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

by Julia K. Duncan

  Peggy’s terrified shriek echoed and re-echoed through the shaft.

  “Horrors!” gasped Florence. “I hope the cable’s not stuck. Sometimes it’ll get stuck that way for an hour or more.”

  “You’ll be all right in a minute,” Jo Ann called up to Peggy. “Don’t get scared.” In a low voice she added to Florence, “I hope I’m telling the whole truth.”

  To their vast relief, in a few minutes the bag began to move upward once more.

  “Thank goodness!” Florence ejaculated. “Which one of us had better go up next? I’d like to, but if you—”

  Jo Ann’s impulse was to speak up, “Let me go,” but, instead, she replied, “You go on. I have a flashlight, and you haven’t.”

  Several minutes later, with mingled feelings of relief and fear, she watched Florence being pulled up till she was above the reach of the flashlight’s beam. All was eerie blackness now. The shadows began to take on weird ghostlike shapes. Was that a man crouching over there? The smuggler?

  An involuntary shudder shivered through her body. She must not let her imagination run riot this way. She steadied her lower lip to prevent its trembling.

  At last the bag loomed into view, and after an anxious wait she got inside it. Slowly—painfully slowly she began to ascend.

  When she was about halfway up, the cable suddenly spun around, knocking the bag against the rocky side of the shaft. She felt a stinging sensation in her right arm as it struck the rocks. Clutching her flashlight more tightly and cringing with pain, she lifted her arm to protect her light. It was too late. The flashlight had been broken—badly smashed.

  In another moment she had forgotten about her injured arm and broken flashlight in a more serious trouble. The bag was stuck—not moving either up or down. She stifled a shriek that was threatening to escape her lips. No wonder Peggy had cried out. And it was worse this time. There was utter darkness below. No one to call up comfortingly from the bottom of the shaft. No one at the top either. Both girls were probably hovering over Manuel now, if he— Had they found by now that he really was dead?

  She must shut out that terrifying picture from her mind. It seemed, though, to be outlined against the darkness in a glaring light that refused to be blotted out. How long would she have to hang this way in midair, seeing this horrible picture?

  “Better to hang suspended than to be dashed to the bottom on those rocks,” she told herself. “Peg was in the same plight, and now she’s up safely. But then she was stuck only two or three minutes, and you’ve been here ten or fifteen at least,” she reminded herself discouragedly.

  Endless ages dragged on, it seemed to her, as she hung there. Would this suspense never end? Had anything happened to José? Had he been killed, too?

  At last, when her hopes had almost ebbed away, she felt the bag moving upward. Actually going up now. As she neared the top and drew in deep breaths of the fresh air, a great wave of gratitude swept over her.

  Once safely out on the ground, she began feeling her way through the darkness toward the light on her left. José hurried up just then with a lantern in his hand.

  “Tell me about Manuel—he is not dead, is he?” she asked him quickly.

  “I think he is. He look dead when I see him,” José answered brokenly. “That wicked Luis—he knock him down. I catch Luis and tie him to a tree.” He gestured to the right.

  “Luis! That miner Mr. Eldridge discharged for stealing?”

  “Yes.”

  “But why did he want to hurt Manuel? Manuel didn’t discharge him.”

  “Manuel tell him to keep away.” José went on to explain that Luis had thrown a crowbar back of the switchboard, so the malacate would not work, and that when Manuel had tried to grab him Luis had knocked him down. There was a triumphant tone in his voice as he added, “I catch Luis. I fix him.”

  “How did it happen that you came up here? You didn’t come with us.”

  José hesitated a moment, then replied, “I saw you come up here, and I think El Señor need me. He tell me to take Luis down to the big house now. I leave you now.”

  On nearing the malacate Jo Ann could see Manuel’s inert figure lying on the ground, Mr. Eldridge bending over him, and the girls standing near by.

  “Is he—” Jo Ann left her question unfinished, but both girls knew what she meant.

  “He’s still alive,” Florence whispered. “Unconscious. I could feel his pulse. His skin is a clammy cold. I wish I had some hot-water bottles to put around him.”

