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+ float: left; + margin-right: 1em } + +.align-right { clear: right; + float: right; + margin-left: 1em } + +.align-center { margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto } + +div.shrinkwrap { display: table; } + +/* SECTIONS */ + +body { margin: 5% 10% 5% 10% } + +/* compact list items containing just one p */ +li p.pfirst { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0 } + +.first { margin-top: 0 !important; + text-indent: 0 !important } +.last { margin-bottom: 0 !important } + +span.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 1 } +img.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.5em 0 0; max-width: 25% } +span.dropspan { font-variant: small-caps } + +.no-page-break { page-break-before: avoid !important } + +/* PAGINATION */ + +@media screen { + .coverpage, .frontispiece, .titlepage, .verso, .dedication, .plainpage + { margin: 10% 0; } + + div.clearpage, div.cleardoublepage + { margin: 10% 0; border: none; border-top: 1px solid gray; } + + .vfill { margin: 5% 10% } +} + +@media print { + div.clearpage { page-break-before: always; padding-top: 10% } + div.cleardoublepage { page-break-before: right; padding-top: 10% } + + .vfill { margin-top: 20% } + h2.title { margin-top: 20% } +} + +</style> +<title>IN FAR BOLIVIA</title> +<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" /> +<meta name="PG.Title" content="In Far Bolivia" /> +<meta name="PG.Producer" content="Al Haines" /> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/img-cover.jpg" /> +<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Gordon Stables" /> +<meta name="DC.Created" content="1901" /> +<meta name="MARCREL.ill" content="Finnemore bolivia.rst:23: (INFO/1) Enumerated list start value not ordinal-1: "J" (ordinal 10)" /> +<meta name="PG.Id" content="39728" /> +<meta name="PG.Released" content="2012-05-18" /> +<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> +<meta name="DC.Title" content="In Far Bolivia A Story of a Strange Wild Land" /> + +<link href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" rel="schema.DCTERMS" /> +<link href="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators" rel="schema.MARCREL" /> +<meta content="In Far Bolivia A Story of a Strange Wild Land" name="DCTERMS.title" /> +<meta content="bolivia.rst" name="DCTERMS.source" /> +<meta content="en" scheme="DCTERMS.RFC4646" name="DCTERMS.language" /> +<meta content="2012-05-18T22:49:37.585468+00:00" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.modified" /> +<meta content="Project Gutenberg" name="DCTERMS.publisher" /> +<meta content="Public Domain in the USA." name="DCTERMS.rights" /> +<link href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39728" rel="DCTERMS.isFormatOf" /> +<meta content="Gordon Stables" name="DCTERMS.creator" /> +<meta content="J. Finnemore" name="MARCREL.ill" /> +<meta content="2012-05-18" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.created" /> +<meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport" /> +<meta content="EpubMaker 0.3.19b4 by Marcello Perathoner <webmaster@gutenberg.org>" name="generator" /> +<style type="text/css"> +.pageno { position: absolute; right: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; text-indent: 0 } +.pageno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } +.lineno { position: absolute; left: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; text-indent: 0 } +.lineno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } +.toc-pageref { float: right } +pre { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap } +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39728 ***</div> +<div class="document" id="in-far-bolivia"> +<h1 class="document-title level-1 pfirst title">IN FAR BOLIVIA</h1> +<div class="noindent vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by Al Haines.</span></p> +<div class="noindent vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst"><span></span></p> +</div> +<div class="align-None container coverpage"> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> +</div> +<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure" style="width: 59%" id="figure-26"> +<img class="align-center" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt=" " src="images/img-cover.jpg" /> +<div class="caption figure"> +Cover</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="align-None container frontispiece"> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> +</div> +<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure" style="width: 77%" id="figure-27"> +<span id="brawn-dashed-on-to-the-rescue"></span><img class="align-center" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt=" " src="images/img-front.jpg" /> +<div class="caption figure"> +"BRAWN ... DASHED ON TO THE RESCUE"</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<div class="align-None center container titlepage white-space-pre-line"> +<p class="pfirst white-space-pre-line x-large">In Far Bolivia</p> +<p class="medium pnext white-space-pre-line">A Story of a Strange Wild Land</p> +<div class="vspace white-space-pre-line" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="medium pfirst white-space-pre-line">BY</p> +<p class="pnext white-space-pre-line">DR. GORDON STABLES, R.N.</p> +<p class="pnext white-space-pre-line">Author of "'Twixt School and College" "The Hermit Hunter of the Wilds"</p> +<p class="pnext white-space-pre-line">"The Naval Cadet" "Kidnapped by Cannibals" &c.</p> +<div class="vspace white-space-pre-line" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst small white-space-pre-line"><em class="italics white-space-pre-line">WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. FINNEMORE, R.I.</em></p> +<div class="vspace white-space-pre-line" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center medium pfirst white-space-pre-line">BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED</p> +<p class="center pnext small white-space-pre-line">LONDON GLASGOW DUBLIN BOMBAY</p> +<p class="pnext white-space-pre-line">1901</p> +<div class="vspace white-space-pre-line" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="align-None center container dedication white-space-pre-line"> +<p class="pfirst white-space-pre-line">TO</p> +<p class="pnext white-space-pre-line">MARIE CONNOR LEIGHTON</p> +<p class="pnext white-space-pre-line">(NOVELIST AND CRITIC)</p> +<p class="pnext white-space-pre-line">THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED</p> +<p class="pnext white-space-pre-line">EVERY KINDLY WISH</p> +<p class="pnext white-space-pre-line">BY</p> +<p class="pnext white-space-pre-line">THE AUTHOR</p> +</div> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center large pfirst">PREFACE</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="left medium pfirst">Every book should tell its own story without the +aid of "preface" or "introduction". But as in this +tale I have broken fresh ground, it is but right and +just to my reader, as well as to myself, to mention +prefatorially that, as far as descriptions go, both of +the natives and the scenery of Bolivia and the mighty +Amazon, my story is strictly accurate.</p> +<p class="pnext">I trust that Chapter XXIII, giving facts about +social life in La Paz and Bolivia, with an account of +that most marvellous of all sheets of fresh water in +the known world, Lake Titicaca, will be found of +general interest.</p> +<p class="pnext">But vast stretches of this strange wild land of +Bolivia are a closed book to the world, for they have +never yet been explored; nor do we know aught of the +tribes of savages who dwell therein, as far removed +from civilization and from the benign influence of +Christianity as if they were inhabitants of another +planet. I have ventured to send my heroes to this +land of the great unknown, and have at the same +time endeavoured to avoid everything that might +border on sensationalism.</p> +<p class="pnext">In conclusion, my boys, if spared I hope to take +you out with me again to Bolivia in another book, +and together we may have stranger adventures than +any I have yet told.</p> +<p class="pnext">THE AUTHOR.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="id1"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title">CONTENTS</h2> +<div class="container contents"> +<ul class="compact simple toc-list"> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-i-on-the-banks-of-the-great-amazon" id="id2">CHAPTER I--ON THE BANKS OF THE GREAT AMAZON</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-ii-strange-adventures-in-the-forest-lost" id="id3">CHAPTER II--STRANGE ADVENTURES IN THE FOREST--LOST!</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-iii-burnley-hall-old-and-new" id="id4">CHAPTER III--BURNLEY HALL, OLD AND NEW</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-iv-away-down-the-river" id="id5">CHAPTER IV--AWAY DOWN THE RIVER</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-v-a-day-in-the-forest-wilds" id="id6">CHAPTER V--A DAY IN THE FOREST WILDS</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-vi-not-one-single-drop-of-blood-shed" id="id7">CHAPTER VI--"NOT ONE SINGLE DROP OF BLOOD SHED"</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-vii-a-cold-hand-seemed-to-clutch-her-heart" id="id8">CHAPTER VII--"A COLD HAND SEEMED TO CLUTCH HER HEART"</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-viii-fiercely-and-wildly-both-sides-fought" id="id9">CHAPTER VIII--FIERCELY AND WILDLY BOTH SIDES FOUGHT</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-ix-that-tree-in-the-forest-glade" id="id10">CHAPTER IX--THAT TREE IN THE FOREST GLADE</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-x-benee-makes-a-strange-discovery" id="id11">CHAPTER X--BENEE MAKES A STRANGE DISCOVERY</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xi-all-alone-in-the-wilderness" id="id12">CHAPTER XI--ALL ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xii-benee-entrenched-savage-revels-in-the-forest" id="id13">CHAPTER XII--BENEE ENTRENCHED--SAVAGE REVELS IN THE FOREST</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xiii-the-march-to-the-loveless-land" id="id14">CHAPTER XIII--THE MARCH TO THE LOVELESS LAND</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xiv-the-home-of-the-cannibal-benee-s-romance" id="id15">CHAPTER XIV--THE HOME OF THE CANNIBAL--BENEE'S ROMANCE</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xv-shooks-gee-s-story-a-cannibal-queen" id="id16">CHAPTER XV--SHOOKS-GEE'S STORY--A CANNIBAL QUEEN</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xvi-on-the-banks-of-a-beautiful-river" id="id17">CHAPTER XVI--ON THE BANKS OF A BEAUTIFUL RIVER</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xvii-bill-and-his-boats" id="id18">CHAPTER XVII--BILL AND HIS BOATS</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xviii-as-if-struck-by-a-dum-dum-bullet" id="id19">CHAPTER XVIII--AS IF STRUCK BY A DUM-DUM BULLET</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xix-struggling-onwards-up-stream" id="id20">CHAPTER XIX--STRUGGLING ONWARDS UP-STREAM</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xx-the-pagan-paynees-were-thirsting-for-blood" id="id21">CHAPTER XX--THE PAGAN PAYNEES WERE THIRSTING FOR BLOOD</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xxi-the-forest-is-sheeted-in-flames" id="id22">CHAPTER XXI--THE FOREST IS SHEETED IN FLAMES</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xxii-evenings-by-the-camp-fire" id="id23">CHAPTER XXII--EVENINGS BY THE CAMP FIRE</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xxiii-a-marvellous-lake-in-a-marvellous-land-la-paz" id="id24">CHAPTER XXIII--A MARVELLOUS LAKE IN A MARVELLOUS LAND--LA PAZ</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xxiv-benee-s-story-the-young-cannibal-queen" id="id25">CHAPTER XXIV--BENEE'S STORY--THE YOUNG CANNIBAL QUEEN</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xxv-benee-s-mother-to-the-front" id="id26">CHAPTER XXV--BENEE'S MOTHER TO THE FRONT</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xxvi-the-pale-face-queen-has-fled" id="id27">CHAPTER XXVI--THE PALE-FACE QUEEN HAS FLED</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xxvii-the-fight-at-the-fort" id="id28">CHAPTER XXVII--THE FIGHT AT THE FORT</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xxviii-the-dream-and-the-terror" id="id29">CHAPTER XXVIII--THE DREAM AND THE TERROR!</a></p> +</li> +<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><p class="first pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#chapter-xxix-eastward-ho-for-merrie-england" id="id30">CHAPTER XXIX--EASTWARD HO! FOR MERRIE ENGLAND</a></p> +</li> +</ul> +</div> +</div> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center large pfirst">ILLUSTRATIONS</p> +<p class="left medium pnext"><a class="reference internal" href="#brawn-dashed-on-to-the-rescue">"Brawn ... dashed on to the rescue"</a> . . . . . . <em class="italics">Frontispiece</em></p> +<p class="pnext"><a class="reference internal" href="#brawn-sprang-at-once-upon-his-man">"Brawn sprang at once upon his man"</a></p> +<p class="pnext"><a class="reference internal" href="#she-held-her-at-arm-s-length">"She ... held her at arm's-length"</a></p> +<p class="pnext"><a class="reference internal" href="#fire-low-lads-don-t-waste-a-shot">"Fire low, lads ... don't waste a shot!"</a></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center large pfirst">IN FAR BOLIVIA</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-i-on-the-banks-of-the-great-amazon"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id2">CHAPTER I--ON THE BANKS OF THE GREAT AMAZON</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Miles upon miles from the banks of the mighty +river, had you wandered far away in the +shade of the dark forest that clothed the +valleys and struggled high over the mountain-tops +themselves, you would have heard the roar and the +boom of that great buzz-saw.</p> +<p class="pnext">As early as six of a morning it would start, or soon +after the sun, like a huge red-hot shot, had leapt up +from his bed in the glowing east behind the greenery +of the hills and woods primeval.</p> +<p class="pnext">To a stranger coming from the south towards the +Amazon--great queen of all the rivers on earth--and +not knowing he was on the borders of civilization, the +sound that the huge saw made would have been +decidedly alarming.</p> +<p class="pnext">He would have stopped and listened, and listening, +wondered. No menagerie of wild beasts could have +sent forth a noise so loud, so strange, so persistent! +Harsh and low at times, as its great teeth tore through +the planks of timber, it would change presently into a +dull but dreadful <em class="italics">basso profundo</em>, such as might have +been emitted by antediluvian monsters in the agonies +of death or torture, rising anon into a shrill howl or +shriek, then subsiding once again into a steady grating +roar, that seemed to shake the very earth.</p> +<p class="pnext">Wild beasts in this black forest heard the sounds, +and crept stealthily away to hide themselves in their +caves and dens; caymans or alligators heard them too, +as they basked in the morning sunshine by lakelet +or stream--heard them and crawled away into caves, +or took to the water with a sullen plunge that caused +the finny inhabitants to dart away in terror to every +point of the compass.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Up with the tree, lads. Feed him home," cried +Jake Solomons loudly but cheerily. "Our pet is +hungry this morning. I say, Bill, doesn't she look a +beauty. Ever see such teeth, and how they shine, +too, in the red sunlight. Guess you never did, Bill. +I say, what chance would the biggest 'gator that ever +crawled have with Betsy here. Why, if Betsy got +one tooth in his hide she'd have fifty before you +could say 'Jerusalem', and that 'gator'd be cut in two. +Tear away, Betsy! Grind and groan and growl, my +lass! Have your breakfast, my little pet; why, your +voice is sweetest music to my ear. I say, Bill, don't +the saw-dust fly a few? I should smile!</p> +<p class="pnext">"But see," he continued, "yonder come the darkies +with our matutinal. Girls and boys with baskets, +and I can see the steam curling up under Chloe's arm +from the great flagon she is carrying! Look how her +white eyes roll, and her white teeth shine as she smiles +her six-inch smile! Good girl is Chloe. She knows +we're hungry, and that we'll welcome her. Wo, now, +Betsy! Let the water off, Bill. Betsy has had her +snack, and so we'll have ours."</p> +<p class="pnext">There was quietness now o'er hill and dell and +forest-land.</p> +<p class="pnext">And this tall Yankee, Jake Solomons, who was +fully arrayed in cotton shirt and trousers, his brown +arms bare to the shoulder, stretched his splendidly +knit but spare form with a sort of a yawn.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Heigho, Bill!" he said. "I'm pining for +breakfast. Aren't you?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"That I am," replied Burly Bill with his broadest +grin.</p> +<p class="pnext">Jake ran to the open side of the great saw-mill. +Three or four strides took him there.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah! Good-morning, Chloe, darling! Morning, +Keemo! Morning, Kimo!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Mawning, sah!" This was a chorus.</p> +<p class="pnext">"All along dey blessed good-foh-nuffin boys I no +come so queeck," said Chloe.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Stay, stay, Chloe," cried Jake, "never let your +angry passions rise. 'Sides, Chloe, I calculate such +language ain't half-proper. But how glittering your +cheeks are, Chloe, how white your teeth! There! you +smile again. And that vermilion blouse sets off your +dark complexion to a nicety, and seems just made for +it. Chloe, I would kiss you, but the fear of making +Bill jealous holds me back."</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill shook with laughter. Bill was well +named the Burly. Though not so tall as Jake, his +frame was immense, though perhaps there was a little +more adipose tissue about it than was necessary in a +climate like this. But Bill's strength was wonderful. +See him, axe in hand, at the foot of a tree! How the +chips fly! How set and determined the man's face, +while the great beads of sweat stand like pearls on +his brow!</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill was a white man turned black. You +couldn't easily have guessed his age. Perhaps he was +forty, but at twenty, when still in England, Bill was +supple and lithe, and had a skin as white as a schoolboy's. +But he had got stouter as the years rolled on, +and his face tanned and tanned till it tired of tanning, +and first grew purple, and latterly almost black. The +same with those hirsute bare arms of his.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was none of the wild "Ha! ha!" about Bill's +laughter. It was a sort of suppressed chuckle, that +agitated all his anatomy, the while his merry +good-natured eyes sought shelter behind his cheeks' +rotundity.</p> +<p class="pnext">Under a great spreading tree the two men laid +themselves down, and Chloe spread their breakfast on +a white cloth between them, Jake keeping up his +fire of chaff and sweet nothings while she did so. +Keemo and Kimo, and the other "good-foh-nuffin boys" +had brought their morning meal to the men who fed +the great buzz-saw.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah, Chloe!" said Jake, "the odour of that coffee +would bring the dead to life, and the fish and the beef +and the butter, Chloe! Did you do all this yourself?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"All, sah, I do all. De boys jes' kick about de +kitchen and do nuffin."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Dear tender-eyed Chloe! How clever you are! +Guess you won't be so kind to me when you and I get +spliced, eh?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah sah! you no care to marry a poor black gal +like Chloe! Dere is a sweet little white missie +waiting somew'eres foh Massa Jake. I be your maid, and +shine yo' boots till all de samee's Massa Bill's cheek +foh true."</p> +<p class="pnext">As soon as Chloe with her "good-foh-nuffin boys" +had cleared away the breakfast things, and retired +with a smile and saucy toss of her curly poll, the men +lay back and lit their pipes.</p> +<p class="pnext">"She's a bright intelligent girl that," said Jake. +"I don't want a wife or--but I say, Bill, why don't +you marry her? I guess she'd make ye a tip-topper."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Me! Is it marry?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill held back his head and chuckled till he +well-nigh choked.</p> +<p class="pnext">Honest Bill's ordinary English showed that he came +from the old country, and more particularly from the +Midlands. But Bill could talk properly enough when +he pleased, as will soon be seen.</p> +<p class="pnext">He smoked quietly enough for a time, but every +now and then he felt constrained to take his +meerschaum from his mouth and give another chuckle or +two.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Tchoo-hoo-hoo!" he laughed. "Me marry! And +marry Chloe! Tchoo-hoo-hoo!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"To change the subject, William," said Jake, "seein' +as how you've pretty nearly chuckled yourself silly, +or darned near it, how long have you left England?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"W'y, I coom over with Mr. St. Clair hisse'f, and +Roland w'y he weren't more'n seven. Look at 'e +now, and dear little Peggy, 'is sister by adoption as +ever was, weren't a month over four. Now Rolly 'e +bees nigh onto fifteen, and Peggy--the jewel o' the +plantation--she's goin' on for twelve, and main tall +for that. W'y time do fly! Don't she, Jake?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, I guess I've been here five years, and durn +me if I want to leave. Could we have a better home? +I'd like to see it. I'd smile a few odd ones. But +listen, why here comes the young 'uns!"</p> +<p class="pnext">There was the clatter of ponies' feet, and next +minute as handsome a boy as ever sat in saddle, and +as pretty and bright a lassie as you could wish to +meet, galloped into the clearing, and reined up their +spirited little steeds close to the spot where the men +were lounging.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill stuck his thumb into the bowl of his +meerschaum to put it out, and Jake threw his pipe +on the bank.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland was tall for his age, like Peggy. But while +a mass of fair and irrepressible hair curled around +the boy's sun-burned brow, Peggy's hair was straight +and black. When she rode fast it streamed out +behind her like pennons in the breeze. What a +bright and sunny face was hers too! There was ever +a happy smile about her red lips and dark eyes.</p> +<p class="pnext">"You've got to begin to smoke again immediately," +said the boy.</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, no, Master Roland, not in the presence of your +sister."</p> +<p class="pnext">"But," cried Peggy, with a pretty show of +pomposity, "I command you!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah, then, indeed!" said Jake; and soon both men +were blowing clouds that made the very mosquitoes +change their quarters.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Father'll be up soon, riding on Glancer. This nag +threw Father, coming home last night. Mind, Glancer +is seventeen hands and over."</p> +<p class="pnext">"He threw him?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"That he did, in the moonlight. Scared at a 'gator. +Father says he heard the 'gator's great teeth snapping +and thought he was booked. But lo! Jake, at that +very moment Glancer struck out with both hind-legs--you +know how he is shod. He smashed the 'gator's +skull, and the beast turned up his yellow belly to +the moon."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bravo!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Then Father mounted mighty Glancer and rode +quietly home.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Peggy and I," he continued, "have ridden along +the bank to the battlefield to hold a coroner's inquest +on the 'gator, but he's been hauled away by his +relations. I suppose they'll make potato soup of him."</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill chuckled.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, Peggy and I are off. See you in the evening, +Jake. By-by!"</p> +<p class="pnext">And away they rode, like a couple of wild Indians, +followed by a huge Irish wolf-hound, as faithful a dog +to his mistress--for he was Peggy's own pet--as ever +dog could be.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were going to have a day in the forest, and +each carried a short six-chambered rifle at the saddle.</p> +<p class="pnext">A country like the wild one in which they dwelt +soon makes anyone brave and fearless. They meant +to ride quite a long way to-day and not return till the +sun began to decline in the far and wooded west. So, +being already quite an old campaigner, Roland had +not forgotten to bring luncheon with him, and some +for bold Brawn also.</p> +<p class="pnext">Into the forest they dashed, leaving the mighty river, +which was there about fifteen miles broad probably, +in their rear.</p> +<p class="pnext">They knew every pathway of that primeval woodland, +and it mattered but little to them that most of +these had been worn by the feet of wild beasts. Such +tracks wind out and in, and in and out, and meet +others in the most puzzling and labyrinthine manner.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland carried a compass, and knew how to use it, +but the day was unusually fine and sunny, so there +was little chance of their getting lost.</p> +<p class="pnext">The country in which they lived might well have +been called the land of perpetual summer.</p> +<p class="pnext">But at some spots the forest was so pitchy dark, +owing to the overhanging trees and wild flowering +creepers, that they had to rein up and allow Coz and +Boz, as their ponies were named, to cautiously feel +the way for themselves.</p> +<p class="pnext">How far away they might have ridden they could +not themselves tell, had they not suddenly entered a +kind of fairy glade. At one side it was bounded by +a crescentic formation of rock, from the very centre +of which spouted a tiny clear crystal waterfall. +Beneath was a deep pool, the bottom of which was +sand and yellow shingle, with here and there a patch +of snow-white quartz. And away from this a little +stream went meandering slowly through the glade, +keeping it green.</p> +<p class="pnext">On the other side were the lordly forest trees, +bedraped with flowering orchids and ferns.</p> +<p class="pnext">Flowers and ferns grew here and there in the rockface +itself. No wonder the young folks gazed around +them in delighted wonder.</p> +<p class="pnext">Brawn was more practical. He cared nothing for +the flowers, but enjoyed to the fullest extent the clear +cool water of the crystal pool.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, isn't it lovely?" said Roland.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And oh, I am so hungry, Rolly!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Rolly took the hint.</p> +<p class="pnext">The ponies were let loose to graze, Brawn being +told to head them off if they attempted to take to the +woods.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I understand," said Brawn, with an intelligent +glance of his brown eyes and wag of his tail.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then down the boy and girl squatted with the +noble wolf-hound beside them, and Roland speedily +spread the banquet on the moss.</p> +<p class="pnext">I dare say that hunger and romance seldom tread +the same platform--at the same time, that is. It +is usually one down, the other up; and notwithstanding +the extraordinary beauty of their surroundings, +for some time both boy and girl applied +themselves assiduously to the discussion of the good +things before them; that meat-pie disappearing as if +by magic. Then the hard-boiled eggs, the +well-buttered and flouriest of floury scones, received their +attention, and the whole was washed down with +<em class="italics">vinum bovis</em>, as Roland called it, cow's wine, or good +milk.</p> +<p class="pnext">Needless to say, Brawn, whose eyes sparkled like +diamonds, and whose ears were conveniently erect, +came in for a good share.</p> +<p class="pnext">Well, but the ponies, Boz and Coz, had not the +remotest idea of running away. In fact they soon +drew near to the banqueting-table. Coz laid his nose +affectionately on his little mistress's shoulder and +heaved an equine sigh, and Boz began to nibble at +Roland's ears in a very winning way.</p> +<p class="pnext">And the nibbling and the sigh brought them cakes +galore.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland offered Boz a bit of pie.</p> +<p class="pnext">The pony drew back, as if to say, "Vegetarians, +weren't you aware?"</p> +<p class="pnext">But Brawn cocked his bonnie head to one side, +knowingly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Pitch it this way, master," he said. "I've got a +crop for any kind of corn, and a bag for peas."</p> +<p class="pnext">A strange little rodent creature, much bigger than +any rat, however, with beautiful sad-looking eyes, came +from the bush, and stood on its hind-legs begging, not +a yard away. Its breast was as white as snow.</p> +<p class="pnext">Probably it had no experience of the genus <em class="italics">homo</em>, +and all the cruelties he is guilty of, under the title of +sport.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland pitched several pieces of pie towards the +innocent. It just tasted a morsel, then back it ran +towards the wood with wondrous speed.</p> +<p class="pnext">If they thought they had seen the last of it, they +were much mistaken, for the innocent returned in +two minutes time, accompanied not only by another +of his own size, but by half a dozen of the funniest +little fairies ever seen inside a forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">"My wife and children," said innocent No. 1.</p> +<p class="pnext">"My services to you," bobbed innocent No. 2.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the young ones squawked and squealed, and +tumbled and leapt over each other as they fed in a +manner so droll that boy and girl had to laugh till +the woods rang.</p> +<p class="pnext">Innocent No. 1 looked on most lovingly, but took +not a morsel to himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then all disappeared as suddenly as they had come.</p> +<p class="pnext">Truly the student of Nature who betakes himself +to lonely woods sees many wonders!</p> +<p class="pnext">It was time now to lie back in the moss and enjoy +the <em class="italics">dolce far niente</em>.</p> +<p class="pnext">The sky was as blue as blue could be, all between +the rifts of slowly-moving clouds. The whisper of the +wind among the forest trees, and the murmur of the +falling water, came like softest music to Roland's ears. +Small wonder, therefore, that his eyes closed, and he +was soon in the land of sweet forgetfulness.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Peggy had a tiny book, from which she read +passages to Brawn, who seemed all attention, but kept +one eye on the ponies at the same time.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a copy of the "Song of Hiawatha", a poem +which Peggy thought ineffably lovely. Hark to her +sweet girl voice as she reads:</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"These songs so wild and wayward,</div> +<div class="line">These legends and traditions".</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">They appealed to her simple soul, for dearly did +she love the haunts of Nature.</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"Loved the sunshine of the meadow,</div> +<div class="line">Loved the shadow of the forest,</div> +<div class="line">Loved the wind among the branches,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">The rushing of great rivers</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Through their palisades of pine-trees."</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">She believed, too:</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"That even in savage bosoms</div> +<div class="line">There are longings, yearnings, strivings</div> +<div class="line">For the good they comprehend not;</div> +<div class="line">That feeble hands and helpless,</div> +<div class="line">Groping blindly in the darkness,</div> +<div class="line">Touch God's right hand...</div> +<div class="line">And are lifted up and strengthened".</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Roland slumbered quietly, and the day went on apace.</p> +<p class="pnext">He slept so peacefully that she hardly liked to +arouse him.</p> +<p class="pnext">The little red book dropped from her hand and fell +on the moss, and her thoughts now went far, far away +adown the mighty river that flows so sadly, so +solemnly onwards to the great Atlantic Ocean, fed on +its way by a hundred rapid streams that melt in its +dark bosom and are seen nevermore.</p> +<p class="pnext">But it was not the river itself the little maiden's +thoughts were dwelling on; not the strange wild birds +that sailed along its surface on snow-white wings; +not the birds of prey--the eagle and the hawk--that +hovered high in air, or with eldritch screams darted +on their prey like bolts from the blue, and bore their +bleeding quarries away to the silent forest; not even +the wealth of wild flowers that nodded over the banks +of the mighty stream.</p> +<p class="pnext">Her thoughts were on board a tall and darksome +raft that was slowly making its way seaward to +distant Pará, or in the boats that towed it. For +there was someone on the raft or in those boats who +even then might be fondly thinking of the +dark-haired maiden he had left behind.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Peggy's awakening from her dream of romance, +and Roland's from his slumber, was indeed a terrible +one.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-ii-strange-adventures-in-the-forest-lost"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3">CHAPTER II--STRANGE ADVENTURES IN THE FOREST--LOST!</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Fierce eyes had been watching the little camp for +an hour and more, glaring out on the sunny +glade from the dark depths of a forest tree not far +off; out from under a cloudland of waving foliage +that rustled in the balmy wind. Watching, and +watching unwaveringly, Peggy, while she read; watching +the sleeping Roland; the great wolf-hound, Brawn; +and watching the ponies too.</p> +<p class="pnext">Ever and anon these last would come closer to the +tree, as they nibbled grass or moss, then those fierce +eyes burned more fiercely, and the cat-like tail of a +monster jaguar moved uneasily as if the wild beast +meditated a spring.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the ponies, sniffing danger in the air, perhaps--who +can tell?--would toss their manes and retreat to +the shadow of the rocks.</p> +<p class="pnext">Had the dog not been there the beast would have +dared all, and sprung at once on one of those nimble +steeds.</p> +<p class="pnext">But he waited and watched, watched and waited, +and at long last his time came. With a coughing +roar he now launched himself into the air, the +elasticity of the branch giving greater force to his +spring.</p> +<p class="pnext">Straight on the shoulders or back of poor Boz +he alighted. His talons were well driven home, his +white teeth were preparing to tear the flesh from the +pony's neck.</p> +<p class="pnext">Both little steeds yelled wildly, and in nightmarish terror.</p> +<p class="pnext">Up sprang Brawn, the wolf-hound, and dashed on to +the rescue.</p> +<p class="pnext">Peggy seized her loaded rifle and hurried after him.</p> +<p class="pnext">Thoroughly awake now, and fully cognizant of the +terrible danger, Roland too was quickly on the scene +of action.</p> +<p class="pnext">To fire at a distance were madness. He might +have missed the struggling lion and shot poor Boz, or +even faithful Brawn.</p> +<p class="pnext">This enormous dog had seized the beast by one +hock, and with his paws against the pony was +endeavouring to tear the monster off.</p> +<p class="pnext">The noise, the movement, the terror, caused poor +Roland's head to whirl.</p> +<p class="pnext">He felt dazed, and almost stupid.</p> +<p class="pnext">Ah! but Peggy was clear-headed, and a brave and +fearless child was she.</p> +<p class="pnext">Her feet seemed hardly to touch the moss, so +lightly did she spring along.</p> +<p class="pnext">Her little rifle was cocked and ready, and, taking +advantage of a few seconds' lull in the fearful +scrimmage, she fired at five yards' distance.</p> +<p class="pnext">The bullet found billet behind the monster's ear, +his grip relaxed, and now Brawn tore him easily from +his perch and finished him off on the ground, with +awful din and habbering.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then, with blood-dripping jaws he came with his +ears lower, half apologetically, to receive the praise +and caresses of his master and mistress.</p> +<p class="pnext">But though the adventure ended thus happily, +frightened beyond measure, the ponies, Coz and Boz, +had taken to the bush and disappeared.</p> +<p class="pnext">Knowing well the danger of the situation, Roland +and Peggy, with Brawn, tried to follow them. But +Irish wolf-hounds have but little scent, and so they +searched and searched in vain, and returned at last +to the sun-kissed glade.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was now well on towards three o'clock, and as +they had a long forest stretch of at least ten miles +before them ere they could touch the banks of the +great queen of waters, Roland determined, with the +aid of his compass, to strike at once into the +beast-trodden pathway by which they had come, and make +all haste homewards before the sun should set and +darkness envelop the gloomy forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Keep up your heart, Peggy; if your courage and +your feet hold out we shall reach the river before +dusk."</p> +<p class="pnext">"I'm not so frightened now," said Peggy; but her +lips were very tremulous, and tears stood in her eyes.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Come, come," she cried, "let us hurry on! Come, +Brawn, good dog!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Brawn leapt up to lick her ear, and taking no +thought for the skin of the jaguar, which in more +favourable circumstances would have been borne +away as a trophy, and proof of Peggy's valour, they +now took to the bush in earnest.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland looked at his watch.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Three hours of light and more. Ah! we can do +it, if we do not lose our way."</p> +<p class="pnext">So off they set.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland took the lead, rifle in hand, Peggy came +next, and brave Brawn brought up the rear.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were compelled to walk in single file, for the +pathways were so narrow in places that two could +not have gone abreast.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland made constant reference to his little +compass, always assuring his companion that they were +still heading directly for the river.</p> +<p class="pnext">They had hurried on for nearly an hour, when +Roland suddenly paused.</p> +<p class="pnext">A huge dark monster had leapt clear and clean +across the pathway some distance ahead, and taken +refuge in a tree.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was, no doubt, another jaguar, and to advance +unannounced might mean certain death to one of the +three.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Are you all loaded, Peggy?" said Roland.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Every chamber!" replied the girl.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was no tremor about her now; and no +backwoods Indian could have acted more coolly and +courageously.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Blaze away at that tree then, Peg."</p> +<p class="pnext">Peggy opened fire, throwing in three or four shots +in rapid succession.</p> +<p class="pnext">The beast, with a terrible cry, darted out of the tree +and came rushing along to meet and fight the little +party.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Down, Brawn, down! To heel, sir!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Next moment Roland fired, and with a terrible +shriek the jaguar took to the bush, wounded and +bleeding, and was seen no more.</p> +<p class="pnext">But his yells had awakened the echoes of the forest, +and for more than five minutes the din of roaring, +growling, and shrieking was fearful.</p> +<p class="pnext">Wild birds, no doubt, helped to swell the pandemonium.</p> +<p class="pnext">After a time, however, all was still once more, and +the journey was continued in silence.</p> +<p class="pnext">Even Peggy, usually the first to commence a +conversation, felt in no mood for talking now.</p> +<p class="pnext">She was very tired. Her feet ached, her brow was +hot, and her eyes felt as if boiling in their sockets.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland had filled his large flask at the little +waterfall before leaving the glade, and he now made her +drink.</p> +<p class="pnext">The draught seemed to renew her strength, and she +struggled on as bravely as ever.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Just two and a half hours after they had left the +forest clearing, and when Roland was holding out +hopes that they should soon reach the road by the +banks of the river, much to their astonishment they +found themselves in a strange clearing which they +had never seen before.</p> +<p class="pnext">The very pathway ended here, and though the boy +went round and round the circle, he could find no +exit.</p> +<p class="pnext">To retrace his steps and try to find out the right +path was the first thought that occurred to Roland.</p> +<p class="pnext">This plan was tried, but tried in vain, and so--weary +and hopeless now beyond measure--they +returned to the centre of the glade and threw +themselves down on the soft green moss.