The Second Girl Detective Megapack: 23 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls

by Julia K. Duncan

  “Is that the cathedral and the Plaza already?” asked Peggy in surprise just then. “How did we get here so soon? I’ve had such a wonderful time that it seems that we’ve only started.”

  “May I ask a favor, Florence?” asked Jo Ann as they drove up before the house. “Let’s drive down that street back of your house before we go in.”

  “Why—I—I don’t think—” began Florence stammeringly, then stopped, hardly knowing what to say.

  “You said we couldn’t walk down there, didn’t you?—and I do so want to see it,” Jo Ann urged.

  After talking to Felipe a few moments Florence answered with a half-apologetic smile, “Felipe says mañana he’ll take us.”

  “Mañana?” repeated Jo Ann. “Oh, you mean tomorrow?”

  “Yes, it’s too late now.”

  Jo Ann turned to Felipe, who was opening the door for them. “Por favor, Felipe,” she begged.

  “Please, Felipe,” added Peggy quickly. She was not particularly interested in going down that back street, but it was so pleasant to be out at this time of the evening that she disliked the idea of going back into the gloomy house.

  “He says he’ll take us if we insist,” translated Florence a moment later, after talking to Felipe again. “But really, girls, I feel that we shouldn’t go now. It’ll be better to go some morning.”

  “I can’t see what difference it’d make when we go. Come on.” Jo Ann could not understand the Mexican’s way of putting off till tomorrow anything he did not care about doing. When she made up her mind to do a thing, she wanted to do it right now. “It’s silly to make so much fuss about such a simple thing,” she thought. “Why can’t you drive down a street when you want to?”

  “Well—all right,” Florence reluctantly agreed at last.

  Dusk was falling as they turned into the cobblestoned street back of the house. Slowly they made their way over the stones—century-old stones, worn smooth by the tread of many feet.

  The farther they drove the more thickly populated the street became. Jo Ann and Peggy were shocked by the utter wretchedness and abject poverty which they saw on all sides. Dirty, half-clad peons with their empty baskets or trays were shuffling homeward after their day’s labor in the city; old crippled men and women, who had begged all day on the streets, were wearily dragging themselves to a place of shelter for the night. The small windowless adobe huts which lined each side of the street seemed overflowing with people. Women with babies in their arms squatted in the narrow doorways, while dogs, pigs, and goats wandered in and out of the houses at will, as much at home as the children. As for children, they were everywhere—dirty, naked, half-starved looking.

  “I never imagined anything could be so terrible,” shuddered Peggy. “Did you, Jo?”

  Jo Ann shook her head soberly. “I didn’t realize there was such poverty anywhere.”

  A shout rose down the street: “Americanas! Americanas!”

  Children appeared from every direction. They crowded around the car. Some of the larger ones climbed up on the running board and the fenders.

  “Centavo, mees! Centavo, mees [A penny, miss! A penny, miss]!” they cried, holding up dirty, scrawny little hands to them.

  “Oh, Florence!” begged Jo Ann. “Let’s stop and give them something.”

  “If we stopped now, we’d never be able to start again.” Florence explained quickly. “They’d climb all over us. Let’s throw some pennies out the windows.”

  Hurriedly they emptied their purses of all the pennies they could find and threw them far into the street.

  Such shouting and scrambling as followed! The children fought and knocked each other down in their effort to find the pennies, the tiniest ones crying because they could get nothing.

  “It’s pitiful—heartrending—these children fighting over pennies as starved little animals over a bone,” thought Jo Ann. How was it possible for such things to exist, almost at your very door, and yet to be absolutely unseen and unknown? Was this really a part of the beautiful city they had enjoyed seeing such a short time ago?

  Felipe could scarcely drive without hitting some of the children, yet he dared not stop. He had not wanted to bring the girls down here, as he felt sure Dr. Blackwell would object, but since they were here he must take care of them. While the children were busily searching for the scattered pennies, Felipe managed to escape the crowd. Quickly he drove to the end of the street and turned down an old, dry, rocky river bed, the car bumping and swaying as it sped along over the rough cobblestones.

