to send home. Do you want to go with us, Florence?”

Florence and her father exchanged smiling glances as she replied, “You can’t buy postcards now—the stores close for an hour or two in the middle of the day.”

“Oh, I forgot I’m in Mexico,” laughed Peggy.

“In tropical countries it’s the custom to take a siesta after lunch,” Dr. Blackwell explained. “People sleep in the hottest part of the day and do their work in the cool of the evening. It’s a very good custom, too, since the sun has a tendency to cause fever if one is in it too much.”

On hearing this the girls meekly followed Florence to their room, and when she removed her dress and shoes and dropped down on the bed, they followed her example.

“How still it is!” thought Jo Ann. Not a sound floated up from the street below; not a leaf stirred on the trees in the park across the way. Even nature seemed to be sleeping, so deep, so intense was the stillness.

Florence, from habit, was soon sound asleep. The other two girls whispered quietly for a while; then Peggy’s eyelids drooped, and she, too, succumbed to the restful quiet.

But Jo Ann could not sleep. There were too many things to think about. A visit to the Señor’s library—she’d love that. And that old church across the street—there must be some very interesting facts connected with it. She’d find out more about that later from the Señor’s books. But that window! It still puzzled her. There was something curious about it. What was that Dr. Blackwell had said about finding the key to unlock the mystery?

“That’s what I’ll do—find the key and unlock the mystery of this strange window,” she told herself. “Won’t Dr. Blackwell be surprised when I tell him I’ve solved it?”

Acting on a sudden impulse she slipped out of bed quietly so as not to disturb Peggy and Florence. What she was going to do, she wanted to do alone. She put on her dress and some rubber-soled shoes, then, picking up a large sun hat from a chair, softly opened the door.

There at the head of the stairs sat Felipe, sound asleep. She hesitated only a moment, then crept softly past him and on down the stairs.

“One good thing about these houses is there’s no danger of a loose board or a creaky step giving you away,” she thought.

Not a soul was in sight 

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