Nothing loath, the professor took the proffered glasses, and but an instant later he, too, gave a sharp cry of amazement, for he saw, clinging to the trunk of a floating tree, swiftly moving with those circling waters, a living being!
And but a few seconds later, Bruno made the same discovery, greatly to the delight of his younger brother.
“A man! And living, too!”
“Of course; reckon I'd make such a howl about a floater?” bluntly interjected Waldo. “But I'll do my crowing later on. For now we've got to get the poor fellow out of that,—just got to yank him out!”
Through all this hasty interchange of words, the aeromotor was swiftly progressing, and now swung almost directly above the whirlpool, giving all a fair, unobstructed view of everything below.
The suction was so great that a sloping basin was formed, more than one hundred yards in diameter, while the actual centre lay a number of feet lower than the surrounding level.
Half-way down that perilous slope a great tree was revolving, and to this, as his forlorn hope, clung a half-clad man, plainly alive, since he was looking upward, and—yes, waving a hand and uttering a cry for aid and succour.
“Help! For love of God, save me!”
“White,—an American, too!” exploded Waldo, taking action as by brilliant inspiration. “Hang over him, uncle, for I'm going—to go fishing—for a man!”
Waldo was tugging at the grapnel and long drag-rope. Bruno was quick to divine his intention, and lent a deft hand, while the professor manipulated the helm so adroitly as to keep the flying-machine hovering directly above yonder imperilled stranger, leaning far over the hand-rail to shout downward: