“Yes, we are!” replied Jimmie. “What we’re going to do is to give those fellows a little healthy exercise walking back to Quito.”
Directly Doran and his companion found a few sticks of dry wood which had been brought in by the boys and began building up the fire, for the double purpose of warmth and light. Then they both began tumbling the tinned goods out of the tents and rolling the blankets which the boys had used for bedding.
“Ain’t it about time to call a halt?” asked Jimmie.
“It certainly is!” Carl answered. “I wonder where our friend Sam is by this time? He wouldn’t light out and leave us, would he?”
“I don’t think he would,” was the reply. “I have a notion that this mix-up is just about to his taste!”
Just as Jimmie was about to show himself, revolvers in hand, preparatory to sailing away in the machines and leaving the intruders with their hands held well up, a murmur which seemed to come from a myriad of human voices vibrated on the air and the tall grass all about the place where the tents had been pitched seemed to be imbued with life.
“Savages!” exclaimed Jimmie.
“Gee!” whispered Carl, excitedly. “This location seems to be attracting attention to-night! What are we going to do?”
“If those outlaws were away,” explained Jimmie, “we’d know well enough what we ought to do! We’d make a rush for the machines and get aboard, just as we did before.”
“I wonder if Doran and his companion will have sense enough to try that?” asked Carl. “If they do, we’ll have to stop them, for we can’t lose the machines. They ought to be shot, anyway.”