  “Thank goodness he’s still alive!” Jo Ann exclaimed softly.

  “We’ve put our sweaters over him,” Peggy added, gesturing to the sweaters on Manuel’s body. “I can’t think of anything else to do.”

  “We might heat some rocks or bricks and put around him,” Jo Ann suggested eagerly.

  “Good idea,” approved Mr. Eldridge, who had overheard her. “I’ll help you. We must do something to help him, since it’ll be hours before we can get a doctor here.”

  They hurried about gathering wood and soon built a small fire on some flat stones. As soon as the stones were hot, they pushed them out of the fire, then covered them with some old pieces of a torn blanket.

  “We must be absolutely certain these rocks’ll not burn him,” Jo Ann cautioned. “Persons suffering from shock are more easily burned than usual. My scout book said never to put anything hot next the patient till it could be held against your face for a minute without feeling too hot.” She tested each stone before passing it on to Mr. Eldridge to place next to the unconscious figure.

  After that was done, Jo Ann began rubbing his arms toward the body.

  “Why’s she doing that?” queried Peggy in a low voice.

  “I think it’s to restore the circulation.”

  When Jo Ann was still rubbing his arms, Manuel’s eyelids began to flicker.

  “He’s beginning to become conscious,” Mr. Eldridge said, low-voiced. “As soon as José comes back he and I’ll carry him down to the house. There isn’t any serious bleeding, so I feel sure it’ll be safe to carry him now. We’ll have to make a stretcher.”

  No sooner had he finished speaking than Jo Ann dashed away, returning shortly with two poles. Mr. Eldridge immediately jerked off his coat and pulled the poles through the sleeves, then tied a piece of blanket securely to the poles also. By that time José was back from taking Luis to the house. With Mr. Eldridge’s help José tenderly lifted the injured man upon the improvised stretcher and set off down the trail, careful to hold the poles as steady as possible.

  The girls followed close behind, Jo Ann bringing up the rear.

  “Do you know where José took the prisoner?” Peggy asked Jo Ann.

  “Yes. To our house.”

  “Gracious! That’s awful. I’ll never be able to sleep a wink tonight, knowing he’s in the same house that we are.”

  “It’s the safest place to keep him in the camp. The walls are as thick as a regular prison’s, and there’re iron bars to all the windows. Besides, José’ll guard him.”

  “It makes me shivery all over to know he’s under our roof.”

  “I don’t believe even a Houdini could escape from that house,” Jo Ann assured her. “You’ll be safe. Don’t worry.”

  CHAPTER XVIII

  JO ANN FINDS A WAY

  Although Peggy had vowed she would never be able to close her eyes all night with that prisoner in the house, she was so tired that she was not long in dropping off to sleep. Exhausted by their exciting experiences, all three slept till late the next morning.

  “For a welcome change,” as Florence expressed it afterwards, Miss Prudence had not wanted to get an early start to go somewhere or to do some housework, and so had allowed them to drowse on undisturbed.

  The first thing Jo Ann saw on waking was the smiling Maria carrying in a tray of food.

  As Maria set the tray on the small table between the beds, she remarked, “Miss Prudencia say you may have your breakfast in bed. You were so brave
—so good to help Manuel last night.”

  “Muchas gracias,” replied Jo Ann, eying delightedly the golden toast, oranges, crisp brown bacon, and cups of steaming chocolate.

  Peggy and Florence chimed in with their thanks; then Peggy put in quickly, “Florence, ask her if the prisoner is still in the house.”

  Florence promptly relayed this question.

  Maria nodded. “Sí. José watch good all night.” She went on to add that José had just come into the kitchen and had said he wanted to tell the señoritas something about Luis.

  “Don’t you know what it is?” Florence asked curiously.

  “No. Miss Prudencia send me out of the kitchen then, and José leave.”

  “Is José going to the village to get the rurales to come after Luis this morning?”

  “Sí.”

  “Tell him when he comes back that we want to go with him. Tell him to have the horses ready for us.”

