Lathrop, Billy, Barnes and old Sikaso had wandered
into the jungle with their rifles, intent on bringing down some sort
of game to replenish the camp larder. For hours they tramped about
in the thick jungle and a fair measure of success had fallen to
their rifles. Shortly before sundown the trio met in a glade not
more than a mile from the camp and compared notes. To Billy's gun
had fallen a plump young deer and Lathrop had brought down, not
without a feeling of considerable pride, a species of wild hog which
Sikaso proclaimed with a grunt was "heap good."
Flushed with triumph and carrying their own bag, the young hunters
set out for the camp, arriving there at dusk. As has been told, it
was not long after that that Frank's wireless from the Moon
Mountains winged its way through the air and Lathrop was able to
flash back in response an "all-well" message. The boys turned in
early, Billy and Lathrop to their tent and old Sikaso to the rough
shelter he had contrived for himself and which he declared was far
more comfortable than any tent. Like a wild beast the savage old
warrior disliked to have anything approaching a roof over him. It
appeared to savor too much of a trap of some kind.
Billy might have been asleep five hours or so and it was approaching
midnight when he heard a noise outside the tent door and a second
later old Sikaso announced his presence by a whispered:
"Awake, Four-eyes, there is danger.
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