CHAPTER VIII.

A SPRING FOR LIBERTY.

The savages heard the clamor of the motors, too, and turned quick faces of alarm toward their white prisoners, as if they alone could explain what was coming to pass. Doran and his companion, also, turned questioning glances toward the two boys, while a slow smile of comprehension flitted over the face of the tramp.

As the welcome sounds came nearer the savages gathered closer and moved a short distance toward the thicket, their spears extended as if to repel attack. Sam now approached the two boys without opposition.

“Do you know what that is?” he asked with a positive grin.

“Sounds like an aeroplane!” suggested Jimmie.

“Or like an automobile!” Carl put in.

“Aw, how could an automobile get up here?” demanded Jimmie.

“Don’t you remember the river road Sam was telling us about not long ago?” asked Carl. “I guess an automobile could run along that, all right!”

“Is that so?” asked Jimmie turning to Sam.

“A superior machine driven by a superior chauffeur might,” was the reply. “Anyway, that’s a motor-car coming, and there’s no other way to get in here. We’ll see the lights in a moment.”

“Gee!” Jimmie exclaimed. “Do you think our friends chased the men who stole the _Bertha_ up in a high-power automobile?”

“That’s just what I do think!” exclaimed Carl.

“And that is undoubtedly the fact,” Sam agreed.

Doran and his companion seemed to share in the pleasant anticipations the boys were now sensing, for they approached them in a friendly manner and began asking questions regarding the oncoming machine.

The savages were still drawing farther away, and Sam occupied his time during the next moment in finding his way back to the tents and procuring another automatic revolver which had not been discovered by the outlaws. He held it so that the two boys caught sight of the brown barrel and nodded significantly toward Doran and his friend.

“He doesn’t mean to let them get away,” said Jimmie to Carl, in a low aside. “He seems to be next to his job!”

The savages, with their eyes fixed upon the jungle near the river bank, kept crowding farther away from the machines. The clamor of the motors came louder every instant, and directly two powerful acetylene lamps looked out of the tall grass like great blazing eyes.

The savages no longer hesitated as to how to meet this new situation. They dropped their spears and whatever else they had in their hands and broke for the thicket, uttering such cries of fright and terror as the boys had never imagined could issue forth from human lips. Doran and his companion sprang for the machines as the savages disappeared.

When Ben, Glenn and Mellen came bumping up in the automobile, a minute later, they saw the two fellows standing by the side of the _Louise_ with their hands held high in the air. Before them stood Sam with a threatening revolver pushed to within six inches of their faces.

“Jerusalem!” exclaimed Ben, springing from the machine. “This looks like a scene in one of the fierce old dramas they used to put on at the Bowery theater! Are those the men who stole the _Bertha_?” he added nodding toward the two whose arms were still held out.

“They came here in the _Bertha_!” replied Carl.

“Mr. Mellen,” began Doran, “you know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t get mixed up in any such thieving scrape! These two boys came to the field and ran away with the _Louise_. I had orders not to let any one take the machines away, so I followed them in the _Bertha_.”

“And he merely employed me to go with him!” the other fellow cut in.

“They stole the machine!” insisted Jimmie. “I heard them talking about leaving us here to walk back to Quito and hiding the machines in some mountain valley until the search for them had died out. They were even packing up our provisions and tents to take with them when the savages came up!”

“So those were savages who took to the tall timber?” asked Glenn.

“The same kind of people who drove us out of the valley,” answered Jimmie. “They had the whole bunch pinched when your machine came dancing merrily out of the woods!”

“And the way the niggers took to the tall timber was a caution!” exclaimed Carl. “They must be going yet!”

“Mr. Mellen,” broke in Doran, “I insist on being released from this ridiculous position. I ask you to order this tramp to remove his revolver. I am not used to such indignities.”

“He is not subject to my orders,” replied Mellen.

The tramp looked at Doran with a humorous smile on his face.

“I don’t understand,” he said, “how you managed to reach this place in a road machine. It must have been awful going!”

“It certainly was!” answered Mellen. “Many a time I thought the machine incapable of making the grades, and on various occasions we nearly dropped over precipices.”

“I never was so scared in my life!” declared Ben.

“Riding an aeroplane is a picture of peace and safety in comparison to such a whirl as that!” declared Glenn. “I hung on with my toes most of the way! And,” he added, with a grin, “I saw Ben getting ready to jump several times.”

“We went so fast I couldn’t jump!” declared Ben.

“I must congratulate you on the trip,” Sam cut in in a manner intended to be friendly. “I don’t think any motor-car ever passed over that river trail before! You certainly have blazed the way for others!”

“Tell it to the chauffeur!” laughed Mellen. “And now, boys,” he went on, “seeing you have rescued your precious oiled-silk shelter-tents, we may as well be getting back to the city.”

“I want to travel back in the _Bertha_!” exclaimed Ben.

“And so do I!” Glenn cut in. “No more of that river ride for me!”

“That leaves me to the full command of the motor-car!” laughed Mellen. “I think one of you boys, at least, might ride back with me.”

“Why, if the boys take the machines,” Doran put in, “there’s nothing for us to do but ride back in the motor-car.”

“You’ll walk so far as I’m concerned!” exclaimed Mellen.

