“I wouldn’t have gone!” cried Tom.
“Oh, yes you would, Tom! A chap doesn’t feel like arguing when a revolver is flashing under his nose. The chief of police wasn’t a bad sort of chap. He looked over Edmunds’ newspaper credentials, asked Professor Kent and Parry a whole lot of questions, flung two or three at us; then told the big cops they had made fools of themselves!”
“To cut it short the affair took up so much time that when he reached Jimmy’s hotel again the bird had flown.”
“Cranny’s a bird all right,” grinned Jimmy.
“What was the next thing on the program?” queried Bob.
This question had the effect of making an uncomfortable, embarrassed look come over the Texas lad’s face. He shifted uneasily on his seat for a moment, then blurted out:
“Those three men had come to Mexico on business. Parry was wild to get some moving pictures of a real bona-fide scrap, and Edmunds wanted to absorb impressions, so he said, for a special article which he intended to write with Cranny’s help later on. And,” he grinned, “their chief anxiety was for me. Helpless little thing, eh?”
“You have as much grit as a provisional president o’ Mexico!” chirped Cranny.
“Dick assured ’em that you were certainly able to look out for yourself, Cranny; then I put in a word, and after a long confab all three were finally persuaded to attend to the work which had brought them to Mexico. They thought,” a rather sheepish grin this time overspread his face, “that Dick and I would hike right across the International bridge.”
Dick laughed merrily.