“Hum,” thought the would-be detective. “I see it all now. There is a treasure hidden at the house, probably in the front room which has always been kept closed, and Trujillo had planned that night to slip in, unobserved, but having seen a light in the room, he had first peered through the window and had then beat a hasty retreat. Hurray for me!” Betsy concluded exultingly. “The mystery is solved. I do believe.”
She was nearing the house and she saw the girls on the porch beckoning to her.
“Where have you been? Lunch is ready,” Margaret called.
“Oh, just for a walk,” was Betsy’s non-committal reply. She had decided to say nothing of her discovery until she had had time to look around a little more all by herself. But the would-be detective was to hear something that noon which convinced her that she was following the wrong clue.
CHAPTER XX
A QUEER KEY
The girls were seated about the table at one end of the big comfortable kitchen and, it being Margaret’s turn to play waitress, she was passing a dish of frijolies when they heard a horse galloping under the windows. “Peyton has returned just in time,” Megsy announced, but, when the door opened, it was Trujillo who appeared. He seemed to be much excited, but what he said caused a great deal more excitement among his listeners, for in perfectly good English he inquired:
“Senoritas, have you seen an oddly shaped key? It is an antique and of great value to me, though to no one else. I left it in my bunk-house yesterday morning. I recall having seen your brother,” turning to address the astonished Barbara, “when he picked it up and examined it. Since then I have given the key no thought, but a moment ago, chancing to look for it, I could not find it. Believing that Senor Peyton, without thought had slipped it into his pocket, I came here in search of him.”
Barbara cast a helpless glance at the ever calm Virginia, who replied: “Trujillo, the key about which you speak, is, I am sure, the one that we found close to the house early this morning. We gave it to Peyton. He is spending the day at the valley pasture directing the mending of the fence around the grass lands.”
“I thank you, Senorita,” the tall dark lad said, sweeping his sombrero in a courtly manner.
When he was gone in search of his employer, the girls sank back in the chairs from which they had risen, and, one and all uttered some characteristic exclamation.