“My stars!” Miss Prudence gasped. “Why—why didn’t you tell us before this? The idea of your not saying one word all this time! And you might’ve been stolen—kidnaped—yourselves!”
“Don’t get so flustered, Prue,” Mr. Eldridge advised. “The girls’re safe and sound if their car isn’t.” He looked over at Jo Ann. “Begin at the first and tell us exactly what happened. Florence, you and Peggy put in all the details she misses.”
Thus commanded, Jo Ann took a long breath and plunged into the story, beginning at her first anxiety over the mystery man’s presentiment about his going to be killed. From that she went on to their discovery of the smugglers’ car in the desert, their finding them in the village, and her reporting all this to the mystery man.
Other than a few exclamations and gasps Miss Prudence did not interrupt. But when Jo Ann stopped to catch her breath, she threw in, “Well, after all this wild adventure, I’ll be afraid to let you girls stick your noses outside the door. And here I’d thought all this time I was the perfect chaperon.”
The expression of stupefied amazement on his sister’s face made Mr. Eldridge smile half whimsically and say, “I’ve learned not to be amazed at anything this trio pulls off. There’re still several points not clear in my mind, though.” He began hurling question after question at the girls, till each felt as if she were being cross-examined on the witness stand.
Finally he was satisfied that he had gathered together all the loose ends of the story. His face was grave as he said, “I’m glad it’s all turned out as it has—so far, but hereafter don’t get tangled up in any way whatever with smugglers. They’re a dangerous set, as Mr. Andrews told you. Most of them would as soon shoot our officers as not. Indeed, they seem to look upon them as good targets for their practice. The next time you suspect anyone of being a smuggler, come tell me about it.”
So earnest and emphatic had Mr. Eldridge been that for the first time Jo Ann realized fully the risks she had been running. “I’m through with smugglers and their affairs from now on,” she declared. “I was more to blame for getting mixed up in this than Peggy and Florence. They’d have kept out of it if it hadn’t been for me.”
Florence spoke up promptly and began trying to share the blame, but Jo Ann shook her head. “No, I’m the guilty one.”
After this well-deserved lecture Jo Ann felt “indigo blue,” as she expressed it to the girls afterward. “If I could only hear from Mr. Andrews that he’s all right and that the smugglers were caught and the car found!”
The next day dragged on interminably, so it seemed to Jo Ann in her low state of mind.