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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border
+by Gerald Breckenridge
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border
+
+Author: Gerald Breckenridge
+
+Release Date: December 6, 2004 [EBook #14278]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RADIO BOYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ronald Holder and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RADIO BOYS
+ON THE
+MEXICAN BORDER
+
+BY GERALD BRECKENRIDGE
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+"_The Radio Boys on Secret Service Duty_," "_The Radio
+Boys with the Revenue Guards_," "_The Radio Boys'
+Search for the Inca's Treasure_," "_The Radio
+Boys Rescue the Lost Alaska Expedition_."
+
+[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE]
+
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+Publishers      New York
+
+
+
+
+THE RADIO BOYS SERIES
+
+A Series of Stories for Boys of All Ages
+
+By GERALD BRECKENRIDGE
+
+The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border
+
+The Radio Boys on Secret Service Duty
+
+The Radio Boys with the Revenue Guards
+
+The Radio Boys' Search for the Inca's Treasure
+
+The Radio Boys Rescue the Lost Alaska Expedition
+
+By A.L. BURT COMPANY 1922
+
+THE RADIO BOYS ON THE MEXICAN BORDER
+
+Made in "U. S. A."
+
+
+
+Table of Contents
+
+FOREWORD
+
+DIRECTIONS FOR INSTALLING AN AMATEUR RADIO RECEIVING TELEPHONE
+
+CHAPTER I - A CRY IN THE AIR
+
+CHAPTER II - THE ENEMY NEAR
+
+CHAPTER III - A DARING LEAP
+
+CHAPTER IV - SHOTS AT THE STATION
+
+CHAPTER V - PLANS FOR THE FLIGHT
+
+CHAPTER VI - A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
+
+CHAPTER VII - KIDNAPPED
+
+CHAPTER VIII - HELD FOR RANSOM
+
+CHAPTER IX - ON THE DESERT TRAIL
+
+CHAPTER X - A BRUSH WITH THE ENEMY
+
+CHAPTER XI - JACK CANNOT SLEEP
+
+CHAPTER XII - JACK DISCOVERS A TRAITOR
+
+CHAPTER XIII - THE NET IS DRAWN TIGHTER
+
+CHAPTER XIV - THE KEY TO THE MYSTERY
+
+CHAPTER XV - TO THE RESCUE
+
+CHAPTER XVI - A SOUND IN THE SKY
+
+CHAPTER XVII - INSIDE THE CAVE
+
+CHAPTER XVIII - THE FIGHT IN THE CAVE
+
+CHAPTER XIX - RESTING UP
+
+CHAPTER XX - CONFERRING BY RADIO
+
+CHAPTER XXI - GAINING AN ALLY
+
+CHAPTER XXII - FLYING TO THE RESCUE
+
+CHAPTER XXIII - THE TABLES TURNED
+
+CHAPTER XXIV - FRANK SAVES THE DAY
+
+CHAPTER XXV - DANGER AT HAND
+
+CHAPTER XXVI - THE NIGHT ATTACK
+
+CHAPTER XXVII - SENORITA RAFAELA
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII - THE FAIR TRAITRESS
+
+CHAPTER XXIX - THREE CHEERS FOR THE RADIO BOYS
+
+CHAPTER XXX - GOOD NEWS FOR ANXIOUS EARS
+
+CHAPTER XXXI - CALM AFTER THE STORM
+
+CHAPTER XXXII - MORE ADVENTURE AHEAD
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+The development of radio telephony is still in its infancy at this
+time of writing in 1922. And yet it has made strides that were
+undreamed of in 1918. Experiments made in that year in Germany, and by
+the Italian Government in the Adriatic, enabled the human voice to be
+projected by radio some hundreds of miles. Today the broadcasting
+stations, from which nightly concerts are sent far and wide across the
+land, have tremendous range.
+
+Estimates compiled by the various American companies making and
+selling radiophone equipment showed that in March of 1922 there were
+more than 700,000 receiving sets installed throughout the country and
+that installations were increasing so rapidly it was impossible to
+compute the percentage with any degree of accuracy, as the gains even
+from week to week were great.
+
+When you boys read this the problems of control of the air will have
+been simplified to some extent. Yet at the beginning of 1922 they were
+simply chaotic. Then the United States Government of necessity took a
+hand. The result will be, eventually, that certain wave lengths will
+be set aside for the exclusive use of amateurs, others for commercial
+purposes, still others for governmental use, and so on.
+
+In this connection, you will note that in the story Jack Hampton's
+father builds sending stations on Long Island and in New Mexico. This
+is unusual and requires explanation.
+
+The tremendous growth of amateur receiving stations is due in part to
+the fact that such stations require no governmental license. A sending
+station, on the other hand, does require a license, and such license
+is not granted except upon good reasons being shown. It would be
+natural for the government, however, to give Mr. Hampton license to
+use a special wave length--such as 1,800 metres--for transoceanic
+radio experiments. Extension of the license to the New Mexico plant
+would follow.
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+DIRECTIONS FOR INSTALLING AN AMATEUR RADIO RECEIVING TELEPHONE
+
+
+In order that the boy interested in radio telephony may construct his
+own receiving set, the Author herein will describe the construction of
+a small, cheap set which almost any lad handy at mechanics can build.
+Such a set should be sufficiently powerful to permit of successfully
+picking up the concerts and other programme entertainments being
+broadcasted frequently by stations throughout the country.
+
+Two drawings are given herewith which will enable boys to visualize
+the appearance of the set, and will be of aid in following
+instructions.
+
+Referring to Figure 1 let us examine first the construction of the
+receiving inductance marked L. The latter is shown in detail in Figure
+2, and consists of a heavy piece of cardboard. The back of an ordinary
+writing pad will do.
+
+[Illustration: Figure 1]
+
+First, draw the circle out with a compass to the diameter shown and
+then divide off the outside into an unequal number of divisions as
+shown. Draw a light pencil line through each of these marks to the
+centre of the circle. Now with your scissors cut out the disc, after
+which you cut the slots as shown.
+
+The slots should be about one-quarter of an inch in width and of the
+depth shown in the drawing. Two such discs should be made and, when
+all cut out, should be given several coats of shellac to add stiffness
+and to improve the insulating qualities.
+
+Now at your hardware dealer's buy one-quarter pound of No. 24 double,
+cotton-covered wire and proceed to wind the coils in the manner shown.
+Keep the windings even and avoid all joints throughout the length of
+winding.
+
+When you have finished, mount the coils as shown in the drawing. Make
+sure that the windings on both coils run in the same direction. If you
+fail to do this, the set will not work.
+
+For the detector, it is better to purchase a good make of galena
+detector at any radio supply store. If you are handy with tools,
+however, you can buy the galena and make your own detector. It will
+work with more or less satisfaction.
+
+Your next need will be the condenser. The condenser consists of a
+series of aluminum plates, some of which are movable and the rest
+stationary.
+
+Buy a small variable condenser. Its function is to tune the secondary
+circuit, which is accomplished simply by turning the knob. Such a
+condenser could not be made without the use of a good set of tools,
+and the author strongly advises it be bought instead of made at home
+in order to avoid trouble. The aluminum plates are spaced very closely
+and great care should be taken to avoid bending them, as they must not
+touch each other.
+
+The aerial for this set should be about 60 to 100 feet in length and
+as high and clear of surrounding objects as possible. A simple
+porcelain cleat at either end, as shown in the drawing, will serve to
+insulate it sufficiently.
+
+Your ground connection can be made best by wiring to the cold water
+pipe, although wiring to a steam or gas pipe will do almost as well.
+
+You are now prepared to mount the various instruments in their proper
+locations. For your table instruments, get a good pine board about
+seven-eighths of an inch thick. Buy four binding posts and use one for
+the aerial wire, one for the ground wire, and two for the phones or
+head set.
+
+To operate the set, first bring the hinged coil of wire close up to
+the fixed coil and adjust the detector until you can hear in your
+receivers the loudest click caused by the turning on and off of the
+key to a nearby electric light. If no light is available, a buzzer and
+dry battery should be used. When the detector is properly adjusted you
+will be able to hear the buzz quite distinctly in the head phones if
+the buzzer is not too far away.
+
+[Illustration: Figure 2]
+
+The actual adjustment of the detector is rather a delicate job, and
+once it is in the proper position it is a good plan to avoid jarring
+it, as it is liable to get out of adjustment very easily.
+
+Once the sensitive spot on your detector is found, slowly turn the
+knob on your condenser and at some spot on it you should be able to
+pick up signals of some sort, either of radiophone or spark. If the
+set does not work, then go over all your wiring and be sure that the
+windings of the two coils are both running the same way.
+
+The above set will work well for short distances, say up to twelve or
+fifteen miles. Beyond that, however, it will not receive music unless
+you have unusual facilities for putting up an aerial to a considerable
+height and well clear of surrounding objects.
+
+Such a set should be constructed at a minimum of cost and may later,
+after you have become familiar with the operation of radio appliances,
+easily be converted into a set of much greater range by the use of a
+vacuum tube as detector and may even, by slight changes, be given the
+much desired regenerative effects.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A CRY IN THE AIR
+
+
+"Well, Bob, here we are again. And no word from Jack yet."
+
+"That's right, Frank. But the weather has been bad for sending so
+great a distance for days. When these spring storms come to an end the
+static will lift and well stand a better chance to hear from him."
+
+"Righto, Bob. Then, too, the Hamptons may not have finished their
+station on time."
+
+The other shook his head. "No, Jack wrote us they would have
+everything installed by the 15th and that we should be on the lookout
+for his voice. And when he says he'll do a thing, he generally does
+it. It must be the weather. Let's step out again and have a look."
+
+Taking off their headpieces, the two boys opened the door of the
+private radiophone station where the above conversation took place and
+stepped out to a little platform. It was a mild day late in June, and
+the sandy Long Island plain, broken only by a few trees, with the
+ocean in the distance, lay smiling before them. A succession of
+electrical storms which for days had swept the countryside in rapid
+succession apparently had come to an end. The clouds were lifting, and
+there was more than a promise of early sunlight to brighten the
+Saturday holiday.
+
+The boys looked hopefully at each other.
+
+"Looks better than it has for days, Frank."
+
+"That's right."
+
+A few moments more they chatted hopefully about the prospects, then
+re-entered the station.
+
+Frank Merrick and Bob Temple were chums, a little under 18 years of
+age each. It was their bitterest regret that they had been too young
+to take any part in the World War some years before. Frank was dark,
+curly-haired, of medium height and slim, but strong and wiry. Bob was
+fair and sleepy-eyed, a fraction under six feet tall and weighed 180
+pounds. A third chum and the leader of the trio was Jack Hampton, 19
+years of age. He had gone to New Mexico several months before with his
+father, a mining engineer.
+
+All three boys were sons of wealthy parents, with country estates near
+the far end of Long Island. Frank's parents, in fact, were dead, and
+he lived with the Temples. Mr. Temple was his guardian and
+administrator of the large fortune left by his father, who had been
+Mr. Temple's partner in an exporting firm with headquarters in New
+York City. Jack Hampton also was motherless.
+
+The boys were keenly interested in scientific inventions, and were
+given every facility by Mr. Temple and Mr. Hampton for indulging their
+hobbies. Such indulgence required considerable sums of money, but the
+men believed the boys were worth it. In fact, both gentlemen were
+scientifically inclined themselves, and were able to give the boys
+much valuable advice.
+
+When Mr. Hampton decided to go to Texas and New Mexico as the
+representative of a group of "independent" oil operators engaged in a
+bitter war with the Oil Trust known as the "Octopus," Jack begged so
+hard to be permitted to go along that his father let him quit
+Harrington Hall Military Academy two months before the end of the
+term.
+
+It was agreed that when school ended, June 28, Frank and Bob should
+join Jack in the Southwest for their summer vacation. The two boys
+owned an airplane in which they hoped to make the trip when the time
+came. Mr. Temple, however, was dubious about letting them attempt to
+make so long a flight alone.
+
+"But, Dad," Bob would argue, whenever the matter was discussed, "we'll
+be all right. We've made lots of flights without any accidents. We're
+as capable as anybody. You know yourself what the instructors up at
+Mineola told you. You say we are too young to fly away alone. But look
+at the young fellows that got to be 'aces' in the War! Not much older
+than we are now."
+
+It must be confessed that Mrs. Temple thought little of the matter one
+way or the other. She had so many social duties to take up her time
+that there was little left for the boys. Accordingly, the boys had
+only Mr. Temple to persuade and they felt pretty certain of doing that
+in time. So the last two months of school were spent in poring over
+maps and routes, and in studying up on landing fields and flying
+conditions generally throughout the territory they would have to
+cover.
+
+Much of this study for the proposed flight was carried on at the
+radiophone station on the Hampton estate. Mr. Hampton was an
+enthusiast about the development of radio telephony and it was through
+him the boys first had become interested in the subject. A year
+earlier he had built a powerful station for the purpose of making
+experiments in talking across the ocean. On that account the United
+States Government had granted him a special permit to use an 1,800
+metre wave length.
+
+Before leaving for the Southwest, Jack told the boys his father
+intended to build in Texas or New Mexico another radiophone station of
+similar wave length. This would enable Mr. Hampton to communicate
+with his New York confreres through his Long Island station. The big
+thing to the boys, however, was that they would be able to talk to
+each other across 2,000 miles of territory. Delays in construction in
+the Southwest had occurred, however, and communication between the two
+stations had not yet been established when our story opens.
+
+As the boys re-entered the station after their inspection of the
+weather, Bob threw himself sprawlingly into a deep wicker chair and,
+picking up a book, began idly to turn the pages. Frank went to the
+table where the control apparatus was located and put on a headpiece.
+For a few moments there was silence, which Frank presently shattered
+with a loud cry of: "Bob. Bob. Come here."
+
+Bob dropped his book and, leaping to his feet, strode to his chum's
+side.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Put on a headpiece, Bob," said Frank in a voice of great excitement.
+"I believe Jack is trying to get us."
+
+Excited as his chum, Bob clamped a receiver on his head, while Frank
+manipulated the "amplifier" and "detector" knobs on the control
+apparatus.
+
+A variety of sounds greeted the boys at first, whistles, calls, and
+chattering coming to their ears. Then as their tuner searched out the
+higher regions of the air, they shut out the sounds of the low-range
+air traffic. There was a thin, shrieking sound. Then, that also
+disappeared. And then quite suddenly the listening, expectant boys
+heard Jack's voice speaking to them just as plainly as if he stood in
+the room.
+
+"Frank. Bob. Bob. Frank," Jack was saying. "Can you hear me? Can you
+hear me?"
+
+"Hurray, Jack, sure we can hear you," cried Frank, bending forward to
+speak into the transmitter on the stand before him.
+
+Then as Jack's voice continued calling without paying him any
+attention, he straightened up and laughed.
+
+"Gee. I forgot," he laughed. Laying down his headpiece, he ran across
+the room; opened a door into the power house adjoining where the
+mechanic was dozing over his pipe and called to him to throw on the
+generator.
+
+Galloping back, as the man obeyed, Frank again snatched up his
+headpiece. Bob already was bending over a transmitter, calling to Jack
+in faraway New Mexico. Both boys listened with straining ears for the
+response. Presently Jack answered: "I can hear you, but only very
+faintly. Put that band piece on the talking machine. You know the one
+I like so much. I can't think of its name. I'll tune to it."
+
+Frank hastily shuffled through a pile of talking machine records.
+Finding the one he sought, he put it on the machine which stood
+directly in front of a big condensing horn strapped to the back of a
+chair to give it the proper height. A moment or two later, Jack's
+voice in the receivers declared:
+
+"All right. Shut her off now. I'm fixed fine."
+
+"Say, Jack, think of talking 2,000 miles like this," said Bob.
+
+"Oh, we've been working some days out here," answered Jack. "But we
+couldn't get you."
+
+"No," cut in Frank. "The static interfered, I guess. But it lifted
+today."
+
+"How are things going, Jack?" Bob inquired next.
+
+Jack's voice became excited. "Going?" he answered. "Fellows, I never
+knew what excitement was until this last week."
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded both boys together.
+
+"Oh, I couldn't tell you now," laughed Jack. "It would take all day
+and then some to tell you all that's happening around here. But, let
+me tell you, between Dad's business opponents and a gang of Mexican
+bandits that appeared on the scene lately, things are getting pretty
+lively. Say, when are you coming? Now's the time if ever----"
+
+Suddenly, Jack's voice ceased abruptly, to be succeeded a moment later
+by his agonized cry for "Help." Then there was a crash that rang in
+the eardrums of the alarmed boys listening in. Then, silence.
+
+"Jack. Jack," they called. "What's the matter?"
+
+There was no answer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE ENEMY NEAR
+
+
+Frank Merrick and Bob Hampton looked at each other in alarm. Their
+faces were pale.
+
+That cry for "Help" which abruptly had cut off Jack's voice as he
+spoke to them from his radiophone station 2,000 miles away in New
+Mexico still rang in their ears. Their heads still hummed from the
+vibrating crash which had succeeded. What did it all mean?
+
+Frank snatched the receiver from his head, while Bob removed his more
+slowly. Frank voiced the question in each mind as he said in a tone of
+apprehension:
+
+"What do you think happened to Jack?"
+
+"You know as much as I do," answered his chum.
+
+"Well, do you know what I think?" asked Frank with energy. "I think
+those Mexican bandits he spoke about sneaked up on him."
+
+"Well, if they did, they caught a Tartar," said Bob, with conviction,
+remembering Jack's athletic prowess. All three boys were athletic,
+good swimmers, boxers and wrestlers, as well as skillful fencers.
+Jack, however, was unquestionably the superior of the others, except
+that Bob was the best wrestler.
+
+Frank shook his head dubiously. "I don't know," he said. "If there was
+a bunch of them and if they sneaked up from behind while he was
+talking."
+
+"Just the same," said Bob, "old Jack would put up some battle. I'll
+bet you the furniture got mussed up all right, all right. That's the
+reason for that crash. Probably the microphone was torn from the
+cords. They may even have wrecked the station. Boy, oh boy, don't I
+wish I'd been there." And Bob doubled up his fists and pranced around,
+making deadly swings at imaginary foes.
+
+"Calm down, Bob," said Frank, dropping into a chair and running a hand
+through his hair as he was in the habit of doing when perplexed. "We
+don't know that it happened the way we figure. We don't know what
+happened. Maybe Jack was badly hurt, maybe he was killed. Or he may be
+a prisoner of the bandits.
+
+"Oh," he cried, leaping to his feet and beginning to walk up and down
+the room distractedly, "isn't there something we can do? This is
+maddening."
+
+"Calm down yourself, Frank," said Bob, always the cooler of the two in
+a crisis. "If we can't do any better, at least we can wire to Jack's
+father and find out in a few hours what happened."
+
+At this moment the door was pushed open. A tall man of distinguished
+appearance, still in the prime of life, and bearing a close
+resemblance to Bob, entered the room. He glanced inquiringly at the
+boys.
+
+"Something gone wrong?" he asked. "What's the trouble?"
+
+"Hello, Dad."
+
+"Hello, Uncle George."
+
+It was Mr. Temple, Bob's father and Frank's guardian, and there was
+relief in the boys' voices as they greeted him. He always was so
+capable in an emergency.
+
+"Motored home at noon today," he said. "Guess I've got spring fever.
+Anyhow, I couldn't stand it in the city. Della told me you were over
+here and that you thought, perhaps, you would hear from the Hamptons
+today." Della was Bob's younger sister, and the Temples' only other
+child.
+
+"We heard all right, Dad," said Bob gravely. Thereupon he proceeded to
+relate what had occurred.
+
+Mr. Temple listened in silence. His face showed he was disturbed. At
+the conclusion of Bob's recital, he walked over to a headpiece and put
+it on.
+
+"No use, Uncle George," said Frank, but Mr. Temple turned to him with
+a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"That so?" he said.
+
+With a cry, Frank leaped from his chair, seized a headpiece and put it
+on.
+
+"Hurray, it's Jack," he shouted. Then he bent over to the telephone
+and called:
+
+"Jack. Jack. Are you hurt? What happened?"
+
+"Oh, I'm bunged up a little," came back Jack's voice, in a cheerful
+tone. "But there are no bones broken."
+
+"Was it the bandits?" demanded Bob, who had clamped on a third
+headpiece, as he elbowed Frank aside to speak into the transmitter.
+
+"Yes. Three of them," responded Jack. "A scouting party. They sneaked
+in behind me. Thought I was alone, I guess, but when I hollered for
+help Dad came in from the power house on the run and the pair of us
+put them down for the count. We've got them tied up here now. The
+microphone cord was snapped but I was able to make repairs. So I
+started calling for you right away."
+
+"Jack, this is Mr. Temple," cut in the older man at this point. "If
+your father is there, please put him on the phone. I'd like to speak
+to him."
+
+"All right, Mr. Temple," answered Jack. "He's right here. Wait just a
+minute."
+
+Frank and Bob politely removed their headpieces and walked to a
+bookcase, talking in low tones, as they leaned their elbows on the top
+of it. This room, by the way, deserves a brief description.
+
+It was circular and without windows. The walls were hung with a
+material resembling burlap in appearance, but of special construction
+and sound-proof. The ceiling was nine feet high. From a point six feet
+up the walls material like that in the walls stretched to a point in
+the middle of the ceiling. The room had somewhat the appearance of the
+interior of a small circus tent. This construction was for the purpose
+of increasing the acoustic properties.
+
+While Mr. Temple conversed with Mr. Hampton, in whose oil operations
+he naturally was interested, as he had invested a considerable sum in
+them, the boys talked in whispers. They were frankly envious of Jack's
+adventures and wishing that they, too, were on the ground. Suddenly,
+something said by his father caught Bob's attention, and he stopped
+talking to Frank and turned to listen.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you, Hampton," Bob heard his father say, "I've got a
+sharp attack of spring fever. I think I need a vacation. And if these
+two youngsters of mine will let me go along, I'll come out with them."
+
+Bob couldn't control his eagerness. Going up to his father's side, he
+pulled insistently at his sleeve.
+
+"Wait a minute, Hampton," said Mr. Temple. "Bob has something on his
+mind." He removed the receiver and regarded his son with a twinkle.
+"Out with it," he said. "I suppose that quite shamelessly you've been
+listening to my conversation."
+
+"No, Dad, Honest Injun," protested Bob. "Only I couldn't help
+overhearing that part about you going with us. Say, Dad, we'll go by
+airplane, won't we?"
+
+Mr. Temple groaned in mock dismay. "Run along," he said. "You'll drive
+me crazy with that airplane business." Then, once more adjusting his
+headpiece, he resumed his interrupted conversation with Mr. Hampton.
+
+Bob returned to Frank, wearing a wide grin. "I couldn't resist putting
+over that piece of propaganda," he said.
+
+"Do you think he'll let us fly?" whispered Frank.
+
+"Say," answered Bob scornfully, "now that Dad has decided to go along,
+it's a cinch. He's as crazy about flying as Mr. Hampton is about the
+radiophone."
+
+"Ssst. Ssst," came a warning whisper, interrupting them. They swung
+about to face the door into the power house. It was part-way open and
+the round good-natured face of Tom Barnum, filled now with anxiety,
+was framed in the opening. Tom was the mechanic-watchman. He beckoned,
+and the boys tiptoed across the room and into the power house, closing
+the door behind them. Old Davey, caretaker at the Hampton home, stood
+there, wringing his hands.
+
+"What is it? What's the matter?" Frank Merrick asked sharply.
+
+"Old Davey says there's a thief up at the house," said Tom.
+
+"A thief?" said Bob. "How do you know?"
+
+"Seed him myself with my own two eyes," quavered Old Davey, a little
+old man who was a pensioner of Mr. Hampton's. "He's a big dark
+ugly-lookin' feller. I seed him a-sneakin' into the house through the
+cellar door I left open to git out some garden tools."
+
+"Then what did you do?" asked Frank.
+
+"I run," said Old Davey, simply. "Leastways I tried to, but my legs
+ain't what they used to be."
+
+"Come on, Bob," said Frank, impulsively. "Let's go see."
+
+"Not till we tell Dad, first," said Bob, as always the cooler.
+
+Re-entering the sending room, Bob once more gained the attention of
+his father, who still was in conversation with Mr. Hampton. He told
+him what Old Davey had reported. Mr. Temple readjusted the headpiece
+and swung about to the transmitter.
+
+"Anything in your house a fellow could carry off in a pocket,
+Hampton?" he said. "Because the boys tell me there is a thief in it
+right now, and we're going up to try to catch him."
+
+"I don't think so," said Mr. Hampton, and then added in a tone of
+alarm: "Great guns, Temple, yes. There is. There's a duplicate list
+among my papers that the Octopus would give anything to obtain
+possession of. It's a list of the lessees out here in the oil fields
+who have joined the independents."
+
+"All right, Hampton," said Mr. Temple, "we're off."
+
+Removing the headpiece, he hurried Bob back into the power house.
+There he ordered Tom to switch off the motor, lock up and follow them.
+Then accompanied by the boys and with Old Davey trotting alongside to
+keep up, he started in swift strides for the Hampton house, which
+could be seen above the intervening tree tops, about a quarter of a
+mile away.
+
+"I thought you came out from town for a little peace and quiet, Dad,"
+said Bob. "You're certainly getting it, aren't you? Hey. There he
+goes." And with a shout, Bob started running swiftly toward the figure
+of a man who had just emerged from the open cellar door at the rear of
+the Hampton house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A DARING LEAP
+
+
+At Bob's shout the intruder who had just emerged from the Hampton
+cellar looked back over his shoulder. Seeing he was discovered he
+broke into a desperate run. He was heading toward the front of the
+house where ran the long and winding drive which led to the main
+highroad.
+
+The man shouted hoarsely, and from the front of the house came the
+sound of a powerful motor engine being set in motion.
+
+"He's got a car waiting for him," cried Bob, who was in the lead.
+"Drat the luck, he'll escape us yet."
+
+"Hey, Bob, we can cut 'em off at the Gut," called Frank, and he struck
+away at a tangent from their course as the man disappeared around the
+house and the motor car could be heard roaring off down the drive.
+
+"Righto," cried Bob, and he followed his chum.
+
+Old Davey had dropped far behind and Mr. Temple and Tom Barnum were
+laboring along some yards in the rear of the two boys and steadily
+losing ground.
+
+"Careful, boys," called Mr. Temple gaspingly, as he grasped the
+meaning of the boys' maneuver. "Don't be rash. May be several of
+them."
+
+"All right, Dad," sang out Bob over his shoulder. "We'll be careful.
+Follow along."
+
+The boys were heading for a place in the woods where the drive ran
+between six-foot banks before turning a sharp corner. Cars perforce
+had to be slowed up going through this place which the boys called the
+Gut. Furthermore, the drive approached this place by a winding,
+circuitous route, while the boys were not far distant from it by the
+shortcut through the woods which they were following. Chances were
+even that they would be in time to intercept the fugitives. Yet what
+could they do even if they arrived in time? They gave no thought to
+that as they crashed through the underbrush.
+
+Bob slightly in the lead reached the top of the bank overhanging the
+road ahead of his comrade and experienced a thrill of triumph as he
+heard the roar of the approaching car and realized he had arrived
+first. The car slowed down as it entered the Gut. Evidently the driver
+remembered the perilous place from when he had driven through on
+approaching the house.
+
+The car passed below going at a snail's pace while Frank was still a
+short distance in the rear and Mr. Temple and Tom Barnum were not yet
+in sight. It was an open touring car with the top folded back. There
+were three men in it, one on the seat beside the driver and the third
+in the rear. He was the man who had entered the Hampton house. The
+driver appeared to be a New York taxi chauffeur, and probably had been
+employed for the trip. The others were swarthy men, foreign in
+appearance.
+
+The man beside the driver, looking up, saw Bob, and shouted. At that
+moment the car passed directly beneath him, and Bob leaped. He landed
+on the running board beside the rear seat. Steadying himself as the
+car lurched from the impact of his weight, Bob reached in and grasped
+the man on the rear seat by the coat collar and half pulled him from
+the car, so that his body lay across the door.
+
+Then the unexpected occurred. The driver opened his throttle and the
+car leaped ahead, and at the same time the man beside him stood up and
+struck at Bob.
+
+Bob leaned back to avoid the blow, and the next moment found himself
+flat on his back in the road, with the car disappearing around the
+curve.
+
+Frank, who by now had reached the top of the bank, dropped to the road
+beside him and bent over him with real anxiety in his voice as he
+said:
+
+"Bob, Bob, are you hurt?"
+
+Ruefully rubbing the back of his head, Bob sat up.
+
+"No," said he, "But they got away, Frank."
+
+Again there was a crashing in the underbrush on the top of the bank,
+and Mr. Temple and Tom Barnum came into view, red and perspiring.
+
+"Escaped you, hey?" said Mr. Temple, leaping to the road, as Bob
+scrambled to his feet. "But, say, I see you captured something all
+right." And he pointed to a coat clutched fast in Bob's hand.
+
+Then for the first time Bob noticed that in falling from the car he
+had dragged his victim's coat with him. He held it up and looked at it
+curiously.
+
+"He must have been wriggling out of his coat when he found you
+wouldn't let go," surmised Frank. "I could see him threshing around
+just as I came up to the top of the bank. Then you fell and held on
+tight and the coat was pulled from him."
+
+"Yes, I guess that's the way it happened," assented Bob. "Well, I'd
+rather have had the fellow. This isn't any good to me." And he tossed
+the coat away contemptuously.
+
+"Not so fast, Bob," said Frank, stooping to pick up the garment.
+"Let's see what's in the pockets. There may be a clue as to the man's
+identity."
+
+"That's right, Frank," said Mr. Temple. "Search it well. And, Bob, did
+you notice the license number of the car? We can telephone and have it
+intercepted."
+
+"No," confessed Bob. "I was too busy to get that."
+
+Frank interrupted the conversation with a shout of delight. "Look at
+this," he cried, holding up a long strip of paper. "Return trip ticket
+to Ransome, New Mexico. And a wallet with a big bunch of bills in it.
+And here, what's this?" he added, holding up a thick, legal-looking
+envelope. "Why, Mr. Hampton's name is written on it."
+
+"Let me have that, Frank," said Mr. Temple, extending his hand. Frank
+passed him the envelope. Mr. Temple noted the seal had been broken,
+and opening it he pulled out a thick document down which he ran his
+glance hurriedly. Then his face became grave.
+
+"Boys," he said, "Mr. Hampton has many things of value in his home,
+but this was the most valuable of all." Briefly he explained the paper
+contained a list of names of "independents" in the oil field, together
+with other information, which would give the Octopus a very great
+advantage in the business war between the Oil Trust and the
+"independents" if the document fell into its hands.
+
+"This is pretty serious business, boys," Mr. Temple continued. "Bob,
+you were very rash, but you did a good stroke of business that time.
+Come," he added, "we'll go back to the house, and call up the police.
+Maybe that car can be stopped and its occupants arrested."
+
+As they turned through the woods, another thought occurred to Mr.
+Temple, and he asked Frank what was the name of the man to whom the
+railroad ticket had been issued.
+
+"Jose Morales," read Frank. "This is the portion for the return trip
+from New York. Evidently the man came from--why, Mr. Temple, he came
+here from Ransome, New Mexico. That's the nearest station on the
+railroad to the Hampton's camp."
+
+"You're right, my boy," said Mr. Temple gravely. "There is some
+mystery here."
+
+Frank thwacked Bob gleefully on the back. "Say, Bob," he declared,
+"old Jack isn't having all the fun after all, is he?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SHOTS AT THE STATION
+
+
+"Boys," said Mr. Temple, when the Temple home, a short distance from
+the Hampton place, was reached, "come into the library with me. I want
+to have a serious talk with you."
+
+Obediently, Bob and Frank filed into the room and sat down in deep
+leather armchairs, while Mr. Temple sat back in a swinging chair by
+his broad, flat-topped desk. Selecting a cigar from the humidor at his
+elbow, he lighted it and puffed thoughtfully several moments before
+addressing the chums.
+
+"First of all," he said at the conclusion of this period of silence,
+"I've decided that we will not notify the police of this affair."
+
+"Why not, Dad?" demanded Bob in surprise.
+
+"We want to keep this matter to ourselves until we can see more
+clearly what it means," explained Mr. Temple. "We recovered what was
+stolen, anyhow. But more than that, I begin to suspect there is
+something more behind all this than mere business rivalry between the
+independent oil operators and the Trust."
