Richard Bonner

“ Evidently the bones were all that remained of the navigators of the ill-fated craft; but whether they had met their death at the hands of a human enemy, or had fallen prey to a jaguar or alligator the boys were, of course, unable to decide.
“Ugh! This place gives me the shudders,” exclaimed Jack, turning away. “Let’s get busy over that wood and go back.”
“Right you are; but let’s have a look at what else there is in the canoe first,” rejoined Tom.
“That’s so. We might as well look. After all, it may afford us a clew to the fate of the poor devils whose bones lie yonder,” replied Jack. ”

“ A long line of dense forest rose, seemingly, directly from the water. It stretched north and south as far as the eye could reach. It was, in fact, the great primeval forest that clothes this part of South America from the seacoast to the foothills of the Andes, two thousand miles to the west.
“Just as I thought,” grunted Captain Sprowl, laying aside the binoculars with which he had been scrutinizing the coast; “it’s a limber-go-shiftless sort of a place; but at any rate it’s better than nothing. It’s dry land, anyhow.” ”

“ The steel tipped weather-vane that was fixed on the top of the spar had penetrated the midship section of the bag and inflicted a bad tear in it before Jack had had time to hold the big craft off. The propeller had been set in motion an instant too late. With a vicious hissing sound the gas rushed from the rent as the Wondership, the mischief done, careened drunkenly away from the mast that had inflicted the wound.
There was a sudden, appalling dash downward. A stone from a roof could not have fallen much faster. ”

“ Possibly the priests of the ancient idol used to swing him through the air, thus producing the queer sound that held a note of menace in its dreary wail. As the ship rushed on faster through the night the voice of the idol became louder and more strident.
“Whoo-oo-oo-oo-oo?” it seemed to demand.
“Who, you grinning old Billikin?” cried Tom, gleefully. “Why, us, you howling monstrosity. You’re going to bring us luck, do you hear?” ”

“ But every second the tree trunk grew more thickly covered with the ferocious little creatures. Beneath the circle that Jack and the professor managed to keep clear, they swarmed and surged furiously. Escape was out of the question. The travelers were going through an experience that has befallen many a castaway of the jungle. Bones have been found by searching parties, picked clean of flesh and bleaching, after the passing of an army of the marching ants. ”

“ Chadwick. “He’s attacked the whale!”
“No, it’s the calf he’s after!” shouted the captain. “Hail Columbia! Now look out fer squalls!”
“Say!” cried Tom, “we’d better get away from here. Look, the big whale is turning on the sword-fish! There’ll be some waves here in a jiffy that will swamp us, if we don’t look out.”
“That’s right,” agreed the captain, “get this craft up in the air if you can, Jack. There’s nothing worse on land or sea than an old cow whale whose calf has been injured.” ”

“ Get up!” roared Tom. “We’ll be swamped!”
Jack turned on the gas full power, but the ship did not rise. Her heavy load made her sluggish.
“Start her!” bellowed the captain. “Start her for your life!”
“I can’t! She won’t rise!” cried Jack despairingly.
“Then we are lost. Look there!”
Coming toward them at the speed of an express train was the huge whale. On she drove, making straight for the stranded motor ship.
“She’s going to attack us! She thinks that we killed her young one!” cried Mr. Chadwick.
The motor ship lay straight in the path of the maddened whale. ”

“ Jack raised his rifle and took careful aim as the macaw hovered about the professor’s head. The next minute his weapon flashed and cracked sharply. There was a shout from the professor and a screech from the bird and it fell dead almost at their feet.
“Good shooting!” approved Tom, picking it up.
“You’re all right now, professor,” hailed Jack; “I’ve killed the bird.”
“Himmel! I vish you could kill its mate!” cried the Teuton piercingly.
“Why? What’s the trouble? Why don’t you come down?” demanded Jack, who noticed that the professor’s arm was still thrust within the tree. ”

“ From time to time they could hear the rush of heavy feet on the deck overhead and thought they could catch the sound of hoarse shouts.
“Gracious!” exclaimed Tom, after an unusually heavy lurch had sent him staggering across the cabin,71 “there must be a whopper of a storm outside.”
“Yes, indeed,” agreed Jack, “she’s pitching like a bucking bronco. Wow! Feel that!”
The Valkyrie appeared to climb heavenward, pause for a thrilling instant, and then rush down—down—down as if she would never stop.
“Oh-h-h-h-h-h!” groaned Dick in an agony of sea-sickness, “is she going to the bottom?” ”

