that Miss Prudence should set Carlitos, the chief owner of the silver mine and the house, to doing such menial tasks as carrying water from the stream back of the house. Miss Prudence, however, believed with St. Paul that he who would not work should not eat and soon had everybody in the household stepping lively.

"I wish that soap and other supplies'd come today," she said, frowning as she took out the last bar of soap. "The supplies are very low. I can't plan a decent meal in this house without those things."

"Peggy and I'll go to the village for them this afternoon," Jo Ann offered eagerly. "We can drive the car and make better time than José can in the oxcart."

Miss Prudence hesitated a moment, then replied, "Well, if José can go with you, I believe you'd better go."

"Fine! I'm sure Mr. Eldridge'll let José go. He sends him there frequently for the mail--every other day, I believe."

Jo Ann was right in this surmise. Mr. Eldridge promptly agreed to let José accompany the girls to the village. "José can take two burros along to carry the supplies," he added, "and he won't need the oxcart at all."

So it was that shortly after lunch the two girls and José started on horseback but changed into the automobile when they reached the foot of the mountain.

On reaching the village, they drove straight to Pedro's store to see if the supplies had come. On finding that they had arrived, José set to work to load them into the car. While he was busy at that task, Jo Ann and Peggy walked back to the adobe shack where Jo Ann had seen the smugglers' car.

To Jo Ann's relief, the battered old car was not in sight.

"I'll have a far better chance to find out about the smugglers without their being on the scene," she remarked to Peggy.

As soon as they neared the shack, a thin, undernourished woman with a black _rebosa_ about her shoulders and a baby in her arms appeared at the door. Peeping from behind her skirts were several other small, half-clad, hungry-looking children. As quickly as she could in her broken Spanish, Jo Ann explained that she wanted to buy some of the pottery jars piled up at the side of the house.

The woman shook her head and replied, "I have much sorrow that I cannot sell them to you. Two men in an automobile told me they take all 

 Prev. P 36/101 next