Chapter Twenty Four.A Gap in the Ranks.That which Shaddy pointed out was startling enough to cause Rob a shudder; for, plainly seen upon a broad leaf, trampled-down amongst others that were dead and dry, were a few spots of blood.But after the momentary feeling of dread caused by the discovery there came a reaction, and Rob exclaimed eagerly, “Some wild beasts have been fighting;” and then as his companion shook his head, the boy uttered a forced laugh, and, to carry off the excitement, said:“I know what it is, Shaddy: two monkeys coming home from school have had a fight, and one made the other’s nose bleed.”“Wish I could laugh and joke about it like you do, squire,” said Shaddy sadly, as he peered about. “It’s serious, my lad. Something very wrong, I’m afraid.”“Don’t say that, Shaddy,” cried Rob huskily. “I only tried to turn it off because I felt afraid and didn’t want to show it. Do you really think there’s something very serious?”“I do, my lad.”“Not that Mr Brazier has been here?”“That’s just what I do think, my lad; and I feel as if it was my fault for sending him hunting and collecting by himself, instead of us waiting on him and watching him.”“Shaddy, don’t say anything has happened to him!” cried Rob in horror.“I don’t say as there is,” said Shaddy; “I don’t say as there ain’t, my lad: but you see that,” he said, pointing down, “and you know that Mr Brazier’s a fine brave English gentleman, but, like all the natural history people I ever see, so full of what he’s doing that he forgets all about himself and runs into all kinds of danger.”“But what kind of danger could he have run into here?”“Don’t know, my lad—don’t know. All I do know is that he has been here and got into trouble.”“But you don’t know that he has been here,” cried Rob passionately.“What’s this, then?” said Shaddy, holding out a piece of string, which he had picked up unnoticed by his companion. “Mr Brazier had got one of his pockets stuffed full of bits o’ spun yarn and band, like that as we used to tie up his plants with, and it looks to me as if he’d dropped this.”“But couldn’t— Oh no, of course not—it’s impossible,” cried Rob; “no one else could have been here?”“No, sir; no one else could have been here.”“Yes, they could,” cried Rob excitedly: “enemies!”Shaddy shook his head as he peered about, stooping and examining the trampled-down growth.“Wish I could track like an Indian does, Mr Rob, sir. He has been here sure enough, but I can’t make out which way he has gone. There’s our footmarks pressing down the twigs and moss and stuff; and there’s his, I fancy.”“And Indians?”“Can’t see none, sir; but that means nothing: they tread so softly with their bare feet that a dozen may have been here and gone, and we not know it.”“Then you do think he has been attacked by Indians, Shaddy?” cried Rob reproachfully.“Well, sir, I do, and I don’t. There’s no sign.”“Then what could it have been,—a jaguar?”“Maybe, Mr Rob.”“Or a puma!”“Maybe that, sir; or he may have come suddenly upon a deer as gave him a dig with its horns. Here, let’s get on back to camp as quickly as we can.”“But he may not be there,” cried Rob excitedly, as he looked round among the densely packed trees. “Let’s try and find some track by which he has gone.”“That’s what I’ve been trying to do, and couldn’t find one, sir. If he’s been wounded, somehow he’d nat’rally make back for the hut, so as to find us and get help. Come along.”“Oh, Shaddy, we oughtn’t to have left him. We ought to have kept together.”“No good to tell me that, Mr Rob, sir; I feel it now, but I did it all for the best. There, sir, it’s of no use to stay here no longer. Come on, and we may hit upon his backward trail.”Rob gave another wild look round, and then joined Shaddy, who was carefully studying the position of the sun, where a gleam came through the dense foliage high above their heads, and lightened the deep green twilight.“That’s about the course,” he muttered, as he gave the iguana a hitch over to his right shoulder. “Now then, Mr Rob, sir, let’s make a swift passage if we can, and hope for the best. Pah! Look at the flies already after the meat. No keeping anything long here.”The remark struck Rob as being out of place at such a time, but he was fain to recall how he had made speeches quite as incongruous, so he followed his companion in silence, trusting to him implicitly, and wondering at the confidence with which he pressed on in one direction, with apparently nothing to guide him. In fact, all looked so strange and undisturbed that Rob at last could not contain himself.“Mr Brazier cannot have been anywhere here, Shaddy,” he cried excitedly. “Two wild beasts must have been fighting.”“For that there bit o’ string, sir?” said the man, drily. “What do you call that, then, and that?”He pointed up to a bough about nine feet above him, where a cluster of orchids grew, for the most part of a sickly, pallid hue, save in one spot, where a shaft of sunlight came through the dense leafy canopy and dyed the strangely-formed petals of one bunch with orange, purple and gold, while the huge mossy tree trunk, half covered with parasitic creepers, whose stems knotted it with their huge cordage, showed traces of some one having climbed to reach the great horizontal bough.“That looks like Mr Brazier, his mark, sir, eh?”“Yes, yes,” cried Rob eagerly.“Come on then, sir: we’re right.”“But did he make those marks coming or returning?”“Can’t say, sir,” said Shaddy, gruffly; and then, to himself, “That ain’t true, for he made ’em coming, or I’m a Dutchman.”He made another careful calculation of their position, and was about to start again, when he caught sight of something about Rob, or rather its absence, and exclaimed,—“Why, where’s them mushrooms?”“Mushrooms, Shaddy! I—I don’t know.”“But, Master Rob!”“Oh, who’s to think about eating at a time like this? Go on, pray; I shall not feel happy till I see Mr Brazier again.”Shaddy uttered a low grunt, gazed up at the shaft of light which shone upon the cluster of flowers, and then shifted the iguana again, and tramped on sturdily for about an hour, till there was a broad glare of light before them, and he suddenly stepped out from the greenish twilight into sunshine and day.“Not so bad, Mr Rob, sir, without a compass!” he said, with a smile of triumph.But Rob, as he stepped out, was already looking round for their fellow-prisoner in the forest, but looking in vain. There was no sign of human being in the solitude; and a chilly feeling of despair ran through the lad as he forgot his weariness and made a move for the hut, about a hundred yards away.It was hard work to get through the low tangled growth out there in the sunlight; and before he was half-way there he stumbled and nearly fell, but gathered himself up with a faint cry of fear, for there was a low growl and a rush, as something bounded out, and he just caught a glimpse of the long lithe tawny body of a puma as it sprang into a fresh tangle of bush and reed, while Rob stood fast, and then turned to look at Shaddy.The man’s face was wrinkled up, and for the moment he evidently shared the boy’s thoughts. Stepping close to him, he began to peer about amongst the thick growth from which the animal had sprung, while Rob felt sick as his imagination figured in the puma’s lair the torn and bleeding body of his friend; and as Shaddy suddenly exclaimed, “Here’s the place, sir!” he dared not look, but stood with averted eyes, till the man exclaimed:“Had his nest here, sir, and he was asleep. Bah! I ought to have known. I never heard of a puma meddling with a man.”“Then Mr Brazier is not there?” said Rob faintly.“Why, of course he ain’t,” replied the man sourly. “Come along, sir, and let’s see if he’s in the hut.”They rushed to their newly thatched-in shelter, and Rob seized the side and peered in, where all was black darkness to him, coming as he did from the brilliant sunshine.“Mr Brazier,” he cried huskily; but there was no reply. “Mr Brazier,” he shouted, “why don’t you answer?”“’Cause he ain’t there, my lad,” said Shaddy gruffly. “Here, wait till I’ve doctored this iguana thing and hung it up. No, I’ll cover it with grass here in the cool, and then we must make back tracks and find Mr Brazier before night.”“Oh, Shaddy!” cried Rob in an anguished tone, “then he has been horribly hurt—perhaps killed!”The man made no reply, but hurriedly cut open and cleaned the lizard at some distance from the hut, then buried it beneath quite a pile of grass, dead leaves and twigs, before stepping back to his companion in misfortune.“Oh, why did you stop to do that,” cried Rob, “when Mr Brazier may be lying dying somewhere in the forest?”“Because when we find him, we must have food to eat, lad, and something for him too. That thing may save all our lives. Don’t you think I don’t want to get to him, because I do. Now then, sir, we’ve got to go straight back the way we came, and find him.”“You’ll go right back to where the spots—I mean, where we found the piece of string?” whispered Rob, whose feeling of weariness seemed to disappear at once.“Yes, sir, straight back as an arrow, and it’s of no use to hide facts; you must take your place as a man now, and act like one, having the hard with the soft, so I shall speak plainly.”“You need not, Shaddy,” said Rob sadly. “You are afraid he has been badly hurt and carried off by Indians—perhaps killed.”“Nay, my lad; that’s making worse of it than I thought. My ideas was bad enough, but not so bad as yours, and I think mine’s right.”“Then what do you think?” said Rob, as after a sharp glance round they made for the spot where they had re-entered the clearing from the forest.“Tell you what Idon’tthink first, my lad,” replied Shaddy: “I don’t think it’s Indians, because I haven’t seen a sign of ’em, and if I had I fancy they’d be peaceable, stupid sort of folk. No: he’s got into trouble with some beast or another.”“Killed?”“Nay, nay; that’s the very worst of all. There’s hundreds of ways in which he might be hurt; and what I think is, that he has started to come back, and turned faint and laid down, and perhaps gone to sleep, so that we passed him; or perhaps he has lost his way.”“Lost his way?” cried Rob, with a shiver of dread.“Yes, my lad. It’s of no use to hide facts now.”“Then we shall never find him again, and he will wander about till he lies down and dies.”“Ah! now you’re making the worst of it again, sir. He might find the way out again by himself, but we’ve got to help him. Maybe we shall be able to follow his tracks; you and me has got to try that: an Indian or a dog would do it easily. Well, you and me ought to have more stuff in us than Indians or dogs, and if we make up our minds to do it, why, we shall. So, come along, and let’s see if we can’t muster up plenty of British pluck, say a bit of a prayer like men, and with God’s help we’ll find him before we’ve done.”He held out his hand to Rob, who made a snatch at it and caught it between his, to cling to it tightly as he gazed in the rough, sun-blackened face before him, too much oppressed by emotions to utter a word.But words were not needed in the solemn silence of that grand forest. Their prayer for help rose in the midst of Nature’s grandest cathedral, with its arching roof of boughs, through which in one spot came a ray of brilliant light, that seemed to penetrate to Rob’s heart and lighten him with hope; and then once more they swung round and plunged into the forest depths.
That which Shaddy pointed out was startling enough to cause Rob a shudder; for, plainly seen upon a broad leaf, trampled-down amongst others that were dead and dry, were a few spots of blood.
But after the momentary feeling of dread caused by the discovery there came a reaction, and Rob exclaimed eagerly, “Some wild beasts have been fighting;” and then as his companion shook his head, the boy uttered a forced laugh, and, to carry off the excitement, said:
“I know what it is, Shaddy: two monkeys coming home from school have had a fight, and one made the other’s nose bleed.”
“Wish I could laugh and joke about it like you do, squire,” said Shaddy sadly, as he peered about. “It’s serious, my lad. Something very wrong, I’m afraid.”
“Don’t say that, Shaddy,” cried Rob huskily. “I only tried to turn it off because I felt afraid and didn’t want to show it. Do you really think there’s something very serious?”
“I do, my lad.”
“Not that Mr Brazier has been here?”
“That’s just what I do think, my lad; and I feel as if it was my fault for sending him hunting and collecting by himself, instead of us waiting on him and watching him.”
“Shaddy, don’t say anything has happened to him!” cried Rob in horror.
