GORILLAS--AND AN AERIAL TOW-LINE
The mystery of the man on the hill bade fair to be an unsolved one,
for although the boys watched for some time with considerable
anxiety he did not reappear. This feature of the incident set them
to comparing notes and they found that their impression of the
apparition differed considerably. Both Frank and Harry were ready
to swear that he was a black man, while Ben Stubbs was equally
convinced that his skin was of a reddish hue. All three, however,
agreed that he was weaponless so far as could be seen, and his
attitude appeared to be more one of interested curiosity than of
actual hostility.
"Well, there's no use wasting time in speculation," said Frank at
last, "more especially as it does not look as if we can get any
nearer to solving the problem in that way. The thing to do now is
to get at the ivory and that as quickly as possible. If that man is
the forerunner of a band that means to attack us, it is all the more
reason that we should get a move on."
"Right you are, Captain," assented Ben, "and here goes!"
With a mighty swing of his pick the former prospector dislodged a
pile of the rough stones of which the cairn was composed and the
boys, too, laid on with a will. In an hour or so all that was left
of the once lofty cairn was a few big rocks.
Excitement ran fairly to fever heat as the last obstruction that lay
between the adventurers and the ivory hoard was cast aside.
In a few minutes now, if all went well, they would be in possession
of the treasure. More than once as they worked, Frank drew his
field-glasses out of their case and scanned the surrounding
wilderness of rocky chasms and swept the green jungle that lay
stretched like an emerald ocean far below, but each time he replaced
them with a sigh of relief. So far there was no sign of any rivals'
approach, although Frank well knew that by this time Muley-Hassan
must be upon his way to contest the boys' claim to the ivory.
As the last stone was chucked aside with a mighty heave by the
combined forces the perspiring adventurers broke into a hearty cheer.
Beneath it was a wooden trap-door which had a ring placed in the
middle evidently for the purpose of lifting it. Frank gave it a
heft, but the weight was too much for even his wiry muscles; but
when Ben and, Harry assisted him the door gave with a jump that
threw them all to their feet.
Scrambling up in a second they rushed to the edge of the hole
revealed by the uplifting of the wooden cover. What they saw showed
them instantly that their wildest hopes had not been overdrawn.
There, at their feet, lay a king's ransom in yellow ivory.
From the hole rose a fetid, sickening odor that at first was almost
overpowering. It came from the rotting flesh that still adhered to
the roots of many of the huge trunks.
With a cheer Harry was about to spring down into the aperture when
Frank, with a quick exclamation, drew him back.
"Jump back for your life!" he shouted.
Harry was accustomed to obeying his brother in everything, and jump
backward he did with an agility that would have done credit to a
gymnast. Before he could ask a question Frank's revolver cracked
and a little spit of dust shot up almost at his very feet.
There lay a tiny snake viciously wiggling about in its death agony,
pierced through by Frank's bullet.
It was a rock adder--one of the deadliest of African snakes. Barely
more than three inches in length, and a dull gray in color, it was
small wonder that Harry in his excitement had not seen it as he was
about to jump almost upon it.
"We shall have to be careful," said Frank, as he kicked aside the
still writhing body of the disgusting looking reptile. "There is
just a chance that Muley-Hassan, with the cunning of an Arab, may
have put several more of those customers in here to guard his
ivory."
It was therefore cautiously that the boys proceeded to work at
getting the ivory out of the hole and although they killed three
more of the venomous reptiles it seemed more probable that they had
got in by accident than that the Arab slave-dealer had deliberately
placed them there. By mid afternoon a big pile of ivory lay ready
for transportation to the Golden Eagle Il and only a few more tusks
remained in the hole.
"How are we ever going to get the tusks down the hill to the Golden
Eagle II?" asked Harry as he gazed at the formidable pile.
"I have a better plan than that," replied Frank, "we will bring the
Golden Eagle II here."
"What?" gasped both his listeners.
"Why not? It will be a ticklish job to land her on this spot, but I
think I can do it. I mean to try anyhow."
"You are risking breaking up the ship," objected Harry.
"On the other hand, if we don't get this ivory out of here in jig
time Muley-Hassan will be here with a big force and we shall
assuredly all have our throats cut."
This argument proved insurmountable, and while Ben was left by the
ivory Harry and Frank hurried down the steeps to the plateau on
which they had left the Golden Eagle II. It was the work of a few
minutes to tune her up. In a brief time from the moment they had
left the ivory cache, considering the clamber they had had, the boys
were in the air and headed for the spot where they had left the
hoard.