+
+"What do you mean, Uncle George?" asked Frank, puzzled.
+
+"Well, boys, I'll tell you," said Mr. Temple, speaking deliberately
+and thoughtfully. "In the first place I know the men at the head of
+the so-called Octopus. They are keen business men and quick to seize
+every legitimate advantage. But they are above such unscrupulous
+tactics as this.
+
+"I know the signs point to them as the instigator of our troubles at
+Mr. Hampton's camp and then here today. But those signs point to
+something else, too. If you will recall, Jack said the fellows who
+raided the Hamptons today, or rather tried to do so but failed, were
+Mexicans. And this man who entered the Hampton house today was a
+Mexican, too. What was his name, Frank?"
+
+"Morales. Jose Morales," said Frank, promptly.
+
+"Yes, Jose Morales," said Mr. Temple. "Well, I believe that certain
+Mexicans are responsible for our troubles, and not our business
+rivals, at all."
+
+"What in the world?" said Bob, puzzled.
+
+"But why, Uncle George?" demanded Frank.
+
+"In order to make trouble between the United States and Mexico," said
+Mr. Temple, promptly.
+
+"Oh," said Bob, "I begin to see what you're driving at. You mean,
+then, that by attacking the independents in the Southwest these
+Mexicans would get us so stirred up that Uncle Sam would take a hand
+to protect our properties, and might even send troops to the border?"
+
+"That's exactly what I mean, Bob," said Mr. Temple approvingly.
+
+"But in that case, Uncle George," demanded Frank, "why wouldn't the
+Mexicans be making trouble for the Octopus, too?"
+
+"Because, Frank," explained the older man, "the properties throughout
+the region where we are located are mainly held by independent
+operators. The Octopus is trying to gobble us up, but it hasn't
+succeeded, and won't if we can prevent. But, just the same, it isn't
+there for the Mexicans to attack. If they want to harass anybody in
+the hope of getting the United States Government to intervene, they
+must attack us and our friends and allies."
+
+"Yes, I see that now," said Frank, nodding. "But what makes you think
+the Mexicans want to get into a war with Uncle Sam?"
+
+"They don't particularly yearn to come to blows with us, Frank," said
+Mr. Temple. "And not all Mexicans are involved, if my suspicions are
+correct, but only a faction. You see, boys, General Obregon has been
+President of Mexico now for several years, but the country is far from
+pacified and far from submitting to his rule. The rebel forces in the
+northern part of Mexico are gaining in strength right along. One of
+these days they will be in open revolution.
+
+"Now these Mexicans who want to depose Obregon would like to get him
+into trouble with the United States in the hope that what they desire
+would then come to pass."
+
+"I begin to understand you," said Bob, with more animation than usual.
+"You mean the rebels would like to stir up trouble on the border and
+get Obregon into hot water with Uncle Sam in just the same way that
+Pancho Villa some years ago made trouble between our government and
+Carranza by his raid on Columbus, New Mexico?"
+
+"That's it, Bob," said his father.
+
+"Gee, Dad," cried Bob. "This time, if there's a war, I'm going to
+enlist, believe me."
+
+"Same here, Uncle George," declared Frank. "Bob and I could go as
+aviators."
+
+"Hurray for the young aviators of the Rio Grande," cried Bob, swinging
+his arm like a cheer leader of the school team.
+
+"You boys don't know what you're talking about," said Mr. Temple, but
+with an indulgent smile. "I should imagine you would have read enough
+of the horrors of war during the past few years to make you never want
+to see a battlefield or shoot a gun at a man."
+
+"That's right, Uncle George," said the sensitive Frank, shuddering as
+he recalled some of the things he had read of Europe's devastation.
+
+"No, boys," said Mr. Temple, "if I am right about this, we'll have
+something more important to do than to fight battles or track bandits
+across the Mexican desert by airplane."
+
+"What?" chorused the chums.
+
+"Instead of making war," said Mr. Temple slowly, "we'll have to
+prevent it."
+
+"Righto, Uncle George," cried Frank, springing up. "When do we pack?"
+
+"Young man, you're in a hurry, aren't you?" smiled Mr. Temple. "Well,
+boys, I believe that by day after tomorrow I can have my affairs in
+order so that I can leave them for awhile. Then we'll start. That is,
+of course, if you'll carry me as a passenger."
+
+"Will we carry him?" said Bob, striding to his side. "Good old Dad."
+And he thumped his father on the shoulder, a resounding blow that made
+the older man grimace humorously and draw away from him.
+
+They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Frank opened the door to
+find a maid standing in the passage. She was trembling with
+excitement.
+
+"Oh, Mister Frank," she gasped. "I heard several shots. Seemed like
+they came from the radiophone station of Mr. Hampton's. I'm so worried
+about Tom."
+
+"That's right, Tom's your sweetheart, isn't he?" said Frank. The maid
+blushed. Frank re-entered the room, and explained the maid's message
+practically all in one breath.
+
+"We were talking so much that we didn't hear the reports, I suppose,"
+said Mr. Temple, jumping up and snatching at his hat. The boys already
+were at the door but he called them back. "This time," he said grimly,
+"I'm not going to have you taking any chances on being killed. You
+will wait for me, and please remember it." Opening a drawer, he drew
+out a heavy automatic, broke it open to assure himself it was loaded,
+and then dropped it in his coat pocket. "All right now," he said.
+"Let's go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+PLANS FOR THE FLIGHT
+
+
+The boys needed no second bidding. Out of the door, down the
+passageway, and out of the house, they dashed. Then they headed across
+an intervening stretch of lawn for the radiophone station, concealed
+from sight by a clump of trees. Mindful of Mr. Temple's admonition not
+to rush into danger without him, they checked their pace. But the
+older man was making good time himself.
+
+Through the woods they dashed, emerging within sight of the door of
+the power house. There stood Tom Barnum unharmed, revolver in hand. At
+the noise of their approach, he swung about abruptly, bringing up his
+revolver in doing so. Mr. Temple and the boys shouted, and he dropped
+the threatening weapon again to his side.
+
+"Thought they were comin' back," he said.
+
+"What happened, Tom?" queried Mr. Temple, as they surrounded the
+watchman-mechanic in charge of the Hampton radiophone station with
+whom they had pursued a thief fleeing from the Hampton home only a
+short time before.
+
+"Well, sir, when we come back from chasin' them fellers in the motor
+car," Tom explained, "I stopped at your back door a minute to chin
+Mary an' tell her the news. She wanted to know what all the excitement
+was about.
+
+"Then I come on down here, an' thinks I to myself: 'I'll just get out
+the old army revolver that I carried in France an' I'll be better
+fixed for trouble the next time.' So I took 'er out of my locker in
+the shop here an' swabbed her up an' just got everything slicked when
+I hear a fellow creeping up to the door an' then voices whisperin'
+together.
+
+"Then the door starts to open slow an' easy like. I seen somebody what
+hadn't no business here was nosin' around an' I says to myself: 'Tom,
+it's a good thing you got the ol' army gun fixed up in time.'
+
+"Then one of 'em stumbles an' falls agin the door an' open she comes
+with him a-sprawlin' on the floor. The other fellow is right behin'
+him but he sees me an' lets out a yell an' turns an' runs. Man, he was
+a regular jackrabbit, too. I'll say that for 'im.
+
+"Well, I been crouchin' by the dynamo an' let out a screech like wild
+Injun an' fired off a shot through the doorway. Maybe two shots. Say,
+you'd oughta seen that bird fly then. As for the other fellow, the one
+that stumbled an' fell, he picks himself up an' tuk out like a
+whitehead.
+
+"I fired agin, high, just to scare 'em. I scared 'em all right, I
+guess. Anyhow, they disappeared over south there toward that old wood
+road that nobody uses no more. An' then I hear a motor car roar an'
+off she goes."
+
+"Why," cried Frank, "they must have been the same two men we chased."
+
+"Were," said Tom. "Dark-lookin' fellers an' one didn't have no coat.
+That was the guy Bob peeled his coat off of. I'd know 'em agin easy."
+
+For several minutes there was an animated discussion of the exciting
+events of the afternoon. What puzzled Bob and Frank was the reason for
+the return of the thieves to the scene from which they had been
+driven. Nobody could offer a good solution of the mystery until
+finally Bob said:
+
+"Say, I'll bet they were going to hide here in the station and lay for
+me in the hope of getting back that coat and the papers the thief
+stole from Mr. Hampton's house."
+
+"Yes," put in Frank, "and the wallet with the railroad ticket to
+Ransome, New Mexico, and all that money, too."
+
+"I believe you are right, boys," said Mr. Temple. "These certainly are
+no ordinary thieves, but desperate men."
+
+Tom had re-entered the power house and was pottering around the
+machinery.
+
+"Dad," said Bob, who had been knitting his brow in thought,
+"according to what you believe, this is all part of a plot of certain
+Mexicans to embroil their country and ours by making trouble for the
+independent operators in the Southwest represented by Mr. Hampton. In
+that case, why should they try so hard to steal that list of the names
+of the independents. That looks to me like a move on the part of your
+business rival, the Octopus."
+
+"I know it does, Bob," said his father. "The thing isn't clear to me
+by a good deal. But I believe I am right. However, let's go into the
+station now and call up the Hamptons out in New Mexico. Both Mr.
+Hampton and Jack will be interested to hear about what has happened
+here this afternoon."
+
+The boys agreed enthusiastically, and with a word to Tom Barnum to
+switch on the motor in order that they might have power to telephone,
+all three entered the station. But, despite repeated calls, they
+received no response.
+
+"I suppose there's nobody at their station, that's all," said Bob.
+
+"I suppose so," said his father. "But this business has me worried.
+Let's hope nothing has gone wrong out there."
+
+Reluctantly, all three abandoned their efforts, removed their
+headpieces, and with a "good-bye" to Tom, who lived in a room at the
+rear of the station, started for the house. If New Mexico were to
+call, a light bulb would flash the signal in Tom's quarters, and he
+would telephone the house.
+
+It was twilight when they reached home, and all three went to their
+rooms to dress for dinner.
+
+"Tomorrow," said Mr. Temple in parting, "we'll all drive over to
+church, and then in the afternoon you boys can go to work preparing
+the airplane, and I'll lend a hand." Mr. Temple was chairman of the
+Board of Trustees of an old ivy-covered church in a sleepy village
+some miles away, and never let Sunday pass without attending divine
+worship.
+
+At dinner the talk was all of the prospective airplane flight to New
+Mexico. The events of the day were told in detail to Mrs. Temple and
+Della, Bob's sister. Della, who was an athletic girl of 16, declared
+she wanted to go with them, but Bob answered rudely, as boys too often
+speak to their sisters:
+
+"Huh," he said, "you'd just get in the way."
+
+Mrs. Temple made no objections to the proposed trip, but began
+immediately to lay plans for filling the house with guests during
+their absence. And in discussion of the details, Della was appeased.
+
+"Say, Bob, why are you so rude to Della?" Frank queried later, in the
+library, as they awaited Mr. Temple's coming to discuss preparations
+for the flight.
+
+"Huh, she's not your sister, Frank," said Bob. "Anyhow, I believe
+you're sweet on her."
+
+"No, I'm not," said Frank hotly, "but she's a good kid and you ought
+to treat her better."
+
+"Yes, you are, too," said Bob. "I know you. But there's no use getting
+hot about it. Here comes Dad now," he added, as a familiar footstep
+sounded in the hall. "Let's get at those maps and guides and we'll
+dope this out together."
+
+For several hours the discussion continued. For months the boys had
+been making their plans, going over routes, selecting landing fields,
+etc. Now that Mr. Temple had decided to accompany them, they laid
+their plans before him. He nodded, well satisfied in the main, but
+making a few pointed suggestions of value.
+
+"And with the radiophone that we carry on the airplane," said Frank,
+"we can be in touch with Tom at this end and Jack out in New Mexico
+all the way. That all-metal body of the plane makes a fine ground,
+better than hanging wires possibly could. And with that new detector
+Bob and I have worked out, I'll bet we can hear all the way."
+
+"Sure," said Bob, getting up and stretching, "Well, come on, Frank.
+Let's turn in. It's near midnight. I for one need a good night's
+sleep. And I hope there'll be no trouble to disturb us tonight."
+
+Alas, poor Bob could not foresee what calamity the night held in
+store.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+"Wake up, Bob, you old sleepyhead."
+
+Bob stirred under vigorous shaking, opened his eyes sleepily, and saw
+Frank bending over him. His chum had thrown a bathrobe over his
+pajamas. The door between their connecting rooms stood open. The early
+morning sunlight of a bright June day streamed in the open windows.
+
+"Whazzamatter?" grunted Bob, and closing his eyes he turned over and
+prepared to snatch an extra forty winks. But Frank shook him again.
+
+"Come on," said he. "Stir your stumps. We can slip out before anybody
+else awakes, grab something to eat in the pantry, and go down to the
+shed and tinker on the plane. Come on, Bob, we can get in a couple of
+hours work before going to church."
+
+Bob was wide awake by now, and pleased at the prospect held out by his
+chum. Tumbling out of bed, he headed for the shower in the bathroom
+which the boys used in common, but Frank restrained him.
+
+"Make too much noise," said Frank. "Anyhow, we can take a plunge down
+at the beach before going to the shed. Come on, get into some old
+duds and let's hurry."
+
+The boys were dressed in short order. In the pantry, to which they
+tiptoed, they found cold tongue and ham, bread and butter, with which
+they hurriedly made several sandwiches apiece. It was not much of a
+breakfast, but their appetites were those of youth and they enjoyed
+it. Letting themselves out of the back door of the sleeping house,
+they started on a trot for the little private beach, a good half mile
+away. The last few yards were made with the boys shedding garments as
+they ran. Then with a shout they plunged naked into the rollers coming
+in from the open Atlantic.
+
+It was great sport. For twenty minutes they crashed through breakers,
+wrestled, ducked each other, shrieked aloud secure in the knowledge
+there was nobody within hearing distance, and in general had a
+glorious time of it. At the end of that period they rubbed down
+briskly with rough towels until their bodies were in a healthy glow,
+then dressed and set out for the airplane shed.
+
+This was located some distance back from the beach where a long, level
+stretch of sandy soil, unbroken by tree or bush, made an ideal landing
+field. The "shed," as the boys termed it, was, in reality, a
+substantial structure of corrugated iron, well-anchored to resist the
+severe Atlantic coastal storms. It stood to one side of the route
+followed by the boys in going from the house to the beach, with the
+rear to them, and was midway between the two points and concealed from
+the house by a clump of trees.
+
+When the matter of buying a plane was up for discussion more than a
+year before, after the boys and Jack Hampton, their absent chum, as
+well as Mr. Temple--himself an enthusiast about flying--all had become
+licensed pilots by taking a course at the Mineola flying fields, the
+question had been whether to buy a hydroplane.
+
+That question finally had been solved by the purchase of a light,
+all-metal plane capable of carrying two passengers besides the pilot
+and able to alight on water and land. It was not a stock model but was
+built after a special design. All three boys had flown it, as well as
+Mr. Temple, and none had ever had an accident. Equipped with a
+radiophone head set, to which had been added recently a detector
+designed by Bob and Frank to increase the receiving radius, this plane
+was the boys' especial pride.
+
+What was their dismay, therefore, when they rounded the shed from the
+rear and found the great doors which they had left padlocked several
+days before standing open and the interior empty. For several moments
+they stood as if rooted to the ground, staring in stupefaction. Then
+Bob groaned, and Frank echoed him.
+
+"Gone."
+
+"Gone."
+
+Frank was the first to recover from his dismay and ran forward to look
+at the broken padlock, dangling from one leaf of the great folding
+doors. "Cut through with a file," he called excitedly to his chum.
+"And this set of big bar locks above and below the padlock were cut
+the same way."
+
+"I always said we should have had one of those rolling iron screens,
+fitting solidly into the ends of the side walls and rolling up into
+the roof," groaned Bob, passing on into the interior. "But what's the
+use locking the barn after the horse is stolen." Disconsolately he
+moved around the interior of the shed, as if expecting to find
+concealed somewhere the airplane which he could not yet bring himself
+to believe had been stolen.
+
+Suddenly he let out a whoop. "Frank, look at this."
+
+"Great Scott, an Iron Cross," cried Frank, seizing the object held
+out. A German Iron Cross it was. "And here you can see how this ribbon
+frayed through and parted from the clasp," added Frank.
+
+"Turn it over," said Bob. "If it's a real one given by the Kaiser it
+will have the recipient's name on it."
+
+Sure enough, there it was:
+
+"Ober-Lieutenant Frederik von Arnheim."
+
+And beneath was inscribed:
+
+"Pour le merite."
+
+"Great Scott, Bob," said Frank. "What do you make of this?"
+
+"Some Hun officer stole our airplane," said Bob. "That's what I make
+of it."
+
+"But the war is over," protested Frank.
+
+"Maybe it is," said Bob darkly. "But if that bird doesn't fly back
+with our airplane I'll make war on Germany myself."
+
+Despite his gloom, Frank grinned. He slapped big Bob on the back.
+"Come on, old boy," he said. "No use hanging around here. We may as
+well go back to the house and report the latest mystery."
+
+"I wonder," said Bob, as they set out, "whether there is any
+connection between the two--between this theft of our airplane and
+that stuff yesterday."
+
+It was Mr. Temple who was able to provide an answer to that question.
+The boys found him up and dressed when they reached home, and himself
+considerably excited over a telephone call from New York City. He,
+too, was dismayed when told of the theft of the airplane. But when the
+boys showed him the German Iron Cross he hit the desk before him a
+resounding blow with his fist. Their conversation took place in the
+library.
+
+"That fits right into the puzzle," said he. "Boys, while you were out
+of the house I had a long distance telephone call from New York City.
+The man who called said he was a chauffeur who had driven two men down
+here yesterday, that he thought they were on legitimate business, but
+that when Bob tried to stop them he saw they were bad ones, as he put
+it. Later, when they made him drive them over to the radiophone
+station and he heard Tom rout them with his pistol shots, he said he
+drove off as they ran for his car and left them. He inquired in the
+village and learned my name, and so called me up to clear himself in
+case I intended starting a pursuit.
+
+"And he said," added Mr. Temple, leaning forward and speaking
+impressively, "that he was pretty certain one man was a Greaser and
+the other a Hun. Those were his own words. Of course, he meant one was
+a Mexican and the other a German."
+
+"So when this chauffeur abandoned them they stole our airplane to get
+away," cried Frank excitedly.
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Maybe," said Bob, "I copped every cent they had in pulling that
+Mexican's coat off his back, and they were without carfare back to the
+city."
+
+"Oh, I suppose the German had money," said his father. "The German
+probably was an aviator. And they stole the airplane in order to
+escape from here quickly before we could get in pursuit of them. I
+imagine they'll land in some deserted spot--plenty of them in the
+sandy reaches along the New Jersey coast, for instance--make their way
+to a railroad, after abandoning the plane, and go----"
+
+"To the Southwest," said Frank, emphatically, interrupting Mr. Temple.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Bob.
+
+"Weren't there a bunch of German spies in Mexico, stirring things up
+there against us, during the war? Well, I'll bet there are some of the
+same breed there now making all this trouble for Mr. Hampton," said
+Frank.
+
+"A good idea," said Mr. Temple, approvingly. "Well, boys, there will
+be no church for us today. This matter has got to be attended to."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+KIDNAPPED
+
+
+"Not a trace, Bob. I don't know what to make of this."
+
+"Nor I, Frank. A fellow wouldn't believe that right here near New
+York, in the most densely populated part of the East, two men could
+steal an airplane and escape without a trace."
+
+"Oh, I don't know, Bob. You remember last winter when that aviator
+from the upper end of Long Island was last seen flying across the
+Sound toward the Connecticut shore and was never seen or heard of
+again."
+
+"But, Frank, here forty-eight hours have passed. Here we are, Tuesday
+morning. Dad has wired every city, town and hamlet in the East. Not a
+sign of the machine, nor of the men."
+
+It was, in truth, Tuesday morning. The morning when, everything going
+as planned, they should have been setting out on their flight to the
+Hampton camp in New Mexico. Instead, the boys were moodily pecking at
+breakfast, the airplane had disappeared, and the trip seemed more and
+more remote.
+
+To add to their worries, they had been unable to reopen communication
+with their chum, Jack Hampton, by radiophone, since that first and
+only time the previous Saturday afternoon. All their efforts to call
+him met with no response. The day before, moreover, a telegram had
+been sent Mr. Hampton by Bob Temple's father, informing him in code of
+recent mysterious occurrences, including the theft of the airplane,
+telling him the boys had tried to call Jack by radiophone, but without
+response from his powerful New Mexico station, and asking whether all
+was well with him. No answer had yet been received.
+
+"Mister Robert," said Mary, the maid, entering the breakfast room, as
+the two boys sat in moody silence, "your father wants you and Mister
+Frank in the library."
+
+The boys hurried to the library at once, where they found Mr. Temple,
+very grave of face, bent above a lengthy telegram which he had just
+finished decoding.
+
+"It's from Jack," he said, "And the poor fellow is in a lot of
+trouble. Listen."
+
+He read:
+
+"Dear Friends, Father has been kidnapped. Two men in airplane carried
+him away into Old Mexico. Since getting your telegram few minutes ago
+realize it may have been your airplane. Wasn't there and didn't see
+it but description of machine given by cowboy on the range who saw it
+all tallies with description of your machine."
+
+Mr. Temple paused for breath, and Frank, who had been computing
+mentally, interrupted.
+
+"Our plane could do it all right," he said. "That is, if--When did
+this happen?"
+
+"Monday noon or a little later," said Mr. Temple.
+
+"Well, they stole it sometime Saturday night," said Frank. "Yes, they
+wouldn't have had to make more than eighty miles an hour steady flying
+to do it. But where did they get the petrol?"
+
+"Why," Bob reminded him, "we had her stocked with oil and gas. And the
+spare tanks filled, too. That wasn't impossible."
+
+Mr. Temple resumed:
+
+"Haven't answered your radiophone calls because didn't get them. Have
+been so busy running around in circles, haven't had time to watch the
+telephone. But if you call me when you get this shall be on the watch.
+Father was kidnapped Monday noon. No word from him. Need your help."
+
+"He certainly does," said Mr. Temple, emphatically, as he concluded
+reading. "And he'll get it, too. Come on, boys, let's call him up."
+
+Evidently Jack was on the watch for their signal, for he answered at
+once, and as soon as each had tuned to their private 1,800-metre wave
+length, the Temples and Frank were given the full details as to the
+kidnapping of Mr. Hampton.
+
+He had been riding horseback across the range, miles from any oil
+derricks or pumping stations, on his way to visit one of the
+"independent" oil operators.
+
+A lonesome cowboy hunting a stray was the only other human being in
+sight, and he was a half mile away. Suddenly out of the sky swooped an
+all-metal airplane, glistening in the sun. It made a beautiful landing
+on the sandy soil, bumped along over a few clumps of mesquite, and
+came to rest close beside Mr. Hampton. The latter jumped from his
+horse, and started running toward it. Evidently, Jack thought, his
+father believed the Temples and Frank had unexpectedly arrived.
+
+Then the watching cowboy saw two men leap from the airplane and start
+for Mr. Hampton, who turned as if to run. Thereupon, one of the two
+pointed a revolver at him and he turned, perforce, and surrendered. He
+was put into the airplane, the two men again climbed aboard, and the
+machine soared up into the sky before the astonished cowboy could more
+than set his horse in motion.
+
+All this Jack explained and then asked:
+
+"Mr. Temple, what would you advise me to do?"
+
+"Does anybody else know of this?"
+
+"Only the cowboy who saw it and I," said Jack. "This cowboy knew
+father by sight, and came direct to me with the information. I've
+made him promise not to tell anybody until he hears from me."
+
+"That's right, Jack," said Mr. Temple, very earnestly. "This
+information must not get out. I believe, Jack, your father will be
+safe from harm and that the men who seized him are intent on
+embroiling Mexico and the United States. Now we don't want any more
+wars, Jack, and we must try to get your father back without the aid of
+troops."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Jack. "Father and I have suspected what the game was,
+and that was why I told the cowboy to say nothing."
+
+"Good," said Mr. Temple, approvingly. "Now, Jack, that the mystery of
+the airplane's disappearance has been cleared up, we are ready to
+leave at once. We can get out of New York City on the 6 o'clock train
+tonight. Look for us Friday. I'll say good-bye until then, and let the
+boys speak to you, for I know they are dying to do so."
+
+While the boys and Jack conversed, Mr. Temple sought out his wife.
+After explaining the necessity for his abrupt departure with the boys
+for New Mexico, he said:
+
+"I should worry if I thought you would be subjected to annoyances
+while we were away. But I believe there will be no more trouble here.
+And with the servants in the house and the guests you have invited,
+you may feel perfectly safe."
+
+"Oh, Dad, I think you're awfully mean not to take me along," pouted
+Della, who was present.
+
+"Why, Lassie," said her father, "with a bunch of harum scarum boys to
+look after, my hands will be full enough."
+
+"Yes, you think they're just boys," flashed his young daughter. "But
+you wait and see. They'll be taking care of you. Just you wait and
+see. Frank is awfully clever."
+
+"Frank?" said Mr. Temple teasingly, with a meaning look.
+
+Della flushed, and made an excuse to leave the room a moment later.
+
+"I wish, George, that you wouldn't tease her about Frank," said Mrs.
+Temple. "She's such a child."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Temple, thoughtfully. "I suppose so. But," he added,
+"I'm glad she likes Frank."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HELD FOR RANSOM
+
+
+"Great Scott, Jack, how different you look. What a peach of a get-up."
+
+The Temples, father and son, and Frank Merrick stood on the gravel-bed
+outside the little wooden box doing duty as station at Ransome, New
+Mexico. The transcontinental flier which had dropped them, was
+dwindling in the distance. Jack Hampton, whom the chums and Mr. Temple
+had crossed the country from New York to join, was in the center of
+the group. Greetings had been exchanged, they had all slapped each
+other on the back indiscriminately and enthusiastically, and now Bob
+Temple stood off at arm's length to admire his chum.
+
+"Yes, sir. Some get-up," he added.
+
+"Righto," agreed Frank, also gazing at the handsome Jack admiringly.
+"Where do you get 'em? Lead me to the store right away."
+
+Jack, who was 19 and the oldest of the three chums, was almost as tall
+as the six-foot Bob, but of more slender build than that gridiron
+warrior. He had the build of a thoroughbred, long legs, flat hips,
+trim waist, deep chest and broad shoulders and a flat back. Both at
+dashes and distance running Jack easily was supreme at Harrington Hall
+Military Academy, which all three boys attended. Like Bob he was fair
+and had curling chestnut hair. His eyes were blue and lively, his
+features not too regular. Altogether, he was a striking figure.
+
+Today he was dressed in khaki shirt and breeches. Instead of puttees
+he wore high, laced leather boots that reached to his knees. On his
+head, pushed back so that his wavy hair showed in front, was a
+wide-brimmed sombrero. By his side, suspended from a cartridge belt,
+swung an automatic revolver in its holster. This was the outfit so
+admired by his chums from the East, trim in their light-weight summer
+suits of the latest cut and wearing low tan shoes more adapted for
+city streets than for the sands stretching inimitably on every hand.
+
+"We've worried considerably while aboard the train, Jack," said Mr.
+Temple, "for fear something dire might happen to you these last two or
+three days. I'm glad to see you are all right. Any word from your
+father?"
+
+Jack shook his head in negation. "Not a word," said he, "since those
+two rascals picked him up in your airplane and headed for Old Mexico."
+
+"Well, don't worry, Jack," said Mr. Temple. "I don't believe his life
+is in danger."
+
+"I'm trying not to worry, sir," said Jack. "But now that you and the
+fellows are here, we shall have to get busy at once. It has been
+pretty hard to wait for you. I wanted to ride into Old Mexico myself
+at once."
+
+Bags in hand the group was moving to the rear of the station, and now
+came in sight of a ramshackle automobile with a Mexican at the wheel,
+easily distinguished by his swarthy coloring and his ragged mustaches,
+as well as by his peculiar dress--a steep crowned hat like a sugar
+loaf, with a very wide brim, a tight bolero jacket that did not reach
+to the waist and disclosed a dark blue silken shirt beneath and
+tight-fitting trousers that flared at the bottom.
+
+"That is Remedios and his flivver," explained Jack. "He does odd jobs
+all through this region. I hired him to take us out to camp. But
+before we climb aboard, take a look at this view."
+
+Obediently, they paused and gazed at the surrounding country. In the
+foreground was a wide dirt street at the rear of the station. For the
+equivalent of the length of a city block it was lined on both sides
+with wooden structures one-story in height, but with the false fronts
+of the frontier country pretending to second stories--a front wall
+sticking above the roof and with the semblance of windows painted on
+it. A dry goods store, a Chinese laundry, an alleged hotel, several
+restaurants, several ex-saloons still carrying on some kind of
+business--these comprised the lot. At one end the street ran abruptly
+into the desert. At the other was a cluster of old freight cars made
+into dwellings, with Mexican men, women and children loitering in
+front in the sun. This was Ransome.
+
+"Not much of a town," said Jack, "just a trading post for a wide
+stretch of this country around here. But look at the setting, will
+you?" And he swept a hand in a wide gesture indicating the horizon.
+
+On every hand stretched the desert, broken by clumps of mesquite and
+cactus with the only trees in the landscape the thick belt of
+cottonwoods lining the banks of a stream that rose in the mountains to
+the north and ran by the town. North, east, south and west lofty
+mountains gleamed on the far horizon, while closer at hand rose the
+foothills. These latter were of fantastic shapes, like castles, tables
+or crouching animals, and of the most vivid coloring. Over all was the
+warm and brilliant sunshine of late afternoon. As for the air, it was
+clean and despite the warmth of the day already beginning to turn cool
+as the sun hovered on the rim of the farthest mountains to the west.
+
+"Some country," said Bob emphatically.
+
+"Wait until you have known it day in and day out for months," said
+Jack. "You will never want to go back to Long Island."
+
+"Is that the way you feel about it, Jack?" asked Frank.
+
+"Oh, well, I suppose I'll want to go home sometime," said Jack. "But
+just the same, I'm in love with this country. As for the old-timers
+off there in the hills, you couldn't drive them away."
+
+"Say, Jack," said Frank, as they all continued standing and gazing at
+the surrounding scene, "I thought we'd see some oil derricks around
+here. But there isn't one in sight."
+
+"No, Frank," interposed Mr. Temple, in explanation, "you see the
+Independents are mainly located over in the Panhandle, or upper
+western portion of Texas and in Oklahoma. That is east from here. But
+Mr. Hampton had his geologists in through this region, and they
+reported the prospects for finding oil favorable. Then the
+Independents came in quietly and took up leases, and Mr. Hampton
+followed to prepare for development of the field."
+
+"Yes, that's the way of it," agreed Jack.
+
+"Say, Jack," said Frank, "I'm hungry as a hunter. If we are going to
+get dinner at your camp, let's move along. How far is it, by the way?"
+
+"Ten miles," said Jack, leading the way toward the automobile with its
+dozing Mexican at the wheel. "Come on."
+
+The others followed and were about to climb into the automobile when
+the rapid hoofbeats of a galloping horse ringing on the sun-baked clay
+of the street drew their attention, and they paused.
+
+"Why, it's Gabby Pete," said Jack in surprise, moving forward a step
+as the rider reined up his horse so sharply that it reared and slid on
+braced hind legs. The animal came to rest so close to him that Jack
+was forced to give back a step, and it stood there snorting and
+blowing.
+
+An oldish man of tremendous girth, but who sat his horse easily
+despite his size, grinned down at Jack. He was white-haired and under
+the brim of his sombrero little eyes twinkled genially and shrewdly in
+a round, fat face.
+
+"What brings you here, Pete?" asked Jack, sharply. "I thought you were
+at camp, getting dinner for my guests." He indicated the boys and Mr.
+Temple, who stood close at hand, looking on. "Who will prepare dinner
+for them now?"
+
+Gabby Pete, the talkative camp cook, scratched his head under his
+sombrero, and looked solemn. "Waal, they'll have ter wait a bit," he
+said. "But I kin rustle grub in a hurry onct I git back ter camp. An',
+anyhow, Mr. Jack, a feller came to camp a while ago in one o' them
+there aeryoplanes. Jest flew up almost to the door an' steps out an'
+gin me this yere letter." Here Gabby Pete produced a missive from the
+front of his shirt, and passed it to Jack. "He sez as how it war most
+partickler that you git it right away. So I rid in with it," said
+Gabby Pete, adding aggrievedly: "an' now you hop on me fur it."