  “Florence!” shouted Jo Ann above the noise as she clung to the side of the car to keep from falling over on Florence. “I take back everything—I said—about you coming down—here alone. I understand—a lot that I thought foolish—before I saw this with my very own eyes.”

  “We won’t have to go far—on this rough river bed,” Florence called back a moment later. “We’ll turn—at the next corner.”

  “This is the—widest river bed I ever saw—to have so little water in it,” put in Peggy above the noise.

  As the car turned into the next street Florence replied, “Sometimes when it rains hard in the mountains this river’s full of water.” She paused and added, “This is the street Mother and I’ve come down frequently to bring clothing for the poor families.”

  Just then some ragged little children near by began to wave their hands and call out, “La Señorita! La Señorita!”

  Florence smiled and waved back. “Those are some of the children we’ve given clothes. They look as if they need some more.”

  “I wish we had some pennies to give to these children, too,” said Jo Ann. “Let’s come back here sometime and bring them something.”

  In a few more minutes the adobe huts were left behind, and they began passing the plain stone houses of the middle class. With long-drawn sighs the girls settled back against the cushions, each thinking of the distressing poverty she had seen.

  Suddenly down the street directly in front of them Jo Ann spied a tall, ungainly object against the high stone wall.

  “What’s that, Florence?” she asked.

  “That? Oh, that’s a scaffold the workmen are using in doing some repair work on a house.”

  “But why don’t they use ladders?”

  “They’d have a time to get a ladder long enough to reach the top of these houses. When they build them, they use big derricks to lift the heavy stones.”

  “Then why do they build their houses so high?” asked Peggy.

  “It makes them cool,” Florence answered as the car turned off the narrow street onto the pavement around the Plaza.

  “Why, we’re almost home!” exclaimed Jo Ann in surprise. “Is it possible that this is part of your house?”

  “Not exactly, but it’s all connected into one long building,” she replied, wondering at Jo Ann’s interest.

  “Oh, then that’s the very thing!” Jo Ann cried, beaming.

  “Whatever are you talking about, Jo?” asked Peggy.

  “Why, how to get up on top of the house, of course! Don’t you see—I can climb up that scaffold to the top of the house; then it’ll be easy to let a rope down to the mysterious window. I’ve been wondering how I’d ever get on top of the house—it’s so high.”

  “But, Jo, you can’t do that!” gasped Florence in alarm. “It’s too high, and anyway—”

  “You’re not going to do it,” declared Peggy emphatically. “You might get hurt.”

  “Don’t be silly,” scoffed Jo Ann. “I haven’t broken my neck yet.”

  “No, but it isn’t your fault,” Peggy retorted.

  “But, Jo, suppose someone should see you!” exclaimed Florence. “You must give up this foolish idea.”

  “Would it be a disgrace if someone did see me?”

  “Well, it isn’t considered proper here for a young lady to do anything on the street which would attract attention. You’d be a regular circus, climbing that scaffold. The street’d be jammed with people b
efore you’d get halfway to the top.”

  “I’ll promise not to give a free performance for the natives,” laughed Jo Ann. “But what’s to keep me from climbing up there when I wouldn’t have an audience? There are times, you know, when people sleep.”

  “You couldn’t go out in the street at night—alone!” The very idea of such a thing was shocking to Florence. “That scaffold’s nothing but some rough poles fastened to the wall, and it’s so high it’d be dangerous—not at all like climbing a ladder.”

  The car drew up before the house, and Florence and Peggy jumped out and hurried up the stairs without waiting for Felipe to open the door for them, but Jo Ann lingered a moment to thank him for granting her request. She knew he couldn’t understand a word she said, but from the broad grin which spread over his face she felt she had made her meaning clear to him.

  The ride had meant much more to her than she had expected, since she had discovered a way of getting up on the roof. All she needed now was a length of rope so she could lower herself from the roof.

