white members of the Beecher party. As for the natives they evidently
did not care one way or the other.

There was a hasty consultation among the professors accompanying Mr.
Beecher, and then the latter himself advanced toward the tents of Tom
and his friends and asked:

"How long have you been here?"

"I don't see that we are called upon to answer that question," replied
Professor Bumper stiffly.

"Perhaps not, and yet----"

"There is no perhaps about it!" said Professor Bumper quickly. "I know
what your object is, as I presume you do mine. And, after what I may
term your disgraceful and unsportsmanlike conduct toward me and my
friends, I prefer not to have anything further to do with you. We must
meet as strangers hereafter."

"Very well," and Professor Beecher's voice was as cold and
uncompromising as was his rival's. "Let it be as your wish. But I
must say I don't know what you mean by unsportsmanlike conduct."

"An explanation would be wasted on you," said Professor Bumper stiffly.
"But in order that you may know I fully understand what you did I will
say that your efforts to thwart us through your tool Jacinto came to
nothing. We are here ahead of you."

"Jacinto!" cried Professor Beecher in real or simulated surprise.
"Why, he was not my 'tool,' as you term it."

"Your denial is useless in the light of his confession," asserted
Professor Bumper.

"Confession?"

"Now look here!" exclaimed the older professor, "I do not propose to
lower myself by quarreling with you. I know certainly what you and
your party tried to do to prevent us from getting here. But we got out
of the trap you set for us, and we are on the ground first. I
recognize your right to make explorations as well as ourselves, and I
presume you have not fallen so low that you will not recognize the
unwritten law in a case of this kind--the law which says the right of
discovery belongs to the one who first makes it."

"I shall certainly abide by such conduct as is usual under the
circumstances," said Professor Beecher more stiffly than before. "At
the same time I must deny having set a trap. And as for Jacinto----"

"It will be useless to discuss it further!" broke in Professor Bumper.

"Then no more need be said," retorted the younger man. "I shall give
orders to my friends, as well as to the natives, to keep away from your
camp, and I shall expect you to do the same regarding mine."

"I should have suggested the same