“He is quite positive that such is the case,” answered Gilroy. “At any rate, he wants you to find out what kind of people they have leading this outlaw gang.”
“I knew it would come,” Jack laughed. “Every time we go out for a vacation, we get mixed up in a scrap of some kind.”
“Well,” Frank suggested, “we have all the more fun because of the trouble we get into. I like to be doing things.”
“But how are we going to get a line on these people?” asked Jack.
“It seems to me that they’ve got in the first blow,” Harry declared. “If we only had Ned here, he could tell us exactly what to do.”
“We’ll have him here before night!” Jimmie answered.
“You ask how you are to get a line on the people you are to watch,” Gilroy said, “and I think I can tell you what you ought to do first. It is said that somewhere out in the hills, perhaps within a few miles of this very spot, there are the ruins of an old Franciscan mission. It is said to stand high up on a mountain, facing east. Our information is that the walls of the original mission have been leveled to the ground, but that the subterranean rooms and passages reaching under the mountain are still fairly intact. You must find this mission.”
“And after we find it, what then?” Jack asked.
“It is said to be the headquarters of the outlaw claimants who are making us all this trouble,” replied Gilroy. “If you find the ruined mission, you will also find, without doubt, the agents of the corporation we are fighting. They are undoubtedly there.”
“And after we find them, what then?” Frank questioned.
“What Mr. Bosworth wants,” the confidential clerk continued, “is to connect this hostile corporation, through its agents, with what is going on here. Once in the possession of positive information that the corporation is instigating this revolt against law and order, and he will know exactly what to do. He expects you boys to bring in the proof.”
“Are you going to remain and help us?” asked Jack in a moment.
“Remain and help you?” repeated the fat little confidential clerk in dismay. “I should say not! In fact, Mr. Bosworth was thoughtful enough to intimate to me that I would better get out of the mountains as soon as possible after delivering my message. Personally, I wouldn’t stay in these hills for a thousand dollars a day!”