CHAPTER FIVE.
A WATCH IN THE DARK.
"You do sleep soundly," said the young Italian merrily.
"Why, it's morning, and I didn't know I had been sleeping! Where's MrBrazier?"
"Forward yonder."
"Why, we're going on."
"Yes; there's a good wind, and we've been sailing away since before thesun rose."
Rob jumped up and hurried out of the tent-like arrangement, to findShaddy seated in the stern steering, and after a greeting Rob lookedabout him, entranced by the scenery and the wondrous tints of the dewymorning. Great patches of mist hung about here and there close underthe banks where the wind did not catch them, and these were turned bythe early morning's sun to glorious opalescent masses, broken bybrilliant patches of light.
The boat was gliding along over the sparkling water close in now to thewestern shore, whose banks were invisible, being covered by a densegrowth of tree and climber, many of whose strands dipped into the river,while umbrageous trees spread and drooped their branches, so that itwould have been possible to row or paddle in beneath them in one long,bowery tunnel close to the bank.
"Going to have a wash?" said Joe, breaking in upon Rob's contemplativefit of rapture as he gazed with hungry eyes at the lovely scene.
"Wash? Oh yes!" cried Rob, starting, and he fetched a rough towel outof the tent, went to the side, and hesitated.
"Hadn't we better have a swim?" he said. "You'll come?"
"Not him," growled Shaddy. "What yer talking about? Want to feed thefishes?"
"Rubbish! I can swim," said Rob warmly; and leaning over the side, heplunged his hands into the water, sweeping them about.
"Deliciously cool!" he cried. "Oh!"
He snatched out his right and then his left, and as he did so a littlesilvery object dropped into the water.
Joe looked on in silence, and a peculiar smile came over Shaddy'scountenance as he saw Rob examine the back of his hand.
"Something's been biting me in the night," he said. "It bleeds."
Rob thrust in his hand again to wash away the blood, but snatched it outthe next minute, for as the ruddy fluid tinged the water there was arush of tiny fish at his hand, and he stared at half a dozen tiny biteswhich he had received.
"Why, they're little fish," he cried. "Are they the piranas you talkedabout, Joe?"
"Yes. What do you say to a swim now?"
"I'm willing. The splashing would drive them away."
Shaddy chuckled again.
"The splashing would bring them by thousands," said Joe quietly. "Youcan't bathe here. Those little fish would bite at you till in a fewminutes you would be covered with blood, and that would bring thousandsmore up to where you were."
"And they'd eat me up," said Rob mockingly.
"If somebody did not drag you out. They swarm in millions, and thebigger fish, too, are always ready to attack anything swimming in thestream."
"Come and hold the tiller here, Joe, my lad," growled Shaddy, "while Idip him a bucket of water to wash. When he knows the Paraguay like wedo, he won't want to bathe. Why, Mr Rob, there's all sorts o' thingshere ready for a nice juicy boy, from them little piranas right up toturtles and crocodiles and big snakes, so you must do your swimming witha sponge till we get on a side river and find safe pools."
He dipped the bucket, and Rob had his wash; by that time Brazier hadjoined him.
"Well, Rob," he cried, "is this good enough for you? Will the placedo?"
"Do?" cried Rob. "Oh, I feel as if I do not want to talk, only to sitand look at the trees. There, ain't those orchids hanging down?"
Brazier raised a little double glass which he carried to his eyes, andexamined a great cluster of lovely blossoms hanging from an old,half-decayed branch projecting over the river.
"Yes," he cried, "lovely. Well, Naylor, how soon are we to land or runup some creek?"
"Arter two or three days," said the guide.
"But hang it, man, the bank yonder is crowded with vegetable treasures."
"What! them?" said Shaddy, with a contemptuous snort. "I don't callthem anything. You just wait, sir, and trust me. You shall seesomething worth coming after by-and-by."
"Well, run the boat in closer to the shore, so that I can examine theplants as we go along. The water looks deep, and the wind's right. Youcould get within a dozen yards of the trees."
"I could get so as you might touch 'em, sir. There's plenty of water,but I'm not going no closer than this."
"Why?"
"Because I know that part along there. We can't see nobody, but Idessay there's Injuns watching us all the time from among the leaves,and if we went closer they might have a shot at us."
