第 15 页

"Do you suppose they dug their way through all those tons of rubbish?" said Arthur.

"Of course, lad, and that only shows how determined they are to get hold of us. There's no hope."

"Do you mean to say that they won't take us prisoners —- that they will overpower us and kill us?"

'Yes; that's it," replied Godfrey, in a husky tone.

"Then we'll die fighting," cried Arthur, "and not like rats in a trap."

Before Godfrey could divine his purpose or lift a finger to check him, the lad had sprung over the barri cade. He was back in less than a minute, with two long spears and a club —- the weapons which the negro had dropped.

A tear glistened in each of Godfrey's eyes as he silently shook Arthur's hand. The pressure was returned. They understood each other.

"It's not like sitting still to be butchered," Godfrey whispered. "We'll give a good account of ourselves."

"We ought to hold out a long while," replied Arthur, "unless they take the barricade with a rush."

As he spoke a scraping noise was heard, and the next instant a huge, scowling savage crawled out of the cave.

Then came another, and another, until ten of the evil wretches stood grouped on the plateau, all armed to the teeth.

Their black hair was full of dust, and their naked bodies were streaked with clay —- clear proof that they had tunneled through the fallen débris.

First they caught sight of the barricade, and set up a hideous yelling. Then they chanced to espy their comrade and the dead panther.

They gathered about the spot with much guttural clamor and talking. The unconscious negro was lifted, and propped against a stone.

Meanwhile, the fugitives watched the scene intently through the crevices of the parapet. They felt a little dazed and stupefied. It was hard to realize that death was so very near.

Strange to say, they felt acutely the discomfort of what were trifles at such a time —- the pang of hunger and of furious thirst, the awful, burning heat that radiated straight down from the furnace-like African sun.

"It won't be long," whispered Godfrey. "Heaven grant us an easy end! We may. beat off the first rush, and then——"

His voice was drowned by a burst of angry yells as the negroes started to advance, waving spears and clubs.

When they had come within twenty feet, one of their number, a powerful fellow, who was burning to distinguish himself, made a swift rush forward.

He poked his ugly head over the barricade, and quickly received a tap on the nose from Godfrey's club that sent him reeling backward, howling with pain.

This inflamed the rest, and incited them to bloodthirsty yells. A volley of spears was thrown, and though the fugitives escaped harm, one end of the barricade was knocked into ruins."

Godfrey dodged behind the portion yet standing, and pulled Arthur after him.

"Be brave, lad," he muttered. "The end is near. Sell your life dearly."

But just then a marvelous thing happened —- an interposition that was nothing less than providential.

Two of the foremost negroes glanced to one side, and instantly they dropped their weapons, and threw them selves flat on their faces.

The rest were affected in even a stranger way. Some fell on their knees; some stood upright, and lifted their hands in the air; others edged timidly toward the cavern. All cried out, in a weird, wailing tone that was enough to make one's flesh creep.

For a moment, Godfrey and Arthur were at a loss to know what such a remarkable change in the situation meant.

Then, instinctively, they glanced to the east —- the direction in which the negroes were gazing.

"The balloon! the balloon!" they cried, and in a mad transport of joy, they sprang fearlessly to their feet, and waved their arms and shouted.

Nor was it a delusion of their dizzy and sun- scorched brains.

The majestic Queen of Africa was sweeping rapidly toward the rock, and at only a slightly higher altitude. She seemed likely to pass right over the barricade.

To the first emotion of joy there succeeded a feeling of bitter despair when the fugitives realized that the situation was not much changed for the better.

"The balloon can't descend here," said Godfrey. "The negroes take it for a supernatural being of some sort, but as soon as they discover that it has human occupants, they will become enraged and attack it."

"If it would only drop low enough to let us catch hold," replied Arthur. "I wonder if they see us."

Just then, as if in answer, a white handkerchief was waved above the car. It vanished as quickly, and no other sign followed.

Godfrey and Arthur were puzzled. They could not dismiss the hope that their friends had some means of rescue in contemplation.