“ She’s working like a clock,” rejoined Jack. “Hold tight,—we’re going up.”
As Jack spoke, he applied a full stream of gas to the limp bag, and the Wondership shot upward with the swiftness of a rocket. A gust of wind struck them and sang weirdly through the rigging and supports. But the craft never wavered on her course. As she shot upward, though, from the yacht, heard above the hum and buzz of the machinery, came the sound of another gun. ”

“ What’s that, an earthquake?” he gasped, gripping one of the stanchions that supported the gas-bag part of the craft.
“No, only one of those sea-cows that wished to pay his respects,” laughed Jack, as a blunt nose appeared for an instant above the turgid waters and gave a mighty grunt.
“I hope the others will be less strenuous in their attentions,” declared Mr. Chadwick. “I think that fellow must have dented his nose.”
“I don’t care about his nose so long as he hasn’t damaged us,” declared Tom. “I’m going to shoot one of those fellows if I get a chance.” ”

“ The boys made for the edge of the river where patches of small trees grew. Here they were more likely to find the firewood for which they were searching than amongst the towering forest giants.
The stream was a melancholy, slow-flowing,241 muddy water course. On the opposite bank grew mighty trees with a tangle of jungle about their roots, and with long pendant creepers trailing down into the chocolate-colored river. In the evening air a dank, unwholesome smell pervaded the atmosphere. ”

“ Had anyone done so, it is certain that the two lads would have been besieged by curiosity seekers, for the craft on which they were working was the most ambitious thing that they had undertaken. The Wondership was nothing more nor less than an invention capable of travel by land, air and water. On land it rolled along on wheels, above the earth it depended on a large, gas-filled bag for buoyancy, while on the water (and this was the feature still untested) , the boys hoped to make it float like a boat by means of pontoons. ”

“ Jack, half crazed at the last words of the rascal, was dragged helplessly off. Tom and Dick made a feeble show of resistance, but they, too, were speedily captured and hauled across the deck after him. Unarmed as they were, they had no chance of putting up any fight. And so, within an hour after they had set out to answer the call for assistance, they found themselves prisoners and their Wondership doomed to destruction. ”

“ At a German professor got sore;
It grabbed at his finger,
The prof he did linger,
And now he won’t do so no more,”
chanted Dick, who had a weakness for making up limericks.
“Stow that,” growled Captain Sprowl with mock indignation. “Now then,” he went on, “when you young fellers have quite digested your supper, we’ll set about fixin’ up for the night. You said there was a tent in the ship, Jack?”
“Yes, a light one of balloon silk. It’s seven by nine feet. Is it big enough?”
“Crullers, yes! Big enough for the crew of a down-east whaler, boy. We won’t all sleep in it at once, anyhow. ”

“ As the whale neared them, he set the rising planes and started up the propeller.
The motor craft hesitated, and then like a wind-driven leaf she shot upward. It was not an instant too soon. As her rudder rose drippingly from the sea, the whale rushed viciously under her. Another fraction of a second and there would have been a different ending to this story.
“Saved, by the great horn spoon!” roared out Captain Sprowl.139 “Lad, that gas-meter thing of yours worked just in time.”
“It certainly did,” agreed Jack, ordering Tom to set the rising planes at a sharper angle. ”

“ There was no time to snatch up the rifles, hardly an instant in which even to raise their hands. Within ten seconds from the time the first spear whizzed through the air above the adventurers, crouching low in their craft, they were prisoners of Chekla’s tribe.
Here was a fine ending to all their hopes! From the yells and shouts that rose about them they guessed that they might look for scant mercy at the hands of the Indians, who evidently thought that they had had something to do with the stealing of the idol. ”

“ THE CAMP IN THE FOREST.
The lads hastened through the forest with what speed may be imagined. All the time the yells grew louder, showing them that they were proceeding in the right direction.
“Himmel! Ach donnerblitzen! Ouch!” they could hear as they raced along, tumbling over roots and getting entangled in long, serpent-like lianas.
“What do you suppose can have happened?” panted Tom as they ran.
“Don’t know. The professor must have been attacked by some kind of venomous beast or other,” declared Jack. “Hurry up, boys!” ”