"Then they have guns?"
"No, sir, bows and arrows some of 'em, but mostly blowpipes."
"With poisoned arrows?"
"That's so, sir, and, what's worse, they know how to use 'em. They hita man I knew once with a tiny bit of an arrow thing, only a wood pointas broke off in the wound--wound, it weren't worth calling a wound, butthe little top was poisoned, and before night he was a dead man."
"From the poison?"
"That's it, sir. He laughed at it at first. The bit of an arrow, likea thin skewer with a tuft of cotton wool on the end, didn't look as ifit could hurt a strong man as I picked it up and looked where the pointhad been nearly sawed off all round."
"What, to make it break off?" cried Rob.
"That's so, my lad. When they're going to use an arrow they put thepoint between the teeth of a little fish's jaw--sort o' pirana thinglike them here in the river. Then they give the arrow a twiddle round,and the sharp teeth nearly eat it through, and when it hits and sticksin a wound the point breaks off, and I wouldn't give much for any onewho ever got one of those bits of sharp wood in their skins."
"What a pleasant look-out!" said Brazier. "Oh, it's right enough, sir.The thing is to go up parts where there are no Indians, and that's whereI'm going to take you. I say, look at that open patch yonder, wherethere's a bit o' green between the river and the trees."
"Yes, I see," said Joe quickly--"three Indians with spears."
"Right, lad!"
"I don't see them," said Brazier. "Yes," he added quickly, "I can seethem now."
"Only one ain't got a spear. That's a blowpipe," said Shaddy quietly.
"What! that length?" cried Rob. "Ay, my lad, that length. The longerthey are the smaller the darts, and the farther and stronger they sends'em."
"But we don't know that they are enemies," said Brazier.
"Oh yes, you do, sir. That's the Injuns' country, and there's no doubtabout it. White man's their enemy, they say, so they must be ours."
"But why?" said Rob. "We shouldn't interfere with the Indians."
"We've got a bad character with 'em, my lad. 'Tain't our fault. Theytell me it's all along o' the Spaniards as come in this country first,and made slaves of 'em, and learnt 'em to make 'em good, and set 'em towork in the mines to get gold and silver for 'em till they dropped anddied. Only savages they were, and so I s'pose the Spaniards thoughtthey weren't o' no consequence. But somehow I s'pose, red as they are,they think and feel like white people, and didn't like to be robbed andbeaten, and worn to death, and their children took away from 'em.Spaniards never seemed to think as they'd mind that. Might ha' known,too, for a cat goes miaowing about a house if she loses her kittens, anda dog kicks up a big howl about its pups; while my 'sperience about wildbeasts is that if you want to meddle with their young ones, you'd bettershoot the old ones first."
"Yes, I'm afraid that the old Spaniards thought of nothing out here butgetting gold."
"That's so, sir; and the old Indians telled their children about howthey'd been used, and their children told the next lot, and so it's goneon till it's grown into a sort of religion that the Spaniard is a sorto' savage wild beast, who ought to be killed; and that ain't the worston it."
"Then what is?" said Rob, for Shaddy looked ro
und at him and stoppedshort, evidently to be asked that question.
"Why, the worst of it is, sir, that they poor hungered, savage sort o'chaps don't know the difference between us and them Dons. English meansan Englishman all the wide world over, says you; but you're wrong. Heain't out here. Englishman, or Italian, or Frenchman's a Spaniard; andthey'll shoot us as soon as look at us."
"Why, you're making for the other shore, Naylor."
"Yes, sir. I'd ha' liked to land you yonder, but you see it ain't safe,so we'll light a fire on the other side, where it is, and get a bit o'breakfast, for I'm thinking as it's getting pretty nigh time."
"But is it safe to land there?" asked Brazier.
"Yes, sir; you may take that for granted. East's sit down and becomfortable; west side o' the river means eyes wide open and look outfor squalls."
"But you meant to go up some river west."
"True, sir; but you leave that to me."
