“Only two can go. The other two must stay and take care of the boat and what is in it till we get back.”
But the detective knew, even as he said this, that it would be useless to talk. Surely enough, when the procession began to move, the whole four oarsmen were included.
CHAPTER IX.
OVER THE PRECIPICE.
With the boat hidden in the reeds which grew along the river shore, and everybody carrying some of the baggage that Nick believed might be required, the party plunged into the foothills and slowly arose toward the lower ridges of the mountains.
All the rifles had been cleaned and oiled by Nick Carter and his two assistants. Then the former had inspected them all carefully.
“It would be awkward if some of these guns were to jam just when we were in the middle of a scrimmage with the people over there,” he observed, after he had pronounced them all right.
They came to a belt of forest where the ground rose sharply. On the other side of the thicket was a bare, precipitous rock, which formed a natural barrier to the mysterious land where the rites of the Golden Scarab threatened the existence of Jefferson Arnold’s only son.
They were traveling in the daytime now. The fierce heat of the lower country had become tempered by the breezes from the mountains, and Nick Carter desired to have the benefit of the light now that they were in a region that even Jai Singh did not know very well.
They were obliged to skirt the bare rock for several miles. The silence was awesome, and the glare of the sun on the rock became more and more oppressive as they went on.
Ahead of them was the opening that Nick divined was the entrance to the upper passes. The little party swung in to get to it as quickly as possible.