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

by Julia K. Duncan

  Even Miss Prudence expressed appreciation of José’s coming, adding, “He’s as thoughtful as he can be.”

  Jo Ann was the first one of the group to finish changing into riding clothes. She hurried back to the shed where José was still waiting, as she was anxious to know how things had been running at the mine, and especially if he had seen anything of the smuggler hanging around. She had described the smuggler so carefully to him that he would be able to recognize him.

  “Have you seen anything of that strange man while we’ve been gone?” she asked him.

  To her relief José shook his head. “No.”

  “Everything all right?”

  This time José shook his head more emphatically. “Ah—there was much trouble at the mine today.” With many excited gestures he went on to tell her that one of the loaded tram-cars had got loose and had crashed down the mountain side, tearing up the track and causing much trouble. “Very much trouble,” he repeated, shaking his head.

  “What caused the car to break loose?”

  José shrugged his shoulders expressively. “That I do not know. Me no sabe. Señor Eldridge say he no understand.”

  All at once the thought flashed into her mind that perhaps the smuggler was at the bottom of this accident. Maybe that was his way of getting even.

  CHAPTER XVI

  DOWN THE MINE SHAFT

  The next three days were busy ones for the girls. Miss Prudence had bought scores of yards of gay-colored cretonnes and other materials, and she now set all three to work making couch and pillow covers and draperies.

  “I’ve got to have draperies to hide the iron bars at the bedroom windows,” she had said. “I don’t like to see those iron bars. They make me feel as if I’m in prison.”

  When she escorted the girls to her bedroom and showed them the heaps of materials, Jo Ann remarked with a whimsical smile, “I didn’t realize what I was getting us into when I suggested brightening up this house with draperies and cushions. It looks as if we’ll be running the sewing machine instead of Jitters for the next week or two.”

  Florence and Peggy both laughed. They knew Jo Ann did not like any task that kept her in the house, and especially one of the sitting-still kind, like sewing.

  “‘Outdoor action and plenty of it,’ is Jo Ann’s slogan,” Peggy explained a moment later for Miss Prudence’s benefit. “She says sitting still and sewing make all her muscles feel cramped and her head ache and her mind tired.”

  “Well, it does,” Jo Ann defended. “I feel as if I’m getting petrified. I’d rather climb mountains any time.”

  “I’ll let you run the machine, then,” Miss Prudence spoke up briskly. “That’ll keep your feet moving up and down as if you’re climbing.”

  “A poor substitute,” Jo Ann returned, smiling.

  “Before you begin sewing, I’ll give you an active job that’ll bring into use more of your muscles—measuring windows. Be sure to get the exact length. Nothing looks worse than draperies that’re too short.”

  After Jo Ann had finished measuring windows, she set to work basting and stitching the hems in the draperies. By this time her thoughts had wandered from sewing to the mystery man and the smugglers. Was that smuggler still lurking around the mine and had the other one reached the border without being caught? And was the mystery man still safe and sound? She must get word someway to him when the smugglers were to make their next trip, so he could follow them. If only he could catch those ringleaders and break up that gang!

  So engrossed was she in these thoughts that she did not heed Peggy’s sudden outburst of laughter several minutes later till Florence called out a merry, “Jo! Will you look what you’ve done! You’ve hemmed all your draperies upside down, so that the parrots or parrakeets—or whatever kind of birds they are in the design—are all standing on their heads.”

  “They’ll look comical with their tails perpetually in the air,” giggled Peggy. “I’m getting dizzy already even at the thought of those poor birds hanging head downward that way.”

  “Oh dear!” groaned the discomfited Jo Ann on viewing her mistake. “Now I’ve got to rip out every hem. Oh, woe is me!”

  “I’ll help you,” Florence offered, taking one of the draperies from her.

  “Next time concentrate on your sewing instead of on the mystery man and those—” Peggy stopped talking abruptly on seeing Miss Prudence enter the room.

  As soon as José came to the house that evening, Jo Ann slipped to the kitchen to ask him if he had seen the smuggler hanging around the mine.