  “It isn’t going to be hard to do,” she told herself as she went up the stairs. Of course, she would not do anything to disgrace Florence or Dr. Blackwell—they had been so kind to her—but give it up now? Never! Not with her goal almost in sight.

  CHAPTER IV

  JO ANN’S SECRET QUEST

  According to her promise to take the girls to the market with her, Florence called Peggy and Jo Ann the next morning as soon as she awoke. It was only half-past six, but the sun was already making a geometric pattern across the floor where it shone through the iron bars of the window.

  Jo Ann was impatient to start the minute she had finished dressing. Yesterday she had looked forward to the trip only because it would be interesting, but now she was eager to find a store where she could buy the rope she needed for exploring the mysterious window. She knew that it would be difficult to make this purchase without Florence’s finding out about it, but if she could only find where to get the rope she could return later, alone, and buy it.

  “Oh, hurry up, Peg,” scolded Jo Ann as she stood in the doorway, waiting. “You’ve primped long enough. We’re just going to market—no one’ll see you.”

  “But what’s the hurry?” calmly inquired Peggy as she patted the waves of her auburn hair into place. “It wouldn’t hurt your appearance any if you spent a little more time primping, as you call it.”

  “Well, if I were as fussy as you are—” Jo Ann began; then, leaving the sentence unfinished, she disappeared into the hall. There was no use arguing with Peggy. She just wouldn’t hurry—every hair must be in place.

  A few minutes later, when Peggy and Florence joined her in the hall, Jo Ann asked with a meaning glance toward Felipe, who was waiting with a split-cane basket on his arm, “Do we have to take him along?”

  “Why, yes; he always goes with me to carry the basket,” explained Florence in surprise.

  “I’ll carry the basket for you, and we won’t need him,” Jo Ann volunteered quickly.

  Florence shook her head vigorously. “You’re not a servant, Jo. I wouldn’t think of letting you carry the basket. That would never do.”

  “Oh, well—all right, then. Just as you say.”

  Although she had smilingly agreed with Florence, she realized that it would be more difficult to carry out her plan with Felipe along. His keen eyes saw everything.

  “Felipe reminds me of a faithful watchdog,” she remarked as they started down the stairs. “I’m glad he can’t understand English—there’s some consolation in that.”

  This would complicate matters considerably, having Felipe along; still, she could not say more about leaving him at home.

  “He’s just eager to be of service, that’s all,” explained Florence.

  “You should’ve seen him yesterday when he caught me slipping up the stairs. You’d have thought he was a contortionist or something, from all the motions he went through in trying to tell me the sun was bad for my head.”

  “I can easily imagine how he looked,” smiled Florence. “He is comical when he gets excited. I hope you girls don’t mind walking,” she added as they reached the street.

  “No, we don’t mind, only I won’t be responsible for my appetite when we get back,” replied Peggy lightly.

  “I think it’ll be wonderful to walk this morning,” put in Jo Ann. “It’s so cool and pleasant, and we can see more when we walk—not that I don’t like to ride, of course.”

  Although the sun was painting the tops of the buildings with gold, the narrow tunnel of a street still held the cool freshness of the night. As Jo Ann drew in deep breaths of the invigorating morning air, she wondered what Florence would say if she knew her real reason for wanting to walk.

  Chatting gaily, they strolled arm in arm, while Felipe followed a short distance behind.

  All along the way there were many curious, interesting things that caught both Peggy’s and Jo Ann’s attention—peons with trays or baskets either balanced on their heads or set on little portable stands; women squatting on the sidewalks selling flowers and fruits, tortillas, tamales, and other foods; beggars waiting on every corner trying to rouse the sympathy of the shoppers.

  While the lively, talkative Peggy plied Florence with question after question about the people and their strange customs, Jo Ann had an opportunity to peer into each of the queer little shops they passed. She even stared at all the little stands in the street, almost expecting to see a rope dangling from one of them, so intent was she upon her search. Even though everything imaginable seemed offered for sale, she found nothing that in any way resembled a rope.

