“It is good to hear such brave talk,” said the old pilot, chuckling.  “Me, I will keep going straight ahead, no matter what comes, until I have the order from you to turn the boat.  Yes, let them shoot, senor.  After all, I do not believe they could hit the side of a palace in this dark.”

All the same Andy thought he ought to arouse his cousin, and make Frank aware of the new threatening peril.

On hearing the facts, Frank agreed with all the one on guard said, even to being ready to extinguish the useful searchlight when the critical moment arrived.

“We’ll just have to take chances, that’s all,” he declared.  “Even if we came swat up against one of those floaters, that’s no reason we’d be snagged and sunk.  They make these boats pretty strong, over there across the big pond, and I guess our hull could stand a hard punch.”

“Yes,” remarked Andy, feeling easier, now that Frank was on deck, ready to take matters in his able hands; “and after all, it’s a choice between two bad things, in which we pick out the lesser.  Hang the old insurrectoes, I say!  Why can’t they just pay attention to their own business, and let us two peaceful Bird boys alone?”

“Well,” laughed his chum, “you know how it is yourself, when you want something pretty hard.  And they’ve got the notion in their stubborn heads that if they only had a modern, up-to-date aeroplane, they could just make the miserly old government come to terms instanter.  Don’t blame them too much, Andy.  Maybe you and I would do the same thing—­if we were Colombians, and on the outs.”

“Looks to me like there was something like a fire ahead, Frank!” declared Andy, right at that juncture.

“I say, you’re on the spot every time, old fellow,” observed the other, as he shaded his eyes to look.  “There’s a sharp turn ahead, where Felipe says we enter the narrow place.  And I honestly believe they’ve got a bonfire burning on the right-hand bank.”

“Then, after all, shutting off our bully little searchlight won’t do us much good,” complained Andy, regretfully.

“Don’t you believe it,” Frank hastened to remark.  “A fire isn’t going to reach all the way across the river, which is pretty wide, even at its narrowest part.  And depend on it, our clever old wheelsman will keep just as snug up against the left hand shore as he dares go.”

All the same, despite these assurances from his cheerful chum, Andy confessed to a secret feeling of apprehension as they drew closer to the point of land beyond which the danger possibly lay in wait.

It seemed to him that every conceivable species of peril threatened the sacred enterprise, upon which he had so eagerly embarked.  From various sources did harm hover over their heads.  And even though they passed safely through all these, there must be many more to come, after they had launched their little airship, and started to explore the strange regions of this tropical land.