“I don’t say as there is,” said Shaddy; “I don’t say as there ain’t, my lad: but you see that,” he said, pointing down, “and you know that Mr Brazier’s a fine brave English gentleman, but, like all the natural history people I ever see, so full of what he’s doing that he forgets all about himself and runs into all kinds of danger.”
“But what kind of danger could he have run into here?”
“Don’t know, my lad—don’t know. All I do know is that he has been here and got into trouble.”
“But you don’t know that he has been here,” cried Rob passionately.
“What’s this, then?” said Shaddy, holding out a piece of string, which he had picked up unnoticed by his companion. “Mr Brazier had got one of his pockets stuffed full of bits o’ spun yarn and band, like that as we used to tie up his plants with, and it looks to me as if he’d dropped this.”
“But couldn’t— Oh no, of course not—it’s impossible,” cried Rob; “no one else could have been here?”
“No, sir; no one else could have been here.”
“Yes, they could,” cried Rob excitedly: “enemies!”
Shaddy shook his head as he peered about, stooping and examining the trampled-down growth.
“Wish I could track like an Indian does, Mr Rob, sir. He has been here sure enough, but I can’t make out which way he has gone. There’s our footmarks pressing down the twigs and moss and stuff; and there’s his, I fancy.”
“And Indians?”
“Can’t see none, sir; but that means nothing: they tread so softly with their bare feet that a dozen may have been here and gone, and we not know it.”
“Then you do think he has been attacked by Indians, Shaddy?” cried Rob reproachfully.
“Well, sir, I do, and I don’t. There’s no sign.”
“Then what could it have been,—a jaguar?”
“Maybe, Mr Rob.”
“Or a puma!”
“Maybe that, sir; or he may have come suddenly upon a deer as gave him a dig with its horns. Here, let’s get on back to camp as quickly as we can.”
“But he may not be there,” cried Rob excitedly, as he looked round among the densely packed trees. “Let’s try and find some track by which he has gone.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do, and couldn’t find one, sir. If he’s been wounded, somehow he’d nat’rally make back for the hut, so as to find us and get help. Come along.”
“Oh, Shaddy, we oughtn’t to have left him. We ought to have kept together.”
“No good to tell me that, Mr Rob, sir; I feel it now, but I did it all for the best. There, sir, it’s of no use to stay here no longer. Come on, and we may hit upon his backward trail.”
Rob gave another wild look round, and then joined Shaddy, who was carefully studying the position of the sun, where a gleam came through the dense foliage high above their heads, and lightened the deep green twilight.
“That’s about the course,” he muttered, as he gave the iguana a hitch over to his right shoulder. “Now then, Mr Rob, sir, let’s make a swift passage if we can, and hope for the best. Pah! Look at the flies already after the meat. No keeping anything long here.”
The remark struck Rob as being out of place at such a time, but he was fain to recall how he had made speeches quite as incongruous, so he followed his companion in silence, trusting to him implicitly, and wondering at the confidence with which he pressed on in one direction, with apparently nothing to guide him. In fact, all looked so strange and undisturbed that Rob at last could not contain himself.
“Mr Brazier cannot have been anywhere here, Shaddy,” he cried excitedly. “Two wild beasts must have been fighting.”
“For that there bit o’ string, sir?” said the man, drily. “What do you call that, then, and that?”
He pointed up to a bough about nine feet above him, where a cluster of orchids grew, for the most part of a sickly, pallid hue, save in one spot, where a shaft of sunlight came through the dense leafy canopy and dyed the strangely-formed petals of one bunch with orange, purple and gold, while the huge mossy tree trunk, half covered with parasitic creepers, whose stems knotted it with their huge cordage, showed traces of some one having climbed to reach the great horizontal bough.
“That looks like Mr Brazier, his mark, sir, eh?”
“Yes, yes,” cried Rob eagerly.
“Come on then, sir: we’re right.”
“But did he make those marks coming or returning?”
“Can’t say, sir,” said Shaddy, gruffly; and then, to himself, “That ain’t true, for he made ’em coming, or I’m a Dutchman.”
He made another careful calculation of their position, and was about to start again, when he caught sight of something about Rob, or rather its absence, and exclaimed,—
“Why, where’s them mushrooms?”
“Mushrooms, Shaddy! I—I don’t know.”
“But, Master Rob!”
“Oh, who’s to think about eating at a time like this? Go on, pray; I shall not feel happy till I see Mr Brazier again.”
Shaddy uttered a low grunt, gazed up at the shaft of light which shone upon the cluster of flowers, and then shifted the iguana again, and tramped on sturdily for about an hour, till there was a broad glare of light before them, and he suddenly stepped out from the greenish twilight into sunshine and day.
“Not so bad, Mr Rob, sir, without a compass!” he said, with a smile of triumph.
But Rob, as he stepped out, was already looking round for their fellow-prisoner in the forest, but looking in vain. There was no sign of human being in the solitude; and a chilly feeling of despair ran through the lad as he forgot his weariness and made a move for the hut, about a hundred yards away.
It was hard work to get through the low tangled growth out there in the sunlight; and before he was half-way there he stumbled and nearly fell, but gathered himself up with a faint cry of fear, for there was a low growl and a rush, as something bounded out, and he just caught a glimpse of the long lithe tawny body of a puma as it sprang into a fresh tangle of bush and reed, while Rob stood fast, and then turned to look at Shaddy.
The man’s face was wrinkled up, and for the moment he evidently shared the boy’s thoughts. Stepping close to him, he began to peer about amongst the thick growth from which the animal had sprung, while Rob felt sick as his imagination figured in the puma’s lair the torn and bleeding body of his friend; and as Shaddy suddenly exclaimed, “Here’s the place, sir!” he dared not look, but stood with averted eyes, till the man exclaimed:
“Had his nest here, sir, and he was asleep. Bah! I ought to have known. I never heard of a puma meddling with a man.”
“Then Mr Brazier is not there?” said Rob faintly.
“Why, of course he ain’t,” replied the man sourly. “Come along, sir, and let’s see if he’s in the hut.”
They rushed to their newly thatched-in shelter, and Rob seized the side and peered in, where all was black darkness to him, coming as he did from the brilliant sunshine.
“Mr Brazier,” he cried huskily; but there was no reply. “Mr Brazier,” he shouted, “why don’t you answer?”
“’Cause he ain’t there, my lad,” said Shaddy gruffly. “Here, wait till I’ve doctored this iguana thing and hung it up. No, I’ll cover it with grass here in the cool, and then we must make back tracks and find Mr Brazier before night.”
“Oh, Shaddy!” cried Rob in an anguished tone, “then he has been horribly hurt—perhaps killed!”
The man made no reply, but hurriedly cut open and cleaned the lizard at some distance from the hut, then buried it beneath quite a pile of grass, dead leaves and twigs, before stepping back to his companion in misfortune.
“Oh, why did you stop to do that,” cried Rob, “when Mr Brazier may be lying dying somewhere in the forest?”
“Because when we find him, we must have food to eat, lad, and something for him too. That thing may save all our lives. Don’t you think I don’t want to get to him, because I do. Now then, sir, we’ve got to go straight back the way we came, and find him.”
“You’ll go right back to where the spots—I mean, where we found the piece of string?” whispered Rob, whose feeling of weariness seemed to disappear at once.
“Yes, sir, straight back as an arrow, and it’s of no use to hide facts; you must take your place as a man now, and act like one, having the hard with the soft, so I shall speak plainly.”
“You need not, Shaddy,” said Rob sadly. “You are afraid he has been badly hurt and carried off by Indians—perhaps killed.”
“Nay, my lad; that’s making worse of it than I thought. My ideas was bad enough, but not so bad as yours, and I think mine’s right.”
“Then what do you think?” said Rob, as after a sharp glance round they made for the spot where they had re-entered the clearing from the forest.
“Tell you what Idon’tthink first, my lad,” replied Shaddy: “I don’t think it’s Indians, because I haven’t seen a sign of ’em, and if I had I fancy they’d be peaceable, stupid sort of folk. No: he’s got into trouble with some beast or another.”
“Killed?”
“Nay, nay; that’s the very worst of all. There’s hundreds of ways in which he might be hurt; and what I think is, that he has started to come back, and turned faint and laid down, and perhaps gone to sleep, so that we passed him; or perhaps he has lost his way.”
“Lost his way?” cried Rob, with a shiver of dread.
“Yes, my lad. It’s of no use to hide facts now.”
“Then we shall never find him again, and he will wander about till he lies down and dies.”
“Ah! now you’re making the worst of it again, sir. He might find the way out again by himself, but we’ve got to help him. Maybe we shall be able to follow his tracks; you and me has got to try that: an Indian or a dog would do it easily. Well, you and me ought to have more stuff in us than Indians or dogs, and if we make up our minds to do it, why, we shall. So, come along, and let’s see if we can’t muster up plenty of British pluck, say a bit of a prayer like men, and with God’s help we’ll find him before we’ve done.”
He held out his hand to Rob, who made a snatch at it and caught it between his, to cling to it tightly as he gazed in the rough, sun-blackened face before him, too much oppressed by emotions to utter a word.
But words were not needed in the solemn silence of that grand forest. Their prayer for help rose in the midst of Nature’s grandest cathedral, with its arching roof of boughs, through which in one spot came a ray of brilliant light, that seemed to penetrate to Rob’s heart and lighten him with hope; and then once more they swung round and plunged into the forest depths.
Chapter Twenty Five.The Woodland Foes.They took the same path without much difficulty, Shaddy tracing it carefully step by step; and for a time Rob eagerly joined in the tracing, every now and then pointing out a place where they had broken a twig or displaced a bough; but after a time the gloom of the forest began to oppress him, and a strange sensation of shrinking from penetrating farther forced him to make a call upon himself and think of the words uttered before they recommenced their search.For there was always the feeling upon him that at any moment danger might be lurking thus in their way, and that the next moment they might be face to face with death.“But that’s all selfishness,” he forced himself to think. “We have to find Mr Brazier.”This fresh loss to a certain extent obliterated the other trouble, and there were times when poor Giovanni was completely forgotten, though at others Rob found himself muttering,—“Poor Joe! and now poor Mr Brazier! Whose turn will it be next? And those at home will never know of our fate.”But it generally happened that at these most depressing times something happened to make a fresh call upon his energies. Now it would be a fault in the tracking, their way seeming to be quite obliterated. Now Shaddy would point out marks certainly not made by them; for flowers of the dull colourless kind, which flourished so sickly here in these shades, had been broken-off, as if they had been examined, and then been thrown aside: convincing proofs that Brazier had been botanising there, collecting, and casting away objects unworthy of his care.At one spot, unnoticed on their return, quite a bunch of curious growths lay at the foot of a huge buttressed tree, where there were indications of some one having lain down for a time as if to rest. Farther on, at the side of a tree, also unnoticed before, a great liana had been torn away from a tree trunk, so that it looked as if it had been done by one who climbed; and Shaddy said, with a satisfied smile,—“He’s been along here, Mr Rob, sure enough. Keep a good heart, sir; we’re getting cleverer at tracking.”On they went in silence, forcing their way between the trees, with the forest appearing darker than ever, save here and there, where, so sure as a little light penetrated, with it came sound. Now it was the hum of insect life in the sunshine far above their heads; now it was the shrieking or twittering of birds busy feasting on fruit, and twice over an angry chattering told them that they had monkeys for their companions high overhead; but insect, bird, and the strangely agile creatures which leaped and swung among the boughs, were for the most part invisible, and they toiled on.All at once Rob raised the bow he carried, and touched Shaddy sharply on the shoulder.“Eh? what’s the matter, my lad?” cried the man, turning quickly.“Look! Don’t you see?” whispered Rob. “There, by that patch of green light? Some one must have climbed up that green liana which hangs from the bough. It is swinging still. Do you think a monkey has just been up it, or is it some kind of wild cat?”Shaddy uttered his low chuckling laugh as he stood still leaning upon his bamboo staves.“If it had been a cat we should have seen a desperate fight, my lad,” he replied. “If it was a monkey I’m sorry for him. He must have gone up outside and come down in. Why, can’t you see what it is?”“A great liana, one of those tough creeper things. Look how curiously it moves still! Some one’s dragging at the end. No, it isn’t. Oh, Shaddy, it’s a great serpent hanging from the bough!”“That’s more like it, my lad. Look! You can see its head now.”In effect the long, hideous-looking creature raised its head from where it had been hidden by the growth below, twisted and undulated about for a few moments, and then lifted it more and more till it could reach the lower part of the bough from which it hung, and then, gradually contracting its body into curves and loops, gathered itself together till it hung in a mass from the branch.“Not nice-looking things, Mr Rob, sir. Puts me in mind of those we saw down by the water, but this looks like a different kind to them.”“Will—will it attack us?” said Rob in a hoarse whisper.“Nay, not it. More likely to hurry away and hide, unless it is very hungry or can’t get out of the road. Then it might.”“But we can’t pass under that.”“Well, no, Mr Rob, sir; it don’t look like a sensible sort of thing to do, though it seems cowardly to sneak away from a big land-eel sort of a thing. What do you say? Shall we risk it and let go at my gentleman with our sticks if he takes any notice of us, or go round like cowards?”“Go round like cowards,” said Rob decisively.“Right!” said Shaddy, who carefully took his bearings again, and, in order to have something at which he could gaze back so as to start again in the direction by which they had come, he broke a bough short off with a loud crack.The effect was instantaneous on the serpent.The moment before the whole body had hung in heavy loops from the bough, but at the first snap every part of it appeared to be in motion, and, as dimly seen, one fold glided slowly over another, with a curious rustling sound.Rob made a start as if to dash off, but checked himself, and glanced at Shaddy, who was watching him; and the boy felt the colour flush into his cheeks, and a curious sense of annoyance came over him at the thought that his companion was looking upon him as a coward.“It’s all right, my lad,” said the guide quietly; “you needn’t mind me. You’re a bit scared, and nat’rally. Who wouldn’t be if he wasn’t used to these things? I was horribly afraid of the one I first saw, and, for the matter of that, so I was about the next; but I’ve seen so many big snakes that, so long as I can keep at a little distance, they don’t trouble me much. You see, they’re not very dangerous to man, and always get out of his way if they have a chance. There’s been a lot said about their ’tacking folk; and if you were to rouse that gentleman I daresay he’d seize you, and, if he got a hold for his tail, twist round and squeeze you to death; but you leave him alone and give him anything of a chance, he’ll show you the tip of his tail much sooner than he’ll show you his head. Look here!”Shaddy looked round and picked up a short piece of a branch, which he was about to throw, but the boy caught his arm.“Don’t make it angry,” he said in a whisper. “The horrible thing may come at us.”“I’m not going to make it angry,” said Shaddy; “I’m going to make it afraid,” and he hurled the piece of mouldering wood with so good an aim that it struck the branch near where the serpent was coiling itself more closely and flew to pieces.The serpent threw itself down with a crashing sound amongst the dense undergrowth beneath, and disappeared from their sight.“There,” said Shaddy, “that’s the way, you see. Gone?”“No, no. Look out, Shaddy; it’s coming this way,” cried Rob excitedly, as a rustling was heard, and directly after there was a low hiss; and the movement among the twigs and dried leaves told that the creature was coming toward them.Whether it was coming straight for where they stood neither of them stopped to see, but hurried off onward in the direction of the spot where they had seen the marks upon the leaf, and in a very short time the forest was silent again.“Was not that a very narrow escape, Shaddy?” said Rob at last.“No, my lad, I think not. Some people would say it was, and be ready to tell no end of cock-and-bull stories about what that serpent was going to do; but I’ve never known them play any games except once, and then the creature only acted according to its nature. It was in a sort of lake place, half pool, half river, and pretty close to the sea. It was near a gentleman’s plantation, and the black folk used to go down every day to bathe. This they did pretty regularly till one day while they were romping about in the shallow water, which only came up to their middles, one of them shouted for help, saying that a ’gator had got hold of her, and then laughed. The others took no notice, because it was a ’sterical sort of laugh, as they call it, and thought she was playing tricks; but all at once they saw that she was struggling hard and being drawn backwards. That was enough. They all made a rush and caught hold of her arms just as she was being slowly drawn down lower, and when they dragged her nearer the shore, whatever it was that held her yielded a little, though it still hung on to the poor girl; while as they got her nearer a shriek rose, and every one nearly let go, for the head of a big snake was drawn right out of the water, but at the next snatch it loosed its hold and dropped back with a splash.”They were by this time approaching the spot where they had seen the marks, and Shaddy advanced more cautiously, scanning every leaf and twig before he stepped forward for signs of him they sought. Here and there he was able to point out marks such as Mr Brazier might have made—marks that had been passed over during their journey in the other direction. For there were places where he had evidently torn down leaves, mosses, and curious shade-loving growths, some of which he had carelessly tossed aside, and in one case the fragment thrown down was about half of the bulb of an orchid, whose home had been upon the mossy limb of a great tree overhead.“He has been by here, sure enough, Mr Rob,” said Shaddy in a subdued voice; “and, between ourselves, it was quite a bit of madness for him to come right out here alone. Now then, sir, keep a sharp look-out, and let’s see if we can’t find the spots straight off. They were pretty nigh, I think.”“Just there, I think,” said Rob, looking excitedly round and pointing to a darker patch of the great forest where they were.“Nay, it wasn’t dark like that, my lad,” replied Shaddy. “It was more hereabouts.”“Are you sure, Shaddy?”“Pretty tidy, sir. No, I’m not. Seems to me that you are right, and yet it was this side of that great tree. I remember it now, the one with the great branch hanging right to the ground.”“I don’t remember it, Shaddy,” said Rob. “But I do, sir. It had a bunch of those greeny-white, sickly-looking plants growing underneath it, and we shall know it by them.”“Then it isn’t the right one, Shaddy; we must try again.”“But it is the right one, my lad. It’s bad enough work to find a tree in this great dark place. Don’t say it isn’t right when I’ve found it. Come now, look. Ain’t I right?”“Yes, Shaddy, right,” said Rob as he looked up and saw the faded orchids hanging beneath the branch. “Then the place is close here somewhere.”“You’re almost standing upon it, Mr Rob,” said Shaddy. “You see, I have hit the spot,” he continued, with a look of triumph. “There, I will not be proud of it, for it comes very easy to find your way like this after a bit of practice. There you are, you see; so now where to go next?”“I don’t know,” cried Rob despondently. “Can’t you see any fresh traces for us to follow?”Shaddy set off, with his face as near to the ground as he could manage, and searched all round the spot where the stained leaf lay, but without effect; and after a few moments’ examination he started off again, making a wider circle, but with no better result.“Can’t have been anything to do with a wild beast, my lad,” he said in a low, awe-stricken voice, “or some signs must have been left. It’s a puzzler. He was here—there’s no doubt about that—and we’ve got to find him. I’ll make a bigger cast round, and see what that will do.”“Can you find your way back here?” asked Rob anxiously.“I must,” replied Shaddy, with quiet confidence in his tones. “It won’t do to lose you as well.”He started again, walking straight on for a couple of hundred yards through the trees and then striking off to his left to form a fresh circle right outside the first, and at the end of five minutes Rob, who stood by the great tree listening for every sound and wondering whether his companion would find his way back, and if he did not what he would do, heard a cry.For the moment he thought it was for help, but it was repeated, and realising that it was an animal’s, he started forward in the direction of the sound, though only to halt the moment after in alarm and look back. At the end of a few seconds he set it down to fancy and went on again, but only to stop once more, for there was a rustling sound behind him; and he awoke at once to the fact that the noise could only have been made by some wild beast stealing softly after him, stalking him, in fact, and preparing to make a spring and bring him down.Rob felt the perspiration ooze out of every pore as he stood looking back in the direction of the sound, which ceased as soon as he halted. He would have given anything to have held a gun in his hands and been able to discharge it amongst the low growth where the animal was hidden, but he was as good as helpless with only the bow and an arrow or two; and he stood waiting till he started, for he heard Shaddy’s cry again, and in a fit of desperation he shouted aloud in answer, and sprang forward to try and reach his side.But as he made his way onward there again was the soft stealing along of his pursuer, whatever it was, for though he tried hard to pierce the low growth, the gloom was so deep that he never once obtained a glimpse of the animal.Again Shaddy shouted, and he answered, the cry sounding not a hundred yards away; and in the hope that their voices might have the power of scaring the enemy, he shouted again, and was answered loudly and far nearer, making him give a rush forward in his desperation, and following it up with a gasp of agony, for there was a fierce roar through the forest on his left.It seemed as if the animal, in dread of losing him by his forming a junction with his friend, had bounded on to get between them and crouch ready to spring upon him; but Rob could not hold back now, and pressed forward.“Shaddy,” he shouted—“Shaddy, there is some wild beast close here.”“Wait a bit, my lad,” was shouted back; and the crushing and rustling of boughs told of Shaddy’s coming, while Rob faced round now, staring wildly at a dark part among the trees where he thought he saw the undergrowth move but not daring to stir, from the feeling that if he did turn his back the beast would spring upon him and bring him down.Thought after thought flashed like lightning through his brain, and in imagination he saw himself seized and bleeding, just as Mr Brazier must have been, for he felt sure now that this had been his fate.It was a nightmare-like sensation which paralysed him, so that, though he heard Shaddy approaching and then calling to him, he could neither move nor answer, only stand crouching there by a huge tree, with the bow held before him and an arrow fitted ready to fly, fascinated by the danger in front.He could not see it, but there was no doubt of its presence, and that it was hiding, crouched, ready to bound out, every movement suggesting that it was some huge cat-like creature, in all probability a jaguar, nearly as fierce and strong as a tiger. For at every rustle and crash through the wood made by Shaddy there was a low muttering growl and a sound as if the creature’s legs were scratching and being gathered together for a spring.Rob felt this, and stood motionless, thinking that his only chance of safety lay in gazing straight at the creature’s hiding-place and believing that as long as he remained motionless the animal would not spring.