But as they rose into the air they were startled by the sound of a
shout and then another and another, then carne a volley of shots.
What could be the matter?
The shooting evidently was taking place at the spot where they had
left Ben to guard the ivory.
Muley-Hassan! was the first thought that shot through Frank's brain.
The next minute, however, he dismissed the idea as absurd. The
Arab, even by the swiftest marching, could not have reached the Moon
Mountains in such record time unless he also had an air-ship, which
Frank knew was impossible.
As the ship soared higher and rushed straight as an arrow through
the air to the ivory cache a strange sight was revealed to the two
young voyagers. High up on the mountain-side they could see Ben
struggling with what appeared to be dozens of naked savages. The
boys could see his gallant resistance as he swung his clubbed rifle
again and again at his savage opponents. Several of them lay dead
on the ground about him, but those that remained were attacking him
with what seemed demoniacal fury.
"Good Lord," gasped Frank, "what on earth can have happened?"
"They're cannibals!" gasped Harry.
"No--no," exclaimed Frank hastily, "they're--give me the glasses
quick, Harry--that's right--I thought so. They're not savages, but
worse almost."
"What do you mean?"
"That they are gorillas!"
At her utmost speed the big aeroplane bore down on the scene of the
unequal combat between Ben Stubbs and the savage beasts.
The boys could see that one of the brutes had seized their stalwart
companion's rifle from him and with incredible strength had broken
it in half as if it had been a wooden toy. The next minute Harry's
rifle spoke and the gorilla that had just performed the miraculous
feat of strength fell dead. With a shriek of rage the others turned
to see whence came this new enemy.
At the sight of the great aeroplane bearing down upon them they at
first started to flee with howls of terror, but the next minute they
rallied and with low growls of rage, that bared their cruel fangs,
they deliberately waited to see what this strange object might be.
This gave Ben a brief respite and he occupied it by reloading his
revolver. The boys were delighted to see by this that their brave
comrade was not seriously injured.
But now the Golden Eagle II was ready to settle and Frank, guiding
his aerial steed with one hand, grasped his revolver with the other,
for it was evident that the rush would come as they struck the
ground. And come it did. As the wheels of the aeroplane struck the
earth and Frank threw in the brakes sharply crashing into a rocky
wall, with a howl of defiance the whole horde of man-like brutes
rushed down on the air-craft with wicked rage in their spiteful
little red eyes.
The leader of them, a huge "old man" gorilla, brandished an immense
stone which he hurled with vicious energy at the new arrivals.
Luckily it fell short of the air-ship or it would have crashed
through the plane covers and have seriously crippled, if not ruined,
the air-ship.
The boys' rifles cracked simultaneously and two of the attackers
rolled over, with horrible human-like cries, but the leader, the bad
"old man," was still in the field. As he saw his fellows fall he
gave a mighty yell of rage and hatred that seemed to come from the
depths of his hairy chest, and beating rapidly on it, as if it were
a war-drum he rushed straight at the aeroplane.
"Don't let 'em get near the engines," was all Frank had time to
shout before the avalanche of hairy, ill-smelling brutes was upon
them. Some of them had armed themselves with rocks which they
hurled with ferocious force. Others used nothing but their bare
hands. Some of them, wounded as they were, fought with added
fierceness. Desperately the boys fought them off and when the
magazines of the rifles and revolvers were emptied they fell back on
their hunting knives.
Frank had made a furious lunge at the "old man" and missed him by a
hair's-breadth when he felt two great hairy arms encircle him from
behind and the hot breath of one of his horrible opponents whistling
savagely in his ear. He tried to lunge backwards at the creature,
but toppled over and fell sprawling. In a flash the "old-man"
gorilla was on him when Ben's revolver cracked and the "old-man,"
badly wounded, sprang high into the air and rolled over and over,
clutching his head with both his huge hands and screaming in an
agonized manner.
The fall of their leader seemed to discourage the others. They
fought on for a while but it was half-heartedly. The boys had had
time in the brief pause that followed the killing of the "old-man"
to reload, and with their rifles newly charged they were in position
to make terrible reprisals on the gorilla band for the mischief they
had wrought. The monsters evidently were about to quit the battle
when suddenly a cry rang through the air that ended the fight more
abruptly than even the boys' bullets could have done.