As they began to near the eastern shore, where the land was morepark-like and open, the wind began to fail them, and the sail flapped,when the four boatmen, who had been lying about listlessly, leaped up,lowered it down, and then, seizing the oars, began to row with a long,steady stroke. Then Shaddy stood up, peering over the canvas awning,and looking eagerly for a suitable place for their morning halt, andending by running the boat alongside of a green meadow-like patch, wherethe bank, only a couple of feet above the water level, wasperpendicular, and the spot was surrounded by huge trees, from one ofwhich flew a flock of parrots, screaming wildly, while sundry sounds andrustlings in that nearest the water's edge proved that it was inhabited.
"What's up there?" whispered Rob to Joe as he looked. "Think it's agreat snake?"
"No," was the reply. "Look!" and the captain's son pointed up to where,half hidden by the leaves, a curious little black face peeredwonderingly down at them; and directly after Rob made out one afteranother, till quite a dozen were visible, the last hanging from a boughlike some curious animal fruit by its long stalk, which proved to be thelittle creature's prehensile tail, by which it swung with us arms andlegs drawn up close.
"Monkeys!" cried Rob eagerly, for it was his first meeting with the oddlittle objects in their native wilds.
"Yes; they swarm in the forests," said Joe, who was amused at hiscompanion's wondering looks.
Just then Shaddy leaped ashore with a rope, after carefully seeing tothe fastening of the other end.
"May as well give you gents a hint," he said: "never to trust nobodyabout your painter. It's just as well to use two, for if so be as theboat does break loose, away she goes down-stream, and you're done, forthere's no getting away from here. You can't tramp far through theforest."
He moored the boat to one of the trees, gave a few orders, and theIndian boatmen rapidly collected dead wood and started a fire, Shaddyfilling the tin kettle and swinging it gipsy fashion.
"I'd start fair at once, gentlemen," he said. "One never knows what'sgoing to happen, and I take it that you ought to carry your gun alwaysjust as you would an umbrella at home, and have it well loaded at yourside, ready for any action. Plenty of smoke!" he continued, as theclouds began to roll up through the dense branches of the tree overhead.
The result was a tremendous chattering and screaming amongst themonkeys, which bounded excitedly from branch to branch, shaking thetwigs and breaking off dead pieces to throw down.
"Hi! stop that, little 'uns!" roared Shaddy. "Two can play at thatgame. It ain't your tree; be off to another, or we'll make rabbit-pieo' some on you."
Whether the little creatures understood or no, they chattered loudly fora few moments more, and then, running to the end of a branch, which bentbeneath their weight, they dropped to the ground, and galloped off tothe next tree, each with his peculiar curling tail high in air.
The guide's advice was taken respecting the pieces, and, in addition tohis cartridge-pouch, each mounted a strong hunting-knife, one that,while being handy for chopping wood or cutting a way through creepersand tangling vines, would prove a formidable weapon of offence ordefence against the attack of any wild animal.
"That's your sort," said Shaddy, smiling as he saw Rob step out of theboat with his piece under his arm. "Puts me in mind of handling myfirst gun, when I was 'bout your age, sir, or a bit older. No, no,don't carry it that way, my lad; keep your muzzle either right up orright down."
"Well, that is down," said Rob pettishly, for he felt conscious, andwanted to appear quite at ease, and as if he were in the habit ofcarrying a rifle; consequently he looked as if he had never held onebefore in his life.
"Ay, it's down enough to put a bullet in anybody's knees."
"No, it isn't, Shaddy, for it's a shot-gun, and has no bullet in it."
"I know, lad, one o' them useful guns with a left-hand bore as'll carrya bullet if you like. More down. Wound close at hand from charge o'shot's worse than one from a bullet."
"Because it makes so many wounds?" said Rob.
"Nay, my lad; because at close quarters it only makes one, and a big,ragged one that's bad to heal. That's better. Now, if it goes off, itthrows up the earth and shoots the worms, while if you hold it well upit only shoots the stars.--Water boils."
Breakfast followed--a delightful _alfresco_ meal, with the silver rivergliding by, birds twittering, piping, screaming, and cooing all around,and monkeys chattering and screeching excitedly at having theirsanctuary invaded; but they were quite tame enough to drop down from thetrees and pick up a piece of biscuit, banana, or orange when thrown farenough. But this was not till they felt satisfied that they were notbeing watched, when the coveted treasure was seized and borne off with achattering cry of triumph, the actions of the odd little creaturestaking up a good deal of Rob's time which might have been devoted to hisbreakfast.