</p> +<p class="pnext">Lost! Lost!</p> +<p class="pnext">The words kept repeating themselves in poor +Roland's brain, but Peggy's fatigue was so complete +that she preferred rest even in the midst of danger +to going farther.</p> +<p class="pnext">Brawn, heaving a great sigh, laid himself down +beside them.</p> +<p class="pnext">The warm day wore rapidly to a close, and at last +the sun shimmered red through the forest trees.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then it sank.</p> +<p class="pnext">The briefest of twilight, and the stars shone out.</p> +<p class="pnext">Two hours of starlight, then solemnly uprose the +round moon and flooded all the glade, draping the +whispering trees in a blue glare, beautifully +etherealizing them.</p> +<p class="pnext">Sorrow bringeth sleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Good-night, Rolly! Say your prayers," murmured Peggy.</p> +<p class="pnext">There were stars in the sky. There were stars too +that flitted from bush to bush, while the winds made +murmuring music among the lofty branches.</p> +<p class="pnext">Peggy was repeating to herself lines that she had +read that very day:</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">..."the firefly Wah-wah-tay-see,</div> +<div class="line">Flitting through the dusk of evening,</div> +<div class="line">With the twinkle of its candle,</div> +<div class="line">Lighting up the brakes and bushes.</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">* * * * *</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Wah-wah-tay-see, little firefly,</div> +<div class="line">Little, flitting, white-fire insect,</div> +<div class="line">Little dancing, white-fire creature,</div> +<div class="line">Light me with your little candle.</div> +<div class="line">Ere upon my bed I lay me,</div> +<div class="line">Ere in sleep I close my eyelids."</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">The forest was unusually silent to-night, but ever +and anon might be heard some distant growl showing +that the woods sheltered the wildest beasts. Or +an owl with mournful cry would flap its silent wings +as it flew across the clearing.</p> +<p class="pnext">But nothing waked those tired and weary sleepers.</p> +<p class="pnext">So the night wore on and on. The moon had +reached the zenith, and was shining now with a +lustre that almost rivalled daylight itself.</p> +<p class="pnext">It must have been well on towards two o'clock in +the morning when Brawn emitted a low and threatening growl.</p> +<p class="pnext">This aroused both Roland and Peggy, and the former +at once seized his rifle.</p> +<p class="pnext">Standing there in the pale moonlight, not twenty +yards away, was a tall, dark-skinned, and powerful-looking +Indian. In his right hand he held a spear or +something resembling one; in his left a huge catapult +or sling. He was dressed for comfort--certainly not +for ornament. Leggings or galligaskins covered his +lower extremities, while his body was wrapped in a +blanket. He had no head-covering, save a matted +mass of hair, in which were stuck a few feathers.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland took all this in at a glance as he seized his +rifle and prepared for eventualities. According to the +traditional painter of Indian life and customs the +proper thing for this savage to have said is "Ugh!" +He said nothing of the sort. Nor did he give vent +to a whoop and yell that would have awakened the +wild birds and beasts of the forest and every echo far +and near.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Who goes there?" cried Roland, raising his gun.</p> +<p class="pnext">"No shootee. No shootee poor Indian man. I +friendee you. Plenty friendee."</p> +<p class="pnext">Probably there was a little romance about Roland, +for, instead of saying: "Come this way then, old chap, +squat down and give us the news," he said sternly:</p> +<p class="pnext">"Advance, friend!"</p> +<p class="pnext">But the Indian stood like a statue.</p> +<p class="pnext">"No undahstandee foh true."</p> +<p class="pnext">And Roland had to climb down and say simply:</p> +<p class="pnext">"Come here, friend, and speak."</p> +<p class="pnext">Brawn rushed forward now, but he looked a terror, +for his hair was all on end like a hyena's, and he +growled low but fiercely.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Down, Brawn! It's a good man, Brawn."</p> +<p class="pnext">Brawn smelt the Indian's hand, and, seeming +satisfied, went back to the spot where Peggy sat wondering +and frightened.</p> +<p class="pnext">She gathered the great dog to her breast and hugged +and kissed him.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What foh you poh chillun sleepee all in de wood +so? S'pose wild beas' come eatee you, w'at den you do?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"But, friend," replied Roland, "we are far from +Burnley Hall, our home, and we have lost everything. +We have lost our ponies, lost our way, and lost ourselves."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Poh chillun!" said this strange being. "But now +go sleepee foh true. De Indian he lie on blanket. He +watchee till de big sun rise."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Can we trust him, Peggy?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh yes, yes!" returned Peggy. "He is a dear, +good man; I know by his voice."</p> +<p class="pnext">In ten minutes more the boy and girl were fast +asleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Indian watched.</p> +<p class="pnext">And Brawn watched the Indian.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">When the sun went down on the previous evening, +and there were no signs of the young folks returning, +both Mr. St. Clair and his wife became very uneasy +indeed.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then two long hours of darkness ensued before the +moon sailed up, first reddening, then silvering, the +wavelets and ripples on the great river.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Surely some evil must have befallen them," moaned +Mrs. St. Clair. "Oh, my Roland! my son! I may never +see you more. Is there nothing can be done? Tell +me! Tell me!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"We must trust in Providence, Mary; and it is +wrong to mourn. I doubt not the children are safe, +although perhaps they have lost their way in the +woods."</p> +<p class="pnext">Hours of anxious waiting went by, and it was +nearly midnight. The house was very quiet and still, +for the servants were asleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill and Jake had mounted strong horses at +moonrise, and gone off to try to find a clue. But they +knew it was in vain, nay, 'twould have been sheer +madness to enter the forest now. They coo-eed over +and over again, but their only answer was the echoing +shriek of the wild birds.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were just about to return after giving their +last shrill coo-ee-ee, when out from the moonlit forest, +with a fond whinny, sprang Coz and Boz.</p> +<p class="pnext">Jake sprang out of his saddle, throwing his bridle +to Bill.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the bright moonlight, Jake could see at once +that there was something wrong. He placed his hand +on Boz's shoulder. He staggered back as he withdrew it.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, Bill," he cried, "here is blood, and the pony is +torn and bleeding! Only a jaguar could have done +this. This is terrible."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Let us return at once," said Bill, who had a right +soft heart of his own behind his burly chest.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But oh!" he added, "how can we break the news +to Roland's parents?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"We'll give them hope. Mrs. St. Clair must know +nothing yet, but at early dawn all the ranch must be +aroused, and we shall search the forest for miles and +miles."</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Jake, after seeing the ponies safe in their stable, +left Bill to look to Boz's wounds, while with +St. Clair's leave he himself set off at a round gallop to +get assistance from a neighbouring ranch.</p> +<p class="pnext">Day had not yet broken ere forty good men and +true were on the bridle-path and tearing along the +river's banks. St. Clair himself was at their head.</p> +<p class="pnext">I must leave the reader to imagine the joy of all the +party when soon after sunrise there emerged from +the forest, guided by the strange Indian, Roland, +Peggy, and noble Brawn, all looking as fresh as the +dew on the tender-eyed hibiscus bloom or the wild +flowers that nodded by the river's brim.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Wirr--rr--r--wouff, wouff, wouff!" barked Brawn, +as he bounded forward with joy in every feature of +his noble face, and I declare to you there seemed to +be a lump in his throat, and the sound of his barking +was half-hysterical.</p> +<p class="pnext">St. Clair could not utter a word as he fondly +embraced the children. He pretended to scold a little, +but this was all bluff, and simply a ruse to keep back +the tears.</p> +<p class="pnext">But soft-hearted Burly Bill was less successful. +He just managed to drop a little to the rear, and it +was not once only that he was fain to draw the sleeve +of his rough jacket across his eyes.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">But now they are mounted, and the horses' heads +are turned homewards. Peggy is seated in front of +Burly Bill, of whom she is very fond, and Roland is +saddled with Jake. The Indian and Brawn ran.</p> +<p class="pnext">Poor Mrs. St. Clair, at the big lawn gate, gazing +westward, sees the cavalcade far away on the horizon.</p> +<p class="pnext">Presently, borne along on the morning breeze come +voices raised in a brave and joyous song:</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"Down with them, down with the lords of the forest".</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">And she knows her boy and Peggy are safe.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Thank God for all his mercies!" she says +fervently, then, woman-like, bursts into tears.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-iii-burnley-hall-old-and-new"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4">CHAPTER III--BURNLEY HALL, OLD AND NEW</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">I have noticed more than once that although the +life-story of some good old families in England +may run long stagnant, still, when one important +event does take place, strange thing after strange +thing may happen, and the story rushes on with +heedless speed, like rippling brooklets to the sea.</p> +<p class="pnext">The St. Clairs may have been originally a Scottish +family, or branch of some Highland clan, but they +had been settled on a beautiful estate, far away in the +wilds of Cornwall, for over one hundred and fifty years.</p> +<p class="pnext">Stay, though, we are not going back so far as that. +Old history, like old parchment, has a musty odour. +Let us come down to more modern times.</p> +<p class="pnext">When, then, young Roland's grandfather died, and +died intestate, the whole of the large estate devolved +upon his eldest son, with its fat rentals of fully four +thousand a-year. Peggy St. Clair, our little heroine, +was his only child, and said to be, even in her infancy, +the very image of her dead-and-gone mother.</p> +<p class="pnext">No wonder her father loved her.</p> +<p class="pnext">But soon the first great event happened in the +life-story of the St. Clairs. For, one sad day Peggy's +father was borne home from the hunting-field +grievously wounded.</p> +<p class="pnext">All hope of recovery was abandoned by the doctor +shortly after he had examined his patient.</p> +<p class="pnext">Were Herbert to die intestate, as his father had +done, his second brother John, according to the old +law, could have stepped into his shoes and become +lord of Burnley Hall and all its broad acres.</p> +<p class="pnext">But, alive to the peril of his situation, which the +surgeon with tears in his eyes pointed out to him, the +dying man sent at once for his solicitor, and a will +was drawn up and placed in this lawyer's hands, and +moreover he was appointed one of the executors. +This will was to be kept in a safe until Peggy should +be seventeen years of age, when it was to be opened +and read.</p> +<p class="pnext">I must tell you that between the brothers Herbert +and John there had long existed a sort of blood-feud, +and it was as well they never met.</p> +<p class="pnext">Thomas, however, was quickly at his wounded +brother's bedside, and never left it until--</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"Clay-cold Death had closed his eye".</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">The surgeon had never given any hopes, yet during +the week that intervened between the terrible accident +and Herbert's death there were many hours in which +the doomed man appeared as well as ever, though +scarce able to move hand or foot. His mind was +clear at such times, and he talked much with Thomas +about the dear old times when all were young.</p> +<p class="pnext">Up till now this youngest son and brother, Thomas, +had led rather an uneasy and eventful life. Nothing +prospered with him, though he had tried most things.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was married, and had the one child, Roland, to +whom the reader has already been introduced.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Now, dear Tom," said Herbert, one evening after +he had lain still with closed eyes for quite a long +time, and he placed a white cold hand in that of his +brother as he spoke, "I am going to leave you. We +have always been good friends and loved each other +well. All I need tell you now, and I tell you in +confidence, is that Peggy, at the age of seventeen, +will be my heir, with you, dear Tom, as her +guardian."</p> +<p class="pnext">Tom could not reply for the gathering tears. He +just pressed Herbert's hand in silence.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well," continued the latter, "things have not gone +over well with you, I know, but I have often heard +you say you could do capitally if you emigrated to an +almost new land--a land you said figuratively 'flowing +with milk and honey'. I confess I made no attempt +to assist you to go to the great valley of the Amazon. +It was for a selfish reason I detained you. My brother +John being nobody to me, my desire was to have you near."</p> +<p class="pnext">He paused, almost exhausted, and Tom held a little +cup of wine to his lips.</p> +<p class="pnext">Presently he spoke again.</p> +<p class="pnext">"My little Peggy!" he moaned. "Oh, it is hard, +hard to leave my darling!</p> +<p class="pnext">"Tom, listen. You are to take Peggy to your +home. You are to care for her as the apple of +your eye. You must be her father, your wife her +mother."</p> +<p class="pnext">"I will! I will! Oh, brother, can you doubt me!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, no, Tom. And now you may emigrate. I +leave you thirty thousand pounds, all my deposit +account at Messrs. Bullion & Co.'s bank. This is for +Peggy and you. My real will is a secret at present, +and that which will be read after--I go, is a mere +epitome. But in future it will be found that I have +not forgotten even John."</p> +<p class="pnext">Poor Peggy had run in just then, and perched upon +the bed, wondering much that her father should lie +there so pale and still, and make no attempt to romp +with her. At this time her hair was as yellow as the +first approach of dawn in the eastern sky.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">That very week poor Squire St. Clair breathed +his last.</p> +<p class="pnext">John came to the funeral with a long face and +a crape-covered hat, looking more like a mute than +anything else.</p> +<p class="pnext">He sipped his wine while the epitomized will was +read; but a wicked light flashed from his eyes, and +he ground out an oath at its conclusion.</p> +<p class="pnext">All the information anyone received was that though +sums varying from five hundred pounds to a thousand +were left as little legacies to distant relations and to +John, as well as <em class="italics">douceurs</em> to the servants, the whole +of the estates were willed in a way that could not +be divulged for many a long year.</p> +<p class="pnext">John seized his hat, tore from it the crape, and +dashed it on the floor. The crape on his arm followed +suit. He trampled on both and strode away slamming +the door behind him.</p> +<p class="pnext">Years had flown away.</p> +<p class="pnext">Tom and his wife had emigrated to the banks of +the Amazon. They settled but a short time at or near +one of its mouths, and then Tom, who had no lack +of enterprise, determined to journey far, far into the +interior, where the land was not so level, where +mountains nodded to the moon, and giant forests +stretched illimitably to the southward and west.</p> +<p class="pnext">At first Tom and his men, with faithful Bill as +overseer, were mere squatters, but squatters by the +banks of the queen of waters, and in a far more +lovely place than dreams of elfinland. Labour was +very cheap here, and the Indians soon learned from +the white men how to work.</p> +<p class="pnext">Tom St. Clair had imported carpenters and artificers +of many sorts from the old country, to say nothing +of steam plant and machinery, and that great +resounding steel buzz-saw.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now, although not really extravagant, he had an +eye for the beautiful, and determined to build himself +a house and home that, although not costing a deal, +would be in reality a miniature Burnley Hall. And +what a truly joyous time Peggy and her cousin, or +adopted brother, had of it while the house was +gradually being built by the busy hands of the trained +Indians and their white brethren!</p> +<p class="pnext">Not they alone, but also a boy called Dick Temple, +whose uncle was Tom St. Clair's nearest neighbour, +That is, he lived a trifle over seven miles higher up +the river. Dick was about the same age and build as +Roland.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was a good road between Temple's ranch and +Tom St. Clair's place, and when, after a time, Tom +and Peggy had a tutor imported for their own especial +benefit, the two families became very friendly indeed.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick Temple was a well-set-up and really brave +and good-looking lad. Little Peggy averred that +there never had been, or never could be, another boy +half so nice as Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">But I may as well state here at once and be done +with it--Dick was simply a reckless, wild dare-devil. +Nothing else would suffice to describe young Dick's +character even at this early age. And he soon taught +Roland to be as reckless as himself.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Time rolled on, and the new Burnley Hall was +a <em class="italics">fait accompli</em>.</p> +<p class="pnext">The site chosen by Tom for his home by the river +was a rounded and wooded hill about a quarter of +a mile back from the immediate bank of the stream. +But all the land between the hill and the Amazon +was cultivated, and not only this, but up and down +the river as well for over a mile, for St. Clair wanted +to avoid too close contact with unfriendly alligators, +and these scaly reptiles avoid land on which crops are +growing.</p> +<p class="pnext">The tall trees were first and foremost cleared off +the hill; not all though. Many of the most beautiful +were left for effect, not to say shade, and it was +pleasant indeed to hear the wind whispering through their +foliage, and the bees murmuring in their branches, +in this flowery land of eternal summer.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nor was the undergrowth of splendid shrubs and +bushes and fruit-trees cleared away. They were +thinned, however, and beautiful broad winding walks +led up through them towards the mansion.</p> +<p class="pnext">The house was one of many gables; altogether +English, built of quartz for the most part, and +having a tower to it of great height.</p> +<p class="pnext">From this tower one could catch glimpses of the +most charming scenery, up and down the river, and +far away on the other shore, where forests swam in +the liquid air and giant hills raised their blue tops +far into the sky.</p> +<p class="pnext">So well had Tom St. Clair flourished since taking +up his quarters here that his capital was returning +him at least one hundred per cent, after allowing for +wear and tear of plant.</p> +<p class="pnext">I could not say for certain how many white men he +had with him. The number must have been close on +fifty, to say nothing of the scores and scores of +Indians.</p> +<p class="pnext">Jake Solomons and Burly Bill were his overseers, +but they delighted in hard work themselves, as we +have already seen. So, too, did Roland's father +himself, and as visitors to the district were few, you may +be certain he never wore a London hat nor evening +dress.</p> +<p class="pnext">Like those of Jake and Bill, his sleeves were always +rolled up, and his muscular arms and brave square face +showed that he was fit for anything. No, a London +hat would have been sadly out of place; but the +broad-brimmed Buffalo Bill he wore became him +admirably.</p> +<p class="pnext">That big buzz-saw was a triumph. The clearing of +the forest commenced from close under the hill where +stood the mansion, and strong horses and bullocks +were used to drag the gigantic trees towards the mill.</p> +<p class="pnext">Splendid timber it was!</p> +<p class="pnext">No one could have guessed the age of these trees +until they were cut down and sawn into lengths, +when their concentric rings might be counted.</p> +<p class="pnext">The saw-mill itself was a long way from the mansion-house, +with the villages for the whites and Indians +between, but quite separate from each other.</p> +<p class="pnext">The habitations of the whites were raised on piles +well above the somewhat damp ground, and steps led +up to them. Two-roomed most of them were, but that +of Jake was of a more pretentious character. So, too, +was Burly Bill's hut.</p> +<p class="pnext">It would have been difficult to say what the Indians +lived on. Cakes, fruit, fish, and meat of any kind +might form the best answer to the question. They +ate roasted snakes with great relish, and many of these +were of the deadly-poisonous class. The heads were +cut off and buried first, however, and thus all danger +was prevented. Young alligators were frequently +caught, too, and made into a stew.</p> +<p class="pnext">The huts these faithful creatures lived in were chiefly +composed of bamboo, timber, and leaves. Sometimes +they caught fire. That did not trouble the savages +much, and certainly did not keep them awake at +night. For, had the whole village been burned down, +they could have built another in a surprisingly short +time.</p> +<p class="pnext">When our hero and heroine got lost in the great +primeval forest, Burnley Hall was in the most perfect +and beautiful order, and its walks, its flower-garden, +and shrubberies were a most pleasing sight. All was +under the superintendence of a Scotch gardener, whom +St. Clair had imported for the purpose.</p> +<p class="pnext">By this time, too, a very large portion of the +adjoining forest had been cut down, and the land on +which those lofty trees had grown was under +cultivation.</p> +<p class="pnext">If the country which St. Clair had made his home +was not in reality a land flowing with milk and +honey, it yielded many commodities equally valuable. +Every now and then--especially when the river was +more or less in flood--immense rafts were sent down +stream to distant Pará, where the valuable timber +found ready market.</p> +<p class="pnext">Several white men in boats always went in charge +of these, and the boats served to assist in steering, and +towing as well.</p> +<p class="pnext">These rafts used often to be built close to the river +before an expected rising of the stream, which, when +it did come, floated them off and away.</p> +<p class="pnext">But timber was not the only commodity that St. Clair +sent down from his great estate. There were +splendid quinine-trees. There was coca and cocoa, +too.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was a sugar plantation which yielded the best +results, to say nothing of coffee and tobacco, Brazil-nuts +and many other kinds of nuts, and last, but not +least, there was gold.</p> +<p class="pnext">This latter was invariably sent in charge of a +reliable white man, and St. Clair lived in hope that he +would yet manage to position a really paying gold-mine.</p> +<p class="pnext">More than once St. Clair had permitted Roland and +Peggy to journey down to Pará on a great raft. But +only at the season when no storms blew. They had +an old Indian servant to cook and "do" for them, and +the centre of the raft was hollowed out into a kind +of cabin roofed over with bamboo and leaves. Steps +led up from this on to a railed platform, which was +called the deck.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill would be in charge of boats and all, and +in the evenings he would enter the children's cabin to +sing them songs and tell them strange, weird tales of +forest life.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had a banjo, and right sweetly could he play. +Old Beeboo the Indian, would invariably light his +meerschaum for him, smoking it herself for a good +five minutes first and foremost, under pretence of +getting it well alight.</p> +<p class="pnext">Beeboo, indeed, was altogether a character. Both +Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair liked her very much, however, +for she had been in the family, and nursed both Peggy +and Roland, from the day they had first come to the +country. As for her age, she might have been any +age between five-and-twenty and one hundred and ten. +She was dark in skin--oh, no! not black, but more +of copper colour, and showed a few wrinkles at early +morn. But when Beeboo was figged out in her nicest +white frock and her deep-blue or crimson blouse, +with her hair hanging down in two huge plaits, +then, with the smile that always hovered around +her lips and went dancing away up her face till it +flickered about her eyes, she was very pleasant +indeed. The wrinkles had all flown up to the moon +or somewhere, and Beeboo was five-and-twenty once again.</p> +<p class="pnext">I must tell you something, however, regarding her, +and that is the worst. Beeboo came from a race of +cannibals who inhabit one of the wildest and almost +inaccessible regions of Bolivia, and her teeth had been +filed by flints into a triangular shape, the form best +adapted for tearing flesh. She had been brought +thence, along with a couple of wonderful monkeys +and several parrots, when only sixteen, by an English +traveller who had intended to make her a present +to his wife.</p> +<p class="pnext">Beeboo never got as far as England, however. She +had watched her chance, and one day escaped to the +woods, taking with her one of the monkeys, who was +an especial favourite with this strange, wild girl.</p> +<p class="pnext">She was frequently seen for many years after this. +It was supposed she had lived on roots and rats--I'm +not joking--and slept at night in trees. She managed +to clothe herself, too, with the inner rind of the bark +of certain shrubs. But how she had escaped death +from the talons of jaguars and other wild beasts no +one could imagine.</p> +<p class="pnext">Well, one day, shortly after the arrival of St. Clair, +hunters found the jaguar queen, as they called her, +lying in the jungle at the foot of a tree.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was a jaguar not far off, and a huge piece +of sodden flesh lay near Beeboo's cheek, undoubtedly +placed there by this strange, wild pet, while close +beside her stood a tapir.</p> +<p class="pnext">Beeboo was carried to the nearest village, and the +tapir followed as gently as a lamb. My informant +does not know what became of the tapir, but Beeboo +was tamed, turned a Christian too, and never evinced +any inclination to return to the woods.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet, strangely enough, no puma nor jaguar would +ever even growl or snarl at Beeboo.</p> +<p class="pnext">These statements can all be verified.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-iv-away-down-the-river"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5">CHAPTER IV--AWAY DOWN THE RIVER</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Before we start on this adventurous cruise, let +us take a peep at an upland region to the +south of the Amazon. It was entirely surrounded +by caoutchouc or india-rubber trees, and it was while +wandering through this dense forest with Jake, and +making arrangements for the tapping of those trees, +the juice of which was bound to bring the St. Clairs +much money, that they came upon the rocky +table-land where they found the gold.</p> +<p class="pnext">This was some months after the strange Indian had +found the "babes in the wood", as Jake sometimes +called Roland and Peggy.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I say, sir, do you see the quartz showing white +everywhere through the bloom of those beautiful +flowers?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ugh!" cried St. Clair, as a splendidly-coloured +but hideous large snake hissed and glided away +from between his feet. "Ugh! had I tramped on +that fellow my prospecting would have been all ended."</p> +<p class="pnext">"True, sir," said Jake; "but about the quartz?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, Jake."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, Mr. St. Clair, there is gold here. I do not +say that we've struck an El Dorado, but I am +certain there is something worth digging for in this +region."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Shall we try? You've been in Australia. What +say you to a shaft?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Good! But a horizontal shaft carried into the +base of this hill or hummock will, I think, do for the +present. It is only for samples, you know."</p> +<p class="pnext">And these samples had turned out so well that +St. Clair, after claiming the whole hill, determined +to send Jake on a special message to Pará to establish +a company for working it.</p> +<p class="pnext">He could take no more labour on his own head, +for really he had more than enough to do with his +estate.</p> +<p class="pnext">No white men were allowed to work at the shaft. +Only Indians, and these were housed on the spot. +So that the secret was well kept.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now the voyage down the river was to be +undertaken, and a most romantic cruise it turned out +to be.</p> +<p class="pnext">St. Clair had ordered a steamer to be built for him +in England and sent out in pieces. She was called +<em class="italics">The Peggy</em>, after our heroine. Not very large--but +little over the dimensions of a large steam-launch, +in fact--but big enough for the purpose of towing +along the immense raft with the aid of the current.</p> +<p class="pnext">Jake was to go with his samples of golden sand +and his nuggets; Burly Bill, also, who was captain +of the <em class="italics">Peggy</em>; and Beeboo, to attend to the youngsters +in their raft saloon. Brawn was not to be denied; +and last, but not least, went wild Dick Temple.</p> +<p class="pnext">The latter was to sleep on board the steamer, but +he would spend most of his time by day on the raft.</p> +<p class="pnext">All was ready at last. The great raft was floated +and towed out far from the shore. All the plantation +hands, both whites and Indians, were gathered on the +banks, and gave many a lusty cheer as the steamer +and raft got under way.</p> +<p class="pnext">The last thing that those on shore heard was the +sonorous barking of the great wolf-hound, Brawn.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was a ring of joy in it, however, that brought +hope to the heart of both Tom St. Clair and his +winsome wife.</p> +<p class="pnext">Well, to our two heroes and to Peggy, not to +mention Brawn and Burly Bill, the cruise promised +to be all one joyous picnic, and they set themselves to +make the most of it.</p> +<p class="pnext">But to Jake Solomons it presented a more serious +side. He was St. Clair's representative and trusted +man, and his business was of the highest importance, +and would need both tact and skill.</p> +<p class="pnext">However, there was a long time to think about all +this, for the river does not run more than three miles +an hour, and although the little steamer could hurry +the raft along at probably thrice that speed, still long +weeks must elapse before they could reach their destination.</p> +<p class="pnext">As far as the raft was concerned, this would not +be Pará. She would be grounded near to a town far +higher up stream, and the timber, nuts, spices, and +rubber taken seaward by train.</p> +<p class="pnext">In less than two days everyone had settled down to +the voyage.</p> +<p class="pnext">The river was very wide and getting wider, and +soon scarcely could they see the opposite shore, except +as a long low green cloud on the northern horizon.</p> +<p class="pnext">Life on board the raft was for a whole week +a most uneventful dreamy sort of existence. One +day was remarkably like another. There was the +blue of the sky above, the blue on the river's great +breast, broken, however, by thousands of lines of +rippling silver.</p> +<p class="pnext">There were strangely beautiful birds flying tack +and half-tack around the steamer and raft, waving +trees flower-bedraped--the flowers trailing and +creeping and climbing everywhere, and even dipping their +sweet faces in the water,--flowers of every hue of the +rainbow.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dreamy though the atmosphere was, I would not +have you believe that our young folks relapsed into +a state of drowsy apathy. Far from it. They were +very happy indeed. Dick told Peggy that their life, +or his, felt just like some beautiful song-waltz, and +that he was altogether so happy and jolly that he +had sometimes to turn out in the middle watch to laugh.</p> +<p class="pnext">Peggy had not to do that.</p> +<p class="pnext">In her little state-room on one side of the cabin, and +in a hammock, she slept as soundly as the traditional +top, and on a grass mat on the deck, with a footstool +for a pillow, slumbered Beeboo.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland slept on the other side, and Brawn guarded +the doorway at the foot of the steps.</p> +<p class="pnext">Long before Peggy was awake, and every morning +of their aquatic lives, the dinghy boat took the boys +a little way out into mid-stream, and they stripped +and dived, enjoyed a two-minutes' splash, and got +quickly on board again.</p> +<p class="pnext">The men always stood by with rifles to shoot any +alligator that might be seen hovering nigh, and more +than once reckless Dick had a narrow escape.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But," he said one day in his comical way, "one +has only once to die, you know, and you might as +well die doing a good turn as any other way."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Doing a good turn?" said Roland enquiringly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Certainly. Do you not impart infinite joy to a +cayman if you permit him to eat you?"</p> +<p class="pnext">The boys were always delightfully hungry half an +hour before breakfast was served.</p> +<p class="pnext">And it was a breakfast too!</p> +<p class="pnext">Beeboo would be dressed betimes, and have the cloth +laid in the saloon. The great raft rose and fell with +a gentle motion, but there was nothing to hurt, so +that the dishes stuck on the cloth without any guard.</p> +<p class="pnext">Beeboo could bake the most delicious of scones and +cakes, and these, served up hot in a clean white towel, +were most tempting; the butter was of the best and +sweetest. Ham there was, and eggs of the gull, +with fresh fried fish every morning, and fragrant +coffee.</p> +<p class="pnext">Was it not quite idyllic?</p> +<p class="pnext">The forenoon would be spent on deck under the +awning; there was plenty to talk about, and books +to read, and there was the ever-varying panorama to +gaze upon, as the raft went smoothly gliding on, and +on, and on.</p> +<p class="pnext">Sometimes they were in very deep water close to +the bank, for men were always in the chains taking +soundings from the steamer's bows.</p> +<p class="pnext">Close enough to admire the flowers that draped +the forest trees; close enough to hear the wild lilt of +birds or the chattering of monkeys and parrots; close +enough to see tapirs moving among the trees, watched, +often enough, by the fierce sly eyes of ghastly +alligators, that flattened themselves against rocks or bits +of clay soil, looking like a portion of the ground, +but warily waiting until they should see a chance to +attack.</p> +<p class="pnext">There cannot be too many tapirs, and there cannot +be too few alligators. So our young heroes thought +it no crime to shoot these squalid horrors wherever +seen.</p> +<p class="pnext">But one forenoon clouds banked rapidly up in the +southern sky, and soon the sun was hidden in sulphurous +rolling banks of cumulus.</p> +<p class="pnext">No one who has ever witnessed a thunderstorm in +these regions can live long enough to forget it.</p> +<p class="pnext">For some time before it came on the wind had gone +down completely. In yonder great forest there could +not have been breeze or breath enough to stir the +pollen on the trailing flowers. The sun, too, seemed +shorn of its beams, the sky was no longer blue, but of +a pale saffron or sulphur colour.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was then that giant clouds, like evil beasts bent +on havoc and destruction, began to show head above +the horizon. Rapidly they rose, battalion on battalion, +phalanx on phalanx.</p> +<p class="pnext">There were low mutterings even now, and flashes of +fire in the far distance. But it was not until the sky +was entirely overcast that the storm came on in dread +and fearful earnest. At this time it was so dark, that +down in the raft saloon an open book was barely +visible. Then peal after peal, and vivid flash after +flash, of blue and crimson fire lit up forest and stream, +striking our heroes and heroine blind, or causing their +eyes for a time to overrun with purple light.</p> +<p class="pnext">So terrific was the thunder that the raft seemed to +rock and shiver in the sound.</p> +<p class="pnext">This lasted for fully half an hour, the whole world +seeming to be in flames.</p> +<p class="pnext">Peggy stood by Dick on the little deck, and he +held her arm in his; held her hand too, for it was cold +and trembling.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Are you afraid?" he whispered, during a momentary +lull.</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, Dick, not afraid, only cold, so cold; take me below."</p> +<p class="pnext">He did so.</p> +<p class="pnext">He made her lie down on the little sofa, and covered +her with a rug.</p> +<p class="pnext">All just in time, for now down came the awful rain. +It was as if a water-spout had broken over the +seemingly doomed raft, and was sinking it below the dark +waters of the river.</p> +<p class="pnext">Luckily the boys managed to batten down in time, +or the little saloon would have been flooded.</p> +<p class="pnext">They lit the lamp, too.</p> +<p class="pnext">But with the rain the storm seemed to increase in +violence, and a strong wind had arisen and added +greatly to the terror of the situation. Hail came +down as large as marbles, and the roaring and din +was now deafening and terrible.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then, the wind ceased to blow almost +instantaneously. It did not die away. It simply dropped +all of a sudden. Hail and rain ceased shortly after.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick ventured to peep on deck.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was still dark, but far away and low down on +the horizon a streak of the brightest blue sky that +ever he had seen had made its appearance. It +broadened and broadened as the dark canopy of +clouds, curtain-like, was lifted.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Come up, Peggy. Come up, Rol. The storm is +going. The storm has almost gone," cried Dick; and +soon all three stood once more on the deck.</p> +<p class="pnext">Away, far away over the northern woods rolled the +last bank of clouds, still giving voice, however, still +spitting fire.</p> +<p class="pnext">But now the sun was out and shining brightly +down with a heat that was fierce, and the raft was all +enveloped in mist.</p> +<p class="pnext">So dense, indeed, was the fog that rose from the +rain-soaked raft, that all the scenery was entirely +obscured. It was a hot vapour, too, and far from +pleasant, so no one was sorry when Burly Bill +suddenly appeared from the lower part of the raft.</p> +<p class="pnext">"My dear boys," he said heartily, "why, you'll be +parboiled if you stop here. Come with me, Miss +Peggy, and you, Brawn; I'll come back for you, lads. +Don't want to upset the dinghy all among the 'gators, see?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Bill was back again in a quarter of an hour, and +the boys were also taken on board the boat.</p> +<p class="pnext">"She's a right smart little boat as ever was," said +Bill; "but if we was agoin' to get 'er lip on to the +water, blow me tight, boys, if the 'gators wouldn't +board us. They'm mebbe very nice sociable kind o' +animals, but bust my buttons if I'd like to enter the +next world down a 'gator's gullet."</p> +<p class="pnext">Beeboo did not mind the steam a bit, and by two +o'clock she had as nice a dinner laid in the raft saloon +as ever boy or girl sat down to.</p> +<p class="pnext">But by this time the timbers were dry once more, +and although white clouds of fog still lay over the low +woods, all was now bright and cheerful. Yet not more +so than the hearts of our brave youngsters.