"You've got it down pretty pat, Tubby," chuckled Merritt.
"Yes," added Andy, "you know mighty well that if Rob and you say 'go,' the rest of us couldn't be held back with wild horses. That is, always providing our folks give us permission, and I think they will when they know how much the trip means to your poor uncle."
"There, Rob, see that?" cried Tubby eagerly. "What's doing now?"
"Before I say a word one way or the other," Rob told him, "there are heaps of questions I want answered. Perhaps you can tell us a part of the story; but we'd have to see Uncle Mark, and hear the rest. Get that, Tubby?"
"Sure I do, Rob, and you'll find me only too willing to accommodate all I can. Fire away, now, and I'll try and put you wise to the facts," and the fat boy threw himself into Rob's easy-chair, elevating one leg over an arm, and assuming the air of a witness in the box ready to be cross-questioned by the lawyer on the other side.
"Tell us something more about your uncle first of all," said Rob, just as if he might have a long list of questions on a slip of paper, which he meant to put to the other.
"About his life, do you mean, or just that part of it connected with Mexico?" demanded Tubby.
"We haven't the time to stand for it all," observed Rob; "because such a wonderful man as your uncle must have run across more queer things than we read about in Baron Munchausen or the Arabian Nights, he's been such a great traveler and explorer. So just strike in where he made up his mind to settle down on a Mexican ranch, and sent to England to import a fine breed of cattle to improve the native stock. That was how long ago, Tubby?"
"From what he told me I guess it might have been six or seven years back; but that doesn't matter so very much. He bought a big tract of good land, and put up his ranch buildings; after which he got his stock together and started raising the best brand of cattle ever known in Northern Mexico, shipping his beef, on the hoof, of course, over the border to the United States market."
"That was when Diaz was president of Mexico," Rob remarked. "Now, how did your uncle get along with the Government at that time? I want to know, because it's going to cut a big figure with us when we get down there—if we ever do."