“So you think that’s the reason, eh?”

“Surely.  Don’t you?”

“I do not!”

“What then?”

“Well, I think he’s trying to—­”

“Hush, here he comes!” cautioned Blake, for their friend at that moment came back from a stroll along the forward deck.

But if Joe was really suspicious of the young Spaniard nothing that occurred in the next few days served to develop that suspicion.  No reference was made to the odd alarm clock, which was not heard to tick again, nor was it in evidence either in Mr. Alcando’s bed, or elsewhere.

“What were you going to say it was that time when I stopped you?” asked Blake of his chum one day.

“I was going to say I thought it might be some sort of an improvement on a moving picture camera,” Joe answered.  “This may be only a bluff of his—­wanting to learn how to take moving pictures.  He may know how all along, and only be working on a certain improvement that he can’t perfect until he gets just the right conditions.  That’s what I think.”

“Well, you think wrong,” declared Blake.  “As for him knowing something about the pictures now, why he doesn’t even know how to thread the film into the camera.”

“Oh, well, maybe I’m wrong,” admitted Joe.

Day succeeded day, until, in due time, after their stop at San Juan, where the boys went ashore for a brief visit, the steamer dropped anchor in the excellent harbor of Colon, at the Atlantic end of the great Panama Canal.

A storm was impending as the ship made her way up the harbor, but as the boys and the other passengers looked at the great break-water, constructed to be one of the protections to the Canal, they realized what a stupendous undertaking the work was, and they knew that no storm could affect them, now they were within the Colon harbor.

“Well, we’re here at last!” exclaimed Joe, as he looked over the side and noticed many vessels lying about, most of them connected in some manner with the canal construction.

“Yes, and now for some moving pictures—­at least within a day or so,” went on Blake.  “I’m tired of doing nothing.  At last we are at Panama!”

“And I shall soon be with you, taking pictures!” cried the Spaniard.  “How long do you think it will be before I can take some views myself?” he asked eagerly.

“Oh, within a week or so we’ll trust you with a camera,” said Blake.

“That is, if you can spare time from your alarm clock invention,” added Joe, with a curious glance at his chum.

But if Mr. Alcando felt any suspicions at the words he did not betray himself.  He smiled genially, made some of his rapid Latin gestures and exclaimed: 

“Oh, the clock.  He is safe asleep, and will be while I am here.  I work only on moving pictures now!”

In due season Blake, Joe and Mr. Alcando found themselves quartered in the pleasant Washington Hotel, built by the Panama Railroad for the Government, where they found, transported to a Southern clime, most of the luxuries demanded by people of the North.