CHAPTER XVIII
AN IRRITATING DELAY
Paul was awakened the next morning by feeling a gentle tug at his nose.Unused to such a summons as this, he opened his eyes with a start.
There on his breast squatted Grandpa, his little head cocked comicallyto one side, his beady little eyes glistening with mischief, and hisslim fingers just reaching out for another tweak. The monkey gave alightning-like spring to the back of a nearby seat when he saw Paullooking at him, and here he set up a shrill chattering, which alsoawoke Bob and caused Tom and John to whirl around.
"You fellows have got a good alarm-clock now, the way it looks," calledTom, laughing, and taking in the situation. "Grandpa will save Johnand me the trouble of stirring you sleepy heads up after this, Iexpect."
Paul and Bob sprang out of their hammocks, and the former seized themonkey and laughingly shoved his nose up against one of the windowpanes. Far down below were the rolling billows of the great Atlantic,the early sun striking them into many beautiful tones of green andblue, and cutting a silver pathway across the curling crests. A schoolof dolphins was leaping out of the water off to the left. From theopposite window the youth could see a small emerald island in thedistance, but everywhere else was water, vast reaches of it.
Grandpa evidently had no eye for nature, as viewed from this novelposition, for he quickly twisted out of Paul's arms and jumped down tothe floor of the cabin, where he pranced about excitedly.
"It's just a little bit too high to suit your exalted monkeyship, isn'tit?" chuckled Paul. "Well, you'll get used to it, Grandpa, before youget around the world with us! I'll promise you, sir, that you will bethe farthest-jumping and highest-jumping monkey that ever lived. Youought to be proud!"
After getting something to eat, Paul relieved Tom at the throttle, andBob tried to get Freetown by radio. Failing, he did get Para, andadvised them of their safety and approximate position over the Atlantic.
Now that the weather had cleared up so that they could run in view ofthe ocean, John and Tom themselves turned in for a much-needed sleep,leaving their younger companions to direct the course of the Sky-Birdon the last stage of the lap. The trade-winds were blowing freely, butwith a lack of gustiness which made progress against them quite rapidand smooth.
It was two hours later that those in the Sky-Bird saw the coastline ofAfrica jutting out into the sea in a great bulge, and a littleafterward they recognized landmarks agreeing with their chart. As theywere slightly south of their course, Bob made the proper deviation, andin twenty minutes they were over a muddy field, marked with thelooked-for white T, at Freetown, Sierra Leone.
As they were spiraling downward they saw a crowd of natives gathered inone portion of the field, and caught a glimpse of an airplane's wingsin their midst. Many of this throng now rushed over to where thenewcomers had landed, among them a tall Englishman, who introducedhimself as the port minister and person who was to supply them with areplacement of fuel. Several other Englishmen, all officers in thegarrison of the town, came up and were introduced.
"We 'av' been looking for you fellows, but not quite so soon," statedthe port minister. "Hif I had known--"
"How is that?" asked John. "We are just about on schedule."
"So you are; but those other flyers over there, who 'av' been 'ere thepast two 'ours declared you 'ad been delayed in South Hamerica handwould not be hin before to-morrow morning, so as we 'av' a coastingvessel with more petrol due 'ere then, I let them 'av' hall the petrolthey wanted, hand I fear--"
"They had no reason for telling you we were delayed to such an extentas that, without it was to further their own interests," interruptedJohn, significantly. "But I don't see their game."
"I don't know, I'm sure," was the response; "but has I was saying, theyasked for an hextra filling of their tanks, hand so--well, gentlemen, Iam sorry to say it, but there hisn't ten gallons left."
Our friends heard this with mixed feelings. They were rightfullyincensed at their rivals for such a dastardly trick, vexed with theport minister, and dismayed to think that they would have to wait untilthe following day before they could resume their journey, for at Parathey had not filled their tanks to capacity.
At this point cries arose in the other part of the field. They heardthe familiar whir of an airplane propeller, and as they looked to wherethe _Clarion_ had stood, they saw the natives scatter and the graymachine of the other crew shoot up into the air. Rapidly it gainedaltitude, and was soon a mere dot on the western sky.
Ignoring the yells of the port minister and his military countrymen,the _Clarion_ crew had gone straight on, and there seemed nothing forour boys to do now except await the arrival of more gasoline aspatiently as they could.
John and Tom set to work cleaning up the Sky-Bird, for the field herewas low and very muddy from recent rains, and as they had dashedthrough the slime in landing much of it had splattered over theirpropeller and under-carriage.
Paul and Bob went into town, followed by a throng of young negroes whofought for the privilege of getting closest to them. They found thestores small and mostly unpainted, and the houses principally shamblingand squatty, most of them having thatched roofs. The streets werenarrow, crooked, and dirty, but there were areas about some of the morepretentious dwelling-places which were really entrancing in the wealthof their tropical plants and stately palms. On the whole, the stonegarrison, setting a little remote from the town proper, was the largestand best-constructed building, although this looked old and somber.Freetown, the capital of the little British colony of Sierra Leone, isall on low ground, and the air is moist and extremely humid, evenunhealthful for those not accustomed to it.
