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+Project Gutenberg's The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing, by John Luther Langworthy
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing
+       Aeroplane Chums in the Tropics
+
+Author: John Luther Langworthy
+
+Release Date: January 13, 2004 [EBook #10698]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AEROPLANE BOYS ON THE WING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Rosanna Yuen and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+THE AEROPLANE BOYS ON THE WING
+
+or,
+
+Aeroplane Chums in the Tropics
+
+
+
+BY
+JOHN LUTHER LANGWORTHY
+
+
+1912
+
+
+
+The further trials and triumphs of the venturesome aeroplane lads are
+set forth in a particularly thrilling manner in the third volume of this
+series, now on sale everywhere, and which is entitled, "The Bird Boys
+Among the Clouds; or, Young Aviators in a Wreck."
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+    I. ON THE WAY BACK FROM THE GAME
+
+   II. FRANK'S WAY
+
+  III. SOMETHING ABOUT THE BIRD BOYS
+
+   IV. A STARTLING DISCOVERY
+
+    V. A WARM FIVE MINUTES
+
+   VI. IN SEARCH OF A CLUE
+
+  VII. ANDY RECEIVES A SHOCK
+
+ VIII. THE MESSAGE
+
+   IX. UNDER TROUBLED SKIES
+
+    X. NIPPED IN THE BUD
+
+   XI. OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE
+
+  XII. A GREAT SURPRISE
+
+ XIII. THE "DEVIL-BIRD"
+
+  XIV. THE AIRSHIP LAUNCHED AT LAST
+
+   XV. AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE
+
+  XVI. THE AIR CHASE
+
+ XVII. THE CAMP IN THE TROPICAL JUNGLE
+
+XVIII. WHEN FRANK STOOD GUARD
+
+  XIX. FIREBRANDS AND JAGUARS
+
+   XX. THE AEROPLANE BOYS ONCE MORE AFLOAT
+
+  XXI. THE LAST LITTLE HOT AIR BALLOON
+
+ XXII. RESCUED
+
+XXIII. HOMEWARD BOUND--CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+
+THE AEROPLANE BOYS ON THE WING
+
+or, Aeroplane Chums in The Tropics
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+ON THE WAY BACK FROM THE GAME.
+
+"But the Bird boys won the prize of a silver cup!"
+
+"What if they did? It was by a hair's breadth, Mr. Smarty!"
+
+"And their monoplane was proven to be faster than the big biplane you
+built, Puss Carberry!"
+
+"Oh! was it? Don't you be too sure of that, Larry!"
+
+"Didn't it land on the summit of Old Thunder Top ahead of you and Sandy,
+in the race that afternoon? Tell me that!" and Larry Geohegan bristled
+up to the recognized bully of Bloomsbury, while a dozen fellows
+clustered around on the deck of the big power boat, listening eagerly to
+this war of words.
+
+They were on their way home from a very exciting game of baseball that
+had been played at Cranford, across the lake. And after ten innings of
+hot work the nine from Bloomsbury had won. But not until they had
+changed pitchers, upon tying the score in the ninth, after coming up
+from behind.
+
+Puss and Larry both wore the uniform of the home players, and there were
+others on the boat who also belonged to the team. In fact, the staunch
+vessel had been placed at the disposal of the baseball club for this
+day, by Commodore Elliott, the rich owner.
+
+Larry had never been one of the adherents whom Puss could call upon to
+back him up when he tried conclusions with a hostile faction; in fact,
+Larry had always been an admirer of Frank Bird, who was recognized as
+the most persistent rival the bully had ever encountered in his whole
+career since coming to Bloomsbury.
+
+Puss allowed a contemptuous expression to take possession of his face,
+and even shrugged his broad shoulders, after a nasty fashion he had,
+that often angered the one he was arguing with more than words could
+have done.
+
+"Aw! rats!" he said, in a disagreeable, rasping voice. "Everybody knows
+that I'd won that same race only for trouble with my engine. Frank was
+lucky, just like he generally is when he goes in for anything. Look at
+him today, being called in to pitch in the tenth! We had 'em badly
+rattled, and they were on the toboggan sure. Yet Frank, the great hero,
+gets credit for winning that game. Didn't the Bloomsbury crowd cheer
+him to the echo, though, and want to ride him on their shoulders? Wow!
+it makes me sick, to see such toadyism!"
+
+"What's all this big noise about, fellows? Didn't I hear my name
+mentioned?" asked a tall lad with a frank face and clear brown eyes, as
+he pushed forward.
+
+It was Frank Bird himself, who had been talking with his cousin Andy,
+and several other fellows, in the bow of the launch, and by accident
+heard the voices that were raised in dispute.
+
+Percy Carberry, known among his comrades simply as "Puss," did not
+flinch when he found himself face to face with the boy he detested so
+thoroughly. They had never as yet actually come to blows; but Puss
+believed that his muscular powers were far superior to those of his more
+slender rival, and just now he was in a particularly bitter frame of
+mind.
+
+"Oh! so you're there, are you?" he sneered "I was just telling your good
+friend Larry here that I considered you a greatly overrated substitute
+pitcher; and that luck had as much to do with our winning that game
+today as anything you did."
+
+Frank Bird laughed in his face.
+
+"Sure," he declared, cheerily. "I was a mighty small factor in the
+victory, for I only played in one short inning. If I'd faced those hard
+hitters of Cranford nine times I reckon it'd be hard to tell what they'd
+have done to my poor inshoots and curves."
+
+"But you held them in that inning, Frank, you know you did!" cried
+Larry.
+
+"Mere accident, my boy. Happened to be the weak end of their batting
+list!" observed Frank, as if determined to agree with his enemy, and
+thus spike his guns.
+
+"Is that so?" demanded "Elephant" Small, who did not happen to be on the
+nine, because of his customary slow ways. "Perhaps you'll be saying that
+dandy two-bagger you whanged out, that brought in the winning run, was
+also an accident?"
+
+"Well, I must have just shut my eyes, and struck. I seem to remember
+hearing a sound like a shot, and then they all yelled to me to run; so I
+did, going on to second in time to see Peterkin gallop home," and Frank
+looked as sober as a judge as he said this. The others saw the joke,
+however, and, led by Larry, burst out into a laugh that made Puss and
+his loyal backers scowl.
+
+"If that bingle was an accident, don't we wish we had a few more players
+who could shut their eyes and meet Frazer's terrible speed balls and
+curves in the same way!" one fellow exclaimed.
+
+"So say we all of us!" another cried.
+
+Puss realized that the majority on board the _Siren_ were against
+him. But he was not given to taking water; even his enemies, and he had
+many in Bloomsbury, could hardly say that Puss was lacking in a certain
+kind of grit; while stubbornness he possessed in abundance.
+
+So he just shut his white teeth hard together, and looked scowlingly
+around the bunch of fellows. And many of them felt a little chill when
+those cold gray eyes rested upon them; for they knew of old what
+happened when Puss Carberry made up his mind to mark a boy for future
+attention.
+
+Frank still stood there by the side of the boat, smiling. Perhaps his
+very apparent unconcern served to make the other still more angry. There
+had been bad blood between these two lads for a long time, and more than
+once it threatened an eruption, which somehow or other had up to now
+been stayed.
+
+Although some weeks had passed since the much-talked-of race between the
+rival aeroplanes, piloted by these two boys, in which Frank took his
+little craft up to the lofty summit of Old Thunder Top ahead of Puss in
+his biplane, as narrated in the first volume of this series, entitled
+"The Bird Boys; or, The Young Sky Pilot's First Air Voyage," the latter
+had never ceased to feel ugly over his defeat.
+
+As usual he had what he considered a good excuse for his arriving
+second; but few persons ever knew how Puss and his helper Sandy had
+tried to injure Frank's airship when it was directly beneath them, by
+deliberately dropping a sand bag, taken along, singularly enough, as
+"ballast," but with this very idea in view.
+
+"Seems to me you've gotten the big head ever since you happened to drop
+on that rocky plateau on top of the mountain just three little seconds
+ahead of me, Frank Bird!" he said, with a steely glitter in his eyes
+that those who knew him best understood to mean coming trouble.
+
+"Oh! I hope not, Puss," replied the other, with a smile. "I give you my
+word my hat fits me just as comfortably as ever. It was a close race,
+and the one who got there first hadn't much to crow about, for a
+fact. We happened to be lucky not to have any trouble with our new
+little Kinkaid engine, that was all."
+
+"Huh!" grunted his cousin Andy, shaking his head, and scowling at Puss
+in turn. "But we had plenty of other sorts of trouble, all the same,
+sand bags full of it, in fact. They just rained down on us; but then
+Frank knows how to check up his engine suddenly, and the storm passed by
+without any hurt!"
+
+Some of the fellows, who happened to know what this sly reference on the
+part of the hotheaded Andy meant, began to chuckle. Of course such a
+thing would only serve to make Puss more angry. He chose to believe that
+they were all only trying to bait him.
+
+Frank in particular came in for his dark looks. And Larry, who had once
+run in the same company as Puss, so that he knew his whims better than
+many others, took occasion to give Frank Bird a sly nudge in the side,
+as he whispered:
+
+"Look out for him, Frank; he's getting near the danger point, sure!"
+
+But Frank did not have to be warned. He had grown tired of warding off
+this ever threatening danger of a broil with Puss Carberry. Like his
+cousin Andy, the other had no father; and his wealthy mother had long
+since given up in despair the idea of controlling the headstrong lad. So
+that Puss had his way, whenever he wanted to do anything out of the
+ordinary.
+
+Because Mrs. Carberry was one of his father's patients, and Dr. Bird
+esteemed her very highly, Frank had postponed the reckoning just as long
+as he could endure the insults of the bully. But he believed the last
+ditch had been reached, and was determined to no longer raise a hand to
+avert the threatening storm.
+
+Puss had turned when Andy spoke, to flash a look in his direction. But
+it had no effect upon the other, who could be as reckless at times as
+the next one. Indeed, Frank often had to curb the impatience and daring
+of his chum.
+
+"Oh! that's what sticks in your craw, does it, Andy Bird?" demanded
+Puss. "Just because Sandy happened to drop that ballast, thinking we
+might make better time if we lightened ship, you choose to make all
+sorts of nasty insinuations about us wanting to knock you out! Shows
+where your mind is. Another fellow wouldn't ever let such a fool notion
+get a grip on him. And you'd better put a reef in that tongue of yours,
+my boy, unless you want to have it get you into trouble."
+
+Andy flared up at once, and would have replied; but Frank calmly stepped
+in between the two, as though he claimed first right.
+
+"Neither of us have charged you with intentionally trying to disable our
+aeroplane by dropping that sand bag, Puss," he remarked quietly. "All we
+say is that it was a queer coincidence you wanted to get rid of your
+ballast just when we were walking up on you hand over fist, and about to
+pass under you, to take the lead. That's all!"
+
+Again there was a low laugh from among the boys who stood around
+listening. To them it was a rich treat to see the recognized bully of
+Bloomsbury baited to his very face in this characteristic way; and they
+were enjoying it hugely.
+
+"Well, let me tell you it ain't all, not by a jugful!" exclaimed Puss,
+his face taking on a purple hue, as it always did when he became
+enraged. "Both of you fellows have got to stop speaking about that sand
+bag dropping, or there's going to be a licking in store for you. See?"
+and he thrust his face close to that of Frank as he said this. Larry
+Geohegan fairly held his breath. "Now it's coming; don't I know the
+signs?" he whispered to the boy next him.
+
+Frank continued to stand there, close to the side of the speeding
+launch. They were about half way across the deep lake at the time.
+Evening was coming on, for the sun had just reached the distant rugged
+horizon in the west.
+
+"Do you refer to me when you say that, Puss?" he asked, with that same
+queer little smile on his face--a look that mystified the other, who
+could not understand what it meant.
+
+"Yes, both you and that loud-mouthed cousin of yours. Just because luck
+favored you, and you won that blooming race by a head, you think I can't
+manage an aeroplane as well as you. Huh! perhaps you don't know that I'm
+going to take my machine with me when I go down to the cocoa plantation
+we own along the Amazon, and use it exploring where a white man has
+seldom been seen. You can just stay here and grow up with the country,
+while I'm doing great stunts. But as long as I stay here I'm going to
+stop this talk about trickery and low-down dodges. You're responsible
+for most of it, Frank Bird. I warn you what's coming to you."
+"Perhaps," said Frank, pleasantly, "you would be kind enough to tell me
+also when this awful punishment is going to fall on my poor devoted
+neck?"
+
+"Any time, hang you! Right now, if you say another word!" roared Puss,
+doubling up his fists, and making ready for one of his well known and
+feared bull rushes, that had brought him a speedy victory many a time.
+
+"So? That's comforting; and with all these good fellows around to see
+how you wipe up the deck with me. Suppose you begin the swabbing act,
+Puss!" and Frank pretended to throw himself in a position of defense.
+
+The other gave utterance to a hoarse cry of rage, and lowering his head
+after the manner of a bull, jumped forward. But the agile Frank simply
+stepped aside; and unable to check himself in time, Puss Carberry shot
+over the side of the power boat, disappearing in the clear waters of
+Sunrise Lake with a great splash.
+
+"Oh!" shouted his crony, Sandy Hollingshead, standing there as if
+petrified; "and Puss can't swim a single stroke, either!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+FRANK'S WAY.
+
+"My goodness, what a splash!"
+
+"Served him right, that's what!"
+
+"He's gone under, fellows! Dove just like a big frog!"
+
+"Stop the boat! He'll drown!"
+
+Half a dozen were shouting in unison, as the boys crowded to the side
+over which the bully had pitched when Frank avoided his forward rush.
+
+But Frank heard only that startled exclamation from Sandy Hollingshead:
+
+"Puss can't swim a single stroke, either!"
+
+With Frank Bird to think was to act. The two things were almost
+synonymous in his mind. Forgotten was the fact that the imperiled lad
+had been endeavoring to strike him in the face at the time of his
+submersion in the waters of Sunrise Lake.
+
+Not a single word did he utter, but throwing off his coat, he made a
+leap over the side of the boat, already slowing up as the power was cut
+off.
+
+"Frank's gone back after him!" cried one.
+
+"And he'll get him, too," another hastened to say; for they understood
+that when the leader of the team known as the "Bird boys" attempted
+anything he usually got there, as some of them said "with both feet."
+
+Meanwhile Frank was swimming with all his might toward the spot in the
+foamy wake of the boat, where he knew the unfortunate Puss must be
+battling for his life.
+
+It seems strange that occasionally a boy may be found who has never
+taken the trouble to learn how to swim. In the country this is a rare
+occurrence; which would make the neglect of such an athletic fellow as
+Puss seem more remarkable.
+
+He was threshing about in the deep water like a cat that has fallen
+overboard; and managing to keep partly afloat after a fashion; though it
+would have been all over with him long ere the power boat could be
+turned around and arrive at the spot where he struggled, gasping for
+breath, and sucking in much water.
+
+Frank was wise enough to understand that it is always desirable to
+approach a drowning person from the rear, so that a grip may be taken
+before the would-be rescuer's presence is discovered. Once let those
+frenzied fingers clutch hold of him, and the chances of a double tragedy
+would be good.
+
+So Frank was keenly on the watch as he swam toward the splashing and
+gurgling that announced Puss Carberry's fight for his life.
+
+He could see him by now, and never would Frank be apt to forget the look
+of absolute terror he discovered upon the agonized face of the
+bully. Puss had detected the presence of some one near by, and was
+trying to shout, as well as stretch his appealing hands out, though not
+with much success.
+
+He actually went under while Frank looked; and the heart of the would-be
+rescuer almost stood still with a terrible fear that that was the end.
+
+But he kept on, and in another moment a head once more bobbed up, with
+Puss threshing the water frantically. Once he had gone down. According
+to what most people said, he would possibly vanish twice more, and after
+that never rise again.
+
+If anything was to be done, there was no time for delay. Frank was
+within ten feet of the struggling figure when it came up. He immediately
+dove, and managed to rise to the surface behind Puss. Then, just as the
+other was floundering beneath the surface of the agitated water again,
+Frank caught hold of his sweater close to his neck, and held on with
+might and main.
+
+He had a serious job of it, for the half-drowned lad made a desperate
+attempt to turn around, doubtless with the intention of throwing his
+arms around his rescuer. This was just what Frank was desirous of
+avoiding. He simply wanted to keep the head of Puss above water until
+the boat could come and willing hands be stretched down to relieve him
+of his burden.
+
+So he kept treading water and fighting Puss off as best he was able. It
+was no easy task, since he still had his baseball shoes on; and swimming
+in one's clothes is always a difficult proposition. But Frank knew no
+such word as fail and continued to strive, keeping one eye on Puss and
+the other on the approaching power boat.
+
+"Steady now, Puss!" he kept saying, again and again, trying to instill
+some sense in the head of the frantic boy, who still believed he must be
+going down again. "Keep your breath in your lungs and you'll float!
+Don't kick so; I'm going to hold you up till the boys come. It's all
+right, Puss; you're safe!"
+
+All the same Frank was mighty well pleased when the launch did swing
+close alongside and half a dozen hands reached out to clutch hold of
+them both.
+
+"Puss first, fellows!" he said, with a half laugh. "I can crawl in
+myself, I guess." But they would not hear of it, so willing hands lifted
+him up as soon as the other dripping figure had been deposited in the
+bottom of the boat.
+
+Frank made light of the adventure, after his usual style.
+
+"Oh, come, let up on that!" he remarked, when some of the fellows were
+patting him on the back and calling him a hero and all such things that
+were particularly disagreeable to Frank. "It was just a cinch to me, you
+know. I'm half a water spaniel, anyway. Besides, if it hadn't been for
+the way I riled him, Puss wouldn't have fallen overboard. Drop it,
+please."
+
+By the time the boat reached the landing near the dock where the lake
+steamer touched, Puss seemed to have discharged his cargo of water,
+swallowed unintentionally.
+
+He made his appearance, with several cronies clustered about him. Frank
+was not the one to hold a grudge. Besides, he had come out of the affair
+with flying colors and had nothing to regret. So he strode up to Puss at
+once, holding out his hand.
+
+Every boy on board crowded around, eager to see how the bully would
+behave, for they knew his natural disposition and wondered whether any
+sort of miracle had been wrought in his disposition because of his
+recent submersion.
+
+"I hope you're feeling all right now, Puss," Frank said, pleasantly. "I
+wanted to ask your pardon for treating you so roughly; but knowing you
+couldn't swim, I was afraid that if you closed with me we'd both go
+down."
+
+"But you struck me once right in the face, you coward!" exclaimed the
+other, as he put his still trembling hand up to where a bruise of some
+sort could be seen.
+
+"Yes, I admit it," returned Frank, quickly; "and that was what I wanted
+to apologize for. You grabbed me and it was the only way I could break
+your hold. I've been told by life savers that often they have to strike
+a man and knock him senseless to save themselves from being dragged
+down. You must understand that it was no time to be particular. I had to
+save myself in order to help you!"
+
+The other stared hard at him. Evidently Puss had not yet entirely
+recovered after his close call. At any rate it was positive that he
+could not understand how he actually owed his very life to the speedy
+action of this boy whom he hated so bitterly.
+
+They saw him shake his head, much as a dog might that is worrying a rat.
+
+"Well, you only undid your own dirty work. You pushed me in and then
+you got cold feet. For fear that I'd drown and you'd be hung you jumped
+in to do your usual grandstand act of hero! Didn't I hear these softies
+calling you that right now? No, I don't want to touch your hand. Keep
+your friendship for those who can appreciate it. There's a long account
+between us that's going to be settled some fine day."
+
+And with these ungrateful words Puss Carberry strode off the boat,
+surrounded by his cronies, who were doubtless pleased with the course of
+things.
+
+"Well, did you ever hear of such base ingratitude in all your born
+days?" exclaimed Larry Geohegan, making a gesture of supreme disgust.
+
+"And to think of the skunk saying Frank pushed him in!" echoed Elephant,
+"when he actually risked his life to save the cur. Ain't I glad now I
+didn't carry out my first impulse and jump after Puss, even before Frank
+went. Why, maybe he'd have even said I tried to drown him!"
+
+The idea of that proverbial slow coach of an Elephant ever doing
+anything on the spur of the moment was really too much for the rest of
+the boys and a general roar went up. "Don't bother your heads about me,
+fellows," remarked Frank, quietly, when the laughter had ceased
+again. "That was just about the kind of treatment I should have expected
+to get from Puss Carberry. Still, I'm not sorry I did it. Life would
+seem very tame without that schemer around to try and liven things up
+for me. But I hardly expected him to accuse me of pushing him in when
+all I did was to step aside and avoid a blow at his hands. Forget it,
+please."
+
+He walked off with his cousin Andy, who had been boiling over at the
+time the rescued Puss made his astonishing accusation.
+
+"Wouldn't that jar you some now?" remarked Andy, after his customary
+fashion.
+
+"I suppose you're referring to the way Puss turned on me after I went
+and got my baseball suit wet just to give him a helping hand?" laughed
+Frank, good naturedly. "Oh, I don't bear any malice. Perhaps he was
+still a little stunned by that knock I gave him. But I thought he was
+going to get his arms around my neck, you see, and then it would be all
+up with us both. It worked, too, for he was as limp as a dishrag from
+that time on. Remember it, Andy, in case you ever jump over after Puss."
+
+"Me after that snake? Why, hang it, I'd see him in Guinea before I'd
+ever lift a hand to save him! I tell you I'd--I'd--" stammered the
+indignant Andy.
+
+"I don't believe it of you," declared his cousin, quickly. "You may
+think you'd stand by and see him drown, but that's all gammon. I know
+you too well to believe you're half as vindictive as you try to make
+out. But did you hear what he said about going down there to South
+America, visiting a plantation his mother partly owns and taking his
+biplane along with him?"
+
+Andy was all excitement now.
+
+"Sure I did," he said. "And ten to one he learned somehow that we
+thought of going down in that region for another purpose. It would be
+just like Puss and that sneak of a Sandy Hollingshead to try and beat us
+out. That fellow wouldn't mind a trip to the other end of the world if
+he thought he could get your goat, Frank. He hates you like poison.
+Pity you didn't feel a cramp just when you were swimming to him--not
+enough to endanger your own life, you see, but sort of make you stop
+short."
+
+"Shame on you, Andy," remarked Frank. "I hope I'll always carry myself
+so that I won't be afraid to look at myself in a glass. But what do you
+know about that place--didn't he call it a cocoa plantation or something
+of the kind?"
+
+"Yes," replied the other moodily; "I was told that his mother owned
+two-thirds of some such place along the Amazon or somewhere down
+there. But let them go. It's a tremendous big country and there isn't
+the least danger that we'll ever butt into them, if we _should_ decide
+to take a run down."
+
+"Still," observed the taller lad, thoughtfully, "you never can
+know. I've heard travelers say that sometimes the world seems to be very
+small; when you meet your next door neighbor on the top of some Swiss
+mountain. Puss may know nothing about your plans and this is perhaps
+only a coincidence, as they say. Since he has had such poor luck
+getting to the top of our mountains around here he wants to try his hand
+on those poor South American Andes."
+
+Andy's father had been a professor in one of the colleges, who, having
+taken up aeronautics, had made many balloon voyages in quest of
+scientific information, so that his name had become quite famous. Then,
+about a year before, he had been lost when attempting to solve the air
+currents on the Panama Isthmus, where the government had thirty thousand
+laborers digging the big ditch.
+
+Nothing had ever been heard of the professor from the day he started
+from the Atlantic side of the isthmus, intending to cross the mountains
+and land on the Pacific beach. And it was becoming a positive mania in
+the mind of Andy, who lived with his guardian, Colonel Josiah Whympers,
+to some day go down there and follow in the track of his lost father, in
+the hope of discovering his sad fate.
+
+It was with this idea in mind that he had united his forces with Frank's
+inventive genius and helped build the monoplane with which they had won
+the race to the top of the neighboring mountain, during Old Home Week at
+Bloomsbury.
+
+And every day he was thinking more and more of what strange things the
+future might have in store for him, if he ever started on that exploring
+venture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+SOMETHING ABOUT THE BIRD BOYS.
+
+"How about coming over tonight?" asked Frank, as the boys halted at the
+gate of Dr. Bird's place, where Andy had gone to get his wheel, since
+he lived some little distance away.
+
+"I'd like to first rate, Frank, because there are some things I want to
+talk over with you. But I promised Colonel Josiah to get at his books
+tonight and straighten them out. It'll take me all evening, I reckon."
+
+"Oh, well," remarked Frank, "see you in the morning anyway. This breeze
+will have worn itself out by then, perhaps, and if we feel like it we
+can take a little trip somewhere in the 'Bug,' as you like to call our
+dandy little aeroplane."
+
+"I hope so," replied Andy, eagerly. "It's been some days now since we
+were up, and I'm more than curious to find out if that new arrangement
+of yours is going to help us any in getting a quick start."
+
+"Does the colonel still persist in having old Shea sleep outside the
+shed?" asked the other, as Andy pushed in to get his wheel out from
+under a side porch, where he had thrust it before starting off to the
+baseball game.
+
+"Sure," came the reply. "When Colonel Josiah once starts on a thing it
+would take an earthquake to stop him. I tried to tell him that there was
+no danger of our monoplane being injured now that those two men who
+robbed the jewelry store were locked up at police headquarters, waiting
+for some formality to start them on the road to a ten-year sentence; but
+he only shook his head and said Shea had nothing else to do and might as
+well be earning his salt."
+
+The incident to which Andy referred was related at length in the
+preceding volume of this series, "The Bird Boys; or, The Young Sky
+Pilots' First Air Voyage," and had created a ten days' sensation in the
+quiet little lake town of Bloomsbury.
+
+Two rogues had robbed the extensive jewelry establishment of
+Mr. Leffingwell and carried off the loot in a couple of suit cases taken
+from the store. Unable to get clear away on account of a quick chase,
+they had hidden in the vicinity of the town. One of them, named Jules,
+had been an aviator at some time in his near past over in France, and
+learning that the Bird boys had built a monoplane, which was even then
+ready for a flight, they had attempted to steal the same, with the
+intention of giving their pursuers, who were hunting the woods for them,
+the laugh.
+
+But their well laid plans were spoiled through the vigilance of the Bird
+boys and the quick wit of Frank in particular. The consequence was that
+both men were eventually captured by Chief Waller and his officers and
+still languished in the town lock-up, awaiting the day of trial.
+
+"Oh, well!" laughed Frank, as his cousin wheeled his bike out to the
+front gate, where he could mount better, "it makes mighty little
+difference, because, from what I've seen of Shea, I imagine he sleeps on
+his post. I'm glad we didn't let him inside, because, like all Irishmen,
+he is fond of his pipe and might have set fire to the shed. It's
+dangerous smoking where there's a lot of gasoline about."
+
+"Of course we've got that Puss Carberry and his mean crony, Sandy
+Hollingshead, to consider. They tried to injure our machine once and
+might again, especially after what happened today," said Andy, throwing
+one leg over his saddle and standing there a minute.
+
+"Oh, I guess not, Andy. They understand that we're keeping tabs of that
+hangar, with its precious contents. Besides, they've got their hands
+full of other matters, if what Puss said about that big trip to the
+Amazon country is true."
+
+The other sighed.
+
+"I only wish I was as sure of going down there as Puss seems to be," he
+observed. "I don't know how it is, but something queer seems to be
+drawing me that way. Day and night I have pictures rising in my
+mind. I've read every scrap concerning the Isthmus and northern coast of
+South America, until I guess I'm as well posted on such things as one
+who had been there."
+
+"Yes," said Frank, softly, "and I'm afraid you let your mind dwell too
+much on that subject, old chum. It's more than a year now since your
+father disappeared. And the chances of your ever finding what became of
+him are like searching for a lost diamond in the sand of the
+seashore. It's affecting your mind, Andy. You look all fagged out. I
+wish you could cheer up and be something like your old self."
