Tom Bodine took in the situation and sprang forward, clubbing his revolver. He brought it down on the German"s head. There was a sickening thud. One blow was enough. The German"s hands relaxed their grip on Frank"s throat, and he rolled over unconscious.
At the same moment Jack pinioned the arms of the Mexican, and the latter lay helpless.
The fight was over.
CHAPTER XIX
RESTING UP
Swiftly Tom Bodine trussed up the unconscious German with the man"s own belt, while Jack similarly treated the thoroughly cowed Mexican, Morales. Meanwhile, Bob went to Frank"s aid, a.s.sisting him to a chair, bringing him water from a spring in a corner of the inner cave and fanning him with his sombrero.
None of the three boys had suffered more serious injuries than bruises, but Frank had been badly battered in the encounter with his heavier opponent and the muscles of his left shoulder had been severely strained.
Despite the mauling he had received, Frank wanted to go and inspect his beloved airplane at once and Bob, the co-owner with him, was equally eager. Jack, however, protested.
"No, sir," said he firmly, "you are in no condition to go chasing off down this rocky slope. The airplane isn"t going to fly away. It"s in a pocket in the hills that n.o.body is going to discover. And, anyhow, there is n.o.body around in this desert place to do any discovering.
"Moreover," he continued, "it is almost morning now. We all have been riding all night and with this fight coming on top of everything else, we are thoroughly tired out. So, instead of any more conversation tonight, I propose that we turn in and go to sleep, leaving one man on guard. At the end of two hours he can call another fellow, and in that way we can all get four or five hours sleep. I"ll take the first watch and--"
At that moment a groan from one of the prisoners on the other side of the room interrupted, and with an exclamation Bob started forward.
"Good gracious," he said, "I"d forgotten all about that chap. His arm felt wet and sticky when we were wrestling and I believe he"s the man Tom wounded with that first shot in the darkness."
Bending over his late opponent, Bob noted a dark brown stain on the left shoulder of his coat.
"Only a flesh wound, I reckon," said the other. "But it sure hurts.
Are you going to leave me like this?"
Bob flushed.
"Of course not," he said. "What do you think I am? Here, let me help you up and we"ll have a look at it."
Bob a.s.sisted the other to a chair. His hands were then untied, the coat sleeve cut away and an examination made of his injury. It proved not serious. The man told Bob where to find a bottle of iodine. He winced under the sting of its application, but made no outcry. Then a rough bandage was made of clean handkerchiefs, and the boys stood back to examine their handiwork, for all had taken part in the operation.
"You"re some fighter, kid," the other said approvingly to Bob. "But I reckon I"da got you at that if it hadn"t been for that arm."
"Maybe so," Bob modestly agreed. "You put up a stiff fight."
"You"re an American, aren"t you?" asked Frank. "What"s your name? And how do you happen to be with these fellows?"
"Why not?" said the other, answering the last question first. "I"m a rolling stone and joined up with this outfit because it looked like something doing. And that"s what I want. As for my name, it"s Roy Stone. And you guessed right. I am an American. Born an" raised in Wooster, out in Ohio."
He paused and looked curiously from one to the other of the boys. Tom Bodine was examining the two other prisoners for possible injuries needing attention. Stone nodded toward him.
"I can place a fellow like that, all right," he said. "Know this kind down here on the border. But who are you? You"re only kids. What"s your game? Are you with Obregon?"
"No, indeed," said Bob. Turning to Jack, he whispered:
"Is it safe to tell him who we are? He"s an American. And, somehow, I have an idea he might help us."
"Well, it won"t hurt, I guess," said Jack, doubtfully. "He might escape and betray us to rebel headquarters, but I suspect we can guard against that. Besides, he"s bound to find out our ident.i.ties, because those other two chaps will recognize you."
"Hardly in this rig," said Bob, referring to his clothing. "We talked all that over, you remember."
"That"s right. I had forgotten."
Bob and Jack had drawn aside during the whispered colloquy. Now Bob turned back to his prisoner.
"Look here," he said. "We"ll have a little talk later. Right now we all need a good sleep."
Without more ado, Bob and Frank tied Stone"s hands and led him to his bed, behind a curtain in one corner of the outer room. They considered that inasmuch as he was wounded, he was ent.i.tled to the bed. The German had recovered consciousness from the blow on the head dealt him by Tom, and the latter already had ranged him and the Mexican along the wall where the sentinel could keep an eye on them. For themselves, the boys pulled a heavy rug to another portion of the wall, spread the heavy hangings formerly covering the door to the inner cave on top, and here Bob and Frank lay down with their ponchos over them. Presently they were joined by Jack who had planned to mount guard the first two hours, but who had been overruled by Tom Bodine.
"No, you don"t," said the latter. "I"m a tougher bird than you, and I take this job myself, an" that goes."
Too tired to protest very vehemently, Jack turned in after exacting a promise that Tom would call him at the end of two hours. The old cowman, however, had no such intention. It was not until eight hours later that he summoned Jack. The lights in the cave still burned brightly, for Tom had refrained from switching them off for the obvious reason that they made it easy to keep an eye on the prisoners.
Day-light, however, showed at the mouth of the cave. When Jack noted the time, he began to scold.
"Forgit it," said Tom Bodine, gruffly. "You boys needed a good sleep while I"m an old hand at ridin" night herd. It didn"t bother me none to stay up."
Without further words, he turned in and was asleep almost on the instant. Jack roused Bob and Frank, and while Bob mounted guard at the mouth of the cave where he could keep watch both on their prisoners and on the approach from below, the two others explored a rude pantry behind a curtain. They found a plentiful stock of provisions, which made it unnecessary for them to draw upon their own limited food supplies for breakfast.
When they themselves had eaten, they released the captives one at a time and fed them, afterwards replacing their bonds. The Mexican and the German were surly and uncommunicative. The latter tried to ply them with questions, but when they refused to answer he adopted a bullying tone and threatened them with all sorts of dire punishment.
His threats, however, were no more effective at breaking down their silence than were his questions.
Bob remained at the doorway to avoid the risk of recognition by Morales and Von Arnheim as the youth who had foiled their attempt to steal Mr. Hampton"s papers from his Long Island home. Jack, who had no means of knowing how much the traitor, Rollins, might have told Von Arnheim in the past about Mr. Hampton"s personal affairs, watched keenly for some indication on the German"s part that he had formed an idea as to their ident.i.ty, but none was forthcoming.
Jack was correspondingly elated.
"I suppose," he said to Frank, after Morales and Von Arnheim had been fed and returned to the other side of the cave, "that Rollins never bothered to speak about us because we were just boys. Then, too, you fellows arrived only the very day that we discovered Rollins"s treachery and put a stop to his communications with these people."
"That may all be true," said Frank. "Probably it is. Just the same, Von Arnheim and Morales are bound to put two and two together and make a shrewd guess as to our ident.i.ties, even if they say nothing to us about the matter.
"But," he added, confidently, "what if they do? We have them prisoners now and if we keep them well guarded until we have rescued your father, what does it matter how much they know?"
Jack nodded agreement.
"We"ll have to keep mighty strict watch, though," he said. "Well, now let"s feed this American, Stone. I"ll draw straws with you to see who keeps guard while Bob comes to get his breakfast at the same time. He wants to talk to Stone, he said."
CHAPTER XX
CONFERRING BY RADIO