He continued to call and at last made out the voices of Dick, Tom and Sam quite plainly.

“I’se found de boys!” cried the colored man in delight.  “I’se found de boys!” And he plunged on again until he gained the clearing where the three lads were tied to the trees.  With his pocketknife he cut their bonds.

“Good for you, Aleck!” cried Dick.  “I am more than glad to see you!”

“And so am I,” added Sam and Tom in a breath.

Then the others came up, and the Rover boys had to tell their story, to which the members of the second party listened with the keenest of interest.

CHAPTER XXV

THE TRAIL THROUGH THE JUNGLE

“Sid Merrick is certainly in deadly earnest,” was Mr. Rover’s comment, after the boys had finished their tale.  “He means to get hold of that treasure by hook or by crook, and he will stop at nothing to gain his end.”

“We want to go after him and his gang,” said Dick.  “We ought not to lose a minute doing it.”

“Can you walk, Dick?”

“I guess so, although being tied up made me rather stiff.”

“I see your wrist is bleeding.”

“Yes, and I tried pretty hard to free myself.”

“And I tried, too,” added Sam.  “But I couldn’t budge a single knot.”

“We could not unknot the knots,” added Tom, who was bound to have his joke.

It was now morning, for which all were thankful.  The lights were put out, and the whole party partook of some of the provisions on hand.

“I believe Merrick would have left us to starve,” said Sam.  “He is the greatest rascal I ever knew!”

The Rover boys pointed out the direction Sid Merrick and his party had taken.  Bahama Bill said that trail was new to him, and if it led to the treasure cave he did not know it.

“But I’ll know the cave as soon as I see it—­if it is still there,” he added.

“Well, you won’t see it if it isn’t there,” said Dick, grimly.  “That earthquake may have changed the whole face of that portion of the isle.”

The trail appeared to make a wide sweep to the westward, and led them over ground that was unusually rough.  The trailing vines were everywhere and they had to brush away innumerable spider webs as they progressed.  Once Songbird came upon some spiders larger than any he had yet seen and two crawled on his shoulder, causing him to yell in fright.

“What’s the matter?” asked Dick.

“Spiders!  Two were just going to bite me, but I got rid of ’em!”

“Don’t be afraid, Songbird,” came from Tom.  “Why don’t you study them and write a poem about them?”

“A poem about spiders!  Ugh!” And Songbird’s face showed his disgust.

“Der spider vos a pusy little animal,” observed Hans.  “He sphins his veb und attends strictly to business.  I dink I make up some boetry apout him,” and the German boy began: