José nodded assent. “Bien, señorita, I go immediately.”
The girls hurried up to the house, and Florence quickly explained their plans to her mother.
“I think it’ll be all right for you to go,” Mrs. Blackwell replied. “I hope you can find Carlitos, but be very careful. That man is probably capable of doing anything.”
“Oh, Mrs. Blackwell, he can’t be more dangerous than that bear,” put in Jo Ann. “We’ll be careful. I believe I’ll take the gun along. I’ll feel safer.”
“No, let’s take the pistol instead,” Florence put in. “The gun’s too heavy.” She took a pistol out of her bag and handed it to Jo Ann, then they set off down the trail and a little later found José at the road waiting for them with the burros.
Jo Ann hesitated a moment before getting on her burro. “This is my first experience riding without a saddle or a bridle.”
“Oh, it’s easy after you get used to it,” Florence encouraged. “You guide a burro, you know, by hitting him on the neck with a stick.” She sprang up nimbly onto the pack on the donkey’s back.
After Jo Ann had mounted on her burro she remarked, smiling, “This burro’s so small and my legs’re so long that they almost drag on the ground.”
“Sit farther back, the way the Mexicans do,” Florence called back. “It’s much easier riding that way.”
José followed, walking closely behind Jo Ann, having no difficulty in keeping up with the donkey’s pace.