“Just like an inquisitive nigger,” growled Fred resentfully.
“He’s not a nigger,” declared Rob; “he looks to me more like a Latin-American of some sort. He may be a fellow countryman of this Estrada. In that case, I hope he didn’t overhear anything.”
“Well, you were talking as loud as any of us,” declared Tubby.
“Yes, that’s so. I kind of wish I hadn’t.”
“Look!” cried Merritt suddenly.
He had good reason to exclaim. Ahead of them, rising majestically above the brilliant-hued tropical greenery, was a vast gray tower, square and massive, and pierced with square windows. At its summit it was overgrown with mosses, lichens and many-hued flowers of gorgeous coloring. But for this, it might have seemed anything but a ruin.
“The ruined tower of the old cathedral church of St. Augustin!” cried Rob.
“And that’s all that remains of the city from which Morgan took so much plunder that it required seventy-five mules and six hundred prisoners to pack it across the Isthmus to Porto Bello,” chimed in Merritt, who, it will be seen from this remark, had been reading up on Panama.
Leaving the rig behind them, the four lads made their way to the foot of the tower. They elected to push their way through a tangle of brush instead of following the regular footpath. As Tubby said, it seemed more like coming to a ruin than by strolling up to it on a beaten track. Their tough khaki uniforms resisted the thorns and brambles valiantly, and they arrived at the foot of the massive old tower out of breath but undamaged, except for sundry scratches on their hands.
They entered the old tower through a tumble-down doorway. The walls, they noticed as they passed through, were three feet or more thick, which perhaps accounted for the sturdy piles standing so long after the rest of the city had vanished. Inside was a crumbled stairway of stone up which the four Scouts were soon scrambling. They clambered to the very top and then Rob and Fred drew from their pockets two pennants. One bore the “totem” of the Eagles; the other was emblazoned with the Patrol emblem of the Black Wolves.