FRIENDS IN NEED
They were not kept long in suspense. After being assured that their
attention was attracted, the voice that had made the hissing signal
whispered through some aperture of which the boys had no knowledge:
"Listen to me, white boys, and you, too, old man, you can escape if
your hearts are stout."
Stunned by the suddenness of this joyful news the boys sat silent.
"Are you listening, white boys?" said the voice impatiently.
"Yes--yes," whispered Billy eagerly.
"Then when a man comes in a short time to you with food and drink do
not touch it, for it is poisoned with a deadly drug; but curb your
appetite. In a short time the same man will come back to see if you
have yet become insensible. Then you must be of stout heart and
leap upon him and kill him. After that leave your cell and I will
show you how to gain freedom."
The boys had recognized the voice at once as that of their friendly
guide, though why he should have taken such a risk to aid them did
not manifest itself till he whispered:
"And as a reward, I ask of the fat white boy with the glass eyes his
fire-weapon which assuredly contains a great fetish and of the
red-headed one some of his hair for a fetish also. Of the old man I
would have the round box containing the strange god that says by day
and by night 'tick-tick'."
"He means my watch," answered the old man, "it was a present from my
dead wife to me on our wedding day, but he shall have it."
The boys also promised their "fetishes."
There was a guttural sound of satisfaction from outside the cell as
the bargain was struck and then all was silent.
How they passed the time till the door swung open and the man whom
their friend had foretold would bring them food and drink appeared,
they never knew; but somehow it went. The new comer set the stuff
down without a word and then stuck the flaming torch he carried in a
niche in the wall so that they might have light to eat by. He made
several gesticulations intended, apparently, to signify that what he
had set before them was very good.
"Hum," said Billy when he had gone, "I'd as soon eat a mess of toads
as touch any of this stuff--although it smells mighty good," he
added regretfully, "and I'm hungry enough to gobble up a crocodile,
claws and all."
But they all abstained from touching it and spent the time between
the second promised visit discussing whether they would carry out
the instructions of the friendly savage.
"But we can't kill the fellow," objected Lathrop.
"Certainly not," replied Billy; "but, now that we have a light, I
see that there is a nice convenient chain fastened to the wall over
there. There would be no objection to our gagging him, to prevent
any outcry, and then hitching him up with it."
"But he is a pretty husky-looking customer," objected Lathrop;
"suppose we can't overcome him?"
"We'll have to take our chances on that," said Billy decisively.
"Now what I propose is, that when he comes back we all he stretched
out as if the drug had overcome us and then, when I give the word,
we all jump on him."
He looked doubtfully at the old man as he spoke. There was no
question that in such a struggle the explorer would be worse than
useless. Mr. Desmond himself agreed with Billy and it was arranged
that while the two boys grappled with the negro that the old man
should pull the door to--in the event of its being left open--so
that no noise of the struggle might penetrate into the passage
outside.
The little party immediately spread themselves out on the floor in
well simulated insensibility and waited with hearts that beat
uncomfortably quick for the decisive moment to arrive.
Failure meant death but, as Billy had put it, they were due to die
anyhow it seemed and they owed it to themselves to make as brave an
effort as possible to escape such a fate.
At last they heard a fumbling at the door and the man who had
brought them the drugged food entered the cell. He scrutinized them
with a grunt of satisfaction and going up to each one shook him by
the shoulder to see if they were only asleep or really insensible.
Apparently he was satisfied from their inertness that the drug had
worked, for he muttered to himself rapidly in the unknown tongue as
he concluded his examination.
Then he turned to pick up the earthen dishes, stooping over with his
back to Billy Barnes as he did so.
It was Billy's move!
Like a flash the young reporter--who had earned an enviable record
on the gridiron and crew at Columbia University--was on the savage's
back while Lathrop rushed at the fellow as he straightened up and
gave him a low tackle. As Billy leaped he had dug his fingers into
the fellow's windpipe to choke any outcry, and when Lathrop seized
him by the legs he toppled over like a felled ox without uttering a
sound. Billy rolled from under him as he fell backward and the
man's head struck the stone floor with a terrific crash.
He was knocked insensible by the fall. The moment to escape had
arrived!
Rapidly the boys tore a strip off Billy's shirt and formed it into a
gag. With other strips they tied the insensible man's hands behind
his back and manacled his legs.
"He won't come to for quite a while after the crack he got,"
remarked Billy; "but in case he does, he won't be able to attract
attention for a long time."
Then, as cautiously as though stepping on eggs, they tiptoed out
into the passage--after extinguishing the torch--and the next minute
were startled to be suddenly halted by a form that ran right into
them in the blackness.
The next minute, however, their anxiety was relieved. It was
Umbashi who had collided with them and accompanying him was Aga, the
man who killed the rogue elephant. It appeared that the two had
agreed to divide the fetishes their captives were to give them in
return for their freedom. And Aga at once, with a stone knife, cut
off two generous locks of Lathrop's hair.
"But how are you to get my gun," objected Billy, "the priests took
it from me?"
"I already have it, Boy-of-the-eyes-of-glass," replied the engaging
cliff-dweller. "I stole it from the old head-priest while he slept.
But you must give it me of your own free will, or it will not be
good 'fetish.'"
Of course Billy willingly "gave."
To get the watch they had to traverse what seemed to Billy and
Lathrop in their feverish excitement miles and miles of passages.
