With a smile, Florence greeted the boys with the customary salutation, “buenos tardes.” Their little brown faces under their frayed straw sombreros grinned back at the girls as they returned the greeting; then they turned and went on down the trail.

As soon as they were out of sight Jo Ann exclaimed, “That’s the first blue-eyed Mexican I’ve seen! I didn’t know they ever had blue eyes.”

“They don’t! What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you notice that one of those boys had dark-blue eyes?”

“No.”

“Well, he did.”

“They were both dressed alike, and dirty and ragged. All I noticed was how frail-looking the one was who had the bundle of wood on his back. I couldn’t help wondering why the other boy, who looked stronger, didn’t take part of the load.”

“That’s the one with the blue eyes. Do they belong to the family at the goat ranch?”

“No, I’ve never seen them before. You must be mistaken about the boy’s having blue eyes.”

Jo Ann shook her head vigorously. “I’m positive his eyes were blue—his features were finer too, but his face was so dirty I couldn’t tell much about them.”

Florence smiled. “You’ve a fine imagination, Jo—trying to find another mystery already.”

“I didn’t try to find this mystery. It bumped right into me. If that boy lives around here, I’m going to find out more about him.”

At Jo Ann’s emphatic words, Florence laughed merrily. “All right, but don’t start now. If we’re going to stop at the cave, we’ll have to hurry.”

CHAPTER II NEIGHBORS IN THE CAVE

NEIGHBORS IN THE CAVE

The two girls hurried along the trail, and a few minutes later Florence pointed to a dark, shadowy place about fifty feet up the side of the cliff. “There’s the cave I was telling you about.”

“All I can see through the bushes is a black hole under some rocks. Can we climb up there? I’d like to explore it.”

“Yes, there’s a path leading up to it. It isn’t very large and won’t take you long to look it over.”

After rounding a curve in the trail, Florence led the way up the winding path 

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