CROSSED TRAILS IN MEXICO
by
HELEN RANDOLPH
A. L. Burt Company, Publishers
New York Chicago
* * * * * *
Mexican Mystery Stories For Girls
By Helen Randolph
The Mystery of Carlitos
The Secret of Casa Grande
Crossed Trails in Mexico
Copyright 1936 by
A. L. Burt Company
Printed in the U.S.A.
* * * * * *
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. "I'm Afraid I'm Going to Lose My Life" 7
II. The Mystery Man 19
III. The Hitch-Hiker 29
IV. Pressing Difficulties 38
V. The Hidden Car 51
VI. A Familiar Face 63
VII. "We Must Get an Early Start" 78
VIII. At the Mine 90
IX. Miss Prudence's Cleaning Spree 100
X. The Indefinite Mañana 111
XI. The Secret of the Olla 119
XII. Heading for Trouble 127
XIII. The Pottery Woman's Warning 139
XIV. Jo Ann's Search 148
XV. Anxious Moments 161
XVI. Down the Mine Shaft 177
XVII. In the Darkness 189
XVIII. Jo Ann Finds a Way 200
XIX. An Exciting Race 216
XX. More Troubles 229
XXI. Welcome Guests 243
CHAPTER I
"I'M AFRAID I'M GOING TO LOSE MY LIFE"
Peggy nudged Jo Ann and pointed to the sign ahead: "Speed limit, 80
miles."
Jo Ann's dark brown eyes twinkled. "It's plain to see we're out in the
Texas open now--the wide open."
"Too bad poor old Jitters can't accept the invitation to do eighty. She's
doing well when she makes forty or fifty. But even if she could go
faster, Florence wouldn't let her." Peggy gestured toward the small,
trim, fair-haired girl at the wheel.
"Florence has lived in Mexico so long that she's slow but sure like the
Mexicans. She's always saying, 'Why the great rush? There's plenty of
time!' If I were driving, now--" Jo Ann nodded her mop of unruly black
curls vigorously--"I'd encourage Jitters to go her limit, especially
since she has brand-new tires."
"Here too. Weren't we lucky to find such a bargain in a car? I'll admit
she's not much on looks and that she shakes till she deserves the name of
Jitters--but she's ours, all ours." Peggy's hazel eyes gazed admiringly
upon their old battered Ford.
"And look where she's carrying us: to Mexico! All the way to the land of
mystery and romance!"
"I can hardly wait to get back down there again. I wonder if we'll run
into as thrilling adventures as we did last summer when we were visiting
Florence."
Peggy smiled. "You will. You're always getting out of one mystery only to
tumble headlong into another."
Jo Ann nodded toward the prim, erect, gray-haired woman on the front seat
beside Florence and murmured, "Miss Prudence'll keep me on my good
behavior this time. Even if some tremendous mystery bumps right into me
this trip, I'm not going to pay one bit of attention to it."
"Straight from Missouri am I," Peggy replied, laughing.
"From Mississippi, you mean. From a year's hard work in good old Evanston
High. The work's agreed with us, hasn't it? We're both four or five
pounds heavier. School's agreed with Carlitos, too." Jo Ann leaned
forward to smile at the round-faced eleven-year-old boy sitting on the
other side of Peggy. "He's as fat as a butter ball now."
Ever since the five had started on their long automobile journey,
Carlitos had been too busy viewing the scenery to talk, but at Jo Ann's
words he opened his blue eyes wide and asked in broken English, "Butter
ball--what is dat?"
Both Jo Ann and Peggy exchanged smiles. It seemed strange to them that
Carlitos could not understand the most commonplace phrases, yet when they
stopped to think that he had spoken Spanish altogether till he had come
to the States last fall, they marveled that he talked as well as he did.
While Jo Ann was explaining to him the meaning of the words "butter
ball," Peggy was mentally reviewing his strange life. When he was about a
year old his parents had come from New Jersey to a remote Mexican village
where his father, Charles Eldridge, owned a silver mine. A few months
later Mr. Eldridge had met his death at the hands of a treacherous
Mexican foreman, and shortly afterwards Mrs. Eldridge had died from the
combined effects of shock and pneumonia, leaving the tiny Carlitos in the
care of a poor ignorant Indian nurse. The foreman, who had taken
possession of the mine, then tried to kidnap Carlitos, the rightful heir.
Alarmed at this threatened danger, the nurse had fled across the
mountains with Carlitos and her family where they were befriended by Jo
Ann, Florence, and herself. Due to their efforts Carlitos's uncle, Edward
Eldridge, had been found and the mine restored to Carlitos. So dismayed
had his uncle been at finding that his nephew could not speak English
that he had sent him to Massachusetts to live with his aunt, Miss
Prudence Eldridge.
Peggy smiled to herself as her thoughts wandered around to the New
England spinster aunt who had come down by train with Carlitos to
Mississippi and was accompanying them the rest of the way to Mexico. Miss
Prudence's never-ceasing astonishment at having a half-grown nephew who
was just learning to speak English was a source of amusement to her and
Florence and Jo Ann.
Just then Carlitos broke into an excited exclamation: "We come to big
city! See--big high houses!"
"Fine!" Jo Ann ejaculated. "That must be Houston. We've made much better
time than I thought. We'll be there by seven o'clock."
