CHAPTER XIII.
FRANK TAKES A DESPERATE CHANCE.
So utterly unexpected was the mysterious sound that even thesteady-nerved Frank lost his wits for a moment and the _Golden Eagle_gave a dangerous swoop downward as he pulled the wrong plane-control inhis agitation. In a second, however, he had righted his error and shesoared on again on a level keel doing better than thirty miles an hourunder the steady driving of her powerful engine.
Driving an aeroplane at night is a strange sensation. Neither of theboys was new to it entirely, having made night flights up the Hudsonfrom New York to Poughkeepsie when they were experimenting with theirship and wished to keep its performances secret as far as possible.
It is a very different thing, however, to driving along the air abovelit-up towns and a boat-thronged river to be soaring through theblackness above a dense tropical forest whose only inhabitants are wildbeasts and venomous snakes and, more dangerous than either, tribes ofwandering Indians who would be likely to show small mercy to the youngaviators if they fell into their hands. Both boys were filled with asense of isolation and loneliness as the _Golden Eagle_ bore themthrough the dark silence toward the distant camp-fires. Moreover bothwere thinking of the moment of parting that was to come when they hadarrived near enough to the camp for Frank to put his bold plan intoexecution. Both the young aviators realized that a more dangerousundertaking could not well be imagined but it was not at the danger theyflinched but the idea that this might be the last voyage they would evermake together.
The fires grew brighter and brighter as the _Golden Eagle_ rushingthrough the upper air at express speed drew nearer to them. Frank calledHarry to the wheel and busied himself with the rope-ladder. It was aboutthirty feet in length and formed of the best manila hemp rope with toughlignum vitae rounds. The tops of the ladder were roughened so as toafford a better hand and foot grip.
Frank’s first step in making his preparations was to hook the twoleather loops at one end of the ladder securely into two hooks screwedinto the edge of the trap-door in the floor of the pilot-house for thepurpose. He then folded it so that the second he was ready to descend hecould throw it out and it would fall in a straight line withoutsnarling. He then opened the trap and, lying flat on his stomachcarefully scanned through the night-glasses the character of the countryover which they were racing along. Before he did this he gave a sharporder to Harry.
“Put out the light.”
There was a snap of the switch and the _Golden Eagle’s_ bright eye grewblack.
“Slow down the engine! Muffle her way down!” was the next command, “wedon’t want to have to open her up, with the consequent noise, till wehave to.”
As Harry obeyed, the sharp rattle of the exhaust, which had made thewhole craft quiver under the strain of the hard-driven engine stoppedand became a gentle purr hardly audible.
“That’s better,” commented Frank.
“How does she head for the fires now?” was his next question.
“South-by-a-quarter east,” replied Harry, switching on the binnaclelight for a second and squinting at the compass.
“Bear up two points to the east,” ordered Captain Frank.
Harry obeyed and the _Golden Eagle_ slid away from her straight coursefor the lights,—leaving them off on her starboard side.
“Just circle round a few times,” commanded Frank as they grew nearer andnearer, “the moon ought to be up shortly and then we can get some lighton the subject.”
“It will make us a target for them if they see us,” he went on, “butthat can’t be helped. We must trust to luck and their bad aim.”
As Frank had prophesied the moon shoved the edge of her rim above thelow hills that surrounded the encampment a short time later. From hislookout place on the floor of the car Frank could see far below him thesilvery radiance that flooded the tree-tops getting stronger andstronger. It showed him too, to his great delight, that there was a bigspace of ground, covered with what seemed to be short scrub, near to thecamp, but separated from it by a dense grove of trees. It looked as ifit would be feasible to swoop down to the earth at this spot closeenough for the daring boy to drop to the ground from the end of theswinging rope ladder.
“Raise her a hundred feet or so,” said Frank, as soon as he hadcompleted his survey. “Steer her right over the camp,” he ordered asecond later.
“What?” demanded Harry; not sure that he had heard aright.
“Steer her over the camp,” repeated Frank, “It’s taking a longchance,—but I’ve got to know the lay of the ground.”
If Frank ordered a thing done Harry was accustomed to obey him without aword; so he put the _Golden Eagle_ about and pulling the raising planelevers shot the craft up, till Frank cried.
“She’ll do at that.”
