When they reached the car, Peggy called out, “We’d decided you’d tumbled into a water hole or the Rio Grande and drowned. What kept you so long?”
“Er—we——” began Florence.
Jo Ann broke in hurriedly with, “We couldn’t find any water.”
“What’ll we do?” Miss Prudence spoke up quickly. “We can’t go on without water, can we?”
“Yes, the engine’s cooled enough by now.”
“But it would be the height of folly to start out on a desert road without water.”
By that time Jo Ann had started the car, but not before both she and Florence had looked anxiously toward the gully.
“Something happened down in that gully that scared them,” Peggy told herself knowingly on noticing their anxious side glances and the excited expression in their eyes. “As soon as I get them off to themselves, I’m going to find out.”
CHAPTER VI
A FAMILIAR FACE
It was with the keenest relief that Jo Ann managed to start the car and drive away before the men appeared. She was not alone in feeling relieved.