CHAPTER IX—SURPRISED IN THE FOREST
“I wonder where Dad is?”
For the twentieth time in the last hour, Jack, striding up and down in the little forest glade, high up in the mountains, where camp had been pitched the day before, came to a halt before Frank and Bob, out-sprawled and napping in their hammocks, and asked his question. They had reached this spot after weeks of travel from the monastery.
“Yes,” said Ferdinand, coming up, “and my father?”
He, too, had been doing a restless sentry-go to and fro, unable to remain quiet.
Three hours before, shortly after dawn, the two older men had left the camp in company with Carlos, to hunt small game. They had promised to return in a couple of hours.
“Oh, they’re just an hour or so overdue, Jack,” said Frank, putting aside a book of old Inca tales which he had been reading, and examining his watch. “I don’t think there is anything for you two to worry about. They’ll be back shortly.”
“Yes,” said Bob, comfortably, stretching and yawning, “they probably went a little farther than they expected to, that’s all.”
Jack shook his head.
“I haven’t heard the report of any firearms since they left,” he said. “I’m afraid they may have wandered too far afield, not finding any game close at hand, and in these great trackless forests they may easily have become lost.”