"Hang the luck!" they heard Shelley say. "No path at all?"
"None," answered Sid Merrick.
"There is no path here either—it's a regular jungle," came from Cuffer, who was not far off.
"I'm all stuck up with the thorns," put in Tad Sobber. "I think we were foolish to come to such a spot as this."
"You can go back if you want to," answered his uncle, who was evidently out of patience. "Nobody is keeping you."
"I am not going back alone—I couldn't find the way," answered Tad.
"Then don't growl."
"I reckon we'll all have to go back and wait till that Spaniard can show us the way," said Shelley.
"That's well enough to say, Shelley. But supposing those Rovers come here in the mean time?"
"Those boys?"
"Yes, and their father, and the others on that steam yacht," went on Sid Merrick earnestly.
"They can't find the cave any quicker than we can—if Wingate did as he promised."
"But if he didn't? He's a good deal of a cow ard and perhaps he didn't have the nerve to dose Bahama Bill."