The travellers had brought plenty of fruit and provisions with them, andan ample supply of _mate_--the leaves that take the place of tea amongstthe South American tribes, whose example is largely followed by thehalf-breeds and those of Spanish descent; and after watching how thepreparation was made Rob found himself quite ready to partake of thatwhich proved on tasting to be both palatable and refreshing.
Then, somewhat unwillingly--for both Brazier and the lads were disposedto stay on shore to collect some of the natural objects so plentifularound them--they re-entered the boat; it was pulled into mid-stream,with the monkeys flocking down from the trees about the fire to pick upany scraps of food left, notably a couple of decayed bananas, and thenrunning quite to the edge of the water to chatter menacingly at thedeparting boat.
The sail was soon after hoisted, and for the whole of that day and thenext the little party ascended the river, making their halts on theright bank, but sleeping well out in the stream, held by a rope mooringthe boat's head to a tree, and a little anchor dropped in the stream.
Progress was fairly swift, and there was so much to see along the banksthat the time glided by rapidly; but at every cry of exultation on thediscovery of some fresh bird, flower, or insect, Shaddy only smiledgood-humouredly, and used the same expression:--
"Yes; but just you wait a bit."
The third day had passed, and the conversation in the boat threatened arevolution against the will of Shaddy, whose aim seemed to be to getthem up higher, while they were passing endless opportunities for makingcollections of objects of natural history such as they had never hadbefore, when all at once, as he stood in the boat looking up stream,after she had once more been carefully moored for the night, the guideturned and said quietly:--
"To-morrow, long before the sun's highest, I shall get you up to theplace I mean, and, once there, you can begin business as soon as youlike."
"A river on the left bank," said Brazier, as eagerly as a boy.
"Yes, sir, one as runs for far enough west, and then goes north."
"And you think there are no Indians there?"
"I don't say that, sir, because we shall see some, I daresay; butthey'll perhaps be friendly."<
br />
"You are not sure?"
"Well, no, sir. There, the sun's dipping down; it will be heavydarkness directly in this fog, and what we want is a good night's rest,ready for a long, hard day's work to-morrow."
It was Brazier's turn to keep watch half the night, and at about twelve,as nearly as they could tell, Rob rose to take his place.
"Nothing to report," said Brazier. "The same noises from the forest,the same splashings from the river, the Indians sleeping as heavily asusual. There, keep your watch; I wish I had it, for you will see theday break that is to take us to the place which I have been longing tosee for years."
Saying "good-night," Brazier went into the shelter, and Rob commencedhis solitary watch, with his brain busily inventing all kinds of dangersarising from the darkness--some horrible wild creature dropping downfrom the tree, or a huge serpent, which had crawled down the branch,twining its way along the mooring rope and coming over the bows past theIndian boatmen. Then he began to think of them, and how helpless hewould be if they planned to attack him, when, after mastering him, whichhe felt they could easily do, he mentally arranged that they would creepto the covered-in part of the boat and slay Brazier and Giovanni.
"Poor Joe!" he said to himself. "I was beginning to like him, though hewas not English, and--Oh, Joe, how you startled me!"
For a hand had been laid upon his shoulder as he sat watching the darkpart where the Indians lay, and he started round to find that Giovannihad joined him.
"I did not mean to frighten you," said the lad, in his quiet, subduedway. "Mr Brazier woke me coming in to sleep, and I thought you wouldbe alone, and that I could come and talk to you about our journeyto-morrow."
"I'm glad you've come, but it would be too bad to let you stop. There,stay a quarter of an hour, and then be off back to bed--such as it is,"he added, with a laugh.
"Oh, I'm used to hard beds. I can sleep anywhere--on the deck or abench, one as well as the other."
"I say, have you ever been up as high as this before?"
"No, never higher than the town. It's all as fresh to me as to you."
"Then we go up a river to-morrow?"
"I suppose so. Old Shaddy has it all his own way, and he keeps droppinghints about what he is going to take us to see."
"And I daresay it will all turn out nothing. What he likes may not suitus. But there, we shall see."
