THE END OF THE WAY
"Buddy, this can't be real. We must be asleep, or I must be having a
nightmare," exclaimed Bob in horror as they saw the massive stone
completely obliterate the dwarf.
"Old Man," Jim said shakily. "Let's call it a day and get out of here as
fast as we can, but keep a grip on yourself; watch your step."
"How are we going to manage it?"
"Search me, but the thing to hang on to is the fact that we are going to
make it somehow."
Bob tried to grin but it was a sickly effort, and again they glanced
down at the scene below. They could see the tall Indian walking
indifferently across the terrace while Mills was just getting the heavy
lid off the box which had been dragged from the foundation of ancient
stones. It was doubtless the removal of this support which had caused
the huge thing to fall and destroy the dwarf; but the lone white man in
possession of the treasure appeared to be absolutely unaffected by the
tragedy. He finally succeeded in removing the cover and when it was
tossed aside the sun shone brightly upon what appeared to be a wonderful
collection of glittering jewels. Greedily he plunged in his hands,
tossing the trinkets up as a miser might, and then he danced about the
marvelous find.
"Come along," Jim caught the younger boy's sleeve and the pair turned
away from the scene.
They made no comment as they climbed back to the terrace, walked
thoughtfully toward the natural stairway, and at last began to climb
again. On reaching the top they proceeded to the last elevation and
arriving there found that it was a huge plateau which had been leveled
carefully. There were several streams which ran as if they had been
guided around some gardens and then the water tumbled over the edge in a
sparkling fall whose spray leaped back fully twenty feet.
Taking a careful survey of their surroundings, the boys saw that to
their left was a strip of woods and through the tops of the trees which
were not very tall ones they could see a second clear space beyond.
Between them and the clearing there was a shallow ravine which they
could see grew deeper and wider as it twisted toward the ruins of the
ancient city. In one place they saw a wall which had evidently been
built to re-enforce the land and prevent the soil from being washed
away, but in places the stone work had fallen and the action of water
had left a deep, gravel wash. There was little dry timber on the site
where they were making their observations and for some unexplainable
reason neither of them cared to build their signal fire so near the
ruined temple and its tragedies.
"Let's go a bit further back, set a course through those woods, and get
on that bare place," Jim suggested.
"Suits me fine," Bob agreed. "It looks lower than this."
Without further ado they started toward the rocky ledge which rose
toward the back, then, facing about prepared to make their way across
the ravine through the woods. Being first class pilots they made a
careful reckoning, noted several easily followed marks by which to set a
course, then with a final glance around at the scene made ready to
start, but before they took a step they heard a scrambling and a moment
later were surprised to see Mills, laden with the heavy box, come
stumbling toward them. If the man knew they were there, he made no sign,
but came half stumbling along bent almost double with the weight he
carried.
The boys paused uncertainly, both ready to defend themselves should the
insane man attack them, but he might have been blind for all the
attention he paid to them. As he drew nearer they could see his lips
moving, and soon they could hear his mutterings, which were punctuated
by queer crackling chuckles as if his throat was parched and dry.
"I'm awake, awake," he declared over and over. "Awake, and I have it
all, every piece, millions of treasure." At that he laughed harshly,
then his foot struck against a bit of projecting rock and it took all
his strength to keep from falling, but he managed it, although in the
balancing maneuver, the box tipped and teetered precariously. Mills
jerked it tight and then a mass of the shining contents was spilled and
went tumbling to the ground. "Riches, riches, and I am awake. Let it
stay, let it stay--I have it all. I have it all, the others have none--I
am awake and rich--rich--" The words trailed off into incoherent sounds.
He made his way weakly past the boys, pieces of the treasure falling
like a trail over the route, and five minutes later he disappeared in a
thick grove which fringed the cliff.
"Gosh," Bob said softly when at last Mills was out of sight, "he has the
treasure."
"Whew, surely." Jim stooped and picked up a handful of the fallen
trinkets and as he let them fall again through his fingers, the Buddies'
eyes met. Mechanically they turned their faces toward the trees which
concealed their former companion.
"A box full of shells--" said Bob. "Worth four bits a ton," Jim added.
"Whew, speaking of nightmares, if the sandman can beat all this
adventure he's going some. Seven dead men, a crazy man, besides a band
of Indians and dressed-up robbers carried away before a broken
dam--whew--"
"Let's get going."
Bob kicked a cluster of the shells near his feet, then facing about
resolutely, started to lead the way across the plateau, into the strip
of wood, down the narrowest point of the ravine, up the other side,
which was quite steep, and finally they were standing on the clear space
they had picked out from the terrace. The site was bare except for a
couple of rather large growths more than half way across, and the Sky
Buddies noticed that it seemed to be fringed with a dense timber and
long trailing vines. In every way it was an ideal location for their
purpose and now they were actually away from the depressing ruins, they
sighed with relief.
