Chapter Ten.The Wonders of the Wilds.It was a weird hour that next which was passed with the fire sending up volumes of smoke, followed by glittering sparks which rose rapidly and looked like specks of gold-leaf floating away over the river, red now as blood, now orange and gold, as the fire blazed higher and cast its reflections on the rapid stream.The bright light had a singular attraction for the birds, which came skimming round and swooping through the dark smoke, small birds with bright wings, and large-headed owls with soft silent pinions; these latter every now and then adding their mournful cries to the harsh screeching, whirring, drumming, throbbing, and piping of bird, insect, and reptile which mingled with the fine, thin, hummingpingof the mosquitoes and the mournful fluting of the frogs.No one spoke for a time, the attention of three of the party being taken up by the novelty of their position and the noises of the forest, for though they had passed many nights on the river and listened to the cries on the farther shore, this was their first experience of being right in among these musicians of the night as they kept up their incessant din.“Can you tell what every sound is that we hear, Shaddy?” whispered Rob at last.“Nay, hardly; some on ’em of course,” said their guide. “You know many of them too already, though they get so mixed up it’s hard to pick out one from the other.”“But that?” whispered Rob, as if he dared not raise his voice, and he started violently, for there was a splash close at hand.“Didn’t mean that fish, did you, sir? That won’t hurt you here so long as you don’t walk overboard in your sleep.”“No, no, I didn’t mean that; I meant that bellowing noise. You heard it, didn’t you, Mr Brazier?”There was no reply.“Sleep,” said Shaddy gruffly.“Joe, you heard that bellowing down the river there?” whispered Rob.Again there was no reply.“Sleep too,” growled Shaddy. “Well, don’t you know what that was?”“No.”“’Gator. Don’t suppose he thinks it’s bellowing. Dessay he’d call it a song. There it goes again. Comes along the river as if it was close to us. But there, don’t you think you’ve done enough for one day, and had better do as the rest are doing? We’re the only two awake.”“But what about keeping watch?” said Rob, rather excitedly.“Oh, I don’t know as there’s any need to keep watch here, my lad,” said Shaddy coolly.“What, not with all kinds of wild and savage beasts about us, and monstrous reptiles and fishes in the very water where we float! Why, it seems madness to go to sleep among such dangers.”“Nay, not it, my lad. Why, if you come to that, the world’s full of dangers wherever you are. No more danger here than on board a big ship sailing or steaming over water miles deep.”“But the wild beasts—lions and tigers, as you call them?”“Lions won’t hurt you so long as you don’t meddle with them, and the tigers won’t pass that fire.”“Then the Indians?”“No Indians about here, my lad, or I should have that fire out pretty soon and be on the watch. You leave all that to me, and don’t you get worrying yourself about danger because you hear a noise in the forest! Noise is a noosance, but it don’t hurt. There was five thousand times as much danger in the fangs of that little sarpint I chopped to-day as in all the noise you’re listening to now.”Rob was silent.“So just you take my advice, my lad: when night comes you say your bit o’ prayers and tuck your head under your wing till it’s near daylight. That’s the way to get a good night’s rest and be ready for the morning.”Rob started again, for a great, soft-winged thing swept silently by, so near that he felt the wind of its pinion as it glided on, its outline nearly invisible, but magnified by the darkness into a marvellous size.“On’y a bat, my lad!” said Shaddy, yawning.“Is that one of the blood-sucking ones?”“Very likely.”“And you talk about there being no danger out here!”“Nay, not I. There’s plenty of dangers, my lad, but we’re not going to be afraid of a thing that you could knock down with one of your hands so that it would never fly again. It ought to feel scared, not you.”“Is that a firefly?” said Rob, after a few minutes’ silence, and he pointed to a soft, golden glow coming up the river five or six feet above the stream, and larger and more powerful than the twinkling lights appearing and disappearing among the foliage at the river’s edge.“Yes, that’s a firefly; come to light you to bed, if you like. There, my lad, it’s sleep-time. Get under shelter out of the night damp. You’ll soon be used to all the buzzing and howling and—”“That was a tiger, wasn’t it?” said Rob excitedly, as a shrill cry rang out somewhere in the forest and sent a thrill through him.“No. Once more, that’s a lion, and he’s after monkeys, not after you, so good-night.”Shaddy drew the sail over him as he stretched himself in the bottom of the roomy boat, and Rob crept in under the awning. The heavy breathing enabled him to make out exactly where his companions lay asleep, and settling himself down forward, he rested his head on his hand, convinced that sleep would be impossible, and preparing to listen to the faint rustling noise of the mooring rope on the gunwale of the boat, a sound which often suggested something coming on board.Then he made sure what it was, and watched the faint glow thrown by the fire on the canvas till it seemed to grow dull—seemed, for the boatmen had arranged the wood so that from time to time it fell in, and hence it kept on burning up more brightly. But it looked dull to Rob and then black, for in spite of yells and screams and bellowings, the piping and fluting of frogs, the fiddling of crickets, and the drumming of some great toad, which apparently had a big tom-tom all to itself, Rob’s eyes had closed, and fatigue made him sleep as soundly as if he had been at home.The sun was up when he awoke with a start to find Joe having his wash in a freshly dipped bucket of clean water, and upon joining him and looking ashore, it was to see Brazier bringing his botanic treasures on board to hang up against the awning to dry; while Shaddy had taken the skin of the jaguar, pegs and all, rolling it up and throwing it forward. The boatmen kept the kettle boiling and some cake-bread baking in the hot ashes. At the same time a pleasant odour of frizzling bacon told that breakfast would not be long.“You are going to stay here for a day or two?” said Rob to Mr Brazier as he rubbed his face dry in the warm sunshine.“No. Naylor says we shall do better farther on, and keep on collecting as we go, beside getting a supply of ducks or other fowl for our wants. The farther we are from the big river the easier it will be to keep our wants supplied.”“Gun, sir!” said Shaddy just then; “big ducks coming up the river. Take it coolly, sir, and don’t shoot till you can get two or three.”Brazier waited and waited, but the birds, which were feeding, came no farther.“Hadn’t Mr Rob better try too, sir?” whispered Shaddy; “he wants to learn to shoot.”Rob glanced at Brazier, who did not take his eyes from the ducks he was watching, and the boy hurriedly fetched his gun.“What yer got in?” whispered Shaddy.“Shot in one barrel, bullet in the other.”“Bah!” growled the guide. “You don’t want bullet now. Yes, you do,” he continued. “Look straight across the water in between the trees, and tell me if you see anything.”“No. Whereabouts?”“Just opposite us. Now look again close to the water’s edge, where there’s that bit of an opening. Come, lad, where’s your eyes?”“I don’t see anything but flowers and drooping boughs.”“And a deer just come down for a drink of fresh-water, ready to be shot and keep us in food for days.”“Yes, I can see it now,” said Rob eagerly. “What a beautiful creature!”“Yes, beautiful meat that we can cut up in strips and dry in the sun, so as to have a little supply in hand.”“But it seems—” began Rob.“It’s necessary, lad, and it’s a chance. Sit down, rest your piece on the gunwale, and aim straight with your left barrel at the centre of its head. If you miss that you’re sure to send the bullet through its shoulder and bring it down.”Feeling a great deal of compunction, Rob sank into the position advised, cocked his piece, and took careful aim.“Make sure of him, my lad,” whispered Shaddy. “It’s a fine bit o’ practice for you. Now then, hold the butt tight to your shoulder and pull the trigger gently; squeeze it more than pull. Covered him?”“Yes.”“Then fire.”Bang! bang! Two shots in rapid succession, and the deer was gone, but a monkey unseen till then dropped head over heels into the water from one of the trees over the trembling deer, scared from its hold by the loud reports, and after a few moments’ splashing succeeded in reaching a branch which dipped in the stream. In another moment or two it was in safety, chattering away fiercely as an ugly snout was protruded from the water where it fell.“Got them this time!” said Brazier in a tone of satisfaction, as five ducks lay on the water waiting to be picked up. “You should have fired too, Rob. We want fresh provisions.”“What I told him, sir, but he took such a long aim that the deer said, ‘Good-morning; come and be shot another time.’”“Deer? What deer?”“One t’other side, sir,” said Shaddy, who had got out to unmoor the boat.“I wish I had seen it; the meat would have been so valuable to-day.”“What I telled him, sir.”“And you didn’t shoot!”“I was just going to when you fired, and the deer darted away.”“Naturally,” said Brazier, smiling; and by this time the boat was gliding down the river in the wake of the ducks. These were secured, all but one, which, being wounded, flapped and swam toward the shore, where it was suddenly sucked down by a reptile or fish. Those they secured dropped silvery little arrows, apparently, back into the water in the shape of the tiny voracious fish that had forced their way already between their feathers to reach the skin.The birds secured, Rob sat gazing with delight at the fresh beauties of the river where it wound off to the right. Birds innumerable were flitting about, chirping and singing; noisy parrots were climbing and hanging head downwards as they hunted out a berry-like fruit from a tall tree; and toucans, with orange-and-scarlet breasts and huge bills, hopped about, uttering their discordant cries. Everything looked so beautiful and peaceful that for the moment he forgot the dangerous occupants of the river, and his eyes grew dim with the strange sense of joy that came over him that glorious morning. But the next moment he became aware of the fact that to all this beauty and brightness there was a terrible reverse side. For suddenly a great falcon dashed with swift wing high up along the course of the river, and cries of fear, warning, and alarm rang out from the small birds, the minute before happy and contentedly seeking their food.The change was magical. At the first cry, all dropped down helter-skelter beneath the boughs and leaves, seeking shelter; and as the falcon gave a harsh scream it was over groves that had suddenly become deserted, not a tenant being visible, except some half-dozen humming-birds, whose safety lay in their tiny size and wonderful powers of flight. Three of these, instead of showing fear, became immediately aggressive, and, darting like great flies at the falcon, flashed about it in different directions, apparently acting in concert and pestering the great bird, so that it winged its way over the great wall of trees and was gone.But almost at the same moment a vulture appeared, with its hideous naked head and neck outstretched, making the humming-birds ruffle up again and resume their attack till they literally drove the great intruder away.“What daring little things they are!” said Rob, who was watching the tiny bird gems with keen delight, while Brazier’s admiration was as much taken up by the clusters of blossoms hanging from a branch over the water.“I shall be obliged to have those, Rob,” he said, pointing to the orchids. “Do you think you could get out along that bough if the boat were run in to the bank?”“Yes,” said the boy; “but suppose I drop into the river! What then?”“We would keep the boat under you.”