AIRPLANE BOYS IN THE BLACK WOODS
by
E. J. CRAINE
The World Syndicate Publishing Co.
Cleveland, O. New York, N. Y.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright, 1932
by
The World Syndicate Publishing Company
Printed in the United States of America
by
The Commercial Bookbinding Co.
Cleveland, O.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Airplane Boys accidentally bump into a new
mystery which is only solved after many pages of
excitement in this seventh book of air adventures.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
I. A Reception Committee
II. Kidnapped
III. The Horrible Cavern
IV. Ghosts
V. The Way Out
VI. An Old Enemy
VII. The End of the Way
VIII. When the Butterflies Die
IX. The Ghosts of Bloody Dam
X. An Invitation
XI. Revenge
XII. The Fight in the Passage
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Airplane Boys in the Black Woods
CHAPTER I.
A RECEPTION COMMITTEE
"Holy Clover, that fellow would make his fortune in a dairy, all right,"
exclaimed Bob Caldwell glancing over the side of the plane the Flying
Buddies had borrowed while the "Lark," their own splendid machine was
undergoing much needed repairs at the shop of the British hangar in
Belize.
"His fortune, how do you make that out?" Jim Austin demanded. "I'll
bite, let's have the answer."
"He'd do the biting--that one tooth ought to be great to make holes in
Swiss cheese!"
"If I didn't need both hands you would get a wallop that would leave you
only one tooth, then you could start competition," Austin answered.
"Well," he added as the plane came to a stop, "this sure looks as if you
will find enough different kinds of vegetation, old Horticulturer, may
your tribe increase."
"Sure does," replied Bob with an eager light in his eyes as they went
from one great tree or vine to another. "Wonder who dropped that
one-toother down in this place." The one-toother was a tall, emaciated,
dark-skinned individual whose age, judging by the wrinkles on his body
and face, was in the neighborhood of two hundred. His lips were thick,
eyes sunken so deep in his head that they looked like burnt holes in a
blanket, his huge mouth was wide open and from the upper jaw was the
lone tooth. His only garment was an irregular bit of tiger skin
suspended from a narrow woven grass belt which looked as if it might
once have been decorated with a long fringe but only a few of the
strands of its ancient grandeur remained. It was impossible to tell,
either by his features or color if the man was a native Indian or one of
white blood who had been tanned and re-tanned through the long years
spent in the tropical climate. He stood perfectly still facing the plane
but the boys were not sure if he was staring at them or not.
"Suppose he's alive?" Jim whispered.
"He looks as if he'd been there as long as the trees," said Bob, then he
raised his voice. "You're looking hearty," he called. At that the queer
creature of the forest gave a slight shudder which went from the top of
his bald head to the soles of his bare feet, one bony arm was raised a
few inches from the side of his body, and almost instantly he
disappeared. "Exit, the gentlemen from where!"
"Where in the name of Mark Antony did he go?" exclaimed Austin in
amazement.
"Reckon we came, he saw, and fled," supplemented Bob. "Let's have a look
about. Perhaps we'll have the pleasure of seeing him again, but we don't
want to get too far from the plane, Old Timer, and we'd better watch our
step. We are two little lads far, far from the home corrals and my guess
is that that lad wasn't impressed with our looks."
"Too bad," lamented Bob.
"Yes, reckon you wanted to study that vegetable," Jim grinned.
"He didn't look like any variety of life I've ever run across."
The Sky Buddies climbed out of the cock-pit carefully surveying their
surroundings and listening intently for a sound of the vanished ancient,
but if he had never been near the spot it could not have been more
quiet; not even the buzz of an insect disturbed the silence. From the
air the boys had soared above a dense forest and it was only by chance
that Caldwell had noticed the small clear space and suggested that they
land and see what it was like. The clearing was less than an acre of
hard soil with a ridge of sharp rocks which protruded like saw-teeth
diagonally across. It looked as if sharp-edged slabs of stone had been
dropped when the soil was less packed; or it might, hundreds of years
before, been the top-most edge of a wall so arranged as an added
protection against animals or tribes that might attempt to scale it. As
the ages had passed accumulated vegetation, falling or shifting rocks,
and sands blown from distant miles have filled in the space leaving only
this trace of what it once was.
