by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER VII "WE MUST GET AN EARLY START"
Peggy stretched her eyes wide. "Smugglers! You actually saw somesmugglers in the desert?"
"Sh! Not so loud," Jo Ann warned, low-voiced. "We think they weresmugglers, but of course we can't be absolutely certain."
"So that was what you and Florence were so excited about when you cameback to the car out there in the desert. Hurry up and tell me all aboutit."
"We can't--not here, with all these people around. Wait till we get tothe hotel; then we'll tell you everything, won't we, Florence?"
Florence nodded assent.
After a second time around the Plaza without seeing the mystery man, JoAnn was more disappointed than ever.
When they reached the place where Miss Prudence and Carlitos weresitting, Miss Prudence gestured to them to step from the line and come toher side. "Girls," she began as soon as they walked over, "I think we'dbetter leave now and go on back to the hotel. You know the trip tomorrowup the mountains to the mine is bound to be a very hard one. We must getan early start in the morning."
On hearing these familiar words, "get an early start," the girlsexchanged swift glances but succeeded in keeping sober expressions ontheir faces.
Peggy protested lightly, "This music is so lovely, I hate to leave it."
"You'll be able to hear it from your room at the hotel--it's so closeby," Miss Prudence replied.
"Peggy likes to promenade as well as to hear the music," Florence put in,teasing.
"She'll have other opportunities to promenade, probably."
"Yes," put in Florence. "The mine is not so far away but what we can comeback here at least a few times this summer."
Miss Prudence rose from the bench and started toward the hotel, the girlsfollowing, but not without several backward glances at the fascinatingPlaza and the gay young crowd.
Peggy would not have followed as meekly if it had not been that she waseager to hear Florence's and Jo Ann's tale about the smugglers. Jo Ann,too, would not have been so willing to go if it had not been that themystery man had disappeared and she now felt that she would not get achance to tell him about the smugglers.
When they reached the hotel, Florence, who was to be Miss Prudence'sroommate, went on with Jo Ann and Peggy to their room, explaining to MissPrudence that she would come to bed shortly.
As soon as Peggy had closed the door of their room, she ordered, "Tellthat tale about the smugglers from beginning to end. I knew somethingexciting had happened to you back there in the desert, and I don't knowwhy I forgot to ask about it sooner unless it was because I was sointerested in getting to the city."
Jo Ann, with Florence's frequent promptings, quickly recounted thedetails about the hidden car, its contents, and the men's angryconversation.
"Wh-ew, I'm glad I didn't go with you after the water," Peggy exclaimedwhen they had finished. "I'd have been sure to have shrieked or squealed,and they'd have discovered me. One thing I don't understand, though, iswhat makes you so certain they were smugglers. The fact that they hadbaskets and pottery in their car doesn't prove that they were trying totake them across the border without paying duty, does it?"
"No," Jo Ann replied. "Think what a good blind the pottery and basketswould be! It would look as if the men were regular merchants buyingMexican wares for the trade in the States, wouldn't it?"
Peggy nodded.
"Then think how easy it'd be to conceal dope or gold in the jars andvases and baskets. It's dope or gold--or both--they're probablysmuggling. The chances are the packages the men complained about notbeing weighed correctly held one or both of those articles."
"That's so. Those are the things the coast guard said were smuggled mostfrequently."
"I'm not going to be satisfied till I see my mystery man again," Jo Annwent on earnestly. "I could tell him the exact spot where we'd seen thathidden car, and that might be the very bit of information he needs to beable to catch the men."
"I shouldn't be at all surprised if those men belong to the gang thatman's trying to break up. I wish, Jo, you could see that mystery man andtell him all this, but in this big city"--Florence shook her headdubiously--"your chances of seeing him again are small."
Jo Ann's chin took on a determined little tilt. "I'm coming back here assoon as I can and look for him. I believe this main plaza is a good placeto look for him, too. It's a sort of central meeting place foreverybody."
Florence nodded. "That's true. Everybody naturally gravitates toward thePlaza. It's the very heart of the city."
Long after Florence had left to go to Miss Prudence's room and Peggy wassound asleep, Jo Ann lay wide awake pondering over plans for getting backto the city and for finding the mystery man. She had to leave earlytomorrow with the others, as all arrangements had been made forFlorence's father and Carlitos's uncle, Mr. Eldridge, to meet them at asmall village on the way to the mine.
