“This is a different sort of trip,” Jack said. “We don’t expect to become mixed up in an intrigue over Inca gold.”
“It may be emeralds this time,” Bob predicted. “Something’s brewing or Mr. Corning wouldn’t have sent for Hap.”
“You’re probably right,” Jack agreed with a grin. “Trouble certainly has developed at the Last Chance mine. And it’s a cinch we’re going to be in the thick of it!”
Chapter 6
A COMPANY AGENT
“This must be the place. A filthy looking little office.”
Mr. Livingston had paused before a doorway on a shadeless, rather depressing back street of Cartagena. Only a moment before, a carriage had deposited the Scout leader and the four Explorers at an address where they hoped to obtain information concerning Appleby Corning.
The day was uncomfortably warm. Since arriving eighteen hours earlier at the Caribbean port, the Scouts had waited expectantly at their hotel.
No word had come from Mr. Livingston’s friend, the mining engineer, who had promised to meet and personally escort them to the Last Chance mine above Emerald Valley in the eastern Andes.
Learning that the company which controlled the emerald mine, had a Cartagena as well as a Bogota office, the Scouts finally had set out to find the former.
“This is the company office all right,” Jack Hartwell confirmed, consulting an address scribbled in his notebook.