Beyond the clear spot, which was highest in the middle, sloping somewhat
like a dome, was the forest. Great trees whose ancient trunks were
hundred of years old, grew straight and high. The majority of them, as
far as the Buddies could see, had almost no low branches, but their
massive limbs started more than half way up the boles, and each one
overlapped with his neighbor so thick that the intense sun could not
penetrate the foliage. Beneath were smaller growths, many with long
tangled roots twisted in grotesque shapes as they clung like giant arms
to the rocks and disappeared in the soil. Huge vines with stems as large
as a good-sized sapling, clung tenaciously as they climbed upward, and
many of them were in bloom which gave the place the look of a
particularly beautiful bower.
A few feet from where the boys were standing was a basin, into which a
spring of clear water trickled from the crevice of a rock. That too had
the appearance of great age for the opening through which the water had
found its way, was worn in a smooth, deep groove. The basin itself was
about three feet across in the widest place, and nearly as deep where
the spring fell into it. From the lower edge it ran off in a tiny
stream, winding about until it disappeared into the forest.
"If we hadn't seen that oldest inhabitant I'd believe that ours are the
first human feet to hit this place. Say, it's kind of spooky, isn't it!"
Bob exclaimed softly.
"It does look as if it has been waiting for a million years," Jim
admitted. His eyes were searching the dome-like surface of the place
upon which they were standing.
"Wonder where the old boy took himself. He might be Enoch. Looks old
enough. Perhaps he just dropped down from heaven to have a look at the
world; maybe wanted to see if it's changed much."
"Go on, he'd wear wings instead of a piece of tiger skin," Jim answered.
"What do you expect to learn around here, Buddy? You never can get into
the forest, not far, anyway, and you ought to be able to see the same
sort of growths where it's less isolated."
"Surely, expect I could, but me hearty, the Elephant's Child has nothing
on me for curiosity, and now I'm here--"
"All right, Old Timer, I'm with you to any reasonable extent, but you
remember how said Child got his nose pulled. Careful where you put
yours," Jim remarked.
"I'll keep him in mind," Bob chuckled.
"Have a look at this," Jim's hand waved to designate the clearing.
"Suppose it could be the top of some temple that's been buried by
earthquakes?"
"Might," Bob agreed thoughtfully and examined the place more closely,
but they kept close to the machine. "Reckon we'd better watch closely;
that chap may come back with some more angels."
"He might. Lucky we took Bradshaw's helicopter instead of one of the
other machines."
"Yes, even at that I'd rather have the 'Lark'."
"Why not wait until she is fixed up then come back in her?" Jim
suggested. There was something awe-inspiring about the whole scene and
he felt that they would be safer with their own plane, which had
numerous extra instruments, greater speed, and was infinitely more easy
to pilot than the Canadian Mounty's machine.
"Aw Buddy, we want to get home sometime! I say, we started out,
expecting to be gone not more than a couple of weeks and look how long
we've been hanging around down here. I'd give a tooth right now to fork
a real bronc and have a grand gallop across the ranches."
"Same here," Jim nodded with a little sigh.
"But since we are here I'd like to see more of what grows in this
climate. We have to wait for the 'Lark,' the message tube is safe in the
hands of Don Haurea instead of in your pocket--"
"Or Arthur Gordon's," supplemented Jim.
"Wow. I say, I bet a jack-straw against the White House that he was
congratulating himself that we didn't take it back from him when he was
laid out so nicely--"
"I'd give a pair of colts to have seen his face when he opened the empty
one. Silver pants, but that was a streak of luck--"
"I'll say it was. That was a mistake as was a mistake," Bob chuckled.