  At his reply that he had not, Jo Ann felt relieved till the next moment, when he added, “We have much trouble at the mine today. No get out much ore.” He went on to explain that the tram-car wrecked the previous day had torn up the track badly and that there had been trouble with some of the mine machinery.

  “Have they found out who wrecked the car?” she asked.

  “No. One man told me he saw Luis, a bad workman El Señor discharged last week, near the track before the wreck.” José shrugged his shoulders. “I do not know who did it. Maybe it was Luis—maybe it was the strange man you saw.”

  “Why did Mr. Eldridge discharge this Luis?”

  “He steal ore.”

  As Miss Prudence entered the kitchen just then and sat down, Jo Ann could not question José further. She left the room wondering if after all she had not been wrong in her surmise about the smuggler’s having wrecked the car. He might have become alarmed after she and Florence had seen him and have left immediately. She certainly hoped that was the case.

  By the time the girls had finished sewing, Jo Ann was thoroughly weary of staying in the house. “If I don’t get outside for a long horseback ride or a climb up the mountains today, I’ll go raving crazy,” she said.

  Peggy laughed at this exaggerated speech, and Florence remarked smilingly, “Well, by all means let’s get out and explore the country this afternoon. I’m fed up with staying inside, too.”

  “To tell you the truth,” Peggy put in, “I’ve been rather glad to stay inside. Ever since I heard about that smuggler’s hanging around here, the house looks good to me.”

  “Oh, he’s gone away by now, surely,” Jo Ann answered. “José says no one else has said a word about having seen a stranger around, and in a small camp like this a stranger surely couldn’t escape being noticed. I feel sure he’s gone back to join the other man. If that man returns for the pottery the same time that he did last week, he’ll be back at the village Friday. I’ve got to get word to the mystery man what day they’re starting for the border.”

  “The woman promised me to save some of the pottery for me, but I want to select the best designs from the entire lot before she sells any of them,” Florence put in.

  “That means we’ll have to go and get the pottery before those men come,” Jo Ann remarked. “That suits me to a T. You’ve already written to your friend in St. Louis that you’re sending the pottery in a few days, haven’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, that settles it. We’ll go to the village to get the pottery Thursday morning and take it to the city and ship it from there. That’ll give me a fine chance to find out from the woman when the smugglers’re coming and to see the mystery man and tell him when to look out for them.”

  “I see where you’re headed for more trouble,” Peggy spoke up. “You’d better keep your fingers out of this whole affair. You’re too adventuresome.”

  Jo Ann half smiled. “Oh, skip it—the lecture, I mean. Let’s get the horses and go for a ride now.”

  “There’s one thing I’d like better than to go for a long ride, and that’s to go through the mine,” Florence said. “Mr. Eldridge promised me he’d take us through it while I’m here this time. When he comes in to lunch, let’s beg him to take us down into it this afternoon.”

  “Fine!” approved Jo Ann. “I’ve been eager to see how the malacate works now that it’s run by electricity.”

  “What’s a malac
ate, and what does it do?” Peggy asked curiously.

  “It’s a windlass arrangement that draws the ore up out of the mine. A rawhide bag is tied to the end of a long cable and let down into the shaft. Using electricity is a vast improvement over the old way.”

  “Did the peons have to work the windlass—wind it by hand?” Peggy asked, puzzled.

  “No, burros were used for that purpose. But before they used a windlass, back in primitive times, they made the Indians carry the ore up in bags, and they had to climb all the way up out of the mine on dangerous notched logs for ladders. Many and many of those Indians have fallen into the deep shafts, to their death.”

  There was silence for a moment; then Florence spoke up: “I have my doubts if Mr. Eldridge’ll take us into the mine in the daytime. The miners are very superstitious about women going into the mine, he said. They think every time a woman goes in, something terrible always happens—an awful explosion or a cave-in, killing one or more of the miners.”

  Jo Ann nodded understandingly. “That’s so. I’d forgotten about that. We’ll ask him to take us tonight, then.”

  As soon as Mr. Eldridge came in to lunch, all three girls greeted him with requests to show them through the mine that night.