“Hi! where are you, my lad?” said Shaddy, from close at hand; but Rob’s lips uttered no sound. He felt a slight exhilaration at the proximity of his companion, but he could not say, “Here!” and the next minute Shaddy spoke again, depressing the lad’s spirits now, for the voice came from farther away. Again he shouted, “Hi! why don’t you answer? Where are you, lad?” but Rob heard the earth being torn up by the fierce animal’s claws, and now even heard its breathing, and his voice died away again as a choking sensation attacked his throat.And there he crouched, hearing the help for which he had called come close to him, pass him, and go right away till Shaddy’s anxious cries died out in the solemn distance of the forest, leaving him alone to face death in one of its most terrible forms.He knew he could launch the arrow at the beast, and that at such close quarters he ought to, and probably would hit it, but a frail reed arrow was not likely to do more than spur the creature into fierce anger.He could see it all in advance. A jaguar was only a huge cat, and he would be like a rat in its claws, quite as helpless; and he shuddered and felt faint for a few moments. But now that he was entirely alone, far from help, and self-dependent, a change came over him. He knew that he must fight for life; he felt as if he could defend himself; and, with his nerve returning, his lips parted to utter a shout.But he did not cry, for he knew that Shaddy was too far off to hear him, and with a feeling of desperation now as he recalled that he had his keen knife in his pocket, he loosened his hold of his arrow and thrust in his hand to withdraw the weapon, seized the blade in his teeth, and dragged it open.“He shall not kill me for nothing,” he thought, and he stood on his guard, for his movements excited the animal to action, and with a roar and a rush it sprang right out from the undergrowth to within three yards of him, but, instead of crouching and springing again, it stood up before him, with its back slightly arched, lashing its sides gently with its long tail.It was no spotted jaguar, with teeth bared, but, as dimly seen there in the semi-darkness of the forest, a noble-looking specimen of the puma family, and, to Rob’s astonishment, it made no sign of menace, but remained in the spot to which it had sprung, watching him.And here for quite a minute they stood face to face, till, with a faint cry of wonder, the lad exclaimed,—“Why, it must be my puma! And it has followed us all along by the banks to here.”Then came thought after thought, suggesting that it must have been the footprints of this beast which they had seen over and over again by the side of their fire; that it was this animal which had crept to him when he was asleep; that it kept in hiding when he was with his companions, but that it had been tracking him till he was alone, and that after all he had nothing to fear.But still he was afraid and uncertain, so that some time elapsed during which the puma stood writhing its tail, watching him before he could summon up courage enough to take a step forward.He made that step at last, knowing that if he were mistaken the animal would at once draw back and make for a spring; but, instead of moving, the puma raised its tail erect, making the three or four inches at the end twine a little, and the next minute Rob was talking to it softly, with his hand upon its head, when the animal began to give forth a curious sound somewhat resembling a purr and pressed up against him.“Poor old chap, then!” cried Rob; “and I was frightened of you, when all you wanted to do was to make friends. Why, you are a fine fellow, then.”His words were accompanied by caresses, and these were evidently approved of, the puma crouching down and finally lying on its side, while Rob knelt beside it and found that he might make free with it to any extent.Then, suddenly recollecting how Shaddy was hunting for him and their object, he sprang to his feet, and placing his hands to his mouth, sent forth as loud a shout as he could give.As he sprang up the puma also leaped to its feet, watching him in a startled way.Rob shouted again, and as a reply came from not far distant a low growl arose from the animal by his side.But he shouted again, and an answer came from much nearer, when with one bound the animal sprang out of sight amongst the trees, and though Rob called to it again and again in the intervals of answering Shaddy’s cries, there was not a sound to suggest the creature’s presence.“It’s afraid of Shaddy,” Rob concluded, and feeling bound to continue his signals, he kept on till his companion joined him.“Why, my lad,” cried the latter, “I thought I’d lost you too,” and as soon as Rob had explained the reason for his silence, “Enough to make you, lad. But that’s right enough. He’s took a fancy to you. Only hope he won’t show fight at me, because if he does I shall have to hit hard for the sake of Shadrach Naylor; but if he’s for giving the friendly hand, why so am I. But come along; we mustn’t be belated here. I’ve found fresh signs of Mr Brazier while I was hunting you.”“You have?” cried Rob joyfully.“Yes, my lad, not much; but I came upon a spot where he had been breaking down green-stuff.”“Since he—met with that accident?” said Rob hesitatingly.“Ah, that’s what I can’t say, Mr Rob, sir. Let’s get to it, and try and follow up his trail. No; we can’t do it to-day. We must get back to the hut to-night, and all we can do is to take the spot I came to on the way. We shall only get there before dark as it is.”“Oh, but we can’t leave him alone in the forest—perhaps wounded and unable to find his way out.”“But we must, my lad,” said the guide firmly. “We can do him no more good by sleeping here than by sleeping there under cover.”“Who can think of sleeping, Shaddy, at a time like this?”“Natur’ says we must sleep, Mr Rob, and eat too, or we shall soon break down. Come along, my lad; there’s always the hope that we may find him back at camp after all.”“But he must be wanting our help, Shaddy,” said Rob sadly.“Yes, my lad, and if he can, camp’s the place where he’ll go to look for it, isn’t it?”“Yes, of course.”“Then we ought to be there to-night in case he comes to it. So now then let’s start at once. Sun goes down pretty soon, and I’ve got to take you by a round to where he broke down those flowers. Ready?”“Yes,” said Rob sadly; and they made a fresh start.
They took the same path without much difficulty, Shaddy tracing it carefully step by step; and for a time Rob eagerly joined in the tracing, every now and then pointing out a place where they had broken a twig or displaced a bough; but after a time the gloom of the forest began to oppress him, and a strange sensation of shrinking from penetrating farther forced him to make a call upon himself and think of the words uttered before they recommenced their search.
For there was always the feeling upon him that at any moment danger might be lurking thus in their way, and that the next moment they might be face to face with death.
“But that’s all selfishness,” he forced himself to think. “We have to find Mr Brazier.”
This fresh loss to a certain extent obliterated the other trouble, and there were times when poor Giovanni was completely forgotten, though at others Rob found himself muttering,—
“Poor Joe! and now poor Mr Brazier! Whose turn will it be next? And those at home will never know of our fate.”
But it generally happened that at these most depressing times something happened to make a fresh call upon his energies. Now it would be a fault in the tracking, their way seeming to be quite obliterated. Now Shaddy would point out marks certainly not made by them; for flowers of the dull colourless kind, which flourished so sickly here in these shades, had been broken-off, as if they had been examined, and then been thrown aside: convincing proofs that Brazier had been botanising there, collecting, and casting away objects unworthy of his care.
At one spot, unnoticed on their return, quite a bunch of curious growths lay at the foot of a huge buttressed tree, where there were indications of some one having lain down for a time as if to rest. Farther on, at the side of a tree, also unnoticed before, a great liana had been torn away from a tree trunk, so that it looked as if it had been done by one who climbed; and Shaddy said, with a satisfied smile,—
“He’s been along here, Mr Rob, sure enough. Keep a good heart, sir; we’re getting cleverer at tracking.”
On they went in silence, forcing their way between the trees, with the forest appearing darker than ever, save here and there, where, so sure as a little light penetrated, with it came sound. Now it was the hum of insect life in the sunshine far above their heads; now it was the shrieking or twittering of birds busy feasting on fruit, and twice over an angry chattering told them that they had monkeys for their companions high overhead; but insect, bird, and the strangely agile creatures which leaped and swung among the boughs, were for the most part invisible, and they toiled on.
All at once Rob raised the bow he carried, and touched Shaddy sharply on the shoulder.
“Eh? what’s the matter, my lad?” cried the man, turning quickly.
“Look! Don’t you see?” whispered Rob. “There, by that patch of green light? Some one must have climbed up that green liana which hangs from the bough. It is swinging still. Do you think a monkey has just been up it, or is it some kind of wild cat?”
Shaddy uttered his low chuckling laugh as he stood still leaning upon his bamboo staves.
“If it had been a cat we should have seen a desperate fight, my lad,” he replied. “If it was a monkey I’m sorry for him. He must have gone up outside and come down in. Why, can’t you see what it is?”
“A great liana, one of those tough creeper things. Look how curiously it moves still! Some one’s dragging at the end. No, it isn’t. Oh, Shaddy, it’s a great serpent hanging from the bough!”
“That’s more like it, my lad. Look! You can see its head now.”
In effect the long, hideous-looking creature raised its head from where it had been hidden by the growth below, twisted and undulated about for a few moments, and then lifted it more and more till it could reach the lower part of the bough from which it hung, and then, gradually contracting its body into curves and loops, gathered itself together till it hung in a mass from the branch.
“Not nice-looking things, Mr Rob, sir. Puts me in mind of those we saw down by the water, but this looks like a different kind to them.”
“Will—will it attack us?” said Rob in a hoarse whisper.
“Nay, not it. More likely to hurry away and hide, unless it is very hungry or can’t get out of the road. Then it might.”
“But we can’t pass under that.”
“Well, no, Mr Rob, sir; it don’t look like a sensible sort of thing to do, though it seems cowardly to sneak away from a big land-eel sort of a thing. What do you say? Shall we risk it and let go at my gentleman with our sticks if he takes any notice of us, or go round like cowards?”
“Go round like cowards,” said Rob decisively.
“Right!” said Shaddy, who carefully took his bearings again, and, in order to have something at which he could gaze back so as to start again in the direction by which they had come, he broke a bough short off with a loud crack.
The effect was instantaneous on the serpent.
The moment before the whole body had hung in heavy loops from the bough, but at the first snap every part of it appeared to be in motion, and, as dimly seen, one fold glided slowly over another, with a curious rustling sound.
Rob made a start as if to dash off, but checked himself, and glanced at Shaddy, who was watching him; and the boy felt the colour flush into his cheeks, and a curious sense of annoyance came over him at the thought that his companion was looking upon him as a coward.
“It’s all right, my lad,” said the guide quietly; “you needn’t mind me. You’re a bit scared, and nat’rally. Who wouldn’t be if he wasn’t used to these things? I was horribly afraid of the one I first saw, and, for the matter of that, so I was about the next; but I’ve seen so many big snakes that, so long as I can keep at a little distance, they don’t trouble me much. You see, they’re not very dangerous to man, and always get out of his way if they have a chance. There’s been a lot said about their ’tacking folk; and if you were to rouse that gentleman I daresay he’d seize you, and, if he got a hold for his tail, twist round and squeeze you to death; but you leave him alone and give him anything of a chance, he’ll show you the tip of his tail much sooner than he’ll show you his head. Look here!”
Shaddy looked round and picked up a short piece of a branch, which he was about to throw, but the boy caught his arm.
“Don’t make it angry,” he said in a whisper. “The horrible thing may come at us.”
“I’m not going to make it angry,” said Shaddy; “I’m going to make it afraid,” and he hurled the piece of mouldering wood with so good an aim that it struck the branch near where the serpent was coiling itself more closely and flew to pieces.
The serpent threw itself down with a crashing sound amongst the dense undergrowth beneath, and disappeared from their sight.
“There,” said Shaddy, “that’s the way, you see. Gone?”
“No, no. Look out, Shaddy; it’s coming this way,” cried Rob excitedly, as a rustling was heard, and directly after there was a low hiss; and the movement among the twigs and dried leaves told that the creature was coming toward them.
Whether it was coming straight for where they stood neither of them stopped to see, but hurried off onward in the direction of the spot where they had seen the marks upon the leaf, and in a very short time the forest was silent again.
“Was not that a very narrow escape, Shaddy?” said Rob at last.
“No, my lad, I think not. Some people would say it was, and be ready to tell no end of cock-and-bull stories about what that serpent was going to do; but I’ve never known them play any games except once, and then the creature only acted according to its nature. It was in a sort of lake place, half pool, half river, and pretty close to the sea. It was near a gentleman’s plantation, and the black folk used to go down every day to bathe. This they did pretty regularly till one day while they were romping about in the shallow water, which only came up to their middles, one of them shouted for help, saying that a ’gator had got hold of her, and then laughed. The others took no notice, because it was a ’sterical sort of laugh, as they call it, and thought she was playing tricks; but all at once they saw that she was struggling hard and being drawn backwards. That was enough. They all made a rush and caught hold of her arms just as she was being slowly drawn down lower, and when they dragged her nearer the shore, whatever it was that held her yielded a little, though it still hung on to the poor girl; while as they got her nearer a shriek rose, and every one nearly let go, for the head of a big snake was drawn right out of the water, but at the next snatch it loosed its hold and dropped back with a splash.”
They were by this time approaching the spot where they had seen the marks, and Shaddy advanced more cautiously, scanning every leaf and twig before he stepped forward for signs of him they sought. Here and there he was able to point out marks such as Mr Brazier might have made—marks that had been passed over during their journey in the other direction. For there were places where he had evidently torn down leaves, mosses, and curious shade-loving growths, some of which he had carelessly tossed aside, and in one case the fragment thrown down was about half of the bulb of an orchid, whose home had been upon the mossy limb of a great tree overhead.