“Then I’ll act as first mate of the roadster,” suggested Sam, whereat Mellen looked at the boys inquiringly.

“He’s all right!” Jimmie exclaimed. “We found him here acting as custodian of the camp,” he continued with a grin. “And you can see for yourself how he pinched these two thieves.”

“Be careful boy!” almost shouted Doran. “You’ll have to answer for every word you say against me!”

“I said ‘thieves’!” insisted Jimmie. “I overheard what you said before the savages came up. You were going to make us walk back to Quito, and now we’ll give you a dose of your own medicine. You’re the rascals that’ll do the walking.”

Mellen called the boys aside and, after learning exactly what had taken place, both at the field and at the camp, fully agreed that the men ought to be obliged to walk back to Quito.

“It will teach them a lesson,” he said, “and, besides, it will keep them out of mischief for at least twenty-four hours!”

“Now,” Ben said, “Jimmie and I will go back in the _Louise_, and Glenn and Carl can take the _Bertha_. You, Mr. Mellen, and Sam can return in the automobile, and we’ll fly just above you along the river trail. If you tumble over a precipice,” he added, with a smile, “we may be able to pick you up, or you may be able to help us!”

“There is one thing about it,” Carl suggested, “and that is that we won’t have to use the flying machines for freight wagons. The automobile can carry the tents and provisions and everything of that sort back to Quito. That will make it easier for us to duck about and watch the course of the automobile. You may need watching, you know,” he added turning to Mellen. “Especially,” he continued, “if you have Sam Weller with you!”

The boys mounted the machines and were soon in the air, while Mellen and Sam entered the motor-car, the latter keeping Doran and his companion covered with an automatic revolver until the car was ready to start. Both men sprang forward as the wheels began to revolve.

“Are you really going away and leave us to walk to Quito?” demanded Doran. “The savages will be here in an hour after you leave!”

This was an argument which Mellen could not resist. It was perfectly clear that the men would be murdered by the Indians if left there alone.

“Perhaps,” he said, after some hesitation, “we’d better carry you far enough to get you out of the Indian country.”

“Only five miles!” pleaded Doran.

“Jump in!” replied the manager.

The two men thanked Mellen effusively, but there was a crafty, scheming look in Doran’s eyes which told plainly enough that he intended to take advantage of the kindness of the manager at the very first opportunity.

Sam saw the evil expression and placed the automatic within easy reach of his hand. Doran saw the movement and snarled out an oath.

“There’s no need for you to make any gun-play!” he scowled.

“When I see a snake,” declared Sam, “I don’t take any chances on being bitten! I know pretty well the kind of a sneak you are.”

“Look here!” exclaimed Doran, appealing to Mellen, “why don’t you take us back to Quito and make complaint against us for stealing the machine? It seems to me that that is the correct thing for you to do!”

Mellen considered this proposition gravely for a moment. He believed now that Doran was in some way mixed up in a conspiracy against the boys. When considered in connection with Mr. Havens’ telegrams to Ben and himself, the actions of the two men seemed significant. In fact, the manager believed that the trouble referred to in Mr. Havens’ messages had already made its appearance, guided by the hand of Doran!

It seemed to him that the man’s plea was entirely reasonable, and yet he understood that the fellows ought to be kept out of Quito as long as possible. Even in jail, held only on a charge of grand larceny, Doran would have little difficulty in securing a lawyer and communicating with such other desperadoes as might be concerned in the conspiracy.

“The savages,” Doran went on, pleadingly, “are scattered all through this country, from the Colombia boundary line to Peru. It would be plain murder to leave us here at this time!”

“I half believe the man is right!” Sam agreed.

“You know I am right!” insisted Doran.

The matter was one which Mellen hesitated to decide. He believed that, by taking Doran to Quito, he would place the boys in some unknown peril; and he believed, too, that by leaving the two men in the mountains he might be contributing to their murder.

“What do you think about it?” he asked, turning to Sam.

“I wouldn’t turn a thieving dog over to those savages!” was the reply.

“No civilized human being would!” Doran exclaimed.

“Very well,” Mellen replied. “I’ll take you to the police office at Quito and ask to have you locked up on a charge of grand larceny.”

“That will be satisfactory,” answered Doran.

While entirely satisfied with the decision which had been reached, both Mellen and Sam did not fully trust the two prisoners. They believed that at some time during the return trip an attempt at escape would be made. The two pretended to be very much interested in the aeroplanes, which were almost constantly in sight, yet Mellen saw that they inspected the trail eagerly as if looking for some soft place to land.

Believing that the men would attempt to leave the motor-car only when within a short distance of Quito, the two did not watch them as closely as they might have done. The attempt came when the car had covered only about half the distance between the camp and the city.

The chauffeur was coasting down a very steep declivity with the brakes well in hand and Mellen and Sam were clinging tightly to the sides of the machine when Doran sprang to his feet and leaped.

His companion attempted to follow his example, but Sam’s hand was laid upon his shoulder at that instant, and the two tumbled into the bottom of the car. The struggle there was of short duration, for Sam was a muscular fellow and the other combatant was not inclined to put up much of a fight. Mellen watched the struggle with a smile.

It was impossible to stop the car on the steep grade, and so Mellen and Sam were obliged to remain inactive while Doran struggled to his feet and shook his fist at the car uttering as he did so threats of vengeance.