As the _Golden Eagle_ swept high in the air over the sleeping camp Franknoticed with exultation by the flag seen in the light of the bivouacfires it was indeed Zelaya’s camp. He also observed that they kept avery poor watch. Several men, evidently supposed to be doing sentry dutywere asleep round the blaze of one of the outer fires, and only in frontof a small tent detached from a group of several that Frank assumed tobe those of the officers, was there a guard patrolling. This fellowwalked up and down unceasingly with his rifle over his shoulder and fromtime to time pulled open the tent-flap and peered in.
“He’s guarding a prisoner,” thought Frank, noticing these actions, and,he added to himself, “if the prisoner isn’t Billy I shall be muchsurprised.”
His survey of the camp completed, Frank had a pretty good mentalphotograph of it fixed in his mind. The next step in the rescue of BillyBarnes was to be the most dangerous; except the actual dash for freedom.
“Now keep cool Harry,” wound up Frank, after the boys had selected thespot on which the _Golden Eagle_ was to be brought near enough to theground in a low curve for Frank to swing himself off onto terra-firma.
“All right Frank,” replied the boy, as he manipulated the needful leversfor the downward swoop. He did not trust himself to say more. The nextminute he felt Frank’s firm grip on his shoulder.
“Don’t take your hand off the wheel,” remonstrated Frank, as Harryprepared to grip his brother’s hand in farewell. “Good-bye old fellowand good luck to us all three.”
A few seconds sufficed to throw down the ladder and Frank slid down itto its lowest rung with the agility of a cat. He hung there on theplunging contrivance while the _Golden Eagle_ swept downward like apouncing hawk. Suddenly there was a jerk and Frank felt the end of theladder hit the ground. The _Golden Eagle’s_ impetus had almost ceased atthis lowest point of her swoop and Frank, as he let go with a whisperedprayer, could feel the vibration, even where he hung as Harry, openedthe engine up for the ascent,—without which the _Golden Eagle_ wouldhave been dashed to pieces.
Frank landed in a pile of low bushes which broke his fall and saved himfrom possible serious injury. Harry in performing the ticklish evolutionhad been unable to check the speed of the air-craft sufficiently toavoid giving Frank a severe tumble when he dropped off, as Frank learnedlater the _Golden Eagle_ had, in fact, very nearly refused to answer herhelm.
As soon as he collected his senses Frank ducked down behind the clumpinto which he had fallen and lay very still. He wanted to ascertain ifthe solitary sentry had noticed anything unusual. Apparently he had not,for the relieved boy could catch the sound of his regular footfalls ashe paced to and fro in front of the tent in which, Frank was prettycertain, Billy lay a prisoner.
Reassured, Frank crept cautiously through the brush up to the edge ofthe grove of trees already mentioned as separating the camp from the bitof open ground on which he had landed. The solitary tent stood on theopposite edge of this clump and Frank’s plan was to creep up near to itunder cover of the dark shadow cast by the grove, before he made hispresence known to the occupant.
He threw a glance up from time to time as he made his way carefully overthe
ground. Far above him the _Golden Eagle_ was soaring, and Frank knewthat the boy at her helm was at that moment wondering with all his mighthow their daring adventure was to turn out. Frank noted withsatisfaction that the _Golden Eagle_ was not nearly as conspicuous as hehad imagined she would have been. In fact if he hadn’t known that shewas up there, he concluded that he would have had to search the sky forsome time before he made her out.
It took him what seemed to be an interminable length of time to reachthe edge of the clump of trees and wriggle his way up to the back of thetent, but at last he accomplished it, and lay behind the rear flap ofthe shelter with nothing to shield him from the eye of the sentry but apatch of deep shadow cast by the trees behind him.
Slowly Frank extended an arm and cautiously raised the edge of the flap.He was running a terrible risk he knew. It was, after all, pureassumption on his part that Billy was in there at all. It might as wellbe Rogero’s tent. This thought made Frank pause for a minute but hedetermined to go ahead as he had planned. If the worst came to the worsthe had his pistol and he could make a dash for the open and trust toHarry’s being able to pick him up before they were riddled with bulletsby the machine guns that he could see packed in another part of thecamp.
With fast beating heart he waited till the solitary sentry had reachedthe farthest point of his patrol. Then he raised the flap a few inchesand whispered:
“Billy, are you there? It’s me—Frank.”
The answer that came back almost made him forget the terrible risk heran and cry out aloud with joy.
“What’s left of me;” came back a whispered rejoinder in Billy’swell-known tones, “I’d got a hunch you’d come.”
The Boy Aviators in Nicaragua; or, In League with the Insurgents Page 14