</p> +<p class="pnext">Courage and sprightliness are all a matter of +strength of heart, and you cannot make yourself +brave if your system is below par. The coward is +really more to be pitied than blamed.</p> +<p class="pnext">Well, it was very delightful, indeed, to sit on deck +and talk, build castles in the air, and dream daydreams.</p> +<p class="pnext">The air was cool and bracing now, and the sun felt +warm, but by no means too hot.</p> +<p class="pnext">The awning was prettily lined with green cloth, the +work of Mrs. St. Clair's own hands, assisted by the +indefatigable Beeboo, and there was not anything +worth doing that she could not put willing, artful +hands to.</p> +<p class="pnext">The awning was scalloped, too, if that be the +woman's word for the flaps that hung down a whole +foot all round. "Vandyked" is perhaps more correct, +but then, you see, the sharp corners of the vandyking +were all rounded off. So I think scalloped must +stand, though the word reminds me strangely of +oysters.</p> +<p class="pnext">But peeping out from under the scalloped awning, +and gazing northwards across the sea-like river, boats +under steam could be noticed. Passengers on board +too, both ladies and gentlemen, the former all rigged +out in summer attire.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Would you like to be on board yonder?" said +Dick to Peggy, as the girl handed him back the +lorgnettes.</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, indeed, I shouldn't," she replied, with a saucy +toss of her pretty head.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well," she added, "if you were there, little Dickie, +I mightn't mind it so much."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Little Dick! Eh?" Dick laughed right heartily now.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, little Dickie. Mind, I am nearly twelve; and +after I'm twelve I'm in my teens, quite an old girl. +A child no longer anyhow. And after I'm in my +teens I'll soon be sixteen, and then I suppose I shall +marry."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Who will marry you, Peggy?"</p> +<p class="pnext">This was not very good grammar, but Dick was in +downright earnest anyhow, and his young voice had +softened wonderfully.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Me?" he added, as she remained silent, with her +eyes seeming to follow the rolling tide.</p> +<p class="pnext">"You, Dick! Why, you're only a child!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Why, Peggy, I'm fifteen--nearly, and if I live I'm +bound to get older and bigger."</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, no, Dick, you can marry Beeboo, and I shall +get spliced, as the sailors call it, to Burly Bill."</p> +<p class="pnext">The afternoon wore away, and Beeboo came up to +summon "the chillun" to tea.</p> +<p class="pnext">Up they started, forgetting all about budding love, +flirtation, and future marriages, and made a rush for +the companion-ladder.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Wowff--wowff!" barked Brawn, and the 'gators +on shore and the tapirs in the woods lifted heads to +listen, while parrots shrieked and monkeys chattered +and scolded among the lordly forest trees.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Wowff--wowff!" he barked. "Who says cakes +and butter?"</p> +<p class="pnext">The night fell, and Burly Bill came on board with +his banjo, and his great bass voice, which was as +sweet as the tone of a 'cello.</p> +<p class="pnext">Bill was funnier than usual to-night, and when +Beeboo brought him a big tumbler of rosy rum punch, +made by herself and sweetened with honey, he was +merrier still.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then to complete his happiness Beeboo lit his pipe.</p> +<p class="pnext">She puffed away at it for some time as usual, by +way of getting it in working order.</p> +<p class="pnext">"'Spose," she said, "Beeboo not warm de bowl ob de +big pipe plenty proper, den de dear chile Bill take a +chill."</p> +<p class="pnext">"You're a dear old soul, Beeb," said Bill.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then the dear old soul carefully wiped the amber +mouth-piece with her apron, and handed Burly Bill +his comforter.</p> +<p class="pnext">The great raft swayed and swung gently to and fro, +so Bill sang his pet sea-song, "The Rose of Allandale". +He was finishing that bonnie verse--</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"My life had been a wilderness,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Unblest by fortune's gale,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Had fate not linked my lot to hers,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">The Rose of Allandale",</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">when all at once an ominous grating was heard +coming from beneath the raft, and motion ceased as +suddenly as did Bill's song.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Save us from evil!" cried Bill. "The raft is +aground!"</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-v-a-day-in-the-forest-wilds"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6">CHAPTER V--A DAY IN THE FOREST WILDS</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Burly Bill laid down his banjo. Then he pushed +his great extinguisher of a thumb into the bowl +of his big meerschaum, and arose.</p> +<p class="pnext">"De good Lawd ha' mussy on our souls, chillun!" +cried Beeboo, twisting her apron into a calico rope. +"We soon be all at de bottom ob de deep, and de +'gators a-pickin' de bones ob us!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Keep quiet, Beeb, there's a dear soul! Never a +'gator'll get near you. W'y, look 'ow calm Miss Peggy +is. It be'ant much as'll frighten she."</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill could speak good English when he took +time, but invariably reverted to Berkshire when in the +least degree excited.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was soon on board the little steamer.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What cheer, Jake?" he said.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Not much o' that. A deuced unlucky business. +May lose the whole voyage if it comes on to blow!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"W'y, Jake, lad, let's 'ope for the best. No use +givin' up; be there? I wouldn't let the men go to +prayers yet awhile, Jake. Not to make a bizness on't +like, I means."</p> +<p class="pnext">Well, the night wore away, but the raft never +budged, unless it was to get a firmer hold of the mud +and sand.</p> +<p class="pnext">A low wind had sprung up too, and if it increased +to a gale she would soon begin to break up.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a dreary night and a long one, and few on +board the steamer slept a wink.</p> +<p class="pnext">But day broke at last, and the sun's crimson light +changed the ripples on the river from leaden gray to +dazzling ruby.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then the wind fell.</p> +<p class="pnext">"There are plenty of river-boats, Bill," said Jake. +"What say you to intercept one and ask assistance?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bust my buttons if I would cringe to ne'er a one +on 'em! They'd charge salvage, and sponge enormous. +I knows the beggars as sails these puffin' Jimmies +well."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Guess you're about right, Bill, and you know the +river better'n I."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Listen, Jake. The bloomin' river got low all at +once, like, after the storm, and so you got kind o' +befoozled, and struck. I'd a-kept further out. But +Burly Bill ain't the man to bully his mate. On'y +listen again. The river'll rise in a day or two, and +if the wind keeps in its sack, w'y we'll float like a +thousand o' bricks on an old Thames lumper! Bust +my buttons, Jake, if we don't!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, Bill, I don't know anything about the bursting +of your buttons, but you give me hope. So I'll go +to breakfast. Tell the engineer to keep the fires +banked."</p> +<p class="pnext">Two days went past, and never a move made the raft.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a wearisome time for all. The "chillun", as +Beeboo called them, tried to beguile it in the best way +they could with reading, talking, and deck games.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick and Roland were "dons" at leap-frog, and it +mattered not which of them was giving the back, but +as soon as the other leapt over Brawn followed suit, +greatly to the delight of Peggy. He jumped in such +a business-like way that everybody was forced to +laugh, especially when the noble dog took a leap that +would have cleared a five-barred gate.</p> +<p class="pnext">But things were getting slow on the third morning, +when up sprang Burly Bill with his cartridge-belt on +and his rifle under his arm.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Cap'n Jake," he said, touching his cap in Royal +Navy fashion, "presents his compliments to the crew +of this durned old stack o' timber, and begs to say +that Master Rolly and Master Dick can come on shore +with me for a run among the 'gators, but that Miss +Peggy had better stop on board with Beeboo. Her +life is too precious to risk!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Precious or not precious," pouted the girl, "Miss +Peggy's going, and Brawn too; so you may tell Captain +Jake that."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bravo, Miss Peggy! you're a real St. Clair. Well, +Beeboo, hurry up, and get the nicest bit of cold +luncheon ready for us ever you made in your life."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Beeboo do dat foh true. Plenty quick, too; but +oh, Massa Bill, 'spose you let any ebil ting befall de +poh chillun, I hopes de 'gators'll eat you up!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"More likely, Beeb, that we'll eat them; and really, +come to think of it, a slice off a young 'gator's tail +aint 'arf bad tackle, Beeboo."</p> +<p class="pnext">An hour after this the boat was dancing over the +rippling river. It was not the dinghy, but a gig. +Burly Bill himself was stroke, and three Indians +handled the other bits of timber, while Roland took +the tiller.</p> +<p class="pnext">The redskins sang a curious but happy boat-lilt as +they rowed, and Bill joined in with his 'cello voice:</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"Ober de watter and ober de sea--ee--ee,</div> +<div class="line">De big black boat am rowing so free,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Eee--Eee--O--ay--O!</div> +</div> +<div class="line">De big black boat, is it nuffin' to me--ee--ee,</div> +<div class="line">We're rowing so free?</div> +</div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"Oh yes, de black boat am some-dings to me</div> +<div class="line">As she rolls o'er de watter and swings o'er de sea,</div> +<div class="line">Foh de light ob my life, she sits in de stern,</div> +<div class="line">An' sweet am de glance o' Peggy's dark e'e,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Ee--ee--O--ay--O--O!"</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">"Well steered!" said Burly Bill, as Roland ran the +gig on the sandy beach of a sweet little backwater.</p> +<p class="pnext">Very soon all were landed. Bill went first as guide, +and the Indians brought up the rear, carrying the +basket and a spare gun or two.</p> +<p class="pnext">Great caution and care were required in venturing +far into this wild, tropical forest, not so much on +account of the beasts that infested it as the fear of +getting lost.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was very still and quiet here, however, and Bill +had taken the precaution to leave a man in the boat, +with orders to keep his weather ear "lifting", and if +he heard four shots fired in rapid succession late in +the afternoon to fire in reply at once.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was now the heat of the day, however, and the +hairy inhabitants of this sylvan wilderness were all +sound asleep, jaguars and pumas among the trees, and +the tapirs in small herds wherever the jungle was +densest.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was no chance, therefore, of getting a shot +at anything. Nevertheless, the boys and Peggy were +not idle. They had brought butterfly-nets with them, +and the specimens they caught when about five miles +inland, where the forest opened out into a shrub-clad +moorland, were large and glorious in the extreme.</p> +<p class="pnext">Indeed, some of them would fetch gold galore in the +London markets.</p> +<p class="pnext">But though these butterflies had an immense spread +of quaintly-shaped and exquisitely-coloured wings, the +smaller ones were even more brilliant.</p> +<p class="pnext">Strange it is that Nature paints these creatures in +colours which no sunshine can fade. All the tints that +man ever invented grow pale in the sun; these never +do, and the same may be said concerning the tropical +birds that they saw so many of to-day.</p> +<p class="pnext">But no one had the heart to shoot any of these. +Why should they soil such beautiful plumage with +blood, and so bring grief and woe into this love-lit +wilderness?</p> +<p class="pnext">This is not a book on natural history, else gladly +would I describe the beauties in shape and colour of +the birds, and their strange manners, the wary ways +adopted in nest-building, and their songs and queer +ways of love-making.</p> +<p class="pnext">Suffice it to say here that the boys were delighted +with all the tropical wonders and all the picturesque +gorgeousness they saw everywhere around them.</p> +<p class="pnext">But their journey was not without a spice of real +danger and at times of discomfort. The discomfort +we may dismiss at once. It was borne, as Beeboo +would say, with Christian "forty-tood", and was due +partly to the clouds of mosquitoes they encountered +wherever the soil was damp and marshy, and partly +to the attacks of tiny, almost invisible, insects of the +jigger species that came from the grass and ferns and +heaths to attack their legs.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill was an old forester, and carried with him +an infallible remedy for mosquito and jigger bites, +which acted like a charm.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the higher ground--where tropical heath and +heather painted the surface with hues of crimson, pink, +and purple--snakes wriggled and darted about everywhere.</p> +<p class="pnext">One cannot help wondering why Nature has taken +the pains to paint many of the most deadly of these in +colours that rival the hues of the humming-birds that +yonder flit from bush to bush, from flower to flower.</p> +<p class="pnext">Perhaps it is that they may the more easily seek +their prey, their gaudy coats matching well with the +shrubs and blossoms that they wriggle amongst, while +gliding on and up to seize helpless birds in their nests +or to devour the eggs.</p> +<p class="pnext">Parrots here, and birds of that ilk, have an easy +way of repelling such invaders, for as soon as they +see them they utter a scream that paralyses the +intruders, and causes them to fall helplessly to the ground.</p> +<p class="pnext">To all creatures Nature grants protection, and +clothes them in a manner that shall enable them to +gain a subsistence; but, moreover, every creature in +the world has received from the same great power the +means of defending or protecting itself against the +attacks of enemies.</p> +<p class="pnext">On both sides, then, is Nature just, for though she +does her best to keep living species extant until +evolved into higher forms of life, she permits each +species to prey on the overgrowth or overplus of +others that it may live.</p> +<p class="pnext">Knocking over a heap of soft dry mould with the +butt end of his rifle, Dick started back in terror to see +crawl out from the heap a score or more of the most +gigantic beetles anyone could imagine. These were +mostly black, or of a beautiful bronze, with streaks of +metallic blue and crimson.</p> +<p class="pnext">They are called harlequins, and live on carrion. +Nothing that dies comes wrong to these monsters, +and a few of them will seize and carry away a dead +snake five or six hundred times their own weight. +My readers will see by this that it is not so much +muscle that is needed for feats of strength as indomitable +will and nerve force. But health must be at the +bottom of all. Were a man, comparatively speaking, +as strong as one of these beetles, he could lift on his +back and walk off with a weight of thirty tons!</p> +<p class="pnext">Our heroes had to stop every now and then to +marvel at the huge working ants, and all the wondrous +proofs of reason they evinced.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was well to stand off, however, if, with snapping +horizontal mandibles and on business intent, any of +these fellows approached. For their bites are as +poisonous as those of the green scorpions or +centipedes themselves.</p> +<p class="pnext">What with one thing or another, all hands were +attacked by healthy hunger at last, and sought the +shade of a great spreading tree to satisfy Nature's +demands.</p> +<p class="pnext">When the big basket was opened it was found that +Beeboo had quite excelled herself. So glorious a +luncheon made every eye sparkle to look at it. And +the odour thereof caused Brawn's mouth to water and +his eyes to sparkle with expectancy.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Indians had disappeared for a time. They +were only just round the shoulder of a hill, however, +where they, too, were enjoying a good feed.</p> +<p class="pnext">But just as Burly Bill was having a taste from a +clear bottle, which, as far as the look of it went, +would have passed for cold tea, two Indian boys +appeared, bringing with them the most delicious of +fruits as well as fresh ripe nuts.</p> +<p class="pnext">The luncheon after that merged into a banquet.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill took many sips of his cold tea. When I +come to think over it, however, I conclude there was +more rum than cold tea in that brown mixture, or +Bill would hardly have smacked his lips and sighed +with such satisfaction after every taste.</p> +<p class="pnext">The fruit done, and even Brawn satisfied, the whole +crew gave themselves up to rest and meditation. The +boys talked low, because Peggy's meditations had led +to gentle slumber. An Indian very thoughtfully +brought a huge plantain leaf which quite covered her, +and protected her from the chequered rays of sunshine +that found their way through the tree. Brawn edged +in below the leaf also, and enjoyed a good sleep beside +his little mistress.</p> +<p class="pnext">Not a gun had been fired all day long, yet a more +enjoyable picnic in a tropical forest it would be difficult +to imagine.</p> +<p class="pnext">Perhaps the number of the Indians scared the +jaguars away, for none appeared.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet the day was not to end without an adventure.</p> +<p class="pnext">Darkness in this country follows the short twilight +so speedily, that Burly Bill did well to get clear of the +forest's gloom while the sun was still well above the +horizon.</p> +<p class="pnext">He trusted to the compass and his own good sense +as a forester to come out close to the spot where he +had left the boat. But he was deceived. He struck +the river a good mile and a half above the place +where the steamer lay at anchor and the raft aground +on the shoals.</p> +<p class="pnext">Lower and lower sank the sun. The ground was +wet and marshy, and the 'gators very much in evidence +indeed.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now the tapirs--and droll pig-bodied creatures they +look, though in South America nearly as big as donkeys--are +of a very retiring disposition, but not really +solitary animals as cheap books on natural history +would have us believe. They frequent low woods, +where their long snouts enable them to pull down the +tender twigs and foliage on which, with roots, which +they can speedily unearth, they manage to exist--yes, +and to wax fat and happy.</p> +<p class="pnext">But they are strict believers in the doctrine of +cleanliness, and are never found very far from water. +They bathe every night.</p> +<p class="pnext">Just when the returning picnic was within about +half a mile of the boat, Burly Bill carrying Peggy on +his shoulder because the ground was damp, a terrible +scrimmage suddenly took place a few yards round a +backwater.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was grunting, squeaking, the splashing of +water, and cries of pain.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Hurry on, boys; hurry on; two of you are enough! +It's your show, lads."</p> +<p class="pnext">The boys needed no second bidding, and no sooner +had they opened out the curve than a strange sight +met their gaze.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-vi-not-one-single-drop-of-blood-shed"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7">CHAPTER VI--"NOT ONE SINGLE DROP OF BLOOD SHED"</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">A gigantic and horribly fierce alligator had +seized upon a strong young tapir, and was +trying to drag it into the water.</p> +<p class="pnext">The poor creature had both its feet set well in front, +and was resisting with all its might, while two other +larger animals, probably the parents, were clawing the +cayman desperately with their fore-feet.</p> +<p class="pnext">But ill, indeed, would it have fared with all three +had not our heroes appeared just in the nick of +time.</p> +<p class="pnext">For several more of these scaly and fearsome +reptiles were hurrying to the scene of action.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick's first shot was a splendid one. It struck the +offending cayman in the eye, and went crashing +through his brain.</p> +<p class="pnext">The brute gasped, the blood flowed freely, and as he +fell on his side, turning up his yellow belly, the young +tapir got free, and was hurried speedily away to the +woods.</p> +<p class="pnext">Volley after volley was poured in on the enraged +'gators, but the boys had to retreat as they fought. +Had they not done so, my story would have stopped +short just here.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was not altogether the sun's parting rays that so +encrimsoned the water, but the blood of those +old-world caymans.</p> +<p class="pnext">Three in all were killed in addition to the one first +shot. So that it is no wonder the boys felt elated.</p> +<p class="pnext">Beeboo had supper waiting and there was nothing +talked about that evening except their strange +adventures in the beautiful forest.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Probably no one could sleep more soundly than did +our heroes and heroine that night.</p> +<p class="pnext">Next day, and next, they went on shore again, and +on the third a huge jaguar, who fancied he would like +to dine off Brawn's shoulder, fell a victim to Dick +Temple's unerring aim.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the raft never stirred nor moved for a whole week.</p> +<p class="pnext">Said Bill to Jake one morning, as he took his meerschaum +from his mouth:</p> +<p class="pnext">"I think, Jake, and w'at I thinks be's this like. +There ain't ne'er a morsel o' good smokin' and on'y +just lookin' at that fine and valuable pile o' timber. +It strikes me conclusive like that something 'ad better +be done."</p> +<p class="pnext">"And what would you propose, Bill?" said Jake.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, Jake, you're captain like, and my proposition +is subject to your disposition as it were. But I'd +lighten her, and lighten her till she floats; then tow +her off, and build up the odd timbers again."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Good! You have a better head than I have, Bill; +and it's you that should have been skipper, not me."</p> +<p class="pnext">Nothing was done that day, however, except making +a few more attempts with the steamer at full speed to +tow her off. She did shift and slue round a little, but +that was all.</p> +<p class="pnext">Next morning dawned as beautifully as any that +had gone before it.</p> +<p class="pnext">There were fleecy clouds, however, hurrying across +the sky as if on business bent, and the blue between +them was bluer than ever our young folks had seen it.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick Temple, with Roland and Peggy, had made up +their minds to go on shore for another day while the +work of dismantling the raft went on.</p> +<p class="pnext">But a fierce south wind began to blow, driving +heavy black clouds before it, and lashing the river +into foam.</p> +<p class="pnext">One of those terrible tropic storms was evidently +on the cards, and come it did right soon.</p> +<p class="pnext">The darkest blackness was away to the west, and +here, though no thunder could be heard, the lightning +was very vivid. It was evident that this was the +vortex of the hurricane, for only a few drops of rain +fell around the raft.</p> +<p class="pnext">The picnic scheme was of course abandoned, and all +waited anxiously enough for something to come.</p> +<p class="pnext">That something did come in less than an hour--the +descent of the mighty Amazon in flood. Its tributaries +had no doubt been swollen by the awful rain +and water-spouts, and poured into the great queen of +rivers double their usual discharge.</p> +<p class="pnext">A bore is a curling wave like a shore breaker that +rushes down the smaller rivers, and is terribly +destructive to boating or to shipping.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Amazon, however, did not rise like this. It +came rushing almost silently down in a broad tall +wave that appeared to stretch right across it, from the +forest-clad bank where the raft lay to the far-off +green horizon in the north.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Burly Bill was quite prepared for eventualities.</p> +<p class="pnext">Steam had been got up, the vessel's bows were +headed for up stream, and the hawser betwixt raft +and boat tautened.</p> +<p class="pnext">On and on rushed the huge wave. It towered +above the raft, even when fifty yards away, in the +most threatening manner, as if about to sweep all +things to destruction.</p> +<p class="pnext">But on its nearer approach it glided in under the +raft, and steamer as well--like some huge submarine +monster such as we read of in fairy books of the +long-long-ago--glided in under them, and seemed to lift +them sky-high.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Go ahead at full speed!"</p> +<p class="pnext">It was the sonorous voice of Burly Bill shouting to +the engineer.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ay, ay, sir!" came the cheery reply.</p> +<p class="pnext">The screw went round with a rush.</p> +<p class="pnext">It churned up a wake of foaming water as the +<em class="italics">Peggy</em> began to forge ahead, and next minute, driven +along on the breeze, the monster raft began to follow +and was soon out and away beyond danger from rock +or shoal.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then arose to heaven a prayer of thankfulness, and +a cheer so loud and long that even the parrots and +monkeys in the forest depths heard it, and yelled and +chattered till they frightened both 'gators and jaguars.</p> +<p class="pnext">Just two weeks after these adventures, the little +<em class="italics">Peggy</em> was at anchor, and the great raft safely beached.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill was left in charge with his white men +and his Indians, with Dick Temple to act as +supercargo, and Jake Solomons with Roland and Peggy, +not to mention the dog, started off for Pará.</p> +<p class="pnext">In due course, but after many discomforts, they +arrived there, and Jake, after taking rooms in a +hotel, hurried off to secure his despatches from the +post-office.</p> +<p class="pnext">"No letters!" cried Jake, as his big brown fist came +down with a bang on the counter. "Why, I see the +very documents I came for in the pigeon-hole behind you!"</p> +<p class="pnext">The clerk, somewhat alarmed at the attitude of +this tall Yankee backwoodsman, pulled them out and +looked at them.</p> +<p class="pnext">"They cannot be delivered," he said.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And why?" thundered Jake, "Inasmuch as to +wherefore, you greasy-faced little whipper-snapper!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Not sufficient postage."</p> +<p class="pnext">Jake thrust one hand into a front pocket, and one +behind him. Then on the counter he dashed down a +bag of cash and a six-chambered revolver.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I'm Jake Solomons," he said. "There before you +lies peace or war. Hand over the letters, and you'll +have the rhino. Refuse, and I guess and calculate I'll +blow the whole top of your head off."</p> +<p class="pnext">The clerk preferred peace, and Jake strode away +triumphant.</p> +<p class="pnext">When he returned to the hotel and told the boys +the story, they laughed heartily. In their eyes, Jake +was more a hero than ever.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah!" said the giant quietly, "there's nothing brings +these long-shore chaps sooner to their senses than +letting 'em have a squint down the barrel of a six-shooter."</p> +<p class="pnext">The letters were all from Mr. St. Clair, and had +been lying at the post-office for over a week. They +all related to business, to the sale of the timber and +the other commodities, the best markets, and so on +and so forth, with hints as to the gold-mine.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the last one was much more bulky than the +others, and so soon as he had glanced at the first +lines, Jake lit his meerschaum, then threw himself +back in his rocker to quietly discuss it.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a plain, outspoken letter, such as one man of +the world writes to another. Here is one extract:--</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">Our business is increasing at a rapid rate, Jake +Solomon. I have too much to do and so have you; +therefore, although I did not think it necessary to +inform you before, I have been in communication +with my brother John, and he is sending me out a +shrewd, splendid man of business. He will have +arrived before your return.</em></p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">I can trust John thoroughly, and this Don Pedro +Salvador, over and above his excellent business +capabilities, can talk Spanish, French, and Portuguese.</em></p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">I do not quite like the name, Jake, so he must be +content to be called plain Mr. Peter.</em></p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">About the very time that Jake Solomons was reading +this letter, there sat close to the sky-light of an +outward-bound steamer at Liverpool, two men holding +low but earnest conversation. Their faces were partly +obscured, for it was night, and the only light a +glimmer from the ship's lamp.</p> +<p class="pnext">Steam was up and roaring through the pipes.</p> +<p class="pnext">A casual observer might have noted that one was a +slim, swarthy, but wiry, smart-looking man of about +thirty. His companion was a man considerably over forty.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I shall go now," said the latter. "You have my +instructions, and I believe I can trust you."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Have I not already given you reason to?" was the +rejoinder. "At the risk of penal servitude did I not +steal my employer's keys, break into his room at +night, and copy that will for you? It was but a copy +of a copy, it is true, and I could not discover the +original, else the quickest and simplest plan would +have been--fire:"</p> +<p class="pnext">"True, you did so, but"--the older man laughed +lightly--"you were well paid for the duty you performed."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Duty, eh?" sneered the other. "Well," he added, +"thank God nothing has been discovered. My +employer has bidden me an almost affectionate farewell, +and given me excellent certificates."</p> +<p class="pnext">The other started up as a loud voice hailed the deck:</p> +<p class="pnext">"Any more for the shore!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I am going now," he said. "Good-bye, old man, +and remember my last words: not one single drop of +blood shed!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I understand, and will obey to the letter. Obedience pays."</p> +<p class="pnext">"True; and you shall find it so. Good-bye!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"<em class="italics">A Dios!</em>" said the other.</p> +<p class="pnext">The last bell was struck, and the gangway was +hauled on shore.</p> +<p class="pnext">The great ship <em class="italics">Benedict</em> was that night rolling and +tossing about on the waves of the Irish Channel.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Jake Solomons acquainted Roland and Peggy with +the contents of this last letter, and greatly did the +latter wonder what the new overseer would be like, +and if she should love him or not.</p> +<p class="pnext">For Peggy had a soft little heart of her own, and +was always prepared to be friendly with anyone who, +according to her idea, was nice.</p> +<p class="pnext">Jake took his charges all round the city next +day and showed them the sights of what is now one +of the most beautiful towns in South America.</p> +<p class="pnext">The gardens, the fountains, the churches and palaces, +the flowers and fruit, and feathery palm-trees, all +things indeed spoke of delightfulness, and calm, and +peace.</p> +<p class="pnext">And far beyond and behind all this was the +boundless forest primeval.</p> +<p class="pnext">This was not their last drive through the city, and +this good fellow Jake, though his business took him +from home most of the day, delighted to take the +children to every place of amusement he could think +of. But despite all this, these children of the forest +wilds began to long for home, and very much rejoiced +were they when one evening, after dinner, Jake told +them they should start on the morrow for Bona Vista, +near to which town the little steamer lay, and so up +the great river and home.</p> +<p class="pnext">Jake had done all his business, and done it satisfactorily, +and could return to the old plantation and +Burnley Hall with a light and cheerful heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had even sold the mine, although it was not to +be worked for some time to come.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-vii-a-cold-hand-seemed-to-clutch-her-heart"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8">CHAPTER VII--"A COLD HAND SEEMED TO CLUTCH HER HEART"</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Many months passed away pleasantly and happily +enough on the old plantation. The children--Roland, +by the way, would hardly have liked to be +called a child now--were, of course, under the able +tuition of Mr. Simons, but in addition Peggy had a +governess, imported directly from Pará.</p> +<p class="pnext">This was a dark-eyed Spanish girl, very piquant +and pretty, who talked French well, and played on +both the guitar and piano.</p> +<p class="pnext">Tom St. Clair had not only his boy's welfare, but +his niece's, or adopted daughter's, also at heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">It would be some years yet before she arrived at +the age of sweet seventeen, but when she did, her +uncle determined to sell off or realize on his plantation, +his goods and chattels, and sail across the seas once +more to dear old Cornwall and the real Burnley Hall.</p> +<p class="pnext">He looked forward to that time as the weary +worker in stuffy towns or cities does to a summer +holiday.</p> +<p class="pnext">There is excitement enough in money-making, it is +like an exhilarating game of billiards or whist, but it +is apt to become tiresome.</p> +<p class="pnext">And Tom St. Clair was often overtired and weary. +He was always glad when he reached home at night +to his rocking-chair and a good dinner, after toiling +all day in the recently-started india-rubber-forest works.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Mr. Peter took a vast deal of labour off his hands.</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Peter, or Don Pedro, ingratiated himself with +nearly everyone from the first, and seemed to take to +the work as if to the manner born.</p> +<p class="pnext">There were three individuals, however, who could +not like him, strange to say; these were Peggy herself, +Benee the Indian who had guided them through the +forest when lost, and who had remained on the estate +ever since, while the third was Brawn, the Irish wolf-hound.</p> +<p class="pnext">The dog showed his teeth if Peter tried even to +caress him.</p> +<p class="pnext">Both Roland and Dick--the latter was a very +frequent visitor--got on very well with Peter--trusted +him thoroughly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"How is it, Benee," said Roland one day to the +Indian, "that you do not love Don Pedro?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee spat on the ground and stamped his foot.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I watch he eye," the semi-savage replied. "He +one very bad man. Some day you know plenty +moochee foh true."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well," said Tom one evening as he and his wife +sat alone in the verandah together, "I do long to get +back to England. I am tired, dear wife--my heart is +weak why should we remain here over two years +more? We are wealthy enough, and I promise myself +and you, dear, many long years of health and +happiness yet in the old country."</p> +<p class="pnext">He paused and smoked a little; then, after watching +for a few moments the fireflies that flitted from bush +to bush, he stretched his left arm out and rested his +hand on his wife's lap.</p> +<p class="pnext">Some impulse seized her. She took it and pressed +it to her lips. But a tear trickled down her cheek as +she did so.</p> +<p class="pnext">Lovers still this couple were, though nearly twenty +years had elapsed since he led her, a bonnie, buxom, +blushing lassie, to the altar.</p> +<p class="pnext">But now in a sweet, low, but somewhat sad voice he +sang a verse of that dear old song--"We have lived +and loved together":--</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"We have lived and loved together</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Through many changing years,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">We have shared each other's gladness</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">And dried each other's tears.</div> +</div> +<div class="line">I have never known a sorrow</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">That was long unsoothed by thee,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">For thy smile can make a summer</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Where darkness else would be.</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Mrs. St. Clair would never forget that evening on +the star-lit lawn, nor the flitting, little fire-insects, nor +her husband's voice.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Is it not just when we expect it least that sorrow +sometimes falls suddenly upon us, hiding or eclipsing +all our promised happiness and joy?</p> +<p class="pnext">I have now to write a pitiful part of my too true +story, but it must be done.</p> +<p class="pnext">Next evening St. Clair rode home an hour earlier.</p> +<p class="pnext">He complained of feeling more tired than usual, +and said he would lie down on the drawing-room sofa +until dinner was ready.</p> +<p class="pnext">Peggy went singing along the hall to call him at +the appointed time.</p> +<p class="pnext">She went singing into the room.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Pa, dear," she cried merrily; "Uncle-pa, dinner is +all beautifully ready!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Come, Unky-pa. How sound you sleep!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Then a terror crept up from the earth, as it were, +and a cold hand seemed to clutch her heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">She ran out of the room.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, Auntie-ma!" she cried, "come, come quickly, +pa won't wake, nor speak!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Heigho! the summons had come, and dear "Uncle-pa" +would never, never wake again.</p> +<p class="pnext">This is a short chapter, but it is too sad to continue.</p> +<p class="pnext">So falls the curtain on the first act of this life-drama.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-viii-fiercely-and-wildly-both-sides-fought"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9">CHAPTER VIII--FIERCELY AND WILDLY BOTH SIDES FOUGHT</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">The gloomy event related in last chapter must not +be allowed to cast a damper over our story.</p> +<p class="pnext">Of course death is always and everywhere hovering +near, but why should boys like you and me, reader, +permit that truth to cloud our days or stand between +us and happiness?</p> +<p class="pnext">Two years, then, have elapsed since poor, brave Tom +St. Clair's death.</p> +<p class="pnext">He is buried near the edge of the forest in a +beautiful enclosure where rare shrubs grow, and where +flowers trail and climb far more beautiful than any +we ever see in England.</p> +<p class="pnext">At first Mrs. St. Clair had determined to sell all off +and go back to the old country, but her overseer Jake +Solomons and Mr. Peter persuaded her not to, or it +seemed that it was their advice which kept her from +carrying out her first intentions. But she had another +reason, she found she could not leave that lonesome +grave yet awhile.</p> +<p class="pnext">So the years passed on.</p> +<p class="pnext">The estate continued to thrive.