The Secret of Casa Grande

by Roy J. Snell

  CHAPTER III A NEW DISCOVERY

  Looking cool and dainty in their fluffy summer dresses, the girls camelightly down the stairs, ready for their drive around the city.

  Florence smiled as she noticed the car waiting at the curb. It had beenrubbed and polished till it shone, and Felipe, beaming like a child witha favorite toy, was leaning over, brushing a speck of dust off the hood.

  Snatching off his hat on seeing the girls and grinning widely, hehastened to open the door of the car; then, standing very straight, hewaited for them to be seated. His effort to uphold the dignity of hisposition as chauffeur was amusing. After tilting his hat--an old one ofDr. Blackwell's--at a rakish angle, he proudly took his place at thewheel. Although the car was not as new and expensive as some they passed,he was sure none carried more beautiful passengers.

  To the girls' delight it was much cooler now; soft breezes were stirring,and the heat was vanishing with the sun, which was sinking behind thehigh range of mountains to the west of the city.

  Slowly Felipe passed the cathedral and circled the attractive littleplaza, while the girls gazed admiringly at the formal beds of brilliantblooming flowers and drank in the perfumed air, heavy with the fragranceof wild orange and oleander. Now and then through the foliage of thetrees they could catch a glimpse of the bandstand in the center of thetrees.

  "They have band concerts two nights a week here," Florence explained."We'll promenade awhile tomorrow night. I know you'll enjoy it."

  "Promenade? What do you mean?" asked Peggy.

  "Why, walk around the Plaza. On the nights when the band plays, thepeople of the better classes gather here and either promenade around thebroad walk outside the square or sit on the benches to talk and listen tothe music."

  "That sounds as if it'd be lots of fun," approved Peggy.

  At this moment the car came to a sudden stop. In attempting to turn offthe broad drive around the Plaza into one of the old narrow streets ofthe business section, they were held up by the congested traffic. Theenforced rest did not bother Felipe in the least. Calmly resting hiselbows on the steering wheel, he waited for the way to become cleared.

  "Why doesn't he blow his horn?" asked Jo Ann. "Maybe that'd make themmove." She noticed, however, that of all the persons in the near-by carsheld up in the traffic jam, not one seemed the least bit impatient.

  "These people must have the patience of Job," said Peggy. "If this wereat home, you'd hear the horns blowing all down the line."

  "It takes more than a little thing like this to ruffle the slow,easy-going Mexican," explained Florence. "He's never in a hurry."

  In a short time they were on their way again, moving slowly through thenarrow, busy streets. All classes of people and many nationalities werehere, their different modes of dress interesting Peggy and Jo Ann, as didthe stores with their queer signs and window displays. Although this wasthe busiest time of the day, they noticed that there was none of thebustling rush characteristic of American cities.

  On through the less crowded streets Felipe steered the car into theresidential section, passing several beautiful cathedrals and smallparks, artistically laid out around the statue of some noted general orother war hero.

  Near the outskirts of the city Jo Ann noticed with the keenest interestthat there were all types of architecture, from plain stone structuresbuilt centuries ago and looking dull and drab, on to modern bungalows,gay with bright-tinted stucco and tiled roofs. Now and then she couldcatch glimpses of richly furnished rooms behind the iron bars of awindow, and a flower-adorned courtyard or patio through an open door.

  "I love the courtyards," she remarked. "The great arches, the fountain inthe center, and the tropical plants make them beautiful andrestful-looking."

  "Yes, they are delightful," agreed Florence. "Senor Rodriguez, the lawyerDaddy told you about, has one of the most beautiful patios in his housethat I've ever seen. You'll enjoy seeing it when we go over to see hislibrary. I've wished many times that our house had a patio."

  "I've been wondering why it doesn't, since all the other old houses havethem. There's something strange about the way your house is built. Ibelieve when we solve the mystery of that queer little window, we'll findout some interesting things about the rest of the house."

