CHAPTER XVII.

A MAN IN THE TREE TOP.

"To-day ought to tell the story whether we're going to get through or not," Giraffe was saying, after they had been making more or less progress.

"Put it a little stronger, Giraffe," ventured Thad. "Say to-day and to-morrow will go pretty far toward settling it; because with such a knock-down machine we're apt to meet up with all sorts of delays."

Bumpus shook his head and sighed.

"I know I'll be glad when the agony is over," he remarked pensively; and there was not one of his companions but who felt he was thinking of his waiting mother rather than himself.

For a little while their progress was indeed very fair, and as Giraffe counted the number of miles they were putting behind him he kept smiling more broadly than ever.

"Bully for the busy little worker!" he exclaimed finally. "I sure believe it's taken on new life, and is renewing its youth. And yet they say they can't come back."

Hardly had he spoken the last word when the engine gave a loud groan that sounded almost human, and quit working.

"There, that's what you get for shouting before you're out of the woods!" said Bumpus, in sheer disgust.

Giraffe looked blank.

"Say, do you really believe motors can understand the English language?" he demanded of the fat scout. "This one has been brought up on either German or French, and how would it know I was boasting? Anyway next time I say a thing like that you'll see me knocking on wood right away."

Thad was already out and had the hood lifted so that he could look the disheartened engine over, and find just what the trouble might be.

"Mebbe it's that silly old gas tank again?" suggested Bumpus.

Allan made a hurried examination.

"Nothing wrong here," he announced; "no drip, and plenty of stuff inside. Looks as if the engine could only stand just so much, and then had a fainting fit. And no matter where we bring up in the end, mark my words, fellows, we've got to work our passage."

"Find out what bust, Thad?" asked Giraffe, as he jumped from the car.

"I don't seem to get it yet, and as there's no telling what may come along the road while we're loafing here, suppose we all get busy and push the car to one side, where it isn't apt to block the passage."

Thad's advice was immediately carried out, and when this had been done he applied himself industriously to the task of first ascertaining what had happened to the wretched engine, and then to repair the defect, if it were possible.

Giraffe, always nervous and hard to keep quiet, meanwhile walked over toward a mound that lay close by.

"Just to take a little observation, and see if there's any sign of those airmen we saw yesterday," he told the others.

"I heard something that sounded like firing early this morning," said Thad, "and it may be there has been more warm work going on. The breeze came from the wrong quarter to help me out, and so I couldn't be sure."

They saw Giraffe make his way up the little rise and reach the top, where he began to cup his hands about his eyes so as to see the better. Possibly three minutes passed when those at the car heard sharp barking as of a fox, and which of course was the call of the Silver Fox Patrol.

"He's waving to us to come up there!" exclaimed Bumpus, scrambling out of the car, for he had felt so very comfortable that so far he had not thought fit to make any change.

"Yes, and he means the whole bunch of us in the bargain, if signals stand for anything, Thad," added Allan.

"All right, let's go," the patrol leader replied, as he started toward the knoll, still gripping the monkey-wrench with which he had been working at the time.

With Bumpus puffing at their heels the two boys soon arrived at the base of the mound, and started up. It was a severe task for the fat scout, but Bumpus could do considerable, once he made up his mind, and he was with them when they reached the spot where the excited Giraffe stood.

"What ails you, Giraffe?" asked Allan.

For answer the elongated scout leveled his arm, and pointed in a certain direction.

"See that tall, bushy tree, Thad?" he exclaimed; "well, turn your eyes up toward the top of the same and you'll see what gave me a body blow."

"I see it!" called out Bumpus, "and say, it looks like a man fastened up there! Oh! as sure as anything it moved then! It must be alive, fellows!"

"It is a man," said Thad, decisively.

"But what on earth could he be doing away up there?" asked Allan, still straining his eyes to look.

Giraffe had a remarkable vision. He could often discern things that were next to invisible to his chums.

"He's caught fast there, I tell you," he remarked, eagerly, "and it's a good thing for him he is, because if he fell to the ground he'd be killed."

"How queer!" cried Bumpus, his eyes almost starting out of their sockets with the intensity of the interest he took in the affair; "whoever could have hung the poor fellow away up there in that tree top?"

Giraffe snorted in disdain.

"Nobody hung him there, silly!" he exclaimed. "He fell there, that's all!"

"Fell there!" repeated Bumpus, incredulously. "Oh! now you're trying to kid me, Giraffe. I don't take any stock in those big yarns about Mars being inhabited, and all that stuff. Speak plainer, can't you?"

"If you look close, Thad," Giraffe said, ignoring Bumpus completely now, "you'll see something lying on the ground near the tree."

"Yes, you're right, Giraffe, I see it," replied the other; "and it looks as if it might be some sort of wreck, too."

