girls were marshaled back to their rooms by Miss Prudence.

Jo Ann bade Peggy and Florence good night and remarked with a teasing smile, "You'll hear me knocking at your door about 5:30 A.M."

"Don't you dare!" both girls exclaimed in the same breath. Florence added, "Surely you wouldn't be that cruel!"

"Oh yes, I would. Misery needs companionship. Be sure to leave the sliding panel of your door down as it is now, so you can hear my first tap." Jo Ann indicated the top section of the door which was screened by a Venetian blind, as were the doors of all the other rooms.

It seemed to Jo Ann she had hardly been asleep two winks that night when she heard a voice saying in her ear, "Sorry, my dear, but it's time you're getting up."

Miss Prudence! Surely it couldn't be morning! She suppressed a groan and turned over for another nap, only to hear the insistent voice: "Sorry, my dear, but----"

Jo Ann managed to mumble a sleepy "All right." After much stretching and yawning she reluctantly slipped out of bed. She stood blinking sleepily at Miss Prudence in her blue kimono and thinking how Chinesey she looked with her long, gray, braided pigtail down her back.

Miss Prudence's next words were anything but Chinese: "Call the girls and Carlitos before you start to dress. Both Peggy and Florence are slower than you, and it'll take them a long time to get ready."

"Some of my clothes are in Peg's bag, so I'll have to go in and get them before I can dress. I'll wake them then." Thoroughly roused at last, Jo Ann thrust her feet into her slippers, slipped into her negligee, and started down the hall.

Just as she reached the girls' door a man's earnest voice sounded startlingly clear through the screened panel of the door directly across the hall. Her heart gave a sudden frightened leap at hearing someone say, "I'm afraid I'm going to lose my life before this is over."

So distinct were the words that it seemed as if the man were talking to her. In danger of losing his life! And he was! There was no mistaking the conviction in his voice. It was not the broken trembling voice of a coward. It had been firm, strong, even though he was sure he was in grave danger. He must be talking to someone over the phone--there was no audible answer. Why was he in such terrible trouble? What had he done? Was he a 

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