speaking and there was silence for a few moments. Then the prisoner glared at Nancy and said, “To be outwitted by a girl—!”

  Bess tossed her head. “It’s too bad you didn’t find out at the start how clever Nancy is. You would have saved yourself a lot of trouble.”

  A second later the whirring of a helicopter’s rotors could be heard, and in a few minutes the craft landed. Several federal police officers stepped out and Llosa and his companions were hustled aboard. His “friends” were still declaring their innocence, but the police said this would have to be proved.

  After the helicopter was a mere speck in the sky, Nancy and her friends once more turned to thoughts of unearthing a treasure. Dr. Benevides, concluding that his theory of where to look had been wrong, smilingly said that this time Nancy was to have her way. They would dig in the area at the tip of the monkey’s tail. The men started the work, but when they had gone about as deep as they thought something might be buried, Señor Ponce handed Nancy a trowel.

  “If there is anything here, you should have the honor of uncovering it, my dear,” he said.

  Nancy tried not to appear overeager, but her heart was pounding with excitement. Dropping to her knees, she began to take out the hard dirt little by little.

  In moments Nancy was sure that she had hit something other than stone. She began working a little faster but still very carefully.

  Finally Nancy said, “There is something here”

  The others crowded around as she picked up an archaeologist’s dusting brush and swept it over a four-inch-square section.

  “Gold!” Bess cried.

  Everyone offered to help Nancy, who now was smiling broadly. “I think the Ponces should have the honor of uncovering whatever was
buried here by their ancestor Aguilar,” she said.

  Carla and her father picked up tools. Senora Ponce watched.

  Finally a solid-gold box about eighteen inches long, eight inches wide, and twelve inches high was unearthed. The lid was sealed tight and it took the searchers awhile, using a very fine chisel and hammer, to get the top loose.

  “Nancy, this is really your find,” said Senor Ponce. “You open it.”

  The young detective demurred. “It belongs to you,” she said.

  Carla settled the matter. “Suppose the three of us raise the lid together.”

  The others watched tensely as this was done.

  “It is a treasure!” Señor Ponce exclaimed.

  There were murmurs of excitement and awe when the onlookers saw the contents.

  Bess blinked hard. “I’m so happy I could cry!”

  Inside the box were several solid-gold objects of Inca design. The largest one was of a monkey with a spiraling tail.

  “This is a priceless collection!” Dr. Benevides exclaimed excitedly.

  One by one the objects were lifted out and examined. Nancy had noticed folded papers in the bottom of the box.

  “May I take these out?” she asked Señor Ponce.

  “Indeed you may.”

  There were two “papers.” Carefully Nancy unfolded the first one. It was a large drawing. She held it up for everyone to see.

  “Buildings,” Bess remarked. “Where are they?” Nancy was staring intently at the drawing. In a lower corner she detected faded writing.

  After carefully scrutinizing it, she exclaimed excitedly, “This is a drawing of Machu Picchu —the way it must have looked before it was sacked!”

  “How magnificent it looks on top of the mountain!” Senor Ponce burst out.

  “And look!” George cried. “Here is a portrait of the Inca ruler at the time, son of the sun god!”