Crossed Trails in Mexico

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  CROSSED TRAILS IN MEXICO

  by

  HELEN RANDOLPH

  A. L. Burt Company, PublishersNew York Chicago

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  Mexican Mystery Stories For GirlsBy Helen Randolph

  The Mystery of CarlitosThe Secret of Casa GrandeCrossed Trails in Mexico

  Copyright 1936 byA. L. Burt CompanyPrinted in the U.S.A.

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  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 Manana 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, 80miles."

  Jo Ann's dark brown eyes twinkled. "It's plain to see we're out in theTexas open now--the wide open."

  "Too bad poor old Jitters can't accept the invitation to do eighty. She'sdoing well when she makes forty or fifty. But even if she could gofaster, 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 theMexicans. She's always saying, 'Why the great rush? There's plenty oftime!' If I were driving, now--" Jo Ann nodded her mop of unruly blackcurls vigorously--"I'd encourage Jitters to go her limit, especiallysince she has brand-new tires."

  "Here too. Weren't we lucky to find such a bargain in a car? I'll admitshe's not much on looks and that she shakes till she deserves the name ofJitters--but she's ours, all ours." Peggy's hazel eyes gazed admiringlyupon their old battered Ford.

  "And look where she's carrying us: to Mexico! All the way to the land ofmystery and romance!"

  "I can hardly wait to get back down there again. I wonder if we'll runinto as thrilling adventures as we did last summer when we were visitingFlorence."

  Peggy smiled. "You will. You're always getting out of one mystery only totumble headlong into another."

  Jo Ann nodded toward the prim, erect, gray-haired woman on the front seatbeside Florence and murmured, "Miss Prudence'll keep me on my goodbehavior this time. Even if some tremendous mystery bumps right into methis 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 EvanstonHigh. The work's agreed with us, hasn't it? We're both four or fivepounds heavier. School's agreed with Carlitos, too." Jo Ann leanedforward to smile at the round-faced eleven-year-old boy sitting on theother 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'swords he opened his blue eyes wide and asked in broken English, "Butterball--what is dat?"

  Both Jo Ann and Peggy exchanged smiles. It seemed strange to them thatCarlitos could not understand the most commonplace phrases, yet when theystopped to think that he had spoken Spanish altogether till he had cometo 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 "butterball," Peggy was mentally reviewing his strange life. When he was about ayear old his parents had come from New Jersey to a remote Mexican villagewhere his father, Charles Eldridge, owned a silver mine. A few monthslater Mr. Eldridge had met his death at the hands of a treacherousMexican foreman, and shortly afterwards Mrs. Eldridge had died from thecombined effects of shock and pneumonia, leaving the tiny Carlitos in thecare of a poor ignorant Indian nurse. The foreman, who had takenpossession of the mine, then tried to kidnap Carlitos, the rightful heir.Alarmed at this threatened danger, the nurse had fled across themountains with Carlitos and her family where they were befriended by JoAnn, Florence, and herself. Due to their efforts Carlitos's uncle, EdwardEldridge, had been found and the mine restored to Carlitos. So dismayedhad his uncle been at finding that his nephew could not speak Englishthat he had sent him to Massachusetts to live with his aunt, MissPrudence Eldridge.

  Peggy smiled to herself as her thoughts wandered around to the NewEngland spinster aunt who had come down by train with Carlitos toMississippi and was accompanying them the rest of the way to Mexico. MissPrudence's never-ceasing astonishment at having a half-grown nephew whowas just learning to speak English was a source of amusement to her andFlorence and Jo Ann.

  Just then Carlitos broke into an excited exclamation: "We come to bigcity! See--big high houses!"

  "Fine!" Jo Ann ejaculated. "That must be Houston. We've made much bettertime than I thought. We'll be there by seven o'clock."

  With a broad smile Peggy remarked low-voiced to Jo Ann, "Don't forgetthat you drew Miss Prudence for your roommate tonight. I heard her sayshe always rises at five-thirty, so I see where you'll have to get upwith 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 Prudencesaid last night, 'Remember, the early bird catches the worm'!"

