Phil, who was piloting the _Arrow_ at the time, circled once or twice looking for a landing, and then, selecting a level stretch, landed gently.
The men who had been waving at them now ran in their direction, and as the boys descended they had no difficulty in recognizing Steve among the foremost.
“Hi, yi!” yelled Steve, exuberantly. “Welcome to Laguna, you worthless old mavericks! The boys never thought that you’d get here in that overgrown kite, but I told ’em you’d get here if you had to tie a balloon to it.”
“Oh, nothing like that,” grinned Phil, “although a balloon might have come in pretty handy at one time. But the old _Arrow_ usually gets where its going pretty near on schedule time.”
“Well, we’re all mighty glad to see you, anyway,” declared Steve, “step up and I’ll introduce you to this bunch of Piute Indians that have the nerve to call themselves Texas Rangers. They’re a terrible bunch, but they all have one good point—they all hate greasers like poison.”
After this foreword the Radio Boys were formally—or rather, informally—introduced to all the Rangers who happened to be present, and then they all gathered curiously about the aeroplane, and the boys had to explain some of its mysteries to the interested Rangers.
“That ought to put the fear of the Lord into them greasers, derned if it shouldn’t,” remarked one tall and sunburnt fellow, whom the others addressed simply as “Chips”. “They’ll think the great American Eagle has sure got after them at last.”
“Well, it’s pretty near time,” remarked another. “They’re sure gettin’ peskier and meaner every day. We’re too blamed easy with them, that’s the trouble.”
The others seemed to be of the same opinion, and as they walked toward headquarters, the boys heard more than one tale of looting and outrage, that made them glad that they were to engage in the work of prevention and punishment.
“Captain Bradley will be glad to know you’ve arrived,” said Steve, after they had reached the bunk house and had washed up. “He didn’t figure you’d get here much before tonight or maybe tomorrow morning, and he’s gone to Austin on some official business. We expect him back in a day or so.”
“Well, we can spend the time in getting acquainted,” said Phil. “I only wish we had been here when you had the fight with those bandits that you told us about by radio.”