“Can’t be done,” growled Shaddy, who had been trying to force the boat back to their little camp by paddling with one oar over the stern. “’Bliged to ask you, gentlemen, to take an oar apiece. Stream runs mighty fast here.”Rob seized an oar, and Brazier followed suit, at the same time glancing toward their last night’s halting-place to see if their men were within reach to come and row and enable him to make an effort to obtain some of the green, bulbous-looking stems and flowers of the lovely parasite which had taken his attention. But they were as unobtainable as if they were a hundred miles away, for it would have taken them days to cut a way to opposite where the boat was now being held against the swift stream, and even when they had reached the spot it would have been impossible to force her in through the tangled growth to the shore.“Now together, gentlemen!” growled Shaddy. “Keep stroke, please. Pull hard.”They were already tugging so hard that the perspiration was starting out upon Rob’s brow, and in that short row, with Shaddy supplementing their efforts by paddling with all his might, they had a fair sample of the tremendous power of the stream.“At last!” said Shaddy as they regained their old quarters, where Joe and the four men had stood watching them. “It will give my chaps a pretty good warming if we come back this way. Strikes me that we four had better practise pulling together, so as to be able to give them a rest now and then when the stream’s very much against us.”“By all means,” said Brazier.“You see, men ain’t steam-engines, sir, and we might be where there was no place for landing. O’ course we could always hitch on to the trees, but that makes poor mooring, and we should be better able to make our way. There’s hardly a chance of getting into slack water in a river like this: it all goes along with a rush.”“But I must get that plant, Naylor,” said Brazier. “If you’ll believe me, sir,” was the reply, “you needn’t worry about that one. I’m going to take you where you’ll find thousands.”“Like that?”“Ay, and other sorts too. Seems to me, sir, we want to catch a monkey and teach him how to use a knife. He’d be the sort of chap to run up the trees.” Rob laughed at the idea, and said it was not possible. “Well, sir,” said Shaddy, “you may believe it or no, but an old friend of mine ’sured me that the Malay chaps do teach a big monkey they’ve got out there to slip up the cocoa-nut trees and twist the big nuts round and round till they drop off. He said it was a fact, and I don’t see why not.”“We’ll try and dispense with the monkey,” said Brazier; and trusting to finding more easily accessible specimens of the orchid, he gave that up, and a couple of hours after they were gliding swiftly along the stream, rapt in contemplation of the wonders on either hand, Shaddy being called upon from time to time to seize hold of some overhanging bough and check the progress of the boat, so that its occupants might watch the gambols of the inquisitive monkeys which kept pace with them along the bank by bounding and swinging from branch to branch.The birds, too, appeared to be infinite in variety; and Rob was never weary of watching the tiny humming-birds as they poised themselves before the trumpet blossoms of some of the pendent vines to probe their depths for honey, or capture tiny insects with their beaks.Their journey was prolonged from their inability to find a suitable place for a halt, and it was easy work for the boatmen, who smiled with content as they found that only one was required to handle the oars, so as to keep the boat’s head straight.It was nearly night, when a narrow place was found where by the fall of a huge tree several others had been torn up by their roots, and lay with their water-worn branches in the river.The place offered just room to run the boat between two of the trees, but it could be easily moored, and there was the clear sky overhead. Moreover, they had an ample supply of dead wood to make a fire, and by the time this was blazing merrily and lighting up the wall of trees and the river night had fallen intensely dark.The lads were for leaping out directly and climbing about amongst the fallen trunks which nearly filled the opening, but Shaddy checked them.“Wait a while, my lads, till the fire’s been burning a bit. I don’t quite like our quarters.”“But that fire will scare away any wild beasts that may be near,” said Rob.“Yes, but the place looks snaky, Mr Rob; and I daresay there’s lots o’ them big spiders about.”“What big spiders?”“Them as bites so bad that you remember it for months. Why, there’s one sort out in these parts as’ll run after you and attack you—fierce.”“No, no, Shaddy, not spiders,” said Rob, laughing.“Look ye here, Mr Rob, sir,” said Shaddy solemnly, “when I tell you a story of the good old traveller sort—I mean a bouncer—you’ll see the corners of my lips screwed up. When I’m telling you what’s true as true, you’ll see I look solid as mahogany; and that’s how I’m looking now.”“Yes, it’s true, Rob,” said Joe. “There are plenty of spiders out on the pampas—great fellows that will come at you and bite horribly.”“I should like to see one,” said Rob.“Wait a bit, my lad, and you shall,” said Shaddy.—“Humph! don’t like this place at all,” he growled. “Look there!” he continued, pointing at where three big trees lay close together, with their branches worn sharp by the action of the water. “If there ain’t ’gators under all them sharp snags my name ain’t Shadrach Naylor! Water’s quite still, too, there. I hope there ain’t anything worse.”“Do you think we had better go on?” said Brazier.“Nay, we’ll risk it, sir. Let’s wait till the fire burns up big and strong. We’ll have a roarer to-night, and that’ll scare away most of the trash. Worst of it is, I’m ’fraid it ’tracts the ’gators and fish.”
It was a weird hour that next which was passed with the fire sending up volumes of smoke, followed by glittering sparks which rose rapidly and looked like specks of gold-leaf floating away over the river, red now as blood, now orange and gold, as the fire blazed higher and cast its reflections on the rapid stream.
The bright light had a singular attraction for the birds, which came skimming round and swooping through the dark smoke, small birds with bright wings, and large-headed owls with soft silent pinions; these latter every now and then adding their mournful cries to the harsh screeching, whirring, drumming, throbbing, and piping of bird, insect, and reptile which mingled with the fine, thin, hummingpingof the mosquitoes and the mournful fluting of the frogs.
No one spoke for a time, the attention of three of the party being taken up by the novelty of their position and the noises of the forest, for though they had passed many nights on the river and listened to the cries on the farther shore, this was their first experience of being right in among these musicians of the night as they kept up their incessant din.
“Can you tell what every sound is that we hear, Shaddy?” whispered Rob at last.
“Nay, hardly; some on ’em of course,” said their guide. “You know many of them too already, though they get so mixed up it’s hard to pick out one from the other.”
“But that?” whispered Rob, as if he dared not raise his voice, and he started violently, for there was a splash close at hand.
“Didn’t mean that fish, did you, sir? That won’t hurt you here so long as you don’t walk overboard in your sleep.”
“No, no, I didn’t mean that; I meant that bellowing noise. You heard it, didn’t you, Mr Brazier?”
There was no reply.
“Sleep,” said Shaddy gruffly.
“Joe, you heard that bellowing down the river there?” whispered Rob.
Again there was no reply.
“Sleep too,” growled Shaddy. “Well, don’t you know what that was?”
“No.”
“’Gator. Don’t suppose he thinks it’s bellowing. Dessay he’d call it a song. There it goes again. Comes along the river as if it was close to us. But there, don’t you think you’ve done enough for one day, and had better do as the rest are doing? We’re the only two awake.”
“But what about keeping watch?” said Rob, rather excitedly.
“Oh, I don’t know as there’s any need to keep watch here, my lad,” said Shaddy coolly.
“What, not with all kinds of wild and savage beasts about us, and monstrous reptiles and fishes in the very water where we float! Why, it seems madness to go to sleep among such dangers.”
“Nay, not it, my lad. Why, if you come to that, the world’s full of dangers wherever you are. No more danger here than on board a big ship sailing or steaming over water miles deep.”
“But the wild beasts—lions and tigers, as you call them?”
“Lions won’t hurt you so long as you don’t meddle with them, and the tigers won’t pass that fire.”
“Then the Indians?”
“No Indians about here, my lad, or I should have that fire out pretty soon and be on the watch. You leave all that to me, and don’t you get worrying yourself about danger because you hear a noise in the forest! Noise is a noosance, but it don’t hurt. There was five thousand times as much danger in the fangs of that little sarpint I chopped to-day as in all the noise you’re listening to now.”
Rob was silent.
“So just you take my advice, my lad: when night comes you say your bit o’ prayers and tuck your head under your wing till it’s near daylight. That’s the way to get a good night’s rest and be ready for the morning.”
Rob started again, for a great, soft-winged thing swept silently by, so near that he felt the wind of its pinion as it glided on, its outline nearly invisible, but magnified by the darkness into a marvellous size.
“On’y a bat, my lad!” said Shaddy, yawning.
“Is that one of the blood-sucking ones?”
“Very likely.”
“And you talk about there being no danger out here!”
“Nay, not I. There’s plenty of dangers, my lad, but we’re not going to be afraid of a thing that you could knock down with one of your hands so that it would never fly again. It ought to feel scared, not you.”
“Is that a firefly?” said Rob, after a few minutes’ silence, and he pointed to a soft, golden glow coming up the river five or six feet above the stream, and larger and more powerful than the twinkling lights appearing and disappearing among the foliage at the river’s edge.
“Yes, that’s a firefly; come to light you to bed, if you like. There, my lad, it’s sleep-time. Get under shelter out of the night damp. You’ll soon be used to all the buzzing and howling and—”
“That was a tiger, wasn’t it?” said Rob excitedly, as a shrill cry rang out somewhere in the forest and sent a thrill through him.
“No. Once more, that’s a lion, and he’s after monkeys, not after you, so good-night.”
Shaddy drew the sail over him as he stretched himself in the bottom of the roomy boat, and Rob crept in under the awning. The heavy breathing enabled him to make out exactly where his companions lay asleep, and settling himself down forward, he rested his head on his hand, convinced that sleep would be impossible, and preparing to listen to the faint rustling noise of the mooring rope on the gunwale of the boat, a sound which often suggested something coming on board.
Then he made sure what it was, and watched the faint glow thrown by the fire on the canvas till it seemed to grow dull—seemed, for the boatmen had arranged the wood so that from time to time it fell in, and hence it kept on burning up more brightly. But it looked dull to Rob and then black, for in spite of yells and screams and bellowings, the piping and fluting of frogs, the fiddling of crickets, and the drumming of some great toad, which apparently had a big tom-tom all to itself, Rob’s eyes had closed, and fatigue made him sleep as soundly as if he had been at home.
The sun was up when he awoke with a start to find Joe having his wash in a freshly dipped bucket of clean water, and upon joining him and looking ashore, it was to see Brazier bringing his botanic treasures on board to hang up against the awning to dry; while Shaddy had taken the skin of the jaguar, pegs and all, rolling it up and throwing it forward. The boatmen kept the kettle boiling and some cake-bread baking in the hot ashes. At the same time a pleasant odour of frizzling bacon told that breakfast would not be long.
“You are going to stay here for a day or two?” said Rob to Mr Brazier as he rubbed his face dry in the warm sunshine.
“No. Naylor says we shall do better farther on, and keep on collecting as we go, beside getting a supply of ducks or other fowl for our wants. The farther we are from the big river the easier it will be to keep our wants supplied.”
“Gun, sir!” said Shaddy just then; “big ducks coming up the river. Take it coolly, sir, and don’t shoot till you can get two or three.”
