A BATTLE IN THE AIR.
To raise an alarm throughout the ship was the work of a few minutes
and the watchman, whose carelessness had allowed the professor to slip
away unnoticed, aroused the indignation of Captain Hazzard, who blamed
him bitterly for his oversight. Several shots followed the one the
boys had heard and more cries, but they grew rapidly fainter and at
the same time the sound of horses galloping away in the distance was
heard.
"They have carried him off," cried Captain Hazzard.
"Can we not chase them and rescue him?" asked Billy, "we've got plenty
of men and arms."
"That would be of little use to us," was the reply, "the Patagonians
are mounted and by this time they have got such a start on us that we
could never hope to catch up to them on foot."
"Not on foot," put in Frank quietly, "but there is another way."
"What do you mean, boy?"
"That we can assemble the Golden Eagle in a couple of hours if you
will give us the men to help."
Captain Hazzard thought a minute.
"It seems to be the only chance," he said at last, "but I don't know
that I ought to let you assume such responsibility."
"We will be in no greater danger than the professor is; much less, in
fact," urged Frank. "Please let us go. If we can save his life it is
worth running the risk."
"Perhaps you are right, my boy," said Captain Hazzard at length, "at
any rate, promise me to run no unnecessary danger."
The promise was readily given and with a cheer the men set to work to
hoist the cases containing the sections of the aeroplane over the side
and row them ashore. The work was carried on under the glare of the
searchlights of the two ships. In two hours' time the Golden Eagle was
ready for an engine test which showed her machinery to be in perfectly
good trim.
"She is fit for the flight of her life," declared Frank, as he stopped
the engine.
"Is everything ready?" asked Captain Hazzard.
"Yes," was the reply, "except for two canteens of water, some
condensed soup tablets and two tins of biscuit."
"You have your weapons?"
"I have sent to the ship for two 'Express' rifles, each carrying a
heavy charge and explosive bullets. In addition we have our revolvers
and some dynamite bombs--the ones that were designed to be used in
blasting polar ice," said Frank.
"One moment," said Captain Hazzard. He turned and hailed the ship:
"Bring over six of the naval rockets from the armory!" he ordered.
"If you should need help," he said, in explanation of his order, "send
up a rocket. They are made so that they are visible by day as well as
night. In the daylight their explosion produces a dense cloud of black
smoke visible at several miles. They also make a terrific report that
is audible for a long distance."
The same boat that brought the boys' weapons carried the rockets and
their provisions and at about four a. m. they were ready for their
dash through the air. At the last minute it was decided to take Billy
Barnes along as he knew something about handling an aeroplane and in a
pinch could make himself useful.
"Good-bye and good luck," said Captain Hazzard fervently as the engine
was once more started, with a roar like the discharge of a battery of
gatling guns. From the exhausts blue flames shot out and the air was
filled with the pungent odor of exploding gasolene.
With a wave of the hand and amid a cheer that seemed to rend the sky
the Golden Eagle shot forward as Frank set the starting lever and
rushed along over the level plane like a thing of life. After a short
run she rose skyward in a long level sweep, just as the daylight began
to show in a faint glow in the east.
It rapidly grew lighter as the boys rose and as they attained a height
of 1,500 feet and flew forward at sixty miles an hour above the vast
level tract of gravelly desert, by looking backward they could see the
forms of the two ships, like tiny toys, far behind and below them. On
and on they flew, without seeing a trace of the professor or the band
that had undoubtedly made him prisoner.
"We must have overshot the mark," said Frank, as he set a lever so as
to swing the aeroplane round. "We shall have to fly in circles till we
can locate the spot where the Patagonians have taken him."
They flew in this manner for some time, sometimes above rugged broken
land with great sun-baked clefts in it, and sometimes above level
plains overgrown with the same dull colored brush they had noticed
fringing the coast.
Suddenly Billy called attention to a strange thing. All about them
were circling the forms of huge birds. Some of them measured fully ten
feet from wing tip to wing tip. They had bald, evil-looking heads and
huge, hooked beaks.
"They are South American condors, the largest birds in existence,"
cried Harry, as the monstrous fowls, of which fully a hundred were now
circling about the invaders of their realm, seemed to grow bolder and
closed in about the aeroplane.
"They mean to attack us," cried Frank, suddenly.
[Illustration: "They Mean to Attack Us."]
As he spoke one immense condor drove full at him, its evil head
outstretched as if it meant to tear him with its hooked beak. The boy
struck at it with one arm while he controlled the aeroplane with the
other and the monstrous bird seemed nonplussed for a moment. With a
scream of rage it rejoined its mates and they continued to circle
about the aeroplane, every minute growing, it seemed, more numerous
and bold.
"We shall have to fire at them," cried Frank at last. "If they keep on
increasing in numbers they may attack us all at once and wreck our
airship."
