“Those men are watching us,” Jo Ann remarked a few minutes later, after a swift backward glance over her shoulder. “I don’t want them to get so angry that they’ll stop coming to the village, do you?”
“No. That’s why I told the woman I could buy only a part of their pottery.” A satisfied smile passed over Florence’s face. “I hope that’ll force those men to pay more. They’re very anxious to keep on buying here, because this village makes unusually good pottery.”
“Their designs are beautiful. I think they’ll keep on coming here.” Jo Ann looked back over her shoulder again before adding, “They’re still watching us. Did you notice how that taller one kept staring at me?”
Florence nodded. “It made me wonder if he’d seen you when you so foolishly ran up the side of that gully.”
“But how was I going to be able to recognize them if I hadn’t seen them?”
When they reached their car, Peggy began hurling questions at them.
“Florence’ll tell you everything,” Jo Ann said as she started the car quickly and turned up the rough road toward the city, adding, “I’m heading toward the city so those men won’t know where we live.”
After she had gone a short distance, she wound back out of the village by the rough back streets. When she finally cut back onto the main road, she threw an anxious look back up the road toward the village. There was no sign of a car to be seen.
“We fooled them,” she said, well pleased.
“I believe we did,” agreed Florence. “They probably think we live in the city.”
When, two hours later, the girls and the two boys reached the mine, the girls had completely recovered from their nervousness over their encounter with the smugglers.
Florence was enthusiastic over the attractive appearance and cleanliness of the great stone house, which of course delighted Miss Prudence.
“While you are here, Florence,” she said, “we’ll all have to make a trip to the city to buy materials for draperies and couch and pillow covers to brighten up this gloomy old house. It still reminds me of a barracks, even if it is clean.”
“I think that’ll be fine,” approved Florence, exchanging pleased glances with Jo Ann and Peggy. “We all love to go to the city.”
Of the three Jo Ann was the most delighted. She must get to the city and find the mystery man, especially now that she had some more information about the smugglers. “Can’t we go tomorrow, Miss Prudence?” she asked eagerly.
Miss Prudence shook her head. “No. I want to finish all the cleaning first.”
“But the house is spotless now,” Jo Ann protested.
“The kitchen is a downright disgrace. Why Maria insists on using that old fireplace to cook on when she has this new range, I can’t understand. It makes such a mess. I told her I wanted that fireplace closed up. I want some shelves put up, too. There isn’t any place to store our supplies. This kitchen wasn’t built for convenience. It’s big as all outdoors, but there’s no place to put anything.”
“Poor Maria!” thought Jo Ann. “She’ll never understand Miss Prudence’s ideas of a modern kitchen. She feels that the kitchen is her domain and won’t like any interference. We’ll have all we can do to keep peace in the family.”
“We’ll have to take Florence around the camp tomorrow and show her all the improvements,” Peggy spoke up. She turned to Florence. “Mr. Eldridge’s had all the miners’ ugly little shacks replaced with stone houses built of the natural stone from the quarry.”
“Yes, I noticed a few of them as we came up. I’m so glad. It worried me to see the contrast between those horrible shacks and this great stone house.”
“You’ll be delighted to see the modern machinery they’ve put in the mine, too,” Jo Ann put in. “They use electricity now for a good deal of the work, and that makes it lots easier on the miners—less dangerous, too. Mr. Eldridge’s promised to show us around tomorrow.”
“Fine.” Florence’s face was aglow on hearing of these improvements. She was as happy as the other girls to hear how the drudgery and squalor had been removed from the miners’ lives since Mr. Eldridge had taken over the management of the mining company of which Carlitos was the chief stockholder. As all three girls owned stock in the company—a gift for their share in recovering the mine for him—they felt a personal responsibility for improving conditions.
“Don’t you want to go with us on our ride about the camp tomorrow?” Jo Ann asked Miss Prudence.
“Yes, I’ve been wanting to ever since I came, but I’ve been so busy, you know. I’ll get an early start at cleaning tomorrow morning, so I can go with you.”