Brazier waited and waited, but the birds, which were feeding, came no farther.
“Hadn’t Mr Rob better try too, sir?” whispered Shaddy; “he wants to learn to shoot.”
Rob glanced at Brazier, who did not take his eyes from the ducks he was watching, and the boy hurriedly fetched his gun.
“What yer got in?” whispered Shaddy.
“Shot in one barrel, bullet in the other.”
“Bah!” growled the guide. “You don’t want bullet now. Yes, you do,” he continued. “Look straight across the water in between the trees, and tell me if you see anything.”
“No. Whereabouts?”
“Just opposite us. Now look again close to the water’s edge, where there’s that bit of an opening. Come, lad, where’s your eyes?”
“I don’t see anything but flowers and drooping boughs.”
“And a deer just come down for a drink of fresh-water, ready to be shot and keep us in food for days.”
“Yes, I can see it now,” said Rob eagerly. “What a beautiful creature!”
“Yes, beautiful meat that we can cut up in strips and dry in the sun, so as to have a little supply in hand.”
“But it seems—” began Rob.
“It’s necessary, lad, and it’s a chance. Sit down, rest your piece on the gunwale, and aim straight with your left barrel at the centre of its head. If you miss that you’re sure to send the bullet through its shoulder and bring it down.”
Feeling a great deal of compunction, Rob sank into the position advised, cocked his piece, and took careful aim.
“Make sure of him, my lad,” whispered Shaddy. “It’s a fine bit o’ practice for you. Now then, hold the butt tight to your shoulder and pull the trigger gently; squeeze it more than pull. Covered him?”
“Yes.”
“Then fire.”
Bang! bang! Two shots in rapid succession, and the deer was gone, but a monkey unseen till then dropped head over heels into the water from one of the trees over the trembling deer, scared from its hold by the loud reports, and after a few moments’ splashing succeeded in reaching a branch which dipped in the stream. In another moment or two it was in safety, chattering away fiercely as an ugly snout was protruded from the water where it fell.
“Got them this time!” said Brazier in a tone of satisfaction, as five ducks lay on the water waiting to be picked up. “You should have fired too, Rob. We want fresh provisions.”
“What I told him, sir, but he took such a long aim that the deer said, ‘Good-morning; come and be shot another time.’”
“Deer? What deer?”
“One t’other side, sir,” said Shaddy, who had got out to unmoor the boat.
“I wish I had seen it; the meat would have been so valuable to-day.”
“What I telled him, sir.”
“And you didn’t shoot!”
“I was just going to when you fired, and the deer darted away.”
“Naturally,” said Brazier, smiling; and by this time the boat was gliding down the river in the wake of the ducks. These were secured, all but one, which, being wounded, flapped and swam toward the shore, where it was suddenly sucked down by a reptile or fish. Those they secured dropped silvery little arrows, apparently, back into the water in the shape of the tiny voracious fish that had forced their way already between their feathers to reach the skin.
The birds secured, Rob sat gazing with delight at the fresh beauties of the river where it wound off to the right. Birds innumerable were flitting about, chirping and singing; noisy parrots were climbing and hanging head downwards as they hunted out a berry-like fruit from a tall tree; and toucans, with orange-and-scarlet breasts and huge bills, hopped about, uttering their discordant cries. Everything looked so beautiful and peaceful that for the moment he forgot the dangerous occupants of the river, and his eyes grew dim with the strange sense of joy that came over him that glorious morning. But the next moment he became aware of the fact that to all this beauty and brightness there was a terrible reverse side. For suddenly a great falcon dashed with swift wing high up along the course of the river, and cries of fear, warning, and alarm rang out from the small birds, the minute before happy and contentedly seeking their food.
The change was magical. At the first cry, all dropped down helter-skelter beneath the boughs and leaves, seeking shelter; and as the falcon gave a harsh scream it was over groves that had suddenly become deserted, not a tenant being visible, except some half-dozen humming-birds, whose safety lay in their tiny size and wonderful powers of flight. Three of these, instead of showing fear, became immediately aggressive, and, darting like great flies at the falcon, flashed about it in different directions, apparently acting in concert and pestering the great bird, so that it winged its way over the great wall of trees and was gone.
But almost at the same moment a vulture appeared, with its hideous naked head and neck outstretched, making the humming-birds ruffle up again and resume their attack till they literally drove the great intruder away.
“What daring little things they are!” said Rob, who was watching the tiny bird gems with keen delight, while Brazier’s admiration was as much taken up by the clusters of blossoms hanging from a branch over the water.
“I shall be obliged to have those, Rob,” he said, pointing to the orchids. “Do you think you could get out along that bough if the boat were run in to the bank?”
“Yes,” said the boy; “but suppose I drop into the river! What then?”
“We would keep the boat under you.”
“Can’t be done,” growled Shaddy, who had been trying to force the boat back to their little camp by paddling with one oar over the stern. “’Bliged to ask you, gentlemen, to take an oar apiece. Stream runs mighty fast here.”
Rob seized an oar, and Brazier followed suit, at the same time glancing toward their last night’s halting-place to see if their men were within reach to come and row and enable him to make an effort to obtain some of the green, bulbous-looking stems and flowers of the lovely parasite which had taken his attention. But they were as unobtainable as if they were a hundred miles away, for it would have taken them days to cut a way to opposite where the boat was now being held against the swift stream, and even when they had reached the spot it would have been impossible to force her in through the tangled growth to the shore.
“Now together, gentlemen!” growled Shaddy. “Keep stroke, please. Pull hard.”
They were already tugging so hard that the perspiration was starting out upon Rob’s brow, and in that short row, with Shaddy supplementing their efforts by paddling with all his might, they had a fair sample of the tremendous power of the stream.
“At last!” said Shaddy as they regained their old quarters, where Joe and the four men had stood watching them. “It will give my chaps a pretty good warming if we come back this way. Strikes me that we four had better practise pulling together, so as to be able to give them a rest now and then when the stream’s very much against us.”
“By all means,” said Brazier.
“You see, men ain’t steam-engines, sir, and we might be where there was no place for landing. O’ course we could always hitch on to the trees, but that makes poor mooring, and we should be better able to make our way. There’s hardly a chance of getting into slack water in a river like this: it all goes along with a rush.”
“But I must get that plant, Naylor,” said Brazier. “If you’ll believe me, sir,” was the reply, “you needn’t worry about that one. I’m going to take you where you’ll find thousands.”
“Like that?”
“Ay, and other sorts too. Seems to me, sir, we want to catch a monkey and teach him how to use a knife. He’d be the sort of chap to run up the trees.” Rob laughed at the idea, and said it was not possible. “Well, sir,” said Shaddy, “you may believe it or no, but an old friend of mine ’sured me that the Malay chaps do teach a big monkey they’ve got out there to slip up the cocoa-nut trees and twist the big nuts round and round till they drop off. He said it was a fact, and I don’t see why not.”
“We’ll try and dispense with the monkey,” said Brazier; and trusting to finding more easily accessible specimens of the orchid, he gave that up, and a couple of hours after they were gliding swiftly along the stream, rapt in contemplation of the wonders on either hand, Shaddy being called upon from time to time to seize hold of some overhanging bough and check the progress of the boat, so that its occupants might watch the gambols of the inquisitive monkeys which kept pace with them along the bank by bounding and swinging from branch to branch.
The birds, too, appeared to be infinite in variety; and Rob was never weary of watching the tiny humming-birds as they poised themselves before the trumpet blossoms of some of the pendent vines to probe their depths for honey, or capture tiny insects with their beaks.
Their journey was prolonged from their inability to find a suitable place for a halt, and it was easy work for the boatmen, who smiled with content as they found that only one was required to handle the oars, so as to keep the boat’s head straight.
It was nearly night, when a narrow place was found where by the fall of a huge tree several others had been torn up by their roots, and lay with their water-worn branches in the river.
The place offered just room to run the boat between two of the trees, but it could be easily moored, and there was the clear sky overhead. Moreover, they had an ample supply of dead wood to make a fire, and by the time this was blazing merrily and lighting up the wall of trees and the river night had fallen intensely dark.
The lads were for leaping out directly and climbing about amongst the fallen trunks which nearly filled the opening, but Shaddy checked them.
“Wait a while, my lads, till the fire’s been burning a bit. I don’t quite like our quarters.”
“But that fire will scare away any wild beasts that may be near,” said Rob.
“Yes, but the place looks snaky, Mr Rob; and I daresay there’s lots o’ them big spiders about.”
“What big spiders?”
“Them as bites so bad that you remember it for months. Why, there’s one sort out in these parts as’ll run after you and attack you—fierce.”
“No, no, Shaddy, not spiders,” said Rob, laughing.
“Look ye here, Mr Rob, sir,” said Shaddy solemnly, “when I tell you a story of the good old traveller sort—I mean a bouncer—you’ll see the corners of my lips screwed up. When I’m telling you what’s true as true, you’ll see I look solid as mahogany; and that’s how I’m looking now.”
“Yes, it’s true, Rob,” said Joe. “There are plenty of spiders out on the pampas—great fellows that will come at you and bite horribly.”
“I should like to see one,” said Rob.
“Wait a bit, my lad, and you shall,” said Shaddy.—“Humph! don’t like this place at all,” he growled. “Look there!” he continued, pointing at where three big trees lay close together, with their branches worn sharp by the action of the water. “If there ain’t ’gators under all them sharp snags my name ain’t Shadrach Naylor! Water’s quite still, too, there. I hope there ain’t anything worse.”
“Do you think we had better go on?” said Brazier.
“Nay, we’ll risk it, sir. Let’s wait till the fire burns up big and strong. We’ll have a roarer to-night, and that’ll scare away most of the trash. Worst of it is, I’m ’fraid it ’tracts the ’gators and fish.”