Then they sat in silence, listening to the rustlings and whistlings inthe air as of birds and great moths flitting and gliding about; theshrieks, howls, and yells from across the river; and to the greatplungings and splashings in the black water, whose star-gemmed bosomoften showed waves with the bright reflections rising and falling, andwhose surface looked as if the fire-flies had fallen in all up the riverafter their giddy evolutions earlier in the night, and were now floatingdown rapidly toward the sea.
Rob broke the silence at last.
"How is it this stream always runs so fast?" he said.
"Because the waters come from the mountains. There's a great waterfall,too, higher up, where the whole river comes plunging down hundreds offeet with a roar that can be heard for miles."
"Who says so? who has seen it?"
"Nobody ever has seen it. It is impossible to get to it. The water isso swift and full of rocks that no boat can row up, and the shores areall one dank, tangled mass that no one can cut through. Nobody can getthere."
"Why not? I tell you what: we'll talk to Shaddy to-morrow."
"He wouldn't go. He told me once that he tried it, and couldn't getthere. He nearly lost his life."
"I'll make him try again and take us."
"I tell you he wouldn't."
"Well, you'll see."
"What will you do?"
"Tell him--fair play, mind: you will not speak?"
"Of course not."
"Then look here, Joe; I'll say to him that I've heard of the place, andhow difficult it is, and that I wish we had some guide who really knewthe country and could take us there."
Joe shook his head.
"Beside, we could not attempt it without Mr Brazier wished to go."
"If you told him about that great fall, he would wish to go for the sakeof being the discoverer. You'll see. What's that?"
A tremendous splash, so near to them that quite a wave rose and slightlyrocked the boat as the boys sat there awe-stricken, listening andstraining their eyes in the darkness which shut them in.
The noise occurred again--a great splash as of some mighty beast rearingitself out of the water and letting itself fall back, followed by apeculiar, wallowing noise.
This time it was lower and more as though it had passed the boat, anddirectly after there was another splash, followed by a heavy beatinglike something thrashing the water with its tail. Then came asmothered, bellowing grunt as if the great animal had begun to roar andthen lowered its head half beneath the water, so that the noise was fullof curious gurglings. The flapping of the water was repeated, and thistime forty or fifty yards away, as near as they could guess, and oncemore there was silence.
"I didn't know there were such horrible beasts as that in the water,"whispered Rob.
"Nor I. What can it be?"
"Must have been big enough to upset the boat if it had seen us, or todrag us out. Shall we wake Shaddy and ask him?"
"No," said Joe; "I don't suppose he would be able to tell us. It soundsso horrible in the darkness."
"Why, I thought you were too much used to the river to be frightened atanything."
"I did not say I was frightened," replied Joe quietly.
"No, but weren't you? I thought the thing was coming on right at theboat."
"So did I," said Joe, very softly. "Yes, I was frightened too. I don'tthink any one could help being startled at a thing like that."
"Because we could not see what it was," he continued thoughtfully. "Ifancied I knew all the animals and fish about the river, but I neverheard or saw anything that could be like that."
Just then they heard a soft, rustling sound behind, such, as might havebeen made by a huge serpent creeping on to the boat; and as theylistened intently the sound continued, and the boat swayed slightly,going down on one side.
"It's coming on," whispered Rob, with his mouth feeling dry and ahorrible dread assailing him, as in imagination he saw a huge scalycreature gliding along the side of the boat and passing the covered-incanvas cabin.
It was only a matter of moments, but it was like hours to the two boys.The feeling was upon Rob that he must run to the fore-part, leapoverboard, and swim ashore, but he could not move. Every nerve andmuscle was paralysed, and when he tried to speak to his fellow-watcherno words came; for, as Joe told his companion afterwards, he too triedto speak but was as helpless.
At last, in that long-drawn agony of dread, as he fully expected to beseized, Rob's presence of mind came back, and he recollected that hisgun was lying shotted beneath the canvas of the sail at the side, and,seizing it with the energy of despair, he swung the piece round, cockingboth barrels as he did so, and brought them into sharp contact withJoe's arm.
"Steady there with that gun," said a low familiar voice. "Don't shoot."
"Shaddy!" panted Rob.
"Me it is, lad. I crep' along so as not to disturb Mr Brazier. I say,did you hear that roar in the water?--but o' course you did. Know whatit was?"
"No!" cried both boys in a breath. "Some great kind of amphibiousthing," added Rob.