“ It came swelling over the woods and was startlingly like the cry of someone shouting out in agony.
“What in the name of time is that?” cried Tom, turning a rather alarmed face on the others.
“Indians!” shouted Dick. “We’d better steer clear of here.”
“Idt vos somevuns in pain,” declared the German savant nervously.
Again came the cry. A long shuddering wail that fairly made their flesh creep. They no longer tried to disguise their alarm, but exchanged disquieted looks.
“It is someone suffering pain,” declared Mr. Chadwick. “Better look to your rifles, boys.” ”

“ It was this trial, on which she carried side lights, like a ship, that had caused the flurry in the city papers. It had been a complete success, and only the trial by water remained.
Although Mr. Chadwick and Mr. Jesson knew that the boys were engaged on a supreme task, neither had interfered or asked questions. Jack’s father believed in letting his son solve his own problems. He knew that if occasion arose his advice would be called for. But the boys meant to fight out their battle alone. ”

“ The play of the lightning was incessant. The whole sky appeared to be ablaze with livid fire. In the blue glare the figures on deck were outlined as plainly as if on the screen of a moving picture theatre. But it was grim, real-life drama that was being enacted.
The boys saw Medway and Hemming, with revolvers in their hands, go slipping and sliding across the inclined deck and rush into the midst of the group of seamen about the boat.
“Drop those falls, you fools!” they heard Hemming shout above the tempest. “It’s death to launch a boat in this!” ”

“ All at once there came to them, above the uproar and confusion of the storm, the sound of the “telegraph” at work. Jack was alert in an instant.
“What is it?” he tapped back.
“The professor says,” came the reply,72 “that the cabin next to you on the other side and the one you are now in used to be all one stateroom. A partition was put in some time ago of which the new crew knows nothing. It was so fitted that it could be moved out if necessary. Maybe if you can find out how it works,—he has forgotten,—you can get out when the time arrives.” ”

“ The body of the Flying Road Racer was, by a singular stroke of inventive ingenuity, made to be in itself a buoyant craft.
When running along the road, or while flying, the top of the cylindrical body could be opened for air and observation. On a calm sea or lake the boys believed also that the craft, with the aid13 of the hydroplanes, would float, just like a boat. The hydroplanes at the side would, of course, correct a tendency to roll over, which an unsupported cylindrical body would naturally have. ”

“ He can’t strike out to save himself.”
“The fall must have stunned him,” cried Mr. Chadwick; “it’s a good thing he had that life-jacket on!”
Jack began climbing over the side, holding on to the rope that now dangled from the floating air craft.
“What are you going to do?” demanded Tom, who up to this moment had imagined that Jack meant to catch Dick by the grapnel.
“I’m going down after Dick,” was the quiet response as the boy shot down the rope toward the sea beneath. “Keep an eye on that rope, Tom, and haul up when I tell you!”
“Ach! dey vill both be killed!” cried the professor frenziedly. ”

“ Medway in the pilot house had felt the quiver of the started engines and had given the signal. Jack allowed the engine to pick up revolutions gradually until, at half speed, they were heading into the big seas with the screw turning regularly and powerfully. When this was done Judkins closed his eyes, lay back, and slipped off into unconsciousness. Tom, alarmed, ran through the bulkhead door into the fire-room. Here he found the stokers at work. There were three of them and he sent one on deck after Medway. It was plain that something would have to be done for Judkins at once. ”

“ What’s the matter with you, Tom?” cried Jack looking around in astonishment, as he manipulated the craft with a skill born of long practice.
“I didn’t speak, Jack. It was that same mysterious voice. This craft is haunted, I believe.”
“Nonsense. We must be imagining things,” declared Jack; “but I’m almost sure I heard a voice.”
“So am I. How is she working, Jack?” asked Tom, dismissing the subject. He thought that his overwrought nerves were at work.
“Finely. I’m heading straight for the yacht. I mean to circle her and then,” he paused an instant and added, “drop!” ”

“ We can’t shoot down firewood, and we’ve got our pocket axes,” declared Tom.
“You take your rifles,” repeated the captain. “It’s not a good plan to go snooping about in this neck of the woods without firearms.”
“We might get some game anyhow,” said Jack, as he got his weapon out of the boat; and the others did the same, Dick helping himself to one of the spare stock, for they had brought several from the yacht.
This done, the lads set off into the jungle, promising to keep within call and come back as quickly as possible. ”