CHAPTER XVII.
THE CAMP IN THE TROPICAL JUNGLE.
"Frank, this is tough luck!" Andy exclaimed, presently.
"Keep up your spirits, old fellow!" called out the other, cheerily. "Hasthe biplane succeeded in making a landing yet?"
"I guess so," replied Andy, moodily. "Can't see any sign of her backthere. And besides, it's actually getting dark down below, even while wecan see a bit of the sun up here."
"That's because of the contrast. I'll drop still lower, so we'll justclear the top of the forest. Then you won't need the glasses, Andy.Both of us must keep a clever lookout for a chance. Every now and thenthere happens to be some opening in the forest, you know."
"Don't I hope we find one, though," declared the other. "Oh, wouldn'tit be too mean for anything, Frank, if we smashed the precious littlemachine just when we are at the last stage of our big undertaking? If Ilived through it I'd be broken hearted sure."
"Look, then," said Frank, earnestly, "and you take the right, while Ikeep an eye on the left. Both of us can watch out ahead. If it comes atall to be of any use, it's got to be found inside of the next fiveminutes!"
"So soon as that?" echoed the other, in distressed tones. "Oh, I'mafraid we're in for the very worst experience we ever met up with."
"Ha! hold on, Andy. What's that dead ahead?" cried Frank, who suddenlydecreased the speed of the little motor.
"It's an opening of some sort, though awful little!" ejaculatedAndy. "We can never do it, I'm afraid, Frank."
"We've just got to, no matter what chances we take. Hold hard now and ifyou can jump out in time, help stop her before we wreck her against atree."
Even while speaking the air pilot was starting to drop down. He had madea specialty of this part of the business, knowing how very important itmust always be to aviators. The rise was nothing compared to thedescent, for many a gallant aircraft has been injured or even wrecked byclumsy manipulation, want of room or some other cause while landingafter a flight.
Andy gripped hold of an upright. He tried to see down into that littleslash in the great forest, as though it might hold every hope connectedwith his fortunes and the success or failure of his mission of mercy.
"Oh, be careful, Frank!" he called, as they just barely missed the topof a great tree.
There was no need of saying this, as Andy ought to have known. No onecould possibly be more careful than Frank Bird. And yet this was one ofthose times when daring had to go hand in hand with caution. The spacein which they meant to try for a landing was so very small that itseemed necessary for the aeroplane to come down almost as lightly as afeather.
Fortunately the youthful pilot possessed a good pair of eyes. And thegloom had not as yet entirely blotted out all features of the landscape,now that they were so close to the earth.
Andy was holding himself in readiness. He knew that there would perhapsbe an opportunity for him to drop to the ground and by pulling back,help to bring the little airship to a full stop before they banged upagainst a tree at the further side of the little glade.
Never before had Andy found himself compelled to do such a queer"stunt," as he afterwards termed it; but he was braced to exert himselfnow to the best of his ability.
"Jump!" shouted Frank, as they came roughly in contact with the ground.
And Andy went. He never knew whether he jumped purposely or lost hisgrip of that upright after the shock of the collision; but the nextthing he realized he was straining himself with might and main to holdback the monoplane, already gliding along with sundry violent bumps, onthe three bicycle wheels.
"Hurrah! What did I say?" cried Frank, as the aeroplane came to acomplete standstill close to the other border of trees.
There was a frightened series of grunts close by and some big unwieldyanimal went rushing away through the dense undergrowth, crashing alongas though badly frightened at this queer thing that had dropped downfrom the sky.
"Wow! whatever was that, do you know, Frank?" cried the one on theground.
"I don't know for sure, because I only had the least peep of somethingthat looked like a small elephant making off," replied the other, alsoalighting.
Andy was already reaching for the repeating rifle, which had beensecurely fastened in the frame of the monoplane.
"But Frank, they don't have such things as elephants down in SouthAmerica?" he expostulated.
"Sure they don't," laughed Frank, feeling particularly good over thegrand success that had attended their perilous landing. "Nor arhinocerous, nor a hippopotamus; but they do have the next largestbeast, and that's a tapir. He's something like a big pig and not verydangerous, the senor said. That was what we frightened off just now, Ireckon."
