The Mark On The Door Part 4

43 There was a cry of alarm from the stowaway. He grabbed Frank's arm.

"Don't let Mm see me!" cried the boy. "Oh, don't let that man see me!"

"So you can can talk English?" remarked Frank. talk English?" remarked Frank.

Under the airport lights the Hardy boys could see that the stowaway's face was white with fear.

"What's the matter?" asked Joe.

"That man! I'm afraid of him. I'm glad he's gone now."

The stowaway still clung to Frank's arm, as if in terror lest the stranger return.

"Well," Frank remarked, "I must say that this is a queer sort of reception."

"It is indeed," said Fenton Hardy, who had Deen reading the note the foreigner had thrust into his hand. "We don't seem to be welcome, if I'm to take this note seriously." He turned to the stowaway. "You know that man?"

"Yes, Senor," returned the boy in English which was perfect, but had a foreign accent. *'I know him only too well."

"Perhaps you had better come with us,'* Fenton Hardy suggested. "I'd like to know something about the fellow myself."

CHAPTER VI juan's story.

"what was in the note, Dad?" asked Frank.

"It might possibly be a practical joke, but I'm afraid it's serious," returned Mr. Hardy.

"Listen-----."

He read aloud the following extraordinary communication: "To Senor Fenton Hardy, Private Detective from the United States: "This is to warn you and your sons that you must not set foot upon Mexican soil. If you disregard this warning there will be but one penalty and that penalty will be- Death!" Death!"

Joe whistled solemnly.

"That's straight from the shoulder. We aren't to go to Mexico, eh? But if Tremmer is still in Texas there will be no need of our crossing the border."

Mr. Hardy shook his head.

"Our mission is known. This letter means that Tremmer is no longer in Texas." He turned to the stowaway. "You say you know the man who gave me the letter?"

The boy nodded.

"His name is Senor Bario. I am very much afraid of him. He kidnaped me from my home.''

"Kidnaped you!" cried the Hardy boys in astonishment.

"It is the truth. I am trying to return to my home. That is why I hid myself in the airplane. If Senor Bario had discovered me, he would have kept me from reaching my home again."

"Not while we're around," declared Joe confidently.

"He is a bad man, and he has helpers who are as wicked as he is."

"What is your name, my boyf" asked Fen-ion Fen-ion Hardy. Hardy.

"Juan Marcheta, Senor."

"Then come with us to our hotel and let us hear more about this Senor Bario. Perhaps we can help you and perhaps you can help us."

The Hardys got their baggage and climbed into a waiting taxi. The airport was on the outskirts of a thriving town that boasted a third-rate hotel. Mr. Hardy engaged connecting rooms for himself and the three boys.

46 After they had eaten they settled down to listen to Juan Marcheta's story. The boy, who devoured a tremendous meal, confessed that he had not eaten in twenty-four hours.

"You see," he said, "I have come all the way from New York. For part of the way I begged rides on automobiles-what is it yon say?-hitch-hiking. Then, when I saw my chance to hide in the airplane, I took the risk."

"You are a Mexican?" inquired Mr. Hardy.

"Si, Senor! My home is in Mexico." Senor! My home is in Mexico."

"How did you happen to be in New York, so far away from home? You said something about being kidnaped."

"It happened in this manner, Senor. There was a man by the name of Senor Pancho who came often to our hacienda. hacienda. I have a sister, you understand, by the name of Dolores. I have a sister, you understand, by the name of Dolores.

She is very beautiful. Senor Pancho wished to pay respects to her but my father said he is not welcome. Ours is a very old family and we have an honored name, but this Pancho-bah -he is a low-caste fellow. He has money, yes, or so he said, but that matters not. One who marries my sister Dolores must be of her own station in life."

"And what did Senor Pancho do when he was told that his attentions weren't welcome?"

"He was very angry. He say that my father will regret it. Then he went away and we did 47 not see him again. We were told that he had left the country. Nevertheless, I am sure that senor Pancho had something to do with the kidnaping."

"How did that happen?" asked Mr. Hardy.

"I was studying my lessons in the garden one afternoon when a man called to me from the gate. He say there had been an accident On the road and that his friend had been hurt.

Of course, I went out to see if I could help him. No sooner had I stepped out of the gate than a blanket was thrown over my head and I was carried into an automobilt. I was bound hand and foot and gagged."

"What happened next?" asked Frank eagerly.

"We drove for many miles. They had taken the blanket from my head but they blindfolded me so that I could not see where I was going. Later I was carried into an airplane and we flew for a long time. After that I was taken into another automobile. The men gave me food and later on removed the bandage from my eyes. But they warned me that it would mean my death if I cry out or try to get help. That was when I first did see my abductors. And one of them was the man who met you at the airport.''

"Senor Bario?"

"One of his friends called him by that name.

48 Well, to go on with my story. I was brought all the way to New York, and there I was turned over to three other Mexicanos who kept me a prisoner in their house. At first I did not make any attempt to escape, so gradually they became careless and one night I managed to flee through a bas.e.m.e.nt window. A stranger offered me a ride in his automobile and I got out of the city. I have been making my way home ever since."

"Do you know if anyone made a demand on your father for ransom?" asked Mr. Hardy.

"I do not know. The men, they told me nothing and answered none of my questions."

"Perhaps that was Senor Pancho's way of getting revenge," Joe suggested.

"I am sure Senor Pancho had something to do with it," returned Juan.

"You are still a long way from home," Mr. Hardy reminded the boy.

Juan smiled. His predicament did not seem to cause him a great deal of anxiety.

"1 have come so far," he said. "A few hundred miles more, they will not matter."

The Hardy boys laughed.

"You take it coolly, at any rate," said Frank.

Mr. Hardy was strangely thoughtful. At last he turned to his sons.

"Mrs. Smith, the landlady, told you that 49 Pedro Vincenzo used to talk about Mexico. He did not tell her his address, did he?"

"He said he came from a part of the country *where people lived in caves."

"Ah," said Juan quickly. "Did he mention the Tarahumares?"

"Come to think of it," said Joe, "it seems to me that Mrs. Smith was trying to get her tongue around a name like that. She called them Tarmars. What are they, Juan?"

"Indians," returned the Mexican lad promptly. "The Tarahumare Indians live in the northern sierras, in the mountains of Chihuahua. There are caves in the Septentrion Canon, of course, but people do not live there any more."

"It's a slim clue," said Mr. Hardy, "but if Pedro Vincenzo comes from the mountains of Chihuahua he may have sent Tremmer there."

"You are looking for someone?" asked Juan politely.

"Yes. And perhaps you may be able to help us. Do you know Mexico well?"

"I have traveled a great deal in my own country."

"Could you guide me to this country of the Tarahumares?"

"I must return home first, of course. But 'with my father's permission there is nothing I should like better than to help you." Juan's 50 eyes sparkled with excitement. "It would be the sort of adventure I prefer."

Fenton Hardy outlined briefly the story of Pedro Vincenzo and the missing witness, Elmer Tremmer.

"The man may still be in Texas," he said. " Tomorrow I am going to make some investigations and try to pick up his trail. If I can't find him I suppose our best plan is to go on into the Chihuahua country. At least," he added, "I will go on into Mexico with you, Juan, and Frank and Joe can wait here until I return."

Consternation was written in the faces of the Hardy boys.

"Do you mean to say we can't go with you, DadT" cried Frank.

Mr. Hardy shook his head.

"It's too dangerous, I'm afraid. This may be just another wild-goose chase. You are safer on United States soil."

The boys were keenly disappointed. Now that they had come so far it was a crus.h.i.+ng blow to learn that they might have to sit cooling their heels while their father went on to further adventures in the romantic country across the Eio Grande.

"We won't be any trouble, Dad," pleaded Frank. "We can take care of ourselves.

Besides, you may need us."

51 "I don't like to disappoint you, but it's your safety of which I'm thinking. We'll be going into pretty wild country, won't we, Juan?"

"Very wild," admitted the Mexican boy.

This, however, only increased the Hardy boys' determination to accompany their father.

Juan Marcheta, sympathizing with them, said: "I must go home first. Why not let your sons come with us and stay at my place? They will be quite safe there and I know my parents will be glad to have them visit for a while. It is not far from the Chihuahua country and it will be more interesting for them than waiting here."

"Well, I won't promise," said Fenton Hardy. "We'll see about it tomorrow. Maybe we won't have to go to Mexico at all. After we've all had a good sleep we can make further plans."

Before the boys retired that night Frank *aid to his brother: "I'll be glad if we find Elmer Tremmer, all right, but I hope he went to Mexico.''

"So do I," said Joe. "A chance like this Comes only once in a lifetime."

CHAPTER VII.

IN THE PATH OF DANGER.

fenton habdy was up early next morning1 and left the hotel immediately after breakfast.

He announced that he was going to make a determined effort to pick up some information about the missing Elmer Tremmer.

"In the meantime," said Frank, "we'll see if we can locate Senor Bario."

The lads amused themselves by exploring the town that morning. Occasionally Juan Marcheta would question some of his own countrymen. He found no one, however, who knew Bario.

"I noticed that he got into a blue roadster after he gave Dad the warning last night,'' Joe said after a time. "I think I would recognize the car if I saw it again."

"I can't understand how Bario comes to be mixed up in our our case," Frank declared. "He case," Frank declared. "He is a kidnaper, not an oil swindler."

"He may be both," said Juan. "Who knows?"

"Bario must be connected with Vincenzo's crowd and we must be on the right trail or he wouldn't have tried to frighten us into and we must be on the right trail or he wouldn't have tried to frighten us into staying out of Mexico, that's certain. I wonder if he really thought that letter would throw a scare into us?"