CHAPTER VII
THE BLACK BEAR IN TROUBLE
One still night on the Amazon Jack Bosworth got out a map and turneda flashlight on it. Frank and Harry stood looking over hisshoulder.
"Right here," Jack said, presently, "is where we leave the mainstream of the Amazon and take to the Madeira."
"How do you know that stream is the Madeira?" asked Frank. "We havepassed so many large tributaries that I'm all mixed up."
"And why not try some other stream?" Harry questioned. "I've heardthat the Madeira is full of falls and rapids."
"Anyway," Jack insisted, "it takes us away up into the Andes, almostto Lake Titicaca, and that's all any stream will do. As for thefalls and rapids, do you expect any stream to creep down from thatgreat plateau without jumping off occasionally?"
"All right," Frank cut in. "Go your own way to destruction! Buthow do you know that rippling sheet of water off there," swinging anarm to the south, "is the Madeira river? It looks like a lake tome."
"I found out while you were asleep this morning," Jack replied. "Achap came along in a launch and I asked him all about it. He saidhe had just come from the Andes, and advised me to turn back."
"Kind-hearted little fellow, eh?" laughed Harry.
"He wasn't very little," answered Jack. "He was six feet two, andwas coming out with a finger off and a cut across a cheek bone whichwill last him for a spell, I guess. He cut his finger off because apoisoned arrow struck it."
"Cannibals?" asked Harry, with a laugh.
"The same," replied Jack. "Said they chased him for miles."
"We'll curb their appetites with lead," Harry observed.
"If we see them first," added Jack.
So the Black Bear was turned into the Madeira river, which issomething like seven hundred miles long, and drains the woodedcountry where the black sheep of the land of Brazil live. Away upin the hills it is fed by the Beni river, which has its source inthe mountains east of Lake Titicaca.
More than once the boys were obliged to haul their motor boat outon a rocky "bench," take it to pieces, carry it and most of thestock around rapids, and then put it together and load up again.Still, they made good time, and on the evening of the third dayfound themselves at the junction with the Beni river.
They were now in a wild and dangerous country. The forests swarmedwith wild game, the thickets were full of serpents, and the treeswere often crowded with monkeys. For two days they had seen nonatives. This was suspicious as it was certain that they hadpenetrated to the home of the cannibal tribes so greatly dreaded byhunters and explorers.
It was on the evening of the 21st of August that Jack sent the BlackBear into a little creek, shut off the power, and turned to put upthe panels. It was not very warm, but the atmosphere was sticky andheavy with the breath of the woods.
"We'll smother in there tonight," Frank said, observing the actionsof the other. "Why not leave some of 'em out?"
"If you want a poisoned arrow nestling in your ribs you can sleepoutside," Jack answered. "For my part, I want to wake up in thisgood old world in the morning."
"I don't think there's any danger yet," Frank said.
But the panels were put up and supper prepared. By this time thelads had become accustomed to preparing their own meals, as well asproviding the fish from the river, and the repast was soon over.Then Jack lay back and gazed through the one glass panel of the topof the Black Bear.
It was a dark, lowering night. The wind is usually from the east inthat part of Brazil. Blowing over the Atlantic it gathers upmoisture to dump on the eastern slope of the Andes. The summitsdrain the clouds and makes Peru a dry country. It was murky now,and the clouds hung low.
"What do you see up there, Jack?" asked Frank. "Trying to studyastronomy, with not a star in sight?"
"There you are wrong," Jack replied. "There is at least one star insight."
"With that mass of clouds drifting over the sky?" laughed Harry. "Ireckon you must be seeing things not present to the senses!"
"Come and look, then," Jack invited. "Look straight up, and you'llsee a star."
Frank placed himself under the glass panel and looked up.
"Well?" Jack demanded, in a tone of triumph.
"It's something," Frank exclaimed, "but I don't believe it is astar."
"It may be a reflector at the top of the Flatiron building," grinnedJack. "What is it, if it isn't a star?"
"Look yourself!" cried Frank.
The boys were all looking now. They saw the light which Jack hadmistaken for a star flashing to and fro under the clouds like afirefly. It rushed earthward with amazing speed for an instant,then spiraled upward again. Once it came directly over the BlackBear, and seemed about to drop down.
Jack threw a couple of panels open, and then the whirr of motorsreached their ears. Frank sprang outside and turned a flashlightupward.