The balloon was now a quarter of a mile distant, and coming on swiftly.

"At her present course, she seems likely to pass about twenty feet straight overhead," muttered Godfrey.

"They may throw out a grapnel."

"If they do, we'll snatch it," replied Arthur.

The negroes paid no attention to the fugitives. They kept their eyes steadfastly on the strange monster, still groveling and flinging their arms about, and uttering howls of fear and veneration.

Yet, as Godfrey had predicted, they would certainly be transformed again into bloodthirsty fiends should they discover that the object of their superstitious awe was merely a human agency.

"She'll be over the rock in a few seconds," exclaimed Godfrey. "Hulloo! there's the handkerchief waving again. It must mean something."

"They've cut a little hole in the side of the car," said Arthur. "It shows black against the wicker-work."

"Right, lad. And Bunbury and Roden are doubtless watching the situation through it. They know better than to show themselves. There's rescue in the wind, though I don't catch the drift of it yet. Watch sharp!"

Now the thrilling moment was at hand. The balloon swept directly over the rock, and scarcely twenty feet above the surface. The negroes uttered a prolonged howl of terror, believing that their last moment had come.

There was no sign of life in the car until it was nearly over the heads of the fugitives. Then the rope ladder suddenly dropped to the left of the barricade, and instantly Bunbury's familiar voice shouted hoarsely:

"Catch hold, below there. Grab for your lives!"

It was a terrible moment, and a fearful thing to contemplate —- but there was no alternative.

As the ladder dangled in his face, Arthur caught it, and pulled himself up a few feet; when Godfrey took hold below.

What followed was like a dream to them. They bumped against the barricade, and felt it give way with a crash. They heard the yelling of the negroes as sand-bag after sand-bag burst on their naked bodies. They felt themselves jerked and pitched through space, and saw the surface of the rock vanishing under them.

Then they realized, with a thrill of horror, that they were dangling in mid-air over the awful gulf, with only the frail rope ladder between them and a frightful death.

Indeed, no more frightful situation can be con ceived, and the worst of it was that the rope swung and pitched in every direction with its human burden.

* * *

Chapter XXIII

Arthur was about twenty feet under the bottom of the car, and Godfrey was immediately below him.

A fascination that was irresistible compelled both to glance downward, and at sight of the fleeting land scape, thousands of feet away, they nearly lost their hold from dizziness.

With swimming brains and clinched teeth, and hard, panting breaths, they clung to the rungs of the ladder —- clung blindly and desperately, as they spun round and round in the air.

For a time all seemed a blank to their dazed minds. Then they heard a voice ring loud and clear:

"Climb up from rung to rung, and keep your eyes shut. Use both hands and feet!"

The message roused Godfrey to action, and gave him hope and courage.

"Do you understand, lad?" he exclaimed. "There is safety overhead, and we must climb up to it. But you must go first; I can't get by you."

"All right," Arthur replied. "I'll try."

With tightly-closed eyes, he worked his way up the frisky ladder, shifting hands and feet from one rung to another.

The journey seemed endless, but he was spurred on by words of encouragement, both from above and below. To those in the balloon the situation must have been hardly less trying.

At last, when strength and courage were nearly spent, Arthur felt himself bumping against the side of the car. Then strong arms caught him, and dragged him over the edge.

He remembered Roden's cry of joy and frantic em braces and Bunbury's hearty hand-clasp; he remembered seeing Godfrey helped into the car, white and trembling.

After that all was a blank, until he came to his full senses, and found his companions around him, eagerly offering him food and drink.

The balloon was high in air, and the great rock of the cavern was only a black stain on the distant hori [zon].

So thrilling and intense was their joy at being united again, that the four friends gave but little thought to the future as they drifted on and on in the teeth of a brisk wind, under the fiery noonday sun.

When Godfrey and Arthur had eaten and drank to their heart's content, and felt thoroughly restored, they told the bloodcurdling story of their adventures singly and separately.

