“Oh, friends, for God’s sake, do not leave me here!” he cried. “I am repentant. I will be your slave if you will only not leave me in this place!”
But Harding stood at the rail and laughed scornfully.
“This is a good and fitting place for you, Lester Vane!” he said. “May you enjoy it. You cannot say that I have not been as merciful as you, for I have spared your life.”
Vane now lost his temper.
He broke forth in bitter maledictions and curses. There was not anything too vile and vulgar for him to say.
The Kite once more sailed skyward, and a course was set at once for the distant Andean peaks.
In a very short time they loomed up near at hand.
But it required many hours for the locality which they were in quest of to come into view.
Barney, who was on the lookout, however, suddenly gave a wild and startled cry.
“Och hone!” he cried. “Wud yez luk at the loikes av that? Shure, av it isn’t Masther Frank, an’ be me sowl he is about to be shot by a gang av the brigands. Help—help! wud yez cum here with an electhric bomb as quick as iver ye kin, Pomp!”