IN THE ANDES.
“Be me sowl, it’s a big country Ameriky is!” declared Barney, as he
glanced over the rail. “Shure, it’ll take a heap av foightin’ to iver
conquer her!”
“The days of national conquest are over, I guess,” said Frank. “At least
I hope so. That is a custom relegated to the dark ages.”
“Hard luck fer ould Oireland,” declared the Celt; “shure av it was
to-day she was free, England wud niver conquer her thin.”
“Golly! yo’ might borrow dis air-ship from Marse Frank an’ set yo’
island free if yo’ wanted to,” declared Pomp; “shuah, yo’ cud blow up de
hull lot ob dem Britishers.”
Barney’s eyes blazed.
“Bejabers, it’s no more thin they desarve, bad cess to thim,” he
declared. “Shure, they’ve had their feet on sufferin’ Oireland’s neck
long enuff.”
And so Barney continued to dilate upon the wrongs, real and fancied, of
his native isle. He kept on until Pomp began to guy him.
Then he got angry.
“Huh!” cried the darky, “if yo’ people was set free dey nebber cud
govern demselves! Shuah dey wud be eatin’ each other up fo’ a fac’!”
“Phwat’s that yez say?” blustered Barney, angrily; “don’t yez cast no
aspersions on the ould sod, yez black pickaninny! Shure yez own people
wud niver have got free av it hadn’t been fer Gineral Lincoln!”
“Dat shows all yo’ know ’bout fings,” sniffed Pomp; “dar warn’t no sich
man as Gineral Linkum.”
“Hey! phwat’s that, naygur? Don’t yez give me de lie!”
“Huh! Linkum warn’t no gineral, sah! He was de President, I’d hab yo’
know, sah!”
Barney elevated his nose contemptuously.
“Be me sowl it’s mighty little yez know onyway. An’ ain’t the President
commander-in-chief av the army an’ navy? An’ don’t that make him the
bigges’ gineral in the land?”
Pomp saw the point and wilted. He slunk into the galley, muttering:
“I jes’ fix dat I’ishman fo’ pretendin’ to know so much. I jes’ hab a
dose ready fo’ him yet!”
What this was we must wait for a later hour to decide. For the present
we will consider nearer incidents.
In due course New Orleans was sighted. The air-ship hung over the
southern city.
Frank looked for a certain signal, which he saw finally upon the roof of
one of the houses.
It was a yellow flag.
At once the air-ship bore down upon it and soon descended within fifty
feet of the roof. Up through a skylight popped Captain Nicodemus.
“Ahoy the ship!” he cried.
“Ahoy!” replied Frank.
“I am ready to come aboard. Throw out your gangway!”
“Is that roof strong enough to bear the weight of the air-ship?” asked
Frank.
“Surely, mate! Come down.”
“All right!”
Frank let the air-ship descend and rest upon the roof of the building.
Then he sprang down and shook hands with the captain.
Nicodemus was delighted.
He was all equipped for the trip.
But his personal appearance was startling as well as amusing in the
extreme.
The old captain had got himself up in the style of the privateer captain
of forty or fifty years previous. He wore fancy high boots, clinging
cutlass, pistols in belt, a velvet blouse and pea-jacket.
He looked as if equipped for a privateering or piratical cruise, and
Frank could not help a smile.
“You look as if you expected trouble,” he exclaimed. “Why have you armed
yourself?”
“Hang me high!” cried the captain, fiercely; “are we not going into a
land full of sharks and cuttlefish? Keep your eye on your outfit, lad.
We will need a little powder and ball and cold steel before we get
home.”
“Well,” said Frank, “you may be right; but I never employ arms until the
necessary time comes. You are taking time by the forelock.”
“Which is correct, skipper. I once knew a fair ship to become overrun
with pirates out in the Maldives, just because the skipper would not
carry powder for fear of blowing up the ship. He had an aversion to the
smell.”
Frank could not but laugh.
“Well,” he agreed, “you may be right. However, this air-ship is an
adjunct of Liberty Hall, so that you are all right. Keep your eye out
for sharks.”
“Depend on it, skipper. But will we wait long at this port?”
“Not another moment,” declared Frank; “let us be off at once.”
He made a motion to Barney and the air-ship left the roof. As it soared
aloft, the streets below were seen to be crowded with curious people
craning their necks.
Soon the Spectre was sailing over the jetties and the delta of the
Mississippi, and beyond were seen the waters of the Gulf.