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland was now a handsome young fellow in his +eighteenth year, and Peggy, now beautiful beyond +compare, was nearly fifteen.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick Temple, the bold and reckless huntsman and +horseman, was quieter now in his attentions towards +her. She was no longer the child that he could lift +on to his broad young shoulders and carry, neighing +and galloping like a frightened colt, round and round +the lawn.</p> +<p class="pnext">And Roland felt himself a man. He was more +sober and sedate, and had taken over all his father's +work and his father's responsibilities. But for all that, +lightly enough lay the burden on his heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">For he had youth on his side, and</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"In the lexicon of youth which fate reserves</div> +<div class="line">For a bright manhood there is no such word</div> +<div class="line">As fail".</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">I do not, however, wish to be misunderstood. It +must not be supposed that Roland had no difficulties +to contend with, that all his business life was +as fair and serene as a bright summer's day. On +the contrary, he had many losses owing to the +fluctuations of the markets and the failures of great firms, +owing to fearful storms, and more than once owing +to strikes or revolts among his Indians in the great +india-rubber forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Roland was light-hearted and young, and difficulties +in life, I have often said, are just like nine-pins, +they are put up to be bowled over.</p> +<p class="pnext">Besides, be it remembered that if it were all plain +sailing with us in this world we should not be able to +appreciate how really happy our lives are. The sky +is always bluest 'twixt the darkest clouds.</p> +<p class="pnext">On the whole, Roland, who took stock, and, with +honest Bill and Jake Solomons, went over the books +every quarter, had but little reason to complain. +This stock-taking consumed most of their spare +time for the greater part of a week, and when it was +finished Roland invariably gave a dinner-party, at +which I need hardly say his dear friend Dick Temple +was present. And this was always the happiest of +happy nights to Dick, because the girl he loved more +than all things on earth put together was here, and +looked so innocent and beautiful in her simple dresses +of white and blue.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was no such thing as flirtation here, but Dick +was fully and completely in earnest when he told +himself that if he lived till he was three- or +four-and-twenty he would ask Peggy to be his wife.</p> +<p class="pnext">Ah! there is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick, I might, could, would, or should have told +you before, lived with a bachelor uncle, who, being +rather old and infirm, seldom came out. He had good +earnest men under him, however, as overseers, and his +plantations were thriving, especially that in which +tobacco was cultivated.</p> +<p class="pnext">The old man was exceedingly fond of Dick, and +Dick would be his heir.</p> +<p class="pnext">Probably it was for his uncle's sake that Dick +stayed in the country--and of course for Peggy's +and Roland's--for, despite its grand field for sport +and adventure, the lad had a strange longing to go to +England and play cricket or football.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had been born in Britain just as Roland was, +and had visited his childhood's home more than once +during his short life.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now just about this time Don Pedro, or Mr. Peter +as all called him, had asked for and obtained a +holiday. He was going to Pará for a change, he said, and +to meet a friend from England.</p> +<p class="pnext">That he did meet a friend from England there was +little doubt, but their interview was a very short one. +Where he spent the rest of his time was best known +to himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">In three months or a little less he turned up smiling +again, and most effusive.</p> +<p class="pnext">About a fortnight after his arrival he came to Jake +one morning pretty early.</p> +<p class="pnext">Jake was preparing to start on horseback for the +great forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I'm on the horns of a dilemma, Mr. Solomons," he +said, laughing his best laugh. "During the night +about twenty Bolivian Indians have encamped near +to the forest. They ask for work on the india-rubber +trees. They are well armed, and all sturdy warriors. +They look as if fighting was more in their line than +honest labour."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, Mr. Peter, what is their excuse for being +here anyhow?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"They are bound for the sea-shore at the mouths of +the river, and want to earn a few dollars to help them on."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, where is the other horn of the dilemma?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh! if I give them work they may corrupt our fellows."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Then, Mr. Peter, I'd give the whole blessed lot the +boot and the sack."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah! now, Mr. Solomons, you've got to the other +horn. These savages, for they are little else, are +revengeful."</p> +<p class="pnext">"We're not afraid."</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, we needn't be were they to make war openly, +but they are sly, and as dangerous as sly. They would +in all probability burn us down some dark night."</p> +<p class="pnext">Jake mused for a minute. Then he said abruptly:</p> +<p class="pnext">"Let the poor devils earn a few dollars, Mr. Peter, +if they are stony-broke, and then send them on their +way rejoicing."</p> +<p class="pnext">"That's what I say, too," said Burly Bill, who had +just come up. "I've been over yonder in the starlight. +They look deuced uncouth and nasty. So does a bull-dog, +Jake, but is there a softer-hearted, more kindly +dog in all creation?"</p> +<p class="pnext">So that very day the Indians set to work with the +other squads.</p> +<p class="pnext">The labour connected with the collecting of india-rubber +is by no means very hard, but it requires a +little skill, and is irksome to those not used to such +toil.</p> +<p class="pnext">But labour is scarce and Indians are often lazy, so +on the whole Jake was not sorry to have the new +hands, or "serinqueiros" as they are called.</p> +<p class="pnext">The india-rubber trees are indigenous and grow in +greatest profusion on that great tributary of the +Amazon called the Madeira. But when poor Tom +St. Clair came to the country he had an eye to business. +He knew that india-rubber would always command a +good market, and so he visited the distant forests, +studied the growth and culture of the trees as +conducted by Nature, and ventured to believe that he +could improve upon her methods.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was successful, and it was not a great many +years before he had a splendid plantation of young +trees in his forest, to say nothing of the older ones +that had stood the brunt of many a wild tropical +storm.</p> +<p class="pnext">It will do no harm if I briefly describe the method +of obtaining the india-rubber. Tiny pots of tin, +holding about half a pint, are hung under an incision +in the bark of the tree, and these are filled and +emptied every day, the contents being delivered by +the Indian labourers at the house or hut of an +under-overseer.</p> +<p class="pnext">The sap is all emptied into larger utensils, and a +large smoking fire, made of the nuts of a curious kind +of palm called the Motokoo, being built, the operators +dip wooden shovels into the sap, twirling these round +quickly and holding them in the smoke. Coagulation +takes place very quickly. Again the shovel is dipped +in the sap, and the same process is repeated until the +coagulated rubber is about two inches thick, when it +is cooled, cut, or sliced off, and is ready for the distant +market.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now, from the very day of their arrival, there was +no love lost between the old and steady hands and +this new band of independent and flighty ones.</p> +<p class="pnext">The latter were willing enough to slice the bark +and to hang up their pannikins, and they would even +empty them when filled, and condescend to carry their +contents to the preparing-house. But they were lazy +in the extreme at gathering the nuts, and positively +refused to smoke the sap and coagulate it.</p> +<p class="pnext">It made them weep, they explained, and it was +much more comfortable to lie and wait for the sap +while they smoked and talked in their own strange +language.</p> +<p class="pnext">After a few days the permanent hands refused to +work at the same trees, or even in the same part of +the estrados or roads that led through the plantation +of rubber-trees.</p> +<p class="pnext">A storm was brewing, that was evident. Nor was +it very long before it burst.</p> +<p class="pnext">All unconscious that anything was wrong, Peggy, +with Brawn, was romping about one day enjoying +the busy scene, Peggy often entering into conversation +with some of her old favourites, when one of the +strange Indians, returning from the tub with an +empty tin, happened to tread on Brawn's tail.</p> +<p class="pnext">The dog snarled, but made no attempt to bite. +Afraid, however, that he would spring upon the fellow, +Peggy threw herself on the ground, encircling her +arms around Brawn's shoulders, and it was she who +received the blow that was meant for the dog.</p> +<p class="pnext">It cut her across the arm, and she fainted with pain.</p> +<p class="pnext">Brawn sprang at once upon his man and brought +him down.</p> +<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure" style="width: 74%" id="figure-28"> +<span id="brawn-sprang-at-once-upon-his-man"></span><img class="align-center" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt=" " src="images/img-090.jpg" /> +<div class="caption figure"> +"BRAWN SPRANG AT ONCE UPON HIS MAN"</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">He shook the wretch as if he had been but a rat, +and blood flowed freely.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill was not far off, and just as the great +hound had all but fixed the savage by the windpipe, +which he would undoubtedly have torn out, Bill pulled +him off by the collar and pacified him.</p> +<p class="pnext">The blood-stained Indian started to his legs to +make good his retreat, but as his back was turned in +flight, Bill rushed after him and dealt him a kick that +laid him prone on his face.</p> +<p class="pnext">This was the signal for a general mêlée, and a +terrible one it was!</p> +<p class="pnext">Bill got Peggy pulled to one side, and gave her in +charge to Dick, who had come thundering across on +his huge horse towards the scene of conflict.</p> +<p class="pnext">Under the shelter of a spreading tree Dick lifted +his precious charge. But she speedily revived when +he laid her flat on the ground. She smiled feebly +and held out her hand, which Dick took and kissed, +the tears positively trickling over his cheeks.</p> +<p class="pnext">Perhaps it was a kind of boyish impulse that caused +him to say what he now said:</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, Peggy, my darling, how I love you! Whereever +you are, dear, wherever I am--oh, always think +of me a little!"</p> +<p class="pnext">That was all.</p> +<p class="pnext">A faint colour suffused Peggy's cheek for just a +moment. Then she sat up, and the noble hound +anxiously licked her face.</p> +<p class="pnext">But she had made no reply.</p> +<p class="pnext">Meanwhile the mêlée went merrily on, as a Donnybrook +Irishman might remark.</p> +<p class="pnext">Fiercely and wildly both sides fought, using as +weapons whatsoever came handiest.</p> +<p class="pnext">But soon the savages were beaten and discomfited +with, sad to tell, the loss of one life--that of a +savage.</p> +<p class="pnext">Not only Jake himself, but Roland and Mr. Peter +were now on the scene of the recent conflict. Close +to Peter's side, watching every movement of his lips +and eyes, stood Benee, the Indian who had saved the +children.</p> +<p class="pnext">Several times Peter looked as if he felt uneasy, +and once he turned towards Benee as if about to speak.</p> +<p class="pnext">He said nothing, and the man continued his watchful +scrutiny.</p> +<p class="pnext">After consulting for a short time together, Jake and +Roland, with Burly Bill, determined to hold a court of +inquiry on the spot.</p> +<p class="pnext">But, strange to say, Peter kept aloof. He continued +to walk to and fro, and Benee still hung in his rear. +But this ex-savage was soon called upon to act as +interpreter if his services should be needed, which +they presently were.</p> +<p class="pnext">Every one of the civilized Indians had the same +story to tell of the laziness and insolence of the +Bolivians, and now Jake ordered the chief of the +other party to come forward.</p> +<p class="pnext">They sulked for a short time.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Jake drew his pistols, and, one in each hand, +stepped out and ordered all to the front.</p> +<p class="pnext">They made no verbal response to the questions put +to them through Benee. Their only reply was scowling.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, Mr. St. Clair," said Jake, "my advice is to +pay these rascals and send them off."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Good!" said Roland. "I have money."</p> +<p class="pnext">The chief was ordered to draw nearer, and the +dollars were counted into his claw-like fist.</p> +<p class="pnext">The fellow drew up his men in a line and gave to +each his pay, reserving his own.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then at a signal, given by the chief, there was +raised a terrible war-whoop and howl.</p> +<p class="pnext">The chief spat on his dollars and dashed them into +a neighbouring pool. Every man did the same.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland was looking curiously on. He was wondering +what would happen next.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had not very long to wait, for with his foot the +chief turned the dead man on his back, and the blood +from his death-stab poured out afresh.</p> +<p class="pnext">He dipped his palm in the red stream and held it +up on high. His men followed his example.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then all turned to the sun, and in one voice uttered +just one word, which, being interpreted by Benee, was +understood to mean--REVENGE!</p> +<p class="pnext">They licked the blood from their hands, and, turning +round, marched in silence and in single file out +and away from the forest and were seen no more.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-ix-that-tree-in-the-forest-glade"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10">CHAPTER IX--THAT TREE IN THE FOREST GLADE</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">The things, the happenings, I have now to tell you +of in this chapter form the turning-point in our +story.</p> +<p class="pnext">Weeks passed by after the departure of that +mysterious band of savages, and things went on in the +same old groove on the plantation.</p> +<p class="pnext">Whence the savages had come, or whither they had +gone, none could tell. But all were relieved at their +exit, dramatic and threatening though it had been.</p> +<p class="pnext">The hands were all very busy now everywhere, and +one day, it being the quarter's end, after taking stock +Roland gave his usual dinner-party, and a ball to his +natives. These were all dressed out as gaily as gaily +could be. The ladies wore the most tawdry of finery, +most of which they had bought, or rather had had +brought them by their brothers and lovers from Pará, +and nothing but the most pronounced evening dress +did any "lady of colour" deign to wear.</p> +<p class="pnext">Why should they not ape the quality, and "poh +deah Miss Peggy".</p> +<p class="pnext">Peggy was very happy that evening, and so I need +hardly say was Dick Temple. Though he never had +dared to speak of love again, no one could have looked +at those dark daring eyes of his and said it was not +there.</p> +<p class="pnext">It must have been about eleven by the clock and a +bright moonlight night when Dick started to ride +home. He knew the track well, he said, and could +not be prevailed upon to stay all night. Besides, his +uncle expected him.</p> +<p class="pnext">The dinner and ball given to the plantation hands +had commenced at sunset, or six o'clock, and after +singing hymns--a queer finish to a most hilarious +dance--all retired, and by twelve of the clock not a +sound was to be heard over all the plantation save +now and then the mournful cry of the shriek-owl or a +plash in the river, showing that the 'gators preferred +a moonshiny night to daylight itself.</p> +<p class="pnext">The night wore on, one o'clock, two o'clock chimed +from the turret on Burnley Hall, and soon after this, +had anyone been in the vicinity he would have seen +a tall figure, wrapped in cloak and hood, steal away +from the house adown the walks that led from the +flowery lawns. The face was quite hidden, but several +times the figure paused, as if to listen and glance +around, then hurried on once more, and finally +disappeared in the direction of the forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">Peggy's bedroom was probably the most tastefully-arranged +and daintily-draped in the house, and when +she lay down to-night and fell gently asleep, very +sweet indeed were the dreams that visited her pillow. +The room was on a level with the river lawn, on +to which it opened by a French or casement window. +Three o'clock!</p> +<p class="pnext">The moon shone on the bed, and even on the girl's +face, but did not awaken her.</p> +<p class="pnext">A few minutes after this, and the casement window +was quietly opened, and the same cloaked figure, +which stole away from the mansion an hour before, +softly entered.</p> +<p class="pnext">It stood for more than half a minute erect and +listening, then, bending low beside the bed, listened a +moment there.</p> +<p class="pnext">Did no spectral dream cross the sleeping girl's vision +to warn her of the dreadful fate in store for her?</p> +<p class="pnext">Had she shrieked even now, assistance would have +been speedily forthcoming, and she might have been +saved!</p> +<p class="pnext">But she quietly slumbered on.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then the dark figure retreated as it had come, and +presently another and more terrible took its place--a +burly savage carrying a blanket or rug.</p> +<p class="pnext">First the girl's clothing and shoes, her watch and +all her trinkets, were gathered up and handed to +someone on the lawn.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then the savage, approaching the bed with stealthy +footsteps, at once enveloped poor Peggy in the rug +and bore her off.</p> +<p class="pnext">For a moment she uttered a muffled moan or two, +like a nightmare scream, then all was still as the +grave.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">"Missie Peggy! Missie Peggy," cried Beeboo next +morning at eight as she entered the room. "What for +you sleep so long? Ah!" she added sympathizingly, +still holding the door-knob in her hand. "Ah! but +den the poh chile very tired. Dance plenty mooch las' +night, and--"</p> +<p class="pnext">She stopped suddenly.</p> +<p class="pnext">Something unusual in the appearance of the bed +attire attracted her attention and she speedily rushed +towards it.</p> +<p class="pnext">She gave vent at once to a loud yell, and Roland +himself, who was passing near, ran in immediately.</p> +<p class="pnext">He stood like one in a state of catalepsy, with his +eyes fixed on the empty bed. But he recovered +shortly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, this is a fearful day!" he cried, and hastened +out to acquaint Jake and Bill, both of whom, as well +as Mr. Peter, slept in the east wing of the mansion.</p> +<p class="pnext">He ran from door to door knocking very loud and +shouting: "Awake, awake, Peggy has gone! She has +been kidnapped, and the accursed savages have had +their revenge!"</p> +<p class="pnext">In their pyjamas only, Jake and Bill appeared, and +after a while Mr. Peter, fully dressed.</p> +<p class="pnext">He looked sleepy.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I had too much wine last night," he said, with a +yawn, "and slept very heavily all night. But what +is the matter?"</p> +<p class="pnext">He was quietly and quickly informed.</p> +<p class="pnext">"This is indeed a fearful blow, but surely we can +trace the scoundrels!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Boys, hurry through with your breakfast," said +Roland. "Jake, I will be back in a few minutes."</p> +<p class="pnext">He whistled shrilly and Brawn came rushing to his side.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Follow me, Brawn."</p> +<p class="pnext">His object was to find out in which direction the +savages had gone.</p> +<p class="pnext">Had Brawn been a blood-hound he could soon have +picked up the scent.</p> +<p class="pnext">As it was, however, his keen eyes discovered the +trail on the lawn, and led him to the gate. He howled +impatiently to have it opened, then bounded out and +away towards the forest in a westerly and southerly +direction, which, if pursued far enough, would lead +towards Bolivia, along the wild rocky banks of the +Madeira River.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a whole hour before Brawn returned. He +carried something in his mouth. He soon found his +master, and laid the something gently down at his +feet, stretching himself--grief-stricken--beside it.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was one of Peggy's boots, with a white silk +stocking in it, drenched in blood.</p> +<p class="pnext">The white men and Indians were now fully aroused, +and, leaving Jake in charge of the estate, Roland +picked out thirty of the best men, armed them with +guns, and placed them under the command of Burly +Bill. Then they started off in silence, Roland and +Burly mounted, the armed whites and Indians on foot.</p> +<p class="pnext">Brawn went galloping on in front in a very excited +manner, often returning and barking wildly at the +horses as if to hurry them on.</p> +<p class="pnext">Throughout that forenoon they journeyed by the +trail, which was now distinct enough, and led through +the jungle and forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">They came out on to a clearing about one o'clock. +Here was water in abundance, and as they were all +thoroughly exhausted, they threw themselves down +by the spring to quench their thirst and rest.</p> +<p class="pnext">Bill made haste now to deal out the provisions, and +after an hour, during which time most of them slept, +they resumed their journey.</p> +<p class="pnext">A mile or two farther on they came to a sight +which almost froze their blood.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the middle of a clearing or glade stood a great +tree. It was hollowed out at one side, and against +this was still a heap of half-charred wood, evidently +the remains of a fierce fire, though every ember had +died black out.</p> +<p class="pnext">Here was poor Peggy's other shoe. That too was +bloody.</p> +<p class="pnext">And here was a pool of coagulated blood, with +huge rhinoceros beetles busy at their work of +excavation. Portions or rags of dress also!</p> +<p class="pnext">It was truly an awful sight!</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland reined up his horse, and placed his right +hand over his eyes.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bill," he managed to articulate, "can you have +the branches removed, and let us know the fearful +worst?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill gave the order, and the Indians tossed +the half-burned wood aside.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then they pulled out bone after bone of limbs, +of arms, of ribs. But all were charred almost into +cinders!</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland now seemed to rise to the occasion.</p> +<p class="pnext">He held his right arm on high.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bill," he cried; "here, under the blazing sun and +above the remains, the dust of my dead sister, I +register a vow to follow up these fiends to their +distant homes, if Providence shall but lead us aright, +and to slay and burn every wretch who has aided or +abetted this terrible deed!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I too register that vow," said Bill solemnly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And I, and I!" shouted the white men, and even +the Indians.</p> +<p class="pnext">They went on again once more, after burying the +charred bones and dust.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the trail took them to a ford, and beyond the +stream there was not the imprint of even a single +footstep.</p> +<p class="pnext">The retiring savages must either have doubled back +on their tracks or waded for miles up or down the +rocky stream before landing.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nothing more could be done to-day, for the sun was +already declining, and they must find their way out +of the gloom of the forest before darkness. So the +return journey was made, and just as the sun's red +beams were crimsoning the waters of the western +river, they arrived once more at the plantation and +Burnley Hall.</p> +<p class="pnext">The first to meet them was Peter himself. He +seemed all anxiety.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What have you found?" he gasped.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a moment or two before Roland could reply.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Only the charred remains of my poor sister!" he +said at last, then compressed his mouth in an effort +to keep back the tears.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Indian who took so lively an interest in +Mr. Peter was not far away, and was watching his man +as usual.</p> +<p class="pnext">None noticed, save Benee himself, that Mr. Peter +heaved something very like a sigh of relief as Roland's +words fell on his ears.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burnley Hall was now indeed a castle of gloom; +but although poor Mrs. St. Clair was greatly cast +down, the eager way in which Roland and Dick were +making their preparations to follow up the savage +Indians, even to the confines or interior, if necessary, +of their own domains, gave her hope.</p> +<p class="pnext">Luckily they had already found a clue to their +whereabouts, for one of the civilized Bolivians knew +that very chief, and indeed had come from the same +far-off country. He described the people as a race +of implacable savages and cannibals, into whose territory +no white man had ever ventured and returned alive.</p> +<p class="pnext">Were they a large tribe? No, not large, not over +three or four thousand, counting women and children. +Their arms? These were spears and broad +two-bladed knives, with great slings, from which they +could hurl large stones and pieces of flint with +unerring accuracy, and bows and arrows. And no +number of white men could stand against these unless +they sheltered themselves in trenches or behind rocks +and trees.</p> +<p class="pnext">This ex-cannibal told them also that the land of +this terrible tribe abounded in mineral wealth, in silver +ore and even in gold.</p> +<p class="pnext">For this information Roland cared little; all he +wished to do was to avenge poor Peggy's death. If +his men, after the fighting, chose to lay out claims he +would permit a certain number of them to do so, +their names to be drawn by ballot. The rest must +accompany the expedition back.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick's uncle needed but little persuasion to give +forty white men, fully armed and equipped, to swell +Roland's little army of sixty whites. Besides these, +they would have with them carriers and +ammunition-bearers--Indians from the plantations.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick was all life and fire. If they were successful, +he himself, he said, would shoot the murderous chief, +or stab him to the heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">A brave show indeed did the little army make, when +all mustered and drilled, and every man there was +most enthusiastic, for all had loved poor lost Peggy.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I shall remain at my post here, I suppose," said +Mr. Peter.</p> +<p class="pnext">"If I do not alter my mind I shall leave you and +Jake, with Mr. Roberts, the tutor, to manage the +estate in my absence," said Roland.</p> +<p class="pnext">He did alter his mind, and, as the following will +show, he had good occasion to do so.</p> +<p class="pnext">One evening the strange Indian Benee, between +whom and Peter there existed so much hatred, sought +Roland out when alone.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Can I speakee you, all quiet foh true?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Certainly, my good fellow. Come into my study. +Now, what is it you would say?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Dat Don Pedro no true man! I tinkee much, and +I tinkee dat."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, I know you don't love each other, Benee; +but can you give me any proofs of his villainy?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"You letee me go to-night all myse'f alone to de +bush. I tinkee I bring you someding strange. Some +good news. Ha! it may be so!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I give you leave, and believe you to be a faithful +fellow."</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee seized his master's hand and bent down his +head till his brow touched it.</p> +<p class="pnext">Next moment he was gone.</p> +<p class="pnext">Next morning he was missed.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Your pretty Indian," said Mr. Peter, with an +ill-concealed sneer, "is a traitor, then, after all, and a +spy, and it was no doubt he who instigated the +abduction and the murder, for the sake of revenge, of +your poor little sister."</p> +<p class="pnext">"That remains to be seen, Mr. Peter. If he, or anyone +else on the plantation, is a traitor, he shall hang +as high as Haman."</p> +<p class="pnext">Peter cowered visibly, but smiled his agitation off.</p> +<p class="pnext">And that same night about twelve, while Roland +sat smoking on the lawn with Dick, all in the +moonlight, everyone else having retired--smoking and +talking of the happy past--suddenly the gate hinges +creaked, and with a low growl Brawn sprang forward. +But he returned almost immediately, wagging his tail +and being caressed by Benee himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">Silently stood the Indian before them, silently as a +statue, but in his left hand he carried a small bundle +bound up in grass. It was not his place to speak +first, and both young men were a little startled at his +sudden appearance.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What, Benee! and back so soon from the forest?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Benee did run plenty quickee. Plenty jaguar +want eat Benee, but no can catchee."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I would speekee you bof boys in de room."</p> +<p class="pnext">The two started up together.</p> +<p class="pnext">Here was some mystery that must be unravelled.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-x-benee-makes-a-strange-discovery"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11">CHAPTER X--BENEE MAKES A STRANGE DISCOVERY</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Benee followed them into Roland's quiet study, +and placed his strange grass-girt bundle on a +cane chair.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland gave him a goblet of wine-and-water, which +he drank eagerly, for he was faint and tired.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Now, let us hear quickly what you have to say, Benee."</p> +<p class="pnext">The Indian came forward, and his words, though +uttered with some vehemence, and accompanied by +much gesticulation, were delivered in almost a whisper.</p> +<p class="pnext">It would have been impossible for any eavesdropper +in the hall to have heard.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Wat I tellee you 'bout dat Peter?" he began.</p> +<p class="pnext">"My good friend," said Roland, "Peter accuses you +of being a spy and traitor."</p> +<p class="pnext">"I killee he!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, you will not; if Peter is guilty, I will see +that justice overtakes him."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, 'fore I go, sah, I speakee you and say I +bringee you de good news."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Tell us quickly!" said Dick in a state of great +excitement.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Dis, den, is de good news: Missie Peggy not dead! +No, no!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Explain, Benee, and do not raise false hopes in +our breasts."</p> +<p class="pnext">"De cannibals make believe she murder; dat all is."</p> +<p class="pnext">"But have we not found portions of her raiment, +her blood-dripping stockings, and also her charred +remains?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Listen, sah. Dese cannibals not fools. Dey beat +you plenty of trail, so you can easily find de clearing +where de fire was. Dey wis' you to go to dat tree to +see de blood, de shoe, and all. But when you seekee +de trail after, where is she? Tellee me dat. Missie +Peggy no murder. No, no. She am carried away, +far away, as one prisint to de queen ob de cannibals."</p> +<p class="pnext">"What were the bones, my good Benee?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Then Benee opened his strange bundle, and there +fell on the floor the half-burned skull and jaws of a +gigantic baboon.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I find dat hid beside de tree. Ha, ha!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"It is all clear now," said Roland. "My dear, +faithful Benee," he continued, "can you guide us to +the country of the cannibals? You will meet your +reward, both here and hereafter."</p> +<p class="pnext">"I not care. I lub Missie Peggy. Ah, she come +backee once moh, foh true!"</p> +<p class="pnext">And now Dick Temple, the impulsive, must step +forward and seize Benee by the hand. "God bless +you!" he said; and indeed it was all he could say.</p> +<p class="pnext">When the Indian had gone, Roland and Dick drew +closer together.</p> +<p class="pnext">"The mystery," said the former, "seems to me, +Dick, to be as dark and intricate as ever. I can +understand the savages carrying poor Peggy away, +but why the tricky deceit, the dropped shoe that +poor, noble Brawn picked up, the pool of blood, the +rent and torn garments, and the half-charred bones?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, I think I can see through that, Roland. I +believe it was done to prevent your further pursuit; +for, as Benee observes, the trail is left plainly enough +for even a white man to see as far as the 'fire-tree' +and on to the brook. But farther there is none."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, granting all this; think you, Dick, that no +one instigated them, probably even suggested the +crime and the infernal deceit they have practised?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Now you are thinking of, if not actually accusing, +Mr. Peter?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I am, Dick. I have had my suspicions of him ever +since a month after he came. It was strange how +Benee hated him from the beginning, to say nothing +of Brawn, the dog, and our dear lost Peggy."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Cheer up!" said Dick. "Give Peter a show, though +things look dark against him."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes," said Roland sternly, "and with us and our +expedition he must and shall go. We can watch his +every move, and if I find that he is a villain, may God +have mercy on his soul! His body shall feed the eagles."</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick Temple was a wild and reckless boy, it is true, +and always first, if possible, in any adventure which +included a spice of danger, but he had a good deal of +common sense notwithstanding.</p> +<p class="pnext">He mused a little, and rolled himself a fresh +cigarette before he replied.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Your Mr. Peter," he said, "may or may not be +guilty of duplicity, though I do not see the <em class="italics">raison +d'être</em> for any such conduct, and I confess to you that +I look upon lynching as a wild kind of justice. At +the same time I must again beg of you, Roland, to +give the man a decent show."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Here is my hand on that, Dick. He shall have +justice, even should that just finish with his dangling +at a rope's end."</p> +<p class="pnext">The two shortly after this parted for the night, +each going to his own room, but I do not think that +either of them slept till long past midnight.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were up in good time, however, for the bath, +and felt invigorated and hungry after the dip.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were not over-merry certainly, but Mrs. St. Clair +was quite changed, and just a little hysterically +hilarious. For as soon as he had tubbed, Roland had +gone to her bedroom and broken the news to her +which Benee had brought.</p> +<p class="pnext">That same forenoon Dick and Roland rode out to +the forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">They could hear the boom and shriek and roar of +the great buzz-saw long before they came near the +white-men's quarters.</p> +<p class="pnext">They saw Jake,--and busy enough he was too,--and +told him that they had some reason to doubt the +honesty or sincerity of Mr. Peter, and that they would +take him along with them.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Thank God!" said Jake most fervently. "I myself +cannot trust a man whom a dog like Brawn and a +savage like Benee have come to hate."</p> +<p class="pnext">By themselves that day the young fellows +completed their plans, and all would now be ready to +advance in a week's time.</p> +<p class="pnext">That same day, however, on parade and in presence +of Mr. Peter, Roland made a little speech.</p> +<p class="pnext">"We are going," he said, "my good fellows, on a +very long and adventurous journey. Poor Miss Peggy +is, as we all know" (this was surely a fib that would +be forgiven) "dead and gone, but we mean to follow +these savages up to their own country, and deal them +such a blow as will paralyse them for years. Yellow +Charlie yonder is himself one of their number, but he +has proved himself faithful, and has offered to be our +guide as soon as we enter unknown regions.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I have," he added, "perfect faith in my white men, +faith in Mr. Peter, whom I am taking with me--"</p> +<p class="pnext">Peter took a step forward as if to speak, but Roland +waved him back.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And I know my working Indians will prove +themselves good men and true.</p> +<p class="pnext">"After saying this, it is hardly necessary to add +that if anyone is found attempting to desert our +column, even should it be Burly Bill himself" (Burly +Bill laughed outright), "he will be shot down as we +would shoot a puma or alligator."</p> +<p class="pnext">There was a wild cheer after Roland stepped down +from the balcony, and in this Mr. Peter seemed to join +so heartily that Roland's heart smote him.</p> +<p class="pnext">For perhaps, after all, he had been unkind in +thought to this man.</p> +<p class="pnext">Time alone would tell.</p> +<p class="pnext">The boys determined to leave nothing to chance, +but ammunition was of even more importance than +food. They hoped to find water everywhere, and the +biscuits carried, with the roots they should dig, would +serve to keep the expedition alive and healthy, with +the aid of their good guns.</p> +<p class="pnext">Medicine was not forgotten, nor medical comforts.</p> +<p class="pnext">For three whole days Roland trained fast-running +Indians to pick up a trail. A man would be allowed +to have three miles' start, and then, when he was +quite invisible, those human sleuth-hounds would be +let loose, and they never failed to bring back their +prisoner after a time.</p> +<p class="pnext">One man at least was much impressed by these +trials of skill.</p> +<p class="pnext">Just a week before the start, and late in the evening, +Benee once more presented himself before our young +heroes.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I would speakee you!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, Benee, say what you please, but all have not +yet retired. Dick, get out into the hall, and warn us +if anyone approaches."</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick jumped up, threw his cigarette away, and did +as he was told.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Thus I speakee you and say," said Benee. "You +trustee I?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Assuredly!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Den you let me go?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"How and where?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I go fast as de wind, fleeter dan de rain-squall, far +ober de mountains ob Madeira, far froo' de wild, dark +forest. I heed noting, I fear noting. No wil' beas' +makee Benee 'fraid. I follow de cannibals. I reach +de country longee time 'foh you. I creepee like one +snake to de hut ob poh deah Peggy. She no can fly +wid me, but I 'sure her dat you come soon, in two +moon p'laps, or free. I make de chile happy. Den I +creep and glide away again all samee one black snake, +and come back to find you. I go?