“He has been by here, sure enough, Mr Rob,” said Shaddy in a subdued voice; “and, between ourselves, it was quite a bit of madness for him to come right out here alone. Now then, sir, keep a sharp look-out, and let’s see if we can’t find the spots straight off. They were pretty nigh, I think.”
“Just there, I think,” said Rob, looking excitedly round and pointing to a darker patch of the great forest where they were.
“Nay, it wasn’t dark like that, my lad,” replied Shaddy. “It was more hereabouts.”
“Are you sure, Shaddy?”
“Pretty tidy, sir. No, I’m not. Seems to me that you are right, and yet it was this side of that great tree. I remember it now, the one with the great branch hanging right to the ground.”
“I don’t remember it, Shaddy,” said Rob. “But I do, sir. It had a bunch of those greeny-white, sickly-looking plants growing underneath it, and we shall know it by them.”
“Then it isn’t the right one, Shaddy; we must try again.”
“But it is the right one, my lad. It’s bad enough work to find a tree in this great dark place. Don’t say it isn’t right when I’ve found it. Come now, look. Ain’t I right?”
“Yes, Shaddy, right,” said Rob as he looked up and saw the faded orchids hanging beneath the branch. “Then the place is close here somewhere.”
“You’re almost standing upon it, Mr Rob,” said Shaddy. “You see, I have hit the spot,” he continued, with a look of triumph. “There, I will not be proud of it, for it comes very easy to find your way like this after a bit of practice. There you are, you see; so now where to go next?”
“I don’t know,” cried Rob despondently. “Can’t you see any fresh traces for us to follow?”
Shaddy set off, with his face as near to the ground as he could manage, and searched all round the spot where the stained leaf lay, but without effect; and after a few moments’ examination he started off again, making a wider circle, but with no better result.
“Can’t have been anything to do with a wild beast, my lad,” he said in a low, awe-stricken voice, “or some signs must have been left. It’s a puzzler. He was here—there’s no doubt about that—and we’ve got to find him. I’ll make a bigger cast round, and see what that will do.”
“Can you find your way back here?” asked Rob anxiously.
“I must,” replied Shaddy, with quiet confidence in his tones. “It won’t do to lose you as well.”
He started again, walking straight on for a couple of hundred yards through the trees and then striking off to his left to form a fresh circle right outside the first, and at the end of five minutes Rob, who stood by the great tree listening for every sound and wondering whether his companion would find his way back, and if he did not what he would do, heard a cry.
For the moment he thought it was for help, but it was repeated, and realising that it was an animal’s, he started forward in the direction of the sound, though only to halt the moment after in alarm and look back. At the end of a few seconds he set it down to fancy and went on again, but only to stop once more, for there was a rustling sound behind him; and he awoke at once to the fact that the noise could only have been made by some wild beast stealing softly after him, stalking him, in fact, and preparing to make a spring and bring him down.
Rob felt the perspiration ooze out of every pore as he stood looking back in the direction of the sound, which ceased as soon as he halted. He would have given anything to have held a gun in his hands and been able to discharge it amongst the low growth where the animal was hidden, but he was as good as helpless with only the bow and an arrow or two; and he stood waiting till he started, for he heard Shaddy’s cry again, and in a fit of desperation he shouted aloud in answer, and sprang forward to try and reach his side.
But as he made his way onward there again was the soft stealing along of his pursuer, whatever it was, for though he tried hard to pierce the low growth, the gloom was so deep that he never once obtained a glimpse of the animal.
Again Shaddy shouted, and he answered, the cry sounding not a hundred yards away; and in the hope that their voices might have the power of scaring the enemy, he shouted again, and was answered loudly and far nearer, making him give a rush forward in his desperation, and following it up with a gasp of agony, for there was a fierce roar through the forest on his left.
It seemed as if the animal, in dread of losing him by his forming a junction with his friend, had bounded on to get between them and crouch ready to spring upon him; but Rob could not hold back now, and pressed forward.
“Shaddy,” he shouted—“Shaddy, there is some wild beast close here.”
“Wait a bit, my lad,” was shouted back; and the crushing and rustling of boughs told of Shaddy’s coming, while Rob faced round now, staring wildly at a dark part among the trees where he thought he saw the undergrowth move but not daring to stir, from the feeling that if he did turn his back the beast would spring upon him and bring him down.
Thought after thought flashed like lightning through his brain, and in imagination he saw himself seized and bleeding, just as Mr Brazier must have been, for he felt sure now that this had been his fate.
It was a nightmare-like sensation which paralysed him, so that, though he heard Shaddy approaching and then calling to him, he could neither move nor answer, only stand crouching there by a huge tree, with the bow held before him and an arrow fitted ready to fly, fascinated by the danger in front.
He could not see it, but there was no doubt of its presence, and that it was hiding, crouched, ready to bound out, every movement suggesting that it was some huge cat-like creature, in all probability a jaguar, nearly as fierce and strong as a tiger. For at every rustle and crash through the wood made by Shaddy there was a low muttering growl and a sound as if the creature’s legs were scratching and being gathered together for a spring.
Rob felt this, and stood motionless, thinking that his only chance of safety lay in gazing straight at the creature’s hiding-place and believing that as long as he remained motionless the animal would not spring.
“Hi! where are you, my lad?” said Shaddy, from close at hand; but Rob’s lips uttered no sound. He felt a slight exhilaration at the proximity of his companion, but he could not say, “Here!” and the next minute Shaddy spoke again, depressing the lad’s spirits now, for the voice came from farther away. Again he shouted, “Hi! why don’t you answer? Where are you, lad?” but Rob heard the earth being torn up by the fierce animal’s claws, and now even heard its breathing, and his voice died away again as a choking sensation attacked his throat.
And there he crouched, hearing the help for which he had called come close to him, pass him, and go right away till Shaddy’s anxious cries died out in the solemn distance of the forest, leaving him alone to face death in one of its most terrible forms.
He knew he could launch the arrow at the beast, and that at such close quarters he ought to, and probably would hit it, but a frail reed arrow was not likely to do more than spur the creature into fierce anger.
He could see it all in advance. A jaguar was only a huge cat, and he would be like a rat in its claws, quite as helpless; and he shuddered and felt faint for a few moments. But now that he was entirely alone, far from help, and self-dependent, a change came over him. He knew that he must fight for life; he felt as if he could defend himself; and, with his nerve returning, his lips parted to utter a shout.
But he did not cry, for he knew that Shaddy was too far off to hear him, and with a feeling of desperation now as he recalled that he had his keen knife in his pocket, he loosened his hold of his arrow and thrust in his hand to withdraw the weapon, seized the blade in his teeth, and dragged it open.
“He shall not kill me for nothing,” he thought, and he stood on his guard, for his movements excited the animal to action, and with a roar and a rush it sprang right out from the undergrowth to within three yards of him, but, instead of crouching and springing again, it stood up before him, with its back slightly arched, lashing its sides gently with its long tail.
It was no spotted jaguar, with teeth bared, but, as dimly seen there in the semi-darkness of the forest, a noble-looking specimen of the puma family, and, to Rob’s astonishment, it made no sign of menace, but remained in the spot to which it had sprung, watching him.
And here for quite a minute they stood face to face, till, with a faint cry of wonder, the lad exclaimed,—
“Why, it must be my puma! And it has followed us all along by the banks to here.”
Then came thought after thought, suggesting that it must have been the footprints of this beast which they had seen over and over again by the side of their fire; that it was this animal which had crept to him when he was asleep; that it kept in hiding when he was with his companions, but that it had been tracking him till he was alone, and that after all he had nothing to fear.
But still he was afraid and uncertain, so that some time elapsed during which the puma stood writhing its tail, watching him before he could summon up courage enough to take a step forward.
He made that step at last, knowing that if he were mistaken the animal would at once draw back and make for a spring; but, instead of moving, the puma raised its tail erect, making the three or four inches at the end twine a little, and the next minute Rob was talking to it softly, with his hand upon its head, when the animal began to give forth a curious sound somewhat resembling a purr and pressed up against him.
“Poor old chap, then!” cried Rob; “and I was frightened of you, when all you wanted to do was to make friends. Why, you are a fine fellow, then.”
His words were accompanied by caresses, and these were evidently approved of, the puma crouching down and finally lying on its side, while Rob knelt beside it and found that he might make free with it to any extent.
Then, suddenly recollecting how Shaddy was hunting for him and their object, he sprang to his feet, and placing his hands to his mouth, sent forth as loud a shout as he could give.
As he sprang up the puma also leaped to its feet, watching him in a startled way.
Rob shouted again, and as a reply came from not far distant a low growl arose from the animal by his side.
But he shouted again, and an answer came from much nearer, when with one bound the animal sprang out of sight amongst the trees, and though Rob called to it again and again in the intervals of answering Shaddy’s cries, there was not a sound to suggest the creature’s presence.
“It’s afraid of Shaddy,” Rob concluded, and feeling bound to continue his signals, he kept on till his companion joined him.
“Why, my lad,” cried the latter, “I thought I’d lost you too,” and as soon as Rob had explained the reason for his silence, “Enough to make you, lad. But that’s right enough. He’s took a fancy to you. Only hope he won’t show fight at me, because if he does I shall have to hit hard for the sake of Shadrach Naylor; but if he’s for giving the friendly hand, why so am I. But come along; we mustn’t be belated here. I’ve found fresh signs of Mr Brazier while I was hunting you.”
“You have?” cried Rob joyfully.
“Yes, my lad, not much; but I came upon a spot where he had been breaking down green-stuff.”
“Since he—met with that accident?” said Rob hesitatingly.
“Ah, that’s what I can’t say, Mr Rob, sir. Let’s get to it, and try and follow up his trail. No; we can’t do it to-day. We must get back to the hut to-night, and all we can do is to take the spot I came to on the way. We shall only get there before dark as it is.”
“Oh, but we can’t leave him alone in the forest—perhaps wounded and unable to find his way out.”
“But we must, my lad,” said the guide firmly. “We can do him no more good by sleeping here than by sleeping there under cover.”
“Who can think of sleeping, Shaddy, at a time like this?”
“Natur’ says we must sleep, Mr Rob, and eat too, or we shall soon break down. Come along, my lad; there’s always the hope that we may find him back at camp after all.”
“But he must be wanting our help, Shaddy,” said Rob sadly.
“Yes, my lad, and if he can, camp’s the place where he’ll go to look for it, isn’t it?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Then we ought to be there to-night in case he comes to it. So now then let’s start at once. Sun goes down pretty soon, and I’ve got to take you by a round to where he broke down those flowers. Ready?”
“Yes,” said Rob sadly; and they made a fresh start.