+
+Jack seized the missive in a sudden fever of anxiety. An airplane? He
+opened the letter, took in its contents at a glance, and turned
+excitedly to his chums.
+
+"Father's held for ransom," he cried. "Here. Read this."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ON THE DESERT TRAIL
+
+
+Eagerly Mr. Temple, Bob and Frank gathered around Jack, crowding to
+read over his shoulders the missive left at camp by a messenger in an
+airplane and brought to Ransome by Gabby Pete, the camp cook,
+following Jack, who had gone to the little New Mexican town to meet
+the party from the East.
+
+The writing was cramped and foreign, as if the pen were wielded by a
+hand more accustomed to form German script than English letters. The
+missive was brief:
+
+"Sir, this is to inform you that Mr. John Hampton is held in a secure
+place. One hundred thousand dollars must be paid for his release. A
+man riding alone must bring the money in United States bills of one
+thousand dollars each to the Calomares ranch two weeks from today. He
+must wear a white handkerchief in his hat."
+
+While the others read, Jack turned to Gabby Pete and said
+authoritatively:
+
+"Pete, you heard me say something just now about my father being held
+for ransom. I believe you are my friend." Gabby Pete nodded
+violently. "Well, forget what you heard. If anybody asks you, remember
+that father has gone East on business."
+
+"Sure, boy," said Pete. "I'm a tombstone. Well, me an' Angel Face
+here," and he slapped his horse affectionately, whereat Angel Face
+reared and pranced, giving the lie to her name, "we may as well git
+started fur camp so's to feed you when you arriv."
+
+Jack laid a restraining hand on Pete's knee. "Wait just a minute,
+Pete. Do you know where the Calomares ranch is located?"
+
+Pete nodded. "Aw, sure," he said, "that must be Don Fernandez y
+Calomares, down in Ol' Mexico. That's a good hundred mile acrost the
+border. It's in a valley in them mountains," he added, pointing to the
+darkening southern horizon.
+
+"And who is this Don?"
+
+"Waal," drawled Gabby Pete, plaintively, "I stick to hum so much o'
+the time I never git to talk to nobody nor hear the noos. But seems to
+me I did hear onct about him. Yes, sir, somebody sez as how Don
+Fernandez lives in a palace in that wilderness jest like a king of
+old, with armed ree-strainers or whatever you calls 'em----"
+
+"Retainers, Pete," said Jack, suppressing a smile.
+
+"Yes, that's the word. An' this feller what tol' me sez as how he's
+very proud and haughty-like an' has a beyootiful daughter,
+an'----an'----"
+
+Pete dropped his voice, and paused, eyeing Remedios, the Mexican in
+the nearby flivver.
+
+"Think he kin hear me," he whispered.
+
+"Guess not," said Jack. "Why?" He, too, looked toward Remedios. The
+latter had his back to them and was blowing indolent wreaths of smoke
+from a brown paper cigarette.
+
+"I don't trust that feller, that's all," whispered Gabby Pete
+hoarsely. "He's down acrost the border too much o' the time. Anyhow,
+as I was sayin', this yere Don Fernandez is agin the Obregon gov'ment
+an' backin' a new revolution. That's what the feller tol' me, anyhow.
+Waal, Mr. Jack, Angel Face an' me will go an' git dinner." And with a
+slap on his horse's flank that caused her to spin about and dash away,
+Gabby Pete was off.
+
+Jack turned to his companions.
+
+"First thing is to get to camp, I guess," he said. "Then after dinner
+we can talk over what has to be done. What do you say?"
+
+"I say let's eat," said Frank, plaintively.
+
+"He's got the biggest appetite for his size I ever saw," said Bob,
+affectionately, slapping his smaller chum on the back.
+
+"I second Jack's motion," said Mr. Temple, seizing his bags and
+leading the way to the car. The others also picked up their bags and
+followed. "We know now that your father is safe, Jack," said Mr.
+Temple. "So the news in that note wasn't so bad, after all."
+
+"That's right," agreed Jack. "Well, climb in fellows, and let's get
+started."
+
+It was a tight squeeze. Jack sat in front with Remedios and one of the
+bags. Mr. Temple and Bob, both big individuals, filled the rear with
+the balance of the bags. Frank, who had gone to the front of the car
+to crank it, found no room within for him when he returned. He leaped
+to the running board.
+
+"I'm light," he said. "I'll sit on the door. Let's go."
+
+Remedios opened the throttle and with a rattle and roar, the
+ramshackle old car darted ahead on the road taken by Gabby Pete, and
+soon had left the town behind and was out on the desert.
+
+Only the upper edge of the sun stood now above the western mountains,
+and the purple shadows were long across the plain. In the east the sky
+was darkest blue and the stars already twinkled brightly. A rosy light
+lingered at the zenith, while above the western mountains the sky was
+ruddy bright with the afterglow as the sun slipped farther and farther
+down and finally vanished altogether. Then night began to descend with
+a swiftness unknown in the East. The rattle of the car made
+conversation difficult and the newcomers lapsed into silence,
+becoming absorbed in watching the majesty of the scene.
+
+Presently the engine began to miss fire, then emitted a final groan as
+Remedios closed the throttle, cutting off the flow of gas, and
+stopped. Remedios threw the clutch into neutral, applied the brake,
+and climbed out. Raising the cover of the hood, he peered within. Then
+he shook his head dolorously.
+
+"It is of no use, Senor," he said to Frank, who had jumped from the
+running board and stood beside him. "She is finish. The spark plug,
+she is on the--what you call it?--the bum." And with an air of
+finality, he closed the cover. At the same moment he turned to peer
+anxiously down the road ahead, whence came now on the still twilight
+the thudding hoofbeats of a galloping horse, rapidly growing louder.
+
+His mechanical instincts awake, however, Frank paid no attention to
+the approaching horseman. He had again lifted the cover, as Remedios
+turned away, and, lighted match in one hand, was twisting at a spark
+plug with the other.
+
+"Shucks," he cried, withdrawing his head, "that Number One plug wasn't
+screwed in tightly enough, that's all. I'll bet she'll go now, just
+the way I tightened her by hand. And if I only had a pair of
+pliers----"
+
+At that moment, the galloping horseman dashed up alongside, pulling
+his horse back on his haunches. It was Gabby Pete, his hat gone, his
+face red with excitement. Far over he leaned to call to the astonished
+occupants of the car.
+
+"Bandits," he cried hoarsely. "Greasers. Comin' in an auto. I come
+back to warn you." And facing about he pointed to where a cloud of
+dust behind him on the desert road indicated a rapidly oncoming car.
+
+"Grab that crank," cried Frank to Remedios, and he sprang for the
+driving wheel. "I'll make this old bus go."
+
+"Not so fast, Senor," said Remedios suavely, and seizing Frank's arm
+he whirled the young fellow about.
+
+Frank looked into the muzzle of a revolver which Remedios held leveled
+at him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A BRUSH WITH THE ENEMY
+
+
+"Crack."
+
+The explosion of a revolver shot.
+
+"Wow."
+
+A yell of pain.
+
+Remedios seized his shooting wrist in his left hand and danced up and
+down in the road, while his weapon fell to the ground.
+
+Frank, who a moment before had been gazing into the leveled weapon of
+the traitorous Mexican chauffeur, whirled about to face his friends in
+the car.
+
+Smoking revolver in hand, Jack Hampton stood upright in the front
+seat. It was he who had fired the shot.
+
+"I didn't touch him," cried Jack, "merely shot his revolver from his
+hand. Jump in Frank, for here come the bandits."
+
+With a rattle and roar the car of the bandits approached, not the
+length of two city blocks away on the desert trail.
+
+Frank took in the situation at a glance.
+
+"Crank for your life," he ordered Remedios. "Jack, keep him covered."
+
+As the Mexican sprang to the crank, and started turning, Frank leaped
+to the driver's seat of the flivver and manipulated throttle and
+spark. With a clatter the engine turned over and began to race.
+
+Closer came the bandits, their car slowing down as it approached.
+
+Jack leaned far over the windshield, his weapon leveled at Remedios.
+
+"Up on the hood," he shrieked. "Up with you, or I'll shoot you full of
+holes."
+
+Remedios threw himself sprawlingly over the hood.
+
+The bandits' car had slowed almost to a stop, four or five lengths
+away. Frank released the hand brake, pressed the clutch into low with
+his foot, and shot ahead.
+
+Shifting the clutch into high, Frank opened the throttle wide and the
+old rattletrap seemed fairly to leap ahead, its wheels spurning the
+ground. The lights of the other car which had theretofore seemed
+dimmed were switched to full brightness. Before the blinding glare in
+his eyes, Frank involuntarily ducked his head.
+
+As his eyes left the road, the car swerved. A shot rang out from the
+car of the bandits, ripping high and doing no damage.
+
+"Look out, Frank. Swing her over," cried Jack in alarm.
+
+Shouts of panic rose from the car of the bandits, too.
+
+Too late.
+
+There was a crash, the flivver lurched, then sped on. As rapidly as
+possible Frank brought it to a stop and then stood up to look back and
+view the damage.
+
+Mr. Temple and Bob, in the rear seat, already were on their feet. Jack
+stood beside Frank, peering into the shadows behind. The moon was in
+its first quarter, low down and shed only a faint radiance. But even
+by the wan light, it could be seen that something dire had happened to
+the car of the bandits. It stood sideways across the road, leaning
+drunkenly to one side. And to the ears of the boys came groans from a
+number of dark figures in the road.
+
+Gabby Pete, temporarily forgotten by the boys in the excitement,
+galloped up, cheerful voiced.
+
+"As neat a trick as ever I see," he cried approvingly to Frank. "You
+tuk off their hind wheel jest like a knife cuttin' butter. They're
+tumblin' around in the road, a half dozen of 'em. Hey, look out." And
+Gabby Pete bent low on his horse as a bullet whistled overhead.
+Another and another followed, and there were shouts of vengeance, and
+imprecations.
+
+"They're a-comin' to," cried Gabby Pete, slapping Angel Face on the
+flank, so that the horse leaped forward with a snort. "I'm on my way."
+And he disappeared into the darkness.
+
+"We're on our way, too," cried Frank, opening the throttle and
+pressing down the clutch, as more bullets whistled overhead. "Give 'em
+a shot, Jack, and everybody stoop down."
+
+Jack fired off his revolver, shooting high purposely. He wanted merely
+to frighten their pursuers into desisting. Then the car gathered
+momentum, and was soon out of range. Presently Frank, who had been
+driving the flivver as fast as it would go, with the result that they
+were all tossed about while the car lurched precariously over the
+rutted road, slowed down to a more moderate pace.
+
+"Anybody hurt?" he called. "They never touched me."
+
+"Not a scratch," answered Mr. Temple.
+
+"Same here," cried Bob and Jack together.
+
+"Say, though," cried Frank, suddenly realizing Remedios no longer
+sprawled on the hood, "we've lost our passenger."
+
+"Good riddance," said Bob.
+
+"Must've thrown him off when we struck the other car," decided Jack.
+
+"Or else he jumped off when his chance came," surmised Mr. Temple.
+
+To a query from Frank as to the route to be followed and the distance
+to camp, Jack made answer that the road lay straight ahead with no
+laterals cutting into it, and that camp was only a couple of miles
+beyond.
+
+"Say, Jack," declared Bob with a laugh, "that was some reception
+committee you got out to meet us."
+
+"Yes," kidded Frank, "what were you aiming to do, anyway? Put on a
+Wild West thriller for a bunch of tenderfeet fresh from New York?"
+
+Jack laughed. "Tenderfeet, your grandmother," he said. "It looked to
+me as if the effete Easterners put on the thriller for the bandits."
+
+Relieved at the safe outcome of their adventure, everybody joined in
+the laugh, and for several minutes the high good humor manifested
+itself in jokes bandied back and forth. Then a 'dobe ranch house
+loomed ahead, low-lying, of four or five rooms, a wide, dirt-floored
+porch along its length, upon which the rooms gave through separate
+doors. At the rear were a clump of shadowy outbuildings and a corral.
+To one side and some distance away stood a low frame building and a
+high, latticed tower with antennae, which the chums recognized with a
+shout of delight.
+
+"There's the radiophone station, hey, Jack?"
+
+Frank drew the car to the porch, and Gabby Pete, at the sound of its
+approach, opened the door of the kitchen and emerged, big spoon in
+hand, the lamplight streaming from the room behind him, and savory
+odors floating out to the hungry boys.
+
+"Come an' git it," he called sonorously.
+
+"What does he mean Jack?" asked Bob.
+
+"I hope he means dinner," said Frank, sniffing hungrily.
+
+"He does," laughed Jack. "That's the way camp cooks announce food is
+ready in the cow camps, as I understand it. And Gabby Pete is an old
+cowman."
+
+"Well, lead me to it," said Frank, and all followed Jack into the
+house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+JACK CANNOT SLEEP
+
+
+"Well, now, boys, let's see where we stand," said Mr. Temple, after
+all had partaken heartily, amid excited but disjointed conversation,
+of a surprisingly good dinner of pork and beans, boiled potatoes,
+fresh tomatoes and lettuce, bread pudding and coffee. He pushed back
+his chair as he spoke, and lighted a cigar.
+
+"First of all," he said, "we have got to consider the kidnapping of
+Mr. Hampton and decide what shall be done in the matter, what moves we
+must make. Then there is this series of mysterious happenings, all of
+which have a bearing on the case, if we can find the solution.
+
+"Here, for instance, is this man Remedios. Evidently he was in league
+with the Mexican bandits who attacked us, and it was his part of the
+conspiracy to stage a breakdown so that we could be easily attacked.
+Now who were the bandits, and what did they want? Were they ordinary
+robbers after money, or was their object something deeper? Was it
+part of this plot against our oil interests?"
+
+He paused to puff his cigar into renewed life. All three chums had
+been listening with eager attention. Now Jack Hampton spoke. Mr.
+Temple earlier had elaborated for Jack's benefit his theory that a
+faction of Mexican rebels was responsible for the outrages of which
+they had been the victims, hoping thereby to embroil Mexico and the
+United States and thus cause trouble for President Obregon.
+
+"Mr. Temple," said Jack, leaning forward, "I do not believe those
+bandits were after money. Didn't it strike you all as strange that
+they were in an auto? Well, it did me. The bandits of the border
+usually are mounted on horseback. These men, on the contrary, had a
+high-powered car. No, that attack was due to a carefully laid plan.
+And do you know what I think their purpose was? It was to capture
+you."
+
+Bob and Frank, elbows planted on the table, leaned forward surprised.
+Mr. Temple, however, showed no surprise, but merely looked thoughtful.
+
+"You see," continued Jack, "you are an American of wealth and
+position. They already have captured father. Now, if they were to
+capture you, there certainly would be some commotion at Washington,
+the national capital, that would make trouble for President Obregon of
+Mexico. Maybe another punitive expedition would be sent into Mexico,
+like General Pershing led in the time of Carranza, after Villa's raid
+on Columbus, New Mexico. At least, that's what they expect, I guess."
+
+Mr. Temple nodded, but remained silent.
+
+"But, Jack," demanded Frank, "if you are right in your surmise, then
+it means that these fellows knew in advance of our coming."
+
+"Yes," said Jack, "that's the puzzling thing about it."
+
+"Anybody here know we were coming?" asked Bob, speaking for the first
+time.
+
+"Sure," said Jack, "Gabby Pete knew. And Rollins, father's assistant.
+But you met the one, and you know he can be trusted. As for Rollins, I
+don't know much about him. He's a queer, silent man. Not here tonight,
+because he left early this morning to see a man on business over here
+some twenty miles or so. He said he might not return tonight. But I
+know father trusted him."
+
+"Then, Jack, there is one other thing to be considered," said Bob.
+"And that is, has anybody among our enemies--for I suppose we can call
+them that--listened-in when we spoke by radio?"
+
+"Of course," said Jack, "with all these amateur receiving sets in use
+nowadays it is pretty hard to get absolute secrecy. But, in the first
+place, since that Washington conference, the government has limited
+the use of certain wave lengths. Now we are licensed to use an 1,800
+metre wave length, and I imagine there are very few--at least in this
+region--who could 'tap' our conversation. In addition, of course, we
+used our code in discussing when you would arrive."
+
+"No, you're wrong," said Bob. "You used the code when you telegraphed
+that your father was kidnapped. But, as I recall it, when we spoke by
+radio after getting your wire, we all were so excited we never thought
+of the code."
+
+Frank nodded agreement. "That's right," he said. "But, anyhow, we
+never thought of making it a secret. Perhaps your cook--this Gabby
+Pete--said something innocently in town. Or the word got around
+somehow."
+
+"Yes, I suppose that's the way it happened," said Jack, dismissing the
+subject. "But the question now is, what are we going to do? Shall we,
+telephone the county sheriff about this attack on us tonight and about
+Remedios? And--what shall we do about father?"
+
+Mr. Temple who had been puffing thoughtfully throughout this
+discussion, his head bowed, now looked up, and shook his head in
+negation.
+
+"Let's not notify the sheriff," he said. "The minute we bring the
+authorities into this, we run the danger of letting our whole story
+become known. Then the end which these mysterious enemies of ours
+seek will be attained. That is, the government will be drawn into the
+situation.
+
+"As to your father, Jack," and Mr. Temple paused, "well, we shall have
+to think the matter over pretty carefully before we undertake to do
+anything. In the first place, as I have said before, I believe he was
+captured in order to make trouble between Mexico and the United
+States. Now, here comes a note from his captors demanding that we pay
+a ransom of one hundred thousand dollars. How does that fit into my
+theory?
+
+"Well, if we appeal to Washington and ask our government to demand Mr.
+Hampton's release, there certainly will be trouble. And that, I
+believe, is what the enemy counts on us to do. If they really were
+after a ransom, and had no other object in view, it is likely they
+would not have asked for so big a sum, and also would not have given
+us two whole weeks in which to carry out their demands. No, I am
+convinced they expect us to go to Washington and make trouble.
+Therefore, that is the one thing we must try to avoid doing."
+
+"But, look here, Mr. Temple," said Jack, impulsively and with just the
+slightest quiver in his voice, "he's my father."
+
+"Yes, I know, Jack," Mr. Temple said in a sympathetic tone, "and I
+know what you're thinking of. You're thinking your father is a
+prisoner and ill-treated. And you're saying to yourself that while we
+hold back here from appealing to the government, something dreadful
+may happen to him. Isn't that so?"
+
+Jack gulped unashamedly, and turned his head away. "Something like
+that," he said, in a muffled voice.
+
+The older man dropped a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry too much,
+my boy," he said. "We may appeal to Washington, and let the
+consequences go hang, if that is the only way to bring back your
+father. But we don't want to act too hastily. Let's turn in now and
+get a good night's sleep. Then in the morning we'll decide on
+something definite."
+
+It had been a long discussion, and Bob and Frank were content to do as
+Mr. Temple proposed. Jack, perforce, agreed, although the strain of
+the last few days, which he had carried alone, was beginning to tell
+on him and he yearned for instant action. He showed the others to
+their rooms, Bob and Mr. Temple sharing Mr. Hampton's room, and Frank
+bunking in with Jack himself.
+
+After Frank had undressed and tumbled into bed, so dog-tired, as he
+said, that he could barely keep his eyes open to see the way to his
+pillow, Jack went out to stand in the starlight on the porch. After
+leaning against a pillar some minutes, during which his active brain
+kept milling endlessly over the details of the past few days, he had
+an impulse to go over to the radiophone station and talk to the guard,
+an ex-cowboy, on duty there since the attack by three Mexicans at the
+time this story opened.
+
+Hands in his pockets, head bowed in thought, he moved across the hard
+packed sand, his feet making practically no sound.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+JACK DISCOVERS A TRAITOR
+
+
+Two figures stood at the door of the radio station power house. The
+station was a duplicate of Mr. Hampton's other station on his Long
+Island estate, earlier described. So engrossed were the two men in
+whispered conversation that they were unaware of Jack's noiseless
+approach.
+
+The soft sibilant sound of whispering which came to his ears just as
+he was about to approach the door roused Jack from his reflections.
+His suspicions were on the alert because of the happenings of recent
+days, and he halted. Certain, after standing a moment with every nerve
+tensed, that he had not been seen, Jack backed cautiously until again
+around the corner of the building.
+
+Who were the two men? What were they whispering about? Pressing
+against the side of the building, Jack thought quickly. One of the two
+must be the night watchman. Perhaps the other was the man who kept
+guard at the station by day. If he were, thought Jack, then, perhaps,
+some new danger menaced and the night man had called the day man to
+help him. This theory also would account for the fact that they were
+whispering, instead of conversing in normal tones.
+
+So probable did this supposition seem to Jack that he decided to join
+the men and ask what the danger was. Caution, however, prompted him to
+reconnoitre by peeping around the corner before stepping into the
+open. The next moment he was thankful he had done so. For, as he
+looked, one of the two struck a match and held it in cupped hands to a
+cigarette, and Jack saw the man was Remedios.
+
+Drawing his head back quickly, Jack leaned against the building,
+trying to compose his thoughts. What was Remedios doing here? Not many
+hours before he had foiled the plan of the traitorous Mexican
+chauffeur to deliver him and his friends to the enemy. Was Tom, the
+ex-cowboy, on guard at the radio plant, a traitor? Jack could not
+believe it.
+
+Footsteps were approaching from around the corner. Jack looked around
+wildly. There was no shelter near enough to which to flee. He whipped
+out his automatic, flung himself down alongside the wall, and waited.
+
+Two men appeared, but instead of rounding the corner they moved
+straight ahead. They were in earnest, but low-voiced conversation.
+They did not see him.
+
+Jack stifled an exclamation. The man with Remedios was Rollins, his
+father's trusted assistant. So stunned was Jack at the revelation that
+he did not strain to overhear what they were saying. In a moment they
+were beyond earshot.
+
+Trembling with rage at this evidence of treachery on the part of
+Rollins, Jack rose to his feet. He intended to stalk the two
+conspirators. Then a new idea occurred to him. What were they doing at
+the radio plant? Perhaps, for reasons of their own, they had damaged
+it or put it out of commission. He decided to investigate.
+
+Rollins and Remedios were now out of sight toward the front of the
+ranch house. Perhaps Rollins would have the audacity to take the other
+into his room, which opened like the other rooms directly upon the
+porch or gallery. If so, Jack could surprise them later. First, he
+would investigate at the radio plant.
+
+Walking swiftly, he approached the door of the power house. An
+electric light shone within. The guard, Tom, jumped up from a chair
+where he had been sitting, reading, at the sound of Jack's hurried
+footsteps. His hand reached for the ready revolver at his side, but
+was withdrawn at sight of his visitor.
+
+"Oh, it's you, Jack," he said, addressing him familiarly, for a warm
+friendship had sprung up between the two. "I thought it might be a
+Greaser."
+
+"Tom," said Jack, without any preliminaries, and showing his
+excitement in his voice and manner, "what was Mr. Rollins doing here?
+Who was that with him?"
+
+Well enough Jack knew who the stranger was. But good friend though Tom
+was, Jack wanted to test him. The circumstances certainly were
+suspicious.
+
+"Didn't see the other feller," Tom answered. "He stayed outside. Mr.
+Rollins said he was an oil driller. Mr. Rollins went into the station
+there." Tom motioned to the radio operating room beyond a closed door.
+"Asked me to throw on the juice so he could use the telephone."
+
+"Whom did he talk to?"
+
+"Why, I don't know," said Tom. "How would I?"
+
+"How long was he in there?"
+
+"Why, fifteen, twenty minutes. Maybe half an hour. Why, Jack? Anything
+wrong?"
+
+"Yes, Tom, there is," said Jack. "Can I trust you?"
+
+Tom looked hurt.
+
+"That's fer you to say."
+
+"Excuse me, Tom," said Jack. "But after what I've just seen I don't
+know whom to trust. Yes, I believe you're true blue, Tom. I'll tell
+you. But wait a minute."
+
+He walked to the door and looked out. The coast was clear.
+
+"Tom," said he, returning, "I'm going to take you into my confidence.
+Listen."
+
+In as few words as possible he related their adventures that day and
+the part played by Remedios. Then he added that in Mr. Rollins's
+companion he had recognized the Mexican chauffeur.
+
+"What do you make of it?" he asked.
+
+"Treachery," said Tom, emphatically. "But who'da thought it of Mr.
+Rollins?"
+
+They looked at each other puzzled.
+
+"I wish I knew whom he spoke to by radio and what he said," declared
+Jack.
+
+"Wish I'da listened," mourned Tom.
+
+Both stood silent. Suddenly the still night was shattered by a series
+of racketing explosions. Jack sprang for the door.
+
+"Remedios's flivver," he cried to his companion. "There isn't another
+car in the world can cough like that."
+
+By the time he had emerged from the radio station the car could be
+heard shooting away down the desert trail toward Ransome.
+
+"Too late," said Jack, disgustedly. "He's gone. I should have
+surprised them together."
+
+He thought a moment, then turned to the other.
+
+"Listen, Tom," said he. "Not a word about all this. I think I'll not
+let Rollins know that I suspect him, but will talk this over first
+with my friends. And if he comes here to radio again listen to him,
+and report to me what he says."
+
+"All right," said the big ex-cowboy. Then as a new idea occurred to
+him, he asked: "But how about tellin' my side pard, Dave? He's on duty
+days. He oughta know, too."
+
+"I don't know Dave as well as I do you," said Jack. "Certainly he
+ought to be informed, so that he can be on the watch, too. Can he be
+trusted?"
+
+"You can count on Dave," said Tom. "We been pardners for years. That
+bow-legged son o' Satan an' me been through lots o' ruckuses in our
+time. If there's any shootin' to be done, count us in. You know how I
+kin shoot."
+
+"I ought to know," said Jack. "You taught me."
+
+"Well, then, I'll let Dave in on the secret."
+
+"All right," said Jack, moving away toward the house. "Good night."
+
+He started for the ranch house, but again came back.
+
+"Rollins mustn't know I was down here," he said.
+
+"He won't know from me," Tom assured him.
+
+When Jack reached the house, he found Mr. Temple, Bob and Jack on the
+front porch in their night-clothes. Rollins was there and had
+introduced himself. All four were discussing the disappearance of the
+flivver.
+
+"You know how I sleep," said Bob. "But it made so much noise it waked
+even me."
+
+"Where have you been, Jack?" asked Frank. "Why, you haven't undressed.
+I thought you turned in when I did. But I was so sleepy I never
+noticed when I tumbled out of bed that you weren't there."
+
+Jack felt Mr. Rollins's eyes on him. It made him uncomfortable.
+
+"Oh, I couldn't sleep," he said. "So I came out for a turn in the
+night air before going to bed."
+
+"Where were you walking?" asked Mr. Rollins quickly.
+
+Jack found lying distasteful, but decided it would not do in this case
+to tell the whole truth. Fortunately, on leaving the radio station, he
+had swung about in a circle, so as to approach the house from an
+almost opposite direction.
+
+"Over there," said Jack, indicating the direction from which he had
+come. "There's a little rise some distance beyond there, but in this
+feeble moon-light you can't see much, so I came back. Then I heard the
+flivver."
+
+"Do you think that fellow Remedios came here himself and drove it
+off?" asked Frank.
+
+"He certainly had his nerve, if it was he," said Bob.
+
+Jack noticed that while Rollins was watching him keenly Mr. Temple,
+who had not taken part in the conversation, was studying Rollins.
+
+"Oh, it must have been Remedios," Jack said boldly. "Did anybody get
+close enough to see him? Who came out first? Did you notice, Mr.
+Rollins? You must have just arrived. I see you are still dressed."
+
+"Yes, I had put my horse up in the corral," said Rollins, calmly, "and
+was walking over here to the house, when I heard the car. I came
+around to see who was calling at this late hour, but all I could see
+was the disappearing car. Of course, I knew nothing of your day's
+adventures until your friends came out, when we introduced ourselves
+and explanations followed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE NET IS DRAWN TIGHTER
+
+
+That obvious lie on Rollins's part gave Jack the final assurance that
+the man was in the plot against them. Burning with indignation, he
+wanted to expose Rollins but with an effort of self-control he choked
+back the hot words and also managed to keep his anger from showing in
+his face.
+
+But it was an effort. Fortunately the others came to his rescue. Frank
+began to shiver in his pajamas and called attention to the fact that
+the night air was chill.
+
+"Yes," said Jack, glad of the change in subject, "no matter how warm
+the days out here, the nights are always cool. Let's go inside."
+
+All trooped into the living room, which was dining room, too. In the
+big fireplace they found a wood fire laid by the thoughtful Gabby
+Pete, ready to be touched off in the morning. The talkative camp cook
+slept in the bunkhouse some distance away, in the opposite direction
+from the radio plant. While the others dragged blankets from their
+beds and returned to the living room, wrapped up in them like
+Indians, Jack touched a match to the wood and the fire soon was
+blazing merrily.
+
+Rollins would have excused himself on the plea of fatigue after a long
+day's ride, but Mr. Temple halted him.
+
+"So long as we are here altogether," he said, "it won't hurt matters,
+and may help them, to have a little talk."
+
+From his chair in front of the fire, Mr. Temple looked up inquiringly
+at Rollins, who stood to one side of the fireplace, his face in the
+shadows. The latter did not speak. Jack thought quickly. Was it wise
+for Mr. Temple, unaware of Rollins's duplicity, to discuss matters
+with him? He decided not. He was bending down to throw more wood on
+the fire and without rising he interposed an objection.
+
+"Mr. Rollins must be pretty tired," he said, glad his face was averted
+because he feared the scorn in his eyes would betray him. "And we've
+all had a hard day. Suppose we let the discussion go until tomorrow."
+
+Rollins spoke precipitately, and Jack believed there was a little note
+of relief in his voice.
+
+"Yes," said he, "that would be better. I am pretty tired, as Jack
+says. Well, I'll turn in. Good night. I'll see you at breakfast and
+after that we can have our talk."
+
+Shaking hands with Mr. Temple and throwing curt nods to Bob and
+Frank, Rollins left the room. A moment later Jack arose and followed
+swiftly but silently to the door on the gallery. Peering around the
+doorpost cautiously, he assured himself Rollins had entered his own
+room, then returned.
+
+The others looked at him in surprise, unable to understand the meaning
+of his actions. Jack soon enlightened them.
+
+Crouched before the fire and with his eyes on the door for signs of
+interruption, while the others pulled their chairs close about him,
+Jack in a low voice outlined his experiences of the night.
+
+When he spoke of Rollins's using the radio, Frank uttered an
+exclamation.
+
+"That's how the enemy learned just what time we would arrive," he
+declared.
+
+Jack shook his head.
+
+"No," said he. "All Rollins had to do to spread that information was
+to tell Remedios. The latter could notify the men who laid for us."
+
+"Well, then, whom was he telephoning to?"
+
+Jack again arose and moved to the door and peered out. No signs of
+life. He returned and resuming his position said in a low voice:
+
+"That's what I've been asking myself. I've thought it over and I
+believe I've found the answer. Either he was radioing to the Calomares
+ranch in Old Mexico where father probably is held a prisoner, or else
+he was sending a message to the fellows who stole our airplane."
+
+Bob, the belligerent growled in his throat.
+
+"The big stiff," he muttered. "I'll go get him now and we'll choke it
+out of him."
+
+He half rose from his chair, but his father pushed him back.
+
+"Don't blame you, Bob," said Jack, grinning. "It's what I wanted to do
+myself. But I believe there is more to be gained by watching
+Rollins--at least until we have more to go on."
+
+"Probably," said Frank, "if we put it up to him now, he'd be able to
+lie out of it."
+
+"But he couldn't lie out of being seen with Remedios," said Bob. "Or
+of using the radio."
+
+"Frank is right, though," declared Jack. "Rollins would frame some
+alibi, and all we'd succeed in doing would be to put him on his
+guard."
+
+Mr. Temple had been thinking deeply. Now he interrupted.
+
+"Jack is probably correct in his surmise as to who Rollins was calling
+by radio," he said. "Probably this Calomares ranch is headquarters for
+the Mexican rebels who are making trouble for us. If it was the ranch
+that Rollins called, he may have been making his report on today's
+proceedings. But if he was calling the airplane, that is a more
+serious matter. It may mean trouble for us tonight, perhaps another
+attack."
