“I’d take it kindly if you would,” added Hank, “for Rex, though he had a terrible temper, was a valuable horse.  Well, he won’t run away any more, that’s one sure thing.  I guess that carriage can be patched up.”

“Why don’t you ask Mr. Baker to lend you a rig?” suggested Blake.  “I’m sure he would.  I’ll tell him how it happened.”

“That is kind of you, sir.  You place me more than ever in your debt,” spoke the Spaniard, bowing again.

“How did you know we were here?” asked Joe of the boy who had brought the delayed special delivery letter.

“I stopped at Mr. Baker’s house,” Sam explained, “and Mrs. Baker said she saw you come down this way on your motor cycle.  She said you’d just been on a ride, and probably wouldn’t go far, so I ran on, thinking I’d meet you coming back.  I didn’t know anything about the accident,” he concluded, his eyes big with wonder as he looked at the smashed carriage.

“Are you able to walk back to the farmhouse where we are boarding?” asked Blake of Mr. Alcando.  “If not we could get Mr. Baker to drive down here.”

“Oh, thank you, I am perfectly able to walk, thanks to your quickness in preventing the carriage and ourselves from toppling into the chasm,” replied the Spaniard.

Hank, with Mr. Alcando and Sam, walked back along the road, while Blake and Joe went to where they had dropped their motor cycle.  They repaired the disconnected gasoline pipe, and rode on ahead to tell Mr. Baker of the coming of the others.  The farmer readily agreed to lend his horse and carriage so that the unfortunate ones would not have to walk into town, a matter of three miles.

“I shall remain at the Central Falls hotel for a week or more, or until you have fully made up your mind about the Panama trip,” said Mr. Alcando on leaving the boys, “and I shall come out, whenever you send me word, to learn of your decision.  That it may be a favorable one I need hardly say I hope,” he added with a low bow.

“We’ll let you know as soon as we can,” promised Blake.  “But my chum and I will have to think it over.  We have hardly become rested from taking flood pictures.”

“I can well believe that, from what I have heard of your strenuous activities.”

“Well, what do you think about it all?” asked Joe, as he and his chum sat on the shady porch an hour or so after the exciting incidents I have just narrated.

“I hardly know,” answered Blake.  “I guess I’ll have another go at Mr. Hadley’s letter.  I didn’t half read it.”

He took the missive from his pocket, and again perused it.  It contained references to other matters besides the projected Panama trip, and there was also enclosed a check for some work the moving picture boys had done.

But as it is with the reference to the big canal that we are interested we shall confine ourselves to that part of Mr. Hadley’s letter.

“No doubt you will be surprised,” he wrote, “to learn what I have in prospect for you.  I know you deserve a longer vacation than you have had this summer, but I think, too, that you would not wish to miss this chance.