Part 11 (1/2)
The solo adventurer dived under the black's arm and struck it upward as he lunged and the weapon went whirling groundward out of the air-s.h.i.+p.
With a cry of despair the savage rushed to the edge of the car and was about to throw himself into empty air when Ben leaped forward to try to restrain him.
But it was too late.
As the boys' st.u.r.dy companion gallantly attempted to save the savage's life a flight of arrows whizzed up from below.
With a groan the man on the edge of the car pitched forward into open s.p.a.ce, pierced to the heart with an arrow sped by one of his own tribesmen. Down he shot like a stone to the earth below, while the Golden Eagle--as if rejoicing in her escape, shot upward and onward.
CHAPTER IX
THE VOICE OF THE MOUNTAIN
Frank's wound fortunately turned out to be nothing very serious-- though painful enough--and after it had been treated with antiseptics from the medicine chest he declared that, aside from the stiffness and soreness, he felt no ill effect.
”Those fellows certainly gave us a sample of what we may expect,”
remarked Harry, examining the hole in his s.h.i.+rt where the arrow had ripped through.
”It was quite as narrow an escape as I care to experience,” agreed Frank. ”How about you, Ben?”
”Wall,” said the old adventurer, ”I don't know as how I think that kind of excitement is as beneficial fer the health as the rest cure.”
Meanwhile the Golden Eagle, plowing through the clear African air at fifty miles an hour, rapidly drew nearer and nearer to the mysterious Moon Mountains.
As they neared the range the extraordinary character of it was revealed more and more clearly. Seamed with deep gloomy abysses and almost bare of vegetation, except a few scanty groves of palms and the hardier tropical trees, they seemed indeed fitted to be the theater of dark mysteries and the haunt of savage tribes.
”Well,” exclaimed Harry, as be scrutinized the strange mountain ma.s.s through the gla.s.ses, ”I should say that if those Winged Men are to be found anywhere, here is where they'd reside.”
”I should think they'd use their wings to get out--a nastier looking lot of mountains I never saw,” was Ben's reply.
Frank made no comment, but the sinister character of the mountains they were so rapidly approaching impressed itself on his mind nevertheless. Eagerly he scanned the range for the first sign of ”The Upturned Face.” Harry and Ben, too, gave quite as eager scrutiny toward the discovery of this striking mark of the ivory's hiding-place.
All at once it shot into view with a suddenness that made the boys'
beads swim.
It was as clear as daylight. The line of the mountain for which Frank had the Golden Eagle II now directly headed was unmistakably the outline also of a hawk-nosed facet.
If the mountains themselves had an evil, menacing look, the stone face possessed this same quality in an infinitely greater degree.
”Well, if we've got to go looking for ivory right under that face the sooner we find it the better,” exclaimed Ben. ”I'd hate to be s.h.i.+pmates with the fellow who sat for that portrait.”
”No human being ever sat for it, Ben,” laughed Frank; ”it's a mere freak of nature which has so disposed the mountain ma.s.s at this point as to give the semblance of what the map-maker terms The Upturned Face.”
”Well, if I had a mug like that I'd turn it down instead of up before some one did it for me,” was Ben's comment.
The Golden Eagle landed on a plateau about halfway up the mountain, beneath the upturned face. It made an almost ideal camping-place, considering the rugged nature of their surroundings. In one part of it a small grove of bananas and palms had taken root, and their smiling greenery offered a refres.h.i.+ng contrast to the dark oppressive gloom of the giant rock ma.s.ses piled all about. From the center of this oasis in the rocky range bubbled a tiny spring of water as clear and cold as if it had been filtered and iced.
Frank's first act was to send out a wireless to the River Camp, telling of their arrival.