  “We-ell, I don’t know quite what to say to that,” he replied slowly. “There’ve been two peculiar accidents lately that make me somewhat reluctant to take you down into the mine. Those accidents haven’t been accounted for to my satisfaction yet.”

  “But they were both outside the mine, weren’t they?” asked Jo Ann.

  “Yes.”

  “And two days have passed by without any more trouble,” Florence added.

  Mr. Eldridge smiled. “Well, I might as well say you may go. When three girls pounce upon one poor defenseless man, he has to agree to their plans. There’s no night shift working tonight, so this’ll be a good time. Be ready by eight o’clock.”

  “All right,” the girls chorused in reply.

  That afternoon the three, accompanied by Carlitos and Miss Prudence, took a long horseback ride over a beautiful mountain trail.

  Miss Prudence refused, however, to go with them on their trip to inspect the mine that night or to let Carlitos go. “Carlitos is tired and sleepy from the long ride, and bed’s the best place for him,” she said. “I should think you girls would’ve had enough exercise, too.”

  By a quarter of eight the girls were ready and waiting. Knowing that the mine was damp and cold, they had put on their sweaters and heaviest oxfords, and Jo Ann and Peggy had prepared themselves for darkness as well, as they had their flashlights.

  When Mr. Eldridge and they reached the shaft, he switched on the electricity to work the malacate so they could go down into the mine.

  No sooner had the machinery started running than the Mexican night watchman came running to investigate, an alarmed expression on his face. “Ah, it is you!” he exclaimed in a relieved tone on seeing Mr. Eldridge.

  Mr. Eldridge smiled. “You are a good watchman, Manuel. I am taking the señoritas down to show them how we mine the ore. Do not tell anyone the señoritas have been in the mine. Sabe?”

  “Sí. I sabe,” Manuel replied quickly, knowing at once why El Señor had given this order.

  “Don’t turn off the malacate. See that nobody comes near it. Stay close by.”

  Manuel nodded assent. “I stay here.”

  “Manuel is the best watchman we’ve ever had,” Mr. Eldridge told the girls. “I can trust him not to go to sleep.”

  When Jo Ann found herself in the rawhide bag tied at the end of the long cable and being dropped down into the shaft’s eerie darkness, she felt a queer sinking sensation at the pit of her stomach, as if she were falling through bottomless space. “It’s breath-taking—scary,” she thought.

  It was with a gasp of relief that she stepped out of the bag and onto the rocky bottom of the shaft. She knew exactly how Peggy felt when she scrambled out of the bag a little later and exclaimed, “Wh-ew! My heart’s up here!” She was clutching her throat dramatically.

  Together they waited for Florence’s descent. By their flashlights’ gleam they could see that her eyes were dilated and her lips tightly closed.

  “It scared you speechless,” grinned Peggy after waiting a moment for her to speak.

  Florence nodded and managed a “Took my breath!”

  It seemed to all three that of all the cold, damp, terrifying places to work, a silver mine was the worst. Mr. Eldridge led them through low narrow tunnels and into several black, cavernous recesses opening from these passageways and showed them the different mining processes.

  Peggy became decidedly nervous on learning that the ore was dynamited down. “There might be some dynamite around here now, and it might explode and blow us into smithereens,” she whispered to Jo Ann.

  A few minutes later she bumped into something against the wall that made her leap back in haste. When Mr. Eldridge told her it was a dynamite box, her heart began leaping faster than ever.

  “He means an empty dynamite box,” Jo Ann explained hastily as her flashlight’s beam showed her the ghastly pallor of Peggy’s face. “Some miners are using it as an altar,” she added comfortingly. “See, there’s a picture of the Virgin inside.”

  “I believe I’m ready to leave this murky gloom and get back up into the good fresh air,” Peggy said, her voice still shaky.

  “Well, I believe you’ve seen all the most interesting things.” Mr. Eldridge smiled. “We’ll go on up.”

  When they came back to the shaft, to Mr. Eldridge’s amazement, the malacate was not working. “Now what’s the matter!” he exclaimed, annoyed. “I told Manuel to keep the malacate running so we could get back.”

