“Let’s try not to worry,” advised Florence.
When they finally reached Jitters’ House, they found José waiting for them with the horses. His black eyes widened in surprise on seeing them getting out of a strange car.
After the girls had thanked Mr. Gonzales and he had started off toward the city, Florence told the mystified José what had happened, ending, “Do not tell anyone about the car’s having been stolen.”
“I will not tell,” he promised.
As the rest of the family had finished eating dinner by the time the girls had reached the house, they ate alone and thus escaped being questioned as much as they would have been otherwise. Shortly afterward they went on to their bedroom. So engrossed were they still in talking over their adventures that it was late before they could compose themselves and go to sleep.
The next day lagged snail-like to the girls. All three went about their household tasks with an air of subdued suspense.
Over and over Jo Ann found herself wondering about the mystery man. Was he still alive? Perhaps even now he was lying badly injured—dying in some remote gully in the desert. Had that awful presentiment he’d had about losing his life—had it actually come to pass, or was it about to? She shuddered at these gloomy thoughts.
Noticing how worried Jo Ann looked, both girls realized that it was the mystery man’s fate more than the loss of the car that was troubling her. They both tried to take her mind off this subject, and Peggy even tried a bit of teasing finally in her effort to make her less pessimistic.
“You’re going around here with such a long face that your chin almost touches the floor,” she told her. “Miss Prudence’ll be wondering what’s the matter.”
“She’s already asked me if you’re sick, Jo,” Florence added. “She said you looked so pale and peaked that she’d about decided she’d better give you some of her iron-strychnine tonic.”