"Of course, we can't wait that long. I'm in hopes they'll come soon, but I want to see them if I possibly can."

When they came in sight of Pedro's store, they saw Florence standing out in front, looking up the narrow street.

"Attaboy! There she is!" cried Jo Ann.

"She sees us now!" Peggy waved both arms vigorously, a gesture that was answered equally enthusiastically by Florence.

As soon as the three girls had exchanged the warmest of greetings and Florence and her baggage were settled in the car, Jo Ann broke into an account of having seen the smugglers' car, and all the other details.

Florence was indignant over the ridiculously low price the men were paying the villagers for their pottery. "You're right, Jo. Those men are thieves," she said. "They're making three or four hundred per cent profit on the pottery, to say nothing of what they're getting out of their smuggling. I believe I can pay that woman and the other villagers more than you did for their _ollas_, and ship them to the States, and still break even. When I see these poverty-stricken women with their big families to feed and clothe, I feel I've got to help them every chance I get."

"I do, too," agreed Jo Ann.

"And I," added Peggy. "But I don't want to get those smugglers angry at us. They'll be furious when they find out you're planning to buy all the pottery."

Both Jo Ann and Florence were silent for a moment, then Jo Ann remarked, "Maybe we hadn't better buy all the pottery, because if we do, the men'll stop coming here altogether, and I won't get a chance to find out more about them to tell the mystery man. I want to help him—his life's at stake."

Florence nodded. "That's so." She turned to Peggy then with, "You're right. We'd better buy only a few pieces of pottery."

"Let's drive past the shack now and see if the smugglers' car is there," Jo Ann suggested, starting the car even as she spoke.

"That's all right with me if you'll keep on driving and not stop," Peggy spoke up.

Jo Ann drove very slowly past the pottery woman's house, but there was no sign of any kind of car to be seen. As the pottery was still there, she knew the men were yet to come. She drove on a short distance, then turned into a rough road circling 

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