message across the valley. Perhaps the blue-eyed boy had been kidnaped, after all, and that was why the family had disappeared so suddenly.

She turned to tell this to Peggy, then realized she must not talk. The next instant she was half ashamed for being so suspicious. If that boy had been kidnaped, she felt sure those people had not done it—they were merely tools in the employ of someone else, she decided.

CHAPTER VII THE CHARCOAL MAKER

THE CHARCOAL MAKER

Peggy and Jo Ann continued to wait silently for the stealthy appearance of the bear. Myriads of tiny stars winked down at them as they watched the full round moon sail slowly across the deep sapphire sky. Now and then the chirp of a near-by cricket or the croak of a frog could be heard above the constant splashing of the river.

In their hasty preparations for the bear hunt they had forgotten their sweaters, and now they shivered a little, both from excitement and the chill mountain air. The jagged edges of the rock felt anything but comfortable, and their muscles ached from sitting in one position so long. Jo Ann felt dizzy from trying to watch the light high on the mountain side and the dark shadows below her at one and the same time. Was there some connection between this new mystery and the mystery of the blue-eyed boy? she wondered.

When the girls felt they could keep still no longer, Juan stepped out from the shadows and called up to them in Spanish, “The bear no come tonight.”

Jo Ann shook her head. “No, I don’t think he’s coming either. Come on, Peg,” she said, turning around on the ledge. “Let’s get down and stretch our legs.”

Stiffly the two girls scrambled down the pole and began kicking and stretching in an effort to relax their cramped muscles.

Juan began jabbering rapidly in Spanish, and Jo Ann stopped a moment to listen. “The bear no have hambre tonight,” he told her.

She gazed at him questioningly. “Hombre? Man?” she repeated. “No sabe [I do not understand].”

Juan shook his head and began rubbing his hand over his stomach. “No—no hombre, h-ambre.”

Jo Ann’s face broke into a smile, “Ah, sí,” she replied, then turning to Peggy she explained: “He’s trying to tell us that the bear isn’t hungry tonight.”

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