"There's your star!" he shouted to Jack.
"Quick!" Harry cried. "Wigwag with that light. It is the Nelson!They may be able to see us!"
"Yell, every soul of you!" directed Frank. "Yell! She is goingaway!"
The boys waved their lights frantically and shouted at the top oftheir voices, but the light in the sky crept away to the west andsoon disappeared, evidently passing above the clouds which lay likea black blanket over the Brazilian forests.
"Great heavens!" Jack sighed. "If we could only have made themhear! I'll bet they've been to Paraguay and released Lyman. Nowthey're going back home! Fine show we now stand of having any funwith them!"
"They went west," Harry corrected. "That isn't the way home!"
"I'd like to know just what success they have had," Jack went on."Say," he continued, "can't we do something to attract theirattention? Why not set fire to some big dry tree and let her blazeup?"
"I just can't have it this way!" Harry said. "I can't stand it tohave them come so close to us and then go away without knowing weare here. We've got to bring them down in some way."
"But they've gone!" Frank declared, gravely.
"If we make a big blaze," Jack hastened to say, "the reflection onthe clouds will attract their attention, and they'll come back.They won't be able to see the fire itself, of course, but they'llsee the reflection, and that will bring them down to investigate.Then we'll fire our revolvers and wigwag with blazing sticks untilthey see who we are."
"It may not be the Nelson," Harry suggested.
"I don't believe there's any other aeroplane sailing about the roofof the world," Frank replied. "Of course it is the Nelson!"
"Perhaps the Nelson was followed," Harry went on. "I've heard ofsuch things. The chap in that machine may be looking for Ned.Anyway," he added, "it won't do any harm to let the aviator, whoeverhe is, know that we are here. Come on, let's go ashore and build abig fire."
"I certainly would give a year's growth to know whether that is theNelson," Harry said, as the boys sought the shore and begangathering dry wood, which, it may be well to add, was not easy tofind, as there had been quite a shower during the day. "For all weknow," he continued, "there may be another aeroplane here. If thepeople who are trying for the Lyman concession are as active here asthey seem to have been in Paraguay, they may have half a dozenairships out after the Nelson."
Finally a quantity of wood which was fairly dry was secured, andJack bundled it up against a dead tree which seemed to run straightup into the sky until it touched the clouds. But when the boys cameto apply matches they discovered that the wood was not dry enough tobe ignited in that way.
"I'll get a gallon of gasoline and pour over it," Frank explained."Then we can run like blazes when we touch her off. What?"
The gasoline was brought, and the blaze started with a mightyconcussion of the air. A portion of the highly inflammable fluidhad entered a great crevice in the dead tree, with the result thatthere was an explosion which resounded through the forests formiles. Then the flames mounted the tree, which was soon blazinglike
a great torch.
"I guess that will attract their attention!" Jack said, shieldinghis face from the intense heat.
"Yes," Frank replied, "and I'm afraid it will attract the attentionof others, too. You know we were told to sneak through this countrylike little mice!"
"It is too late now!" Jack said, a shadow of anxiety coming over hisface. "We are in for it, I guess. What shall we do?"
Above the crackling of the flames, above the drawing and sighing ofthe wind, there now came a strange sound which seemed to proceedfrom the fire-tinted clouds above. Now and then branches of thenearby trees stirred mysteriously, and at times a wild shriek roseabove the monotonous chattering.
"Monkeys!" cried Jack. "They've come out to help us bring theairship to earth. Good little beasts!"
"Don't be in too much of a hurry to give the little devils acertificate of good character!" Harry answered. "They may maketrouble for us."
After a time the foolish, wrinkled faces of the monkeys were seenpeering from trees. Then, above the din they made, above thecrackling of the fire, constantly mounting higher, came a screamalmost like that of a child.
"That's a jaguar!" Harry declared, "a South American tiger, and we'dbetter be getting toward the boat."
"The animals won't come near the fire," Frank said. "We may as wellremain here and see the menagerie."
Directly it seemed to the excited lads that all the wild animals inSouth America were assembled about their signal. Harry declaredthat he heard the call of the red wolf, the scream of the tiger cat,the wail of the puma, the vicious snarling of the wild dog.
While the boys listened to the chorus their efforts to attract theattention of the aeroplane had produced, there came into the discordanother sound--the hissing of a monster serpent. Heretofore theboys had little to do with Brazilian forms of animal life, for theyhad kept near the middle of the main stream of the Amazon, and alsoabout in the center of the Madeira and the much smaller Beni, whichwas only a creek when compared with the other rivers.
