We were speechless for a couple of long moments.
“You knew Dad?” I asked finally, when I’d found my voice.
“I did,” Tex said, gruff again, as he put his pistol away.
“But you’re working for the Nackleys,” Zander said. “Aren’t you?”
“I had to make sure that they didn’t find the canyon. I knew Leo from the Academy, and when he told me he had new information about the treasure, I figured he must have gotten hold of one of Alexander’s maps somehow. Now we’ve got to get out of here. They’re all after you and we can’t risk leading them into the caverns.” He picked up a length of rope that had fallen on the ground and mounted his horse. “Follow me,” he said. “We’ll talk once we’re back in Drowned Man’s Canyon.”
Not sure what else to do, we all mounted our horses and followed Tex back through the tunnel.
“We’re going the wrong way,” M.K. said. “Aren’t we supposed to be heading back toward the waterfall?”
“Just follow me,” Tex said in a gruff voice.
I was starting to get nervous, when he pulled his horse up and reached out to push on the wall of the tunnel. A door, carved into the rock like the ones in the secret canyon, opened and we followed him out into blindingly bright light. It was late morning now, already hot, the sun blazing overhead in a blue sky. Pucci seemed glad to be back in the open and he soared high above us, making happy circles in the sky.
“This is the door I saw you disappear into!” I told him. “The day they caught us and brought us to the camp.”
“I thought someone followed me that day. There are hidden doors like this one all over the canyon. That’s where we get all the stories about aliens and monsters sneaking out of the walls of the canyon. The people of the canyon would wear costumes when they had to come out to hunt or forage during droughts or when crops failed.
“Now,” he continued, “your idea about the gold is a good one, but we’ve got to move fast. They’ve got scouts all over the canyon. I’ll ride ahead and—”
But we weren’t going to let him get away without telling us more about Dad.
“How did you know Dad?” Zander asked. I could hear that he was still suspicious of Tex. “I don’t understand.”
“I went to the Academy with Alexander and Leo Nackley and Raleigh McAdam,” Tex said. “My last name is—”
And suddenly I realized that we had seen a picture of him, a younger version, without a beard.
“John Beauregard,” I said. “You’re John Beauregard?”
“That’s right. I grew up in Texas and when I moved out here they started calling me by my childhood nickname, Tex. Your father found Ha’aftep Canyon and entrusted me with his secret.”
“Was this when you came here with Raleigh and Leo Nackley?” I asked.
“No, they didn’t have any luck on that trip. Alex came back a couple of years later and discovered it on his own. Then he brought me the next year, just before he married your mom. Raleigh was spending all of his time in the North Polar Sea by then or he would have been with us. We no longer trusted Nackley, so we didn’t ask him along. Your father believed that we’d been close to finding Dan Foley’s mine on that first trip. He studied the maps and had an idea about the waterfall. Turned out he was right.”
“So he found the canyon and the people and the two of you agreed not to tell anyone?” Zander asked.
“They didn’t just agree not to tell anyone,” I said. “They agreed to protect the people and the canyon.”
Tex hesitated. “That’s right. And I’m assuming you somehow found the secret map. But that’s a story for another day. We’ve got to get out of here before anyone sees us.”
But there was so much more I wanted to know. “Wait, how long have you been out here?” I asked. “Dad never talked about you. Did he know you live here?”
“He knew.” Tex paused, then said, “There’s a lot that you kids don’t know about your father. It would be too dangerous for you to know.”
“What?” Sukey asked him. “What would be too dangerous?”
“Are you a member of the Mapmakers’ Guild?” I asked him.
He paused for a moment. Then his face sagged and he said, “I told you, it’s just too dangerous.”
Suddenly I was mad: at Tex for being so cagey, at the Nackleys, at Dad for getting us into this. “I’m tired of everyone saying this thing is too dangerous!” I shouted at him. “You don’t think we’re already in danger? We’re carrying a couple hundred million Allied Dollars’ worth of gold, and I’m carrying two maps now, and there are a whole bunch of people right over there who would kill us to get them. We’re wanted by the police and BNDL for assaulting those agents. What is going on here? What did Dad know? Why did he leave a map for us in the secret canyon? What does he expect us to do with it?”
Tex whipped around, almost falling off his horse. “He left a map for you in the canyon? Of what?”
“You didn’t know?”
He shook his head.
It was M.K. who asked the question that was on all our minds. “Those government guys said he did something illegal, that he took money from some bad guys in Munopia. They said he broke laws. Is that true?”
Tex finally stopped, turning his horse around so he could look at us. “Your dad was a great man,” he said. “Everything your dad did, there was a good reason for it. Just remember that.”
It was what Sukey had said as we were hiking through the caverns, and when I turned to look at her, she raised her eyebrows. “Yeah, you don’t have to listen to me next time,” she said with a little smile. “Clearly I have no idea what I’m talking about.”
Tex hesitated again. “We have a lot to talk about, but I think you’ll agree that now is not the time. Let’s wait until we’re all safely out of here. As I said, I think the plan’s a good one. But you’re going to need my help. It’s a circus at the camp. Leo’s got a newspaper reporter out there, ready to report his find. I don’t know what Foley and Mountmorris will do when they see you.” He looked serious for a moment. “They’re very, very powerful men, you know. They’ll do anything to protect what they see as ANDLC or BNDL property. And they have the full support of the government. Don’t ever forget that.”
He took a flask out of his saddlebag, unscrewing the cap and taking a long swig. “Now, let’s get up there and fabricate an archaeological wonder of the world. They’ll be riding through with the reporter later this morning. I think I can get them to go up there and take a look.” He turned his horse in the direction of the cave, and rode off into the early morning light, the rest of us following along behind.