“I have!” replied Ben. “I never leave the camp without one!”
“Then use it!” advised Glenn, “and we will make for the machines.”
“Don’t you do it!” advised Jimmie. “They’ll throw spears at us!”
“Well, we’ve got to have a light in order to get the machines away!” declared Carl. “Perhaps the niggers will run when they see the illumination. The light of a searchlight at a distance, you know, doesn’t look like anything human or divine!”
It was finally decided to advance as cautiously and silently as possible to the camp and spring at once to the machines.
“We’ll never be clear of these savages until we get up in the air!” declared Ben.
“But that will leave our tents and our provisions, and about everything we have except the machines, behind!” wailed Carl.
“It won’t leave all the provisions behind!” declared Jimmie. “I’ll snatch beans and bread if I get killed doing it!”
During their progress to the camp the boys neither saw nor heard anything whatever of the savages. They found the fire burning brightly and the provisions which had been set out for supper just as they had been left. The machines had not been molested. In fact, the statue-like savage they had observed examining the flying machine now seemed to have come out of a dream and retreated to his world of shadows again.
“Perhaps it won’t be necessary to leave here to-night,” Glenn suggested.