  "Is that the cathedral and the Plaza already?" asked Peggy in surprisejust then. "How did we get here so soon? I've had such a wonderful timethat it seems that we've only started."

  "May I ask a favor, Florence?" asked Jo Ann as they drove up before thehouse. "Let's drive down that street back of your house before we go in."

  "Why--I--I don't think----" began Florence stammeringly, then stopped,hardly knowing what to say.

  "You said we couldn't walk down there, didn't you?--and I do so want tosee it," Jo Ann urged.

  After talking to Felipe a few moments Florence answered with ahalf-apologetic smile, "Felipe says _manana_ he'll take us."

  "_Manana?_" repeated Jo Ann. "Oh, you mean tomorrow?"

  "Yes, it's too late now."

  Jo Ann turned to Felipe, who was opening the door for them. "_Por favor_,Felipe," she begged.

  "Please, Felipe," added Peggy quickly. She was not particularlyinterested in going down that back street, but it was so pleasant to beout at this time of the evening that she disliked the idea of going backinto the gloomy house.

  "He says he'll take us if we insist," translated Florence a moment later,after talking to Felipe again. "But really, girls, I feel that weshouldn't go now. It'll be better to go some morning."

  "I can't see what difference it'd make when we go. Come on." Jo Ann couldnot understand the Mexican's way of putting off till tomorrow anything hedid not care about doing. When she made up her mind to do a thing, shewanted to do it _right now_. "It's silly to make so much fuss about sucha simple thing," she thought. "Why can't you drive down a street when youwant to?"

  "Well--all right," Florence reluctantly agreed at last.

  Dusk was falling as they turned into the cobblestoned street back of thehouse. Slowly they made their way over the stones--century-old stones,worn smooth by the tread of many feet.

  The farther they drove the more thickly populated the street became. JoAnn and Peggy were shocked by the utter wretchedness and abject povertywhich they saw on all sides. Dirty, half-clad peons with their emptybaskets or trays were shuffling homeward after their day's labor in thecity; old crippled men and women, who had begged all day on the streets,were wearily dragging themselves to a place of shelter for the night. Thesmall windowless adobe huts which lined each side of the street seemedoverflowing with people. Women with babies in their arms squatted in thenarrow doorways, while dogs, pigs, and goats wandered in and out of thehouses at will, as much at home as the children. As for children, theywere everywhere--dirty, naked, half-starved looking.

  "I never imagined anything could be so terrible," shuddered Peggy. "Didyou, Jo?"

  Jo Ann shook her head soberly. "I didn't realize there was such povertyanywhere."

  A shout rose down the street: "_Americanas! Americanas!_"

  Children appeared from every direction. They crowded around the car. Someof the larger ones climbed up on the running board and the fenders.

  "_Centavo, mees! Centavo, mees_ [A penny, miss! A penny, miss]!" theycried, holding up dirty, scrawny little hands to them.

  "Oh, Florence!" begged Jo Ann. "Let's stop and give them something."

  "If we stopped now, we'd never be able to start again." Florenceexplained quickly. "They'd climb all over us. Let's throw some penniesout the windows."

  Hurriedly they emptied their purses of all the pennies they could findand threw them far into the street.

  Such shouting and scrambling as followed! The children fought and knockedeach other down in their effort to find the pennies, the tiniest onescrying because they could get nothing.

  "It's pitiful--heartrending--these children fighting over pennies asstarved little animals over a b
one," thought Jo Ann. How was it possiblefor such things to exist, almost at your very door, and yet to beabsolutely unseen and unknown? Was this really a part of the beautifulcity they had enjoyed seeing such a short time ago?

  Felipe could scarcely drive without hitting some of the children, yet hedared not stop. He had not wanted to bring the girls down here, as hefelt sure Dr. Blackwell would object, but since they were here he musttake care of them. While the children were busily searching for thescattered pennies, Felipe managed to escape the crowd. Quickly he droveto the end of the street and turned down an old, dry, rocky river bed,the car bumping and swaying as it sped along over the rough cobblestones.

