The Secret of Casa Grande

by Roy J. Snell

  CHAPTER VII THE PROMENADE

  "Jo, you're hurt!" cried Florence. "Look at the blood."

  "Oh, that's nothing," she replied. "I just left a little skin up there onthe wall when I slipped, but it isn't enough to worry about." She stoppedabruptly, then added, "Oh dear! I was in such a hurry to get down, Iforgot and left your parasol up on the roof."

  "Well, let it stay there," put in Florence quickly. "I'd rather lose theold parasol than have you climb up there again."

  "But I am going up there again," announced Jo Ann emphatically. "If I canclimb down the rope, there's no reason why I can't climb back up, isthere?"

  "N-o--I suppose not," admitted Florence hesitatingly. "But Jo--you mightget hurt--and----"

  "Oh, but I know exactly how to fix that rope now so it won't be so hardto get off the roof next time. I'll pick a time of day when we won't haveso many spectators, for your sake, Florence."

  Peggy handed Jo Ann a glass of limeade, saying, "Drink this and stoptalking about that next time. I'm afraid most of the ice has melted, butit'll be cool and refreshing, anyway."

  Jo Ann reached over for the glass. "Nothing could be more appreciatedright now, though I'm 'most too dirty to drink it."

  "You are a sight, all right," laughed Peggy. "Soot--blood--dirt--all overyour face and arms. We can scarcely tell what color you are. You lookmore like an Indian in full war paint than anything else."

  "For all my war paint, I'm really quite harmless. I've had enoughexcitement for one day." Jo Ann sipped the cooling drink. "My, thistastes good! Driving that iron into the wall was harder work than Iexpected. I can easily understand why these houses are so old. Nothingshort of an earthquake or a bomb could destroy them."

  "Here, I'll take the glass if you've finished," said Florence, placing iton the tray. "I'll send Felipe down to the drugstore with these things,and that'll give you a chance to slip to your room and get a bath andchange your clothes. We'd better not let anyone see you like this."

  "Poor Florence!" laughed Jo Ann as Florence carried the tray to the doorand gave it to Felipe. "Doesn't she have a time trying to keep me fromdisgracing the family?"

  "You are a problem sometimes," agreed Peggy. "Especially when you getyour head set on a thing. You seem to forget everything else then."

  "I heard what you said just now," interrupted Florence coming over andputting her arm around Jo Ann as they started for their room. "I know yousometimes think I'm fussy, but there're some queer customs here that wemust recognize. You know the old saying: 'When in Rome do as the Romansdo.'"

  Having reached their room, Peggy and Florence hastened to bring Jo Annthe necessary toilet articles for removing all traces of her escapade.

  "Here, Jo, you'd better use this cleansing cream first," said Peggy."You'll never get all that grime off without it. Wait, I'll help you,"she added, rubbing some of the cream on her neck.

  "Ouch! Be careful! You're rubbing the skin off," cried Jo Ann, dodging.

  "Why, I'm not! I'm being just as careful as can be. You're sunburned,that's the trouble--you're red as a beet."

  "You're blistered!" added Florence. "Just look at your arms and face nowthat we've got some of the dirt off! I was afraid of that when you had tostay up there so long. You don't know the penetrating qualities of atropical sun."

  "I believe you look worse with the dirt off than you did with it on,"laughed Peggy. "What are we going to do with her, Florence?"

  Florence shook her head dubiously. "I don't know. If Daddy sees her likethis we'll have to explain what's happened, and I don't want to do that."

  "And I don't want you to, either," Jo Ann put in quickly. "I want tosurprise him by solving the mystery of that window. He doesn't seem tothink there's anything strange about it--he didn't even look at it."

  "You must promise to be very careful, whatever you do," Florence warned.

  "Didn't I just tell you, Jo, that sometimes you're quite a problem?"added Peggy teasingly.

  "You just wait till I've had my bath," Jo Ann replied as she started outof the room. "When I finish dressing, I'll look all right."

  When she returned a little later and preened herself triumphantly beforethem, Peggy burst into a peal of laughter.

  "She looks exactly as if she'd stuck her head in the flour barrel and theflour had stuck in spots, doesn't she?" she remarked to Florence.

  "Well, her skin does look queer--a little like parchment or canvas,"reluctantly admitted the more polite Florence.

  Jo Ann grimaced. "I like that--after all my efforts."

  "Let me fix your face," offered Peggy. "I promise to touch your face aslightly as a butterfly touches a flower."

  "Listen to the poet!" scoffed Jo Ann.

  "Poet and artist," added Peggy, smiling widely. "Watch how skillfullythis artist works on her canvas now."

  Lightly brushing most of the powder off Jo Ann's face, she applied agenerous amount of vanishing cream, then dusted it with just the rightamount of powder so that enough of the red in her cheeks would showthrough to look natural.