Hastily Harry and Billy unslung their heavy "Express" rifles and began
firing. Ordinarily it is no easy task to hit a bird on the wing with a
rifle, but so large a target did the huge bodies present that four
fell at the first volley. As they dropped some of their cannibal
companions fell on them and tore them to ribbons in midair. It was a
horrible sight, but the boys had little time to observe it. Their
attention was now fully occupied with beating off the infuriated mates
of the dead birds, who beat the air about the aeroplane with their
huge wings until the air-storm created threatened to overbalance it.
Again and again the boys fired, but failed to hit any more of the
birds, although feathers flew from some of the great bodies as the
bullets whizzed past them.
All at once the condors seemed to come to a decision unanimously.
Uttering their harsh, screaming cries they rushed at the aeroplane,
tearing and snapping with beak and claws. The machine yawed under
their attack till it seemed it must turn over. Still, so far, Frank
managed to keep it on an even keel.
"Bang! bang!" cracked the rifles again and again, but the loud angry
cries of the birds almost drowned the sharp sound of the artillery.
It was a battle in the clouds between a man-made bird and nature's
fliers.
Suddenly Frank gave a shout.
"The dynamite bombs!"
Swiftly and cautiously Harry got one of the deadly explosives ready.
They were provided with a cap that set them off when they encountered
any solid substance, as, for instance, when they struck the earth, but
a small, mechanical contrivance enabled them to be adjusted also so
that they could be exploded in midair.
"Isn't there danger of upsetting the aeroplane?" gasped Billy, as he
saw the preparations.
"We'll have to chance that," was Harry's brisk response, "the birds
are too much for us."
As he spoke he leaned out from the chassis and hurled the bomb high in
the air. As he cast it out there was a slight click as the automatic
exploder set itself.
"Hold tight," shouted Frank, setting the sinking planes.
The aeroplane rushed downward like a stone. Suddenly a terrific roar
filled the air and the boys felt as if their ear drums would be
fractured. The aeroplane swayed dizzily and Frank worked desperately
at his levers and adjusters.
For one terrible moment it seemed that the Golden Eagle was doomed to
destruction, but the brave craft righted herself and soared on.
The bomb had done its work.
Of the huge flock of condors that had attacked the Golden Eagle only a
bare dozen or so remained. The rest had been killed or wounded by the
bomb. The survivors were far too terrified to think of pursuing the
boys and their craft further.
"Thank goodness we have escaped that peril," exclaimed Harry, as they
sailed onward through the air; "who would ever have thought that such
birds would have attacked an aeroplane."
"They frequently, so naturalists say, carry off babies and small
animals to their rocky nests," was Frank's response, "and birds as
bold as that I suppose resented the appearance of what seemed another
and larger bird in their realm."
For an hour more the aeroplane soared and wheeled above the baking hot
plains intersected by their deep gullies, but without result. The boys
with sinking hearts were beginning to conclude that the professor had
been carried off and hidden beyond hope of recovery, when Harry, who
had been peering ahead through the glasses, indicated a distant spot
behind a ridge with much excitement.
"I can see a horse tethered there," he cried.
The aeroplane was at once shot off in that direction and soon all
doubt that they were in the vicinity of a band of Patagonians
vanished. As the air craft rushed forward several tethered horses
became visible and a column of smoke was seen rising from a deep gully
behind the ridge. No doubt the Patagonians thought themselves well
hid.
So secure did they feel, seemingly, that not even a sentry was
visible.
"Do you think they are the same band that kidnapped the professor?"
asked Billy.
"There's not much doubt of it," said Frank.
"At any rate we shall soon see," concluded Harry, as the aeroplane
shot directly above the encampment of the giant Patagonians. Gazing
downward the boys could see one of the savages, a huge figure more
than six feet tall, in a feather mantle and armed with a formidable
looking spear, pacing up and down, as if he were a chief of some kind.
This belief was confirmed when one of the other tribesmen approached
the man in the long cloak and addressed something to him with a low
obeisance. Frank had by this time put the muffler in operation and
throttled down the engine so that the aeroplane swung in lazy circles
above the Patagonians, entirely unnoticed by them.
While they gazed the boys saw a figure led from a rude tent by several
of the Patagonians, of whom there seemed to be two or three hundred in
the camp. Instantly a loud yelling went up and several of the natives
began a sort of dance, shaking their spears menacingly and wrapping
their feather cloaks tightly about their tall figures.
"It's the professor!" shouted Frank, indicating the captive who had
been taken from the tent.
"They are going to burn him alive!" shouted Harry in a voice of horror
the next moment, pointing to the fire.
Indeed, it seemed so. The Patagonians began piling fresh bundles of
wood on their fire, the smoke of which the boys had seen from far off.
Their savage yells and cries filled the air.