+
+But the other only shook his head sadly.
+
+"I don't believe I ever can, Frank, until I've had my chance to go down
+there and make a good try to find all that is left of my poor
+father. Just as you say, it seems almost silly to think that I could
+ever succeed, but no matter, I've got it arranged in my mind and the
+colonel is coming around slowly."
+
+"Well," Frank hastened to declare, "you know if it ever does get to the
+point that you do go down to make that search, I'm with you. My father
+would never throw any obstacle in the way, I'm dead sure. And Andy, of
+course we'd take our aeroplane along. Think how many trips we could
+make in her over country that no one could ever penetrate on foot."
+
+Andy was too full for further words. He simply turned and squeezed the
+hand of his cousin; but the look of affection which he gave Frank told
+what was in his mind just then.
+
+Frank watched him go spinning along the road and then with a sigh turned
+into the house.
+
+The day had been replete with excitement for him. First there was the
+keenly contested game with their rivals across the lake and a tie in the
+ninth inning, which gave the Bloomsbury boys a chance to win out in the
+tenth. His pitching had held the enemy safe, and in their half of the
+inning Frank had made the hit that brought the game to a conclusion. As
+a rule the home club took the last chance at the bat, but the Cranford
+manager had chosen differently on this occasion, for some reason of his
+own, and with disastrous results.
+
+Then, on the way home, had come that little diversion aboard the launch,
+when his old enemy, Puss Carberry, in attempting to strike him, had
+miscalculated and gone plunging into the lake, himself being unable to
+swim.
+
+Frank had nothing to regret in connection with his leap after the
+struggling lad and his subsequent saving of Puss. True, the latter chose
+to crush down the natural spirit of gratitude that should have made him
+accept the hand Frank offered later. But Frank felt that he could afford
+to smile at such an exhibition of a small nature.
+
+At the supper table his father and Janet, his sister, just home from
+boarding school a couple of weeks back, plied him with questions
+concerning the game. Of course, the girl had been present and had seen
+her brother carry off the honors on the diamond; but there were lots of
+things she wanted explained.
+
+And before Frank knew it he was asked point blank what had happened on
+the way across the lake, for Janet had been aboard another boat, it
+seemed.
+
+"Marjorie Lee told me she heard that you jumped overboard to save some
+one, she didn't just know who?" was what Janet said, and the good doctor
+pricked up his ears as he looked inquiringly toward the boy of whom he
+was so proud.
+
+Frank turned red and then laughed.
+
+"Oh, pshaw!" he said. "I had hoped that would be kept quiet. But some of
+the fellows like to talk too much."
+
+"Who was it you jumped over after? They said you held him up until the
+boat got around--that he could not swim a stroke, and must surely have
+drowned only for your prompt action. It couldn't have been Cousin Andy,
+because he can swim nearly as well as you. Tell us, Frank," Janet
+persisted.
+
+So Frank found himself compelled to relate the whole circumstance. In
+his usual generous manner he tried to gloss over the conduct of Puss and
+spoke as though the other had tumbled overboard during a little boyish
+roughhouse business; but Janet knew of the enmity between the pair, and
+she could read between the lines.
+
+Frank spent a couple of hours after supper in poring over a book Andy
+had loaned him. And it might easily be assumed that it had to do with
+the birds, animals, fauna and inhabitants of that great country lying
+north of the equator, down in Central and South America.
+
+It was about nine o'clock when his father called to him. The doctor had
+just come in from a few last visits and looked anxious.
+
+"Frank, I'm in a peck of trouble," he said, with a whimsical smile, "and
+I wish you could help me out, though I dislike putting you to so much
+trouble."
+
+"Oh, don't mind that, dad, one little bit; you know I'm only too glad to
+be of any assistance to you. What's gone wrong now? Machine laid off
+again and garage closed? But you won't need it till nine tomorrow, will
+you?"
+
+There was a world of affection in the very way Frank used that word
+"dad." It might seem disrespectful coming from the lips of many boys,
+but to the ears of the good doctor it was as sweetest music.
+
+"That's the trouble, Frank. I do need some means of getting around
+tonight the worst kind. Fact is the car broke down just as I got it in
+the yard. Same old trouble, and will take an hour to fix it up. And all
+at once it dawned on me that I had forgotten to take the medicine out to
+Farmer Lovejoy, which I surely promised tonight. It lies under the seat
+of the machine. Slipped my mind entirely when I was out. And Frank,
+there may be a serious turn to that child's sickness unless that
+medicine gets there within the next hour or so."
+
+"Don't say another word, dad," declared Frank, jumping up and getting
+his cap. "My wheel is in fine shape and with a good lantern I can make
+the run in a jiffy. Only too glad to be able to help out. The packet is
+under the seat in the car and you left that in the side yard? All right,
+I'm off!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+A STARTLING DISCOVERY
+
+It did not take Frank many minutes to get started on his little trip.
+
+As he had said, his wheel was in good shape, with neither tire needing
+any pumping up. And even his acetylene headlight had only to be
+attached, which task took but a short time.
+
+"I declare!" he exclaimed, as he rested his wheel against the gate and
+turned back, "that would have been a rough joke on me if I'd gone
+spinning off and only remembered after I'd almost got there that I
+forgot to take the package of medicine out of dad's little runabout. So
+much for having my brain full of that wonderful scheme of Andy's."
+
+He found the medicine, and as the packet turned out to be small enough
+to be stowed away in one of his coat pockets, Frank so disposed of
+it. Then wheeling his machine out into the road he took a last look at
+the lantern, to see that the water might not be dripping on the carbide
+too rapidly to combine the greatest efficiency. After that he swung into
+the saddle, starting off with the perfect freedom that proclaims the
+rider a master of his wheel.
+
+Once he passed out of town Frank made good progress. He had a ride of
+several miles before him, ere he could expect to reach the farmhouse of
+Jason Lovejoy, one of his father's oldest customers and friends.
+
+There was no help from the moon, because the sky had clouded up and
+screened the young queen of the skies. But Frank needed no other light
+than the brilliant glow that spread out along the road ahead of him
+coming from his lamp.
+
+It happened that he passed the home of Colonel Josiah Whympers, the
+retired and lame traveler, in whose care Andy had been left by the will
+which his father had made before starting on what had proven his last
+air voyage.
+
+"Guess Andy's gone to bed," he mused, as he saw the house wrapped in
+darkness, for it was now after half past nine.
+
+Frank cast a glance back toward the big field where the shed stood in
+which the great little monoplane, in which they had won their victory
+during Old Home Week, was stored. But he could just barely make it out,
+owing to the distance and the faint light of the moon coming through the
+clouds.
+
+Naturally the hearts of both lads went out toward the gallant aircraft
+which had answered every call made upon it for speed and endurance. It
+was equipped with an engine of the latest make, weighing only a third as
+much as the average aeroplane motor and a triumph of modern scientific
+discovery. Since the Bird boys had constructed that monoplane
+themselves, after patterns obtained elsewhere, surely they had reason to
+be proud of their work and the gallant victory which had come to them.
+
+Frank pedaled on, thinking nothing of the trip. He was accustomed to
+being abroad at night with his wheel, and, indeed, had taken many a
+twenty-mile run by the light of his lamp alone.
+
+What was there to fear? Bloomsbury was a peaceful community. Rarely did
+anything occur to indicate that a spirit of lawlessness was
+abroad. Occasionally the police had some trouble with wandering tramps,
+but Chief Waller's strong point seemed to lie in that direction, and as
+a rule hoboes gave Bloomsbury a wide berth. The word had gone out that
+they made stragglers _work_ when caught there, and nothing could be
+more horrible in the eyes of these "Wandering Willies."
+
+After passing Andy's home it was not more than twelve minutes before
+Frank found himself approaching the quiet farmhouse where he was to
+leave the medicine.
+
+The doctor had told him to ask a number of questions with regard to the
+little sufferer, and Frank was well enough up in medicine to know what
+to say when he learned how matters were going.
+
+A big watchdog boomed his hoarse bark upon the night air, as Frank
+dropped off his wheel at the gate where the mail box was fastened.
+
+"Hello, Kaiser! Good dog! Don't you know me, old fellow? Come here and
+be friends, Kaiser! It's all right! I'm coming in!"
+
+Frank knew how to use a wheedling voice that a dog instantly recognized
+as belonging to a friend. Besides, instinct doubtless told Kaiser that
+any one who had evil intentions would come sneaking around and not in
+this bold fashion.
+
+At any rate, the big mastiff began to wag his tail, and though he still
+barked, it was by way of a welcome now. Frank fearlessly opened the gate
+and walked in. The guardian of the farm came up to him, sniffing, and
+Frank, without hesitation, rubbed his hand over the shaggy head of
+Kaiser.
+
+So side by side they advanced to the house. Already a door had opened,
+showing Farmer Lovejoy with a lamp in his hand. Evidently they had been
+anxiously waiting for the coming of the good doctor, and were possibly
+beginning to worry because he had failed as yet to show up with the
+medicine he had promised.
+
+"It's you, Frank, is it?" asked the farmer, as the lad drew near the
+stoop.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the boy, cheerily. "His machine broke down and I had
+to come on my wheel. But father said it was very important that you have
+this medicine tonight. He expects great things of it by morning."
+
+"Well," said Farmer Lovejoy, warmly, "that was right nice of you to come
+all this way on your wheel, Frank. But I guess it's on'y what we'd
+expect from Doc Bird's boy. I saw ye make that trip up to the top of
+the mountain in your airship, Frank. I tell ye it was wuth seein'! Won't
+you come in? The missus'd like to see ye."
+
+"Why, yes, I will; because dad asked me to explain something to you and
+also get some information about Sue. A few minutes will make little
+difference," Frank said.
+
+But, although he did not suspect it just then, even seconds came very
+near being of the greatest importance.
+
+Perhaps he spent all of ten minutes in the Lovejoy home and in that time
+learned what his father wished to know. The old farmer came to the door
+with him, shaking hands warmly.
+
+"Once again I say I'm obliged to ye, Frank," he remarked, with feeling,
+"for comin' away out here to fetch the medicine. It may be the means of
+savin' our gal to us, who knows? But I've got faith in your father. If
+anybody kin fetch our Sue around he will. Good night, lad. Kaiser, mind
+your manners. This is one of the best friends we've got."
+
+"Oh, that's all right, sir," declared Frank, quickly, as he patted the
+shaggy head of the big mastiff. "We understand each other, don't we, old
+boy? He knew my voice, because a dog never forgets a friend, and I've
+played with him many the time. Good night, Mr. Lovejoy. Keep up your
+spirits. Dad says Sue is going to get over this all right in a little
+time."
+
+Once again on the road he turned his face toward home. After all, this
+six or seven-mile run was only a good touch of exercise, and he would
+sleep all the sounder on account of it. Besides, Frank loved nothing
+better than to do something for the parent who all his life had been so
+indulgent to him.
+
+As he pedaled along, keeping his eyes well ahead, so as to glimpse any
+vehicle that might loom up in his path, he was thinking of what Andy had
+in mind. While the project was as yet rather uncertain, Frank seemed to
+feel that his cousin could never be wholly satisfied that he had done
+his duty by his father until he had spent some time down on the Isthmus
+trying to get some traces of the lost aeronaut.
+
+"I reckon I ought to know something of Andy's persistence," he said to
+himself, with a chuckle. "And now that he's got this bee in his bonnet
+there'll be no peace until he tries the scheme out. Sure I'm with him
+from the word go. It makes me shiver all over with expectation just to
+think of what glorious times we two chums might have--hello! there's
+something ahead, and I'd better slow up!"
+
+It proved to be a farm wagon, pulled by two tired nags, and headed for
+home, after a day in the town market. The driver was asleep on the seat,
+leaving to the sagacity of his animals the successful navigation of the
+road.
+
+Perhaps some movement of the horses or else the bright light of the
+acetylene headlight falling on his face aroused the man, for he sat up
+as Frank was about passing.
+
+"Hello! is that you, Frank Bird?" he asked, leaning forward to look
+closer at the rider of the bicycle.
+
+"Sure; just been up to your neighbor's, Lovejoy's, with some medicine
+for his Sue," returned the boy, recognizing the farmer.
+
+"How is the gal gettin' on?" called the other, over the canvas top of
+his seat.
+
+"Fine. No danger, dad says!" answered Frank.
+
+"That's good!" he heard the sympathetic neighbor remark, as he moved on.
+
+Five minutes later and Frank once more found himself approaching the
+Whympers place. As before, the house was in complete darkness, as if the
+inmates were long since abed. Frank knew that the old man kept early
+hours, seldom sitting up, for he read much during the day, having
+nothing else to look after.
+
+Then, as was only natural, the eyes of the bicycle boy turned once again
+with more or less affection toward the quarter where he could just dimly
+make out the long, squat shed out in the field, in which the precious
+monoplane was stored.
+
+As he did so Frank uttered an exclamation of surprise.
+
+"Why, there's a light over by the hangar!" he burst out. "Now, what
+under the sun do you suppose that old fool of a Shea can be doing? Oh,
+my! Look at the flame jump up! Why, as sure as you live I believe the
+shed's afire! And I can see the figure of a man moving about. This is no
+accident, but something worse! And it looks as if the little 'Bug' might
+be going up in smoke in a jiffy unless I can sprawl over the fence here
+and get on the spot mighty quick!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+A WARM FIVE MINUTES.
+
+"Fire! Fire!"
+
+So Frank shouted, even as he jumped over the fence, and made a bee line
+for the center of the big field, where the shed lay in which the
+precious monoplane was stored.
+
+He had hastily leaned his bicycle against the fence as he made the
+plunge. Nor did he cease to let out constant yells while running across
+the open as fast as his agile legs could carry him. Twice he tripped
+over some object and nearly fell, only to recover himself and speed on.
+
+As he ran he kept his eyes upon the low building beyond. In this manner
+he plainly saw the stooping figure of a man or boy making off in a
+roundabout way so as to avoid him.
+
+Frank's heart was burning with indignation because of this dastardly
+attempt to ruin the gallant little airship that had so nobly stood all
+tests and proven itself a splendid piece of workmanship.
+
+"Oh, the contemptible coward! I'd just like to chase after him and get
+my hands on him once!" was the thought that passed through his brain.
+
+But he knew he could not. The scoundrel, no matter who it was, must be
+allowed to escape in order that he turn his attention to the burning
+shed and try to save the airship from destruction. Once the fire got
+inside, there was enough of the dangerous gasoline about to insure the
+speedy burning of the whole flimsy fabric, all but the motor itself.
+
+So Frank kept headed straight for the hangar, trying to shut out the
+sight of that crouching, fleeing figure. He continued to lift his sturdy
+young voice in repeated shouts:
+
+"Fire! Fire!"
+
+Those in the house must hear; yes, and the neighbors, too. He might not
+be able to master the flames alone and single handed, and would need
+help. Besides, it was only right that Andy, being part owner in the
+monoplane, should be made aware of its sudden peril.
+
+As he thus drew near the low building he saw that the fire had already
+gained considerable headway, just as if the incendiary might have used
+kerosene or some other inflammable fluid, to hasten matters.
+
+Frank's heart grew cold as ice as he contemplated the rapidity with
+which those hungry flames were crawling up the dry boards that
+constituted the side of the shed.
+
+But he did not lose his head in this sudden crisis. It was
+characteristic of Frank Bird that, no matter what the emergency, he was
+always cool enough to think out the proper thing to be done or else jump
+at it through instinct.
+
+And Frank had foreseen just some such possible need as this. He even
+kept several buckets of moist sand handy, where it could be snatched up
+at a second's warning, knowing that most fires can be smothered, when
+quenching them with water is out of the question.
+
+"The buckets!" he gasped, as he arrived close to the building, one part
+of which was now fairly covered with the creeping tongues of ruddy
+fire. "I must use them on it!"
+
+He had to turn the corner of the shed to get to where they stood. And as
+he did so he ran plump into a figure that was coming toward him. Just in
+time did Frank dodge a big fist that shot out. And in that second he
+recognized in the other Shea, the Irishman who had been hired to keep
+watch of the shed.
+
+"Hold on, Shea!" shouted Frank. "It's me, Frank Bird. Somebody has set
+fire to the shed! Grab up a bucket of sand and carry it around here. We
+can put it out yet if we're busy!"
+
+Shea had evidently only been aroused from a sound sleep by the
+approaching cries of the boy and was still in a daze. He had discovered
+the fire, and hearing Frank running toward him, supposed that this must
+be the one who had done the evil deed.
+
+But he had sense enough to do as he was told now, snatching up one of
+the sand buckets and following the boy. Frank immediately commenced
+fighting the flames with a vim. He slapped the wet sand at the creeping
+fire, and wherever it struck there seemed to come a quick abatement of
+the conflagration. But it was by this time so extended that as fast as
+he succeeded in knocking it out in one place it cropped up afresh
+somewhere else.
+
+His ammunition would not last if this kept up.
+
+"Get busy, Shea!" he cried. "Find something and slap at the fire for all
+you're worth! Fight it, man, fight it!"
+
+As Frank happened to turn his head to learn what the other was doing he
+saw something that made very little impression on his mind just then,
+but which had considerable bearing on the matter later.
+
+A light was speeding along the road, heading away from town, and Frank
+realized that the firebug had seized upon his convenient wheel and was
+making his escape.
+
+Later on he might figure out the meaning of this movement. Just then he
+really had no time to give it a thought, no matter if a dozen wheels
+were concerned. The fire demanded every atom of his attention.
+
+Shea did get busy. Once he became stirred up, and he proved a valuable
+helper. He went for the flames tooth and nail, smothered them with his
+coat, regardless of consequences, after he had slipped that article of
+wearing apparel off; kicked and tore and fought until it became evident
+that between them they were certainly making a decided impression on the
+threatening conflagration.
+
+All this while it seemed to Frank that his heart was in his throat. Not
+so much because he feared that they would fail to gain the mastery over
+the fire as that some spark might find ingress to the shed and happen to
+alight upon a can of the dangerous gasoline.
+
+If such a thing occurred he knew that it would be all over. The hangar
+must be completely destroyed and, of course, their little darling
+airship would share in its fate.
+
+So, even though he saw the end of the conflagration in sight, Frank knew
+he had no reason to breathe easily until every spark had been trampled
+under foot.
+
+By now he was conscious of loud shouts coming from points near at hand
+and realized that doubtless Andy as well as others had been awakened by
+the racket and were coming on the run to assist. Had the safety of the
+airship depended on their reaching the shed in time, though, its chances
+would have been next to nothing.
+
+Frank was just stamping on what seemed to be the very last vestige of
+the fire when Andy came galloping to his side.
+
+"W-what's all this mean, Frank? Where in the wide world did you come
+from, and who set our hangar afire?" he gasped, almost winded from his
+exertions, for he had dressed in about a minute, despite his trembling
+fingers, and was barefooted even then.
+
+"Don't know who did it, but he ran off on my wheel a few minutes ago. I
+was on the way home--carrying medicine to Susie Lovejoy. Saw flames and
+gave alarm. Got here on the jump and we managed to get the better of
+it. But it was a close shave, all right, I tell you, Andy!"
+
+Frank himself had no breath to spare, nor could it be wondered at,
+considering the recent valiant fight which he had made against big odds.
+
+"So the ornery skunks _did_ try to burn us out, after all!" burst forth
+the other part owner of the monoplane, bitterly. "Say, where was Shea
+all this time? What use was he as a watchman?"
+
+"He helped me good and hard at any rate. Only for Shea I'd never have
+got the better of it, I'm afraid," said Frank, always ready to cover up
+any little failing on the part of another, though never hesitating to
+denounce his own shortcomings.
+
+"But just to think of the meanness of it all," continued Andy, shaking
+his head in the aggressive way he had. "That Puss Carberry ought to be
+shut up behind bars, that's my opinion straight from the shoulder, and
+if I could only find out for sure that he was in this I'd get Colonel
+Josiah to prosecute him to the limit."
+
+"But we have no proof that it was Puss," remarked Frank. "The fellow who
+stole my wheel went off along the road _away_ from town. And he
+went licketty split, too, as if he had business over in Shelby or
+Newtown. Perhaps it was only a hobo. He may have started the fire by
+accident, and was trying to put it out when I saw him first. Then, when
+I shouted, of course, he had to scoot."
+
+"What's this?" demanded Andy, kicking some object, and then seizing hold
+of his foot, for he had forgotten that he had no shoes on.
+
+Frank uttered a cry and picked it up.
+
+"Look here, don't you recognize this?" he asked, as he held a can up.
+
+It was Andy's turn to give vent to a low exclamation.
+
+"Why, it's our kerosene can, Frank!" he said.
+
+"That's what I thought. And it is kept on a bench just outside the
+kitchen door, isn't it?" demanded the other, quickly.
+
+"That's a fact. And neither of us ever brought it here. Shea, did you
+ever see this oil can before?" and Andy dangled it before the eyes of
+the watchman who had slept on his post.
+
+"I niver did the same, sor," replied the man,
+as he surveyed the can.
+
+"Then that settles it, Frank. The mean skunk grabbed that can and
+fetched it over here to spray the wall of the shed with oil and making
+the fire jump."
+
+"True as you live," said the other. "Do you know, I thought I smelled
+burning kerosene. And that was why the flames kept crawling up
+everywhere so fast. Well, it was a good job that we saved the place. And
+ain't I glad I didn't wait just five minutes longer at Lovejoy's
+place. Nothing could have helped then, and we'd just have to build
+another airship. But here comes the colonel stumping along, Andy!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+IN SEARCH OF A CLUE.
+
+"Heigho! what's all this fuss and feathers about?" demanded the old
+retired traveler, as he came limping along, with his crutch and cane.
+
+Several neighbors accompanied him, having been aroused by the clamor.
+
+"Same old story, sir," remarked the disgusted Andy, still clutching his
+bruised toe tenderly. "They've been trying to beat us one way, if they
+couldn't another."
+
+Frank gave him a nudge.
+
+"Be careful what you say, Andy," he remarked. "There is no proof as yet
+that any one we knew had a hand in this business. You may get in trouble
+if you mention names offhand. Go slow now. We'll find out the truth
+later on, perhaps."
+
+So Andy, taking heed, managed to tell what had happened without directly
+accusing any one. Nevertheless, it was not difficult for those who
+listened to guess where his suspicions lay. And perhaps they thought,
+after all that had occurred in the past, with the hand of Puss Carberry
+moving the pieces on the chessboard, that Andy was justified in
+believing as he did.
+
+After a while the excitement died away. The boys had opened the shed
+and made sure that no lingering spark remained to threaten their beloved
+little aeroplane with destruction. But it was all right and they
+feasted their eyes on it, as if they never before realized how precious
+it had become.
+
+"Getting to be a regular thing, seems to me, these night alarms, boys,"
+remarked one of the neighbors, for not long before they had been aroused
+in the middle of the night when the two jewelry thieves tried to steal
+the aeroplane and were baffled in their design by the two boys, sleeping
+at the time in the shed, so as to guard their flying machine.
+
+"If one watchman ain't enough I'll get three--half a dozen if
+necessary," declared Colonel Josiah, as he glared at the offending Shea
+and pounded on the turf with his heavy cane. "But these lads are going
+to be protected, if it takes my last dollar. I'll get a Gatling gun and
+train it here, so we can blow the rascals to smithereens if they try
+such a dastardly job again."
+
+But everybody knew that the genial old colonel did considerable talking
+and blustering, but was harmless withal.
+
+Shea promised to remain awake the balance of the night. He even went to
+the house and armed himself with a big horse pistol that the colonel
+owned and which had many a story connected with its keeping company with
+the traveler in foreign lands.
+
+"Huh! I've got half a notion to camp right here again, like we did that
+other time, Frank," said Andy, before they locked the wide doors of the
+shed. "Here's my cot and blankets, you see, just as I left 'em."
+
+"No need of that, Andy," returned his chum, smiling. "After all this
+rumpus you couldn't hire that fellow to come back here tonight. He may
+be ten miles away by now. Wonder if that's the last I'll see of my
+wheel?"
+
+"Now," continued Andy, "if you're addressing that to me I'd like to
+prophesy that you'll find the bike somewhere off the road a mile or two
+away, where the fellow pitched it when he concluded to make a sneak
+_back_ to town."
+
+"There you go, barking up that same tree again. I never saw such a
+positive fellow as you are," declared the other, smiling. "Your name
+ought to be Thomas, for you seem to doubt everything that you can't just
+understand."
+
+"Well, if not Puss, who, then?" demanded Andy, aggressively.
+
+"I confess that I don't know at this minute," admitted Frank. "But I
+hope to discover the truth in some way. Remember how that other time,
+when some one tried to injure us by sneaking in here and cutting the
+canvas wings of our monoplane all to flinders, I picked up a playing
+card and we afterwards traced it to the owner?
+
+"Yes," cried the other, instantly, "and wasn't that party Puss Carberry
+all right?"
+
+"It sure was," laughed Frank. "But forget this thing for now. Perhaps
+tomorrow we may be able to find some clue that will tell which way the
+wind blows--it might be the print of a shoe in the earth or something
+like that. Lots of ways to pick up information, if only you keep your
+wits at work."
+
+"Yes," returned Andy, "and if it's Frank Bird who's doing the
+thinking. But perhaps it would be silly in me sleeping out here tonight.
+I'd better be traipsing back to bed right now, because, you see, I'm
+only half dressed and it's chilly."
+
+"Good. I'll see you to the house, because I've got to walk home, now
+that my wheel has gone up the flume," remarked Frank.
+
+"What's the matter with you using mine?" demanded the other. "That plug
+you put in holds dandy, and there's nothing the matter with it right
+now. Same old place, under the side porch here. Guess the lamp is on the
+bum, but you hardly need that. If a cop holds you up, explain what
+happened."
+
+"All right, I guess I might as well ride as walk. But I hope I get my
+wheel back. It's nearly new, you know, and cost a heap," Frank remarked,
+as he dove under the stoop, to presently appear dragging the other
+bicycle.
+
+"Apply to Puss and Company for further information," called Andy,
+holding the door open a crack to shoot the words out and then closing
+it.
+
+Frank, laughing at the obstinate ways of his chum, pushed the machine
+out to the road and was soon moving along. Evidently he lacked the same
+confidence in Andy's wheel that he felt in his own, for he made no
+attempt to speed as he went toward town and home.
+
+Fortunately he met no policeman, who might ask impertinent questions as
+to just why he was riding after dark without a light. And reaching home
+he found his father sitting up in his office waiting to hear his report.
+
+Dr. Bird was quite satisfied with what Frank had to say in regard to the
+condition of the sick girl. He knew that the boy was well up in
+medicine, even though he had never tried to push him in the least. Frank
+gave evidence of being what is known as a "natural born doctor," keenly
+alive to everything pertaining to surgery. More than once he had set
+broken limbs for dogs and cats and done it in a manner that aroused the
+warmest praise from his father, who, deep down in his heart, knew the
+boy had it in him to become a famous surgeon, if he kept along in this
+path when he came to take up his life pursuit.
+
+Frank believed he ought to tell about the dastardly attempt to destroy
+the monoplane. And, of course, the good doctor, who always thought the
+best of people, was horrified to hear his story.
+
+He shook his head sadly after Frank had finished.
+
+"I don't know what people are coming to nowadays," he remarked. "No
+matter who did that mean act, it was wicked. Man or boy, he ought to be
+severely punished for it. The rights of property seems to be getting
+less respect every year. It puzzles me to lay the blame for this spirit
+at the right door. But things were not so in my young days, Frank. We
+live in fast times, my boy, fast times!"
