CHAPTER XXV.
Harry picked himself up with a rather woebegone countenance, and, as may be imagined, he received a sound rating for his temerity from Topsie, in deliberately disobeying the advice of El Toro, not to fire at the bull’s forehead.
“I never saw a nearer shave, Harry,” she concluded. “If it had not been for our dear old Shag nothing could have saved you from being impaled on the brute’s horns. It’s too horrible to think of.”
“I was a fool, Topsie!” answered her brother; “I acknowledge it. There, don’t scold any more; one lives and learns, you know. Most boys are fools till they have had experience, and this is one I shall not forget.”
“Well, dear, I do hope you will not, for the sake of others, as well as your own. Ah, Harry! what should I have done if you had been killed?” Topsie replied gently, as she laid her hand affectionately on her twin brother’s shoulder.
“God bless my dear old Topsie, and thank God, too, that I am preserved,” he remarked quietly. “But I say,old girl, that must have been a rare good shot of yours, for the brute is stone dead.”
“Thanks to Shag,” she repeated; “but for his splendid help I could not have shot the bull as I did.”
They clustered round the dead animal, and examined him curiously. Topsie’s bullet had gone right to his heart, causing instantaneous death, and thus he had fallen on the top of Shag with some violence. Chorlo, Aniwee, and El Toro had, however, at once rushed to the dog’s assistance directly they saw his perilous position, and had extracted him therefrom before Topsie and Harry came up.
“Good Shag, brave, dear, good Shag!” exclaimed the former, as she threw her arms round the splendid Labrador’s coal-black neck. “Ah, Shag! you are a hero; you have saved our dear old Harry’s life.”
But as of yore, the massive beast only wagged his tail gently, while modestly refusing to be proud or vain, and wearing his honours like the canine hero that he was.
“Well, now we’ve got him, we’ve got to cut him up, and skin him too,” remarked Harry complacently, as he seated himself on the bull’s huge side, and gently stroked the soft, white hide of his would-be destroyer.
“Chorlo and El Toro will skin the bull,” observed Aniwee. “They will do it quicker than the Caciques, and it is not the first by many which the latter has skinned. El Toro knows his work there well enough. Will not the Caciques rest on yonder bank and refresh themselves on the scarlet fruit that grows thereon?Aniwee knows the fruit; it is safe to eat, and refreshing to the thirsty.”
Looking in the direction pointed out by the young Queen, Harry and Topsie perceived beneath a crag-festooned rock, a bank, scarlet all over with the fruit alluded to, and on going up to examine it, they found that this fruit consisted of masses of splendid wild strawberries; large, luscious, and tempting in the extreme.
Being terribly hot, the spot looked inviting beyond measure, and brother and sister at once threw themselves down, prepared to enjoy adolce far nienteand strawberry feast.
The scene around them was certainly magnificent,—dark forests in the foreground, behind them the towering, unbroken wall of the Cordilleras, and around them emerald glades and fairy nooks, where splendid flowers, with unknown names, lit up the dark forest background into radiance and light. As they lay there peacefully resting and eating their strawberries, these children, who had learnt to love the glories of God’s great earth, surveyed the scene in silence and rapture. It was as Topsie afterwards described it, “like being in fairyland.”
The silence which reigned over this scene, was suddenly broken by two rifle shots, which sounded not far away from where they were sitting. At once the two young people opened their ears and listened attentively. They had not to listen long, however, before fresh shots broke the still air, followed by loud shouts and vigorous yells. What could they mean? Brotherand sister looked inquiringly at each other, and Aniwee came running up. Already Chorlo and El Toro had forsaken the half-skinned bull, and had followed the young Queen.
“Let us haste to the rescue,” exclaimed Aniwee excitedly. “I know what those yells mean. It is the Araucanians’ signal of danger, and would never be uttered unless peril threatened some of the other parties. Haste, Señors, haste.”
She had grasped her rifle, which after the death of the bull she had stood against a tree, and only awaited her white friends’ companionship before setting off to the assistance of her other friends. And it may be imagined that neither Harry nor Topsie required much bidding. Leaving the dead bull to its fate, all five set off up one of the glades in the direction whence the sounds proceeded at a headlong pace, led by the fleetfooted Warrior Queen.
No doubt remained in Harry and Topsie’s minds but that some of their party had been attacked, and their anxiety in consequence was extremely acute and painful. They did not spare themselves in the efforts which they made to reach the scene of action. Very suddenly they came upon it, and then at once realised the terrible danger in which their friends were placed. Standing in a small square, facing all ways, they perceived Sir Francis and Lady Vane, Freddy, Mary, Willie, Coquet, and the four Araucanians firing and loading quickly, while around them danced some fifty or sixty hideous hairy beings, brandishing their clubs and yelling fiercely. Quite a dozen were lying dead orwounded on the ground, while, nothing daunted, the remainder were advancing slowly on the guns.
