The next moment she was in her father’s arms.
“How thankful I am that I’ve found you girls and Carlitos alive!” he exclaimed, hugging her tightly. “I was frantic when I got here and didn’t find you.”
Now that she realized that Dr. Blackwell was here and they were all safe, Jo Ann felt such a surge of weakness creep over her that she leaned against the wall for support. Now she could relax—all the responsibility was the doctor’s from now on.
Just then two other men came running up the trail, one of them wearing the uniform of a rurale.
“Tell the officer to go up and help José and the peon,” Florence told her father. “They have the mean boss tied, but——”
“He’s so terrible—so savage, he’s liable to escape yet,” Jo Ann put in. “Tell him to hurry.”
The rurale hurriedly slipped past them and rushed on up the narrow trail.
Dr. Blackwell now turned to the tall thin man who had been standing quietly behind him. “Girls, this is Mr. Eldridge, Carlitos’ uncle. He reached the village about the same time I did.”
Florence turned and in rapid Spanish explained to Carlitos that this was his uncle.
Carlitos’ blue eyes widened in amazement. “My uncle!” he repeated, gazing past them to the tall man. Slowly then the boy edged around the girls toward his uncle.