“Not being an archæologist, I don’t know a great deal about it,” Mr. Holton said. “Perhaps not much, if any, more than you fellows. I do know, though, that the Incas maintained a socialistic state, in which everyone was forced to work on a given piece of land without deriving any direct benefit. The grain that they raised all went to a common storehouse, and everyone drew from it in times of stress.”
“A sort of depression insurance,” laughed Joe.
“Might call it that,” the naturalist said with a smile. “At any rate it seemed to prove effective.”
“How about the wild animals and birds in Peru?” asked Bob. “Are there many there?”
“Now you’ve mentioned a subject that I know something about,” returned Mr. Holton. “Yes, there are countless numbers of interesting wild creatures in those mountains. Most impressive of all is perhaps the condor, the largest bird that flies. We naturalists wish particularly to investigate reports of a species of condor that is pure white in color. Whether we’ll find it we have yet to see. But there are other birds and animals that we feel sure of getting, such as the puma, armadillo, lizard, guanaco, fox, and snipe. We aren’t allowed a great deal of time in the Andes, but we feel certain that a large number of wild creatures will fall at the report of our rifles.”
The next two days were busy ones for Bob and Joe. They frequented the business district often to get minor articles that they would need on the trip, and by the time the great day of leaving came they had finished all preparations.
After breakfast Mrs. Holton and Mr. Lewis drove the leavetakers to the airport. When they arrived at that place they found that an expert mechanic had just completed a thorough inspection of Karl Sutman’s monoplane, and had found it in perfect running order.
Their belongings were all placed in the provision compartment, and then, with sincere farewells, the youths, Mr. Holton, and Mr. Wallace climbed into the cabin, while Karl took his place in the cockpit.
The engine was started, and then, after the travelers had called out one last farewell and promise to be careful, the monoplane rolled heavily over the concrete runway and pointed its nose toward the southern sky.