"Ah-o-o-o-o-AH-O-O-O-O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!"
It was the voice of the mountain once more.
With yells of dismay and terror the remainder of the gorilla band
instantly dashed up the rocky mountain-side dragging with them, in
grotesquely human fashion some of their wounded. Several of these,
however, still lay on the ground and the boys put them out of their
misery with a few well-directed shots. A pathetically human look
lingered in the eyes of some of the injured gorillas and Harry burst
out with:
"This is awful work. I'd rather fight a dozen bands of cannibals
than have to do this."
"And yet," replied Frank, "if we hadn't killed them they'd have
killed us."
At last the unpleasant work was over and the ivory was rapidly
loaded into the aeroplane. But here an unanticipated difficulty
manifested itself. Obviously the aeroplane would be too heavily
laden if she attempted to carry all or even a good part of the
ivory.
"Now we are stuck," cried Harry.
"Hold on," exclaimed Frank with a smile, "I anticipated this. We
are going to turn the Golden Eagle into a tow-boat."
"A tow-boat?"
"That's what I said."
"What do you mean?"
Frank, in reply, bent over the stem-locker of the aeroplane and drew
out what Harry instantly recognized as the silk envelope of an
experimental dirigible they had built the year before.
"Now then," said Frank, "give a hand here."
They all three pulled and hauled till the envelope was spread level
on the ground, all folds and creases having been carefully shaken
out.
"Well," said Harry, "this would carry an awful weight of ivory, but
how are you going to inflate it?"
"With these cylinders," was the answer as Frank opened the
store-room below the floor of the Golden Eagle and pointed to a
dozen cylindrical steel receptacles. "They contain more than enough
pure hydrogen gas at a high pressure," he explained, "to inflate the
bag."
In his enthusiasm Harry waved his helmet and Ben did the same.
"An aerial express, hurray!"
The inflation hose was soon connected to the first of the cylinders
and with a hiss the gas rushed into the bag when a turn of the
wrench set free the precious stuff. Slowly the big yellow envelope
swelled and assumed shape until by the time the last cylinder was
empty it was tugging and straining to rise. But the boys had
weighted it down with rocks and pegged its net ropes to the ground.
The ivory was loaded into a sort of rope basket, like those used to
hoist cargo aboard a ship, and in a short time, so quickly did they
work, they were ready for the air, so far as what Harry called "the
airbarge" was concerned.
"We shall have to strip the Eagle," decided Frank, when the
inflation job was finished.
"Of everything that we can spare," added Harry, setting to work at
once to rip the transoms and detach the bolts that held the heavy
wireless apparatus in place. As he did so, Frank was moved by a
sudden thought.
"Hold on a second, Harry," he shouted, "I'll call up the river camp
before we cut off all communication."
Rapidly he sent out the call. Again and again his nervous finger
agitated the key--but there was no response.
"They--they don't answer," gasped Frank at last--heavy anxiety in
his tones.
"Oh, Frank, do you think anything serious is the matter?" cried
Harry.
"It may only be that the apparatus is out of order," replied the
elder brother seriously; "but it looks bad. That field wireless was
in prime condition and it would be next to impossible for them to
fail to receive our call."
"Well, there is only one thing to be done," remarked the practical
Ben Stubbs.
"And that is--?" queried Harry.
"To get back there as soon as possible, for if they need us they
need us dern bad," was the energetic reply.
Half an hour later the Golden Eagle, stripped of all her heavy gear
and only carrying just enough gasoline to get her to the river camp,
where the adventurers expected to find a reserve supply, rose slowly
into the air with her queer tow tugging behind on the wireless
ground rope. The boys had cached the wireless apparatus and the
other gear, to be called for at some more opportune time. To their
great regret, also, they had had to leave some of the ivory behind
them. But the majority of what they did not dare trust to the
gas-bag they carried in the chassis. Luckily for them there was
hardly a breath of wind and the novel carrier towed well.
As the occupants of the great aeroplane gazed back at the sinister
Moon Mountains as they fast faded out--they saw silhouetted against
the evening sky a dark figure.
It was recognized at once as one of the beaten gorillas scouting to
see if the terrible white men had really gone.
"There's the man we saw this afternoon," laughed, Frank, as with
rapidly beating propellers the Golden Eagle II winged her way with
the convoy toward the River Camp.