The Second Girl Detective Megapack: 23 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls

by Julia K. Duncan

  “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.

  “Anyt
hing 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.”

  CHAPTER XV

  ANXIOUS MOMENTS

  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.