+
+"Great guns," grumbled Bob, "don't these birds ever sleep? Well,
+believe me, if the Heinie that stole my airplane comes around where I
+can get my hands on him, I'll fix him."
+
+"You wouldn't hurt him, Bob, would you?" said Jack.
+
+"Huh." That was all Bob replied. It was enough.
+
+"I wouldn't do a thing to him, either," said Frank. "Except I'd turn
+his Kaiser mustaches down so hard they'd never point up again."
+
+Bob and Frank, joint owners of the airplane, grinned at each other.
+
+"Well, fellows," said Jack, "We have got to sleep. So I propose that
+we stand guard turn about tonight. It's pretty late now, midnight or
+thereabouts, so that if we stand two hour watches, the three of us,
+we'll pull through nicely without spoiling Mr. Temple's slumber."
+
+The older man protested he was as able to stand a watch as any of
+them, but the boys wouldn't have it so. Finally it was agreed that
+Jack should take the first watch of two hours, Bob would succeed him
+and Frank would have the last watch. The man keeping watch would sit
+inside his bedroom door opening on to the gallery, with Jack's
+revolver. As the bedrooms adjoined, while that of Rollins was the
+last in the house, it would be easy enough to guard both.
+
+The night passed, however, without incident.
+
+It had been agreed beforehand that after the expiration of Frank's
+watch at 6 o'clock there would be no necessity for keeping further
+watch. Gabby Pete would be up and busy at his early morning tasks, and
+the oil drillers housed in the bunkhouse also would be stirring about.
+Therefore, after barring the door, a precaution Bob also had taken in
+the room shared with his father, he turned in without awaking Jack.
+
+Worn out by their trip of the day before with its attack and the
+excitement of the night, all slept soundly, and Gabby Pete did not get
+them up. It was almost 10 o'clock when Jack awoke. He called the
+others, and soon all were dressed and ready for what the day would
+bring forth.
+
+Jack was the first dressed. He found Gabby Pete in the kitchen,
+peeling potatoes, and asked if they could have breakfast.
+
+"Sure thing," said Gabby Pete. "Have it fur you right away. Nice fresh
+aigs an' ham an' coffee. How's that?"
+
+"Fine. Have you seen Mr. Rollins this morning?"
+
+"Yeah. Give him breakfast early. He lef word he hadda go over to
+Number Two well where they're still drillin' an' hain't struck oil
+yet, but said as how he'd be back later today. He tuk them two
+drillers from the bunkhouse with him."
+
+"Did you know Remedios sneaked up last night and took his flivver
+again, right from under our noses?" Jack inquired.
+
+"No, that so?" Gabby Pete dropped his paring knife and potatoes in
+surprise.
+
+"Well, he did," said Jack, starting to leave.
+
+Gabby Pete jumped up, almost upsetting his pan in his haste, and
+called to Jack to wait. Wiping his wet hands on a big blue apron that
+looked incongruous on the old cowman, he pulled open a drawer in a
+kitchen table and took out a flat blue envelope which he handed to
+Jack.
+
+"Almost forgot this," he said. "Your tellin' me about that there
+scoundrel of a Greaser put everything else out o' my mind. Must be
+gittin old an' forgetful. One o' these days I'll forgit my head."
+
+He would have rambled on garrulously, but Jack interrupted. He turned
+the envelope over curiously. It bore no address or writing of any
+kind, and was sealed.
+
+"What's this for, Pete?" Jack inquired.
+
+"Oh, that's somethin' Mr. Rollins musta dropped out o' his pocket at
+breakfast. Found it on the floor beside his chair after he was gone.
+Will you give it to him?"
+
+"All right."
+
+Jack returned to join his companions.
+
+"Have we any right to open this?" he said, after explaining how he had
+obtained the envelope. "I for one believe that we should. It may
+contain valuable information to us."
+
+"You're right, Jack," said Mr. Temple. "I'm a partner in this oil
+enterprise, and if one of our trusted employees is a scoundrel we are
+entitled to know it. Give me the envelope. I'll take the
+responsibility."
+
+While the others looked on, Mr. Temple ran a knife along the edge and
+slit the envelope open. Inside was a mass of documents and a letter.
+Mr. Temple unfolded them, gave one look, then with an exclamation
+jumped to his feet.
+
+"Great Scott, boys," he cried. "This is important. Luck is certainly
+with us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE KEY TO THE MYSTERY
+
+
+"What is it?" cried Jack, pressing forward.
+
+"Yes, tell us," demanded Bob and Frank as in one breath.
+
+The three boys crowded around Mr. Temple, who in one hand held the
+mass of documents and in the other the letter. He was reading the
+latter.
+
+"Boys," said he, "this proves Rollins's complicity in a plot against
+us. But it makes matters more puzzling and complicated, too."
+
+"How is that, sir?" Jack inquired.
+
+"Well, first of all," said Mr. Temple, holding up the thick sheaf of
+papers, "this is Mr. Hampton's own original list of the leases secured
+by the group of independent oil operators to which I belong and which
+he represents here in the field."
+
+"Is it a copy of the list I recovered from the thief who stole it from
+Mr. Hampton's house on Long Island?" asked Bob.
+
+"No," smiled Mr. Temple. "It is the original. That was the copy. And
+this letter with it is one written by Rollins to a man in New York
+City who is one of the minor officials of the Oil Trust. It is too
+long to read to you. But from it I gather that Rollins is a spy in the
+employ of this official."
+
+"Say, Dad," declared Bob, "this is too much for me. If the Octopus is
+responsible for our troubles, then where do the Mexicans come in? And
+vice versa?"
+
+"That's what I had in mind, Bob, when I said this discovery
+complicated matters," said Mr. Temple.
+
+"Sh," warned Jack, from the window toward which he was glancing at
+that moment. He sprang forward to see better. "Here comes Mr. Rollins
+now. And in a tearing hurry, too."
+
+Rollins jumped from his horse and ran along the porch to his room.
+They heard the door slam, and then sounds of a furious searching being
+carried on. The boys and Mr. Temple, gathered around the door and
+window, looked at each other significantly.
+
+"Found he dropped his papers and came back for them," whispered Frank.
+
+A moment later Rollins called for Gabby Pete from the door of his
+room. The cook hurried to him from the kitchen.
+
+"Pete, did I drop an envelope--a long blue envelope--at breakfast?"
+asked Rollins, making no attempt to conceal his anxiety.
+
+Before Gabby Pete could reply, Jack stepped impulsively from the
+doorway.
+
+"Yes, you did," said he. "Pete gave it to me to keep for you."
+
+"Where is it?" Rollins brusquely demanded.
+
+"Step into my room," said Jack.
+
+Rollins complied. When he saw Mr. Temple, Bob and Frank, he recoiled
+as if to flee. But Jack barred the doorway. Rollins was speechless.
+Mr. Temple advanced, holding out the document and the letter.
+
+"Your duplicity is discovered, Rollins," he said. "I make no apology
+for having opened your sealed envelope, because last night Jack
+Hampton discovered you at the radio station with Remedios, and we knew
+you were faithless to your trust. Come, make a clean breast of it."
+
+Rollins's face went white.
+
+"You, you read the letter?" he gasped.
+
+Mr. Temple merely nodded.
+
+Rollins seemed to shrink and grow older before their eyes. Suddenly he
+sank into a chair. His shoulders sagged. Pressing his hands to his
+eyes, he bent forward and began to cry. Not the noisy crying of a
+child but great, dry, wrenching sobs.
+
+"Come on, fellows," said Jack in a low voice. "Let's leave him to Mr.
+Temple."
+
+The older man nodded approval and the three boys filed out, closing
+the door behind them. Simultaneously each drew a long breath of
+relief. Bob was the first to speak.
+
+"Dad'll get it out of him," he said
+
+"I'm hungry," said Frank plaintively.
+
+At that moment, Gabby Pete poked his head from the doorway of the
+kitchen. Seeing the boys, he called:
+
+"Come an' git it."
+
+The three started on the run for the dining room, their youthful
+spirits rebounding from the depressing scene in the room they had just
+quit in answer to the tang of a perfect day and the cook's breakfast
+call. Bob suddenly halted with an exclamation.
+
+"How about Dad?"
+
+"Oh, he's too busy to miss his breakfast," said Frank. "Anyhow, we can
+get the cook to put up something for him."
+
+"Yes, I'll speak to Pete about it," said Jack. "Come on."
+
+They ate hungrily with little conversation. Pete hovered near and his
+presence restrained them from talking about the topic that was
+uppermost in their minds.
+
+"How about taking a look at the radio plant?" asked Jack when they had
+ended breakfast.
+
+The others agreed eagerly. They were in the act of leaving the table
+when Mr. Temple appeared. They crowded about him with questions.
+
+"Easy, easy there," he protested. "I'm hungry as a hunter. Suppose
+you boys wait outside for me while I get a bite, and then I'll join
+you."
+
+When Mr. Temple emerged, he lighted a cigar and leaned against a
+pillar. The boys stood about him. For several moments he was silent,
+staring out over the expanse of desert to the hills beyond, all
+shimmering beneath the heat of the summer sun.
+
+"It's a long story," he began, "but I'll simplify it for you. Rollins
+held the key to the mystery. He has a family back East, an invalid
+wife, a son in college, a daughter just preparing to enter college.
+All that takes money, for doctor bills and school bills and clothes
+for the girl. Rollins was a poor man on a salary.
+
+"He needed money and couldn't see his way to getting it. Then a minor
+official of the Octopus put temptation in his way by making him a
+proposition. Mind you, he wasn't one of the big men of the Oil Trust.
+I feel certain they know nothing about all this.
+
+"This man proposed that Rollins obtain certain inside information
+about the independent oil operators and sell it to him. Rollins wanted
+to, but couldn't get the information. It was too closely guarded by
+Mr. Hampton.
+
+"It was then that another temptation came Rollins's way." Mr. Temple
+paused. "A weak man seems to carry certain earmarks that draw
+scoundrels to him, boys," he said. "It was so with Rollins. At this
+moment a representative of Calomares, the Mexican landowner who is
+backing the northern rebels, sought him out with a proposition that he
+betray his employers. The rebels, as I suspected, wanted to make
+trouble for President Obregon, of Mexico, by embroiling him with the
+United States. And the way they wanted to set about it was by raiding
+the independent oil operators. They needed a spy at our headquarters,
+and they proposed that Rollins should become their man.
+
+"Then Rollins had an inspiration. He told the Mexicans that if they
+would help him, he would aid them. It was agreed. The agent who had
+acted for Calomares in the negotiations was this German, Von Arnheim,
+an aviator and a German secret agent in Mexico during the war. He took
+the man Morales with him to Mr. Hampton's Long Island home to steal
+the duplicate list of independent leases and other data which Rollins
+had learned was kept there."
+
+"That's where I came in," grinned Bob.
+
+"Yes," said his father, "and it was because you foiled them that
+Rollins came into possession of Mr. Hampton's own original copy of the
+list and other data. For he stole it from Mr. Hampton's effects after
+Von Arnheim and Morales had carried him away captive in our airplane."
+
+"How about this attack on us yesterday?" asked Jack.
+
+"As you suspected, it was for the purpose of capturing me, too," said
+Mr. Temple. "And Rollins had let the bandits know when I would arrive.
+Remedios was his go-between."
+
+"Well," said Jack, "there's only one thing more."
+
+"What is that?" asked Frank.
+
+"Why, I'd like to know whom Rollins radioed to last night."
+
+"I found that out, too," said Mr. Temple. "He was talking to the
+Calomares ranch in Old Mexico, which has a very powerful station,
+according to Rollins. He says the German, Von Arnheim, told him that
+there are similar powerful radio stations scattered throughout Mexico
+and South America, all built by German money for the use of its spy
+system. And he said this German told him the most powerful station of
+all was on an island in the Caribbean, and that it was so powerful it
+could communicate with Nauen, Germany."
+
+It was apparent that Mr. Temple had concluded his explanation, and Bob
+and Frank began to ply him with questions. Jack, however, stood
+silent, his face averted. Mr. Temple presently broke from the others
+and laying a hand on Jack's shoulder whirled him about.
+
+"Father?" asked he, in a kindly tone.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well, Jack, I've got the beginnings of a plan in mind. But first I
+must get more information from Rollins. Then I'll talk to you again."
+
+Jack looked him squarely in the face.
+
+"Mr. Temple," said he firmly, "I'm desperate. Father is everything in
+the world to me. I'll wait to talk with you. But I tell you frankly
+the only plan that appeals to me is to ride into Old Mexico and rescue
+him."
+
+The eyes of Bob and Frank, who had turned to listen, lighted up, and
+they nodded vigorous approval. Mr. Temple stood off and looked at the
+trio of husky fellows as if seeing them for the first time.
+
+"Perhaps," said he, "that is what you will soon be doing."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+TO THE RESCUE
+
+
+"I may be wrong," said Mr. Temple, thoughtfully, "in giving my
+sanction to this plan to rescue Mr. Hampton. But I do not believe so.
+And, all things considered, it seems the best if not the only way out.
+
+"I have been accustomed to regard you as mere boys, but the conduct of
+every one of you in our adventures lately shows me you are able to
+think and act for yourselves. Yet I don't know. Jack, you and Frank
+are motherless. But--if anything happened to Bob--his mother never
+would forgive me."
+
+"Say, Dad, forget it," grumbled the big fellow to hide his emotion. "I
+can take care of myself."
+
+His father's eyes lighted approvingly as they surveyed his truly
+heroic frame.
+
+"Yes, I guess you can," he said. "And you carry a cool head, too. At
+any rate, I've given my approval."
+
+He smiled whimsically, then looked from one to another of the three
+eager young fellows.
+
+"My daughter Delia was right," he said. "When I left home she said I
+was wrong to think of you any more as youngsters, and that the first
+thing I knew you would be making use of your wit and ingenuity to take
+care of me. And now her words in a measure are coming true."
+
+All four were grouped around the dining room table. For several hours
+plans for the rescue of Mr. Hampton had been discussed and rejected.
+Out of it had grown a plan which called for a daring invasion of the
+enemy's territory by the boys.
+
+Mr. Temple had impressed upon them the necessity for preventing the
+United States government from being involved in the situation. He had
+explained a number of angles not made clear before. Among other
+considerations, he said, was the fact that practically all the Central
+and South American republics were jealous of their big Yankee
+neighbor.
+
+"If our government were to make a hostile move toward Mexico," he
+declared, "the other Latin republics would misconstrue our motives.
+They would consider that because of our size we were acting the part
+of the bully in order to reap financial benefit. They call us the
+'Dollar Republic,' you know. Our interests in Central and South
+America would suffer a severe setback."
+
+Accordingly, it was distinctly up to the boys and Mr. Temple to effect
+Mr. Hampton's rescue themselves. And out of the discussion had grown
+the plan to have Jack, Bob and Frank make their way to the Calomares
+ranch and offer their services to the rebel forces in the guise of
+young Americans who were seeking adventure.
+
+Once within the rebel stronghold they would bide their time and await
+an opportunity to free Mr. Hampton and escape with him.
+
+"I, for one, won't be content until I get back our airplane," said
+Frank, when the details were being discussed. "Probably we shall be
+able to recapture it, and then we can all four make our escape in it.
+The 'plane carries three easily and can be made to carry four at a
+pinch."
+
+"Hurray for you," cried Jack, delightedly. "That's a real idea."
+
+"I'll say so," declared Bob. "We can do it, too. I know we can."
+
+Carried away by the boys' enthusiasm, Mr. Temple nodded approval.
+
+Jack said he was certain enlistment in the rebel forces would offer no
+difficulties. From Tom Bodine, the guard at the radio plant, with whom
+he had had many conversations during the past two months about
+conditions on the border, he had learned that adventurous young
+Americans fought frequently on one side or another in the Mexican
+revolutions.
+
+"I can speak Spanish pretty well, too," Jack pointed out. "And Bob
+and Frank have a smattering of the language, which they picked up from
+me."
+
+It was true. Two years before Jack had spent his summer vacation in
+Peru where his father was engaged at the time in inspecting mining
+properties. Jack had learned considerable Spanish during his stay and
+on his return home had continued his studies of the language.
+Moreover, he had aroused the interest of his chums to such an extent
+that they also had begun to study Spanish. Often, when by themselves,
+the three boys spoke to each other in the language. Spanish, by the
+way, is the easiest of all foreign tongues to learn, as, unlike French
+and Italian, all letters are sounded, and the grammar is very simple.
+
+Mr. Temple was not to accompany the boys because, in the first place,
+his age and distinguished appearance would arouse suspicion. Young
+fellows riding in to enlist in the rebel forces was something that
+could be understood. But in his case it would be a different matter.
+
+He would stay at the ranch with Rollins, whom he decided to give
+another chance. Rollins knew the business details of the oil
+operations and unless he were retained the work could not go on. For
+that reason, and also because he believed Rollins was truly repentant
+for his treachery and would be faithful in the future, Mr. Temple
+retained him.
+
+Rollins had supplied valuable information for the expedition. He gave
+the exact location of the Calomares ranch, in a valley amid low
+mountains more than one hundred miles to the south.
+
+There were two possibilities that the boys might be recognized for
+what they were: if Remedios should arrive at rebel headquarters, or if
+Von Arnheim or Morales recognized Bob as the youth who had foiled them
+on Long Island. Neither was very likely. Remedios, they learned from
+Rollins, had no intention of leaving the district because even if the
+boys tried to cause his arrest he had a mysterious political pull with
+the American officials, practically all of whom were of Mexican
+descent. As for Morales and Von Arnheim they had had only a fleeting
+glimpse of Bob and he could disguise his appearance sufficiently to
+make that of no account.
+
+"Well, boys," said Mr. Temple finally, "if we all were back in New
+York under normal conditions I should consider this just about the
+craziest notion ever, and never would consent to your carrying it out.
+But out here, amid these changed surroundings, it seems the natural
+thing to do. For the life of me I can't bring myself to feel any
+alarm."
+
+"That's right, Dad," said Bob. "Don't you worry. We'll be all right."
+
+It was now late afternoon. Tom Bodine was to escort the boys to the
+border as soon as darkness fell, making a big swing around Ransome,
+so as to avoid notice, and set them on their way. They would travel by
+horseback, all three having ridden since childhood. There were a
+number of good mounts in the corral from which to select.
+
+The boys planned to ride the major portion of the night until they
+should reach a cave in the first of the Mexican foothills, where they
+would spend the next day in hiding. Tom Bodine knew the cave of old
+and was able to give the boys the location of certain landmarks which
+would make it easy for them to find it. The following night they would
+continue their journey, and this should bring them to the Calomares
+ranch on the morning of the second day.
+
+"Time to get ready," said Mr. Temple, looking at his watch. "And,
+remember, the very first thing you must try to do is to get into their
+radio station and call me. Day or night, the men here will be watching
+for your signal and will call me. I'll be mighty anxious about you. So
+remember."
+
+"We shall call you, sir," said Jack, as the boys moved away. "And
+don't worry. I'm sure we'll come out all right."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A SOUND IN THE SKY
+
+
+"Good-bye, Tom."
+
+"S'long, Jack."
+
+"Keep a watch for our signal. We'll call you."
+
+"I will that. An' if it's in trouble you are, Dave an' me'll be ridin'
+just as fast as we can to help you. Wish you'd let me go 'long. I'm
+half minded to follow you."
+
+"No, no. We'll stand our best chance alone. They won't suspect we're
+other than a bunch of wild young fellows out for adventure."
+
+Tom grumbled, but the force of the reasoning was apparent to him. They
+leaned from their horses for a last firm handclasp, then Jack rode on
+to join Bob and Frank who sat on their horses some distance ahead.
+
+"You're the boy to give it to 'em, Jack," called the big ex-cowboy in
+a last farewell. "Give 'em thunder."
+
+Jack waved a parting salute as he joined his comrades. Frank and Bob
+did likewise. Then with night settling down over the vast desert waste
+they rode on into old Mexico.
+
+Beside the white stone marking the international boundary, Tom Bodine
+sat his horse like a statue. Moodily he watched until they were out of
+sight. It was a hard life Tom had led in his day and when he took the
+job at the radio plant it was with a sigh of relief at the ease ahead
+of him. But now despite his fifty years, the last thirty of which had
+been filled with hard knocks, he felt the old call to adventure urging
+him on.
+
+With drooping head, he turned his horse toward home. But hardly had
+the animal started forward, than he dragged it about again.
+
+"Let's go," he shouted to the empty silence, and whirling his sombrero
+aloft, brought it down on his horse's flank. Then he rode on after the
+three figures that had been swallowed up in the darkness.
+
+Far ahead of him, for Tom had taken considerable time to reach his
+decision, rode the three companions. The young moon shed only a wan
+and wraithlike radiance over the plain. They were alone, and the
+parting with their last friend, combined with the solitude of the open
+spaces, had its effect upon them. They rode awhile in subdued silence.
+But not for long. Frank's lively spirits were the first to rebound.
+
+"Race you to that rock," he cried, pointing to a solitary outcropping
+of rock, about twice a man's height, about a quarter of a mile ahead.
+
+"You're on," cried Jack, spurring his horse.
+
+"Attaboy," yelled Bob, doing likewise.
+
+With a shout that shattered the silence as if a band of wild Indians
+were hitting the trail, the three boys dashed away.
+
+Presently they pulled up by the rock, practically neck and neck. Their
+eyes were alight now with the zest of adventure.
+
+"Gee, it's great to be alive," cried Frank.
+
+"You said it," declared Bob.
+
+Jack nodded laughingly, but the next moment his face became grave.
+
+"Just the same," he said, "we mustn't do that again."
+
+"Why not?" demanded Bob.
+
+"Well, for one thing, we must save our horses as much as possible. We
+already have come twenty miles, and we have thirty miles more to go
+before reaching Tom's cave."
+
+"For one thing?" questioned Bob. "What's your other reason?"
+
+"Just that we don't want to draw attention to ourselves."
+
+"You're right, Jack," said Frank. "I'll not start anything again."
+
+They jogged on.
+
+A martial trio they made. Jack was clothed in the khaki shirt, riding
+breeches, high laced leather boots and sombrero in which he had met
+the boys on their arrival at Ransome. Bob and Frank were similarly
+outfitted. Tom Bodine was about of Bob's proportions, and his partner
+Dave Morningstar had the build of the slighter Frank. These two old
+cow punchers had given the boys the run of their wardrobes. Each lad
+carried an automatic at his hip swinging from a well-filled cartridge
+belt. In addition, Jack bore his repeating rifle in a leather scabbard
+on his saddle.
+
+Frank cast an appraising eye over himself and his comrades, and
+grinned with approval. Despite Jack's rebuke, he could not long keep
+silence.
+
+"Well, here we go, fellows," he said cheerfully, "just like the Three
+Musketeers. Jack with your air of melancholy you can be Athos. Bob is
+big enough to be Porthos, although I have got his appetite. I'm
+Aramis."
+
+"Aramis was always dreaming about the ladies," said Bob slily. "Heard
+from Della lately?"
+
+Frank was silent a moment under the sly dig, his thoughts flying back
+to the faraway Long Island home. But his irrepressible spirits would
+not permit him to remain silent for long, and soon he burst forth
+again.
+
+"All we need to make it complete," he said, "is D'Artagnan. I wonder
+if we'll find him."
+
+Jack made no answer. His thoughts were busy turning over plans for the
+rescue of his father. Bob, too, was unusually silent, thinking of the
+parting from his own father and the latter's anxiety which almost had
+prevented his making this venture. Frank pursed his lips to whistle,
+thought better of it, and jogged along as silent as his companions.
+
+So they rode hour after hour, only the creak of leather, the
+occasional stumble of a horse or the distant call of a coyote breaking
+the stillness. At length a low range of foothills, upflung before
+them, began to take shape out of the darkness with their near
+approach. Presently Jack called a halt.
+
+"Somewhere in there," said he, "lies Tom's cave."
+
+It was in the early hours before dawn, when the darkness if anything
+becomes more intense. A chill nipping wind long since had caused the
+boys to unroll the rubber ponchos strapped to the back of their
+saddles, and drape them over their shoulders. As they stood now in the
+eerie darkness, striving vainly to locate the landmarks of tree and
+rock which Tom had given them, the howl of a hunting coyote floated
+down the wind. The sensitive Frank shivered.
+
+"That sends the gooseflesh up my spine," he said.
+
+"Are you scared?" asked Bob.
+
+"I'm scared stiff," averred Frank. "My hair is standing up so straight
+I wonder how my sombrero stays on."
+
+"Me, too," said Bob.
+
+"Liar," said Frank.
+
+"You're another," said Bob. "You're not scared. I know you too well."
+
+They grinned affectionately at each other. Jack who meantime had been
+investigating, turned with a worried expression.
+
+"I've followed Tom's directions faithfully," he said. "He said to lay
+our course south by south-west and showed me what he meant on my
+compass. I haven't deviated a hair's breadth. Somewhere about here
+should be the first landmark--three rocks shaped like a camel lying
+down. But I can't see them."
+
+"Nothing to worry about in that," said Frank. "Probably we haven't
+gone far enough. Let's push on."
+
+"That must be it," said Jack with relief. "Well, come on."
+
+Before they could get into motion, however, Bob uttered a warning
+whisper.
+
+"Listen," he said. "I heard a horse stumble behind us on the trail."
+
+They listened breathlessly a moment, but no further sound was heard.
+
+"Keep your guns handy," whispered Jack. Whenever the three were
+together he took command. "Don't fire without cause, however," he
+whispered. "If there is someone behind us, it may be another
+traveller."
+
+Again came the sound of a horse stumbling. All heard it distinctly.
+Jack peered into the darkness and called firmly:
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+"Challenge him in Spanish, why don't you?" muttered Frank.
+
+Before Jack could repeat his challenge, however, a familiar voice
+replied:
+
+"That you, Jack? This is Tom."
+
+"Tom? Tom Bodine?"
+
+"The same," replied the ex-cowboy, materializing out of the darkness,
+and approaching. "And glad I am," he added, "to find you."
+
+"But, good gracious, Tom, is anything the matter? Why are you here? I
+thought we left you heading back for home five hours ago?"
+
+"No, you just left me," said Tom. "That's all. I didn't head home,
+because I wanted to come along. Been a-trailin' you all the way. And
+here I am."
+
+Jack was surprised, indeed. But now that Tom was with them, he
+experienced a sense of relief. To venture into a strange land without
+a guide, and in pitch darkness, besides, was a pretty stiff
+undertaking. The responsibility of looking after his friends was no
+light one.
+
+"To tell the truth, Tom," Jack said, "I'm glad you came."
+
+Bob and Frank echoed his words heartily.
+
+"I had just about decided when you came up," Jack added, "that I had
+lost my way. Frank thought, however, we merely hadn't gone far enough
+to find your landmarks."
+
+"He was right," said Tom. "You come straight as a die. All we got to
+do is to ride on a piece an' we'll be in the snuggest cave ever you
+see."
+
+Riding two abreast, Tom and Jack in the lead and Frank and Bob close
+behind, they pressed on another twenty minutes when Tom called a halt
+to indicate a clump of rocks close at hand which suggested in their
+outline a crouching camel. Then he led the way toward the left.
+
+"Wait, wait," called Bob, in a tense voice that reached the ears of
+all, and caused them to halt. "Keep your horses quiet and listen.
+There. I was right."
+
+All sat silent, and distinctly there came to their ears the hum of an
+approaching airplane.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+INSIDE THE CAVE
+
+
+"What is it?" whispered Tom Bodine, to whom the sound was unfamiliar.
+"Sounds like machinery of some kind."
+
+"It's an airplane," Jack answered.
+
+"Airplane? _An_ airplane?" said Bob, low voiced. "It's better than
+that. It's our airplane, if I know anything."
+
+"Righto, Bob," agreed Frank. "I'd know the old baby's voice a mile
+off."
+
+"They've shut off the motor," said Jack. "They must be going to land.
+But where in the world could they land in these hills and in this
+darkness, too?"
+
+Tom Bodine slapped his knee.
+
+"That's it," he said emphatically. "That must be it."
+
+"What?" asked Jack.
+
+"Why, there's a big level place just below the cave I was tellin' you
+'bout. A plateau. Smooth as a floor."
+
+The hum of the airplane had died away. The boys and their guide never
+had caught sight of the machine in the darkness.
+
+Suddenly Frank pointed in the direction whence the sound of the
+airplane had come, ahead and slightly to the left.
+
+"I thought I saw a light there," he whispered. "It was just a faint
+streak of orange. Now it's gone."
+
+"Look here," said Bob to Tom Bodine, "does that cave face this way or
+is it on the other side of a hill?"
+
+"It's on t'other side," answered Tom, "an' near the top."
+
+"Well, I'll bet you there's somebody in that cave. And the light that
+Frank saw was some kind of a signal to the airplane."
+
+The big ex-cowboy scratched his head.
+
+"Mebbe you're right," he said doubtfully. "I don't know 'bout such
+things. But who'da thought that cave would be discovered. Why, I just
+come on it accidental like onct when I was wanderin' through these
+hills."
+
+"Boys, there's only one thing to do," said Jack in a determined voice,
+"and that's to investigate."
+
+"Righto, Jack," said Frank eagerly. "Here's our chance to get back our
+airplane."
+
+"You said it," declared Bob. "Let's go."
+
+"Not so fast," said Jack. "First we must have a plan of campaign.
+Tom, what's the lay of the land? How far away is the cave? Would it be
+better to leave our horses here and approach on foot?"
+
+"Cave's not more'n half a mile from here," answered Tom. "It's just
+around the shoulder o' this hill we're on right now and near the top.
+I tole you 'bout that big rock in front o' the entrance an' them three
+lonesome trees at the foot that give you a bee-line to the rock. Well,
+we can git to them trees without bein' noticed an' tie our horses
+there an' then sneak up afoot."
+
+"Is there only the one entrance to the cave?"
+
+"Only one," answered Tom. "There's a kind o' chimney up through the
+rock to the top o' the hill. But nobody couldn't git out there in much
+of a hurry. We won't have to worry 'bout that."
+
+Frank had an idea.
+
+"How far would those fellows in the airplane have to go to reach the
+cave after landing?"
+
+"Oh, le's see. 'Bout as fur as us, I reckon."
+
+"Maybe we can cut them off before they enter the cave," said Frank.
+"They'll be busy about the airplane for several minutes before they
+start to make their way to the cave. How would they have to approach
+the cave?"
+
+"Same way as us from the trees on," said Tom.
+
+"Well, if we hurry," Frank declared excitedly, "maybe we can capture
+them before they reach the cave."
+
+"Right you are, young feller," approved Tom. "But we'll have to leave
+our horses behind or they might give us away. We can't tie 'em to
+those trees like we planned."
+
+"We can't hobble them," said Jack, thinking quickly, "because they
+would wander aside a little distance, anyway. And we may want them
+again in a hurry."
+
+"Tell you what," said Tom, "seems like I remember a clump o' trees
+just this side o' them three I spoke about. We can tie 'em there. An'
+them fellers in the machine won't have no horses, so ours ain't likely
+to nicker."
+
+"Good," said Jack. "You lead the way and we'll follow."
+
+Presently at a low-spoken word from the guide the boys dismounted and
+tied up their horses. Then, Jack carrying his rifle, and the others
+following close at his heels, revolvers in hand, they pressed on
+toward the three trees forming Tom Bodine's landmark.
+
+As they reached the trees, low exclamations burst from the boys.
+Hitherto, they had been cut off from the plateau by the shoulder of
+the hill. Now it lay below and before them. This of itself would not
+have permitted them to see, as the darkness was intense. But now the
+scene was illuminated by a number of oil flares stuck upright in the
+ground in a rude circle.
+
+And right in the middle of the circle was the airplane stolen from Bob
+and Frank. There could be no mistaking the all-metal body nor the
+peculiar wing spread, even at that distance of close to half a mile.
+
+Several figures were moving about. As the boys looked on, these seized
+oil flares and started moving toward them.
+
+"Here's where our turn comes at last," said Frank.
+
+Jack laid a hand on his arm.
+
+"Better than that, Frank," he said. "How many do you make out?"
+
+"Three is my guess."
+
+"The two men in the airplane and the man in charge of the cave," said
+Jack. "Dollars to doughnuts, the cave is undefended right this minute.
+What do you say to capturing it and laying for them there?"
+
+All four were grouped together, and consequently all heard Jack's
+proposal. Bob and Tom Bodine agreed eagerly.
