Captain Cornell saw a square-shouldered lean youth, hard as nails, almost six feet tall, with an open and ingenuous countenance who bore himself with an air of confident assurance. When Mr. Hampton earlier had been elaborating on Jack’s merits and capabilities and had told him somewhat of the confidence reposed in his son by the great radio trust which had commissioned him to carry out experiments in research and engineering problems, the army flyer had been inclined to discount the tale to a certain extent on the ground of parental partiality. But now he experienced an instinctive liking for Jack, and felt that in all likelihood Mr. Hampton had not been exaggerating.
His thoughts were interrupted by Jack’s quick return.
“Whew,” said Jack, tearing off his helmet and letting his damp hair blow in the light wind. “This heat is terrible. Haven’t had a day like this for ages. Big storm working up from the south, I’m afraid. Certainly was cooler up above. Well come on, let’s get out of the sun. Besides, I want something cool to drink. Then you can tell me how you happened to land here, Captain Cornell. And, I’ll have something that will interest a man of the Border Patrol, or else I’m mighty badly mistaken.”
“Why, Jack, what do you mean?” questioned his father, striding beside him towards the house.
“Sounds mysterious,” commented Captain Cornell, on Jack’s right.
“That’s what it is, too—mysterious,” said Jack. “Something brewing down there in the mountains behind Rafaela’s home that I don’t understand. Neither does her father. But let’s get inside where it’s cool, and I’ll tell you all I know about it, which isn’t much.”
CHAPTER II.
“THAT DEVIL RAMIREZ.”
With laughing apology for an ever-present appetite, Jack declared he must have food as well as the cooling limeade set out for him on the table in the shaded patio. So Ramon of the grizzled bushy hair and the drooping mustache and brown-paper cigarette was summoned from the kitchen, and with remarkable celerity he had salads and cold meat for all three on the table.
While he ate, Jack, out of politeness, questioned Captain Cornell regarding the accident which had forced him down, learning it was due to a leak in his gas tank which Tom Bodine already had soldered.
“I would have been on my way, thanks to your father filling my tank,” explained the army flyer, “but I am merely on my way back to Laredo, with no particular reason for getting there in a hurry, and so I decided to stay and give myself the pleasure of meeting you.”