When the party rose to leave, Gale hurried to one of the waiters to whisper:
“You have a man here who is a—a—sort of dwarf, don’t you?”
“We did have.” The man scowled. “He used to work here. That was some time past. Tonight he came back and said he wanted to work. We took him in. Now when we need him most he has skipped out! Gone! Bah! He’s no good!”
Gale was tempted to repeat his words—“Bah! He is no good!” She did not, but in the future the words were to come back to her and she was to repeat them more than ever.
CHAPTER XIII
A Dangerous Hideout
The meal over, they were once more on their way. The road grew rougher and steeper. Jan was forever switching from two-wheel to four-wheel driving. At one time they seemed about to slide back down hill, but the plucky driver held the jeep to its course and the jeep did its bit by turning in a perfect performance.
The first faint touch of a false dawn was showing in the east when the road levelled off. For another mile they drove in what to Gale seemed complete darkness. Then they came to a halt.
A moment later a flashlight appeared by the door. They recognized the colonel’s voice as he said, flashing his light way to the right:
“Your tent is over there.” The light shone for ten seconds on a small, square tent. For the first time Gale discovered that they were surrounded and probably overshadowed by immense hardwood tropical trees.
“That’s why it’s so completely dark,” she told herself.