  When she had finished, she waved her powder puff with a flourish. "Beholdthe transformation from Indian to a member of the white race!"

  "You really don't look bad at all now, Jo Ann," smiled Florence. "If youstay out of the bright light, I don't believe anyone--not evenDaddy--will notice how sunburned you are."

  "Is that the best you can say--to tell me I won't look bad if I stay inthe dark?" put in Jo Ann. "How're you going to manage to keep me in thedark? If I stay in my room and don't go to dinner tonight, your father'llbe sure to dose me with pills and tonics."

  "I'll use candles on the dinner table tonight--I often do--and in theirsoft light your sunburn won't be noticeable."

  To Jo Ann's vast relief Dr. Blackwell did not make any comment about hercomplexion at dinner, even though Peggy teasingly hinted that she hadtaken unusual pains with her toilet this evening.

  Unconscious of anything amiss, Dr. Blackwell asked pleasantly, "Are yougirls going over to the Plaza tonight to join in the promenade?"

  "Yes, I can hardly wait," replied Peggy. "Florence told us about thepromenade yesterday while we were driving around the Plaza."

  Dr. Blackwell exchanged glances with Florence, his eyes twinkling.

  "I understand," he chuckled, "that if you want to catch a suitor, all youhave to do is pick out the young man you prefer, then throw him a rose asyou pass. You can deliver your message by the color of the rose you use."

  "That'd be lots of fun," replied Peggy laughingly. "Where'll I get therose, and what color shall I use?"

  "Why, P-e-gg-y!" cried Jo Ann in consternation. "You wouldn't really do athing like that--would you?"

  "If I should, I'd only be doing in Mexico as the Mexicans do--and that'smore than you've learned to do yet," she finished, smiling teasingly atJo Ann.

  Jo Ann subsided instantly. A little more, and Dr. Blackwell might seethrough Peggy's veiled remarks and begin asking questions about what shehad been doing.

  To her relief Peggy turned to Florence, saying, "Tell me some more aboutthe why and wherefore of the rose-throwing custom"--her eyessparkled--"so I can introduce it in the States for Jo's benefit."

  Smilingly Florence explained that this was a very old custom but wasseldom used now. "The Spanish girls and their _caballeros_ have very fewopportunities of meeting each other. When they pass on the promenade--youremember I told you how the girls all walk in one direction and the menin the other--they take advantage of this chance to say a few words ordeliver a message."

  "If you've finished dinner, let's sit out on the balcony a while with Dadbefore we go down to the Plaza. We can listen to the music and watch thecrowds from there."

  The Plaza, which only a short time before had been almost deserted, beganto present a festive appearance now. Clusters of electric lights shone,making it bright as day; lines of cars passed back and forth; and crowdsthronged the broad promenade.

  T
o Jo Ann it seemed as if the balcony were a box at the theater, and fromit she was watching a play being enacted on an immense stage. Thebeautiful, exquisitely dressed girls, who arm in arm were slowly andgracefully strolling along on the outside of the promenade, were theactresses of the play; the _caballeros_, handsome and well groomed,passing on the inside and never losing an opportunity to bow and smile atthe _senoritas_ as they passed, were the actors; as for the background,there were the trees and shrubbery, and the benches filled withchaperons. All the time, the music, soft and rhythmical, was floating upto her--"the orchestra" she told herself, though she knew it was thenotes of the wind instruments of the band that she was hearing.

  Peggy broke into her thoughts just then with, "Can't we go down therenow? I've never seen anything quite like this before. I love it!"

  "It is fascinating," put in Jo Ann, "but we can really see better fromhere."

  "Oh, I know, but you miss half the fun up here," Peggy replied quickly."I want to promenade, too--be a part of the gaiety."

  "All right, we'll go now," said Florence. "Do you mind, Daddy, if weleave you?" she asked solicitously as she stooped to kiss his forehead.

  "Of course not, my Florencita," he replied, pinching her cheekaffectionately. "Run along now and have a good time. Don't forget, MissPeggy, what I told you about catching a suitor," he teased.

  "All right, Doctor, I won't," she laughed, "and if I do anything todisgrace Florence, it'll be all your fault."

  "I'll take the consequences," he returned lightly.

  The three girls ran to their room a moment to add the finishing touchesto their toilet, and for once Peggy was ready as soon as Jo Ann. Allexcitement, she caught Florence and Jo Ann by the arms to hurry themalong.

  "O-h, Peg--don't! My arm's sore!" cried Jo Ann, holding the injured armaway from her.

  "Oh, I'm so sorry," said Peggy sympathetically. "Your camouflage is sogood I'd forgotten about your blisters. I'll remember hereafter, andwe'll walk one on each side of you, so no one'll bump into you and hurtyou again."

