“It’s a man!” shouted Nat in a thunderstruck voice, as the figure of a human being, clinging desperately to the rope, was brought into view.
CHAPTER XIX.
AN INVOLUNTARY PASSENGER.
“A man!” exclaimed the amazed professor. “Why, how in the world did he come here?”
“I don’t know,” said Nat; “but there he is.”
“He must have caught the rope when the Discoverer shot upward,” suggested Joe. “Maybe he thought he could stop us.”
“He’s all wer-wer-wound up in the rope,” announced Ding-dong, who had been peering over the side during this dialogue. “His eyes are closed, and he seems half-dead from fright.”
“Let us drag him on board at once,” said the professor.
The boys lay flat, while the winch was started up until the man’s head was on a level with the under part of the substructure. Then three pairs of strong young arms reached down and dragged their involuntary passenger over the side.
“He’s an Indian!” cried Joe, as the man being dragged into safety from his precarious position proved to be a squat, black-haired little brown man, clad in a garment of rough fibre, and with one of the peculiar ornaments Nat had already noticed, thrust through his under lip.