An amused expression slipped into each girl’s face at the familiar words “an early start.”
So it was that, immediately after the siesta hour, the girls and Miss Prudence set out on horseback on a general inspection trip of the mining camp.
“We won’t have time to go down into the mine this time,” Miss Prudence said as they rode off. “Ed says that he wants us to go all through it soon, though.”
“We’re very anxious to go down into the mine, aren’t we, girls?” said Jo Ann.
“We surely are,” both replied.
With the greatest satisfaction Jo Ann and Peggy pointed out the rows of neat, substantial limestone houses, each one very homelike with flowers and vines.
“The Mexicans love beauty,” Florence remarked to Miss Prudence as they passed a house one side of which was covered with a bougainvillea vine aflame with pinkish purple flowers. The tiny yard was a riot of color, too.
“Yes, I’ve noticed that they are very fond of flowers,” Miss Prudence agreed. “Carlitos told me today that Maria had asked him if I’d brought some flower seed with me—that she wanted to see if she could grow some new kinds of flowers.”
Jo Ann, who had been listening to their conversation, now called out, “That reminds me, let’s dig up some ferns and cactus—that kind that has bright red blossoms—this afternoon and plant them in our pottery jars. And let’s make a rock garden in the patio, too, and plant all the different kinds of cacti we can find.”
“A grand idea,” the girls agreed, and Miss Prudence nodded approvingly.
As they approached the mine opening, Jo Ann proudly pointed out the electric tram-cars which were used to carry the ore down the steep incline, instead of the burros, as formerly. “The biggest improvement of all, though, is the way they get the ore out of the mine. Mr. Eldridge has promised to take us down there some time soon.”
After leaving the mine they rode a short distance on up the beautiful winding mountain trail, then reluctantly turned at Miss Prudence’s suggestion and started homeward. Before leaving the trail, however, they persuaded her to wait while they dismounted and dug up some cactus and resurrection plants.
“This cactus’ll look lovely in that big jar with the cactus design on it,” Peggy explained to Miss Prudence. “And you’ll love to watch these resurrection plants. You can keep them out of water for months, till they’re dried, dead-looking balls, then put them into water, and they’ll unfold and become green and beautiful again.”
Once again, when they were crossing the crystal clear stream that ran near the house, they begged Miss Prudence to halt. “Wait for us while we dig up some of these exquisite wild maidenhair ferns,” Jo Ann urged, an appeal that the other two promptly echoed.
“All right,” Miss Prudence agreed, halting under the shade of a rocky cliff over which trickled a tiny silver ribbon of water into a fern-edged pool.
Peggy began pulling up some of the ferns close by, but Jo Ann remarked, “I can’t bear to spoil the beauty of this pool by taking any more of these ferns. Let’s go up the stream a little farther, Florence.”
Jo Ann and Florence walked on along the stream in silent admiration and soon disappeared around a great moss-covered boulder.
Suddenly Florence caught sight of a short chunky figure of a man just ahead. She gasped aloud. Simultaneously Jo Ann’s lower jaw dropped, and her eyes opened wide. The next instant the man clambered up the side of the cliff and disappeared.
“One of the smugglers!” whispered Jo Ann, finally recovering her speech. “He was spying on us.”
“The one that grabbed the olla from you,” Florence breathed. “Let’s hurry back.”
The girls wheeled about and ran back down the stream.
On coming in sight of Miss Prudence and Peggy, the two girls checked their steps.
“Let’s don’t mention seeing that man before Miss Prudence,” Jo Ann warned. “No use alarming her.”
“All right,” Florence agreed. “He didn’t act as if he were dangerous, anyway. He ran, too.”
“He didn’t want us to see him—to recognize him. What’s he doing here?”
Florence shook her head, puzzled. “I can’t imagine. The pottery woman said they always went on to the city after getting the pottery.”
All at once it dawned upon Jo Ann that they had not got any ferns and would soon be back at the pool empty-handed. “Miss Prudence’ll wonder why we didn’t get some ferns,” she said. “Let’s stop this minute and pull up some.”