  They crossed the street and joined the gay promenade around the Plaza.

  While Peggy was enjoying looking at the crowds, Jo Ann kept glancing backacross the street at the front of the building in which the Blackwellshad their apartment. Since their entrance was on the side street she hadnever before had an opportunity to examine the front of the houseclosely. The lower floor, she saw, was occupied mostly by different kindsof stores.

  Shortly after passing opposite the drugstore beneath Dr. Blackwell'soffice, she noticed a broad-arched doorway about halfway down the block.As she gazed through this doorway and into the brightly lighted spacebeyond, she suddenly gave a little gasp of surprise.

  "Isn't that a patio I see through that big doorway across the street,Florence?" she asked.

  "Yes; there's a small patio there."

  "Then that explains it," Jo Ann went on eagerly. "This afternoon while Iwas up on the roof I noticed a queer, oblong walled-in place right in thecenter of the building. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time--Iwas so worried about getting off the roof, but I believe now that thiswall must've been around the opening for that patio. I'm wondering ifthat patio wasn't at one time a part of your house."

  Florence's eyes opened in surprise. "What makes you think that?"

  "Why, because there wasn't a division wall between that oblong openingand your part of the house. If it were originally one big house with manyrooms, that would explain the reason for the huge kitchen and the immensefireplace."

  "That sounds reasonable enough, but why would they have built such alarge house--a _casa grande_, as they say in Spanish?"

  "I don't know, but that's what it's been--_casa grande_."

  "Oh, there you go again, talking about that house," put in Peggy. "Let'sforget it and enjoy the promenade."

  "All right, I won't say another word about it now, but as soon as we getback to the house, I'm going to look around and see if I can findsomething that will prove that I'm right."

  "You're hopeless, Jo--the idea of thinking about an old house whenthere's all this lovely music to listen to, and all these beautiful girlswith their Paris gowns, and the handsome young men to see!"

  After they had strolled around the square for over an hour, Jo Annremarked a little impatiently, "Don't you think we've walked long enough?I think it's time we were going back to the house."

  "Oh, don't let's go back yet!" Peggy replied quickly. "Let's stay tillthe concert's over. That house'll still be standing there--patio andall."

  "That won't be long," put in Florence. "The band'll probably only playanother piece or two. You can't do any exploring about the house, anyway,Jo, till Daddy goes to his room," she added.

  So it was that they did not start homeward until the band had played thelast number and the crowds were leaving.

  After reaching the house the girls talked for a few moments with Dr.Blackwell, then went on to their room. It was not long afterward that JoAnn's keen ears caught the clanging sound of metal as Dr. Blackwellbolted the outer door. She waited impatiently a little longer, thenslipped out into the hall, and silently stood at the head of thestairway, trying to figure out how these rooms had been connected withthe patio and the other part of the house.

  "I know that patio is in about the center of the house," she thought."Then this wall opposite me would be in a direct line with the patio."

  Since she could not see distinctly in the dim rays of the night light,she turned on a brighter one, and tilting it upward, threw its raysdirectly on the wall opposite.

  To her disappointment she could see nothing but the plain surface of theplastered wall.

  "This hall must've been connected in some way with that patio," she toldherself. "There's bound to be something somewhere to show how it wasconnected."

  Tilting the light first at one angle and then another, she gazed at thewall intently, searching for some sign of a former opening.

  All at once she caught a glimpse of the dim, shadowy outlines of a broadarch.

  Tiptoeing to the bedroom door, she called softly, "Girls, come herequickly! I've found it--I knew I was right!"

  Quickly she led Peggy and Florence to the spot in which she had beenstanding, and again tilting the light, pointed to the wall.

  "Don't you see the outlines of an arch over there?" she asked, as shethrew the rays of the light back and forth across the wall.

  "Your imagination's running away with you, Jo," scoffed Peggy. "I can'tsee a thing but a blank wall."

  "I do see something--a faint shadow," put in Florence slowly. "Why, Jo! Ido believe you're right! There was an arch there."

  "Sure I'm right," declared Jo Ann triumphantly. "This arch is the end ofa wide hall that connected this back hall with the patio and the rest ofthe house. I believe your father's office was the dining room. Can't youjust imagine a long banquet table down the center of that huge roomand----"

  "But why would they have such a huge dining room?" Florence askedquickly. "What could the house have been used for?"

  "That's exactly what I'm going to find out." Jo Ann's chin took on adetermined tilt. "Maybe I can find something in Senor Rodriguez's booksthat will help me to solve the problem. I believe that mysterious windowhas something important to do with it--at least, that's the way it looksto me."

  "Sh! Not so loud, Jo; you'll wake Daddy."

  Quietly the three girls slipped back to their room to talk far into thenight about the unexplained mysteries of the old house.