Radio Boys in the Flying Service; or, Held For Ransom by Mexican Bandits

by J. W. Duffield

“We’re off, Steve,” shouted Phil, as they passed their friend.

“So are we,” said Steve, as he threw a saddle onto his horse’s back. “But you’ve got a big advantage over us. Go to it, though, we’ll all be rooting for you. I only wish I were going with you.”

The boys wheeled the Arrow out of the rude shed that had been constructed for it. They had no need to make an inspection, for they had been over everything the previous afternoon, and knew that everything was as it should be. Phil and Tom leaped into their places, Dick spun the propeller, and as the engine took hold, leaped to one side and scrambled aboard as the plane began to gather headway. Amid the cheers of the Rangers they roared along the ground and then soared swiftly aloft to begin the most exciting flight they had ever known.

They climbed steadily, holding a southerly course as Captain Bradley had directed. Far away they could see a blotch of smoke, and they headed for this, rightly conjecturing that it marked the site of the raided town. Phil opened the throttle, and the Arrow sped with breath-taking speed through the crisp morning air.

In a few minutes they had covered the distance that it would have taken a horse hours to traverse. Arrived over the town, they could see the hills in the distance toward which the raiders were probably at that moment travelling. They could make out a deep cleft between two mountains, and Phil decided to head toward that, as it was probably a pass through which the Mexicans would have to go.

Phil let the Arrow out at full speed, and at the same time swooped earthward, the better to see objects on the ground. The brown desert had given way to green vegetation, and still they had seen no sign of the raiders, when Tom, who was scanning the earth through a strong pair of field glasses, uttered a cry.

“There they are, Phil,” he shouted, “Bear a little to the right, and we’ll soon be right over them.”

Phil shifted his lateral controls, and in a few moments he and Dick could see the column of raiders without the aid of glasses. The raiders saw them, too, and there were wild shouts and gesticulations in the cavalcade as the boys swooped down close to it. They could plainly see the two girls, who were mounted on two mules. The girls realized that the aeroplane must contain their countrymen, and stretched up imploring arms toward it. But it would have been madness for the boys to attempt a rescue in broad daylight against such overwhelming numbers, and they had to content themselves with keeping track of the cavalcade.

The bandits were panic stricken under this surveillance, and hastened their progress as much as possible, heading for the gap in the hills that the boys had previously noted. Toward evening the bandits passed through this gap, and laid their course for a tall mountain a few miles from it. Through the field glasses the boys could see them winding up a path, and finally saw them disappear in what seemed to be a big cave in the side of the mountain. Several remained outside evidently as sentries, and to deceive these, the boys turned about and headed north, toward Laguna, as though giving up the chase for the night.

But this was far from being their intention. After carefully locating the cave, the boys flew about ten miles, and then descended on a level place to eat supper and hold a council of war.