Part 13 (2/2)
At this, the elevator jolted and settled to its place on the first floor and the three girls stepped out to find Adair, Alice, Walker Jamieson and the rest all waiting for them.
”Thought you had cold feet, and were backing out.” Walker Jamieson greeted them with this sally as they all walked down the entrance stairs and out to their waiting car.
”Look!” Nan pointed at a street car they were pa.s.sing.
”At what?” Laura questioned.
”Oh, you were too late,” Nan answered while she adjusted her camera so that it would be ready for her to take pictures when she wanted to.
”There was a sign on that car which said, 'Toreo.'”
”What does that mean?” Grace questioned.
”Bullfight, darling, that's where you are going now,” Laura answered.
”See, there's the sign that Nan saw again. It's on the front of that bus that's stopped across the street. This must be a holiday. Practically everyone seems to have dusted off his best sombrero and come out on the streets.”
”It's a holiday everyday here.” Adair MacKenzie turned around to join in the conversation. ”Saw a calendar of festivals posted in the hotel lobby. No end to it. No wonder the people never get anything done.”
”I saw that too,” Walker Jamieson remarked. ”Saw something else posted on a bulletin board that was interesting. It was a warning to everyone to take good care of his visitor's pa.s.s. Right beside it was the announcement of a reward being offered to anyone who could give information as to the whereabouts of one Antonio Mazaro, an American citizen and former aviator, who is suspected of being an accomplice in an international smuggling ring.”
”They must be the smugglers Mr. Nogales told us about at the border,”
Nan remarked.
Walker Jamieson said nothing further. The truth, was, however, that he had just an hour before received an a.s.signment from a big New York newspaper to cover certain aspects of this smuggling ring story, and he was already wondering whether or not it was going to be possible for him to go on to the Hacienda as he had planned.
”These Mexicans will never catch anyone, much less a band of American crooks.” Adair MacKenzie looked around again. ”Need a couple of good G-men down here, if they're going to find out anything at all.”
”Think so too,” Walker agreed, ”they are sending some down, I understand.”
”You got your nose in the story?” Adair MacKenzie asked abruptly, and everyone looked at Walker, waiting for his answer.
CHAPTER XV
A BULLFIGHT
”Oh, always interested in whatever goes on,” Walker answered off-handedly. ”You know how it is. See a story breaking, you want to be in on the kill. Just can't help yourself. Gets in your blood, after you've worked on any paper for a while.
”Back four years ago, I went up into northern Canada for a vacation.
Chose that spot because I thought it would be far away from newspapers and stories of all kinds. I guess I was feeling rather disgusted with everything and wanted to get away, so when an old newspaper buddy who had struck out a claim for himself asked me to go up and do a little prospecting for gold with him, I jumped at the chance.
”It looked like an ideal set-up. We were to go alone to his cabin which was miles away from civilization and stay there for the summer. We stocked up with plenty of food, some books I had been wanting to read for a long time, and took a radio along.
”I had a book I wanted to write, something I had started and never found time to finish. Oh, it was nothing,” he added as Nan and the rest looked impressed. ”All newspaper people think that some day they'll write a book that will take the world by storm.
”Well, I thought I would finish that, do some prospecting and just have a nice quiet time for myself. The chap I was going up with was a nice sort of fellow, quiet like myself.
”We went by train as far as we could go, and then got an old Indian to paddle us the rest of the way in a canoe. It was nice going. We took it leisurely, stopped and fished along the banks of the river, and camped for three days in a gorgeous spot that seemed as remote from civilization as any place could possibly be.
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