The Mystery of the Blazing Cliffs - M. V. Carey [19]
Jupe looked around. Hank Detweiler was standing behind him, scowling. “What happened?” said Detweiler.
“Someone was waiting here,” said Jupe. “I saw a person in a spacesuit. He hit Pete.”
“You’re kidding!” said Detweiler.
“No, he’s not kidding.” Pete touched his head and winced. “That guy walloped me a good one.”
Jupe touched his neck, remembering how it was. “A second person came up behind me,” he said. “He used a sort of choke hold on me and I blacked out.”
“There must have been three of them,” said Bob. “The one who got me smelled like horses.”
“What?” Charles Barron had appeared suddenly on the meadow. “Who smelled like horses? Hank, what’s going on here?”
“The boys left the ranch house sometime during the night,” Detweiler explained. “They came up here and they were attacked. Pete says it was a guy in a spacesuit. Bob says it was somebody who smelled of horses.”
“Nonsense!” said Barron. “Spacemen do not smell like horses. Hank, I came up in one of the trucks. Let’s get these boys down to the lower meadow. I’ll take them back to the ranch house and Mrs. Barron can see to them there.”
Ten minutes later, Jupiter, Pete and Bob were climbing into their beds in the bunkroom, under orders from Mary Sedlack and Elsie.
“We’re having a run of good luck,” said Mary dryly. “Simon de Luca could have been killed on that meadow last night, and you might have bought it this morning, but you didn’t. Don’t push it. Stay away from the meadow. It’s not a healthy place right now.”
She and Elsie went out and down the stairs.
“She didn’t smell of horses just now,” said Jupiter, “but she did yesterday afternoon.”
“You think she might have been the one who attacked us?” said Bob.
Jupiter shrugged. “Who knows? She’s probably strong enough. I think that at least one of our attackers was an earthling. I refuse to believe that an alien from another planet was riding horseback.”
Bob stared at the ceiling. “A person who rides horseback? That wouldn’t narrow it down much. There’s Hank Detweiler. I bet he rides. Barron does, I suppose. Mary spends a lot of time with the horses. Probably Banales and Aleman ride. Then there are the ranch hands who live in the cottages. We know almost nothing about them.”
“You know almost nothing about whom?” said Mrs. Barron. She had come quietly up the stairs, and now she stood in the doorway smiling at the boys.
“My husband is very upset about you,” she said. “He told me you were attacked by …
well, by the rescuers.”
“We were attacked by three people, Mrs. Barron,” said Jupe. “At least one of them was wearing a spacesuit.”
Mrs. Barron sat down on the edge of Jupiter’s bed. She had a tiny flashlight and she used it to look into Jupe’s eyes. “You’re all right,” she said softly. “You’ve been fortunate.”
She went on to examine Pete. “What were you doing up on the meadow anyway?” she wanted to know.
“We were trying to get off the ranch and get to the nearest town,” said Jupe. “Mrs.
Barron, you seem so sure that we’re being visited by people from another planet. Is your interest in the deliverance well known to the people here at Rancho Valverde?”
“I suppose so.” Her face was troubled. “I imagine everyone on the ranch knows about it. But … but I’m not absolutely sure, you know, that the rescuers were here last night.”
“You’re not?” said Jupiter.
She shook her head and went to Bob’s side. “That craft on the meadow last night looked exactly like spaceships that have been reported in other parts of the country.
Earthlings have spoken to the rescuers. But Simon was hurt—and you boys were hurt. The visitors have never hurt anyone before. They’re so highly developed intellectually that they’re telepathic. I can’t believe that they’d resort to striking people. That isn’t why they come. They come to help us!”
“Yes, of course,” said Jupiter. “Mrs. Barron, the planet Omega is reported to be in the galaxy nearest to Earth, in the constellation of Andromeda. Do you know how far away that is?”
“Oh, about two million light years,” she said. “I know. One can’t imagine a journey of two million