CHAPTER II
A NEW FACE IN CAMP
The morning after the departure of the boat, Captain Horn, in companywith the Englishman Davis, each armed with a gun, set out on a tour ofinvestigation, hoping to be able to ascend the rocky hills at the back ofthe camp, and find some elevated point commanding a view over the ocean.After a good deal of hard climbing they reached such a point, but thecaptain found that the main object was really out of his reach. He couldnow plainly see that a high rocky point to the southward, which stretchedsome distance out to sea, would cut off all view of the approach ofrescuers coming from that direction, until they were within a mile or twoof his landing-place. Back from the sea the hills grew higher, until theyblended into the lofty stretches of the Andes, this being one of the fewpoints where the hilly country extends to the ocean.
The coast to the north curved a little oceanward, so that a much moreextended view could be had in that direction, but as far as he could seeby means of a little pocket-glass which the boy Ralph had lent him, thecaptain could discover no signs of habitation, and in this direction theland seemed to be a flat desert. When he returned to camp, about noon,he had made up his mind that the proper thing to do was to make himselfand his companions as comfortable as possible and patiently await thereturn of his mate with succor.
Captain Horn was very well satisfied with his present place ofencampment. Although rain is unknown in this western portion of Peru,which is, therefore, in general desolate and barren, there are parts ofthe country that are irrigated by streams which flow from the snow-cappedpeaks of the Andes, and one of these fertile spots the captain seemed tohave happened upon. On the plateau there grew a few bushes, while theface of the rock in places was entirely covered by hanging vines. Thisfertility greatly puzzled Captain Horn, for nowhere was to be seen anystream of water, or signs of there ever having been any. But they hadwith them water enough to last for several days, and provisions for amuch longer time, and the captain felt little concern on this account.
As for lodgings, there were none excepting the small tent which he hadput up for the ladies, but a few nights in the open air in that dryclimate would not hurt the male portion of the party.
In the course of the afternoon, the two American sailors came to CaptainHorn and asked permission to go to look for game. The captain had smallhopes of their finding anything suitable for food, but feeling sure thatif they should be successful, every one would be glad of a little freshmeat, he gave his permission, at the same time requesting the men to dotheir best in the way of observation, if they should get up high enoughto survey the country, and discover some signs of habitation, if suchexisted in that barren region. It would be a great relief to the captainto feel that there was some spot of refuge to which, by land or water,his party might make its way in case the water and provisions gave outbefore the return of the mate.
As to the men who went off in the boat, the captain expected to see but afew of them again. One or two might return with the mate, in such vesselas he should obtain in which to come for them, but the most of them, ifthey reached a seaport, would scatter, after the manner of seamen.
The two sailors departed, promising, if they could not bring back fish orfowl, to return before dark, with a report of the lay of the land.
It was very well that Maka did not have to depend on these hunters forthe evening meal, for night came without them, and the next morning theyhad not returned. The captain was very much troubled. The men must belost, or they had met with some accident. There could be no other reasonfor their continued absence. They had each a gun, and plenty of powderand shot, but they had taken only provisions enough for a single meal.
Davis offered to go up the hills to look for the missing men. He hadlived for some years in the bush in Australia, and he thought thatthere was a good chance of his discovering their tracks. But thecaptain shook his head.
"You are just as likely to get lost, or to fall over a rock, as anybodyelse," he said, "and it is better to have two men lost than three. Butthere is one thing that you can do. You can go down to the beach, andmake your way southward as far as possible. There you can find your wayback, and if you take a gun, and fire it every now and then, you mayattract the attention of Shirley and Burke, if they are on the hillsabove, and perhaps they may even be able to see you as you walk along. Ifthey are alive, they will probably see or hear you, and fire in answer.It is a very strange thing that we have not heard a shot from them."
Ralph begged to accompany the Englishman, for he was getting veryrestless, and longed for a ramble and scramble. But neither the captainnor his sister would consent to this, and Davis started off alone.
"If you can round the point down there," said the captain to him, "do it,for you may see a town or houses not far away on the other side. Butdon't take any risks. At all events, make your calculations so that youwill be back here before dark."
The captain and Ralph assisted the two ladies to a ledge of rock near thecamp from which they could watch the Englishman on his way. They saw himreach the beach, and after going on a short distance he fired his gun,after which he pressed forward, now and then stopping to fire again. Evenfrom their inconsiderable elevation they could see him until he must havebeen more than a mile away, and he soon after vanished from their view.
