“What was this something else?” asked Alex, always curious to know everything connected with the boy’s past life.
“I shall have to tell you about that some other time,” laughed Frank. “Just now, I think, we’d better be getting out into the Amazon again, for we still have a long way to go before we sight Cloud island.”
“There’s that Cloud island again!” cried Jule. “I’d like to know what you mean by keeping the secret of it from us.”
“You’ll have to wait!” was all Frank would say.
Early in the forenoon the Rambler was headed for the Madeira, and then, much to the surprise of the others, Frank turned the prow down the stream toward the Amazon.
“What about this little town up the river where you were going to dispose of your cargo?” demanded Alex.
“You refer to Rosarinho?” asked the boy.
“Don’t know the name,” Alex answered, “except that it sounds to me like rhino—which means hard cash in some localities in Chicago.”
“That is a good town to visit for the purchase of supplies,” Frank said, “but I have an idea that the Englishmen we have been having trouble with will go there, so we’ll give them the slip and buy our supplies at Monteiro, which is on the right bank of the Madeira, near the junction with the Amazon. It is not wise to hunt trouble by following those men.”
“What did they want in that jungle?” asked Jule. “They were stranded,” answered Case, who had heard the story told Frank by the Indian. “They wanted our boat—that’s all.”