CHAPTER VIII
A BATTLE IN THE AIR
The consternation with which the news of the loss of the canoes wasreceived by the young adventurers may be imagined. It meant thatthey were cut off from communication with the coast entirely unlesssome unforeseen circumstances arose. But in spite of the oppressionthat naturally affected them at the first news of their serious loss,Frank's confident manner had its effect in restoring some sort ofhope. Like the born leader that he was, Frank, the minute herecovered from the first effects of his bitter dismay, set aboutcheering up the others.
"We've always got the Golden Eagle," he comforted, "and anyway it'slikely if no one stops them, that some at least of the canoes willdrift down the river to the coast. M. Desplaines will no doubt beable to surmise something serious has happened when he hears oftheir arrival and will send aid. In the meantime we have toconsider what we are to do about the ivory cache."
As a matter of fact, as the boys learned later, none of the canoesever reached the coast, being intercepted by river-tribes.
"I vote for going ahead," cried Harry, catching the optimistic notethat his brother's words conveyed.
"That's the stuff," cried the young leader, "that is exactly what Iwas going to propose."
"How about you, red-top?" asked Billy turning to Lathrop.
"Of course I'm on," was the reply.
"I hate to dash your enthusiasm," said Frank, "but you fellows mustsee that it is impossible for all of us to go. My plan is to takeBen Stubbs along and leave you fellows and Sikaso here to guard thecamp. Then, too, there is the possibility of a relief expeditionarriving as soon as they discover that we have lost our canoes."
Old Sikaso leant apart on his mighty war-axe. He seemed to regretheartily that he had not had an opportunity of testing its metal onthe head of the knavish Portuguese.
"What do you say to that plan, Sikaso?" asked Frank, who alreadyplaced a high value on the old warrior's judgment.
"That it is good, my white brother. Sikaso will stay with thefour-eyed one and the ruddy-haired one and we will see that no harmcomes to the camp of the young white warriors."
"It is well," replied Frank, who was falling into a trick ofaddressing the stately Krooman in the same grandiloquent fashion asthe latter was in the habit of using, "I place my trust in you."
"Hum," snorted Billy, "four-eyes and red-top that's a nicecombination for you! I'd like to do something to show that old chapthat we can do just as much as anyone else when it comes to ashow-down."
This remark, however, was made sotto voce to Lathrop, as Billyreally stood in great awe of the six foot-two of ebony flesh andmuscle that was Sikaso.
But Stubbs was delighted at his selection to accompany the boys intheir aerial dash for the ivory cache. He spent half the night bylantern light pottering about the great craft and stocking her upwith provisions and equipment for the journey. By the time he hadfinished it was almost midnight and he turned in to join the boys inthe land of dreams where Frank and Harry, and doubtless the others,too, were already busy shooting down Diegos and hippopotami andflitting through the air above the great African forest andperforming all sorts of wonderful feats.
At dawn everybody was up and about and after farewells had been saidthe Chester boys and their sturdy old companion clambered into thechassis of their craft. Frank had already laid out his course,which lay about two points west of north. The boy calculated thatthis direction would bring them within a few miles at any rate ofthe cache. To find it they would have to trust to persistence and amodicum of luck.
Old Sikaso, who had, of course, never seen anything even remotelyresembling an aeroplane, stood apart from the excited groupclustered about the big craft and gazed at it with astonishment, notunmixed with awe. The other Kroomen--the packers and camp-workers,however, gathered close about the machine and the boys had a lot oftrouble keeping their busy fingers from unscrewing nuts andloosening turnbuckles.
"Anything more like a pack of monkeys on a picnic I never saw,"exclaimed Billy as for the twentieth time he chased a long, skinnynative away from the propellers, where he would have assuredly beendecapitated if he had remained till the engine was started.
A few turns with the clutch thrown out showed the engine was runningas true as on the day the Golden Eagle made her trial trip. Themuffler was cut out and the effect of the wide-open exhaust on theKroomen was magical. Within a second from the time that Harry threwin the switch and the gatling gun uproar of the exhaust made itselfmanifest, not a solitary one was to be seen. From the greenery ofthe jungle that rimmed the clearing, however, their frightened facescould be seen peering, like some strange sort of fruit among thetropical growth. Only old Sikaso stood his ground.
But even that stolid old warrior grasped his great war-axe a littletighter and stood erect as if about to face an unknown enemy as jetsof blue flame and smoke shot from the detonating exhaust.
"All ready, Harry?" cried Frank to the younger boy who was at hisold station by the engines.
"Ay, ay!" came the response in a hearty tone. "Then let her go."
With a quick movement Frank threw in the clutch.
The mighty propellers began to beat the air with the whirring soundof a swarm of gigantic locusts in full flight, and after a short runthe great aeroplane took the air in a long graceful rising arc.Half an hour later, to the watchers in the camp, she was little morethan a speck against the sky.
Frank, his eye constantly on the compass, kept the ship on a truecourse for the Moon Mountains which, now that they were flying farabove the dense forest region, lay a rugged mass of blue and brown,piled like some giant's playthings--on the northwestern horizon.
Even from the distance at which the boys viewed them they conveyedan almost sinister impression in their rugged shapes. Their harshoutlines cut the sky in a serrated line like the teeth of a hugesaw.
"Look, look, Frank!" shouted Harry suddenly as they were passinghigh over a small clearing.
Both Frank and Ben peered over the side in answer to the boy'sexcited hail.
Far below them was a strange sight.