“All right.”
In a few more minutes they had carefully pulled up some clumps of the daintiest maidenhair specimens in sight and had wrapped elephant-ear leaves about their roots to keep the leaf mold from falling off.
When they neared the pool Peggy called out, “What’d you see to make you come flying back so fast—a rattlesnake or a boa constrictor?”
“Er—neither,” Florence replied.
To her and Jo Ann’s relief Miss Prudence asked quickly, “Are there really boa constrictors around here? Did you ever see one here?”
“Not right here,” Florence replied guardedly.
“Close here?”
“Well—fifty miles or so to the south.”
“Hop on your horses and let’s go this minute.” Miss Prudence tapped her boot against her mount’s flank and started riding down the path.
In a few minutes the three girls were following.
After Miss Prudence had gone out of hearing distance, Peggy rode over close to Jo Ann and demanded, “What did you girls see to scare you that way?”
Jo Ann leaned over and whispered, “One of the smugglers!”
Peggy gave a little sudden start that made her horse quiver responsively. “Gol-ly!” she ejaculated. “What’d he come up here for?”
“That’s what Florence and I want to know.”
By the time the girls had reached the house, Miss Prudence had dismounted and had gone inside.
As they were walking along the corridor to their room Maria hurried out of the kitchen, an excited gleam in her black eyes.
After a swift glance around to assure herself that Miss Prudence was not in sight she called to Florence in a low voice and motioned for all three of them to come there. As they drew near she went on excitedly, “There is a woman here from San Geronimo to see you. She say she has something to tell the señoritas who bought her ollas a few days back. It is very important, she say.”
“A woman from San Geronimo to——” Florence checked her flow of Spanish to relay the message in English to Peggy and Jo Ann.
“She must think it’s important to come ’way up here,” Jo Ann murmured to Florence as they followed Maria and Peggy into the kitchen. “Do you suppose it could be something about those——”
Before she could finish her sentence, they were inside the kitchen. There sitting beside the door talking to José was the woman from whom Jo Ann had bought the pottery.
On seeing Jo and Florence the woman rose and hurried over to meet them. With her words tumbling over each other in her excitement, she began talking to Florence. So rapid was her Spanish that Jo Ann could catch only a few words now and then. One thing she was sure of, however, was that the woman was frightened. But why? She could stand the suspense no longer and broke in, “What is it, Florence? What’s the trouble?”
Florence turned and explained quickly to her and Peggy, “She says she heard the smugglers threaten to get even with you and me.”
Jo Ann’s eyes flew open, but she repressed the frightened exclamation on the tip of her tongue.
“Her oldest girl overheard one of the men tell the other that they’d find out at Pedro’s store where we lived,” Florence went on; “then that he’d drive on with the load of pottery and let him wait around here for a while.”
“So that’s why that man’s here—to get even with us!” Jo Ann exclaimed. “That means we’ll have to be extremely careful for a few days. Did she say when the other man’d be back at the village?”
“No, but I’ll ask her.”
After questioning her closely Florence relayed her answers to the girls. “She doesn’t know. Says she thinks he’ll come one day soon—maybe about this time next week.”
“The vague mañana,” Peggy summed up. “That means we’ll be sitting on top of a volcano for no telling how long.”
“I’m so thankful we know of the volcano’s existence,” Jo Ann replied. She smiled over at the woman with a “Muchas gracias. You have been very kind to walk all this way to tell us about the man.”
Florence, too, joined in thanking her, then began talking to the anxious-faced Maria. She could see she was worried even more than they themselves. “Don’t worry, Maria. José won’t let anything happen to us. Will you, José?”
“No, no, Miss Florencita. I will take care of you. But you and Miss Jo and Miss Peggy must be very careful. Stay here at the house unless I am with you. Shall I tell Mr. Eldridge about this?”
