Both lads almost uttered a cry as the bright light bathed them and made it certain that their rivals had discovered their aeroplane; but before they could utter a word the mysterious craft had extinguished the search glare and was off with the rapidity of the wind toward the west.
"They must be scared of us," said Harry at length, after a long awe-stricken silence.
"Not much, I'm afraid," rejoined Frank, with a woeful smile.
"Well, they hauled off and darted away as soon as they saw us," objected Harry.
"I'm afraid that that is no guarantee they won't come back," remarked
Frank, with a serious face.
"You mean that they—"
"Have gone to get reinforcements and attack us," was the instant reply, "they must have trailed us with the powerful lenses of which the Japanese have the secret and which are used in their telescopes. They are now certain that we have found the ship and are coming back. It's simple, isn't it?"
The professor, when he and Billy awakened in the morning, fully shared the boys' apprehensions over the nocturnal visitor.
"If they think we have discovered the ship they won't rest till they have wrested it from us," he said soberly.
"I'm afraid that we are indeed in for serious trouble," said Frank, in a worried tone. "You see, Captain Hazzard and his men can't get here, even with the motor-sledge, for two days."