+
+Frank thought so himself, as he went off to his room. Imagine his
+father, some forty years ago, ever dreaming of building an air-ship and
+speeding through the upper currents, perhaps thousands of feet above the
+earth, at the rate of a mile a minute! And yet that was what he and Andy
+had been doing, thinking nothing of the feat, as they became accustomed
+to its performance.
+
+Fast times, indeed!
+
+Frank did not allow the startling incidents of the night to keep him
+awake. He knew just how to get a grip on himself and put all these
+things out of his mind, once his head touched the pillow.
+
+Time enough in the morning to begin worrying about that lost wheel and
+trying to figure out who the firebug could have been.
+
+At breakfast Frank had to go over the whole story again for the benefit
+of Janet, who had heard enough about it from the doctor before her
+brother came down to whet her appetite for more.
+
+Frank could see that she shared the suspicions entertained by
+Andy. Janet knew Puss Carberry of old and despised him most heartily. At
+one time he had taken a great liking to Frank's pretty sister, but when
+she learned what his nature was Janet had cut him dead on the
+street. And from that day on she had believed Puss capable of almost
+anything.
+
+"Even after you saved his life yesterday, too!" she exclaimed,
+indignantly.
+
+"Hold on there, sis," cried Frank, laughing. "You're as bad as Andy, who
+is ready to condemn on general principles. We haven't got a scrap of
+evidence to prove Puss guilty. Just as like as not he would show an
+_alibi_ if we accused him of it, and prove that he was at home all
+evening. So please don't mention his name to anybody or I may get in a
+scrape."
+
+"But you're going to find out, aren't you!" demanded Janet.
+
+"I surely hope to, and recover my poor bike in the bargain. Luckily I've
+got my name and address scratched on the underpart of the frame, if the
+finder only takes the trouble to look. And now I'm off downtown, to
+speak to Chief Waller about it."
+
+Ten minutes later Frank dropped off in front of police headquarters. And
+no sooner had he alighted than the lad discovered that there was a buzz
+of excitement about the place, for several men were conferring and the
+chief himself seemed disturbed. He looked eagerly at Frank as the boy
+came forward and started to relate what had occurred on the preceding
+night out near the residence of Colonel Josiah Whympers.
+
+Immediately the face of the chief began to light up and an eager glow
+shine in his eyes. It seemed as though what Frank was telling must have
+given him a connecting link that he had found himself badly in need of.
+
+"Now we know where he went!" he exclaimed, calling to one of his
+men. "Go out to Colonel Josiah Whympers', Green, and see what traces you
+can get of him." Then once more turning to the astonished boy, he went
+on: "You see, we had a jail delivery here last night. A desperate
+scoundrel managed to slip away undetected and we only found it out this
+morning. And the man who got out was your old friend, Jules Garrone, the
+French aviator, who was caught by the help of the Bird boys and their
+bully little aeroplane! Get that, Frank?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+ANDY RECEIVES A SHOCK.
+
+"Then it was Jules who set fire to our shed!" exclaimed the boy,
+astounded.
+
+"None other, you may be sure," replied Chief Waller, nodding his head.
+
+"And made off on my wheel?" continued Frank, beginning to grasp the
+truth.
+
+"That's just what he did," went on the official. "Found he couldn't
+steal your aeroplane and was bound to lay his hands on something
+belonging to the Birds that would carry him out of danger. Glad you
+came, Frank. I'll just call up all the surrounding towns and ask if a
+bicyclist has been seen there. I hope you can describe the wheel so they
+might know it."
+
+"Yes, I even know the number. Besides, I've got my address scratched on
+the under-part of the frame. But whatever do you suppose Jules wanted to
+set our hangar on fire for?" Frank asked.
+
+"Huh!" replied the chief; "don't know, unless it was a spirit of
+revenge. Some of these French rascals have the same nature as the
+Corsican or the Sicilian and hug the idea of revenge to their hearts."
+
+"Revenge!" Frank cried. "But when did we ever injure them? Oh, yes, I
+forgot! We chased them off at the time they tried to steal our
+aeroplane, and they even neglected to take those two suit cases of
+jewelry with them, so the stolen property was recovered."
+
+"Yes," the chief went on, "and that wasn't all, either. Remember that it
+was you Bird boys who discovered that they were hiding in the old shack
+deep in the forest. You saw them near there when you were sailing over
+that region in your airship and reported to me. And so we surrounded the
+cabin and nabbed our game. It may be they learned who gave them away,
+and Jules, on finding himself at large, made up his mind to get even
+before running off."
+
+Turning to the phone on his desk the chief now started to call up
+several of the neighboring towns. Some were only six or eight miles
+away, while others might be double that and more.
+
+Frank knew where the road ran that passed the Whympers place and when
+finally the police head got Shelby he pricked up his ears. Immediately
+he saw Chief Waller show signs of sudden interest. A smile crept over
+his face as though he were hearing news that pleased him. Then he
+engaged in a hurried conversation with the police official at the other
+end of the wire, after which he turned to Frank.
+
+"I think I've located your wheel, Frank," he observed.
+
+"Over at Shelby, you mean?" queried the other.
+
+The chief nodded in the affirmative.
+
+"Yes, over at Shelby," he said. "It seems that early this morning a
+wagon belonging to a countryman coming in to market was stopped by
+something lying on the road. Getting down, the farmer found that it was
+a man, badly injured, as if he had taken a header from a wheel. And,
+indeed, a bicycle was found close by, with some parts of it damaged, as
+if it had been run at full speed against a rock, sending the rider ten
+feet away, where he landed on his head and was knocked out."
+
+"Was it my wheel?" asked Frank.
+
+"He described it, for the farmer brought both man and wheel to police
+headquarters, and there can be no doubt but that it's yours. And the
+unfortunate rider answers to Jules. Now, I'm going to get an automobile
+at the garage and go over. If you want to go along I'd be glad to have
+you, Frank."
+
+"I certainly would," replied the boy, quickly. "I hope the poor fellow
+didn't go so far as to break his neck. But let me go after a machine for
+you, chief. I've got an errand at the garage anyhow, as my dad wants a
+mechanic sent up to potter at his little runabout, out of commission as
+usual. He's ordered a better car, you know, and is only waiting for it
+to be delivered. Shall I go?"
+
+"Yes. Tuttle will know which machine I generally use when on official
+business, for you see the town pays the bill. Be back as soon as you
+can, Frank."
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the other, hastening away.
+
+The mystery was now solved, and, after all, Puss had been proven
+innocent on this last count. Frank laughed to think how amazed Andy
+would likely be when he heard the news.
+
+"I only hope he doesn't happen to run across Puss before I get a chance
+to open his eyes," he was saying to himself, as he headed for the nearby
+garage. "Because I really believe Andy is mad enough to challenge our
+old enemy and throw the accusation in his teeth. Then there would be a
+high old mix-up, with Puss in the right for once."
+
+It did not take him long to deliver both messages. He saw a mechanic
+start off to tackle the disabled runabout for the doctor, so he could
+carry out his round of morning visits by ten o'clock. And then a
+chauffeur ran a car out of the garage into which he invited Frank to
+jump.
+
+When they arrived at police headquarters the chief was awaiting
+them. Evidently he was not at all averse to this delightful spin across
+country on a fine July morning and with nothing to pay. Official
+business might sometimes prove worth cultivating.
+
+Presently they were off. Frank, of course, knew every rod of the way. He
+had more than a few times made the trip over to Shelby on his wheel in
+company with Andy. And since they had taken to the air they had looked
+down upon that road for miles, as they whirled along hundreds of feet
+up, discovering features about the landscape that they had never dreamed
+of before they had this "bird's-eye view," as Andy delighted to call it,
+playing upon their own name.
+
+In due time they reached Shelby and drew up in front of the building
+where the police held forth. The first one to meet their eyes as they
+entered was a familiar figure seated in a chair and attended by a doctor
+and a couple of officers.
+
+"It's Jules, sure enough!" said Frank, as, despite the many bandages
+about the head of the man, he recognized the dapper little French
+aviator with whom he had had more or less trouble in the past.
+
+And Jules grinned as he saw them. His spirit was not crushed, even
+though it began to look as though he might be the football of fate.
+
+"It ees ze fortunes of war, messiers," he said, wincing at the pain
+speech caused him. "And after all, it was ze machine of ze young
+inventor zat downed me. I am von lucky man not to haf been five thousand
+feet up in ze air when it occur. Had eet been ze monoplane zat kicked
+me, pouf! poor Jules he would haf been as flat as ze pancake. As eet is,
+after I haf serve my time I am yet alive."
+
+Frank found his bicycle badly damaged. In fact, the front wheel was
+smashed beyond recovery, for it had been driven against some stone at a
+tremendous pace. Strange to say, the lamp had gone through it all
+without any apparent damage.
+
+"A few dollars will fix it up, all right," he said, cheerfully. "And I
+guess I ought to be thankful ever to see it again."
+
+So he placed the wheel in the back of the big touring car. The doctor
+announced that Jules might be moved without danger if they were careful,
+and this Chief Waller promised he would be.
+
+"You're giving us a heap of bother, Jules," he said, after the captured
+rascal had been safety stowed away in the tonneau of the car, with the
+chief beside him and Frank mounting to the front with the
+chauffeur. "But this winds you up. I understand your trial comes off
+tomorrow and you'll soon be snug in the pen."
+
+"Zat was ze knowledge zat urge me to break out," remarked the prisoner,
+blandly.
+
+"Well," remarked the other, with a tightening of his lips, "we'll make
+sure you don't get another opportunity, that's all."
+
+Frank watched as they drew near the place of Colonel Josiah. He
+anticipated that the prisoner would be eager to look across the field to
+where the shed stood. Nor was Frank surprised to hear him give a low
+cry.
+
+"Eet is wonderful, ze luck zey haf!" Jules remarked, as he discovered
+that the hangar had not burned to the ground as he expected, and after
+that he relapsed into gloomy silence.
+
+Frank had caught sight of Andy passing along the street ahead and
+entering the Bloomsbury postoffice. So as soon as he could get his
+broken wheel into the bicycle store, where he left orders for its being
+fixed at once, he hurried off, in hopes of intercepting his cousin and
+breaking the great news.
+
+He was just in time to see Andy coming out of the building and staring
+hard at something he held in his hand. Frank could see that it was a
+letter and he also noticed that his chum was unusually pale.
+
+"Now I wonder what he's got?" asked Frank, talking to himself, as many
+boys often do at times. "Looks like a letter, too. Once in a while the
+colonel asks him to go down when the mail comes in and see if there is
+an important one for him, which he can't wait for the carrier to bring
+out. And Andy has got one this time, sure."
+
+A moment later and he came upon Andy, who at sight of his chum showed
+signs of relief.
+
+"I'm awful glad you came along, Frank," he said, seizing the other by
+the sleeve; "I was at your house and they told me you had gone downtown
+somewhere. Then, as the mail was in, I remembered Colonel Josiah was
+expecting one of his letters from London, and so I dropped over. But
+there was nothing for him. Mr. Guthrie handed me out this and said he
+guessed it was for me. Oh, look where it is from, Frank! Do you
+think--can it be possible that it means some news, after all this time,
+from my father?"
+
+Frank saw it was rather a bulky letter and that the postmark showed a
+station in South America. Remembering all that had passed between them
+in connection with this country he understood the cause of Andy's great
+emotion.
+
+"I was almost afraid to open it, Frank," said the other, brokenly.
+
+"Well, do it now," remarked Frank, and Andy tore the end off hurriedly.
+
+He appeared to read hungrily for a minute, and then gave a cry of
+amazement.
+
+"Oh!" he said, taking in a big breath, "how strange! how wonderful!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+THE MESSAGE.
+
+Frank Bird could restrain his curiosity no longer.
+
+"What is it, Andy?" he asked, as he laid an affectionate arm across the
+shoulders of his cousin.
+
+The other turned his eyes upon Frank, and there was something in their
+depths that stirred the other tremendously.
+
+"Is it about your father, Andy?" he demanded, eagerness plainly showing
+in his whole manner; for he understood what a hold the subject had on
+his chum.
+
+Andy nodded, and as soon as he could command his quivering voice, said:
+
+"Yes, nothing more than a letter from the grave, I fear! See, Frank,
+written in his own dear hand. Oh! to think of it, that at least three
+months ago he was alive, even though a prisoner, the sport of fate."
+
+"A prisoner!" echoed Frank, astonished. "Whatever can you mean? Did he
+fall into the hands of some of those strange Indians we have been
+reading about, who have their homes around the headwaters of the Orinoco
+River in Venezuela?"
+
+This time Andy shook his head in the negative.
+
+"It is stranger than that--almost beyond belief!" he replied. "My poor
+father has for months been imprisoned in a great valley, surrounded by
+impassable cliffs. Don't you remember something of the sort occurred in
+one of Captain Mayne Reid's books, where the young plant hunters found
+themselves prisoners in that way? But here, Frank, look for yourself."
+
+"Where does the letter come from, in the beginning?" asked the other,
+quietly, wishing to advance by slow degrees, so that he could understand
+everything.
+
+"A town in Columbia, called Barranquila," replied Andy, readily
+enough. "I'm not sure, but I think it lies at the mouth of the big
+Magdalena River, and is upon the coast. You know I've just devoured the
+map of that region for months, and every name is familiar to me."
+
+"Besides this queer communication, which you say is from your father,"
+Frank went on, "there seems to be another letter?"
+
+"That is from Señor José Almirez. Read it, Frank, and you will begin to
+understand."
+
+The letter was in a crabbed hand, apparently unused to writing in
+English, though grammatically correct. And this was what Frank saw:
+
+"To Señor Andrew Bird:
+
+"I received the enclosed from a correspondent and customer, one Carlos
+Mendoza, located in the vicinity of Manangue, a town about one hundred
+and fifty miles up-river.
+
+"He is a grower of cocoa in the rich valley. I do not enclose his
+letter, because it is written in Spanish. But it simply says that he
+found the written communication close to his plantation house one
+morning in April of this year. At first he could not understand how it
+came there. Then, upon having the writing translated, he noticed that
+the missive was attached to what seemed to be a little parachute, or
+balloon, made up of a fragment of silk belonging to a balloon. Knowing
+that I had spent several years in Washington, in the service of my
+country, he finally concluded to send the same to me. I have the honor
+to transmit it to the address given in the communication.
+
+"With respect, and expressing a willingness to help you all I may, Señor
+Andrew Bird, believe me to be most sincerely yours,
+
+"José Costilena Almirez."
+
+Frank read this amazing communication, and then turned to stare at his
+cousin.
+
+"No, don't stop yet!" exclaimed the trembling Andy. "Read the other, the
+missive that Carlos Mendoza picked up on his cocoa plantation, in the
+valley of the Magdalena River."
+
+And so Frank again turned his attention to the enclosure that had been
+sent on by the friendly merchant of Columbia.
+
+It seemed to be a sheet of thin but pliable bark from a tree, and in
+some respects reminded Frank of birch bark, which he had often used in
+lieu of paper, when in the woods. The juice of some berry had afforded
+ink; and doubtless the college professor had easily made a pen from a
+bird's quill. And this was what Frank read, a small portion of the
+communication being missing, as though it had received rough usage
+somewhere, en route:
+
+"Whoever finds this, I pray that it be forwarded to Andrew Bird, in the
+town of Bloomsbury, State of New York, U. S. A. In my balloon I was
+carried away by a sudden storm while crossing the Isthmus of Panama. As
+near as I can calculate I was swept some three hundred miles, more or
+less, in a south-easterly direction, much of the time above the
+clouds. Then something happened, and I felt myself falling. Giving
+myself up for lost, I awoke from a swoon to find myself in the branches
+of a tree, with the wreck of the balloon near me. A merciful Providence
+has saved my life, but I fear only to prolong my agony of soul. For
+months now I have been a prisoner in a remarkable valley, a sink-pit,
+enclosed by inaccessible cliffs. Many times have I struggled to climb to
+their top, but only to meet defeat.
+
+"All this time I have sustained life by means of fruits that grow in
+abundance in this tropical valley. In the hope that I may manage to
+communicate my horrible condition to the outside world I have made
+scores of small parachutes, and when the breeze at the top of the cliffs
+appeared favorable, send them up by means of hot air, each carrying a
+message to my son. God in His infinite wisdom only knows if one of these
+will ever reach him. I shall continue to have hope, and sustain life as
+long as my mind remains--
+
+"Professor Philip B----"
+
+When he had finished this astonishing document Frank turned to his chum.
+
+"Oh! what a remarkable thing! I never heard its equal in all my life. To
+think that your father has been alive all these months, though a
+prisoner in that cliff-bordered valley! But Andy, don't you see that
+now nothing is going to keep us from going down there, and finding him?
+Here is the clue you wanted, only instead of discovering his sad fate
+you are going to rescue him, and bring him home again!"
+
+They reached out and gripped hands. There was something in that act to
+stamp the more than brotherly feeling existing between them.
+
+"Do you think we could do it, Frank?" exclaimed Andy, more than ever
+willing that his clear-eyed chum should take the lead in this most
+eventful moment of his whole young life.
+
+"Sure I do," answered the comforter, readily. "Didn't we conquer one
+battery of cliffs that were said to be insurmountable, when we sailed in
+our dandy little monoplane up to the crown of Old Thunder Top, and
+snatched that silver cup for a prize? Make up your mind, my boy, that
+that was just meant to get us in practice for better things. The time's
+come for us to show what we're made of. And instead of a silver cup, the
+prize this time will be--"
+
+"My father's life!" murmured Andy, tears in his eyes, as he again
+squeezed that faithful hand which held his so firmly.
+
+"That's right," Frank continued. "We can go straight to this fine
+Spanish gentleman, Señor Almirez, and get all the points he knows. From
+there we'll get up-river to this valley town and visit Carlos Mendozo on
+his cocoa plantation. Depend on it he'll be able to set us on the track,
+somehow or other."
+
+"Oh! it seems like a strange dream," said Andy, as he raised the piece
+of bark to his young lips, and passionately kissed it, regardless of the
+fact that some one passing the post office might notice him.
+
+"Well, you want to wake up right away then," remarked Frank, smiling,
+"because we've just got to get a hustle on us, if we're going to start
+on this wonderful trip. Here's where our aeroplane is going to help us
+out. Just imagine how we can pass over regions where it would be next
+to impossible for us to navigate on foot--mountainous country, tropical
+valleys where wild beasts roam and poisonous snakes abound; and jungles
+where the natives have to cut a passage foot by foot, I understand, with
+their _machetes_. And to think that we can sail freely over it all,
+looking for that spot where that bark letter came from."
+
+"Come, let's go home!" exclaimed Andy. "I'm sure Colonel Josiah will be
+tremendously interested in what we've learned. He'll be the most
+disappointed man in the whole U.S. just because he's so crippled that he
+can't go along. For many years he's traveled in every country under the
+sun. Perhaps he might tell us more about the interior of Colombia than
+we know right now."
+
+Accordingly they hurried away. Frank came near forgetting the news he
+had been bearing at the time he met his cousin. But then, that was
+hardly to be wondered at. The capture of the escaped robber was of minor
+importance when compared with this wonderful business connected with
+Professor Bird.
+
+And just as Andy had said, Colonel Josiah _was_ tremendously interested
+when he heard about it, and with his own eyes looked upon the letter
+that had come from a living tomb.
+
+"Somebody pinch me," he said, looking at the boys almost helplessly. "I
+surely must be asleep, and dreaming this. It seems too strange to be
+true. Philip alive all these months, and in that terrible situation,
+while we were enjoying the good things of the world up here. It is
+monstrous! You must go down there with as little delay as possible,
+Andrew. Who knows but what it may be your blessed good fortune to rescue
+your dear father, and bring him back with you. Money--all you need; and
+the prayers of an old man go with you."
+
+"But think," said Andy, uneasily, "this was written three months
+ago. What may not have happened in all that time? There must be beasts
+in that sunken valley, and doubtless many poisonous reptiles. Perhaps--"
+
+"Hold on!" cried Frank, interrupting him, "don't you go to imagining all
+sorts of terrible things. He had been there at least nine months
+already. Nothing had happened to injure him. He does not even hint at
+such a thing; but says he means to sustain his life as long as he
+retains his proper mind. Your father was not in the least like you,
+Andy. He possessed a wonderfully well-poised mind, and laid out his
+plans with deliberation. Believe me, the chances are ten to one he is
+still there, and waiting. We are going to find him. Don't allow any
+other idea to take possession of your head. Find him, do you hear?"
+
+Of course that sort of talk had its effect on Andy, and he braced
+up. They began to make preparations and plans without delay. The
+monoplane was taken apart, and carefully crated. Then Frank ran down to
+the city and returned with several duplicate parts, secured at an
+aeroplane agency he knew of, and which would come in handy in case of an
+accident in that strange country, where they must depend entirely on
+themselves.
+
+For two days there was a tremendous lot of bustle around both
+homes. Dr. Bird had no longer any valid excuse for refusing Frank
+permission to go, since it was a mission of mercy that beckoned the boys
+on to that South American mountainous region. Besides, he had always
+been very fond of his elder brother, who had done so much to make the
+name of Bird famous, in college and out; even though the professor had
+thought best to make his old friend, Colonel Josiah, his boy's guardian
+instead of the physician.
+
+The aeroplane had been shipped to New York, to be put upon a steamer
+sailing for Maracaibo, in Venezuela, and which they expected to take
+also. From this port they would have to make their way to the mouth of
+the Magdalena River by means of some smaller craft. But with virtually
+unlimited means to back them, the boys did not fear but that they could
+overcome any difficulties that might arise in their path. Indeed, Frank
+had a disposition that would never allow anything to balk his plans, if
+it were at all within the power of human nature to accomplish results.
+
+The last thing they heard, just before leaving Bloomsbury, was that Puss
+Carberry and his crony, Sandy Hollingshead, had gone away, taking their
+biplane along; and it was said that they expected to do wonderful stunts
+with their airship somewhere in the South. But our two boys were too
+deeply interested in their own fortunes to give more than a passing
+thought to the flitting of their rivals. Besides, it would not seem
+that there could be one chance in a thousand that they would ever run
+across Puss and Sandy in all that great country, lying south of the
+Caribbean Sea, and north of the mighty Amazon.
+
+And one morning Frank and Andy said goodbye to those whose best wishes
+were wafted after them, taking train to New York City, so as to go
+aboard the steamer, that was scheduled to sail that P.M.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+UNDER TROUBLED SKIES.
+
+"Oh! how glad I am to think we've arrived at last!"
+
+Andy uttered these words as he stood at the rail of a small but staunch
+steam yacht, of rather ancient vintage, that he and Frank had leased
+when arriving at Maracaibo, the city on the bay of the same name, from
+whence so much of Venezuela's coffee is shipped to the States.
+
+It had belonged to some Englishman who, becoming stranded at this South
+American port while on a globe circling trip, was forced to let it go;
+and the agents gladly secured a crew for the adventurous young
+Americans, who were bound up the Magdalena River for some unknown
+purpose.
+
+"Yes," observed Frank, who leaned on the same rail close beside him,
+"there's the town of Barranquila, all right. We've navigated the five
+hundred miles in this little steam craft" with only a few break-downs of
+the machinery, and just two days' delay. And the second step on our
+journey comes to a close."
+
+"The third ought to take us to that valley town up the river; ain't I
+right?" asked the anxious Andy.
+
+"Sure. As near as I can make it, Magangue must be not over two hundred
+miles upstream. With good luck we can cover that in a couple of days,"
+returned Frank.
+
+"But why do you say good luck?" demanded his cousin, suspiciously.
+
+"Oh! well, we are now in the land of tomorrow, you remember," laughed
+Frank.
+
+"You mean where they put off everything they can, saying 'no hurry;
+plenty of time, señors all; the world was not made in a day'? Is that
+it?" Andy went on.
+
+"Partly. I was also thinking of another thing," admitted Frank.
+
+"Yes, and I bet I can give a mighty good guess what it is, old fellow."
+
+"Perhaps you can," Frank said, a little gravely. "Suppose you spout it
+out."
+
+"You've been pondering on what old Quito was telling us, in his broken
+English, about this little revolution that has been slumbering around
+the region of the Magdalena River of late. You have a hunch that we may
+just be unlucky enough to run across some of those ragged chaps, who
+want to upset the present government of Colombia, and seat some old
+ex-president fossil in the chair again."
+
+"Anyhow, you're a fine guesser, Andy," admitted Frank.
+
+"Then that's what was on your mind?" asked the other. "I've noticed you
+frown a whole lot lately, which is unusual for my cheery pard, Frank."
+
+"Oh! well," observed Frank, calmly, "I acknowledge the corn. I was
+wondering whether we might be troubled by any of those fellows while we
+were navigating this river. I hope they'll just let us severely
+alone. But you know, Andy, just as Colonel Josiah warned us, these
+Colombians don't have any too much love for Yankees, ever since that
+Panama rebellion, when, as they believe, our government openly assisted
+the people of the Isthmus throw off the Colombian yoke, because we just
+had to control that strip of territory for the canal."
+
+"But why should the revolutionists want to stop us?" insisted his
+cousin. "We are here only on a private quest. We seek no gold mines or
+cocoa plantations. Our only object is a mission of mercy. And besides,
+if these men are in open rebellion, they ought to be glad to see anybody
+that their government detests, Yankees or not."
+
+"Well," pursued Frank, with a cautious glance around, "I was thinking
+that some of the people in Maracaibo took altogether too much interest
+in our little monoplane. A lot of dark-faced men hovered around, and
+asked many questions. They have heard and read much about the wonderful
+things being done today in aeronautics, but have seen little or
+nothing."
+
+"Frank, that's so!" exclaimed Andy, quickly. "Please go on. You are
+gripping my attention a heap, I admit. Tell me, do you suspect that some
+of those same chaps may have been Colombians?"
+
+"I'm dead sure of it, and more than that, old Quito gave me to
+understand he believed they were connected with the junta that was
+pushing this new revolution in Colombia."
+
+"Yes?" Andy said, in a way that plainly invited further explanation.
+
+"Stop and think," Frank continued. "Suppose now, they conceived the idea
+that it would further their forlorn cause a heap if they only had such
+an airship, and could threaten to drop all sorts of bombs into the camps
+of the government troops!"
+
+"Good gracious! I suppose that is so. I never thought of that, Frank!"
+
+"You know how nervous and excitable these people are? Don't you think
+they'd give the government the worst scare it ever had? And couldn't
+they make almost any sort of terms of settlement?" Frank demanded.
+
+"Yes, that's true. Then you imagine those fellows may have planned to
+somehow steal our aeroplane, and that they've sent word ahead to their
+friends along the Magdalena to look out for us?" was Andy's startling
+question.
+
+"Partly that. But don't you see, Andy, the little monoplane would be
+utterly useless to them unless they had some one who knew how to run
+it?"
+
+The other gave utterance to a low whistle, just to indicate how his
+feelings had been stirred.
+
+"You mean they might try to capture _us_ in the bargain, and force us to
+operate the aeroplane? But suppose we did, what would hinder our just
+sailing away, once we got up in the clouds? Tell me that, Frank?"
+
+"Oh! well, I'm not looking that far ahead," smiled the other. "Possibly
+they might only let one of us go up, keeping the other as a hostage. Or
+perhaps, there might be a fearless revolutionist officer aboard with
+that one, sworn to shoot at the first sign of treachery. But don't let
+us cross a bridge until we come to it."
+
+"That's right. We don't want to fall into the hands of any ragtag
+revolutionists, and we won't! We've got our work laid out for us, and
+nothing must stop us. All the same I'm going to keep an eye on that
+precious case in which our aeroplane is boxed, as well as the
+engine. And Frank, I'm carrying the little shooting-iron Colonel Josiah
+gave me as a parting present."
