"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.

"Not for me. I know when I'm well off. This camp looks good enough, without my wandering around in that awful place. Let 'em jabber, and the yellow cats snarl; but Andy Bird stays right at his fireside tonight."

"And I guess you're right," said Frank, as more noises arose all around them.

CHAPTER XVIII.

WHEN FRANK STOOD GUARD.

Pretty soon things began to look fairly cheerful in that lonely glade situated in the heart of the tropical forest. A fine fire crackled and shot up its red flames, lighting up the opening in which the young aviators had so luckily alighted.

Andy was bending over the fire making a pot of coffee, for they had brought along with them the necessary cooking utensils, including a frying pan, not knowing how long they might be adrift in the wilderness, far from the domicile of any human being.

"How do you find it?" he sang out, for his chum had been examining the aeroplane as well as possible under the circ.u.mstances.

"Everything seems to be hunky-dory," came the reply. "I'm going to start up the engine now to see if it works without a hitch."

"Don't I hope so," was what Andy said, as he paused in his task to watch.

A minute afterward he gave a little cheer, as the familiar throbbing sound was heard, making the sweetest music that ever greeted the listening ear of an aviator.

"That sounds good to me, Frank!" he cried.

"Nothing wrong about it, thank goodness!" came the reply of the other, as he again shut off power, because they could not afford to waste a drop of their valuable supply of gasoline.

"Well, suppose you drop in here and sample this brand of coffee. What with the cold snack we brought, and which still holds out, we ought to get along right decently, Frank."

"I tell you right now," replied the other, as he came up, "I'm hungry enough to eat anything going; yes, even some of our native cook's worst garlic-scented messes. And that coffee just seems to make me wild. Shove a cup over this way as quick as you know how, brother. Yum, yum, that goes straight to the spot. And this cheese and crackers isn't half way bad, even if it is pilot biscuit."

"Well," said Andy, "ain't you a pilot all right, and don't they feed sailors on this hard tack generally? Sure we've got no kick coming.

Everything is to the mustard, and if you asked me my opinion right now I'd say things are coming our way."

"Listen to that chorus, would you?" remarked Frank, as various sounds arose all through the dense timber around them; "they seem to be heading this way sure enough."

At that Andy reached again for the gun on which he seemed to depend so much.

"Well, if any of 'em take a sneaking notion to look in on us, why I'm meaning to use up a few of these flat-nosed cartridges in this six-shot magazine," he remarked, st.u.r.dily, as he glanced cautiously around.

"No fear of that now," said his chum, rea.s.suringly. "The danger will come, if it does at all, later on, when we have more trouble keeping the fire going. So after we get this supper down we shall have to gather fuel. It may not be quite so nice to go after it when we see a line of yellow eyes watching all around."

"Oh, shucks! You're just stringing me now, Frank. If I really thought they'd be as bold as that, why I'd climb a tree, that's what."

"What good would that do, tell me?" jeered the other. "Why, these cats just live in trees and can leap twenty feet if they can one. Perhaps if you found a hollow tree now you might feel safe, but in the branches of one--never! Why, the monkeys would come and laugh at you. The ground is the best place for us, after all, Andy."

"More coffee in the pot, if you ain't afraid of staying awake,"

suggested the cook.