The Boy Aviators in Africa; Or, an Aerial Ivory Trail

he almost innumerable packing cases and chests containing the duffle, ammunition, armament and the sections of the Golden Eagle were sc

possible to accommodate it all in the little flotilla which, it had been arranged previously, was to

th danger. Still you go well armed and provisioned, and from what I have h

pith helmet. Over one shoulder he carried a green butterfly net and under one arm he had tucked a tin box. Round his waist was a leather belt from which hung, in addition to a revolver and cartridges, a glass bottle

ng here?" exclaimed M. Desplaines as

his tin box. "I have a remarkable specimen of the Gladiolus Gorgeosi in there," he remarked importantly. "I am co

es looked a

iver," he said hesitatingly; "they are going on a hunting trip, into the interio

t looked wist

g up the river," he said, blinking behind his spectacles like an old bat who has unexpectedly emerge

have to place one restriction on you. When we reach our destination we must part

burst out Profess

rank, rather taken aba

ly, for some strange reason or other, seemed to have heartily interested-even disturbed-the naturalist. Frank felt troubled for a moment at the idea of having let Professor Wiseman form a portion of their party even for a short distance. But he dismisse

or the first time that they heard mention of the mysterious tribe of the Flying Men who were reported to be equipped with ru

n and white Africans with red top-knots like Lathro

from the shoulder blade two distinct bony frames which had in life apparently been covered with a thin fleshy substance of leathery like tenacity stretching thence to the wrists.

he Bambara country-the country of the l

wn of this tribe

n-to whites at any rate. I think, too, they fear them. Report has it that they live in cave-like holes in the side of a giant, black basalt cliff reached by a subterran

not fly upward

iders. Possibly once in the remote ages they could fly as well as great bi

a tremendous stir among the boys and when after breakfast their strange friend of the night before, Sikaso, appea

med to be embarrassed, if not b

hes)," he said in an awed tone, "Misoto Mountai

n Harry, "that's jus

," said the giant black

we are," excl

a small circle on the dust with his t

aid slowly, "you go, Sikaso he

moke?" repeated

ritten. I see five go, three come

efore and left the boys to gaze in a bewildered wa

isappearer I ever saw," s

'five go three come back,"' said

by seeing it in the smoke?

silently as a cat. "It is a common trick among the witch doctors-of whom our friend yonder seems to be o

d Billy, "but tell us, Professor,

xing Billy with his gaze just as he would have impaled a bug or grasshoppe

but I always put them down as

ers' tales,"

sor Wiseman coldly and gazing at Billy with squashing intentness; "the yo

rward. "I felt as if the Doc was running a big blu

lay on a branch of the Bari river a short distance from the town. Of course the boys assented eagerly, but as it was found that only Frank and Harry were expert canoeists, it was agreed that the oth

covered at the bottom with luxuriant green growth like seaweed, while higher up, ferns, as big as rose-bushes at home, and trees of a hundred varieties clung wherever they could find a root-hold. As the party arrived

falls. And so it proved. A steep flight of steps was cut in a deep cleft of the cliff down to the water's edge. A few minutes after they had begun the descent, the little party stood on the brink of the whirling pool into which the mighty falls roared their thousands of tons of wa

and pointed down the stream. How near the fact that they could not hear his