AN UNWELCOME VISITOR
When Jo Ann opened her eyes the next morning, the sun was already shining
through the open doorway. She lay still a moment and tried to think why
she had wanted to get up early. What had she planned to do? Then it all
came back to her. She was going down to the cave to find out more about
the blue-eyed boy.
She threw back the covers and sprang up quickly, but the next moment she
dropped back with a stifled groan.
“What’s the matter, Jo?” whispered Peggy. “You’re not stiff or sore, are
you?”
“Oh no—of course not! I just groaned for the fun of it.”
“That’s the reason I didn’t want to go with you girls down to the goat
ranch yesterday. I knew I wouldn’t be able to move today if I did. I’m
going to take my climbing in smaller doses, so it won’t be so painful.”
Just then they heard a groan from the other end of the room, and both
girls raised up on their elbows to look over at Florence.
“Are you sore too?” Jo Ann called out loud when she saw that Mrs.
Blackwell was also awake now.
“I’ll say I am! It’s agony to move. We’ll have to climb some more today
to get limbered up.”
“That’s exactly what we’re going to do just as soon as breakfast’s over.
You remember we planned to take some food to those children down at the
cave. I want to show you and Peggy my blue-eyed boy, too.”
Peggy laughed. “I surely hope you get to satisfy your curiosity about
him—we won’t have a minute’s peace till you do.”
“Well, if we’re going down there this morning, we’d better roll out.”
Florence screwed up her face and began slowly crawling out of bed.
Peggy smiled at the ridiculous contortions Jo Ann and Florence went
through as they got up and began dressing.
Finally Jo Ann picked up a shoe and pitched it across at her. “You will
laugh at me, will you?” she said good-naturedly. “Roll out yourself, or
I’ll pour some cold water in your face.”
Jo Ann finished dressing first, and as she went out the door she called
back, “I’ll make the fire while you girls finish dressing; then it won’t
take us long to get breakfast.”
A few minutes later she was joined by Peggy and Florence, and all three
girls set to work getting the breakfast started.
“I’ll set the table,” offered Peggy.
“And I’ll get the things from our refrigerator at the spring,” added Jo
Ann, and started off stiff-legged down the path. “The walk’ll help to
limber me up.”
“Jo ought to have a prize for her graceful walk,” smiled Peggy as she
started into the house to set the table, while Florence went for some
wood to replenish the fire.
A few minutes later Jo Ann came running back empty-handed, her sore
muscles forgotten. “Our food’s gone—everything’s gone!” she called
excitedly to Florence.
The wood dropped from Florence’s hands and sent up a shower of sparks as
it fell into the fire. “Gone!” she gasped. “Are you sure you looked in
the right place?”
“Sure. The box’s turned over, and there’s nothing under it.”
By this time Peggy, hearing the excitement, rushed out of the house, and
all three girls raced back to the spring, then stood staring at the
overturned box.
“What do you think happened?” asked Jo Ann. “Do you suppose someone stole
the things and left the box there so it’d look as if a dog had done it?”
“I hardly think so,” replied Florence thoughtfully. “There’s no one up
here who’d——” She stopped abruptly.
“Could it have been those people down at the cave who——” began Jo Ann;
then the next moment she answered her own question: “No, I know they
didn’t do it. They’re poor, but I don’t believe they’d steal.”
Peggy looked over at Jo Ann. “How do you know? You can’t prove it.”
Dropping to her knees beside the spring Jo Ann began examining the
moss-covered stones. “The moss is scraped off this rock where something
heavy stepped on it, but then we could’ve done that last night when we
put the things in here.”
Florence turned and started back toward the house. “It won’t do any good
to stand here talking about it. Come on, we’ll find something else to
cook in place of the bacon for breakfast. It’s a good thing we brought
some canned milk along for an emergency, but we’ll have to do without
butter for several days, till I can get some sent out from the city.”
Jo Ann ran to catch up with Peggy and Florence. “Why can’t you get some
butter from the people down at the goat ranch?” she asked.
Florence laughed. “Why, they probably wouldn’t even know what I was
talking about.”
“Don’t they use butter?”
“No, the peons never use it.”
“Well, then, let’s get extra milk and make it ourselves.”
“How? We haven’t a churn.”
“I’ve seen my mother make butter by stirring the cream in a bowl or jar,”
Jo Ann explained.
Just then they reached the house, and all three ran on inside and began
telling Mrs. Blackwell of their loss.
