CHAPTER XVI
RED FIRE FROM THE SKY
Under the light of the moon the rushing river seemed full ofleering, cruel eyes. The bodies of the swimming savages were notvisible--only the upturned faces and the threatening eyes, with nowand then a hand or the point of a glistening shoulder. Thereappeared to be thousands of the cannibals; their mass reaching fromshore to shore.
Then, while the boys looked, expecting every instant to hear thesound of feet outside the panels, a rocket shot out from the Nelsonand a score of parti-colored balls curved and hissed toward theearth.
"Gee!" Jack cried. "He's giving them a fourth-of-July celebration!"
"Hope it scares them off," said Harry.
Looking through the heavy glass panel at the top, they saw a rain ofred fire drop down on the swirling river. For a moment the wholeupper air, then river and forest, was painted a bloody red by theburning powder.
Cries came from the river, and the mass of floating heads parted andswung swiftly toward the shores; then silence. The aeroplanecircled about cautiously and then dropped down lower. Jack openedthe panel.
"Hello the boat!" cried a voice from the aviator's seat.
"Hello, Ned!" all three boys called back.
"How do you know it's Ned?" was asked.
"We saw that beautiful face of yours in the red fire," replied Jack."How are we going to get out of here? They've blockaded the riverbelow, and the falls are above."
"I presume I have dynamite enough to blow up that improvised dam,"replied Ned. "Why didn't you do it?"
Before Jack could explain the situation, the Nelson drifted past,and he knew that his voice would not carry to her.
"I'm going to open up now," Harry said, as the Nelson drifted out ofrange of the glass pane. "I'm pretty near choked in here."
"Nice time we would have had in the Wolf," laughed Jack.
"Anyway," urged Harry, "we should have been in her in a minute ifthe Nelson hadn't shown up. Say, won't they give us the laugh inNew York? Came away off out here alone, and then had to be rescuedby Ned!"
Very cautiously the panels giving on the stern were opened. Therewere no savages in view. The banks of the stream seemed as quietand harmless as a thicket in Central Park.
"I guess the rocket and the red fire got them!" grinned Frank.
"Yes, but they won't stay scared forever!" Harry put in. "We'dbetter be getting out of this before they come back to theirsenses."
"They never had any senses!" claimed Jack.
Looking out from the interior, now guarded only by the panels at thefront and sides, the boys saw Ned drop half a dozen sticks ofdynamite on the logs and brush which had been floated down on top ofa number of canoes. In some places the logs had pushed up untilthey were high above the surface of the water.
The pressure of the current was continually making the obstructionmore compact. The canoes seemed to have been bound firmly togetherand stretched from shore to shore. At least the moorings werestrong, for the logs were heavy and the current pulled heavily atthem.
The explosions made great havoc with the barricade, and presentlythe line was broken and the whole mass swung shoreward or drifteddown stream.
Then Ned called out:
"Now drop down stream and I will join you."
"Better look out where you land!" Harry called back.
"I hope I won't get into any such scrape as you did," Ned replied.
"Oh, you're not out of it yet!" laughed Frank. "These woods arefull of man-eaters. Look out where you go, and we'll find a placefor you to come down."
The anchor of the Black Bear was lifted and the power turned on. Ina minute she was going down stream at a thirty-mile gait.
Directly they passed the wrecked barricade, rolling and tumbling inthe waters, the canoes either broken or half full of water. TheNelson still led the way down the stream.
"I guess he's never going to stop."
"Wonder if he's going back to New York?"
"Perhaps he's lost control!"
The boys looked and wondered as the aeroplane drifted on to thenorth and cast. They were miles from the scene of the battle now,but the airship went on.
Presently they saw the purpose of the aviator in making this longrun. A little nest of houses flashed out on the river bank, withhere and there a light showing, and here the onward course of theNelson became a circling descent.
In the east there was a faint line of dawn in the sky when the BlackBear was pushed up to a primitive wharf. The aeroplane was stillcircling in the air.
"He wants us to pick out a spot for him to land on," Jack said."There's one over by that hill," he added.
When Ned saw the three boys gather at the spot indicated and motionto him to come down he lost no time in doing so. When he steppedout of his seat all three lads were upon him. One would havethought they were determined to tear him in pieces the way theyseized his hands, his legs, and pulled at his neck.
"You old fraud!"
"How did you know?"
"You're a nice old chaperon!"
For a moment Ned could not say a word, then he pushed the boys awayand sat down on the ground.
"You're a nice bunch!" he said.
"Sure!" said Jack.
"The people back there thought so much of us that they wanted us toremain to dinner!" grinned Harry.
"There ain't no better people!" Frank insisted.
"How did you happen to get out here?" demanded Ned. "Why, youfellows ought to have a chaperon. Those cannibals would have had agood dinner today if the Nelson hadn't come that way."
"Now, don't crow over us!" pleaded Frank. "We know all about it.You've gotten us out of many a scrape, but this is the large event.We take off our hats to you. Now, where's Jimmie and Leroy?"
"I don't know," answered Ned, gravely.
"I guess you are the one who needs a--"
"I guess you are right," Ned replied. "I've been up against thepricks good and plenty since I left you. If I get to New Yorkalive, I'm going to stay there for good."