  Peggy made a funny little grimace. "But I don't want to catch worms--Idon't like 'em."

  "You'll have to acquire a taste for them then," Jo Ann retorted betweengiggles. A moment later she added, "We really ought to get an early starttomorrow 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 thelarger hotels.

  "I just adore going into strange hotels," remarked Peggy, starting to getout of the car.

  Miss Prudence turned in time to see her rising and said quickly, "Yougirls wait here while I go in and look around. One can't be tooparticular about the kind of hotel one chooses, even to stay for a fewhours."

  Disappointed, Peggy dropped back into her seat.

  "Never mind, Peg, when we get to Mexico she'll let Florence and us takethe lead, since she's never been there before."

  In a few minutes the girls saw Miss Prudence returning, followed closelyby 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 rapidlythat Peggy declared afterwards that she wouldn't have known she was i
n ahotel if she hadn't seen a bellboy.

  When the porter stopped at the first room and asked which baggage he wasto carry in, Miss Prudence pointed to her suitcase, then hesitated a halfsecond.

  Peggy grasped this opportunity to put in, "Jo says she's going to be yourroommate this time."

  Miss Prudence smiled over at Jo Ann. "Fine. Carlitos's room connects withours; then you and Florence have the one next to his. All of you hurryand get cleaned up, now, so we can get something to eat right away. Thenwe'll come straight up and go to bed. We have to get an early start inthe morning, you know."

  The three girls exchanged swift glances but did not protest.

  Once inside their room, however, Peggy groaned loudly to Florence, "MissPrudence acts as if we were still in rompers. Putting us to bed as soonas we've eaten our suppers! What's the fun of coming to a new city if youcan't see anything?"

  By nine o'clock, still inwardly protesting but outwardly calm, the girlswere marshaled back to their rooms by Miss Prudence.

  Jo Ann bade Peggy and Florence good night and remarked with a teasingsmile, "You'll hear me knocking at your door about 5:30 A.M."

  "Don't you dare!" both girls exclaimed in the same breath. Florenceadded, "Surely you wouldn't be that cruel!"

  "Oh yes, I would. Misery needs companionship. Be sure to leave thesliding panel of your door down as it is now, so you can hear my firsttap." Jo Ann indicated the top section of the door which was screened bya 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 whenshe heard a voice saying in her ear, "Sorry, my dear, but it's timeyou're getting up."

  Miss Prudence! Surely it couldn't be morning! She suppressed a groan andturned over for another nap, only to hear the insistent voice: "Sorry, mydear, but----"

  Jo Ann managed to mumble a sleepy "All right."

  After much stretching and yawning she reluctantly slipped out of bed. Shestood blinking sleepily at Miss Prudence in her blue kimono and thinkinghow Chinesey she looked with her long, gray, braided pigtail down herback.

  Miss Prudence's next words were anything but Chinese: "Call the girls andCarlitos before you start to dress. Both Peggy and Florence are slowerthan 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 thembefore I can dress. I'll wake them then." Thoroughly roused at last, JoAnn thrust her feet into her slippers, slipped into her negligee, andstarted down the hall.

  Just as she reached the girls' door a man's earnest voice soundedstartlingly clear through the screened panel of the door directly acrossthe 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 toher. In danger of losing his life! And he was! There was no mistaking theconviction in his voice. It was not the broken trembling voice of acoward. It had been firm, strong, even though he was sure he was in gravedanger. He must be talking to someone over the phone--there was noaudible 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 hisnext words. "I was hot on their trail," the voice went on, "but had twoflats, and that delayed me.... Yes, in the usual place."

  Before she could realize that the conversation had ended, the door openedsuddenly, and a tall, stalwart man wearing a broad-brimmed tan felt hatstepped out. On seeing Jo Ann he halted and shot a piercing glance at herfrom gray eyes so penetratingly keen that she felt as if they werecutting straight through her.

  She flushed with embarrassment. It had been unpardonably rude toeavesdrop that way. What must that man think of her? Hurriedly she beganknocking on the girls' door.

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw that the man, after hesitating afraction of a second, had gone on down the hall toward the elevator.