CHAPTER XII.
A GREAT SURPRISE.
"Wow! now, what do you think of that?" exclaimed Andy, raising hishead, just as one of the big turtles native to these warm waters mightthrust his out of his shell.
"Why, that was only a warning to bring us up short, and pay attention!"declared Frank. "Because, as you saw, the ball splashed the water aheadof our bow."
"But Frank, we don't mean to head across?" cried Andy, getting up on hisknees, the better to see.
"To be sure we don't. That was all settled long ago; and you notice thatour good Felipe is still keeping her nose headed straight upstream. Nowout goes the searchlight, just as we arranged. Wonder what they'll thinkthat means!"
"Perhaps they'll believe they knocked it overboard with that shot!"suggested Andy, who could joke, even when facing troubles as thick as asea fog.
"Listen!" Frank exclaimed, "there's a chap with a pair of leather lungs,shouting a lot of gibberish. I suppose he's demanding our surrender, andthreatening to blow us to smithereens if we decline to believe him."
"One good thing is that each minute takes us further up the river, andevery foot counts in this game of runaway. Already we're past where thegun stands; and those fellows are working like fun to get her turnedaround, so as to point after us. While they load we're doing morestunts. Yes, and Frank, we're leaving 'em in the lurch, I do believe."
"Sure thing," returned Frank, composedly, "only both of us want to duckwhen it looks time for the blamed old gun to bang again. They meanbusiness from the word go, now, and will shoot to hit! By some accidentit might run afoul of the boat, and splinters fly. There, get ready todrop, Andy! It's coming!"
It certainly was, for immediately another flash sprang up, accompaniedby the same deep bellow, as the fieldpiece was discharged. No doubt,while it may have been rather out of date in pattern, the cannon wasgood enough to have done savage execution, handled by expert German orFrench gunners.
But there did not seem to be any such among the rag-and-bobtail army ofthe new aspirant for the presidency of Colombia. At any rate, themissile whizzed and whined past the retreating boat, missing her byyards.
"Bully!" shouted Andy, jumping up and cutting a few pigeon wings on thedeck to illustrate just how pleased he was. "By the time they're readyto let her off again we'll be nearly out of range. And from the looks ofthe bank I feel pretty sure they never can catch up with us, totingtheir old gun along."
Three minutes later there came the third report, and they heard the ballpass high overhead, proving that the marksmen had entirely lost alltraces of the boat and simply fired at random.
"That settles it," said Frank, decisively.
"Do you think so?" asked his chum, joyously.
"No question about it, Andy. Like the government official on the wharfat Barranquila, they realize that the game didn't work, and if they wantto get us they'll have to lay some new plans when we come backagain. But we're not bothering our heads about that, you know."
"Never even cut a chip off our boat!" declared Andy.
"Well, I'm going back and get the rest of my nap. Wake me up at four,remember. I want the last watch," and Frank dove within his stateroomwith as much seeming indifference as though this thing of being firedupon with fieldpieces might be an everyday occurrence in his experience.
Morning dawned upon the Magdalena. Frank was on duty at the time anddrank in the lovely picture. Birds flew overhead, cranes arose fromalong the shallows in near the shore, where they had been fishing fortheir breakfast, and there were many strange feathered creatures to beseen, such as the boy had never up to now set eyes upon.
Some of the crew were trailing fish lines astern and every now and thena prize would be hauled aboard, which later on might afford a meal forpassengers and workers.
Andy soon made his appearance, the rising sun having sent a few slantrays into his sleeping quarters and aroused him by falling on his face.
"This is something like, eh, Frank?" he remarked, as he drew in a bigbreath of the bracing morning air.
"I should remark, yes," was the other's reply.
"We've apparently left all our dangers behind," Andy ventured. "That is,I mean there's little likelihood of our being robbed of our preciousmachine now, with both government officials and envious revolutionistsleft in the lurch."
"I was just asking Felipe and he says we shall have another day andnight of bucking up against this nasty current. You see, Andy, it's onan unusually big bender right now, which makes it doubly hard to fightit."
"Oh, well, what can't be cured must be endured, I guess. So I'll try totake it as easy as I may and be thankful it's no worse," Andy replied.
The morning passed without any event worth mentioning. And all the whilethey kept steadily at the business of eating up some of the two hundredmiles that Felipe assured them lay between Magangue and the city at themouth of the big river.
Another thing was worrying Andy, however. He finally broached thesubject to his comrade knowing that in this way he would get relief.
"That blessed old engine has been doing bully for a long time now,Frank, but judging from past experiences, she's due for another sulkyfit soon. Whatever would we do if she let down all of a sudden, while wewere right in the worst kind of a swift current? My! we'd be carriedmiles downstream before we could do anything."
"Oh, no we wouldn't!" remarked the other, smiling.
"Then you've been thinking it all over and made ready to offset a balk,I bet anything," declared Andy, with vehemence.
"Do you see that anchor forward?" asked Frank, pointing from where theystood on the raised deck aft. "Well, that's got a good long stout chainattached and is placed where a kick will send it over. Notice old Quitasquatting close by? Think he's taking a snooze, he seems so quiet? Butall the time the old chap's on the alert, and he has his orders, too."
"To upset the anchor over the bow, you mean?" asked Andy.
