Wearily Miss Prudence sank down in the chair, and the girls started off to find Carlitos. Each took a different section of the building to search and wound in and out the maze of crowded passageways that divided the scores of booths.

After Jo Ann had made the rounds of her allotted part twice without seeing Carlitos, she started back to Miss Prudence, hoping that the other girls had found him. Peggy arrived almost at the same moment, but she, too, was alone.

The worried frown on Miss Prudence's face deepened on seeing they had not found Carlitos.

"Florence'll find him: she's more familiar with this building," Jo Ann told her more confidently than she felt. Into her mind had darted the recollection of the harrowing experience they had once had when Carlitos had been kidnapped by the treacherous Mexican foreman. Just suppose he'd been kidnapped again! That one of those smugglers had stolen him to get even with her and Florence. That pottery woman had said they had threatened to get even some way.

Just as she had come to this painful point in her thoughts, Florence appeared--alone.

"No sign of him anywhere," she announced. "One man told me he'd seen a boy of his description going out a side door."

"Did he say this boy was alone?" Jo Ann asked anxiously.

"He didn't say." Florence had caught Jo Ann's emphasis on the word alone, and her heart began thumping rapidly. Did Jo Ann think someone might have kidnapped him again? The smugglers! Could they---- "I'll go back and ask that man if Carlitos was alone," she said.

She hurried back to find the man and returned a few moments later, saying in a disappointed voice, "He said he didn't notice whether he was alone or not."

"Maybe he got tired of waiting here and went back to the hotel," Jo Ann suggested.

"He might have," Miss Prudence replied. "Florence, tell the woman at this booth"--she gestured to the booth just back of them--"that if she sees an American boy looking for somebody to tell him we've gone to the hotel."

After another round of searching, they left the market and drove back to the hotel. Florence parked the car near the side entrance, saying, "We'd better leave the car here handy, as we'll be leaving as soon as we can find Carlitos."

They hurried into 

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