Frank himself had no more intention of retiring to his bed than had Andy, but continued to keep watch and ward until he saw the first peep of daylight over the port side of the vessel.

Then he communicated the glad intelligence to his chum, and together they stood there, watching the slow unfolding of dawn.  From an ashen gray the sky began to be marked with brighter hues; pink flushes traveled along in lines that centered in the spot where the sun would presently appear, and the gloom of night retreated once more back to its hiding places among the mountain passes.

“There’s the dinky old town!” cried Andy, pointing with trembling finger.

“It is and no mistake,” replied Frank, himself experiencing a sensation of considerable relief, for at times it had seemed more than doubtful whether the little expedition could ever overcome the many difficulties that beset its passage up the swollen river.

And so they came to land just as the glorious sun showed his smiling face.  Andy declared that this was a harbinger of good luck, and his cousin chose to readily agree with all he said, for it pleased him to see Andy look more like his old self than he had been for many a day.

“Remember, only one of us ashore at a time until we land this cargo,” remarked Frank, as they came to bring the boat to the bank, where a group of natives waited to see what it all meant, surprise written largely on their dark faces.

“That’s right,” responded the other traveler.  “But I’m going to have the aeroplane carried out on deck at once, so it can be taken ashore as soon as we find where we are at.  What we want first of all is to hear about our friend, Carlos Mendoza, the cocoa planter.  Perhaps he lives miles away and we’ll have to get some sort of conveyance to tote our machine out to his place.”

“Yes,” observed Frank, “I’ve been laying out plans along that line.  If you don’t mind I’ll drop ashore while you’re having the crates brought on deck and make inquiries.  Even away down here in this wilderness money talks.  Colonel Josiah told us it did for him in the heart of darkest Africa, you know.  And a few bolivars will hire all the help we want.”

Andy was perfectly agreeable that his companion should have taken upon himself the task of engineering things.

“You can always discount me when it comes to bargaining,” he said, laughingly; “so go ahead and fix things to suit yourself, Frank.”

Upon reaching shore, Frank, who had taken old Felipe along with him to serve as interpreter, found that Carlos Mendoza had his home just on the border of the town, though it was a little distance away.  He soon made arrangements for hiring a native cart to be used in transporting the precious aeroplane.

In less than half an hour they were on the way.  The boat had been left in charge of McClintock, the Scotch engineer, who would make sure that the crew remained on board or lost the wages coming to them.