THE RESCUE
They told Ned afterwards that he keeled over in the sand and fainted
dead away, but he always insisted that he didn't faint, that he knew
everything that was going on. Yet he did not hear a word of the
long story told by Elmer. When he roused himself he was lying in
the shade of the big freight wagon and a couple of cowboys were
getting breakfast ready.
Then Mayor Bradley explained his presence in that mysterious way in
which bad news always travels friendly Indians had sent him word of
the attack on Buck's outfit and of the death of the veteran
plainsman. This news had just reached Clarkeville and Mayor Bradley
had at once set out to find the body if possible, and assist those
who escaped.
Of course all speed was made toward the foothills and that evening
Alan and Bob, the former only a shadow of the lively youngster who
had left Clarkeville but two weeks before, were found and rescued.
That night there was a new camp on the Chusco and meat and hot
bread. The only shadow to dim the happiness of the rescued boys was
the recollection of the murdered Buck.
The return to Clarkeville was made by easy stages in four days, and
even Alan was nearly his old self when that town was reached. One
night's rest in real beds, with fresh linen from the baggage they
had left behind them, and baths, removed the traces of privation and
suffering. There was little more to detain Ned and Alan.
A telegram was dispatched to Major Honeywell at Kansas City, where
the boys and their patrons had agreed to meet. Then Ned's tool
chest was forwarded by freight to Chicago. In company with Mayor
Bradley Ned and Alan visited Mrs. Bourke, Buck's widow. Retaining
enough to cover the costs of transportation to Kansas City he gave
the widow what remained of his funds, nearly five hundred dollars,
and all the heavy stores remaining in the corral.
At midnight of that day four wide-awake and alert boys, neatly clad
in summer suits, boarded the local train bound east for Albuquerque.
The last hand they shook was that of Mayor Bradley.
"Mr. Mayor," said Ned as he parted from his friend, "I'm sorry I
can't tell you why we were here, or what we were doing. But you
were our friend and we'll never forget you. Some day I'm going to
show you how highly we regard you. And some day I hope I'll be able
to tell you what our mission was."
Three days later the quartette of boys sprang from the Limited in
the Union depot at Kansas City. The parting had come. None of the
boys knew what that meant until the last moment.
"'Ned," said Bob Russell, once again in the field of his profession,
"I've had many a strange assignment in my work and I expect to have
many another, but I'll never have one like this. I've got the story
of my life, but I haven't got yours. If the time ever comes when I
can write it, when you are free to tell it, just remember your best
friend, Bob Russell, reporter, Kansas City Comet."
"Bob," answered Ned wringing his hand, "you have missed a good
story. I'm sorry. It wasn't because you were not a good reporter.
It was just our good luck. But if things work out the way I hope,
I'm going to give you something better than a good story."
"And," broke in Alan, "just want to say this: if chance ever throws
adventures my way again I hope that the companions I share it with
will always include Bob Russell."
The details of how Ned and Alan, just one day late, kept their
engagement with major Honeywell and Senor' Oje in the Coates House,
and of the almost unbelievable report they made and the rich
evidence of its genuineness that they submitted do not really belong
in an account of the flight of the Cibola. Two things were done at
once, however. A handsome gold watch was purchased and sent to
Mayor Bradley with the compliments of Ned and Alan, and Senor Oje
forwarded an additional check for a thousand dollars to Buck's
widow.
The report on the value of the stones carried from the treasure
temple by the two boys was such that Senor Oje gave them his check
for $25,000. Out of this each boy contributed part of his share
toward a sum sufficient to give Elmer a business education. Finally
the two boys bought a draft for a thousand dollars, payable to
Robert Russell. With it went this note: "Please accept this as some
slight compensation for the story you did not get."
But in good time Bob Russell did get his story. For, otherwise,
this narrative would never have been written.
How it came about that Bob got his story; how the treasure left in
the Turquoise Temple was finally lifted; how the young aeronauts in
doing it battled successfully with a maelstrom in the clouds, were
driven far out over the Pacific, cast away on a derelict and finally
made an escape with their "sneering idol" by aeroplane into the
wilds of Mexico, is a later and more remarkable chapter in the
adventures of Ned Napier and Alan Hope, to be told in "The Air-Ship
Boys Adrift, or Saved by an Aeroplane."
THE END