"You spoke of that before," remarked his companion, anxiously. "What is the reason for doing it, Frank?"
"Oh, nothing serious," replied the other. "We will then be at the parting of the ways, you know."
"You mean we'll be about to leave the river that will have been our guide up to then?" asked Andy.
"Yes," Frank admitted. "And from that time forward we must simply depend on our judgment for everything. In that event it might be well if we looked over the entire plant, to make sure everything was in apple-pie shape."
Andy breathed freer.
"Oh, I agree with you there," he hastened to say; "and I'm glad you hadn't any more serious reason. But did you ever see such a picture in all your born days? Just look at the forest bordering the river. Think of trying to push through such a dense mass of over-grown jungle. And I bet it's just full of snakes, poisonous spiders, lizards and all such things."
"Not to mention such trifling citizens as jaguars, ocelots, tapirs, alligators, crocodiles and their kind," laughed Frank.
"Ugh! what lucky fellows we are to be away up here, where we can skim along at the rate of thirty miles an hour easily, without half trying, and snap our fingers at all those things. I tell you, Frank, this aviation business is the greatest thing that ever came down the pike."
So they continued from time to time to converse as they kept pushing along, following the winding course of the swollen river that could be plainly seen below, between its banks of forest.
Frank did not soar high at this time. There seemed no need, and besides, both of the boys were deeply interested in watching the various changes that kept taking place in the checkerboard landscape below.