CHAPTER XXVIII
Almost a Tragedy
Rather nervously Joe unfolded the paper, hastily read it, and thengave a sigh of relief.
"Nothing wrong," he told his friends. "Take a look."
"H'm," observed Bob. "He only says he's going to land in a level fieldabout a mile from here, and that he'd better take us up with him fromthere, instead of waiting till we get to Pasaje. No other place nearto land on. Closes by saying everything is all right."
"So he wants us to go up with him now," mused Joe. "Doesn't want towait till we get to Pasaje. I hate to do that. I don't like to leaveDr. Rander till we get to the town. It doesn't seem right to come withhim all this distance and then go off and leave him here in themountains."
"Don't worry about me," said the old explorer quickly. "I have beenthrough these mountains alone many times. I can manage the mules allright. And the town can't be far away."
"We'd go with you anyway," Bob told him, "only Karl says there isn'tanother landing place near."
Without loss of time the three continued toward the level spot onwhich the aviator had landed, at length coming in sight of themonoplane.
Karl rushed out to meet them, his face bright at finding that all werealive and well.
"You old rascal!" cried Joe, shaking the young man's hand warmly.
"How'd you know we were here?" asked Bob, who was also very glad tosee the aviator.
"I saw you," Karl Sutman explained. "I thought I'd take a short flightover this section to see if I could locate you."
"You did, all right." Joe was delighted. "Found us away out here inthe wilds." He hesitated a moment and glanced at Dr. Rander. But thelatter had already been introduced to Karl Sutman, and needed nointroduction by the youths.
There was one question in the aviator's mind that he could wait nolonger to ask.
"The treasure you were searching for--did you find any?" he inquired."And the Inca secrets, too. How about them?"
Bob smiled happily.
"We did," he answered. "Found both the treasure and the secrets."
When shown the little box of gold trinkets, Karl gasped inastonishment.
"Is that all you found?" he demanded. "I thought there might have beensome gold statues, or the like."
"If there were we couldn't locate them," Joe said. "We consideredourselves lucky in finding what we did. They are worth many hundredsof dollars, maybe thousands."
"Dad and Mr. Lewis and the others--are they all right?" Bob wasanxious to learn if any misfortune had befallen his father andfriends.
"They're still hunting for specimens," returned the aviator. "Mr.Wallace fell down a mountain and hurt himself slightly, but he's aboutall right now. And you should see the large collection of birds andanimals they have."
"We have something that may interest them," declared Joe, and showedKarl the huge condor, at the same time telling about his narrow escapefrom death.
"Wow!" Karl exclaimed when the youth had finished. "And Bob and DocRander came to your rescue, did they? Good for them."
It was later decided that Bob and Joe accompany Karl at once in themonoplane to the Comberciato River, where the chums' fathers werecollecting specimens. The old man explained that he did not mind goingon alone to Pasaje, where he had business.
"But before you leave," Dr. Rander began, "I want to divide thetreasure with you fellows," addressing Bob and Joe.
"Don't give us half," Joe said pleadingly. "After all, it was yourefforts that located the secret mountain cavern."
The old man held up a hand for silence.
"You forget that I owe my life to you," he reminded them. "If it hadnot been for your coming to my rescue, I would not be here to enjoythe treasure."
"But----" began Joe.
"Say no more," Dr. Rander silenced him. "Half of the gold is yours."
He spent the next half-hour in dividing the treasure, giving the boysa good share. They thanked him warmly, then turned to Karl Sutman.
"Can we get started before long?" asked Joe. "I'm anxious to seeeverybody."
"Sure." The aviator was willing. "Let's get your stuff loaded in the'plane."
They worked steadily until noon, at which time everything thatbelonged to the youths was packed in the supply compartment of themonoplane.
After the meal they bade Dr. Rander an affectionate farewell andstepped into the cabin. Karl started the engine, and then, with a roarand a rush, they started rolling over the field.
The old man waved as they left the ground and headed toward the north.The last the air travelers saw of him he was getting the pack animalsready to finish the journey to Pasaje.
