“Silver fishes in a shining sea,” Betsy Clossen said, and although the remark could mean nothing, it was evident that the speaker meant a great deal. “I surely am a wonderful detective,” she declared. “Every clue I thought I had has vanished.” Then turning to Babs, she added: “Didn’t you tell us that Trujillo could not speak English?”
That maiden looked puzzled. “I don’t seem to recall why I thought he couldn’t,” she confessed. “Probably because he never did in all the time he has been here.”
Virginia smiled: “We haven’t been here two days as yet,” she reminded them, “and we have made no effort to converse with Trujillo. We just took it for granted he wouldn’t understand us. Well, one thing is certain and that is that Trujillo did not peer in the window nor drop the key and I am glad that he didn’t. Everything Peyton has told us about him has been so fine and noble, I would be sorry to discover that he was a spy.”
“Hark! What was that?” Virginia had risen and was listening, intently. There was the sound of something heavy falling in the front room, then a hurrying of feet and the slamming of a door.
Virginia fearlessly entered the room which was flooded with sunlight, since the blinds had been removed. She went at once to the door opening upon the spiral stairway. It was unlocked early that morning. The other girls had cautiously followed and were searching for the something which had fallen. “There it is,” Margaret whispered, pointing.
The something that had fallen with a crash proved to be a rock which had been pried out of the wall of the fireplace.
“Oh, girls,” Betsy said, her eyes glowing. “We’re on the trail of whoever it was peered in last night. There is something in this room that he wants. Of course we have decided definitely that it wasn’t Trujillo, and—”
“I’m not so sure of that.” It was the quiet Margaret who spoke and the others turned toward her.
“Not sure? Why of course we’re sure. If he had dropped the key, he wouldn’t have to ask where it had been lost, would he?” Babs inquired.
“Oh, I know what Margaret means,” Betsy interrupted. “She thinks that in order to throw suspicion away from himself, he would pretend ignorance of the whereabouts of the key. Then, when we directed him to the valley pasture, what could be simpler than for him to pretend to go there, but in reality to wheel back when he was out of our sight and return to procure whatever it is that he seems to want.”