“Mrs. Blackwell, what is your opinion about the mysterious visitor—was he
man or beast?” asked Jo Ann finally.
“I couldn’t say, of course, but it seems to me an animal would hardly
carry off the glass jars of milk and butter.”
Jo Ann stared at Mrs. Blackwell a moment. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she
said, then turned and went on outside.
Peggy glanced over at Florence. “Everything seems to point to those
people as the guilty parties, doesn’t it? Jo hates to admit it, though.”
“Oh well, it wasn’t much, and anyway, we can’t prove that they are the
guilty ones. Let’s forget about it and see what we can find for
breakfast.” She got up and went out in the kitchen with Jo Ann.
A few minutes later Peggy joined them, and before long they had the
emergency breakfast ready: coffee, dry cereal with canned milk, batter
cakes with brown sugar syrup, and oranges.
“This isn’t half bad, if you ask me,” bragged Peggy as they sat down to
the table.
Jo Ann grinned. “Just see who fixed it! Why, we’re the best cooks for
miles around.”
“That isn’t saying much, is it?” smiled Florence, then all four laughed
merrily as they caught Florence’s hidden meaning.
As soon as the breakfast things were cleared away and the house
straightened up, Jo Ann asked, “Florence, do you and Peg still want to go
down to the cave with me?”
“Why, of course. Come on, let’s see what we can find to carry to those
children.”
The three girls hastened to the kitchen, and Florence began searching
through the provision box for something to take to the children at the
cave.
“Here’re some _frijoles_—that’s their principal food, and I know they’ll
like them. We’ll put in some rice, and with these onions and garlic and
this can of tomatoes they can make _sopa de aroz_—a kind of stew.” As
Florence handed the things to Jo Ann and Peggy, they packed them in a
split-cane basket.
She looked about the kitchen a moment, then reached over on the table and
picked up a bag of oranges and handed it to Jo Ann. “Here’re some
oranges. They ought to have some fruit, too. There’re only half a dozen
in there, but that’ll be enough for each of the children to have one
apiece. Let’s take these batter cakes we had left from breakfast. They’ll
love them. They’ll think they’re some kind of a cake. We’ll put in this
cone of brown sugar and tell the woman how to make syrup—but they’ll very
likely eat the sugar as it is, thinking it’s candy.”
“I wonder if I couldn’t get milk from the goat ranch for them,” put in Jo
Ann. “I’m going to see about it the next time we go down there.”
When they had finished, Jo Ann picked up the basket and followed Florence
and Peggy out on the front porch, where Mrs. Blackwell was lying in a
hammock stretched between two of the crude peeled posts supporting the
thatched roof.
Florence leaned over to drop a kiss on her mother’s pale cheek. “Do you
mind if we leave you alone for a little while? We’re going down to the
cave to carry some food to those poor little children—we won’t be gone
over half an hour.”
“I want to prove to Florence and Peg that I’m right about that blue-eyed
boy,” added Jo Ann. “Maybe we’ll be able to find out something that’ll
throw some light on the mystery of his blue eyes.”
Mrs. Blackwell smiled. “You girls run along—I’ll take a nap while you’re
gone. I’m very glad you’re adopting those children. From what you’ve told
me they must be badly in need of a helping hand. You see evidences of
real poverty down here among the peons, and yet, as a general thing,
they’re very happy.” As they started off down the trail she called, “Jo,
I wish you luck in solving the mystery of your blue-eyed boy.”
Florence and Jo Ann found it very painful going down the steep path.
Their leg muscles were still stiff and sore from their long tramp over
the mountain side the day before. They were glad when they reached the
foot of the cliff and started on a smooth wooded trail around its base.
At the first curve they stopped to gaze across the broad valley
stretching out before them.
“Isn’t this glorious!” Jo Ann exclaimed. “We almost beat the sun up—down
here, didn’t we?”
“Yes, it wasn’t much ahead of us,” agreed Peggy, “and doesn’t the air
smell good?”
All three girls drew in deep breaths of the fragrant, woodsy odor of leaf
mold and dew-kissed ferns.
A few minutes later they turned and hurried along the trail till they
reached the narrow, unused path leading up to the cave. As they came in
sight of it, Jo Ann stopped abruptly and stood staring before her.
“What’s the idea of stopping so suddenly?” Peggy demanded, as she bumped
into Jo Ann.
“What’s the matter?” chimed in Florence, crowding up behind Peggy and
trying unsuccessfully to look over their shoulders.