CHAPTER XIV

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."