on back to the hotel. You know the trip tomorrow up the mountains to the mine is bound to be a very hard one. We must get an early start in the morning."

On hearing these familiar words, "get an early start," the girls exchanged swift glances but succeeded in keeping sober expressions on their faces.

Peggy protested lightly, "This music is so lovely, I hate to leave it."

"You'll be able to hear it from your room at the hotel--it's so close by," Miss Prudence replied.

"Peggy likes to promenade as well as to hear the music," Florence put in, teasing.

"She'll have other opportunities to promenade, probably."

"Yes," put in Florence. "The mine is not so far away but what we can come back here at least a few times this summer."

Miss Prudence rose from the bench and started toward the hotel, the girls following, but not without several backward glances at the fascinating Plaza and the gay young crowd.

Peggy would not have followed as meekly if it had not been that she was eager to hear Florence's and Jo Ann's tale about the smugglers. Jo Ann, too, would not have been so willing to go if it had not been that the mystery man had disappeared and she now felt that she would not get a chance to tell him about the smugglers.

When they reached the hotel, Florence, who was to be Miss Prudence's roommate, went on with Jo Ann and Peggy to their room, explaining to Miss Prudence that she would come to bed shortly.

As soon as Peggy had closed the door of their room, she ordered, "Tell that tale about the smugglers from beginning to end. I knew something exciting had happened to you back there in the desert, and I don't know why I forgot to ask about it sooner unless it was because I was so interested in getting to the city."

Jo Ann, with Florence's frequent promptings, quickly recounted the details about the hidden car, its contents, and the men's angry conversation.

"Wh-ew, I'm glad I didn't go with you after the water," Peggy exclaimed when they had finished. "I'd have been sure to have shrieked or squealed, and they'd have discovered me. One thing I don't understand, though, is what makes you so certain they were smugglers. The fact that they had baskets and pottery in their car doesn't prove that they 

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