+
+"Lead the way, then, Tom," said Jack, "because you know the route. And
+be quick."
+
+Swiftly, yet withal cautiously, because the cave might be defended,
+they approached the big rock. As they sidled around it, a gleam of
+light from the mouth of the cave at the rear of the rock fell athwart
+their path. Involuntarily they drew back.
+
+Then Jack brushed Tom Bodine aside and took the lead. His repeater
+thrust before him, crouching, he entered the mouth of the cave. A
+moment later his whisper came back:
+
+"Coast's clear."
+
+But the others already were at his heels.
+
+A hasty glance around revealed the first of the two chambers, which
+Tom had said the cave possessed, was luxuriously furnished and lighted
+by a powerful electric bulb enclosed in a huge frosted globe suspended
+from the middle of the roof. There was no time for further
+investigation because Jack already was pushing on toward the heavy
+hangings at the rear covering the mouth of the second chamber, and the
+others clung to his heels.
+
+Parting the hangings quickly, Jack threw his rifle to his shoulder.
+Then he and his companions received their second big surprise. The
+room was empty of human occupants. But it, too, was brilliantly
+lighted.
+
+And it was a radio broadcasting station.
+
+To the trained eyes of the boys that much was apparent at first
+glance. In one corner of the tremendous cave hummed the dynamo. From
+it, of course, came also the electricity for the lights. Before they
+could pursue their investigations, however, Tom Bodine, who had
+dropped back to the outer entrance, issued a warning hiss. Then he
+darted across the outer room and joined them.
+
+"Three of 'em," he whispered. "They'll be here in a minute."
+
+"Good," said Jack, taking command. "We'll give them a surprise. These
+hangings are fastened to rings on a big pole up above us there, and
+they'll slide easily. Tom, you and Bob grab the hangings in the middle
+and be ready to pull them aside when I say the word. Frank, you and I
+will stand here in the middle and keep them covered."
+
+All took their assigned positions as the sound of voices was heard at
+the outer entrance. Jack peered between the two folds of the hangings
+and smiled with satisfaction.
+
+"Let's go," he said.
+
+The hangings flew aside.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE FIGHT IN THE CAVE
+
+
+"Hands up, gentlemen," ordered Jack, rifle to shoulder.
+
+"And be quick about it," added Frank, revolver extended.
+
+Tom and Bob, the hangings disposed of, ranged themselves on either
+side of the pair. Four weapons covered the group in the outer room.
+
+The three men, who had advanced well to the center of the room, stared
+dumbfounded at these apparitions. Then amazement gave place to anger,
+and one of the trio made a move as if to draw his revolver.
+
+"None of that," commanded Jack, sternly. "Up with them quick or I'll
+shoot."
+
+Three pairs of hands were unwillingly elevated. Two of the men wore
+sheepskin jackets and leather helmets and the boys surmised correctly
+that they had been up in the airplane. Bob felt certain they were
+Morales and Von Arnheim, the two who had made the trip to the East to
+steal Mr. Hampton's papers and whom he had foiled in that purpose, but
+who had succeeded in stealing the airplane and making their way to
+Mexico in it. The other was a rangy man of about twenty-six, keen and
+shrewd-looking, and had the appearance of an American. Evidently he
+was the guardian of the cave. And it was he who had moved to draw his
+weapon when surprised. A tough customer and one to be watched, thought
+the boys.
+
+"Face about," ordered Jack.
+
+They obeyed.
+
+"Keep them covered, Tom," Jack then commanded. "Well search them."
+
+With weapons held ready, the three boys advanced. At that moment, the
+caretaker of the cave took one step forward and instantly the lights
+in both rooms faded out and the cave was in inky darkness.
+
+He had pressed a button in the floor, switching off the lights.
+
+The boys were so taken by surprise that for a moment they did not
+fire. Neither did Tom, for fear of hitting them as they were in front
+of him. This gave their three enemies an opportunity to shift position
+and fling themselves prone.
+
+When after their surprise, the boys did fire, their bullets merely
+pinged against the distant wall and did no damage. But the flash of
+their weapons betrayed their positions and answering bullets came
+uncomfortably close. One swept Jack's hat from his head.
+
+From behind them Tom Bodine's revolver spoke, as the enemy thus
+betrayed themselves. The soft thud of a bullet striking flesh, a
+groan, choked off in the middle, a hasty scrambling to get away from
+the danger point on the part of the man struck, then silence.
+
+This silence was so profound the boys seemed to hear the beating of
+their own hearts, and tried to hold their breath for fear of betrayal.
+They had thrown themselves prone after the first volley and lay so
+close they were touching, Jack in the middle.
+
+Each side was fearful now of firing at the other, lest the flashes
+give their position and an answering bullet find its mark.
+
+Jack thought quickly. Putting his lips to the ear of each of his
+companions in turn, he whispered:
+
+"Wait till I get Tom and come back. Then we'll make our way to the
+entrance."
+
+Each signified by the pressure of a hand that he understood. Certainly
+it would not do to have the enemy escape and thus cut them off in the
+cave!
+
+Slowly, carefully, noiselessly, Jack wormed his way to the rear and
+when he considered he must be in Tom Bodine's neighborhood he began
+whispering in a tone that could not be heard more than three feet
+away:
+
+"Tom. Tom. Tom."
+
+A hand gripped his leg. A voice whispered so low it was barely audible
+to him:
+
+"That you, Jack?"
+
+"Yes. Listen."
+
+Running a hand over Tom Bodine's body, Jack found his ear and, as he
+had done with Bob and Frank, set his lips to it. He explained his
+purpose to gain the entrance to the cave and prevent being bottled up.
+Tom nodded approval, and Jack was about to return to his companions
+when he suddenly thought of the radio room beyond, and its
+possibilities. It would never do to leave that unguarded. Their
+enemies could telephone the Calomares ranch. Then, even if the boys
+escaped, their identities would have become known at rebel
+headquarters. Their chances of rescuing Mr. Hampton would go
+glimmering.
+
+Once more Jack set his lips to Tom's ear and explained the situation.
+
+"That's right," whispered Tom in return. "Tell you what. I'll guard
+this here inner room from behind the rocks in this doorway. You three
+stop up the outer entrance, an' well have 'em bottled."
+
+Jack made his way back to his comrades, and the three started
+crawling. They moved inch by inch, so as to avoid bumping into
+furniture--a number of heavy chairs had been seen standing about the
+great room.
+
+Jack was in the lead, Frank at his heels, Bob bringing up the rear.
+Cautiously, tortuously, they made their way ahead for what seemed like
+ages, pausing frequently to listen.
+
+After one such pause, as he again started to follow Frank, Bob felt a
+form brush against him from the side. Then an arm shot out and
+encircled his neck. Bob wriggled about to face his opponent and threw
+both arms about him in a mighty clasp.
+
+As they fell to the floor, Bob heard a strangled cry from Frank and a
+grunt from Jack. They, too, had come to grips with the enemy. Their
+three opponents had started for the door with the same purpose held by
+the boys--that of bottling up the other side. The two crawling trios
+had brushed against each other in the middle of the floor.
+
+Now three individual fights raged furiously on the floor of the cave
+in Stygian darkness. Every man fought for his very life. The sob of
+labored breathing was the only sound--that and the threshing about of
+bodies.
+
+Tom Bodine was sick with rage at his helplessness, for he dared not
+shoot lest he hit one of the boys, and he could not see to take a
+hand. He decided to try to find that button in the middle of the floor
+of the outer cave which the enemy had used to throw off the lights.
+If not that, perhaps there was a wall switch somewhere. In his pockets
+was a box of safety matches. With these in his hands he started for
+what he thought was the middle of the room.
+
+Recklessly Tom struck and lighted matches, searching the floor for
+that button, stopping after each match burned down to his fingers to
+listen to the panting, heaving struggle going on about him.
+
+At last he found the button and pressed it. Light once more flooded
+both caves, dazzling to the eye after the pitch darkness of the moment
+before. Jack and Frank were still tightly locked with their respective
+foemen. But at the very moment the lights were switched on, Bob got
+the upper hand of his man with a famous hold he had used to advantage
+in winning his wrestling fame at school. There was a heave, and then
+Bob straightened up and the other went hurtling through the air. He
+was the American of the enemy trio.
+
+The man fell on his left side, a yard or more away, by a quick twist
+avoiding the descent on his head, which is the usual result of such a
+wrestling toss. His right arm was outflung and, as he skidded along
+the floor, the fingers of his right hand came in contact with a
+revolver dropped by one of the wrestlers.
+
+Twisting about like a cat, with a convulsive movement, the man came to
+his knees and fired. There was a warning shout to Bob from Tom Bodine.
+But the man's aim was far from steady, and the shot went wide.
+
+Bob leaped forward as if shot from a catapult, letting out a wild yell
+as he did so. It was a tremendous leap from a standing position, and
+he descended feet first on the other before he could discharge the
+revolver again. Beneath the impact of Bob's weight the man went down
+like a shot rabbit and lay still. Bob disarmed him, turned him on his
+face, pulled his arms behind him and began tying them with his belt.
+
+Meantime Jack was getting the better of his man, the Mexican. But
+Frank, slightest of the three boys, was putting up a losing fight
+against the German. The latter had him down and was kneeling on his
+chest with his hands throttling the boy. Frank's face was purple and
+the breath was whistling in his throat, while his efforts to throw the
+other off were becoming more and more feeble.
+
+Tom Bodine took in the situation and sprang forward, clubbing his
+revolver. He brought it down on the German's head. There was a
+sickening thud. One blow was enough. The German's hands relaxed their
+grip on Frank's throat, and he rolled over unconscious.
+
+At the same moment Jack pinioned the arms of the Mexican, and the
+latter lay helpless.
+
+The fight was over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+RESTING UP
+
+
+Swiftly Tom Bodine trussed up the unconscious German with the man's
+own belt, while Jack similarly treated the thoroughly cowed Mexican,
+Morales. Meanwhile, Bob went to Frank's aid, assisting him to a chair,
+bringing him water from a spring in a corner of the inner cave and
+fanning him with his sombrero.
+
+None of the three boys had suffered more serious injuries than
+bruises, but Frank had been badly battered in the encounter with his
+heavier opponent and the muscles of his left shoulder had been
+severely strained.
+
+Despite the mauling he had received, Frank wanted to go and inspect
+his beloved airplane at once and Bob, the co-owner with him, was
+equally eager. Jack, however, protested.
+
+"No, sir," said he firmly, "you are in no condition to go chasing off
+down this rocky slope. The airplane isn't going to fly away. It's in a
+pocket in the hills that nobody is going to discover. And, anyhow,
+there is nobody around in this desert place to do any discovering.
+
+"Moreover," he continued, "it is almost morning now. We all have been
+riding all night and with this fight coming on top of everything else,
+we are thoroughly tired out. So, instead of any more conversation
+tonight, I propose that we turn in and go to sleep, leaving one man on
+guard. At the end of two hours he can call another fellow, and in that
+way we can all get four or five hours sleep. I'll take the first watch
+and--"
+
+At that moment a groan from one of the prisoners on the other side of
+the room interrupted, and with an exclamation Bob started forward.
+
+"Good gracious," he said, "I'd forgotten all about that chap. His arm
+felt wet and sticky when we were wrestling and I believe he's the man
+Tom wounded with that first shot in the darkness."
+
+Bending over his late opponent, Bob noted a dark brown stain on the
+left shoulder of his coat.
+
+"Only a flesh wound, I reckon," said the other. "But it sure hurts.
+Are you going to leave me like this?"
+
+Bob flushed.
+
+"Of course not," he said. "What do you think I am? Here, let me help
+you up and we'll have a look at it."
+
+Bob assisted the other to a chair. His hands were then untied, the
+coat sleeve cut away and an examination made of his injury. It proved
+not serious. The man told Bob where to find a bottle of iodine. He
+winced under the sting of its application, but made no outcry. Then a
+rough bandage was made of clean handkerchiefs, and the boys stood back
+to examine their handiwork, for all had taken part in the operation.
+
+"You're some fighter, kid," the other said approvingly to Bob. "But I
+reckon I'da got you at that if it hadn't been for that arm."
+
+"Maybe so," Bob modestly agreed. "You put up a stiff fight."
+
+"You're an American, aren't you?" asked Frank. "What's your name? And
+how do you happen to be with these fellows?"
+
+"Why not?" said the other, answering the last question first. "I'm a
+rolling stone and joined up with this outfit because it looked like
+something doing. And that's what I want. As for my name, it's Roy
+Stone. And you guessed right. I am an American. Born an' raised in
+Wooster, out in Ohio."
+
+He paused and looked curiously from one to the other of the boys. Tom
+Bodine was examining the two other prisoners for possible injuries
+needing attention. Stone nodded toward him.
+
+"I can place a fellow like that, all right," he said. "Know this kind
+down here on the border. But who are you? You're only kids. What's
+your game? Are you with Obregon?"
+
+"No, indeed," said Bob. Turning to Jack, he whispered:
+
+"Is it safe to tell him who we are? He's an American. And, somehow, I
+have an idea he might help us."
+
+"Well, it won't hurt, I guess," said Jack, doubtfully. "He might
+escape and betray us to rebel headquarters, but I suspect we can guard
+against that. Besides, he's bound to find out our identities, because
+those other two chaps will recognize you."
+
+"Hardly in this rig," said Bob, referring to his clothing. "We talked
+all that over, you remember."
+
+"That's right. I had forgotten."
+
+Bob and Jack had drawn aside during the whispered colloquy. Now Bob
+turned back to his prisoner.
+
+"Look here," he said. "We'll have a little talk later. Right now we
+all need a good sleep."
+
+Without more ado, Bob and Frank tied Stone's hands and led him to his
+bed, behind a curtain in one corner of the outer room. They considered
+that inasmuch as he was wounded, he was entitled to the bed. The
+German had recovered consciousness from the blow on the head dealt him
+by Tom, and the latter already had ranged him and the Mexican along
+the wall where the sentinel could keep an eye on them. For
+themselves, the boys pulled a heavy rug to another portion of the
+wall, spread the heavy hangings formerly covering the door to the
+inner cave on top, and here Bob and Frank lay down with their ponchos
+over them. Presently they were joined by Jack who had planned to mount
+guard the first two hours, but who had been overruled by Tom Bodine.
+
+"No, you don't," said the latter. "I'm a tougher bird than you, and I
+take this job myself, an' that goes."
+
+Too tired to protest very vehemently, Jack turned in after exacting a
+promise that Tom would call him at the end of two hours. The old
+cowman, however, had no such intention. It was not until eight hours
+later that he summoned Jack. The lights in the cave still burned
+brightly, for Tom had refrained from switching them off for the
+obvious reason that they made it easy to keep an eye on the prisoners.
+Day-light, however, showed at the mouth of the cave. When Jack noted
+the time, he began to scold.
+
+"Forgit it," said Tom Bodine, gruffly. "You boys needed a good sleep
+while I'm an old hand at ridin' night herd. It didn't bother me none
+to stay up."
+
+Without further words, he turned in and was asleep almost on the
+instant. Jack roused Bob and Frank, and while Bob mounted guard at the
+mouth of the cave where he could keep watch both on their prisoners
+and on the approach from below, the two others explored a rude pantry
+behind a curtain. They found a plentiful stock of provisions, which
+made it unnecessary for them to draw upon their own limited food
+supplies for breakfast.
+
+When they themselves had eaten, they released the captives one at a
+time and fed them, afterwards replacing their bonds. The Mexican and
+the German were surly and uncommunicative. The latter tried to ply
+them with questions, but when they refused to answer he adopted a
+bullying tone and threatened them with all sorts of dire punishment.
+His threats, however, were no more effective at breaking down their
+silence than were his questions.
+
+Bob remained at the doorway to avoid the risk of recognition by
+Morales and Von Arnheim as the youth who had foiled their attempt to
+steal Mr. Hampton's papers from his Long Island home. Jack, who had no
+means of knowing how much the traitor, Rollins, might have told Von
+Arnheim in the past about Mr. Hampton's personal affairs, watched
+keenly for some indication on the German's part that he had formed an
+idea as to their identity, but none was forthcoming.
+
+Jack was correspondingly elated.
+
+"I suppose," he said to Frank, after Morales and Von Arnheim had been
+fed and returned to the other side of the cave, "that Rollins never
+bothered to speak about us because we were just boys. Then, too, you
+fellows arrived only the very day that we discovered Rollins's
+treachery and put a stop to his communications with these people."
+
+"That may all be true," said Frank. "Probably it is. Just the same,
+Von Arnheim and Morales are bound to put two and two together and make
+a shrewd guess as to our identities, even if they say nothing to us
+about the matter.
+
+"But," he added, confidently, "what if they do? We have them prisoners
+now and if we keep them well guarded until we have rescued your
+father, what does it matter how much they know?"
+
+Jack nodded agreement.
+
+"We'll have to keep mighty strict watch, though," he said. "Well, now
+let's feed this American, Stone. I'll draw straws with you to see who
+keeps guard while Bob comes to get his breakfast at the same time. He
+wants to talk to Stone, he said."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+CONFERRING BY RADIO
+
+
+Bob, however, told his companions he had decided not to interview
+Stone for the time being, and explained his reason, as well as what he
+hoped to gain from conversation with the prisoner.
+
+"I believe," he declared, "that Stone is a warm-hearted, adventurous
+young fellow with no particular love for the Mexican rebels, but
+merely serving under their banner for the excitement. And I believe if
+we approach him right we can win his help in rescuing Mr. Hampton. He
+must know a good deal about this Calomares ranch and if we can get him
+to give us some pointers it will be worth while.
+
+"That was what I had in mind last night. But mounting guard here this
+morning I had time to think it over, and I decided we had better go
+slow and, if possible, get the advice of my father on the matter."
+
+"But how could you do that?" asked Frank. "Go back to Hampton ranch
+again?"
+
+Jack interrupted excitedly.
+
+"No, Frank, don't you see!" he said. "Bob is thinking of the radio
+here in the cave. Aren't you, Bob? I'm a simpleton not to have thought
+of it before."
+
+"Well," said Bob, "we've all been so excited, that's not to be
+wondered at. But while I mounted guard here during your breakfast, I
+had a chance to calm down and do some thinking."
+
+Bob was eager to use the radio telephone at once, but Jack persuaded
+him to eat breakfast first. The big fellow literally bolted his bacon,
+bread and coffee, and then accompanied by Jack, while Frank mounted
+guard, he retired to the inner room where the radio outfit was
+located.
+
+"Let's have a look around here before we try to telephone," said Jack.
+"It will take us only a few minutes. And we ought to know what we have
+captured. What say?"
+
+"Fair enough," Bob agreed.
+
+A cursory inspection quickly convinced Jack that the station was not
+of recent installation, but had been put in about the year 1918. Much
+of the equipment, while of the best at the time it was put in, had
+been antiquated since by improved parts.
+
+It was a complete two-way installation, however, comprising a
+generator of practically sustained waves, a good control system to
+modulate the output, and a ground system for radiating a portion of
+the modulated energy as well as a receiver and a good amplifier.
+
+"Here is this chimney in the rock about which Tom spoke," Jack pointed
+out. "They have hooked up through this. And the antenna, I suppose, is
+on top of the rock above us.
+
+"This arc," he continued, advancing to the coils, "looks pretty strong
+and seems to have a rather elaborate water-cooling system. I think it
+is of foreign design, probably German. The Germans were early in the
+field with radio telephony development, you know."
+
+"All right," said Bob, who was beginning to grow impatient, "I'll take
+your word for it. But what I want to know is, can we telephone my
+father at your ranch?"
+
+"Say, Bob, I'm sorry," Jack said quickly. "You know how crazy Dad and
+I are over this radio telephone. But, of course, you are anxious to
+get your father. Come on, let's try. I'll throw on the generator."
+
+Suiting action to words, Jack shortly had the generator at work, while
+Bob began calling through the air for his father.
+
+"Be careful to use our code," Jack warned him. "You know Rollins said
+these fellows had a powerful radio station at the Calomares ranch, and
+if they were to pick up your call and listen in there'd be trouble."
+
+"Right," said Bob. "But if Dave answers the signal, I'll have to ask
+for father, because Dave doesn't understand the code."
+
+It was Dave Morningstar who answered, the other ex-cowboy employed as
+mechanic and guard at Mr. Hampton's radio plant in New Mexico. And
+when he had tuned to the proper pitch to hear distinctly and Bob's
+voice greeted him he was so surprised he stuttered and was incapable
+for a moment of coherent speech. Then he began to pour a flood of
+questions at Bob, wanting to know where he was, how he happened to be
+able to radio, what had happened to the boys, why Tom Bodine, his
+partner, had failed to return, and so on. But Bob cut him short.
+
+"Stop it, Dave," he said. "We may be overheard. Call father to the
+telephone, so I can speak in code. Then I'll explain."
+
+Fortunately, although it was past noon, Mr. Temple was at hand. So
+anxious was he about the boys that he had been unable to sleep during
+the night. All morning, despite the belief that it was folly to expect
+to hear from the lads so early, he had stayed at the radio plant. Now,
+when he heard his son's voice, there was heartfelt thanksgiving in his
+reply.
+
+"Is it really you, Bob?" he asked, speaking in code. "I must have
+been insane to let you three lads go off on such a foolish venture. I
+have been tortured with anxiety every minute since you left. Tell me
+where you are and what has happened. And how in the world is it
+possible for you to radio? Are you all right?"
+
+"Yes, we're all right, Dad," answered Bob, and there was a good deal
+of emotion in his voice, too. The big fellow and his father were real
+pals. "Don't you worry, Dad," he added. "We're doing well, thank you."
+
+Then he retailed their adventures from the time of crossing the border
+into Old Mexico and leaving Tom Bodine at the boundary. There were
+many interruptions from his father.
+
+"Thank heaven," said the latter, when learning that Tom Bodine had
+followed the boys and joined them. "He's a trustworthy chap, and to
+know that he is with you makes me breathe more easily."
+
+When he came to relate the fight in the cave, Bob diplomatically made
+little of it. He felt there was nothing to be gained by unnecessarily
+harrowing the feelings of his father. The latter's anxiety, however,
+was great and he pumped rapid questions at his son which Bob could not
+avoid answering. The result was that Mr. Temple gained a fairly
+accurate idea of the peril in which the boys had been involved.
+
+"But, Dad," Bob interrupted his parent's horrified exclamations,
+"it's all over now. None of us is injured, and we have got back our
+airplane."
+
+"I know, Bob, I know," answered the older man. "But you can't
+understand a father's feelings. And it isn't all over yet by any
+means, for you haven't rescued Mr. Hampton. And you don't know what
+difficulties you will encounter in doing so, and what dangers you will
+run."
+
+"Oh, I believe the worst is over, Dad," answered Bob. "We have
+captured Morales and Von Arnheim, and they were our two worst dangers.
+If we had encountered them at rebel headquarters and they had
+recognized me, our goose would have been cooked. We would have been
+taken prisoners, too. But now there will be nobody to recognize us.
+The rebels will take us for what we pretend to be, young Americans
+seeking adventure and riding in to enlist."
+
+"Perhaps, Bob," said his father, only half convinced. "But let me
+think this over. There ought to be some other way to rescue Mr.
+Hampton now that you have the airplane again. Also you have these
+prisoners. It may be that you can gain some valuable information from
+them. Have you questioned them yet?"
+
+"That's just what I was coming to, Dad," said Bob.
+
+Thereupon he proceeded to tell his father of Roy Stone, the young
+American in charge of the radio plant in the cave, whom they had made
+prisoner. A lengthy conversation ensued. Mr. Temple was reluctant at
+first to have the boys reveal their identities inasmuch as so far they
+had escaped detection. But he saw that if an ally could be made of
+Stone it would be of the highest importance to the boys. He finally
+authorized Bob to promise Stone a suitable reward, if he thought that
+would appeal to him. Then, enjoining Bob to take no further steps
+without first consulting him by radio, Mr. Temple concluded the
+conversation.
+
+To Jack and Frank, speaking in low tones at the entrance to the cave
+where Frank kept guard, Bob explained the gist of his conversation
+with his father. Tom Bodine still slumbered heavily. Stone lay napping
+on his bed. Morales and Von Arnheim sat with drooping heads in the
+heavy chairs where, while Bob telephoned, Jack had thought it best to
+bind them.
+
+"Well, let's talk with Stone and see what he has to say," Jack said.
+"Frank and I have been talking the situation over, too, and we've got
+all sorts of ideas. For one thing, we thought there was a chance the
+rebels could be persuaded to exchange father for Von Arnheim and
+Morales. Stone might know how important those two worthies are
+considered by the rebels."
+
+"Can't I listen in on this confab?" Frank asked, plaintively. "Or
+must I continue to mount guard here? Besides, I want to go down and
+look at our airplane, and pat it even if I can't get in and fly. I can
+see it from here, and it looks tempting."
+
+"You'll have to wait awhile to do that, I expect," said Jack with a
+smile. "We must decide what to do next before we spend any time
+playing."
+
+At that moment, Tom Bodine yawned prodigiously and sat up on his
+make-shift couch.
+
+"At least I can have a voice in the conference," said Frank. "If Tom's
+awake he can mount guard."
+
+"All right, fine," said Jack. "We'll leave him out here with Morales
+and Von Arnheim, as soon as he has had something to eat. Then the
+three of us can take Stone into the other room and have a talk with
+him."
+
+So it was arranged.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+GAINING AN ALLY
+
+
+Before mounting guard, however, Tom thought of their horses, a detail
+which the boys had forgotten in the quick march of events. He and Bob
+descended the slope, brought the animals into the valley where there
+was grass along the bed of a little stream trickling from a spring,
+and a few trees that provided shade. The horses were hobbled to
+prevent wandering too far, and then left to do as they pleased. They
+pleased, every one, to lie down at once and roll.
+
+Upon their return to the cave, after Bob first had inspected the
+airplane and found it in tiptop condition and stocked with gas and
+oil, Tom mounted guard while the boys carried out their intention of
+taking Stone into the inner room for a conference.
+
+Stone made matters easy for all concerned by speaking first, as soon
+as they all were out of earshot of Morales and Von Arnheim, and
+telling the boys he had guessed their identities.
+
+"Of course, I don't know your names," he said, "but I reckon one of
+you is the son of that American bigbug old Calomares is holding
+prisoner up at his ranch. And the rest of you are his pals."
+
+Bob's face fell. He had believed their identities were unsuspected. If
+this man could draw so clever a deduction, then their two other
+prisoners could do likewise. Moreover, if they carried out their
+original plan and went to rebel headquarters to enlist, would they not
+there, too, be suspected?
+
+"Do the others guess who we are?" he asked.
+
+"Don't know," said Stone. "I haven't been given much chance to talk to
+'em, have I? But that German is smart, and he may suspect. But"--and
+with this statement he set at rest a part of Bob's fears--"my bed is
+pretty close to this room an' I have pretty good ears. I overheard
+some things that Morales and Von Arnheim couldn't hear, especially
+when you used the radio to call your father. Anyhow, I thought it was
+your father. Mostly you spoke in code, but I heard you call him 'Dad'
+a couple of times."
+
+The three chums looked at each other, nonplussed. Stone laughed.
+
+"Until I made out who you were," he said, "I thought you were some
+wild-eyed kids looking for adventure an' comin' to the right place to
+find it. But once I got a suspicion, it was easy to figure out the
+rest. You see, I knew about your owning the airplane that Von Arnheim
+stole, an' about your radio stations. When you started the generator
+that showed me you knew something about radio, an' that was another
+clue.
+
+"So I just put two an' two together. Anyhow, it finally came to me who
+you were. Am I right?"
+
+"Yes," said Jack, taking the initiative as Stone concluded, "you are
+correct. It is my father who is held prisoner by the Mexicans, and
+these are my chums."
+
+Jack regarded the other searchingly.
+
+"We're in trouble," he said, simply, "and we need help that you could
+give us. How closely are you tied up with the rebels? You're an
+American and we are Americans. Does that mean anything to you?"
+
+"Yes, kid, it does," said Stone. Despite the fact that he was only
+seven or eight years older than the three chums, he had led a roving
+life that had given him a world of experience and an older viewpoint,
+and he persisted in regarding them as youngsters. "I'm strong for the
+good old U.S.A.," he continued.
+
+"But don't get me wrong. These are fine people down here, and don't
+you believe they ain't. Their standards aren't American standards
+either in manners or politics. But, just the same, they're good folks,
+and don't you let anybody tell you different. I wouldn't turn against
+them for anything. So, although your fathers have lots of
+money"--here he looked fixedly at Bob, who felt uncomfortable
+remembering his father's authorization to offer Stone money to help
+them--"well, don't offer me any, that's all."
+
+Bob was silent, but Jack again stepped into the breach.
+
+"Good for you," he said warmly. "I'm glad to hear you talk that way.
+But"--and here Jack paused impressively--"suppose the imprisonment of
+my father threatened the peace and prosperity of the 'good old U.S.A.'
+as you call it. What then?"
+
+Stone looked troubled.
+
+"See here," he said. "What are you driving at?"
+
+"Shall we tell him what Mr. Temple says is behind all this?" Jack
+asked his companions.
+
+Bob and Frank nodded agreement.
+
+"Well," began Jack, "it's this way." Thereupon he proceeded to relate
+Mr. Temple's theory that the attacks on the independent oil operators,
+the capturing of Mr. Hampton and the attempt engineered by Rollins and
+Remedios to capture himself, were all part of a plan to embroil the
+United States government with President Obregon, as the responsible
+head of the country whence the outrages originated.
+
+"And Mr. Temple says," concluded Jack, "that if the two countries did
+come to war, it would hurt us very much with all Latin-America."
+
+"Sure would," agreed Stone thoughtfully. "I've knocked about among
+these Spanish-American republics for years, an' they all look on the
+little old U.S.A. as a dollar-chaser and a bully." He was silent for a
+moment, and when he resumed, he said: "Look here. What you've just
+told me makes a big difference. You haven't said yet what you are out
+to do. But I can make a pretty good guess. You're going to try to
+rescue your father without letting the American authorities know
+anything about it. Am I right?"
+
+Jack nodded.
+
+"Well, I'll help you," said Stone. "I know where he is and how to get
+him, an' I'll tell you all I know."
+
+"Hurray," yelled Frank, the impulsive.
+
+Jack and Bob contented themselves with grasping Stone's hand warmly.
+Realizing Stone still was bound, Bob pulled out a pocket knife and
+started to cut his bonds, but Stone made him desist.
+
+"Keep this dark from Von Arnheim and Morales," he said. "And keep me
+tied up. They may suspect I'm throwing in with you, but I don't want
+'em to know. I want to be able to make a getaway, because these parts
+won't be very pleasant for me hereafter."
+
+"That's right," said Bob. "Well, even if you won't take money, you'll
+have to let my father or Mr. Hampton help you in some way, with a job
+or something."
+
+Stone smiled tolerantly.
+
+"Buddy," said he, "getting along is the least of my troubles."
+
+With Stone's aid won, the boys now set about learning from him how
+matters stood at the Calomares ranch.
+
+For hours they continued to talk, so absorbed that they did not
+realize the flight of time until Tom Bodine came to inform them the
+sun was near setting and to ask what they intended to do that night.
+By then, however, they had obtained from Stone all the information he
+could give them, which was considerable; Bob had had another talk by
+radio with his father, and a plan for further proceedings had been
+worked out.
+
+Jack and Bob were to make the attempt at the rescue of Mr. Hampton
+alone. They were to fly to the Calomares ranch in the airplane with
+Bob at the wheel, as Jack was not so experienced a flyer. Bob, on the
+other hand, knew his machine thoroughly, and was familiar with its
+every trick, a knowledge much to be desired as airplanes even more
+than motor cars and ships develop temperament and have got to be
+"humored," so to speak.
+
+Frank rebelled at the part assigned him. He was to stay behind at the
+cave with Tom Bodine and Roy Stone, guarding the prisoners, Morales
+and Von Arnheim. When they had rescued Mr. Hampton, Jack and Bob would
+take him in the airplane and start flying to the Hampton ranch.
+
+By means of the radio in the airplane, which could send 150 to 200
+miles, although it could receive messages from a much greater
+distance, the Hamptons and Bob would notify the party left behind in
+the cave. Then Frank, Tom Bodine and Stone would ride for the border
+on horseback. Morales and Von Arnheim would be left bound so as to
+prevent their giving an alarm or offering any interference with the
+programme. After the party had been given time to make its way well
+along toward the border, rebel headquarters was to be notified by
+radio from the Hampton ranch of the location of the prisoners. The
+latter would, therefore, suffer nothing but inconvenience.
