On seeing Jo and Florence the woman rose and hurried over to meet them. With her words tumbling over each other in her excitement, she began talking to Florence. So rapid was her Spanish that Jo Ann could catch only a few words now and then. One thing she was sure of, however, was that the woman was frightened. But why? She could stand the suspense no longer and broke in, “What is it, Florence? What’s the trouble?”
Florence turned and explained quickly to her and Peggy, “She says she heard the smugglers threaten to get even with you and me.”
Jo Ann’s eyes flew open, but she repressed the frightened exclamation on the tip of her tongue.
“Her oldest girl overheard one of the men tell the other that they’d find out at Pedro’s store where we lived,” Florence went on; “then that he’d drive on with the load of pottery and let him wait around here for a while.”
“So that’s why that man’s here—to get even with us!” Jo Ann exclaimed. “That means we’ll have to be extremely careful for a few days. Did she say when the other man’d be back at the village?”
“No, but I’ll ask her.”
After questioning her closely Florence relayed her answers to the girls. “She doesn’t know. Says she thinks he’ll come one day soon—maybe about this time next week.”
“The vague mañana,” Peggy summed up. “That means we’ll be sitting on top of a volcano for no telling how long.”
“I’m so thankful we know of the volcano’s existence,” Jo Ann replied. She smiled over at the woman with a “Muchas gracias. You have been very kind to walk all this way to tell us about the man.”
Florence, too, joined in thanking her, then began talking to the anxious-faced Maria. She could see she was worried even more than they themselves. “Don’t worry, Maria. José won’t let anything happen to us. Will you, José?”