Chapter Eleven.An Eventful Night.“I do like a good fire, Joe,” said Rob, as he gazed at the ruddy flames rushing up.“Why, you’re not cold?”“No, I’m hot, and this fire brings in a breeze and makes it cooler—on one side. But what I like in a fire of this kind is that you can burn as much wood as you like, and nobody can say it’s waste, because it’s doing good—clearing the ground for the trees around to grow. I say, look at the birds.”“After supper,” said Joe, as he watched the actions of the principal boatman, who was head cook, busily preparing the ducks and two good-sized fish which they had caught by trailing a bait behind the boat as they came.“Yes, I’m hungry,” said Rob. “What’s that?”“It was Shaddy.”“What! tumbled in?” said Rob excitedly.“No; he took hold of a thick piece of branch and threw it into the water. What did you do that for?”“Scare them ’gators, my lad. There’s a whole school of ’em out there, and I think they mean coming to supper. And fish too,” he added, as there was another splash and then another.By this time he was close alongside of the boat, under whose tent Mr Brazier was busy by the light of a lanthorn making notes and lists of the flowers and orchid bulbs which he had secured that day.“Hadn’t we better put out a line, Shaddy? If we caught a fish or two the men would be glad of them in the morning.”“No, Mr Rob, sir; I don’t suppose they’d bite now, and even if they did, so sure as you hooked one a smiler would get hold of it, and you don’t want another fight of that sort. I’m beginning to think that we’d best get our bit o’ food, and then drop slowly down the river again.”“What’s that?” said Brazier, looking up from his work. “That will not do, Naylor; we should miss no end of good plants.”“Well, sir, better do that than get into a row with any of the natives here,” growled Shaddy.“Why, you said there were no Indians near.”“Tchah! I mean the other natives—’sects and rept’les and what not. But there, if we put a rope to the end of that largest tree and anchor ourselves yonder I don’t suppose we shall hurt. Eh? All right,” he cried, in answer to a hint from the men; “supper’s ready, gentlemen.”“And so are we,” said Rob with alacrity; and he leaped off the gunwale on to the tree trunk by whose side it was moored.To all appearance it was a solid-looking stem of tons in weight, but covered with mosses, creepers, and orchids, which pretty well hid its bark.Rob’s intention was to run along it to the root end, which stood up close to the fire; but, to his intense astonishment, he crashed through what was a mere outer shell of bark into so much dust and touchwood right up to the armpits, where he stuck, with a hedge of plants half-covering his face.Joe burst out into a fit of laughing, in which Rob joined as soon as the first startled sensation was over.“Who’d have thought of that?” he cried. “But, I say, I’m fast. Come and lend me a hand. I thought it was a great solid trunk, and all inside here you can see it looks as if it were on fire. Oh! oh! Ah! Help!”“What’s the matter?” cried Brazier excitedly, as Shaddy and he stepped cautiously to the boy’s side, Joe having already mounted on the tree trunk. “Not on fire, are you?”“No, no,” gasped Rob in agonised tones; and, speaking in a frightened whisper, “There’s something alive in here.”“Nippers o’ some kind, eh?”“No, no,” cried Rob faintly; “I can feel it moving. Oh! help! It’s a snake.”As he spoke there was a curious scuffling noise inside, as if something was struggling to extricate itself, and Shaddy lost no time. Bending down, he seized Rob by the chest under the armpits, stooped lower, gave one heave, and lifted him right out; when, following close upon his legs, the head of a great serpent was thrust up, to look threateningly round for a moment. The next, the creature was gliding down through the dense coating of parasitical growth, and before gun could be fetched from the cabin, or weapon raised, the rustling and movement on the side of the trunk had ceased, and Joe in turn gave a bound to one side.“It’s coming along by here,” he cried, as, in full belief that he would the next moment be enveloped in the monster’s coils, he made for the fire.“Where is it now?” cried Shaddy, knife in hand.“The grass is moving there,” said Brazier, pointing a little to the right, where the tree trunks cast a deep shadow.“Can’t see—so plaguey dark,” growled the guide; “and it’s no good if I could. Yes, I can see the stuff moving now. He’s making for the water. Now, sir, send a charge o’ shot where the grass is waving.”But before Brazier could get a sight of the reptile it had glided into the river, down among the branches of the fallen tree, as if quite used to the intricate tangle of pointed wood beneath the bank, and accustomed to use it for a home of refuge, or lurking place from which to strike at prey.“Did it seize you?” said Brazier excitedly.“No, I only felt it strike against my leg and then press it to the side. I think I trod upon it.”“Made its home, I suppose, in the hollow tree. But you are sure you are not hurt, my boy—only frightened?”“I couldn’t help being frightened,” said Rob, in rather an ill-used tone.“Nobody says you could,” said Brazier, laughing. “Master Giovanni seems to have been frightened too. Why, Rob, my lad, it would have almost frightened me into fits: I have such a horror of serpents. There, I believe after all these things are not so very dangerous.”“Don’t know so much about that, sir,” said Shaddy. “I’ve know’d ’em coil round and squeeze a deer to death, and then swallow it.”“Yes, a small deer perhaps; but the old travellers used to tell us about mighty boas and monstrous anacondas which could swallow buffaloes.”“Ah! they don’t grow so big as that now, sir. I’ve seen some pretty big ones, too, in my time, specially on the side of the river and up the Amazons.”“Well, how big—how long have you ever seen one, Naylor?”“Never see one a hundred foot long,” said Shaddy drily.“No, I suppose not. Come, what was the largest?”“Largest I ever see, sir, was only the skin, as I telled Mr Rob about. Some half-caste chaps had got it pegged out, and I dessay skinning had stretched it a bit.”“Well, how long was that, Naylor?”“That one was twenty-six foot long, sir, and nine foot across; and you may take my word for it as a thing like that, all muscles like iron—say six-and-twenty foot long and bigger round than a man—would be an awkward customer to tackle. Big enough for anything.”“Quite, Naylor.”“But how big was this one, do you think?” said Rob, who was getting over the perturbation caused by his adventure.“Well, my lad, seeing what a bit of a squint I had of it, I should say it were thirteen or fourteen foot—p’raps fifteen.”“I thought it was nearer fifty,” said Rob.“Yes, you would then, my lad. But, never mind, it didn’t seize you. I dessay you scared it as much as it did you.”“You will not be able to eat any supper, Rob, I suppose?” said Brazier rather maliciously.Rob looked doubtful, but he smiled; and they went to the clearest place they could find, but not without sundry misgivings, for another tree sheltered them from the fire, which now sent forth a tremendous heat, and a cloud of golden sparks rose eddying and circling up to a dense cloud of smoke which glowed as if red-hot where it reflected the flames. This huge trunk, like the one through which Rob had slipped, was coated with parasitical growth, and though apparently solid, might, for all they knew, be hollow, and the nesting-place of half a dozen serpents larger than the one they had seen.“Hadn’t we better shift our quarters?” said Brazier.“Yes, do,” said Joe eagerly; “I hate snakes.”“Nobody’s going to jump through that tree and ’sturb ’em, so I don’t s’pose they’ll ’sturb us. You see, they’re a curious kind o’ beast, which is all alive and twine for a day or two till they get a good meal, and then they go to sleep for a month before they’re hungry again. It’s wonderful how stupid and sleepy they are when they’re like this. It takes some one to jump on ’em to rouse ’em up, like Mr Rob did.”“Well, we must chance it,” said Brazier; and they seated themselves to theiral frescosupper, over which Rob forgot his fright—his appetite returning, and the novelty of the position making everything delightful, in spite of the discomfort of their seat. For all around was so new, and there was a creepy kind of pleasure in sitting there by that crackling fire eating the delicious, hot, juicy birds, and all the while listening to the weird chorus of the forest, now in full swing.Rob paused in the picking of a tasty leg, deliciously cooked, and sat in a very unpolished way listening to the curious cries, when, raising his eyes, they encountered Brazier’s, who was similarly occupied.“We’ve come to a wild enough place, Rob, my lad,” he said; “but I don’t think we wish to change.”“Oh! no,” said Rob, in a whisper. “One can’t help being a bit frightened sometimes, but it is grand even if we see nothing more.”Shaddy uttered a low, jerky sound, which was meant for a laugh.“See nothing more, lad!” he cried. “Why, look here, you may go hundreds of miles to the south, the west and the north, and it’s all savage land that man has hardly ever crossed. Don’t you think there’s something more to be seen there? Why, who knows but what we may come upon strange wild beasts such as nobody has ever set eyes on before, and— Why, what’s the matter with our young skipper?”Joe was opposite to him, staring wildly, his eyelids so drawn back that he showed a circle of white around the irises, and his lips were apart from his teeth.“Why, what’s the matter, lad? They haven’t put any poison stuff in your victuals, have they?”Joe made no reply, but sat staring wildly still, not at Shaddy, but in the direction of the river beyond.“What’s the matter, my lad?” said Brazier.“I know!” cried Shaddy; “where’s your guns? It’s them ’gators coming up out of the water, and it’s what I expected.”“No, no,” whispered the boy excitedly: “look lower!”All followed his pointing finger, but for the moment they could see nothing, one of the men having thrown some fresh fuel upon the fire, which was emitting more smoke than blaze.“Hi! one of you!” cried Shaddy, “stir that fire.”One of the men seized the end of a burning limb, shook it about a little, and a roar of flame ascended skyward, lighting up the river and the trees beyond, but above all, striking just upon the rotten trunk through which Rob fell. There they saw a something glistening and horrible, as it swayed and undulated and rose and fell, with its neck all waves and its eyes sparkling in the golden blaze of the fire. Now it sank down till it was almost hidden among the parasitic plants; now it slowly rose, arching its neck, and apparently watching the party near the fire; while moment by moment its aspect was so menacing that Joe thought it would launch itself upon them and seize one to appease its rage.“It’s—it’s come back!” he whispered faintly.“Not it,” growled Shaddy; “this one’s twice as big as t’other. It’s its father or mother, p’r’aps. Better have a shot at it, sir.”“Yes,” said Brazier, slowly raising his gun, “but this light is so deceptive I am not at all sure that I can hit.”“Oh, you’ll hit him full enough,” said Shaddy. “You must hit it, sir. Why, if you missed, the beast would come down upon us as savage as a tiger. Take a good, quiet aim down low so as to hit his neck, if you don’t his head. Are you cocked?”“Tut! tut!” muttered Brazier, who in his excitement had forgotten this necessary preliminary, and making up for the omission.“Come, Mr Rob, sir, don’t miss your chance of having a shot at a ’conda. ’Tain’t everybody who gets such a shot as that.”Rob mechanically picked up his piece, examined the breech, and then waited for Mr Brazier to fire, feeling sure the while that if it depended upon him the creature would go off scathless.“Now’s your time, sir!” whispered Shaddy. “He is put out, and means mischief. I’d let him have the small shot just beneath the jaws, if I could. Wait a moment, till he’s quiet. Rather too much waving about him yet. Look out, sir! he’s getting ready to make a dart at us, I do believe!”But still Brazier did not fire, for the peculiar undulatory motion kept up by the serpent, as seen by the light of the fire, was singularly deceptive, and again and again the leader of the little expedition felt that if he fired it would be to miss.Shaddy drew in a long breath, and gazed impatiently at Brazier, who was only moved by one idea—that of making a dead shot, to rid their little camp of a horrible-looking enemy.Then the chance seemed to be gone, for by one quick movement of the lithe body and neck the head dropped down amongst the plants which clothed the tree trunk.