Page:Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera.djvu/194

184 "Maybe they're using it!" interrupted Ned.

"No, I don't think they would know how to work it. Do you see anything of them, Ned?"

"Not a sight. But they'll surely have to come back, just as you said, unless they got ahead of the fire. They can't go on, and it would be madness to get off the trail in a jungle like this."

"I don't believe they could have gotten ahead of the fire," spoke Tom. "They couldn't travel fast enough for that, and see how broad the blaze is."

They were now higher up, well out of the heat and smoke of the conflagration, and they could see that it extended for many miles along the trail, and for a mile or so on either side of it.

"We're far enough in advance, now, to go down a bit, I guess," said Tom, a little later. "I want to get a good view of the path, and I can't do that from up here. I have an idea that"

Tom did not finish, for as the airship approached nearer the ground, he caught up a pair of binoculars, and focussed them on something on the trail below.

"What is it?" cried Ned, startled by something in his chum's manner.

"Tt's them! The Englishmen!" cried Tom. "See, they are racing back along the trail. Their porters have deserted them. But they have my