Almost the same moment Miss Prudence entered the kitchen, gave Maria a few orders, with Florence as interpreter, then added in a suspicious tone, "I noticed a Mexican woman just leaving the house with a box in her hands. What did Maria give her?"
"Nothing," Florence replied quickly. "Jo Ann gave her a box of caramels for her children. She's the woman Jo Ann bought the jars from. I'm going to get some more from her and from the other villagers and ship them to my friend in St. Louis, who has a curio shop."
When Miss Prudence changed the subject to a discussion of the menu for supper, all three girls were relieved.
It was not till after they had gone to bed that night that the girls had an opportunity to talk over the woman's story and Jo Ann's and Florence's discovery of the smuggler's presence.
"I'm certainly glad you had my bed put in your room," Florence remarked, reaching over across the narrow space that separated her bed from the girls' double one and patting Jo Ann's hand. "I'd be scared to sleep in one of these huge old rooms by myself--especially knowing about that smuggler's being around here."
"I'm as tall as he is, so I'm not scared of him," grinned Jo Ann. "If I were as small and lilylike and fragile-looking as you, I might be uneasy."
"Stop teasing me that way," laughed Florence, "or I'll roll over between you two for protection."
Just as they were about to drop off to sleep, Jo Ann murmured drowsily, "If Miss Prudence dares to come in and wake me up early in the morning with 'we'll have to get an early start'--at something or other, I'm--I'm going to----" She hesitated.
"I'm going to fire my pillow at her, then turn over and go back to sleep."
Peggy giggled. "Uh-huh! I see you firing a pillow at her."
As it happened, Miss Prudence did enter their room early the next morning to waken them, but instead of hurling a pillow Jo Ann listened gladly to her plan for an "early start."
"Going to the city--this morning?" she repeated, wide awake as soon as the phrase "going to the city" had entered her brain. "That's fine! Sure we'll be ready by the time you are." Seeing that Peggy was sufficiently awake now to take in the plan for a trip to the city, she asked, "You'll be ready, won't you, Peg?"