+
+"Ditto myself," replied the other, in a low tone, as one of the crew
+happened to draw near, while getting ready to make a landing at the
+wharf. "He told us that down in this country it paid to be ready for
+trouble; though I keep hoping we're not going to have anything of the
+sort."
+
+It was toward noon when they steamed up to the town that nestled near
+the mouth of the great Magdalena River. Of course it was hot, for the
+season of the year made that a foregone conclusion; but both boys were
+dressed in suitable attire, and also wore pith helmets calculated to
+allow a current of air fan the head.
+
+Andy was shivering in a mixture between hope and fear. In this city they
+would meet the writer of that pleasant letter, Señor José Almirez. What
+if he had received further intelligence from the correspondent up-river
+since the time he had mailed that letter? What if some terrible news
+awaited the coming of the daring young Yankees, who had ventured to this
+faraway country, bent on solving the mystery connected with the long
+absence of Professor Bird?
+
+But, as usual, it was Frank who buoyed his spirit up. There never was a
+chum more devoted to the interests of his friend. Andy would long since
+have succumbed to his fears but for the cheery words of the other.
+
+It was said to be the rainy season in this country that lay in the
+tropics. Up on the high mountain peaks lay snow the year around; but in
+the low lands, and along the valleys and sides of the uplifts, they
+could grow coffee, cocoa, bananas pineapples, oranges and all manner of
+similar products.
+
+A small crowd gathered at the wharf to see the little steam yacht come
+in. Perhaps the former English wandering owner had been here before, and
+some of them even recognized the vessel.
+
+Scowls greeted her passengers when it was discovered that they were not
+English but Americans. Frank and Andy paid little heed to these
+frowns. They did not mean to leave the boat, if so be it were possible
+to have Señor Almirez come aboard. And for that purpose they had written
+to him ahead of time, telling him how they expected to reach Barranquila
+about a certain date.
+
+Several breakdowns of the engine had delayed them, so that they were
+even now two days behind time. On this account, as well as through
+prudence, they meant to stop here as briefly as possible.
+
+Immediately their purser went ashore to make inquiries, and purchase a
+lot of fruits that could be taken on the river voyage; though for that
+matter they might expect to get anything they wanted at various villages
+along the route.
+
+Frank was looking the crowd over closely.
+
+"I think I see him, Andy," he remarked, presently.
+
+"You mean Señor José?" asked his cousin, eagerly. "I've been watching
+that middle-aged gentleman who seems to be pressing close in on the
+flank of the crowd. There, see, he is speaking to Manuel, our purser,
+now, asking him some question. He looks up here at us; yes, and waves
+his hand, with a smile! That must be Señor José, all right, Frank."
+
+"I'm going down to meet him, to fetch him aboard," declared Frank, after
+both boys had answered the signals of the dark-faced gentleman in the
+white linen suit, and who was also wearing a Panama straw hat.
+
+Three minutes later and Frank reappeared, having the other in tow.
+
+Just as both of them had suspected it was Señor José. Receiving their
+communication from Maracaibo, he had been on the watch.
+
+"And he tells me, Andy, that there has been no new development since he
+wrote. So that fear of yours must be set at rest. Just depend on it,
+we're in this game to win out, and your dear father is going to be
+found," Frank went on.
+
+Presently they were deep in conversation. The boys found Señor José a
+very intelligent gentleman indeed. He had spent some years in Washington
+in connection with the embassy of his government, so that he not only
+spoke and wrote English well, but had a high opinion of Americans;
+something that the vast majority of his fellow-countrymen failed to
+acquire, being possibly fed on stories that may have had their inception
+in German or English trade sources.
+
+From him Frank extracted all the information he could concerning the
+wonderful country lying between Magangue and the Isthmus of Panama,
+covering possibly some three hundred miles. It was little enough. Most
+of it, he declared was a _terra incognita_, being utterly unknown land.
+
+"But," continued the obliging señor, "you will certainly be able to
+learn more concerning this when you see my fellow-countryman, Señor
+Mendoza; for all his life has he lived there at Magangue, and surely he
+must know something of that country to the south."
+
+"We shall leave here with as little delay as possible," observed
+Frank. "I have sent our purser, Manuel, to comply with the custom
+duties, and secure us a few supplies. When he comes aboard again we
+expect to start."
+
+"It is just as well," remarked the other, significantly, and seeming to
+be relieved. "Because, there is an uneasy feeling in Barranquila just
+at present. Agents of the revolutionary junta have been here. They are
+very active. And from secret sources I happen to know that they are
+aware of the strange cargo you are bringing with you."
+
+"You must mean our aeroplane, Señor?" remarked Frank, quickly.
+
+"Si, Señor Bird," the other continued, nodding his head. "It has become
+known that the two young Americanos are of the new and wonderful
+aeronauts, with whom nothing is impossible. And if you remained here any
+length of time I fear lest even my government might seek to find some
+excuse for appropriating your little airship. The talk is all in that
+direction now. Colombia is ripe to take a forward step, and have an
+aviation corps."
+
+"Well," said Frank, "under the circumstances we would seriously object
+to having our monoplane confiscated now, because upon it we depend
+wholly in our search. But I thought you were perhaps about to warn us to
+look out for these revolutionists while passing up the river."
+
+"It would be wise, Señor," observed the amiable Colombian
+ex-diplomat. "They have agents here; and I happen to know that one is
+even now on the wharf, observing. Possibly he seeks to communicate with
+some spy who chances to be a member of your crew. So you see, it must
+pay you to be always on your guard, and prepared!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+NIPPED IN THE BUD.
+
+"There comes Manuel!" remarked Andy, after they had been nearly an hour
+talking on the deck of the little power boat.
+
+"Yes," remarked his cousin, who was also on the watch, "and trailing
+behind him I can see several native carts containing fruits and new
+supplies. Manuel surely means that we shall not go hungry while on the
+river."
+
+"Then I shall be going, my friends," said Señor José. "I have told you
+all I know. I have warned you to beware of the revolutionists along the
+river bank. I have even given you a hint that to delay longer in
+Barranquila might endanger your enterprise; since the government is just
+now very anxious to acquire such wonderful modern agents of warfare, as
+your aeroplane. It only remains to shake your hands, both,
+_amigos_, and wish you every good fortune your valor deserves."
+
+They squeezed the hand of the fine old Colombian gentleman with
+vigor. Never would Andy forget how he had spoken concerning his interest
+in the sacred duty that had brought the son of the missing aeronaut to
+his country.
+
+Frank had given strict orders that none of the crew should go ashore,
+and also that no strangers be permitted to board the craft while they
+lay there at the old wooden wharf.
+
+"But," said Andy, when they were speaking about this matter, as
+preparations began to leave the port, "that hasn't prevented the crew
+from holding an animated confab with those ashore. There has been a
+constant jabbering and laughing between our fellows and those others."
+
+"Yes," admitted Frank, "and I've seen several of the crew talking
+mysteriously with some of those chaps. I wish now the señor had thought
+to indicate which was the secret agent of the revolutionists he saw on
+the dock. But all the same I've marked the two fellows I suspect, and
+I'm going to keep a close eye on Enrique, and the little fellow with the
+quick motions we call 'Cospita,' because he's forever ejaculating like
+that."
+
+"And if you find out that they're meddling with the boxes?" asked Andy.
+
+"H'm! I guess it'll be a bad day for Enrique and the jumping-jack,
+that's all," laughed his cousin. "But there goes the cable, and it looks
+like we might be off at last."
+
+"I'm not sorry, for many things!" declared Andy, with a sigh of positive
+relief. "The good señor got me scared by what he said about his
+government wanting just such things as our little 'Bug'; and that the
+officials might have orders to find some sort of ridiculous excuse for
+grabbing it."
+
+"Same here," admitted Frank. "In fact, that bothered me a whole lot more
+than the chances of trouble along the river from the boys who want to
+get their man seated in the president's chair, where he could hand out
+the loaves and the fishes. We can resist them, and be backed by
+authority; but if the government officers once took us in we'd have to
+give up our job. And that would break your heart, Andy."
+
+"Yes," said the other, drawing a long breath, "I'm afraid it
+would. Listen! There goes the whistle. I told the pilot not to make more
+fuss than he could help when we drew out."
+
+"Which was quite right. I'm watching that little chap, Cospita. See him
+wave his hand to some one ashore? Yes, and that surely looked like a
+signal the fellow returned. We are going to have trouble with that boy
+yet, Andy."
+
+"Well, that will be bad for Cospita," was all the other remarked; for he
+was eagerly watching the growing space between the boat and the shore.
+
+"Look, Frank," he remarked, after a little time had elapsed, "as sure as
+you live, there is an officer in uniform just arrived on the dock, and
+backed by a squad of soldiers! He seems to be surprised at discovering
+that we have gone! Now he beckons, and waves his hat! Listen to him
+shouting something in Spanish through his hands. I guess we didn't get
+away from Barranquila five minutes too soon!"
+
+"It looks like it," said Frank, grimly. "But we've complied with the
+law of the land, and nothing short of a cannon could make us turn back
+now. All the same, I'm going to the pilot house, and keep an eye on
+Felipe. I think he's trustworthy; but an ounce of prevention is better
+than a pound of cure always."
+
+"Good for you!" Andy shot after his departing chum; though he himself
+remained there by the rail, watching what took place ashore.
+
+Frank quickly entered the pilot house. Here a dark-faced, middle-aged
+man handled the wheel. Frank immediately noticed that he was listening
+to what the gold braided officer ashore was shouting angrily. He also
+looked a bit troubled.
+
+"What does he say, Felipe?" demanded the young aviator.
+
+"He commands us to return, señor," replied the other.
+
+"Well, pay no attention to him, Felipe. We have complied with all the
+regulations and red tape necessary. The American consul will back us
+up. It is your business to simply steer this boat up the river until we
+arrive at Magangue."
+
+"Si, señor. But when I return they will surely make the trouble for me,"
+replied the pilot, shrugging his narrow shoulders.
+
+"Not at all, Felipe," declared Frank. "You can swear that we made you
+do as we wished; that you dared not turn back, since your life was in
+danger. We stand ready to shoulder all the blame there is."
+
+The dusky face of the old river pilot, whom they had fortunately run
+across in Maracaibo, became wreathed in a smile.
+
+"Perhaps the young señor would not mind showing the Capitan?" he
+suggested.
+
+Frank grasped his meaning; and pretending to scowl darkly, he drew out
+the revolver which Colonel Josiah had made him promise to carry while
+down in this explosive country.
+
+"Now, Felipe," he said, as he clapped the weapon deliberately against
+the head of the pilot, "your gay Capitan can easily see what I am doing,
+and will understand what it means. You keep right on up-river; and if
+you dare disobey it will be bad for you, Felipe!"
+
+The shrewd old pilot tried to smother an expansive grin as he replied:
+
+"Si, señor, I am in your hands; do with me what you will. I dare not
+refuse longer. See, I have made one effort to turn about; but you
+threaten, and I give it up. He no longer calls. He knows old Felipe is
+powerless. It is well!"
+
+Frank stood by him until the wharf was dimmed by distance. Then he
+hastened to rejoin his cousin and chum, who was mightily pleased to hear
+all about it.
+
+"Do you think they will chase after us?" queried Andy, still worried.
+
+"Oh! I guess not. It isn't so serious as all that. They know they can
+get us when we come down the river, no doubt," replied Frank,
+carelessly.
+
+"Then I'll care precious little what becomes of the Bug," observed Andy,
+with a sigh of relief.
+
+"I suppose you mean that by that time you'll either have found your
+father; or else given up the search as hopeless. Is that it, old
+fellow?" Frank asked.
+
+"Yes, one or the other. And now, we've got time to remember the other
+warning good old Señor José gave us."
+
+"About the revolutionists trying to stop us on the way and get our
+cargo? Yes," Frank went on, "that must be on our minds constantly. I'm
+going to talk with old Felipe about it soon. I have a hunch that he can
+be depended on to back us up, for he's got a grudge against the man
+these fellows want to send back into the presidential chair. Señor José
+told me Felipe lost all his family through the persecution of that man
+and his party."
+
+"A bully good thing to know," assented Andy. "For we can be dead sure of
+Felipe all the time; and through him get pointers about the rest of the
+crew. There are a few goats among the sheep, and when we make sure of
+it, I'm just going to pay them off, and chuck them ashore in any old
+place."
+
+"Now that's what I call a clever scheme," Frank declared. "They would
+have no kick coming, because, you see, no Spanish American could ever
+complain of getting his wages without having to do any work!"
+
+"I guess not," Andy remarked, grinning assent.
+
+Upon further conference it was decided to divide the day and night into
+watches, so that one of them could be on deck and alert all of the time,
+while the other secured some sleep.
+
+Treachery, they knew, would be likely to crop out during the night
+time. Those on board may have found some means of telling their
+confederates ashore about what time the boat would reach a given
+point. And by means of some native method of telegraphing, such as by
+means of wigwag flags, or "smokes," the news could be hurried up the
+river much in advance of the vessel that was butting against the strong
+current of the swollen Magdalena.
+
+Then Frank went forward to have a long talk with the trusty pilot. He
+took Felipe into his confidence, telling him for the first time all
+about their sacred mission to this region of Colombia. And in this way,
+as well as by promising to double his regular wages, Frank quite won the
+old fellow's heart.
+
+In return Felipe was able to give his employer considerable valuable
+information connected with the crew. Frank mentioned no names, and hence
+he was satisfied that he had made no mistake in his calculations, when
+among the list of "suspects" given by the pilot, both Enrique and little
+"Cospita" were included.
+
+"We must get rid of them both as soon as possible," he announced. "So
+just before night sets in, draw the boat to shore near some village or
+town. Then I shall pay both men off, get their signatures to the fact,
+and insist on their going ashore. Meanwhile, as you find opportunity,
+post a few of the faithful ones to the fact that we suspect them of
+being insurrectoes."
+
+Felipe declared that the idea was superb. He was growing more and more
+fond of these venturesome young Americanos, who were so generous, so
+brave, and who had come all this great distance, actuated by such a
+noble purpose. So many a man may easily feel when his salary has been
+unexpectedly doubled.
+
+During the balance of that afternoon the two young aviators continued to
+alternately sit upon the deck, and wander about the boat, watching
+things. Frank had the precious aeroplane locked up in the spacious
+lazerette, which being also used as a storeroom for extra supplies, that
+the circumstance need not be looked upon as singular.
+
+"I'm determined that no ill may happen to that machine, if I can help
+it," he said to his chum, when speaking of what he had had done.
+
+And Andy, of course, fully endorsed his course.
+
+So the sun began to draw closer to the western horizon, represented by
+the distant mountains where the chief inland town of the province,
+Sabanalarga, lay.
+
+Felipe had spoken of a place on the eastern bank of the river, where
+they could draw in, and put the two suspects ashore. And Frank told Andy
+to back him up in what he was about to do.
+
+"There's the town ahead, only a little place, but it answers our
+purpose, for they can never say we deserted them in the howling
+wilderness," and Frank, who had been counting out some money, started to
+make his way down to the waist of the vessel, where most of the crew had
+gathered, wondering what the object of the landing might be.
+
+Enrique and "Cospita" were surely very much astonished and alarmed when
+told that their services were needed no longer--that it was ascertained
+they were carrying too many men; and also that they were to receive full
+pay for the time they had engaged.
+
+Of course they started to make objections, and the air was filled with
+various excited exclamations; but Frank proved as firm as adamant, and
+showed the automatic revolver sticking from his pocket all the while, a
+fact that kept the two men from venturing to do more than shout.
+
+Clutching their money they were pushed ashore by members of the crew,
+who doubtless could give a pretty good guess as to what the whole thing
+meant, since they had talked with Felipe.
+
+"A good riddance of bad rubbish!" declared Andy, as the boat again
+started up the river, leaving a pair of yelling natives behind, making
+all sorts of furious gestures with both arms.
+
+"Yes," pursued Frank, reflectively, "and if we wanted any more evidence
+that we nipped a conspiracy to seize the vessel in the bud, there it is
+in their anger at being paid for not working. Nothing like that was ever
+known before down in this country, as Felipe says. And now, Andy, I
+feel that we're another step nearer the carrying out of your great
+task."
+
+"Oh! I hope so," said the other, his face marked by an eagerness that
+told of the one sole wish of his youthful heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE.
+
+Frank took the first watch.
+
+It was to begin about ten o'clock that night; for both of them had
+remained on deck, talking, up to that hour. The night was so comfortable
+after the hot day that they disliked going into the sleeping
+quarters. These happened to face the deck, however, so that the vessel
+was admirably suited to cruising in tropical regions.
+
+"Every thing seems to be going on decently right now," remarked Andy,
+yawning, as he prepared to have a few hours' sleep.
+
+"That's so," returned his chum. "But while we've got some of the
+faithful ones on duty, we mustn't forget that there may be other snakes
+aboard. Enrique and the little shouter may not have been all the
+sympathizers with the revolutionists. And not for a minute will we relax
+our vigilance."
+
+That was Frank's way; and just now Andy fully approved of it. His heart
+was so set upon having a chance to use the monoplane in the endeavor to
+discover that strange cliff-enclosed valley, where his father was
+imprisoned, that he did not mean to take any chances of losing out
+through over confidence.
+
+So he packed off to his berth, while Frank prepared for three hours of
+lonely vigil. He expected to make the rounds just about once in so
+often, and have a few words with the man at the wheel. Felipe had
+declared that it was his intention to keep busy himself through the
+night, since he dared not trust the wheel in the hands of an
+inexperienced pilot while darkness lasted.
+
+In the morning he could give directions, and allow an assistant to do
+the work, while he secured some rest.
+
+There was no moon after early in the evening, when the young queen of
+the night disappeared in the west, leaving the bright stars to control
+the skies.
+
+The boat continued to make good headway against the current, though at
+this season of the year the Magdalena is bank full with the summer
+rains, which fall almost every afternoon in a deluge.
+
+A searchlight sent a dazzling shaft of light far ahead on the troubled
+surface of the booming flood. This was an absolute necessity, for
+otherwise it would have been too dangerous bucking against that tide;
+laden as the river was with floating tree trunks of gigantic size, that
+had been swept from their resting-places in the lowlands above.
+
+Once Frank had seen a wild animal crouched on one of these great
+logs. The boat passed so very close to the floating refuge of the beast
+that ere darkness claimed the strange craft with its stranger cargo,
+Frank had been able to see the tawny hide of the crouching beast, and
+note the quick, jerky motion of its long tail.
+
+Upon hurrying to the pilot house and making inquiries of Felipe he
+learned that, just as he suspected, the animal was a jaguar, the most
+feared inhabitant of the tropical forests away off at the headwaters of
+the Magdalena and Orinoco rivers.
+
+There was a spice of peril hovering over the progress of the little boat
+during every hour of that night. It might come in the sudden leap of a
+wild animal, that judged any port would be better than a floating
+log. Then there was a chance of their running afoul of a monster
+derelict, in the shape of a drifting snag, that might punch a hole in
+their bow, and bring about trouble.
+
+On top of all was this unseen peril from the revolutionists, who were
+making the Magdalena country the center of their renewed activity, for
+some reason or other, and had their minds set on securing the first
+aeroplane ever known to be in Colombia.
+
+The time passed away. When three hours had really gone, and all seemed
+well, Frank awoke his chum. Generous to a fault, he might have held out
+much longer, for he did not feel exhausted; but Andy, who knew him like
+a book, had made him promise faithfully, on his word of honor, that he
+would arouse him at exactly the time agreed upon.
+
+"Everything lovely, and the goose hangs high!" Frank said, as the other
+joined him presently on deck.
+
+"That's good," replied Andy. "And as it is now one o'clock, with no
+trouble doing, looks good to me that we'll pull through the night
+without a mess."
+
+"You never can tell," observed the careful Frank. "And the only way to
+do is to act just as if you felt positive something was bound to crop
+up."
+
+"I know it," came the reply, as Andy started to walk up and down a bit,
+so as to get the last remnant of drowsiness out of his system.
+
+For an hour he found little trouble in keeping awake. He made frequent
+trips to where Felipe stood at his wheel, his keen eyes keeping constant
+vigil ahead, in order that he might steer clear of such snags as
+threatened to stove a hole in the hull of the steam yacht.
+
+Now and then Andy could see one of the crew moving about; but as some of
+them must have duties to perform, even in the night, he did not look
+upon this as a suspicious circumstance. Only, he made sure that no one
+wandered in the near vicinity of the locked lazerette, where the
+precious monoplane lay, securely crated.
+
+In some places the river proved much narrower than in others. And, of
+course, it was here they had their greatest trouble. The current was
+increased, for one thing. Then the floating objects swept forward with
+more speed, so that it required additional dexterity in order to avoid
+them.
+
+But old Felipe knew his business well. Andy believed they had made no
+mistake in leaving matters fully in his hands.
+
+It was about the end of his second hour that the pilot volunteered some
+information that gave Andy more or less uneasiness.
+
+"Just ahead, young señor," he said, when for the fifth time the boy
+entered his deck pilot house, "we come to the narrowest place in the
+whole river at this section. And there, if anywhere, I expect that they
+will be waiting for us."
+
+"Do you mean the revolutionists?" exclaimed Andy, interested instantly.
+
+"No other, señor. If we manage to get past there, all will be well. But
+they may be encamped on both shores, and demand that we draw in under
+penalty of being fired on," Felipe went on, without removing his
+snapping black eyes for even a single second from the ever-moving
+panorama of shifting water and floating debris, that the searchlight
+disclosed ahead of the laboring boat.
+
+"But nothing must tempt us to obey; no matter if they send volleys
+aboard. The distance is too far for them to do much damage; and I hear
+they are as a rule pretty punk shooters."
+
+Felipe may hardly have known what that word meant, but he could give a
+guess.
+
+"But sometimes, young señor, they even have cannon!" he remarked.
+
+"You don't say!" ejaculated Andy, in new alarm; but he quickly caught
+himself, and went on. "Let 'em try it then. We'll just shut off the
+searchlight, and take our chances for a while with the old floaters on
+the river. Then perhaps they won't see anything to bang away
+at. Anyhow, just make up your mind, Felipe, we don't haul in, not while
+the blessed old tub keeps above water."
+
+"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,
+señor. 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.
+
+"It's a fire, all right, Frank," he said, as they negotiated the bend,
+and opened up a new vista ahead.
+
+"Yes, that's so for a fact," returned his chum. "And notice, will you,
+Andy, how old Felipe has managed to keep over well toward the port
+shore. He sized up the situation all right, and knew how to act."
+
+"Yes, Felipe tells me he used to serve in the army. Many a battle he has
+been through, not only in Colombia, but in other countries as well. He
+was once something of a soldier of fortune. But where are you going,
+Frank?" as his comrade started to leave him.
+
+"I must warn the crew to keep out of sight, or they may be hit, if there
+happens to be any shooting going on," called the other, over his
+shoulder.
+
+He found that every member of the crew seemed to be awake, as if they
+had talked the situation over, and also guessed where the trouble would
+lie in wait for the venturesome young Americano señors.
+
+So Frank gave his warning, and saw that they obeyed. While they were in
+his employ he felt a certain degree of interest in these ragged fellows,
+and did not wish to be held responsible for any damage they might
+receive, if inclined to be reckless at times.
+
+When he once more reached Andy's side the latter was looking through a
+pair of marine glasses they had fetched along, thinking they would prove
+especially valuable in scrutinizing the country over which they might be
+passing in the aeroplane.
+
+"They're our friends, the revolutionists, I reckon," he announced. "I
+can see several who carry big swords that dangle around their heels. And
+the common soldiers, while they have little if any uniforms, and some of
+them no shoes, seem to all have guns in their hands. Here, look and
+tell me what that is on the little rise. I'm afraid our worst fears are
+going to come true."
+
+"Well, you're right, Andy," replied the other, after he had clapped the
+binoculars to his eyes. "That's a cannon, all the same, and they're
+getting ready to shoot!"
+
+"Oh! my! It makes a fellow's flesh just creep, to think of being banged
+away at with a great big cannon!" declared Andy.
+
+"This one isn't so very big, I think. And now we're nearly opposite
+where the fire burns. They're going to make a move to show their
+hand. Drop down flat on the deck, Andy--quick with you!" and Frank, as
+he spoke, set the example himself.
+
+Hardly had the two boys thus thrown themselves down than there was a
+heavy boom, accompanied by a brilliant flash of fire from the shore.
+
+The revolutionists had fired upon the little steam yacht!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+A GREAT SURPRISE.
+
+"Wow! now, what do you think of that?" exclaimed Andy, raising his
+head, just as one of the big turtles native to these warm waters might
+thrust his out of his shell.
+
+"Why, that was only a warning to bring us up short, and pay attention!"
+declared Frank. "Because, as you saw, the ball splashed the water ahead
+of our bow."
+
+"But Frank, we don't mean to head across?" cried Andy, getting up on his
+knees, the better to see.
+
+"To be sure we don't. That was all settled long ago; and you notice that
+our good Felipe is still keeping her nose headed straight upstream. Now
+out goes the searchlight, just as we arranged. Wonder what they'll think
+that means!"
+
+"Perhaps they'll believe they knocked it overboard with that shot!"
+suggested Andy, who could joke, even when facing troubles as thick as a
+sea fog.
+
+"Listen!" Frank exclaimed, "there's a chap with a pair of leather lungs,
+shouting a lot of gibberish. I suppose he's demanding our surrender, and
+threatening to blow us to smithereens if we decline to believe him."
+
+"One good thing is that each minute takes us further up the river, and
+every foot counts in this game of runaway. Already we're past where the
+gun stands; and those fellows are working like fun to get her turned
+around, so as to point after us. While they load we're doing more
+stunts. Yes, and Frank, we're leaving 'em in the lurch, I do believe."
+
+"Sure thing," returned Frank, composedly, "only both of us want to duck
+when it looks time for the blamed old gun to bang again. They mean
+business from the word go, now, and will shoot to hit! By some accident
+it might run afoul of the boat, and splinters fly. There, get ready to
+drop, Andy! It's coming!"
+
+It certainly was, for immediately another flash sprang up, accompanied
+by the same deep bellow, as the fieldpiece was discharged. No doubt,
+while it may have been rather out of date in pattern, the cannon was
+good enough to have done savage execution, handled by expert German or
+French gunners.
+
+But there did not seem to be any such among the rag-and-bobtail army of
+the new aspirant for the presidency of Colombia. At any rate, the
+missile whizzed and whined past the retreating boat, missing her by
+yards.
+
+"Bully!" shouted Andy, jumping up and cutting a few pigeon wings on the
+deck to illustrate just how pleased he was. "By the time they're ready
+to let her off again we'll be nearly out of range. And from the looks of
+the bank I feel pretty sure they never can catch up with us, toting
+their old gun along."
+
+Three minutes later there came the third report, and they heard the ball
+pass high overhead, proving that the marksmen had entirely lost all
+traces of the boat and simply fired at random.
+
+"That settles it," said Frank, decisively.
+
+"Do you think so?" asked his chum, joyously.
+
+"No question about it, Andy. Like the government official on the wharf
+at Barranquila, they realize that the game didn't work, and if they want
+to get us they'll have to lay some new plans when we come back
+again. But we're not bothering our heads about that, you know."
+
+"Never even cut a chip off our boat!" declared Andy.
+
+"Well, I'm going back and get the rest of my nap. Wake me up at four,
+remember. I want the last watch," and Frank dove within his stateroom
+with as much seeming indifference as though this thing of being fired
+upon with fieldpieces might be an everyday occurrence in his experience.
+
+Morning dawned upon the Magdalena. Frank was on duty at the time and
+drank in the lovely picture. Birds flew overhead, cranes arose from
+along the shallows in near the shore, where they had been fishing for
+their breakfast, and there were many strange feathered creatures to be
+seen, such as the boy had never up to now set eyes upon.
