“Golly, Batman,” Robin replied, smacking his fist into his left hand, “I guess you’re right.  I shouldn’t judge anyone by their size.”  He looked sheepishly at Joe. “I’m sorry.”

Joe simply stared at Robin in utter confusion.  First, there was the Lone Ranger and Tonto; now it was this funny looking Batman and Robin.  “Maybe I’m still sick,” Joe pondered, trying to figure out what was happening.

Joe sighed and rubbed the back of his hands across his eyes.  He looked up at Batman.  This man didn’t dress like the Batman Joe knew from the movies, but he would have to do.  Joe needed to rescue Frank and his friends, and he couldn’t do it alone.

“My brother, my friends, the Lone Ranger and Tonto are all captured by the Rattlesnake Gang.  I gotta figure how to save them really fast ‘cause the sun is up and the gang plans to hang them all,” Joe explained. “Can you help?”

Batman and Robin glanced knowingly at each other.  “That explains the urgent message we received,” Batman said.  He looked at Joe and said, “We’re here to help.”

“We got a secret coded message at our bat cave from Tonto,” Robin added.  “He must have sent it just before they were captured.”

“All of us super-heroes and crime fighters can call each other on a special code machine,” Batman explained, seeing Joe’s perplexed expression.  “It transmits an emergency message and location finder in secret code.”

“Oh,” Joe nodded, “I guess that makes sense.”

Batman knelt beside the blond boy. “Joe, tell us everything that has happened so far.”  Joe quickly explained everything he’d seen and heard since he met the Lone Ranger and Tonto.  Batman and Robin listened with keen interest.

When Joe finished, Batman rubbed his chin, thoughtfully.  After a couple minutes, the caped crusader said, “I’ve got a plan.”

* * *

“Cheese and crackers!” Chet Morton exclaimed, staring at the pair of men that had just been shoved into the small jail with the boys.  “You’re the Lone Ranger!”

Frank and Tony sat up, startled by Chet’s outburst.  They looked up at the two strangers.

“Who?” Frank questioned.

“The Lone Ranger! You know, Joe told us about him at lunch,” Chet grinned.

Vaguely, Frank remembered his little brother telling them about the Lone Ranger and Tonto, and he remembered his dad making French toast, but it seemed like it happened a long, long time ago.

“I can’t believe you’re here to rescue us!” Frank heard Chet saying. He focused once again on the masked man and his friend.

“Rescue us?” Tony questioned with a frown on his face.  He glanced past the two men to the locked jail door.

Chet’s jubilation deflated like a balloon that lost its air. “Oh.”

Frank was only eight, but he was Fenton Hardy’s son and his mind was already working.  “I’ll bet you did come to rescue us, but somethin’ went wrong with your plan. Right?”

The Lone Ranger and Tonto moved and sat on the ground with the three children. “We were scouting out the fort to see what the situation was inside, but the Rattlesnake Gang had scouts of their own.  They spotted me out in the woods,” the masked man sadly said. “I blame my own carelessness.  I should have been more alert.

“They had me out numbered.  I surrendered, hoping Tonto and Joe would escape.”

“I hear noises. I go, leave Joe in fort.  See Kemo Sabe captured,” the Indian stated.  “I run to help but run into Rattlesnake Gang trap.”

“Wait, you both said ‘Joe’,” Frank said, rising to his feet. “My brother, Joe?”

“Small blond kid with big blue eyes,” the Lone Ranger described.

“B-but he’s home sick in bed!” Frank cried.

“He no act sick,” Tonto replied. “Him tough little brave.”

“Can’t be Joey,” Chet responded, shaking his head, “’cause Joey’s afraid of…well…everything!”

“I don’t know about this Joe you’re talking about, but the boy we met in the woods is one brave little guy,” the masked ranger stated.  “He crawled into this fort by himself to see what was going on inside.

“Unfortunately, we were captured before Joe could give us his report.”

“So Joe is out there alone somewhere? By himself?” Frank asked, suddenly very worried about his younger brother.

“Him not alone long,” Tonto smiled. He looked at his partner and added. “I get message out pronto, then hide code machine.”

“Good,” the Lone Ranger nodded, and looked over at Frank. “Your brother will be safe.”

* * *

Batman led the way through the pine trees toward the fort, with Joe right behind him and Robin guarding the rear against attack. 

Joe glanced up at the sunlight that was gradually starting to filter through the trees, burning off the dewy fog.  He kept remembering what the men in the fort had said - “Ya goin’ to the hangin’ at dawn?” Joe wasn’t exactly sure when ‘dawn’ was, but he was pretty sure it was now.

“We gotta hurry,” Joe urged in a whisper.

Batman looked down into the boy’s deep blue eyes.  “We’ll save them in time Joe, I promise.”

The trio reached the fort and followed the same route Joe and Tonto had taken previously.  Soon they were all three pressed flat against the wall of the fort near the loose boards.

“Just like we planned Joe,” the caped crusader reminded the boy.  Joe nodded and scrambled through the boards as Batman and Robin held them.

In seconds, Joe reappeared through the boards, panic in his eyes.

“W-we’re too l-late!” He cried. “The hangin’ ropes are up a-and the j-jail is empty!”