+
+"But what fun do I get out of this?" lamented Frank, enviously
+regarding Bob and Jack. "You fellows get all the fun and all the
+glory. I ride tamely back to the ranch."
+
+"It is hard luck, Frank," said Bob. "But your shoulder is sore and
+aching from your fight last night, and I'm in better condition to
+operate the plane. Besides, you know we can't take you, as the plane
+will hold only three and when we get Mr. Hampton we'll have our full
+complement. Some one of us has to stay behind. You've had your share
+of the fun so far, anyhow, and your turn will come again."
+
+"I don't see it," said Frank. "It looks to me as if when you rescue
+Mr. Hampton the fun will all be over. But that's the way with you big
+bullies. Always picking on the little fellow."
+
+"Well, you see," said Bob mischievously, "I've got to keep you out of
+danger for Della's sake. Ouch! Wow! Letup. Can't you take a joke."
+
+For, lame shoulder notwithstanding, Frank leaped and, bowling the big
+fellow out of his chair, got astride of his writhing body and began to
+pummel him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+FLYING TO THE RESCUE
+
+
+"Come on. Strip."
+
+It was Bob talking, and the command was addressed to Morales and Von
+Arnheim. Tom Bodine stood guard over them with leveled revolver.
+
+"But, why?" protested Von Arnheim.
+
+"Ask us no questions an' we'll tell you no lies," said Tom, waving his
+weapon. "Jest do what you're tole."
+
+Sullenly the two men obeyed. When their outer clothing had been
+removed, and they stood revealed in light-weight undergarments--a well
+set-up powerful pair of men, about the height of Jack and Bob although
+neither was so sturdy as the latter--Bob halted them.
+
+"That's enough," he said. "Here put these around you."
+
+And he tossed them rubber ponchos which they threw around their
+shoulders.
+
+Scooping up the discarded clothing of the two men, Bob and Jack
+retired to the radio room. Stripping quickly, Jack dressed in Morales'
+clothing and Bob in that of the German aviator. This arrangement was
+adopted because Jack could speak Spanish with considerable fluency and
+thus fitted into the role of the Mexican. Bob, on the other hand, was
+better adapted to pass as the German who, they had been informed by
+Roy Stone, spoke Spanish only awkwardly.
+
+"Buenos dios, Senor," said Jack, bowing gracefully.
+
+"Ach du lieber Augustine," answered Bob, standing at salute.
+
+They burst into hearty laughter, in which they were joined by Frank
+and Roy Stone, who were present at the transformation.
+
+"How will we do?" asked Jack.
+
+Stone eyed them critically.
+
+"To fellows that know Morales and Von Arnheim only by sight," he said,
+"you will pass for them easily enough. Both of them are smooth-shaven,
+which is unusual, for Mexicans and Germans both favor mustaches. But
+that's all the better for you boys.
+
+"One thing you want to remember," he said to Bob, "and that is to walk
+pretty stiffly like you had a bone in your leg an' swallowed a ramrod.
+That's the way Von Arnheim always steps out, An' both of you keep your
+hats pulled down."
+
+"Now you boys have got the bearings I gave you. You can easy enough
+find the landing field, even in the darkness. It's a big meadow as
+flat as a table, with the ranch house and outbuildings in a clump at
+one end, an' the radio station with its big tower supporting the
+antenna at t'other. Both places will be all lighted up, for Calomares
+lives like one o' them old-time barons an' he's always got so many
+men around the place he needn't fear nobody, so why put out lights?
+He likes light. He's a bug on it, in fact."
+
+"Suits me," said Bob. "That gives me some beacons to go by."
+
+From the foregoing it will be seen that the boys had changed
+materially their original plan of riding in as adventure-seeking
+American youths to enlist in the rebel forces, and wait their chance
+to effect the rescue of Mr. Hampton. As matters now stood. Bob and
+Jack were to land in the airplane, and while Bob stayed by it, Jack
+was to make his way to the room where his father was held prisoner,
+free him, and guide him back to the airplane, when they would fly for
+the border.
+
+Of course, the plan would not be so easy of execution as it sounded.
+To find the ranch and make a safe landing would be a fairly easy task.
+The ranch was not more than fifty miles distant by air line, and in
+that sparsely habited country there would be no other similar group of
+lights to puzzle Bob. Once they had alighted, however, the
+difficulties would be encountered.
+
+At first the boys had considered the advisability of waiting until a
+late hour to make their attempt. Rebel headquarters then would have
+retired for the night, and they would run less danger of encountering
+anybody on landing. In that event, however, they soon realized, ranch
+and radio station alike would be dark and Bob would have no beacons to
+guide him to a landing.
+
+No, there was only one thing to do, and that was to arrive at an early
+hour. Moreover, there would be this advantage attached, namely, that
+sentries would be lax and that, with many persons coming and going in
+and about the ranch, the passage of a familiar figure, such as they
+would take Jack to be, would arouse no comment. Jack might be halted,
+of course, by some one desirous of conversation. But he could make
+some excuse to pass on. As a matter of fact he planned to wrap a
+handkerchief about his jaw and pretend to be suffering from toothache.
+This would serve the double purpose of partially hiding his features,
+and of excusing him from indulging in extended speech.
+
+"All right," said Jack, finally, as he finished donning his disguise
+by clapping Morales' hat on his head. "Let's go."
+
+"Ya, ya," said Bob, doing a goosestep. Once more they all had a good
+laugh. Then Bob and Jack walked into the outer room of the cave,
+followed by Frank and Roy Stone. Stone had thrown caution to the
+winds, and had decided not to try any longer to hide his defection
+from Morales and Von Arnheim.
+
+"I'll soon be riding away from here with you, anyhow," he told Frank.
+"And they'll find out then, if they haven't already suspected. I'm
+going down to the airplane to see the kids off."
+
+Frank had demanded this privilege of going down to the valley and
+seeing Bob and Jack get away, and the others had no thought of denying
+him. So all four, bearing the oil torches kept in the cave by Stone
+for the purpose of lighting the landing field at night, descended from
+the cave. Tom Bodine was left to guard the two prisoners.
+
+These had again suffered the ignominy of having their hands tied,
+after they had undressed, and, wrapped in the rubber ponchos given
+them by Bob, they had flung themselves down on the pallet prepared the
+previous night by the boys.
+
+Stationed in the outer entrance of the cave, Tom Bodine looked around
+at the two prone forms several times. But always they lay motionless
+under their ponchos, and there seemed no cause for suspicion regarding
+them. Poor fellows, thought Tom, who held no particular animosity
+against them, they had had a hard time of it lately. After landing
+from a flying trip, they had been set upon and beaten. Then, made
+prisoner, they had spent the intervening hours cramped in bonds and in
+doubt as to what their captors intended doing with them. Probably were
+tired out and asleep by now, thought Tom. He even tiptoed over to
+where they lay and found, as he had expected, that both had their eyes
+closed and were breathing heavily.
+
+Returning to the entrance, Tom took a step or two forward so as the
+better to see past the big rock outside and thus get a clearer view of
+the airplane. The boys had reached it by now, the oil flares were
+planted to both sides, and it was illuminated, standing out in the
+tossing light like a great bird.
+
+As the propeller began to whirl, Tom took another step or two forward.
+An airplane was a new puzzle to him, and he was so interested in
+watching it get under way that he forgot his trust, forgot he had
+prisoners to watch, forgot everything but the mystery of that piece of
+mechanism, that gigantic bird, running bumpily now over the ground and
+now beginning to lift into the air, and now----
+
+Tom whirled about. The old instinct of the man who lives much in the
+open, telling him danger is close at hand, was stirring at the roots
+of his hair. But he was just a trifle too late. As he faced about, a
+form shot out of the cave and Tom, totally unprepared for attack, was
+bowled over.
+
+As he fell he let out a great wordless cry, thinking to warn Frank and
+Roy Stone. Then the butt of a revolver descended on his head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE TABLES TURNED
+
+
+"What was that?" asked Frank, turning to Roy Stone, as the airplane
+bearing Jack and Bob on their romantic adventure dwindled in the
+darkening sky. "I thought I heard a shout."
+
+"Guess you did," said Stone. "I heard it, too. It came from the cave."
+
+Both turned to stare upward toward the distant cave. There was no sign
+of movement. Only the dim bulk of the rock obscuring the entrance
+could be distinguished. They looked at each other, a nameless fear
+stirring at their hearts. Then Frank shook himself and laughed.
+
+"Pshaw," said he, "this lonesome place seems spooky. I know what it
+must have been. It must have been Tom shouting a farewell to the
+fellows."
+
+"Reckon you're right," said Stone, brightening. "Sure, that must be
+it. Well, let's go back. We'll be starting in a couple of hours, if
+all goes well."
+
+"All right," said Frank, reaching to pluck one of the oil flares out
+of the ground.
+
+Stone halted him. Again he looked anxiously toward the cave.
+
+"Let's not take the torches," said he.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Just playing a hunch," said Stone. "I have the feeling that all may
+not be well up at the cave."
+
+Frank dropped his voice unconsciously, as if fearing eavesdroppers in
+that lonely spot.
+
+"To tell you the truth," said he frankly. "I feel the same way. I say!
+I have an idea. Let's edge out of the light without hurry, not toward
+the cave, but out that way," pointing in the direction taken by the
+airplane. "We'll put our hands up to our eyes and pretend to be
+watching the sky for the airplane's flight. It would be natural for us
+to want to get beyond the light of these torches, if we were trying to
+follow the boys with our eyes."
+
+"That's the ticket," said Stone, and the two put Frank's plan into
+execution.
+
+Beyond the light cast by the torches they paused. Darkness had
+descended now, in truth. Not even the shadowy bulk of the big rock
+before the entrance to the cave could be distinguished.
+
+"Maybe we're making ourselves nervous over nothing," said Stone. "I
+feel kind of foolish. After all, what could happen? That old cowman
+pal of yours looks pretty capable."
+
+"He is, too," said Frank. "Just the same, I feel we ought to be
+cautious. If Tom's all right when we reach the cave, well and good.
+But if he isn't------"
+
+"You're right, kid," said Stone. "I'm no more of a coward than the
+next fellow. But if Morales and Von Arnheim by any chance gained the
+upper hand and got their clutches on me, I'd hear the birdies sing."
+
+Frank had been thinking rapidly.
+
+"Look here," he said, "isn't there some way we can sneak up there to
+find out if matters are all right or not? Suppose Tom has been
+overcome. We wouldn't stand much chance approaching the cave by the
+regular entrance." He paused and again stared upward. "We've been gone
+a considerable time," he said nervously. "You'd think if he were all
+right, Tom would have called to find out what is delaying us."
+
+"Tell you what," said Stone, "I've got a little private path to the
+top of the cave where the antenna is located. It isn't much more than
+a goat track. But we'll have to be goats. Never been up it in the
+dark, but I think I can make it. Are you game to follow me?"
+
+"Certainly," said Frank, "if it will be of any advantage for us to do
+so."
+
+"Well, there's a fissure through the rock down into the cave. That's
+where the Germans that put in the radio plant made their hook-up. We
+can listen there, and maybe hear something to guide us."
+
+"Oh, I remember that," said Frank, and added excitedly: "Maybe I could
+crawl down into the cave."
+
+"You might be able to, at that," said Stone. "You're pretty slight.
+But it would be a ticklish proposition without any rope from above.
+Well, if you're on, let's go."
+
+Turning he struck off across the valley, approaching the hill some
+distance from the path leading to the cave. Frank followed closely at
+his heels. Soon they began mounting upward. The climb in the darkness
+became more and more difficult, made more so by the care they
+exercised to prevent dislodging stones. They feared the clatter of
+these descending to the bottom would betray them.
+
+Once Stone, who was in the lead, slipped and slid backward, clutching
+frantically to stay his fall. Fortunately, Frank was well braced at
+the moment and was able to stop him. After a rest to regain their
+breath and calm their shaking nerves, they resumed the climb.
+
+At length Frank's feet were on level ground and ahead he saw the
+outlines of two latticed towers of familiar construction, and between
+them overheard the strands of the antenna. The Germans, Stone earlier
+had explained, had built the towers in such fashion that the crest of
+the hill hid them from the plain on one side while they were so far
+back from the edge of the flat plateau crowning the hill as to be also
+hidden from view from the valley.
+
+Whispering an injunction to Frank to follow close at his heels, Stone
+crawled on hands and knees to the fissure in the rocks down which led
+the wires of the hook-up. It was not a straight descent into the cave,
+and no light came from it. But the two knelt in the darkness and put
+their heads close to the black opening to listen.
+
+A murmur of speech could be heard distinctly, coming up through the
+hole. Frank could not distinguish the words, but with his limited
+knowledge of Spanish he was able to decipher that language was being
+employed.
+
+"What is it?" he whispered to Stone. "Can you hear? Are they speaking
+in Spanish?"
+
+"Silence. Just a minute," answered Stone.
+
+His voice was anxious. Frank obeyed the command. In a moment, Stone
+lifted his head and said hoarsely:
+
+"It's Morales. He and the German must have overcome your friend in
+some way. And I think he's got the Calomares ranch on the phone and is
+giving warning that your friends are on the way."
+
+Frank groaned.
+
+"Then when Jack and Bob land, they'll be surprised and captured. Oh,
+can't we do something?" Excitedly he jumped to his feet. "Let's put
+the radio out of commission."
+
+Stone also leaped up and laid a restraining hand on his arm.
+
+"No, no. Wait a minute. The damage is done already. These fellows
+already have given sufficient warning to put them on guard at the
+ranch, even though they can't have told the whole story."
+
+They stood undecided, looking at each other, in the starlit darkness.
+With an exclamation, Frank seized Stone by the arm. In his excitement,
+he shook it.
+
+"Jack and Bob both clamped the headpieces on when they left in the
+airplane," he said. "And Jack tuned the radio to the pitch of this
+station, in order to be able to call us after rescuing his father.
+Why, he must have heard Morales give his warning! Yes, sirree. Why
+this isn't so bad!"
+
+In their relief, the two laughed a trifle hysterically. In a moment,
+however, Frank sobered again.
+
+"Just the same," he said, "the ranch would get the warning, unless--"
+
+"Unless what?"
+
+"Unless Jack was quick enough to grasp the situation."
+
+Stone slapped his leg.
+
+"I see what you mean," he said. "Your friend Jack could call the
+ranch, too, and interfere so much that Morales' message would be all
+twisted up."
+
+"That's it," said Frank. "And when it comes to thinking quickly and
+acting at once, you can count on Jack. Just the same," he added, "he
+can't keep that up forever, and when he lands--"
+
+"Which he'll have to do shortly," interrupted Stone, "because the ranch
+is only fifty miles from here."
+
+"Why, then," continued Frank, "these fellows can get their warning to
+the ranch and the boys will be captured, or at least their plan to
+rescue Mr. Hampton will be spoiled. No, sir, we'll have to wreck the
+radio plant here to give them a chance. If Jack has been able so far
+to interfere with the warning, and we put this plant out of commission
+now, they may be able to carry out their rescue after all. Let's see.
+How will we go about it?"
+
+Both had been so engrossed they had failed to notice a dark form
+which, after creeping noiselessly up the slope, had started edging
+across the little plateau. Now this form suddenly straightened up and
+leaped forward. Frank cried out in alarm and jumped sideways, just as
+a spurt of flame split the darkness. The bullet sped by, leaving him
+unharmed. Stone, who was closer and stood with back turned, whirled
+about. The charging form cannoned into him, and he went down.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+FRANK SAVES THE DAY
+
+
+Frank's first thought was to go to the assistance of Roy Stone. The
+latter and his opponent--in the darkness Frank could not distinguish
+whether it was Morales or Von Arnheim--were locked with their arms
+about each other and rolling on the ground. His second thought was as
+to the whereabouts of the other man.
+
+He glanced about in alarm. Dark though the plateau was, however, he
+could see there was no other in sight. Bending down to the fissure in
+the rock, he could still hear the voice of Morales, and although he
+could not distinguish the words, he received the impression that the
+Mexican was angered for some reason. To Frank this meant that Morales
+was having difficulty in radioing the Calomares ranch, and his heart
+leaped with exultation. Jack had interfered.
+
+A wild thought leaped full grown into his mind. Stone had given Bob a
+stiff battle; he probably would do the same to Von Arnheim, even
+though his shoulder was sore. What was to prevent Frank from slipping
+down to the cave while the two were engaged, where he could release
+Tom Bodine, surprise Morales and recapture the cave and the radio
+plant?
+
+The next moment a feeling of shame surged over him. If Von Arnheim
+gained the upper hand, he would kill Stone without compunction.
+Putting aside his first thought, Frank ran to where the two forms
+still lay tightly locked on the ground, neither able to gain an
+advantage.
+
+He bent down, and the first thing his gaze encountered was an upflung
+hand grasping a revolver, and another hand gripped about the wrist of
+the first and preventing use of the weapon. He surmised it was Von
+Arnheim who held the weapon, and acted accordingly.
+
+Grasping the German's hand, he pressed back the fingers so sharply a
+cry of pain was wrung from Von Arnheim's lip. The revolver dropped to
+the ground. Its owner, however, pluckily continued the fight. Frank
+danced about, the captured weapon clubbed in his hand, ready to deal a
+blow when possible. But so furious was the fight that he feared to
+strike, lest he hit his friend.
+
+Precious minutes were flying by. He was in an agony. Morales had to be
+prevented from radioing the ranch, if Jack and Bob were to stand their
+chance.
+
+Then suddenly Roy Stone gained the upper hand of his opponent. He
+legs were twined about Von Arnheim, he clutched the other to his
+chest, one arm was in the small of his back, the other was pressed
+across his throat, his chin was sunk deep into the German's shoulder.
+Von Arnheim had only one arm free, the other was pinioned to his side.
+With this free arm he plucked futilely at Roy's arm across his throat,
+unable to reach the guarded face. It was a grip Von Arnheim was
+powerless to break, and it was only a question of time until he would
+be throttled into submission.
+
+With a leap of the heart, Frank realized this. And bending down with
+his lips to Stone's ear, he said:
+
+"I've got his gun. If you can hold him now I'm going into the cave
+after Morales. He's still at the phone."
+
+A grunt was Stone's only reply as he pressed his chin deeper into the
+other's shoulder. Von Arnheim's body was beginning to arch like a bow.
+If he did not surrender soon, his back would be broken.
+
+Frank darted off down the slope.
+
+Morales was seated at the telephone as Frank entered the cave,
+captured revolver in his hand. His own weapon hung forgotten at his
+side, so little used was he to the handling of small arms. Frank had
+tumbled, fallen, rolled down the slope, taking no precautions, fired
+only with anxiety to prevent Morales from radioing while there was yet
+time.
+
+The Mexican also, in his anxiety to reach the ranch and give the
+warning, had cast caution aside.
+
+Across the outer room dashed Frank, scarcely noting the trussed-up
+figure of Tom Bodine flung in one corner. No hangings obscured the
+brightly-lighted interior of the inner cave, for they had been torn
+down the night before to form a pallet.
+
+Morales sat with his back turned, the headpiece clamped over his ears.
+
+Frank darted forward and brought the butt of the revolver crashing
+down on the Mexican's head. Without a sound, without a gurgle or a
+cry, Morales swayed in the chair, then slumped to one side and slid to
+the floor.
+
+With nervous haste Frank pulled the headpiece from the other and
+clamped it on his head. At once a crackle of Spanish words filled his
+ears. He could make nothing of them. What little knowledge of Spanish
+he once had possessed was not at his command now.
+
+"Jack, Bob," he cried, pulling the microphone toward him. "This is
+Frank. Do you hear me? Frank."
+
+The chattering ceased as if by magic.
+
+"Frank? What in the world?"
+
+Glory be! It was Jack's voice in reply.
+
+"Use the code," cried Frank. In this emergency his brain was working
+lightning-fast. And in their own private code he added:
+
+"It's all right now. They captured Tom Bodine while we were down in
+the valley seeing you off. But we've recaptured the cave."
+
+"You saved our lives," came back Jack's voice. "I heard your Mexican
+friend call the ranch while we were flying, and at once started to
+interfere. It's been a job and my throat's hoarse. But he never got
+his message through, I can tell you that. Whatever it was he had to
+tell, I never did find out. I just started interfering, singing,
+talking, shouting. The ranch never found out what he was trying to
+say, and neither did I. But, boy, you're just in time. We can see the
+lights now. What? What's that?"
+
+What he heard was a shout.
+
+But Frank was too busy to answer his question. Morales had recovered
+consciousness and was on his knees and struggling to his feet, when
+out of the tail of his eye Frank saw his peril. Snatching the
+instrument from his head, he flung himself sideways. The impact of his
+body hurled Morales again to the floor.
+
+Frank had placed the captured revolver on the table, as he telephoned.
+He would have to fight with his bare hands. Well, he would not let the
+Mexican overcome him and regain possession of that radiophone unless
+he killed Frank first. With hands gripped about the other's throat and
+legs twined about his body, Frank fought as he never thought he could
+fight. Morales was a heavy man, heavier even than Von Arnheim who had
+overcome Frank in that tempestuous fight in the darkness the night
+before. But his senses were still somewhat numbed from the blow on the
+head dealt him earlier by Frank, and the boy was fighting with a
+strength born of desperate resolve.
+
+Frank's grip on the Mexican's throat tightened. Morales was unable to
+pluck those cruel hands away. His face became purple. His eyes started
+from his head. Suddenly he went limp beneath Frank, and sank to the
+floor.
+
+Frank stood up swaying. The excitement and the strain of the combat
+had had their effect on him. There are mighty few boys of his age and
+build who could have gone through what he did and still keep their
+feet. Dancing points of light swam before his vision. He brushed a
+hand across his eyes to clear them. He reeled and would have fallen,
+but his hand clutched the table and steadied him.
+
+What was it he must do? There was something which had to be done. Oh,
+if his head only would clear. Call Jack! Yes, that was it. Had to tell
+the old boy to go ahead--radio plant still Frank's--enemy couldn't
+get any warning from that Mexican fellow--had to tell him, had to.
+
+Clutching the table, swaying, but with lips tightly pressed together
+and teeth clenched, Frank made his way to the microphone. Holding the
+headpiece to his ear, he set his lips to the telephone instrument and
+called:
+
+"Jack, Jack, you there?"
+
+"Yes, yes," came back the anxious reply. "What happened?"
+
+"It's all right, Jack. Go ahead. I licked--him."
+
+The headpiece fell from his grasp. Frank sank to the floor.
+
+It was there a moment later that Roy Stone found him, fallen in a heap
+across the body of the Mexican. Both were unconscious.
+
+Stone was shaky himself. His battle with Von Arnheim had been a severe
+one, and the wound in his shoulder had started bleeding again. But as
+his gaze took in the situation, he turned to Tom Bodine, whose bonds
+he had cut on his way through the outer cave, and said in a tone of
+warmest admiration:
+
+"Some boy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+DANGER AT HAND
+
+
+Bob as well as Jack had heard Frank's explanation of the occurrences
+at the cave, for he also wore a headpiece as he piloted the airplane.
+And it was with warm admiration toward the absent chum who so
+heroically had thwarted Morales' attempt to betray their hazardous
+expedition that he circled now above the two groups of lights which
+marked the Calomares ranch and radio station.
+
+Smaller and smaller grew the circles, as with engine shut off he
+volplaned. The field was hard-packed and smooth and the plane alighted
+finally with practically no jar. When it came to a dead stop at last,
+Bob drew a long breath of relief. He had not been up for several
+weeks. And night flying above strange country to a landing on
+unfamiliar ground had been a strain upon him.
+
+There were no mechanics running out to greet the alighting plane and
+trundle it into its hangar. Had this been a well-appointed landing
+field, such absence would have been suspicious. But to Bob and Jack it
+meant only confirmation of Roy Stone's remark that they were a
+"careless lot at the ranch."
+
+"Now for it," said Jack, clambering out of the plane.
+
+The two chums stared around them, trying to pierce the darkness. They
+were in the middle of a long and wide field. A ring of low hills
+encircled them, the tops clearly outlined against the velvety sky.
+Overhead twinkled stars, brighter, warmer and apparently closer than
+when viewed in their Long Island home.
+
+The hills on either hand were close. So, too, was the rampart at their
+back, over which they had flown. Those ahead were more distant, for it
+was in that direction extended the valley. Behind them was the radio
+plant with its tracery of tower and antenna against the sky and the
+windows of the power house gleaming from the light within. Ahead was a
+long, irregular clump of buildings set among trees. Some were dark.
+But the main structure, which they knew from Stone's description was
+the ranch house, was brightly lighted.
+
+Try as they would to pierce the darkness, the boys were unable to
+discern anything other than this. There was not a human figure in
+sight.
+
+They gazed with especial interest toward the ranch house, because it
+was somewhere within those walls that Mr. Hampton was held prisoner.
+Soon, if all went well, Jack would be making his way within in search
+of his father. At the thought, his heart which heretofore had been
+calm enough, began to beat rapidly and for a moment he felt as if he
+were about to suffocate. His breath almost failed him. It was a not
+unnatural feeling, and soon passed, but Bob noting the labored
+breathing climbed from the airplane and put an arm over his chum's
+shoulder.
+
+"Steady, Jack," he said. "Everything's going to be all right."
+
+The friendly gesture and the sympathy in his chum's voice did steady
+Jack.
+
+"All right, now, Bob," he said. "Just at first, though----"
+
+"Righto," the big fellow answered. "I'm scared stiff myself, and I'm
+not even going into the ranch. If I were in your boots I'd probably be
+shaking myself loose from them."
+
+The pleasantry was what Jack needed. He grinned at the thought of big
+Bob shaking so much with fear as to shake off his shoes, and his
+recovery was complete.
+
+The plan was for Jack, in the dress and character of Morales, to go to
+the ranch house, enter boldly and make his way to the room where his
+father was held prisoner. Bob was to stay with the plane. Releasing
+his father, Jack would return with him. Then they would all three fly
+away across the international boundary to the north.
+
+It was impossible to foretell, of course, what obstacles to the
+carrying out of this daring proposal would arise. Both boys felt
+certain, however, that so far they were not suspected, and that first
+Jack and then Frank had successfully thwarted the attempt of Morales
+to send a warning to the ranch by radio.
+
+Neither was aware, of course, that the jumble of sounds through the
+air, when Jack from the airplane had interfered with Morales' attempt
+to warn the ranch, and later the code conversation between Jack and
+Frank, after the latter had obtained possession of the radio plant in
+the cave and had overcome Morales, had aroused the curiosity and then
+the suspicions of the young German, Muller, who operated the radio
+plant at the Calomares ranch.
+
+A few moments before the beat of its engine in the sky signalized the
+approach of the airplane, Muller had decided to go to the ranch and
+report to Calomares. He had crossed the landing field afoot and had
+just reached the belt of trees when the machine volplaned to the field
+behind him.
+
+Although, as has been said, his suspicions were aroused, Muller was
+far from suspecting the truth. He had no idea the airplane had been
+recovered by its rightful owners and that these latter were about to
+make a daring attempt to rescue Mr. Hampton. His thought on the
+contrary, was that something--he could not make a more definite
+surmise--had gone wrong at the cave.
+
+Therefore, when, after standing several minutes at the belt of trees,
+gazing back toward the airplane, he saw a figure start from it for the
+ranch house, he believed it was either Von Arnheim or Morales coming
+to report.
+
+Muller was a sycophant, the type of man eager to curry favor with
+those in authority. He decided he would gain the ear of the great
+Calomares first. That would detract somewhat from the glory of the
+other when he arrived. Turning he darted for the ranch.
+
+Meantime, Jack was making his way ahead more slowly. While not
+attempting to hide, he was on unfamiliar ground and felt that it
+behooved him to follow implicitly the directions given by Roy Stone
+and make no mistakes.
+
+Passing through the grove, Jack came in sight of the ranch. He paused
+in astonishment. Roy Stone's description of the great house had
+prepared him in a measure. Yet he was astounded. Here, indeed, was a
+palace in the wilderness.
+
+The mansion stood on a slight elevation with a lawn in front sloping
+down to the trees from which Jack had emerged. In design it was like a
+country house of the ancient Roman aristocracy. The walls were of
+vari-colored brick with inlaid designs representing formal flowers.
+Two stories in height, with towers at the corners rising another two
+stories higher, the building was in two wings or sections, joined in
+front by a marble-tiled walk, roofed and pillared, but with the sides
+open. Inside, between these two wings, Roy Stone had told Jack, was an
+open court.
+
+Nerving himself to the ordeal, and pulling down his hat to obscure his
+features, Jack crossed the lawn and started mounting the wide flight
+of stone steps flanked by crouching stone lions. He reached the marble
+tiles of the walk above and then, despite his anxiety to gain the left
+wing and the tower where his father was confined, he involuntarily
+paused.
+
+The scene before him was one of the strangest to be found on the North
+American continent--this marble courtyard, with its overhanging
+balcony around the sides and rear and its splashing fountain and pool
+in the center, the whole illuminated by the soft glow of electric
+lights cunningly concealed along the edges of the balcony like
+footlights on the lip of a stage.
+
+But it was not this alone which held Jack's gaze riveted and caused a
+smothered cry of surprise to burst from his lips. Involuntarily he
+stepped from the shelter of a pillar behind which he had been
+standing.
+
+For approaching along the balcony of the left wing, Jack saw the
+loved figure of his father engrossed in conversation with a small,
+dark man of patrician bearing.
+
+It was instinct rather than conscious thought which checked the cry on
+his lips. Instinct told him a shout would mean betrayal, and the
+shattering of his desperate plan.
+
+Yet careless of who might see, he stood there looking up at the
+distant figure until it was lost to view, cut off by the outjutting
+roof above him. That one sight, however, lifted a vast load from the
+boy's mind. His father, at least, was not mistreated. Evidently the
+man with him was the Don. And as evidently his father was treated more
+as guest than prisoner.
+
+At sound of a footstep on the marble tiles behind him, Jack returned
+with a start to a realization of his surroundings and the perils of
+his position. Assuming a carelessness which he was far from feeling,
+he refrained from turning about but instead started walking for that
+left wing ahead in the tower of which he knew his father to be lodged.
+
+But the step behind him was accelerated, and he was hailed by name as
+Morales. Jack halted. Here was the first ordeal to be passed. Well, he
+was prepared for it. According to his plan, he had bound his face in a
+handkerchief and intended to pretend having the toothache. The
+swathings partly hid his features, and the pulled-down hat further
+obscured them.
+
+"I'm busy. Don't delay me," he growled in Spanish, imitating Morales'
+voice.
+
+The newcomer approached. It was Muller.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE NIGHT ATTACK
+
+
+When Jack's figure had become merged in the shadows of the grove, big
+Bob, standing beside the airplane, reached a decision.
+
+"Not a soul in sight here," he muttered to himself, once more letting
+his gaze rove over his surroundings. "Jack thought it would be best
+for me to stay here, but nobody's going to monkey with the plane. I'm
+going to follow him--till he reaches the house, anyhow. He may need my
+help."
+
+Thus the big fellow salved his conscience for departing from orders.
+But he was so eager to take a hand in proceedings that he felt it
+would be torture to stay behind. He was dressed in Von Arnheim's
+clothes. And his build was that of the German aviator. If he were
+observed, he would not be suspected. Even his atrocious Spanish would
+not betray him, as the German spoke the language almost as horribly as
+he.
+
+Thus he reasoned to himself, as he strode rapidly after Jack.
+
+When he reached the other side of the grove, and came in sight of the
+ranch house Bob, as Jack had done, halted in amazement at sight of the
+splendid structure.
+
+He gazed around him. Nobody in sight. Shrubbery intervening prevented
+him from gaining a clear view of the house. He started to skirt the
+bushes.
+
+Meantime, not far away, the conversation between Jack and Muller was
+nearing a climax. Approaching the pretended Morales, Muller asked what
+he had tried to convey in his radio call, explaining it had been so
+interfered with by another mysterious call as to be non-understandable.
+Not knowing Muller was the radio man at the ranch, Jack was nonplussed.
+Again he answered that he could not be delayed, and started to withdraw.
+Then Muller laid a detaining hand on his arm.
+
+"Keep it to yourself, if you want to," Muller said. "But I know
+something happened at the cave and I have already reported so to the
+Don. First I thought you were trying to radio from the cave. Now here
+you come by airplane. There's--"
+
+"What do you mean?" growled Jack gruffly, although secretly alarmed.