Captain Nicodemus walked the deck of the air-ship, completely in his
element.
He sniffed the air and leveled his long glass at the distant horizon.
“This beats ocean navigation all to pieces,” he declared. “There’s
nothing like an air-ship.”
“Then you like it better than the sea?” asked Frank.
“Why not, skipper? In the first place, you can sail faster. You are
surer of making port on time. There’s no sails to furl or set. It’s
handsome sailing, and no care for the wind.”
Frank saw the old captain’s logic, and was inclined to agree with him.
“You are right, captain,” he said. “Aerial navigation beats all else.
But looking into the future, what shall we make a bee line for when we
get across this gulf?”
“For the Andes of Peru, then follow on down their eastern slope. I think
by so doing we shall come to the mysterious country.”
“Very good. But how will you identify the Transient Lake if the water is
all out of it?”
“Trust me for that, skipper, I could never fail to locate it. I hope the
water is out of it?”
“Why?”
“We could then easily follow the basin’s course and find the gold.”
“I can see. Well, keep a sharp outlook when we reach the Andes. I shall
strike across the Caribbean Sea for the mountains of Peru.”
“Good! I feel sure of success!”
The air-ship swept on southward. In due time the coast of Cuba hove into
view.
Upon its western end was Cape San Antonio. Frank passed directly over
this and entered upon the Caribbean Sea.
It was evident now that they were well into the tropics. The air was
balmy and the sea limpid and still.
When the coast of Colombia came into view the exciting period seemed to
have been reached. Beyond all knew that the land of wild adventure lay.
On sailed the Spectre.
Over the coast it passed and into the interior of Colombia. The scenery
was grand, and of the typical sort peculiar to South America.
And still the Spectre kept on until great dreamy-looking peaks rose from
the western horizon.
“The Andes!”
All crowded to the rail, and with thrilling veins regarded the range of
wonderful mountains, in fact, the most wonderful in the world.
The Andes of Peru upon the eastern slope are peculiarly rough and
picturesque.
It was in these mighty fastnesses that the ancient Incas had built their
temples and held their own in battle with the lawless Spaniard, until
their wealth, their glory and their prestige was forever lost to them.
Mighty Sarata with its altitude of 21,286 feet, gigantic Illimani with
its 21,000 feet, the great volcano of Guallatieri with 22,000 feet,
Titicaca, Vilcanata, Misti and all the monarchs of that awful
aggregation of peaks, than which the world has no superior, were all
about the air-ship.
Gliding from one fleecy cloud to another, the jagged heights in their
solemn grandeur were visible only at intervals. Captain Beere could
hardly contain himself.
“By the horn spoon!” he cried. “When you can find anything to equal
this, I’ll like to know where it can be. Is it not powerful, mates?”
“Indeed it is!” replied Frank.
All of the voyagers wore a face mask, an invention of Frank Reade,
Jr.’s, for use in high altitudes to prevent bleeding of the respiratory
organs or faintness. It was impregnated with a chemical, which, placed
in a light porous sponge at the nostrils, was a sure remedy.
So that they were enabled to travel with impunity in that high
atmosphere.
“I have heard great reports of the malady encountered in the high Andes,
known as the mountain sickness,” said Nicodemus; “it don’t seem to
trouble us as yet, Frank.”
“That is easily understood,” said the young inventor; “we are in the
air, and consequently do not feel the pressure as we would if we stood
on the mountain summit or terra firma. The buoyancy of the air-ship
overcomes that peculiar pressure which causes the so-called mountain
sickness.”
The air-ship sailed on slowly among the great peaks. It was a wonderful
spectacle.
But the aerial voyagers soon tired of it, and Frank finally asked:
“What do you think, Nicodemus? Is the mysterious country south of us?”
“I think so, skipper,” replied the captain. “We kept a pretty straight
line eastward to the head waters of the Paraguay River; we ought to find
the Transient Lake somewhere south of us.”
“We will keep on then in that direction,” said Frank. “Heigho! What is
that?”
The air-ship gave a sudden mad plunge forward. There was a terrific
explosion in the distance like the boom of a hundred great guns.
It was the wave of air coming from that direction which had given the
motion to the Spectre. But this was not all.
From a cloud just above the air-ship blazing balls of fire suddenly shot
downward.
A tremendous crash ensued on the air-ship’s deck, and she reeled and
shot downward.