The boys did not fire while this duty was being performed.
In a minute from the time of the opening of the stone panel in the wall there was not a savage in sight. Only for the smears of blood on the white marble floor, and on the steps outside, no one would have imagined that so great a tragedy had been enacted there only a few moments before. Sam rose slowly to his feet and stood by the boys as they crawled out of the narrow opening just above the basin of the fountain.
“I’m glad to see you, kids,” he said, in a matter-of-fact tone, although his face was white to the lips. “You came just in time!”
“We usually do arrive on schedule,” Jimmie grinned, trying to make as little as possible of the rescue.
“You did this time at any rate!” replied Sam. “But, look here,” he went on, glancing at the automatics in their hands, “I thought the ammunition was all used up in the den of lions.”
Sam leaned back against the wall, a picture of amazement.
“You haven’t been out to the _Ann_ have you?” he asked.
For reply Jimmie drew a great package of sandwiches and another of cartridges out of the opening in the wall.
“That certainly looks like it!” declared Sam.
The boys briefly related the story of their visit to the aeroplane while Sam busied himself with the sandwiches, and then they loaded the three automatics and distributed the remaining clips about their persons.
“And now what?” asked Carl, after the completion of the recital.
“Are we going to take the _Ann_ and slip away from these worshipers of the Sun?” asked Jimmie. “We can do it all right!”
“I don’t know about that,” argued Sam. “You drove them away from the temple, and the chances are that they will return to the forest and will remain there until they get the courage to make another attack on us.”
“It won’t take long to go and find out whether they are in the forest or not!” Carl declared.
“Perhaps,” Sam suggested, “we’d better wait here for the others to come up. They ought to be here to-night.”
“If it’s a sure thing that we can let them know where we are,” Carl agreed, “that might be all right.”
“What’s the matter with the red and blue lights?” asked Jimmie.
“By the way,” Carl inquired looking about the place, “where is Pedro?”
“He took to his heels when the savages made the rush.”