As soon as they had reached the Plaza, Miss Prudence and Carlitos found seats, and the three girls joined the laughing, dark-eyed señoritas, mingling with them and feeling a warm kinship—a oneness with them.
Jo Ann, having been the one on the outside, found her attention centered on the spectators sitting or standing near the curb rather than on the boys on the inside of the Plaza.
Just as she reached one of the corners, she caught a sudden glimpse of a familiar face in the crowd in the background. Her heart leaped. There was the mystery man! The very man to whom she had listened in the hotel in Houston. Thank goodness, he hadn’t lost his life!
As she slowed her steps to look over her shoulder at him to assure herself that she was not mistaken, Florence pulled her along saying, “No fair stopping—you’re blocking the line.”
“Yes, but I just saw the mystery man on that corner, and I——”
“Jo! I declare you must have that man on your mind. You’re probably imagining that it’s he. Someone resembling him, perhaps it was.”
“No—no! It was he. When we get back around to that corner I’ll point him out to you.”
“Who’s that you’re going to point out, Jo?” broke in Peggy.
“The mystery man! I’ve just seen him. I wish you didn’t have to keep going in the same direction.”
Jo Ann could scarcely wait to get back to that corner. It seemed miles around the square to her this time. When at last she reached the corner again, she gazed eagerly about for the stalwart, keen-eyed stranger, but he was not to be seen anywhere.