"Just what she is!" cried Giraffe exultantly; "the wreck of an aeroplane. That man in the tree must have been one of the flying squad, German or Belgian, we don't know which yet. He met with an accident while up aloft. Mebbe some of that shrapnel injured his machine, and he was making for the earth to land far away from the battle field when he struck that tree, and there he's stuck ever since."

"Oh! how hard it must have been for him, hanging up there all night, and p'raps badly hurt at that!" cried the tender-hearted Bumpus. "Thad, you wouldn't think of going on and leaving him there, I hope?"

"Well, I should say not, Bumpus," Giraffe told him. "We'd deserve to be kicked out of the organization if ever we did that. How could we look back without turning fiery red every time we remembered such a cowardly act? Leave it to us, and we'll get him down out of that, eh, Thad?"

"Our duty compels us to do everything we can to alleviate distress," the patrol leader said, soberly. "And it doesn't matter the least bit to us whether that poor chap is a German, Belgian or Frenchman. He's in a terrible position, and may lose his life unless we do something for him. So let's head that way on the run!"

"What about the car, Thad?" asked Allan.

"Hang the car," replied the other, impulsively. "It's stalled right now, and the engine partly dismantled, so there's no danger of its running away."

"I hope not," Bumpus was heard to mutter, dubiously, "but cars are mighty funny contraptions any way you put it, and nobody ever knows what they're meaning to do. When you think they're sleeping as sweet as anything they may kick you all of a sudden just like a mule."

Bumpus did not say anything more. He needed all the breath he could gather in so as to keep within reasonable distance of his three chums, who were making pretty fast time toward the tall tree.

As they drew closer to the spot all doubt concerning the nature of the heap on the ground was dissipated. It was undoubtedly a wrecked aeroplane, and Thad, who had taken pains to look these things up, told the others it was without question a Taube model, small but swift.

"That means the man up yonder will turn out to be a German aviator, doesn't it, Thad?" asked Allan, who was at his side, with Giraffe leading.

"No question about that," was the reply, "because the Germans are the only ones who are using the Taube model exclusively. They seem to think it about fills the bill for safety and speed."

They had seen the man who was held fast among the branches of the tree almost at the apex, in fact, wave his hand to them several times. This told the boys he was still alive, even though possibly suffering tortures. It also informed them that he had been watching their coming, and while restraining from shouting out, meant to implore their assistance.

"How are we going to get him down?" asked Giraffe, as they reached the foot of the tree, which looked as though it could be easily scaled, since the lower limbs came close to the ground.

"Three of us must climb up," said Thad. "We can help each other, and it strikes me we ought to be able to make it."

"One thing in our favor," remarked Allan, who was famous for seeing things, "the aviator is a rather small man. That's going to be lots of help."

"What can I do, Thad?" asked Bumpus, willing to attempt anything going, though his bulk would hardly allow him to be useful up aloft; in fact he was apt to bother the others rather than prove of assistance.

"Stay down here, and take the man when we lower him from the limbs," Thad told him.

It was not much, Bumpus thought, but then he could at least say that he had had a hand in the rescue of the unfortunate aeroplane pilot.

Giraffe climbed quickly, and reached the vicinity of the stranded aviator first. He was even talking in German with him when the other two arrived. They could see just how the garments of the man had become caught in the branches, so that he was held there as in a vise, utterly unable to help himself.

"He says he's been here all night," said Giraffe, eagerly, his face aglow with pride over the fact that once more his high school German was proving valuable. "He was swinging up pretty high, taking notes of the disposition of the Belgian forces, when he found himself a target for heavy firing. He thinks his machine must have been hit as well as himself, for it started to act queer. So he made off like the wind to get as far away from the firing line as he could, always falling, and in the end he struck this tree just before dark."

"He's been wounded in the left arm," said Thad, "for you can see how it hangs helpless, and there's dried blood on his sleeve too, caking it hard. He might have bled to death here if that arm didn't happen to be above him, which has helped to stop the flow. I'm afraid it'll start in again while we're getting him down, but that can't be helped."

"We'll fix that soon enough, Thad," said Giraffe, eagerly, "once we get him on the ground. Scouts ought to know their business enough to fix up any ordinary hurt like that. But have you arranged your plan, Thad? Tell us what to do, and you'll see us get busy."

The patrol leader had taken a hasty survey of the situation. He saw there was only one way in which they could get the aviator free from the clinging branches, and swing him in to the body of the tree.

Accordingly he began to give his orders clearly.

"You reach him on that side, Giraffe, and I'll take hold here. When we swing him in, Allan, you catch hold, and keep him steady. Then we'll cut these twigs, and free his leather coat. But be careful, both of you, for a slip would mean broken bones, if not something worse. Now, ready, Giraffe? Then when I say three, start swinging!"