The Great Airship Part 36

If he were, there was likely to be every opportunity, for outside the roar and shrieks of the natives were appalling in their intensity. d.i.c.k stepped to the front face of the hut and peered through one of the many crevices, for in New Guinea draughts of cold air are rather to be desired than otherwise, the heat often enough being extreme. Through that peephole he saw something that almost turned him livid, rooted him to the spot, and for a moment held him helpless. For directly beneath his ken was the figure of the unfortunate Larkin, strung up to one of those stumps driven into the ground, surrounded by a gesticulating and evil-smelling mob, and with those three foul, over-dressed sorcerers close to him. They were dancing now with a different movement. They were sidling from one point to another, as far as the pressing throng would allow, twisting this way and that with sinuous, snake-like movements, but never once taking their eyes from their victim. And each one of these brutes was armed--the tallest and most hideous with an enormous club; a second, a fat ruffian of particularly evil type of countenance, with a curving knife; while the third waved a flaming torch.

As for Larkin, he at least showed his mettle, and reflected credit upon the service to which he belonged. For he did not wince, not even when each of those sorcerers in turn sidled in his direction and brandished his weapons at him, while the third made pretence to set on fire the wood littering the ground at his feet. Larkin addressed them in a manner common to the barrack-room. There was the strong flavour of the canteen about his speech; while his two eyes, no doubt each addressing itself to some different point, fixed upon the rascals dancing there, scowled at them, threatened them, but never flinched.

"They're--they're going to sacrifice him, Larkin," d.i.c.k managed to blurt out at last.

"The black-'earted 'eathen," came in a growl from Hawkins, now at his side, while Hurst joined them, muttering deeply beneath his breath.

"What'll you do, sir?"

"Wait for Mr. Alec and the officers, then rush 'em. Get hold of those clubs."

But a second later there came a disturbing noise from the adjacent hut, just at the precise moment when that hideous tall sorcerer danced his way back to Larkin, and, swinging his club overhead, brought it down with a thud on the top of the pillar to which the unhappy fellow was lashed. Even then the brave soldier did not flinch. They heard him growl loudly and angrily as the club thudded on the top of the stump.

"That's one fer you," they heard, "one fer you, yer ugly son of a gun.

But jest you wait till I get a whack in. Then I'll make yer feel sorry you was born, I will."

There came a shout from that adjacent hut. The door flew open, and in a twinkling a forlorn little band dashed forward, Alec at their head, the Major and the Commander following. Hawkins and Hurst and d.i.c.k acted on that signal. They flung themselves upon the frail walls and door of that hut, bursting it open as if it were constructed of paper. Then, followed by Mr. Andrew, they launched themselves at the natives, d.i.c.k wielding his rusty sabre, Hawkins with an enormous club, whilst Hurst and Andrew were similarly armed.

"The black-'earted 'eathen!" shouted Hawkins, springing to the front, for he was a huge fellow, and extraordinarily active. "That's fer you, you smelly sea serpent!"

It was the big sorcerer, he with the club, who had made such fine practice round Larkin's head, and looked as if he would at any moment crack his skull. But he was too late now. Hawkins was not the kind of man to deal a blow that asked for repet.i.tion, not at least when in anger. And he was furious. His club beat down that of the native, broke it, in fact, and then descended with a crash full on his woolly pate.

The dull crus.h.i.+ng sound that followed, and the manner in which this man of medicine fell in his tracks, told a tale there was no mistaking.

Meanwhile d.i.c.k had run through a second sorcerer, while the gallant Alec had dived for the waist of the third, he with the torch, had handled him as he would a man breaking from scrum and likely to get clear away if not securely collared. Yes, Alec seized this wretch, and, exerting an abnormal strength, lifted him, swung him in the air, and then tossed him to the ground. By then the Major had cut Larkin free, and the latter individual burst upon the enemy like a torrent. Seething with indignation, he selected the fellow whom Alec had tackled, and who had now risen to his feet. Larkin launched himself at him, seized him by neck and shoulder, and shook him as if he were a rat. Then he pushed him away a foot or two, drew himself backward in time to escape a lunge and a blow from a knife which the rascal had suddenly produced, and then struck out with tremendous force, sending his fist against the point of the sorcerer's chin.