"Gee, when I saw you let him take it away from you without so much as a
yelp I might have known it was flukey. We couldn't put up a fight, all
tied around like a pair of hot dogs, but you didn't even squirm. And you
never knew that you'd sent it by the mail pilot from La Paz--"
"Didn't discover it until just before Gordon's gang flew over the 'Lark'
and dropped the big boy on our wings. Some stunt that was, you have to
hand it to him--"
"Yep. I'm going to get the lariats then have a look around; also a drink
of water. That spring looks good enough to be the fountain of life. Bet
the old lad who was here must have filled up on it to renew his youth."
"You nut. Going around by the woods?"
"Right the first time. I won't go out of sight though. Maybe you'd
better stay here. My massive brain informs me that if some fellow should
come along and round up that plane we'd be in a fix."
"And how. There are miles of those woods."
"Then some." Being cowboys of no mean standing, the Flying Buddies just
naturally unhooked their ropes from their saddle horns when they changed
from a horse to a plane, and on more than one occasion that habit of
their lives had helped them through several mighty serious and tight
spots. Now Caldwell got the two lariats, which had been transferred as a
matter of course from the "Lark" to the good-natured Canadian's
helicopter when they started on this observation trip. Bob hoped he
might discover, among the wild tropical growths, some fruits, roots or
herbs which could be raised advantageously on his mother's own ranch,
the Cross-Bar in Texas. He was intensely interested in flying,
thoroughly appreciated the joys and practicality of air travel for
either long or short distances, but his love for the land and what might
be done with the great acreage he would some day own, was uppermost in
his thoughts. The horticultural and chemical department of Don Haurea's
immense laboratory was the one from which he derived the greatest
satisfaction; while electricity and mechanical sciences fascinated
Austin.
"Taking them both?" Jim asked.
"No, thought you might like to have yours handy."
"Thanks, Old Timer. Maybe you'll see how Enoch got away."
"He had no wings so must have dug-in or crawled." Bob strode off briskly
toward the edge of the forest, leaving Jim, the rope hanging loosely in
his hand, to see that nothing happened to the plane. Austin watched the
younger boy stop at the lovely spring, scoop some of the clear water up
in his hand, and take a good drink. "Great stuff," he called. "Feel as
if I'd knocked off ten years."
"Go on," Jim grinned. "Don't drink any more. I do not know how to take
care of infants."
At that, Bob shied a stone that struck the ground within an inch of his
step-brother's foot, then proceeded. He reached the rim of the thick
woods, where Jim saw him pause, then start slowly around, scrutinizing
everything that grew. Keeping one eye on the lad, whose white suit made
him easy to follow, Austin glanced around at the ground and began to
wonder what it had been and what it was. Since his acquaintance with Don
Haurea he had seen and been inside many marvelous underground caves,
temples, ancient hiding-houses, homes of the once famous race of the
Yncas, as well as their vast laboratories. He knew that the lost empire
had extended no further north than Quito, hundreds of miles south of
them, but he knew also that at the time of the Spanish conquest of the
Americas, this northern portion of South America had been inhabited by
intelligent Indians whose origin none could trace. They too had built
amazing temples, and it occurred to the boy that five hundred years ago,
when the remnant of the conquered tribe had gotten together, some of
them may have been mobilized from localities far from their original
homes. It was not straining credulity to reason that some of the temples
of the northern tribes might have been utilized to advantage, and
certainly this dome-like clearing of rock, with its gurgling spring,
might be over one of them, and the water might be forced through the
stones so that the moisture would assure the underground community, if
there was one, of dense growths which would be an added protection
against invasion of their domains.
Jim remembered that the first time they had landed on the high plateau,
known to Peruvians as Amy Ran Rocks, they had found an ancient Indian
woman apparently in possession of the place. At that time she had
recognized the green emerald rings given the Flying Buddies by Yncicea
Haurea and had told them to 'go in peace' but today, the ancient who had
stood like a man struck dumb in amazement, had made no such
identification. Thinking it all over carefully, Jim decided that the Amy
Ran guardian was probably apprised of the boys' coming, while this man,
if he watched an ancient fastness, had heard nothing of the Flying
Buddies.
