Realizing that it would be impossible for him to pass through the open moonlight without being observed by those responsible for the erratic motions of the Ann, the young man remained standing perfectly still in a deep shadow against the face of the cliff.
The Ann moved on toward the thicket, and presently reached the shelter of trees growing there. In a moment she was entirely hidden from view.
“Now,” thought Sam, “the people who have been kind enough to change the position of the machine will doubtless show themselves in the moonlight.”
In this supposition he was not mistaken, for in a moment two men dressed in European garments emerged from the shadows of the grove and took their way across the valley, walking through the moonlight boldly and with no pretense of concealment.
Sam scrutinized the fellows carefully, but could not remember that he had ever seen either of them before. They were dusky, supple chaps, evidently of Spanish descent. As they walked they talked together in English, and occasionally pointed to the angle of the cliff around which the young man had recently passed.
A chattering of excited voices at the edge of the grove now called Sam’s attention in that direction, and he saw at least half a dozen figures, apparently those of native Indians, squatting on the ground at the very edge of the thicket.
“And now,” mused Sam, as the men stopped not far away and entered into what seemed to him to be an excited argument, “I’d like to know how these people learned of the revival of the hunt for Redfern! It isn’t so very many days since Havens’ expedition was planned in New York, and this valley is a good many hundred miles away from that merry old town.”
Entirely at a loss to account for the manner in which information of this new phase of the search had reached a point in the wilds of Peru almost as soon as the record-breaking aeroplane could have carried the news, the young man gave up the problem for the time being and devoted his entire attention to the two men in European dress.
“I tell you they are in the temple,” one of the men said speaking in a corrupt dialect of the English language which it is useless to attempt to reproduce. “They are in the temple at this minute!”
“Don’t be too sure of that, Felix!” the other said.