+
+Some of the crew were trailing fish lines astern and every now and then
+a prize would be hauled aboard, which later on might afford a meal for
+passengers and workers.
+
+Andy soon made his appearance, the rising sun having sent a few slant
+rays into his sleeping quarters and aroused him by falling on his face.
+
+"This is something like, eh, Frank?" he remarked, as he drew in a big
+breath of the bracing morning air.
+
+"I should remark, yes," was the other's reply.
+
+"We've apparently left all our dangers behind," Andy ventured. "That is,
+I mean there's little likelihood of our being robbed of our precious
+machine now, with both government officials and envious revolutionists
+left in the lurch."
+
+"I was just asking Felipe and he says we shall have another day and
+night of bucking up against this nasty current. You see, Andy, it's on
+an unusually big bender right now, which makes it doubly hard to fight
+it."
+
+"Oh, well, what can't be cured must be endured, I guess. So I'll try to
+take it as easy as I may and be thankful it's no worse," Andy replied.
+
+The morning passed without any event worth mentioning. And all the while
+they kept steadily at the business of eating up some of the two hundred
+miles that Felipe assured them lay between Magangue and the city at the
+mouth of the big river.
+
+Another thing was worrying Andy, however. He finally broached the
+subject to his comrade knowing that in this way he would get relief.
+
+"That blessed old engine has been doing bully for a long time now,
+Frank, but judging from past experiences, she's due for another sulky
+fit soon. Whatever would we do if she let down all of a sudden, while we
+were right in the worst kind of a swift current? My! we'd be carried
+miles downstream before we could do anything."
+
+"Oh, no we wouldn't!" remarked the other, smiling.
+
+"Then you've been thinking it all over and made ready to offset a balk,
+I bet anything," declared Andy, with vehemence.
+
+"Do you see that anchor forward?" asked Frank, pointing from where they
+stood on the raised deck aft. "Well, that's got a good long stout chain
+attached and is placed where a kick will send it over. Notice old Quita
+squatting close by? Think he's taking a snooze, he seems so quiet? But
+all the time the old chap's on the alert, and he has his orders, too."
+
+"To upset the anchor over the bow, you mean?" asked Andy.
+
+"Just that," came Frank's reply. "If anything happens to the machinery
+you'll hear a series of quick whistles from Felipe. The boat won't even
+have a chance to lose headway before over plumps the big mudhook, and
+we'll just take a rest out in the river until repairs can be made again
+by Engineer McClintock and his assistants."
+
+Andy looked at his chum admiringly.
+
+"Blessed if you don't just think of everything!" he said; "and get
+ready long before it happens. However do you do it, Frank?"
+
+"Oh, it's easy, once you make up your mind," laughed the other. "I took
+to it long before this new Boy Scout movement started. You know they've
+got as their leading motto the words: 'Be prepared.' And there never was
+a better slogan ever given to boys. Think how many things might be
+avoided if we were always prepared."
+
+"Yes, I've given the subject much thought," grumbled Andy; "but somehow
+I seem to slip up when it comes to the critical time. I stay awake
+eleven hours, and just when I doze off in the twelfth watch the blamed
+thing happens! It's always that way, seems to me. How can a fellow stay
+awake all the time, tell me that?"
+
+"Oh, rats! There's no need of that. Just fix things so you'll be aroused
+when it comes along, and be ready to turn the tables."
+
+So they talked away into the afternoon. The engine seemed to be on its
+best behavior. McClintock, the Scotch engineer, who was the only
+foreigner aboard besides the boys, reported that he was beginning to
+have more faith in the machinery. The work of the last twenty odd hours
+had certainly been a pretty heavy tax on it and everything seemed to be
+going like clockwork.
+
+"I only hope it'll keep up, then," said Andy. "One more night is all I
+ask. Then Felipe promises to have us at our journey's end, when I can
+see and talk to the very man who picked up that wonderful little
+parachute, with its message from the unknown valley among the cliffs. I
+wish the time was here right now."
+
+"Felipe, by the way, is taking his rest now," said Frank, after a little
+time; "for he expects another night on duty. We still meet many tree
+trunks sweeping down on the current. The man at the wheel has to keep on
+guard constantly. Look at that tremendous one, will you, Andy? And just
+notice how dense the forest is ashore around here. How any one can get
+around at all beats me. I should think they'd have to keep their
+machetes busy all the time cutting the matted vines away."
+
+"I understand they do," the other went on. "And I rather guess that
+there's hardly a country under the sun where an aeroplane would be of
+more real benefit than right here in the tropics. Think of avoiding all
+that tangle--of floating along, a mile a minute if you wanted, far above
+the tree tops and away from all such a muss."
+
+"You're right," agreed Frank, fervently. "And it's the only way any one
+could ever hope to discover this strange prison of your father. From a
+distance of a thousand feet we can have a big range of vision. With our
+good glass it will not be hard to discover the cliffs, if only we figure
+out in which direction we can have the best chance. And I think I've got
+a scheme ready to manage that."
+
+"I depend on you to do it," said Andy. "Alone by myself I would simply
+despair of ever learning anything worth while. But while you are along I
+just feel that we're going to succeed."
+
+"I ought to thank you for saying that, but I won't," Frank
+declared. "Because it makes me tremble for my reputation as a prophet."
+
+"But you have seen nothing to make you less confident, I hope?" cried
+the other.
+
+"To be sure I haven't," replied Frank, readily enough. "On the other
+hand, I ought to feel better satisfied than ever, because we've managed
+to outwit every cause for trouble that has cropped up this far. We'll
+get through this coming night without accident, because we're ready for
+anything. Then, when another day dawns, we'll haul in at Magangua, to
+hunt José Mendoza up and hear what he can tell us about the parachute
+that fell among his cocoa trees."
+
+"Hark! what ails the men forward?" exclaimed Andy just then.
+
+They sprang to their feet and rushed to where they could see what was
+going on.
+
+"Perhaps a mutiny!" exclaimed Frank, who could not tell what queer thing
+was ever going to happen down in this land, the people of which were so
+different from all whom he had ever known before.
+
+Andy uttered a low cry of alarm and began to fumble for the revolver
+Colonel Josiah had made him promise to always carry on his person, once
+they reached the country of revolutions.
+
+The first sight they obtained told them that something unusual had
+indeed happened. A number of the native crew were in range of their
+vision, but every man had fallen flat on his face and seemed to be
+cowering there as if afraid.
+
+"What in the dickens is it?" gasped Andy.
+
+"I don't know. They are a scared lot, that's sure! Perhaps they saw a
+sea serpent alongside! It couldn't be that a jaguar has boarded us. No,
+look at old Quito, how he lifts his head and takes a terrified look!
+Why, he seems to be observing something up above in the heavens as sure
+as you live!"
+
+As Frank shot out these words he, too, bent his head back to scan the
+brazen sky above. A cry broke from his lips.
+
+"Why, what under the sun does it mean?" exclaimed Andy, who had also
+turned his eyes heavenward to discover a strange thing speeding over the
+tops of the trees, one, two thousand feet high, and at the same time
+there came to his ears a familiar throbbing that could have but one
+meaning.
+
+"An aeroplane!" he burst forth in thrilling tones; "and the sillies down
+there think it's just a frightfully big bird about to carry them
+off. Hey, Frank, perhaps the government has got one of the new
+contraptions after all!"
+
+"Go slow," said Frank. "Suppose you look a bit closer, my boy. Isn't
+there something familiar about that same craft up yonder?"
+
+"It's--it's a biplane, Frank!" gurgled Andy.
+
+"Yes, and one you've set eyes on before, too, old fellow. It belongs
+to--"
+
+"Puss Carberry!" burst from Andy's quivering lips, as he continued to
+stare, as if almost unable to believe his own eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+THE "DEVIL-BIRD."
+
+"Yes, Puss Carberry and his crony, Sandy Hollingshead!" declared Frank,
+positively.
+
+"But, it seems impossible! All these hundreds and hundreds of miles away
+from old Bloomsbury and Puss Carberry floating over us! Sure I must be
+dreaming, Frank!" stammered the other, still gaping up at the rapidly
+passing aircraft.
+
+"No, you're just as wideawake as ever you were in all your sweet life,"
+said Frank. "Take a better look, Andy; don't you see now that it's the
+same biplane we raced with the day Sandy dropped that bag of sand,
+hoping to break our winning streak in the dash for Old Thunder Top?"
+
+"Anyhow it's a ringer for it, I give you my word!" muttered the stunned
+boy.
+
+Frank, with an exclamation of impatience, sprang forward and snatched
+something up that had just caught his attention. This proved to be the
+fine field glasses that had been brought along on the adventure.
+
+These he clapped to his eye, and as they were already fitted and adapted
+to his sight, he lost not a second in covering the passing aeroplane.
+
+"Look for yourself, my boy!" he cried, handing the binoculars over to
+Andy, who hastily raised them.
+
+"Well, I declare, that settles it!" ejaculated that individual
+immediately.
+
+"You recognize them, then?" asked Frank.
+
+"It's Puss as sure as thunder. I can see him plain. The other is just
+out of line, but there's something about his figure that makes me ready
+to say it's our old friend, Sandy," Andy replied, amazement still
+gripping him tightly.
+
+"Well," Frank observed, "after all, the only queer thing about it is our
+glimpsing them so soon. We knew they were headed down this way
+somewhere, but they made quicker time than our best. And just to think
+that they're the first to fly an aeroplane along the region of the
+Magdalena."
+
+"Huh! they beat us up in the air that other time, yet when it came to a
+showdown, we left 'em at the stake!"
+
+Andy was beginning to recover his breath, and with it came renewed
+confidence.
+
+"Do you see anything in the actions of Puss that would indicate he had
+recognized us aboard this boat?" asked Frank, for the other still kept
+the glasses glued to his eyes.
+
+"No, I don't," replied Andy, presently. "You see they're awful high
+right now, and without glasses they could never make us out down here."
+
+"I guess you're right," was Frank's decision. "Perhaps it's just as
+well, for there's never any telling what mean trick those fellows have
+got up their sleeve."
+
+Andy suddenly removed the glasses and a sudden pallor seemed to cross
+his face.
+
+"Oh, Frank!" he cried, "you don't believe they'd ever be so wicked as to
+try and stop us from searching for my father, do you? Bad as Puss
+Carberry is, I can't just believe he'd ever do that."
+
+"Well, I hope not," returned the other, but there was a trifling vein of
+doubt in his voice, for he had long ago ceased trying to figure to what
+depth of depravity those two schemers might descend.
+
+"But where do you suppose they came from right now, Frank?"
+
+"That would be hard to tell," Frank replied. "The first you saw of them
+they were sailing up over yonder. Then the chances are they have
+quartered themselves at some town, perhaps on the river, and that this
+is just their first flight--a sort of look over the country."
+
+"Yes," said Andy, "they're circling right now as though they mean to
+head back again."
+
+"Well, you can't blame them much," Frank ventured, watching the actions
+of the aviators above with keenest interest. "Night isn't so very far
+away, and I should think a fellow would hardly feel like being caught
+out after dark down here in an airship."
+
+"Well, hardly," Andy smiled. "Curfew must ring for us every time. Fancy
+dropping plump in the middle of such a jumble of forest as that is
+yonder, and I bet you it's just cram full of snakes, jaguars and
+everything else that would want to snuggle up to a poor birdboy dropped
+out of the clouds. Me for daylight when I go sailing down in this
+blessed region."
+
+"Look, the men are beginning to recover from their fright," remarked
+Frank in low tones. "There's old Quito sitting up now and commencing his
+everlasting jabbering with the others. See him point to the biplane and
+then to us, Andy."
+
+"Say, the sharp old coon is getting a pointer on us. He's telling his
+chums right now that the thing we've got stored away in the lazerette is
+just such a big bird as that going away over yonder. Am I right, Frank?"
+
+"You never said a truer thing. But they were certainly a badly rattled
+crowd for a time. And we can hardly blame the poor fellows, for what
+could they think but that it was a tremendous bird of prey, looking them
+over with an eye to grub?"
+
+Frank laughed a little as though the recollection of the fright of the
+crew would always seem more or less ludicrous.
+
+They sat there and watched until the mysterious biplane had completely
+disappeared in the hazy distance that marked the coming of evening.
+
+"You don't think then," asked Andy, when it had vanished from view,
+"that Puss and his biplane could have fallen into the hands of the
+Colombia authorities and that they're using it for scouting to learn the
+movements of these ragged revolutionists?"
+
+"No, I don't," was Frank's quick response. "You said you could
+positively make out Puss at the wheel, and I'm almost sure it was Sandy
+with him. They must have slipped into the country without giving their
+secret away. Trust sly Puss for knowing how to do that sort of
+thing. He never goes around with a brass band, telling what big things
+he has on tap."
+
+"That's right. Why, just think, not a soul knew about his old biplane
+until he had it about done. We were working in the open almost, telling
+much of our plans, but Puss pretended to be mighty envious and asked
+questions, when all the time he was meaning to beat us out. Of course,
+he could get into Colombia without giving his secret away. You don't
+need to tell me, Frank, you're surprised at that."
+
+"No more I am. But there goes the sun. How quick it seems to drop out
+of sight down here," Frank remarked.
+
+"Sure," laughed his cousin, "but all the same I fail to hear any
+bang. You remember the Irish immigrant who heard the sunset gun at a
+military post in America for the first time and on being told that it
+denoted sunset, innocently exclaimed, 'Sure, the sun niver goes down in
+Ould Ireland wid a bang like thot!" But already the dusk is creeping
+out of the dense woods on to the river. And I'm getting hungry. It must
+be near supper time. I wonder what the folks up home are doing right
+now?"
+
+"Just what we are, likely--waiting to hear a welcome sound that will
+call them in to feed. And there comes little Pepito to blow the conch
+shell that he uses for a dinner bell. Come, Andy, get a move on
+you. Another night and then we are going to do business at the old
+stand. It will be just fine to soar above this strange country and see
+for miles and miles--mountains, valleys, rivers, tropical forests, and
+everything that we've never looked down on before."
+
+The two young aviators went into the cabin for supper. They fared very
+well insofar as food was concerned. Of course, both of them missed the
+home cookery. The native who attended to this part of the program did
+his level best to please, and he certainly had plenty to work with. But
+his Spanish style of serving even the most ordinary dishes of tinned
+meats with a dash of garlic was beginning to pall upon the taste of the
+American lads.
+
+Frank had even started to show him other ways of cooking, and they had
+hopes of converting the cook by slow degrees.
+
+The night was in one sense a repetition of the preceding one. True, they
+would not have to consider being halted by a gathering army of the
+revolutionists, and that was a comfort all around. At the same time
+Frank deemed it necessary that he and his cousin keep watch. And Andy
+was perfectly willing to sacrifice some of his personal comfort for the
+sake of insuring the safety of the precious aeroplane.
+
+It proved just as well that they had so determined. During Frank's
+second term on guard and somewhere around four o'clock, while darkness
+covered the land, he thought he caught a glimpse of a shadow crossing
+the deck, headed in the direction of the lazerette.
+
+He had been lazily reclining on a soft cushion made of several blankets
+and looking up at the silvery stars, but immediately he became fully
+aroused. This might mean danger in some shape toward the aeroplane. And
+no matter, it behooved him to investigate.
+
+So he softly arose to his knees and crept after the shadowy figure.
+
+Cautiously he approached the place where the door belonging to the
+storeroom was to be found. As he advanced thus he could occasionally
+catch a peculiar clicking sound, which he believed must be made by some
+one trying to pick the lock!
+
+The engine of the boat kept up considerable of a racket as it steadily
+worked along without the dreaded hitch. Besides, there was always more
+or less splashing of water against the sides, as they pushed against the
+swift current of the Magdalena. All these things combined to muffle the
+clicking sound frequently, yet during little lulls Frank could catch it
+again.
+
+The tumult also served to deaden any shuffling he may have made while
+creeping toward the lazerette door, and for this Frank was thankful.
+
+It was very gloomy here. A hanging lantern some distance away only
+served to accentuate the gloom apparently. Still, by straining his eyes,
+Frank believed he could just manage to make out a stooping figure at the
+door. Yes, he was certain that it had just moved, and now the peculiar
+clicking was much plainer.
+
+When it stopped he remained perfectly motionless, nor did he again
+commence his creeping forward progress until it started once more.
+
+Frank no longer had the slightest doubt concerning the cause of that
+suspicious clicking. One of the crew was endeavoring to force an
+entrance into the locked lazerette, doubtless with the intention of
+destroying the valuable aeroplane. He might be in league with the
+revolutionists and in this way hoped to prevent the government from
+eventually securing possession of the machine which would put the
+insurrectos out of the running.
+
+But Frank had conceived another idea. He now believed that his fellow
+might have been sent by the crew to destroy the "devil-bird," as they
+undoubtedly considered a contraption that could soar through space as
+fast as the fleetest condor.
+
+No matter. It was his business to put a sudden stop to the action. And
+while doing so he must not be too rough in his dealing with the fellow,
+lest the entire crew rise in revolt.
+
+When he had reached a point that allowed of a leap, Frank suddenly
+sprang forward. He did not know just what he might be up against and had
+even taken from his pocket the splendid new pistol which Colonel Josiah,
+himself a world traveler, had insisted upon giving each of his boys
+before they started on their trip south.
+
+"Surrender!" cried Frank, believing that the very sound of his voice
+would do much toward frightening the would-be traitor.
+
+But he hardly expected such a tremendous upheaval as followed. The man,
+believing that possibly the "devil-bird" had broken out of its cage and
+was about to carry him off in its gigantic beak, gave a shrill scream of
+terror, and bouncing up, broke the slender hold Frank had secured upon
+his person.
+
+Not to be outdone, Frank, recovering, chased after him. He believed it
+his duty to at least learn the identity of the rogue, so that he might
+understand just how deeply the conspiracy had taken root in the crew.
+
+Between himself and the hanging lantern he could make out the fleeing
+figure of the fellow, and hot in pursuit he followed as fast as his feet
+would let him. The man undoubtedly heard him coming, for, if anything,
+his fright increased. Out upon the open deck they flew, Frank just a few
+feet in the rear. He had even stretched out his arm and touched the
+garments of the runner, when with a screech the fellow made a furious
+plunge straight over the side of the boat.
+
+He evidently chose to take chances in the swift current of the Magdalena
+rather than trust himself in the power of the unknown pursuer, which
+doubtless he believed to be the dreaded "devil-bird" that had been
+confined in the box cage!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+THE AIRSHIP LAUNCHED AT LAST.
+
+Frank came near following after the unknown member of the crew, when the
+other made that flying leap over the side of the boat. Not that he
+wanted to take a bath just then, but his forward progress had been
+rapid, and he only saved himself by banging up against the taffrail,
+which was unusually high for so small a vessel, and holding on sturdily.
+
+He had heard the splash as the fellow reached the water. Doubtless he
+was a good swimmer, as about all these natives seemed to be, and barring
+his falling a prey to some loitering alligator or other reptile, he
+would be able to gain the neighboring shore further down.
+
+At any rate it was folly to think of looking for him.
+
+"What's all the row?" cried Andy, as he came plunging forth from his
+stateroom.
+
+Some of the crew were even then looking over the side, and Frank
+imagined they could give a pretty good guess as to what it meant. But
+he heard not a word from even old Quito, and while the absence of a man
+must be noticed in the morning, there would probably be no complaint.
+
+When Andy heard about the attempt to injure the monoplane he was in a
+tremble.
+
+"Did you ever?" he exclaimed. "Why, it seems as though everything just
+wants to knock us. When we give the government officials the merry ha!
+ha! and even slip past the revolutionary army, after being bombarded by
+their old cannon, here even our own men want to smash our precious
+aeroplane, under the belief that it's an evil bird, come to bring bad
+luck to the people."
+
+"Better go back to your bunk and forget it," remarked Frank, who was
+tenderly rubbing his elbow where it had come in contact with the hard
+taffrail at the time he stopped so suddenly, balking at a bath.
+
+"Me? Not on your life, Frank!" declared Andy, with much emphasis. "I'm
+going to take a blanket and just lie down in front of that blessed
+door. Nobody can get in then without walking over my body. And if I
+catch a fellow trying it on, believe me, I'll give him something he
+won't forget in a hurry. It'll be touch and go with him, I bet you."
+
+Which he actually did, much to Frank's secret amusement, camping out
+there on the floor as close to the locked door as he could get, and
+bracing his back up against the same.
+
+But then, fortunately, morning was not so far away and Andy would have
+only a couple of hours, more or less, of his self-imposed labor.
+
+They knew that if the pilot of the river expedition said truly, they
+must even now be drawing near the town of Magangue. Possibly it would
+break upon their vision with the coming of dawn.
+
+Frank himself had no more intention of retiring to his bed than had
+Andy, but continued to keep watch and ward until he saw the first peep
+of daylight over the port side of the vessel.
+
+Then he communicated the glad intelligence to his chum, and together
+they stood there, watching the slow unfolding of dawn. From an ashen
+gray the sky began to be marked with brighter hues; pink flushes
+traveled along in lines that centered in the spot where the sun would
+presently appear, and the gloom of night retreated once more back to its
+hiding places among the mountain passes.
+
+"There's the dinky old town!" cried Andy, pointing with trembling
+finger.
+
+"It is and no mistake," replied Frank, himself experiencing a sensation
+of considerable relief, for at times it had seemed more than doubtful
+whether the little expedition could ever overcome the many difficulties
+that beset its passage up the swollen river.
+
+And so they came to land just as the glorious sun showed his smiling
+face. Andy declared that this was a harbinger of good luck, and his
+cousin chose to readily agree with all he said, for it pleased him to
+see Andy look more like his old self than he had been for many a day.
+
+"Remember, only one of us ashore at a time until we land this cargo,"
+remarked Frank, as they came to bring the boat to the bank, where a
+group of natives waited to see what it all meant, surprise written
+largely on their dark faces.
+
+"That's right," responded the other traveler. "But I'm going to have
+the aeroplane carried out on deck at once, so it can be taken ashore as
+soon as we find where we are at. What we want first of all is to hear
+about our friend, Carlos Mendoza, the cocoa planter. Perhaps he lives
+miles away and we'll have to get some sort of conveyance to tote our
+machine out to his place."
+
+"Yes," observed Frank, "I've been laying out plans along that line. If
+you don't mind I'll drop ashore while you're having the crates brought
+on deck and make inquiries. Even away down here in this wilderness money
+talks. Colonel Josiah told us it did for him in the heart of darkest
+Africa, you know. And a few bolivars will hire all the help we want."
+
+Andy was perfectly agreeable that his companion should have taken upon
+himself the task of engineering things.
+
+"You can always discount me when it comes to bargaining," he said,
+laughingly; "so go ahead and fix things to suit yourself, Frank."
+
+Upon reaching shore, Frank, who had taken old Felipe along with him to
+serve as interpreter, found that Carlos Mendoza had his home just on the
+border of the town, though it was a little distance away. He soon made
+arrangements for hiring a native cart to be used in transporting the
+precious aeroplane.
+
+In less than half an hour they were on the way. The boat had been left
+in charge of McClintock, the Scotch engineer, who would make sure that
+the crew remained on board or lost the wages coming to them.
+
+Both of the boys were so excited that they paid little attention to the
+strange scenes which now surrounded them in the valley town far back in
+the interior of tropical Colombia. Indeed, one might even have suspected
+that they had always been accustomed to living in a region where all
+manner of tropical fruits abounded, coffee and cocoa were raised as
+crops, and birds of brilliant plumage flew overhead.
+
+The truth of the matter was, they knew they would presently come face to
+face with the planter who had actually picked up the little messenger
+sent out of his cliff bordered prison by Professor Bird. And this fact
+set their nerves to trembling with eager anticipations.
+
+In due time the cart on which the aeroplane had been secured, together
+with the luggage which the young aviators wished to carry along, drew up
+before a long, low white building, back of which could be seen orange
+trees and other evidences of a real tropical home.
+
+Their coming must have been noted, for a gentleman was advancing from
+the grove at the rear. Señor Carlos looked surprised at seeing the
+caravan bringing up before his door, but that was as nothing in
+comparison with his amazement upon learning how one of the two young
+Americanos was the same Andrew Bird to whom he had desired his friend,
+Señor Almirez, to forward the strange message picked up in his cocoa
+grove one day several months back.
+
+The boys had learned from Señor José that the owner of the plantation
+could understand English and even speak it fairly well. Thus they had no
+need of fetching Felipe along to act as interpreter.
+
+"Oh, please first of all let me see the remains of the silk parachute
+that was attached to the bark letter!" said Andy, after they had
+conversed for a short time and some of the planter's hired servants had
+unloaded the boxed aeroplane, which was stowed away in a place of
+security.
+
+Doubtless the planter understood the reason for the boy's solicitude. He
+immediately took them inside the house and in another minute had thrust
+into Andy's eager hands a discolored piece of silk, such as is used in
+the making of balloons.
+
+Nor did either Frank or the Colombian planter think it strange that the
+boy should press the token again and again to his lips, while tears ran
+down his face. They could understand the feelings that filled his heart,
+and no matter what the nationality may be, the honest love of a lad for
+his father cannot but provoke admiration and respect.
+
+"And now," said Frank, presently, when his cousin had in a measure
+recovered from his first emotion, "will you tell us, Señor Mendoza, just
+how you found this strange communication? I hope you remember the exact
+day, because it is of the greatest importance to us that we learn, as
+near as possible, from just what quarter it came."
+
+"Si, señor, I understand that," replied the planter, eagerly, his dark
+face aglow with enthusiasm. "I made note of the day in my diary, also
+the fact that it was the third day in succession when the wind blew
+direct from the south, with just a faint turn to the west."
+
+"Splendid!" cried Frank, turning to give his chum a reassuring
+nod. "What did I tell you, Andy? The forethought of Señor Carlos has
+made our task much easier. There can be little doubt, then, that the hot
+air balloon must have started in a region that lies almost due south of
+here, possibly with a slant, as he says, toward the south by west
+quarter, as a sailor would call it. And now, señor, can you tell us just
+where a direct line that way would bring us?"
+
+"First over the lowland and the forests. Then, if you go far enough
+amigos, it is the Sierra San Jeronimo mountains you would strike,"
+replied the planter.
+
+"Yes, I remember them on the map we have, and that corresponds exactly
+with all I had in my mind," Frank observed, his forehead wrinkled with
+serious thought.
+
+"What sort of country is it up in those mountains?" asked Andy.
+
+The planter shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"That I am unable to tell you, amigos, since I have never been
+there. From all I have heard I believe it is one of the wildest and most
+inaccessible regions in all our country. Lofty peaks warn back the most
+daring explorer. Few have ever ventured to attempt to go among
+them. Some never came back, they say. The superstitious declare those
+mountains are filled with evil things. Nothing on earth could tempt one
+of my peons to accompany an expedition thither."
+
+"Then it is lucky that we will not need any assistance in our
+adventure," remarked Frank. "With an aeroplane one may be independent
+of help. And now, Andy, what shall we do? It will take us the better
+part of the day to assemble our little flier and get things ready for an
+ascent."
+
+"That means another horrible night of waiting before we can make a
+start," said Andy, looking quite forlorn.
+
+But he soon understood that it could not be helped. Both boys were
+presently hard at work, with the deeply interested planter watching
+every move. All the while they conversed and the subject of pretty much
+all their talk had more or less to do with the country, the
+peculiarities of climate, what sort of weather they might expect to have
+and dozens of similar matters.
+
+Doubtless Señor Mendoza would like to hear of things connected with the
+great outside world, which he seldom saw anything of, but he realized
+that these would keep until after the brave young señors had completed
+their task of humanity.
+
+Before evening came they had everything arranged to suit the critical
+Frank. Both boys were pleased to find that the monoplane had come
+through its long journey without any damage having been done.
