“Of course if you do not want to go to Panama I can get some other operators to work the moving picture cameras, but I would rather have you than anyone I know of.  So I hope you will accept.

“The idea is this:  The big canal is nearing completion, and the work is now at a stage when it will make most interesting films.  Then, too, there is another matter—­the big slides.  There have been several small ones, doing considerable damage, but no more than has been counted on.

“I have information, however, to the effect that there is impending in Culebra Cut a monstrous big slide, one that will beat anything that ever before took place there.  If it does happen I want to get moving pictures, not only of the slide, but of scenes afterward, and also pictures showing the clearing away of the debris.

“Whether this slide will occur I do not know.  No one knows for a certainty, but a man who has lived in Panama almost since the French started the big ditch, claims to know a great deal about the slides and the causes of them.  He tells me that certain small slides, such as have been experienced, are followed—­almost always after the same lapse of time—­by a much larger one.  The larger one is due soon, and I want you there when it comes.

“Now another matter.  Some time after you get this you will be visited by a Spanish gentleman named Vigues Alcando.  He will have a letter of introduction from me.  He wants to learn the moving picture business, and as he comes well recommended, and as both Mr. Ringold and I are under obligations to people he represents, we feel that we must grant his request.

“Of course if you feel that you can’t stand him, after you see him, and if you don’t want to take him with you—­yes, even if you don’t want to go to Panama at all, don’t hesitate to say so.  But I would like very much to have you.  Someone must go, for the films from down there will be particularly valuable at this time, in view of the coming opening of the Canal for the passage of vessels.  So if you don’t want to go, someone else representing us will have to make the trip.

“Now think the matter over well before you decide.  I think you will find Mr. Alcando a pleasant companion.  He struck me as being a gentleman, though his views on some things are the views of a foreigner.  But that does not matter.

“Of course, as usual, we will pay you boys well, and meet all expenses.  It is too bad to break in on your vacation again, as we did to get the flood pictures, but the expected big slide, like the flood, won’t wait, and won’t last very long.  You have to be ‘Johnnie on the Spot’ to get the views.  I will await your answer.”

CHAPTER VI

SOMETHING QUEER

For a little while, after he had read to Joe the letter from Mr. Hadley, Blake remained silent.  Nor did his chum speak.  When he did open his lips it was to ask: