CHAPTER VIII
THE VIXEN TAKES A TUMBLE
While Ned, from the driver's seat on the aeroplane he had socleverly taken from the enemy, watched the distant light flashingover the mountains, the bulk of an airship came into view. Whilethe boy was cheering himself with the hope that he would soon be intouch with Jimmie, however, the light disappeared, and the dark bodyof the machine was no longer visible.
"There's been an accident!" Collins muttered maliciously, in Ned'sear. "That little chap can't run an aeroplane!"
"What is there over in that direction?" Ned asked, without replyingto the other's suggestion of evil. "Can one land there?"
"Not in the night," was the sullen reply. "Unless you want tocommit suicide and murder me in the bargain, you'd better keep inthe air."
"What's over there?" repeated Ned.
"Mountains," was the surly reply.
Ned pointed to a dark stretch below.
"That must be a valley," he said. "Anyway," he went on, "I'm goingdown, and if we come to a point where it is jump or go down with themachine, I'll cut you loose, so you'll have the same chance for yourworthless life that I do. That's more than you would do for meunder the circumstances!"
Ned guided the Vixen to, as near as he could make out, the locationof the other airship at the time of her disappearance and droppeddown. As he swept toward the earth the peaks of the Andes roseabove him.
Down, down, down he dropped, looking out keenly for trees and jaggedrocks. At last he saw a level stretch of land just below. Therains had carried sand and ruble down from the mountains and filleda valley perhaps three hundred feet in diameter with the wash of theslopes. This formed what seemed to be a pretty good landing spot,and Ned managed to bring the rubber-tired wheels of the airship downwithout mishap.
Then, rolling swiftly under the impetus given by the now shut-offmotors, the wheels carried the bulk of the ship along for somedistance and dropped. Ned felt himself falling.
Thomas Q. Collins cried out in fright, and tried to kick himselffree from the harness, but the leather straps held. When the dropended there was, a jar and a crash, and the planes lay in a confusedheap in the bottom of a depression well stocked as to floor andsides with jagged rocks.
In descending, the dragging propellers had loosened some of therocks, and they, rolling down the declivities after the machine, hadfallen upon and crushed the planes. Several great boulders thunkednear Ned's head, and Collins set up a great howl as a small stonelanded on the back of his neck.
Although the stars were shining brightly and the moon was abroad, itwas quite dark down in the hole into which the Vixen had fallen.Ned could see slanting walls on all sides, and glimpse, above, theslope of the deceiving level which had first caught the wheels, butthat was about all.
Finding himself uninjured, his first move was to get out hissearchlight and make an inspection of Thomas Q. Collins, who wasroaring like a wounded bull.
"Are you hurt?" the boy asked.
"Hurt!" howled the captive. "My head is broken, and my arms aresmashed! What do you mean by tying me up and then wrecking themachine?"
Ned searched the fellow's clothing, removed a revolver and a dagger,and then snapped off the harness which still held him to the seat.Collins stretched himself and lunged at the boy.
"Keep away!" warned Ned.
"I'll show you that no Bowery kid can double-cross me!" Collinsscreamed, paying no attention to the automatic in Ned's hand. "I'llshow you!"
The next moment Ned would have fired, with the intention of woundingthe enraged fellow, but a boulder intervened, and Collins went down,striking his head on a rock. When the boy bent over he found him tobe unconscious.
Bringing the leather straps of the harness into use again, Ned boundthe man's hands behind his back, so as to prevent a second attack,and set out to look for water. He had not long to look, for a tinyspring bubbled out of the bottom of the pit and found its way towardthe valley below through a crevice in the rock. In a short timeCollins, under the influence of a right cold bath, sat up andaddressed the boy in language which would not have been consideredsuitable in the presence of a lady.
"You've done it now!" the alleged steam pump salesman cried."You've dumped us into a pit in the heart of the Andes, and we'llstarve before any one comes to our assistance. Take this strap offmy wrists, or I'll have your life!"
"You're an excitable party," Ned laughed. "You want your own way!I've been wondering, while I've been giving you first aid to theindignant, what your name really is, and where you live."
"You'd better be trying to ascertain where we are," declaredCollins, "and what chance we have of getting out alive."
"I think I can tell you about where we are," Ned replied. "We werein the air not far from five hours. The Vixen will run about sixtymiles an hour, therefore we are not fax from three hundred milesfrom Lima, in a southeast direction. Do you know if we are near anytown?"
Collins sulked a short time and then nodded toward a great peakwhich rose above all the others in the distance.
"That may be Vilcanota," he said.
"Old Vilcanota seems to be a whale," Ned observed, looking up at thesnow cap.
"Over 17,000 feet high," was the sullen rejoinder.
