noses, but——”

Jo Ann smiled to herself. Miss Prudence was as curious to know about smuggling methods as she was. “She’ll consent—after she objects a while.”

Jo Ann was right. Finally, after protesting a few more minutes, Miss Prudence gave her permission, and all five followed the guard below the bridge. Blinded by the sudden change from the lighted street, they stumbled along in the darkness, half terrified at their daring.

“The river’s very low now,” the guard explained. “Anyone can manage to crawl down the bank and get out a long way under the bridge and hide. Just before the smuggler, coming from the Mexican side, nears the appointed place, he whistles his signal to his confederate waiting under the bridge, then tosses his package over the railing to him.”

“There might be some of those smugglers here this very instant,” Miss Prudence whispered nervously. “Let’s go back.”

“They might think we’re spying on them and shoot us,” added Peggy.

Jo Ann heard the amused note in the guard’s voice as he answered, “There won’t be any smuggling going on this early in the evening.”

“But it’s pitch dark,” Miss Prudence put in.

“And terribly scary,” added Florence, grabbing Jo Ann by the arm. “Come on.”

Even though Jo Ann was reluctant to leave this fascinating spot, she too felt more comfortable when they climbed back up the bank and out on the lighted sidewalk again. Her thoughts centered once more on the mystery man whose work kept his life endangered by smugglers.

“I hope he breaks up that gang of smugglers without losing his life,” she told herself.

After they had said good-by to the coast guard, they went to the nearest hotel.

“The first thing we’ve got to do now,” Jo Ann said while they were being whisked up in the elevator, “is to phone Lucile and tell her we’re here.”

“She’ll be sure to invite us to her house to dinner tonight,” put in Peggy, her eyes shining with anticipation.

“Won’t it be nice to be together again?” added Florence.

As soon as Jo Ann had succeeded in getting Lucile on the telephone, Peggy and Florence listened eagerly to the one-sided conversation and tried to guess the other side.

Lucile’s eager voice came back quickly in answer to Jo Ann with an invitation for all five to spend the night at her home. “You’ve arrived at the right moment,” she went on. “Edna is visiting me and I’m having a little dinner party for her tonight.”

Jo Ann refused the first part of the invitation, explaining that they had already secured their rooms at the hotel. “We’ll be delighted to come to your dinner party, though,” she added.

Miss Prudence broke in quickly with an emphatic, “Tell her it’ll be impossible for me and Carlitos to come. I’m too tired to go another step anywhere. If they’ll come after you girls and bring you back, it’ll be all right for you to go without me.”

Jo Ann relayed this message to Lucile, ending, “We’ll be ready when you get here.”

CHAPTER IV
PRESSING DIFFICULTIES

After Jo Ann had finished talking to Lucile, Florence and Peggy asked together, “Is it a real party she’s having? Will we have to dress up?”

“Yes, we’ll have to wear dinner dresses, of course. We’ll have to speed, too, if we’re to be ready when she gets here.”

“Oh, I’m afraid my blue crêpe’ll be a mass of wrinkles,” Peggy exclaimed as she hurried over and began unpacking her clothes.

“Get my dress—the pink taffeta—out, too,” Jo Ann called out on her way to the bathroom. “It’s in your suitcase. I’ll have my bath in two jiffies and be in my dress in another one.”

When she reappeared in the room a few minutes later, garbed in a negligee whose rose color matched her fresh glowing cheeks, she found that Miss Prudence and Carlitos had gone to the dining room and that Florence and Peggy were standing lamenting over the wrinkled state of their dinner dresses.

“Our dresses are terribly rumpled, and yours is the worst of the three,” Peggy remarked with a worried frown. “I hate for us to disgrace Lucile by coming to her party looking like wrecks of the Hesperus.”

“We won’t have time to send them out to a pressing shop or even to the maid here in the hotel—we’d never get them back in time to wear,” added Florence.

“Oh, stop worrying!” Jo Ann sang out, as she ran the comb through her curls. “I’ll press all three dresses while you’re getting your baths. You have a small electric iron in your bag, didn’t you say, Florence?”

“Yes. It’s really a toy that I’m taking as a present to one of the little girls in my neighborhood. The cord’s so short—I doubt if you can use the iron.”

“Get it out and I’ll use it all right.” Jo Ann’s voice was confident.

When Florence handed the iron to her and she saw how short the cord was, she began to feel dubious, though her determination did not waver. She’d manage some way. After a hasty look about the room she saw there was only one usable light socket in the room—the high ceiling one above the bed.

“I’ll have to attach the iron to that socket.” She pointed to the ceiling light.

Florence looked at the diminutive cord and laughed. “You can’t do it.”

“If you’ll hold me steady, you’ll see.” Jo Ann climbed up on the foot of the bed. “Hold my legs, now.” She stood tiptoe on this perch and after many efforts succeeded in putting the plug into one of the center sockets.

That done, she stepped down on a newspaper on the bed, but to her disappointment she saw that the cord lacked at least four feet.

Peggy and Florence burst into giggles at the funny sight of Jo Ann holding the iron in midair.

“Stop giggling, sillies, and do something, quick. This iron’s getting hot, and I’m getting tired holding it. Get that table over there and put it up here on the bed. Hurry!”

The two girls rushed over to the table, jerked off the water pitcher and glasses, and then carried it over and lifted it on top of the bed. The iron still hung at least two feet above the table.

“Oh gee!” wailed Jo Ann. “Get something else to put on top of the table. Step on it! Don’t run around in circles like a puppy after its tail, Peg.”

“Thanks for the beautiful comparison,” Peggy grinned. “You’re equally funny looking yourself, springing up and down on that bed every time you move.”

“Can’t help springing. It’s the springiest bed in all Texas.”

By that time Florence had brought over the low luggage stool and placed it on top of the table. But even with its added height there were several inches between it and the iron.

“There’s nothing else to put on top of that—except the dresser,” called out Peggy between giggles. “Oh yes, maybe the telephone book’ll help.” She ran over with it and several magazines and piled them on top of the luggage stand.

“Attaboy!” Jo Ann ejaculated triumphantly as she set the iron down on the magazines. “Now bring me something for an ironing-board cover and the dresses.”

In a few more minutes she was ironing away energetically, swaying back and forth in her efforts to keep her balance on the springy bed. “Stop staring at me and giggling and get dressed, you sillies. What’s so funny