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his help, and left. The rain was still falling steadily. They ran all the way to the salvage yard, where Bob and Pete had left their bikes, and got soaked for the second time in twenty-four hours.
    A red sports car was parked outside the salvage-yard.
    “All wet as usual,” Skinny Norris called from the car.
    “Not behind the ears like you,” Pete retorted.
    Skinny flushed. “I came to do you all a favour, and tell you to stay away from those Alvaros.”
    “Is that a threat?” Jupiter asked.
    “Your father won’t get their ranch!” Pete said hotly.
    “What’ll you three do to stop him?” Skinny sneered.
    “We’re going to find — ” Pete began.
    Jupiter kicked him. “We’ll think of something, Skinny.”
    “Think fast.” Skinny laughed nastily. “We’ll have that ranch inside a week, so there! And those Alvaros are going to be in big trouble soon, so you better stay away, and just keep your big noses out of my dad’s business!”
    Skinny roared off with a squeal of tyres. Standing in the rain, the boys looked after him uneasily. Skinny had sounded awfully confident.

6
Bad News
    Jupiter got up early on Saturday morning, even though the rain was still coming down steadily. But he soon discovered that the planned visit to the Alvaros would have to be delayed. Both Bob and Pete had some chores to do at home first. Jupiter than made a bad mistake. Because of the rain, he remained in the house. Aunt Mathilda pounced on him and put him to work.
    “Can’t have you moping around because of a little rain!” Aunt Mathilda boomed heartily.
    Groaning, and filing a mental note never to be caught again in the house on a Saturday even if there was a typhoon outside, Jupiter spent the morning sorting junk in the roofed-over section of the salvage yard. Let off for lunch, the stout leader of The Three Investigators ate quickly and slipped away to the team’s secret headquarters. Headquarters was in an old, damaged house trailer, long forgotten under mounds of junk in one corner of the salvage yard.
    Soon after, Bob and Pete arrived at Headquarters, and the three boys hurried back outside to their bikes. Protected by oilskins, they cycled through light rain out along the county road. Jupe carried a road map in case they got lost in the foothills. They rode past the ruins of the Alvaro hacienda and found the small avocado farm of the neighbour Emiliano Paz without trouble.
    The Paz house was an old frame building with a big barn and two small cottages behind. Diego was out chopping wood in the rain near one cottage when the boys rode up.
    “Is Pico home?”
    “He is in the cottage,” Diego said. “You have found —?”
    Jupiter led them all into the little cottage. There were only two rooms and a tiny kitchen. Pico had just started a fire in the living-room fireplace. He stood up to greet the Investigators.
    Jupiter told Pico and Diego what Professor Moriarty had said about the sword cover.
    “It’s almost certainly the cover of the Cortés Sword,” Jupe concluded.
    “And Don Sebastián wasn’t shot escaping at all!” Pete cried.
    “At least,” Bob corrected his eager friend, “there’s a chance he wasn’t.”
    Jupiter showed the two Alvaros the copies of the army’s letter to José Alvaro, the original report by Sergeant Brewster about the death of Don Sebastián, and the report of the desertion of Sergeant Brewster, Corporal McPhee, and Private Crane.
    “So?” Pico said. “How do these documents change anything? We are told that Don Sebastián was shot — something we have no reason to doubt. And the sergeant’s report implies that Don Sebastián had his sword with him when he fell into the sea. That’s just what the Yankee commander told my family at the time.”
    “Don’t you find it suspicious,” Jupiter asked, “that the men who reported the escape and shooting of your great-great-grandfather all deserted from the army the next day? One man deserting could be a coincidence, even two