"Oh, Ja-a-a-ck!" called Harry at the top of his voice, making a trumpet of his hands. "Oh, Ja-a-a-ack!" he called again.

All three boys were startled to hear the voice of their chum proceeding from a point seemingly directly beneath them.

"Here I am," came Jack's cheery tones, although the boys thought they could detect a slight trace of weariness.

"Where?" cried Ned, greatly surprised at the sudden reply.

"Under the Eagle," replied Jack. "I'm hanging onto a truss rod and can stay here for quite a while if you want to leave the place."

"We surely want to leave the place," answered Ned, reaching again for the levers. "Can you hang on for a few minutes more?"

"I'm all right for a long time," answered Jack bravely, "but I'd just as soon you'd hit up the speed a little."

Ned's guiding touch upon the levers sent the Eagle forward at a rate of speed that quickly carried the entire party to a distance well out of rifle range from the party below. He was heading for a hill at no great distance from their present location.

"I'll land there," he said, indicating by a nod of his head the eminence toward which they were running. "We ought to be able to help Jack out of his position in a very few minutes."

Harry turned the gla.s.ses toward the spot Ned had pointed out.

"Look out, Ned!" he cried almost instantly. "I can see a lot of helmets there that look as if they were German head dresses."

"Can you see the soldiers under the helmets?" asked Dave.

"Not a soldier!" declared Harry. "But," he added, "that doesn't say they're not there. Those uniforms they are wearing blend so closely with the natural colors of the landscape that one can't very well tell whether a German is near or not until he feels the cloth."

"Or the bullet," put in Dave with a grimace toward the hill.

"We're getting nearer all the while," Ned said. "Keep your eyes open, and if there are soldiers there we'll go somewhere else."

For a moment Harry intently studied the spot they were fast approaching. With the gla.s.ses in position he scanned every foot of ground carefully, not omitting the slightest detail.

"I'm sure I see them now," he stated positively as he lowered the gla.s.ses. "We're in a nice mess with Jack hanging under this ship simply by one of the truss rods. We've got to rescue him!"

"What can we do?" asked Dave, at a loss to solve the difficulty.

"I'll tell you what we'll do!" cried Harry. "I'm the lightest of the party, so I'll go down and get him! I can do it!"

"Harry, are you crazy?" questioned Ned chidingly. "It's impossible!"

"No, it's not!" stoutly maintained the boy. "He's there, and we've simply got to get him. We can't land anywhere hereabouts, and by the time we can land he'll be exhausted and will have dropped."

"How will you do it?" asked Dave. "Let me help."

"I guess you'll have to do most of the work," replied Harry, reaching into one of the lockers, from which he drew a coil of light line.

"Not if you go under the fuselage to get Jack," objected Dave.

"Yes, sir!" continued Harry. "When I get down there you'll have to do all the work of engineering the deal. You'll have to do a whole lot of pulling and hauling, and you'll have to run out on one side to balance the machine. Mustn't have the ship list too much!"

"Oh, I see!" was Dave's response. "And," he continued, "I won't be able to see where you are, because you'll be on the opposite side from my own position. How shall we manage?"

"Well, here's my plan," Harry went on rapidly, as he began overhauling the coil of line. "When I get out on one side I'll go along the framework, of course. You'll be on the opposite side to balance. Then when you see that the machine is tipping your way you are to get nearer the center of gravity so as to stabilize the affair."

"I understand," Dave replied, eagerly entering into the spirit of the work. "And when I feel the machine tip away from me I'll go out farther along the framework so as to again equalize the flight."

"Exactly. Now, it will be a hard job for us to get this line pa.s.sed under the framework so that we can get a purchase and pull it to Jack.

I can't reach that far, and Jack probably is hanging on with his hands, feet and eyelids, so he can't let go with one hand even."

"I'll tell you how we can fix that," Dave suggested.

"How?" inquired Harry, ready at all times to consider any suggestions and act upon them if they seemed better than the ones he had made.

"Let's take a loop of the line and fasten it around my body under my arms. You can be inside the machine paying out slack as I need it. I can take a similar loop and by crawling under the machine I can reach Jack all right and pa.s.s the loop about his body. Then you can haul in slack bit by bit as he crawls along the truss rod to the side of the fuselage. In that way there will be practically no danger, for the loop of line about our bodies will prevent our falling if we should slip."

"Much obliged!" was Harry's acknowledgment of the suggestion. "But,"

he went on, "I think it would be better for me to do the work."

"Excuse me for insisting," Dave said in a modest manner, "but I am quite sure that I am better fitted than you. My work in the Northwest has always required considerable work with my arms, and besides that I am pretty well developed about the arms and shoulders. I don't want to discredit your ability, but I'm sure, don't you know, that I am stronger than you and could do the work better. You'll let me try, won't you? Really, you know, you ought to let me help!"

"It's not to your discredit at all, Harry," put in Ned, "that Dave has larger muscles than you and is perhaps stronger. This is a job that requires all the muscle possible, so I think we'd better let him try it. We must get Jack out of that place as quickly as possible."

"All right," agreed Harry reluctantly, for he very much disliked to permit anyone but himself to even attempt the rescue of his chum.

Dave lost no time in tying a bowline in a bight at the two ends of the length of line. One of these he pa.s.sed over his own body. The other he took in his teeth. In another moment he was over the side of the car, while Harry did his best to balance the Eagle as he had planned for Dave to do, at the same time paying out line as it was needed.

Presently the lad felt the machine tipping slightly in his direction and knew that Dave had succeeded in reaching the level of the bottom of the car and was crawling along the truss rod underneath.

For a short s.p.a.ce of time the two boys in the ear anxiously waited.

Harry's patience at length was exhausted, and he called out:

"Have you found Jack, Dave? Is he there all right?"

"Yes, he's here and he's all right, but rather tired."

"Can I help any?" was Harry's next question.

"Not a bit just now. Jack is getting ready to make the climb. Stand by the line that I am going to jerk. Haul in slowly."

Bit by bit the line came aboard with its human freight in the loop at the end. Harry was exceedingly careful to haul in very slowly, in order that he might not trip his chum and cause a disaster. In a few moments that seemed endless ages to Ned and Harry their comrade's head showed and the Eagle again took a tilt to starboard.

Harry quickly and carefully crawled to a position where he would balance the unusual side strain. He relaxed his vigilance not one whit, however, and hauled in carefully and slowly on the line.

"Well, that's over with!" sighed Jack as he tumbled over the side of the car to a position of safety. "I'm glad it's ended, too!"

"How did it happen?" queried Harry with keen interest.

"Never mind the details just yet," panted Jack, stretching his shaking arms and working his fingers to restore the circulation that had been somewhat impeded because of the tense muscles. "Let's get Dave up here safely first. That's one plucky Scout!" the boy added.