“We get in the train, Senor, and we ride to Laredo. And then they take me to that house you know of, where they make me cook for thousands of stinking Orientals. And, Senor, Ramirez, he laugh at me.”
The old man bowed his head in shame, and this time no laughter came from the men crowding close behind Jack. The latter dropped a kindly hand on Ramon’s bowed shoulders.
“It’s all over now, Ramon, and he shall never get you in his clutches again,” Jack promised. “And now,” he added, at an impatient whisper from Captain Murray, “tell us where the Orientals are, and how they are to be brought into the United States.”
“Senor, tonight at midnight, they are to be at a point forty miles west, on the Rio Grande. A rough trail leads there, and it is wild country. At midnight, boats will meet them and they will be ferried across the river from Mexico into Texas. Guides will take them to Carana, where they will be housed until tomorrow night, when they will be sent on to San Antonio. There are no Americans at Carana, Senor, only Mexicans; and the whole town, which is not large, is in Ramirez’s pay or, else, fears him and keeps silent.”
And once more Ramon ceased speaking, while his hands went patting here and there about his person, but without success, until one of the aviators with a smile stopped his fruitless search by thrusting a packet of cigarettes into his hand. The old man gratefully accepted one, lighted it, and sat back, puffing.
Captain Murray walked to an open window and looked out. Then he turned back with a decisive set to his shoulders.
“As calm a night as one could desire,” he said to his confrere, Captain Cornell. “Three hours to midnight. And we could reach Carana in less than an hour. I know the village. Nobody there to telephone to, nobody to put on guard. What say?”
“You’ve landed there, haven’t you?”
“Yes. In bright moonlight like this, there’s no chance to miss it. A little settlement where the river takes that big bend to the north. Several good fields nearby. And in this flood of moonlight, landing ought to be easy.”
All were listening closely, and the atmosphere was tense.