"Just that," came Frank's reply. "If anything happens to the machineryyou'll hear a series of quick whistles from Felipe. The boat won't evenhave a chance to lose headway before over plumps the big mudhook, andwe'll just take a rest out in the river until repairs can be made againby Engineer McClintock and his assistants."
Andy looked at his chum admiringly.
"Blessed if you don't just think of everything!" he said; "and getready long before it happens. However do you do it, Frank?"
"Oh, it's easy, once you make up your mind," laughed the other. "I tookto it long before this new Boy Scout movement started. You know they'vegot as their leading motto the words: 'Be prepared.' And there never wasa better slogan ever given to boys. Think how many things might beavoided if we were always prepared."
"Yes, I've given the subject much thought," grumbled Andy; "but somehowI seem to slip up when it comes to the critical time. I stay awakeeleven hours, and just when I doze off in the twelfth watch the blamedthing happens! It's always that way, seems to me. How can a fellow stayawake all the time, tell me that?"
"Oh, rats! There's no need of that. Just fix things so you'll be arousedwhen it comes along, and be ready to turn the tables."
So they talked away into the afternoon. The engine seemed to be on itsbest behavior. McClintock, the Scotch engineer, who was the onlyforeigner aboard besides the boys, reported that he was beginning tohave more faith in the machinery. The work of the last twenty odd hourshad certainly been a pretty heavy tax on it and everything seemed to begoing like clockwork.
"I only hope it'll keep up, then," said Andy. "One more night is all Iask. Then Felipe promises to have us at our journey's end, when I cansee and talk to the very man who picked up that wonderful littleparachute, with its message from the unknown valley among the cliffs. Iwish the time was here right now."
"Felipe, by the way, is taking his rest now," said Frank, after a littletime; "for he expects another night on duty. We still meet many treetrunks sweeping down on the current. The man at the wheel has to keep onguard constantly. Look at that tremend
ous one, will you, Andy? And justnotice how dense the forest is ashore around here. How any one can getaround at all beats me. I should think they'd have to keep theirmachetes busy all the time cutting the matted vines away."
"I understand they do," the other went on. "And I rather guess thatthere's hardly a country under the sun where an aeroplane would be ofmore real benefit than right here in the tropics. Think of avoiding allthat tangle--of floating along, a mile a minute if you wanted, far abovethe tree tops and away from all such a muss."
"You're right," agreed Frank, fervently. "And it's the only way any onecould ever hope to discover this strange prison of your father. From adistance of a thousand feet we can have a big range of vision. With ourgood glass it will not be hard to discover the cliffs, if only we figureout in which direction we can have the best chance. And I think I've gota scheme ready to manage that."
"I depend on you to do it," said Andy. "Alone by myself I would simplydespair of ever learning anything worth while. But while you are along Ijust feel that we're going to succeed."
"I ought to thank you for saying that, but I won't," Frankdeclared. "Because it makes me tremble for my reputation as a prophet."
"But you have seen nothing to make you less confident, I hope?" criedthe other.
"To be sure I haven't," replied Frank, readily enough. "On the otherhand, I ought to feel better satisfied than ever, because we've managedto outwit every cause for trouble that has cropped up this far. We'llget through this coming night without accident, because we're ready foranything. Then, when another day dawns, we'll haul in at Magangua, tohunt Jose Mendoza up and hear what he can tell us about the parachutethat fell among his cocoa trees."
"Hark! what ails the men forward?" exclaimed Andy just then.
They sprang to their feet and rushed to where they could see what wasgoing on.
"Perhaps a mutiny!" exclaimed Frank, who could not tell what queer thingwas ever going to happen down in this land, the people of which were sodifferent from all whom he had ever known before.
Andy uttered a low cry of alarm and began to fumble for the revolverColonel Josiah had made him promise to always carry on his person, oncethey reached the country of revolutions.
The first sight they obtained told them that something unusual hadindeed happened. A number of the native crew were in range of theirvision, but every man had fallen flat on his face and seemed to becowering there as if afraid.
"What in the dickens is it?" gasped Andy.
"I don't know. They are a scared lot, that's sure! Perhaps they saw asea serpent alongside! It couldn't be that a jaguar has boarded us. No,look at old Quito, how he lifts his head and takes a terrified look!Why, he seems to be observing something up above in the heavens as sureas you live!"
As Frank shot out these words he, too, bent his head back to scan thebrazen sky above. A cry broke from his lips.
"Why, what under the sun does it mean?" exclaimed Andy, who had alsoturned his eyes heavenward to discover a strange thing speeding over thetops of the trees, one, two thousand feet high, and at the same timethere came to his ears a familiar throbbing that could have but onemeaning.
"An aeroplane!" he burst forth in thrilling tones; "and the sillies downthere think it's just a frightfully big bird about to carry themoff. Hey, Frank, perhaps the government has got one of the newcontraptions after all!"
"Go slow," said Frank. "Suppose you look a bit closer, my boy. Isn'tthere something familiar about that same craft up yonder?"
"It's--it's a biplane, Frank!" gurgled Andy.
"Yes, and one you've set eyes on before, too, old fellow. It belongsto--"
"Puss Carberry!" burst from Andy's quivering lips, as he continued tostare, as if almost unable to believe his own eyes.
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