Yes, Frank himself had sighted it now, but the discovery came too late to have any effect upon their movements, since they were bound to land, not having room to rise again, even did they wish to do so.
And Frank, as he felt the wheels under the aeroplane touch the earth, also heard a loud cry and some lusty Spanish expletives as a pistol was discharged.
As was his usual habit, Andy jumped before the monoplane had stopped. Frank on his part had no sooner seen that everything was going well than he snatched the Marlin rifle from its fastenings. He realized that they were up against trouble of some sort, for those Spanish exclamations told him there must be one revolutionist at least close by ready to do battle.
"Frank, look out, he's got a pistol!" cried a voice, which he recognized as belonging to Puss Carberry.
Just then he caught sight of a figure rushing forward. It was the same man no doubt whom they had seen with Puss in the biplane. They had evidently broken some important parts in landing and ever since must have been busy trying to mend the same.
"Stop!"
When the advancing revolutionist heard this sharp command and saw that he was being covered by a rifle in the hands of the determined looking pilot of the monoplane, he sized up the situation and then raised his hands in a way that meant he surrendered.
"Drop that gun then!" ordered Frank, and as he did so Puss seized upon it with a snarl of joy.
"Now we'll see how two can play at that game, you skunk!" gritted the other, as he snapped the pistol straight at the head of the man.
"Here, none of that, Puss. You leave him to us. He's our prisoner, not yours!" ordered Frank, horrified at the rage which the other had shown.
So Puss found that he did not have any authority in the matter, and that if he wanted to get assistance from his old-time rivals in order to finish mending his airship and get away from so dangerous a locality he must do what they said.
He told about how he and Sandy had been out for a trial spin two days before. That was when Frank and his chum had sighted them from the river. But that very night some of the revolutionists had made a descent on the home of his uncle, who had a cocoa plantation not many miles away from that of Mendoza, seized him and carried him away, as they also did the little airship.
Threatened with dire things if he refused to obey, he had been compelled to go up in company with the man who was now their prisoner, a Spaniard, who had once sailed in a balloon and knew something about that type of aviation, though having much to learn in connection with modern aeroplanes.
Sighting our two Bird boys, of course Puss had known who they were. But the man was positive that they must be spies sent out by the government to learn what the revolutionists might be doing up the Magdalena. And he had threatened all sorts of things, Puss declared, unless a hot pursuit were carried on. Secretly Frank was of the opinion that it would require very little urging to make Puss Carberry do his level best to overtake any aerial craft piloted by one Frank Bird, toward whom he had always felt the most bitter animosity.
After about an hour's hard work Frank managed to get the biplane in decent trim for a flight. He was also able to spare the other some gasoline.
Had he been allowed to have his own way Puss would have left the Spaniard in the forest, where he might have died, being unable to make his way to civilization. But Frank would not hear of it. He obtained a solemn promise from the man that he would not make any further effort to obtain control of the biplane, and then Puss was made to take him aboard. Of course, Frank had made sure that the man carried no weapon and that his revolver was thrown away.
They left the glade in the forest soon after the biplane had started. Puss managed to keep close to the others while they headed off toward the northeast. He did not wholly trust the passenger he was carrying and wanted to remain within call of the three who relied upon the monoplane to carry them to safety.
They could even shout out to each other as they sailed along. Thus Puss warned them when they were approaching a camp of the revolutionists as they drew near the region of the river, and they were able to change their course, not wishing to again run the perilous gantlet of gun-fire.
When another descent was deemed necessary it was close to the Magdalena, though many miles south of the town where the cocoa planters lived.
There was no reason why Puss should also descend, save that he wished to be rid of his unwelcome passenger. The revolutionist might now make his way to camp and electrify his fellows with a stirring account of his various adventures. And one could easily guess that they would lose none of their zest in the telling.
Puss did not expect to halt again when the monoplane was brought down. He could make one flight of it now and reach the home of his uncle, where doubtless Sandy was mourning him as lost.
Just as Frank had expected, Puss on saying good-bye tried to appear as though something along the order of gratitude might be striving to gain a foothold in his crooked nature.
"Say, Frank, I'm sorry now I ever tried to do you dirt," he observed, as he held out his hand. "Let's forget the past and start all over again."
"Sure," replied Frank, as he readily took the offered hand; but it lay like a cold toad in his grasp, as Andy afterward expressed it, for Puss insisted on also bidding him good-bye ere he made a start in his biplane.
