A MAN IN THE TREE TOP.
"To-day ought to tell the story whether we're going to get through or
not," Giraffe was saying, after they had been making more or less
progress.
"Put it a little stronger, Giraffe," ventured Thad. "Say to-day and
to-morrow will go pretty far toward settling it; because with such a
knock-down machine we're apt to meet up with all sorts of delays."
Bumpus shook his head and sighed.
"I know I'll be glad when the agony is over," he remarked pensively; and
there was not one of his companions but who felt he was thinking of his
waiting mother rather than himself.
For a little while their progress was indeed very fair, and as Giraffe
counted the number of miles they were putting behind him he kept smiling
more broadly than ever.
"Bully for the busy little worker!" he exclaimed finally. "I sure
believe it's taken on new life, and is renewing its youth. And yet they
say they can't come back."
Hardly had he spoken the last word when the engine gave a loud groan
that sounded almost human, and quit working.
"There, that's what you get for shouting before you're out of the
woods!" said Bumpus, in sheer disgust.
Giraffe looked blank.
"Say, do you really believe motors can understand the English language?"
he demanded of the fat scout. "This one has been brought up on either
German or French, and how would it know I was boasting? Anyway next time
I say a thing like that you'll see me knocking on wood right away."
Thad was already out and had the hood lifted so that he could look the
disheartened engine over, and find just what the trouble might be.
"Mebbe it's that silly old gas tank again?" suggested Bumpus.
Allan made a hurried examination.
"Nothing wrong here," he announced; "no drip, and plenty of stuff
inside. Looks as if the engine could only stand just so much, and then
had a fainting fit. And no matter where we bring up in the end, mark my
words, fellows, we've got to work our passage."
"Find out what bust, Thad?" asked Giraffe, as he jumped from the car.
"I don't seem to get it yet, and as there's no telling what may come
along the road while we're loafing here, suppose we all get busy and
push the car to one side, where it isn't apt to block the passage."
Thad's advice was immediately carried out, and when this had been done
he applied himself industriously to the task of first ascertaining what
had happened to the wretched engine, and then to repair the defect, if
it were possible.
Giraffe, always nervous and hard to keep quiet, meanwhile walked over
toward a mound that lay close by.
"Just to take a little observation, and see if there's any sign of those
airmen we saw yesterday," he told the others.
"I heard something that sounded like firing early this morning," said
Thad, "and it may be there has been more warm work going on. The breeze
came from the wrong quarter to help me out, and so I couldn't be sure."
They saw Giraffe make his way up the little rise and reach the top,
where he began to cup his hands about his eyes so as to see the better.
Possibly three minutes passed when those at the car heard sharp barking
as of a fox, and which of course was the call of the Silver Fox Patrol.
"He's waving to us to come up there!" exclaimed Bumpus, scrambling out
of the car, for he had felt so very comfortable that so far he had not
thought fit to make any change.
"Yes, and he means the whole bunch of us in the bargain, if signals
stand for anything, Thad," added Allan.
"All right, let's go," the patrol leader replied, as he started toward
the knoll, still gripping the monkey-wrench with which he had been
working at the time.
With Bumpus puffing at their heels the two boys soon arrived at the base
of the mound, and started up. It was a severe task for the fat scout,
but Bumpus could do considerable, once he made up his mind, and he was
with them when they reached the spot where the excited Giraffe stood.
"What ails you, Giraffe?" asked Allan.
For answer the elongated scout leveled his arm, and pointed in a certain
direction.
"See that tall, bushy tree, Thad?" he exclaimed; "well, turn your eyes
up toward the top of the same and you'll see what gave me a body blow."
"I see it!" called out Bumpus, "and say, it looks like a man fastened up
there! Oh! as sure as anything it moved then! It must be alive,
fellows!"
"It is a man," said Thad, decisively.
"But what on earth could he be doing away up there?" asked Allan, still
straining his eyes to look.
Giraffe had a remarkable vision. He could often discern things that were
next to invisible to his chums.
"He's caught fast there, I tell you," he remarked, eagerly, "and it's a
good thing for him he is, because if he fell to the ground he'd be
killed."
"How queer!" cried Bumpus, his eyes almost starting out of their sockets
with the intensity of the interest he took in the affair; "whoever could
have hung the poor fellow away up there in that tree top?"
Giraffe snorted in disdain.
"Nobody hung him there, silly!" he exclaimed. "He fell there, that's
all!"
"Fell there!" repeated Bumpus, incredulously. "Oh! now you're trying to
kid me, Giraffe. I don't take any stock in those big yarns about Mars
being inhabited, and all that stuff. Speak plainer, can't you?"
"If you look close, Thad," Giraffe said, ignoring Bumpus completely now,
"you'll see something lying on the ground near the tree."
"Yes, you're right, Giraffe, I see it," replied the other; "and it looks
as if it might be some sort of wreck, too."
