by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
SICK AFTER SUPPER.
It was near upon sundown when the roast fowl was taken from the spit,carved, and distributed among them. The fire over which they had cookedit was close to the trunk of the tree under whose shade they intended topass the night. It was not the one they had chosen after being drivenfrom the durion, but another, with far-spreading branches and greenglossy leaves growing thickly upon them, which promised a betterprotection from the dews of the night. They needed this, as they hadnot yet thought of erecting any other roof. The only thing in the shapeof shelter they had set up was the tarpaulin, spread awning fashion overfour uprights, which held it at the four corners; but this was barelysufficient to furnish the two young people with a sleeping-place.
After removing the roast fowl from the spit, they had not permittedtheir fire to die out. On the contrary, Murtagh, in whose charge itwas, threw on some fresh faggots. They intended keeping it up throughthe night, not to scare away wild beasts, for, as already said, they hadno fear of these; but because the atmosphere toward midnight usuallybecame damp and chilly, and they would need the fire to keep them warm.
It was quite sunset by the time they had finished eating the roasthornbill, and as there is but little twilight under or near the equator,the darkness came down almost instantaneously. By the light of theblazing faggots they picked the bones of the bird, and picked themclean. But they had scarce dropped the drumsticks and other bones outof their fingers, when one and all fell violently sick.
A sensation of vertigo had been growing upon them, which, as soon as themeal was over, became nausea, and shortly after ended in vomiting. Itwas natural they should feel alarmed. Had only one been ill, they mighthave ascribed the illness to some other cause; but now, when all fivewere affected at the same time, and with symptoms exactly similar, theycould have no other belief than that it was owing to what they hadeaten, and that the flesh of the hornbill had caused their sickness--perhaps poisoned them.
Could this be? Was it possible for the flesh of a bird to be poisonous?Was that of a hornbill so? These questions were quickly asked of oneanother, but more especially addressed to Saloo. The Malay did notbelieve it was. He had eaten hornbills before, and more than once; hadseen others eat them; but had never known or heard of the dish beingfollowed by symptoms similar to those now affecting and afflicting them.
The bird itself might have eaten something of a poisonous nature, which,although it had not troubled its own stomach, acted as an emetic upontheirs. There was some probability in this conjecture; at all eventsthe sufferers thought so for a time, since there seemed no other way ofaccounting for the illness which had so suddenly seized upon them.
At first they were not so very greatly alarmed, for they could notrealise the idea that they had been absolutely poisoned. A littlesuffering and it would be all over, when they would take good care notto eat roast hornbill again. No, nor even stewed or broiled; so thatnow the old hen and her young one were no longer looked upon as so muchprovision ahead. Both would be thrown away, to form food for the firstpredatory creature that might chance to light upon them.
As time passed, however, and the sufferers, instead of feeling relieved,only seemed to be growing worse--the vertigo and nausea continuing,while the vomiting was renewed in frequent and violent attacks--they atlength became seriously alarmed, believing themselves poisoned to death.
They knew not what to do. They had no medicine to act as an antidote;and if they had been in possession of all the drugs in thepharmacopoeia, they would not have known which to make use of. Had itbeen the bite of a venomous snake or other reptile, the Malay,acquainted with the usual native remedies, might have found someherbaceous balsam in the forest; though in the darkness there would havebeen a difficulty about this, since it was now midnight, and there wasno moon in the sky--no light to look for anything. They could scarcelysee one another, and each knew where his neighbours lay only by hearingtheir moans and other exclamations of distress.
As the hours dragged on wearily, they became still more and morealarmed. They seriously believed that death was approaching. Aterrible contemplation it was, after all they had passed through; theperils of shipwreck, famine, thirst; the danger of being drowned; one ofthem escaping from a hideous reptile; another from the coils of aserpent; a third from having his skull cracked in by a fallen fruit, andafterwards split open by the beak of an angry bird. Now, after allthese hairbreadth perils and escapes, to be poisoned by eating the fleshof this very bird--to die in such simple and apparently causelessfashion; though it may seem almost ridiculous, it was to them not a whitthe less appalling. And appalled they were, as time passed, and theyfelt themselves growing worse instead of better. They were surelypoisoned--surely going to die.