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 a few of these flat-nosed cartridges in this six-shot magazine,” he remarked, sturdily, as he glanced cautiously around.

“No fear of that now,” said his chum, reassuringly. “The danger will come, if it does at all, later on, when we have more trouble keeping the fire going. So after we get this supper down we shall have to gather fuel. It may not be quite so nice to go after it when we see a line of yellow eyes watching all around.”

“Oh, shucks! You’re just stringing me now, Frank. If I really thought they’d be as bold as that, why I’d climb a tree, that’s what.”

“What good would that do, tell me?” jeered the other. “Why, these cats just live in trees and can leap twenty feet if they can one. Perhaps if you found a hollow tree now you might feel safe, but in the branches of one never! Why, the monkeys would come and laugh at you. The ground is the best place for us, after all, Andy.”

“More coffee in the pot, if you ain’t afraid of staying awake,” suggested the cook.

“That would just suit me, for you see I’m more afraid of going to sleep than anything else while on guard duty,” Frank remarked, soberly.

By degrees Andy realized that this business of camping in the heart of a tropical forest was no laughing matter. Still, they had escaped so many threatening perils that he was beginning to believe they must be under the protecting wing of some favoring god and that success lay just ahead.

They sat up and talked for a long time. Neither would admit being at all sleepy, and yet Frank caught his chum yawning ever so many times.

“Here, you, just make up your mind to turn in and get seven winks,” he said, pretending to be giving orders with all the airs of a commanding officer.

“I suppose I’ll just have to,” came the reply, as the other started to roll up close to the fire, for they had no blankets with them this time. “Do you know I was just thinking about Puss.”

“Well, what of him?” asked Frank.

“What if they start to chase us again in the morning? Are we going to put up with that funny business right along? I say no. Let’s warn ’em that we’re armed and can bore a hole right through their jolly old biplane, upsetting them any time they get close enough. I’m drawing the line on tomorrow, because somehow I feel it in here that it’s going to be the greatest day of my life,” and Andy laid his hand on his heart as he spoke.

“Yes, that would be our best plan,” admitted Frank. “We’ve already stood quite enough of that funny business, as you call it. They even fired at us. Depend on it, Andy, they won’t follow us very far next time.”

And Andy, seeing the way his chum’s mouth was firmly set, made up his mind that Frank had reached the end of his patience. Contented with the prospects for the morrow he therefore lay down to get some sleep.

“I say, Frank,” he called out presently.

“Well, what now?” asked the one on guard, who had possession of the rifle and had taken up his position so that he could have a clear view of the open space all about the camp.

“If one of the prowlers tries to drag me off, remember I’ve got my leg tied to this stake I knocked into the ground. While he’s tugging you can have a bully good chance to knock him over, see?”

“All right,” grinned Frank. “I’ll remember. But let out a whoop if you feel yourself going. I might be looking the other way.”

“You just bet I will,” mumbled Andy, curling himself up as near the fire as he dared creep.

And in three minutes Frank knew from the heavy breathing coming from that quarter, that his chum had found no trouble in getting to sleep, regardless of the various sounds welling up from the neighboring forest, and the fears that possessed his boyish soul.

Frank sometimes sat down; and again, feeling cramped in this position, he would rise to his feet, and walk back and forth. But all the time he kept the gun in his possession, with the hammer pulled back, ready for business. And constantly did he maintain a close watch along the nearer border of the undergrowth that lay there, so dense and filled with mystery.

Time passed on.

It seemed as though a thousand things flitted through the active mind of the young aviator as he thus stood guard over the camp. Once again he was back in good old Bloomsbury, where he had spent so many happy days. He could see the faces of his boyhood friends, Larry, Elephant and others.

Frequently he would detect a movement here or there among the trees; and at such times he could easily imagine that some animal belonging to the forest was creeping closer in. The question was, whether simple curiosity urged them to do this thing, or a design upon the occupants of the camp.

Frank had been in other situations calling for considerable pluck, and never failed to meet the emergency, nor did he now.

It must have been some three hours back that Andy lay down to sleep. That had been the limit of time arranged upon; but Frank did not show any signs of intending to awaken the other.

“Let him sleep,” he said to himself, as he walked up and down, for by now he was beginning to feel very drowsy himself, in spite of the coffee. “He needs it more than I do. And besides, I’m a little dubious as to what sort of watch Andy would keep. Anyhow, I can stand it a while longer. Hello! what’s that mean?”

His attention had been attracted toward a movement in the brush at the nearest point of the forest. It was not thirty feet distant. Could one of those long-bodied muscular jaguars cover that distance in a wild leap? What if without warning he should see a tawny figure flashing through the air, and headed straight for him?

Frank threw the gun up to his shoulder as if to try and see how readily he could cover such a flying form. As he did so he heard a low and ominous growl, which undoubtedly sprang from the very spot where he had just caught that suspicious movement.

He bent his head to look closer, and as he did so an exclamation fell from his lips.

“And that’s no owl staring at me, either,” he said to himself, as he caught the singular glow of what seemed like two balls of fire, just under the lower growth.

Frank knew what they undoubtedly must be. He had seen the orbs of a cat shine in this phosphorescent way in the darkness. There could be no doubt but that he was being surveyed by one of those savage beasts whose whining he and Andy had heard around the camp for hours.

“And I declare if that purring sound doesn’t come from there, too,” he muttered, as he sank down upon one knee, the better to aim his rifle. “What was that the old senor was telling me about these beasts? Didn’t he say they jerked their tail to and fro like a pendulum, and made a queer noise just before they jumped? If that is so then this fellow is getting ready to leap over right now. Time I was doing something, if I don’t want him to drop on my chum like a rubber ball. Well, here goes to take him between those yellow eyes. Steady now, my boy, steady!”