"Well," the boy went on, "if that really is Vilcanota, we are stillin the land of the living. In fact, we can't be more thantwenty-five miles from a town, and there is a railroad--so my mapssay--over to the east. It ends at Sicuani, and there the upperbranch of the Uacayli river begins. This river empties into theAmazon at the head of steamboat navigation, the maps say."
"You seem to know a lot about this part of South America," grittedCollins.
"And over to the south," Ned went on, "is Lake Titicaca, and overthe mountains from that body of water is Coroico, where the Beniriver starts on its long run to the Amazon, by way of the Madeirariver."
"Well," snapped Collins, drawing hard at the strap which held hiswrists, "you can't sit here and figure yourself out of this hole.Why don't you do something?"
"Why, I thought it might be a good plan to wait until dawn," laughedNed. "Then I may be able to repair this machine."
"Repair nothing!" stormed Collins. "And in the meantime, I presumeyou think you are going to keep me tied up like a calf going tomarket?"
"About that way," Ned responded, whereat the captive snorted out hisrage and rolled over on his face and pretended to be asleep.
In a short time dawn shone on the tops of the tallest mountains, anddirectly it crept slowly down into the pit where the wreckedaeroplane lay. By this time Ned had mapped out a course of action.
The aeroplane he had seen in the night had descended not far fromthis spot, and he had decided to climb to some convenient height andlook about for it. If he could come upon the Nelson, in goodsailing condition, there would be no need of repairing the Vixen, ortrying to do so.
Collins had counterfeited sleep until, utterly exhausted, he hadactually dropped off into slumber, so Ned had no captive to watchfor the time being. Before leaving for a tour of inspection heexamined the broken planes and discovered that it would beimpossible for him to repair them, at least without the necessarytools and materials.
Climbing to the level bit of sand, then, he faced the east and beganthe ascent of a mountain spur which seemed to reach the veryheavens. It was a beautiful morning, the air being sharp and clearat that height. Ned felt that he could have enjoyed the beauties ofnature more fully, however, if he had something in the way ofbreakfast!
He climbed steadily for an hour, and then came to a narrow ledgewhich seemed to surround one of the lower peaks of the mountain.Passing around to the south, he heard a shout, then a fall--abumping fall which told of a body bouncing from one rocky level toanother.
He ran around the angle ahead of him and came out on a shelf-likeelevation from which a green little valley, half way up the side ofthe mountain, might be seen. In the center of the valley, carefullyblocked against sudden mot
ion, lay the Nelson.
Ned could have danced with delight. The aeroplane appeared to be inperfect condition, but there was no one insight. Jimmie and Pedromust be about somewhere, the boy thought, as he considered the mostpractical way of reaching the valley, but where were they?
He was about to call out in the hope of arousing one of the aviatorsto action when he saw a hand waving at him from underneath the grayplanes. A more careful inspection of the spot revealed the dirtyface of little Jimmie, who was lying on his face, an automatic ineach hand. Pedro was nowhere to be seen.
Ned watched the signaling hand for an instant and then, in responseto what it said to him, scudded around the angle of rock by which hehad reached the shelf. As he did so an arrow whizzed past his rightear and blunted against the rocky wall.
The situation was not difficult to understand. Jimmie had droppedthe Nelson into the little valley and had there been attacked,either by savages or those interested in the defeat of the Boy Scoutexpedition to Paraguay, though how the latter could have reachedthat lonely spot so soon after the landing of the aeroplane was amystery which the boy could not fathom.
Following the attack, Jimmie had hidden under the planes, and Pedrohad probably taken to his heels. The situation explained,doubtless, why the boy had not returned with the airship. He hadbeen held there by the enemies, virtually a prisoner.
After a short pause, during which Ned listened intently for somesound of pursuit, the boy moved cautiously to the shoulder of rockand looked around it to the shelf. There was no one in sight, sohe pressed on, and once more came within view of the aeroplane.
Back of the planes he saw a head lifted from the lip of a gullywhich cut the valley like a trench. It was not the head of asavage, nor yet the head of a Peruvian mountaineer, for it wascovered down to the eyebrows by a flat-topped leather automobile capwhich was adorned with driving goggles! Evidently an American!
While Ned, himself unseen, watched the cap and the goggles, thewearer lifted himself and looked up over the edge of the gully. Hewore a gray suit, tailor-made, from all appearances.
Back of him three ill-visaged Peruvian Indians also raisedthemselves to get a view of what was doing in front.
So the savages were led by an American! Instead of the automatic ofcivilized warfare, the enemy was resorting to the poisoned arrow ofthe barbarian!
An American there and in automobile costume! Where was the machine,and how in the name of all that was wonderful had it been brought tothat rough country?
