es arose all around
them.

CHAPTER XVIII.

WHEN FRANK STOOD GUARD.

Pretty soon things began to look fairly cheerful in that lonely glade
situated in the heart of the tropical forest. A fine fire crackled and
shot up its red flames, lighting up the opening in which the young
aviators had so luckily alighted.

Andy was bending over the fire making a pot of coffee, for they had
brought along with them the necessary cooking utensils, including a
frying pan, not knowing how long they might be adrift in the wilderness,
far from the domicile of any human being.

"How do you find it?" he sang out, for his chum had been examining the
aeroplane as well as possible under the circumstances.

"Everything seems to be hunky-dory," came the reply. "I'm going to start
up the engine now to see if it works without a hitch."

"Don't I hope so," was what Andy said, as he paused in his task to
watch.

A minute afterward he gave a little cheer, as the familiar throbbing
sound was heard, making the sweetest music that ever greeted the
listening ear of an aviator.

"That sounds good to me, Frank!" he cried.

"Nothing wrong about it, thank goodness!" came the reply of the other,
as he again shut off power, because they could not afford to waste a
drop of their valuable supply of gasoline.

"Well, suppose you drop in here and sample this brand of coffee. What
with the cold snack we brought, and which still holds out, we ought to
get along right decently, Frank."

"I tell you right now," replied the other, as he came up, "I'm hungry
enough to eat anything going; yes, even some of our native cook's worst
garlic-scented messes. And that coffee just seems to make me wild. Shove
a cup over this way as quick as you know how, brother. Yum, yum, that
goes straight to the spot. And this cheese and crackers isn't half way
bad, even if it is pilot biscuit."

"Well," said Andy, "ain't you a pilot all right, and don't they feed
sailors on this hard tack generally? Sure we've got no kick coming.
Everything is to the mustard, and if you asked me my opinion right now
I'd say things are coming our way."

"Listen to that chorus, would you?" remarked Frank, as various sounds
arose all through the dense timber around them; "they seem to be heading
this way sure enough."

At that Andy reached again for the gun on which he seemed to depend so
much.

"Well, if any of 'em take a sneaking notion to look in on us, why I'm
meaning to use up