on between it and the
place where the launch had made its appearance. If the people on the
boat were planning to land he wanted to see them before they reached the
camp. If they were enemies he thought he could avoid them readily
enough; if they were friends they might assist him in releasing the
prisoners.

"Of course they're in with the game that's goin' on, though," he mused,
as he made his way around the hill. "If they wasn't, what would they be
comin' to the island for? There's no one here to visit--or wouldn't be
if this party of dagoes hadn't landed. The men in the launch are here to
meet the others, and that's all there is to it. I'm goin' to see what
their business is!"

It was growing dim over the forest when Jimmie gained the position he
sought, and there were lights in the launch down in a little bay and
lights in the camp halfway up the hill. The rain still came down
heavily, driven with considerable force by the wind, and the boy was, of
course, soaked to the skin and suffering from the stings of the insects
which swarm in Philippine forests, but still he waited patiently for
some signs of communication between the people on the boat and those in
the camp.

There was no stir in the thicket which lay between the two, and Jimmie
concluded that he had arrived too late to witness the meeting of the two
parties. The next thing to do was to get as close to the camp as he
could without danger of detection and observe what was taking place
there. It might be even possible, he thought, to get near enough to hear
something of the conversation.

With this object in view he moved as stealthily as possible through the
jungle, up the hill, toward the fire, shining dimly in the rain. Much to
his surprise he found no guards posted about the camp. When fifty yards
away, concealed from any possible view of those about the fire by a mass
of creepers, he saw that the inhabitants of the camp were hustling about
in the work of building a good-sized shelter of the huge leaves which
grew about. The reclining forms in the shelter he had first seen were
now only partly in sight.

"They are tryin' to keep the prisoners dry, anyway," the boy thought.

The shelter last spoken of was at the right of the fire, and Jimmie
circled off so as to reach it from the rear, his purpose being to learn
if the persons lying there were really the men who had been carried away
from the island where Captain Godwin had his headquarters.

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