  “Where do they sell rope in this curious place?” she wondered. If she could persuade Florence to return home along another street, perhaps she’d find a store there where she could get it.

  Her perplexing problems were forgotten a moment later as the market loomed before them. It was a huge old building occupying an entire block. The immense roof was supported by heavy stone columns and broad arches which showed signs of having been, at one time, tinted in bright colors but now looked dull and faded. The plaster was cracked and soiled, and in places great slabs had fallen off, leaving the bare stones exposed.

  “Oh, I love this!” exclaimed Jo Ann. “It’s one of the most interesting places I’ve ever seen. The people—their dress—their customs—the very atmosphere is different. It’s hard to realize this is the twentieth century when you look around here.”

  “Yes, it is very old and much the same as it was centuries ago,” replied Florence.

  Stalls had been set up in every inch of available space inside the building. Some were piled high with golden tropical fruits—oranges, mangoes, guavas, bananas, pineapples; others were festooned with strings of onions, garlic, and red chili peppers—all very necessary to add a piquant flavor to the limited fare of the Mexican.

  Slowly they made their way along the narrow, crowded passageways between the stalls, Peggy and Jo Ann stopping every few minutes to question Florence about the different things they saw.

  Finally, after glancing at her watch, Florence stopped abruptly and exclaimed, “Gracious! It’s after nine o’clock—I’ll never get through at this rate—not if I stop to answer all of Peggy’s numerous questions.” She laughed and gave Peggy’s arm an affectionate pat. “Would you girls like to wander around and take in the sights while I finish my marketing?”

  “Yes, we’d love to,” promptly answered Jo Ann. “Wouldn’t we, Peg?”

  “Yes, indeed!”

  “If you’re sure you don’t mind being left alone, I’ll hurry on. Stay in this section of the building so I can find you.” In a moment Florence and the faithful Felipe disappeared in the crowd.

  Jo Ann was delighted to be free to carry on her search for a rope without fear of being questioned. Although she felt sure that Peggy would enter into her plans, she decided not to tell her about them just yet.

  Grabbing her by the arm, Jo Ann jostled and pushed
their way through the crowd, up one aisle and down another.

  Suddenly the breathless Peggy halted. “Say—where’s the fire?” she scolded. “I can’t see a thing, trying to keep up with you. Why the rush?”

  “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to hurry so fast,” Jo Ann replied; then, realizing she dared not waste time arguing if she was to accomplish what she had started out to do, she added, “Can you keep a secret, Peg?”

  “A secret!” repeated Peggy staring at her in surprise. “Of course I can—why?”

  “Well, I’m trying to find a shop or a store—or whatever it is—where you buy rope in this place. You see, all I need is a rope—then I can explore the mysteries on the other side of that curious window.”

  “But why so secretive about—” Peggy stopped abruptly, it having dawned on her why Jo Ann had acted so strangely all the morning. “So that’s why you didn’t want Felipe along, is it?”

  “Yes, he gets on my nerves. All the way here I could feel his eyes boring into my back every time I craned my neck to see something.”

  “You’re imagining things, Jo. It’s just your guilty conscience. He’s really the perfect servant—very quiet and accommodating, but not inquisitive.”

  “Maybe you’re right—but still I’m glad he’s out of the way. Come on, we’ll have to hurry, or they’ll be back.” She caught hold of Peggy’s arm to keep from getting separated in the crowd, then continued, “You remember how horrified Florence was yesterday when I mentioned my plan to climb that scaffold—well, I don’t want her to find out what I’m doing. It’d only worry her, and I have no intention of giving it up.”

  A dubious expression crept into Peggy’s hazel eyes. “I still think you’re foolish to risk breaking your neck for something no more important than a hole in a wall.”

  “You never can tell, though, what might be behind the hole,” said Jo Ann with an air of mystery.