“I stopped at the old house,” began Gastong, but Ned cut him short.
“About the boys,” he said, shaking him fiercely. “What about the boys?”
“They are either in the hands of your enemies or lost in the jungle.”
The words were spoken shrinkingly, as if the news conveyed might be of his own making.
“Where did you leave them?”
“I stopped at the old house,” began the other again, “and remained there only a few minutes. Then I went on toward the Culebra cut and came upon a friend who told me what had taken place.”
“Well! Well! Well!”
“The boys stopped at the cut, this side of the high point, and were there accosted by Gostel. Oh, you don’t know Gostel?”
“No, no,” was the impatient reply. “Who the dickens is Gostel?”
“He is a spy, a Jap who has been hanging about the Isthmus ever since the beginning of the work.”