Part 18 (1/2)
”I don't know for sure, because I only had the least peep of something that looked like a small elephant making off,” replied the other, also alighting.
Andy was already reaching for the repeating rifle, which had been securely fastened in the frame of the monoplane.
”But Frank, they don't have such things as elephants down in South America?” he expostulated.
”Sure they don't,” laughed Frank, feeling particularly good over the grand success that had attended their perilous landing. ”Nor a rhinocerous, nor a hippopotamus; but they do have the next largest beast, and that's a tapir. He's something like a big pig and not very dangerous, the senor said. That was what we frightened off just now, I reckon.”
”Well, here we are on land again and mighty lucky to get down without some sort of a smash. Frank, you don't think anything was broken when we struck, do you?”
”Of course I can't say for sure, but I believe not. But all the same I must give a good look in the morning before we make another start,” was the reply Frank returned.
”And now we're just got to stay here all night?” remarked Andy, who still held the gun in his hands.
”That isn't anything. We'll soon have a cheery blaze started that will keep the prowlers away, I guess. Get busy, Andy, and see what we can do. But we'll start it some distance away from our gasoline tank, remember.”
”But won't they be apt to see a fire?” asked the other, as he reluctantly placed the rifle down and started to gathering wood, no easy task in the increasing darkness.
”Do you mean Puss and that other fellow?” Frank asked, with a laugh. ”Oh, they're a mile or two off, and even if they could see the biggest of fires I'd defy them to get half way here if they took the whole night to cut their way through that ma.s.s of trailing vines and brush. Don't bother your head about that crowd, Andy. I hope we're done with them for good.”
His rea.s.suring words seemed to have considerable effect on his cousin, who up to recently had himself been a most cheery fellow.
”Well,” he said, ”we've sure got a whole bunch of grat.i.tude on tap for the lucky way we dropped in here. Chances looked twenty to one it couldn't be done. And I'd like to wager that no other air pilot could have made the ripple so well.”
”You're prejudiced, old fellow, because I'm one of the Bird boys,”
laughed Frank as he struck a match and applied it to the bunch of dead gra.s.s he had gathered in the spot selected for their fire.
It was a dozen yards away from the aeroplane and about the same from the nearest line of great bushy trees. Immediately the flame sprang up, dispelling the darkness to some extent.
”Shucks! but that makes a big improvement and no mistake,” said Andy, stooping to drop some wood on the fire. ”I always like to see what I'm doing. And more than ever when I'm in a strange place. Hark! what was that, do you suppose, Frank?”
A sound had come from the depths of the forest not unlike the wailing of a babe. Frank could give a guess what made it, but he did not immediately say so.
”Say, we must have landed close to some native shack, and that's a baby crying!” Andy declared.
”Hardly,” came from Frank. ”That's only one of our cat friends giving tongue, perhaps calling to his mate to come and see the funny objects that dropped from the skies.”
”Wow! reckon now you must mean a yellow boy, a jaguar! I bet you, Frank, there's a heap of 'em around us right now. How do we know but what every tree hides one of the critters, watching everything we do? I can tell you right now that I don't wander far from this jolly little blaze tonight. And besides, one of us has just got to keep a grip on this gun all the time. I don't hanker after being carried away and made a meal of by a big hungry cat.”
”Oh, the fire will scare them away all right, I believe. There isn't an animal that doesn't dread fire. Always keep that in mind, Andy, when trouble comes,” said Frank, earnestly.
”I mean to,” replied the other, as he once more started to pick up wood, but it could be noticed that while doing so Andy always kept on eye on the alert, as if he really believed what he had said about the chances of their being watched by an army of jaguars.
”There's another sort of cry, Frank,” he remarked, presently.
”Yes, and although I couldn't say for sure, I believe it is made by a colony of monkeys, traveling through the woods at night,” the other replied, after stopping to listen for a minute to the odd sounds.
”Monkeys!” cried Andy, smiling broadly. ”Well, I declare I had forgotten that they have them all through the tropical regions around the Orinoco, the Magdalena and the Amazon. And so that's a menagerie traveling over the treetops, is it? Wish I could just get a look.”
”Well, I don't think they're far away,” remarked his chum.