"Then, again," Jim grinned. "This may all be perfectly natural land,
formed so through the ages, and the Indian a lad who lives in the forest
as far from the whites as he can get. Our dropping down on him was a
surprise, and the minute he got his wind, he beat it. Just the same, his
exit was mighty sudden. He was standing near the water, then he just
wasn't. I didn't see him run an inch or drop, but he surely did fade out
pronto."
That fact stuck in the boy's mind, and now Bob was some distance from
his starting point, so Austin moved to the front of the helicopter lest
he lose sight of the youngster. There was an uncanniness about the
place, and Jim wished that his step-brother would hurry with his
investigations, but he appreciated the fact that Bob was thoroughly
interested in what he was doing, and that it would be unfair to urge his
step-brother to shorten his investigations. They could not possibly
linger in the country many days and this opportunity seemed like an
especially good one which should be made the most of, while it was
possible.
Suddenly, from the east, Austin noticed a thick white cloud moving
swiftly toward the coast, and forgetting Caldwell for the moment, he
studied it in puzzled wonder. It certainly was not vapor of any kind, it
was too substantial looking, and another thing he observed was that it
did not move with the wind, which was from the south, although the
breeze did affect its direction somewhat. As it drew closer, he noticed
that it was considerably deeper than when he first picked it out against
the sky, also from its midst tiny particles, almost like snow, seemed to
hesitate and fall.
"What in heck?" Jim had his field glasses slung in a case from his
shoulder, and now he hastily took them out and in a moment was examining
the strange phenomena. "Well, what do you know about that!" he
ejaculated.
Magnified by the glasses, the boy saw countless small, white
butterflies, fluttering and poising in the sunlight. There were myriads
of the tiny insects flying toward him, and as they came, hundreds of
their number dropped out and tumbled toward the ground as if too
exhausted to continue their journey. As the boy watched in astonishment
he had no idea of what it was, then suddenly he remembered reading that
every year the butterflies, their life work completed, start in a
tremendous migration, drifting southeasterly along the sea coast until
they finally reach the sea, where they drop exhausted into the water and
die by the millions. He knew that science is unable to explain the
strange instinct which prompts them to choose death sometimes thousands
of miles from their breeding ground, and only a few weeks before he had
read an article by someone who had seen this great funeral cortege when
it hovered near a steamer. As the boy recalled, this migration usually
took place in the autumn, but he decided that probably in different
localities the time of year differed.
"Gee, they must be mighty tired," he exclaimed pityingly, "and I'll bet
they are leaving a thick white track beneath them." They were getting so
close now that he no longer needed the glass to see what they did. The
outer edges of the "cloud" were thin, as if leaders or scouting parties
were racing in advance, but from the main body so many were falling that
they must have appeared like a strange sort of storm. Several minutes
more he watched, then he remembered his step-brother, and glanced in the
direction where he had seen Bob a bit earlier, but no white-suited boy
stood out against the dark background of the dense foliage he had been
examining, and Jim's heart jumped into his mouth.
"I say--" He moved in the direction Caldwell had been going, then he
stopped with a gasp, the shout died on his lips and for the moment Jim
was too paralyzed to make a move.
About half way between the plane and the rim of the woods he saw three
tall natives, their bodies naked except for the tiger-skin and the grass
belt such as the ancient had worn; their heads adorned with a high dress
of peacock feathers whose many colors shone brilliantly in the sunshine,
in one hand each held a long spear with a glistening point, while the
other held a number of small, deadly-looking darts. One of the men had
an arm raised, his body was bent slightly toward the woods, and from his
extended hand shot the javeral, cutting sharply like a hissing knife
through the air, and to Jim's horror, it was flying faster than the eye
could travel, toward young Caldwell's unsuspecting back.