+
+"I mean there's something wrong," Muller said.
+
+Muller still had no suspicion that the man before him was other than
+he pretended to be. Merely he was trying to pry into a matter that had
+aroused his curiosity. Jack, however, thought he was on the eve of
+being discovered, and was alarmed.
+
+At this moment Bob, skirting a clump of bushes on the lawn below, came
+in sight of the two figures and halted.
+
+He saw Jack wrench his arm from the other's grasp and turn to stride
+away. He saw the other raise an arm as if to stay Jack. And he saw the
+movement flip Jack's low-pulled hat from his head. It was accidental,
+but to Jack and Bob--the actor and the observer in this little
+drama--it seemed to be by intent. It is possible Jack still might have
+saved the day, had he stooped quickly, recovered his hat and clapped
+it on again before Muller could have seen his features.
+
+As it was, however, Jack thought he was discovered. And he turned to
+deal with Muller. Then, in truth, he _was_ discovered. Muller cried
+out in amazement. Then Jack landed a stinging blow on the mouth which
+sent the young German toppling to the marble pave.
+
+At Muller's shout, several rebel sentries, who had been snoozing in
+the shadows beside the palace, instead of mounting guard, were
+startled into instant wakefulness. They came trotting in bare feet,
+long rifles in hand, and ran up the wide flight of steps.
+
+Bob started forward to help Jack. The latter, however, took one look
+at the sentries and then dashed into the left wing of the building.
+
+The sentries for a moment did not pursue, believing the fleeing man
+was Morales. Instead, they bent above Muller and helped him to his
+feet. Bob halted, and backed into the bushes, keeping his eyes on the
+scene. No use rushing in to help Jack now. He would merely succeed in
+getting into trouble himself, without aiding his chum.
+
+From his vantage point he was able to read aright what followed.
+Although he could not overhear what was being said and would not have
+understood the Spanish words, if he had overheard, nevertheless he
+gathered that Muller was explaining the fugitive was not Morales, but
+someone wearing his clothes.
+
+Then he saw the sentries dart away in pursuit of Jack, while Muller
+whipped out a revolver and fired three shots into the air.
+
+"That's an alarm," Bob said to himself. "I'd better back off before
+this place is alive with soldiers."
+
+Turning, he ran through the trees. Big Bob was not the one to desert a
+friend, but he saw no chance to help Jack now. On the other hand, he
+told himself, if he retained his freedom, he would be able to help
+Jack later perhaps.
+
+Suddenly he carromed into a man running toward the house. Both
+rebounded from the contact. Bob saw the other was a Mexican with a
+rifle. Quick as thought, he lashed out with his right fist and caught
+the soldier on the point of the jaw. Totally unprepared for this
+attack, the man went down as if shot.
+
+Bob ran on at redoubled speed, burst through the screen of trees, and
+dashed across the landing field toward his airplane. He had no
+definite idea as to what course to pursue. He and Jack, of course, had
+counted upon the possibility of Jack's being discovered. In that case,
+when he heard the alarm, Bob--supposedly sticking by his airplane--was
+to have flown away.
+
+There were shouts behind him. Evidently his soldier victim had
+recovered. Perhaps, even, Muller had suspected the truth, namely, that
+if Jack were not Morales the aviator who had brought him was not Von
+Arnheim. In that case, Muller would be on his trail and he would have
+no time to lose.
+
+What should he do?
+
+The shouts behind him were not repeated. Perhaps, after all, his
+identity was not yet suspected and he was not pursued. Jack might be
+keeping all hands busy at the ranch.
+
+In great leaps, he approached the airplane and, as he drew near,
+another thought obtruded itself. If he were to take flight in it, how
+was he to get away? Who would crank the motor by twirling the
+propeller?
+
+This latter difficulty was quickly solved. Two Mexicans stood at
+respectful attention as he approached. Bob was dismayed for a moment,
+but then, seeing their awkward salute, he chuckled inwardly. They
+mistook him for Von Arnheim and evidently that German officer was a
+martinet who exacted a measure of discipline from the slovenly rebel
+soldiers.
+
+Cracking an order at them in his best garbled Spanish, Bob clambered
+into the pilot's seat. He was understood, and better, was obeyed. One
+man gingerly approached the propeller and started twirling it, while
+the other went to the side of the plane and helped push it forward.
+
+The propeller began to whirl furiously as Bob worked the starting
+mechanism. The Mexicans leaped out of the way. The plane began to bump
+ahead.
+
+Shouts of anger burst forth at the same moment, there was the crack of
+a rifle, and a bullet sang unpleasantly close to Bob's ears. Out of
+the tail of his eye he could see a number of dark figures running
+toward him from the grove.
+
+But Bob did not wait to be interviewed. With a swoop, the airplane
+left the ground and started upward. His pursuers were so close at hand
+they could almost grasp the wheels, as they leaped upward. Yet not
+quite. Bullets whistled about him, and several pinged against the
+body of the machine with a sharp metallic ring. Bob thanked his stars
+that the plane had an all-metal body. Once above pursuit, he was safe
+from stray rifle shots.
+
+With a curse the baffled Muller, who had been quick to realize that if
+one masquerader was not Morales, then the other was not Von Arnheim,
+watched the airplane shoot away at dizzying speed and disappear beyond
+the guarding hills to the north.
+
+Then he turned back toward the ranch house, eager to learn how the
+pursuit of Jack had ended.
+
+But for young Herr Muller and the Calomares ranch in general the night
+alarms were not ended. In fact, they had just begun.
+
+Before Muller on his return trip had reached the belt of trees, while
+the search for Jack, who had mysteriously disappeared, went on merrily
+within the Calomares palace, and while Bob was yet flying over the
+hills to the north, rebel pickets below him were attacked by Mexican
+government troops.
+
+It was an attack in force.
+
+"Viva, Obregon," shouted the attackers.
+
+The rebels on the northern rampart of hills defending the natural
+amphitheatre where the Calomares ranch was located, fell back
+hurriedly. They were outnumbered.
+
+Out of the huddled buildings, which the boys had only glimpsed at the
+rear of the great ranch house boiled scores of rebel soldiery,
+rubbing the sleep from their eyes, hugging their rifles as they
+trotted forward in bare feet. Within the house, the search for Jack
+was temporarily abandoned, while the peppery little Don Fernandez
+Calomares, alarmed at this night attack which might mean that the
+government troops were in force, hastened to take command outdoors.
+
+To Bob, who having crossed the crest of the hill had shut off his
+motor and volplaning, the shots and cries of the attackers came
+distinctly. He had intended making a hazardous landing beyond the
+rebel lines and returning afoot to try and rescue Jack. But this
+newest development in the situation caused him to open the motor and
+start to spiralling upward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+SENORITA RAFAELA
+
+
+Meantime, what of Jack.
+
+After bowling Muller over and fleeing from the sentries drawn by the
+latter's shout, Jack ran through the great arched doorway into the
+left wing of the palace. Ahead lay a dark corridor, upon which opened
+the doors of the ground floor rooms. He was in a round entranceway
+from which ascended a flight of winding stone steps to the balconied
+upper floor and the turret rooms above. Up there, somewhere, was his
+father. Jack paused only a moment, then sprang up the steps.
+
+As he reached the upper landing, he heard the sound of footsteps
+descending from the tower. He listened a moment. They were not the
+familiar footsteps of his father.
+
+He must act quickly, if he were to stand any chance of escape.
+Springing forward, revolver in hand, he seized the knob of the nearest
+door on the balcony, found the door give and leaped in, pushing it to
+behind him and setting his back against it.
+
+The room was brightly lighted, evidently a young lady's boudoir. This
+much his first glance showed Jack. It showed him also two women--one
+young and very beautiful, the other wizened and monkey-like, both
+terrified and speechless. They were Don Fernandez' daughter, Rafaela,
+and her duenna or chaperone, Donna Ana.
+
+"Quiet," hissed Jack in Spanish, waving his weapon threateningly.
+
+He listened with strained attention to sounds from outside. The
+menacing footsteps reached the landing, and then continued to descend.
+Jack turned the key in the lock. He was none too soon. A moment later
+the padding of the bare feet of the sentries sounded muffled outside,
+then grew fainter as the men separated, one ascending the stairway of
+the tower, the other running along the balcony.
+
+Jack was puzzled as to what next to do. From Roy Stone's brief
+description of the Don's family, he guessed at the identities of the
+two women. While he stood irresolute, the girl recovered from her
+fright. Her dark eyes flashed, and she commanded him in an imperious
+tone to lower his weapon.
+
+"Not till you promise me not to shout, Miss," Jack said.
+
+"Very well," said the girl. "But who are you? You cannot escape. My
+father will capture you."
+
+"Not if I can help it, Miss," said Jack grimly.
+
+In the rapid march of events, the handkerchief with which he had
+bound up his jaw had become loosened. Now it fell, revealing Jack's
+handsome features and his close-clinging mop of dark curls.
+
+"Why, you are just a boy," declared Rafaela, and her eyes lost some of
+their hostility while at the same time, unconsciously, her voice
+became less harsh.
+
+"Surely," she said, turning to Donna Ana, "this lad can have done
+nothing so terrible."
+
+The prim, black-robed duenna had gained courage from her mistress's
+temerity. She had ceased trembling. Yet she was exercised about
+something. Jack could not understand why. Surely, she was no longer
+fearful of him. She leaned closer to her young mistress, seated at a
+low writing table, and whispered in her ear. Rafaela threw back her
+head and laughed--a low, musical laugh that sounded fascinatingly
+pleasant in Jack's ears, worried though he was.
+
+"My dear Donna Ana," said the girl. "What if he is a man! And in my
+room! Are you not here to watch over me? And I do not believe he will
+bite. No, no. See, he is such a nice young man that I can chuck him
+under the chin. So!"
+
+And suiting action to words, the girl sprang from her chair, walked
+swiftly across the room and chucked Jack under the chin.
+
+To say that Jack was surprised would be a mild statement. From his
+knowledge of Latin-American girls gathered in Peru, he believed those
+of good family invariably were convent-bred and extremely decorous in
+the presence of young men. He was so dazed at the girl's action that
+her next move, which was a lightning-quick attempt to grasp his
+revolver and wrest it from him, almost succeeded.
+
+Jack retained a grip on the weapon, however, and managed to prevent
+Rafaela from obtaining it. Foiled in her attempt, all her bravado
+deserted her and running back to her chair, she sank into it and began
+to weep.
+
+What in the world should a fellow do in a case like this? Jack didn't
+know. Usually, he was equal to emergencies, but this one was something
+beyond his understanding. He stood helpless, while the duenna
+alternately glared at him and patted her young charge on the back,
+muttering soft words of comfort to her meanwhile.
+
+Quickly as the shower came, however, it disappeared. Rafaela pushed
+Donna Ana aside impatiently and looked at Jack, smiling through her
+tears.
+
+"Well, sir," she said, demurely, "that did not succeed. What do you
+intend to do with your prisoners?"
+
+This wasn't so bad. Jack grinned.
+
+"Look here," he said, sensing a kindred spirit. "I'm not a rascal. You
+will have to believe me. I haven't done anything so terrible, after
+all. You need not be scared of me."
+
+"But who are you, then?" asked the girl. "Listen. They are shouting
+through the house. Soon they will be making a search from room to
+room."
+
+Jack started. If that were true, when the searchers came to this
+locked door, what would happen? He thought for a moment. The daring
+idea to take the girl into his confidence and enlist her aid had been
+budding in his mind. He regarded her keenly for the first time. Would
+she help? Perhaps the romantic nature of his enterprise would appeal
+to her, even though he was fighting against her father. Well, it would
+do no harm to try.
+
+"You asked who I am," he said, "and why I am here. Well, I shall tell
+you."
+
+And speaking rapidly in his fluent Spanish, in a few brief statements,
+he laid before her the main fact that Mr. Hampton, whom she doubtless
+knew, was his father, and that he had come to the rescue in an
+airplane.
+
+"Only now," he concluded mournfully, "I have been discovered. I expect
+my chum will be forced to fly away. And it looks as if I were bound to
+fail."
+
+During his recital, the girl's eyes had grown bright with interest.
+She leaned forward, listening with eager attention. As Jack ceased,
+apparently she was about to speak, but there came a tattoo of
+knuckles on the door which caused her to halt abruptly.
+
+"Our deliverers," murmured Donna Ana, who had never entirely ceased
+trembling, and she cast a spiteful glance at Jack. To the duenna,
+young men, and especially one so unceremonious, were terrible
+creatures.
+
+"Silence," hissed the girl, and the old duenna in evident fear of her
+imperious young mistress, trembled the more.
+
+"Quick," whispered Rafaela to Jack, "get under here."
+
+Rising, she seized him by an arm and partly led, partly pushed him to
+the chair upon which she had been sitting. It was a wicker chair, with
+wicker-latticed sides extending clear to the floor. Lifting it, she
+ordered Jack to kneel down and crouch into as small a space as
+possible. He complied. Then she clapped the chair over him. He was
+completely hidden, except in front, where the wicker latticing did not
+extend.
+
+Seating herself calmly in the chair, Rafaela so disposed her skirts
+that Jack could not be seen. Then she picked up her pen and sat as if
+just interrupted at her writing.
+
+The knocking on the door was repeated, louder this time, and the
+voice of the Don himself impatiently bade that the door be opened.
+
+Bending low so that Jack could hear her words, the girl whispered:
+
+"Have no fear. Trust me."
+
+To the duenna, she said:
+
+"Open the door. And if you betray me----"
+
+And she shot at Donna Ana a terrible glance, which caused the latter
+to cringe. Evidently, the duenna stood in considerable awe of her
+temperamental young mistress.
+
+The old woman unlocked the door and stepped back, revealing on the
+threshold Don Fernandez with several armed retainers at his back.
+
+"What does this mean?" he demanded, glaring at his daughter as he
+advanced a step or two into the room. "Locked doors at so early an
+hour?"
+
+"Why, papa, dear, we heard the shouts and several revolver shots,"
+said his daughter. "Was it not natural for two lone women to lock
+their door?"
+
+"Humm!"
+
+The Don glanced quickly about the room.
+
+"Papa, what is the matter? What is the meaning of all this noise? Of
+those shots?" Rafaela anxiously inquired.
+
+"Some man impersonating one of my lieutenants gained entrance," said
+the Don. "I believe him a government agent. He may have come to
+attempt my life."
+
+"Oh, no, papa, dear," protested Rafaela, shocked. "Why, he--"
+
+Frantic lest she might betray herself and him, Jack reached forward
+cautiously and tapped the tiny ankle dangling before him.
+
+He was none too soon. Thus brought to a realization of her position,
+Rafaela checked the words.
+
+"What's that?" asked her father. "What did you say?"
+
+"Why, papa," she answered, "I was going to say he couldn't be so mean.
+To come here to kill you. Oh, no. That would be too terrible."
+
+"But I do believe it," affirmed the Don. "What do you know of how
+politics is carried on in our poor, distracted country? Tut, tut, you
+are just a girl. What I came to ask was whether the man had hidden
+here? We have searched all the rooms on this balcony, without success.
+Yet most certainly Pedro and Pancho"--indicating the armed men in the
+corridor--"saw him bound up the stairs."
+
+"Here?" said Rafaela. "Why, our door has been locked, as you see."
+
+Before Don Fernandez could retort, the report of distant rifle fire
+came to the ears of all in the room, followed by a growing fusillade
+as the sentries on the northern rim of the valley fell back before
+attack.
+
+The Don whirled around.
+
+"Hark," said he, and added with conviction: "The government troops are
+attacking. And they sent an assassin ahead of them. Well, he has been
+foiled. And they will be foiled, too."
+
+And without more ado he darted from the room, Pancho and Pedro
+obediently following at his heels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE FAIR TRAITRESS
+
+
+Rafaela leaped up and lifted her chair, permitting Jack to emerge from
+his unique hiding place. He was overcome with gratitude at the thought
+of what she had done for him, and hesitated to speak.
+
+"Speak," she said, frowning, and stamped her foot. "Tell me, is this
+true?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Jack in surprise.
+
+"That you are an assassin sent by that horrible President Obregon?"
+
+Jack was hurt, and showed his feelings.
+
+"I told you the truth," he said.
+
+"Oh, I want to believe you," cried the girl, twisting her hands. "But
+father was so positive."
+
+Donna Ana sidled close and whispered:
+
+"Shall I call your father? It is not too late."
+
+That decided Rafaela.
+
+"Nonsense," she declared, sharply, glaring at her duenna. "Cannot you
+see this young man is telling the truth? I," she declared proudly,
+"can tell a truthful person from a liar at once. And I declare to you
+this young man is truthful."
+
+Jack smothered a smile. The girl was as changeable as a weathercock.
+And calling him "young man" in that lofty tone, too. Why, she was
+little more than a youngster herself--couldn't be as old as he.
+
+"Come now," said the girl suddenly, seizing him by the hand. "We have
+no time to lose. Now is your opportunity."
+
+"Opportunity?"
+
+"Yes, yes"--impatiently. "While the government troops attack, you must
+release your father and escape."
+
+Jack was amazed. Would this surprising girl never cease astonishing
+him?
+
+"Do you mean you will help me--actually?"
+
+"Have I not said so?" asked Rafaela impatiently. "And it seems to me I
+have already been of some trifling aid--actually?"
+
+The sarcasm was not lost on Jack. But he ignored it. Finding he still
+held the hand she had extended when urging him to follow her, he
+squeezed it.
+
+"You're--you're fine," he said, enthusiastically.
+
+Rafaela tossed her head, smiling in superior fashion.
+
+"You are not a very accomplished courtier, Mr. Jack Hampton," she
+said, withdrawing her hand.
+
+Jack would have protested. He was rapidly falling under the spell of
+her charm. But she halted him with an imperious gesture.
+
+"We are wasting precious time," she said. "Come." Then, turning to
+Donna Ana, she said sharply: "You will stay here until I return. And
+if you betray me--" Again she made a threatening gesture, and again
+the old duenna cowered. Thereupon, the girl hastened from the room and
+Jack followed.
+
+Up the spiral stone stairway of the tower ran Rafaela, passing the
+first landing where burned an electric light. Jack was close at her
+heels. At length they reached the top landing, and stood before the
+single door there. It was of stout oak, heavy and ponderous.
+
+"This is your father's room," whispered Rafaela.
+
+So near to a successful conclusion of his adventure, Jack's heart beat
+so rapidly that once again he experienced that sensation of
+suffocation which had seized him on landing from the airplane.
+
+He tried the door knob. The barrier was locked.
+
+"Locked," he whispered. "What shall we do?"
+
+In the dim light on the landing, they stared at each other in dismay.
+Here was a contingency which had occurred to neither.
+
+The whispering, the careful trying of the door, the sound of their
+footsteps--these had aroused Mr. Hampton from his reading on the other
+side of the door.
+
+"Who's there?" he called sharply.
+
+Jack set his mouth close to the keyhole.
+
+"Dad," he whispered tensely. "It's Jack. Don't make a noise. I've come
+to rescue you."
+
+There was a moment of silence, then the sound of rapid footsteps
+crossing the room.
+
+"Jack?" Mr. Hampton also had stooped to the keyhole. "It can't be. Yet
+that voice! My boy, my boy. But how in the world did you come here?"
+
+"Too long to tell, Dad," whispered Jack. "But have you the key to this
+door?"
+
+"Key? No."
+
+"Then," said Jack, despairingly, "it looks as if we were balked at the
+end. This door is too stout to break down without bringing the enemy
+on us. It's thick and bound with iron straps besides."
+
+"Who is with you?"
+
+"Bob. No. I mean Miss Calomares. She's helping me."
+
+"This is too much for me," declared Mr. Hampton.
+
+"Dad, we'll have to break down the door. The government troops are
+attacking. Even if we do make a lot of noise, it may go unnoticed.
+Have you a heavy chair you can use?"
+
+"Yes," answered his father. "But, wait. Government troops attacking,
+hey? Then that is the meaning of those shots which caused Don
+Fernandez to leave me so hurriedly."
+
+"No, Dad, those first shots were when they sounded the alarm on
+discovering me."
+
+"They discovered you?" Mr. Hampton groaned in mock dismay. "Oh, this
+is too much. But, Jack, what I started to say was that as Don
+Fernandez dashed down the steps, I heard him drop something in his
+haste that rang on the stones. Maybe that was the key."
+
+"I'll look."
+
+Jack stood upright, and communicated to the impatient Rafaela what his
+father had said. She had been unable to hear. Fortunately, he carried
+an electric torch. Swinging this so that the light fell on the steps,
+he started downward. Before he had gone three steps, the girl's quick
+eyes saw the key gleam in the light. She snatched it up with an
+exclamation, turned, inserted it in the keyhole, and the door swung
+in.
+
+Jack leaped through the opening, and the tall and handsome man, to
+whom he bore so striking a resemblance, enfolded him in his arms.
+
+"My boy, my boy. I can hardly believe it."
+
+"But it's true, Dad."
+
+They drew apart and stood looking at each other. There was more than a
+suspicion of moisture in each pair of eyes.
+
+Mr. Hampton's gaze fell on Rafaela, with whom he had had a number of
+pleasant conversations during his captivity. He dropped a hand on her
+shoulder.
+
+"My dear girl," he said. "You never did a kinder deed. I hope you will
+not have cause to regret it."
+
+"Oh," said she with an arch smile. "Papa would be furious if he
+discovered what I have done. But I can manage him."
+
+The older man smiled. He had observed the managerial process at work.
+
+"But you must not delay," added Rafaela, anxiously. "Even now the
+firing seems to be farther away. My father keeps many soldiers here.
+And he is, doubtless, driving away the attacking party. You must go
+quickly before he returns, and while all is confusion."
+
+"She is right, Dad," said Jack. "Let's go. Anything you want to take
+with you?"
+
+"No, nothing. But how are we to escape, Jack? How did you arrive?"
+
+"I arrived by airplane," said Jack. "But whether we can get away by
+the same means is another matter."
+
+Mr. Hampton looked dazed.
+
+"The younger generation moves too fast for me," he said. "But will you
+please explain?"
+
+"It's a long story, Dad," said Jack, "and I haven't the time. But it's
+Bob's airplane. The fellows who kidnapped you stole the machine in
+Long Island several days before that. Well, Mr. Temple and the boys
+came out to New Mexico, and we recovered the plane and, and--well,
+there you are."
+
+"Yes, I see," said Mr. Hampton. "It's as clear as a New York fog. But
+it's enough to know that Bob--didn't you mention his name--is here
+with the machine. Let's go and find him."
+
+He started for the door. But at that moment Rafaela, who stood closer
+to it, halted him with upraised hand.
+
+"Listen," she whispered.
+
+Cautious footsteps could be heard ascending the stairs.
+
+"Quick, Jack," whispered Mr. Hampton, "you mustn't be seen. Nor you,
+Miss Calomares. Here, hide behind this bed. And he pushed the two
+behind the hangings of a great four-poster. Then removing the key from
+the outside of the door, he hurriedly but noiselessly swung the
+ponderous frame shut, and locked it on the inside.
+
+"Calomares won't recall losing the key," he said grimly to himself.
+"There may be a chance yet."
+
+He listened with his ear at the keyhole. The cautious footsteps
+mounted higher. They reached the landing. Then there was a low knock
+on the panel, and a voice called low and urgently:
+
+"Mr. Hampton. Mr. Hampton. This is Bob."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THREE CHEERS FOR THE RADIO BOYS
+
+
+Mr. Hampton unlocked and opened the door, and greeted the big fellow
+as warmly as he had his own son.
+
+"Where's Jack?" asked Bob. "Did they capture him?"
+
+Jack, who was peeping from behind the four-poster, sprang into the
+room, and slapped his chum resoundingly on the back.
+
+"Thought you were to stick by the airplane," he said, with mock
+severity.
+
+Bob swung around, the worried look vanishing from his face.
+
+"Hurray," he said. "So they didn't get you after all? When I saw you
+punch that fellow I thought your goose was cooked."
+
+"Saw me punch him? Why, where were you?"
+
+"Oh, I had followed you," said Bob. Then he explained.
+
+"Then when the attack began," he added, "I flew around overhead until
+I saw my chance to return and land. I wasn't going to leave without
+you. Presently, the government troops were beaten at the north. That
+was only a feint on their part, anyhow, I believe, to engage the
+attention of the rebels. For at once, heavy shooting broke out farther
+down the valley. Sounded like the main body was attacking there. Then
+the rebels scooted down that way to repulse the new attack, and I took
+a chance and landed. Not a soul in sight. And here I am."
+
+Jack was speechless. But the look in his eyes betrayed his emotion.
+
+"Bob, I'm proud of you," said Mr. Hampton. "Well, let's hurry away
+before it is too late."
+
+Rafaela stepped from her place of concealment.
+
+"Aren't you going to say farewell?" she asked.
+
+Bob looked at her in astonishment. Mr. Hampton, with a twinkle in his
+eye, viewed Jack ardently. The latter advanced with extended hand.
+
+"Miss Calomares," he said, "I can't tell you how grateful I am. I hope
+we shall meet again."
+
+"Miss Calomares?" muttered Bob, under his breath, his eyes on the
+beautiful girl. "Jack certainly has moved fast. I don't get this."
+
+Mr. Hampton took pity on him.
+
+"Miss Calomares," he said, leading Bob forward. "This is my son's
+chum. He came with him tonight in his airplane."
+
+The girl held out her hand. Bob took it as in a daze.
+
+"Pinch me," he said, in an aside to Jack.
+
+All heard the remark, and laughed at Bob's mystification.
+
+"Come," said Mr. Hampton, and once more moved toward the door. Once
+more, however, his steps were arrested by a noise outside. This time
+they heard the shouts of many men approaching the house and crying
+"Viva, Calomares."
+
+"Too late," groaned Mr. Hampton. "They have driven off the attack, and
+are returning."
+
+Rafaela uttered an exclamation.
+
+"Oh, I must go to my room before papa discovers me here," she cried.
+She darted for the door, but paused to give them parting cheer. "Do
+not give up hope," she said. "They will drink a great deal, and then
+all will sleep very soundly. You may escape late tonight. Good-bye,"
+and turning, she ran lightly down the steps.
+
+Jack's eyes followed. At the turning, she paused, looked back, and
+waved to him, then disappeared.
+
+"Now what will we do?" said Jack.
+
+"You boys hide behind the bed," said Mr. Hampton. "I'll close the
+door, but I won't lock it this time, for on second thought I believe
+if it were locked and Calomares came up to see me--as he frequently
+does before retiring--it would make him suspicious. I shall leave it
+unlocked, and then he will believe he left it so himself in his
+haste."
+
+"Dad," said Jack, "I have an idea."
+
+"What is it? Out with it."
+
+"Well, we are trapped here. Suppose we turn the tables."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Bob.
+
+"Well, Dad," said Jack, turning to his father, "didn't you say Don
+Fernandez comes to call on you before retiring?"
+
+"Yes, we have become good companions. He guards me carefully, keeps me
+a prisoner for his own ends, but he is a cultured man and we have much
+in common."
+
+"Father says," asserted Bob, "that you are being held prisoner in
+order to make trouble between the United States and the Mexican
+government."
+
+"He is correct," approved Mr. Hampton. "Don Fernandez has not
+attempted to conceal from me that that is his desire. He sent a demand
+for a preposterous ransom, merely in order to precipitate action at
+Washington, and he has been wondering why no action was taken."
+
+"Well, that's what father thought," declared Bob. "So he has kept the
+matter of your being kidnapped a secret. Instead of appealing to our
+government, we set out to rescue you. Father says we must do our
+utmost to avert trouble between Mexico and the United States."
+
+"So that accounts for many things," said Mr. Hampton. "I'm glad to
+have them cleared up. But we are forgetting your idea, Jack. What is
+it?"
+
+"Simply that we capture Don Fernandez and make him release us all
+under a guarantee of safe conduct," said Jack.
+
+"You see," he added, "Bob and I are both armed, and we can do it."
+
+"Good for you, Jack," said Bob.
+
+"I believe it can be done," said Mr. Hampton. "And here," he added,
+listening, "comes our opportunity, if I am not mistaken. You boys get
+behind the four-poster and wait until I give you your cue."
+
+Noiselessly Mr. Hampton closed the door, as the boys went into hiding.
+Then the older man resumed his seat by the table, picked up his book,
+and appeared to be reading.
+
+Quick, light footsteps sounded on the landing outside. There was a
+pause, while Don Fernandez searched his pockets for the key to the
+door. Unable to find it, he turned as if to depart. To three pairs of
+ears, straining to hear his every movement, the interpretation was
+clear. He believed he had locked the door and lost the key and was
+about to depart. Mr. Hampton saved the situation by raising his voice,
+and calling:
+
+"Is that you, Don Fernandez? Will you not honor me by coming in? I am
+eager to learn what has occurred."
+
+The Don decided to try the door. To his surprise, it opened to his
+touch. "I must have forgotten to lock it in my haste," he muttered,
+and stepped into the room.
+
+"Government troops," he said, advancing, "They thought to surprise us
+but we have beaten them off decisively." He sat down heavily. "It has
+been strenuous work," he said. "But that is over. Now to find the
+assassin, if he has not already escaped."
+
+"Assassin?" queried Mr. Hampton, in genuine surprise. He had not been
+told the Don's belief regarding Jack.
+
+"Yes," said Don Fernandez, violently. "That miserable Obregon." And he
+proceeded to relate his version of Jack's arrival.
+
+"Oh, but you are mistaken," said Mr. Hampton, coolly. "That was no
+assassin, but my son. He came to attempt to rescue me."
+
+Don Fernandez leaped to his feet, as if shot upward by a spring.
+
+"Your son?" he cried. "Came to rescue you? Preposterous. Then, why are
+you here?"
+
+"Because," said Jack, stepping from hiding, with revolver leveled, "I
+wanted to meet you."
+
+"Yes, and so did I," said Bob, not to be outdone, as he emerged, also
+with leveled weapon, from the other side of the four-poster.
+
+Mr. Hampton quickly slipped the key into the lock of the door, turned
+it and drew back. Don Fernandez saw the action. He glared from one to
+the other of the three, and then sat down with a resigned shrug of the
+shoulders.
+
+"You wanted to meet me?" he said. "I am honored. But, Mr. Hampton,
+there is not only one son but two!"
+
+"Not exactly," said the American. "This lad"--laying a hand on Jack's
+shoulder--"is my son, the young man you pursued for a time tonight.
+This other"--placing his other hand on Bob's shoulder--"is my son's
+chum."
+
+"Well," said Don Fernandez, the faintest suggestion of a twinkle in
+his eye, "now that you have met me, as you desired, what have you to
+say?"
+
+"Just this," said Jack, boldly, "we want you to permit us to leave
+under safe conduct. We want to take father with us in Bob's airplane.
+Oh, yes, it was my chum's airplane which your men stole in Long
+Island. But we have gotten it back again."
+
+"So?" said Don Fernandez. "Well, nothing surprises me tonight. And
+where, may I ask, are Morales and Von Arnheim? I see you are wearing
+their clothes."
+
+"We have got them imprisoned," said Jack. "But we are in earnest, sir,
+about this. We are armed and have the upper hand, and we mean to have
+your protection. If you are armed, you had better give your weapon to
+father."
+
+"As your father very well knows," said the Don, "I never carry
+weapons. And now"--with grave courtesy--"if you will permit me, young
+sir, I would like to speak privately with your father."
+
+At a nod of agreement from his father, Jack withdrew to the door,
+followed by Bob, leaving the two older men in low-voiced conversation.
+They spoke animatedly, and to the anxious boys there came more than
+once a low chuckle of laughter from Don Fernandez while they could see
+Mr. Hampton beginning to smile. At length, Don Fernandez beckoned
+imperiously, and the boys approached.
+
+He regarded them with twinkling eyes, but it was Mr. Hampton who acted
+as spokesman.
+
+"Boys," said he, "Don Fernandez consents. But I do not believe he was
+influenced by fear for his life."
+
+Don Fernandez stood up between the two chums, and put an arm over the
+shoulder of each--or, rather, tried to, as they towered above him.
+
+"No, it was not fear," said he. "But Mr. Hampton has told me a little
+of what you have done, and I see it is useless to fight against Young
+America. You are fine fellows. If I had a son"--wistfully--"I would
+want him to be like you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+GOOD NEWS FOR ANXIOUS EARS
+
+
+"Now to call Father," said big Bob.