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland took the man's hand. Savage though he +was, there was kindness and there was undoubted +sincerity in those dark, expressive eyes, and our hero +at once gave the permission asked.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But," he said, "the way is long and dangerous, my +good Benee, so here I give you two long-range +six-shooters, a repeating-rifle, and a box of cartridges. +May God speed your journey, and bring you safely +back with news that shall inspire our hearts! Go!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee glided away as silently as he had come, and +next morning his place was found empty. But would +their trust in this man reap its reward, or--awful +doubt--was Benee false?</p> +<p class="pnext">Next night but one something very strange happened.</p> +<p class="pnext">All was silent in and around Burnley Hall, and the +silvery tones of the great tower clock had chimed the +hour of three, when the window of Mr. Peter's room +was silently opened, and out into the moonlight glided +the man himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">He carried in his hand a heavy grip-sack, and +commenced at once taking the path that led downwards +to the river.</p> +<p class="pnext">Here lay the dinghy boat drawn up on the beach. +She was secured with padlock and chain, but all +Roland's officers carried keys.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was about a quarter of a mile to the river-side, +and Peter was proceeding at a fairly rapid rate, +considering the weight of his grip-sack.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had a habit of talking to himself. He was doing +so now.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I have only to drop well down the river and +intercept a steamer. It is this very day they pass, +and--"</p> +<p class="pnext">Two figures suddenly glided from the bush and +stood before him.</p> +<p class="pnext">One sprang up behind, whom he could not see.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Good-morning, Mr. Peter! Going for a walk early, +aren't you? It's going to turn out a delightful day, I +think."</p> +<p class="pnext">They were white men.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Here!" cried Peter, "advance but one step, or dare +to impede my progress, and you are both dead men! +I am a good shot, and happen, as you see, to have the +draw on you."</p> +<p class="pnext">Next moment his right arm was seized from behind, +the men in front ducked, and the first shot went off in +the air.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Here, none o' that, guv'nor!" said a set, determined +voice.</p> +<p class="pnext">The revolver was wrenched from his grasp, and he +found himself on his back in the pathway.</p> +<p class="pnext">"It is murder you'd be after! Eh?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Not so, my good fellow," said Peter. "I will explain."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Explain, then."</p> +<p class="pnext">"My duties are ended with Mr. Roland St. Clair. +He owes me one month's wages. I have forfeited that +and given warning, and am going. That is all."</p> +<p class="pnext">"You are going, are you? Well, we shall see about that."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, you may, and now let me pass on my peaceful way."</p> +<p class="pnext">"He! he! he! But tell us, Mr. Peter, why this +speedy departure? Hast aught upon thy conscience, +or hast got a conscience?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Peter had risen to his feet.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Merely this. I claim the privilege of every working +man, that of giving leave. I am not strong, and I dread +the long journey Mr. St. Clair and his little band are +to take."</p> +<p class="pnext">"But," said the other, "you came in such a questionable +shape, and we were here to watch for stragglers, +not of course thinking for a moment, Mr. Peter, that +your French window would be opened, and that you +yourself would attempt to take French leave.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Now you really must get back to your bedroom, +guv'nor, and see Mr. St. Clair in the morning. My +mates will do sentry-go at your window, and I shall +be by your door in case you need anything. It is a +mere matter of form, Mr. Peter, but of course we have +to obey orders. Got ere a drop of brandy in your +flask?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Peter quickly produced quite a large bottle. He +drank heavily himself first, and then passed it +round.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the men took but little, and Mr. Peter, +half-intoxicated, allowed himself to be conducted to bed.</p> +<p class="pnext">When these sentries gave in their report next +morning to Roland, Mr. Peter did not rise a deal in +the young fellow's estimation.</p> +<p class="pnext">"It only proves one thing," he said to Dick. "If +Peter is so anxious to give us the slip, we must watch +him well until we are far on the road towards the +cannibals' land."</p> +<p class="pnext">"That's so," returned Dick Temple.</p> +<p class="pnext">Not a word was said to Peter regarding his +attempted flight when he sat down to breakfast with +the boys, and naturally enough he believed it had not +been reported. Indeed he had some hazy remembrance +of having offered the sentries a bribe to keep dark.</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Peter ate very sparingly, and looked sadly fishy +about the eyes.</p> +<p class="pnext">But he made no more attempts to escape just then.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xi-all-alone-in-the-wilderness"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12">CHAPTER XI--ALL ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">That Benee was a good man and true we have +little reason to doubt, up to the present time at +all events.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet Dick Temple was, curiously enough, loth to +believe that Mr. Peter was other than a friend. And +nothing yet had been proved against him.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Is it not natural enough," said he to Roland, "that +he should funk--to put it in fine English--the terrible +expedition you and I are about to embark upon? And +knowing that you have commanded him to accompany +us would, in my opinion, be sufficient to account for +his attempt to escape and drop down the river to Pará, +and so home to his own country. Roland, I repeat, we +must give the man a show."</p> +<p class="pnext">"True," said Roland, "and poor Benee is having his +show. Time alone can prove who the traitor is. If it +be Benee he will not return. On the contrary, he will +join the savage captors of poor Peggy, and do all in +his power to frustrate our schemes."</p> +<p class="pnext">No more was said.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the preparations were soon almost completed, +and in a day or two after this, farewells being said, +the brave little army began by forced marches to find +its way across country and through dense forests +and damp marshes, and over rocks and plains, to the +Madeira river, high above its junction with the great +Amazon.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Meanwhile let us follow the lonely Indian in his +terrible journey to the distant and unexplored lands +of Bolivia.</p> +<p class="pnext">Like all true savages, he despised the ordinary +routes of traffic or trade; his track must be a +bee-line, guiding himself by the sun by day, but more +particularly by the stars by night.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee knew the difference betwixt stars and planets. +The latter were always shifting, but certain stars--most +to him were like lighthouses to mariners who +are approaching land--shone over the country of the +cannibals, and he could tell from their very altitude +how much progress he was making night after night.</p> +<p class="pnext">So lonesome, so long, was his thrice dreary journey, +that had it been undertaken by a white man, in all +probability he would soon have been a raving maniac.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Benee had all the cunning, all the daring, and +all the wisdom of a true savage, and for weeks he felt +a proud exhilaration, a glorious sense of freedom +and happiness, at being once more his own master, no +work to do, and hope ever pointing him onwards to +his goal.</p> +<p class="pnext">What was that goal? it may well be asked. Was +Benee disinterested? Did he really feel love for the +white man and the white man's children? Can aught +save selfishness dwell in the breast of a savage? In +brief, was it he who had been the spy, he who was +the guilty man; or was it Peter who was the villain? +Look at it in any light we please, one thing is +certain, this strange Indian was making his way back +to his own country and to his own friends, and Indians +are surely not less fond of each other than are the +wild beasts who herd together in the forest, on the +mountain-side, or on the ice in the far-off land of the +frozen north. And well we know that these creatures +will die for each other.</p> +<p class="pnext">If there was a mystery about Peter, there was +something approaching to one about Benee also.</p> +<p class="pnext">But then it must be remembered that since his +residence on the St. Clair plantation, Benee had been +taught the truths of that glorious religion of ours, the +religion of love that smoothes the rugged paths of life +for us, that gives a silver lining to every cloud of +grief and sorrow, and gilds even the dark portals of +death itself.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee believed even as little children do. And +little Peggy in her quiet moods used to tell him the +story of life by redemption in her almost infantile way.</p> +<p class="pnext">For all that, it is hard and difficult to vanquish +old superstitions, and this man was only a savage at +heart after all, though, nevertheless, there seemed to +be much good in his rough, rude nature, and you +may ofttimes see the sweetest and most lovely little +flowers growing on the blackest and ruggedest of rocks.</p> +<p class="pnext">Well, this journey of Benee's was certainly no +sinecure. Apart even from all the dangers attached +to it, from wild beasts and wilder men, it was one that +would have tried the hardest constitution, if only for +the simple reason that it was all a series of forced +marches.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was something in him that was hurrying him +on and encouraging him to greater and greater +exertions every hour. His daily record depended to a +great extent on the kind of country he had to +negotiate. He began with forty miles, but after a time, +when he grew harder, he increased this to fifty and +often to sixty. It was at times difficult for him to +force his way through deep, dark forest and jungle, +along the winding wild-beast tracks, past the beasts +themselves, who hid in trees ready to spring had he +paused but a second; through marshes and bogs, with +here and there a reedy lake, on which aquatic birds of +brightest colours slept as they floated in the sunshine, +but among the long reeds of which lay the +ever-watchful and awful cayman.</p> +<p class="pnext">In such places as these, I think Benee owed his +safety to his utter fearlessness and sang-froid, and to +the speed at which he travelled.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was not a walk by any means, but a strange kind +of swinging trot. Such a gait may still be seen in +far-off outlying districts of the Scottish Highlands, +where it is adopted by postal "runners", who consider +it not only faster but less tiresome than walking.</p> +<p class="pnext">For the first hundred miles, or more, the lonely +traveller found himself in a comparatively civilized +country. This was not very much to his liking, and +as a rule he endeavoured to give towns and villages, +and even rubber forests, where Indians worked under +white men overseers, a wide berth.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet sometimes, hidden in a tree, he would watch +the work going on; watch the men walking hither +and thither with their pannikins, or deftly whirling +the shovels they had dipped in the sap-tub and +holding them in the dark smoke of the palm-tree nuts, or +he would listen to their songs. But it was with no +feeling of envy; it was quite the reverse.</p> +<p class="pnext">For Benee was free! Oh what a halo of happiness +and glory surrounds that one little word "Free"!</p> +<p class="pnext">Then this lonely wanderer would hug himself, as it +were, and, dropping down from his perch, start off +once more at his swinging trot.</p> +<p class="pnext">Even as the crow flies, or the bee wings its flight, +the length of Benee's journey would be over six +hundred miles. But it was impossible for anyone to +keep a bee-line, owing to the roughness of the country +and the difficulties of every kind to be overcome, so +that it is indeed impossible to estimate the magnitude +of this lone Indian's exploit.</p> +<p class="pnext">His way, roughly speaking, lay between the Madeira +River and the Great Snake River called Puras (<em class="italics">vide</em> +map); latterly it would lead him to the lofty regions +and plateaux of the head-waters of Maya-tata, called +by the Peruvians the Madre de Dios, or Holy Virgin +River.</p> +<p class="pnext">But hardly a day now passed that he had not a +stream of some kind to cross, and wandering by its +banks seeking for a ford delayed him considerably.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was journeying thus one morning when the +sound of human voices not far off made him creep +quickly into the jungle.</p> +<p class="pnext">The men did not take long to put in an appearance.</p> +<p class="pnext">A portion of some wandering, hunting, or looting +tribe they were, and cut-throat looking scoundrels +everyone of them--five in all.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were armed with bows and arrows and with +spears. Their arrows, Benee could see, were tipped +with flint, and the flint was doubtless poisoned. They +carried also slings and broad knives in their belts of +skin. The slings are used in warfare, but they are also +used by shepherds--monsters who, like many in this +country, know not the meaning of the words "mercy +to dumb animals"--on their poor sheep.</p> +<p class="pnext">These fellows, who now lay down to rest and to eat, +much to Benee's disgust, not to say dismay, were +probably a party of llama (pronounced yahmah) +herds or shepherds who had, after cutting their +master's throat, banded together and taken to this +roving life.</p> +<p class="pnext">So thought Benee, at all events, for he could see +many articles of European dress, such as dainty +scarves of silk, lace handkerchiefs, &c., as well as +brooches, huddled over their own clothing, and one +fierce-looking fellow pulled out a gold watch and +pretended to look at the time.</p> +<p class="pnext">So angry was Benee that his savage nature got +uppermost, and he handled his huge revolvers in a +nervous way that showed his anxiety to open fire +and spoil the cut-throats' dinner. But he restrained +himself for the time being.</p> +<p class="pnext">In addition to the two revolvers, Benee carried the +repeating rifle. It was the fear of spoiling his +ammunition that led to his being in this dreadful fix. But +for his cartridges he could have swum the river with +the speed of a gar-fish.</p> +<p class="pnext">What a long, long time they stayed, and how very +leisurely they munched and fed!</p> +<p class="pnext">A slight sound on his left flank caused Benee to +gaze hastily round. To his horror, he found himself +face to face with a puma.</p> +<p class="pnext">Here was indeed a dilemma!</p> +<p class="pnext">If he fired he would make his presence known, and +small mercy could he expect from the cut-throats. +At all hazards he determined to keep still.</p> +<p class="pnext">The yellow eyes of this American lion flared and +glanced in a streak of sunshine shot downwards +through the bush, and it was this probably which +dimmed his vision, for he made no attempt to spring +forward.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee dared scarcely to breathe; he could hear +the beating of his own heart, and could not help +wondering if the puma heard it too.</p> +<p class="pnext">At last the brute backed slowly astern, with a +wriggling motion.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Benee gained courage now.</p> +<p class="pnext">During the long hours that followed, several great +snakes passed him so closely that he could have +touched their scaly backs. Some of these were lithe +and long, others very thick and slow in motion, but +nearly all were beautifully coloured in metallic tints +of crimson, orange, green, and bronze, and all were +poisonous.</p> +<p class="pnext">The true Bolivian, however, has but little fear of +snakes, knowing that unless trodden upon, or +otherwise actively interfered with, they care not to waste +their venom by striking.</p> +<p class="pnext">At long, long last the cut-throats got up to leave. +They would before midnight no doubt reach some +lonely outpost and demand entertainment at the +point of the knife, and if strange travellers were +there, sad indeed would be their fate.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee now crawled, stiff and cramped, out from his +damp and dangerous hiding-place. He found a ford +not far off, and after crossing, he set off once more at +his swinging trot, and was soon supple and happy enough.</p> +<p class="pnext">On and on he went all that day, to make up for lost +time, and far into the starry night.</p> +<p class="pnext">The hills were getting higher now, the valleys +deeper and damper between, and stream after stream +had to be forded.</p> +<p class="pnext">It must have been long past eight o'clock when, +just as Benee was beginning to long for food and rest, +his eyes fell on a glimmering light at the foot of a +high and dark precipice.</p> +<p class="pnext">He warily ventured forward and found it proceeded +from a shepherd's hut; inside sat the man himself, +quietly eating a kind of thick soup, the basin flanked +by a huge flagon of milk, with roasted yams. Great, +indeed, was the innocent fellow's surprise when Benee +presented himself in the doorway. A few words in +Bolivian, kindly uttered by our wayfarer, immediately +put the man at ease, however, and before long Benee +was enjoying a hearty supper, followed by a brew of +excellent maté.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was a very simple son of the desert, this +shepherd, but a desultory kind of conversation was +maintained, nevertheless, until far into the night.</p> +<p class="pnext">For months and months, he told Benee, he had +lived all alone with his sheep in these grassy uplands, +having only the companionship of his half-wild, but +faithful dog. But he was contented and happy, and +had plenty to eat and drink.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was just sunrise when Benee awoke from a long +refreshing sleep on his bed of skins. There was the +odour of smoke all about, and presently the shepherd +himself bustled in and bade him "Good-morning!", or +"Heaven's blessing!" which is much the same.</p> +<p class="pnext">A breakfast of rough, black cake, with butter, fried +fish, and maté, made Benee as happy as a king and as +fresh as a mountain trout, and soon after he said +farewell and started once more on his weary road. +The only regret he experienced rose from the fact that +he had nothing wherewith to reward this kindly +shepherd for his hospitality.</p> +<p class="pnext">Much against his will, our wanderer had now to +make a long detour, for not even a goat could have +scaled the ramparts of rock in front of him.</p> +<p class="pnext">In another week he found himself in one of the +bleakest and barrenest stretches of country that it +is possible to imagine. It was a high plateau, and +covered for the most part with stunted bushes and +with crimson heath and heather.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee climbed a high hill that rose near him, and +as he stood on the top thereof, just as the sun in a +glory of orange clouds and crimson rose slowly and +majestically over the far-off eastern forest, a scene +presented itself to him that, savage though he was, +caused him for a time to stand mute with admiration +and wonder.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then he remembered what little Peggy told him +once in her sweet and serious voice: "Always pray at +sunrise".</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"Always pray at sunrise,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">For 'tis God who makes the day;</div> +</div> +<div class="line">When shades of evening gather round</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Kneel down again and pray.</div> +</div> +<div class="line">And He, who loves His children dear,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Will send some angel bright</div> +</div> +<div class="line">To guard you while you're sleeping sound</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">And watch you all the night."</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">And on this lonely hill-top Benee did kneel down +to pray a simple prayer, while golden clouds were +changing to bronze and snowy white, and far off on +the forest lands hazy vapours were still stretched +across glens and valleys.</p> +<p class="pnext">As he rose from his knees he could hear, away down +beneath him, a wild shout, and gazing in the direction +from which it came, he saw seven semi-nude savages +hurrying towards the mountain with the evident +intention of making him prisoner.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was terrible odds; but as there was no escape, +Benee determined to fight.</p> +<p class="pnext">As usual, they were armed with bow and arrow and sling.</p> +<p class="pnext">Indeed, they commenced throwing stones with great +precision before they reached the hill-foot, and one of +these fell at Benee's feet.</p> +<p class="pnext">Glad, indeed, was he next minute to find himself in +a kind of natural trench which could have been held +by twenty men against a hundred.</p> +<p class="pnext">On and up, crawling on hands and knees, came the +savages.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Benee stood firm, rifle in hand, and waiting +his chance.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xii-benee-entrenched-savage-revels-in-the-forest"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13">CHAPTER XII--BENEE ENTRENCHED--SAVAGE REVELS IN THE FOREST</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">The trench in which he found himself was far +higher than was necessary, and fronted by huge +stones. It was evidently the work of human hands, +but by what class of people erected Benee could not +imagine.</p> +<p class="pnext">He could spare a few boulders anyhow, so, while +the enemy was still far below, he started first one, +then another, and still another, on a cruise down the +mountain-side and on a mission of death.</p> +<p class="pnext">These boulders broke into scores of large fragments +long before they reached the savages, two of whom +were struck, one being killed outright.</p> +<p class="pnext">And Benee knew his advantage right well, and, +taking careful aim now with his repeating-rifle--a +sixteen-shooter it was,--he fired.</p> +<p class="pnext">He saw the bullet raise the dust some yards ahead +of the foe, who paused to gaze upwards in great +amazement.</p> +<p class="pnext">But next shot went home, for Benee had got the +range, and one of the five threw up his hands with +a shriek, and fell on his face, to rise no more.</p> +<p class="pnext">Rendered wild by the loss of their companions, the +others drew their knives and made a brave start for +Benee's trench.</p> +<p class="pnext">But what could poor savages do against the deadly +fire of civilized warfare. When another of their +number paid the penalty of his rashness, the other +three took fright and went racing and tumbling down +the hill so quickly that no more of Benee's shots took +effect.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland had given Benee a field-glass before he +started, and through this he watched the flying figures +for many a mile, noting exactly the way they took, +and determining in his own mind to choose a somewhat +different route, even though he should have to +make a wide detour.</p> +<p class="pnext">He started downhill almost immediately, well-knowing +that these dark-skinned devils would return +reinforced to seek revenge.</p> +<p class="pnext">He knew, moreover, that they could follow up a +trail, so he did all in his power to pick out the hardest +parts of this great moorland on which to walk.</p> +<p class="pnext">He came at last to a stream. It was very shallow, +and he plunged in at once.</p> +<p class="pnext">This was indeed good luck, and Benee thought now +that Peggy's God, who paints the sky at sunrise, +was really looking after him. He could baulk his +pursuers now, or, at least, delay them. For they +would not be able to tell in which direction he had +gone.</p> +<p class="pnext">So Benee walked in the water for three miles. +This walk was really a leaping run. He would have +gone farther, but all at once the stream became very +rapid indeed, and on his ears fell the boom of a +waterfall.</p> +<p class="pnext">So he got on shore with all haste.</p> +<p class="pnext">But for five miles on from the foot of the leaping, +dashing, foaming linn, the stream was flanked by +acres of round, smooth boulders.</p> +<p class="pnext">These could tell no tale. On these Benee would +leave no trail. He leapt from one to the other, and +was rejoiced at last to find that they led him to a +forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">This was indeed a grateful surprise, so he entered +the shade at once.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee, after his exciting fight and his very long +run, greatly needed rest, so he gathered some splendid +fruit and nuts, despite the chattering and threatened +attacks of a whole band of hideous baboons, and then +threw himself down under the shade of a tree in +a small glade and made a hearty meal.</p> +<p class="pnext">He felt thirsty now. But as soon as there was +silence once more in the forest, and even the parrots +had gone to sleep in the drowsy noontide heat, he +could hear the rush of water some distance ahead.</p> +<p class="pnext">He got up immediately and marched in the direction +from which the sound came, and was soon on the +pebbled shore of another burn.</p> +<p class="pnext">He drank a long, sweet draught of the cool, +delicious water, and felt wondrously refreshed.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now a happy thought occurred to him.</p> +<p class="pnext">Sooner or later he felt certain the savages would +find his trail. They would track him to this stream +and believe he had once again tried to break the +pursuit by wading either up or down stream.</p> +<p class="pnext">His plan was, therefore, to go carefully back on his +tracks and rest hidden all day until, foiled in their +attempt to make him prisoner, they should return +homeward.</p> +<p class="pnext">This plan he carried into immediate execution, and +in a thicket, quite screened from all observation, he +laid him down.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was soon fast asleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">But in probably a couple of hours' time he sat +cautiously up, and, gently lifting a branch, looked +forth.</p> +<p class="pnext">For voices had fallen on his ear, and next minute +there went filing past on his trail no fewer than fifteen +well-armed warriors.</p> +<p class="pnext">They stopped dancing and shouting at the tree +where Benee had sat down to feed, then, brandishing +their broad knives, dashed forward to the stream.</p> +<p class="pnext">They had evidently gone up the river for miles, +but finding no trail on the other bank returned to +search the down-stream.</p> +<p class="pnext">In his hiding-place Benee could hear their wild +shouts of vengeance-deferred, and though he feared +not death, right well he knew that neither his rifle +nor revolvers could long protect him against such +desperate odds as this.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was now peace once more, and the shades of +evening--the short tropical gloaming--were falling +when he heard the savages returning.</p> +<p class="pnext">He knew their language well.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was soon evident that they did not mean to go +any farther that night, for they were quite tired out.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were not unprovided with food and drink +such as it was, and evidently meant to make +themselves happy.</p> +<p class="pnext">A fire was soon lit in the glade, and by its glare +poor Benee, lying low there and hardly daring to +move a limb, could see the sort of savages he would +have to deal with if they found him.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were fierce-looking beyond conception. Most +of them had long matted hair, and the ears of some +carried the hideous pelele. The lobe of each ear is +pierced when the individual is but a boy, and is +gradually stretched until it is a mere strip of skin +capable of supporting a bone or wooden, grooved little +wheel twice as large as a dollar. The stretched lobe +of the ear fits round this like the tyre round a bicycle +wheel.</p> +<p class="pnext">The faces of these men, although wild-looking, were +not positively ill-favoured, though the mouths were +large and sensual. But if ever devil lurked in human +eyes it lurked in theirs.</p> +<p class="pnext">They wore blankets, and some had huge chains of +gold and silver nuggets round their necks.</p> +<p class="pnext">Their arms were now piled, or, more correctly +speaking, they were trundled down in a heap by the +tree.</p> +<p class="pnext">While most of them lay with their feet to the now +roaring fire, a space was left for the cook, who +cleverly arranged a kind of gipsy double-trident over +the clear embers and commenced to get ready the meal.</p> +<p class="pnext">The uprights carried cross pieces of wood, and on +these both fish and flesh were laid to broil, while large +yams and sweet-potatoes were placed in the ashes to +roast.</p> +<p class="pnext">By the time dinner was cooked the night was dark +enough, but the glimmer of the firelight lit up the +savages' faces and cast Rembrandtesque shadows far +behind.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a weird and terrible scene, but it had little +effect on Benee, who had often witnessed tableaux far +more terrifying than this.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then the orgie commenced. They helped themselves +with their fingers and tore the fish and flesh off +with their splendid teeth.</p> +<p class="pnext">Huge chattees of chicaga, a most filthy but +intoxicating beer, now made their appearance. It was +evident enough that these men were used to being on +the war-path and hunting-field.</p> +<p class="pnext">The wine or beer is made in a very disgusting +manner, but its manufacture, strangely enough, is +not confined to Bolivia. I have seen much the same +liquor in tropical Africa, made by the Somali Indians, +and in precisely the same way.</p> +<p class="pnext">The old women or hags of the village are assembled +at, say, a chief's house, and large quantities of +cocoanuts and various other fruits are heaped together in +the centre of a hut, as well as large, tub-like vessels +and chattees of water.</p> +<p class="pnext">Down the old and almost toothless hags squat, +and, helping themselves to lumps of cocoa-nut, &c., +they commence to mumble and chew these, now and +then moistening their mouths with a little water, the +juice is spit out into calabashes, and when these are +full of the awful mess they are emptied into the big bin.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is a great gala-day with these hideous old hags, +a meeting that they take advantage of not only for +making wine but for abusing their neighbours.</p> +<p class="pnext">How they cackle and grin, to be sure, as their +mouths work to and fro! How they talk and chatter, +and how they chew! It is chatter and chew, chew +and chatter, all the time, and the din they make with +teeth and tongues would deafen a miller.</p> +<p class="pnext">When all is finished, the bins are left to settle +and ferment, and in three days' time, the +supernatant liquor is poured off and forms the wine +called chicaga.</p> +<p class="pnext">Had anyone doubted the intoxicating power of +this vilest of all vile drinks, a glance at the scene +which soon ensued around the fire would speedily +have convinced him.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee lay there watching these fiends as they +gradually merged from one phase of drunkenness to +another, and fain would he have sent half a dozen +revolver bullets into the centre of the group, but his +life depended on his keeping still.</p> +<p class="pnext">The savages first confined themselves to merry +talking, with coarse jokes and ribaldry, and frequent +outbursts of laughter. But when they had quaffed +still more, they must seize their knives and get up to +dance. Round and round the blazing fire they whirled +and staggered through the smoke and through it +again, with demoniacal shouts and awful yells, that +awakened echoes among the forest wild beasts far +and near.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then they pricked their bodies with their knives +till the blood ran, and with this they splashed each +other in hideous wantonness till faces and clothes were +smeared in gore.</p> +<p class="pnext">All this could but have one ending--a fight.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee saw one savage stabbed to the heart, and then +the orgie became a fierce battle.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now was Benee's time to escape.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet well he knew how acute the power of hearing +is among the Bolivian savages. One strange noise, +even the crackle of a bush, and the fighting would +end in a hunt, and he would undoubtedly lose his life.</p> +<p class="pnext">But he wriggled and crawled like a snake in the +grass until twenty yards away, and now he moved +cautiously, slowly off.</p> +<p class="pnext">Soon the glare of the fire among the high trees +was seen no more, and the yelling and cries were far +behind and getting more and more indistinct every +minute.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee refreshed himself at the stream, pulled some +food from his pocket, and ate it while he ran.</p> +<p class="pnext">He knew, however, that after fighting would come +drowsiness, and that his late entertainers would soon +be fast asleep, some of their heads pillowed, perhaps, +on the dead body of their murdered comrade.</p> +<p class="pnext">If there be in all this world a more demonish wretch +than man is in a state of nature, or when--even among +Christians--demoralized by drink, I wish to get hold +of a specimen for my private menagerie. But the +creature should be kept in a cage by itself. I would +not insult my monkeys with the companionship of +such a wretch, should it be man or beast.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xiii-the-march-to-the-loveless-land"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14">CHAPTER XIII--THE MARCH TO THE LOVELESS LAND</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">On and on hurried Benee now, at his old swinging trot.</p> +<p class="pnext">On and on beneath the splendid stars, his only +companions, that looked so calmly sweet and appeared so +near. God's angels surely they, speaking, as they +gazed down, words from their home on high, peace +and good-will to men, and happiness to all that lived +and breathed.</p> +<p class="pnext">On and on over plains, through moor and marsh, +by lake and stream, by forest dark and jungle wild. +It was evident that Benee meant to put leagues +between himself and the camp of his recent enemies +before each star grew beautiful and died; before the +fiery sun leapt red above the eastern hills, and turned +the darkness into day.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee had come onwards with such a rush that +even the slimy alligators, by pond or brown lake, left +their lairs among the tall nodding reeds and dashed in +terror into the water.</p> +<p class="pnext">Prowling wild beasts, the jaguar and puma, also +hurried off at his approach, and many a scared bird +flew screaming up into the darkling air.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Benee heeded nothing. His way lay yonder. +That bright particular star away down on the +southwestern horizon shone over the great unexplored +region of Bolivia.</p> +<p class="pnext">Morning after morning it would be higher and +higher above him, and when it shone at an angle of +forty-five degrees he would be approaching the land +of the cannibals.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yes, but it was still a far cry to that country. By +the time the sun did rise, and the mists gathered +themselves off the valleys and glens that lay low beneath +him, Benee felt sadly in want of rest.</p> +<p class="pnext">He found a tree that would make him a good sleeping +place, for the country he was now traversing abounded +in hideous snakes and gigantic lizards, and he courted +not the companionship of either.</p> +<p class="pnext">The tree was an Abies of some undefined species.</p> +<p class="pnext">Up and up crawled Benee, somewhat encumbered +by his arms.</p> +<p class="pnext">He got through a kind of "lubbers' hole" at last, +though with much difficulty, and, safe enough here, +he curled up with his face to the stem, and was soon +so fast asleep that cannons could not have awakened him.</p> +<p class="pnext">But satisfied Nature got uneasy at last, and far on +towards evening he opened his eyes and wondered +where he was.</p> +<p class="pnext">Still only half-awake, he staggered to his feet and +made a step forward. It was only to fall over the +end of a huge matted branch, but this branch lowered +him gently on to the one immediately beneath it, and +this down to the next, and so on. A strange mode of +progression certainly, but Benee found himself sitting +on the ground at last, as safe and sound as if he had +come down in a parachute.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then his recollection came back to him. He sought +out some fruit-trees now and made a hearty meal, +quenched his thirst at a spring, and once more +resumed his journey.</p> +<p class="pnext">For three days he marched onwards, but always by +night. The country was not safe by day, and he +preferred the companionship of wild beasts to that of +wilder men. In this Benee was wise.</p> +<p class="pnext">But awaking somewhat earlier one afternoon, he +saw far beneath him, a town, and in Benee's eyes it +was a very large one.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now a happy idea struck him. He had money, +and here was civilization. By and by he would be in +the wilds once more, and among savages who knew +nothing of cash. Why should he not descend, mix +with the giddy throng, and make purchases of red +cloth, of curios, and of beads. He determined to do so.</p> +<p class="pnext">But it would not do to go armed. So he hid his +rifle and pistols in the bush, covering them carefully +up with dried grass. Then he commenced the descent. +Yes, the little town, the greater part of which was +built of mud hovels, was full, and the streets crowded, +many in the throng being Spaniards, Peruvians, and +Portuguese.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee sauntered carelessly on and presently came to +the bazaar.</p> +<p class="pnext">Many of the police eyed him curiously, and one or +two followed him.</p> +<p class="pnext">But he had no intention of being baulked in his purpose.</p> +<p class="pnext">So he entered a likely shop, and quickly made his +purchases.</p> +<p class="pnext">Wrapping these carefully up, he slung the bundle +over his shoulder and left.</p> +<p class="pnext">He stumbled over a lanky Portuguese policeman a +few yards off.</p> +<p class="pnext">The man would have fallen had not Benee seized +him in his iron grasp and brought him again to his +equilibrium.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then he spoke a few words in Bolivian, and made +signs that he wished to eat and drink.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Aguardiente!" said the officer, his eyes sparkling +with joy.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had really harboured some intentions of throwing +Benee into the tumble-down old prison, but a +drink would be a far better solution of the difficulty, +and he cheerfully led the way to a sort of hotel.</p> +<p class="pnext">And in twenty minutes' time this truly intelligent +member of the force and Benee were lying on skin +mats with apparently all the good things in this life +spread out before them.</p> +<p class="pnext">The officer was curious, as all such men are, whether +heathens or not, to know all about Benee, and put to +him a score of questions at least, part of which Benee +replied to with a delicate and forgivable fib.</p> +<p class="pnext">So the policeman was but little wiser at the end of +the conversation than he was at the beginning.</p> +<p class="pnext">About half an hour before sunset, Benee was once +more far up on the moorlands, and making straight +for the place where he had hidden his guns and +ammunition.</p> +<p class="pnext">But he stopped short and stared with astonishment +when, before rounding the corner of the wood, a pistol +shot rang out in the quiet air, followed by the most +terrible shrieking and howling he had ever listened to.</p> +<p class="pnext">He hurried on quickly enough now, and as he did +so, a whole herd of huge monkeys, apparently scared +out of their senses, rushed madly past him.</p> +<p class="pnext">Close to the jungle he found one of his revolvers. +One chamber had been emptied, and not far off lay a +baboon in the agonies of death. Benee, who, savage +though he was, evidently felt for the creature, +mercifully expended another shot on it, and placed it +beyond the reach of woe.