“No—well, not yet, anyway.” Jo Ann put in hastily. She must get the information to the mystery man, and if she stayed a prisoner in this house all the time, she couldn’t get the chance. Mr. Eldridge might not even want her and the girls and Miss Prudence to go to the city, if he knew about this man’s threat.
“José, you haven’t gone after the mail yet, have you?” Florence asked.
José shook his head. “I am leaving soon.”
“Get a burro so this woman can ride home. She must be very tired. I’m sure Mr. Eldridge will not object.”
“Bien. I get the burro.” He gestured to the woman. “Come with me.”
“Wait just a minute, José,” spoke up Jo Ann. “I want to give her something for her children.”
She ran to her room and reappeared in a moment carrying a large box of caramels. She handed them to the woman, saying, “Here are some dulces for your children. We will come back next week for some more ollas. You will have some ready then?”
The woman nodded.
Both Maria and the girls felt relieved after the woman and José had gone without Miss Prudence’s seeing her.
“I’d have had to tell Miss Prudence everything from A to Z about that woman if she’d seen her,” declared Jo Ann. She turned to Maria. “You must not let Miss Prudence know anything about what this woman said. Sabe?”
“No—I will not. I know nothing,” Maria replied with emphasis, then shrugging her shoulders added, “Miss Prudencia no speak the Spanish. I no speak the English.”
“Even if they did speak the same language, Maria wouldn’t confide in her,” Jo Ann thought. “They can’t understand each other. Neither one knows how good and kind the other is. Why is it that women living under the same roof are so often antagonistic to each other?”
Almost the same moment Miss Prudence entered the kitchen, gave Maria a few orders, with Florence as interpreter, then added in a suspicious tone, “I noticed a Mexican woman just leaving the house with a box in her hands. What did Maria give her?”
“Nothing,” Florence replied quickly. “Jo Ann gave her a box of caramels for her children. She’s the woman Jo Ann bought the jars from. I’m going to get some more from her and from the other villagers and ship them to my friend in St. Louis, who has a curio shop.”
When Miss Prudence changed the subject to a discussion of the menu for supper, all three girls were relieved.
It was not till after they had gone to bed that night that the girls had an opportunity to talk over the woman’s story and Jo Ann’s and Florence’s discovery of the smuggler’s presence.
“I’m certainly glad you had my bed put in your room,” Florence remarked, reaching over across the narrow space that separated her bed from the girls’ double one and patting Jo Ann’s hand. “I’d be scared to sleep in one of these huge old rooms by myself—especially knowing about that smuggler’s being around here.”
“I’m as tall as he is, so I’m not scared of him,” grinned Jo Ann. “If I were as small and lilylike and fragile-looking as you, I might be uneasy.”
“Stop teasing me that way,” laughed Florence, “or I’ll roll over between you two for protection.”
Just as they were about to drop off to sleep, Jo Ann murmured drowsily, “If Miss Prudence dares to come in and wake me up early in the morning with ‘we’ll have to get an early start’—at something or other, I’m—I’m going to——” She hesitated.
“I’m going to what?” jibed Peggy.
“I’m going to fire my pillow at her, then turn over and go back to sleep.”
Peggy giggled. “Uh-huh! I see you firing a pillow at her.”
As it happened, Miss Prudence did enter their room early the next morning to waken them, but instead of hurling a pillow Jo Ann listened gladly to her plan for an “early start.”
“Going to the city—this morning?” she repeated, wide awake as soon as the phrase “going to the city” had entered her brain. “That’s fine! Sure we’ll be ready by the time you are.” Seeing that Peggy was sufficiently awake now to take in the plan for a trip to the city, she asked, “You’ll be ready, won’t you, Peg?”
“Yes, indeed. Reach over and wake Florence. Tweak her ear or her nose.”
Florence protested vigorously at this manner of being wakened but quickly subsided when Jo Ann told her about the trip.
An hour later they were dressed and mounted on their horses, as were Carlitos and Miss Prudence. José tied the two bags to his saddle, which were the only pieces of luggage they were taking, since they were to stay only one night.
