"Arthur, Robert - The Three Investigators 010 - The Mystery of the Moaning Cave" - читать интересную книгу автора (Arthur Robert)

"Did you find anything that looked as if it had changed recently?" Jupiter questioned.

"Changed?" Mr. Dalton frowned. "Nothing we could see. What are you getting at, son?"

"Well, sir," Jupiter explained, "I understand that the moaning only began a month ago. Before that it hadn't been heard for at least fifty years. If the wind is causing the sound, then it seems only logical that something must have changed inside the cave to make the moaning sound start again. I mean, I doubt if the wind has changed."

"Hah!" Professor Walsh said. "There's clear logic, Dalton. Perhaps these boys can solve your mystery."

Jupiter ignored the interruption. "I also understand," he went on, "that the moaning occurs only at night, which would not be the case if the wind alone were responsible. Have you noticed if it happens every windy night, by any chance?"

"No, I don't think it does, Jupiter," Mr. Dalton was beginning to look really interested. "I see what you mean. If it were just the wind, then we should hear moaning every windy night.а.а.а. Of course, it could be a combination of wind and some special atmospheric condition."

Professor Walsh smiled. "Or it could be El Diablo, come back to ride again!"

Pete gulped. "Don't say that, Professor. Jupe already said the same thing!"

Professor Walsh looked over at Jupiter. "He did, did he? You're not going to tell me that you believe in ghosts, are you, young man?"

"No one knows about ghosts for sure, sir," Bob put in seriously. "However, we've never actually found a real ghost."

"I see," the professor said. "Well, the Spanish people have always insisted that El Diablo will come back when he is needed. I've done a great deal of research, and I can't really say that he couldn't come back."

"Research?" Bob asked.

"Professor Walsh is a professor of history," Mrs. Dalton explained. "He's here in Santa Carla for a year to do special research on California history. Mr. Dalton thought he might be able to help us explain Moaning Valley to our ranch hands."

"With no luck so far," the professor admitted. "But perhaps you boys would be interested in the full story of El Diablo? I'm thinking of writing a book on his colourful career."

"That would be great!" Bob exclaimed.

"Yes, I would like to hear more about him," Jupiter agreed.

Professor Walsh leaned back in his chair and began to tell the story of El Diablo and his famous last adventure.

In the early days of California the land that now made up The Crooked-Y ranch had been part of the Delgado Rancho. The estate of the Delgado family had been one of the largest grants of land given to the Spanish settlers by the King of Spain. The Spaniards did not come to California in large numbers, as the English did in the eastern part of America. So the Delgado Rancho remained a vast private domain for many generations.

Then settlers began to come to California from the East, and slowly the land of the Delgados was given away, lost, or stolen. After the Mexican War, California became part of the United States, and more and more Americans arrived to settle the land, especially after the great Gold Rush of 1849. By 1880 almost all the great domain of the Delgados was gone, except a small area about the size of The Crooked-Y that included Moaning Valley.

The last of the Delgados, Gaspar Ortшga Jesus de Delgado y Cabrillo, was a brave and fiery young man who grew up hating the American settlers. He thought as them as thieves who had stolen his family's land. Young Gaspar had little money and no power, but he longed to avenge his family and regain his land. He decided to become the champion of all the old Spanish-Mexican families who had been in California for so long. Hiding out in the hills, he became an outlaw. To the Spanish people he was a new Robin Hood. To the Americans he was nothing more than a bandit.

The Americans named Gaspar Delgado El Diablo--The Devil--after the mountain where he had his cave headquarters. But for two years they could not catch him. He stole tax money, scared away tax collectors, raided American government offices and stole their funds, and generally helped the Spanish-speaking Californians and terrorized the Americans.

But in 1888 El Diablo was finally captured by the sheriff of Santa Carla County. In a famous trial, which the Spanish-speaking people said was a fake, he was sentenced to hang. Then, two days before he was to be executed, some friends helped him in a daring daylight escape. El Diablo climbed over the roof of the courthouse, jumped several feet to another roof, and finally leaped on to the back of his waiting black horse.

Wounded in his escape, and closely pursued by the sheriff and his posse, El Diablo rode to his hide-out in the cave in Moaning Valley. The sheriff and his men blocked all known exits, but they did not go inside. They thought that El Diablo would have to come out when he became hungry, or when his wound became too painful to endure.

Though they stood watch for several days, there was no sign of El Diablo. But all the time they waited, they heard a strange moaning coming from somewhere inside the cave. Naturally they assumed that the moans came from the wounded bandit. Finally the sheriff ordered his men inside. They searched every passage and cavern for four days, but found nothing. They searched the whole countryside, too. But they never uncovered a trace of El Diablo--not him, or his body, or his clothes, or his pistol, or his horse, or his money. Nothing.

El Diablo was never seen again. Some said that his faithful sweetheart, Dolores de Castillo, had gone into the cave through a secret entrance and helped him escape, and that they had fled far away to a new life in South America. Others said that friends spirited him out and then bid him in rancho after rancho for many years.