It was well that they did get an early start the next morning, as thenearer they approached the high mountain range beyond the city, thesteeper and more dangerous the road became.
"I think we'll have to leave our car at the village and go the rest ofthe way to La Esperanza by oxcart or horses," said Peggy. "That's the wayMr. Eldridge said they had to do last summer." She smiled over at MissPrudence. "Which will you choose, the oxcart or a horse?"
"A horse every time," came back the quick reply. "I love to ridehorseback."
"Grand!" approved Jo Ann.
"I'll feel safer--more comfortable, too--on a good horse than in thiscar." Miss Prudence added whimsically, "I beg your pardon for knockingJitters that way."
Jo Ann smiled broadly. Miss Prudence was a good scout after all. Shecould ride horseback and condescended now and then to a bit of slang,such as the word "knocking" just then.
When they neared San Geronimo where they were to meet Dr. Blackwell andMr. Eldridge, the faces of all five began to glow with anticipation.Florence could hardly wait to see her father, and Carlitos his uncle Mr.Eldridge, who was Miss Prudence's only brother.
As soon as she caught sight of the flat-roofed adobe houses of thevillage Florence began exulting, "I'll soon see Dad now! He'll be waitingat old Pedro's store."
"We'll hate to give you up," put in Peggy. "We'll miss you so much!"
"It won't be long till I'll be coming over to see you, and then you cancome over and visit with me and see our city again."
"So we'll end up in spending the summer together after all," laughed JoAnn.
Florence nodded so emphatically that Peggy's face brightened again.
In a few more minutes Florence stopped the car in front of the littlestore, then leaped out and into the arms of a tall, distinguished,gray-haired man, crying, "Daddy! Oh, Daddy! I'm so glad to see you."
Just then a tall thin man and a small black-eyed Mexican boy rode up onhorses and leaped off.
At sight of them Carlitos shouted joyfully, "My uncle and Pepito! MyPepito!" He sprang out of the car, ran over and greeted his unclehastily, then flew over to the grinning little Mexican and threw his armsaffectionately about him.
"Who is that child?" Miss Prudence demanded of Jo Ann after they had allexchanged greetings with Mr. Eldridge.
"That's Pepito, his foster brother--the son of the nurse who took care ofCarlitos so many years. They love each other like real brothers."
"We-ell, I suppose they should feel that way," Miss Prudence said slowly."After all, all the peoples of the earth are 'of one blood'--so the GoodBook says."
"We believe that in theory but don't always practice it, as Carlitos andPepito do," put in Mr. Eldridge, secretly amused at his sister's inwardstruggle to accept this relationship between her nephew and the littleMexican.
"Where're the horses we're to ride?" Peggy asked curiously after lookingabout on all sides. "Or are we going to ride in that oxcart over there?"
"No, that won't be necessary. I left the horses on up the road abouttwelve miles," Mr. Eldridge answered.
"I've had the road repaired so youcan drive the car to the foot of the mountain."
"Why, that's grand!" exclaimed both girls together. "Not that we don'tlike to ride horseback," added Jo Ann, "but we can travel so much fasterin Jitters."
After many words of farewell Florence and her father drove off down thehighway which led to the town farther into the interior where they lived.
In a few more minutes, Jo Ann was steering Jitters out of the village andinto the road which led to the mine. She had only two other passengersnow, as Carlitos insisted on riding on the horse with Pepito.
Just as she was about to pass a little shack on the outskirts of thevillage, she caught sight of an empty old Ford parked under a mesquitetree just off the road. She stared at it incredulously, then cried out asharp, "Oh, there's that same car we----" She checked her words suddenly,swerving the car dangerously near an irrigation ditch at the side of theroad.
"Mercy!" gasped Miss Prudence from the back seat. "What are you trying todo--turn us over?"
Jo Ann's face flamed with excitement and embarrassment.
"No'm," she said meekly as she drove on slowly. "I--I--really--Idon't--see why I did such a silly trick."
Under cover of the car's noise, a little later, Peggy asked curiously,"What on earth made you so excited over seeing that old car?"
Jo Ann's voice was barely audible as she replied, "Because it was the carFlorence and I saw hidden up in that gully in the desert. Smugglers."
"O-oh! Are you absolutely sure?"
Jo Ann nodded. "It had the same license number, and the radiator wasbumped in exactly the same places."