  With a nod of assent Maria left the room.

  Jo Ann began eating an orange, a thoughtful expression in her dark brown eyes. A moment later she remarked, “I shouldn’t wonder if that Luis was hired by the smuggler to do all the damage he could.”

  “Why, what makes you think that?” asked Peggy in surprise. “You haven’t seen them together, have you?”

  “No.”

  “And you’ve never seen that smuggler here again since that first time, have you?”

  “No.”

  “Then why this sudden idea?”

  “Because two men in the same small mining camp who have a grievance against the mine owners would be likely to get together. They’d have a common interest—to get even.”

  Peggy smiled. “Oh, you Miss Sherlock!”

  “Your mentioning the smuggler reminds me that the pottery woman said she’d have the pottery ready for us today,” put in Florence. “I want you girls to help me select the finest pieces as samples to send to my friend in St. Louis for her curio shop. It’ll be quite a job to get them packed right. I was in hopes José would have time to help me pack them. His having to get the officers this morning might interfere.”

  “I don’t think it will,” Jo Ann replied. “Do you think you could get a crate in the village and pack your pottery there?”

  “I doubt it. They’ve never shipped any pottery by train. I believe I’ll take the pottery to Jitters’ House, and José can hunt up something around there to make a crate out of.”

  By the time the girls had finished eating and had dressed in riding outfits, José was waiting for them with the horses.

  As soon as they came out, Florence asked José what it was that he had to tell them about the prisoner, Luis. After he had explained in a rapid flow of Spanish, Florence passed the news to the eager Jo Ann and Peggy. “He said Luis had told him that some strange man had promised to give him a few pesos if he would wreck the mine machinery. He believes, judging by Luis’s description, that this stranger was one of the men the pottery woman warned us about.”

  “So I guessed right,” Jo Ann spoke up.

  “It doesn’t seem fair for Luis to get a prison sentence and for the smuggler to go free,” Peggy said, low-voiced, to Jo Ann.

  “Both of those smugglers’re going to get caught yet—you’ll see.” Jo Ann’s head bobbed up and down emphatically.

  “Does that mean you’re going to try to catch them?” Peggy asked, an anxious note in her voice.

  “Wait and see,” Jo Ann replied teasingly as she leaped on her horse.

  On reaching the village José went in search of the officers while the girls drove to the pottery woman’s shack to buy the ollas and vases.

  With the greatest care Florence, with the girls’ help, selected the most artistic designs and shapes from the piles of pottery. “If my friend likes these pieces as well’s I do,” she said, “I know she’ll buy regularly from these villagers and take a large per cent of their output. They’ll get ever so much more money, too, than they have been getting. We’ll be doing them a good turn, as well as my friend.”

  At Jo Ann’s urging Florence then began adroitly questioning the woman about when she was expecting the men to come after the pottery this week.

  “They send me word they come in two days,” she replied.

  “That’ll be Friday, then,” commented Jo Ann, who had caught the woman’s words.

  After they had finished choosing the pieces of pottery, they packed them in the back of the car.

  “I’d like to know where José’s going to sit now,” observed Peggy as she crowded into the front seat with Jo Ann and Florence.

  “He’ll manage someway,” Jo Ann smiled.

  On reaching Pedro’s store they found José waiting for them.

  “Did you find the rurales?” Florence asked him.

  “Sí, I find two. They have gone to the mine to get Luis. They say they do not need me to help.”

  “Good,” Florence approved. “Now you can help me pack these ollas and vases.”

  After José had squeezed into the back seat and they were driving off, Peggy remarked to Florence, “What puzzles me is how are you going to get the pottery shipped after you get it packed? There’s no railroad and no truck service here. Someone’ll have to take it to the city. How’re you going to get it to the city?”

  “I thought we’d drive in ourselves if—if—”

  “We can’t let there be any ifs about it,” broke in Jo Ann crisply. “We’ve got to get to the city tomorrow. I’ve got to get word to the mystery man to be on the lookout for the smugglers Friday.”

