"Don't forget your orders, Gaines," cautioned Matt.
"You can bank on it that I won't, Matt," answered the motorist. "You and Dick look out for yourselves. Don't make a bad matter worse by letting the revolutionists get a grip on you. If they did, we'd be in hard shape for sure."
[CHAPTER IX.]
A FRIEND IN NEED.
At the point where Jordan, Speake and Tirzal had vanished into the wood, Matt and Dick found a faint path—a path so little traveled and so blind that it could not be seen from the deck of the Grampus, even when she was hauled close to the shore.
"It's as plain as a hand spike," remarked Dick, as he and Matt made their way along the path, "that Jordan and the others took a slant in this direction."
"That's the kind of a guess I'd make," said Matt. "By following the path, though, we don't want to forget that they got into trouble. When you're on a road that leads to trouble, Dick, you've either got to leave it or else be mighty careful."
"I don't know how we'd get through this jungle if we didn't follow the path. Tirzal claims to know the country. If that's a fact, then it's main queer he couldn't pilot Jordan and Speake around any stray groups of insurrectos."
"Our failure to see anything of the schooner while we were off the coast, or anything of a launch from the schooner while we were coming up the river, rather gave Jordan the idea that Fingal and Cassidy were on the wrong track. But I'm inclined to think Jordan was wide of his trail. They must have sent word here and enabled the revolutionists to fix up some sort of a trap."