“There is no platinum here and there never was any,” the third man announced positively, and then Jim had another shock, for this man was one of the chaps who had brought, or tried to bring, disaster to the power-plant. His name was Alonzo and his brother had been killed along with a mysterious stranger only a week before. Their activities had branded them as criminals and the Peruvian government was anxious to get hold of him dead or alive.
“You could not have come right. I tell you I copied the map from his wallet, exactly,” the hunter insisted. Instantly it flashed into Jim’s mind that this must be the trapper who had helped Ollie to civilization.
“Let me see it,” growled Gordon. Alonzo took the folded paper from his pocket and the pair examined it carefully. “This is the place, all right. You’ve been made a goat. See? There’s no platinum here.”
“It is a trick,” the trapper shrieked.
“You’re a fool,” Gordon bellowed and he doubled his fist threateningly.
“You would kill me and get the stuff yourself,” the trapper accused as he backed away from them, but Alonzo, snarling furiously, leaped to catch him. With a move so swift that the boy hiding above could not follow it, the trapper threw a long glistening knife with such force and accuracy that it plunged into Alonzo’s throat. He sank in a heap to the ground, gave a convulsive twist and lay still.
“You—” Gordon swore furiously, then suddenly he stopped. Instantly he seemed to forget the assault and his companion, and stood tense, his eyes turned toward the sky. In a moment the unmistakable hum of an airplane came to them. “My God—” He stepped quickly to the side of the dead man, gave him an indifferent kick with his foot, rolling the body over, pulled out the knife, which he threw to his companion, and deftly he went through the pockets for other weapons.
“You are going to kill me—”
“Shut up! Take this, we’re going to have a heck of a fight on our hands and you’ll need to use everything you can get to come out with a whole skin. See!” He tossed a revolver to the trapper, and cutting the cartridge belt from Alonzo’s body, divided its contents, all the while looking about for some avenue of escape.
While Jim watched the movements of the two, his mind was busy trying to puzzle out the whole affair. It was apparent that Gordon had come expecting to find platinum. They had landed in almost exactly the same spot where Gonzalas was positive he had discovered it and the map, or whatever the trapper had copied from Ollie’s wallet, must have given the same locality. Ollie had declared that he was sure of his find, and had made his identification with such care that Arthur had located the section from the plane. It was not possible, Jim reasoned, for both Pedro Gonzalas and Ollie to have made the same error in the calculations, yet there was no sign of anything of value in the vicinity. It was certainly puzzling, but the boy could not give the matter too much thought. With Gordon alone their position was dangerous enough, but with the coming of the second plane it looked as if other men had learned of the discovery and were bent upon getting possession of the land. Austin watched the two below, who were giving their undivided attention to the later arrivals, standing with weapons ready to repel attack and seemingly to have abandoned any idea of leaving the place without a fight.