“That desert road doesn’t sound good to me,” Miss Prudence put in, shaking her gray head vigorously. “It’s probably impassable. Ask him if it’s any worse than this one. I certainly don’t want to get stranded in the desert.”
Florence obediently relayed her question.
“If there isn’t any rain”—the man grinned and shrugged his shoulders—“you can drive through all right.”
Florence translated to Miss Prudence what he had said and added, “The rainy season doesn’t begin till September. We’re not likely to have rain. Look at the sky!” She gestured to the cloudless expanse of blue above them.
“It’s so dry and hot now it’s hard to believe it ever rains in this forsaken country.” Miss Prudence hesitated a moment, then went on, “If we’ll save that much distance through this awful country, maybe we’d better try it.”
“Grand!” ejaculated all three girls together.
“Ah, how good!” sang out Carlitos in Spanish.
While Miss Prudence was still pointing out the country’s bad points, Jo Ann followed the man’s directions and turned into the side road leading across the toll bridge. With little difficulty she steered the car down the narrow road, not stopping till they reached the bridge.
As soon as they had passed over the middle of the bridge, the girls and Carlitos, to Miss Prudence’s evident disapproval, exclaimed joyously, “We’re in Mexico now! Viva Mexico! Viva Mexico!”
As both Florence and Carlitos spoke Spanish fluently, it did not take them long to answer the questions asked by the customs officials on the Mexican side, and so they were soon permitted to drive on. They had not left the river far behind before the vegetation began to change again to the typical desert varieties, mesquite, chaparral, cacti—especially the prickly pear and many other thorn-bearing kinds.