“Gone!” gasped Rob, with a sigh of satisfaction.“Eyes right!” cried Shaddy; “he hasn’t gone. He’ll rise close in somewhere. Look out, gentlemen—look out!”He was excited, and drew his knife, as if expecting danger. And it was not without cause, for almost directly after the keen steel blade had flashed in the light of the fire, the hideous head of the serpent rose up not ten feet away, with its eyes glittering, the scales burnished like bright, many-shaded bronze, and the quick, forked tongue darting in and out from its formidable jaws.The head kept on rising till it was fully six feet above the growth, when it was rapidly drawn back, as if to be darted forward; but at that moment both Rob and Brazier fired together, and as the smoke cleared away another cloud of something seemed to be playing about on the ground, but a solid cloud, before which everything gave way, while some great flail-like object rapidly beat down plant and shrub.All shrank away, and, as if moved by one impulse, took refuge behind the roaring fire, feeling, as they did, that their dangerous visitor would not attempt to pass that in making an attack upon those sheltered by so menacing an outwork.There was something terribly appalling in the struggles of the silent monster, as it writhed and twisted itself into knots; then unfolded with the rapidity of lightning, and waving its tail in the air, again beat down the bushes and luxuriant growth around.That it was fearfully wounded was evident, for after a few moments all could plainly see that it was actuated by a blind fury, and in its agony vented its rage upon everything around. And as it continued its struggles, moment by moment it approached nearer to the blazing fire, till all stood waiting in horror for the moment when one of its folds would touch the burning embers and the struggles come to a frightful end.But all at once the writhings ceased, and the reptile lay undulating and heaving gently among the dense beaten-down growth.“Stop!” said Brazier sharply, as the guide moved; “what are you going to do?”“Put him out of his misery,” replied Shaddy, quietly. “Hi! you there: give me the axe.”“No,” said Brazier, firmly, “it is too risky a task; you shall not attempt it.”Shaddy uttered a low growl, like some thwarted animal, and said, in an ill-used tone,—“Why, I could fetch his head off with one good chop, and—”“Look, look!” cried Joe. “Mind! Take care!”“Yes,” shouted Rob; “it’s coming round this way.”Neither could see the reptile; but the swaying herbage and the rustling, crackling sound showed that it was in rapid motion.“Nay,” growled Shaddy, “he ain’t coming this way—only right-about-facing. It is his nature to; he’s going to make for the water. That’s what those things do: get down to the bottom and lie there, to be out o’ danger. Look, Mr Rob, sir; you can see now what a length he is. One part’s going one way, and the t’other part t’other way. Now he’s turned the corner, and going straight for the river.”With Shaddy’s words to guide them, they could easily make out what was taking place, as the reptile now made for the place of refuge already sought by its companion.Just then Brazier cocked his piece—click, click—and took a few steps forward to try and get a sight of the creature before it reached the river bank.“May as well save your shot, sir,” said Shaddy gruffly. “He’s going into the water bleeding pretty free, I know; and there’s them waiting below as will be at him as soon as they smell blood.”“How horrible!” cried Rob.“Ay, ’tis, sir, or seems so to us; but it’s nature’s way of clearing off all the sickly and wounded things from the face of the earth.”“But what will dare to attack such a terrible beast?”Shaddy chuckled.“Anything—everything, sir; little and big. Why, them little pirani fishes will be at him in thousands, and there’s ’gators enough within fifty yards to make a supper of him as if he was spitchcocked eel. Ah! there he goes—part of him’s in the water already; but I should have liked the master to have his skin.”Invisible though the serpent was, its course was evident by the rustling and movement of the growth, and some idea too was gained of the reptile’s length.“There! what did I say?” shouted Shaddy excitedly, as all at once there was the sound of splashing and agitation in the water down beneath the submerged trees; and directly after the serpent’s tail rose above the trunk of one of those lying prone, and gleamed and glistened in the blaze as it undulated and bent and twined about. Then it fell with a splash, and beat the water, rose again quivering seven or eight feet in the air, while the water all around seemed terribly agitated. There was a snapping sound, too, horribly ominous in its nature, and the rushing and splashing went on as the tail of the serpent fell suddenly, rose once more as if the rest of the long lithe body were held below, and finally disappeared, while the splashing continued for a few minutes longer before all was silent.Rob drew a long breath, and Joe shuddered.“Well,” said Shaddy quietly, “that’s just how you take it, young gentlemen. Seems so horrible because it was a big serpent. If it had been a worm six inches long you wouldn’t have thought anything of it. Look at my four chaps there: they don’t take any notice—don’t seem horrid to them. You’ll get used to it.”“Impossible!” said Brazier.“Oh! I don’t know, sir,” continued Shaddy. “You’ve come out where you wanted to, in the wildest wilds, where the beasts have it all their own way, and they do as they always do, go on eating one another up. Why, I’ve noticed that it isn’t only the birds, beasts, and fishes, but even the trees out here in the forest do just the same.”“Nonsense!” cried Rob merrily. “Eat one another?”“Yes, sir; that’s it, rum as it sounds to you. I’ll tell you how it is. A great ball full of nuts tumbles down from one of the top branches of a tree, when it’s ripe, bang on to the hard ground, splits, and the nuts fly out all round, right amongst the plants and rotten leaves. After a bit the nuts begin to swell; then a shoot comes out, and another out of it. Then one shoot goes down into the ground to make roots, and the other goes up to make a tree. They’re all doing the same thing, but one of ’em happens to have fallen in the place where there’s the best soil, and he grows bigger and stronger than the others, and soon begins to smother them by pushing his branches and leaves over them. Then they get spindly and weak, and worse and worse, because the big one shoves his roots among them too; and at last they wither and droop, and die, and rot, and the big strong one regularly eats up with his roots all the stuff of which they were made; and in a few years, instead of there being thirty or forty young trees, there’s only one, and it gets big.”“Why, Naylor, you are quite a philosopher!” said Brazier, smiling.“Am I, sir? Didn’t know it; but a man like me couldn’t be out in the woods always without seeing that. Why, you’d think, with such thousands of trees always falling and rotting away, that the ground would be feet deep in leaf mould and decayed wood; but if you go right in the forest you’ll find how the roots eat it up as fast as it’s made.”“But what about these big trunks?” said Joe, pointing to the fallen trees.“Them? Well, they’re going into earth as fast as they can, and in a few years there’ll be nothing of ’em left. Why, look at that one; it’s as if it were burning away now,” he continued, pointing to the hole through which Rob had fallen: “that’s nature at work making the tree, now it’s dead, turn into useful stuff for the others to feed on.”“Yes,” said Brazier, as he broke out a piece of the luminous touchwood, which gleamed in the darkness when it was screened from the fire: “that’s a kind of phosphoric fungus, boys.”“Looks as if it would burn one’s fingers,” said Joe, handling the beautiful piece of rotten, glowing wood.“Yes; and so do other things out here,” said Shaddy. “There’s plenty of what I call cold fire; but you’ll soon see enough of that.”Shaddy ceased speaking, for at that moment a strange, thrilling sound came from the depths of the forest, not more, apparently, than a hundred yards away.Its effect was electrical.The half-bred natives who formed Shaddy’s crew of boatmen had watched the encounters with the two serpents in the most unconcerned way, while the weird chorus of sounds from the depths of the forest, with yells, howls, and cries of dangerous beasts, was so much a matter of course that they did not turn their heads even at the nearest roar, trusting, as they did, implicitly in the security afforded them by the fire. But now, as this strange sound rang out, silencing the chorus of cries, they leaped up as one man, and made for the boat, hauling on the rope and scrambling in as fast as possible.Rob’s first impulse was to follow suit, especially as Giovanni took a few hurried steps, and tripping over a little bush, fell headlong. But seeing that Shaddy stood fast, and that Brazier cocked his piece, he stopped where he was, though his heart throbbed heavily, and his breath came as if there were some strange oppression at his chest.“What’s that?” whispered Brazier, as the thrilling sound died away, leaving the impression behind that some huge creature must be approaching in a threatening manner, for a curious rustling followed the cry.“Well, sir,” said Shaddy, taking off his cap, and giving his head a rub as if to brighten his brain, “that’s what I want to know.”“You don’t know?”“No, sir,” said the man, coolly; “I know pretty well every noise as is to be heard out here but that one, and it downright puzzles me. First time I heard it I was sitting by my fire cooking my dinner—a fat, young turkey I’d shot—and I ups and runs as hard as ever I could, and did not stop till I could go no further. Ah! I rec’lect it now, how hungry and faint I was, for I dursen’t go back, and I dessay whatever the beast was who made that row ate my turkey. Nex’ time I heard it I didn’t run. I was cooking ducks then, and I says to myself, ‘I’ll take the ducks,’ and I did, and walked off as fast as I could to my boat.”“And you did not see it?”“No, sir. P’r’aps we shall this time; I hope so, for I want to know. Third time never fails, so if you don’t mind we’ll all be ready with our guns and wait for him. May be something interesting to a nat’ral hist’ry gent like you, and we may get his head and skin for you to take home to the Bri’sh Museum. What do you say?”“Well,” said Brazier, drily, “self-preservation’s the first law of nature. I do not want to show the white feather, but really I think we had better do as the men have done—get on board and wait for our enemy there. What do you say, lads!”“Decidedly, yes,” cried both eagerly.“But we don’t know as it is our enemy yet, sir,” replied Shaddy, thoughtfully. “Hah! hark at that!”They needed no telling, for all shivered slightly, as another cry, very different from the last, rang out from the forest—half roar, half howl, of a most appalling nature.“Here, let’s get on board,” said Brazier.“Not for that, sir,” cried Shaddy, with one of his curiously harsh laughs. “Why, that’s only one of them big howling monkeys who would go off among the branches twisting his tail, and scared ’most into fits, if you looked at him.”“A monkey!” cried Rob. “Are you sure?”“Oh, yes, I’m sure enough ’bout that, gentlemen. It’s the other thing that puzzles me.”They ceased speaking and stood watchfully waiting; but after a retrograde movement toward the boat, so as to be able to retreat at any moment. The cry was not repeated, though, and the feeling of awe began to die off, but only to return on Shaddy continuing,—“There’s a something there, or else that there howler wouldn’t have hollered once and then gone off. The lions and tigers, too, have slinked away. That’s a lion—puma you call him—ever so far off; and, I can hear a couple of tigers quite faint-like; but all the things near here have stopped calling, and that shows there’s that thing prowling about.”