The Mystery of Carlitos

  CHAPTER IX "I'M GOING TO SOLVE THE MYSTERY"

  Jo Ann, who had been watching the play of expressions on their facesintently, now experienced a feeling of relief as she saw the father nodand smile.

  He then addressed Florence, "_Bien._ I go bring my family. You waithere."

  "All right," Florence agreed.

  After the father had left, Jo Ann remarked, "Now that the boy is so muchbetter we can take time to eat our lunch while we're waiting for thefather to bring the rest of the family down. I'm beginning to gethungry."

  Florence glanced up at the sun and noted its position. "Why, it must beafter two o'clock! No wonder you're hungry. The suspense has been toogreat for us to think of ourselves."

  "Yes, this has been the most exciting experience I've ever been through.It does seem almost like a miracle, doesn't it?" Her gaze fell on theboy, whose great black eyes were glancing from one face to the other.

  Florence picked up the package containing their lunch and offered some tothe mother.

  After a moment's hesitation she took out a small chocolate cake, lookedat it curiously, then bit off a tiny piece. Her face beamed. "Ah, cake!For my Pepito." She leaned over and touched the cake to the boy's mouth.

  Florence spoke up quickly, "No, no. You eat that one. That kind very badfor Pepito. I'll give him one of these." She picked up a graham crackerand handed it to the mother to give to him.

  No sooner had the boy tasted the cracker than he began to eat rapidly, asif he were very hungry.

  "I believe that child was about starved," said Jo Ann. "He must have beenweak from lack of food to begin with."

  "He's probably not had anything to eat except some cold _tortillas_ sincewe saw them the other day."

  "Let's not eat another bite," said Jo Ann quickly. "Let's save the restof our lunch for those children. I'm hungry, but I'm not half as hungryas they must be. I can wait to eat till we get back home." She handed therest of the lunch over to the mother saying, "For your children."

  "Ah, _gracias_, senoritas. You are too good," the mother said, smiling.In a rapid flow of Spanish she began telling Florence that they had beentraveling for days and had had very little food. "When _Papa_ make thecharcoal, then we will have food."

  In the pause that followed, Florence told Jo Ann what the woman had said.

  "It's strange they came away up here to make the charcoal. It looks as ifthey'd have stopped sooner," Jo Ann remarked. "Hurry up and ask her aboutthe blue-eyed boy, Carlitos. Ask her if he and Pepito are twins."

  The mother shook her head when Florence asked, "Which is the olderone--Carlitos?"

  "No. Pepito."

  "They don't look a bit alike."

  A strange expression passed over the woman's face; then she said slowly,"Carlitos is not my child."

  Jo Ann caught this last remark and spoke up eagerly: "Ask her if he isrelated to her family."

  When Florence obediently asked this question, the mother merely shook herhead without saying a word.

  "Ask her if his eyes aren't a deep blue, just as I said," put in Jo Ann.

  "No, I can see she doesn't want to talk about him. You can find that outfor yourself in a few minutes. He'll be coming down with the familysoon."

  "Well, believe me, I'm more convinced than ever that there is somethingstrange about that boy, and I'm going to solve the mystery."

  "You'll have plenty of time to do your investigating while they're backin the cave."

  Shortly afterward they heard the clatter of the donkey's feet on thetrail, and soon the family arrived at the spring. The mother ran to meetthem and quickly divided the girls' lunch among them; then she took thebaby from the father's arms and sat down with it beside Pepito again.

  While the hungry children were eating, Jo Ann got a good look atCarlitos's eyes. "See, Florence," she murmured. "I was right. The boy'seyes are a beautiful deep blue."

  "Yes, you're right. His eyes are blue and his features are finely cut.He's entirely different from the others."

  Noticing that the father was watching them closely, Florence changed thesubject by saying, "It's time we were starting home this minute if we'regoing to get there before dark, as we promised." She turned to thefather. "Are you ready to start?"

  "_Si_, senorita," he replied, then stooped down quickly and picked upPepito, who was struggling to rise to his feet.

  In a few more minutes the long procession started down the narrow trail,the father with Pepito at the head, and Jo Ann in the rear with Carlitosand one of the little girls.