  “Couldn’t you write to him?” Peggy asked.

  “It wouldn’t reach him in time. They take the mail in to the city every other day. I asked at the store, and the mail’s already been sent, and no more’ll be sent till Friday. That’d be too late.”

  “But Miss Prudence’ll probably say ‘nothing doing’ when we tell her we want to drive to the city,” persisted Peggy. “She said she didn’t like riding in Jitters well enough to take another trip to the city soon.”

  “I heard her say yesterday that she had to have some more supplies—that she just couldn’t keep house without a larger variety of food,” Florence remarked. “She said we’d all be having scurvy and beri-beri and all sorts of diseases if we didn’t have a greater variety.”

  Jo Ann smiled. “That sounds good to me—not the diseases, of course. We’ll tell her we’ll bring her a load of good eats—fresh fruits and vegetables and anything she asks for. I’m going to get word to the mystery man—or bust.”

  Both girls laughed, and Peggy added a moment later, “Puff out your cheeks and prepare to bust, Jo, ’cause Miss Prudence won’t let you go.”

  “You underrate my persuasive powers, and you don’t realize how tired she is of preparing the same menus, day after day. I heard her say the other day that about the only thing Pedro sold at his store was beans, beans, beans.”

  When they reached Jitters’ House, José set to work at once to make a crate. The girls wrapped each piece of pottery with the paper they had brought for that purpose and carefully placed the smaller jars inside the larger ones. When the crate was finished, they packed excelsior around the jars and in every inch of space. That done, José carried the crate over to the house across the road, for safe-keeping.

  With a wide smile Jo Ann remarked, “We’ll have to get an early start tomorrow morning to take our crate to the city. We’ll have to promise to make the trip there and back in one day, I know.”

  When they were riding horseback on the mountain trail, they met the rurales taking their prisoner to the village. The girls urged their horses close to the cliff to allow room for them to pass on the narrow trail.

  After they had gone by, Jo Ann said gravely, “I hope it won’t be long till the smugglers are prison-bound, too. I believe this Luis was just their tool.”

  As soon as they had entered the house, the girls hunted up Miss Prudence, and Jo Ann told of their plan to take the pottery to the city the next da
y and get supplies for her.

  Miss Prudence pursed up her lips thoughtfully and remained silent for some time before answering.

  Jo Ann, with her usual impatience, could not stand this quiet and suspense and began talking about the necessity of a more varied diet. “We need more fruit and vegetables to have a balanced diet, don’t you think? Our home economics teacher told us at school that it was absolutely necessary for us to get plenty of fruit, as most of it has vitamin B. It’s that vitamin that makes our nerves normal and steady, she said.”

  Miss Prudence’s lips relaxed into a whimsical smile. “Well, we certainly need our nerves steadied after last night’s wild excitement.” She grew grave again. “I believe that Luis was trying to kill Ed and you girls.”

  Jo Ann did not stop to argue this point but kept to the diet question. “If you’ll make a list of the things you want, we’ll have them here for you tomorrow evening.”

  “Before dark?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I hesitate to give my consent. Maybe I’d better go with you—but, no. I feel as if I ought to stay and nurse Manuel. Maria has no more idea than a jay bird about how to take care of sick folks. Why, when I put some rolls of bandage in the hot oven to sterilize this morning, she looked at me as if she thought I was crazy!”

  In spite of her hesitation, Jo Ann finally succeeded in persuading her to let them go to the city.

  “If you set the alarm clock for four-thirty and get up then, I believe you can make the trip in one day,” she said as the girls were about to leave. “Take my clock to your room.” She reached over to the near-by table, picked up her alarm clock, and set it to go off at that hour before handing it to Jo Ann.

  It was hard for Jo Ann to keep from laughing, as she could see Florence’s eyes twinkling, and Peggy holding her hand over her mouth to check her mirth.

  At the first sound of the alarm the next morning, Jo Ann reached over and turned it off, then popped out of bed and began dressing. Florence rose almost as promptly, but it required much persuasion from both of them to get Peggy out of bed.