  For several minutes they stood waiting in vain for the cable and bag to appear.

  Finally, in an exasperated tone Mr. Eldridge remarked, “Never had anything like this happen before. Can’t imagine what’s the matter. Manuel’s always been so dependable. We may have to walk all that long distance to the entrance of the workings. And you’re all so tired already.”

  Just then there sounded an excited cry that reverberated uncannily through the shaft.

  “Why, that’s José’s voice!” Jo Ann exclaimed. “What’s—”

  The next instant the words, “Manuel’s—killed!” echoed down to them.

  A moment’s stunned silence fell; then Mr. Eldridge gasped, “Manuel—killed! Start the malacate at once, so we can get up there!”

  “No can—the wires all broke,” came back the wailing answer.

  “Wires broken—and Manuel killed and—” Mr. Eldridge’s voice trailed off into silence.

  Jo Ann cut in, “José’s so excitable! Manuel may have only fainted or been shocked unconscious.”

  “That’s true. All the more reason I must get up there at once. It’ll take us so long to walk to the entrance.”

  “Can’t José attach burros to the malacate and pull us up that way?” put in Jo Ann.

  “Yes, he could. That’d take lots less time.” Mr. Eldridge called immediately to José to attach the burros to the malacate and start it working, ending with the usual, “Sabe?”

  “Sí,” José called back. “I go now.”

  While they were anxiously awaiting for José to start the malacate, Mr. Eldridge remarked that he had better go up first to see about Manuel. “I hate to go ahead of you, though.”

  “Don’t worry about us,” Jo Ann said, more confidently than she felt. “There’s nothing here to harm us.”

  “Nothing at all,” agreed Florence in a voice that quivered unconvincingly.

  Just then Peggy’s hand clutched Jo Ann’s convulsively. “Poor Peg’s scared stiff at the idea of his leaving us,” thought Jo Ann as she grasped the cold hand in a comforting pressure. Her mind, however, flew back to Manuel. Surely he couldn’t have been killed. He must’ve fainted. But he was so strong-looking. What could have happened in that short time? If only José would hurry faster and let dow
n that cable. “Oh, surely Manuel can’t be dead!” she kept repeating to herself.

  CHAPTER XVII

  IN THE DARKNESS

  After what seemed to Jo Ann an interminable time the cable appeared, and Mr. Eldridge was pulled up the shaft.

  “I feel better now that he’s up safely,” Jo Ann said, breathing more freely.

  “I don’t know which I dread worse—going up in that awful bag or staying down here in this terrible dark,” Peggy groaned.

  Noticing that Peggy’s flashlight was not on, Florence asked, “Why don’t you switch on your flashlight? That’ll help some.”

  “It won’t turn on. When I bumped against that dynamite box, I got so scared I dropped it. It must’ve got broken then.”

  So worried over Manuel was Jo Ann that she paid little heed to Peggy’s continued laments. If only this awful suspense about him was over! Surely he must be only unconscious. If he were, when they got out they could help give him first aid. She’d had first-aid training in her scout work. “I wish I could go up first and see if I could do anything for him,” she told herself.

  Just then she heard Peggy say, “I believe I’ll go up first. I can’t stand this creepy darkness. I keep thinking that smuggler’s hidden down here and—”

  “Peggy’s so upset and nervous, she’d better go up first,” Jo Ann admitted to herself reluctantly. Aloud she said, “All right, Peg, you go next. See what you can do to help Manuel.”

  “But, Jo, Manuel’s dead!” she wailed.

  Jo Ann shook her head as she answered, “I can’t believe that he is.”

  Shuddering, Peggy went on: “I’d planned to wait for you two before I took a step when I got up. The lights are off up there. Whoever killed Manuel must’ve cut off the lights.”

  “Mr. Eldridge’ll have some kind of a light, surely. If Manuel’s breathing—I can’t help feeling that he is—do everything you can for him.”

  Soon the quivering Peggy was inside the bag and being slowly pulled up the shaft. When, however, she had ascended only a short way, something went wrong with the cable, and the bag hung suspended—motionless.