"And he won't get askin' fer more, I don't think," declared the furious soldier, looking about him with those pugnacious, wandering eyes. "No, I don't think; and so here's something for some of the other fellers."

There might have been no such thing as weapons, and certainly the angry and gallant fellow had no fear of them. Unarmed himself, save with the weapons with which nature had provided him, he again flung himself at the enemy like a rocket, and was seen striking out to right and left, sending the natives flying. Hurst was there too, Hurst bursting with righteous indignation, and Hawkins, a force in himself. While the two officers and their junior, the gallant mids.h.i.+pman, were already in line with them, Andrew and Alec forming two of the force also.

"Rush 'em," shouted the Commander. "Now, at 'em, hammer and tongs, but don't go too far. Hooray! They're bolting."

The ma.s.s of natives had, indeed, of a sudden taken to their heels, and no doubt the dash and daring of d.i.c.k and his comrades had scared them wonderfully. But there was something else to account for this sudden _volte-face_, and a sharp report and a loud detonation from the far end of the village told its tale instantly. It was the airs.h.i.+p. There she was swooping down upon the place, one of her deck guns in operation.

Pop! pop! pop! The quickfirer sent shot after shot amidst the fleeing natives, while someone located on the very nose of the s.h.i.+p, on the tiny, narrow gangway which led to that exposed position, waved frantically to our friends. It was Joe without a doubt. Joe in the seventh heaven of delight at the sight of his comrades.

"Stay where you are," he bawled through his megaphone. "We're landing.

Those n.i.g.g.e.rs have gone scuttling over the river."

The s.h.i.+p was down in their midst in the s.p.a.ce of a few seconds, and for a while there was violent shaking of hands amongst the friends.

"Thought I should never see you again," declared Joe, mopping a very fevered forehead. "Missed you after a few hours had pa.s.sed and rose at once to inspect surroundings. Couldn't find a trace of you, and so began to swoop backward and forward. By chance I saw this village, and with a pair of gla.s.ses made out the situation. No, no, Larkin, not a punitive expedition this time. We've better things to do, and, after all, these natives only acted according to their own lights."

The pugnacious Larkin was positively boiling, and strutted about the little group, his two fists doubled, his arms waving, his head a little forward, and his eyes turned towards the flying natives.

"Just one little turn at 'em, sir," he asked. "Just one little one, if only to get a bit of me own back."

"Not a step," replied Joe firmly. "Come, gentlemen, aboard, and let us be moving."

It was obviously the best course to pursue, as there was nothing to be gained by attacking the natives. But as a warning to them to leave Europeans alone in the future the village was fired and the numerous dug-outs lying upon the bank of the river broken to pieces. One, however, was taken aboard the airs.h.i.+p as a trophy, as well as sundry clubs, knives, and utensils, while d.i.c.k carried away that useful cutla.s.s.

"Just to show Mr. Reitberg, the sportsman, that we've been here," he told his chum. "But even when he sees the canoe he won't believe.

However, there are other ways of making him do so."

As a matter of fact Joe and Andrew had been extremely careful throughout this momentous trip to leave records of their arrival in various parts, and that doc.u.ment which they had obtained from the foreign office had been _viseed_ by a variety of officials in a variety of countries.

Thankful to have escaped from the plight in which they had found themselves, d.i.c.k and his friends now embarked, and the great airs.h.i.+p promptly swooped upward.

"From New Guinea to Australia is but a step," said Joe with a smile. "We will spend a little time in calling on our friends at the Antipodes and then speed onward, for time is drawing in. We must now pursue a straighter course."

Ambling across Australia, where her presence caused a huge commotion, and where both pa.s.sengers and crew came in for a large share of the proverbially warm-hearted hospitality of the colonials, the s.h.i.+p called in at the north and south isles of New Zealand, and then, speeding up her engines, steered for the south. It was with sad and yet proud hearts that a week later those aboard manoeuvred the huge vessel directly over the frozen South Pole, and there gazed down upon the relics left by Amundsen and Captain Scott, records of the daring and persistent bravery of men whose names will go down upon the roll of fame for future generations to observe.

"We will land and ourselves walk across the Southern Pole," said Andrew.

"Then we will visit that tragic spot where Captain Scott and his comrades, caught by that fatal blizzard, and delayed by a sick comrade, lay down in their tent and died, died the death of heroes."