“But the men?” whispered Rob. “They ran away as if they knew what it was.”“Tchah! They don’t know. Their heads are full of bogies. Soon as they hear a noise, and can’t tell what it is, they say it’s an evil spirit or a goblin or ghost. Babies they are. Why, if I was to go near a lot of natives in the dark, hide myself, and let go with Scotch bagpipes, they’d run for miles and never come nigh that part of the forest again.”All at once the chorus in the forest was resumed, with so much force that it sounded as if the various creatures had been holding their noises back and were now trying hard to make up for the previous check.That was Rob’s opinion, and he gave it in a whisper to his companion.“Then, it’s gone,” said Joe. “I say, didn’t you feel scared?”“Horribly.”“Then I’m not such a coward after all. I felt as if I must run.”“So you did when the serpent came.”“Well, isn’t it enough to make one? You English fellows have the credit of being so brave that you will face anything without being frightened; but I believe you are frightened all the same.”“Of course we are,” said Rob, “only Englishmen will never own they are frightened, even to themselves, and that’s why they face anything.”“Then you are not an Englishman?” said Joe.“No, only an English boy,” said Rob, laughing. “I say, though, never mind about bragging. I’m precious glad, whatever it was, that it has gone.”“I remember, now, my father telling me about his hearing some horrible noise in the Grand Chaco one night when the schooner was at anchor close in shore. He said it gave him quite a chill; but I didn’t take any more notice of it then. It must have been one of those things.”“No doubt,” said Brazier, who had overheard his words; “but there, our adventure is over for this time, and it will be something to think about in the future.”“Perhaps we shall see it yet,” said Rob.“I hope not,” cried Joe uneasily.“Gone, Naylor?” continued Brazier.“Yes, sir, I think so.”“Good job too. Why, Naylor, my man, I never thought you were going to bring us to such a savage, dangerous place as this.”“What? Come, sir, I like that! Says to me, you did, ‘I want you to guide me to some part of the country where I can enter the prime forest.’”“Primeval,” said Brazier, correctively.“That’s right, sir. ‘Where,’ you says, ‘the foot of man has never trod, and I may see Natur’ just as she is, untouched, unaltered by any one. Do you know such a place?’ Them was your very words, and Master Rob heered you.”“Quite true, my man.”“And I says to you, ‘I knows the spot as’ll just suit you. Trust to me,’ I says, ‘and I’ll take you there, where you may see birds, beasts, and fishes, and as many o’ them flowers’—orkards you called ’em—‘as grows on trees, as you like;’ and now here you are, sir, and you grumble.”“Not a bit, Naylor.”“But, begging your pardon, sir, you do; and I appeals to Master Rob whether I arn’t done my dooty.”“No need to appeal to Rob, Naylor, for I do not grumble. You have done splendidly for me. Why, man, I am delighted; but you must not be surprised at my feeling startled when anacondas come to supper, and we are frightened out of our wits by cries that impress even you.”“Then you are satisfied, sir?”“More than satisfied.”“And you don’t want to go back?”“Of course not. What do you say, Rob? Shall we return?”“Oh no—not on any account; only let’s keep more in the boat.”“Yes, I think we are safer there,” said Brazier. “But our friend, or enemy, seems to have gone.”“Wait a bit, sir,” replied Shaddy; “and glad I am that you’re satisfied. Let me listen awhile.”They were silent, and stood listening as well, and watching the weird effects produced by the fire, as from time to time one of the pieces of wood which the men had planted round the blaze in the shape of a cone fell in, sending up a whirl of flame and glittering sparks high in air, lighting up the trees and making them seem to wave with the dancing flames. The wall of forest across the river, too, appeared to be peopled with strange shadows, and the effect was more strange as the fire approached nearer to the huge butt of the largest tree, throwing up its jagged roots against the dazzling light, so that it was as if so many gigantic stag-horns had been planted at a furnace mouth.And all the while the fiddling, piping, strumming and hooting, with screech, yell and howl, went on in the curious chorus, for they were indeed deep now in one of Nature’s fastnesses, where the teeming life had remained untouched by man.“Well,” said Brazier at last to the guide, whose figure, seen by the light of the fire, looked as wild as the surroundings, “had we not better get on board? You can hear nothing through that din.”“Oh yes, I can, sir,” replied Shaddy. “I’ve got so used to it o’ nights that I can pick out any sound I like from the rest. But we may as well turn in. The fire will burn till morning, and even if it wouldn’t, those chaps of mine wouldn’t go ashore again to-night; and I certainly don’t feel disposed to go and mend the fire myself, for fear of getting something on my shoulder I don’t understand.”“It has gone, though,” said Brazier.“Something moving there,” whispered Rob, pointing to the gilded mass of foliage beyond and to the left of the fire.“Eh! where?” cried Shaddy. “Nay, only the fire making it look as if the trees were waving. Nothing there, my lad. Whatever it is, it has slinked off into the forest again. The fire drew it this way, I suppose. There, we’ve heard the last of him for to-night. Sings well when he do oblige.”“I should have liked to hear the cry once more, though,” said Brazier; and as the words left his lips the horrible noise rang out, apparently from behind the fire, and without hesitation the little party hurried on board the boat.
“I do like a good fire, Joe,” said Rob, as he gazed at the ruddy flames rushing up.
“Why, you’re not cold?”
“No, I’m hot, and this fire brings in a breeze and makes it cooler—on one side. But what I like in a fire of this kind is that you can burn as much wood as you like, and nobody can say it’s waste, because it’s doing good—clearing the ground for the trees around to grow. I say, look at the birds.”
“After supper,” said Joe, as he watched the actions of the principal boatman, who was head cook, busily preparing the ducks and two good-sized fish which they had caught by trailing a bait behind the boat as they came.
“Yes, I’m hungry,” said Rob. “What’s that?”
“It was Shaddy.”
“What! tumbled in?” said Rob excitedly.
“No; he took hold of a thick piece of branch and threw it into the water. What did you do that for?”
“Scare them ’gators, my lad. There’s a whole school of ’em out there, and I think they mean coming to supper. And fish too,” he added, as there was another splash and then another.
By this time he was close alongside of the boat, under whose tent Mr Brazier was busy by the light of a lanthorn making notes and lists of the flowers and orchid bulbs which he had secured that day.
“Hadn’t we better put out a line, Shaddy? If we caught a fish or two the men would be glad of them in the morning.”
“No, Mr Rob, sir; I don’t suppose they’d bite now, and even if they did, so sure as you hooked one a smiler would get hold of it, and you don’t want another fight of that sort. I’m beginning to think that we’d best get our bit o’ food, and then drop slowly down the river again.”
“What’s that?” said Brazier, looking up from his work. “That will not do, Naylor; we should miss no end of good plants.”
“Well, sir, better do that than get into a row with any of the natives here,” growled Shaddy.
“Why, you said there were no Indians near.”
“Tchah! I mean the other natives—’sects and rept’les and what not. But there, if we put a rope to the end of that largest tree and anchor ourselves yonder I don’t suppose we shall hurt. Eh? All right,” he cried, in answer to a hint from the men; “supper’s ready, gentlemen.”
“And so are we,” said Rob with alacrity; and he leaped off the gunwale on to the tree trunk by whose side it was moored.
To all appearance it was a solid-looking stem of tons in weight, but covered with mosses, creepers, and orchids, which pretty well hid its bark.
Rob’s intention was to run along it to the root end, which stood up close to the fire; but, to his intense astonishment, he crashed through what was a mere outer shell of bark into so much dust and touchwood right up to the armpits, where he stuck, with a hedge of plants half-covering his face.
Joe burst out into a fit of laughing, in which Rob joined as soon as the first startled sensation was over.
“Who’d have thought of that?” he cried. “But, I say, I’m fast. Come and lend me a hand. I thought it was a great solid trunk, and all inside here you can see it looks as if it were on fire. Oh! oh! Ah! Help!”
“What’s the matter?” cried Brazier excitedly, as Shaddy and he stepped cautiously to the boy’s side, Joe having already mounted on the tree trunk. “Not on fire, are you?”
“No, no,” gasped Rob in agonised tones; and, speaking in a frightened whisper, “There’s something alive in here.”
“Nippers o’ some kind, eh?”
“No, no,” cried Rob faintly; “I can feel it moving. Oh! help! It’s a snake.”
As he spoke there was a curious scuffling noise inside, as if something was struggling to extricate itself, and Shaddy lost no time. Bending down, he seized Rob by the chest under the armpits, stooped lower, gave one heave, and lifted him right out; when, following close upon his legs, the head of a great serpent was thrust up, to look threateningly round for a moment. The next, the creature was gliding down through the dense coating of parasitical growth, and before gun could be fetched from the cabin, or weapon raised, the rustling and movement on the side of the trunk had ceased, and Joe in turn gave a bound to one side.
“It’s coming along by here,” he cried, as, in full belief that he would the next moment be enveloped in the monster’s coils, he made for the fire.
“Where is it now?” cried Shaddy, knife in hand.
“The grass is moving there,” said Brazier, pointing a little to the right, where the tree trunks cast a deep shadow.
“Can’t see—so plaguey dark,” growled the guide; “and it’s no good if I could. Yes, I can see the stuff moving now. He’s making for the water. Now, sir, send a charge o’ shot where the grass is waving.”
But before Brazier could get a sight of the reptile it had glided into the river, down among the branches of the fallen tree, as if quite used to the intricate tangle of pointed wood beneath the bank, and accustomed to use it for a home of refuge, or lurking place from which to strike at prey.
“Did it seize you?” said Brazier excitedly.
“No, I only felt it strike against my leg and then press it to the side. I think I trod upon it.”
“Made its home, I suppose, in the hollow tree. But you are sure you are not hurt, my boy—only frightened?”
“I couldn’t help being frightened,” said Rob, in rather an ill-used tone.
“Nobody says you could,” said Brazier, laughing. “Master Giovanni seems to have been frightened too. Why, Rob, my lad, it would have almost frightened me into fits: I have such a horror of serpents. There, I believe after all these things are not so very dangerous.”
“Don’t know so much about that, sir,” said Shaddy. “I’ve know’d ’em coil round and squeeze a deer to death, and then swallow it.”
“Yes, a small deer perhaps; but the old travellers used to tell us about mighty boas and monstrous anacondas which could swallow buffaloes.”
“Ah! they don’t grow so big as that now, sir. I’ve seen some pretty big ones, too, in my time, specially on the side of the river and up the Amazons.”
“Well, how big—how long have you ever seen one, Naylor?”
“Never see one a hundred foot long,” said Shaddy drily.
“No, I suppose not. Come, what was the largest?”
“Largest I ever see, sir, was only the skin, as I telled Mr Rob about. Some half-caste chaps had got it pegged out, and I dessay skinning had stretched it a bit.”
“Well, how long was that, Naylor?”
“That one was twenty-six foot long, sir, and nine foot across; and you may take my word for it as a thing like that, all muscles like iron—say six-and-twenty foot long and bigger round than a man—would be an awkward customer to tackle. Big enough for anything.”
“Quite, Naylor.”
“But how big was this one, do you think?” said Rob, who was getting over the perturbation caused by his adventure.