+
+That night they were uneasy about the precious airship, and at their
+request the planter had their beds made up in the shed where the "Bug"
+lay. But there was no attempt made to injure it in the least.
+
+Then came the morning. Andy could hardly eat a bite of breakfast, for
+the eagerness that possessed his soul. Every servant on the plantation
+had gathered to look with awe upon the wonderful bird-like machine, on
+which, it was whispered, these two venturesome young Americanos meant to
+soar among the clouds.
+
+Finally the last word was spoken, the planter shook hands with each of
+his visitors, Frank turned on the power, the aeroplane with the motor
+exhaust sounding like a volley of musketry started to run along the
+level ground, and presently, to the consternation of the entire
+gathering, began to climb upward, just like a creature of magic!
+
+Cries of awe arose from scores of throats and to a man the peons threw
+themselves flat on their faces, hardly daring to look at the terrifying
+spectacle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE.
+
+"At last, Frank, we're on the move!"
+
+"Yes," replied the one at the wheel, as the cries and cheers from below
+were drowned by the volleying motor explosions; "and did you see the
+señor kissing his hand after us, while his men were flat on their
+faces?"
+
+"It was a queer sight," Andy remarked. "And no wonder these ignorant
+peons call our little monoplane a 'devil-bird.'"
+
+"Look down now. Just to think of two Yankee boys being allowed to swing
+over a tropical scene like that," said Frank.
+
+Both of them were deeply interested. In the valley they could see the
+little town, with the river stretching off toward the south. Then there
+were the patches of tropical vegetation, the fruit trees and the cocoa
+plantations--all those interesting things which neither of them had ever
+set eyes on before.
+
+Señor Mendoza had told them how the coffee was grown upon a certain part
+of the mountain slopes, since it did not do well in the valleys,
+preferring a higher altitude.
+
+They followed the course of the river generally, intending to cover
+possibly something like eighty or ninety miles before trying to comb the
+land from side to side, in the endeavor to find the strange cliff
+enclosed valley.
+
+From time to time Andy would call the attention of his aeroplane chum to
+some striking feature of the landscape far below. The little Kinkaid
+motor was humming merrily, without ever missing a stroke, and Frank,
+having the utmost confidence in its steadiness now, after so many trial
+spins, could take a few seconds at a time to observe these things.
+
+"When we've gone something close on an hundred miles direct," remarked
+the pilot of the craft, presently, "I think we'd better make a descent,
+if given the chance."
+
+"You spoke of that before," remarked his companion, anxiously. "What is
+the reason for doing it, Frank?"
+
+"Oh, nothing serious," replied the other. "We will then be at the
+parting of the ways, you know."
+
+"You mean we'll be about to leave the river that will have been our
+guide up to then?" asked Andy.
+
+"Yes," Frank admitted. "And from that time forward we must simply depend
+on our judgment for everything. In that event it might be well if we
+looked over the entire plant, to make sure everything was in apple-pie
+shape."
+
+Andy breathed freer.
+
+"Oh, I agree with you there," he hastened to say; "and I'm glad you
+hadn't any more serious reason. But did you ever see such a picture in
+all your born days? Just look at the forest bordering the river. Think
+of trying to push through such a dense mass of over-grown jungle. And I
+bet it's just full of snakes, poisonous spiders, lizards and all such
+things."
+
+"Not to mention such trifling citizens as jaguars, ocelots, tapirs,
+alligators, crocodiles and their kind," laughed Frank.
+
+"Ugh! what lucky fellows we are to be away up here, where we can skim
+along at the rate of thirty miles an hour easily, without half trying,
+and snap our fingers at all those things. I tell you, Frank, this
+aviation business is the greatest thing that ever came down the pike."
+
+So they continued from time to time to converse as they kept pushing
+along, following the winding course of the swollen river that could be
+plainly seen below, between its banks of forest.
+
+Frank did not soar high at this time. There seemed no need, and besides,
+both of the boys were deeply interested in watching the various changes
+that kept taking place in the checkerboard landscape below.
+
+Several times during the first hour they passed over hamlets or
+villages. On such occasions it was ludicrous to observe the excitement
+that occurred. The Bird boys would not have been true to their nature
+had they not enjoyed the tremendous sensation which the sudden and
+unheralded appearance of the aeroplane caused in these river
+settlements.
+
+Loud shouts floated up to them that constantly grew in volume. Men
+yelled, women and children screamed. Many fell flat on their faces;
+others tried to conceal themselves, as though they belonged to a covey
+of wild ducks over which a hungry eagle hovered, picking out his
+contemplated dinner.
+
+And the last thing Andy would see, as he looked back, would be wildly
+running figures gesticulating furiously and evidently next door to crazy
+with excitement. Apparently these natives believed that the aeroplane
+must be a visitor from another world, or else some monster bird of a
+family long understood to be extinct.
+
+The second hour had nearly ended and everything seemed to be moving
+along smoothly. Frank saw not a cloud on the horizon thus far. Surely
+this augured well for the ultimate success of their strange expedition.
+
+Suddenly he heard Andy give vent to a cry of alarm.
+
+"What is it?" he demanded, quickly.
+
+"Turn her upward, quick! They are going to shoot at us!" shouted the
+other.
+
+Frank instantly started to obey, and while their forward progress still
+continued unabated, the aeroplane commenced to head toward a higher
+altitude.
+
+Immediately he heard the dull report of a gun from below. He dared not
+bend his head to look, since all his attention was needed to take care
+of his machine at such a critical moment. But the whine of the bullet
+as it passed close by was very plainly heard.
+
+Then came other shots, many of them, and the air seemed full of strange
+hissing sounds. Twice Frank felt a slight shock that told him some part
+of the aeroplane had been struck by one of the flying missiles. His
+heart seemed to jump almost into his mouth, as he trembled for the
+result. But nothing happened. The motor kept up its insistent humming,
+and there was not a quiver to indicate that a vital part of the
+monoplane had been injured.
+
+"Andy, are you hurt?" he called, after the volley had ceased, the
+marksmen below having evidently exhausted their ammunition.
+
+"Only a scratch," came the reply. "Hardly drew blood. Think a splinter
+from the wood where a spent bullet zipped past must have hit me. It's
+all right, Frank! We ran the gantlet just fine. But all the same I guess
+it would be better for us to keep a little higher after this."
+
+"Did you make them out and were they government troops, do you think?"
+Frank asked, for though he managed to turn his head, already had they
+made such speed that only the interminable forest could be seen in their
+rear.
+
+"No," returned his comrade. "I just reckon it was another camp of these
+insurrectos. You remember the señor said there were apt to be more than
+one crowd of them up the river. It's the only way to get in and out of
+this country, and everything that happens has to count on a water
+route. I guess the Magdalena is about the same to this part of Colombia
+that the old Nile is to all Egypt."
+
+"Well, it was a narrow escape, all right," Frank declared. "I don't just
+like the sound of those bullets all around when you're six or eight
+hundred feet up in the air."
+
+Andy had recovered from his recent fright by now and could even laugh.
+
+"I should say nix," he observed; "especially when you know that one
+little clip on either wing would upset us like a stone. Excuse me, if
+you please. I'll never be fully happy when flying until we invent some
+sort of little parachute that in case of a drop will give a fellow a
+chance for his money."
+
+Another hour passed, when Frank declared they had now reached the point
+where a descent would be advisable in case they found an opening that
+looked suitable.
+
+"There are the mountains over yonder on the right," he said, "and from
+now on we had better begin to scour the country, covering every mile
+just as though we had a comb and meant to explore it all."
+
+The chance to drop came presently, and as the opening proved everything
+they could desire, a landing was made without the least trouble. Here
+they rested and partook of a light lunch, having brought plenty of
+provisions along, together with a gun of the latest repeating type, with
+which Colonel Josiah had presented them.
+
+Frank, upon looking the aeroplane over a little later, discovered that
+he had been wise in deciding to make a halt. There was need of some
+attention. Certain parts had become weakened by the strain, either in
+the long voyage and handling on board the steamer, or else in this new
+flight.
+
+He was determined to be thorough in all he did, and this consumed more
+or less time, so that when he finally pronounced the monoplane in
+perfect condition the afternoon was half gone.
+
+Still, they must go up and put in an hour or two searching. Andy was too
+wild with impatience to hear of anything else, and Frank saw no reason
+for not complying.
+
+"But we must be sure to get down again before night comes," he remarked,
+after they had made a successful rise and were speeding above the top of
+the thick forest. "If we should be caught out at night I rather guess it
+would be a serious piece of business." And Andy agreed with him.
+
+For quite a time they soared aloft, Andy using the binoculars almost
+constantly, watching the country below and occasionally sweeping the
+distance.
+
+Frank was thrilled to hear his chum suddenly give utterance to a cry,
+but it was more of amazement than delight that gave birth to this
+ejaculation.
+
+"What is it now, Andy; more insurrectos?" he demanded, ready to
+manipulate the planes and strike for higher regions.
+
+"No, no, not this time," came the quick reply; "but Frank, as sure as
+you live, there's that plagued old biplane just rising up yonder a mile
+away. And somehow I seem to feel that it spells trouble for us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+THE AIR CHASE.
+
+One hasty glance told Frank that there could be no mistake. Only too
+well did he know the construction of that same biplane that had in the
+near past competed with them for honors in the race for Old Thunder
+Top's crown.
+
+"You're right, Andy," he said, earnestly; "and it seems to me they're
+heading for us right now. What do you make them out to be? Can you see
+who is handling the wheel? Is it Puss Carberry?"
+
+"Yes, I'm dead sure of that; but Frank, there's somebody else with him!"
+
+"Sandy?" asked his chum.
+
+"No, it can't be. There, I had a good look at him, and Frank, he's got a
+beard! It's a man!" answered Andy, in tense tones.
+
+Frank's first action was to move a lever that would change their course
+and place the biplane directly behind them. His next was to throw on
+more speed, so that the faithful little motor started to humming with
+the old-time rapidity that reminded Andy of the occasion when they put
+it to its best efforts in order to rush ahead of their rival of the air.
+
+"Then we must guess from that Puss and Sandy have fallen into the hands
+of the rebels, since there are no government troops up here, the señor
+said," he observed, presently. "Are they gaining on us now, Andy?"
+
+"I don't think so," replied the one who held the glass, "though Puss
+seems to be getting a whole lot of speed out of his Gnome engine right
+now. Reckon he must have overhauled it, or else found some way to put
+her up another notch."
+
+"How strange to think that our old rivalry is being renewed away down
+here in this country, thousands of miles from home," remarked Frank,
+after a while.
+
+"Huh! seems to me there would be something doing if you happened to run
+across Puss Carberry at the other side of the world," declared Andy.
+
+The race kept up for some time, neither seeming to gain to any
+appreciable extent. Of course both boys were keyed up to a state of
+intense nervousness. Passing through the air at this fearful speed fully
+five hundred feet above the ground was surely enough to excite them. One
+little accident and they would hardly know enough to give a single shout
+of horror before the end must rush upon them. And yet Frank appeared as
+cool as though sitting beside a camp fire, laying out some contemplated
+air cruise on paper.
+
+Andy was full of complaints.
+
+"Aw, now, whatever do you suppose those measly old insurrectos want to
+chase us for in this style?" he growled. "We're attending to our private
+business and not bothering them one little bit. Why don't they leave a
+fellow alone? Goodness knows we've just got trouble enough on our hands
+without this."
+
+"I don't know," said Frank, reflectively, "but I reckon they either want
+our monoplane or else believe we're in the employ of the government, and
+have been sent up here to spy on their movements. Anyhow, it seems plain
+that they mean to make a big effort to get us."
+
+"Which they won't, if we know it!" cried Andy. "But see here, Frank,
+that chap is nervy, all right, going up with Puss and standing all this
+racket. A tenderfoot is generally rattled even with a slow flight. He
+seems to be holding out."
+
+"I've been thinking about that," replied his chum. "And Andy, it looks
+to me as if that fellow must know something about aviation. If I could
+only glimpse him through the glasses I'd soon tell, for he'd show it by
+the way he sits there alongside Puss. A new beginner would be hugging
+the upright for dear life, and showing all the signs of fear."
+
+"Yes, I know, because I did that same," answered Andy, once again
+raising the binoculars as he twisted his head around.
+
+"How is it?" asked Frank.
+
+"Not much signs of fright about him, as far as I can see," came the
+ready reply.
+
+"Then make up your mind he's been up in an aeroplane before. Perhaps
+he's some French or German, who has thrown his fortunes in with the man
+who wants to sit in the presidential chair at Bogota, and in his own
+country he must have seen something of aviation. Oh, well, it doesn't
+make much difference to us. We just have to keep them at a distance and
+take our chances."
+
+"But Frank--"
+
+"Yes, I know what you're going to say, Andy; that night will soon be
+coming swooping down on us. That's so, and I'm sorry in one way, for
+it's going to be a tough old job finding a suitable place to fold our
+wings on in the darkness. But we're up against it good and hard, you
+see, and it's what you might call Hobson's choice."
+
+Andy showed more positive signs of anger.
+
+"What business have they got bothering us this way?" he grumbled. "Say,
+don't you suppose it would be all right for me to try a few shots at 'em
+with the fine Marlin repeating rifle we're carrying? Perhaps I could
+give 'em a scare anyhow and make 'em haul off."
+
+"No, I wouldn't think of it," replied Frank, hastily. "You might cause
+trouble to our own delicately balanced little aeroplane by firing. And
+then again, what if you brought about an accident and sent them down to
+the earth like so many stones?"
+
+"But you know those other chaps banged away at us and they didn't bother
+their heads a cent whether they upset our whole business or not,"
+objected Andy, belligerently.
+
+"Two wrongs never make a right, Andy."
+
+"But when they opened fire on us," the other went on, complainingly,
+"that constituted a declaration of war, and so you sec, we'd be quite
+justified in giving 'em back the same kind of medicine."
+
+"You forget that one of those two in the biplane is a former schoolmate
+of ours and that perhaps he's just being compelled to chase us right
+now," said Frank.
+
+"Think so, do you?" growled Andy, above the rattle of the exhaust;
+"well, I'd like to warrant you that Puss Carberry is grinning right now,
+because of the fright he thinks he's giving us. No, sir, he's only too
+willing to do anything to upset our plans. I know him pretty well, and I
+wouldn't put any meanness past that fellow."
+
+Frank in secret did begin to feel more than anxious. The afternoon was
+almost over and the sun perilously near the western horizon. Too well
+did he know how rapidly darkness came after the disappearance of the
+king of day.
+
+He bade Andy pay more attention to the lay of the country ahead of them.
+
+"We're keeping well ahead of the biplane," he observed, "and there's
+little danger of their overtaking us. But in case they drop out of the
+race we must try and know something of the chances for a landing
+ourselves."
+
+"Gee! it looks pretty punk down there!" admitted Andy, after he had
+carefully turned the glasses forward and down.
+
+"That's what is bothering me," Frank said. "We've sure got to drop,
+sooner or later, because it would be utterly impossible for us to keep
+afloat all night. And if there happens to be no opening in that dense
+forest, how can we land?"
+
+"Listen! as sure as you live they're trying to wing us with a shot!"
+cried Andy.
+
+"Well, I wouldn't bother about that. The fellow only has a revolver, if
+I know the sound of one, and he could never reach us at this
+distance. It tells me that he's got to about the limit and that
+something is going to change pretty soon, mark my words, Andy."
+
+Of course one of Frank's objects in saying this was to encourage his
+chum, for he knew that in all probability Andy was getting pretty close
+to what he himself would call a "blue funk."
+
+Sure enough the reports continued until just six had reached their ears
+faintly.
+
+"That ends it," observed Frank, complacently.
+
+"And he never touched us," echoed his cousin, evidently with more or
+less relief.
+
+"Now take a look back and see what they are doing, Andy."
+
+"H'm! still coming right along at top-notch speed," replied the other.
+
+"All right. There's going to be a change soon. Look down, Andy."
+
+"Oh, Frank, what a dandy open space! If only that plagued biplane was in
+Guinea, how easy we could spiral down and make a landing there!"
+
+"Yes!" said Frank, "And, mark me, that is just what they intend
+doing. As for us, we'll have to move along further into the wilderness
+and hope that another chance will come to let us out before everything
+is blotted from sight by utter darkness."
+
+"Frank, they've just sighted the open spot!" cried Andy, a few seconds
+later.
+
+"All right, what did I say?" demanded his cousin.
+
+"They've given up the chase, sure!"
+
+"And are about to drop down to make a landing for the night; is that
+so?" asked Frank, eagerly, for their own chances were getting poorer
+with every passing minute and secretly he was more worried than he chose
+to admit.
+
+"Just what they're doing right now, beginning to spiral down. Puss and
+his old biplane weren't in it again with our dandy little Bug. There
+they go, Frank. Don't I wish we had as good a place to grab hold of the
+old earth!"
+
+"Well," Frank continued, gravely, "turn around and look your prettiest
+for it, then. Don't let even a half way decent spot go by. Any port in
+a storm, the sailor says, and that ought to apply to the airship tar
+just as well. See anything yet, Chum Andy?"
+
+"N-no, can't say that I do," came the reply, as the other eagerly bent
+his gaze on the tree tops that they were beginning to approach closer,
+for Frank had turned the lever of the deflecting rudder in order to
+start the monoplane earthward.
+
+And the more they dropped the lower the sun seemed to get, until part of
+his glowing disc appeared to touch the horizon.
+
+Already it was growing dusk below them, and the dense foliage of the
+interlocked branches of the trees seemed to offer an insuperable barrier
+to a successful landing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+THE CAMP IN THE TROPICAL JUNGLE.
+
+"Frank, this is tough luck!" Andy exclaimed, presently.
+
+"Keep up your spirits, old fellow!" called out the other, cheerily. "Has
+the biplane succeeded in making a landing yet?"
+
+"I guess so," replied Andy, moodily. "Can't see any sign of her back
+there. And besides, it's actually getting dark down below, even while we
+can see a bit of the sun up here."
+
+"That's because of the contrast. I'll drop still lower, so we'll just
+clear the top of the forest. Then you won't need the glasses, Andy.
+Both of us must keep a clever lookout for a chance. Every now and then
+there happens to be some opening in the forest, you know."
+
+"Don't I hope we find one, though," declared the other. "Oh, wouldn't
+it be too mean for anything, Frank, if we smashed the precious little
+machine just when we are at the last stage of our big undertaking? If I
+lived through it I'd be broken hearted sure."
+
+"Look, then," said Frank, earnestly, "and you take the right, while I
+keep an eye on the left. Both of us can watch out ahead. If it comes at
+all to be of any use, it's got to be found inside of the next five
+minutes!"
+
+"So soon as that?" echoed the other, in distressed tones. "Oh, I'm
+afraid we're in for the very worst experience we ever met up with."
+
+"Ha! hold on, Andy. What's that dead ahead?" cried Frank, who suddenly
+decreased the speed of the little motor.
+
+"It's an opening of some sort, though awful little!" ejaculated
+Andy. "We can never do it, I'm afraid, Frank."
+
+"We've just got to, no matter what chances we take. Hold hard now and if
+you can jump out in time, help stop her before we wreck her against a
+tree."
+
+Even while speaking the air pilot was starting to drop down. He had made
+a specialty of this part of the business, knowing how very important it
+must always be to aviators. The rise was nothing compared to the
+descent, for many a gallant aircraft has been injured or even wrecked by
+clumsy manipulation, want of room or some other cause while landing
+after a flight.
+
+Andy gripped hold of an upright. He tried to see down into that little
+slash in the great forest, as though it might hold every hope connected
+with his fortunes and the success or failure of his mission of mercy.
+
+"Oh, be careful, Frank!" he called, as they just barely missed the top
+of a great tree.
+
+There was no need of saying this, as Andy ought to have known. No one
+could possibly be more careful than Frank Bird. And yet this was one of
+those times when daring had to go hand in hand with caution. The space
+in which they meant to try for a landing was so very small that it
+seemed necessary for the aeroplane to come down almost as lightly as a
+feather.
+
+Fortunately the youthful pilot possessed a good pair of eyes. And the
+gloom had not as yet entirely blotted out all features of the landscape,
+now that they were so close to the earth.
+
+Andy was holding himself in readiness. He knew that there would perhaps
+be an opportunity for him to drop to the ground and by pulling back,
+help to bring the little airship to a full stop before they banged up
+against a tree at the further side of the little glade.
+
+Never before had Andy found himself compelled to do such a queer
+"stunt," as he afterwards termed it; but he was braced to exert himself
+now to the best of his ability.
+
+"Jump!" shouted Frank, as they came roughly in contact with the ground.
+
+And Andy went. He never knew whether he jumped purposely or lost his
+grip of that upright after the shock of the collision; but the next
+thing he realized he was straining himself with might and main to hold
+back the monoplane, already gliding along with sundry violent bumps, on
+the three bicycle wheels.
+
+"Hurrah! What did I say?" cried Frank, as the aeroplane came to a
+complete standstill close to the other border of trees.
+
+There was a frightened series of grunts close by and some big unwieldy
+animal went rushing away through the dense undergrowth, crashing along
+as though badly frightened at this queer thing that had dropped down
+from the sky.
+
+"Wow! whatever was that, do you know, Frank?" cried the one on the
+ground.
+
+"I don't know for sure, because I only had the least peep of something
+that looked like a small elephant making off," replied the other, also
+alighting.
+
+Andy was already reaching for the repeating rifle, which had been
+securely fastened in the frame of the monoplane.
+
+"But Frank, they don't have such things as elephants down in South
+America?" he expostulated.
+
+"Sure they don't," laughed Frank, feeling particularly good over the
+grand success that had attended their perilous landing. "Nor a
+rhinocerous, nor a hippopotamus; but they do have the next largest
+beast, and that's a tapir. He's something like a big pig and not very
+dangerous, the señor said. That was what we frightened off just now, I
+reckon."
+
+"Well, here we are on land again and mighty lucky to get down without
+some sort of a smash. Frank, you don't think anything was broken when we
+struck, do you?"
+
+"Of course I can't say for sure, but I believe not. But all the same I
+must give a good look in the morning before we make another start," was
+the reply Frank returned.
+
+"And now we're just got to stay here all night?" remarked Andy, who
+still held the gun in his hands.
+
+"That isn't anything. We'll soon have a cheery blaze started that will
+keep the prowlers away, I guess. Get busy, Andy, and see what we can
+do. But we'll start it some distance away from our gasoline tank,
+remember."
+
+"But won't they be apt to see a fire?" asked the other, as he
+reluctantly placed the rifle down and started to gathering wood, no easy
+task in the increasing darkness.
+
+"Do you mean Puss and that other fellow?" Frank asked, with a
+laugh. "Oh, they're a mile or two off, and even if they could see the
+biggest of fires I'd defy them to get half way here if they took the
+whole night to cut their way through that mass of trailing vines and
+brush. Don't bother your head about that crowd, Andy. I hope we're done
+with them for good."
+
+His reassuring words seemed to have considerable effect on his cousin,
+who up to recently had himself been a most cheery fellow.
+
+"Well," he said, "we've sure got a whole bunch of gratitude on tap for
+the lucky way we dropped in here. Chances looked twenty to one it
+couldn't be done. And I'd like to wager that no other air pilot could
+have made the ripple so well."
+
+"You're prejudiced, old fellow, because I'm one of the Bird boys,"
+laughed Frank as he struck a match and applied it to the bunch of dead
+grass he had gathered in the spot selected for their fire.
+
+It was a dozen yards away from the aeroplane and about the same from the
+nearest line of great bushy trees. Immediately the flame sprang up,
+dispelling the darkness to some extent.
+
+"Shucks! but that makes a big improvement and no mistake," said Andy,
+stooping to drop some wood on the fire. "I always like to see what I'm
+doing. And more than ever when I'm in a strange place. Hark! what was
+that, do you suppose, Frank?"
+
+A sound had come from the depths of the forest not unlike the wailing of
+a babe. Frank could give a guess what made it, but he did not
+immediately say so.
+
+"Say, we must have landed close to some native shack, and that's a baby
+crying!" Andy declared.
+
+"Hardly," came from Frank. "That's only one of our cat friends giving
+tongue, perhaps calling to his mate to come and see the funny objects
+that dropped from the skies."
+
+"Wow! reckon now you must mean a yellow boy, a jaguar! I bet you, Frank,
+there's a heap of 'em around us right now. How do we know but what every
+tree hides one of the critters, watching everything we do? I can tell
+you right now that I don't wander far from this jolly little blaze
+tonight. And besides, one of us has just got to keep a grip on this gun
+all the time. I don't hanker after being carried away and made a meal of
+by a big hungry cat."
+
+"Oh, the fire will scare them away all right, I believe. There isn't an
+animal that doesn't dread fire. Always keep that in mind, Andy, when
+trouble comes," said Frank, earnestly.
+
+"I mean to," replied the other, as he once more started to pick up wood,
+but it could be noticed that while doing so Andy always kept on eye on
+the alert, as if he really believed what he had said about the chances
+of their being watched by an army of jaguars.
+
+"There's another sort of cry, Frank," he remarked, presently.
+
+"Yes, and although I couldn't say for sure, I believe it is made by a
+colony of monkeys, traveling through the woods at night," the other
+replied, after stopping to listen for a minute to the odd sounds.
+
+"Monkeys!" cried Andy, smiling broadly. "Well, I declare I had
+forgotten that they have them all through the tropical regions around
+the Orinoco, the Magdalena and the Amazon. And so that's a menagerie
+traveling over the treetops, is it? Wish I could just get a look."
+
+"Well, I don't think they're far away," remarked his chum.
+
+"Not for me. I know when I'm well off. This camp looks good enough,
+without my wandering around in that awful place. Let 'em jabber, and the
+yellow cats snarl; but Andy Bird stays right at his fireside tonight."
+
+"And I guess you're right," said Frank, as more noises arose all around
+them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+WHEN FRANK STOOD GUARD.
+
+Pretty soon things began to look fairly cheerful in that lonely glade
+situated in the heart of the tropical forest. A fine fire crackled and
+shot up its red flames, lighting up the opening in which the young
+aviators had so luckily alighted.
+
+Andy was bending over the fire making a pot of coffee, for they had
+brought along with them the necessary cooking utensils, including a
+frying pan, not knowing how long they might be adrift in the wilderness,
+far from the domicile of any human being.
+
+"How do you find it?" he sang out, for his chum had been examining the
+aeroplane as well as possible under the circumstances.
+
+"Everything seems to be hunky-dory," came the reply. "I'm going to start
+up the engine now to see if it works without a hitch."
+
+"Don't I hope so," was what Andy said, as he paused in his task to
+watch.
+
+A minute afterward he gave a little cheer, as the familiar throbbing
+sound was heard, making the sweetest music that ever greeted the
+listening ear of an aviator.
+
+"That sounds good to me, Frank!" he cried.
+
+"Nothing wrong about it, thank goodness!" came the reply of the other,
+as he again shut off power, because they could not afford to waste a
+drop of their valuable supply of gasoline.
+
+"Well, suppose you drop in here and sample this brand of coffee. What
+with the cold snack we brought, and which still holds out, we ought to
+get along right decently, Frank."
+
+"I tell you right now," replied the other, as he came up, "I'm hungry
+enough to eat anything going; yes, even some of our native cook's worst
+garlic-scented messes. And that coffee just seems to make me wild. Shove
+a cup over this way as quick as you know how, brother. Yum, yum, that
+goes straight to the spot. And this cheese and crackers isn't half way
+bad, even if it is pilot biscuit."
+
+"Well," said Andy, "ain't you a pilot all right, and don't they feed
+sailors on this hard tack generally? Sure we've got no kick coming.
+Everything is to the mustard, and if you asked me my opinion right now
+I'd say things are coming our way."