  "Florence!" shouted Jo Ann above the noise as she clung to the side ofthe car to keep from falling over on Florence. "I take back everything--Isaid--about you coming down--here alone. I understand--a lot that Ithought foolish--before I saw this with my very own eyes."

  "We won't have to go far--on this rough river bed," Florence called backa moment later. "We'll turn--at the next corner."

  "This is the--widest river bed I ever saw--to have so little water init," put in Peggy above the noise.

  As the car turned into the next street Florence replied, "Sometimes whenit rains hard in the mountains this river's full of water." She pausedand added, "This is the street Mother and I've come down frequently tobring clothing for the poor families."

  Just then some ragged little children near by began to wave their handsand call out, "_La Senorita! La Senorita!_"

  Florence smiled and waved back. "Those are some of the children we'vegiven clothes. They look as if they need some more."

  "I wish we had some pennies to give to these children, too," said Jo Ann."Let's come back here sometime and bring them something."

  In a few more minutes the adobe huts were left behind, and they beganpassing the plain stone houses of the middle class. With long-drawn sighsthe girls settled back against the cushions, each thinking of thedistressing poverty she had seen.

  Suddenly down the street directly in front of them Jo Ann spied a tall,ungainly object against the high stone wall.

  "What's that, Florence?" she asked.

  "That? Oh, that's a scaffold the workmen are using in doing some repairwork on a house."

  "But why don't they use ladders?"

  "They'd have a time to get a ladder long enough to reach the top of thesehouses. When they build them, they use big derricks to lift the heavystones."

  "Then why do they build their houses so high?" asked Peggy.

  "It makes them cool," Florence answered as the car turned off the narrowstreet onto the pavement around the Plaza.

  "Why, we're almost home!" exclaimed Jo Ann in surprise. "Is it possiblethat this is part of your house?"

  "Not exactly, but it's all connected into one long building," shereplied, wondering at Jo Ann's interest.

  "Oh, then that's the very thing!" Jo Ann cried, beaming.

  "Whatever are you talking about, Jo?" asked Peggy.

  "Why, how to get up on top of the house, of course! Don't you see--I canclimb up that scaffold to the top of the house; then it'll be easy to leta rope down to the mysterious window. I've been wondering how I'd everget on top of the house--it's so high."

  "But, Jo, you can't do that!" gasped Florence in alarm. "It's too high,and anyway----"

  "You're not going to do it," declared Peggy emphatically. "You might gethurt."

  "Don't be silly," scoffed Jo Ann. "I haven't broken my neck yet."

  "No, but it isn't your fault," Peggy retorted.

  "But, Jo, suppose someone should see you!" exclaimed Florence. "You mustgive up this foolish idea."

  "Would it be a disgrace if someone did see me?"

  "Well, it isn't considered proper here for a young lady to do anything onthe street which would attract attention. You'd be a regular circus,climbing that scaffold. The street'd be jammed with people before you'dget halfway to the top."

  "I'll promise not to give a free performance for the natives," laughed JoAnn. "But what's to keep me from climbing up there when I wouldn't havean audience? There are times, you know, when people sleep."

  "You couldn't go out in the street at night--alone!" The very idea ofsuch a thing was shocking to Florence. "That scaffold's nothing but somerough poles fastened to the wall, and it's so high it'd be dangerous--notat all like climbing a ladder."

  The car drew up before the house, and Florence and Peggy jumped out andhurried up the stairs without waiting for Felipe to open the door forthem, but Jo Ann lingered a moment to thank him for granting her request.She knew he couldn't understand a word she said, but from the broad grinwhich spread over his face she felt she had made her meaning clear tohim.

  The ride had meant much more to her than she had expected, since she haddiscovered a way of getting up on the roof. All she needed now was alength of rope so she could lower herself from the roof.

  "It isn't going to be hard to do," she told herself as she went up thestairs. Of course, she would not do anything to disgrace Florence or Dr.Blackwell--they had been so kind to her--but give it up now? Never! Notwith her goal almost in sight.