  Florence smiled as she noticed that Jo Ann was beside the blue-eyed boyand trying to talk to him.

  It did not take Jo Ann long to discover that Carlitos knew no English."He can't be an American, then," she thought. "He's probably a German orsome other kind of a foreigner." She asked him a few questions in herbroken Spanish but, as it was very difficult for him to understand her,she gave up trying to talk finally and turned her attention to the littlegirl, who kept looking up at her adoringly.

  When at last they drew near their house, Florence pointed it out to thefather, saying, "This is where we live. We will have to leave you now.You must be very careful with Pepito, remember. Don't let him go back upthe mountain with you."

  The man nodded a vigorous assent. "All right, senorita. We will take muchcare of Pepito."

  Jo Ann spoke up eagerly just then: "Florence, tell them that we'll comedown to the cave tomorrow to see how Pepito is getting along."

  After Florence had translated this message, the two girls called,"_Adios!_" to the family and a special one to Pepito, then hurried on tothe house.

  No sooner had they greeted Mrs. Blackwell and Peggy than they beganrecounting their adventures excitedly.

  When Florence told of discovering that Pepito was still alive, both herlisteners gasped in amazement.

  "I'm so thankful you girls knew what to do and could save that boy frombeing buried alive," Mrs. Blackwell said, after Jo Ann and Florence hadfinished their entire story.

  "And I am, too," agreed Peggy.

  "It was a good thing we carried a lunch along with us," Jo Ann added."Those poor children were almost starved. They'd had hardly anything toeat for days. You should have seen the way they gobbled up the cakes wegave them--even Pepito."

  "If you gave your lunch to the children, you must be very hungry by thistime," Mrs. Blackwell said.

  "Oh, we are," both replied together.

  Peggy smiled. "I thought you'd be about starved, so I have supper allready. Maybe you'll be too excited to eat, though, Jo, since you'vediscovered that there really is a mystery about the blue-eyed boy."

  "Not so you'd notice it. We'll be ready to eat as soon as we wash ourhands and faces," Jo Ann said, rising. As she started toward the door shesuddenly stopped and wheeled about. "I just thought of something! Thosepoor little children won't have a thing to eat tonight or in the morning.All their possessions were in those little bundles on the burro."

  "That's so." Florence drew a long sigh. "Well, I certainly can't enjoy mysupper knowing that they're not going to have any." She turned to Peggy."What have you got for supper that we can take to them?"

  "Well--I made a lot of potato salad, for one thing."

  Florence shook her head. "They wouldn't like that, I'm sure. They'veprobably never tasted any."

  "Well, we know they like beans and rice and tomatoes," put in Jo Ann. "Wecan take those."

  "Why not take a box of crackers, Florence?" Mrs. Blackwell suggested."They can eat them while they're waiting for the other things to cook."

  "All right." Florence at once began helping Jo Ann to gather up the food,and soon the two girls were starting down the short cut to the cave.

  "Hurry up, or it'll be dark," Mrs. Blackwell called after them.

  "She needn't worry," smiled Jo Ann. "We'll step on it. We've got to goright past where we saw that snake yesterday."

  Florence's brows drew together in a frown, but she
replied determinedly,"I'm not going to let that stop me. We can watch more closely this time.I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have yesterday."

  "Snake or no snake, I'm not going to drop this food down the mountain asI did my basket yesterday."

  Cautiously they made their way down the steep path. When they reached thebase of the cliff and started around toward the cave, they heard thesound of voices.

  "There's the family," exclaimed Jo Ann. "If we run we can catch up withthem and won't have to go all the way to the cave."

  They started off at a swift pace and soon reached the little procession.

  Florence called to the mother, "Wait a minute. We've brought you somethings to eat." She and Jo Ann handed the packages to the mother andCarlitos.

  The mother's face broke into a wide smile. "_Muchas gracias_, senoritas,"she said as she took the packages.

  The grandmother and the father also joined in thanking the girls.

  As they turned to leave, Florence remarked to the father, "We'll help tolook after the family while you go up and make your charcoal. We'll comeagain tomorrow. We hope Pepito will be much better by then."

  The man's face broke into a smile. "Our friends, you are most kind. Wehave much gratitude."