“Remember, Carlitos,” his uncle said smilingly on telling him good-bye, “you’ll be the man of the party after you reach Jitters’ House. That’s as far as José’ll go, you know.”
When they reached Jitters’ House, José placed the bags in the car while the girls and Miss Prudence changed from their riding clothes into outfits more suitable for wear in the city. Miss Prudence was neatness itself in her sheer black dress, while the three girls looked fresh and lovely in their linen suits and crisp dainty blouses, topped off by pert little hats.
“I’m so glad the band will play on the Plaza tonight,” Peggy remarked after she had slipped into the front seat beside Jo Ann, who was at the wheel.
“I’m glad, too, but not for that reason,” Jo Ann replied. “You want to promenade, while I want to watch for——” She left her sentence unfinished, but Peggy knew that it was the mystery man for whom she would be looking.
When they neared the shack where the pottery woman lived, Jo Ann looked eagerly to see if there were any signs of the smugglers or their car. “Nothing doing,” she said finally.
On nearing the city Florence took the wheel on account of her knowledge of the city. After eating a late lunch, they started out on their shopping tour to buy draperies and other materials.
Everywhere she went, whether in the car or afoot, Jo Ann kept looking for the mystery man. Every stalwart male of the mystery man’s approximate height whom she caught sight of she studied intently, hoping that it would be he. She begrudged the time spent inside shops buying cretonnes and draperies, as she felt she would never find him in such places.
“Maybe he’ll be on that same corner of the Plaza again,” she comforted herself later that evening after a fruitless search.
As soon as the band began playing, all three girls made straight for the Plaza and began promenading along with the gay groups of Mexican girls, while Miss Prudence and Carlitos sat watching from a bench on the outside of the square.
As before, Jo Ann had eyes only for stalwart onlookers who might turn out to be the mystery man. Peggy, however, kept on the inside of the line.
When they had strolled about the square the second time, Peggy suddenly uttered an exclamation of surprise, “There he is! There he is!”
“Where? Where?” Jo Ann asked eagerly.
“There—see? That tall, dark-haired, handsome boy with the big black eyes!”
“Oh, gosh!” Jo Ann ejaculated disgustedly when she realized Peggy had not meant the mystery man but the tall youth with whom she had exchanged smiles the other time she had promenaded.
She was still more discouraged and disgusted after a whole evening of strolling around the Plaza with no sign of the mystery man.
“I’m afraid this trip’s going to be a complete flop, after all,” she remarked to Peggy. “I might as well have gone to the hotel when Miss Prudence and Carlitos did.”
“Miss Prudence was an angel to let us stay so long, wasn’t she?” Peggy smiled.
Jo Ann nodded indifferently. Peggy might be thrilled over exchanging smiles with a handsome Mexican boy, but not she.
The next morning, as soon as they left the hotel to finish their shopping, Jo Ann began to search for the mystery man again, but in vain.
“The last thing we’ll do is to go to the market,” Miss Prudence announced on leaving the department store a little later.
“Let’s go to the big market near the center of the city,” Florence suggested. “You can buy every kind of fruit and vegetable imaginable there.”
“The mystery man wouldn’t be doing any marketing,” Jo Ann thought wearily. “It’ll be no use to look for him there.”
All at once a sudden thought struck her. If he should have any inkling about the smugglers hiding the dope or gold, or whatever stuff it was, in jars and vases, he might stay around the pottery booths where the pottery could be bought so cheaply. She brightened visibly at this idea.
As soon as they reached the market, she left the others with Miss Prudence in front of one of the vegetable stands and wandered back to where she had remembered seeing the pottery booth. Eagerly her eyes roved here, there, and all around the booths near by. That broad-shouldered man standing——She caught her breath. It was the mystery man!
“He’s alive! He’s alive!” rang through her mind; then the words, “Now’s my chance to talk to him.”
All at once it occurred to her that it would be an embarrassing situation all around if Miss Prudence should appear while she was talking to this stranger. “Before I say a word to him, I’ll slip back to tell Florence to keep Miss Prudence and Carlitos away from the pottery booth for a while,” she thought quickly.
