ns and rubbed their stomachs significantly.

"All cooked and all ready, plenty of it," was the reply.

"Where is the camp?" asked Peter, then.

"Oh, just a short distance from the Culebra cut," was the reply. "Dad came
out here some weeks ago with me and one servant, and we're living in a
tent all fixed up with screens and things. The jaguars aroused us early
this morning, so we got up to shoot them."

"Is your father workin' for the Canal people?" asked Jimmie.

"Oh, no," was the reply. "He takes a great interest in the Culebra cut,
and spends a good deal of time out there, but he is not working for the
government. He's just loafing, and I'm having the time of my life."

"Does he go out there nights?" asked Jimmie.

"No; Sanee, the servant, is away nights, and Dad stays with me."

"Never mind all that now," Peter put in. "Let us go and see what they've
got to eat. I could devour one of the cats we killed."

Young Chester led the way toward the camp he had spoken of, the boys
following, nearly exhausted from the exertions of the night. It had been
arranged that they should return for the skins of the two jaguars they had
slain.

As they straggled along through the jungle, Jimmie's thoughts were busy
over a problem which had come to his mind during the talk with the lad who
had rescued them. Why was Mr. Chester, of Chicago, encamped in the jungle,
at the edge, almost, of the Culebra cut, apparently without other motive
than curiosity?

Why did he spend most of his time during daylight watching the work on the
cut, and why was his servant invariably away from the camp at night? Were
the men watching the work there for some sinister purpose of their own? Or
was it merely a general interest in the big job that brought them there?

The man who had accosted them the previous evening had been watching the
job, too. Were these men spies, or were they in the service of the
government and watching for spies? It seemed odd to the boy that every
adventure into which he stumbled had to do with the main object of the
trip to the Canal Zone. Or, at least all the others had, and this meeting
in the jungle might follow in the train of the others.

He was wondering, too, about the explosion they had heard early in the
morning. At the time of his leaving the cottage with Lieutenant Gordon
nothing had been decided on concerning the store of explosives which had
been discovered in the underground chamber at the ruined temple. H