“What did he look like?”
“Couldn’t tell much. He’s wearing a grey suit, or a dirty white one, and a dark straw hat. I saw him the first time when we crossed the Square. He was up among those trees and I thought it was some kind of wild animal, then I saw him again when we were coming up the stairs from the lower terrace. My first idea was that it was a friend, I was going to shout, but he dodged back out of sight. When I saw him this last time, he was peeking from behind those stones as if he was watching to see which way we are headed. I do not believe he knows I saw him,” Bob said so softly that Jim barely caught the words.
“Gosh—sure it isn’t a native—you know they do hang around these ruins and it may be that he is put here to look out for the temple.”
“It isn’t a native. The ones who are not in the towns are all strong and straight looking and they don’t wear white men’s clothing,” replied Bob. They remained as they were carefully considering their next step, and as they stood thinking, their eyes rested on Mills who was crouching at the end of the rope very much like a monkey on a string.
“He’s surely off his bean,” Jim remarked, and Bob nodded his head.
“Suppose we saunter around, and get as high on this ruin as we can so we can see as far as possible. That’s the most important thing we have to do,” he said.
“Yes. Instead of taking the side we have been following, let’s go to the left. If the snooper is really spying on us we can tell quickly enough. If he isn’t, he’ll go about his business,” Jim proposed.
“That’s good sense. If we find out he’s all right, of course we might get some information about getting out of these woods.”
“Yes, and when we get way up we’d bet-[Transcriber’s note: missing text at this point in several copies of the original book.]
“We’ll have to do it Indian fashion; by rubbing sticks, then we can direct a column that will rise high and show airmen, who are sure to be looking for us, where we are located.”