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was glad to find his rifle and other revolver +intact, but the cartridges from his belt were scattered +about in all directions, and strenuous efforts had +evidently been made to tear open his leathern +ammunition-box.</p> +<p class="pnext">It took some time to make everything straight again.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now down went the sun, and very soon, after a +short twilight, out came the stars once more.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee now resumed his journey as straight as he +could across the plateau.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had not travelled many hours, however, before +clouds began to bank up and obscure the sky, and it +became very dark.</p> +<p class="pnext">A storm was brewing, and, ushered in by low muttering +thunder in the far distance, it soon came on in earnest.</p> +<p class="pnext">As the big drops of rain began to fall, shining in the +flashes of the lightning like a shower of molten gold, +Benee sought the shelter of a rocky cave which was +near to him.</p> +<p class="pnext">He laid him down on the rough dry grass to wait +until the storm should clear away.</p> +<p class="pnext">He felt drowsy, however. Perhaps the unusually +good fare he had partaken of in the village had +something to do with this; but of late his hardships had +been very great indeed, so it is no wonder that now +exhausted Nature claimed repose.</p> +<p class="pnext">The last thing he was conscious of was a long, low, +mournful cry that seemed to come from the far interior +of the cave.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was broad daylight when he again awoke, and +such an awakening!</p> +<p class="pnext">Great snowy-breasted owls sat blinking at the +light, but all the rocks around, or the shelves thereof, +were alive with coiling, wriggling snakes of huge size.</p> +<p class="pnext">One had twined round his leg, and he knew that if +he but moved a muscle, it would send its terrible +fangs deep into his flesh, and his journey would be at +an end.</p> +<p class="pnext">Gradually, however, the awful creature unwound +itself and wriggled away.</p> +<p class="pnext">The sight of this snake-haunted cave was too much +for even Benee's nerves, and he sprang up and speedily +dashed, all intact, into the open air.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Notwithstanding his extraordinary adventure in +the cave of serpents, the wandering Indian felt in +fine form that day.</p> +<p class="pnext">The air was now much cooler after the storm, all +the more so, no doubt, that Benee was now travelling +on a high table-land which stretched southwards and +west in one long, dreary expanse till bounded on the +horizon by ridges of lofty serrated mountains, in the +hollow of which, high in air, patches of snow rested, +and probably had so rested for millions of years.</p> +<p class="pnext">The sky was very bright. The trees at this elevation, +as well as the fruit, the flowers, and stunted +shrubs, were just such as one finds at the Cape of Good +Hope and other semi-tropical regions. The ground +on which he walked or trotted along was a mass of +beauty and perfume, rich pink or crimson heaths, +heather and geraniums everywhere, with patches of +pine-wood having little or no undergrowth. Many +rare and beautiful birds lilted and sang their songs +of love on every side, strange larks were high in air, +some lighting every now and then on the ground, the +music of their voices drawn out as they glided +downwards into one long and beautiful cadence.</p> +<p class="pnext">There seemed to be a sadness in these last notes, as +if the birds would fain have warbled for ever and for +aye at heaven's high gate, though duty drew them +back to this dull earth of ours.</p> +<p class="pnext">But dangers to these feathered wildlings hovered +even in the sunlit sky, and sometimes turned the songs +of those speckled-breasted laverocks into wails of +despair.</p> +<p class="pnext">Behold yonder hawk silently darting from the +pine-wood! High, high he darts into the air; he has +positioned his quarry, and downwards now he swoops +like Indian arrow from a bow, and the lark's bright +and happy song is hushed for ever. His beautiful mate +sitting on her cosy nest with its five brown eggs looks +up astonished and frightened. Down fall a few drops +of red blood, as if the sky had wept them. Down +flutter a few feathers, and her dream of happiness is +a thing of the past.</p> +<p class="pnext">And that poor widowed lark will forsake her eggs +now, and wander through the heath and the scrub till +she dies.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Benee had no adventures to-day, but, seeing far off +a band of travellers, he hid himself in the afternoon. +For our Indian wanted no company.</p> +<p class="pnext">He watched them as they came rapidly on towards +his hiding-place, but they struck off to the east long +before reaching it, and made for the plains and +village far below.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then Benee had his dinner and slept soundly +enough till moonrise, for bracing and clear was +heaven's ozonic breath in these almost Alpine regions.</p> +<p class="pnext">Only a scimitar of a moon. Not more than three +days old was it, yet somehow it gave hope and heart +to the lonely traveller. He remembered when a boy +he had been taught to look upon the moon as a good +angel, but Christianity had banished superstition, and +he was indeed a new man.</p> +<p class="pnext">After once more refreshing himself, he started on +his night march, hoping to put forty miles behind +him ere the sun rose.</p> +<p class="pnext">Low lay the white haze over the woods a sheer +seven thousand feet beneath him.</p> +<p class="pnext">It looked like snow-drifts on the darkling green.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet here and there, near to places where the river +glistened in the young moon's rays were bunches of +lights, and Benee knew he was not far from towns +and civilization. Much too near to be agreeable.</p> +<p class="pnext">He knew, however, that a few days more of his +long weary march would bring him far away from +these to regions unknown to the pale-face, to a land +on which Christian feet had never trodden, a loveless +land, a country that reeked with murder, a country +that seemed unblessed by heaven, where all was moral +darkness, as if indeed it were ruled by demons and +fiends, who rejoiced only in the spilling of blood.</p> +<p class="pnext">But, nevertheless, it was Benee's own land, and he +could smile while he gazed upwards at the now +descending moon.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee never felt stronger or happier than he did +this evening, and he sang a strange wild song to +himself, as he journeyed onwards, a kind of chant to +which he kept step.</p> +<p class="pnext">A huge snake, black as a winter's night, uncoiled +itself, hissed, and darted into the heath to hide. Benee +heeded it not. A wild beast of some sort sprang past +him with furious growl. Benee never even raised +his rifle. And when he came to the banks of a +reed-girt lake, and saw his chance of shooting a huge +cayman, he cared not to draw a bead thereon. He +just went on with his chant and on with his walk. +Benee was truly happy and hopeful for once in his life.</p> +<p class="pnext">And amid such scenery, beneath such a galaxy of +resplendent stars, who could have been aught else?</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">"How beautiful is night!</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="line">A dewy freshness fills the silent air;</div> +<div class="line">No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain,</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Breaks the serene of heaven.</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="line">In glory yonder moon divine</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">Rolls through the dark-blue depths,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Beneath her steely ray</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">The desert circle spreads,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Like the round ocean girdled with the sky.</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">How beautiful the night!"</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">But almost before he could have believed it possible, +so quickly do health and happiness cause time to fly, a +long line of crimson cloud, high in the east, betokened +the return of another day.</p> +<p class="pnext">The night-owls and the great flitting vampire bats +saw it and retreated to darksome caves. There was +heard no longer far over the plain the melancholy +howl of the tiger-cat or snarl of puma or jaguar.</p> +<p class="pnext">Day was coming!</p> +<p class="pnext">Day was come!</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xiv-the-home-of-the-cannibal-benee-s-romance"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15">CHAPTER XIV--THE HOME OF THE CANNIBAL--BENEE'S ROMANCE</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Like the bats and the night-birds Benee now crept +into concealment.</p> +<p class="pnext">He sought once more the shelter of a tall pine-tree +of the spruce species. Here he could be safe and here +he could sleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">But after a hearty meal he took the precaution to +lash himself to the stem, high, high up.</p> +<p class="pnext">His descent from the last tree had been accomplished +with safety certainly, but it was of rather a +peculiar nature, and Benee had no desire to risk his +neck again.</p> +<p class="pnext">The wind softly sighed in the branches.</p> +<p class="pnext">A bird of the thrush species alighted about a yard +above him, and burst into shrill sweet melody to +welcome the rising sun.</p> +<p class="pnext">With half-closed eyes Benee could see from under +the branches a deep-orange horizon, fading into pure +sea-green zenithwards, then to deepest purple and +blue where rested the crimson clouds.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now there was a glare of brighter and more +silvery light, and the red streaks were turned into +wreaths of snow.</p> +<p class="pnext">The sun was up, and Benee slept. But he carried +that sweet bird's song into dreamland.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">About three days after this Benee was rejoiced to +find himself in a new land, but it was a land he knew +well--too well.</p> +<p class="pnext">Though very high above the sea-level it was in +reality a</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"Land of the mountain and the flood".</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Hills on hills rose on all sides of him. There were +straths or valleys of such exceeding beauty that they +gladdened the eye to behold. The grass grew green +here by the banks of many a brown roaring stream, +and here, too, cattle roamed wild and free, knee-deep +in flowery verdure, and many a beautiful guanaco +and herds of llamas everywhere. The streams that +meandered through these highland straths were +sometimes very tortuous, but perhaps a mile distant they +would seem to lose all control of themselves and go +madly rushing over their pebbly beds, till they dashed +over high cliffs at last, forming splendid cascades that +fell into deep, dark, agitated pools, the mist that rose +above forming rainbows which were never absent +when the sun shone.</p> +<p class="pnext">And the hillsides that bounded these valleys were +clad in Alpine verdure, with Alpine trees and flowers, +strangely intermingled with beautiful heaths, and in +the open glades with gorgeous geraniums, and many +a lovely flower never seen even in greenhouses in our +"tame domestic England".</p> +<p class="pnext">These were valleys, but there were glens and narrow +gorges also, where dark beetling rocks frowned over +the brown waters of streams that rushed fiercely +onwards round rocks and boulders, against which they +lashed themselves into foam.</p> +<p class="pnext">On these rocks strange fantastic trees clung, +sometimes attached but by the rootlets, sometimes with +their heads hanging almost sheer downwards; trees +that the next storm of wind would hurl, with crash +and roar, into the water far beneath.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet such rivers or big burns were the home <em class="italics">par +excellence</em> of fish of the salmon tribe, and gazing below +you might see here and there some huge otter, warily +watching to spring on his finny prey.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nor were the otters alone on the <em class="italics">qui vive</em>, for, +strange as it may seem, even pumas and tiger-cats +often made a sullen dive into dark-brown pools, and +emerged bearing on high some lordly red-bellied fish. +With this they would "speel" the flowery, ferny rocks, +and dart silently away into the depths of the forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">And this wild and beautiful country, at present +inhabited by as wild a race of Indians as ever twanged +the bow, but bound at no very distant date to come +under the influence of Christianity and civilization, +was Benee's real home. 'Twas here he roamed when +a boy, for he had been a wanderer all his life, a nomad, +and an inhabitant of the woods and wilds.</p> +<p class="pnext">Not a scene was unfamiliar to him. He could +name every mountain and hill he gazed upon in his +own strangely musical Indian tongue. Every bird, +every creature that crept, or glided, or walked, all +were his old friends; yes, and every tree and every +flower, from the splendid parasitic plants that wound +around the trees wherever the sun shone the brightest, +and draped them in such a wealth of beauty as would +have made all the richness and gaudiness of white +kings and queens seem but a caricature.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was something of romance even in Benee. +As he stood with folded arms on the brink of a +cliff, and gazed downward into a charming glen, +something very like tears stood in his eyes.</p> +<p class="pnext">He loved his country. It was his own, his native +land. But the savages therein he had ceased to love. +Because when but a boy--ah, how well he remembered +that day,--he was sent one day by his father +and mother to gather the berries of a deadly kind of +thorn-bush, with the juice of which the flints in the +points of the arrows were poisoned. Coming back +to his parents' hut in the evening, as happy as boys +only can be, he found the place in flames, and saw +his father, mother, and a sister whom he loved, being +hurried away by the savages, because the queen had +need of them. The lot of death had fallen on them. +Their flesh was wanted to make part of a great feast +her majesty was about to give to a neighbouring +potentate. Benee, who had ever been used to hunt +for his food as a boy, or fish in the lakes and the +brown roaring streams, that he and his parents might +live, had always abhorred human sacrifice and human +flesh. The latter he had seldom been prevailed upon +even to taste.</p> +<p class="pnext">So from that terrible day he resolved to be a +wanderer, and he registered a vow--if I may speak so +concerning the thoughts of a poor boy-Indian--to take +revenge when he became a man on this very tribe +that had brought such grief and woe on him and his.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee was still a young man, but little over +two-and-twenty, and as he stood there thoughts came into +his mind about a little sweetheart he had when a boy.</p> +<p class="pnext">Wee Weenah was she called; only a child of six when +he was good sixteen. But in all his adventures, in +forest or by the streams, Weenah used to accompany +him. They used to be away together all day long, +and lived on the nuts and the wild fruit that grew +everywhere so plentifully about them, on trees, on +bushes, or on the flowery banks.</p> +<p class="pnext">Where was Weenah now? Dead, perhaps, or taken +away to the queen's blood-stained court. As a child +Weenah was very beautiful, for many of these Indians +are very far indeed from being repulsive.</p> +<p class="pnext">And Benee used to delight to dress his tiny lady-love +in feathers of the wild birds, crimson and green +and blue, and weave her rude garlands of the gaudiest +flowers, to hang around her neck, or entwine in her +long dark hair.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had gone to see Weenah--though he was then +in grief and tears--after he had left his father's burnt +shealing. He had told her that he was going away +far to the north, that he was to become a hunter of +the wilds, that he might even visit the homes of the +white men, but that some day he would return and +Weenah should be his wife.</p> +<p class="pnext">So they had parted thus, in childish grief and tears, +and he had never seen her since.</p> +<p class="pnext">He might see her nevermore.</p> +<p class="pnext">While musing thus to himself, he stretched his weary +limbs and body on the sweet-scented mossy cliff-top.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was day certainly, but was he not now at home, +in his own, his native land?</p> +<p class="pnext">He seemed to be afraid of nothing, therefore, and +so--he fell asleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">The bank on which he slept adjoined a darkling forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">A forest of strange dark pines, with red-brown +stems, which, owing to the absence of all undergrowth +save heather and moss and fern, looked like the pillars +of some vast cavern.</p> +<p class="pnext">But there was bird music in this forest, and Benee +had gone to sleep with the flute-like and mellow notes +of the soo-soo falling on his ear.</p> +<p class="pnext">The soo-soo's song had accompanied him to the land +of forgetfulness, and was mingling even now with his +dreams--happy dreams of long ago.</p> +<p class="pnext">But list! Was that really the song of the bronze-necked +soo-soo?</p> +<p class="pnext">He was half-awake now, but apparently dreaming still.</p> +<p class="pnext">He thought he was dreaming at all events, and +would not have opened his eyes and so dispelled the +dream for all the world.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a sweet girlish voice that seemed to be +singing--singing about him, about Benee the +wanderer in sylvan wilds; the man who for long years +had been alone because he loved being alone, whose +hand--until he reached the white man's home--had +been against everyone, and against every beast as well.</p> +<p class="pnext">And the song was a kind of sweet little ballad, +which I should try in vain to translate.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Benee opened his eyes at last, and his astonishment +knew no bounds as he saw, kneeling by his +mossy couch, the self-same Weenah that he had been +thinking and dreaming about.</p> +<p class="pnext">Though still a girl in years, being but thirteen, she +seemed a woman in all her sympathies.</p> +<p class="pnext">Beautiful? Yes; scarcely changed as to face from +the child of six he used to roam in the woods with in +the long, long ago. Her dark hair hung to her waist +and farther in two broad plaits. Her black eyes +brimmed over with joy, and there was a flush of +excitement on her sun-kissed cheeks.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Weenah! Oh, Weenah! Can it be you?" he +exclaimed in the Indian tongue.</p> +<p class="pnext">"It is your own little child-love, your Weenah; and +ah! how I have longed for you, and searched for you +far and near. See, I am clad in the skins of the +puma and the otter; I have killed the jaguar, too, and +I have been far north and fought with terrible men. +They fell before the poison of my arrows. They +tried to catch me; but fleet of foot is Weenah, and +they never can see me when I fly. In trees I have +slept, on the open heather, in caves of rocks, and in +jungle. But never, never could I find my Benee. +Ah! life of mine, you will never go and leave us again.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes," she added, "Mother and Father live, and are +well. Our home have we enlarged. 'Tis big now, +and there is room in it for Benee.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Come; come--shall we go? But what strange, +strange war-weapons you carry. Ah! they are the +fire-spears of the white man."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, Weenah mine! and deadly are they as the +lightning's bolt that flashes downward from the +storm-sky and lays dead the llama and the ox.</p> +<p class="pnext">"See yonder eagle, Weenah? Benee's aim is unerring; +his hand is the hand of the rock, his eye the +eye of the kron-dah" (a kind of hawk), "yet his touch +on the trigger light as the moss-flax. Behold!"</p> +<p class="pnext">He raised the rifle as he spoke, and without even +appearing to take aim he fired.</p> +<p class="pnext">Next moment the bird of Jove turned a somersault. +It was a death-spasm. Down, down he fell earthwards, +his breast-feathers following more slowly, like +a shower of snow sparkling in the sunshine.</p> +<p class="pnext">Weenah was almost paralysed with terror, but +Benee took her gently in his arms, and, kissing her +brow and bonnie raven hair, soothed her and stilled +her alarms.</p> +<p class="pnext">Hand in hand now through the forest, as in the +days of yore! Both almost too happy to speak, Benee +and his little Indian maiden! Hand in hand over +the plain, through the crimson heath and the heather, +heeding nothing, seeing nothing, knowing nothing +save their own great happiness! Hand in hand until +they stood beside Weenah's mother's cottage; and +her parents soon ran out to welcome and to bless them!</p> +<p class="pnext">Theirs was no ordinary hut, for the father had been +far to the east and had dwelt among white men on +the banks of the rapid-rolling Madeira.</p> +<p class="pnext">When he had returned, slaves had come with him--young +men whom he had bought, for the aborigines +barter their children for cloth or schnapps. And +these slaves brought with them tools of the white +men--axes, saws, adzes, hammers, spades, and shovels.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then Shooks-gee (swift of foot) had cut himself +timber from the forest, and, aided by his slaves, had +set to work; and lo! in three moons this cottage by +the wood arose, and the queen of the cannibals +herself had none better.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Benee was welcomed and food set before him, +milk of the llama, corn-cakes, and eggs of the heron +and treel-ba (a kind of plover).</p> +<p class="pnext">Then warm drinks of coca (not cocoa) were given +him, and the child Weenah's eyes were never turned +away while he ate and drank.</p> +<p class="pnext">He smoked then, the girl sitting close by him on +the bench and watching the strange, curling rings of +reek rolling upwards towards the black and glittering +rafters.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But," said Weenah's mother, "poor Benee has +walked far and is much tired. Would not Benee like +to cover his feet?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, our mother, Benee would sleep."</p> +<p class="pnext">"And I will watch and sing," said Weenah.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Sing the song of the forest," murmured Benee.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then Weenah sang low beside him while Benee slept.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xv-shooks-gee-s-story-a-cannibal-queen"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id16">CHAPTER XV--SHOOKS-GEE'S STORY--A CANNIBAL QUEEN</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">What is called "natural curiosity" in our country, +where almost every man is a Paul Pry, is no +trait of the Indian's character. Or if he ever does feel +such an impulse, it is instantly checked. Curiosity is +but the attribute of a squaw, a savage would tell you, +but even squaws will try to prevent such a weed from +flourishing in their hearts.</p> +<p class="pnext">That was the reason why neither the father nor the +mother of Benee's little lady-love thought of asking +him a single question concerning his adventures until +he had eaten a hearty meal and had enjoyed a +refreshing sleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">But when Benee sat up at last and quaffed the maté +that Weenah had made haste to get him, and just as +the day was beginning to merge into the twilight of +summer, he began to tell his friends and his love some +portion of his wonderful adventures, even from the +day when he had bidden the child Weenah a tearful +farewell and betaken himself to a wandering life in +the woods.</p> +<p class="pnext">His young life's story was indeed a strange one,</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">"Wherein he spake of most disastrous chances,</div> +<div class="line">Of moving accidents by flood and field;</div> +<div class="line">... of antres vast and deserts idle,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven.</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">The while Weenah</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"... gave him for his pains a world of sighs.</div> +<div class="inner line-block"> +<div class="line">'T was strange, 't was passing strange,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">'T was pitiful, 't was wondrous pitiful:</div> +<div class="line">She wished she had not heard it; yet she wished</div> +<div class="line">That heaven had made her such a man."</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst">Then when Benee came down to that portion of his +long story when first he found the children and their +mighty wolf-hound lost in the forest, Weenah and her +parents listened with greater interest and intensity +than ever.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was a fire on the rude, low hearth--a fire of +wood, of peat, and of moss; for at the great elevation +at which this cannibal land is situated the nights are +chilly.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a fire that gave fitful light as well as +heat. It fell on the faces of Benee's listeners, and +cast shadows grotesque behind them. It beautified +Weenah's face till Benee thought she looked like one +of the angels that poor Peggy used to tell him about.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then he related to them all his suspicions of Peter, +but did not actually accuse him of bringing about the +abduction of Peggy, to serve some vile and unknown +purpose of his own. Next he spoke, yet spoke but +lightly, of his long, long march, and the incidents and +adventures therewith connected.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was much, therefore, that Benee had to tell, +but there was also much that he had to learn or to +be told; and now that he had finished, it was +Shooks-gee's turn to take up the story.</p> +<p class="pnext">I wish I could do justice to this man's language, +which was grandly figurative, or to his dramatic way +of talking, accompanied as it was with look and gesture +that would have elicited applause on any European +stage. I cannot do so, therefore shall not try; but +the following is the pith of his story.</p> +<p class="pnext">This Indian's house was on the very outside and +most northerly end of the great wild plateau which +was the home of these savages and cannibals.</p> +<p class="pnext">The queen, a terrible monarch, and bloodthirsty in +the extreme, used to hold her court and lived on a +strange mountain or hill, in the very centre of the +rough tree and bush clad plain.</p> +<p class="pnext">For many, many a long year she had lived here, and +to her court Indians came from afar to do her homage, +bringing with them cloth of crimson, wine and oil, +which they had stolen or captured in warfare from +the white men of Madeira valley.</p> +<p class="pnext">When these presents came, the coca which her +courtiers used to chew all day long, and the maté they +drank, were for a time--for weeks indeed--discarded +for the wine and fire-water of the pale-face.</p> +<p class="pnext">Fearful were the revels then held on that lone +mountain.</p> +<p class="pnext">The queen was dainty, so too were her fierce courtiers.</p> +<p class="pnext">When the revels first began she and they could eat +the raw or half-roasted flesh of calves and baby-llamas, +but when their potations waxed deeper, and appetite +began to fail, then the orgies commenced in earnest. +Nothing would her majesty eat now--horrible to say--but +children, and her courtiers, armed to the teeth, +would be sent to scour the plains, to visit the mud +huts of her people, and drag therefrom the most +beautiful and plump boys or girls procurable.</p> +<p class="pnext">I will not tell of the fearful and awfully unnatural +human sacrifice--the murder of the innocents--that +now took place.</p> +<p class="pnext">Demons could not have been more revolting in their +cruelties than were those savage courtiers as they +obeyed the queen's behests.</p> +<p class="pnext">Let me drop the curtain over this portion of the tale. +Well, this particular cottage or hut, being on the +confines of the country, had not been visited by the +queen's fearsome soldiers. But even had they come +they would have found that Weenah was far away in +the woods, for her father Shooks-gee loved her much. +But one evening there came up out of the dark +pinewood forest, that lay to the north, a great band of +wandering natives.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were all armed and under the command of one +of her majesty's most bloodthirsty and daring chiefs.</p> +<p class="pnext">Hand to claw this man had fought pumas and +jaguars, and slain them, armed only with his two-edged +knife.</p> +<p class="pnext">This savage Rob Roy M'Gregor despised both bow-and-arrow +and sling. Only at close quarters would he +fight with man or beast, and although he bore the +scars and slashes of many a fearful encounter, he had +always come off victorious.</p> +<p class="pnext">Six feet four inches in height was this war-Indian +if an inch, and his dress was a picturesque costume of +skins with the tails attached. A huge mat of hair, +his own, with emu's feathers drooping therefrom, was +his only head-gear, but round his neck he wore a chain +of polished pebbles, with heavy gold rings, in many of +which rubies and diamonds sparkled and shone.</p> +<p class="pnext">But, ghastly to relate, between each pebble and +between the rings of gold and precious stones, was +threaded a tanned human ear. More than twenty of +these were there.</p> +<p class="pnext">They had been cut from the heads of white men +whom this chief--Kaloomah was his name--had +slain, and the rings had been torn from their dead +fingers.</p> +<p class="pnext">This was the band then that had arrived as the sun +was going down at the hut of Shooks-gee, and this +was their chief.</p> +<p class="pnext">The latter demanded food for his men, and Shooks-gee, +with his trembling wife--Weenah was hidden--made +haste to obey, and a great fire was lit out of doors, +and flesh of the llama hung over it to roast.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the strangest thing was this. Seated on a +hardy little mule was a sad but beautiful girl--white +she was, and unmistakably English. Her eyes were +very large and wistful, and she looked at Kaloomah +and his band in evident fear and dread, starting and +shrinking from the chief whenever he came near her +or spoke.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the daintiest portion of the food was handed +to her, and she ate in silence, as one will who eats in +fear.</p> +<p class="pnext">The wild band slept in the bush, a special bed of +dry grass being made for the little white queen, as +Kaloomah called her, and a savage set to watch her +while she slept.</p> +<p class="pnext">Next morning, when the wild chief and his braves +started onwards, Shooks-gee was obliged to march +along with them.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kaloomah had need of him. That was all the +explanation vouchsafed.</p> +<p class="pnext">But this visit to the queen's home had given +Weenah's father an insight into court life and usages +that he could not otherwise have possessed.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kaloomah's band bore along with them huge bales +of cloth and large boxes of beads. How they had +become possessed of these Shooks-gee never knew, and +could not guess.</p> +<p class="pnext">The grim and haughty queen, surrounded by her +body-guard of grotesque and hideous warriors with +their slashed and fearful faces, and the peleles hanging +in the lobes of their ears, was seated at the farther +end of a great wall, and on a throne covered with the +skins of wild beasts.</p> +<p class="pnext">All in front the floor was carpeted with crimson, +and her majesty sparkled with gold ornaments. A +tiara of jewels encircled her brow, and a living snake +of immense size, with gray eyes that never closed, +formed a girdle round her waist.</p> +<p class="pnext">In her hand she held a poisoned spear, and at her +feet crouched a huge jaguar.</p> +<p class="pnext">She was a tyrant queen, reigning over a people +who, though savage, and cannibals to boot, had never +dared to gainsay a word or order she uttered.</p> +<p class="pnext">Passionate in the extreme, too, she was, and if a slave +or subject dared to disobey, a prick from the poisoned +spear was the reward, and he or she was dragged out +into the bush to writhe and die in terrible agony.</p> +<p class="pnext">Probably a more frightful woman never reigned +as queen, even in cannibal lands.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kaloomah, on his arrival, bent himself down--nay, +but threw himself on his knees and face abjectly +before her, as if he were scarcely worthy to be her +footstool.</p> +<p class="pnext">But she greeted his arrival with a smile, and bade +him arise.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Many presents have we brought," he said in the +figurative language of the Indian. "Many presents +to the beautiful mother of the sun. Cloth of scarlet, +of blue, and of green, cloth of rainbow colours, jewels +and beads, and the fire-water of the pale-faces."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Produce me the fire-water of the pale-faces," she +returned. "I would drink."</p> +<p class="pnext">Her voice was husky, hoarse, and horrible.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kaloomah beckoned to a slave, and in a few minutes +a cocoa-nut shell, filled with rum, was held to her +lips.</p> +<p class="pnext">The queen drank, and seemed happier after this. +Kaloomah thought he might now venture to broach +another subject.</p> +<p class="pnext">"We have brought your majesty also a little daughter +of the pale-faces!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Then Peggy--for the reader will have guessed it +was she--was led trembling in before her, and made +to kneel.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the queen's brows had lowered when she beheld +the child's great beauty. She made her advance, and +seizing her by the hand, held her at arm's-length.</p> +<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure" style="width: 75%" id="figure-29"> +<span id="she-held-her-at-arm-s-length"></span><img class="align-center" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt=" " src="images/img-158.jpg" /> +<div class="caption figure"> +"SHE ... HELD HER AT ARM'S LENGTH"</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">"Take her away!" she cried. "I can love her +not. Put her in prison below ground!"</p> +<p class="pnext">And the beautiful girl was hurried away.</p> +<p class="pnext">To be put in prison below the ground meant to be +buried alive. But Kaloomah had no intention of +obeying the queen on this occasion, and the girl +pale-face was conducted to a well-lighted bamboo hut and +placed in charge of a woman slave.</p> +<p class="pnext">This slave looked a heart-broken creature, but +seemed kind and good, and now made haste to spread +the girl's bed of leaves on a bamboo bench, and to +place before her milk of the llama, with much luscious +fruit and nuts. She needed little pressing to eat, or +drink, or sleep. The poor child had almost ceased to +wonder, or even to be afraid of anything.</p> +<p class="pnext">But now comes the last act in Shooks-gee's strange +story.</p> +<p class="pnext">Two days after the arrival of the warlike band +from the far north, Kaloomah had once more presented +himself before the queen. He came unannounced +this time, and with him were seven fierce-looking +soldiers, armed to the teeth with slings and stones, +with bows and arrows, and with spears.</p> +<p class="pnext">The conversation that had ensued was somewhat +as follows, being interpreted into our plain and +humdrum English:--</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">The Queen</em>. "Why advances my general and slave +except on his knees, even as come the frogs?"</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Kaloomah</em>. "My queen will pardon me. I will not +so offend again. Your majesty has reigned long and +happily."</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Q</em>. "True, slave."</p> +<p class="pnext">She seized the poisoned spear as she spoke, and +would have used it freely; but at a word from +Kaloomah it was wrenched from her grasp.</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">K</em>. "Your majesty's reign has ended! The old +queen must make room for the beautiful daughter +of the pale-faces. Yet will your beneficence live in +the person of the new queen, and in our hearts--the +hearts of those who have fought for you. For we +each and all shall taste of your roasted flesh!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Then, turning quickly to the soldiers, "Seize her +and drag her forth!" he cried, "and do your duty +speedily."</p> +<p class="pnext">I must not be too graphic in my description of the +scene that followed. But the ex-queen was led to +a darksome hut, and there she was speedily despatched.</p> +<p class="pnext">That night high revelry was held in the royal camp +of the cannibals. Many prisoners were killed and +roasted, and the feast was a fearful and awful one.</p> +<p class="pnext">But not a chief was there in all that crowd who did +not partake of the flesh of his late queen, while horn +trumpets blared and war tom-toms were wildly beaten.</p> +<p class="pnext">A piece of the fearful flesh was even given to the +pale-face girl's attendant, with orders that she must +make her charge partake thereof.</p> +<p class="pnext">The girl was spared this terrible ordeal, however.</p> +<p class="pnext">But long after midnight the revelry and the wild +music went on, then ceased, and all was still.</p> +<p class="pnext">The unhappy prisoner lay listening till sleep stole +down on a star-ray and wafted her off to the land +of sweet forgetfulness.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Next day, amidst wild unearthly clamour and music, +she was led from the tent and seated on the throne. +Garments of otter skins and crimson cloth were +cast on the throne and draped over the beautiful +child. She was encircled with flowers of rarest hue, +and emu's feathers were stuck, plume-like, in her +bonnie hair.</p> +<p class="pnext">Meanwhile the trumpets blared more loudly, and +the tom-toms were struck with treble force, then all +ceased at once, and there was a silence deep as death, +as everyone prostrated himself or herself before the +newly-made young queen.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kaloomah rose at last, and advanced with bended +back and head towards her, and with an intuitive +sense of her new-born dignity she touched him gently +on the shoulder and bade him stand erect.</p> +<p class="pnext">He did so, and then placed in her hand the sceptre +of the dead queen--the poison-tipped spear.</p> +<p class="pnext">Whatever might happen now, the girl knew that +she was safe for a time, and her spirits rose in +consequence.</p> +<p class="pnext">This, then, was the story told by Shooks-gee, the +father of Benee's child-love.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Had Dick Temple himself been there he could no +longer have doubted the fidelity of poor Benee.</p> +<p class="pnext">But there was much to be done, and it would need +all the tact and skill of this wily Indian to carry +out his plans.</p> +<p class="pnext">He could trust his father and mother, as he called +Weenah's parents, and he now told them that he had +come, if possible, to deliver Peggy, or if that were +impossible, to hand her a letter that should give her +both comfort and hope.</p> +<p class="pnext">Queen Peggy's apartments on the mountain were +cannibalistically regal in their splendour. The principal +entrance to her private room was approached by a +long avenue of bamboo rails, completely lined with +skulls and bones, and the door thereof was also +surrounded by the same kind of horrors.</p> +<p class="pnext">But every one of her subjects was deferential to +her, and appeared awe-struck with her beauty.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now Benee consulted with his parents as to +what had best be done.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xvi-on-the-banks-of-a-beautiful-river"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id17">CHAPTER XVI--ON THE BANKS OF A BEAUTIFUL RIVER</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">They would not allow Benee to harbour for a +single moment the idea of stealing the queen +and escaping with her into the forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">Two thousand armed men were stationed within a +mile of the camp, so Benee would speedily be killed, +and in all likelihood Queen Peggy also.</p> +<p class="pnext">No; and he must go no farther into the land of the +cannibals.</p> +<p class="pnext">But he, Shooks-gee, undertook to give the queen +a little note-book, in which a letter was written from +her "brother", stating that all haste was being made +to come to her deliverance. He would receive back +the note-book, and therein would doubtless be written +poor Peggy's letter. Meanwhile Benee must wait.</p> +<p class="pnext">Shooks-gee started on his mission next day.