"Just what she is!" cried Giraffe exultantly; "the wreck of an
aeroplane. That man in the tree must have been one of the flying squad,
German or Belgian, we don't know which yet. He met with an accident
while up aloft. Mebbe some of that shrapnel injured his machine, and he
was making for the earth to land far away from the battle field when he
struck that tree, and there he's stuck ever since."
"Oh! how hard it must have been for him, hanging up there all night, and
p'raps badly hurt at that!" cried the tender-hearted Bumpus. "Thad, you
wouldn't think of going on and leaving him there, I hope?"
"Well, I should say not, Bumpus," Giraffe told him. "We'd deserve to be
kicked out of the organization if ever we did that. How could we look
back without turning fiery red every time we remembered such a cowardly
act? Leave it to us, and we'll get him down out of that, eh, Thad?"
"Our duty compels us to do everything we can to alleviate distress," the
patrol leader said, soberly. "And it doesn't matter the least bit to us
whether that poor chap is a German, Belgian or Frenchman. He's in a
terrible position, and may lose his life unless we do something for him.
So let's head that way on the run!"
"What about the car, Thad?" asked Allan.
"Hang the car," replied the other, impulsively. "It's stalled right now,
and the engine partly dismantled, so there's no danger of its running
away."
"I hope not," Bumpus was heard to mutter, dubiously, "but cars are
mighty funny contraptions any way you put it, and nobody ever knows what
they're meaning to do. When you think they're sleeping as sweet as
anything they may kick you all of a sudden just like a mule."
Bumpus did not say anything more. He needed all the breath he could
gather in so as to keep within reasonable distance of his three chums,
who were making pretty fast time toward the tall tree.
As they drew closer to the spot all doubt concerning the nature of the
heap on the ground was dissipated. It was undoubtedly a wrecked
aeroplane, and Thad, who had taken pains to look these things up, told
the others it was without question a Taube model, small but swift.
"That means the man up yonder will turn out to be a German aviator,
doesn't it, Thad?" asked Allan, who was at his side, with Giraffe
leading.
"No question about that," was the reply, "because the Germans are the
only ones who are using the Taube model exclusively. They seem to think
it about fills the bill for safety and speed."
They had seen the man who was held fast among the branches of the tree
almost at the apex, in fact, wave his hand to them several times. This
told the boys he was still alive, even though possibly suffering
tortures. It also informed them that he had been watching their coming,
and while restraining from shouting out, meant to implore their
assistance.
"How are we going to get him down?" asked Giraffe, as they reached the
foot of the tree, which looked as though it could be easily scaled,
since the lower limbs came close to the ground.
"Three of us must climb up," said Thad. "We can help each other, and it
strikes me we ought to be able to make it."
"One thing in our favor," remarked Allan, who was famous for seeing
things, "the aviator is a rather small man. That's going to be lots of
help."
"What can I do, Thad?" asked Bumpus, willing to attempt anything going,
though his bulk would hardly allow him to be useful up aloft; in fact he
was apt to bother the others rather than prove of assistance.
"Stay down here, and take the man when we lower him from the limbs,"
Thad told him.
It was not much, Bumpus thought, but then he could at least say that he
had had a hand in the rescue of the unfortunate aeroplane pilot.
Giraffe climbed quickly, and reached the vicinity of the stranded
aviator first. He was even talking in German with him when the other two
arrived. They could see just how the garments of the man had become
caught in the branches, so that he was held there as in a vise, utterly
unable to help himself.
"He says he's been here all night," said Giraffe, eagerly, his face
aglow with pride over the fact that once more his high school German was
proving valuable. "He was swinging up pretty high, taking notes of the
disposition of the Belgian forces, when he found himself a target for
heavy firing. He thinks his machine must have been hit as well as
himself, for it started to act queer. So he made off like the wind to
get as far away from the firing line as he could, always falling, and in
the end he struck this tree just before dark."
"He's been wounded in the left arm," said Thad, "for you can see how it
hangs helpless, and there's dried blood on his sleeve too, caking it
hard. He might have bled to death here if that arm didn't happen to be
above him, which has helped to stop the flow. I'm afraid it'll start in
again while we're getting him down, but that can't be helped."
"We'll fix that soon enough, Thad," said Giraffe, eagerly, "once we get
him on the ground. Scouts ought to know their business enough to fix up
any ordinary hurt like that. But have you arranged your plan, Thad? Tell
us what to do, and you'll see us get busy."
The patrol leader had taken a hasty survey of the situation. He saw
there was only one way in which they could get the aviator free from the
clinging branches, and swing him in to the body of the tree.
Accordingly he began to give his orders clearly.
"You reach him on that side, Giraffe, and I'll take hold here. When we
swing him in, Allan, you catch hold, and keep him steady. Then we'll cut
these twigs, and free his leather coat. But be careful, both of you, for
a slip would mean broken bones, if not something worse. Now, ready,
Giraffe? Then when I say three, start swinging!"