But anyway, the chance was worth considering, thought Phil, desperately, since it was the only possible chance in sight. If he could just get one word through to the fellows. But he might just as well wish for a trip to Mars.
After a while Tony departed, bearing with him the empty tray, and Phil was once more left to his none too pleasant reflections.
Meanwhile a messenger had been dispatched to Captain Bradley of the Rangers, informing him that one of his men was captive to Espato, the latter demanding ten thousands dollars in gold as the price of the safe return of said captive.
Captain Bradley, who had just returned at the head of one of the search parties who had been searching high and low for the vanished Phil, received the messenger none too cordially and demanded absently to know what the fellow had to say.
But at the greaser’s first words he sat up in his chair, a look of utter amazement and incredulity on his face. This expression quickly changed, first to gladness at the thought that Phil was still alive, then to rage as he realized the insolence of the demand for ransom.
“You stay here for a minute,” he said to the greaser, then called to a young lieutenant who was passing. In a moment the latter was starting off to find the Radio Boys and bring them into the presence of their Captain.
The boys answered the imperative summons of their chief instantly, on their faces a queer mixture of hope and fear. They guessed that the Captain had some report of Phil and they were almost afraid to hear it.
The hours since Phil had disappeared had been the hardest ones his chums had ever spent. They had eaten little, slept scarcely at all, their entire energy concentrated on the finding of their comrade.
And when, despite all their efforts, they could discover no clue as to the whereabouts of the missing boy, they had begun reluctantly, sick at heart, to give him up for dead.
“I knew it was a fool stunt for him to go alone,” Dick had almost sobbed. “What chance would he have, alone, against a bunch of villainous greasers.”