“Thought we might,” Jim admitted.
“And presto, I appear!” It was Ynilea, who smiled broadly. “I too am becoming subject to attacks of hunch and when we found that you were not going to go home this morning under central power I observed your hilarious flight and was delighted when you determined to pay Amy-Ran another visit.”
“Gee, did you see the party they tried to pull last night?” Bob demanded quickly.
“Not the ‘party’ but the records this morning.”
“A man called Ollie had a plane smash-up somewhere in the Andes and thinks he discovered a rich deposit of platinum,” Jim explained.
“Where?” Ynilea was interested.
“I don’t know,” the boy answered, then went on and told of the conversation they had overheard in the Santa Maria and the later attack of the chap who wanted the wallet.
“We don’t know yet if it is the same man but it looks as if it might be,” Bob put in. “I say—” He stopped abruptly, for their quick ears had caught the unmistakable hum of an airplane motor, “that one of your crates?”
“No.” Ynilea listened intently. “No.”
They sat very still as the sound grew in volume, then the Lab. man stepped cautiously toward the place where the boys had run the “Lark” under cover. Quickly the Flying Buddies jumped out of straps and parachutes and hurried after him. In a moment they were making their way along the outer edge of the great wall, much as Carlos had said he did when he came there as a small boy and thought he saw an opening into a court. They proceeded carefully, keeping out of sight of the approaching airman, until suddenly Ynilea held up his hand. Just ahead of them they saw the Indian woman whose age no one could ever guess, coming very slowly from the opposite direction. She was wearing a robe which hung in folds from her shoulders, a loose hood covered her head, and the material looked so exactly like the stones beside which she walked that if she had not moved she could not have been distinguished from one of them. She seemed to be aware of their presence, for in a moment she stopped, made a slight movement of her head, and Ynilea instantly went to her, the boys close at his heels.