Then came the turn of Bunbury and Roden, and they narrated the long and anxious night's journey, and the thrilling early-morning discovery at the junction of the two rivers.

"After giving the Arabs the slip," concluded Bunbury, "we came straight on until about midday. Then the rocky peak hove in sight, and this lad here declared he saw your figures moving on it."

"I was sure of it from the first," interrupted Roden.

"Yes; your eyes were keener than mine," said Bunbury. "I thought it was only imagination, but I knew better when I got out a pair of field-glasses that happened to be stored away with the luggage. Then I saw everything clearly, and we had just time enough to decide on a plan of rescue."

"There wasn't one chance in ten of its succeeding, added Roden. "We knew that we didn't dare show ourselves as soon as we saw that the negroes were afraid of the balloon."

"It was his idea to cut the hole in the car," said Bunbury. "He kept watch while I made signals, and held the ladder ready for the word to drop it."

"That was the critical time — when the ladder fell," exclaimed Roden. "I held my breath for fear you would miss it."

"We could hardly have done that," replied Godfrey, "for it was cleverly thrown. Most wonderful of all is the fact that the balloon should have passed straight in line with our barricade."

"Yes," assented Bunbury," had she gone a few yards to right or left no earthly power could have saved you."

"What happened after we caught the ladder?" asked Arthur. "I can only remember that I felt as though I was tied at the heels of a runaway horse."

"That's not a bad description," said Roden. "I wish you two could have seen yourselves hanging to the rungs. You went through the barricade as though it were a sheet of paper."

"I have evidence that it was harder than that," declared Godfrey, showing a couple of ugly bruises on his elbow. "I wondered what made them, but I know now."

"You were lucky to get off so well," said Bunbury.

"Of course, the moment you two caught hold of the ladder it was necessary to pitch overboard an equal weight of ballast. But that could not be done rapidly enough, and you were dragged almost to the edge of the rock before the balloon lifted you off your feet."

"You should have seen the sand-bags and other stuff pelting the blacks," exclaimed Roden, laughing at the recollection. "Half a dozen of them were bowled clean over. They didn't have a chance to use their spears.

"The last we saw of them," added Bunbury, "they were scrambling like mad for the mouth of the cavern. To their dying day they will believe that you were snatched from them by some living monster of the air."

"We've all had adventures enough in the last twenty four hours to fill a big book," replied Godfrey, "and I hope we'll continue to light right side up — why, hello! Bunbury, what's become of all the stuff? the car looks nearly empty."

"I told you we had to lose nearly three hundred pounds of ballast," was the reply. "The sand-bags were not half enough, and most of the supplies had to go. We've got a few provisions yet, and our weapons and ammunition — and the box of bombs. I was afraid to toss that over."

"I don't wonder," said Godfrey. "You would have blown Arthur and me to bits. How is the gas holding out? And where are we?"

"We are moving very slowly to the southwest," answered Bunbury, "at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour. You see there is very little wind. I must admit that the gas is getting low, and by and by we will begin to drop."

"That's pleasant," muttered Roden. "And we can't afford to lose any more ballast, surely."

"I don't propose to lose any more," replied Bun bury, in a tone that seemed peculiar to his companions. "If Captain Benstone was right, and my chart and compass are infallible our supply of gas will just about carry us, in the present state of the wind — to the country of the Karibegs."

Bunbury's announcement was hailed with wonder and delight — and a little incredulity. But it did not take him long to convince his companions that they were now in the neighborhood of two hundred and fifty mile to the southwest of the junction of the Sobat River and the Nile.

Roden and Arthur began to look eagerly forward to a meeting with their father, and Bunbury spoke hopefully of finding Captain Benstone at the same time.

It was now about five o'clock in the afternoon, and from then until sunset the balloon hovered slowly over a lonely and rugged country, at an altitude of two thousand feet.

Shortly after the aeronauts had finished supper, the short twilight was succeeded by utter darkness. They drifted on for several hours, still in the right direction, as the compass indicated.