"We've been doing a lot of mooning around," Jim remarked cheerfully.
"Let's make up for lost time."
"There's plenty of dry brush for the fire." Bob glanced into the sky,
then scrutinized the heavens closely, while Jim devoted himself to
getting acquainted with the vicinity. "Not a wing--" But he was
interrupted by a hearty laugh which rang merrily from his step-brother's
throat.
"What in the name of cat-soup and fish is the matter with you?" he
demanded, but he stared at this pal anxiously. "You didn't catch
anything from Mills, did you?"
"No," Jim answered, then went off again into gales of laughter. It was
so loud and hearty that a sleepy echo caught it up and passed it around
experimentally until it seemed as if the top of the world was indulging
in a grand ha-ha-ha.
"Hey, Old Sour-dough, can it! We'll never get anything done if you
indulge in hi-strikes--"
"Ha, ha, ha-ah-haa," roared Jim. Tears began to roll down his cheeks and
he doubled up helplessly as he laughed.
"Ha-ha-ha," Bob repeated mechanically.
"Ha-ha-ha--" Jim kept it up and it came from his very boots.
"Say, am I so funny?" demanded Bob. He was becoming convinced that Jim's
mind was badly affected by the strain of the past twenty-four hours, and
he didn't wonder. "Come on, Pal, snap out of it--that won't do you any
good--not a bit. Why, you are acting worse than if some one was tickling
the soles of your feet--"
"I'm tickled all over," Jim gasped merrily.
"At what--be yourself or tell me what has set you off--I don't see
anything to laugh at--"
"No?"
"Not a thing. This is a serious business, Old Man, we've got to keep our
heads to get out of it."
"Ha-ha haaahahhhaaa," shouted Jim, then he made a slight gesture which
seemed to include the entire world. "Ha-ha--"
"Ha--" Bob started to mimic him, then his eyes swept swiftly over the
place. He turned himself about to look more closely, then, he too opened
his mouth and roared with genuine amusement. "Ha-ha-ha-ha." It was a
soul-satisfying bellow which shook him from head to foot for several
minutes, then he pulled himself together. "We don't want to make any
mistake." With that he ran to the nearest green pile and began to pull
on it. After a moment Austin joined him, and although they continued to
chuckle as they worked, they had control of themselves.
"Behold the Helicopter," Jim cried as the plane began to stand out from
the covering of foliage the bandits had put on it.
"No wonder you laughed," grinned Bob.
"When I first saw it I thought I had gone crazy, then I was sure and my
giggling apparatus went wide open. Gee, to think, after all that
traveling--millions of miles it seemed--then to come right back to the
place we started from. Gosh all Friday, it's like finding an everlasting
cream puff. Whew--aint it a grand and glorious feeling!"
"I'll say! If we had built our signal fire over there on the top of the
ruin and Bradshaw had found us--the plane almost under our noses,
howling catnip but he would have had a laugh on us. It was a close shave
all right."
"Suppose I go over the machine and you take a look at the other one.
Shall we leave it here, or one of us fly it?" Jim asked.
"Don't know that I'm so crazy about going in separate planes, Buddy, but
they would surely think us nuts to leave one."
"That's what I was thinking. I'll pilot one and you take the other. We
can mark this section on the chart and have a doctor or someone sent
back to get Mills. He'll be all right for a few hours and it ought not
to be hard to locate him, they can follow his trail of shells. He'll
probably spill the whole lot as he goes."
"No sense in either of us trying to get him to civilization in one of
the planes. If we leave him here, he might come out, just get enough
sense to go up in it, then come down in a smash or run into some other
machine."
"Yes. Let's get going."
Whistling and chuckling spasmodically the Flying Buddies set to work and
presently they had the foliage screen out of the way, had wiped the
sticky bodies of dead butterflies off the propellers and other parts,
examined the control boards, the gas tanks, and then made a tryout test
to be sure that everything was as it should be.
"Oh, gee, this is great. All set, Old Man?"
"Contact," Bob responded.
"Fore," bellowed Jim.
Presently they were in the cockpits, the engines roared merrily, it was
great to hear them singing smoothly after the long silence and the
Buddies waved at each other. The helicopter started first, ran a few
rods, then lifted almost vertically and when it was off the ground,
Bob's machine started taxiing swiftly, curved, its nose went up
gracefully, then it began to climb, zooming swiftly until it reached the
elevation Jim had attained. That done the boys smiled with satisfaction,
circled about the spot in wide turns only climbing slightly. They took
in the entire location, including the site of the ancient ruin, and
after several minutes, Austin caught sight of Mills standing near the
fallen stone. They saw the man stare up at them as if their presence in
the sky puzzled him, then he bent over the ground and crouched out of
sight, as if afraid.
