saying? Something about——

Florence caught hold of her hand in a convulsive clutch, and she turned to see Florence’s eyes dilated in terror.

Simultaneously a second voice sounded, with an even more angry ring in it.

“Hurry! Let’s run!” Florence breathed.

To Florence’s consternation, Jo Ann darted straight up the path. Just before reaching the top she halted and peered cautiously in the direction of the men’s voices, then scurried silently back.

Together the two ran up the gully, not even halting when thorns tore Florence’s skirt and scratched a red gash in one of Jo Ann’s legs.

“Those men must’ve said something terrible to scare Florence this way,” Jo Ann thought as she ran. “All I could make out were the words ‘money’ and ‘thief.’”

On the two rushed, with only a hurried glance backward now and then.

When at last, panting and puffing, they reached the road, Jo Ann gasped, “What’d—they say?”

“The first one said—‘he’s a thief—cheating us—I’m going to kill him.’”

“Wh-ew!” Jo Ann ejaculated while Florence was catching her breath. “The other—what’d he say?”

“He said, ‘I’ll help—you kill him.’ Then he said—something about some packages weighing more than his enemy had paid them for.”

“Did he say what was in the packages?”

“No.”

“I believe those men are smugglers, don’t you?”

Florence nodded. “I feel sure they are.”

“Do you suppose they belong to that gang of smugglers the mystery man was after?”

“Hard to say.”

“I believe I’ll know those men if I ever see them again—their car, too.” Jo Ann threw another hasty glance over her shoulder. “We’d better get away from this place soon as possible.”

“But the engine’s so hot—and we haven’t any water.”

“Here’s hoping the engine’s cooled off by now.”

When they reached the car, Jo Ann glanced anxiously to see if the steam were still rising.

“Thank goodness!” she murmured as she saw there was no sign of misty vapor rising from the radiator. “We’ll get away from this spot in a hurry.”

When they reached the car, Peggy called out, “We’d decided you’d tumbled into a water hole or the Rio Grande and drowned. What kept you so long?”

“Er—we——” began Florence.

Jo Ann broke in hurriedly with, “We couldn’t find any water.”

“What’ll we do?” Miss Prudence spoke up quickly. “We can’t go on without water, can we?”

“Yes, the engine’s cooled enough by now.”

“But it would be the height of folly to start out on a desert road without water.”

By that time Jo Ann had started the car, but not before both she and Florence had looked anxiously toward the gully.

“Something happened down in that gully that scared them,” Peggy told herself knowingly on noticing their anxious side glances and the excited expression in their eyes. “As soon as I get them off to themselves, I’m going to find out.”