“The Gringoes are clever!” warned Felix.
“But see!” exclaimed the other. “The grated door! The hosts ready to welcome! There surely can be no mistake.”
The men lapsed into silence and stood listening. Sam began to hope that their plans had indeed gone wrong.
For a moment he was uncertain as to what he ought to do. He believed that in the absence of the two leaders he might be able to get the Ann into the air and so bring assistance to the boys. And yet, he could not put aside the impression that immediate assistance was the only sort which could ever be of any benefit to the two lads!
“If they are in some trap in the temple,” he soliloquized, “the thing to do is to get to them as soon as possible, even if we do lose the machine, which, after all, is not certain.”
“The flying machine,” the man who had been called Felix was now heard to say, “is of great value. It would bring a fortune in London.”
“But how are you to get it out of this district just at this time?” asked the other. “How to get it out without discovery?”
“Fly it out!”
“Can you fly it out?” asked the other in a sarcastic tone.
“There are plenty who can!” replied Felix, somewhat angrily. “But it is not to be taken out at present,” he went on. “To lift it in the air now would be to notify every Gringo from Quito to Lima that the prize machine of the New York Millionaire, having been stolen, is in this part of the country.”