When they had gone about a mile, Danny quietly pressed O’Hara’s arm and without a sound unlatched the door of the machine. Then as it noiselessly came open, Danny Dexter slipped out onto the ground. A few feet farther O’Hara did the same. Both lay absolutely still until in the distance they heard the Jap swing to with a slam the open door, and they knew as he continued on his journey that he was entirely without suspicion.
Danny took an electric torch from the pocket of his coat and flashed it here and there. He was answered by a similar flash not very far to the west and soon Mary Louise drove up to them and reached out eager hands of welcome.
“Oh, you are safe and here so quickly,” she cried, a little catch in her breath as she realized her plucky vigil was now over.
She moved over to let Danny have the wheel and O’Hara stepped into the back.
“Danny,” whispered Mary Louise, as she leaned toward him confidingly on the return trip, “do you think it will be necessary for Uncle Jim to leave the United States now? After risking his life the way he did to secure those papers, don’t you think the government would be lenient in his case?”
“I hope so,” said Danny in a low tone. “As you know, all Uncle Jim wants is a chance to make good and rectify his old mistake, and I hardly think they will refuse him that.”
“They shouldn’t,” said Mary Louise with conviction. “It would be mean if they did.”
Danny glanced sideways at the girl, whose brow showed a few tiny furrows.
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your interest in Uncle Jim,” Danny said. “I want you to know that we have both talked the matter over, and I have persuaded Uncle Jim to remain in Albuquerque until the government has acted in the case of Henry Brown and his treasonable outfit. He will certainly be needed as a witness if the government apprehends them and they are brought to trial.”
“I can be of some assistance to him, too,” said Mary Louise. “After I tell Josie O’Gorman all that has happened, I know she will feel very different about your uncle. Maybe she can interest her father in the case, and no man in the department at Washington has more influence then John O’Gorman.”
As the two young people sat conversing in low tones, heads close together, a soft smile played about the corners of James O’Hara’s lips. Did he see in the charming tableau before him a reflection of his own lost youth? Perhaps. Out of the dim past, recollections of his own youthful romance may have arisen, luring his mind to years long gone by.