Chapter Twenty Six.In Painful Quest.At the end of a few minutes Shaddy turned his head and spoke over his shoulder.“Hear anything of your puss, Mr Rob?”“I have fancied I heard him twice.”“Then he’s after us, safe—depend upon it. These sort of things go along on velvet, and can get under the trees and branches for hours without your knowing anything about their being so near. Let’s be friends with him, my lad. We’re lonely enough out here, and he’ll get his own living, you may depend upon that.”Shaddy pressed on as rapidly as he could, for the evening was drawing nigh, and, as he said, it would be black night in there directly the sun went down; but it was a long way, and Rob was growing weary of seeing his companion keep on halting in doubt, before, with a look of triumph, he stopped short and pointed to a broken-down creeper, a kind of passion-flower, which had been dragged at till a mass of leafage and flower had been drawn down from high up in the tree it climbed, to lie in a heap.“There you are, Mr Rob, sir.”“No, no, Shaddy; that might have been dragged down by a puma or jaguar,” said Rob sadly.“Then he must have carried a good sharp knife in his pocket, my lad,” replied the old hunter. “Look at this.”He held up the end of the stem, for Rob to see that it had been divided by one clean chop with a big knife.“Yes, of course. He must have been here,” cried Rob joyfully. “Now then, we must find his trail and follow it on.”“We must make straight for camp, Mr Rob, sir,” replied Shaddy, “hoping to find him there, for in less than an hour’s time we shall have to feel our way.”“Oh, Shaddy!”“Must, sir, and you know it. We must try all we know to get back, and I tell you it’s as much as I can do to find the way there. I’m sure I can’t follow Mr Brazier’s trail.”Rob looked at him sternly.“Fact, sir. You know I’m doing my best.”“Yes,” said Rob, reproach sounding in his tones; but he could not help feeling that he was a little unjust, as he tramped steadily on behind his companion, who was very silent for some time, working hard to make his way as near as possible along the track by which they had come.Rob was just thinking that from the tone of the gloom around him the sun must be very low, when Shaddy turned his head for a moment.“Don’t think you could find your way, do you, Mr Rob?”“I’m sure I couldn’t,” was the reply.“So am I, my lad.”“But you have it all right?”“Sometimes, my lad; and sometimes I keep on losing it, and have to make a bit of a cast about to pick it up again. We’re going right, my lad, so don’t be down-hearted. Let’s hope Mr Brazier is precious anxious and hungry, waiting for us to come to him.”“I hope so, Shaddy.”“But you don’t think so, my lad.”Rob shook his head.“Heard your cat, sir?”“No.”“More have I. Scared of me, I suppose. Rec’lects first meeting.”They went on again in silence, with the gloom deepening; but the forest was a little more open, and all at once Shaddy stopped short, and holding one hand behind him signed to Rob to come close up.“Look!” he whispered: “just over my shoulder, lad. I’d say try your bow and arrow, only we’ve got plenty of food in camp, and had better leave it for next time.”“What is it, Shaddy? I can’t see. Yes, I can. Why it’s a deer. Watching us too.”The graceful little creature was evidently startled at the sight of human beings, and stood gazing ready to spring away at the slightest motion on their part. The next instant there was a sudden movement just before them, as a shadow seemed to dart out from their right; and as the deer made a frantic bound it was struck down, for a puma had alighted upon its back, and the two animals lay before them motionless, the puma’s teeth fast in the deer’s neck, and the former animal so flattened down that it looked as if it were one with the unfortunate creature it had made its prey, and whose death appeared to have been almost instantaneous.“Why, it must be my puma!” cried Rob.“That’s so, my lad, for sartain,” replied Shaddy. “Now, if we could get part, say the hind-quarter of that deer, for our share, it would be worth having. What do you say?”Rob said nothing, and Shaddy approached; but a low, ominous growling arose, and the great cat’s tail writhed and twined about in the air.“He’ll be at me if I go any nearer,” said Shaddy. “What do you say to trying, Mr Rob, sir?”“I don’t think I would,” said the lad; and he stepped forward, with the result that the puma’s tone changed to a peculiar whining, remonstrant growl, as it shifted itself off the dead deer, but kept its teeth buried in its neck, and began to back away, dragging the body toward the spot from which it had made its bound.“Let it be, Mr Rob, sir. The thing’s sure to be savage if you meddle with its food. We can do without it, and there’s no time to spare. Come along.”There was a fierce growl as Shaddy went on, and Rob followed him; but on looking back he saw that the puma was following, dragging the little deer, and after a few steps it took a fresh hold, flung it over its back, followed them for a few minutes, and then disappeared.They had enough to do to find their way now, for darkness was coming on fast, and before long Shaddy stopped short.“It’s of no use, my lad,” he said. “I’m very sorry, but we’ve drove it too late. The more we try the farther we shall get in the wood.”“What do you mean to do, then?” said Rob, wearily.“Light a fire, and get some boughs together for a bed.”“Oh, Shaddy, don’t you think we might reach camp if we went on?” cried Rob, despairingly.“Well, we’ll try, Mr Rob, sir; but I’m afraid not. Now, if your friend there would be a good comrade and bring in our supper, we could roast it, and be all right here, but he won’t, so we’ll try to get along. We shall be no worse off farther on, only we may be cutting ourselves out more work when it’s day. Shall we try?”“Yes, try,” said Rob; and he now took the lead, on the chance of finding the way. A quarter of an hour later, just as he was about to turn and give up, ready for lighting a fire to cook nothing, but only too glad of the chance of throwing himself down to rest, Shaddy uttered a cheery cry.“Well done, Mr Rob, sir!” he said. “You’re right. Camp’s just ahead.”“What! How do you know?”“By that big, flop-branched tree, with the great supports like stays. I remember it as well as can be. Off to the right, sir, and in a quarter of an hour we shall be in the clearing.”“Unless that’s one of thousands of trees that grow like it,” said Rob sadly, as he pressed on.“Nay, sir, I could swear to that one, sir, dark as it is. Now, you look up in five minutes, and see if you can’t make out stars.”Rob said nothing, but tramped on, forcing his way among trees which he only avoided now by extending his bow and striking to right and left.Five minutes or so afterwards he cast up his eyes, but without expecting to see anything, when a flash of hope ran through him, and he shouted joyfully,—“Stars, Shaddy, stars!” and as a grunt of satisfaction came from behind, he raised his voice to the highest pitch he could command, and roared out, “Mr Brazier I Mr Brazier! Ahoy!”Shaddy took up the cry in stentorian tones—“Ahoy! Ahoy! Ahoy!” and the shout was answered.“There he is!” cried Rob, joyfully. “Hurrah!”Shaddy was silent.“Didn’t you hear, Shaddy? Mr Brazier answered. You are right: he did get back, after all.”Still Shaddy remained silent, only increasing his pace in the darkness, lightened now by the stars which overarched them, so as to keep up with Rob’s eager strides.“Why don’t you speak, man? Let’s shout again: Mr Brazier! Ahoy!”“Mr Brazier! Ahoy!” came back faintly.“I don’t like to damp you, Mr Rob, sir,” said Shaddy, sadly, “but you don’t see as we’re out in the clearing again. That’s only the echo from the trees across the river. He isn’t here.”“No,” said Rob, with a groan; “he isn’t here.”Just then there was a rustling sound behind them, and a low growl, followed by a strange sound which Rob understood at once.
At the end of a few minutes Shaddy turned his head and spoke over his shoulder.
“Hear anything of your puss, Mr Rob?”
“I have fancied I heard him twice.”
“Then he’s after us, safe—depend upon it. These sort of things go along on velvet, and can get under the trees and branches for hours without your knowing anything about their being so near. Let’s be friends with him, my lad. We’re lonely enough out here, and he’ll get his own living, you may depend upon that.”
Shaddy pressed on as rapidly as he could, for the evening was drawing nigh, and, as he said, it would be black night in there directly the sun went down; but it was a long way, and Rob was growing weary of seeing his companion keep on halting in doubt, before, with a look of triumph, he stopped short and pointed to a broken-down creeper, a kind of passion-flower, which had been dragged at till a mass of leafage and flower had been drawn down from high up in the tree it climbed, to lie in a heap.
“There you are, Mr Rob, sir.”
“No, no, Shaddy; that might have been dragged down by a puma or jaguar,” said Rob sadly.
“Then he must have carried a good sharp knife in his pocket, my lad,” replied the old hunter. “Look at this.”
He held up the end of the stem, for Rob to see that it had been divided by one clean chop with a big knife.
“Yes, of course. He must have been here,” cried Rob joyfully. “Now then, we must find his trail and follow it on.”
“We must make straight for camp, Mr Rob, sir,” replied Shaddy, “hoping to find him there, for in less than an hour’s time we shall have to feel our way.”
“Oh, Shaddy!”
“Must, sir, and you know it. We must try all we know to get back, and I tell you it’s as much as I can do to find the way there. I’m sure I can’t follow Mr Brazier’s trail.”
Rob looked at him sternly.
“Fact, sir. You know I’m doing my best.”
“Yes,” said Rob, reproach sounding in his tones; but he could not help feeling that he was a little unjust, as he tramped steadily on behind his companion, who was very silent for some time, working hard to make his way as near as possible along the track by which they had come.
Rob was just thinking that from the tone of the gloom around him the sun must be very low, when Shaddy turned his head for a moment.
“Don’t think you could find your way, do you, Mr Rob?”
“I’m sure I couldn’t,” was the reply.
“So am I, my lad.”
“But you have it all right?”
“Sometimes, my lad; and sometimes I keep on losing it, and have to make a bit of a cast about to pick it up again. We’re going right, my lad, so don’t be down-hearted. Let’s hope Mr Brazier is precious anxious and hungry, waiting for us to come to him.”
“I hope so, Shaddy.”
“But you don’t think so, my lad.”
Rob shook his head.
“Heard your cat, sir?”
“No.”
“More have I. Scared of me, I suppose. Rec’lects first meeting.”
They went on again in silence, with the gloom deepening; but the forest was a little more open, and all at once Shaddy stopped short, and holding one hand behind him signed to Rob to come close up.
“Look!” he whispered: “just over my shoulder, lad. I’d say try your bow and arrow, only we’ve got plenty of food in camp, and had better leave it for next time.”
“What is it, Shaddy? I can’t see. Yes, I can. Why it’s a deer. Watching us too.”
The graceful little creature was evidently startled at the sight of human beings, and stood gazing ready to spring away at the slightest motion on their part. The next instant there was a sudden movement just before them, as a shadow seemed to dart out from their right; and as the deer made a frantic bound it was struck down, for a puma had alighted upon its back, and the two animals lay before them motionless, the puma’s teeth fast in the deer’s neck, and the former animal so flattened down that it looked as if it were one with the unfortunate creature it had made its prey, and whose death appeared to have been almost instantaneous.
“Why, it must be my puma!” cried Rob.
“That’s so, my lad, for sartain,” replied Shaddy. “Now, if we could get part, say the hind-quarter of that deer, for our share, it would be worth having. What do you say?”
Rob said nothing, and Shaddy approached; but a low, ominous growling arose, and the great cat’s tail writhed and twined about in the air.
“He’ll be at me if I go any nearer,” said Shaddy. “What do you say to trying, Mr Rob, sir?”
“I don’t think I would,” said the lad; and he stepped forward, with the result that the puma’s tone changed to a peculiar whining, remonstrant growl, as it shifted itself off the dead deer, but kept its teeth buried in its neck, and began to back away, dragging the body toward the spot from which it had made its bound.
“Let it be, Mr Rob, sir. The thing’s sure to be savage if you meddle with its food. We can do without it, and there’s no time to spare. Come along.”
There was a fierce growl as Shaddy went on, and Rob followed him; but on looking back he saw that the puma was following, dragging the little deer, and after a few steps it took a fresh hold, flung it over its back, followed them for a few minutes, and then disappeared.
They had enough to do to find their way now, for darkness was coming on fast, and before long Shaddy stopped short.
“It’s of no use, my lad,” he said. “I’m very sorry, but we’ve drove it too late. The more we try the farther we shall get in the wood.”
“What do you mean to do, then?” said Rob, wearily.
“Light a fire, and get some boughs together for a bed.”
“Oh, Shaddy, don’t you think we might reach camp if we went on?” cried Rob, despairingly.
“Well, we’ll try, Mr Rob, sir; but I’m afraid not. Now, if your friend there would be a good comrade and bring in our supper, we could roast it, and be all right here, but he won’t, so we’ll try to get along. We shall be no worse off farther on, only we may be cutting ourselves out more work when it’s day. Shall we try?”
