"No, no, I tell you, Bruno! Shove her over, uncle, for, without this glass is hoodooed, we're needed right yonder,--and needed mighty bad, too!"Little need of so much urging, by the way, since Professor Featherwit was but slightly less excited by their double discovery, and even before the glasses were clapped to Waldo's eyes the aerostat swung around to move at full speed towards that precise quarter of the compass.
"What is it you see, then, boy?" demanded Bruno, itching to take the glasses, yet straining his own vision towards that as yet far-distant spot.
"Something like--oh, see how the water is running out,--just like emptying a bathtub through a hole at the bottom! And see what--a man caught in the whirl, true's you're a foot high, uncle!""A man? Here? Impossible,--incredible, boy!" fairly exploded the professor, not yet ready to relinquish his cherished belief in a terra incognita.
The air-voyagers were swiftly nearing that point of interest, and now keen-eyed Bruno caught a glimpse of a drifting object which had been drawn within the influence of yonder whirlpool, but which was just as certainly a derelict from the forest.
"Another floating tree-trunk for Waldo!" he cried, with a short laugh, feeling far from unpleased that the intense strain upon his nerves should be thus lessened. "Try it again, lad, and perhaps--""Try your great-grandmother's cotton nightcap! Don't you suppose I can tell the difference between a tree and a--""Ranting, prancing, cavorting 'sour-us' right out of Webster's Unabridged, eh, laddy-buck?""That's all right, if you can only keep on thinking that way, old man; but if yonder isn't a fellow being in a mighty nasty pickle, then I wouldn't even begin to say so! And--you look, uncle Phaeton, please."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:
"Have courage, sir, and stand ready to help yourself! We will rescue you if it lies within the possibilities of--we WILL save you!""You bet we just will, and right--like this," spluttered Waldo, as he cast the grapnel over the rail and swiftly lowered it by the rope. "Play you're a fish, stranger, and when you bite, hang on like grim death to a--steady, now!"Fortunately nothing occurred to mar the programme so hastily arranged, for the drift was drawing nearer the centre of the whirl, and if once fairly caught by that, nothing human could preserve the stranger from death.
"Make a jump and grab it, if you can't do better!" cried Waldo, intensely excited now that the crisis was at hand.
The long rope with its iron weight swayed awkwardly in spite of all he could do to steady it, and as each one of the three prongs was meant for catching and holding fast to whatever they touched, there was no slight risk of impaling the man, thus giving him the choice of another and still more painful death.
Then, with a desperate grasp, a death-clutch, he caught one arm of the grapnel, holding fast as the shock came. He was carried clear of the tree, and partly submerged in the water as his added weight brought the flying-machine so much lower.
"Up, up, uncle Phaeton!" fairly howled Waldo, at the same time tugging at the now taut rope, in which he was ably seconded by his brother. "For love of--higher, uncle!"Then the noble machine responded to the touch of its builder, lifting the dripping stranger clear of the whirling currents, swinging him away towards yonder higher level, where a fall would not prove so quickly fatal. And then the eager professor gave a shrill cheer as he saw the man, by a vigorous effort, draw his body upward sufficiently far to throw one leg over an arm of the grapnel itself.
Knowing now that the rescued was in no especial peril, uncle Phaeton left the air-ship to steer itself long enough for his nimble hands to take several turns of the drag-rope around the cleat provided for that express purpose, thus relieving both Bruno and Waldo of the heavy strain, which might soon begin to tell upon them.
"Hurrah for we, us, and company!" cried Waldo, relieving his lungs of a portion of their pent-up energy, then leaning perilously far over the edge of the machine to encourage the queer fish he had hooked.