"I suppose we've seen the last of him," remarked Bob, as they left theground. "We may hear from him later, though. He has our addresses."
"Rather an odd character, isn't he?" said Joe. "Seems strange thathe'd want to remain in these mountains all his life."
During the next few hours Karl sent the airplane ahead over mountainsthat were more rugged than any the youths had ever seen before. He wassteering the machine near Mount Panta and the locality in which wereDr. Rust and the other archaeologists when suddenly he found himselfalmost unconsciously entering a heavy cloud.
A second later, when he realized what he had done, the aviator sawthat it was too late. Already the 'plane was in the midst of a heavyopaque atmosphere of white.
"I was a nut for getting in a place like this," Karl said through thetelephone. "And there's no way of getting out now only to go onthrough it."
Karl well knew that they were in grave danger of crashing into theside of some lofty peak. They were in a region of tall mountains, andsome high summit might easily loom up before them.
For the next few minutes the youths' hearts were in their mouths. Theyknew that Karl was an excellent pilot, but they also knew that hecould do nothing if sudden tragedy might come upon them.
"What's that?" cried Bob quickly. He had seen something that lookedlike a huge black mass directly before them.
Joe sat on the edge of his seat, expecting every moment to feel aterrible crash and then.... For the first time he wondered what deathwas like.
Cries of relief came from the youths as they saw that instead ofcrashing into the black mass, they were passing through it.
"As if a million pounds were lifted off my back," gasped Joe. "Ithought we were goners sure."
"Would be if that were a mountain," Bob said. "As it is, we're noworse off than before. It's a lot darker, though."
Karl sought to pass out of the cloud by gaining altitude, but he soonsaw that this was useless. Still, he thought it best to fly higher.There was a limit to the height he could safely reach, however, forneither himself nor the youths were using oxygen, and the high rareair was not sufficient to supply enough necessary to the human body.
"I'll have to trust to luck, I guess," he said through the telephone."We may make it all right."
"Karl didn't say that any too hopefully," remarked Joe. "Do yousuppose he really fears disaster?"
"It seems like it." Bob was terribly worried. He did not have muchhope of getting out unharmed.
Then suddenly the air travelers received a surprise. The cloud thathad a few seconds before been so heavy and dense quickly thinned outuntil it passed from view. Once more the blue sky was visible.
The explorers could hardly believe their eyes. Had they actuallyemerged from what seemed like certain disaster? It was some timebefore anyone spoke.
"What do you think of that one?" Karl Sutman's voice was the first tobreak the silence. "Couldn't have been much worse suspense, couldthere?"
"We didn't see that we had much chance," said Joe gravely. "And whenwe saw that black mass----"
"We're out of it now, though," the aviator said. "So why not dismissit from your mind?"
He was put out to think that the monoplane was several miles off itscourse, but he refused to let that worry him, since they had had sucha miraculous escape.
It did not take long, howev
er, to make up for the lost time, for theyoung pilot well exceeded the hundred-and-fifty-mile-an-hour cruisingspeed of the monoplane.
As best he could he kept the machine as near the mountain tops as wassafe, so as to make it unnecessary to use oxygen. Getting out themasks and tanks would require much time, and that was what they didnot want to spare.
"There's Mount Panta," observed Joe, his eyes on a massive peak. "Whycan't we stop and see the archaeologists--for only a few minutes, Imean? I suppose they're still looking for Inca ruins in this region,aren't they?"
"Yes and no," laughed Karl. "I mean this: they're still searching forruins, all right, but not in this part of the Andes. I stopped to seethem just before I flew after you fellows, and they told me they weregoing to leave for another section over to the east."
"Wish we could have got in touch with them," said Bob. "We haveinformation about Inca secrets that would make them jump up and downwith joy. Maybe we can tell them later, though."
A half-hour of flying from Mount Panta brought them within sight ofthe Comberciato River, along whose banks somewhere the youths' fathersand Mr. Wallace were staying.
Suddenly Bob and Joe cried out in delight.
"Dad! Mr. Lewis! Mr. Wallace!" said Bob happily.