“Yes, try,” said Rob; and he now took the lead, on the chance of finding the way. A quarter of an hour later, just as he was about to turn and give up, ready for lighting a fire to cook nothing, but only too glad of the chance of throwing himself down to rest, Shaddy uttered a cheery cry.
“Well done, Mr Rob, sir!” he said. “You’re right. Camp’s just ahead.”
“What! How do you know?”
“By that big, flop-branched tree, with the great supports like stays. I remember it as well as can be. Off to the right, sir, and in a quarter of an hour we shall be in the clearing.”
“Unless that’s one of thousands of trees that grow like it,” said Rob sadly, as he pressed on.
“Nay, sir, I could swear to that one, sir, dark as it is. Now, you look up in five minutes, and see if you can’t make out stars.”
Rob said nothing, but tramped on, forcing his way among trees which he only avoided now by extending his bow and striking to right and left.
Five minutes or so afterwards he cast up his eyes, but without expecting to see anything, when a flash of hope ran through him, and he shouted joyfully,—
“Stars, Shaddy, stars!” and as a grunt of satisfaction came from behind, he raised his voice to the highest pitch he could command, and roared out, “Mr Brazier I Mr Brazier! Ahoy!”
Shaddy took up the cry in stentorian tones—
“Ahoy! Ahoy! Ahoy!” and the shout was answered.
“There he is!” cried Rob, joyfully. “Hurrah!”
Shaddy was silent.
“Didn’t you hear, Shaddy? Mr Brazier answered. You are right: he did get back, after all.”
Still Shaddy remained silent, only increasing his pace in the darkness, lightened now by the stars which overarched them, so as to keep up with Rob’s eager strides.
“Why don’t you speak, man? Let’s shout again: Mr Brazier! Ahoy!”
“Mr Brazier! Ahoy!” came back faintly.
“I don’t like to damp you, Mr Rob, sir,” said Shaddy, sadly, “but you don’t see as we’re out in the clearing again. That’s only the echo from the trees across the river. He isn’t here.”
“No,” said Rob, with a groan; “he isn’t here.”
Just then there was a rustling sound behind them, and a low growl, followed by a strange sound which Rob understood at once.
Chapter Twenty Seven.The Four-Footed Friend.The lad said nothing, so great was the change from hope to despondency; and he hardly noticed the sound close beside him, as Shaddy said gruffly—“Well, if any one had told me that, I wouldn’t have believed it!”“Is it any use to shout again, Shaddy?” said Rob, as he looked down at the indistinctly-seen shape of the dull tawny-coated puma, which had carried its captive after them to the clearing, and had now quietly lain down to its feast.“No, Mr Rob, sir; if he’s here, it’s in the shelter-place we made, utterly done up with tramping. Let’s go and see.”It was no easy task to get even there in the darkness, but they soon after stood at the end, and Rob convinced himself in a few moments that they were alone.“Oh, Shaddy!” he cried piteously, “he hasn’t come back. What can we do to find him?”“I’ll show you, sir,” said the man, quietly. “First thing is to make up the fire.”“For him to see? Yes; that’s right.”“Man couldn’t see the fire many yards away in the wood, Mr Rob, sir. I meant for us, so as to roast a bit of that deer, if the lion’ll let us have it.”“I must do something to help Mr Brazier!” said Rob, angrily.“That’s helping him, my lad—having a good meal to make us strong. After that we’ll have a good sleep to make us rested.”“Oh, no! no!” cried Rob, angrily.“But I say yes, yes, yes, sir!” said Shaddy, firmly. “I know what you feel, my lad, and it’s quite nat’ral; but just hark ye here a moment. Can we do anything to find him in that black darkness to-night?”“No,” said Rob, in despair; “it is, I know, impossible.”“Quite right, my lad. Then as soon as it’s daylight oughtn’t we to be ready to go and help him?”“Of course, Shaddy.”“Then how can we do most good,—as half-starved, worn-out fellows, without an ounce of pluck between us, or well-fed, strong, and refreshed, ready to tramp any number of hours, and able to carry him if it came to the worst? Answer me that.”“Come and light the fire, Shaddy,” said Rob, quietly.“Ah!” ejaculated the old sailor, and he led the way to where the embers lay, warm still, and with plenty of dry wood about. Five minutes after the fire was blazing merrily and illumining the scene.“Now,” cried Shaddy, “if your Tom would play fair, and let us have the hind-quarters of that deer, we might have it instead of the lizard. He’ll only eat the neck, I daresay. Shall we try him? I don’t think he’d show fight at you, sir.”“Let’s try,” said Rob, quietly. “I don’t think I’m afraid of him now.”“Not you, Mr Rob, sir,” said Shaddy; and they went together to where they had left the puma feasting upon the deer, but, to the surprise of both, there lay the carcass partly eaten about the throat and breast, and the puma had gone.“He can’t have had enough yet,” growled Shaddy, dropping upon his knees, knife in hand; and, seizing hold of the deer, he drove his blade in just across the loins, separating the vertebrae at the first thrust, but started back directly, as a low and fierce growl came from the edge of the forest, where they could see a pair of fiery eyes lit up by the blaze they had left behind.“I know,” cried Shaddy; “he was scared off by our fire, but he don’t want to lose his supper. What shall we do, Mr Rob? Two more cuts, and I could draw the hind-quarters away. I’ll try it.”The puma was silent, and Shaddy slowly approached his hand, thrust in his knife, and made one bold cut which swept through the deer’s flank; but another growl arose, and there was a bound made by the puma—which, however, turned and crept slowly back to cover, where it stood watching them, with the fire again reflected in its eyes.“He don’t mean mischief, Mr Rob, sir,” said Shaddy. “I’ll have another try. I may get through it this time.”“No, no, don’t try; it’s dangerous.”“But you don’t fancy that lizard thing, my lad; and I want you strong to-morrow. Now, look here: I’ll get close again, and risk it; and if, just as I say ‘Now,’ you’d speak to the beast quiet like, as you would to a dog, it might take his attention, and so we’d get the hind part clear off.”“Yes,” said Rob, quietly. “Shall I walk to it?”“No, I wouldn’t do that, but go a little way off sidewise, just keeping your distance, talking all the while, and he’d follow you with his eyes.”Rob nodded, and turned off, as Shaddy crept close once more and stretched out his hand.“Now!” he said; and Rob began to call the beast, fervently hoping that it would not come, but to his horror it did; and he could just dimly make out its shape, looking misty and dim in the firelight, with its eyes glowing and its tail writhing, as it slowly approached, while Rob walked farther away from his companion still.All at once the puma stopped short, swung itself round, and, to Rob’s horror, crouched, bounded back toward where the carcass lay, leaping right to it, and burying its jaws in the deer’s neck with a savage snarl.“Run, Shaddy,” shouted Rob.“It’s all right, my lad,” came from a little distance: “I did. I’ve got our half, and he’s got his. Speak to him gently, and leave him to his supper. We won’t be very long before we have ours.”“Got it?” cried Rob, eagerly, as he hurried after his companion.“Yes, my lad—all right;” and a few minutes later pieces of the tender, succulent flesh, quite free from marks of the puma’s claws, were frizzling over the clear embers and emitting an appetising odour, which taught the boy how hungry he was; and as they were cooking, Shaddy talked of how tame he had known pumas to be, and of how they seemed to take to man.“I wouldn’t trust a tiger the length of his tail,” he said, as they raked hot coals nearer to the roasting meat; “but I should never feel skeart of a lion, so long as I didn’t get fighting him. Strikes me that after a fashion you might get that chap kind of tame. Shouldn’t wonder if, when he’s done, he comes and lies down here for a warm.”Rob thought of his former night’s experience, when something came and nestled near him; and the next minute he was doing the same as the puma—partaking of the nourishing meat, every mouthful seeming to give him fresh strength.It was a rough, but enjoyable meal, nature making certain demands which had to be satisfied; and for the moment, as he fell to after his long fast, Rob forgot his boyish companion and the second loss he had sustained. But as soon as he had finished, the depression came back, and he felt ashamed of himself for having enjoyed his food instead of dwelling upon some means of finding out where Mr Brazier had strayed.His attention was taken off, though, directly by Shaddy, who said slowly:“That’s better. Nothing like a good honest meal for setting a man going again and making him ready to think and work. I say, look yonder at your tom-cat.”The fire had just fallen together, and was blazing up so as to spread a circle of light for some distance round; and upon looking in the direction of the puma Rob could see it lying down feasting away upon its share of the deer, apparently quite confident that it was in the neighbourhood of friends, and not likely to be saluted with a shot.It struck Rob that the animal must be pretty well satisfied now with food, and in consequence less likely to be vicious, so he rose.“Where are you going, Mr Rob, sir?” said Shaddy.“Over to the puma.”“I wouldn’t. Oh, I don’t know. Best time to make friends—after dinner. I’d be careful, though, my lad.”“Yes; I’ll take care,” said Rob, who felt a strong desire to find another friend out there in the wilderness, now that his companions were dropping away; and thinking that the time might come when he would be quite alone, he walked slowly toward where the puma was crunching up some of the tender bones of the deer.Rob kept a little to one side, so that his shadow should not fall upon the animal, which paid no heed to his approach for a few moments; then uttered a low fierce snarl and laid down its ears, making the boy stop short and feel ready to retreat, as the animal suddenly sprang up and stood lashing its tail and licking its lips. But it made no further menacing sign, and walked quietly toward him and then stood waiting.Rob hesitated. Nature suggested flight, but Rob wanted to tame the beast, and mastering his dread he advanced, and in spite of a warning admonition from Shaddy, took another step or two and stopped by the puma, which stared at him intently for a few moments. It then set all doubts as to its feelings at rest by suddenly butting its head against Rob’s leg, and as the lad bent down and patted it, threw itself on one side, and with the playful action of a kitten curved its paws, made dabs with them at the lad’s foot, and ended by holding it and rubbing its head against his boot.“Well done, beast tamer!” cried Shaddy; and the puma threw up its head directly and stared in the direction of the sound; but a touch from Rob’s hand quieted it, and it stretched itself out and lay with its eyes half closed, apparently thoroughly enjoying the caresses of its human friend.“Better get to the shelter, Mr Rob, sir,” said Shaddy suddenly; and after a final pat and stroke, the boy turned away from the puma and walked back to the fire, finding that the animal had sprung up and followed him directly for about half the distance, but only to stop short and stand there, handsome and lithe, watching them and the fire, while its tail played about and the fine hairs glistened.“He don’t know what to make of me, Mr Rob, sir; and as we’ve no dog I may as well be friends too. Try and bring him up. He won’t be a bad companion, ’specially if he hunts deer for us like he did to-night. He’ll be good as a gun.”“He doesn’t seem to like you, Shaddy.”“No, sir. I’m old and tough; you’re young and tender,” said the guide grimly. “He’s cunning, as all cats are; and some day, when he’s hungry and is enjoying you, he’ll say to himself—‘This is a deal better than that tough old sailor, who’d taste strong of tar and bilge.’ Here, what are you going to do?”“Try and fetch him here,” said Rob, smiling as he went close up to the puma, which crouched again at his approach; and full of confidence now, the lad went down on one knee, patting and stroking the beast for a minute, talking softly the while.The result was that as he rose the puma leaped up, bounded round him, and then followed close up to the fire, but met all Shaddy’s advances with a low growl and a laying down of its ears flat upon its head.“All right,” said Shaddy, “I don’t want to be friends if you don’t, puss; only let’s have a—what-you-may-call-it?”“Truce,” suggested Rob.“That’s it, sir. I won’t show fight if he won’t. Now then, sir, let’s make up the fire; and then—bed.”Shaddy quickly piled up a quantity of wood on the embers, beating and smothering it down, so that they might have it as a protection against enemies and as a ready friend in the morning. Then, shouldering the portion left of the deer, he led the way to the rough hut, hung the meat high up in a tree and crept in, Rob following and wondering whether the puma would stop near them.But the animal hung back as Rob followed his companion into the dark triangular-shaped space, where, after a short time devoted to meditation, he threw himself upon his bed of leaves to lie and think of his two lost companions.At least, that was his intention, but the moment Rob rose in the darkness from his knees and lay down with a restful sigh, he dropped into a deep dreamless sleep, from which he half awoke once to stretch out his hand and feel it rest upon something furry and warm, which he dimly made out to be the curled-up body of the puma. Then he slept again till broad daylight showed in through the end of the bough, but half shut away by the figure of the guide, who said roughly:“Now you two: time to get up.”At that moment Rob’s hand rested upon a round, soft head, which began to move, and commenced a vibratory movement as a deep humming purr filled the place.