"Where did you leave Leroy?" asked Frank.
"In jail!"
"Wow!" cried all three boys.
"And Jimmie? I don't see how you happened to lose him."
"Jimmie is lost in the Peruvian mountains," Ned said.
"Well, why don't we go and get him?" asked Harry.
"Yes," laughed Frank. "We might ride in the Black Bear over thestorm-tossed summits of the Andes!"
"At least," Ned said, "you boys can help me a lot. I have my handsfull. We can all ride the Nelson, I take it. She was built tocarry three average-weight men, you know, and I think she ought tomanage three boys and one man!"
"Oh, you man!" laughed Jack, poking Ned in the side. "You man whohas to come to the three boys for help!"
"Tell us about it," Frank said.
"The quicker we start in on the search for Jimmie the quicker hewill be found," Harry insisted.
It was not much of a town where the Nelson had landed. There were afew native houses and a great warehouse, at one end of which was asmall office. Such river products as came from up stream werepacked there to await transportation down to the Amazon.
By the time the sun was up a score or more natives and a couple ofBritish traders were gathered about the aeroplane and the BlackBear. One of the traders, Mr. Hamlin, invited the boys to his homefor breakfast, and left some of his employees on guard at the Nelsonand the Black Bear.
During the breakfast Ned recounted his adventures, to which the hostlistened with the closest attention. Frank then told of the cruiseof the Black Bear, adding that they had hoped to reach the very lastyard of water flowing down the Andes slope to the east.
"It is wonderful what American Boy Scouts will accomplish!" Mr.Hamlin said, when the tales had been told. "A few years ago no boyof your age would have undertaken such a duty as sent you toParaguay," he added, addressing Ned, "and no boys would have daredto navigate the Beni river," he continued, smi
ling at the threebright faces on the other side of the table.
"The Boy Scout training makes for courage and resourcefulness," Nedsaid. "We have not been caught in many traps. In fact, I think weare now up against the very worst situation we have everencountered."
"But you haven't yet told us how you got out of jail at Asuncion,only that you got in on a smuggling charge and were released. Whobrought about the release?"
"The president of the Republic," was the reply. "He learned of thematter and ordered me brought before him. Well, I had beensearched, and the Nelson had been searched, and nothing found, so Iwas let go. The president also ordered the Nelson returned to me.It had been appropriated by an official who had declared itforfeited. Not a bad chap that president, still, I think he sawUncle Sam in the background!"
"And about this man Lyman?"
"I was told that he had gone back to his concession. I went outthere in the airship, but failed to find him. After we find Jimmieand get Leroy out of the jail at Lima I'm going to find Lyman oncemore."
"This," Jack said, "is the 23d of August. Now, we saw you lastnight, the 22d, and the night before, the 21st. Why didn't you comedown then?"
"Because I was not certain that it was the Black Bear, and because Iwanted to investigate the place where I last saw Jimmie and the manJackson. I was over the boat longer ago than the night of the 21st,but you did not know it, I guess."
"Well, you came at the right time, when you did come," Jack said."I only wish you hadn't found us in such a pickle!"
"It doesn't seem to me," Mr. Hamlin suggested, "that the Nelsonought to carry four. You may have to go pretty fast. Now, one ofyou can remain with me, in welcome, and look after the Black Bear.I have plenty of gasoline, and we can amuse ourselves with trips onthe river. Later, you can come back after the boat."
"I think I'd better stay," Harry Stevens said. "I'm not stuck onlong rides in the air. Besides, you can do just as well without me.How far is it to the place where you left Jimmie and this manJackson?"
Ned took out his pocket map and bent over it.
"Here we are," he said, presently, "in the valley of the Madeira,with a range of mountains on each side. Below are the rapids andthe falls. You must have had a sweet time traveling up from FortSan Antonio. You passed about three hundred miles of swift rapidsand falls. How many times did you have to take the Black Bear topieces?"
"Not once there," was the reply. "We managed to steam up. But,say, we had a lovely time getting up over one waterfall!"
"Well," Ned went on, "here we are at the big bend of the upperMadeira. We are not far from a thousand miles from the place whereI found Lyman. We can get there by nightfall."
"Not for me," Jack said, with a shrug of the shoulders. "We shouldhave to ride continuously to make it in that time, and I don't liketo remain in the air that long. We ought to have five rests of anhour each, and get there in the morning."
"Yes," Ned replied, "I'm getting tired of long rides myself. We'llgo slower."
After breakfast the boys went to the Black Bear and looked her over.The propeller which had been broken could easily be repaired, theyfound, so they left that matter to Harry, replenished the tanks ofthe Nelson with gasoline, and prepared for the long journey back tothe mountains of Peru.
"When are you coming back?" asked Harry, as the three mounted themachine.
"In three days," replied Ned. "And we'll bring Jimmie with us."
"If they haven't fed him to the mountain lions before now!" Harrysaid, with a strange premonition of evil in his heart.
And the Nelson was up and away, and Harry set to work cleaning upthe motor boat, hoping to forget in toil how lonely and apprehensivehe was.
Boy Scouts in an Airship; Or, The Warning from the Sky Page 16
