“Der vos von lettle sphider
Vot lifed owid in der voot,
He made himself a leetle veb
Und said dot it vos goot.”

“Hurrah, for Hans!” cried Tom.  “He’s the true poet of spiderdom!” and then he added:  “Hans, we’ll crown you poet laureate if you say so.”

“I ton’t von no crown,” answered Hans, complacently.  “I chust so vell vear mine cap alretty.”

As the party progressed the way become more uncertain, and at last they reached the edge of a swamp, beyond which was some kind of a canebrake.  They saw numerous footprints in the soft soil, and these led further still to the westward.

“Listen!” said Dick, presently, and held up his hand.

All did as requested and from a distance heard somebody calling to somebody else.  Then came a reply in Sid Merrick’s voice.

“Merrick is talking to Shelley,” said Dick.  “They have lost the right trail, too.”

“Hang the luck!” they heard Shelley say.

“No path at all?”

“None,” answered Sid Merrick.

“There is no path here either—­it’s a regular jungle,” came from Cuffer, who was not far off.

“I’m all stuck up with the thorns,” put in Tad Sobber.  “I think we were foolish to come to such a spot as this.”

“You can go back if you want to,” answered his uncle, who was evidently out of patience.  “Nobody is keeping you.”

“I am not going back alone—­I couldn’t find the way,” answered Tad.

“Then don’t growl.”

“I reckon we’ll all have to go back and wait till that Spaniard can show us the way,” said Shelley.

“That’s well enough to say, Shelley.  But supposing those Rovers come here in the meantime?”

“Those boys?”

“Yes, and their father, and the others on that steam yacht,” went on Sid Merrick earnestly.

“They can’t find the cave any quicker than we can—­if Wingate did as he promised.”

“But if he didn’t?  He’s a good deal of a coward and perhaps he didn’t have the nerve to dose Bahama Bill.”

More talk followed, but as the men were now moving in another direction the Rovers and their companions made out little more of the conversation.

“What shall we do, confront them?” asked Sam of his parent.

“Not if they are going back to their ship,” answered Mr. Rover.  “We can watch them and see what they do.”

At the end of half an hour they saw that the Merrick party had started for the north side of the isle.  They waited in silence until all were well out of hearing.

“I am glad we are rid of them—­at least for the time being,” said Anderson Rover.  “Now we can continue the treasure hunt in peace.”

“But dem fellers will be suah to come back,” interposed Aleck.

“I know that, Aleck, but they won’t come back right away.  Evidently they are returning to their vessel to get that Spaniard, Doranez.”

“I’d like to have punched Merrick’s head for tying me up,” growled Tom.