Now the position was an extremely awkward one, for none of the newly arrived party could fire without endangering their own friends, while they themselves were in imminent peril from the bullets of the others. But Aniwee was equal to the occasion. Some tall fir trees grew near to the place where they were standing, having strong flowery branches sticking out from the stems. Signing to her companions to imitate her, she climbed into one of these trees, an act quickly followed by the others. Topsie, however, had some difficulty in getting Shag up, but with El Toro’s assistance he was at length hoisted aloft and placed on one of the broadest branches, where Chorlo, who was unarmed, promised to hold him safe.
The young Queen and her two white friends were the only three of this little party armed with rifles. But they determined to render what help they could. In effect, when the shots pinged forth from their weapons, three more Andes demons—for such they were—bit the dust, while this sudden and counter attack seemed to take the horrible creatures by surprise.
Knowing little of the arts of warfare, they wheeled round in a semicircle, and turned their attention to this new source of danger. As they did so, Sir Francis shouted to his square to form into line, and pour a broadside into the huddled group of demons. At the same time our friends in the trees fired another volley. The effect was terrible, and raked the demonforce from top to bottom, adding many more victims to the ghastly heap already lying low. But the effect was electrical. With wild shrieks and yells the remainder gave way before such fearful punishment, and turning tail, fled from the magic force of the white man and his terrible weapons.
Then our five friends made haste to descend from their perches aloft, and hurried to join the others, who were all more or less shaken by the severe attack to which they had been subjected. Both Mary and Willie were deathly white; and though they had behaved with the greatest pluck and obedience to discipline, it could not be wondered at, that they felt somewhat frightened by such an experience.
“Thank God you arrived in time!” exclaimed Sir Francis in a voice full of earnest feeling. “My dear children, had it not been for your valuable help, I am confident we should have all been killed. But what a fearful demon-haunted place this is. For goodness’ sake, let us quit it without delay!”
“Ah, uncle! let us put those poor creatures out of their misery,” put in Topsie, as her eye fell on the writhing forms of several of the fallen demons. “We cannot leave them like that.”
This most unpleasant task was entrusted to the Indians, who soon made short work of the dying apes, and the whole party without delay made haste to depart from a scene of such horror. Hunting was no longer thought of, every one being desirous of getting back to the raft. It was agreed, however, to make a halt by the dead bull, and to complete the skinning and cuttingup of the animal, the meat being too valuable and precious to leave behind.
On reaching the spot where he lay, several vultures rose from the carcase. Huge creatures they were indeed, being condors in very fact; but no one attempted to shoot them, as it was deemed inadvisable to make any unnecessary noise, which might draw upon them a renewed attack from the demons.
While the Indians busied themselves over the bull, Harry and Topsie led Sir Francis and Lady Vane and their cousins to the strawberry bed to refresh and rest themselves, and then Topsie exclaimed:
“And now, Uncle Francis, do tell us how you came upon those awful brutes, and how you all managed to be together, for when we left you, both parties were separate.”
“Well, I will tell you, my dears, how it happened,” answered the baronet, as he seated himself and accepted from Harry several large strawberries which the lad had plucked and handed to him. “It was in this way. Very soon after we left you, we sighted a splendid herd of deer, who took to the forest the moment they saw us. I sent Coquet and our Indian round to try and get on the other side of them, and drive them our way. While making the widedétourwhich they found necessary, they came upon your aunt, Freddy, and the other Indians, who, having seen nothing, joined them, and they all seven entered the wood together. The deer were soon sighted, and every effort was being made to drive them to where we lay concealed, when loud yells suddenly startled us out of our senses. Outof the forest, at the very point where we expected to see the herd break, broke a very different sight, in the shape of some fifty or more hideous hairy monsters, which we at once recognised as Andes demons. We held our breath and lay still, but they seemed to divine our whereabouts, for they came straight at us. Seeing this, we sprung up, and fled, making for that part of the forest where the others were beating. We had not gone far when the demons caught sight of us, and set off in hot pursuit. We managed to reach your aunt and Freddy, however, who were hurrying forward to meet us. We at once signed to them to turn and fly with us, having no time in which to explain. Briefly, our pursuers came up with us. We fired several volleys, but these did not stop them from coming on, and we were finally driven into the open space in which you, Aniwee, Chorlo, and El Toro found us. Forming into a large wide circle the demons began to close in upon us, and I was forced to place my little party in a square. Some were armed, some were not. We loaded, and fired as quickly as we could, but the brutes, though they fell in numbers, came slowly on, and indeed would soon have come to close quarters with us, and battered in our brains had you not all arrived in the nick of time.”
“And now, Topsie, it is your turn to tell us how you got the bull,” put in Lady Vane. “Anything to turn one’s thoughts from the horrible trial we have gone through and the fearful danger which we have escaped. Very earnestly should we thank God for His great mercy in delivering us.”
But the Indians had completed their task and loadedup, so that Topsie’s story had to be told as the party tramped along. She spun it out as long as she could, until the jungle slopes were reached, and then they all had their work cut out to make their way through its dense growth. When at length they gained the raft the moon was shedding its soft light on all around.