“Well, my lad, seeing what a bit of a squint I had of it, I should say it were thirteen or fourteen foot—p’raps fifteen.”
“I thought it was nearer fifty,” said Rob.
“Yes, you would then, my lad. But, never mind, it didn’t seize you. I dessay you scared it as much as it did you.”
“You will not be able to eat any supper, Rob, I suppose?” said Brazier rather maliciously.
Rob looked doubtful, but he smiled; and they went to the clearest place they could find, but not without sundry misgivings, for another tree sheltered them from the fire, which now sent forth a tremendous heat, and a cloud of golden sparks rose eddying and circling up to a dense cloud of smoke which glowed as if red-hot where it reflected the flames. This huge trunk, like the one through which Rob had slipped, was coated with parasitical growth, and though apparently solid, might, for all they knew, be hollow, and the nesting-place of half a dozen serpents larger than the one they had seen.
“Hadn’t we better shift our quarters?” said Brazier.
“Yes, do,” said Joe eagerly; “I hate snakes.”
“Nobody’s going to jump through that tree and ’sturb ’em, so I don’t s’pose they’ll ’sturb us. You see, they’re a curious kind o’ beast, which is all alive and twine for a day or two till they get a good meal, and then they go to sleep for a month before they’re hungry again. It’s wonderful how stupid and sleepy they are when they’re like this. It takes some one to jump on ’em to rouse ’em up, like Mr Rob did.”
“Well, we must chance it,” said Brazier; and they seated themselves to theiral frescosupper, over which Rob forgot his fright—his appetite returning, and the novelty of the position making everything delightful, in spite of the discomfort of their seat. For all around was so new, and there was a creepy kind of pleasure in sitting there by that crackling fire eating the delicious, hot, juicy birds, and all the while listening to the weird chorus of the forest, now in full swing.
Rob paused in the picking of a tasty leg, deliciously cooked, and sat in a very unpolished way listening to the curious cries, when, raising his eyes, they encountered Brazier’s, who was similarly occupied.
“We’ve come to a wild enough place, Rob, my lad,” he said; “but I don’t think we wish to change.”
“Oh! no,” said Rob, in a whisper. “One can’t help being a bit frightened sometimes, but it is grand even if we see nothing more.”
Shaddy uttered a low, jerky sound, which was meant for a laugh.
“See nothing more, lad!” he cried. “Why, look here, you may go hundreds of miles to the south, the west and the north, and it’s all savage land that man has hardly ever crossed. Don’t you think there’s something more to be seen there? Why, who knows but what we may come upon strange wild beasts such as nobody has ever set eyes on before, and— Why, what’s the matter with our young skipper?”
Joe was opposite to him, staring wildly, his eyelids so drawn back that he showed a circle of white around the irises, and his lips were apart from his teeth.
“Why, what’s the matter, lad? They haven’t put any poison stuff in your victuals, have they?”
Joe made no reply, but sat staring wildly still, not at Shaddy, but in the direction of the river beyond.
“What’s the matter, my lad?” said Brazier.
“I know!” cried Shaddy; “where’s your guns? It’s them ’gators coming up out of the water, and it’s what I expected.”
“No, no,” whispered the boy excitedly: “look lower!”
All followed his pointing finger, but for the moment they could see nothing, one of the men having thrown some fresh fuel upon the fire, which was emitting more smoke than blaze.
“Hi! one of you!” cried Shaddy, “stir that fire.”
One of the men seized the end of a burning limb, shook it about a little, and a roar of flame ascended skyward, lighting up the river and the trees beyond, but above all, striking just upon the rotten trunk through which Rob fell. There they saw a something glistening and horrible, as it swayed and undulated and rose and fell, with its neck all waves and its eyes sparkling in the golden blaze of the fire. Now it sank down till it was almost hidden among the parasitic plants; now it slowly rose, arching its neck, and apparently watching the party near the fire; while moment by moment its aspect was so menacing that Joe thought it would launch itself upon them and seize one to appease its rage.
“It’s—it’s come back!” he whispered faintly.
“Not it,” growled Shaddy; “this one’s twice as big as t’other. It’s its father or mother, p’r’aps. Better have a shot at it, sir.”
“Yes,” said Brazier, slowly raising his gun, “but this light is so deceptive I am not at all sure that I can hit.”
“Oh, you’ll hit him full enough,” said Shaddy. “You must hit it, sir. Why, if you missed, the beast would come down upon us as savage as a tiger. Take a good, quiet aim down low so as to hit his neck, if you don’t his head. Are you cocked?”
“Tut! tut!” muttered Brazier, who in his excitement had forgotten this necessary preliminary, and making up for the omission.
“Come, Mr Rob, sir, don’t miss your chance of having a shot at a ’conda. ’Tain’t everybody who gets such a shot as that.”
Rob mechanically picked up his piece, examined the breech, and then waited for Mr Brazier to fire, feeling sure the while that if it depended upon him the creature would go off scathless.
“Now’s your time, sir!” whispered Shaddy. “He is put out, and means mischief. I’d let him have the small shot just beneath the jaws, if I could. Wait a moment, till he’s quiet. Rather too much waving about him yet. Look out, sir! he’s getting ready to make a dart at us, I do believe!”
But still Brazier did not fire, for the peculiar undulatory motion kept up by the serpent, as seen by the light of the fire, was singularly deceptive, and again and again the leader of the little expedition felt that if he fired it would be to miss.
Shaddy drew in a long breath, and gazed impatiently at Brazier, who was only moved by one idea—that of making a dead shot, to rid their little camp of a horrible-looking enemy.
Then the chance seemed to be gone, for by one quick movement of the lithe body and neck the head dropped down amongst the plants which clothed the tree trunk.
“Gone!” gasped Rob, with a sigh of satisfaction.
“Eyes right!” cried Shaddy; “he hasn’t gone. He’ll rise close in somewhere. Look out, gentlemen—look out!”
He was excited, and drew his knife, as if expecting danger. And it was not without cause, for almost directly after the keen steel blade had flashed in the light of the fire, the hideous head of the serpent rose up not ten feet away, with its eyes glittering, the scales burnished like bright, many-shaded bronze, and the quick, forked tongue darting in and out from its formidable jaws.
The head kept on rising till it was fully six feet above the growth, when it was rapidly drawn back, as if to be darted forward; but at that moment both Rob and Brazier fired together, and as the smoke cleared away another cloud of something seemed to be playing about on the ground, but a solid cloud, before which everything gave way, while some great flail-like object rapidly beat down plant and shrub.
All shrank away, and, as if moved by one impulse, took refuge behind the roaring fire, feeling, as they did, that their dangerous visitor would not attempt to pass that in making an attack upon those sheltered by so menacing an outwork.
There was something terribly appalling in the struggles of the silent monster, as it writhed and twisted itself into knots; then unfolded with the rapidity of lightning, and waving its tail in the air, again beat down the bushes and luxuriant growth around.
That it was fearfully wounded was evident, for after a few moments all could plainly see that it was actuated by a blind fury, and in its agony vented its rage upon everything around. And as it continued its struggles, moment by moment it approached nearer to the blazing fire, till all stood waiting in horror for the moment when one of its folds would touch the burning embers and the struggles come to a frightful end.
But all at once the writhings ceased, and the reptile lay undulating and heaving gently among the dense beaten-down growth.
“Stop!” said Brazier sharply, as the guide moved; “what are you going to do?”
“Put him out of his misery,” replied Shaddy, quietly. “Hi! you there: give me the axe.”
“No,” said Brazier, firmly, “it is too risky a task; you shall not attempt it.”
Shaddy uttered a low growl, like some thwarted animal, and said, in an ill-used tone,—
“Why, I could fetch his head off with one good chop, and—”
“Look, look!” cried Joe. “Mind! Take care!”
“Yes,” shouted Rob; “it’s coming round this way.”
Neither could see the reptile; but the swaying herbage and the rustling, crackling sound showed that it was in rapid motion.
“Nay,” growled Shaddy, “he ain’t coming this way—only right-about-facing. It is his nature to; he’s going to make for the water. That’s what those things do: get down to the bottom and lie there, to be out o’ danger. Look, Mr Rob, sir; you can see now what a length he is. One part’s going one way, and the t’other part t’other way. Now he’s turned the corner, and going straight for the river.”
With Shaddy’s words to guide them, they could easily make out what was taking place, as the reptile now made for the place of refuge already sought by its companion.
Just then Brazier cocked his piece—click, click—and took a few steps forward to try and get a sight of the creature before it reached the river bank.
“May as well save your shot, sir,” said Shaddy gruffly. “He’s going into the water bleeding pretty free, I know; and there’s them waiting below as will be at him as soon as they smell blood.”
“How horrible!” cried Rob.
“Ay, ’tis, sir, or seems so to us; but it’s nature’s way of clearing off all the sickly and wounded things from the face of the earth.”
“But what will dare to attack such a terrible beast?”
Shaddy chuckled.
“Anything—everything, sir; little and big. Why, them little pirani fishes will be at him in thousands, and there’s ’gators enough within fifty yards to make a supper of him as if he was spitchcocked eel. Ah! there he goes—part of him’s in the water already; but I should have liked the master to have his skin.”
Invisible though the serpent was, its course was evident by the rustling and movement of the growth, and some idea too was gained of the reptile’s length.
“There! what did I say?” shouted Shaddy excitedly, as all at once there was the sound of splashing and agitation in the water down beneath the submerged trees; and directly after the serpent’s tail rose above the trunk of one of those lying prone, and gleamed and glistened in the blaze as it undulated and bent and twined about. Then it fell with a splash, and beat the water, rose again quivering seven or eight feet in the air, while the water all around seemed terribly agitated. There was a snapping sound, too, horribly ominous in its nature, and the rushing and splashing went on as the tail of the serpent fell suddenly, rose once more as if the rest of the long lithe body were held below, and finally disappeared, while the splashing continued for a few minutes longer before all was silent.
Rob drew a long breath, and Joe shuddered.
“Well,” said Shaddy quietly, “that’s just how you take it, young gentlemen. Seems so horrible because it was a big serpent. If it had been a worm six inches long you wouldn’t have thought anything of it. Look at my four chaps there: they don’t take any notice—don’t seem horrid to them. You’ll get used to it.”
“Impossible!” said Brazier.
“Oh! I don’t know, sir,” continued Shaddy. “You’ve come out where you wanted to, in the wildest wilds, where the beasts have it all their own way, and they do as they always do, go on eating one another up. Why, I’ve noticed that it isn’t only the birds, beasts, and fishes, but even the trees out here in the forest do just the same.”
“Nonsense!” cried Rob merrily. “Eat one another?”
“Yes, sir; that’s it, rum as it sounds to you. I’ll tell you how it is. A great ball full of nuts tumbles down from one of the top branches of a tree, when it’s ripe, bang on to the hard ground, splits, and the nuts fly out all round, right amongst the plants and rotten leaves. After a bit the nuts begin to swell; then a shoot comes out, and another out of it. Then one shoot goes down into the ground to make roots, and the other goes up to make a tree. They’re all doing the same thing, but one of ’em happens to have fallen in the place where there’s the best soil, and he grows bigger and stronger than the others, and soon begins to smother them by pushing his branches and leaves over them. Then they get spindly and weak, and worse and worse, because the big one shoves his roots among them too; and at last they wither and droop, and die, and rot, and the big strong one regularly eats up with his roots all the stuff of which they were made; and in a few years, instead of there being thirty or forty young trees, there’s only one, and it gets big.”
“Why, Naylor, you are quite a philosopher!” said Brazier, smiling.
“Am I, sir? Didn’t know it; but a man like me couldn’t be out in the woods always without seeing that. Why, you’d think, with such thousands of trees always falling and rotting away, that the ground would be feet deep in leaf mould and decayed wood; but if you go right in the forest you’ll find how the roots eat it up as fast as it’s made.”
“But what about these big trunks?” said Joe, pointing to the fallen trees.
“Them? Well, they’re going into earth as fast as they can, and in a few years there’ll be nothing of ’em left. Why, look at that one; it’s as if it were burning away now,” he continued, pointing to the hole through which Rob had fallen: “that’s nature at work making the tree, now it’s dead, turn into useful stuff for the others to feed on.”
“Yes,” said Brazier, as he broke out a piece of the luminous touchwood, which gleamed in the darkness when it was screened from the fire: “that’s a kind of phosphoric fungus, boys.”
“Looks as if it would burn one’s fingers,” said Joe, handling the beautiful piece of rotten, glowing wood.
“Yes; and so do other things out here,” said Shaddy. “There’s plenty of what I call cold fire; but you’ll soon see enough of that.”
Shaddy ceased speaking, for at that moment a strange, thrilling sound came from the depths of the forest, not more, apparently, than a hundred yards away.
Its effect was electrical.
The half-bred natives who formed Shaddy’s crew of boatmen had watched the encounters with the two serpents in the most unconcerned way, while the weird chorus of sounds from the depths of the forest, with yells, howls, and cries of dangerous beasts, was so much a matter of course that they did not turn their heads even at the nearest roar, trusting, as they did, implicitly in the security afforded them by the fire. But now, as this strange sound rang out, silencing the chorus of cries, they leaped up as one man, and made for the boat, hauling on the rope and scrambling in as fast as possible.
Rob’s first impulse was to follow suit, especially as Giovanni took a few hurried steps, and tripping over a little bush, fell headlong. But seeing that Shaddy stood fast, and that Brazier cocked his piece, he stopped where he was, though his heart throbbed heavily, and his breath came as if there were some strange oppression at his chest.
“What’s that?” whispered Brazier, as the thrilling sound died away, leaving the impression behind that some huge creature must be approaching in a threatening manner, for a curious rustling followed the cry.
“Well, sir,” said Shaddy, taking off his cap, and giving his head a rub as if to brighten his brain, “that’s what I want to know.”
“You don’t know?”
“No, sir,” said the man, coolly; “I know pretty well every noise as is to be heard out here but that one, and it downright puzzles me. First time I heard it I was sitting by my fire cooking my dinner—a fat, young turkey I’d shot—and I ups and runs as hard as ever I could, and did not stop till I could go no further. Ah! I rec’lect it now, how hungry and faint I was, for I dursen’t go back, and I dessay whatever the beast was who made that row ate my turkey. Nex’ time I heard it I didn’t run. I was cooking ducks then, and I says to myself, ‘I’ll take the ducks,’ and I did, and walked off as fast as I could to my boat.”
“And you did not see it?”
“No, sir. P’r’aps we shall this time; I hope so, for I want to know. Third time never fails, so if you don’t mind we’ll all be ready with our guns and wait for him. May be something interesting to a nat’ral hist’ry gent like you, and we may get his head and skin for you to take home to the Bri’sh Museum. What do you say?”
“Well,” said Brazier, drily, “self-preservation’s the first law of nature. I do not want to show the white feather, but really I think we had better do as the men have done—get on board and wait for our enemy there. What do you say, lads!”
“Decidedly, yes,” cried both eagerly.
“But we don’t know as it is our enemy yet, sir,” replied Shaddy, thoughtfully. “Hah! hark at that!”
They needed no telling, for all shivered slightly, as another cry, very different from the last, rang out from the forest—half roar, half howl, of a most appalling nature.
“Here, let’s get on board,” said Brazier.
“Not for that, sir,” cried Shaddy, with one of his curiously harsh laughs. “Why, that’s only one of them big howling monkeys who would go off among the branches twisting his tail, and scared ’most into fits, if you looked at him.”
“A monkey!” cried Rob. “Are you sure?”
“Oh, yes, I’m sure enough ’bout that, gentlemen. It’s the other thing that puzzles me.”
They ceased speaking and stood watchfully waiting; but after a retrograde movement toward the boat, so as to be able to retreat at any moment. The cry was not repeated, though, and the feeling of awe began to die off, but only to return on Shaddy continuing,—
“There’s a something there, or else that there howler wouldn’t have hollered once and then gone off. The lions and tigers, too, have slinked away. That’s a lion—puma you call him—ever so far off; and, I can hear a couple of tigers quite faint-like; but all the things near here have stopped calling, and that shows there’s that thing prowling about.”
“But the men?” whispered Rob. “They ran away as if they knew what it was.”
“Tchah! They don’t know. Their heads are full of bogies. Soon as they hear a noise, and can’t tell what it is, they say it’s an evil spirit or a goblin or ghost. Babies they are. Why, if I was to go near a lot of natives in the dark, hide myself, and let go with Scotch bagpipes, they’d run for miles and never come nigh that part of the forest again.”
All at once the chorus in the forest was resumed, with so much force that it sounded as if the various creatures had been holding their noises back and were now trying hard to make up for the previous check.
That was Rob’s opinion, and he gave it in a whisper to his companion.
“Then, it’s gone,” said Joe. “I say, didn’t you feel scared?”
“Horribly.”
“Then I’m not such a coward after all. I felt as if I must run.”
“So you did when the serpent came.”
“Well, isn’t it enough to make one? You English fellows have the credit of being so brave that you will face anything without being frightened; but I believe you are frightened all the same.”
“Of course we are,” said Rob, “only Englishmen will never own they are frightened, even to themselves, and that’s why they face anything.”
“Then you are not an Englishman?” said Joe.
“No, only an English boy,” said Rob, laughing. “I say, though, never mind about bragging. I’m precious glad, whatever it was, that it has gone.”
“I remember, now, my father telling me about his hearing some horrible noise in the Grand Chaco one night when the schooner was at anchor close in shore. He said it gave him quite a chill; but I didn’t take any more notice of it then. It must have been one of those things.”
“No doubt,” said Brazier, who had overheard his words; “but there, our adventure is over for this time, and it will be something to think about in the future.”
“Perhaps we shall see it yet,” said Rob.
“I hope not,” cried Joe uneasily.
“Gone, Naylor?” continued Brazier.
“Yes, sir, I think so.”
“Good job too. Why, Naylor, my man, I never thought you were going to bring us to such a savage, dangerous place as this.”
“What? Come, sir, I like that! Says to me, you did, ‘I want you to guide me to some part of the country where I can enter the prime forest.’”
“Primeval,” said Brazier, correctively.
“That’s right, sir. ‘Where,’ you says, ‘the foot of man has never trod, and I may see Natur’ just as she is, untouched, unaltered by any one. Do you know such a place?’ Them was your very words, and Master Rob heered you.”
“Quite true, my man.”
“And I says to you, ‘I knows the spot as’ll just suit you. Trust to me,’ I says, ‘and I’ll take you there, where you may see birds, beasts, and fishes, and as many o’ them flowers’—orkards you called ’em—‘as grows on trees, as you like;’ and now here you are, sir, and you grumble.”
“Not a bit, Naylor.”
“But, begging your pardon, sir, you do; and I appeals to Master Rob whether I arn’t done my dooty.”
“No need to appeal to Rob, Naylor, for I do not grumble. You have done splendidly for me. Why, man, I am delighted; but you must not be surprised at my feeling startled when anacondas come to supper, and we are frightened out of our wits by cries that impress even you.”
“Then you are satisfied, sir?”
“More than satisfied.”
“And you don’t want to go back?”
“Of course not. What do you say, Rob? Shall we return?”
“Oh no—not on any account; only let’s keep more in the boat.”
“Yes, I think we are safer there,” said Brazier. “But our friend, or enemy, seems to have gone.”
“Wait a bit, sir,” replied Shaddy; “and glad I am that you’re satisfied. Let me listen awhile.”
They were silent, and stood listening as well, and watching the weird effects produced by the fire, as from time to time one of the pieces of wood which the men had planted round the blaze in the shape of a cone fell in, sending up a whirl of flame and glittering sparks high in air, lighting up the trees and making them seem to wave with the dancing flames. The wall of forest across the river, too, appeared to be peopled with strange shadows, and the effect was more strange as the fire approached nearer to the huge butt of the largest tree, throwing up its jagged roots against the dazzling light, so that it was as if so many gigantic stag-horns had been planted at a furnace mouth.
And all the while the fiddling, piping, strumming and hooting, with screech, yell and howl, went on in the curious chorus, for they were indeed deep now in one of Nature’s fastnesses, where the teeming life had remained untouched by man.
“Well,” said Brazier at last to the guide, whose figure, seen by the light of the fire, looked as wild as the surroundings, “had we not better get on board? You can hear nothing through that din.”
“Oh yes, I can, sir,” replied Shaddy. “I’ve got so used to it o’ nights that I can pick out any sound I like from the rest. But we may as well turn in. The fire will burn till morning, and even if it wouldn’t, those chaps of mine wouldn’t go ashore again to-night; and I certainly don’t feel disposed to go and mend the fire myself, for fear of getting something on my shoulder I don’t understand.”
“It has gone, though,” said Brazier.
“Something moving there,” whispered Rob, pointing to the gilded mass of foliage beyond and to the left of the fire.
“Eh! where?” cried Shaddy. “Nay, only the fire making it look as if the trees were waving. Nothing there, my lad. Whatever it is, it has slinked off into the forest again. The fire drew it this way, I suppose. There, we’ve heard the last of him for to-night. Sings well when he do oblige.”
“I should have liked to hear the cry once more, though,” said Brazier; and as the words left his lips the horrible noise rang out, apparently from behind the fire, and without hesitation the little party hurried on board the boat.