Desperately Harry threw over the wheel and the engines started faithfully to respond but not before half a dozen of the savages had thrown themselves on to the aeroplane.
Their weight held her down although she scudded over the ground; and in the meantime the other natives started pouring a shower of arrows and spears into her. Fortunately none of these struck the boys although Frank felt an arrow whiz through the loose sleeve of his shirt.
"Get those fellows off or I can't get the ship up," he yelled.
Harry and Ben Stubbs fired their automatics into the clinging mass of savages.
Two dropped and the aeroplane began to rise but the others desperately clung on.
"Get 'em off," shouted Frank, as he desperately strove to raise the air-craft.
As he spoke he fell back with a cry of pain.
An arrow had struck him on the shoulder inflicting a painful wound.
Like a flash Harry took in the situation and leaped to the steering wheel. As he did so the savage with whom he had been contending clambered clear into the chassis. At the same instant Ben Stubbs' revolver dispatched the last of the men clinging to the planes and the Golden Eagle began to rise.
As she shot upward the savage who had climbed into the chassis gave a wild shriek of real terror. But his outburst didn't come before he had made a savage lunge at Ben Stubbs with a short heavy knife. The solo adventurer dived under the black's arm and struck it upward as he lunged and the weapon went whirling groundward out of the air-ship.