The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-04-08
CHAPTER HI

tlEC llOLCl UdtlllOOiA oSdiCo " oSS A4 three days of train food and loaf ing and one day of west Texas had added anything to her weight.
 They hadn't The needle wiggled around gaily and finally settled on 108 pounds, causing her to mutter, "Oh darn." If ever she reached no, Betty Mary often promised herself, she would throw rip- roaring celebration; she had kind of hoped it could be done here in Fl Paso.
 "But it doesn't matter" she as- sured herself, because I don't know anybody here except Hope Kildare and Sheridan Starr"
 She came out and stopped to bury her face again in the flowers MT. Starr had sent that night. They had been waiting when she came back to her room. May take you to dinner on Saturday," the note with them had said.
 She hadn't answered, but she knew she would say yes. Too much of glamor and interest was already attached to him.. to both the young Border Patrol inspec- tors on whom she had paid an official call. She had come from Washington expecting to find them stodgy unimaginative men, per- haps the plodding type of officers. But Inspectors Starr and Kildare had, surprisingly, looked and talked 1ika bir o,,arornury, hrvc bordc0ppo and highly capable but likely to make few blunders in life. Betty Mary had felt instantly drawn to them.
 T think it would be unfair to recommend that they be discharg- ed," she was confiding presently, in letter to her girl friend back east. T think this Luis Barro has just been lucky. He has just been slip ping by two good men. was sent ont because, as you know, Washing ten wanted an inside report by somebody who could speak Spanish and knew about border conditions. I've been handling all the Border Patrol correspondence, and a few other investigations, and luckily I was born in Texas, too.
 "And guess what, Sue! The thrillingest thing! Remember how we make up and change characters and all, in the Little Theater plays? We'll I was able to do that here today and get the officers valuable inside tip. Really! I have the most to tell you when get home. Even as write this they are out in the San Felipe hills some where. This is much rougher coun- try than around San Antonio, where I was reared. But the Mexi- cans look the same. I am going to sketch some faces.
 Sheridan has asked me for date already! Aren't you jealous? They are big and they move grace fully and have quick dark eyes and Hope-that's the other one has small scar from football, and they both act so serious you'd think they were"
 She had a great deal more to tell Sue but she stopped writing soon and went to bed.
 
 She didn't slep well, though. Things were on her mind.
 At,3 a. m. she telephoned the ho- tel clerk to know if any calls had come for her. None had Still nobody had called at dawn; and at 2 a. m. she was reading a morning paper but she found no mention of any Border Patrol excitement.
 Breakfast was uninteresting; the morning dragged. Three times she telephoned Border Patrol head- quarters, only to be told each time that MessrS. Starr and Kill dare were not in. At D. m. she visited the chief of police again and heard once more what she already knew - that Border Patrol work was always dangerous, likely to include shooting any time.
 At 4:15 p. m. she went to a sta- tionery store and purchased a large Map of the Border Country" with accurate scaling and topographic features, took it to her room and studied it minutely for nearly an hour. Next she sat for few minutes staring out of her hotel window across the Rio Grande at the mountains of old Mexico, tap ping her pretty teeth with a pencil, and thinking. Then, suddenly, she made up her mind. Recalling sporting goods store she had seen earlier two blocks from the hotel, she set out quickly for it.
 T want to buy a good pistol" she told the clerk firmly. And some ammunition and a cartridge belt"
 Mazatlan is highly picturesque 1itle city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, which is Tapped by the Pa- cific Ocean. Many boats stop there, and strange are the people who may be seen on them. Sometimes few of the people disembark
 Two weeks before Betty Mary started west, 20 men and nine women, all of very difinite Asiatic and all speaking some dialect of the Asiatic languages, arrived in Mazatlan, disembarking from a passing vessel at night. They had not been sure of their welcome, but they met with no difficulty. In fact their spokesman, who was an excellent linguist, was elated at the ease with which absorbed" these trav- elers.
 But it is not here that we need expect trouble" he informed them soon after their arrival. We will have to be more careful, however, when we cross into the next land"
 "That will be America?" a Chi nese asked him.
 "The United States, no less," he nodded. But patience. It will not DC easy, as here. Unless we are | fortunate in the assistance we hire, If the right people are approached, n the right way"
 The spokesman shrugged, sug-