“I’ve been interested a whole lot in the adventures you boys have had, and I can see you are a smart bunch. You said you were willing to stay and help convict the cattle thieves, but we can’t arrange to turn them over to the Mexican officials and have their trial before tomorrow, no matter how fast we act. The Mexican always wants to wait till tomorrow.”
“Now, as long as you will be here a day or two, anyway, I thought maybe you would like to take a little excursion across the Rio Grande, and see how people live on that side. If you kept your eyes
open, you might see something that would be useful to me.”
“In what way?” queried Adrian.
Captain Peak drew his chair a bit nearer and looked all around to be sure no one was listening.
“It is like this,” he continued. “President Madero has discovered that there is a real plot on foot to start another revolution and overthrow his government. Arms for the revolutionists would have to come from this side of the river. As a revolution is unlawful, carrying arms across the Rio Grande to help a revolution is unlawful, and he has asked Uncle Sam and the State of Texas to prevent any guns or ammunition from going into Mexico which do not go through the Mexican custom house.”
“It looks to me,” broke in Billie, “as though that was the business of the Mexican government.”
“So it is,” replied Captain Peak, “but as long as Mexico is a friendly nation it is also our business to prevent filibustering—and that is what gun running amounts to.
“There is also another reason for helping to prevent this sort of smuggling. We frequently have to ask the Mexican government to aid us in running down outlaws who escape into that country. If we don’t help them, they won’t help us. So you can see, if we can learn anything about this revolutionary movement, it will be a good thing. You boys,
because you are strangers and travelers, are just the ones to help. What do you say?”