Occasionally they had seen a monster cayman nosing against thecurrent, and at times their progress had been retarded by turtles,but they had never before seen anything like this. Their fire hadcertainly brought out a combination in nature which would have beendecidedly interesting if it hadn't been so threatening.
"Me for the boat!" Jack said, with a shiver, as the serpent launchedhis head and a third of his body from the tree and swept about inwidening circles. "I never could endure snakes!"
"I'm going to take a shot at it," Frank said. "I'd like to see himtake a tumble into the fire."
"Better let him alone," Harry advised.
Frank was about to fire when Jack caught his arm and held up hishand in a listening attitude.
"What is it?" Frank asked.
"Human voices!" was the quick reply.
"Inhuman voices, I should say," Harry observed, after a second ofsilence.
A chant unlike anything the boys had ever heard before undulatedthrough the forest. It rose and fell with the gusts of wind, andalways nearer to the fire.
"This is a new one on me!" Jack cried. "It is also another reasonfor getting to the boat! Come on, fellows!"
"I'm not going to run until I find out what that is," insistedFrank. "I'm going to write a newspaper story about this menagerie!"
"If you want your story published in this world," Jack cried, "you'dbetter get under cover, for that's the chant of the head hunters!"
"Wow!" cried Frank, and he beat both his chums to the boat.
"I guess we've started something!" Jack said, as he busied himselfputting up the few panels which had been removed when they wentashore. "Now, some one push that button, and I'll get the BlackBear out of this creek. A good old scout like the Black Bear has nobusiness associating with the wild animals on shore."
"Right you are!" shouted Harry, and the propellers began moving.Still, the boat made no progress to the rear, the reverse being on.
"What's doing?" demanded Jack. "You'd better hurry, for the headhunters are coming right along. See that big chief over there?He's got a club that would level the Singer building at a blow!"
"I can't make her back," Harry complained. "There's something thematter below her in the stream. It was all clear when we came in."
In an instant all was intense excitement on board the motor boat.There was only one way in which the savages could reach them, andthat was to block their passage out and starve them to death! Hadthis system been resorted to? Had the cunning savages obstructedthe little stream while the lads were busy building their fire andobserving their menagerie, as they called it?
These questions were in the minds of all as efforts to back theBlack Bear were redoubled. Finally Jack opened a panel at the rearand looked out, a thing he should have done at first.
What he saw was a large log blocking the channel. The propellerswere pounding against it, and one of them was broken.
"I guess the little brown men have got us good and plenty," he said,slowly, as he reached forward and shut off the power. "While wewere playing about the blaze they plugged the river."
"They can't get in here, anyway!" Frank consoled.
"No; they'll wait for us to get good and hungry and go out!" Jackreplied.
The situation was a serious one. The head hunters now appeared inthe open space about the blazing tree and shook their spears andtheir clubs at the boat. Now and then an arrow with a poisoned tipstruck the side of the Black Bear.
"They'll never leave until they get us!" Jack said, presently, "andso we may as well get a few of them. Get your guns, boys."
"Just you wait, old hard luck prophet," Frank exclaimed. "Look upthrough the glass panel above your head and tell me what you see."
"Well," Jack replied, "it looks like we had establishedcommunication with the Nelson at last. And also with the GreatestShow on Earth!" he added, as a mighty roar went up from the shore.
The other boys crowded the panel and looked out. The clouds abovewere red with the reflection of the blazing tree, yet against themass a different light blazed out. This light moved about, fromnorth to south and back again, as if searching out the reason forthe strange happenings below.
The popping of her motors could be plainly heard, and so it wasprobable that those on the airship could hear the wild animalconcert which was going on in the woods. Harry pushed a panel asideand fired three quick shots. The aeroplane wavered above the rivera moment and then drifted away.
"They must know there's somebody down here in trouble!" said Harry."Why don't they throw down dynamite? That would give the savagesall the heads they wanted for a time, I guess."
The boys fired again and again, flashed their lights in wigwagsignals, but the aeroplane did not come nearer. Instead it whirledswiftly about in a circle for a moment and then shot out of sightbeyond the clouds.
And every moment the circle of savage faces gathered closer aboutthe Black Bear, effectively blocked in the narrow stream.