No sooner had this plan entered her mind than she hurried to Florence’s side, whispered a few words, and waited only long enough to catch her emphatic “All right,” then rushed back to the pottery booth as fast as she could zigzag her way through the crowded passageways.
When she caught sight of the stalwart figure again, she gave a sigh of relief and hastened over toward him.
As she drew near, the man shot a piercing glance at her, then a gleam of unmistakable recognition shone in his keen gray eyes.
“He hasn’t forgotten me,” she thought. “That makes it easier.”
She began speaking in a low voice: “You’re trying to catch a band of smugglers, aren’t you?”
The man gave an involuntary start but controlled his features. “What makes you think that?” he countered.
“From what I overheard you say in the hotel—I didn’t mean to eavesdrop—and from a bit of information I got from—” she started to say “from a coast guard” but changed to—“from somebody else.”
“Was that somebody else a smuggler?” he asked in a carefully light tone.
“No—no.” There was a hint of impatience in Jo Ann’s voice. He was trying to throw her off the track. She’d go straight to the point now. “I’ve accidentally run across some information about some smugglers that may help you,” she said.
An alert expression replaced the half smile on the man’s face as he asked, “What is that you think you’ve discovered?”
Quickly Jo Ann recounted her and Florence’s discovery of the hidden car with the pottery and the baskets near the border, the smugglers’ conversation, and their seeing them again at the village, ending with, “I’m sure that must’ve been gold in that jar I lifted. It was so very heavy.”
“It looks as if you’ve discovered one set of them,” he said thoughtfully. “They’re only two of a large gang, though. The ringleaders stay on the other side.”
“Was it the ringleaders you’d been pursuing in Texas?” she asked, low-voiced.
He nodded. “Dangerous men they are. If we can catch them we can break up the gang. I’m going to keep an eye open for cars loaded with baskets and pottery. If I can follow them to the border I may be able to catch the leaders. Tell me exactly where you discovered that hidden car.”
Jo Ann went on to describe as accurately as possible the location of the gully in which she and Florence had found the car.
“Do you happen to know the license number of their car?”
“Yes.” As she gave the number, he jotted it down in a notebook.
“Anything else about the car to distinguish it?”
Jo Ann went on to tell of the battered places in the radiator.
“And now give me a detailed description of the men.”
Racking her brain for every item that would be helpful, she described their appearance and clothes, from the braided leather strips about their sombreros to a peculiar squint in the left eye of the taller man.
“Good. You’re a close observer, I wish you could find out exactly when they’ll leave San Geronimo next week. If you could, I could wire my men across the border. Maybe together we might round up the ringleaders. If I don’t get them soon, they’ll——”
He halted abruptly, but Jo Ann knew instinctively that he had been going to add “get me.” That was what he had said over the telephone in the hotel. She must—must get him that information if possible.
“I don’t want to mix you girls up in this affair, and if you can’t get the information without endangering yourselves, don’t do it.”
Jo Ann’s eyes began to gleam determinedly. “I’ll get it. As soon as we find out exactly when the men’re starting from the village, I’ll get word to you. If I can’t come, I’ll write you—but where?”
The man took a card from his pocket and after writing on it handed it to her, saying, “Write me in care of general delivery. I had decided to leave in the morning, but now, since you’ve given me this very valuable information, I’ll wait till I hear from you. If you should come back to the city, you’ll find me somewhere around this pottery booth in the daytime and near the Plaza at night.”
Jo Ann was about to ask some more questions when she caught a glimpse of Miss Prudence and the girls coming down the crowded aisle. “I’ve got to go this instant,” she said and hurried around back of the booth, meeting them in the main aisle.
“I hadn’t missed you till a moment ago,” Miss Prudence remarked to her. “What’ve you been buying?”
“Nothing—yet. I want to get a pair of Mexican sandals to use for bedroom slippers. Have you seen any here?”
