CHAPTER XIV

Aerial Scouting

“I guess we’re all set,” said Phil, after giving one last twist to a turnbuckle. “The machine is in first class shape, and we ought to make the trip without any trouble. How is the radio outfit, Dick? Seem to be working all right?”

“Fine as silk,” answered his friend. “This set is a pippin, Phil, let me tell you. It may be small, but it certainly can deliver the goods.”

“Well, that’s what we want,” nodded Phil. “I guess we didn’t make any mistake when we bought it. It came rather high, but a set like that is cheap at any price.”

“I’ll say it is,” agreed Tom, as he climbed into his seat. “Our lives are apt to depend on that set more than once before we get through.”

Phil nodded, and climbed into the pilot’s seat. Dick gave the big propeller a spin, and amid the cheers of the Rangers who happened to be off duty and had gathered to see them start, they shot up into the sun-drenched atmosphere.

It was a glorious day for flying. The air was clear as crystal, and the boys had a view of the surrounding country that was nothing short of magnificent. Below them stretched and wound the silver ribbon of the Rio Grande, while far in the distance they could see the shimmer and glint of the Gulf of Mexico.

The exhilaration of flight went to their heads like wine, and as they swooped through the bracing air they shouted and sang, oblivious of the perils that in all probability awaited them. They were young and life was sweet, and the prospect of danger and adventure was a thing to be welcomed rather than dreaded.

Dick and Tom took turns at the wireless apparatus, keeping in touch with Steve and the camp as long as possible. But gradually the signals became fainter and fainter, and before long they were beyond their sending range, although they could still hear Steve.

“Can’t hear you any more,” clicked Steve, at length. “I’ll go and report to Captain Bradley. So long, and good luck.”

Now Dick and Tom exchanged their headsets for powerful field glasses, and swept the country below them for any sign of Espato and his band. They flew first to the cave from which they had rescued the two girls, but there was no sign of life about it, and indeed, they had hardly expected to find any, for the wily bandit would not be likely to use that place again after he knew that its location was known to the Americans.

However, the boys had the advantage of knowing that the bandit’s main stronghold was probably on the continuation of a line drawn from Laguna to the scene of the rescue, as the Mexicans had travelled in that direction continually after leaving American soil.

“Let’s land here and see what that cave looks like inside,” shouted Phil, and as this suited the others, too, he pointed the nose of the aeroplane downward, and they made a landing on the level plateau in front of the cave.

“Suppose you stay with the machine, Dick, and keep a sharp lookout, while Tom and I look around inside,” said Phil. “It might be a good idea to keep the engine running, so that we can make a quick getaway if we have to.”

“Well, just as you say,” agreed Dick, a little reluctantly. “It’s right enough that somebody should stay outside with the machine, though.”

Phil left the motor turning over slowly, and he and Tom, with revolver in one hand and little electric flashlight in the other, stepped warily from the brilliant sunshine outside to the damp gloom of the big cave.

But they found little to reward them for their trouble. The floor of the cave was littered with old cans and broken cooking utensils, and bore other signs of having been used extensively by the bandits. There was nothing to give the boys a clue to the where-abouts of the main stronghold, however, and at last they emerged blinking into the sunshine, disappointed at the fruitless result of their search.

“How about it?” inquired Dick, eagerly, as they emerged. “What is it like in there, anyway?”

“Not worth the trouble of going in,” said Phil, disgustedly. “It’s a fine big cave, though, and I suppose Espato is mighty sore because we discovered it.”

“Well, I’m glad I stayed out here, then,” said Dick. “The propeller is better than an electric fan to keep a fellow cool on a hot day.”

“Oh, well, I didn’t really expect to find much here,” said Phil. “I suppose we might as well get going again. As long as you’re in the pilot’s seat, Dick, you might as well steer the old ship awhile. I’d like to sit back and loaf for a while, the way you and Tom usually do.”

“Huh!” snorted Tom, “whose fault is that, I’d like to know. We’d drive all the time, if we got the chance.”

“Yes, but then you wouldn’t have time to think up those swell jokes of yours, and think of what a loss that would be to everybody,” grinned Phil.

“It would be pretty tough on the world, I’ll admit,” said Tom. “I suppose I really should never have joined the Rangers. If you or Dick gets killed, it doesn’t matter, but if I do, it will be a big loss to humanity.”

“Oh, I guess humanity would manage to stagger along some way, even without the joy of hearing your jokes,” said Dick. “The world got along fairly well before you came romping around with that phoney brand of humor, you know.”

“Yes, but then people didn’t know what they were missing,” said Tom, modestly.

“If they had known, wouldn’t they have been thankful?” retorted Dick, and before Tom could think of a suitable retort, he had opened the throttle, and the _Arrow_ was once more soaring high above the green earth.

They flew in great sweeping circles, raking the hills and valleys below with their powerful fieldglasses, but saw nothing that would indicate the presence of the bandit stronghold. Noon came, and the boys decided to land, have lunch, and let the motor cool off awhile.

They landed in a grassy meadow, close to the edge of a forest of stunted trees. At the edge of the woodland flowed a little brook of clear cold water, and Phil and Tom agreed that Dick was a good picker of locations.

“There are plenty of big logs lying around to lean against, anyway,” said Dick. “There must have been a bad windstorm to knock so many trees down.”

“It’s queer, though, that they’re so much larger than any of the trees growing around here,” said Phil. “They feel mighty hard, too.”

He drew his hunting knife and tested the surface of the prostrate cylinders, but instead of its sinking into soft wood, it gave the gritty sound of steel scraping against stone.

“What the dickens is it, anyway?” asked Tom, in surprise. “It sounds like stone, but I’ll be blamed if I ever saw a rock that shape before. It looks like a big stone column.”

“It looks so much like one, that I think it is one,” said Phil.

“But how can it be?” protested Dick. “We’re in the heart of a wilderness here. Who’d drop a load of stone pillars down here, I’d like to know.”

“I’d like to know, too, and I propose that we investigate,” said Phil, scraping at the thick coating of moss that covered one of the columns. “Look here!” he exclaimed, a moment later. “Call me a Chinaman, if there aren’t carvings on this stone. Look here, fellows,” and the excited boys bent over the pillar, on which were carved characters and symbols of various kinds.

“That’s writing, all right, but whoever chipped that out, certainly didn’t understand English,” said Tom. “I can’t make out a word of it.”

“Oh, quit your fooling and be serious for once,” exclaimed Phil. “It looks to me as though we had discovered something big. You know that a few centuries ago the Aztecs had big cities and buildings, and we may have stumbled on the ruins of one. Let’s get a bite of lunch, and then we’ll go on an exploring expedition.”

The boys were almost too excited to eat, and it was not long before they were ready to test the truth of Phil’s theory.

The fallen pillars were thicker in the vicinity of the woods, and from this they inferred that if there actually was an old Aztec city here it must be among the trees, which had sprung up around the ancient buildings.

Accordingly, they entered the forest, climbing over fallen pillars and mounds of broken stones. They had struggled through the tangled vines and creepers only a little way, when they all stopped with exclamations of astonishment, and gazed wide-eyed at an imposing ruin that reared its huge bulk in their path.