rs over to
Andy, who hastily raised them.

"Well, I declare, that settles it!" ejaculated that individual
immediately.

"You recognize them, then?" asked Frank.

"It's Puss as sure as thunder. I can see him plain. The other is just
out of line, but there's something about his figure that makes me ready
to say it's our old friend, Sandy," Andy replied, amazement still
gripping him tightly.

"Well," Frank observed, "after all, the only queer thing about it is our
glimpsing them so soon. We knew they were headed down this way
somewhere, but they made quicker time than our best. And just to think
that they're the first to fly an aeroplane along the region of the
Magdalena."

"Huh! they beat us up in the air that other time, yet when it came to a
showdown, we left 'em at the stake!"

Andy was beginning to recover his breath, and with it came renewed
confidence.

"Do you see anything in the actions of Puss that would indicate he had
recognized us aboard this boat?" asked Frank, for the other still kept
the glasses glued to his eyes.

"No, I don't," replied Andy, presently. "You see they're awful high
right now, and without glasses they could never make us out down here."

"I guess you're right," was Frank's decision. "Perhaps it's just as
well, for there's never any telling what mean trick those fellows have
got up their sleeve."

Andy suddenly removed the glasses and a sudden pallor seemed to cross
his face.

"Oh, Frank!" he cried, "you don't believe they'd ever be so wicked as to
try and stop us from searching for my father, do you? Bad as Puss
Carberry is, I can't just believe he'd ever do that."

"Well, I hope not," returned the other, but there was a trifling vein of
doubt in his voice, for he had long ago ceased trying to figure to what
depth of depravity those two schemers might descend.

"But where do you suppose they came from right now, Frank?"

"That would be hard to tell," Frank replied. "The first you saw of them
they were sailing up over yonder. Then the chances are they have
quartered themselves at some town, perhaps on the river, and that this
is just their first flight--a sort of look over the country."

"Yes," said Andy, "they're circling right now as though they mean to
head back again."

"Well, you can't blame them much," Frank ventured, watching the actions
of the aviators above with keenest interest. "Night isn't so very far
away, and I should think a fellow would hardly feel like b