“Then the embezzler is in Peru, all right, all right!” laughed Carl.
“But Peru is a very large country,” suggested Mr. Havens.
“There’s a good deal of land in the country,” agreed Jimmie. “When you come to measure the soil that stands up on end, I guess you’d find Peru about as large as the United States of America!”
“What are the prospects?” asked Mellen. “What I mean,” he continued, “is this: Can you put your finger on any one spot on the map of Peru and say—look there first for Redfern.”
“Yes,” replied Mr. Havens, “I think I can. If you ask me to do it, I’ll just cover Lake Titicaca with my thumb and tell you to pull Redfern out of the water as soon as you get to that part of old Incaland!”
“Je-rusalem!” exclaimed Jimmie. “And that takes us right down to the haunted temple!”
“What kind of a lake is this Titicaca?” asked Glenn.
“Don’t you ever read anything except base-ball stories and police court records?” asked Ben, turning to his friend. “Before I was seven years old I knew that Lake Titicaca is larger than Lake Erie; that it is five inches higher in the summer than in the winter, and that the longer you keep a piece of iron or steel in it the brighter it will become.”
“Is it a fact that the waters of this lake do not rust metal?” asked Mellen. “That seems to me to be a peculiar circumstance.”
“I have often heard it stated as a fact,” replied Mr. Havens.