In the center of the clearing were four huge African elephantssolemnly conducting a sort of Brobdingnaggian game of tag. One ofthe great beasts would tap the other with its trunk and then wouldscamper away till it in turn was "tapped" by a blow that would haveswept a small regiment off its feet.
Frank pushed over a lever and swung the ship in a circle so thatthey might watch the great animals to better advantage. Suddenlythe boys saw one of the elephants, evidently seized by sudden rage,start goring one of its companions with its huge tusks. Theattacked animal had no chance, and but for the boys would speedilyhave been killed.
"I'm going to give that big bully a shot," exclaimed Harry, and hegot out one of the heavy rifles from the rack under the starboardtransom.
"Wait, I'll drop a bit," said Frank.
In response to his manipulation the aeroplane dropped till shehovered not more than two hundred feet above the great animals.Then a strange thing happened. The shadow of the craft fell uponthe center of the clearing in front of the dueling beasts and theon-looking pachyderms, and as it did so the bully stopped goring itsmate and gave a snort of astonishment.
Its note of surprise quickly changed to a loud trumpet of terror asthe great pachyderm saw swooping above it what must have appeared toit an aerial inhabitant even larger than itself. Its note of frightwas echoed in a chorus that sounded like an assemblage of crackedtrumpets as the others also sensed the impending danger.
"Now let him have it," shouted Frank.
Harry's rifle cracked and the big bully staggered. Twice more theboy fired and the huge creature staggered on to its knees and thenwith a mighty groan rolled over on its side. The others, even thewounded one, had made off as soon as they had caught sight of thehovering Golden Eagle.
Even from the height at which they were the boys could see that thedead animal had an enormous pair of tusks, no doubt extremely
valuable.
"We ought to have them there figure-heads," commented Ben Stubbs."What do you say if we drop down and get them?"
Frank looked at his watch. It was half-past nine.
"We cannot be more than a hundred miles now from the foot of therange," he said, "and I suppose we have plenty of time. We might aswell drop and get them as let some native tribe have the find andthen get skinned out of them by an Arab trader."
As he spoke the boy set the planes for descending and the GoldenEagle settled down--after a few minutes rapid falling--fairly in thecenter of the clearing. It was almost a fairylike spot. On everyside it was hedged in by the densest jungle vegetation, the solidwalls being broken here and there by elephant paths leading off intothe green tangle.
The little glade in which the Golden Eagle had settled was coveredwith short, yellow grass and had been trampled almost bare ofvegetation, apparently by the gambols of countless generations ofelephants.
"This must be one of the elephant playgrounds I have read about,"exclaimed Harry, looking about him.
"No doubt it is," replied Frank. "But look at those tusks, whythere's ivory enough there alone to give us all a nice wad of pocketmoney."
Ben Stubbs, with one of the small axes, at once set about hackingout the dead elephant's huge tusks and a long job it was. Finally,however, he managed to cut them free and clear and the boys loadedthem into the aeroplane.
"Now we are all ready for a fresh start," said Frank as theyclambered in after him and settled down in their places; but astartling interruption occurred.
With a wild yell, that struck a sudden chill to the heart of everyone of the little group, a band of beings that at first sight lookedlike nothing so much as huge gorillas, burst from the forest onevery side.
Their heads were misshapen and flat and their protruding lips weredaubed with white and red clay which gave them a ghastly unearthlylook. From their ears hung huge ivory pendants. They carriedelephant skin shields and were armed with spears and bow and arrows.As if they did not consider themselves sufficiently hideous, severalof the tribe had cut their faces in long stripes and the hardlyhealed scars of these wounds rendered their already sinister facesterrifying indeed.
Desperately Harry threw over the wheel and the engines startedfaithfully to respond but not before half a dozen of the savages hadthrown themselves on to the aeroplane.
Their weight held her down although she scudded over the ground; andin the meantime the other natives started pouring a shower of arrowsand spears into her. Fortunately none of these struck the boysalthough Frank felt an arrow whiz through the loose sleeve of hisshirt.
"Get those fellows off or I can't get the ship up," he yelled.
Harry and Ben Stubbs fired their automatics into the clinging massof savages.
Two dropped and the aeroplane began to rise but the othersdesperately clung on.
"Get 'em off," shouted Frank, as he desperately strove to raise theair-craft.
As he spoke he fell back with a cry of pain.
An arrow had struck him on the shoulder inflicting a painful wound.
Like a flash Harry took in the situation and leaped to the steeringwheel. As he did so the savage with whom he had been contendingclambered clear into the chassis. At the same instant Ben Stubbs'revolver dispatched the last of the men clinging to the planes andthe Golden Eagle began to rise.
As she shot upward the savage who had climbed into the chassis gavea wild shriek of real terror. But his outburst didn't come beforehe had made a savage lunge at Ben Stubbs with a short heavy knife.The solo adventurer dived under the black's arm and struck it upwardas he lunged and the weapon went whirling groundward out of theair-ship.
With a cry of despair the savage rushed to the edge of the car andwas about to throw himself into empty air when Ben leaped forward totry to restrain him.
But it was too late.
As the boys' sturdy companion gallantly attempted to save thesavage's life a flight of arrows whizzed up from below.
With a groan the man on the edge of the car pitched forward intoopen space, pierced to the heart with an arrow sped by one of hisown tribesmen. Down he shot like a stone to the earth below, whilethe Golden Eagle--as if rejoicing in her escape, shot upward andonward.
Boy Aviators in Africa; Or, an Aerial Ivory Trail Page 8