Having ascertained his whereabouts, the two planes climbed again and
when they were well in the ceiling, they leveled off, pointed their
noses toward the sea, and with courses set, raced at high speed toward
their goal. Mills' plane proved to be a faster machine than the Canadian
Mountie's, but it gave a very good account of itself.
They had been flying nearly fifteen minutes when suddenly Jim spied a
plane circling high in the distance. It banked, dipped, turned and came
rushing toward them, the British insignia showing plainly on the
fuselage. Soon it drew close and the Flying Buddies could see two men in
her, one with a glass to his eyes, and in a moment the man waved; it
seemed as if he were jumping up and down in the cock-pit, and the boys
grinned widely as they realized that he was probably some airman who had
spent long anxious hours in search of them. With a wave of his hand the
pilot circled about them, then zoomed up, and shot forward at top speed
toward the barracks airdrome.
"He's taking word in," Jim said to himself. It was wonderful to be going
back to them, those kindly Britishers whose tongue and ideals were
nearly like the Americans.
The little plane quickly outdistanced the boys and presently was only a
speck on the horizon, but it seemed to Austin, even though the machine
was swallowed up in the afternoon sunlight, there remained a bit of the
nation's color in the heavens to signify that its fine men were ready to
lend a hand, take a fair share of dangers, and understand. Jim felt as
if it had been years since he and Bob had taken off from the smooth
run-way, watched the soldiers and people of the town wave after them,
the cheers carrying on even above the roar of the machine. Since then
the Flying Buddies had contacted with an entirely different sort of
creature; it was rather like being dragged through miles of clinging,
slimy mud, and what he wanted most of all at that moment was a good
bath, but he didn't expect there was water enough in the world to rid
them of the unwholesome association of Lang and his gang. Then he saw
Bob pointing west of them and glanced in that direction. There were two
other tiny specks which also zipped about and came rushing toward them
swiftly as an arrow shot from a strong shaft. The boys slackened their
own speed, and presently the two planes were racing along beside them,
and then Bob guessed that the man at the controls was Bradshaw and his
companion was Allen Ruhel. With a slight wave of the hand and a brief
acknowledgement the three machines roared through the heavens. They were
joined by one other plane, and an hour after leaving Mills at the
ancient ruin, they were gliding down gracefully, while it looked to the
boys as if everyone in the province had assembled to welcome them and
learn what had happened. Soon the helicopter's wheels hit the ground,
ran a short distance and stopped. Dozens of men came rushing to the side
of the cockpit.
"Where have you been--"
"Are you hurt?"
"What happened to you?"
"Did you get blown off--"
"The whole country has been looking for you--"
"It's great that you are back safe--"
"Thank God you didn't have a smash-up." The queries and exclamations
were hurled so fast it was impossible to answer, but in a moment, before
Jim could loosen his strap, Allen Ruhel was beside him.
"Glad to see you, Old Top. Like to hop inside and freshen up a bit?" he
asked casually as if the boys had not been gone more than a few hours.
"Like it better than anything else in the world," Jim answered, and
Bradshaw looked at him narrowly.
"Anything we can do, just sing out--"
"I'd like to know about Mom," Bob announced a bit chokily, for he hoped
hard that she had not been terrified by the news of the strange
disappearance.
"Mrs. Austin is quite top hole, you know." Ruhel answered.
"She wasn't given all the particulars and a cable is off now to let them
know that you came in under your own power," Bradshaw added. "The first
man who sighted you sent it."
"Thanks a lot," Bob grinned. If his family was not suffering the agony
of suspense, the rest did not matter, he thought.
"Come along," Captain Seaman invited.
It was a difficult task to get through the crowd which pressed about
eagerly, and hundreds of hands, men's, women's and children's, touched
those of the American boys who had come back. In the meantime they were
safe, but they must be hungry and worn, although they did not look so
bad--certainly not nearly so bad as if some airman had found them
beneath the remains of a wrecked or burned machine. Thank God for that!
Thank Him especially for the sake of their mother and father--after all,
the world was pretty fine. Someone began to sing a medley of songs loved
by Americans, and the Sky Buddies could hardly keep back the tears. It
was wonderful having people who were so jolly to a fellow.
"Here are my quarters," Seaman smiled cordially. "You know them. Make
yourselves at home--"
"Thanks a lot," Jim said chokily.
"Er, ah, the doctor is just across the way. By George, he's coming now.
Decent sort of old sawbones. Let him give you the once over, it will
perk him up no end, you know--"
"We're not hurt at all," Jim assured his host.
"To be sure, I didn't think you were, but you may as well be a good
sport and give the old fellow something to do. Er, if you could dig a
scratch, no matter how little, just enough to make him think you may be
in danger of blood poisoning. We're such a bloody healthy bunch--I'll
send him in, do what you can for him."
"All right," the boys agreed.