“Done what?”
“Got a man after us.”
“Do you think he is one of the men we came here to look up?” asked Jimmie. “I’ve been thinking he looks like a Jap. Perhaps he’s one of the men at the bottom of that bomb business. Well, we don’t have to go with him.”
“I’d like to see where he would take us,” Peter whispered.
“Not for your uncle,” Jimmie replied. “It is me for the jungle. This thing is gettin’ worse ’n’ a Bowery drama. The villain comes on in every scene here. Say! Suppose we take a run into the woods before he gets back?”
“I’m not in love with the jungle at night,” Peter said. “Besides, I’d like to know what this Jap has in mind.”
The chug-chug of the stranger’s motor was now heard, and, without waiting for further discussion, the boys ducked away into the jungle, which crowded close on the cut at this point.
They heard the car stop at the point where they had been standing, and heard a low exclamation of impatience, indicative of disappointment, from the lips of the driver, and then crept farther into the tangle of vines.
Finally Peter stopped and faced toward Gatun.
“We’d better be working toward home,” he said. “This thicket is no place for a civilized human being at night.”