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was away for a whole week, but it seemed but +a few hours to Benee. He had divested himself of +his arms, and given the cloth and beads to Weenah's +mother. Then all the dear old life of his boyhood +seemed to be renewed. Weenah and he wandered +wild and free once more in the forest and over the +heath-clad plains; they fished in lake and stream; +they ate and drank together under the shade of the +pine-tree, and listened to the love-song of the sweet +soo-soo.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was all like a happy, happy dream. And is not +the love-life of the young always a dream of bliss? +Ah! but it is one from which there is ever an +awakening.</p> +<p class="pnext">And with the return of Shooks-gee, Benee's dream +came to an end.</p> +<p class="pnext">Peggy had written her long, sad story in the notebook.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee knew it was long, but he could not read it.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then farewells were said.</p> +<p class="pnext">The child Weenah clung to Benee's neck and wept. +She thought she could not let him go, and at last he +had to gently tear himself away and disappear speedily +in the forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">Just one glance back at Weenah's sad and wistful +face, then the jungle swallowed him up, and he would +be seen by Weenah, mayhap, never again.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">It was not without considerable misgivings that +Roland and Dick Temple made a start for the +country of the cannibals.</p> +<p class="pnext">The relief party consisted but of one hundred +white men all told, with about double that number +of carriers. It was, of course, the first real experience +of these boys on the war-path, and difficulty after +difficulty presented itself, but was bravely met and +overcome.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."</p> +<p class="pnext">Probably the general of an army, be it of what +size it may, is more to be pitied than even a king. +The latter has his courtiers and his parliament to +advise him; the general is <em class="italics">princeps</em>, he is chief, and +has only his own skill and judgment to fall back upon.</p> +<p class="pnext">It had been suggested by Burly Bill that instead +of journeying overland as a first start, and having +to cross the whirling river Purus and many lesser +streams before striking the Madeira some distance +above the Amazon, they should drop down-stream in +steamer-loads, and assemble at the junction of the +former with the latter.</p> +<p class="pnext">Neither Roland nor Dick thought well of the plan, +and herein lay their first mistake. Not only was it +weeks before they were able to reach the Madeira, +but they had the grief of losing one white man and +one Indian with baggage in the crossing of the Purus.</p> +<p class="pnext">We cannot put old heads on young shoulders; +nevertheless the wise youth never fails to profit by +the experience of his elders.</p> +<p class="pnext">Even when they reached the forest lands on the +west side of the Madeira, another long delay ensued. +For here they had to encamp on somewhat damp and +unwholesome ground until Burly Bill should descend +the stream to hire canoes or boats suitable for passing +the rapids.</p> +<p class="pnext">Don Pedro or Peter was now doing his best to make +himself agreeable. He was laughing and singing all +day long, but this fact in no way deceived Roland, +and as a special precaution he told off several white +men to act as detectives and to be near him by day +and by night.</p> +<p class="pnext">If Peter were really the blood-guilty wretch that +Roland, if not Dick, believed him to be, he made one +mistake now. He tried his very utmost to make +friends with Brawn, the great Irish wolf-hound, but +was, of course, unsuccessful.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I sha'n't take bite nor sup from that evil man's +hand," Brawn seemed to say to himself. "He looks +as if he would poison me. But," he added, "he shall +have my undivided attention at night."</p> +<p class="pnext">And so this huge hound guarded Peter, never being +ten yards away from the man's sleeping-skin till up +leapt the sun in the gold and crimson east and shone +on the waters of the beautiful river.</p> +<p class="pnext">"That dog is getting very fond of you, I think," +said Roland one day to Peter, while Brawn was +snuffing his hand. "You see how well he protects you by +night. He will never lie near to either Dick or me."</p> +<p class="pnext">Peter replied in words that were hardly audible, +but were understood to mean that he was obliged to +Brawn for his condescension. But he somewhat marred +the beauty of his reply by adding a swear-word or +two at the end.</p> +<p class="pnext">While they waited in camp here for the return of +Bill and his crews, they went in for sport of several +sorts.</p> +<p class="pnext">The fish in this river are somewhat +remarkable--remarkable alike for their numbers and for their +appearance--but all are not edible.</p> +<p class="pnext">"How are we to know, I wonder, which we should +cook and which we shouldn't?" said Roland to his +friend, Dick Temple.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I think," replied Dick, "that we may safely cook +any of them, but, as to eating, why, I should only eat +those that are nice in flavour."</p> +<p class="pnext">"That's right. We'll be guided by that rule."</p> +<p class="pnext">The boys fished from canoes which they hired or +requisitioned from the Indian natives of the place. +Clever these fellows are, and the manner in which +they watch for and harpoon or even spear a huge +"boto"--which looks like a long-snouted porpoise or +"sea-pig"--astonished our heroes.</p> +<p class="pnext">This fish is killed by whites only for its oil, but +the Indians did not hesitate to cut huge fourteen-pound +pieces from the back to take home for culinary purposes.</p> +<p class="pnext">The "piraroocoo" is an immense fellow, and calculated +to give good sport for a long summer day if you +do not know how to handle him.</p> +<p class="pnext">This "'roocoo", as some of the natives call him, +likes to hang around in the back reaches of the river, +and is often found ten feet in length.</p> +<p class="pnext">He has the greatest objection in the world to being +caught, and to being killed after being dragged on +shore. Moreover, he has a neat and very expert way +of lifting a canoe on his back for a few seconds, and +letting it down bottom-upwards.</p> +<p class="pnext">When he does so, you, the sportsman or piscador, +find yourself floundering in the water. You probably +gulp down about half a gallon of river water, but +you thank your stars you learned to swim when a +boy, and strike out for the bank. But five to one +you have a race to run with an intelligent 'gator. If +he is hungry, you may as well think about some short +prayer to say; if he is not very ravenous, you may +win just by a neck.</p> +<p class="pnext">This last was an experience of Dick's one day; +when a 'roocoo capsized his frail canoe and his Indian +and he got spilt.</p> +<p class="pnext">Luckily Roland was on the beach, and just as a +huge 'gator came ploughing up behind poor Dick, +with head and awful jaws above water, Roland took +steady aim and fired. Then the creature turned on +his back, and the river was dyed with blood.</p> +<p class="pnext">The natives salt the 'roocoo and eat it. But +Roland's Indian carriers managed to get through as +many as could be caught, without any salt worth +speaking about.</p> +<p class="pnext">Surely the fish in this beautiful river must have +thought it strange, that so many of their number +were constantly disappearing heavenwards at the end +of a line. But it did not trouble them very much after +all, and they learnt no lesson from what they saw, but +took the bait as readily as ever.</p> +<p class="pnext">There were very many other species of fish, which +not only gave good sport but made a most delicious +<em class="italics">addendum</em> to the larder.</p> +<p class="pnext">Boats and canoes were now in the river all day +long, and with the fish caught, and the turtle which +were found in great abundance, not to mention the +wild animals killed in the woods, Roland managed to +feed his little army well.</p> +<p class="pnext">There is one fish in this river which is sometimes +called "diabolo". He is no relation at all, however, +to the real octopus or devil-fish, for this creature is +flat. It seems a species of ray, and has an immense +mouthful of the very sharpest of teeth. He is not +at all dainty as to what he eats. He can make a +meal off fresh-water shell-fish; he can swallow his +smaller brothers of the deep; take a snack from a +dead 'gator, and is quite at home while discussing +a nice tender one-pound steak from a native's leg.</p> +<p class="pnext">The young 'gator is neither fish, flesh, nor good +red-herring. Yet if you catch one not over a yard long, +and he doesn't catch you--for he has a wicked way of +seizing a man by the hand and holding on till his +mother comes,--his tail, stewed or fried with a morsel +of pork, will tide you over a "hungry hillock" very +pleasantly indeed.</p> +<p class="pnext">If we turn to the pleasant reaches of the River +Madeira, or the quiet back-waters, and, gun on +shoulder, creep warily through the bush and scrub, +we shall be rewarded with a sight that will well +repay our caution.</p> +<p class="pnext">Here of an early morning we shall see water-fowl +innumerable, and of the greatest beauty imaginable.</p> +<p class="pnext">Hidden from view, one is loth indeed to fire a shot +and so disturb Nature's harmony, but prefers, for a time +at all events, to crouch there quietly and watch the +strange antics of the male birds and the meek docility +of the female.</p> +<p class="pnext">Here are teal, black ducks, strange wild geese, +brown ducks, sheldrakes, widgeons, and whatnot.</p> +<p class="pnext">And yonder on the shore, in all sorts of droll +attitudes with their ridiculously long necks and legs, are +storks and herons. I think they like to perform +their toilet close to the calm pellucid water, because it +serves the same purpose to them as a bedroom mirror +does to us.</p> +<p class="pnext">Young tapirs form a welcome addition to the larder, +and the woods all round abound in game.</p> +<p class="pnext">What a paradise! and yet this country is hardly +yet known to us young Britons. We hear of ague. +Bah! Regularity of living, and a dust of quinine, +and camping in the open, can keep fever of all sorts +at bay.</p> +<p class="pnext">Some may be surprised that our heroes should have +settled down, as it were, so enthusiastically to fishing +and sporting, although uncertain all the while as to +the fate of poor kidnapped Peggy.</p> +<p class="pnext">True, but we must remember that activity and +constant employment are the only cure for grief. +So long, then, as Roland and Dick were busy with +gun or fishing-rod, they were free from thought +and care.</p> +<p class="pnext">But after sunset, when the long dark night closed +over the camp; when the fire-flies danced from bush +to bush, and all was still save the wind that sighed +among the trees, or the voices of night-birds and +prowling beasts, and the rush of the river fell on the +ear in drowsy, dreamy monotone, then the boys felt +their anxiety acutely enough, but bravely tried to +give each other courage, and their conversation, +oft-repeated, was somewhat as follows:--</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Roland</em>. "You're a bit gloomy to-night, Dick, I think?"</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Dick</em>. "Well, Roll, the night is so pitchy dark, never +a moon, and only a star peeping out now and then. +Besides I am thinking of--"</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Roland</em>. "Hush! hush! aren't we both always +thinking about her? Though I won't hesitate to say +it is wrong not to be hopeful and cheerful."</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Dick</em>. "But do you believe--"</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Roland</em>. "I believe this, Dick, that if those +kidnapping revengeful Indians had meant murder they +would have slain the dear child in bed and not have +resorted to all that horrible trickery--instigated +without doubt by somebody. She has been taken to +the country of the cannibals, but not to be tortured. +She is a slave, let us hope, to some Indian princess, +and well-guarded too. What we have got to do is +to trust in God. I'm no preacher, but that is so. +And we've got to do our duty and rescue Peggy."</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Dick</em>. "Dead or alive, Roland."</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Roland</em>. "Dead or alive, Dick. But Heaven have +mercy on the souls of those who harm a hair of her +head!"</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Dick did his best to trust in Providence, but often +in the middle watches of the night he would lie in his +tent thinking, thinking, and unable to sleep; then, +after perhaps an uneasy slumber towards morning, +awake somewhat wearily to resume the duties of +the day.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xvii-bill-and-his-boats"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id18">CHAPTER XVII--BILL AND HIS BOATS</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Roland, young and inexperienced as he was, +proved himself a fairly good general.</p> +<p class="pnext">He certainly had not forgotten the salt, nor +anything else that was likely to add to the comfort of +his people in this very long cruise by river and by land.</p> +<p class="pnext">They knew not what was before them, nor what +trouble or dangers they might have to encounter, so +our young heroes were pretty well prepared to fight +or to rough it in every way.</p> +<p class="pnext">Independent of very large quantities of ammunition +for rifles and revolvers, Roland had prepared a +quantity of war-rockets, for nothing strikes greater terror +into the breasts of the ordinary savage than these +fire-devils, as they term them.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland, Dick, and Bill each had shot-guns, with +sheath-knives, and a sort of a portable bill-hook, +which many of the men carried also, and found +extremely handy for making a clearance among reeds, +rushes, or lighter bush.</p> +<p class="pnext">We have already seen that they had plenty of +fishing-tackle.</p> +<p class="pnext">Oil and pumice-stone were not forgotten, and +Roland had a regular inspection of his men every day, +to make certain that their rifles and revolvers were +clean.</p> +<p class="pnext">But this was not all, for, to the best of their ability, +both Roland and Dick drilled their men to the use +of their arms at short and long distances, and taught +them to advance and retire in skirmishing order, +taking advantage of every morsel of cover which the +ground might afford.</p> +<p class="pnext">Plenty of maize and corn-flour were carried, and +quite a large supply of tinned provisions, from the +plantation and from Burnley Hall. These included +canned meat, sardines, and salmon.</p> +<p class="pnext">Extra clothing was duly arranged for, because from +the plains they would have to ascend quite into the +regions of cloud and storm, if not snow.</p> +<p class="pnext">Medicine, too, but only a very little of this, Roland +thought, would be needed, although, on the other hand, +he stowed away lint and bandages in abundance, with +a few surgical instruments.</p> +<p class="pnext">Medical comforts? Yes, and these were not to be +considered as luxuries, though they took the form of +brandy and good wine.</p> +<p class="pnext">Good tea, coffee, cocoa, and coca were, of course, +carried, with sugar to sweeten these luxuries.</p> +<p class="pnext">But a small cask of fire-water--arrack--was +included among the stores, and this was meant as a +treat for native Indians, if they should happen to +meet any civil and obliging enough to hobnob.</p> +<p class="pnext">Money would be of no use in the extreme wilds. +Salt, and cloth of gaudy colours, to say nothing of +beads, would be bartered for articles of necessity.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Everything was ready for the start, but still there +were no signs of Bill and the boats.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was the first question Roland asked Dick of a +morning, or Dick asked Roland, according to who +happened to be first up:</p> +<p class="pnext">"Any signs of Bill and the boats?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"None!"</p> +<p class="pnext">On the top of a cliff at the bend of the beautiful +river stood a very tall tree, and right on top of this +was an outlook--an Indian boy, who stayed two hours +on watch, and was then relieved.</p> +<p class="pnext">He could command quite an extensive view downstream, +and was frequently hailed during the day and +asked about Bill and his boats, but the answer would +come somewhat dolefully:</p> +<p class="pnext">"Plenty boat, sah, but no Beel."</p> +<p class="pnext">Yes, there were boats of many kinds, and a few +steamers now and then also, but Roland held no +intercourse with any of these. His little army was +encamped on an open clearing well back in the forest. +He did not wish to know anyone's business, and he +determined that his own should not leak out.</p> +<p class="pnext">But although Roland and Dick had plenty to do, +and there was sport enough to be had, still the time +began to drag wearily on day by day, and both young +fellows were burning for action and movement and "go".</p> +<p class="pnext">Peter, <em class="italics">alias</em> Don Pedro, seemed as anxious as +anyone else to get forward.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was most quiet and affable to everyone, although +apt to drop into dejected moods at times.</p> +<p class="pnext">He saw that he was not wholly in bad favour with +Dick Temple.</p> +<p class="pnext">One day, when Roland was at the other side of the +river, after smoking in silence for some time by the +banks of the stream, where, in company with Dick +and Brawn, he was sitting, a down-steamer hove in +sight at the bend of the river, and both waved their +caps to those on board, a salute which was cheerfully +returned.</p> +<p class="pnext">The vessel was some distance out in the broad river, +but presently Dick could see a huge black-board held +over the port-quarter. There was writing in chalk on +it, and Dick speedily put his lorgnettes up, and read +as follows:--</p> +<p class="center medium pnext">IF GOING UP RIVER--BEWARE!</p> +<p class="center medium pnext">KARAPOONA SAVAGES ON WAR-PATH--TREACHERY!</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">"Forewarned is forearmed!" said Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What was the legend exposed to view on the +telegraph board?" asked Peter languidly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"The Karapoona savages on the war-path," replied Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What! The Karapoonas! A fearful race, and +cannibals to boot--"</p> +<p class="pnext">"You know them then?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"What, I? I--I--no--no, only what I have heard."</p> +<p class="pnext">He took three or four whiffs of his cigarette in quick +succession, as if afraid of its going dead.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Dick's eye was on him all the time.</p> +<p class="pnext">He seemed not to care to meet it.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bound for Pará, no doubt," he said at last. "I do +wish I were on board."</p> +<p class="pnext">"No doubt, Mr. Peter, and really we seem to be +taking you on this expedition somewhat against your +will?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"True; and I am a man of the world, and have not +failed to notice that I am in some measure under the +ban of suspicion.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yet, I think you are not unfriendly to me," he added.</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, Mr. Peter, I am unfriendly to no one."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Then, might you not use your influence with your +friend, Mr. St. Clair, to let me catch the first boat back +to Pará?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I cannot interfere with Mr. Roland St. Clair's +private concerns. If he suspects you of anything in the +shape of duplicity or treachery and you are innocent, +you have really nothing to fear. As to letting you off +your engagement, that is his business. I can only say +that the tenure of your office is not yet complete, and +that you are his head-clerk for still another year."</p> +<p class="pnext">"True, true, but I came as governor of the estate, +and not to accompany a mad-cap expedition like this. +Besides, Mr. Temple, I am far from strong. I am a +man of peace, too, and have hardly ever fired a revolver +in my life.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But I have another very urgent reason for getting +back to England--"</p> +<p class="pnext">"No doubt, Mr. Peter!"</p> +<p class="pnext">This was almost a sneer.</p> +<p class="pnext">"No doubt--but I interrupt you."</p> +<p class="pnext">"My other reason may appeal to you in more ways +than one. I am in love, Mr. Temple--"</p> +<p class="pnext">"You!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I am in love, and engaged to be married to one of +the sweetest girls in Cornwall. If I am detained here, +and unable to write, she may think me dead--and--and--well, +anything might happen."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Pah, Mr. Peter! I won't say I don't believe you, +but instead of your little romance appealing to me, it +simply disgusts me. I tell you straight, sir, you don't +look like a man to fall in love with anything except +gold; but if the young lady is really fond of you, she +will lose neither hope nor heart, even if she does not +hear of you or from you for a year or more."</p> +<p class="pnext">Then, seeing that he seemed to wound this strange +man's feelings:</p> +<p class="pnext">"Pardon my brusqueness, Mr. Peter," he added more +kindly. "I really do not mean to hurt you. Come, +cheer up, and if I can help you--I will."</p> +<p class="pnext">Peter held out his hand.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick simply touched it.</p> +<p class="pnext">He could not get himself even to like the man.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">The signal-tree was but a few yards distant from +the spot where they sat.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now there came a wild, excited hail therefrom.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Golly foh true, Massa Dick!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Brawn jumped up, and barked wildly.</p> +<p class="pnext">His echo came from beyond the stream, and he +barked still more wildly at that.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, boy," shouted Dick, "do you see anything?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Plenty moochee see. Beel come. Not very far +off. Beel and de boats!"</p> +<p class="pnext">This was indeed joyful news for Dick. He happened +to glance at Peter for a moment, however, and +could not help being struck with the change that +seemed to have come over him. He appeared to have +aged suddenly. His face was gray, his lips compressed, +his brows lowered and stern.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick never forgot that look.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick Temple was really good-hearted, and he felt +for this man, and something kept telling him he was +innocent and wronged.</p> +<p class="pnext">But he had nothing to fear if innocent. He would +certainly be put to inconvenience, but for that, if all +went well, Roland would not fail to recompense him +handsomely, and he--Dick--had a duty to perform to +his friend. So now in the bustle that followed--if +Peter wanted to make a rush for the woods--he might try.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland had heard the hail, and his canoe was now +coming swiftly on towards the bank. Dick ran to +meet him.</p> +<p class="pnext">When he half-pulled his friend on shore and turned +back with him, behold! Peter was gone.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xviii-as-if-struck-by-a-dum-dum-bullet"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id19">CHAPTER XVIII--AS IF STRUCK BY A DUM-DUM BULLET</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Roland and Dick walked quickly towards the camp.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was all a scene of bustle and stir indescribable, +for good news as well as bad travels apace.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bill and the boats are coming!" Englishmen were +shouting.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Beel and de boats!" chorused the Indians.</p> +<p class="pnext">But on the approach of "the young captains", as the +boys were called, comparative peace was restored.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Had anyone seen Mr. Peter?" was the first question +put by our heroes to their white officers. "No," from all.</p> +<p class="pnext">"He had disappeared for a few moments in his +tent," said an Indian, "then der was no more Massa +Peter."</p> +<p class="pnext">Scouts and armed runners were now speedily got +together, and Roland gave them orders. They were +to search the bush and forest, making a long detour +or outflanking movement, then closing round a +centre, as if in battue, to allow not a tree to go +unexamined.</p> +<p class="pnext">This was all that could be done.</p> +<p class="pnext">So our heroes retraced their steps towards the river +bank, where, lo! they beheld a whole fleet of strange +canoes, big and small, being rowed swiftly towards them.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the bows of the biggest--a twelve-tonner--stood +Burly Bill himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was blacker with the sun than ever, and wildly +waving the broadest kind of Panama hat ever seen on +the Madeira. But in his left hand he clutched his +meerschaum, and such clouds was he blowing that one +might have mistaken the great canoe for a steam-launch.</p> +<p class="pnext">He jumped on shore as soon as the prow touched +the bank--the water here being deep.</p> +<p class="pnext">Black though Burly Bill was, his smile was so +pleasant, and his face so good-natured, that everybody +who looked at him felt at once on excellent terms with +himself and with all created things.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I suppose I ought to apologize, Mr. Roland, for the +delay--I--"</p> +<p class="pnext">"And I suppose," interrupted Roland, "you ought +to do nothing of the kind. Dinner is all ready, Bill; +come and eat first. Put guards in your boats, and +march along. Your boys will be fed immediately."</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a splendid dinner.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill, who was more emphatic than choice in +English, called it a tiptopper, and all hands in Roland's +spacious tent did ample justice to it.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland even spliced the main-brace, as far as Bill +was concerned, by opening a bottle of choice port.</p> +<p class="pnext">The boys themselves merely sipped a little. What +need have lads under twenty for vinous stimulants?</p> +<p class="pnext">Bill's story was a long one, but I shall not repeat it. +He had encountered the greatest difficulty imaginable +in procuring the sort of boats he needed.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But," he added, "all's well that end's well, I guess, +and we'll start soon now, I suppose, for the rapids of +Antonio."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes," said Roland, "we'll strike camp possibly +to-morrow; but we must do as much loading up as +possible to-night."</p> +<p class="pnext">"That's the style," said Bill. "We've got to make +haste. Only we've got to think! 'Haste but not +hurry', that's my motto.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But I say," he continued, "I miss two friends--where +is Mr. Peter and where is Brawn?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Peter has taken French leave, I fear, and Brawn, +where is Brawn, Dick?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I really did not miss either till now," answered +Dick, "but let us continue to be fair to Mr. Peter-- Listen!"</p> +<p class="pnext">At that moment shouting was heard far down the forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">The noise came nearer and nearer, and our heroes +waited patiently.</p> +<p class="pnext">In five minutes' time into the tent bounded the great +wolf-hound, gasping but laughing all down both sides, +and with about a foot of pink tongue--more or +less--hanging out at one side, over his alabaster teeth.</p> +<p class="pnext">He quickly licked Roland's ears and Dick's, then +uttered one joyous bark and made straight for Burly Bill.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yes, Bill was burly, but Brawn fairly rolled him +over and nearly smothered him with canine caresses. +Then he took a leap back to the boys as much as to say:</p> +<p class="pnext">"Why don't you rejoice too? Wouff--wouff! Aren't +you glad that Bill has returned? Wouff! What +would life be worth anyhow without Bill? +Wouff--wouff--wow!"</p> +<p class="pnext">But the last wow ended in a low growl, as Peter +himself stood smiling at the opening.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Why, Mr. Peter, we thought you were lost!" cried Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Peter walked up to Bill and shook hands.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Glad indeed to see you back," he said nonchalantly, +"and you're not looking a bit paler. Any chance of a +morsel to eat?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Sit down," cried Dick. "Steward!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, sah; to be surely, sah. Dinner foh Massa +Peter? One moment, sah."</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Peter was laughing now, but he had seated +himself on the withered grass as far as possible from +Brawn.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I must say that three hours in a tree-top gives one +the devil's own appetite," he began. "I had gone to +take a stroll in the forest, you know--"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes," said Roland, "we do know."</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Peter looked a little crestfallen, but said +pointedly enough: "If you do know, there is no need +for me to tell you."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, yes, go on!" cried Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well then, I had not gone half a mile, and was just +lighting up a cigarette, when Brawn came down on +me, and I had barely time to spring into the tree +before he reached the foot of it. There I waited as +patiently as Job would have done--thank you, steward, +what a splendid Irish stew!--till by and by--a +precious long by and by--your boys came to look for +Brawn, and in finding Brawn they found poor famishing +me. Thank you, Bill, I'll be glad of a little wine."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Looking for Brawn, they found you, eh!" said +Roland. "I should have put it differ--"</p> +<p class="pnext">But Dick punched Roland's leg, and Roland laughed +and said no more.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Two days after the arrival of Burly Bill an order +was given for general embarkation. All under their +several officers were inspected on the river bank, and +to each group was allotted a station in boat or canoe.</p> +<p class="pnext">The head men or captains from whom Bill had hired +the transport were in every instance retained, but a +large number of Roland's own Indians were most +expert rowers, and therefore to take others would only +serve to load the vessels uncomfortably, not to say +dangerously.</p> +<p class="pnext">But peons or paddlers to the number of two or four +to each large canoe their several captains insisted on +having.</p> +<p class="pnext">The inspection on the bank was a kind of "muster +by open list", and Roland was exceedingly pleased +with the result, for not a man or boy was missing.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a delightful day when the expedition was at +last got under way.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland and Dick, with Peter, to say nothing of +Brawn, occupied the after-cabin in a canoe of very +light draught, but really a twelve-tonner. The cabin +was, of course, both dining-room and sleeping berth--the +lounges being skins of buffaloes and of wild beasts, +but all clean and sweet.</p> +<p class="pnext">The cabin itself was built of bamboo and bamboo +leaves lined with very light skins, so overlapping as +to make the cabin perfectly dry.</p> +<p class="pnext">Our heroes had arranged about light, and candles +were brought out as soon as daylight began to fade.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then the canoes were paddled towards the bank or +into some beautiful reach or back-water, and there +made fast for the night with padlock and chain.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland and Dick had their own reasons for taking +such strict precautions.</p> +<p class="pnext">The first day passed without a single adventure +worth relating.</p> +<p class="pnext">The paddlers or peons, of whom there were seven +on each side of our hero's huge canoe, worked +together well. They oftentimes sang or chanted a wild +indescribable kind of boat-lilt, to which the sound of +the paddles was an excellent accompaniment, but +now and then the captain would shout: "Choorka--choorka!" +which, from the excitement the words caused, +evidently meant "Sweep her up!" and then the vessel +seemed to fly over the water and dance in the air.</p> +<p class="pnext">Other canoe captains would take up the cry, and +"Choorka--Choorka!" would resound from every side.</p> +<p class="pnext">A sort of race was on at such times, but the <em class="italics">Burnley +Hall</em>, as Roland's boat was called, nearly always left +the others astern.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dinner was cooked on shore, and nearly everyone +landed at night. Only our heroes stuck to their boat.</p> +<p class="pnext">There were moon and stars at present, and very +pleasant it was to sit, or rather lie, at their open-sided +cabin, and to watch these mirrored in the calm water, +while fire-flies danced and flitted from bush to bush.</p> +<p class="pnext">But there was always the sorrow and the weight of +grief lying deep down in the hearts of both Roland +and Dick; the ever-abiding anxiety, the one question +they kept asking themselves constantly, and which +could not be answered, "Shall we be in time to save +poor Peggy?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Mr. Peter slept on shore.</p> +<p class="pnext">Brawn kept him company. Kept untiring watch +over him. And two faithful and well-armed Indians +lay in the bush at a convenient distance.</p> +<p class="pnext">In a previous chapter I have mentioned an +ex-cannibal Bolivian, whom Roland had made up his +mind to take with him as a guide in the absence of, +or in addition to, faithful Benee.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was called Charlie by the whites.</p> +<p class="pnext">Charlie was as true to his master as the needle to +the pole.</p> +<p class="pnext">On the third evening of the voyage, just as Roland +and Dick, with Bill, were enjoying an after-dinner +lounge in an open glade not far from the river brink, +the moon shining so brightly that the smallest of type +could easily have been read by young eyes, he +suddenly appeared in their midst.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What cheer, Charlie?" said Roland kindly. "Come, +squat thee down, and we will give you a tiny toothful +of aguardiente."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Touchee me he, no, no!" was the reply. "He +catchee de bref too muchee. Smokee me, +notwidstanding," he added.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was one of Charlie's peculiarities that if he could +once get hold of a big word or two, he planted them in +his conversation whenever he thought he had a +favourable opening.</p> +<p class="pnext">An ex-cannibal Charlie was, and he came from the +great western unexplored district of Bolivia.</p> +<p class="pnext">He confessed that although fond of "de pig ob de +forest (tapir), de tail ob de 'gator, and de big +haboo-snake when roast," there was nothing in all the world +so satisfactory as "de fles' ob a small boy. Yum, +yum! it was goodee, goodee notwidstanding, and make +bof him ear crack and him 'tumack feel wa'm."</p> +<p class="pnext">Charlie lit up his cigarette, and then commenced to +explain the reason of his visit.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What you callee dat?" he said, handing Burly Bill +a few large purple berries of a species of thorny +laurel.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Why," said Bill, "these are the fruit of the +lanton-tree, used for poisoning arrow-tips."</p> +<p class="pnext">"And dis, sah. What you callee he? Mind, mind, +no touchee de point! He poison, notwidstanding."</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a thin bamboo cane tipped with a fine-pointed +nail.</p> +<p class="pnext">Bill waited for him to explain.</p> +<p class="pnext">He condescended to do so at last.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Long time ago I runee away from de cannibal +Indians notwidstanding. I young den, I fat, I sweet +in flesh. Sometime my leg look so nice, I like to eat +one little piecee ob myse'f. But no. Charlie not one +big fool. But de chief tink he like me. He take +me to him tent one day, den all muchee quickee he +slaves run in and take up knife. Ha, ha! I catchee +knife too, notwidstanding. Charlie young and goodee +and plenty mooch blood fly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I killee dat chief, and killee bof slaves. Den I +runned away.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Long time I wander in de bush, but one day I +come to de tents ob de white men. Dey kind to poh +Charlie, and gib me work. I lub de white man; all +same, I no lub Massa Peter."</p> +<p class="pnext">He paused to puff at a fresh cigarette.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And," he added, "I fine dat poison berry and dat +leetle poison spear in place where Massa Peter sleep."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ho, ho!" said Bill.</p> +<p class="pnext">Charlie grew a little more excited as he continued: +"As shuah as God madee me, de debbil hisself makee +dat bad man Peter. He wantee killee poh Brawn. +Dat what for, notwidstanding."</p> +<p class="pnext">Now although there be some human beings--they +are really not worth the name--who hate dogs, every +good-hearted man or woman in the world loves those +noble animals who are, next to man, the best and +bravest that God has created.</p> +<p class="pnext">But there are degrees in the love people bear for +their pets. If a faithful dog like Brawn is constantly +with one, he so wins one's affection that death alone +can sever the tie.</p> +<p class="pnext">Not only Roland, but Dick also, dearly loved Brawn, +and the bare idea that he was in danger of his life so +angered both that, had Mr. Peter been present when +honest Charlie the Indian made his communication, +one of them would most certainly have gone for him +in true Etonian style, and the man would have been +hardly presentable at court for a fortnight after at +the least.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Dick," said Roland, the red blood mounting to his +brow, the fire seeming to scintillate from his eyes. +"Dick, old man, what do you advise?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I know what I should like to do," answered Dick, +with clenched fist and lowered brows.</p> +<p class="pnext">"So do I, Dick; but that might only make matters worse.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But Heaven keep me calm, old man," he continued, +"for now I shall send for Peter and have it out with +him. Not at present, you say? But, Dick, I am all +on fire. I must, I shall speak to him. Charlie, retire; +I would not have Mr. Peter taking revenge on so +good a fellow as you."</p> +<p class="pnext">At Dick's earnest request Roland waited for half an +hour before he sent for Peter.</p> +<p class="pnext">This gentleman advanced from the camp fire +humming an operatic air, and with a cigar in hand.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, Mr. Peter," said Roland, "I was walking near +your sleeping place of last night and picked this up."</p> +<p class="pnext">He held up the little bamboo spear.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What is it?" said Peter. "An arrow? I suppose +some of the Indians dropped it. I never saw it before. +It seems of little consequence," he continued, "though +I dare say it would suffice to pink a rat with."</p> +<p class="pnext">He laughed lightly as he spoke. "Was this all you +wanted me for, Mr. St. Clair?"</p> +<p class="pnext">He was handling the little spear as he spoke. Next moment:</p> +<p class="pnext">"Merciful Father!" he suddenly screamed, "I have +pricked myself! I am poisoned! I am a dead man! +Brandy-- Oh, quick-- Oh--!"</p> +<p class="pnext">He said never a word more, but dropped on the +moss as if struck by a dum-dum bullet.</p> +<p class="pnext">And there he lay, writhing in torture, foaming at +the mouth, from which blood issued from a bitten +tongue.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a ghastly and horrible sight. Roland looked +at Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Dick," he said, "the man knew it was poisoned."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Better he should die than Brawn."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Infinitely," said Roland.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xix-struggling-onwards-up-stream"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id20">CHAPTER XIX--STRUGGLING ONWARDS UP-STREAM</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">"But," said Roland, "it would be a pity to let even +Peter die, as we may have need of him. Let us +send for Charlie at once. Perhaps he can tell us of an +antidote."