But none of those Indians thought so, if one could judge from the way they were running. Andy had seen rabbits speeding away after the crack of a gun; but that was hardly in the same class with what those braves did that morning.
Some of them jumped this way and that as they sped off; as though under the impression that they might thus escape the swarm of bullets that their imagination filled the air with, on hearing the crackle of Andy’s fast-shooting gun. Others dodged behind each succeeding sand hill, and then appearing beyond, continued their flight in eccentric curves; only glad if by this means they might escape the terrible eye of that mighty bird that came whirring along, letting out such hideous war cries, and assuming all the appearances of a dragon as pictured by the Chinese on their flags and everywhere.
Frank did not attempt to alight just then; he believed that it was good policy to make sure that the hostiles had all been frightened off before exposing the fact that after all it was only two boys in some clever invention of the white man who had come upon the scene.
And so, instead of heading directly for the spot where Jose lay behind the two ponies, which they now realized were surely dead, Frank continued to sweep around in a widening circle.
It was worth while to see the abject terror of such of the Indians as they passed over. They would flatten themselves on the burning sand, as though hoping in this way to escape the attention of the terror that was seeking its prey; nor did any one of them dare to turn his head to look upward at the monstrous bird with that loud shriek.
From a distance one or two discharged guns at the speeding aeroplane, but of course there was not one chance in ten thousand of the bullets doing any execution while the Bird boys were rushing along at such a pace; indeed, they did not even hear the whine of the passing lead.
Frank had his hands full taking care of the biplane, so that even had he desired to do so he could not have added anything to the racket. One hand controlled the lever which brought about the circling movement of the aeroplane, while with the other he kept that siren busy.
But by now Andy had bethought him of another means for adding to the panic of the fleeing Indians. In the box just back of him he happened to have a number of large cannon firecrackers. Under ordinary conditions these would appear to be rather queer things to carry on an aeroplane; but it seemed that Andy was particularly interested in experimenting with dropping stones which he called “bombs,” from a great height, in order to see how aeroplanes might be made useful in war times. And thinking some time to rather astonish Frank by sending down some of those big explosives, he had smuggled them aboard.
The idea had about passed from his mind at this time, but suddenly remembering the big red crackers, he was now pulling them out, and feeling for some of those wind matches they always carried when on a trip, because they could be used no matter what current of air they happened to be passing through.
Frank did not see what his cousin was doing. In the first place he had enough to look after as it was; and then again, when he could spare a second, he wanted to ascertain what the Indians were up to.