Jack withdrew to the door,
followed by Bob, leaving the two older men in low-voiced conversation.
They spoke animatedly, and to the anxious boys there came more than
once a low chuckle of laughter from Don Fernandez while they could see
Mr. Hampton beginning to smile. At length, Don Fernandez beckoned
imperiously, and the boys approached.

He regarded them with twinkling eyes, but it was Mr. Hampton who acted
as spokesman.

"Boys," said he, "Don Fernandez consents. But I do not believe he was
influenced by fear for his life."

Don Fernandez stood up between the two chums, and put an arm over the
shoulder of each--or, rather, tried to, as they towered above him.

"No, it was not fear," said he. "But Mr. Hampton has told me a little
of what you have done, and I see it is useless to fight against Young
America. You are fine fellows. If I had a son"--wistfully--"I would
want him to be like you."

CHAPTER XXX

GOOD NEWS FOR ANXIOUS EARS

"Now to call Father," said big Bob.

He and Jack, escorted by several Mexicans of Don Fernandez' band who
had been informed by the Don himself that the boys were friends who
were to be treated with every respect, were approaching the radio
station of the Calomares ranch.

Jack was exuberant. Plans for the rescue of his father from the
stronghold of the rebel leader had not worked out just as proposed.
Yet the wild adventure upon which he and Bob had embarked had come to
a successful conclusion, after all. And he was correspondingly elated.

Jack and his father were close pals. And he knew that Bob and his
father were the same. He threw an arm over the shoulder of his chum.

"Your father will certainly be relieved," he said. "I imagine he has
been sitting up there at the radio station on our ranch in New Mexico
for hours, waiting to hear from you. I can just see him in there,
walking up and down impatiently, with that bow-legged old cowboy, Dave
Morningstar, tilted back in a chair, with his hat down over; his
eyes, smoking and never making a move."

"Won't he be delighted," said Bob. "Just won't he."

"And Frank, too," said Jack, thinking of the third chum, left behind
at the cave.

"Good old Frank," said Bob, warmly. "We've got to tell him as soon as
I've notified father."

"He certainly put up some fight, I'll bet," said Jack, thinking of the
hurried radio reaching them from the cave as they neared the Calomares
ranch in their airplane hours before. "And maybe he