“That would be fine, Inspector,” he said. “You’ve knocked the wind out of the boys. They’ll tell you what they think of your plan as soon as they recover.”
“Boy, oh, boy, I guess that wouldn’t be scrumptious,” said Jack.
“Something more to tell the fellows at Harrington Hall when school reopens,” said Frank.
“I’m ready right now,” said big Bob, melodramatically leaping to his feet and grabbing the doorknob. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Mr. Temple laughed, and Inspector Burton joined him.
“Not so fast,” he said. “When you leave New Mexico for home, you can go by way of Washington. That will be time enough. In fact, I’ll have to precede you to arrange matters.”
After some discussion, the chums went out to wander around Santa Barbara, leaving Mr. Temple and the Secret Service man to make the necessary arrangements as to time, etc., for their proposed trip to Washington.
“Come on. Let’s go down to the beach for a plunge,” said Bob. “That’s the only way I can get this exuberance out of my system.”
CHAPTER XXIX—A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE -----------------------------------
Jack, Frank and Bob reached Washington alone, Mr. Temple, weeks before, having left them in New Mexico to return to New York.
“You fellows have given me the longest and most exciting vacation from business that I ever had,” he said, on leaving them at the Hampton ranch. “Little did I think I would be involved in international intrigue on the border or engaged in breaking up a tremendous smuggling ring. But I’m too old for all this excitement, although you youngsters seem to flourish on it.”
“Old,” protested Bob. “Why, Dad, you look fitter after all our experiences than for years.”
“Well,” said he, “I can’t say that I haven’t enjoyed it all. Quite a change from business, hey?” he added, appealing to Mr. Hampton, Jack’s father, the mining engineer.
Mr. Hampton nodded, smiling slightly. He himself led a life filled with more adventure and excitement than that of the quieter business man. Yet he, too, had had a considerable increase in thrills that summer, kidnapped in an airplane and held captive by Mexican rebels at the Calomares palace in the mountains of Sonora, as related in a previous tale of _The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border_.