THE BLACK BEAR IN TROUBLE
One still night on the Amazon Jack Bosworth got out a map and turned
a flashlight on it. Frank and Harry stood looking over his
shoulder.
"Right here," Jack said, presently, "is where we leave the main
stream of the Amazon and take to the Madeira."
"How do you know that stream is the Madeira?" asked Frank. "We have
passed so many large tributaries that I'm all mixed up."
"And why not try some other stream?" Harry questioned. "I've heard
that the Madeira is full of falls and rapids."
"Anyway," Jack insisted, "it takes us away up into the Andes, almost
to Lake Titicaca, and that's all any stream will do. As for the
falls and rapids, do you expect any stream to creep down from that
great plateau without jumping off occasionally?"
"All right," Frank cut in. "Go your own way to destruction! But
how do you know that rippling sheet of water off there," swinging an
arm to the south, "is the Madeira river? It looks like a lake to
me."
"I found out while you were asleep this morning," Jack replied. "A
chap came along in a launch and I asked him all about it. He said
he had just come from the Andes, and advised me to turn back."
"Kind-hearted little fellow, eh?" laughed Harry.
"He wasn't very little," answered Jack. "He was six feet two, and
was coming out with a finger off and a cut across a cheek bone which
will last him for a spell, I guess. He cut his finger off because a
poisoned arrow struck it."
"Cannibals?" asked Harry, with a laugh.
"The same," replied Jack. "Said they chased him for miles."
"We'll curb their appetites with lead," Harry observed.
"If we see them first," added Jack.
So the Black Bear was turned into the Madeira river, which is
something like seven hundred miles long, and drains the wooded
country where the black sheep of the land of Brazil live. Away up
in the hills it is fed by the Beni river, which has its source in
the mountains east of Lake Titicaca.
More than once the boys were obliged to haul their motor boat out
on a rocky "bench," take it to pieces, carry it and most of the
stock around rapids, and then put it together and load up again.
Still, they made good time, and on the evening of the third day
found themselves at the junction with the Beni river.
They were now in a wild and dangerous country. The forests swarmed
with wild game, the thickets were full of serpents, and the trees
were often crowded with monkeys. For two days they had seen no
natives. This was suspicious as it was certain that they had
penetrated to the home of the cannibal tribes so greatly dreaded by
hunters and explorers.
It was on the evening of the 21st of August that Jack sent the Black
Bear into a little creek, shut off the power, and turned to put up
the panels. It was not very warm, but the atmosphere was sticky and
heavy with the breath of the woods.
"We'll smother in there tonight," Frank said, observing the actions
of the other. "Why not leave some of 'em out?"
"If you want a poisoned arrow nestling in your ribs you can sleep
outside," Jack answered. "For my part, I want to wake up in this
good old world in the morning."
"I don't think there's any danger yet," Frank said.
But the panels were put up and supper prepared. By this time the
lads had become accustomed to preparing their own meals, as well as
providing the fish from the river, and the repast was soon over.
Then Jack lay back and gazed through the one glass panel of the top
of the Black Bear.
It was a dark, lowering night. The wind is usually from the east in
that part of Brazil. Blowing over the Atlantic it gathers up
moisture to dump on the eastern slope of the Andes. The summits
drain the clouds and makes Peru a dry country. It was murky now,
and the clouds hung low.
"What do you see up there, Jack?" asked Frank. "Trying to study
astronomy, with not a star in sight?"
"There you are wrong," Jack replied. "There is at least one star in
sight."
"With that mass of clouds drifting over the sky?" laughed Harry. "I
reckon you must be seeing things not present to the senses!"
"Come and look, then," Jack invited. "Look straight up, and you'll
see a star."
Frank placed himself under the glass panel and looked up.
"Well?" Jack demanded, in a tone of triumph.
"It's something," Frank exclaimed, "but I don't believe it is a
star."
"It may be a reflector at the top of the Flatiron building," grinned
Jack. "What is it, if it isn't a star?"
"Look yourself!" cried Frank.
The boys were all looking now. They saw the light which Jack had
mistaken for a star flashing to and fro under the clouds like a
firefly. It rushed earthward with amazing speed for an instant,
then spiraled upward again. Once it came directly over the Black
Bear, and seemed about to drop down.
Jack threw a couple of panels open, and then the whirr of motors
reached their ears. Frank sprang outside and turned a flashlight
upward.