But apparently the cliff-dwellers all went to bed early and slept
sound for they encountered no one, and their guides did not seem to
be in any anxiety over the possibility of discovery. Once they got
a chill of horror when just before they left the cell door Aga, who
carried a sharp knife--the same with which he had dispatched the
elephant and cut Lathrop's hair--signified his intention of cutting
the unconscious meal-bringer's throat. It was with great difficulty
that the boys dissuaded him from this barbaric act, the horror of
which did not seem to appeal either to him or his savage companion.
Once in old Desmond's cell it did not take long to get the watch--an
aged gold key-winder--and present it to the delighted savages. But
several precious minutes were lost in showing the two how to wind it
up. They regarded the key with quite as much veneration as the
watch. The boys saw the old man's eyes filled with tears as he
handed it over and Billy, as he saw the inscription on it, in a
quaint, old-fashioned script, realized why.
"To my dear husband, George Desmond, on our wedding day, May 24th
1874;" it read. With the signature "Mary Desmond."
Before they left the place that had been his home for the majority
of his long life, the old man carefully drew from beneath the palm
fiber covering of the niche that served him as a bed a pile of
yellowed paper, covered closely with fine writing in a clear, bold
hand. The pages had been written many years before old age had
seized their author's hand and paralyzed his strength.
Billy realized with a thrill that these papers contained, the
imperishable record of the long-lost scientist's observations and
commentaries on the mysterious Flying Men.
But it was no time to linger in speculations.
Hastily thrusting the papers into the bosom of his shirt the aged
man signified to his guides that he was, ready, and they left the
chamber that had housed him for so many years--without regret on his
part you may be sure.
Silently as cats they slipped down the corridor and, after about a
quarter of an hour of traversing its smooth floor, they found
themselves at the hole which gave egress to the outside world and
from which hung the rope-ladder by which they were to descend to
freedom.
Aga and the other savage gave grunts of pleasure and even laughed
softly as the boys' with a horrified start, almost stumbled over a
recumbent figure.
It was that of the guard of the ladder.
He lay as if dead--his body right across the narrow entrance. The
moonlight from the outside that flooded the entrance showed that his
mouth was open and his eyes closed.
A sudden rage filled Billy as he looked on the victim of what seemed
to him to have been a wanton murder.
"You have killed him," he said raising his voice imprudently in his
anger.
"Hush, boy-with-the-glass-eyes," exclaimed Umbashi, "he is not
dead. In a few hours he will be as well as you or I, but he will
recollect nothing. We have given him the sleeping root that brings
oblivion."
And now it was time to take the final step.
"A canoe with food and a jar of water is at the foot of the ladder,"
whispered their guide, "and the current will carry you down toward
the coast. It will not be a hard journey except for the Tunnel of
the Roaring Waters. Only a few men have navigated that and escaped
alive, but you will be compelled to traverse it to reach the coast."
"Can we not leave the canoe and go overland round the tunnel?" asked
Billy rightly conjecturing that their guide referred to a place
where the river ran underground when he spoke of the Tunnel of the
Roaring Waters.
"That cannot be done," was the African's reply. "The swamps where
the sleeping death (the sleeping sickness) lies are all about it.
Only by way of the Tunnel of the Roaring Waters can you escape."
"There is one other way," began Aga, "but that lies through the
forest."
"We will take it rather than risk navigation in such a torrent as
you describe," decided Billy after the remark of Aga had been
translated to him.
But before the two savages could say more there came a distant
booming borne down the rocky tube of the corridor.
It was the far-off confused sound of excited voices.
"Quick! glass-eyes, your escape has been discovered; you haven't a
moment to lose!" cried Umbashi.
It was only too evident that he spoke the truth. The roar of the
searchers' angry voices was rapidly ringing louder.
"Take this, white boys, and defend yourselves to the death rather
than be recaptured," said their friend as he thrust a stone knife
into Billy's hand.
The old man and Lathrop were already half-away down the swaying
ladder.
"Be careful, for the river is swollen with the melting snows of the
mountains and runs as if a million demons were in its soul to-night,"
warned Umbashi.
With a quick "Good-bye" to the men who risked their lives to rescue
them, Billy took his place on the swinging ladder and followed the
others down.
They were not a second too soon.
Even as they took their places in the canoe and Billy prepared to
slash the grass-rope that held it, the clamor drew close to the
mouth of the tunnel.
From the foot of the cliff the chums and their aged companion saw
torches glowing and could perceive Aga and the other pointing at
them and evidently explaining to the tribesmen that they had tried
to stop their flight. Billy was glad to see that apparently their
explanations were accepted and they were not suspected of having
aided the escaping prisoners.
With a quick slash of his flint knife, the young reporter severed
the rope at which the canoe was straining till it was taut as a
piano wire. There were several other canoes lying alongside and
before he cast loose Billy cut the detaining ropes of these also.
"Now they'll have to swim if they want to get us!" he exclaimed as
the canoe, released from its bondage, shot forward on the boiling
current at a dizzy rate.
But he had reckoned without the flying men. Dozens of them had
dropped from their holes and having gained the opposite bank started
in pursuit of the boys and the old explorer, who lay as if overcome
at the bottom of the canoe. Many of the strange beings carried bows
and arrows and they sent their shafts whizzing in a shower at the
canoe. One pierced its side and Billy had to stop the hole with a
strip torn from his already ripped-up shirt.
But fortunately, except for a slight scratch on Billy's forearm,
none of the arrows did much harm to the voyagers themselves, and
borne on the swift current the canoe soon outdistanced her pursuers.
As the sound of their shouting grew faint behind them, Billy and
Lathrop grasped the paddle with which they strove to keep the boat
on a straight course--there was no need to propel her.
The young reporter realized that three lives--his own, Lathrop's and
that of the long missing explorer depended alone now on their skill
and grit.