As the Sky-Bird arose into the air, the flyers noticed that Grandpa the monkey was slightly excited. This they attributed to the presence of the gorilla's skin; but when they saw Grandpa continue to dash wildly about the cabin, from their shoulders to the rear window, out of which he would take a quick look only to fly back to them and chatter wildly and coweringly, Paul thought he would see what could be the trouble.

One glance was enough. He shut the open window with a bang, and turned to his companions with a pale face.

"Fellows," said he; "we've got a pa.s.senger!"

"A pa.s.senger?" cried they.

"Yes," said Paul, "a monstrous big snake!"

CHAPTER XXI

THE DOUBLE LOOP

For a moment or two John and Bob stared at Paul blankly, unable to comprehend the import of his announcement. Tom was at the throttle, and while he had heard the startling words, he was too occupied in guiding the Sky-Bird to do anything except take a quick glance backward.

"A snake?" repeated Bob.

"Not on the machine?" cried John.

"Yes," Paul said, with a seriousness which left no further doubt as to the truth of his statement. "He's a whopper--must be twelve or fourteen feet long and as thick as my leg. He's there on the fuselage just outside of the window, hanging on for dear life. If I hadn't shut that window just as I did, I believe he would have crawled in here in a minute."

John and Bob now hurried to the window and looked out. In the moonlight they could distinctly see a huge reptile, either a python or a boa-constrictor, coiled up in the angle formed by the juncture of the airplane body and the broad base of the left wing. The creature was so long that its tail pa.s.sed up over the rounded fuselage and out upon the other wing. Bob flashed his electric pocket lamp upon it, and by the yellow and brown mottled spots upon its body and the double plates of whitish scale at its tale, and the wicked-looking triangular head, they were sure it must really be a python, one of the most dreaded of African snakes. These creatures think a monkey a very choice morsel of food, and undoubtedly it had been attracted to the airplane, while it stood in the gra.s.s, by the appearance of Grandpa in the open cabin window, but had been frustrated in its designs by the return of the flyers and the sudden rising of the machine.

Now, with the window shut, the boys seemed safe enough for the present.

They could see that the big snake was extremely uneasy. As the wind whistled by him, his great tail twisted and untwisted, and he seemed to be trying to get a better hold on the smooth surface, while his beady eyes glared at them only a moment in the glow of the flashlight, and then he transferred his attention to the landscape below them. His forked fangs darted in and out during this time with the angriest lightning-like movement.

Paul relieved Tom at the throttle for a few minutes, so that the latter could have a look at the reptile.

When Tom came back again to his post, he said, with plain uneasiness: "I never saw such a big snake before, Paul. Between the rush of wind and the roar of the engine and propeller, he seems scared out of his wits."

"We've got to get him off of there somehow--and mighty soon, too," put in John, with decision. "Tom, if that monster should begin to slip a little most likely he will coil his tail around some of our control wires,--and then what?"

Their faces blanched at this prospect. They knew what that would mean.

It would mean that the great creature would either operate the airplane's rudders when they should not be operated, or would prevent Tom from moving them when they must be moved. In either event, the result would be disaster to machine and crew.

"Good heavens, boys!" said Tom, so nervous his voice shook, "get rid of that snake as quick as you can!" He fancied he could see the rear control levers moving at that instant.

The other three flyers knew the importance of these instructions, but how were they to carry them out? The reptile was too large to be shoved off with a stick or pole, and would probably squirm through the window while they were attempting it. And they were afraid to use a gun, as, in the case of a miss or a little lurch of the airplane at the moment of firing, the bullet might puncture the hollow wing or rear fuselage and let helium escape.

It was Bob who solved the puzzle.

"Why not try a loop or two?" he asked.

Their hearts jumped with hope at this. So everything was made tight in the cabin, with the straps and fastenings which had been provided when the machine was made. Even Grandpa had to submit to being roped up in one of the swinging hammocks. When the boys had buckled themselves down to their seats, John gave Tom the word, and he began to rise slowly. At close to two thousand feet he brought the Sky-Bird quickly and smoothly upward until she stood almost on her tail end.

Then Tom threw the elevators and ailerons hard up, and held them there.

They were going at a rate of close to a hundred miles an hour at the moment, and their velocity brought them around in a pretty loop. There was no way for them to tell if the serpent had been dislodged, so, to make as sure as he could of accomplishing his purpose, Tom kept his controls as set, and they made another or double loop.

This time he straightened out his controls as he came up to the horizontal, and they ran swiftly ahead again on a level keel.

His companions quickly unloosened their straps, and ran for the rear window. A feeling of the greatest thanksgiving filled their souls and joy lit up their faces. The python was gone! He had hurtled through the air during one or the other of the loops, and his long sinuous body was probably at that moment lying crushed upon the hard ground, or impaled upon the sharp stub of some forest tree, far below.

It had been a night of intense excitement. Now that they began to beat through the air in the old tuneful way, and there was nothing more to claim their attention until they should arrive at Aden sometime in the morning, Bob and Paul took to their hammocks for sleep, but first Bob got Khartum on the wireless and delivered their position and a brief description of their adventures. As may be imagined, however, the two youths did not shut their eyes immediately. There was much to think about and to talk about before even fatigue could get the better of them.

Tom put the Sky-Bird through on a straight course for Aden as fast as he dared run the night engine, which was very close to its limit, now that it had had a chance to cool off and was well supplied with water.

It was important that they should make speed, for in the stop for water and the subsequent maneuvering to rid themselves of their unwelcome pa.s.senger, the python, they had lost upwards of an hour's time.

Flying high, and depending entirely upon the compa.s.s for striking Aden, they shot through the starlit tropical night like a meteor, showing no lights except the two small ones on the dashboard in the cabin, by means of which Tom could observe the instruments and the controlling levers below. Thus they crossed the famous Nile, sweeping below Khartum and across the plains of Kordofan, and when the first streaks of daylight appeared ahead of them they were just entering the plateaus of northern Abyssinia.

Paul and Bob now relieved Tom and John, and the latter young men took a nap. It was their custom to work in pairs, the observer preparing food for himself and the pilot during the course of flight. Sometimes the observer took the throttle long enough to give his friend a chance to eat, and sometimes the pilot retained his seat, allowing the automatic arrangement to do the guiding for him while he munched his food.

Just before seven o'clock Paul and Bob saw two large bodies of water ahead of them, one stretching to the right and the other to the left.

The chart told them that the northern body was the Red Sea and the southern one the Gulf of Aden, which opens into the Indian Ocean.

Between these bodies lay a narrow belt of water, flanked on the western or African side by rocky, wooded hills, and on the eastern side by low, sandy sh.o.r.es dotted with palms. This was the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, and the country beyond was Persia.

Aden could not be more than fifteen minutes' run east now, and so Bob awakened his sleeping comrades while Paul guided the airplane across the strait. They flew a little higher, later, following the general contour of the terraced slopes of the mountains along the Arabian coast.

As the Sky-Bird came leisurely over the hills surrounding this British seaport of Aden, they could see that the town nestled in the crater of an extinct volcano, as they had read. All around the low, white buildings spread the rugged hillsides, and in declivities they pa.s.sed over numbers of the great brick tanks or reservoirs which catch and store the scanty rainfall of the region and thus furnish Aden with its only water supply.

The flyers saw many gowned figures, some on camels, pause to look upward at them, as they began to circle the town in quest of their landing field. Bob was the first to discern it--a fairly level stretch in the southern end of the valley or basin, marked in the way agreed upon, and containing two small buildings, neither of which was large enough to admit the machine.

But they cared nothing for shelter for the Sky-Bird, as they did not purpose staying any longer than necessary for fuel replenishment and news dissemination by telegraph and letter. So they quickly settled down in the midst of a wondering ring of Arabs.

Mr. Griggs, the American consul here, now came forward with a couple of British military officers, and the flyers met with a hearty reception.

It seemed good to run upon one of their own countrymen again, after seeing so many strange faces since leaving Panama. Mr. Griggs insisted upon their going to his home with him for breakfast, and to this they consented as soon as they found he had made full arrangements for having some British workmen at the garrison refill the Sky-Bird's tanks.

They found that their rivals had arrived just after daylight, and had departed for Colombo, Ceylon, less than twenty minutes before their own appearance. This was cheering news. They had gained a lot on them in crossing the African continent.

CHAPTER XXII

ABOVE THE CLOUDS

Mr. Griggs, the American consul at Aden, proved an affable, pleasant entertainer. His little wife was also very genial and painstaking for their comforts, declaring at their protests that she was doing no more for them than she had done for the other flyers when they came through, a short time before. The couple had two children, a boy and a girl, and both of these plied the boys with innumerable questions about their journey, expressing the greatest interest and excitement when they worked out of Paul the story of the adventure with the gorilla and python.

After the meal, which was very appetizing and refreshing, they spent a short time preparing their reports to the _Daily Independent_, and then accompanied their host to the post-office, where the letter and roll of films were mailed. At the telegraph office they received a pleasant surprise in the shape of a message from Mr. Giddings, which stated their reports were coming in to the newspaper all right, and that the greatest interest was being manifested in them by the world in general and by New York people in particular.

"Whatever you do, don't let the other crew beat you," were his concluding words. "I have ordered the helium shipped to Nukahiva by fast steamer."

"That's good news," said John, with satisfaction, referring to the helium, and the others accorded with him.

They dispatched a telegram to Mr. Giddings, and then started out to buy some fruit and other foods. As they went along the narrow, crooking street upon which they had been walking they met so many Arabs with small sprays of dark-green leaves which they put in their mouths and chewed, that their curiosity was aroused, and Bob asked Mr. Griggs what the leaves were.

"Those are the leaves of the khat bush," was the response. "You must have pa.s.sed numerous plantations of such bushes up on the hillsides as you flew over into the basin here. The Yemen Arabs like to chew the leaves so well that they have all of the pa.s.sion for them that a toper has for whiskey, and they will spend their last rupee for a small bundle."