This suited the others, too, and they all ate a hearty meal. Then they stretched out under the wings of their trusty machine, and slept soundly until awakened by the beams of the morning sun.
They lost no time in getting started, as they were behind their schedule owing to the mishaps of the day before. They spent an hour’s hard work on the Arrow, putting fresh oil into the engine, turning down grease cups, and testing the spark plugs. Then they packed up, Dick spun the propeller over, and the motor took hold instantly. Dick clambered in, and they soared aloft into the blue sky and gleaming sun. All day they flew without mishap, Dick taking a spell at the controls during the afternoon. They landed only once to replenish their gasoline and oil, and eat lunch. That day they covered over eight hundred miles, and when they landed for the night they figured that, barring accidents, they would reach Laguna early the following morning.
Steve had sent them a rough map showing the prominent landmarks in the vicinity of the Rangers’ headquarters, and late in the forenoon they picked up the first of these, a large, mushroom-shaped rock, projecting forty feet from the level surface of the plain. Others followed in quick succession, and it was not long before they descried the long, low building, with the Stars and Stripes floating above it. The boys were evidently expected, for they could see a number of men on the ground, who, as they drew nearer, waved broad-brimmed sombreros and shouted.
Phil, who was piloting the Arrow at the time, circled once or twice looking for a landing, and then, selecting a level stretch, landed gently.
The men who had been waving at them now ran in their direction, and as the boys descended they had no difficulty in recognizing Steve among the foremost.
“Hi, yi!” yelled Steve, exuberantly. “Welcome to Laguna, you worthless old mavericks! The boys never thought that you’d get here in that overgrown kite, but I told ’em you’d get here if you had to tie a balloon to it.”
“Oh, nothing like that,” grinned Phil, “although a balloon might have come in pretty handy at one time. But the old Arrow usually gets where its going pretty near on schedule time.”
“Well, we’re all mighty glad to see you, anyway,” declared Steve, “step up and I’ll introduce you to this bunch of Piute Indians that have the nerve to call themselves Texas Rangers. They’re a terrible bunch, but they all have one good point—they all hate greasers like poison.”
After this foreword the Radio Boys were formally—or rather, informally—introduced to all the Rangers who happened to be present, and then they all gathered curiously about the aeroplane, and the boys had to explain some of its mysteries to the interested Rangers.
“That ought to put the fear of the Lord into them greasers, derned if it shouldn’t,” remarked one tall and sunburnt fellow, whom the others addressed simply as “Chips”. “They’ll think the great American Eagle has sure got after them at last.”