"Well, now, what d'ye think of that?" said Andy, as they stood and watched the other mount upward and caught the wave of his hand ere he started down river, being fully five hundred feet high. "Did he mean it, Frank? Would you really want to go so far as to trust that snake if the chance ever came again for him to do you a bad turn?"
Frank shrugged his shoulders.
"Say, ask me something easy, won't you?" he remarked. "Because you know how hard it is for a leopard to change its spots. Perhaps Pusshasseen a light; but excuse me if I doubt it. Naturally he felt kind of cheap, because we got him out of a bad hole and placed him under obligations. But that will wear off in a short time."
"Right it will," declared Andy. "I give you my word, Frank, that the next time we see him he'll have a fine story all fixed about how he was just going to jump on that Spanish revolutionary fellow, and twisting his gun out of his hand, shoot him down, and then fly away. Oh, don't I know Puss in Boots, though? He'll hate us both worse than ever just because he's beholden to us. Rats! him reform? Not much!"
By the middle of the afternoon they had advanced far enough to know that another lap ought to carry them to town, and of course all of them were anxious to have the journey completed.
"If it could only be written up and sworn to," said Andy, enthusiastically, "I reckon it'd go down in the annals of aeroplaning as the most wonderful stunt carried out up to date. But people won't take our word for it."
"We've got the evidence of it, though, in the person of your good dad, and people may believe what Professor Bird says over his own honored signature, however much they might doubt the yarn of a couple of boys," Frank remarked, as he took a last look, to see that both his passengers were snugly settled, ere starting the motor.
"We're on the home stretch now!" declared Andy, after they had again mounted up into the realm of space and found their course northward.
"Yes," observed Frank, "we're homing pigeons now, if any kind of bird."
"At any rate," laughed the professor, "we're birds of passage, and one of them is mighty glad of the opportunity to get back into the old world again."
In due time they sighted the town, and as before, the greatest excitement followed as they headed across the place, looking to land where the journey had begun—in the yard of the cocoa planter's place.
Of course Señor Carlos was delighted with the success of the mission. For two days the Bird boys were the center of an enthusiastic demonstration. Frank was a little nervous lest they be visited by some of the revolutionists, but such did not turn out to be the case. And on the third morning the little steam yacht once more headed down the turbulent Magdalena, with a heavy rain promising more water to add to the flood, as wet weather had seemingly set in again.
They met with no difficulties on the way down. Apparently the camp of the revolutionists had been moved from its former position at the narrows of the river. It might be those in charge had taken the alarm and feared lest a government force must be on the way to capture them, after being informed about the camp by the spies they had sent up the river.
And Barranquila was finally reached, where they halted only long enough to chat a short time with Señor José, who met them as before on the quay and wanted to shake hands with the professor.
Knowing just how anxious the government was to get possession of airships just then, Frank did not want to give them any further chance to confiscate his neat little craft, under some pretense or other. So they left the city at the mouth of the Magdalena and steamed away, bound once more for Maracaibo, where they meant to take steamer for New York, New Orleans or any port in the States.
The last glimpse they had of the river was the flood that was pouring out between the jaws of land marking one of the mouths of the Magdalena and making a distinct yellow area in the salty waters of the tropical ocean.
The beloved little aeroplane had been safely boxed again and was making the homeward voyage in their company. What strange and wonderful things it had been through! Andy declared that they almost passed belief, and he expressed his doubts as to their ever having an opportunity to pilot that same aircraft through atmospheric seas as tempestuous as those they had experienced in the tropics while rescuing the prisoner of the cliff bordered valley. But then Andy was not gifted with second sight and he could not foresee what the wonderful future might have in store for the Bird boys.
They had by this time experienced enough of the fascinating new methods of cruising in cloudland to want to continue. And it stands to reason that other adventures would be lying in wait for lads so constituted.
For the present it must be enough to say they arrived safely at good old Bloomsbury in due time and that the entire population was on hand to greet the party when they stepped from the train. Also, the wonderful little monoplane, the same that had been equal to the test in the race for Old Thunder Top, had to be placed on public exhibition for several days in the town hall, where every man, woman and child in all the country around could examine and comment on the construction of the airship that had brought fame and happiness to Frank and Andy Bird.
In due time Puss and Sandy turned up, minus their biplane, which the government of Colombia had seized on some plausible pretext, though paying liberally for the same. But they were soon at work constructing another, which they claimed would far exceed the one that had been lost.
Professor Bird by slow degrees recovered his health that had been sadly shattered by his experience down in that country. But he declared that his days were over so far as aviation went, and that in the future he must be content to take a back seat and see the honors of the family carried off by the younger generation—the Bird boys.