The motor never faltered and when the trees loomed ahead Tim had plenty of flying speed. He zoomed the Good News into the night sky and turned on his instrument light to get his bearings.
Ahead of him he could discern the gap in the mountains and he roared through it with his exhaust belching streams of flame.
Tim set his course for Nogales, north by west and settled down for three hours of flying. By the time the moon came up, Sonora was far to their rear and a few minutes after midnight they circled the field at Nogales. The sound of their motor awakened the field crew and landing lights were turned on.
When Tim brought the Good News to a stop, he was greeted by Captain Talbot, who had thrown a coat on over his pajamas.
“Back already?” he asked.
“Back and with half a dozen pictures posed by General Lopez,” grinned Tim.
“What!” exclaimed the army man, who could hardly believe what he had heard.
Tim pulled his camera out from under his seat. “Right here,” he said, “are half a dozen of first class pictures of Lopez. Let’s go into the office,” he added, “and I’ll tell you all about it.”
Captain Talbot was almost incredulous when he heard Tim’s story but the plates were absolute proof of his tale.
“I’ll leave one of the plates with you for your border patrol bulletin,” said Tim, “but the pictures must be kept in strict confidence. Now if I can get some gas I think we’ll hop along toward Atkinson. If we can get away from here at 1 o’clock we ought to make it there by noon tomorrow, figuring on one more stop for gas and oil.”