The Flying Machine Boys in the Wilds. Frank Walton
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ought to be able to induce these two savages to beat it!”
“If we can only get back to the flying machines,” Jimmie suggested, “we can get away, all right. I believe these fellows would drop dead if they saw the Louise or the Bertha slanting up into the air!”
“Well, then, let’s make a break!” Carl advised.
“All right!” Jimmie replied. “When we get to the next jungle where the bushes are so thick they can’t throw a spear very far, you duck one way and I’ll duck the other, and we’ll both make for the camp.”
The boys knew very well that they were in a perilous situation. The savages were more familiar with travel through underbrush than themselves. Besides, they would undoubtedly be able to make better time than boys reared on city streets. In addition to all this, the spears they carried might carry death on every tip.
However, to remain seemed fully as dangerous as to attempt to escape. So when they came to a particularly dense bit of jungle the boys darted away. As they did so Jimmie felt a spear whiz within an inch of his head, and Carl felt the push of one as it entered his sleeve. Dodging swiftly this way and that, uttering cries designed to bring their chums to their assistance, the boys forced their way through the undergrowth some distance in advance of their pursuers.
Every moment they expected to feel the sting of a spear, or to be seized from behind by a brown, muscular hand. After all it was their voices and not their ability as runners which brought about their rescue.
Hearing the cries of their chums, Ben and Glenn sprang for their guns and, walking swiftly toward the river, began firing, both for the purpose of directing the boys toward the camp and with the added purpose of frightening away any hostile element, either human or animal, walking on four legs or on two. Panting, and scarcely believing in their own good fortune, Jimmie and Carl presently came to where their chums stood not far from the machines. Both boys dropped down in the long grass the instant they felt themselves under the protection of the automatics in the hands of their friends.
To say that Glenn and Ben were surprised at the sudden appearance of their chums only feebly expresses the situation. The savages had not followed the boys into the open plaza where the grass grew, and so there was no physical explanation of the incident.
“What’s doing?” demanded Glenn.
“You must be running for exercise!” Ben put in.
“For the love of Mike!” exclaimed Jimmie, panting and holding his hands to his sides. “Get back to the machines and throw the truck on board! These woods are full of head-hunters!”
“What did you see?” asked Ben.
“Savages!” answered Jimmie.
“They got us, too!” Carl put in.
“They did?” demanded Glenn. “Then how did you get away?”
“Ran away!” answered Jimmie scornfully. “You don’t suppose we flew, do you? I guess we’ve been going some!”
“Where are the savages now?” demanded Glenn.
“I don’t know!” Jimmie answered. “I don’t want to know where they are. I want to know where they ain’t!”
“Come on!” Carl urged. “Let’s get back to the machines!”
Glenn and Ben did not seem to take the incident as seriously as did their chums. In fact, they were rather inclined to make facetious remarks about little boys being frightened at black men in the woods. Ben was even in favor of advancing into the thicket on a tour of investigation, but Jimmie argued him out of the idea.
“They’re savages, all right!” the latter insisted. “They’re naked, and they’re armed with spears. Look to me like head-hunters from the Amazon valley! If you go into the thicket you’re likely to get a couple of spears into your frame!”
“Then I won’t go!” Ben grinned.
“Come on,” urged Carl, “it’s getting dark, so we’d better be getting back to camp! Perhaps the niggers have beaten us to it already!”
“I guess the two you saw are about the only ones in the vicinity,” answered Glenn.
“You’d feel pretty cheap, wouldn’t you, if you’d get back to camp and find that the savages had taken possession?” demanded Jimmie.
Thus urged, Glenn and Ben finally abandoned the idea of advancing into the forest. Instead, they turned their faces toward the camp, and all four boys advanced with ever-increasing speed as they neared the spot where the aeroplanes and the tents had been left.
About the first thing they saw as they came within sight of the broad planes of the flying machines was a naked savage inspecting the motors. He stood like a statue before the machine for an instant and then glided away. They saw him turn about as he came to a cluster of underbrush, beckon silently to some one, apparently on the other side of the camp, and then disappear.
“And that means,” Glenn whispered, “that the woods are full of ’em!”
“Oh, no,” jeered Jimmie, “the two we saw are the only ones there are in the woods! I guess you’ll think there is something in the story we told about being captured and abducted!”
The short tropical twilight had now entirely passed away. It seemed to the boys as if a curtain had been drawn between themselves and the tents and flying machines which had been so plainly in view a moment before. There was only the glimmer of the small camp-fire to direct them to their camp.
“Who’s got a searchlight?” asked Glenn.
“I have!” replied Ben. “I never leave the camp without one!”
“Then use it!” advised Glenn, “and we will make for the machines.”
“Don’t you do it!” advised Jimmie. “They’ll throw spears at us!”
“Well, we’ve got to have a light in order to get the machines away!” declared Carl. “Perhaps the niggers will run when they see the illumination. The light of a searchlight at a distance, you know, doesn’t look like anything human or divine!”
It was finally decided to advance as cautiously and silently as possible to the camp and spring at once to the machines.
“We’ll never be clear of these savages until we get up in the air!” declared Ben.
“But that will leave our tents and our provisions, and about everything we have except the machines, behind!” wailed Carl.
“It won’t leave all the provisions behind!” declared Jimmie. “I’ll snatch beans and bread if I get killed doing it!”
During their progress to the camp the boys neither saw nor heard anything whatever of the savages. They found the fire burning brightly and the provisions which had been set out for supper just as they had been left. The machines had not been molested. In fact, the statue-like savage they had observed examining the flying machine now seemed to have come out of a dream and retreated to his world of shadows again.
“Perhaps it won’t be necessary to leave here to-night,” Glenn suggested.
“I don’t think it’s safe to remain,” Ben contended.
“You boys may stay if you want to!” Jimmie exclaimed. “But Carl and I have had enough of this neck of the woods. We’ll take the Louise and fly over to Quito, and you can find us there when you get ready to move on. You boys certainly take the cake for not knowing what’s good for you!” he added with a grin.
“Oh, well, perhaps we’d all better go!” Glenn advised. “I don’t see anything nourishing in this part of the country, anyway. If you boys had only brought home a couple of fish it might have been different. I’m of the opinion that a square meal at Quito wouldn’t come amiss just now.”
“It’s so blooming dark I don’t know whether we can find the town or not,” suggested Carl.
“Oh, we can find it all right!” insisted Ben.
“If