CHAPTER IX

“I’M GOING TO SOLVE THE MYSTERY”

Jo Ann, who had been watching the play of expressions on their faces intently, now experienced a feeling of relief as she saw the father nod and smile.

He then addressed Florence, “_Bien._ I go bring my family. You wait here.”

“All right,” Florence agreed.

After the father had left, Jo Ann remarked, “Now that the boy is so much better we can take time to eat our lunch while we’re waiting for the father to bring the rest of the family down. I’m beginning to get hungry.”

Florence glanced up at the sun and noted its position. “Why, it must be after two o’clock! No wonder you’re hungry. The suspense has been too great for us to think of ourselves.”

“Yes, this has been the most exciting experience I’ve ever been through. It does seem almost like a miracle, doesn’t it?” Her gaze fell on the boy, whose great black eyes were glancing from one face to the other.

Florence picked up the package containing their lunch and offered some to the mother.

After a moment’s hesitation she took out a small chocolate cake, looked at it curiously, then bit off a tiny piece. Her face beamed. “Ah, caké! For my Pepito.” She leaned over and touched the cake to the boy’s mouth.

Florence spoke up quickly, “No, no. You eat that one. That kind very bad for Pepito. I’ll give him one of these.” She picked up a graham cracker and handed it to the mother to give to him.

No sooner had the boy tasted the cracker than he began to eat rapidly, as if he were very hungry.

“I believe that child was about starved,” said Jo Ann. “He must have been weak from lack of food to begin with.”

“He’s probably not had anything to eat except some cold _tortillas_ since we saw them the other day.”

“Let’s not eat another bite,” said Jo Ann quickly. “Let’s save the rest of our lunch for those children. I’m hungry, but I’m not half as hungry as they must be. I can wait to eat till we get back home.” She handed the rest of the lunch over to the mother saying, “For your children.”

“Ah, _gracias_, señoritas. You are too good,” the mother said, smiling. In a rapid flow of Spanish she began telling Florence that they had been traveling for days and had had very little food. “When _Papá_ make the charcoal, then we will have food.”

In the pause that followed, Florence told Jo Ann what the woman had said.

“It’s strange they came away up here to make the charcoal. It looks as if they’d have stopped sooner,” Jo Ann remarked. “Hurry up and ask her about the blue-eyed boy, Carlitos. Ask her if he and Pepito are twins.”

The mother shook her head when Florence asked, “Which is the older one—Carlitos?”

“No. Pepito.”

“They don’t look a bit alike.”

A strange expression passed over the woman’s face; then she said slowly, “Carlitos is not my child.”

Jo Ann caught this last remark and spoke up eagerly: “Ask her if he is related to her family.”

When Florence obediently asked this question, the mother merely shook her head without saying a word.

“Ask her if his eyes aren’t a deep blue, just as I said,” put in Jo Ann.

“No, I can see she doesn’t want to talk about him. You can find that out for yourself in a few minutes. He’ll be coming down with the family soon.”

“Well, believe me, I’m more convinced than ever that there is something strange about that boy, and I’m going to solve the mystery.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to do your investigating while they’re back in the cave.”

Shortly afterward they heard the clatter of the donkey’s feet on the trail, and soon the family arrived at the spring. The mother ran to meet them and quickly divided the girls’ lunch among them; then she took the baby from the father’s arms and sat down with it beside Pepito again.

While the hungry children were eating, Jo Ann got a good look at Carlitos’s eyes. “See, Florence,” she murmured. “I was right. The boy’s eyes are a beautiful deep blue.”

“Yes, you’re right. His eyes are blue and his features are finely cut. He’s entirely different from the others.”

Noticing that the father was watching them closely, Florence changed the subject by saying, “It’s time we were starting home this minute if we’re going to get there before dark, as we promised.” She turned to the father. “Are you ready to start?”

“_Sí_, señorita,” he replied, then stooped down quickly and picked up Pepito, who was struggling to rise to his feet.

In a few more minutes the long procession started down the narrow trail, the father with Pepito at the head, and Jo Ann in the rear with Carlitos and one of the little girls.