“Yes; they’re at a booth on the extreme left,” Florence put in quickly. “I’ll show you. Come on, Peg. We’ll meet you and Carlitos at that first fruit booth, Miss Prudence, in a few minutes.”
As soon as Miss Prudence and Carlitos were out of hearing distance, Florence asked eagerly, “Did you get to talk to the man, Jo?”
“Yes, and he was glad to get the information. He gave me his card. See? His name’s Mr. Andrews, and I’m to write to him here in care of general delivery. I’ll tell you all about it when we get back to the hotel.”
In spite of this promise Jo Ann did not get an opportunity to recount this conversation till hours later.
After purchasing the sandals with much bargaining in true Mexican style, Jo Ann and the girls waited for some time at the fruit booth for Miss Prudence and Carlitos.
“I wonder what’s happened to Miss Prudence and Carlitos to keep them so long,” Florence said finally.
“I know Miss Prudence’s not delayed by carrying on a conversation in Spanish with anyone,” smiled Peggy. “She’s like me—about the only words she knows are cuanto and adios.”
“Perhaps she’s bargaining by the gesture method,” added Jo Ann.
Several minutes later an anxious-faced Miss Prudence came hurrying up and asked, “Where’s Carlitos? Have you seen him?”
“No,” all three replied.
“Well, he’s disappeared—was right by my side one minute—then the next he was gone. I’ve searched all around the market but can’t find him.”
“You’ve just missed each other in the crowds,” Florence replied comfortingly. “You stay right here, and we three’ll separate and go in different directions and meet here again. We’ll find him.”
Noticing an empty chair near by, Jo Ann moved the chair over to Miss Prudence’s side and said, “Sit here and rest. I’m sure we girls can find him.”
Wearily Miss Prudence sank down in the chair, and the girls started off to find Carlitos. Each took a different section of the building to search and wound in and out the maze of crowded passageways that divided the scores of booths.
After Jo Ann had made the rounds of her allotted part twice without seeing Carlitos, she started back to Miss Prudence, hoping that the other girls had found him. Peggy arrived almost the same moment, but she, too, was alone.
The worried frown on Miss Prudence’s face deepened on seeing they had not found Carlitos.
“Florence’ll find him: she’s more familiar with this building,” Jo Ann told her more confidently than she felt. Into her mind had darted the recollection of the harrowing experience they had once had when Carlitos had been kidnaped by the treacherous Mexican foreman. Just suppose he’d been kidnaped again! That one of those smugglers had stolen him to get even with her and Florence. That pottery woman had said they had threatened to get even some way.
Just as she had come to this painful point in her thoughts, Florence appeared—alone.
“No sign of him anywhere,” she announced. “One man told me he’d seen a boy of his description going out a side door.”
“Did he say this boy was alone?” Jo Ann asked anxiously.
“He didn’t say.” Florence had caught Jo Ann’s emphasis on the word alone, and her heart began thumping rapidly. Did Jo Ann think someone might have kidnaped him again? The smugglers! Could they—— “I’ll go back and ask that man if Carlitos was alone,” she said.
She hurried back to find the man and returned a few moments later, saying in a disappointed voice, “He said he didn’t notice whether he was alone or not.”
“Maybe he got tired of waiting here and went back to the hotel,” Jo Ann suggested.
“He might have,” Miss Prudence replied. “Florence, tell the woman at this booth”—she gestured to the booth just back of them—“that if she sees an American boy looking for somebody to tell him we’ve gone to the hotel.”
After another round of searching they left the market and drove back to the hotel. Florence parked the car near the side entrance, saying, “We’d better leave the car here handy, as we’ll be leaving as soon as we can find Carlitos.”
They hurried into the hotel, looked about the lobby, and then went up to their rooms. Carlitos was nowhere to be seen.
“I declare, I’m getting more and more worried—and thoroughly exasperated,” Miss Prudence announced after looking in the last room.
“Wait here, Miss Prudence, and I’ll run down to the lobby and ask the clerks at the desk if they’ve seen him,” Jo Ann said hurriedly. “He might’ve left some message there.”
