“Yes,” he agreed. “You’d think the authorities would know something, after all these years, or that we could pick up some clues.”
“It would have been different in the United States,” said Nicky, with a sense of pride in his native land. “Our detectives don’t let the grass grow under their feet.”
“And yet,” broke in Cliff, “many girls, and men and women, too, disappear in America and never are found.”
“There were no eye-witnesses, except the ones they found dead, after the bandits made their raid—that’s why there were no clues,” Tom added.
“Well,” he finished, sadly, “I guess my own private mystery will never be solved.”
“You can’t tell,” Nicky said, with his usual optimism. “You know, it seemed as though Cliff’s father would never be heard from again, after he went to Peru—but we got a letter, or Cliff did, and we went down there with Mr. Whitley, our history instructor—and not only rescued Mr. Gray from the hidden Inca city, but we saw a lot of adventure and got some of the Inca treasure.”
“And your mystery seemed as though it would never be solved, Nicky,” Cliff reminded his friend. “With only half of a cipher message left to your family by Captain Kidd, it was possible for us to find the hidden treasure in the Florida keys and have a lot of excitement in the bargain.”
“And both adventures started out very tamely,” Nicky was trying hard to brighten up his comrade; but Tom only shook his head.
“This is different,” he said.
Nicky and Cliff referred to two exciting escapades in which all three had participated. Because each of them had had a mystery in his life the three had drawn very close in the bonds of friendship, and had formed themselves into a secret order which they called the Mystery Boys. They had secret gestures by which they could communicate with one another in the presence of others without divulging the fact that they did so: also, they had initiation rites and binding oaths and strict codes which held them together and bound them to help each other in every way to solve their individual mysteries.