The lad said nothing, so great was the change from hope to despondency; and he hardly noticed the sound close beside him, as Shaddy said gruffly—
“Well, if any one had told me that, I wouldn’t have believed it!”
“Is it any use to shout again, Shaddy?” said Rob, as he looked down at the indistinctly-seen shape of the dull tawny-coated puma, which had carried its captive after them to the clearing, and had now quietly lain down to its feast.
“No, Mr Rob, sir; if he’s here, it’s in the shelter-place we made, utterly done up with tramping. Let’s go and see.”
It was no easy task to get even there in the darkness, but they soon after stood at the end, and Rob convinced himself in a few moments that they were alone.
“Oh, Shaddy!” he cried piteously, “he hasn’t come back. What can we do to find him?”
“I’ll show you, sir,” said the man, quietly. “First thing is to make up the fire.”
“For him to see? Yes; that’s right.”
“Man couldn’t see the fire many yards away in the wood, Mr Rob, sir. I meant for us, so as to roast a bit of that deer, if the lion’ll let us have it.”
“I must do something to help Mr Brazier!” said Rob, angrily.
“That’s helping him, my lad—having a good meal to make us strong. After that we’ll have a good sleep to make us rested.”
“Oh, no! no!” cried Rob, angrily.
“But I say yes, yes, yes, sir!” said Shaddy, firmly. “I know what you feel, my lad, and it’s quite nat’ral; but just hark ye here a moment. Can we do anything to find him in that black darkness to-night?”
“No,” said Rob, in despair; “it is, I know, impossible.”
“Quite right, my lad. Then as soon as it’s daylight oughtn’t we to be ready to go and help him?”
“Of course, Shaddy.”
“Then how can we do most good,—as half-starved, worn-out fellows, without an ounce of pluck between us, or well-fed, strong, and refreshed, ready to tramp any number of hours, and able to carry him if it came to the worst? Answer me that.”
“Come and light the fire, Shaddy,” said Rob, quietly.
“Ah!” ejaculated the old sailor, and he led the way to where the embers lay, warm still, and with plenty of dry wood about. Five minutes after the fire was blazing merrily and illumining the scene.
“Now,” cried Shaddy, “if your Tom would play fair, and let us have the hind-quarters of that deer, we might have it instead of the lizard. He’ll only eat the neck, I daresay. Shall we try him? I don’t think he’d show fight at you, sir.”
“Let’s try,” said Rob, quietly. “I don’t think I’m afraid of him now.”
“Not you, Mr Rob, sir,” said Shaddy; and they went together to where they had left the puma feasting upon the deer, but, to the surprise of both, there lay the carcass partly eaten about the throat and breast, and the puma had gone.
“He can’t have had enough yet,” growled Shaddy, dropping upon his knees, knife in hand; and, seizing hold of the deer, he drove his blade in just across the loins, separating the vertebrae at the first thrust, but started back directly, as a low and fierce growl came from the edge of the forest, where they could see a pair of fiery eyes lit up by the blaze they had left behind.
“I know,” cried Shaddy; “he was scared off by our fire, but he don’t want to lose his supper. What shall we do, Mr Rob? Two more cuts, and I could draw the hind-quarters away. I’ll try it.”
The puma was silent, and Shaddy slowly approached his hand, thrust in his knife, and made one bold cut which swept through the deer’s flank; but another growl arose, and there was a bound made by the puma—which, however, turned and crept slowly back to cover, where it stood watching them, with the fire again reflected in its eyes.
“He don’t mean mischief, Mr Rob, sir,” said Shaddy. “I’ll have another try. I may get through it this time.”
“No, no, don’t try; it’s dangerous.”
“But you don’t fancy that lizard thing, my lad; and I want you strong to-morrow. Now, look here: I’ll get close again, and risk it; and if, just as I say ‘Now,’ you’d speak to the beast quiet like, as you would to a dog, it might take his attention, and so we’d get the hind part clear off.”
“Yes,” said Rob, quietly. “Shall I walk to it?”
“No, I wouldn’t do that, but go a little way off sidewise, just keeping your distance, talking all the while, and he’d follow you with his eyes.”
Rob nodded, and turned off, as Shaddy crept close once more and stretched out his hand.
“Now!” he said; and Rob began to call the beast, fervently hoping that it would not come, but to his horror it did; and he could just dimly make out its shape, looking misty and dim in the firelight, with its eyes glowing and its tail writhing, as it slowly approached, while Rob walked farther away from his companion still.
All at once the puma stopped short, swung itself round, and, to Rob’s horror, crouched, bounded back toward where the carcass lay, leaping right to it, and burying its jaws in the deer’s neck with a savage snarl.
“Run, Shaddy,” shouted Rob.
“It’s all right, my lad,” came from a little distance: “I did. I’ve got our half, and he’s got his. Speak to him gently, and leave him to his supper. We won’t be very long before we have ours.”
“Got it?” cried Rob, eagerly, as he hurried after his companion.
“Yes, my lad—all right;” and a few minutes later pieces of the tender, succulent flesh, quite free from marks of the puma’s claws, were frizzling over the clear embers and emitting an appetising odour, which taught the boy how hungry he was; and as they were cooking, Shaddy talked of how tame he had known pumas to be, and of how they seemed to take to man.
“I wouldn’t trust a tiger the length of his tail,” he said, as they raked hot coals nearer to the roasting meat; “but I should never feel skeart of a lion, so long as I didn’t get fighting him. Strikes me that after a fashion you might get that chap kind of tame. Shouldn’t wonder if, when he’s done, he comes and lies down here for a warm.”
Rob thought of his former night’s experience, when something came and nestled near him; and the next minute he was doing the same as the puma—partaking of the nourishing meat, every mouthful seeming to give him fresh strength.
It was a rough, but enjoyable meal, nature making certain demands which had to be satisfied; and for the moment, as he fell to after his long fast, Rob forgot his boyish companion and the second loss he had sustained. But as soon as he had finished, the depression came back, and he felt ashamed of himself for having enjoyed his food instead of dwelling upon some means of finding out where Mr Brazier had strayed.
His attention was taken off, though, directly by Shaddy, who said slowly:
“That’s better. Nothing like a good honest meal for setting a man going again and making him ready to think and work. I say, look yonder at your tom-cat.”
The fire had just fallen together, and was blazing up so as to spread a circle of light for some distance round; and upon looking in the direction of the puma Rob could see it lying down feasting away upon its share of the deer, apparently quite confident that it was in the neighbourhood of friends, and not likely to be saluted with a shot.
It struck Rob that the animal must be pretty well satisfied now with food, and in consequence less likely to be vicious, so he rose.
“Where are you going, Mr Rob, sir?” said Shaddy.
“Over to the puma.”
“I wouldn’t. Oh, I don’t know. Best time to make friends—after dinner. I’d be careful, though, my lad.”
“Yes; I’ll take care,” said Rob, who felt a strong desire to find another friend out there in the wilderness, now that his companions were dropping away; and thinking that the time might come when he would be quite alone, he walked slowly toward where the puma was crunching up some of the tender bones of the deer.
Rob kept a little to one side, so that his shadow should not fall upon the animal, which paid no heed to his approach for a few moments; then uttered a low fierce snarl and laid down its ears, making the boy stop short and feel ready to retreat, as the animal suddenly sprang up and stood lashing its tail and licking its lips. But it made no further menacing sign, and walked quietly toward him and then stood waiting.
Rob hesitated. Nature suggested flight, but Rob wanted to tame the beast, and mastering his dread he advanced, and in spite of a warning admonition from Shaddy, took another step or two and stopped by the puma, which stared at him intently for a few moments. It then set all doubts as to its feelings at rest by suddenly butting its head against Rob’s leg, and as the lad bent down and patted it, threw itself on one side, and with the playful action of a kitten curved its paws, made dabs with them at the lad’s foot, and ended by holding it and rubbing its head against his boot.
“Well done, beast tamer!” cried Shaddy; and the puma threw up its head directly and stared in the direction of the sound; but a touch from Rob’s hand quieted it, and it stretched itself out and lay with its eyes half closed, apparently thoroughly enjoying the caresses of its human friend.
“Better get to the shelter, Mr Rob, sir,” said Shaddy suddenly; and after a final pat and stroke, the boy turned away from the puma and walked back to the fire, finding that the animal had sprung up and followed him directly for about half the distance, but only to stop short and stand there, handsome and lithe, watching them and the fire, while its tail played about and the fine hairs glistened.
“He don’t know what to make of me, Mr Rob, sir; and as we’ve no dog I may as well be friends too. Try and bring him up. He won’t be a bad companion, ’specially if he hunts deer for us like he did to-night. He’ll be good as a gun.”
“He doesn’t seem to like you, Shaddy.”
“No, sir. I’m old and tough; you’re young and tender,” said the guide grimly. “He’s cunning, as all cats are; and some day, when he’s hungry and is enjoying you, he’ll say to himself—‘This is a deal better than that tough old sailor, who’d taste strong of tar and bilge.’ Here, what are you going to do?”
“Try and fetch him here,” said Rob, smiling as he went close up to the puma, which crouched again at his approach; and full of confidence now, the lad went down on one knee, patting and stroking the beast for a minute, talking softly the while.
The result was that as he rose the puma leaped up, bounded round him, and then followed close up to the fire, but met all Shaddy’s advances with a low growl and a laying down of its ears flat upon its head.
“All right,” said Shaddy, “I don’t want to be friends if you don’t, puss; only let’s have a—what-you-may-call-it?”
“Truce,” suggested Rob.
“That’s it, sir. I won’t show fight if he won’t. Now then, sir, let’s make up the fire; and then—bed.”
Shaddy quickly piled up a quantity of wood on the embers, beating and smothering it down, so that they might have it as a protection against enemies and as a ready friend in the morning. Then, shouldering the portion left of the deer, he led the way to the rough hut, hung the meat high up in a tree and crept in, Rob following and wondering whether the puma would stop near them.
But the animal hung back as Rob followed his companion into the dark triangular-shaped space, where, after a short time devoted to meditation, he threw himself upon his bed of leaves to lie and think of his two lost companions.
At least, that was his intention, but the moment Rob rose in the darkness from his knees and lay down with a restful sigh, he dropped into a deep dreamless sleep, from which he half awoke once to stretch out his hand and feel it rest upon something furry and warm, which he dimly made out to be the curled-up body of the puma. Then he slept again till broad daylight showed in through the end of the bough, but half shut away by the figure of the guide, who said roughly:
“Now you two: time to get up.”
At that moment Rob’s hand rested upon a round, soft head, which began to move, and commenced a vibratory movement as a deep humming purr filled the place.