“Fix yours the same way, Buddy,” he said crisply. The planes were growing at an amazing speed into huge shapes as their pilots crowded on every ounce of power. The boys wondered how the captain could have learned of the trouble, for as far as they knew no one had informed the soldiers, but here they were and his heart sang with thankfulness that they would find peace and quiet instead of death and destruction.
“Here you are.” Bob handed over his flag handkerchief, and Jim ran with the improvised pair of signals, to an open space, while the natives stared. He marveled at the formation of the thundering machines, one of which he saw was a bomber, and at least two equipped with machine guns. They were swooping now almost to the bend in the river, so Austin waggled a message to the pilots and hoped they would understand the scout code.
“All O.K.; All O.K.;” he waggled and instantly the leader’s nose shot up, his hand went to the side of his cock-pit and his men followed him in a steep climb, after which they zoomed high, circled, while Jim went on talking to them with the flags. “Everybody is safe. No one hurt. All O.K.” The machines made two turns above their heads, then the engine of the leader’s plane was throttled and he glided like a great bird to the ground, made an admirable three-point landing and stopped. Instantly a man leaped out of the cock-pit and started forward.
“What’s the matter?” he demanded.
“It’s my husband, my husband,” cried Mrs. Seaman and she ran to meet him. A moment he held her close, then braced his shoulders, and faced the others.
“A native sent a message that the village had been attacked and you were all going to be burned to death,” he gasped.
“We might have been, but we are not,” Dr. Manwell answered.
“Thank God you are safe, but, what was the idea?” the captain persisted. He had to shout because the planes were still racing near enough so that they too could swoop down if there was any sign of danger.
“Martin got a crazy idea that by kidnaping the natives’ families he could force the men to push forward the work he was doing and enter sections of the forest which they feared.”
“Great heavens, was he insane?” Seaman exploded.