JO ANN'S SEARCH
It was not till after they had gone to bed that night that the girls had
an opportunity to talk over the woman's story and Jo Ann's and Florence's
discovery of the smuggler's presence.
"I'm certainly glad you had my bed put in your room," Florence remarked,
reaching over across the narrow space that separated her bed from the
girls' double one and patting Jo Ann's hand. "I'd be scared to sleep in
one of these huge old rooms by myself--especially knowing about that
smuggler's being around here."
"I'm as tall as he is, so I'm not scared of him," grinned Jo Ann. "If I
were as small and lilylike and fragile-looking as you, I might be
uneasy."
"Stop teasing me that way," laughed Florence, "or I'll roll over between
you two for protection."
Just as they were about to drop off to sleep, Jo Ann murmured drowsily,
"If Miss Prudence dares to come in and wake me up early in the morning
with 'we'll have to get an early start'--at something or other, I'm--I'm
going to----" She hesitated.
"I'm going to what?" jibed Peggy.
"I'm going to fire my pillow at her, then turn over and go back to
sleep."
Peggy giggled. "Uh-huh! I see you firing a pillow at her."
As it happened, Miss Prudence did enter their room early the next morning
to waken them, but instead of hurling a pillow Jo Ann listened gladly to
her plan for an "early start."
"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.
"Anything 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."