"There's your star!" he shouted to Jack.
"Quick!" Harry cried. "Wigwag with that light. It is the Nelson!
They may be able to see us!"
"Yell, every soul of you!" directed Frank. "Yell! She is going
away!"
The boys waved their lights frantically and shouted at the top of
their voices, but the light in the sky crept away to the west and
soon disappeared, evidently passing above the clouds which lay like
a black blanket over the Brazilian forests.
"Great heavens!" Jack sighed. "If we could only have made them
hear! I'll bet they've been to Paraguay and released Lyman. Now
they're going back home! Fine show we now stand of having any fun
with them!"
"They went west," Harry corrected. "That isn't the way home!"
"I'd like to know just what success they have had," Jack went on.
"Say," he continued, "can't we do something to attract their
attention? Why not set fire to some big dry tree and let her blaze
up?"
"I just can't have it this way!" Harry said. "I can't stand it to
have them come so close to us and then go away without knowing we
are here. We've got to bring them down in some way."
"But they've gone!" Frank declared, gravely.
"If we make a big blaze," Jack hastened to say, "the reflection on
the clouds will attract their attention, and they'll come back.
They won't be able to see the fire itself, of course, but they'll
see the reflection, and that will bring them down to investigate.
Then we'll fire our revolvers and wigwag with blazing sticks until
they see who we are."
"It may not be the Nelson," Harry suggested.
"I don't believe there's any other aeroplane sailing about the roof
of the world," Frank replied. "Of course it is the Nelson!"
"Perhaps the Nelson was followed," Harry went on. "I've heard of
such things. The chap in that machine may be looking for Ned.
Anyway," he added, "it won't do any harm to let the aviator, whoever
he is, know that we are here. Come on, let's go ashore and build a
big fire."
"I certainly would give a year's growth to know whether that is the
Nelson," Harry said, as the boys sought the shore and began
gathering dry wood, which, it may be well to add, was not easy to
find, as there had been quite a shower during the day. "For all we
know," he continued, "there may be another aeroplane here. If the
people who are trying for the Lyman concession are as active here as
they seem to have been in Paraguay, they may have half a dozen
airships out after the Nelson."
Finally a quantity of wood which was fairly dry was secured, and
Jack bundled it up against a dead tree which seemed to run straight
up into the sky until it touched the clouds. But when the boys came
to apply matches they discovered that the wood was not dry enough to
be ignited in that way.
"I'll get a gallon of gasoline and pour over it," Frank explained.
"Then we can run like blazes when we touch her off. What?"
The gasoline was brought, and the blaze started with a mighty
concussion of the air. A portion of the highly inflammable fluid
had entered a great crevice in the dead tree, with the result that
there was an explosion which resounded through the forests for
miles. Then the flames mounted the tree, which was soon blazing
like a great torch.
"I guess that will attract their attention!" Jack said, shielding
his face from the intense heat.
"Yes," Frank replied, "and I'm afraid it will attract the attention
of others, too. You know we were told to sneak through this country
like little mice!"
"It is too late now!" Jack said, a shadow of anxiety coming over his
face. "We are in for it, I guess. What shall we do?"
Above the crackling of the flames, above the drawing and sighing of
the wind, there now came a strange sound which seemed to proceed
from the fire-tinted clouds above. Now and then branches of the
nearby trees stirred mysteriously, and at times a wild shriek rose
above the monotonous chattering.
"Monkeys!" cried Jack. "They've come out to help us bring the
airship to earth. Good little beasts!"
"Don't be in too much of a hurry to give the little devils a
certificate of good character!" Harry answered. "They may make
trouble for us."
After a time the foolish, wrinkled faces of the monkeys were seen
peering from trees. Then, above the din they made, above the
crackling of the fire, constantly mounting higher, came a scream
almost like that of a child.
"That's a jaguar!" Harry declared, "a South American tiger, and we'd
better be getting toward the boat."
"The animals won't come near the fire," Frank said. "We may as well
remain here and see the menagerie."
Directly it seemed to the excited lads that all the wild animals in
South America were assembled about their signal. Harry declared
that he heard the call of the red wolf, the scream of the tiger cat,
the wail of the puma, the vicious snarling of the wild dog.
While the boys listened to the chorus their efforts to attract the
attention of the aeroplane had produced, there came into the discord
another sound--the hissing of a monster serpent. Heretofore the
boys had little to do with Brazilian forms of animal life, for they
had kept near the middle of the main stream of the Amazon, and also
about in the center of the Madeira and the much smaller Beni, which
was only a creek when compared with the other rivers.
