ame to that
flat space where we had landed; and there, in unbelievable good fortune,
we found our machine.

"Covered, too, by jingo! Would you think they had that much sense?"
cried Terry.

"If they had that much, they're likely to have more," I warned him,
softly. "Bet you the thing's watched."

We reconnoitered as widely as we could in the failing moonlight--moons
are of a painfully unreliable nature; but the growing dawn showed us
the familiar shape, shrouded in some heavy cloth like canvas, and no
slightest sign of any watchman near. We decided to make a quick dash as
soon as the light was strong enough for accurate work.

"I don't care if the old thing'll go or not," Terry declared. "We can
run her to the edge, get aboard, and just plane down--plop!--beside our
boat there. Look there--see the boat!"

Sure enough--there was our motor, lying like a gray cocoon on the flat
pale sheet of water.

Quietly but swiftly we rushed forward and began to tug at the fastenings
of that cover.

"Confound the thing!" Terry cried in desperate impatience. "They've got
it sewed up in a bag! And we've not a knife among us!"

Then, as we tugged and pulled at that tough cloth we heard a sound that
made Terry lift his head like a war horse--the sound of an unmistakable
giggle, yes--three giggles.

There they were--Celis, Alima, Ellador--looking just as they had when
we first saw them, standing a little way off from us, as interested, as
mischievous as three schoolboys.

"Hold on, Terry--hold on!" I warned. "That's too easy. Look out for a
trap."

"Let us appeal to their kind hearts," Jeff urged. "I think they will
help us. Perhaps they've got knives."

"It's no use rushing them, anyhow," I was absolutely holding on to
Terry. "We know they can out-run and out-climb us."

He reluctantly admitted this; and after a brief parley among ourselves,
we all advanced slowly toward them, holding out our hands in token of
friendliness.

They stood their ground till we had come fairly near, and then indicated
that we should stop. To make sure, we advanced a step or two and they
promptly and swiftly withdrew. So we stopped at the distance specified.
Then we used their language, as far as we were able, to explain our
plight, telling how we were imprisoned, how we had escaped--a good deal
of pantomime here and vivid interest on their part--how we had traveled
by night and hidden by day, living on nuts--and here Terry pretended
great hu