Just before dark a terrific thunder-shower sprang up with all of thesuddenness of such equatorial storms, and Bob and Paul made for thefield as fast as their legs could carry them. They sprang inside ofthe Sky-Bird's cabin, wet to the skin, where John and Tom were alreadyensconsed, and Grandpa the monkey gave them a noisy and hearty welcome.A little later, with the rain pattering heavily down upon the roof, allhands turned in for the first ground sleep they had had since startingout upon their trip.
Shortly after daylight the next morning they were astir, to find therain had ceased but that the field was a mass of ooze. Through thisTom made his way to the cobblestone street and down to the piers. Butthe coasting steamer had not yet arrived; in fact, she did not come inuntil after eight o'clock, and it was two hours later before the flyerssucceeded in getting their tanks filled with the gasoline she hadbrought. Then it was found necessary to secure the aid of a half-dozennegroes, and to lay down many strips of heavy bark for traction, beforethe Sky-Bird could be run out of her mired position.
Paul was at the throttle as they took off. When he had attained a fairaltitude, he gradually increased the speed until they were running fullout. Never since the beginning of the trip had they felt such urgentneed of putting the airplane through at a fast clip, but that time hadnow come, for they were fourteen hours behind schedule time and sixteenhours behind their rivals.
The Sky-Bird fairly cut the air like a knife, and the roar ofpropeller, wind, and engine was so great that our friends foundconversation out of the question except by shouting in one another'sears. Poor Grandpa cowered in the farthest corner of the cabin,peeping out from behind one of the hammocks, as meek as a kitten, histail crooking uneasily. But finding that the strange noises did him noharm, he presently came out and took up a position where he could lookthrough the glass-floor window at the fleeting country below.
It seemed only a few minutes before, rising higher, they shot over theragged chain of the Kong Mountains in western Senegambia, passingwithin sight of Mount Loma's bare peak. Then, dropping again untilthey were not more than a thousand feet high, they flew along over thetablelands to the eastward, recognized the Joliba River as it lay ayellow, twisting band below them, and a little later crossed thesouthern end of the district of Bambarra.
Great forests and jungles and can
ebrakes swept past them. In thosetangles of gnarled trees, matted vines, interlacing rank grasses, andclusters of towering plants, so dank with the odor of wet and decaythat the air even up where the flyers were seemed charged with it,lurked many a monster reptile and ferocious beast. Often the four boyssaw the majestic form of a lion or the lumbering shape of an elephantas these animals were quenching their thirst at some open spot along astream. And once they caught a brief glimpse of a terrific combatbetween what seemed to be two enormous rhinos, which had met in alittle glen in the midst of a cluster of mahogany trees. How theywould have liked to see the finish of this battle royal! Indeed, theywould have enjoyed nothing better than to land in some favored spot anddo a little big-game hunting with their rifles!
If they had been ahead of their adversaries instead of behind, theymight have indulged in such sport, they thought. But now it would beunwise to waste a moment. They must make every endeavor to reach theirnext airport, Kuka, by nightfall. This small town was on the westernbank of the salty Lake Chad, in the very heart of Africa, and on thesouthern border of the great Sahara Desert. It possessed no railroadsor telegraph service, being linked with the outside world only bycaravan route, and its inhabitants were practically all half-civilizednegroes of the Fulbee tribe, who retained all of their forefathers'superstitions and wore no garb over their frescoed black bodies excepta short gikki or skirt.
Mr. Giddings and Mr. Wrenn had had great difficulty in getting anEnglish-speaking man to set up a field at this point for their flyers,and it was only after considerable telegraphing that a Scotch tradernamed MacInnis, situated at Lagos, the nearest coast-port of any size,had agreed to get a supply of gasoline and oil to Kuka and meet theairplanes when they arrived.
It was five o'clock when the boys passed over the low banks of theNiger River. By seven they were in the heart of the wild, levelterritory of Sokoto, skimming over vast expanses of plume-like grassesand extensive marshes and swamps. Strange birds of enormous size flewup out of the morasses, startled at the sight and sound of theairplane. Some tried to follow it, evidently to give it battle, butthe swiftest of them were hopelessly outdistanced before they were wellstarted.
When the sun disappeared behind the forest back of them, the flyerswere still making speed for their destination, with Bob at thethrottle. Pretty soon the lengthening shadows and obscuring of detailbelow convinced the crew that night was just about upon them, and thatif they did not reach Kuka within the next thirty minutes they werevery likely to be in such darkness that they would overrun it and neverknow the difference.
Some of them began to wonder if they had not missed their course, whena cry came from Bob, and they all ran forward and looked out of thefront windows at the object he was pointing out.