As on the previous day darkness came without the two American sailors, sonow it came without the Englishman, and in the morning he had notreturned. Of course, every mind was filled with anxiety in regard to thethree sailors, but Captain Horn's soul was racked with apprehensions ofwhich he did not speak. The conviction forced itself upon him that themen had been killed by wild beasts. He could imagine no other reason whyDavis should not have returned. He had been ordered not to leave thebeach, and, therefore, could not lose his way. He was a wary, carefulman, used to exploring rough country, and he was not likely to take anychances of disabling himself by a fall while on such an expedition.
Although he knew that the great jaguar was found in Peru, as well asthe puma and black bear, the captain had not supposed it likely thatany of these creatures frequented the barren western slopes of themountains, but he now reflected that there were lions in the deserts ofAfrica, and that the beasts of prey in South America might also befound in its deserts.
A great responsibility now rested upon Captain Horn. He was the only manleft in camp who could be depended upon as a defender,--for Maka wasknown to be a coward, and Ralph was only a boy,--and it was with ashrinking of the heart that he asked himself what would be theconsequences if a couple of jaguars or other ferocious beasts were toappear upon that unprotected plateau in the night, or even in thedaytime. He had two guns, but he was only one man. These thoughts werenot cheerful, but the captain's face showed no signs of alarm, or evenunusual anxiety, and, with a smile on his handsome brown countenance, hebade the ladies good morning as if he were saluting them upon aquarter-deck.
"I have been thinking all night about those three men," said MissMarkham, "and I have imagined something which may have happened. Isn'tit possible that they may have discovered at a distance some inlandsettlement which could not be seen by the party in the boat, and thatthey thought it their duty to push their way to it, and so getassistance for us? In that case, you know, they would probably be a longtime coming back."
"That is possible," said the captain, glad to hear a hopeful supposition,but in his heart he had no faith in it whatever. If Davis had seen avillage, or even a house, he would have come back to report it, and ifthe others had found human habitation, they would have had ample time toreturn, either by land or by sea.
The restless Ralph, who had chafed a good deal because he had not beenallowed to leave the plateau in search of adventure, now found a vent forhis surplus energy, for the captain appointed him fire-maker. The campfuel was not abundant, consisting of nothing but some dead branches andtwigs from the few bushes in the neighborhood. These Ralph collected withgreat energy, and Maka had nothing to complain of in regard to fuel forhis cooking.<
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Toward the end of that afternoon, Ralph prepared to make a fire for thesupper, and he determined to change the position of the fireplace andbring it nearer the rocks, where he thought it would burn better. It didburn better--so well, indeed, that some of the dry leaves of the vinesthat there covered the face of the rocks took fire. Ralph watched withinterest the dry leaves blaze and the green ones splutter, and then hethought it would be a pity to scorch those vines, which were among thefew green things about them, and he tried to put out the fire. But thishe could not do, and, when he called Maka, the negro was not able tohelp him. The fire had worked its way back of the green vines, and seemedto have found good fuel, for it was soon crackling away at a great rate,attracting the rest of the party.
"Can't we put it out?" cried Miss Markham. "It is a pity to ruin thosebeautiful vines."
The captain smiled and shook his head. "We cannot waste our valuablewater on that conflagration," said he. "There is probably a great massof dead vines behind the green outside. How it crackles and roars! Thatdead stuff must be several feet thick. All we can do is to let it burn.It cannot hurt us. It cannot reach your tent, for there are no vinesover there."
The fire continued to roar and blaze, and to leap up the face of therock.
"It is wonderful," said Mrs. Cliff, "to think how those vines must havebeen growing and dying, and new ones growing and dying, year after year,nobody knows how many ages."
"What is most wonderful to me," said the captain, "is that the vines evergrew there at all, or that these bushes should be here. Nothing can growin this region, unless it is watered by a stream from the mountains, andthere is no stream here."
Miss Markham was about to offer a supposition to the effect that perhapsthe precipitous wall of rock which surrounded the little plateau, andshielded it from the eastern sun, might have had a good effect upon thevegetation, when suddenly Ralph, who had a ship's biscuit on the end of asharp stick, and was toasting it in the embers of a portion of the burntvines, sprang back with a shout.
"Look out!" he cried. "The whole thing's coming down!" And, sure enough,in a moment a large portion of the vines, which had been clinging to therock, fell upon the ground in a burning mass. A cloud of smoke and dustarose, and when it had cleared away the captain and his party saw uponthe perpendicular side of the rock, which was now revealed to them as ifa veil had been torn away from in front of it, an enormous face cut outof the solid stone.
The Adventures of Captain Horn Page 2