They contained but little more than what Oliver had intimated, saving the telling of where much of the proof of Colonel Mendix’s villainy could be found,—in San Francisco, and in a number of places in Brazil.
“I guess we have him in our power now,” said Mr. Whyland when the reading was finished. “If only Cottle was here, we might go ahead.”
“I think we can afford to wait a day,” laughed Oliver, he felt so relieved to be safe in camp once more. “Colonel Mendix still thinks we are in the mine pit.”
“That is so. If he saw you now he would think you were a ghost.”
“I would like to play ghost on him and scare him into a fit,” said Gus. “He deserves it.”
“He will get more than a ghost scare when we get after him,” observed Oliver sternly. “He will find out that leaving us there to perish is no light offense.”
“I cannot understand how I was so blind to his real character when I went into the mine deal with him,” put in Mr. Whyland.
“That proves he is a born actor as well as rascal,” said Oliver.
“I can’t help but feel sorry for that James Barr,” observed Gus. “I suppose he trusted Mendix just as much as anybody did.”
“Undoubtedly,” rejoined Oliver. “If he had stood in with the Spaniard, it isn’t likely he would have been left to die in that horrible fashion.”