"Well, here we are on land again and mighty lucky to get down withoutsome sort of a smash. Frank, you don't think anything was broken when westruck, do you?"
"Of course I can't say for sure, but I believe not. But all the same Imust give a good look in the morning before we make another start," wasthe reply Frank returned.
"And now we're just got to stay here all night?" remarked Andy, whostill held the gun in his hands.
"That isn't anything. We'll soon have a cheery blaze started that willkeep the prowlers away, I guess. Get busy, Andy, and see what we cando. But we'll start it some distance away from our gasoline tank,remember."
"But won't they be apt to see a fire?" asked the other, as hereluctantly placed the rifle down and started to gathering wood, no easytask in the increasing darkness.
"Do you mean Puss and that other fellow?" Frank asked, with alaugh. "Oh, they're a mile or two off, and even if they could see thebiggest of fires I'd defy them to get half way here if they took thewhole night to cut their way through that mass of trailing vines andbrush. Don't bother your head about that crowd, Andy. I hope we're donewith them for good."
His reassuring words seemed to have considerable effect on his cousin,who up to recently had himself been a most cheery fellow.
"Well," he said, "we've sure got a whole bunch of gratitude on tap forthe lucky way we dropped in here. Chances looked twenty to one itcouldn't be done. And I'd like to wager that no other air pilot couldhave made the ripple so well."
"You're prejudiced, old fellow, because I'm one of the Bird boys,"laughed Frank as he struck a match and applied it to the bunch of deadgrass he had gathered in the spot selected for their fire.
It was a dozen yards away from the aeroplane and about the same from thenearest line of great bushy trees. Immediately the flame sprang up,dispelling the darkness to some extent.
"Shucks! but that makes a big improvement and no mistake," said Andy,stooping to drop some wood on the fire. "I always like to see what I'mdoing. And more than ever when I'm in a strange place. Hark! what wasthat, do you suppose, Frank?"
A sound had come from the depths of the forest not unlike the wailing ofa babe. Frank could give a guess what made it, but he did notimmediately say so.
"Say, we must have landed close to some native shack, and that's a babycrying!" Andy declared.
"Hardly," came from Frank. "That's only one of our cat friends givingtongue, perhaps calling to his mate to come and see the funny objectsthat dropped from the skies."
"Wow! reckon now you must mean a yellow boy, a jaguar! I bet you, Frank,there's a heap of 'em around us right now. How do we know but what everytree hides one of the critters, watching everything we do? I can tellyou right now that I don't wander far from this jolly little blazetonight. And besides, one of us has just got to keep a grip on this gunall the time. I don't hanker after being carried away and made a meal ofby a big hungry cat."
"Oh, the fire will scare them away all right, I believe. There isn't ananimal that doesn't dread fire. Always keep that in mind, Andy, whentrouble comes," said Frank, earnestly.
"I mean to," replied the other, as he once more started to pick up wood,but it could be noticed that while doing so Andy always kept on eye onthe alert, as if he really believed what he had said about the chan
cesof their being watched by an army of jaguars.
"There's another sort of cry, Frank," he remarked, presently.
"Yes, and although I couldn't say for sure, I believe it is made by acolony of monkeys, traveling through the woods at night," the otherreplied, after stopping to listen for a minute to the odd sounds.
"Monkeys!" cried Andy, smiling broadly. "Well, I declare I hadforgotten that they have them all through the tropical regions aroundthe Orinoco, the Magdalena and the Amazon. And so that's a menagerietraveling over the treetops, is it? Wish I could just get a look."
"Well, I don't think they're far away," remarked his chum.
"Not for me. I know when I'm well off. This camp looks good enough,without my wandering around in that awful place. Let 'em jabber, and theyellow cats snarl; but Andy Bird stays right at his fireside tonight."
"And I guess you're right," said Frank, as more noises arose all aroundthem.
Aeroplane Boys on the Wing Page 17