m
under to you boys for saving my life. I shall never forget that."

"It wasn't anything," declared Blake quickly. "I mean, what we did
for you."

"It meant a great deal--to me," returned the Spaniard quietly, but
with considerable meaning in his tone. "Perhaps I shall soon be
able to--but no matter. Are there many alligators in this stream?"
he asked of Ramo.

"Oh, yes, more or less, just as there are in most of the Panaman
rivers. But I never knew one to be so bold as to attack any one in
daylight. Mostly they take dogs, pigs, or something like that.
This must have been a big, hungry one."

"You'd have thought so if you were as close to him as I was,"
spoke Blake with a little shudder.

No one else felt like going in swimming just then, and the two
boys dressed. Blake had fully recovered from the cramp that had so
nearly been his undoing.

For a week longer they lived in the jungle, moving from place to
place, camping in different locations and enjoying as much as they
could the life in the wild. Blake and Joe made some good moving
picture films, Mr. Alcando helping them, for he was rapidly
learning how to work the cameras.

But the views, of course, were not as good as those the boys had
obtained when in the African jungle. These of the Panama wilds,
however, were useful as showing the kind of country through which
the Canal ran, and, as such, they were of value in the series of
films.

"Well, we'll soon be afloat again," remarked Blake, one night,
when they had started back for Gamboa. "I've had about enough
jungle."

"And so have I," agreed Joe, for the last two days it had rained,
and they were wet and miserable. They could get no pictures.

Their tug was waiting for them as arranged and, once more on
board, they resumed their trip through the Canal.

Soon after leaving Gamboa the vessel entered a part of the
waterway, on either side of which towered a high hill through
which had been dug a great gash.

"Culebra Cut!" cried Blake, as he saw, in the distance Gold Hill,
the highest point. "We must get some pictures of this, Joe."

"That's right, so we must. Whew! It is a big cut all right!" he
went on. "No wonder they said it was harder work here than at the
Gatun Dam. And it's here where those big slides have been?"

"Yes, and there may be again," said Blake.

"I hope not!" exclaimed Captain Watson. "They are not only
dangerous, but they do terrible damage to the Canal and the
machinery. We w