“Serbot must have learned a lot from somebody down in Minas Geraes,” decided Mr. Brewster, “though how, I can’t quite understand. I checked everyone who had talked with Lew Kirby, and I felt sure he had confided in me alone.”
“And how did Serbot hear about Joe Nara?” queried Mr. Whitman. “There have been rumors of head-hunters and abandoned rubber plantations off in the jungle. But no talk of prospectors and gold mines—at least none that reached me.”
“There were rumors farther up the river,” Biff’s father said, “according to what Nara told us. When Joe bought that cruiser and came down to Manaus, he turned rumor into fact.”
“Nara found out about us,” Hal Whitman pointed out, “so why shouldn’t Serbot find out about Nara? Or about us, for that matter? We know now where the leak came. Through Urubu.”
Mr. Brewster weighed that statement, then slowly shook his head.
“Urubu couldn’t have sent word to Serbot that fast,” he declared, then, turning to Biff, he queried: “You are sure Serbot told Luiz to find out what he could about Nara?”
“Yes,” replied Biff, “and about the map, too.”
“Then it wasn’t Serbot’s man who stole the map,” mused Mr. Brewster, “unless he wants that missing corner that I still have. Or else—”
Mr. Brewster interrupted himself, as sounds of excitement came from the bearers, who were busy thatching palm leaves to form a shelter. Their babble of dialect included the name “Luiz,” and a couple of the bearers were running to help the guide as he came limping into camp.
“Say nothing,” warned Mr. Brewster. “Just listen to what Luiz has to tell us.”