"Hmm," muttered Mr. Pauling. "Is there any place in that vicinity where they could hide?"
"It's the least known district in the entire colony," Mr. Thorne assured him. "Until I explored it, the upper reaches of the Demerara were absolutely unknown--even the source of the river had never been discovered--and between the Berbice and the Essequibo rivers above the Demerara is a vast area of absolutely unexplored territory. They could come down anywhere in that district without the slightest chance of being seen--except by Indians--and it's near enough the coast to be in radio communication with a confederate here or a ship at sea. But my own opinion is that their friends are over in Dutch Guiana. Judging by your experiences, they have a particular fondness for the Dutch and Dutch colonies."
"Could they communicate with people there at this distance?" asked Mr. Henderson.
"I don't see why not," replied the explorer. "In a direct line, Paramaribo, the capital and port, is a little over two hundred miles distant. Of course, I do not know the sending range of the plane's outfit, but they could certainly receive and I suppose that's just as important."
"If they've got as good an outfit on the plane as they had on the sub and at St. John they could send twice that distance," declared Tom. "Do you understand radio, Mr. Thorne?"
The explorer smiled, "As Colonel Maidley would say, 'rawther'," he replied. "I don't suppose I'm up-to-date, but it is something of a hobby with me."
"Gee, that's bully!" cried Tom. "Did Dad tell you about our subsea radio?"
Once started on this subject the two boys and Mr. Thorne forgot all else and held an animated conversation which continued without cessation until they reached the little river steamer and the boys' interests were aroused by new sights.
Never had the two boys seen such an odd, many colored cosmopolitan crowd as thronged the "stelling" and the boat. Swathed in cotton, bare-legged and with their heads covered with immense turbans of red, white, or green the East Indian men stalked about. There were Parsees with their odd embroidered hats; Brahmins with the painted marks of holy men upon their foreheads; fakirs in rags, with long matted hair and beards, carrying their highly polished brass begging bowls and their goatskins as their total possessions; fat, sleek "Baboos" in silk, protecting their turbaned heads under huge, green umbrellas; and East Indian women by the score, ablaze with color and laden down with heavy barbaric jewelry, their wrists, ankles and arms encircled by scores of heavy bands and rings of beaten silver and gold, their sleek, black hair bound with dangling silver and jeweled ornaments, huge golden hoops in their noses--clad, besides, in brilliant embroidered jackets, fluttering gauze veils and silken draperies. A chattering, dark-hued throng that transformed the spot to a bit of India. Back and forth among them, elbowed the big, burly negroes--"pork knockers," as Mr. Thorne called them--each carrying his "battell" or gold pan strapped to his pack and all bound for the gold and diamond diggings. Chinese there were too, prosperous merchants in European garments; farmers with huge, saucerlike hats, loose trousers and blouses; Chinese women in flapping, pajamalike costumes, and toddling Chinese kiddies that might have stepped from an Oriental screen. To swell the crowd and add to the multiplicity of nationalities there were sallow Portuguese, mulattoes, quadroons, and octoroons; bronzed English planters; dark-eyed Venezuelans; broad-shouldered, mighty-muscled "Boviander" rivermen; and half a dozen short, deep-chested, stolid-faced native Indians or "bucks," as the explorer told the boys they were called.