Page:Jack Heaton, Wireless Operator (Collins, 1919).djvu/108

 they have been stalking us because you fellows are new to the place. It’s seldom that any of them ever come across this road because I’ve put bullets into a couple of them and they won’t get away with any more of my rubber men on this side of the line.”

I asked him if they had captured many of his men.

“Every time my men tread the jungle outside of the fezenda they are taken unless they have an Indian guide with them.”

“Oh, I see, they are Union savages,” said Bert and he added, “I know I’m going to like this place, Señor Castro.”

In the days that followed we got right down to business for we wanted that million reis as soon as we could get it. We unpacked the materials for the aerial first and every move we made was watched with great interest by the villagers. The phosphor-bronze wire for the aerial seemed to have an especial attraction for them, for they would pick it up, look critically at it and examine it as carefully as though they were looking for flaws in it.

There were two palm trees at least 100 feet high and about 250 feet apart, and Bert and I