“Be careful boy!” almost shouted Doran. “You’ll have to answer for every word you say against me!”
“I said ‘thieves’!” insisted Jimmie. “I overheard what you said before the savages came up. You were going to make us walk back to Quito, and now we’ll give you a dose of your own medicine. You’re the rascals that’ll do the walking.”
Mellen called the boys aside and, after learning exactly what had taken place, both at the field and at the camp, fully agreed that the men ought to be obliged to walk back to Quito.
“It will teach them a lesson,” he said, “and, besides, it will keep them out of mischief for at least twenty-four hours!”
“Now,” Ben said, “Jimmie and I will go back in the Louise, and Glenn and Carl can take the Bertha. You, Mr. Mellen, and Sam can return in the automobile, and we’ll fly just above you along the river trail. If you tumble over a precipice,” he added, with a smile, “we may be able to pick you up, or you may be able to help us!”
“There is one thing about it,” Carl suggested, “and that is that we won’t have to use the flying machines for freight wagons. The automobile can carry the tents and provisions and everything of that sort back to Quito. That will make it easier for us to duck about and watch the course of the automobile. You may need watching, you know,” he added turning to Mellen. “Especially,” he continued, “if you have Sam Weller with you!”
The boys mounted the machines and were soon in the air, while Mellen and Sam entered the motor-car, the latter keeping Doran and his companion covered with an automatic revolver until the car was ready to start. Both men sprang forward as the wheels began to revolve.
“Are you really going away and leave us to walk to Quito?” demanded Doran. “The savages will be here in an hour after you leave!”
This was an argument which Mellen could not resist. It was perfectly clear that the men would be murdered by the Indians if left there alone.
“Perhaps,” he said, after some hesitation, “we’d better carry you far enough to get you out of the Indian country.”