THE AEROPLANE BOYS ONCE MORE AFLOAT.
"Frank! Oh! Frank!"
More than a few times had it fallen to Frank Bird to drag his cousin and
chum, Andy, back from some impending danger. Now the shoe seemed to be
on the other foot.
Even as he looked hastily up, startled by these sudden cries, Frank felt
his arm seized in a frenzied clutch, and himself jerked backward.
"What is it, Andy? Here, hold on, let my arm free, and tell me!" he
exclaimed.
"Look there; and you were going to walk right up against it! Oh! Frank,
what a horrible monster!" Andy replied, in trembling tones, as he strove
to point toward something that he had seen just in the nick of time.
"Whew! I should say you were right! Ain't he a dandy, though? And if I
saw him at all, I thought it was a great big vine hanging from that
tree! Ugh! look at him stretch his mouth, would you? Andy, thanks to
your sharp eyes I'm here, instead of in his slimy folds. I guess he
could crush an ox. They say nothing can stand the pressure, once they
get a couple of folds around."
"Is it a python?" gasped Andy, his horrified eyes glued on the spectacle
of the slightly swaying ten feet of snake that hung from the limb of a
great tree, in part as thick as Frank's thigh.
"About the same thing," replied Frank. "Down here they call them
anacondas, and in other parts of the world they're boa-constrictors. I
guess the whole bunch belongs to the same family of squeezers. But that
fellow is in our way."
"Well, yes, if you're still determined to run the aeroplane across lots
toward this side of the opening," Andy remarked with a shudder. "Why,
perhaps that old chap might get gay, and grab hold, just when we
expected to go sailing off. That would be a calamity, not only for him,
but the Bird boys in the bargain."
"All right. Then he's got to get his," Frank observed.
"What are you going to do?" demanded the other, nervously.
"Take a crack at his head," came the reply. "Once let a flat-nosed
bullet from this little Marlin hard shooter smack him on the coco, and
there'll be a funeral in the anaconda family."
"But for goodness' sake make sure work of it, Frank. What if you just
wounded the monster? He'd come whirling along at us like a
hurricane. And I'm sure he must be thirty feet long, if he's a
dozen. Look at the thickness of his neck, would you? Be mighty careful,
for his head's swinging a bit, you notice. That was what made me get
sight of him. Say, Frank!"
"Well, hurry up. He may take a notion to move off, and I'd lose my
chance, Andy."
"How'd it do for me to get some fire, and shoo him away?" suggested his
cousin.
"Don't know how it would work," replied Frank, smiling a little,
however, at the faith Andy seemed to have in a blazing brand, now that
he could look back to his late experience with the jaguar. "Never heard
that snakes were afraid of fire. And besides, there's no need. Now keep
quiet, and watch. You'll see something worth while; but be ready to jump
clear."
He had already dropped down on one knee. The Marlin stock rested
against his cheek, and his eyes sighted along the barrel. Andy fairly
held his breath, his startled eyes glued on that swaying head of the
monster.
Then came the sharp report as Frank pulled the trigger. He instantly
jumped back, and by a rapid motion of his hand sent another cartridge
into the chamber, the clever mechanism of the gun proving that it was
built so as never to fail in an emergency.
Andy had accompanied his chum in that backward movement; but never for
an instant did he remove his eyes from the strange spectacle that was
taking place there in front of them both.
Undoubtedly the well aimed bullet had crashed through the fearful head
of the suspended anaconda. Instantly it released its many coils above,
and a tremendous length of writhing snake could be seen whipping over
the ground. Nothing in the way of small vegetation could stand in the
path of those powerful springy coils, as they shot this way and that.
"Oh! my!" gasped the astounded Andy, as he moved farther back, so as to
avoid any chance contact with the flying destructive force that was
leveling everything in the glade for twenty feet around. "Did you ever
see anything to equal that? Talk to me about your harvesting machines,
here's one that's got 'em all beat to a frazzle. Ain't he ever going to
give up the ghost, Frank? Guess these anacondas must have the nine lives
of a cat!"
"Well," remarked Frank, "you must have forgotten that among boys it's
said that a snake won't die till sundown. I've seen one's tail wiggle
hours after we thought the thing was stone dead. There, he's moving off
into the forest, and a good riddance. While I'd like to measure the
serpent just from curiosity, we've got no time to waste waiting for him
to kick the bucket."
"That's right," assented Andy. "And as for going anywhere near such a
whirlwind, you'd have to excuse me."
They watched the dying anaconda gradually vanish in the depth of the
forest; and both boys were glad that it had turned out that way, since
they were anxious to depart from the place.
"Don't I wish I'd had my little camera along, so I could have snapped a
shot at that dandy chap! The fellows would believe me then, when I told
about what happened to us here. And anyway, Frank, I don't think we'll
forget this camp, do you?"
"Well, hardly," replied his chum, smiling broadly. "Because we've sure
had enough happen to us here to make us remember. But I'm glad to find
there's going to be more space for the run than I thought at first."
"We'll need every inch of it," declared Andy, as he looked dubiously at
the tops of the lower trees about the place where the snake had held
forth. "Don't I wish we'd brought a few sticks of dynamite along,
though."
"For goodness' sake, what would we want with dynamite? Think you could
have blown up that snake, do you?" asked Frank, as they started to cross
the glade toward the waiting monoplane.