With a broad smile Peggy remarked low-voiced to Jo Ann, "Don't forget
that you drew Miss Prudence for your roommate tonight. I heard her say
she always rises at five-thirty, so I see where you'll have to get up
with the chickens."
"If I have to get up at that ghastly hour, I'll wake you and Florence,
too. It'll be specially good for you to get up early. As Miss Prudence
said last night, 'Remember, the early bird catches the worm'!"
Peggy made a funny little grimace. "But I don't want to catch worms--I
don't like 'em."
"You'll have to acquire a taste for them then," Jo Ann retorted between
giggles. A moment later she added, "We really ought to get an early start
tomorrow morning, sure enough, since we may go by way of Brownsville."
On reaching the city a half hour later, they drove straight to one of the
larger hotels.
"I just adore going into strange hotels," remarked Peggy, starting to get
out of the car.
Miss Prudence turned in time to see her rising and said quickly, "You
girls wait here while I go in and look around. One can't be too
particular about the kind of hotel one chooses, even to stay for a few
hours."
Disappointed, Peggy dropped back into her seat.
"Never mind, Peg, when we get to Mexico she'll let Florence and us take
the lead, since she's never been there before."
In a few minutes the girls saw Miss Prudence returning, followed closely
by a porter.
"Come on," she called out briskly to them. "I've registered for us all."
She hurried them on inside the hotel and into the elevator so rapidly
that Peggy declared afterwards that she wouldn't have known she was in a
hotel if she hadn't seen a bellboy.
When the porter stopped at the first room and asked which baggage he was
to carry in, Miss Prudence pointed to her suitcase, then hesitated a half
second.
Peggy grasped this opportunity to put in, "Jo says she's going to be your
roommate this time."
Miss Prudence smiled over at Jo Ann. "Fine. Carlitos's room connects with
ours; then you and Florence have the one next to his. All of you hurry
and get cleaned up, now, so we can get something to eat right away. Then
we'll come straight up and go to bed. We have to get an early start in
the morning, you know."
The three girls exchanged swift glances but did not protest.
Once inside their room, however, Peggy groaned loudly to Florence, "Miss
Prudence acts as if we were still in rompers. Putting us to bed as soon
as we've eaten our suppers! What's the fun of coming to a new city if you
can't see anything?"
By nine o'clock, still inwardly protesting but outwardly calm, the girls
were marshaled back to their rooms by Miss Prudence.
Jo Ann bade Peggy and Florence good night and remarked with a teasing
smile, "You'll hear me knocking at your door about 5:30 A.M."
"Don't you dare!" both girls exclaimed in the same breath. Florence
added, "Surely you wouldn't be that cruel!"
"Oh yes, I would. Misery needs companionship. Be sure to leave the
sliding panel of your door down as it is now, so you can hear my first
tap." Jo Ann indicated the top section of the door which was screened by
a Venetian blind, as were the doors of all the other rooms.
It seemed to Jo Ann she had hardly been asleep two winks that night when
she heard a voice saying in her ear, "Sorry, my dear, but it's time
you're getting up."
Miss Prudence! Surely it couldn't be morning! She suppressed a groan and
turned over for another nap, only to hear the insistent voice: "Sorry, my
dear, but----"
Jo Ann managed to mumble a sleepy "All right."
After much stretching and yawning she reluctantly slipped out of bed. She
stood blinking sleepily at Miss Prudence in her blue kimono and thinking
how Chinesey she looked with her long, gray, braided pigtail down her
back.
Miss Prudence's next words were anything but Chinese: "Call the girls and
Carlitos before you start to dress. Both Peggy and Florence are slower
than you, and it'll take them a long time to get ready."
"Some of my clothes are in Peg's bag, so I'll have to go in and get them
before I can dress. I'll wake them then." Thoroughly roused at last, Jo
Ann thrust her feet into her slippers, slipped into her negligee, and
started down the hall.
Just as she reached the girls' door a man's earnest voice sounded
startlingly clear through the screened panel of the door directly across
the hall. Her heart gave a sudden frightened leap at hearing someone say,
"I'm afraid I'm going to lose my life before this is over."
So distinct were the words that it seemed as if the man were talking to
her. In danger of losing his life! And he was! There was no mistaking the
conviction in his voice. It was not the broken trembling voice of a
coward. It had been firm, strong, even though he was sure he was in grave
danger. He must be talking to someone over the phone--there was no
audible answer. Why was he in such terrible trouble? What had he done?
Was he a criminal or a detective?
Standing statue-like at the girls' door Jo Ann listened intently for his
next words. "I was hot on their trail," the voice went on, "but had two
flats, and that delayed me.... Yes, in the usual place."
Before she could realize that the conversation had ended, the door opened
suddenly, and a tall, stalwart man wearing a broad-brimmed tan felt hat
stepped out. On seeing Jo Ann he halted and shot a piercing glance at her
from gray eyes so penetratingly keen that she felt as if they were
cutting straight through her.
She flushed with embarrassment. It had been unpardonably rude to
eavesdrop that way. What must that man think of her? Hurriedly she began
knocking on the girls' door.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw that the man, after hesitating a
fraction of a second, had gone on down the hall toward the elevator.