Dave Porter and His Double Part 40

"That's the talk!" put in Packard Brown. "Come on!"

All left the ranch and headed directly for the river, at the point where Ward had left his flat-bottomed rowboat. Dave and Roger followed them, but did their best to keep out of sight in the tall gra.s.s.

"Oh, Dave, I hope they do go over to the other sh.o.r.e!" exclaimed the senator's son. "It will be so much easier to capture them."

"Exactly, Roger. And don't you remember what Ward told his father--that he had left the miniature cases hidden on the other side? He said they were on a high knoll not far from where the boats had been tied up. We ought to be able to find that _cache_."

By the time the two chums gained the sh.o.r.e of the Rio Grande those ahead of them had already entered Ward Porton's boat. Ward and Brown each had an oar and rowed as rapidly as possible to the other side of the stream. Jarvey Porton sat in the stern of the craft, and looked back from time to time, trying to catch sight of the guerrillas and the other Mexicans, who were still shouting and firing at a distance.

"Hadn't you better hold back a bit, Dave, so they don't see you?"

questioned Roger, as he and our hero managed to gain the rowboat they had used, which, fortunately, had been placed some distance away from the other craft.

"Good advice, Roger, if it wasn't for one thing. I don't want to give them a chance to get out of our sight. Let us tie our handkerchiefs over the lower parts of our faces. Then they won't be able to recognize us--at least unless we get pretty close."

With Dave's suggestion carried out, the chums leaped into the rowboat, and, this done, each took an oar. They pulled hard, and as a consequence reached the mouth of the little creek on the United States side in time to see those ahead just disembarking.

"Where do you suppose they are going?" queried the senator's son.

"That remains to be found out," answered Dave. "Duck now, so they won't see us." And with a quick motion of the oar he possessed he sent the flat-bottomed boat in among some tall gra.s.s which bordered the creek at this point.

Ward Porton and those with him had tied up their boat and were walking to the higher ground away from the creek. Jarvey Porton paused to look back along the creek and the bosom of the river beyond.

"I don't see anything on the river just now," he announced.

"Look! Some one is coming from the other way!" exclaimed his son, suddenly.

"Is that Lawson, the ranchman?" questioned Packard Brown, anxiously.

"No, I don't think it is," answered Ward Porton. "They seem to be strangers," he added, a minute later.

Two men and a well-grown boy were approaching. They came on slowly, as if looking for some one.

"I'd like to know what those fellows want around here," came from Jarvey Porton, as he gave up looking along the river to inspect the newcomers.

From their position in the tall gra.s.s bordering the creek, Dave and Roger looked from the Porton party to those who were approaching.

Then, of a sudden, our hero uttered a low exclamation of surprise.

"Look who's here, Roger! Ben Ba.s.swood and my Uncle Dunston! And Mr.

Andrews is with them!"

"Oh, Dave! are you sure?"

"Of course I am! I would know my Uncle Dunston as far as I could see him. And you ought to know Ben."

"My gracious, Dave, you're right! This sure is luck!"

"I know what I'm going to do," decided our hero, quickly. "I'm going to send both of the boats adrift. Then, no matter what happens, those rascals won't have any easy time of it getting back to Mexico."

In feverish haste Dave sent the flat-bottomed boat out into the creek once more. Roger a.s.sisted him, and a few strokes of the oars brought the craft alongside of that which had been used by the Porton party.

Then the chums leaped ash.o.r.e, threw all the oars into the water, and set both of the rowboats adrift.

"Hi there! What are you fellows up to?" came suddenly from Packard Brown, who had happened to look behind him. "See, Jarvey, those two fellows have cast our boat adrift!"

"Who are they?" demanded Jarvey Porton, and looked in some bewilderment at the two figures approaching, each with a handkerchief tied over the lower portion of the face.

"Uncle Dunston! Ben!" cried Dave at the top of his lungs, and at the same time whipped the handkerchief from his face. "Here are Ward Porton and his father! We must capture them!"

"Hurry up! Don't let them get away!" put in Roger, as he, too, uncovered his face.

As he uttered the words Roger drew his pistol, an action which was quickly followed by our hero, for both understood that the criminals before them might prove desperate.

Of course Dunston Porton and Ben Ba.s.swood, as well as Frank Andrews, were greatly astonished by the calls from Dave and Roger. But our hero's uncle, while out hunting in various parts of the world, had been in many a tight corner, and thus learned the value of acting quickly. He had with him his pistol, and almost instantly he drew this weapon and came forward on the run, with Ben and Frank Andrews at his heels.

"Stop! Stop! Don't shoot!" yelled Ward Porton in alarm, as he found himself and his companions surrounded by five others, three with drawn pistols.

"We won't shoot, Porton, if you'll surrender," answered Dave.

"Oh, Dave! has he got those miniatures?" burst out Ben.

"He sure has, Ben!"

"Good!"

"I haven't got any miniatures," growled the former moving-picture actor.

His father and Brown looked decidedly uncomfortable. Once the former army officer made a motion as if to draw his own weapon, but Dunston Porter detected the movement and instantly ordered all of the party to throw up their hands.

"Oh, Dave! are you sure he has those pictures?" queried Ben, and his face showed his anxiety.

"I think so, Ben. However, we'll find out as soon as we have made them prisoners."

"That's the talk!" put in Roger. He turned to Dave's uncle. "Can't you bind them or something, so that they can't get away?"

"We'll disarm them," announced Frank Andrews. "Jarvey and Brown are wanted for that raid on old man Tolman's ranch and for using that bomb on the bridge. We can prove through Pankhurst that they were with the party."

"That man is Ward Porton's father," explained Dave to his uncle and Ben, while the evil-doers were being searched and disarmed one after another.

"Ward Porton's father, eh? Well, they seem to be two of a kind,"

answered Ben.

With their weapons taken from them, the prisoners could do nothing but submit. They were questioned, but all refused to tell anything about what they had done or intended to do.

"You'll never get anything out of me, and you'll never get those miniatures back," growled Ward Porton, as he gazed sourly at Ben and at Dave.

"We'll see about that, Porton," answered our hero. And then he requested his uncle and Frank Andrews to keep an eye on the prisoners while he, Roger and Ben set out for the knoll some distance away from the creek.

"Ward Porton said he had hidden some cases in a _cache_ between some rocks on that knoll," explained our hero. "By cases I think he meant those containing the miniatures."