"Oh! shucks, no. I was thinking how we could plant 'em under a bunch of
those trees and enlarge the gap!" declared Andy.
At that Frank burst out into a hearty laugh.
"What a fellow you are for wild notions. Think of us blowing up the
forest to make an aviation field! I reckon, however, seeing that you
haven't got the dynamite, Andy, we'll have to do the best we can. Take
hold here and we'll push the machine just as far back as it will
go. Perhaps we can gain a few yards at this end that will count in the
long run."
Frank was particularly careful about every little detail. He knew just
what he had to depend on. In the past he had made it a pet hobby to rise
in as short a space as possible; and now this faculty seemed destined to
prove a valuable asset in their speedy climbing up.
"All ready?" he asked, grimly.
Andy took one last look at the face of his chum. He saw that Frank's
mouth was compressed in that firm way that stood for so much; and
somehow Andy's wavering confidence returned in full measure. When Frank
Bird looked like that, things always had gone according to his will; and
they must now!
"Yes, I'm fit, Frank," he said, quietly. "Let her go when you're ready!"
In the many times that the two boys had made ascents, Andy could never
remember that his pulses throbbed with one-half the suspense they did
now. Not even on that never to be forgotten initial performance, when
for the first time they felt the strange sensation of leaving the solid
ground in a flying machine, had he been so excited, so nervous, so
filled with alternate hope and fear.
Frank had taken every possible precaution. He had thoroughly studied
the ground, and made sure that no obstacle would be apt to cause the
running gear of the aeroplane to swerve, and thus throw them off their
course.
All he could do was to start the machinery, get a rise at the quickest
possible second, and be ready to shut off power if he realized that the
feat they were about to attempt were impossible, so as to avoid smashing
the planes against a tree.
"Then here goes!" he said, calmly.
Andy held his breath as he heard the engine start off at a tremendous
speed. He felt as though a giant hand had plucked them from the spot
where the aeroplane had been planted for the start. Across the glade
they went speeding. His heart almost jumped into his mouth he believed,
as he felt the little craft start to leave the ground, as Frank
manipulated the planes, and elevated them so as to catch the air under
the broad blades.
They were rising rapidly now! Would they manage to clear those terrible
treetops that stood like a grim barrier in their path?
Higher yet did Frank throw the planes, so that they actually seemed to
be climbing straight upward, according to the vivid imagination of Andy;
who, clutching the upright at his side, waited for what was going to
happen.
It was too late now to retreat! They had gone too far to stop, and try
again! No matter whether for good or ill, their kite had been tossed to
the winds of heaven, and they must abide by the consequences.
Andy gave one little squeal, for it could not be termed anything else
under the sun. This was when they shot past the most prominent branch of
the tree that happened to stand directly in the way of the rising
aeroplane. Andy believed that the wheels below must have actually
brushed through the foliage, for he always declared that he heard a
fierce "swish" as they passed.
Had they caught even one little bit, something dreadful might have
happened, and the precious aeroplane, on which everything depended, meet
its sad fate; not to speak of the nasty fall the Bird boys would have
suffered.
But Fortune was once more kind to the young adventurers. They passed
safely through the peril, and were speedily fully launched upon the wide
open expanse of space!
"Hurrah!" shouted the exultant Andy; but it might be noticed that his
voice was a bit husky, even as his face seemed chalky white.
"A close shave," remarked Frank; who himself had been rigid while they
were thus taking such desperate chances; "but we made it, thank
goodness! I hope that will be a lucky token of what the day has in store
for us."
"Amen!" echoed his chum; and there was no levity in his tones, either.
The sun was just rising. Below them lay the dense foliage of the almost
impenetrable forests, from which they had just made this almost
miraculous escape. And both young aviators, as if by common consent,
started to sweep the horizon around with their eyes.
"See anything of it?" asked Andy, eagerly.
"I thought I did away over yonder toward the mountains; but I guess it
must be a big bird hovering high up, a condor perhaps," Frank replied.
"Well, there isn't any sign of the biplane, that's sure," Andy went on
in a relieved voice. "Perhaps they didn't have as good luck in landing
as we did, and had a nasty spill. Don't I hope they busted some of the
planes, or part of the little old Gnome engine, so we won't have to be
bothered with 'em again?"
Frank made no remark. While as a rule he refused to let anything like
bitterness dwell in his heart, still, this was a case where everything
was at stake; and if the bothersome revolutionists kept chasing them in
the biplane they were apt to give a great deal of trouble. And secretly
he could echo Andy's wish that the biplane might be temporarily
crippled, so as to be unfit for flying.
"Now, what's the programme?" asked Andy, when they had covered several
miles.
"We've just got to head for the mountains yonder," replied his
chum. "You know, he declared it was a valley that lay among the
mountains; and it must be, to be surrounded by high cliffs. Once we get
among the hills, we'll sail back and forth, combing the whole region,
and hoping sooner or later to discover his queer prison."
Andy lapsed into a state of silence; but he kept watching ahead as they
drew gradually nearer the uplifts. Doubtless but one thought held
dominion in his mind, and this was that somewhere amidst those same
mountains the father whom he loved so dearly was waiting, and hoping for
an answer to his appeals for aid.