he rest they could get.

Many times between midnight and morning the noises of the tropical forest
had taken on the semblance of human voices, and then he had crept out from
the screens to listen intently for some indication of the approach of his
friends. But they had not come, and now he was anxious to set out in
search of them.

While he stood there with his brain filled with forebodings of evil, he
heard a step in the cottage, and then Jack Bosworth stood by his side,
bright and exuberant of spirit after his long sleep. He stood silent for a
moment, looking out into the wonderful jungle and then turned to Frank.

"Great country," he exclaimed, sweeping a hand toward the gorgeous
thickets.

"A dangerous country," Frank said.

"And a country for an appetite," cried Jack. "I'll get the boys up and
we'll have breakfast. Why," he added, turning back to the porch after
glancing over the row of bunks, "where's Ned?"

"He went away at midnight," was the reply, "and hasn't returned. I'm
afraid something serious has happened to him."

"And you have been watching for him all night?" asked Jack. "Why didn't
you waken me? I reckon I'm entitled to a fair share of what's going on
here, be it good or bad."

Frank told the story of the night briefly and Jack listened with a frown
on his brow. His fingers clenched at mention of the bomb which had been
placed under the floor of the cottage.

"We're spotted, of course," he said, when Frank concluded the story. "If
we had only tipped His Nobbs off the ship on the way over."

"I suggested that to Ned," Frank answered, "but he only laughed at me. He
declared the fellow to be the missing link between himself and the
principals in the Gatun dam plot."

"What's the answer?" demanded Jack, with a puzzled air.

"Why, it is his theory that half of the criminals of the world would
escape punishment if they could only learn to lie quiet until they were
looked up."

"I see. His notion was that the plotters, guided by His Nobbs, would visit
us with hostile intentions, and that they might leave a trail back to
their own camp."

"That is about it."

"Well, they seem to have looked us up all right."

The other boys now came tumbling out of the cottage, shouting their
greetings to Frank and Jack and the golden morning, and clamoring for
breakfast. Five minutes later, when the events of the night had been
explained, their healthy appetites had vanished. Even when the cook began
prep