+
+"Listen to that chorus, would you?" remarked Frank, as various sounds
+arose all through the dense timber around them; "they seem to be heading
+this way sure enough."
+
+At that Andy reached again for the gun on which he seemed to depend so
+much.
+
+"Well, if any of 'em take a sneaking notion to look in on us, why I'm
+meaning to use up a few of these flat-nosed cartridges in this six-shot
+magazine," he remarked, sturdily, as he glanced cautiously around.
+
+"No fear of that now," said his chum, reassuringly. "The danger will
+come, if it does at all, later on, when we have more trouble keeping the
+fire going. So after we get this supper down we shall have to gather
+fuel. It may not be quite so nice to go after it when we see a line of
+yellow eyes watching all around."
+
+"Oh, shucks! You're just stringing me now, Frank. If I really thought
+they'd be as bold as that, why I'd climb a tree, that's what."
+
+"What good would that do, tell me?" jeered the other. "Why, these cats
+just live in trees and can leap twenty feet if they can one. Perhaps if
+you found a hollow tree now you might feel safe, but in the branches of
+one--never! Why, the monkeys would come and laugh at you. The ground
+is the best place for us, after all, Andy."
+
+"More coffee in the pot, if you ain't afraid of staying awake,"
+suggested the cook.
+
+"That would just suit me, for you see I'm more afraid of going to sleep
+than anything else while on guard duty," Frank remarked, soberly.
+
+By degrees Andy realized that this business of camping in the heart of a
+tropical forest was no laughing matter. Still, they had escaped so many
+threatening perils that he was beginning to believe they must be under
+the protecting wing of some favoring god and that success lay just
+ahead.
+
+They sat up and talked for a long time. Neither would admit being at
+all sleepy, and yet Frank caught his chum yawning ever so many times.
+
+"Here, you, just make up your mind to turn in and get seven winks," he
+said, pretending to be giving orders with all the airs of a commanding
+officer.
+
+"I suppose I'll just have to," came the reply, as the other started to
+roll up close to the fire, for they had no blankets with them this
+time. "Do you know I was just thinking about Puss."
+
+"Well, what of him?" asked Frank.
+
+"What if they start to chase us again in the morning? Are we going to
+put up with that funny business right along? I say no. Let's warn 'em
+that we're armed and can bore a hole right through their jolly old
+biplane, upsetting them any time they get close enough. I'm drawing the
+line on tomorrow, because somehow I feel it in here that it's going to
+be the greatest day of my life," and Andy laid his hand on his heart as
+he spoke.
+
+"Yes, that would be our best plan," admitted Frank. "We've already stood
+quite enough of that funny business, as you call it. They even fired at
+us. Depend on it, Andy, they won't follow us very far next time."
+
+And Andy, seeing the way his chum's mouth was firmly set, made up his
+mind that Frank had reached the end of his patience. Contented with the
+prospects for the morrow he therefore lay down to get some sleep.
+
+"I say, Frank," he called out presently.
+
+"Well, what now?" asked the one on guard, who had possession of the
+rifle and had taken up his position so that he could have a clear view
+of the open space all about the camp.
+
+"If one of the prowlers tries to drag me off, remember I've got my leg
+tied to this stake I knocked into the ground. While he's tugging you can
+have a bully good chance to knock him over, see?"
+
+"All right," grinned Frank. "I'll remember. But let out a whoop if you
+feel yourself going. I might be looking the other way."
+
+"You just bet I will," mumbled Andy, curling himself up as near the fire
+as he dared creep.
+
+And in three minutes Frank knew from the heavy breathing coming from
+that quarter, that his chum had found no trouble in getting to sleep,
+regardless of the various sounds welling up from the neighboring forest,
+and the fears that possessed his boyish soul.
+
+Frank sometimes sat down; and again, feeling cramped in this position,
+he would rise to his feet, and walk back and forth. But all the time he
+kept the gun in his possession, with the hammer pulled back, ready for
+business. And constantly did he maintain a close watch along the nearer
+border of the undergrowth that lay there, so dense and filled with
+mystery.
+
+Time passed on.
+
+It seemed as though a thousand things flitted through the active mind of
+the young aviator as he thus stood guard over the camp. Once again he
+was back in good old Bloomsbury, where he had spent so many happy
+days. He could see the faces of his boyhood friends, Larry, Elephant and
+others.
+
+Frequently he would detect a movement here or there among the trees; and
+at such times he could easily imagine that some animal belonging to the
+forest was creeping closer in. The question was, whether simple
+curiosity urged them to do this thing, or a design upon the occupants of
+the camp.
+
+Frank had been in other situations calling for considerable pluck, and
+never failed to meet the emergency, nor did he now.
+
+It must have been some three hours back that Andy lay down to
+sleep. That had been the limit of time arranged upon; but Frank did not
+show any signs of intending to awaken the other.
+
+"Let him sleep," he said to himself, as he walked up and down, for by
+now he was beginning to feel very drowsy himself, in spite of the
+coffee. "He needs it more than I do. And besides, I'm a little dubious
+as to what sort of watch Andy would keep. Anyhow, I can stand it a while
+longer. Hello! what's that mean?"
+
+His attention had been attracted toward a movement in the brush at the
+nearest point of the forest. It was not thirty feet distant. Could one
+of those long-bodied muscular jaguars cover that distance in a wild
+leap? What if without warning he should see a tawny figure flashing
+through the air, and headed straight for him?
+
+Frank threw the gun up to his shoulder as if to try and see how readily
+he could cover such a flying form. As he did so he heard a low and
+ominous growl, which undoubtedly sprang from the very spot where he had
+just caught that suspicious movement.
+
+He bent his head to look closer, and as he did so an exclamation fell
+from his lips.
+
+"And that's no owl staring at me, either," he said to himself, as he
+caught the singular glow of what seemed like two balls of fire, just
+under the lower growth.
+
+Frank knew what they undoubtedly must be. He had seen the orbs of a cat
+shine in this phosphorescent way in the darkness. There could be no
+doubt but that he was being surveyed by one of those savage beasts whose
+whining he and Andy had heard around the camp for hours.
+
+"And I declare if that purring sound doesn't come from there, too," he
+muttered, as he sank down upon one knee, the better to aim his
+rifle. "What was that the old señor was telling me about these beasts?
+Didn't he say they jerked their tail to and fro like a pendulum, and
+made a queer noise just before they jumped? If that is so then this
+fellow is getting ready to leap over right now. Time I was doing
+something, if I don't want him to drop on my chum like a rubber
+ball. Well, here goes to take him between those yellow eyes. Steady now,
+my boy, steady!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+FIREBRANDS AND JAGUARS.
+
+"Bang!"
+
+"Wow! are they coming in on us?" shouted Andy, suddenly aroused by the
+sharp report of the repeating rifle.
+
+He bounded to his feet, and from his manner of action it was plain to be
+seen that he remembered exactly the condition of affairs at the time of
+his taking passage for the Land of Dreams.
+
+Frank had aimed straight between those glowing eyes at the time he
+fired. And as he was perfectly calm at the time, it stood to reason that
+his bullet went direct to the mark he meant it should.
+
+He saw a yellow object threshing about under the dense growth, and
+realized that he had given the adventurous jaguar something that was apt
+to wind up his career as a terror to the monkey hosts of the forest.
+
+But this was not all Frank saw. Another figure had appeared just ten
+paces farther along, and he realized that a second jaguar had crept out
+of the copse, evidently bent on charging the camp.
+
+"There's two more, Frank! Oh! my, it's a dozen I guess!" whooped Andy,
+who had found a better opportunity to see in other quarters.
+
+"Grab a firebrand, quick!" shouted Frank, trying to get a bead on the
+second slinking figure; and yet hesitating about firing, because of the
+great risk that must ensue should he only wound the fierce monster.
+
+He saw out of the corner of his eye that Andy made a plunge toward the
+fire and was snatching a brand out in each hand.
+
+"Wave them around your head, and shout like thunder!" he cried, at the
+same time starting in to do this latter himself.
+
+Perhaps it was a comical thing in some respects. Andy often laughed over
+it afterwards; but just then it seemed serious enough. The way both of
+them let loose with their strong young voices would have made a football
+cheer captain turn green with envy. They fairly awoke the echoes
+slumbering in the depths of the forest.
+
+And Andy waved those two torches like a good fellow, back and forth, in
+and out, weaving them as an expert Indian club athlete might do with his
+heavy weights, until the rushing flames roared again and again because
+of their rapid passage through the air.
+
+"They're licked already, Frank!" whooped Andy, as he daringly began to
+advance with his flaming beacons swinging around and around. "Look at
+the coward moving back, would you? Talk to me about your guns, they
+ain't in it with these things, when it comes to scaring off a pack of
+wild beasts. Scat! you terror, or I'll just swat you one alongside your
+jaw. Growl at me, will you? There, take that, hang you!"
+
+To the astonishment of Frank, Andy, who had rushed straight at one of
+the retreating animals, suddenly hurled a blazing brand straight at the
+jaguar. In his palmy baseball days Andy had never amounted to a great
+deal as a pitcher; but all the same he made a beautiful throw right then
+and there.
+
+The whirling, blazing fagot of wood struck the slinking beast full in
+the side. Frank threw up his gun, ready to shoot should the jaguar, as
+he feared might be the case, leap at his chum. But there proved to be no
+need. Instead, the brute was evidently alarmed at this novel weapon,
+something entirely beyond his ken.
+
+Frank heard him give a snarl that told of mingled rage and fright. Then
+he made a spring, but _away_ from the fire, and into the dense
+undergrowth from whence he had just issued so bravely.
+
+Looking around Frank saw that the glade was deserted of four-footed
+foes. The whirling torches had done the work.
+
+"Bully for us!" shouted the excited Andy, ready to dance in his delight
+over the success of his labors. "Didn't we send 'em a flying, though?
+Perhaps they just dare to come snoopin' around here again, when they're
+not asked! Frank, I guess you nailed that critter, all right. Dast we
+look and see?"
+
+"Sure we will," returned Frank, instantly. "Pick up another bit of
+burning wood. Then let me go just ahead of you, so that I can shoot if I
+have to."
+
+They thus boldly advanced toward the spot where Frank had first sighted
+the blazing yellow orbs.
+
+"I can see something there!" declared Andy, who possessed sharp eyes.
+
+"Yes, it's the beast, all right. But I can't say for sure whether he's
+down on his back, or crouching for a spring. Careful, not so fast,
+Andy." And Frank kept covering the object with his rifle as foot by foot
+they kept on.
+
+"He's lying on his side! He's a dead duck, all right!" sang out Andy,
+waving his fire vigorously to and fro.
+
+"You're right, he's stone dead!" observed the other, a touch of natural
+pride in his voice; for it was no mean feat to kill so ferocious a beast
+as a jaguar, after seeing only his two eyes shining in the darkness
+beyond the fire-light.
+
+Frank stooped down, and catching hold of one of the dead animal's hind
+legs, started dragging it toward the fire.
+
+"Hold on there," said Andy; "don't tell me we're going to have a steak
+off that old cat? I can stand for a good deal, but I'd go hungry a long
+time before I'd eat any of _him_!"
+
+"Don't worry about that," laughed Frank. "But think what a bully old
+rug his hide will make some day. I'm going to try and take it off, if I
+can, while you're getting breakfast in the morning. It's worth while."
+
+Andy looked as though he doubted the ability of his chum to accomplish
+the feat; but then he was counting without his host; for when the chance
+came Frank deftly removed the pelt, and kept it for a reminder of his
+hazardous shot.
+
+Andy insisted on taking his turn at playing guard, when he found out
+what time it was. First of all Frank saw that the fire was revived,
+with plenty of fuel handy. Then, after giving his chum a few last
+instructions, he consented to lie down. But his sleep could not have
+been very sound, for frequently he would raise his head, and take a look
+around; seeing nothing suspicious he would again lie down.
+
+So the night passed away.
+
+Frank was on deck an hour and more before the dawn came. He felt too
+anxious concerning the possibilities of the coming day to sleep much.
+
+So Andy started to get breakfast, such as it was, before the night had
+really gone. He excused himself by saying that while he was not at all
+hungry, the operation had to be gone through with, and the sooner he was
+at it the quicker they might be free to mount upward.
+
+Frank knew what a terrific load was on his chum's mind, and how he
+thrilled with suspense, now that they were so near the realization of
+his highest hopes or worst fears.
+
+And so he too set to work to remove the jaguar skin, for it would make a
+pretty decent rug, if it could be properly preserved.
+
+Morning was just breaking as they sat down to partake of the simple
+meal. Neither of them seemed to care for much. It was indeed no time for
+feasting, or making merry, when the day had probably dawned that was to
+settle their mission, one way or the other.
+
+"One thing good," remarked Andy, hopefully, "there doesn't seem to be
+any strong wind blowing this morning."
+
+Frank had been studying the lay of the land in the glade.
+
+"I tell you we're going to have all we can do to squeeze up out of here
+without scraping against any tree before we can rise above them," he
+observed, presently.
+
+"But don't you think we can do it?" demanded his chum, anxiously
+watching his expressive face.
+
+"I think it is possible," came the slow reply; which after all gave Andy
+new cause for distrust; since his cousin was so cautious a fellow that
+he seldom if ever gushed over anything; at the same time he never
+expressed doubts when he felt positive.
+
+"But!" cried Andy, "there's no other way to fly; we couldn't take the
+aeroplane to another place; and I reckon there isn't a cleared field
+within ten miles of here."
+
+"No, it must be done right where we are. Now, I'm going to measure the
+opening to find out its widest dimensions. Then we will take the
+monoplane as far back as we can, and make all arrangements for a rapid
+start. But to rise above those trees, even the shortest of them, is
+going to call for considerable management, and some great good luck in
+the bargain."
+
+"But, Frank, you've done it before," declared Andy. "You know you made
+lots of short starts that beat all the records. That's your best
+hold. And, Frank, we've just got to get out of here. Everything depends
+on it."
+
+"Sure," responded Frank, cheerily enough; "and we'll manage somehow,
+never fear. Now to foot off the space. Count to yourself, and we'll
+compare notes when I get to the other side. This looks the widest range,
+according to my eye."
+
+So they both started off, Frank placing one foot close in front of the
+other, and Andy keeping alongside in order to do his own counting. In
+this way they passed from one side of the glade to the other; and Frank
+was secretly pleased to find that the distance was considerably more
+than he had judged possible.
+
+Besides, the trees happened to be much lower on this side, which fact
+would be of considerable benefit to them when they started to make the
+run, and rise.
+
+Frank was still muttering the number of feet to himself, and had arrived
+within something like five yards of the nearest trees, when, without the
+slightest warning, he heard Andy let out a screech that could have but
+one meaning.
+
+He had surely sighted something that spelled peril to one or both of the
+Bird boys. Frank had wisely kept the rifle in his hand, and instinct
+caused him to throw this up to his shoulder, though as yet he had not
+the slightest suspicion as to what the nature of the danger might be,
+nor the quarter in which it lay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+THE AEROPLANE BOYS ONCE MORE AFLOAT.
+
+"Frank! Oh! Frank!"
+
+More than a few times had it fallen to Frank Bird to drag his cousin and
+chum, Andy, back from some impending danger. Now the shoe seemed to be
+on the other foot.
+
+Even as he looked hastily up, startled by these sudden cries, Frank felt
+his arm seized in a frenzied clutch, and himself jerked backward.
+
+"What is it, Andy? Here, hold on, let my arm free, and tell me!" he
+exclaimed.
+
+"Look there; and you were going to walk right up against it! Oh! Frank,
+what a horrible monster!" Andy replied, in trembling tones, as he strove
+to point toward something that he had seen just in the nick of time.
+
+"Whew! I should say you were right! Ain't he a dandy, though? And if I
+saw him at all, I thought it was a great big vine hanging from that
+tree! Ugh! look at him stretch his mouth, would you? Andy, thanks to
+your sharp eyes I'm here, instead of in his slimy folds. I guess he
+could crush an ox. They say nothing can stand the pressure, once they
+get a couple of folds around."
+
+"Is it a python?" gasped Andy, his horrified eyes glued on the spectacle
+of the slightly swaying ten feet of snake that hung from the limb of a
+great tree, in part as thick as Frank's thigh.
+
+"About the same thing," replied Frank. "Down here they call them
+anacondas, and in other parts of the world they're boa-constrictors. I
+guess the whole bunch belongs to the same family of squeezers. But that
+fellow is in our way."
+
+"Well, yes, if you're still determined to run the aeroplane across lots
+toward this side of the opening," Andy remarked with a shudder. "Why,
+perhaps that old chap might get gay, and grab hold, just when we
+expected to go sailing off. That would be a calamity, not only for him,
+but the Bird boys in the bargain."
+
+"All right. Then he's got to get his," Frank observed.
+
+"What are you going to do?" demanded the other, nervously.
+
+"Take a crack at his head," came the reply. "Once let a flat-nosed
+bullet from this little Marlin hard shooter smack him on the coco, and
+there'll be a funeral in the anaconda family."
+
+"But for goodness' sake make sure work of it, Frank. What if you just
+wounded the monster? He'd come whirling along at us like a
+hurricane. And I'm sure he must be thirty feet long, if he's a
+dozen. Look at the thickness of his neck, would you? Be mighty careful,
+for his head's swinging a bit, you notice. That was what made me get
+sight of him. Say, Frank!"
+
+"Well, hurry up. He may take a notion to move off, and I'd lose my
+chance, Andy."
+
+"How'd it do for me to get some fire, and shoo him away?" suggested his
+cousin.
+
+"Don't know how it would work," replied Frank, smiling a little,
+however, at the faith Andy seemed to have in a blazing brand, now that
+he could look back to his late experience with the jaguar. "Never heard
+that snakes were afraid of fire. And besides, there's no need. Now keep
+quiet, and watch. You'll see something worth while; but be ready to jump
+clear."
+
+He had already dropped down on one knee. The Marlin stock rested
+against his cheek, and his eyes sighted along the barrel. Andy fairly
+held his breath, his startled eyes glued on that swaying head of the
+monster.
+
+Then came the sharp report as Frank pulled the trigger. He instantly
+jumped back, and by a rapid motion of his hand sent another cartridge
+into the chamber, the clever mechanism of the gun proving that it was
+built so as never to fail in an emergency.
+
+Andy had accompanied his chum in that backward movement; but never for
+an instant did he remove his eyes from the strange spectacle that was
+taking place there in front of them both.
+
+Undoubtedly the well aimed bullet had crashed through the fearful head
+of the suspended anaconda. Instantly it released its many coils above,
+and a tremendous length of writhing snake could be seen whipping over
+the ground. Nothing in the way of small vegetation could stand in the
+path of those powerful springy coils, as they shot this way and that.
+
+"Oh! my!" gasped the astounded Andy, as he moved farther back, so as to
+avoid any chance contact with the flying destructive force that was
+leveling everything in the glade for twenty feet around. "Did you ever
+see anything to equal that? Talk to me about your harvesting machines,
+here's one that's got 'em all beat to a frazzle. Ain't he ever going to
+give up the ghost, Frank? Guess these anacondas must have the nine lives
+of a cat!"
+
+"Well," remarked Frank, "you must have forgotten that among boys it's
+said that a snake won't die till sundown. I've seen one's tail wiggle
+hours after we thought the thing was stone dead. There, he's moving off
+into the forest, and a good riddance. While I'd like to measure the
+serpent just from curiosity, we've got no time to waste waiting for him
+to kick the bucket."
+
+"That's right," assented Andy. "And as for going anywhere near such a
+whirlwind, you'd have to excuse me."
+
+They watched the dying anaconda gradually vanish in the depth of the
+forest; and both boys were glad that it had turned out that way, since
+they were anxious to depart from the place.
+
+"Don't I wish I'd had my little camera along, so I could have snapped a
+shot at that dandy chap! The fellows would believe me then, when I told
+about what happened to us here. And anyway, Frank, I don't think we'll
+forget this camp, do you?"
+
+"Well, hardly," replied his chum, smiling broadly. "Because we've sure
+had enough happen to us here to make us remember. But I'm glad to find
+there's going to be more space for the run than I thought at first."
+
+"We'll need every inch of it," declared Andy, as he looked dubiously at
+the tops of the lower trees about the place where the snake had held
+forth. "Don't I wish we'd brought a few sticks of dynamite along,
+though."
+
+"For goodness' sake, what would we want with dynamite? Think you could
+have blown up that snake, do you?" asked Frank, as they started to cross
+the glade toward the waiting monoplane.
+
+"Oh! shucks, no. I was thinking how we could plant 'em under a bunch of
+those trees and enlarge the gap!" declared Andy.
+
+At that Frank burst out into a hearty laugh.
+
+"What a fellow you are for wild notions. Think of us blowing up the
+forest to make an aviation field! I reckon, however, seeing that you
+haven't got the dynamite, Andy, we'll have to do the best we can. Take
+hold here and we'll push the machine just as far back as it will
+go. Perhaps we can gain a few yards at this end that will count in the
+long run."
+
+Frank was particularly careful about every little detail. He knew just
+what he had to depend on. In the past he had made it a pet hobby to rise
+in as short a space as possible; and now this faculty seemed destined to
+prove a valuable asset in their speedy climbing up.
+
+"All ready?" he asked, grimly.
+
+Andy took one last look at the face of his chum. He saw that Frank's
+mouth was compressed in that firm way that stood for so much; and
+somehow Andy's wavering confidence returned in full measure. When Frank
+Bird looked like that, things always had gone according to his will; and
+they must now!
+
+"Yes, I'm fit, Frank," he said, quietly. "Let her go when you're ready!"
+
+In the many times that the two boys had made ascents, Andy could never
+remember that his pulses throbbed with one-half the suspense they did
+now. Not even on that never to be forgotten initial performance, when
+for the first time they felt the strange sensation of leaving the solid
+ground in a flying machine, had he been so excited, so nervous, so
+filled with alternate hope and fear.
+
+Frank had taken every possible precaution. He had thoroughly studied
+the ground, and made sure that no obstacle would be apt to cause the
+running gear of the aeroplane to swerve, and thus throw them off their
+course.
+
+All he could do was to start the machinery, get a rise at the quickest
+possible second, and be ready to shut off power if he realized that the
+feat they were about to attempt were impossible, so as to avoid smashing
+the planes against a tree.
+
+"Then here goes!" he said, calmly.
+
+Andy held his breath as he heard the engine start off at a tremendous
+speed. He felt as though a giant hand had plucked them from the spot
+where the aeroplane had been planted for the start. Across the glade
+they went speeding. His heart almost jumped into his mouth he believed,
+as he felt the little craft start to leave the ground, as Frank
+manipulated the planes, and elevated them so as to catch the air under
+the broad blades.
+
+They were rising rapidly now! Would they manage to clear those terrible
+treetops that stood like a grim barrier in their path?
+
+Higher yet did Frank throw the planes, so that they actually seemed to
+be climbing straight upward, according to the vivid imagination of Andy;
+who, clutching the upright at his side, waited for what was going to
+happen.
+
+It was too late now to retreat! They had gone too far to stop, and try
+again! No matter whether for good or ill, their kite had been tossed to
+the winds of heaven, and they must abide by the consequences.
+
+Andy gave one little squeal, for it could not be termed anything else
+under the sun. This was when they shot past the most prominent branch of
+the tree that happened to stand directly in the way of the rising
+aeroplane. Andy believed that the wheels below must have actually
+brushed through the foliage, for he always declared that he heard a
+fierce "swish" as they passed.
+
+Had they caught even one little bit, something dreadful might have
+happened, and the precious aeroplane, on which everything depended, meet
+its sad fate; not to speak of the nasty fall the Bird boys would have
+suffered.
+
+But Fortune was once more kind to the young adventurers. They passed
+safely through the peril, and were speedily fully launched upon the wide
+open expanse of space!
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the exultant Andy; but it might be noticed that his
+voice was a bit husky, even as his face seemed chalky white.
+
+"A close shave," remarked Frank; who himself had been rigid while they
+were thus taking such desperate chances; "but we made it, thank
+goodness! I hope that will be a lucky token of what the day has in store
+for us."
+
+"Amen!" echoed his chum; and there was no levity in his tones, either.
+
+The sun was just rising. Below them lay the dense foliage of the almost
+impenetrable forests, from which they had just made this almost
+miraculous escape. And both young aviators, as if by common consent,
+started to sweep the horizon around with their eyes.
+
+"See anything of it?" asked Andy, eagerly.
+
+"I thought I did away over yonder toward the mountains; but I guess it
+must be a big bird hovering high up, a condor perhaps," Frank replied.
+
+"Well, there isn't any sign of the biplane, that's sure," Andy went on
+in a relieved voice. "Perhaps they didn't have as good luck in landing
+as we did, and had a nasty spill. Don't I hope they busted some of the
+planes, or part of the little old Gnome engine, so we won't have to be
+bothered with 'em again?"
+
+Frank made no remark. While as a rule he refused to let anything like
+bitterness dwell in his heart, still, this was a case where everything
+was at stake; and if the bothersome revolutionists kept chasing them in
+the biplane they were apt to give a great deal of trouble. And secretly
+he could echo Andy's wish that the biplane might be temporarily
+crippled, so as to be unfit for flying.
+
+"Now, what's the programme?" asked Andy, when they had covered several
+miles.
+
+"We've just got to head for the mountains yonder," replied his
+chum. "You know, he declared it was a valley that lay among the
+mountains; and it must be, to be surrounded by high cliffs. Once we get
+among the hills, we'll sail back and forth, combing the whole region,
+and hoping sooner or later to discover his queer prison."
+
+Andy lapsed into a state of silence; but he kept watching ahead as they
+drew gradually nearer the uplifts. Doubtless but one thought held
+dominion in his mind, and this was that somewhere amidst those same
+mountains the father whom he loved so dearly was waiting, and hoping for
+an answer to his appeals for aid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+THE LAST LITTLE HOT AIR BALLOON.
+
+"Did you ever see a wilder region?" asked Frank, about the middle of the
+morning, when they had alighted on a broad, level plateau, so as to
+allow him to look over some little matters connected with the engine,
+that he believed needed attention.
+
+Andy had been using the binoculars pretty much all the time they were
+aloft, but without any success. Many times be began to think he had
+sighted something that looked like cliffs rising up, and a wild hope had
+seized upon his devoted heart; but upon Frank bringing the airship in
+that quarter, in answer to his frantic appeals, it had proven to be a
+false clue.
+
+Cliffs they saw in plenty, but as yet none enclosing a valley so as to
+imprison an unfortunate aeronaut, whose runaway balloon had dropped with
+him into its depths.
+
+Still, the day was not nearly half over. And the monoplane behaved
+splendidly; so that they could hope to continue the search as long as
+their supply of gasolene held out.
+
+"I'll never give up hunting," Andy declared, as he stood there, watching
+his chum potter with the engine and examine things in general. "No, not
+as long as this fine little machine stands by us. We can get more
+gasoline if necessary, for we brought a good supply aboard the
+boat. When we've gone as far as we dare down this way we'll make another
+start further on."
+
+"I'm with you, Chum Andy, and you don't need to be told that," observed
+Frank, quietly, while he worked on.
+
+"As if I didn't know that and counted on you through thick and thin,"
+declared the other, with a look of sincere affection.
+
+"Well, now we're ready to go up again," remarked Frank; "and there's no
+use asking if you feel like it. So pile in and we'll make a flying start
+from the top of this rocky plateau."
+
+"What a difference from our last start," observed Andy, with
+satisfaction, for they were on an elevation with a valley far below, and
+the air was decidedly bracing for the tropics.
+
+"I should say it was," laughed Frank. "Do you know what it puts me in
+mind of?"
+
+"I bet you're just thinking of when we won that race to the summit of
+Old Thunder Top, where nobody had ever been able to climb before, and
+how we had to make our start for home from that little plateau, plunging
+off into space."