Florence smiled as she noticed that Jo Ann was beside the blue-eyed boy and trying to talk to him.

It did not take Jo Ann long to discover that Carlitos knew no English. “He can’t be an American, then,” she thought. “He’s probably a German or some other kind of a foreigner.” She asked him a few questions in her broken Spanish but, as it was very difficult for him to understand her, she gave up trying to talk finally and turned her attention to the little girl, who kept looking up at her adoringly.

When at last they drew near their house, Florence pointed it out to the father, saying, “This is where we live. We will have to leave you now. You must be very careful with Pepito, remember. Don’t let him go back up the mountain with you.”

The man nodded a vigorous assent. “All right, señorita. We will take much care of Pepito.”

Jo Ann spoke up eagerly just then: “Florence, tell them that we’ll come down to the cave tomorrow to see how Pepito is getting along.”

After Florence had translated this message, the two girls called, “_Adios!_” to the family and a special one to Pepito, then hurried on to the house.

No sooner had they greeted Mrs. Blackwell and Peggy than they began recounting their adventures excitedly.

When Florence told of discovering that Pepito was still alive, both her listeners gasped in amazement.

“I’m so thankful you girls knew what to do and could save that boy from being buried alive,” Mrs. Blackwell said, after Jo Ann and Florence had finished their entire story.

“And I am, too,” agreed Peggy.

“It was a good thing we carried a lunch along with us,” Jo Ann added. “Those poor children were almost starved. They’d had hardly anything to eat for days. You should have seen the way they gobbled up the cakes we gave them—even Pepito.”

“If you gave your lunch to the children, you must be very hungry by this time,” Mrs. Blackwell said.

“Oh, we are,” both replied together.

Peggy smiled. “I thought you’d be about starved, so I have supper all ready. Maybe you’ll be too excited to eat, though, Jo, since you’ve discovered that there really is a mystery about the blue-eyed boy.”

“Not so you’d notice it. We’ll be ready to eat as soon as we wash our hands and faces,” Jo Ann said, rising. As she started toward the door she suddenly stopped and wheeled about. “I just thought of something! Those poor little children won’t have a thing to eat tonight or in the morning. All their possessions were in those little bundles on the burro.”

“That’s so.” Florence drew a long sigh. “Well, I certainly can’t enjoy my supper knowing that they’re not going to have any.” She turned to Peggy. “What have you got for supper that we can take to them?”

“Well—I made a lot of potato salad, for one thing.”

Florence shook her head. “They wouldn’t like that, I’m sure. They’ve probably never tasted any.”

“Well, we know they like beans and rice and tomatoes,” put in Jo Ann. “We can take those.”

“Why not take a box of crackers, Florence?” Mrs. Blackwell suggested. “They can eat them while they’re waiting for the other things to cook.”

“All right.” Florence at once began helping Jo Ann to gather up the food, and soon the two girls were starting down the short cut to the cave.

“Hurry up, or it’ll be dark,” Mrs. Blackwell called after them.

“She needn’t worry,” smiled Jo Ann. “We’ll step on it. We’ve got to go right past where we saw that snake yesterday.”

Florence’s brows drew together in a frown, but she replied determinedly, “I’m not going to let that stop me. We can watch more closely this time. I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have yesterday.”

“Snake or no snake, I’m not going to drop this food down the mountain as I did my basket yesterday.”

Cautiously they made their way down the steep path. When they reached the base of the cliff and started around toward the cave, they heard the sound of voices.

“There’s the family,” exclaimed Jo Ann. “If we run we can catch up with them and won’t have to go all the way to the cave.”

They started off at a swift pace and soon reached the little procession.

Florence called to the mother, “Wait a minute. We’ve brought you some things to eat.” She and Jo Ann handed the packages to the mother and Carlitos.

The mother’s face broke into a wide smile. “_Muchas gracias_, señoritas,” she said as she took the packages.

The grandmother and the father also joined in thanking the girls.

As they turned to leave, Florence remarked to the father, “We’ll help to look after the family while you go up and make your charcoal. We’ll come again tomorrow. We hope Pepito will be much better by then.”

The man’s face broke into a smile. “Our friends, you are most kind. We have much gratitude.”