CHAPTER XXI
INTO THE DEPTHS
“What’s that?”
“Where’s my gun?”
“Get ready, everybody!”
“Turn on all the lights!”
These were only a few of the shouts that greeted Bob’s cry of warning.It was Jerry who thought to switch on the incandescents, illuminatingthe interior of the motorship, which had hitherto been in darkness.Every member of the party, save Bob, had fallen into a weary slumber.
The two Westerners, from long habit, had reached out for their weaponson the instant of opening their eyes, but the boys were not so trained.True, Bob had a gun, but he had left it in the pilot house when he wentfor a drink of water.
The yells of the Indians outside increased. Very likely, since theymight have raised their voices in shouts at some Wild West show, withwhich they may have been connected, this was the first time, in manyyears, that they had given vent to the warwhoop; save perhaps in sometribal ceremonies. But now they were using their lungs to their fullpower.
“Come on!” cried Bob, in desperation. “We’ve got to fight ’em!” He wasnot a little worried lest his slight dereliction from duty should beheld to be responsible for the surprise. But he need not have alarmedhimself, since it was likely that no one could have seen the redmensneak up amid that dense growth of forest.
“Hark!” cried Jim Nestor, as he sprang out of his bunk, with ready gun.
The airship seemed to vibrate to several thuds.
“They’re boarding us!” exclaimed Jerry.
“And they’re not firing a shot!” came from Harvey Brill. “Boys, I seewhat this means! They’re trying to scare us, but they haven’t got nerveenough to use their guns. Maybe this is only part of the band, that hassneaked off without the chief knowing it, to get what they can from us.Come on! We’ll give ’em a warm reception!”
He leaped to a window, flung it open and began discharging his weapon,taking care to aim in the air so as not to hit any of the Indians byaccident. Yells greeted the shot from his rifle, but Mr. Brill knewwhat he was doing, and felt sure he had hit no one.
“That’s the way!” yelled Jim Nestor. “Maybe we can scare ’em off!”
He, too, began firing, an example followed by Bob and Ned. The yellingincreased in intensity, and the thuds on the deck of the _Comet_continued, showing that more of the savages were climbing over therail, which offered a slight obstacle.
Suddenly the door of the cabin was pushed open, and one of theblanketed braves leaped in. He had no weapon, but, seeing some shiningtools that Ned and Jerry had been using on the rudder that day, he madea grab for them, evidently thinking them of great value.
“Hi! Drop those!” yelled Jerry.
“Indian take!” grunted the redman, as he rushed out again.
“There’s a score of ’em!” cried Harvey Brill, as he looked out and sawthe Indians in the glare of the searchlight. “Oh, if we could onlyget out of this! We don’t want to hurt any of ’em, for it will meantrouble, and yet we can’t let ’em strip us! Can we go up, Jerry!”
“Yes!” cried the tall lad. “We’ll take a chance. There’s no wind, andwe can manage without the rudder. We’ll go up as a balloon! Ned--Bob!Start the gas machine!”
The two lads, dropping their guns, rushed to the engine room. Jerryhurried to the pilot house where he saw that all was in readinessfor a quick flight. For, though the _Comet_ could not ascend as anaeroplane, owing to the broken rudder, it could still rise as a balloon.
The two Westerners were rapidly firing their rifles, taking care toaim high, hoping to intimidate the Indians by the seeming danger. And,in a measure, they succeeded. Several of the redmen leaped off themotorship, and disappeared in the woods. Others, more bold, laid handson whatever they could find in the half-darkness out on deck, and ranoff. Still others penetrated to the interior of the craft. But notone had a weapon. This the boys thought very strange until later theylearned that Chief Standing Horse, fearing that some of his followersmight try to take revenge on the whites for the bear incident, hadconfiscated the arms of the younger members of his party, giving themin charge of the older, and more trusted warriors of his tribe.
“Are you ready, Ned?” called Jerry to his chum.
“All right,” was the answer.
“Then start her going, and we’ll go up!”
It was just beginning to get daylight when there came a tremor throughthe whole length of the _Comet_. Jerry had cast off the anchor ropes,and as the powerful gas filled the bag she tore loose from the earthand shot upward.
There was a cry of surprise and terror from the Indians still aboard,and the rapid running of feet across the deck told of a rush to leapoff before the craft went too high.
As it was, several had to drop off from a considerable distance, andin the dawn of the morning our friends saw many of the Indians limpinginto the forest.
“I guess we’ve taught them a lesson,” remarked Jerry, when themotorship was clear of the earth, and the last Indian had dropped off.
“That’s right!” chimed in Ned, who had kept the gas machine going atfull capacity. “They got a lot of stuff that we may need, but we’relucky even so.”
“They didn’t get into the kitchen!” exclaimed Bob, proudly. “I had alot of pies there, and if they’d taken them----”
“Oh, for cats’ sake, Chunky!” cried Jerry. “Is that all you can thinkof now?”
“Well, why not?” asked the stout lad. “We’re all right; aren’t we?”
And they were, when they came to take an account of themselves. Littledamage had been done to the craft, and only a few articles weremissing. They were now well up in the air, drifting along before agentle wind.
“We’ll drift along until we see a good place to land, and then we’ll godown,” said Jerry.
“Not near here, though,” stipulated Jim Nestor.
“Well, I guess not!” exclaimed Ned.
Luckily they were able to land in a large clearing, many miles fromwhere the Indians had attacked them, and, as they were now over theCanadian border--a fact ascertained by seeing some boundary pillars asthey crossed--they had no further fear of the Blackfeet.
“But it was a hot time while it lasted,” said Bob, who explained howthe attack had come about.
Breakfast was served, and then the motor boys proceeded to finishwork on the rudder. Professor Snodgrass, who had taken no part in therepulse of the Indians, save to gather his books and specimen boxes inreadiness for instant flight, resumed his collecting.
The two Westerners devoted themselves to making a tour of thesurrounding country, to look for possible hostile signs, but foundnone. Then they managed to get some small game for Bob to cook.
The rudder repairs were finished that day, and a test of the _Comet_showed it to be under perfect control.
“Now for the valley of the sixty nuggets of gold!” cried Jerry, whenthey were ready to start off again.
For two days they circled about, looking for some landmark that wouldindicate to Mr. Brill the beginning of the big earth gash where he hadhidden his wealth. They saw, one evening, a fantastically piled moundof red rock that showed plainly even from a great height.
“There it is!” cried the prospector. “The valley begins right there!”
“Then we’ll go down, and camp for to-night,” decided Jerry, “and in themorning we’ll make the descent.”
The morning dawned, clear and beautiful. After an early breakfast theywent aloft in the _Comet_, which could now be guided better than ever.
“That’s the valley!” cried Harvey Brill, as they got above the depths.“Now to see if I can find my gold after the landslide!”
It was a wild and desolate gash in the earth--a great valley in themidst of towering mountain peaks. In very truth nothing but an airshipor a balloon could have entered it as it was now.
“Well, here we go, boys!” said Jerry, a trifle solemnly, as he tiltedthe deflecting rudder.
All about them
were rugged peaks, some snow-capped, others, not sohigh, covered with a dense forest growth. Below them lay the mysteriousand silent valley that hid the wealth of gold.
Would they find it?
Everyone asked himself that question as the _Comet_ descended into thedepths.