+
+He and Jack, escorted by several Mexicans of Don Fernandez' band who
+had been informed by the Don himself that the boys were friends who
+were to be treated with every respect, were approaching the radio
+station of the Calomares ranch.
+
+Jack was exuberant. Plans for the rescue of his father from the
+stronghold of the rebel leader had not worked out just as proposed.
+Yet the wild adventure upon which he and Bob had embarked had come to
+a successful conclusion, after all. And he was correspondingly elated.
+
+Jack and his father were close pals. And he knew that Bob and his
+father were the same. He threw an arm over the shoulder of his chum.
+
+"Your father will certainly be relieved," he said. "I imagine he has
+been sitting up there at the radio station on our ranch in New Mexico
+for hours, waiting to hear from you. I can just see him in there,
+walking up and down impatiently, with that bow-legged old cowboy, Dave
+Morningstar, tilted back in a chair, with his hat down over; his
+eyes, smoking and never making a move."
+
+"Won't he be delighted," said Bob. "Just won't he."
+
+"And Frank, too," said Jack, thinking of the third chum, left behind
+at the cave.
+
+"Good old Frank," said Bob, warmly. "We've got to tell him as soon as
+I've notified father."
+
+"He certainly put up some fight, I'll bet," said Jack, thinking of the
+hurried radio reaching them from the cave as they neared the Calomares
+ranch in their airplane hours before. "And maybe he was hurt in that
+fight with Morales. He said he licked the Mexican, but that was all we
+heard. You remember? His voice was broken off after that."
+
+"That's right," said Bob. "I hope nothing serious happened to him.
+What a shame it would be if he was hurt, while here we came through
+practically without a scratch."
+
+All this time they had been walking across the starlit landing field,
+where could be seen Bob's airplane, and now they drew near the
+brightly-lighted radio station.
+
+Entering the sending room they were confronted by Muller. That young
+German operator, whose perspicacity almost had caused their undoing
+and whom Jack earlier had floored with a blow on the chin, was sitting
+in a chair reading. He had returned to the station after the attack
+of the Mexican regulars had been beaten off.
+
+Muller jumped to his feet, surprise giving way to anger, but before he
+could draw and level the revolver swinging at his hip, one of the
+Mexican guards accompanying the boys pushed them aside and thrust
+himself forward.
+
+"None of that," he said in Spanish. "The General has commanded that
+these young Americanos be well treated. They are friends."
+
+"Friends," muttered Muller, sullenly, nevertheless withdrawing his
+hand from the revolver butt. "That wasn't a very friendly way to treat
+me awhile ago."
+
+He turned to Jack.
+
+"And why, if you are friends," he demanded, "do you two appear in the
+clothing of Herr von Arnheim and Captain Morales?"
+
+"A number of events have occurred," said Jack, quietly. "That is why.
+However, Don Fernandez has heard the tale, and that is sufficient. He
+has given orders personally to these soldiers that we shall be
+permitted to use the radio. That is why we are here."
+
+"Is that so?" demanded Muller of the Mexican guards.
+
+The spokesman of the pair nodded agreement.
+
+"The General has so commanded," he said.
+
+Grudgingly, Muller stepped aside. Here was a mystery, and he hated
+mysteries. Besides, these two youths were Americans. He was a German
+and although the war between their respective countries was at an end,
+he could not bring himself to entertain kindly feelings toward them.
+Like many Germans, he believed the United States responsible for the
+defeat of his fatherland in the World War. He was working in the ranks
+of Germans in Mexico to embroil the United States with that country.
+Such war, he believed, would strike a blow at the prestige of the
+hated Yankees.
+
+"If the General has commanded," he said, stepping aside, "go ahead."
+
+"Look here," said Jack, flushing at this grumpy attitude, but deciding
+to do the manly thing, nevertheless, and extending his hand, "let
+bygones be bygones."
+
+After a moment's hesitation, Muller shook hands. To do him justice, it
+is only fair to point out that he was sincere in his attitude toward
+Americans, but misled.
+
+"I haven't time to explain about that blow," said Jack, "but at the
+moment it was necessary. Matters have changed since then. It was
+nothing personal."
+
+"Very well," said Muller, his grumpiness beginning to disappear
+beneath the charm of Jack's manner. "Say no more. Now what is it you
+want? Perhaps I can help you."
+
+"We want to use the radio," said Jack, noting Bob's growing impatience
+at their delay.
+
+"What station do you want to call?"
+
+"The Hampton ranch," interrupted Bob, who decided it was time to bring
+this conversation to an end. He was in a hurry to talk with his
+father.
+
+"Are you calling Rollins?"
+
+This reminder of the erstwhile traitor at the Hampton ranch brought
+both boys to a realization that Muller was familiar with the manner of
+calling their station, as undoubtedly he had handled or conducted
+radio conversations with Rollins in the past.
+
+"No, not Rollins," said Bob, shortly. It was all right for Jack to
+shake hands with Muller if he wanted to. Jack and Muller had been
+active opponents, and such an act was only sportsmanlike under the
+circumstances. But Bob disliked the young German on sight. "Just let
+me at the phone," he said, "and turn on the juice."
+
+"Very well."
+
+Muller turned stiffly and entered the power plant adjacent, while Bob
+in a fever adjusted the headpiece. As the hum of machinery sounded
+from the power plant, Jack laid a hand on Bob's arm.
+
+"Look here, Bob. Wait a minute."
+
+Bob regarded him inquiringly, his fingers reaching for the knobs on
+the instrument box before him, preparatory to sending out his signal
+call.
+
+"What is it, now?"
+
+"Well, you know old Frank will have his ear glued to the receiver at
+the cave. Suppose you call your father, but tell Frank to listen in
+and not interrupt."
+
+"Right," said Bob. "Well, here goes." And he began calling the Hampton
+ranch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+CALM AFTER THE STORM
+
+
+Meanwhile, as Jack had foreseen, Mr. Temple waited at the radio plant
+at the Hampton ranch with ill-concealed impatience.
+
+Dave Morningstar, hat pulled down over his eyes, sat in a chair tilted
+back against the wall, watching him from beneath the brim. The only
+signs of life about the ex-cowboy turned mechanic were the occasional
+movements of the eyes, and the occasional refilling of his pipe, from
+which lazy streamers of smoke now and again floated upward.
+
+All the evening these two had held watch. And, as hour after hour
+passed, with no word from the boys, Mr. Temple's anxiety rose to a
+fever. He condemned himself for ever having given his consent to his
+son and Jack starting upon so foolhardy an expedition as that of
+attempting to rescue Jack's father from the rebel headquarters and fly
+to safety with him in Bob's airplane.
+
+Surely, he thought, the boys long since would have reached the ranch
+and made their departure. They had promised to call him by radio from
+the airplane the moment they started on their return flight. From
+their failure to do so he argued the worst. Their expedition must have
+come to grief, probably even now they were prisoners, perhaps--
+
+But he shuddered to think of the alternative. He would not let himself
+consider that possibility. In desperation he turned to Dave
+Morningstar.
+
+"Isn't there something we can do?" he asked imploringly.
+
+The old ex-cowboy took his pipe from his mouth, spat deliberately to
+one side, then brought the forelegs of his chair to the floor.
+
+"Le's see," he said. "I been a'most asleep. Le's see. What say to
+calling the cave?"
+
+Mr. Temple eagerly grasped at the proposal.
+
+"Yes, certainly," he said. "Why haven't I thought of that before?
+Perhaps Frank has heard something."
+
+He did not pause to consider that the party at the cave in all
+likelihood was little better prepared than he with information. The
+mere idea of doing something, of taking some action that would break
+up this horrible spell of waiting, appealed to him in his excited
+state.
+
+But after hearing from Frank an account not only of the fight the
+latter had had to recover the cave, after once having been
+dispossessed, but also of the attempt to warn the Calomares ranch
+ahead of the boys' coming which Morales had made, he began to wish he
+never had called Frank.
+
+"Think of it," he said to Dave Morningstar, after explaining the
+situation. "In all likelihood all that clash of conversation in the
+air put them on guard at the Calomares ranch. They were led to suspect
+all was not well. And then when the boys landed they were captured.
+That can be the only reason for our failure to hear from Bob and
+Jack."
+
+Dave attempted sympathetic protest, but Mr. Temple shook his head and
+groaned.
+
+"No, something has happened to them," he said. "Oh, I was a fool to
+let them go. I'll never forgive myself. If only they were not injured.
+If only they were merely made prisoner, I----"
+
+"Hey," said Dave, "look at that signal bulb. Somebody's calling us."
+
+"It's only Frank, calling back, I suppose," groaned Mr. Temple.
+
+But Dave took up a headpiece and began adjusting the tuner knob. In a
+moment he tapped Mr. Temple on the bowed shoulder.
+
+"Listen here," he said, and clapped the headpiece over Mr. Temple's
+ears.
+
+
+Similar anxieties to those ruling at the Hampton radio station had
+been in control at the cave during the evening hours.
+
+Frank had been frightfully anxious as the hours wore on with no word
+from the boys. The flight to the ranch was a short one of only fifty
+miles. Surely, if they had been successful, Jack and Bob long ere this
+would have called him by radio in accordance with their agreement.
+
+The poor boy stamped up and down the cave in such a fret that Tom
+Bodine and Roy Stone made repeated efforts to calm him, but without
+success. They began seriously to fear the effect of this anxiety upon
+his system, already fevered by the several hard fights through which
+he had gone in the last thirty-six hours.
+
+Mr. Temple's call had done nothing to assuage Frank's anxiety. If
+anything it had increased it. As he put aside the headpiece, he looked
+so woebegone that Tom Bodine went up to him and laid an arm over his
+shoulder.
+
+"Now, look here, kid," he began.
+
+But before he could proceed, Frank's glance caught the light flashing
+in the signal bulb, and he leaped to the headpiece and microphone with
+a glad cry.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Father, we are all right. Mr. Hampton is freed."
+
+At the cave in the mountains of Old Mexico and at the Hampton ranch
+across the border in American territory, these welcome words uttered
+in Bob's well-known voice were received with delight. Across mountain
+and desert sped the message by radio. Modern science making possible
+the utilization of the forces of the air brought this quick relief to
+an anxiety that otherwise would have continued for hours at the least,
+until Bob and Jack could have flown back to the ranch.
+
+But neither Mr. Temple nor Frank took that thought into consideration.
+To them radio telephony was an accepted fact, part of their daily
+equipment for carrying on life.
+
+What filled their minds to the exclusion of all else was, at first, a
+sense of gratitude and thankfulness for the lucky outcome of the
+adventurous mission of the two boys, and, in the second place, a
+desire to learn the details.
+
+"Now don't interrupt, Frank," said Bob. "Just listen while I talk to
+father, and you can hear all about it."
+
+Under this admonition Frank ceased the flood of eager questions he had
+loosed and confined himself to listening. As the story of the
+remarkable series of adventures undergone by Jack and Bob at the
+Calomares ranch poured through the air, however, Frank, at times,
+could not curb his quick tongue, and many an exclamation he let slip.
+His hand, placed across the mouth of the microphone, however, acted to
+prevent these exclamations from interrupting the flow of Bob's
+explanation.
+
+When Bob had finished his account, Jack took a turn. And at the
+recital of his adventures, Frank began to laugh. Removing his hand
+from the microphone, he interrupted his chum with the question:
+
+"Now, who's the lady-killer?"
+
+Jack, who at the moment, was telling of the part played by Senorita
+Rafaela, blushed violently and grew indignant. Bob, standing near,
+looked at him speculatively. Was old Jack hard hit by that little
+Spanish beauty? Ordinarily, Jack would have answered Frank's joking in
+kind. But to grow indignant! Bob feared his chum was smitten.
+
+For a long time the three-cornered conversation was carried on through
+the air, Mr. Temple and Frank both being eager to hear every detail
+and compelling Jack and Bob to repeat their stories several times.
+
+Finally, drawn by the long absence of the boys, Mr. Hampton appeared
+at the radio station accompanied by Don Fernandez himself, and he and
+Mr. Temple held a brief conversation.
+
+At length it was decided that the next day Mr. Hampton, with Bob and
+Jack, would fly back to the Hampton ranch in New Mexico. Frank, Tom
+and Roy Stone were to ride for the border at the same time, after
+another night's sleep at the cave. Morales and Von Arnheim, to whom
+Don Fernandez spoke personally, were apprised of the turn of affairs,
+and were told to stay at the cave, which was plentifully provisioned,
+until a relief party from headquarters could reach them with mounts.
+
+Then "good nights" were said, and at their three different points our
+respective characters retired for the night, well pleased with the
+outcome of their adventures.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+MORE ADVENTURE AHEAD
+
+
+"Farewell, Senor Jack Hampton."
+
+Jack clasped the sprightly Spanish girl's hand, reluctant to release
+it. It was noon of the next day. Brilliant sunshine flooded the
+landing field of the Calomares ranch. Bob already had clambered into
+the pilot's seat of the airplane. Mr. Hampton stood to one side,
+exchanging farewells with Don Fernandez.
+
+"Not farewell, Senorita," said Jack, ardently. "We must meet again."
+
+The girl shrugged.
+
+"But where?" said she. "Will you come back to capture our castle
+again?"
+
+"No," said Jack, grinning. "But," he added, significantly, "I may come
+back--to capture one of its inhabitants."
+
+Low though his tone was, the words reached the ears of Donna Ana, the
+ever-present duenna, and she glared at him. This was no way for a
+brash young Americano to be speaking to the daughter of the great Don
+Fernandez. Jack caught the glance and laughed. He turned to the
+duenna and extended his hand.
+
+"Farewell, Donna Ana," he said. "It's been such a pleasure to meet
+you."
+
+The wizened old duenna was nonplussed. She did not know whether to
+resent this pleasantry or be gratified by it. Mechanically she
+accepted Jack's extended hand.
+
+At that moment, Bob called to him. Jack turned. Mr. Hampton already
+had entered the airplane. They were waiting for him. Once more he
+seized Rafaela's hand.
+
+"Remember," he said, so low that only her ears could hear his words,
+"you haven't seen the last of me."
+
+She cast him an arch glance.
+
+"Senor Jack is improving," she whispered. "He will be a courtier yet."
+
+Then Jack climbed into his seat. A mechanic started the propeller, the
+machine began to bump over the ground, and presently it was in the air
+and climbing.
+
+Bob spiralled upward until they were high above the ranch, and the
+figures below seemed little manikins. Jack believed he could
+distinguish Rafaela waving a lacy handkerchief, and leaned far over
+the side to wave in reply.
+
+Then they were off, zooming through the air, straight as an arrow for
+the international boundary and the Hampton ranch beyond. The flight
+was brief. Bob covered the distance of 150 miles in considerably less
+than two hours.
+
+"Look here," he said to his father, after greetings had been
+exchanged, and the latter had thumped his big son so hard and often
+that Bob dodged when further "love taps" came his way. "I'm not going
+to stay here to be pounded into a jelly. Tell you what, father, that's
+a long ride up here from the cave. Frank started early this morning,
+but he cannot arrive for another day. Suppose I go back and pick up
+him and Roy Stone, and leave Tom to bring in the horses?"
+
+Reluctant though he was to let his son depart so soon after regaining
+him, Mr. Temple was persuaded, and Bob set off. Far down in Old
+Mexico, back trailing over the route they had followed in entering the
+country, he saw three horsemen leading a fourth animal, and on
+approaching close, saw they were his friends.
+
+Landing near them, Bob called an explanation of his mission. Roy Stone
+demurred at the proposal.
+
+"Much obliged for the offer," he said, "but I'll ride along with Tom
+Bodine, if it's all the same to you. I'm in no hurry to get anywhere,
+and you fellows will be having your own reunion at your ranch. Take
+your chum with you, but leave Tom and me. We'll be in with the horses
+sooner or later. Each of us will have a spare mount now, and it'll be
+an easy trip. Anyhow, I never did like those airplanes."
+
+"Same here," said Tom Bodine, staring with awe at the machine. "You
+couldn't get me in that thing on a bet."
+
+Frank, accordingly, relinquished the reins of his horse to Tom Bodine,
+and with "good-byes" to his friends clambered into the airplane with
+Bob. Roy Stone obligingly spun the propeller, an accomplishment with
+which his association with Von Arnheim had made him familiar, and once
+more the plane soared upward and headed across the border.
+
+At the ranch that night it was a jolly party that gathered around the
+board, with Mr. Hampton, Mr. Temple and the three boys. Gabby Pete,
+talkative as ever, was bursting with desire for information about all
+their adventures. He had prepared a surprisingly good dinner in honor
+of the occasion.
+
+Rollins alone was not present. When told of Mr. Hampton's impending
+arrival, he had begged Mr. Temple to let him go to a distant oil well
+for several days until Mr. Hampton could be informed in detail of his
+treachery in the past and the reason for it. This Mr. Temple had
+agreed to.
+
+Back and forth across the table flew the conversation and, when the
+meal was at an end, all continued to sit around the table until a late
+hour.
+
+
+During the weeks that followed Bob and Frank spent many enjoyable
+hours rambling on horseback over the surrounding country and taking
+more extended trips by airplane. The love for the country of which
+Jack had spoken on arrival, seized them, too. The bright hot days
+succeeded by cool nights--for in New Mexico the air cools immediately
+upon the setting of the sun--appealed powerfully to boys reared on the
+seacoast. The absence of raw winds and fogs especially appealed to
+them. The weather was something which could be counted upon. Every day
+was fair.
+
+So passed the weeks, with the boys under Jack's pilotage travelling
+far and wide, scouting through the mountains to discover new beauties
+of scenery, making visits to the ancient Spanish ruins at Santa Fe,
+attending a rodeo at Gallup, to which came cowboys and cowgirls from a
+vast stretch of territory to perform hair-raising feats of
+horsemanship and exhibit well-nigh miraculous skill with the lasso.
+
+A month after their advent, and when their summer vacation was not yet
+half spent, Mr. Temple at dinner one night announced that before
+ending his prolonged vacation from business--the first he had taken in
+ten years--he planned to go to San Francisco to consult with the
+manager of his western exporting office.
+
+"Why, father," said Bob. "I've always wanted to see the city by the
+Golden Gate, and I know the fellows feel the same way about it. What
+do you say to taking us with you? We won't get in your way. And you
+can drop us here on your way back East."
+
+Smilingly, Mr. Temple gazed at the faces of the three eager boys. Jack
+and Frank enthusiastically echoed their chum's appeal.
+
+"Yes, do, Mr. Temple," said Jack. "That is, if we wouldn't be in your
+way."
+
+"Uncle, I'm crazy to see San Francisco," said Frank.
+
+"Well, it's a good deal changed from the days of the Forty-Niners,"
+said Mr. Temple, smiling. "You may have your hopes too high, and may
+be disappointed."
+
+"Oh, come now, father," said Bob. "If you're going to be there only a
+week, it'll be worth while for us."
+
+"Well, that's the length of time I planned to stay," said Mr. Temple,
+thoughtfully. "But I'll be pretty busy while I'm there. Do you boys
+feel you can keep out of mischief if left to yourselves?"
+
+Mr. Hampton interrupted.
+
+"I reckon they can, Temple," he said. "They saved the day for me. I'm
+beginning to think they are a pretty self-reliant lot. If you can see
+your way to doing so, take them along. The trip will be a fine
+experience."
+
+"All right, boys," said Mr. Temple. "But you'll have to leave your
+airplane. If you are going to see San Francisco, you can't do it very
+well by airplane. And, anyhow, I wouldn't care to see you tackle the
+Rockies."
+
+"All right, father," agreed Bob. "We'll be too busy seeing the sights
+to want the plane, anyhow. When do we start?"
+
+"In two days," said his father.
+
+With this we take leave of the three chums, whose adventures on the
+Mexican border have come to so successful a conclusion. But in the
+next story of "The Radio Boys on Secret Service Duty" we shall follow
+their further adventures after they reach the city by the Golden
+Gate--adventures fully as thrilling as those on the Mexican border, in
+which they become drawn into the plots of an international gang of
+smugglers engaged in bringing Chinese coolies into the United States
+in defiance of the Exclusion Laws.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The
+
+Radio Boys Series
+
+BY GERALD BRECKENRIDGE
+
+A new series of copyright titles for boys of all ages.
+
+Cloth Bound, with Attractive Cover Designs
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE RADIO BOYS ON THE MEXICAN BORDER
+
+THE RADIO BOYS ON SECRET SERVICE DUTY
+
+THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE REVENUE GUARDS
+
+THE RADIO BOYS' SEARCH FOR THE INCA'S TREASURE
+
+THE RADIO BOYS RESCUE THE LOST ALASKA EXPEDITION
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The Ranger Boys Series
+
+BY CLAUDE H. LA BELLE
+
+A new series of copyright titles telling of the adventures of three
+boys with the Forest Rangers in the state of Maine.
+
+Handsome Cloth Binding.
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE RANGER BOYS TO THE RESCUE
+
+THE RANGER BOYS FIND THE HERMIT
+
+THE RANGER BOYS AND THE BORDER SMUGGLERS
+
+THE RANGER BOYS OUTWIT THE TIMBER THIEVES
+
+THE RANGER BOYS AND THEIR REWARD
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers.
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 East 23rd Street, New York
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The Boy Troopers Series
+
+BY CLAIR W. HAYES
+
+Author of the Famous "Boy Allies" Series.
+
+The adventures of two boys with the Pennsylvania State Police.
+
+All Copyrighted Titles.
+
+Cloth Bound, with Attractive Cover Designs.
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE BOY TROOPERS ON THE TRAIL
+
+THE BOY TROOPERS IN THE NORTHWEST
+
+THE BOY TROOPERS ON STRIKE DUTY
+
+THE BOY TROOPERS AMONG THE WILD MOUNTAINEERS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers.
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 East 23rd Street, New York
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The Golden Boys Series
+
+BY L.P. WYMAN, PH.D.
+
+Dean of Pennsylvania Military College.
+
+A new series of instructive copyright stories for boys of High School
+Age.
+
+Handsome Cloth Binding.
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE GOLDEN BOYS AND THEIR NEW ELECTRIC CELL
+
+THE GOLDEN BOYS AT THE FORTRESS
+
+THE GOLDEN BOYS IN THE MAINE WOODS
+
+THE GOLDEN BOYS WITH THE LUMBER JACKS
+
+THE GOLDEN BOYS ON THE RIVER DRIVE
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers.
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 East 23rd Street, New York
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The Boy Allies
+
+(Registered in the United States Patent Office)
+
+With the Navy
+
+BY ENSIGN ROBERT L. DRAKE
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For Boys 12 to 16 Years.
+
+All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+Frank Chadwick and Jack Templeton, young American lads, meet each
+other in an unusual way soon after the declaration of war.
+Circumstances place them on board the British cruiser, "The Sylph,"
+and from there on, they share adventures with the sailors of the
+Allies. Ensign Robert L. Drake, the author, is an experienced naval
+officer, and he describes admirably the many exciting adventures of
+the two boys.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES ON THE NORTH SEA PATROL; or, Striking the First Blow at
+the German Fleet.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES UNDER TWO FLAGS; or, Sweeping the Enemy from the Sea.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE FLYING SQUADRON; or, The Naval Raiders of the
+Great War.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE TERROR OF THE SEA; or, The Last Shot of
+Submarine D-16.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE SEA; or, The Vanishing Submarine.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALTIC; or, Through Fields of Ice to Aid the
+Czar.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES AT JUTLAND; or, The Greatest Naval Battle of History.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES WITH UNCLE SAM'S CRUISERS; or, Convoying the American
+Army Across the Atlantic.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE SUBMARINE D-32; or, The Fall of the Russian
+Empire.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE VICTORIOUS FLEETS; or, The Fall of the German
+Navy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The Boy Allies
+
+(Registered in the United States Patent Office)
+
+With the Army
+
+BY CLAIR W. HAYES
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For Boys 12 to 16 Years.
+
+All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+In this series we follow the fortunes of two American lads unable to
+leave Europe after war is declared. They meet the soldiers of the
+Allies, and decide to cast their lot with them. Their experiences and
+escapes are many, and furnish plenty of good, healthy action that
+every boy loves.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES AT LIEGE; or, Through Lines of Steel.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES ON THE FIRING LINE; or, Twelve Days Battle Along the
+Marne.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS; or, A Wild Dash Over the
+Carpathians.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES IN THE TRENCHES; or, Midst Shot and Shell Along the
+Aisne.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES IN GREAT PERIL; or, With the Italian Army In the Alps.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN; or, The Struggle to Save a
+Nation.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES ON THE SOMME; or, Courage and Bravery Rewarded.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES AT VERDUN; or, Saving France from the Enemy.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES; or, Leading the American
+Troops to the Firing Line.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES WITH HAIG IN FLANDERS; or, The Fighting Canadians of
+Vimy Ridge.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES WITH PERSHING IN FRANCE; or, Over the Top at Chateau
+Thierry.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE GREAT ADVANCE; or, Driving the Enemy Through
+France and Belgium.
+
+THE BOY ALLIES WITH MARSHAL FOCH; or, The Closing Days of the Great
+World War.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The Boy Scouts Series BY HERBERT CARTER
+
+For Boys 12 to 16 Years
+
+All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+New Stories of Camp Life
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS' FIRST CAMPFIRE; or, Scouting with the Silver Fox
+Patrol.
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE BLUE RIDGE; or, Marooned Among the Moonshiners.
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS ON THE TRAIL; or, Scouting through the Big Game
+Country.
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE MAINE WOODS; or, The New Test for the Silver Fox
+Patrol.
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS THROUGH THE BIG TIMBER; or, The Search for the Lost
+Tenderfoot.
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE ROCKIES; or, The Secret of the Hidden Silver
+Mine.
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS ON STURGEON ISLAND; or, Marooned Among the Game-Fish
+Poachers.
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS DOWN IN DIXIE; or, The Strange Secret of Alligator
+Swamp.
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS AT THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA; A story of Burgoyne's Defeat
+in 1777.
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS ALONG THE SUSQUEHANNA; or, The Silver Fox Patrol Caught
+in a Flood.
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS ON WAR TRAILS IN BELGIUM; or, Caught Between Hostile
+Armies.
+
+THE BOY SCOUTS AFOOT IN FRANCE; or, With The Red Cross Corps at the
+Marne.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+Our Young Aeroplane Scout Series
+
+(Registered in the United States Patent Office)
+
+BY HORACE PORTER
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+For Boys 12 to 16 Years.
+
+All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+A Series of Remarkable Stories of the Adventures of Two Boy Flyers in
+The European War Zone.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM; or, Saving The
+Fortunes of the Trouvilles.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN GERMANY.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN RUSSIA, or, Lost on the Frozen Steppes.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN TURKEY; or, Bringing the Light to Yusef.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN ENGLAND; or, Twin Stars In the London
+Sky Patrol.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN ITALY; or, Flying with the War Eagles of
+the Alps.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS AT VERDUN; or, Driving Armored Meteors Over
+Flaming Battle Fronts.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN THE BALKANS; or, Wearing the Red Badge
+of Courage Among Warring Legions.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN THE WAR ZONE; or, Serving Uncle Sam in
+the Great Cause of the Allies.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS FIGHTING TO THE FINISH; or Striking Hard
+Over the Sea for the Stars and Stripes.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS AT THE MARNE; or, Hurrying the Huns from
+Allied Battle Planes.
+
+OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN AT THE VICTORY; or, Speedy High Flyers
+Smashing the Hindenburg Line.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers
+
+A. L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The Jack Lorimer Series
+
+BY WINN STANDISH
+
+For Boys 12 to 16 Years.
+
+All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CAPTAIN JACK LORIMER; or, The Young Athlete of Millvale High.
+
+Jack Lorimer is a fine example of the all-around American high-school
+boys. His fondness for clean, honest sport of all kinds will strike a
+chord of sympathy among athletic youths.
+
+
+JACK LORIMER'S CHAMPIONS; or, Sports on Land and Lake.
+
+There is a lively story woven in with the athletic achievements, which
+are all right, since the book has been O.K'd. by Chadwick, the Nestor
+of American Sporting journalism.
+
+
+JACK LORIMER'S HOLIDAYS; or, Millvale High in Camp.
+
+It would be well not to put this book into a boy's hands until the
+chores are finished, otherwise they might be neglected.
+
+
+JACK LORIMER'S SUBSTITUTE; or, The Acting Captain of the Team.
+
+On the sporting side, this book takes up football, wrestling, and
+tobogganing. There is a good deal of fun in this book and plenty of
+action.
+
+
+JACK LORIMER, FRESHMAN; or, From Millvale High to Exmouth.
+
+Jack and some friends he makes crowd innumerable happenings into an
+exciting freshman year at one of the leading Eastern colleges. The
+book is typical of the American College boy's life, and there is a
+lively story, interwoven with feats on the gridiron, hockey,
+basketball and other clean honest sports for which Jack Lorimer
+stands.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The Girl Scouts Series
+
+BY EDITH LAVELL
+
+A new copyright series of Girl Scouts stories by an author of wide
+experience in Scouts' craft, as Director of Girl Scouts of
+Philadelphia.
+
+Clothbound, with Attractive Color Designs.
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE GIRL SCOUTS AT MISS ALLEN'S SCHOOL
+
+THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP
+
+THE GIRL SCOUTS' GOOD TURN
+
+THE GIRL SCOUTS' CANOE TRIP
+
+THE GIRL SCOUTS' RIVALS
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers.
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 East 23rd Street, New York
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+Marjorie Dean College Series
+
+BY PAULINE LESTER
+
+Author of the Famous Marjorie Dean High School Series.
+
+Those who have read the Marjorie Dean High School Series will be eager
+to read this new series, as Marjorie Dean continues to be the heroine
+in these stories.
+
+All Clothbound. Copyright Titles.
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE FRESHMAN
+
+MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE SOPHOMORE
+
+MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE JUNIOR
+
+MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE SENIOR
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers.
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 East 23rd Street, New York
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+Marjorie Dean High School Series
+
+BY PAULINE LESTER
+
+Author of the Famous Marjorie Dean College Series
+
+These are clean, Wholesome stones that will be of great interest to
+all girls of high school age.
+
+All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMAN
+
+MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE
+
+MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL JUNIOR
+
+MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The Camp Fire Girls Series
+
+By HILDEGARD G. FREY
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A Series of Outdoor Stories for Girls 12 to 16 Years.
+
+All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE WOODS; or, The Winnebagos go Camping.
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SCHOOL; or, The Wohelo Weavers.
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT ONOWAY HOUSE; or, The Magic Garden.
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS GO MOTORING; or, Along the Road That Leads the
+Way.
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' LARKS AND PRANKS; or, The House of the Open Door.
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON ELLEN'S ISLE; or, The Trail of the Seven
+Cedars.
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE OPEN ROAD; or, Glorify Work.
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS DO THEIR BIT; or, Over the Top with the
+Winnebagos.
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY; or, The Christmas Adventure at
+Carver House.
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT CAMP KEEWAYDIN; or, Down Paddles.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For Sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The Blue Grass Seminary Girls Series
+
+BY CAROLYN JUDSON BURNETT
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For Girls 12 to 16 Years
+
+All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Splendid stories of the Adventures of a Group of Charming Girls.
+
+THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS' VACATION ADVENTURES; or, Shirley
+Willing to the Rescue.
+
+THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS' CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS; or, A Four Weeks'
+Tour with the Glee Club.
+
+THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS; or, Shirley Willing on
+a Mission of Peace.
+
+THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS ON THE WATER; or, Exciting Adventures on
+a Summerer's Cruise Through the Panama Canal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: book.]
+
+The Mildred Series
+
+BY MARTHA FINLEY
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For Girls 12 to 16 Years. All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles
+
+PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH
+
+A Companion Series to the famous "Elsie" books by the same author.
+
+MILDRED KEITH
+
+MILDRED AT ROSELAND
+
+MILDRED AND ELSIE
+
+MILDRED'S MARRIED LIFE
+
+MILDRED AT HOME
+
+MILDRED'S BOYS AND GIRLS
+
+MILDRED'S NEW DAUGHTER
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by
+the Publishers
+
+A.L. BURT COMPANY
+
+114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: And then quite suddenly the listening expectant boys
+heard Jack's voice speaking to them just as plainly as if he stood in
+the room.
+
+(_The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border_) _Page 7_]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border
+by Gerald Breckenridge
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RADIO BOYS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 14278.txt or 14278.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
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