into the village. To Peggy's disapproval, she turned again a few minutes later into the side road leading past the woman's house.

Almost simultaneously, Jo Ann and Florence caught sight of the old car parked beside the house. "The smugglers' car!" they both gasped.

"Turn as fast as you can and get away from here," ordered Peggy.

Instead of obeying her command, Jo Ann drew the car to the side of the road and stopped. "You stay in the car, Peggy, while Florence and I see if we can find out anything."

"Oh, do be careful!"

With Peggy's last words in their minds, Jo Ann and Florence approached the shack cautiously, coming up close to the back of the house, where they halted. Though they could not see the smugglers and the woman except by peeping around the corner of the shack, they could hear them talking.

"They're trying to make her come down on the price, aren't they?" Jo Ann whispered.

"Yes; trying to force her down to a mere fraction of what the _ollas_ are worth." An angry glint came into Florence's blue eyes. "I feel like marching right out and telling her not to—" She stopped whispering to listen to the woman's plaintive reply that she needed the money for food for her children.

Jo Ann caught the woman's words and their meaning. "Come on, let's see if we can't persuade or bluff them into giving more money."

Without hesitating, Florence stepped out, and together, the two marched on around to where the men and the woman were standing.

At their approach, the two swarthy-skinned men looked up in surprise. The taller one, who was a little squint-eyed and had a scar on his chin, drew his brows together into a deep frown as he peered from under his sombrero at Jo Ann.

Involuntarily Jo Ann caught her breath as the thought darted into her mind that he looked as if he recognized her. "Perhaps he saw me there in the gully," she thought.

By that time Florence was talking to the woman in rapid Spanish, offering to buy all her pottery at almost three times more than the men had offered.

The taller man whirled about to stare at Florence and to scowl more fiercely than ever. "It is impossible for you to buy the _ollas_. She promised us 

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