n the perils of the
jungles.

"How many went in?" asked Ned, in a moment.

"Oh, half a dozen--I don't know. Some one must go for help. Gostel will
kill the boys. I should think that after the experiences of the
afternoon--"

"I am ready to go this minute," Ned said.

"Oh, but you must have torches, and guns, and stand ready to fight against
wild beasts as well as against men. There are jaguars in there, and
boas--serpents ten yards in length. Natives have been killed by jaguars
within the month."

"Jaguars rarely come as far north as this," Ned said, "and your serpents
are not dangerous," but the other insisted that there were both jaguars
and boas in the jungle.

"This man Gostel may have gone to the rescue of the boys," suggested Ned.

Gastong laughed weakly.

"You don't know him," he said. "I tell you he is a spy, a Japanese spy,
watching every inch of the canal as it is excavated. He is in the pay of
hostile interests, and will work you all a mischief. He knew before you
arrived that you were coming."

"How do you know that?" demanded Ned.

Gastong's replies to the question were not satisfactory, and so Ned gave
over questioning him. The sleeping boys were aroused and in ten minutes,
just as a faint tint of day came into the east, they were away to the
jungle--taking the way to Gatun at first, as the thicket they sought was
far to the southeast of that city.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE KILL IN THE JUNGLE.

It was growing darker every minute in the jungle, for there were now
fleecy clouds in the sky, and the moon was not always in sight. Following
Jimmie's statement that they were lost, the boys stood stock still in a
dense thicket and tried once more to get their bearings.

"We've got something figured out wrong," Peter said.

"I don't see how we have," Jimmie insisted. "See here! That is the moon up
there? What?"

"Looks like it."

"Then it's got lost," Jimmie continued. "Ever stand behind the scenes in a
theatre and hold a moon up on a stick?"

"Never did."

"Well, I did, on the Bowery, once, and I got so interested in what was
goin' on in front that the moon set in the east. That's what's the matter
with this moon. Some--"

"There ain't no supe holding up this moon on a stick."

"Then they've moved the Panama canal," insisted Jimmie. "If they hadn't,
we would have come to the cut a long time ago. That moon is supposed to be
in the south. It ought to be."

"Perhaps a little west of so