“Came up to study the vegetation,” Bob replied firmly.

“Yeh. Well now, that’s nice. Where do you hail from?” Jim’s foot sought his step-brother’s, but Caldwell did not feel the pressure.

“Texas,” he answered, and immediately he wished he hadn’t been quite so specific.

“Couple of flying cowboys. Well, you’ll never know how glad we are to find you here,” the man sneered.

“Oh, don’t mention it,” Caldwell answered with a cheerful grin, but both of the boys were wondering what new mischief was afoot.

“I won’t mention it outside of our little circle of friends here,” the fellow promised. “Nobody’ll ever be able to say we run across you in these parts. It’ll be our little secret.” He turned to his companions. “Remember that, men, this happy meeting aint to be whispered to any naughty inquirer.”

“Sure. Now, give us the dope.”

“It’s the—as I said before, THE kids we need in our business, see! Be sure you see, and hear.”

“Gee, aint we got luck!”

“The Don’s own little pets.”

“Waitin’ fer us. Aint that thoughtful now.”

“Hope we didn’t detain—”

“Shut up,” snapped the little man, then turned to Bob. “What you doing here?”

“I just told you, studying the vegetation.”

“Yeh, well that stuff don’t go with us. These here Honduras is full of vegetables, see, you don’t have to come way up here.”

“We were flying and saw this clearing so we came down. Whether the ‘stuff’ goes with you or not, it’s the truth. My brother is interested in things that grow out of the ground and we looked for a place where—” Austin started to explain, but was cut short.

“You mean you was lookin’ fer this place.”

“No we were not. Have a look at my specimen book if you want to see for yourself what we are doing.” Bob proffered the book which was bulky with the things he had gathered and the small man glanced at it indifferently.

“That’s a stall. Now, you got 

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