“Look down,” she whispered.
He looked, then stared. Almost directly beneath them, surprisingly close and all lit up by a near-by campfire, was the mystery plane. Seated around the fire were not two men, but five. Three were small, the others large. Just then the two large men stood up. One was tall and rather thin, the other short and stout.
“Not the same men!” Jack whispered in astonishment.
“No, they’re not,” she agreed. “The three little men are Japs.”
“Japs!” Jack could feel prickles at the back of his neck. “What does it mean?”
“Danger!” came in a low whisper.
CHAPTER XIX
MYSTERIES DEEPEN
Standing beside the girl of “Mystery Isle,” Jack stared down at the five men and the jet plane in silence. “Here’s a ticklish situation,” he thought. He was glad he had established friendly relations with the natives. He and Stew, with only their sidearms, would be no match for those five men.
Jack’s amazement at this turn of affairs was great. He had been inclined to accept the men who first had the jet plane as Englishmen or Australians trying out a secret weapon. One thing was sure. This plane was no haphazard affair built from parts of other planes. It was brand-new and had been created in some up-to-date factory. There were little points about it that seemed to say, “Made in America,” but if it had been, how had these fellows gotten hold of it? It was a priceless possession, Jack was sure of that, for he had seen it perform. He’d seen many types of planes climb toward the stratosphere, but none had become a speck in the upper air as quickly as this one.
“I’d like to get my hands on it,” he whispered to the girl.