And why were the enemies crouching there, when their only opponentwas a boy, hidden if his position may be so termed--under the planesof an airship--planes which would offer little resistance to anarrow or a bullet?
But while the boy looked and wondered a shot came from the veryshelf on which he stood, and one of the exposed Indians dropped inhis tracks. Then the situation became a bit clearer.
Pedro had escaped from the valley to the shelf of rock, and wasstanding guard there shooting whenever the attacking party attemptedto reach the aeroplane.
In a moment the automobile cap and goggle and the evil faces of theIndians disappeared from view. The attacking party had dropped backinto the gully, which was some distance from the machine.
Waiting a moment, in order to make sure that no one was stirringbehind the shoulder of rock, Ned called softly:
"Pedro!"
"Hello!" came the answer back.
"'Where are you?" asked Ned, recognizing the voice of the Peruvianhe had talked with at Lima.
"In a notch of the rock," came the answer, in Spanish.
Ned moved along the shelf, and soon came to where Pedro stood,sheltered by a jutting ledge. The journey was not accomplishedwithout attracting the attention of the others, for an arrow whizzedpast his head as he crept into the angle with Pedro.
Pedro expressed great joy at the arrival of the boy, and explainedthat the situation as then shown had existed since dawn. On theafternoon of the previous day Jimmie, being then about to return toLima, had found it necessary to land in order to repair a slightbreak in a plane.
The driver of the pursuing Vixen, noting the temporary disablement,had circled around the valley for a short time and then returned toLima. It was Pedro's idea that the Vixen would not return withassistance, but with enemies who would destroy the machine, leavingJimmie and himself to find their way out of the mountains as bestthey could.
Jimmie, Pedro said, had been unable to fix the Nelson for flightuntil about daylight, and then the attacking party had appeared.Since then it had been impossible to get the machine into the air,as every motion at the airship brought a bullet or a poisoned arrow.
Just before Ned's arrival, an Indian had, by making a long journeyaround the cliff, gained the shelf of rock where Pedro wasstationed, and been caught unawares and thrown down into the valley.It was the cry and the fall of this foe that Ned had heard.
"But," Ned said, "the Vixen must have summoned some one active inthe conspiracy before returning to Lima, for the man over there camein an automobile, and did not come very far either. He certainlydid not come from Lima, which is more than three hundred milesaway."
"He might have come from Sicuani," replied Pedro. "That is over tothe east, and not more than twenty miles off. I have heard thatthere is a path by means of which a motor car can reach this place.Yes, he must have gone to Sicuani, otherwise this man of the motorcar would not be here," Pedro added.
This cleared the situation not a little, and Ned was now encouragedto make an attempt to reach the Nelson, which Pedro declared to bein good condition for flight. If the others had come in anautomobile, there could not be many of them. Probably not more thansix in all, and two had been wounded, or killed.
Pedro insisted that, with Ned guarding him from the shelf, he couldreach the machine, but the boy thought it wiser to make thedesperate journey himself. Even if the Indian reached the Nelson,the two of them might not be able to get the machine into the air,as Jimmie had had little experience in running a plane.
So, after explaining to Pedro that he would be taken up later, Nedbegan the task of making his way down the almost perpendicular faceof the cliff. Much to his surprise, there were no hostiledemonstrations from the gully in which the attackers had disappeareda short time before.
Instead of shots and the whiz of arrows, the boy heard, when halfway down the slope, the distant whirr of a motor car!
"There is some trick in the wind," Ned thought. "They would neverrun away in that manner because of the wounding of two Indians andthe arrival of one boy from the outside."
It was deathly still in the valley where the aeroplane lay. Soundsfrom a distance came with remarkable distinctness, so the popping ofthe motors of the automobile were plainly heard, and the directiontaken by the machine was thus made known.
Jimmie sprang up, uninjured, as Ned advanced and the two graspedhands with more than ordinary feeling. Almost the first thingJimmie said was:
"I saw the lights of the Vixen last night, but thought the otherfellows would be in charge of her. How did you manage to geezleher?"
"We stole her--and smashed her." Ned laughed, telling the remainderof the story in as few words as possible.
Presently Pedro came down from the cliff and went over to the placewhere the man he had thrown down the declivity had fallen. He foundhim quite dead. With a solemn shake of the head he laid the body ina sheltered nook and joined the others.
It took only a brief examination of the machine to show that she wasin as good condition as ever, and Ned prepared to mount and leavethe valley. Then the popping of additional motors broke out on thestill air, and Jimmie grinned.
"I guess you didn't smash the Vixen much," he said. "Anyway thatman in the motor car seems to have repaired her broken wings.Probably had the tools to do it with him. They've got some dirtyscheme on!"
"Yes," Ned replied, grimly, "or they wouldn't have left the gully.Collins will be on deck again in about a minute!"
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