“Well—I’ll finish my packing while I’m waiting.”
“I’ll go with you, Jo,” offered Florence and Peggy together.
On inquiring at the desk Jo Ann found that neither of the clerks had seen him.
As she was starting to turn away, one of the clerks summoned the porter who stood at the front entrance and asked him if he had seen Carlitos. To the girls’ delight the porter nodded and replied that he thought he had seen him talking to a newsboy about half an hour ago.
The girls’ faces brightened on hearing this, Jo Ann’s especially, as she immediately recalled how fascinated Carlitos had been with a Mexican newsboy the first day they had arrived. After a quick “Muchas gracias” to the porter, the girls hurried out to the street, Jo Ann in the lead.
When they had walked only a short distance down the street, Jo Ann heard a newsboy’s shrill cry in broken English. “Carlitos’s voice!” she exclaimed. “I hear him!”
She rushed around the corner and stared across the street. There, a bag of newspapers slung across his shoulder, stood Carlitos selling a paper to an American.
“Can you beat that!” Peggy ejaculated, catching sight of Carlitos at the same time.
“Of all things!” Florence gasped.
They hastened across the street to his side. He greeted them half joyfully, half sheepishly; then, with a gesture to the grinning little Mexican newsboy beside him, he said, “I sell lots of papers for Diego. He say I very good ’cause I can speak de Spanish and de English.”
“You may be good at selling papers, Carlitos,” Jo Ann answered, “but you should’ve told your aunt Prudence where you were going. She’s been worried stiff about you.”
“Worried stiff—stiff,” he repeated, puzzled.
“Badly worried—mucho. She’s been afraid something terrible had happened to you. Come on to the hotel. We’re leaving for the mine in a few minutes.”
Reluctantly Carlitos parted with his newsboy friend.
As soon as they had brought Carlitos to the hotel room and Miss Prudence had delivered him a strong lecture, she urged them all to hurry and pack their few belongings and leave at once. “You know it’s a long hard trip to the mine, and I certainly don’t want to be riding horseback on that steep, rocky mountain trail after dark.”
“We don’t either,” said Jo Ann quickly. “Florence and I had one experience riding in the mountains in the dark and through a terrible storm, too, and we don’t want another, do we, Florence?”
“No, indeed.”
After leaving the city Florence slipped over to let Jo Ann drive. “You’re a better chauffeur than I am and always make better time. We must get back to the mine before dark, especially since we saw——”
She left her sentence unfinished, but Jo Ann knew that she meant the smuggler they had seen near the mine.
When they finally reached Jitters’ House in the late afternoon, they found José waiting for them.
“I wonder why he happened to come?” Peggy remarked curiously on seeing him standing beside the shed. The next instant she realized that he must be uneasy because of the pottery woman’s account of the smugglers’ threats. “He’s come as an extra protection for us,” she thought.
“It’s good of him,” Jo Ann put in, and Florence added, “He’s always thoughtful and kind.”
Carlitos was delighted to see him. Another male was a welcome change after having to stay with women for two days. That was one reason he had felt that he must slip off with the newsboy awhile, though he couldn’t have explained that in words. He was eager to tell José all about his trip, too.
Even Miss Prudence expressed appreciation of José’s coming, adding, “He’s as thoughtful as he can be.”
Jo Ann was the first one of the group to finish changing into riding clothes. She hurried back to the shed where José was still waiting, as she was anxious to know how things had been running at the mine, and especially if he had seen anything of the smuggler hanging around. She had described the smuggler so carefully to him that he would be able to recognize him.
“Have you seen anything of that strange man while we’ve been gone?” she asked him.
To her relief José shook his head. “No.”
“Everything all right?”
This time José shook his head more emphatically. “Ah—there was much trouble at the mine today.” With many excited gestures he went on to tell her that one of the loaded tram-cars had got loose and had crashed down the mountain side, tearing up the track and causing much trouble. “Very much trouble,” he repeated, shaking his head.
“What caused the car to break loose?”