"'Phibious thing!--no. I couldn't see it, but there was no doubt aboutit: that threshing with the tail told me."
"Yes, we heard its tail beating," said Joe quickly. "What was it?"
"What was them, you mean! Well, I'll tell you. One of them tapirthings must have been wading about in a shallow of mud, and a great'gator got hold of him, and once he'd got hold he wouldn't let go, buthung on to the poor brute and kept on trying to drag him under water.Horrid things, 'gators. I should like to shoot the lot."
Rob drew
a long breath very like a sigh. An alligator trying to dragdown one of the ugly, old-world creatures that looks like a pig whichhas made up its mind to grow into an elephant, and failed--like the frogin the fable, only without going quite so far--after getting its upperlip sufficiently elongated to do some of the work performed by anelephant's trunk! One of these jungle swamp pachyderms and a reptileengaged in a struggle in the river, and not some terrible water-dragonwith a serpentlike tail such as Rob's imagination had built up with thehelp of pictures of fossil animals and impossible objects from heraldry!It took all nervousness and mystery out of the affair, and made Robfeel annoyed that he had allowed his imagination to run riot and createsuch an alarming scene.
"Getting towards morning, isn't it?" said Joe hastily, and in a tonewhich told of his annoyance, too, that he also should have participatedin the scare.
"Getting that way, lad, I s'pose. I ain't quite doo to relieve thewatch, but I woke up and got thinking a deal about our job to-morrow,and that made me wakeful. And then there was that splashing andbellowing in the water, and I thought Mr Rob here would be a bitpuzzled to know what it was. Course I knew he wouldn't be frightened."
"None of your sneering!" said Rob frankly. "I'm not ashamed to say thatI was frightened, and very much frightened, too. It was enough to scareany one who did not know what it was."
"Right, my lad! enough to scare anybody!" said Shaddy, patting Rob onthe shoulder. "It made me a bit squeery for a moment or two till I knewwhat it was. But, I say, when I came softly along to keep you company,you warn't going to shoot?"
"I'm afraid I was," said Rob. "It sounded just like some horrible greatsnake creeping along toward us out of the darkness."
"Then I'm glad I spoke," said Shaddy drily, "Spoiled your trip, lad, ifyou'd shot me, for I must have gone overboard, and if I'd come up againI don't bleeve as you'd have picked me up. Taken ever so long to getthe boat free in the dark, and if you hadn't picked me up I don't seehow you could have got on in the jungle. Look here, now you two gentshave taken to gunning, I wouldn't shoot if I were you without asking aquestion or two first."
"But suppose it is a jaguar coming at us?" said Joe.
"Well, if it's a jagger he won't answer, and you had better shoot. Samewith the lions or bears."
"Bears?" said Rob eagerly; "are there bears here?"
"Ay, lad! and plenty of 'em, not your big Uncle Ephrems, like there isin the Rocky Mountains--grizzlies, you know--but black bears, and prettybig, and plenty savage enough to satisfy any reasonable hunter, I meanone who don't expect too much. Wait a bit, and you'll get plenty ofshooting to keep the pot going without reckoning them other things asMr Brazier's come out to hunt. What d'yer call 'em, awk'ards ororchards--which was it?"
"Orchids," said Rob.
"Oh! ah! yes, orchids. What's best size shot for bringing o' themdown?"
"Don't answer him, Rob; it's only his gammon, and he thinks it's witty,"said Joe.
Shaddy chuckled, and it was evident that his joke amused him.
"There," he said, "it ain't worth while for three on us to be keepingwatch. One's enough, and the others can sleep, so, as I'm here, you twomay as well go and roost."
"No," said Rob promptly; "my time isn't up."
"No, my lad, not by two hours, I should say; but I'll let you off therest, for it's a-many years since I was up this part, and I want to sitand think it out before we start as soon as it's light."
But Rob firmly refused to give up his task till the time set down by MrBrazier for him to be relieved. Joe as stubbornly refused to return tohis bed, and so it was that when the birds gave note of the coming ofthe day, after the weird chorus had gradually died away in the forestthey were still seated upon one of the thwarts, watching for the firstwarm rays of the sun to tinge the dense river mist with rose.
Rob Harlow's Adventures: A Story of the Grand Chaco Page 5