Occasionally they had seen a monster cayman nosing against the
current, and at times their progress had been retarded by turtles,
but they had never before seen anything like this. Their fire had
certainly brought out a combination in nature which would have been
decidedly interesting if it hadn't been so threatening.
"Me for the boat!" Jack said, with a shiver, as the serpent launched
his head and a third of his body from the tree and swept about in
widening circles. "I never could endure snakes!"
"I'm going to take a shot at it," Frank said. "I'd like to see him
take a tumble into the fire."
"Better let him alone," Harry advised.
Frank was about to fire when Jack caught his arm and held up his
hand in a listening attitude.
"What is it?" Frank asked.
"Human voices!" was the quick reply.
"Inhuman voices, I should say," Harry observed, after a second of
silence.
A chant unlike anything the boys had ever heard before undulated
through the forest. It rose and fell with the gusts of wind, and
always nearer to the fire.
"This is a new one on me!" Jack cried. "It is also another reason
for getting to the boat! Come on, fellows!"
"I'm not going to run until I find out what that is," insisted
Frank. "I'm going to write a newspaper story about this menagerie!"
"If you want your story published in this world," Jack cried, "you'd
better get under cover, for that's the chant of the head hunters!"
"Wow!" cried Frank, and he beat both his chums to the boat.
"I guess we've started something!" Jack said, as he busied himself
putting up the few panels which had been removed when they went
ashore. "Now, some one push that button, and I'll get the Black
Bear out of this creek. A good old scout like the Black Bear has no
business associating with the wild animals on shore."
"Right you are!" shouted Harry, and the propellers began moving.
Still, the boat made no progress to the rear, the reverse being on.
"What's doing?" demanded Jack. "You'd better hurry, for the head
hunters are coming right along. See that big chief over there?
He's got a club that would level the Singer building at a blow!"
"I can't make her back," Harry complained. "There's something the
matter below her in the stream. It was all clear when we came in."
In an instant all was intense excitement on board the motor boat.
There was only one way in which the savages could reach them, and
that was to block their passage out and starve them to death! Had
this system been resorted to? Had the cunning savages obstructed
the little stream while the lads were busy building their fire and
observing their menagerie, as they called it?
These questions were in the minds of all as efforts to back the
Black Bear were redoubled. Finally Jack opened a panel at the rear
and looked out, a thing he should have done at first.
What he saw was a large log blocking the channel. The propellers
were pounding against it, and one of them was broken.
"I guess the little brown men have got us good and plenty," he said,
slowly, as he reached forward and shut off the power. "While we
were playing about the blaze they plugged the river."
"They can't get in here, anyway!" Frank consoled.
"No; they'll wait for us to get good and hungry and go out!" Jack
replied.
The situation was a serious one. The head hunters now appeared in
the open space about the blazing tree and shook their spears and
their clubs at the boat. Now and then an arrow with a poisoned tip
struck the side of the Black Bear.
"They'll never leave until they get us!" Jack said, presently, "and
so we may as well get a few of them. Get your guns, boys."
"Just you wait, old hard luck prophet," Frank exclaimed. "Look up
through the glass panel above your head and tell me what you see."
"Well," Jack replied, "it looks like we had established
communication with the Nelson at last. And also with the Greatest
Show on Earth!" he added, as a mighty roar went up from the shore.
The other boys crowded the panel and looked out. The clouds above
were red with the reflection of the blazing tree, yet against the
mass a different light blazed out. This light moved about, from
north to south and back again, as if searching out the reason for
the strange happenings below.
The popping of her motors could be plainly heard, and so it was
probable that those on the airship could hear the wild animal
concert which was going on in the woods. Harry pushed a panel aside
and fired three quick shots. The aeroplane wavered above the river
a moment and then drifted away.
"They must know there's somebody down here in trouble!" said Harry.
"Why don't they throw down dynamite? That would give the savages
all the heads they wanted for a time, I guess."
The boys fired again and again, flashed their lights in wigwag
signals, but the aeroplane did not come nearer. Instead it whirled
swiftly about in a circle for a moment and then shot out of sight
beyond the clouds.
And every moment the circle of savage faces gathered closer about
the Black Bear, effectively blocked in the narrow stream.