One does not need to recount how they descended, nor how they found that cairn of snow heaped upon the bodies of the fallen. Here crew and pa.s.sengers left the s.h.i.+p and stood silently about the cairn reading the inscription left upon the rough cross erected above it.

"This cross and cairn erected over the remains of Captain R. F. Scott, C.V.O., R.N., Dr. E. A. Wilson, and Lieutenant H. R. Bowers, R.I.M., as a slight token to perpetuate their gallant and successful attempt to reach the goal. This they did on the 17th January, 1912, after the Norwegians had already done so on the 16th December, 1911."

"And we must not forget their sick comrades who perished on the same journey," said Andrew solemnly. "They were Captain L. E. G. Oates and Petty Officer E. Evans, R.N. Truly has it been said of these heroes that hereabouts died some very gallant gentlemen."

From those cold and forbidding Antarctic regions the airs.h.i.+p rushed towards sunnier climes, and was very soon over Cape Horn. Thence she traced the whole length of South America, pa.s.sing over the Pacific coast of that enormous continent. She threaded her way above the isthmus of Panama, where the Spaniards of old extracted wealth from the Incas and from the natives of Mexico, and where Drake and men of his adventurous stamp won riches from the Spaniard. Thence the vessel paid a visit to the States of North America, her coming being heralded by the discharge of fireworks in thousands and by signal rockets. Indeed, a warm welcome was given to pa.s.sengers and crew, and invitations to stay longer. But time was pressing. Canada, too, was calling, so that that long frontier between North America and Canada was crossed, a frontier, be it noted, devoid of forts and guns, across which Canadians and Americans fraternize.

"And now we turn our faces homewards. This is the last lap," said Joe, when a round of festivities had been enjoyed in various Canadian cities.

"We have proved this s.h.i.+p to be capable of a world-circling trip. She has safely ridden through tempests which would have destroyed a Zeppelin. Let us now return to London, there to show the people of England that we are still in existence, and there to hand over this s.h.i.+p to the authorities."

It was with light hearts that they sent the vessel eastward. Hovering for a while over the historical city of Quebec, where French and English had once contested matters, and where their sons now live in amity together, Joe sent the aerial monster scudding over the length of the mighty River St. Laurence. Then they sailed above the vast Gulf of that name, and swept seaward between Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island. It was in that neighbourhood that the lookout man sighted a tiny speck upon the ocean.

"Boat adrift, sir, I think," he reported. "I can see a man waving something."

Joe fastened his gla.s.ses upon the spot, a movement which the Commander copied.

"Man adrift on a piece of wreckage," sang out the latter. "Waving his s.h.i.+rt as a signal. Lucky for him that we were crossing."

They steered above the castaway and sent d.i.c.k down upon the lift, with Alec and Hurst to help him. Then they hoisted them again and brought aboard a man seemingly in the last stages of exhaustion. He was almost speechless with thirst and black with exposure. A beard of ten days'

growth was on his face, while his hair was long and matted.

"Fisherman," he gasped. "Driven off the land. Been drifting to and fro for days, and without food and drink for many. Water! water!"

Aboard the airs.h.i.+p this unlucky wight received the kindest attention, and indeed was soon snugly curled up in a bunk in the men's quarters. No one suspected he was other than he pretended to be, an unfortunate fisherman from the sh.o.r.es of Nova Scotia. No one aboard recognized the man as Adolf Fruhmann. But it was he, Carl Reitberg's rascally lieutenant, and once more crew and pa.s.sengers and airs.h.i.+p were in imminent danger.

CHAPTER XX

Adolf Fruhmann's Venture

Never perhaps was there a more exaggerated example of base ingrat.i.tude, of trickery, of cunning, and of calculated rascality than that instanced by the presence of the ruffian, Adolf Fruhmann, aboard the great airs.h.i.+p. Snug in his bunk, feigning exhaustion and illness after exposure and privation, the wretch successfully evaded the ken of Joe and his friends while sending messages of the profoundest grat.i.tude to them.

"All so much dust," he sn.i.g.g.e.red beneath the bed-clothes, for only the top of his head was showing. "Just a little more dust in their eyes to blind 'em. It just makes me roar when I think how the scheme acted, and Carl saying all the while that it wouldn't. Well, he pays, pays all the more handsomely."