+
+"Just what I was," declared Frank. "But here we have a longer swing and
+it's going to be a snap of a launch compared with some we remember."
+
+"Ugh!" grunted Andy, "will I ever forget the one this morning. But let
+loose, my boy. I had just sighted a likely looking place away over
+yonder, at the time you said we ought to take advantage of this fine
+landing stage, to look things over. Just head her that way when we get
+going, will you?"
+
+"Sure; anything to oblige," assented the other.
+
+The launch was just as easy as they had anticipated. Indeed, Frank
+seemed to have gotten this part of the programme down to a fine point
+and could accomplish it apparently as well as a Wright or a Curtiss.
+
+Ten minutes later and the monoplane was soaring toward the region which
+Andy had denominated as a "likely spot."
+
+"Look at that big bird watching us from that pinnacle yonder!" exclaimed
+Andy, as he lowered the glasses for a moment.
+
+"I see him," replied his comrade. "And there's no doubt now but what
+that is a condor of the Andes. He thinks we must be some sort of bird,
+which we are, of course, and is wondering whether he ought to flap his
+wings and go up higher or hide behind that church steeple of rock."
+
+"I only hope he don't take a measly notion to fight us, that's all,"
+remarked the other, as he glanced anxiously toward where the Marlin was
+secured to the framework of the airship.
+
+"No danger of that," Frank continued. "A condor is like our vulture or
+buzzard, a scavenger; and he lacks the bravery of the bald-headed eagle
+that attacked us when we came near his nest on the tip of Old Thunder
+Top. Look there, he's off, Andy, and at a good lively clip,
+too. Good-bye, old chap, and good luck!"
+
+Andy had lost all interest in the great bird of the western Andes. He
+was focusing his attention upon the place that he had marked as a likely
+spot.
+
+"Frank," he said, presently, in a husky voice, "could you drop a little
+lower and slow down some?"
+
+"That's easy," replied his chum, readily enough. "What has struck you
+now, Andy?"
+
+"It looks more and more promising to me," came the slow reply, as Andy
+kept the glasses up to his eyes.
+
+"Then you can glimpse something like cliffs?" asked Frank.
+
+"Yes, and there's no doubt about that part. I'm waiting now to see if
+the wide valley is wholly enclosed!"
+
+"And if it is, you think--"
+
+"It must be the place! Oh, Frank! What if we are near the spot? Would he
+still be alive, or has he given up the fight? That condor perched up on
+the pinnacle--was he only waiting for the time to come when he could fly
+down? Perhaps--oh! what is that moving yonder? Look, Frank, Frank,
+something is coming up above the top of the mountain! Can you see it? If
+you could only take the glasses and tell me, for my hands are shaking so
+I can't hold them!"
+
+"Brace up, Andy. I can see what you mean without the glasses. There, now
+it has risen above the line of rocks--something that bobs to and fro
+like no bird ever flew--something that floats, now this way and now
+that, just as the wind blows. Andy, upon my word I believe it is, it
+must be--"
+
+"Oh, say it for me, please, because I just can't find words!" cried the
+other.
+
+It was a wonder that in their tremendous excitement something disastrous
+did not happen to the aeroplane, but Frank had wisely cut off some of
+the power, so that they were just making fair headway at the time.
+
+"It is a little parachute balloon, just like the one that carried that
+message into the cocoa grove of Carlos Mendoza!" ejaculated Frank.
+
+"Then it means that we have found the valley prison!" gasped Andy.
+
+"Sure, that's a fact. The cliffs yonder are on one side of it!" Frank
+cried.
+
+"And Frank, don't you see, the fact that another of those little
+messengers of hope has just come up out of the valley _shows that he is
+alive_!"
+
+"You just bet he is, Andy; and we're going to be with him in three
+shakes of a lamb's tail!" declared the other.
+
+Andy could not utter another word; he was too full of emotion. So he
+just sat there and stared and waited, his heart doubtless thumping
+against his ribs as it had never done before.
+
+Of course, when Frank gave utterance to that boast he did not really
+mean it, and only had the encouragement of his chum in view. He knew
+that it was apt to prove a difficult task, landing in that enclosed
+valley, where the vegetation must be of a tropical order.
+
+First of all they must circle around over the wide expanse to take in
+its features and discover the prisoner. Then Frank could lay his plans
+accordingly.
+
+Gradually they began to see more and more of those marvelous
+cliffs. They seemed to stretch in an unbroken cordon completely around
+the valley. If they were as near like adamant as they looked it would
+take a man years to cut steps to the lofty top, even though he were
+given proper tools for the work.
+
+And presently they cleared the near side, so that the monoplane floated
+directly above the valley itself.
+
+"Careful now, Andy!" warned the cautious Frank. "Hold yourself tight
+while we circle around, dropping lower all the time. Suppose you shout,
+though I should think he'd have heard the noise of our exhaust before
+now!"
+
+He had hardly uttered these last words when there came a cry from below.
+
+"Look, look, Frank, there he is! Oh, what a blessed sight that is! My
+father, and alive after all! See how he runs and waves his hands! What
+will he say when he knows that it's his boy in this airship come to save
+him?"
+
+"Call out and tell him!" said Frank, hardly able to control his own
+feelings, though he knew he must or they might meet with an accident in
+this supreme moment of victory.
+
+So Andy did shout, calling upon his father wildly and waving his cap to
+him. The prisoner of the enclosed valley seemed dazed at first. Perhaps
+he had been deceived so many times by his dreams of being saved that he
+feared this might prove only another delusion. They could see him stand
+there and put his hand to his head as he stared. It was so very
+wonderful, this coming of a modern aeroplane to snatch him from his
+living grave. And then that voice, how like the one he had never
+expected to hear again!
+
+But by degrees, as the little Bleriot monoplane sank lower, and the
+forms could be more plainly seen, he began to grasp the truth. Again he
+showed the most intense excitement, waving his arms and running to keep
+up with them.
+
+"Wait," said Frank, presently, as he saw that Andy was so excited he
+could not carry on an intelligent conversation. "I'm going to speak with
+him and find out if there's any clear spot where we can land."
+
+"Uncle Philip!" he shouted presently, when Andy had subsided. "This is
+Frank, your nephew, and Andy, your own son. Is there any clear place
+where we can land?"
+
+The aeronaut understood, because all this was right in line with the
+profession which he had been following at the time of his vanishing from
+mortal sight.
+
+He indicated the quarter where a landing might be risked and upon
+investigating by hovering over the same, Frank decided that it promised
+success.
+
+So the aeroplane dropped down and touched ground. It bumped along for a
+little distance and then Andy, leaping out, managed to bring its
+progress to a halt. They were in the enchanted valley, from whence those
+wonderful messages had floated, one of which, by a strange freak of
+fate, had eventually reached the boy thousands of miles away, for whose
+eyes it had been intended!
+
+And immediately Andy was clasped in the arms of his father. He knew him
+despite the long gray beard, which had grown during his many months of
+confinement, with hope daily choked by despair. His clothing was almost
+in tatters, and he seemed thin and peaked; but the look upon his drawn
+face now was of supreme happiness.
+
+Then, after they had in some measure recovered from all this intense
+excitement, the boys sat down to tell what a miracle had been wrought,
+bringing the message to the home in far away Bloomsbury. With an arm
+still encircling the form of his boy Professor Bird listened and asked
+many eager questions.
+
+"And to think," he said, finally, "that little messenger you saw going
+up just now was constructed of the very last fragment of the old balloon
+silk. I made a fire with flint and steel, filled it with hot air and
+sent it up with prayers, believing that it was my forlorn chance. And
+then I heard the exhaust of your motor. I feared my mind was giving way
+under the terrible strain. When I looked up and saw an aeroplane sail
+into view I fell down on my face, believing I had gone mad. But it was a
+blessed reality, thank God!"
+
+Plans were soon under discussion looking to leaving the valley as soon
+as possible. About this time Andy happened to think of something and
+began to fumble at his pocket.
+
+"Oh, how I hoped and prayed when I bought that, father, that I might
+have the happiness of seeing you smoke some of it," he said, as he drew
+out a little packet of tobacco, on which the late prisoner pounced with
+all the delight of an inveterate user of the weed, who had long been
+deprived of a pleasure.
+
+"I have been using dried leaves of a wild grape and some other things,"
+he admitted; "but after all they were only vile substitutes. It was
+thoughtful of you, my boy, to remember my weakness."
+
+And Andy snuggled up close to him as he commenced to puff at his pipe,
+using a match for the first time in many moons and smiling whimsically
+when he struck the same, as memory played queer pranks within.
+
+Meanwhile Frank wandered around to survey the scene of the professor's
+imprisonment and figure how they were ever going to get out with the
+aeroplane.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+RESCUED.
+
+"What's the hurry?" asked Andy, when once they began to talk over their
+plans for leaving the valley.
+
+For once Frank agreed with his chum. They had plenty to eat along with
+them and it might be just as well to wait for another day. By that time
+all of them would have recovered to a great extent from the excitement
+that had told upon them, particularly the professor, none too strong.
+
+So it was finally concluded to stay right where they were until another
+morning, when one at a time Frank would endeavor to convey them out of
+the valley, not daring to risk two passengers at once with such a poor
+field for the start.
+
+The time passed quickly enough, for there were a thousand things to tell
+on both sides. The aeronaut described his accident and related how he
+had lived through all the dreary months that had gone. Fortunately there
+did not happen to be any fierce wild beasts in the cliff bordered
+valley, and while he had had adventures with venomous serpents, fortune
+had stood by him.
+
+He showed numerous little contrivances by means of which he had secured
+game enough to supply his needs. There were nuts in abundance and some
+wild fruits which, as a scholar, he knew the value of.
+
+Water could be had in plenty, as a lovely stream flowed through the
+valley, diving down at one end and vanishing in the rocks, to find an
+outlet such as the human prisoner prayed for daily in vain.
+
+Why, it was evening almost before Andy realized it, so quickly had the
+hours sped along. How proudly had his father asked all about the
+monoplane, which he examined with the most intense interest, knowing it
+to have been mostly made by the two enterprising Bird boys.
+
+Prom the way in which he smiled and nodded his head after this survey it
+was evident that he was very well pleased with what they had done. And
+he also made them tell all about that famous race through the air to the
+hitherto unsealed crown of Old Thunder Top, which he remembered very
+well.
+
+"And now, let's think of having a jolly little meal," said Frank, as the
+shadows began to lengthen down below the lofty cliffs, which was a
+pretty good indication that night could not be far away.
+
+"Count me in," said Andy, jumping up, for it was his duty to get busy
+when the time came to make a fire and prepare a repast. "I guess we've
+got coffee for a few times yet, and I smuggled a can of Boston baked
+beans along when Frank wasn't looking, knowing that father used to be
+right fond of 'em."
+
+"Coffee! Beans! Why, you fairly take my breath away!" exclaimed the one
+who for so many months had been deprived of all the comforts of
+civilization and forced to sustain his life in the most primitive
+manner.
+
+When supper was cooking the professor made some excuse to wander
+off. Frank knew, though, what ailed him.
+
+"It's the aroma of that blessed coffee, that's what," he said to Andy,
+who had looked a little troubled at this action on the part of his
+father. "It's been so long since he's smelled it that it just makes him
+wild. I know, because I had a little experience that way myself once,
+only it was two weeks I had to go without when we were camping and not
+many months. When supper's ready he'll come with a rush, mark me, Andy."
+
+And he proved to be a true prophet, for no sooner had Andy lifted up his
+voice to call that the meal was ready than the professor broke through
+the bushes and hastened to take his place.
+
+Frank lost not a second in filling a tin cup of the amber liquid and
+handing it to the late prisoner of the valley.
+
+He tasted and then nodded his head.
+
+"Nectar for the gods, my boys!" he declared. "One never knows how
+little things like this go to make up a portion of one's life until a
+cruel fate has deprived him of them all. And to think I have a boy so
+thoughtful as to fetch along a packet of smoking tobacco and a can of
+the real Boston baked beans. Thank you, Frank, that's a heaping pannikin
+you've given me, but I suspect I'm equal to the job."
+
+They made a happy trio as they ate and chatted and laughed. Perhaps that
+was the first hearty laugh Professor Bird had given utterance to since
+the day he started in his ill-fated balloon from Colon on the Caribbean
+coast to cross the Isthmus of Panama.
+
+Before they went to sleep that night all preparations had been concluded
+looking to getting out of the trap in the morning. Frank had made his
+estimations and knew to a nicety just what his engine could do. Once
+free from the valley he believed they could head direct for the distant
+Magdalena, carrying two passengers and making short flights. It was true
+that as yet he had never taken up any second passenger and it entailed
+an additional tax upon the motor, but he had great faith in the little
+Kinkaid engine and felt that it would respond nobly to any additional
+demand made upon it.
+
+But it would be advisable that he carry the professor out of the valley
+and land him on that plateau where they had made their last halt, ere
+going back for Andy. Then, from that elevated place they could start on
+the return trip, with everything favorable for a successful flight.
+
+The night passed at length, though it must have seemed interminable to
+Andy. Frank knew that often his chum would rise up on his elbow and put
+out a hand gently, just to touch the form of his sleeping father close
+to him. And Frank did not wonder at it, for there were times when even
+he found it difficult to realize that their remarkable mission had
+actually proven successful.
+
+At length the day came.
+
+They were early astir, for much remained to be done. And there would
+needs be deft manipulation of the gallant little monoplane by its clever
+pilot, if two separate flights out of the enclosed valley were to be
+undertaken.
+
+Finally all was ready.
+
+The professor had really next to nothing he wished to bring away. The
+valley had grown hateful to him because of his enforced stay and he
+never wanted to see it again.
+
+He took his place in the seat usually occupied by Andy. His face was
+grave, for he knew what risks they were running. But surely the lad who
+had piloted the frail craft through so many perils would not fail now!
+
+"Good-bye, both of you!" said Andy, beaming upon them, as he prepared to
+assist in the launching. "Please don't forget me down here and let me
+root, hog, or die for months. Birds of a feather flock together, you
+know, so come back again, Frank."
+
+Then came the start. It was anything but an easy job to get going in the
+small space allowed by the character of the valley, but Frank had
+figured it all out, measured the ground, removed such obstructions as
+promised to give trouble and had perfect confidence in his ability to
+make it.
+
+And he did.
+
+After that other ascent in the heart of the tropical forest he declared
+he did not mean to let anything appal him henceforth.
+
+Once they started circling the valley, low down and just missing the
+tops of the trees growing there, Andy, sent vigorous whoops after them,
+and his father answered by waving his hand, for hat he had none.
+
+So, guided by the master hand of Frank Bird, the aeroplane rose above
+the line of those hateful and cruel cliffs and for the first time since
+his captivity the man of science saw the blessed outside world again.
+
+There was no trouble landing him on the accommodating plateau, after
+which the aeroplane started back for its second passenger.
+
+Frank abated his vigilance not a particle. He knew that constant
+watchfulness must be the price of safety when one is venturing to
+imitate the birds and soar through the upper currents of the air.
+
+Down into the valley he dropped, the monoplane behaving beautifully. And
+presently he was shaking the hand of his chum again.
+
+Once more was a start made. Frank breathed easier after it had proven a
+success, for there were narrow escapes from a collision with some
+obstacle, and he knew only too well what that stood for.
+
+"Now we're all right, I guess!" sang out Andy, as they came out of the
+depths and Frank turned the airship in the direction of the distant
+plateau.
+
+Naturally Andy was as happy as a lark, singing and calling as they
+glided along, and finding scores of causes for attracting the attention
+of his chum. Finally Frank had to caution him to slow down and not try
+to make him look so much.
+
+The trip was made in perfect safety. Indeed, Andy was now so confident
+of the capacity of the monoplane, as well as the skill of its pilot,
+that he expressed himself as ready to go anywhere in such a craft with
+such a driver.
+
+It required some planning to arrange matters so that both Andy and his
+father could be carried at the same time; but Frank had been figuring on
+this and fixed it in his mind.
+
+Even after the start he felt more apprehensive than he allowed the
+others to see, for this was after all an experiment. Aviators have gone
+up with two passengers and in monoplanes, too, but the limit of their
+stay aloft had never exceeded two hours, for the strain is very great.
+
+So Frank hoped to find places where they might drop down to rest, thus
+making the journey in easy stages.
+
+He believed they had plenty of gasoline to see them through, for an
+additional supply had been carried when starting from the neighborhood
+of the boat.
+
+But once they were afloat he realized that he had been borrowing
+needless trouble, for the gallant little aircraft just acted beautifully
+and seemed to be able to speed merrily along with two passengers almost
+as well as with but one.
+
+Of course there were many chances for trouble. There always are when
+traveling in an aeroplane, since the least thing that goes wrong means a
+descent or a fall.
+
+Frank tried no lofty flight. He kept close above the tree tops, content
+to make steady progress in the direction where his little compass told
+him they would find the river.
+
+Once away from the mountainous country and they were able to descend to
+still lower levels, where the chilly air changed to hot, and there were
+signs of life among the trees below--birds, monkeys and other natives of
+the wilds showing themselves at times.
+
+It must have been a glorious sensation to the old aeronaut to be thus
+speeding along in a modern, up-to-date airship, after his enforced
+idleness for so long. Again and again did he express himself in that
+way, as he gazed over the expanse of country, and then allowed his eyes
+to rest fondly on the form of his boy, more dear to his heart than ever
+after what had happened.
+
+"I think I see an open place beyond," remarked Frank, after they had
+been moving something like two hours after leaving the high
+plateau. "And it might be wise while we have the chance to go down and
+look things over. Then we will feel fit for another spell of work."
+
+Accordingly the aeroplane was headed downward. They circled the opening
+once or twice in order that the pilot of the aircraft might get his
+bearings perfectly, and then he headed for the ground.
+
+Even as they were just approaching the earth Frank heard Andy give one
+of his customary exclamations, such as announced an important discovery.
+
+"Frank, there's the biplane in the opening!" was what he cried.
+
+Yes, Frank himself had sighted it now, but the discovery came too late
+to have any effect upon their movements, since they were bound to land,
+not having room to rise again, even did they wish to do so.
+
+And Frank, as he felt the wheels under the aeroplane touch the earth,
+also heard a loud cry and some lusty Spanish expletives as a pistol was
+discharged.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND--CONCLUSION.
+
+As was his usual habit, Andy jumped before the monoplane had
+stopped. Frank on his part had no sooner seen that everything was going
+well than he snatched the Marlin rifle from its fastenings. He realized
+that they were up against trouble of some sort, for those Spanish
+exclamations told him there must be one revolutionist at least close by
+ready to do battle.
+
+"Frank, look out, he's got a pistol!" cried a voice, which he recognized
+as belonging to Puss Carberry.
+
+Just then he caught sight of a figure rushing forward. It was the same
+man no doubt whom they had seen with Puss in the biplane. They had
+evidently broken some important parts in landing and ever since must
+have been busy trying to mend the same.
+
+"Stop!"
+
+When the advancing revolutionist heard this sharp command and saw that
+he was being covered by a rifle in the hands of the determined looking
+pilot of the monoplane, he sized up the situation and then raised his
+hands in a way that meant he surrendered.
+
+"Drop that gun then!" ordered Frank, and as he did so Puss seized upon
+it with a snarl of joy.
+
+"Now we'll see how two can play at that game, you skunk!" gritted the
+other, as he snapped the pistol straight at the head of the man.
+
+"Here, none of that, Puss. You leave him to us. He's our prisoner, not
+yours!" ordered Frank, horrified at the rage which the other had shown.
+
+So Puss found that he did not have any authority in the matter, and that
+if he wanted to get assistance from his old-time rivals in order to
+finish mending his airship and get away from so dangerous a locality he
+must do what they said.
+
+He told about how he and Sandy had been out for a trial spin two days
+before. That was when Frank and his chum had sighted them from the
+river. But that very night some of the revolutionists had made a descent
+on the home of his uncle, who had a cocoa plantation not many miles away
+from that of Mendoza, seized him and carried him away, as they also did
+the little airship.
+
+Threatened with dire things if he refused to obey, he had been compelled
+to go up in company with the man who was now their prisoner, a Spaniard,
+who had once sailed in a balloon and knew something about that type of
+aviation, though having much to learn in connection with modern
+aeroplanes.
+
+Sighting our two Bird boys, of course Puss had known who they were. But
+the man was positive that they must be spies sent out by the government
+to learn what the revolutionists might be doing up the Magdalena. And he
+had threatened all sorts of things, Puss declared, unless a hot pursuit
+were carried on. Secretly Frank was of the opinion that it would
+require very little urging to make Puss Carberry do his level best to
+overtake any aerial craft piloted by one Frank Bird, toward whom he had
+always felt the most bitter animosity.
+
+After about an hour's hard work Frank managed to get the biplane in
+decent trim for a flight. He was also able to spare the other some
+gasoline.
+
+Had he been allowed to have his own way Puss would have left the
+Spaniard in the forest, where he might have died, being unable to make
+his way to civilization. But Frank would not hear of it. He obtained a
+solemn promise from the man that he would not make any further effort to
+obtain control of the biplane, and then Puss was made to take him
+aboard. Of course, Frank had made sure that the man carried no weapon
+and that his revolver was thrown away.
+
+They left the glade in the forest soon after the biplane had
+started. Puss managed to keep close to the others while they headed off
+toward the northeast. He did not wholly trust the passenger he was
+carrying and wanted to remain within call of the three who relied upon
+the monoplane to carry them to safety.
+
+They could even shout out to each other as they sailed along. Thus Puss
+warned them when they were approaching a camp of the revolutionists as
+they drew near the region of the river, and they were able to change
+their course, not wishing to again run the perilous gantlet of gun-fire.
+
+When another descent was deemed necessary it was close to the Magdalena,
+though many miles south of the town where the cocoa planters lived.
+
+There was no reason why Puss should also descend, save that he wished to
+be rid of his unwelcome passenger. The revolutionist might now make his
+way to camp and electrify his fellows with a stirring account of his
+various adventures. And one could easily guess that they would lose none
+of their zest in the telling.
+
+Puss did not expect to halt again when the monoplane was brought
+down. He could make one flight of it now and reach the home of his
+uncle, where doubtless Sandy was mourning him as lost.
+
+Just as Frank had expected, Puss on saying good-bye tried to appear as
+though something along the order of gratitude might be striving to gain
+a foothold in his crooked nature.
+
+"Say, Frank, I'm sorry now I ever tried to do you dirt," he observed, as
+he held out his hand. "Let's forget the past and start all over again."
+
+"Sure," replied Frank, as he readily took the offered hand; but it lay
+like a cold toad in his grasp, as Andy afterward expressed it, for Puss
+insisted on also bidding him good-bye ere he made a start in his
+biplane.
+
+"Well, now, what d'ye think of that?" said Andy, as they stood and
+watched the other mount upward and caught the wave of his hand ere he
+started down river, being fully five hundred feet high. "Did he mean it,
+Frank? Would you really want to go so far as to trust that snake if the
+chance ever came again for him to do you a bad turn?"
+
+Frank shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Say, ask me something easy, won't you?" he remarked. "Because you know
+how hard it is for a leopard to change its spots. Perhaps Puss _has_
+seen a light; but excuse me if I doubt it. Naturally he felt kind of
+cheap, because we got him out of a bad hole and placed him under
+obligations. But that will wear off in a short time."
+
+"Right it will," declared Andy. "I give you my word, Frank, that the
+next time we see him he'll have a fine story all fixed about how he was
+just going to jump on that Spanish revolutionary fellow, and twisting
+his gun out of his hand, shoot him down, and then fly away. Oh, don't I
+know Puss in Boots, though? He'll hate us both worse than ever just
+because he's beholden to us. Rats! him reform? Not much!"
+
+By the middle of the afternoon they had advanced far enough to know that
+another lap ought to carry them to town, and of course all of them were
+anxious to have the journey completed.
+
+"If it could only be written up and sworn to," said Andy,
+enthusiastically, "I reckon it'd go down in the annals of aeroplaning as
+the most wonderful stunt carried out up to date. But people won't take
+our word for it."
+
+"We've got the evidence of it, though, in the person of your good dad,
+and people may believe what Professor Bird says over his own honored
+signature, however much they might doubt the yarn of a couple of boys,"
+Frank remarked, as he took a last look, to see that both his passengers
+were snugly settled, ere starting the motor.
+
+"We're on the home stretch now!" declared Andy, after they had again
+mounted up into the realm of space and found their course northward.
+
+"Yes," observed Frank, "we're homing pigeons now, if any kind of bird."
+
+"At any rate," laughed the professor, "we're birds of passage, and one
+of them is mighty glad of the opportunity to get back into the old world
+again."
+
+In due time they sighted the town, and as before, the greatest
+excitement followed as they headed across the place, looking to land
+where the journey had begun--in the yard of the cocoa planter's place.
+
+Of course Señor Carlos was delighted with the success of the
+mission. For two days the Bird boys were the center of an enthusiastic
+demonstration. Frank was a little nervous lest they be visited by some
+of the revolutionists, but such did not turn out to be the case. And on
+the third morning the little steam yacht once more headed down the
+turbulent Magdalena, with a heavy rain promising more water to add to
+the flood, as wet weather had seemingly set in again.
+
+They met with no difficulties on the way down. Apparently the camp of
+the revolutionists had been moved from its former position at the
+narrows of the river. It might be those in charge had taken the alarm
+and feared lest a government force must be on the way to capture them,
+after being informed about the camp by the spies they had sent up the
+river.
+
+And Barranquila was finally reached, where they halted only long enough
+to chat a short time with Señor José, who met them as before on the quay
+and wanted to shake hands with the professor.
+
+Knowing just how anxious the government was to get possession of
+airships just then, Frank did not want to give them any further chance
+to confiscate his neat little craft, under some pretense or other. So
+they left the city at the mouth of the Magdalena and steamed away, bound
+once more for Maracaibo, where they meant to take steamer for New York,
+New Orleans or any port in the States.
+
+The last glimpse they had of the river was the flood that was pouring
+out between the jaws of land marking one of the mouths of the Magdalena
+and making a distinct yellow area in the salty waters of the tropical
+ocean.
+
+The beloved little aeroplane had been safely boxed again and was making
+the homeward voyage in their company. What strange and wonderful things
+it had been through! Andy declared that they almost passed belief, and
+he expressed his doubts as to their ever having an opportunity to pilot
+that same aircraft through atmospheric seas as tempestuous as those they
+had experienced in the tropics while rescuing the prisoner of the cliff
+bordered valley. But then Andy was not gifted with second sight and he
+could not foresee what the wonderful future might have in store for the
+Bird boys.
+
+They had by this time experienced enough of the fascinating new methods
+of cruising in cloudland to want to continue. And it stands to reason
+that other adventures would be lying in wait for lads so constituted.
+
+For the present it must be enough to say they arrived safely at good old
+Bloomsbury in due time and that the entire population was on hand to
+greet the party when they stepped from the train. Also, the wonderful
+little monoplane, the same that had been equal to the test in the race
+for Old Thunder Top, had to be placed on public exhibition for several
+days in the town hall, where every man, woman and child in all the
+country around could examine and comment on the construction of the
+airship that had brought fame and happiness to Frank and Andy Bird.
+
+In due time Puss and Sandy turned up, minus their biplane, which the
+government of Colombia had seized on some plausible pretext, though
+paying liberally for the same. But they were soon at work constructing
+another, which they claimed would far exceed the one that had been lost.
+
+Professor Bird by slow degrees recovered his health that had been sadly
+shattered by his experience down in that country. But he declared that
+his days were over so far as aviation went, and that in the future he
+must be content to take a back seat and see the honors of the family
+carried off by the younger generation--the Bird boys.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing
+by John Luther Langworthy
+
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