</p> +<p class="pnext">The Indian was not far off.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Fire-water", was his reply to Dick's question, "and dis."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Dis" was the contents of a tiny bottle, which he +speedily rubbed into the wound in Peter's hand.</p> +<p class="pnext">The steward, as one of the men was called, quickly +brought a whole bottle of rum, the poisoned man's jaws +were forced open, and he was literally drenched with +the hot and fiery spirit.</p> +<p class="pnext">But spasm after spasm took place after this, and +while the body was drawn up with cramp, and the +muscles knotted and hard, the features were fearfully +contorted.</p> +<p class="pnext">By Roland's directions chloroform was now poured +on a handkerchief, and after this was breathed by the +sufferer for a few minutes the muscles became relaxed, +and the face, though still pale as death, became more +sightly.</p> +<p class="pnext">More rum and more rubbing with the antidote, and +Mr. Peter slept in peace.</p> +<p class="pnext">About sunrise he awoke, cold and shivering, but +sensible.</p> +<p class="pnext">After a little more stimulant he began to talk.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bitten by a snake, have I not been?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Mr. Peter," said Roland sternly, "you have +narrowly escaped the death you would have meted +out to poor Brawn with your cruel and accursed arrow.</p> +<p class="pnext">"You may not love the dog. He certainly does not +love you, and dogs are good judges of character. He +tree'd you, and you sought revenge. You doubtless +have other reasons to hate Brawn, but his life is far +more to us than yours. Now confess you meant to do +for him, and then to make your way down-stream by +stealing a canoe."</p> +<p class="pnext">"I do not, will not confess," cried Peter. "It is a +lie. I am here against my will. I am kidnapped. I +am a prisoner. The laws of even this country--and +sorry I am ever I saw it--will and shall protect me."</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland was very calm, even to seeming carelessness.</p> +<p class="pnext">"We are on the war-path at present, my friend," he +said very quietly. "You are suspected of one of the +most horrible crimes that felon ever perpetrated, that +of procuring the abduction of Miss St. Clair and +handing her over to savages."</p> +<p class="pnext">"As Heaven is above us," cried Peter, "I am guiltless +of that!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Hush!" roared Roland, "why take the sacred name +of Heaven within your vile lips. Were you not about +to die, I would strike you where you stand."</p> +<p class="pnext">"To die, Mr. Roland? You--you--you surely don't mean--"</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland placed a whistle to his lips, and its sound +brought six stern men to his side.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bind that man's hands behind his back and hang +him to yonder tree," was the order.</p> +<p class="pnext">In two minutes' time the man was pinioned and the +noose dangling over his head.</p> +<p class="pnext">As he stood there, arrayed but in shirt and trousers, +pale and trembling, with the cold sweat on his brow, +it would have been difficult even to imagine a more +distressing and pitiable sight.</p> +<p class="pnext">His teeth chattered in his head, and he swayed +about as if every moment about to fall.</p> +<p class="pnext">A man advanced, and was about to place the noose +around his neck when:</p> +<p class="pnext">"A moment, one little moment!" cried Peter. "Sir--Mr. St. Clair--I +did mean to take your favourite dog's life."</p> +<p class="pnext">"And Miss St. Clair?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I am innocent. If--I am to be lynched--for--that--you +have the blood of a guiltless man on your head."</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick Temple had seen enough. He advanced now +to Peter's side.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Your crime deserves lynching," he said, "but I will +intercede for you if you promise me sacredly you will +never attempt revenge again. If you do, as sure as +fate you shall swing."</p> +<p class="pnext">"I promise--Oh--I promise!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick retired, and after a few minutes' conversation +with Roland, the wretched man was set free.</p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Entre nous</em>, reader, Roland had never really meant +to lynch the man. But so utterly nerveless and +broken-down was Mr. Peter now, that as soon as he +was released he threw himself on the ground, crying +like a child.</p> +<p class="pnext">Even Brawn pitied him, and ran forward and +actually licked the hands of the man who would have +cruelly done him to death.</p> +<p class="pnext">So noble is the nature of our friend the dog.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">The voyage up-stream was now continued. But +the progress of so many boats and men was necessarily +slow, for all had to be provided for, and this meant +spending about every alternate day in shooting, +fishing, and collecting fruit and nuts.</p> +<p class="pnext">The farther up-stream they got, however, the more +lightsome and cheerful became the hearts of our heroes.</p> +<p class="pnext">They began to look upon Peggy as already safe in +their camp.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I say, you know," said Dick one day, "our passage +up is all toil and trouble, but won't it be delightful +coming back."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, indeed," said Roland, smiling.</p> +<p class="pnext">"We sha'n't hurry, shall we?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, no! poor Peggy's health must need renovating, +and we must let her see all that is to be seen."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ye--es, of course! Certainly, Roll, and it will be +all just too lovely for anything, all one deliciously +delicious picnic."</p> +<p class="pnext">"I hope so."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Don't look quite so gloomy, Roland, old man. I +tell you it is all plain sailing now. We have only to +meet Benee when we get as far as the rendezvous, +then strike across country, and off and away to the +land of the cannibals and give them fits."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, I'm not gloomy, you know, Dick, though not +quite so hopeful as you! We have many difficulties +to encounter, and there may be a lot of fighting after +we get there; and, mind you, that game of giving fits +is one that two can play at."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Choorka! Choorka!" shouted the captain of the +leading boat, a swarthy son of the river.</p> +<p class="pnext">As he spoke, he pointed towards the western bank, +and thither as quickly as paddles could send him his +boat was hurried. For they had been well out in the +centre of the river, and had reached a place where the +current was strong and swift.</p> +<p class="pnext">But closer to the bank it was more easy to row.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nevertheless, two of the canoes ran foul of a snag. +One was capsized at once, and the other stuck on top.</p> +<p class="pnext">The 'gators here were in dozens apparently, and +before the canoe could be righted two men had been +dragged below, the brown stream being tinged with +their gushing blood.</p> +<p class="pnext">Both were Indians, but nevertheless their sad death +cast a gloom over the hearts of everyone, which was +not easily dispelled.</p> +<p class="pnext">On again once more, still hugging the shore; but +after dinner it was determined to stay where they +were for the night.</p> +<p class="pnext">They luckily found a fine open back-water, and this +they entered and were soon snug enough.</p> +<p class="pnext">They could not be idle, however. Food must be +collected, and everything--Roland determined--must +go on like clock-work, without hurry or bustle.</p> +<p class="pnext">Soon, therefore, after the canoes were made fast, +both Indians and whites were scattered far and near +in the forest, on the rocks and hills, and on the rivers.</p> +<p class="pnext">I believe that all loved the "boys", as Roland and +Dick were called by the white men, and so all worked +right cheerfully, laughing and singing as they did so.</p> +<p class="pnext">Ten men besides our heroes and Burly Bill had +remained behind to get the tents up and to prepare +the evening meal, for everybody would return as +hungry as alligators, and these gentry seem to have +a most insatiable appetite.</p> +<p class="pnext">Just before sunset on this particular evening Roland +and Dick had another interview with Mr. Peter.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I should be a fool and a fraud, Mr. Peter," said the +former, "were I to mince matters. Besides, it is not +my way. I tell you, then, that during our journey +you will have yonder little tent to yourself to eat and +to sleep in. I tell you, too, that despite your declarations +of innocence I still suspect you, that nevertheless +no one will be more happy than Mr. Temple here and +myself if you are found not guilty. But you must +face the music now. You must be guarded, strictly +guarded, and I wish you to know that you are. I +wish to impress upon you also that your sentries have +strict orders to shoot you if you are found making +any insane attempt to escape. In all other respects +you are a free man, and I should be very sorry indeed +to rope or tie you. Now you may go."</p> +<p class="pnext">"My time will come," said Mr. Peter meaningly.</p> +<p class="pnext">His face was set and determined.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Is this a threat?" cried Roland, fingering his +revolver.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Peter's dark countenance relaxed at once.</p> +<p class="pnext">"A threat!" he said. "No, no, Mr. Roland. I am +an unarmed man, you are armed, and everyone is on +your side. But I repeat, my time will come to clear +my character; that is all.</p> +<p class="pnext">"So be it, Mr. Peter."</p> +<p class="pnext">And the man retired to his tent breathing black +curses deep though not aloud.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I've had enough of this," he told himself. "And +escape that young cub's tyranny I must and shall, +even should I die in my tracks. Curse them all!"</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Next day a deal of towing was required, for the +river was running fierce and strong, and swirling in +angry eddies and dangerous maelstroms even close to +the bank.</p> +<p class="pnext">This towing was tiresome work, and although all +hands bent to it, half a mile an hour was their highest +record.</p> +<p class="pnext">But now they neared the terrible rapids of Antonio, +and once more a halt was called for the night, in +order that all might be fresh and strong to negotiate +these torrents.</p> +<p class="pnext">Next day they set to work.</p> +<p class="pnext">All the cargo had to be got on shore, and a few +armed men were left to guard it. Then the empty +boats were towed up.</p> +<p class="pnext">For three or four miles the river dashed onward +here over its rocky bed, with a noise like distant +thunder, a chafing, boiling, angry stream, which but +to look at caused the eyes to swim and the senses to +reel.</p> +<p class="pnext">There are stretches of comparatively calm water +between the rapids, and glad indeed were Roland's +brave fellows to reach these for a breathing-spell.</p> +<p class="pnext">In the afternoon, before they were half-way through +these torrents, a halt was called for the night in a little +bay, and the baggage was brought up.</p> +<p class="pnext">They fell asleep that night with the roar of the +rapids in their ears, and the dreams of many of them +were far indeed from pleasant.</p> +<p class="pnext">Morning brought renewal of toil and struggle. But +"stout hearts to stey braes" is an excellent old +Scottish motto. It was acted on by this gallant expedition, +and so in a day or two they found themselves in a +fresh turmoil of water beneath the splendid waterfalls +of Theotonia.</p> +<p class="pnext">The river was low, and in consequence the cataract +was seen at its best, though not its maddest. Fancy, +if you can, paddling to keep your way--not to +advance--face to face with a waterfall a mile at least in +breadth, and probably forty feet in height, divided +into three by rocky little islands, pouring in +white-brown sheets sheer down over the rock, and falling +with a steady roar into the awful cauldrons beneath. +It is like a small Niagara, but, with the hills and rocks +and stately woods, and the knowledge that one is in +an uncivilized land, among wild beasts and wilder men, +far more impressive.</p> +<p class="pnext">Our young heroes were astonished to note the +multitudes of fish of various kinds on all sides of +them. The pools were full.</p> +<p class="pnext">The larger could be easily speared, but bait of any +kind they did not seem to fancy. They were troubled +and excited, for up the great stream and through the +wild rapids they had made their way in order to +spawn in the head-waters of the Madeira and its +tributaries. But Nature here had erected a barrier.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet wild were their attempts to fling themselves +over. Many succeeded. The fittest would survive. +Others missed, or, gaining but the rim of the cataract, +were hurled back, many being killed.</p> +<p class="pnext">Another halt, another night of dreaming of all +kinds of wild adventures. The Indians had told the +whites, the evening before, strange legends about the +deep, almost bottomless, pools beneath the falls.</p> +<p class="pnext">Down there, according to them, devils dwell, and +hold high revelry every time the moon is full. Dark? +No it is not dark at the bottom, for Indians who have +been dragged down there and afterwards escaped, +have related their adventures, and spoken of the +splendid caverns lit up by crimson fire, whose mouths +open into the water. Caverns more gorgeous and +beautiful than eyes of men ever alight upon above-ground. +Caverns of crystal, of jasper, onyx, and ruby; +caverns around whose stalactites demons, in the form +of six-legged snakes, writhe and crawl, but are +nevertheless possessed of the power to change their shapes +in the twinkling of an eye from the horrible and +grotesque to the beautiful.</p> +<p class="pnext">Prisoners from the upper world are tortured here, +whether men, women, or children, and the awful rites +performed are too fearful--so say the Indians--to be +even hinted at.</p> +<p class="pnext">The cargo first and the empty canoes next had to +be portaged half a mile on shore and above the +lovely linn. This was extremely hard work, but it +was safely accomplished at last.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland was not only a born general, but a +kind-hearted and excellent master. He never lost his +temper, nor uttered a bad or impatient word, and +thus there was not an Indian there who would not +have died for him and his companion Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">Moreover, the officer-Indians found that kind words +were more effectual than cuts with the bark whips +they carried, or blows with the hand on naked shoulders.</p> +<p class="pnext">And so the march and voyage was one of peace and +comfort.</p> +<p class="pnext">Accidents, however, were by no means rare, for +there were snags and sunken rocks to be guarded +against, and more than one of the small canoes were +stove and sunk, with the loss of precious lives.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Roland determined not to overwork his crew. This +might spoil everything, for many of the swamps in the +neighbourhood of which they bivouacked are +pestilential in the extreme.</p> +<p class="pnext">Mosquitoes were found rather a plague at first, but +our boys had come prepared.</p> +<p class="pnext">They carried sheets of fine muslin--the ordinary +mosquito-nets are useless--for if a "squeeter" gets +one leg through, his body very soon wriggles after, +and then he begins to sing a song of thanksgiving +before piercing the skin of the sleeper with his +poison-laden proboscis. But mosquitoes cannot get through +the muslin, and have to sing to themselves on the +other side.</p> +<p class="pnext">After a time, however, the muslin was not thought +about, for all hands had received their baptism of +blood, and bites were hardly felt.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xx-the-pagan-paynees-were-thirsting-for-blood"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id21">CHAPTER XX--THE PAGAN PAYNEES WERE THIRSTING FOR BLOOD</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">A glance at any good map will show the reader +the bearings and flow of this romantic and +beautiful river, the Madeira. It will show him something +else--the suggestive names of some of the cataracts +or rapids that have to be negotiated by the enterprising +sportsman or traveller in this wild land.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Misericordia Rapids and the Calderano de +Inferno speak for themselves. The latter signifies +Hell's Cauldron, and the former speaks to us of many +a terrible accident that has occurred here--boats +upset, bodies washed away in the torrent, or men +seized and dragged below by voracious alligators +before the very eyes of despairing friends.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Cauldron of Hell is a terrible place, and consists +of a whole series of rapids each more fierce than the +other. To attempt to stem currents like these would +of course be madness. There is nothing for it but +portage for a whole mile and more, and it can easily +be guessed that this is slow and toilsome work indeed. +Nor was the weather always propitious. Sometimes +storms raged through the woods, with thunder, +lightning, and drenching rain; or even on the brightest of +days, down might sweep a whirlwind, utterly wrecking +acres and acres of forest, tearing gigantic trees up by +the roots, twisting them as if they were ropes, or +tossing them high in air, and after cutting immense gaps +through the jungle, retire, as if satisfied with the +chaos and devastation worked, to the far-off mountain +lands.</p> +<p class="pnext">Once when, with their rifles in hand, Roland and +Dick were watching a small flock of tapirs at a pond +of water, which formed the centre of a green oasis in +the dark forest, they noticed a balloon-shaped cloud +in the south. It got larger and larger as it advanced +towards them, its great twisted tail seeming to trail +along the earth.</p> +<p class="pnext">Lightning played incessantly around it, and as it +got nearer loud peals of thunder were heard.</p> +<p class="pnext">This startled the tapirs. They held their heads aloft +and snorted with terror, running a little this way and +that, but huddling together at last in a timid crowd.</p> +<p class="pnext">Down came the awful whirlwind and dashed upon them.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland and Dick threw themselves on the ground, +face downwards, expecting death every moment.</p> +<p class="pnext">The din, the dust, the crashing and roaring, were +terrific!</p> +<p class="pnext">When the storm had passed not a bush or leaf of +the wood in which our heroes lay had been stirred. +But the glade was now a strange sight.</p> +<p class="pnext">The waters of the pool had been taken up. The +pond was dry. Only half-dead alligators lay there, +writhing in agony, but every tapir had been not only +killed but broken up, and mingled with twisted trees, +pieces of rock, and hillocks of sand.</p> +<p class="pnext">Truly, although Nature in these regions may very +often be seen in her most beautiful aspects, fearful +indeed is she when in wrath and rage she comes +riding in storms and whirlwinds from off the great +table-lands, bent on ravaging the country beneath.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What a merciful escape!" said Roland, as he sat +by Dick gazing on the destruction but a few yards +farther off.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I could not have believed it," returned Dick. +"Fancy a whirlwind like that sweeping over our camp, +Roland?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, Dick, or over our boats on the river; but we +must trust in Providence."</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland now blew his whistle, and a party of his +own Indians soon appeared, headed by a few white men.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Boys," said Roland smiling, "my friend and I +came out to shoot young tapir for you. Behold! +Dame Nature has saved us the trouble, and flesh is +scattered about in all directions."</p> +<p class="pnext">The Indians soon selected the choicest, and departed, +singing their strange, monotonous chant.</p> +<p class="pnext">Presently Burly Bill himself appeared.</p> +<p class="pnext">He stood there amazed and astonished for fully half +a minute before he could speak, and when he did it +was to revert to his good old-fashioned Berkshire +dialect.</p> +<p class="pnext">"My eye and Elizabeth Martin!" he exclaimed. +"What be all that? Well, I never! 'Ad an 'urricane, then?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"It looks a trifle like it, Bill; but sit you down. +Got your meerschaum?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I've got him right enough."</p> +<p class="pnext">And it was not long before he began to blow a kind +of hurricane cloud. For when Bill smoked furnaces +weren't in it.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Do you think we have many more rapids to get +past, Bill?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"A main lot on 'em, Master Roland. But we've got +to do 'em. We haven't got to funk, has we?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh no, Bill! but don't you think that we might +have done better to have kept to the land altogether?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"No," said Bill bluntly, "I do not. We never could +have got along, lad. Rivers to cross by fords that we +might have had to travel leagues and leagues to find, +lakes to bend round, marshes and swamps, where +lurks a worse foe than your respectable and gentlemanly +'gators."</p> +<p class="pnext">"What, snakes?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, plenty of them! But I was a-loodin' to fever, +what the doctors calls malarial fever, boys.</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, no," he added, "we'll go on now until we meet +poor Benee, if he is still alive. If anything has +happened to him--"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Or if he is false," interrupted Dick; "false as Peter +would have us believe--"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Never mind wot Mr. Bloomin' Peter says! I +swears by Benee, and nothing less than death can +prevent his meeting us somewhere about the mouth of +the Maya-tata River. You can bet your bottom dollar +on that, lads."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, that is the rendezvous anyhow."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh," cried Dick, "sha'n't we be all rejoiced to see +Benee once more!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"God grant," said Roland, "he may bring us good +news."</p> +<p class="pnext">"He is a good man and will bring good tidings," +ventured Burly Bill.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then he went on blowing his cloud, and the boys +relapsed into silence.</p> +<p class="pnext">Each was thinking his own thoughts. But they +started up at last.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I've managed to secure a grand healthy appetite!" +cried Roland.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And so has this pale-faced boy," said Bill, shoving +his great thumb as usual into the bowl of his meerschaum.</p> +<p class="pnext">So back to camp they started.</p> +<p class="pnext">Brawn had been on duty not far from Mr. Peter's +tent, but he bounded up now with a joyful bark, and +rushed forward to meet them.</p> +<p class="pnext">He displayed as much love and joy as if he had not +seen them for a whole month.</p> +<p class="pnext">For ten days longer the expedition struggled onwards.</p> +<p class="pnext">The work was hard enough, but it really strengthened +their hearts and increased the size of their muscles, +till both their calves and biceps were as hard and +tough as the stays of a battle-ship.</p> +<p class="pnext">Some people might think it strange, but it is a fact +nevertheless, that the stronger they grew the happier +and more hopeful were they. We may try to account +for this physiologically or psychologically as we choose, +but the great truth remains.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">One or two of the men were struck down with +ague-fever, but Roland made them rest while on shore +and lie down while on board.</p> +<p class="pnext">Meanwhile he doctored them with soup made from +the choicest morsels of young tapir, with green fresh +vegetable mixed therein, and for medicine they had +rum and quinine, or rather, quinine in rum.</p> +<p class="pnext">The men liked their soup, but they liked their +physic better.</p> +<p class="pnext">Between the rapids of Arara and the falls of +Madeira was a beautiful sheet of water, and, being +afraid of snags or submerged rocks, the canoes were +kept well out into the stream.</p> +<p class="pnext">They made great progress here. The day was unusually +fine. Hot the sun was certainly, but the men +wore broad straw sombreros, and, seated in the shadow +of their bamboo cabin, our heroes were cool and happy +enough.</p> +<p class="pnext">The luscious acid fruits and fruit-drinks they +partook of contributed largely to their comfort.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick started a song, a river song he had learned on +his uncle's plantation, and as Burly Bill's great canoe +was not far off, he got a splendid bass.</p> +<p class="pnext">The scenery on each bank was very beautiful; rocks, +and hills covered with great trees, the branches of +which near to the stream with their wealth of foliage +and climbing flowers, bent low to kiss the placid +waters that went gliding, lapping, and purling onwards.</p> +<p class="pnext">Who could have believed that aught of danger to +our heroes and their people could lurk anywhere +beneath these sun-gilt trees?</p> +<p class="pnext">But even as they sang, fierce eyes were jealously +watching them from the western bank.</p> +<p class="pnext">Presently first one arrow, and anon a whole shower +of these deadly missiles, whizzed over them.</p> +<p class="pnext">One struck the cabin roof right above Dick's head, +and another tore through the hat of the captain himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">But rifles were carried loaded, and Roland was ready.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Lay in your oars, men! Up, guns! Let them +have a volley! Straight at yonder bush! Fire low, +lads! See, yonder is a savage!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick took aim at a dark-skinned native who stood +well out from the wood, and fired. He was close to +the stream and had been about to shoot, but Dick's +rifle took away his breath, and with an agonized +scream he threw up his arms and fell headlong into +the water.</p> +<p class="pnext">Volley after volley rang out now on the still air, +and soon it was evident that the woods were cleared.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Those are the Paynee Indians without a doubt," +said Dick; "the same sable devils that the skipper +of that steamer warned us about."</p> +<p class="pnext">They saw no more of the enemy then, however, and +the afternoon passed in peace.</p> +<p class="pnext">An hour and a half before sunset they landed at +the mouth of a small but clear river, about ten miles +to the north of the Falls of Woe.</p> +<p class="pnext">Close to the Madeira itself this lovely stream was +thickly banked by forest, but the boats were taken +higher up, and here excellent camping-ground was +found in a country sparsely wooded.</p> +<p class="pnext">Far away to the west rose the everlasting hills, and +our heroes thought they could perceive snow in the +chasms between the rocks.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland had not forgotten the adventure with the +Indians, so scouts were sent out at once to scour the +woods. They returned shortly before sunset, having +seen no one.</p> +<p class="pnext">Both Roland and Dick were somewhat uneasy in +their minds, nevertheless, and after dinner, in the wan +and uncertain light of a half-moon, a double row of +sentries was posted, and orders were given that they +should be relieved every two hours, for the night was +close and sultry, just such a night as causes restless +somnolence. At such times a sentry may drop to +sleep leaning on his gun or against a tree. He may +slumber for an hour and not be aware he has even +closed an eye.</p> +<p class="pnext">The boys themselves felt a strange drowsiness +stealing away their senses. They would have rolled +themselves up in their rugs and sought repose at once, but +this would have made the night irksomely long.</p> +<p class="pnext">So they chatted, and even sang, till their usual hour.</p> +<p class="pnext">When they turned in, instead of dressing in a pyjama +suit, they retained the clothes they had worn all day.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick noticed that Roland was doing so, and followed +his example. No reason was given by his friend, but +Dick could guess it. Guess also what he meant by +placing a rifle close beside him and looking to his +revolvers before he lay down.</p> +<p class="pnext">Everyone in camp, except those on duty, was by +this time sound asleep. Lights and fires were out, and +the stillness was almost painful.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland would have preferred hearing the wind +sighing among the forest trees, the murmur of the +river, or even the mournful wailing of the great blue +owl.</p> +<p class="pnext">But never a leaf stirred, and as the moon sank +lower and lower towards those strangely rugged and +serrated mountains of the west, the boys themselves +joined the sleepers, and all their care and anxiety was +for the time being forgotten.</p> +<p class="pnext">The night waned and waned. The sentries had +been changed, and it was now nearly one o'clock.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was a lake about a mile above the camp, that +is, a mile farther westwards. It was surrounded by +tall waving reeds, at least an acre wide all round.</p> +<p class="pnext">The home <em class="italics">par excellence</em> of the dreaded 'gator was +this dark and sombre sheet of water, for to it almost +nightly came the tapirs to quench their thirst and +to bathe.</p> +<p class="pnext">Silently a troop of these wonderful creatures came +up out of the forest to-night, all in a string, with the +largest and oldest a little way in front.</p> +<p class="pnext">Every now and then these pioneers would pause +to listen. They knew the wiliness of the enemy that +might be lying in wait for them. So acute in hearing +are they said to be that they can distinguish the +sound of a snake gliding over withered leaves at a +distance of a hundred yards. But their sight also +is a great protection to them. No 'gator can move +among the reeds without bending them, move he never +so warily. Above all this, the tapir's sense of smell +is truly marvellous.</p> +<p class="pnext">To-night the old tapirs that led the van seemed +particularly suspicious and cautious. Their signal for +silence was a kind of snort or cough, and this was +now ofttimes repeated.</p> +<p class="pnext">Suddenly the foremost tapir stamped his foot, and +at once the whole drove turned or wheeled and glided +back as silently as they had come, until the shadows +of the great forest swallowed them up.</p> +<p class="pnext">What had they seen or heard? They had seen tall, +dark human figures--one, two, three--a score and over, +suddenly raise their heads and shoulders above the +reeds, and after standing for a moment so still that +they seemed part and parcel of the solemn scene, move +out from the jungle and take their way towards the +slumbering camp.</p> +<p class="pnext">Savages all, and on a mission of death.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nobody's dreams could have been a bit more happy +than those of Dick Temple just at this moment.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was sitting once more on the deck of the great +raft, which was slowly gliding down the sunlit +sea-like Amazon. The near bank was tree-clad, and every +branch was garlanded with flowers of rainbow hues.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Dick looked not on the trees nor the flowers, +nor the waving undulating forest itself--looked not +on the sun-kissed river. His eyes were fixed on a +brightly-beautiful and happy face. It was Peggy +who sat beside him, Peggy to whom he was breathing +words of affection and love, Peggy with shy, +half-flushed face and slightly averted head.</p> +<p class="pnext">But suddenly this scene was changed, and he awoke +with a start to grasp his rifle. A shrill quavering +yell rang through the camp, and awakened every +echo in the forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Indians--the dreaded Paynee tribe of cannibals--were +on them. That yell was a war-cry. These +pagan Paynees were thirsting for blood.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxi-the-forest-is-sheeted-in-flames"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id22">CHAPTER XXI--THE FOREST IS SHEETED IN FLAMES</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">For just a few moments Roland was taken aback. +Then, in a steady manly voice that could be +heard all over the camp, he gave the order.</p> +<p class="pnext">"All men down! The Indians are approaching +from the west. Fire low, lads--between you and the +light.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Don't waste a shot!" he added.</p> +<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure" style="width: 77%" id="figure-30"> +<span id="fire-low-lads-don-t-waste-a-shot"></span><img class="align-center" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt=" " src="images/img-211.jpg" /> +<div class="caption figure"> +"FIRE LOW, LADS.... DON'T WASTE A SHOT!"</div> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Three Indians bit the dust at the first volley, and +though the rest struggled on to the attack, it was only +to be quickly repulsed.</p> +<p class="pnext">In ten minutes' time all had fled, and the great +forest and woodland was as silent as before.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was Roland's voice that again broke the stillness.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Rally round, boys," he shouted, "and let me know +the worst."</p> +<p class="pnext">The sacrifice of life, however, was confined to three +poor fellows, one white man and two peons; and no +one was wounded.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nobody thought of going to sleep again on this +sad night, and when red clouds were at last seen over +the green-wooded horizon, heralding the approach of +day, a general sense of relief was felt by all in the +little camp.</p> +<p class="pnext">Soon after sunrise breakfast was served, and eaten +with avidity by all hands now in camp, for scouts +were out, and Dick and Roland awaited the news they +would bring with some degree of impatience.</p> +<p class="pnext">The scouting was really a sort of reconnaisance +in force, by picked Indians and whites under the +command of the redoubtable Burly Bill.</p> +<p class="pnext">Suddenly Brawn raised his head and gave vent to +an angry "wouff!" and almost at the same time the +sound of distant rifle-firing fell on the ears of the +little army.</p> +<p class="pnext">Half an hour after this, Bill and two men stepped +out from the bush and advanced.</p> +<p class="pnext">His brow was bound with a blood-stained handkerchief.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a spear wound, but he would not hear of it +being dressed at present.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What cheer then, Bill?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Not much of that," he answered, throwing himself +down and lighting that marvellous meerschaum, from +which he appeared to get so much consolation.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Not a vast deal of cheer. Yes, I'll eat after I gets +a bit cooler like."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ay, we'll have to fight the Dun-skins. They +swarm in the forest between us and the Madeira, and +they are about as far from bein' angels as any durned +nigger could be."</p> +<p class="pnext">"And what do you advise, Bill?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well," was the reply, "as soon as your boys get +their nose-bags off, my advice is to set to work with +spade and shovel and transform this 'ere camp into a +fortress.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ay, and it is one we won't be able to abandon for +days and days to come," he added.</p> +<p class="pnext">The men were now speedily told off to duty, and in +a very short time had made the camp all but +impregnable, and quite strong enough to give an +excellent account of any number of Dun-skins.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Paynee Indians are a semi-nomadic tribe +of most implacable savages, who roam over hill and +dell and upland, hunting or fighting as the case may +be, but who have nevertheless a home in the dark +mountain fastnesses of the far interior.</p> +<p class="pnext">They are cannibals, though once, long, long ago, a +band of Jesuits attempted their reclamation.</p> +<p class="pnext">These brave missionaries numbered in all but one +hundred and twenty men, and they went among the +terrible natives with, figuratively speaking, their +prayer-books in one hand, their lives in the other.</p> +<p class="pnext">All went well for a time. They succeeded in winning +the affections of the savages. They erected rude +churches, and even to this day crosses of stone are to +be found in this wild land, half-buried among the rank +vegetation.</p> +<p class="pnext">But there came a day, and a sad one it was, when +the cannibals were attacked by a wild hill-tribe. +These highlanders had heard that, owing to the new +religion, their ancient enemies had degenerated into +old wives and squaws.</p> +<p class="pnext">A terrible battle ensued, during which the men +from the uplands found out their mistake, for they +were repulsed with fearful slaughter.</p> +<p class="pnext">All might have gone well with the Jesuits even yet +but for one <em class="italics">contretemps</em>.</p> +<p class="pnext">At the very moment when the savages returned +wildly exultant from the hills, bearing, horrible to +relate, joints of human flesh on their spears, there +came from the east a party of men who had been +down to the banks of the Madeira, and had attacked +and looted a small steamer that among other things +had much fire-water on board.</p> +<p class="pnext">Oh, that accursed fire-water, how terrible its results +wherever on earth it gains ascendancy!</p> +<p class="pnext">All the fearful passions of these savages were soon +let loose. The scene was like pandemonium.</p> +<p class="pnext">The poor Jesuits hid themselves in their little church, +barricading the door, and devoting the first part of the +night to prayer and song. But at midnight the awful +howling of the cannibals coming nearer and nearer +told them that they had been missed, and that their +doom was now sealed.</p> +<p class="pnext">Only one man escaped to tell the terrible tale.</p> +<p class="pnext">And these, or rather their descendants, were the +very cannibals that Roland's little army had now to +do battle with.</p> +<p class="pnext">Both he and Dick, however, kept up a good heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was ammunition enough to last for months +of desultory firing, if necessary, and when the attack +was made at last, after Bill's scouts had been driven +in, the savages learned a lesson they were never likely +to forget.</p> +<p class="pnext">Brave indeed they were, and over and over again +they charged, spear in hand, almost into the trenches. +But only to be thrust back wounded, or to die where +they stood, beneath a steady revolver fire.</p> +<p class="pnext">But they retreated almost as quickly as they had +come, and once more sought the shelter of bush and jungle.</p> +<p class="pnext">Not for very long, however. They were evidently +determined that the little garrison should enjoy no peace.</p> +<p class="pnext">They had changed their tactics now, and instead +of making wild rushes towards the ramparts, they +commenced to bombard the fort with large stones.</p> +<p class="pnext">With their slings the Bolivian Indians can aim +with great precision, for they learn the art when +they are mere infants.</p> +<p class="pnext">As no one showed above the ramparts, there was in +this case no human target for the missiles, but use was +made of larger stones, and these kept falling into the +trenches in all directions, so that much mischief was +done and many men were hurt.</p> +<p class="pnext">A terrible rifle fire was now opened upon that part +of the bush in which the cannibal savages were +supposed to be in force, and from the howling and +shrieking that immediately followed, it was evident +that many bullets were finding their billets.</p> +<p class="pnext">But soon even these sounds died away, and it was +evident enough that the enemy had retired, no doubt +with the intention of inventing some new form of attack. +There was peace now for many hours, and Roland +took advantage of this to order dinner to be got ready. +No men, unless it be the Scotch, can fight well on +empty stomachs.</p> +<p class="pnext">The wounded were attended to and made as +comfortable as possible, and after this there was +apparently very little to do except to wait and watch.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill brought out his consolatory meerschaum. +But while he puffed away, he was not idle. He was +thinking.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now thinking was not very much in this honest +fellow's line. Action was more his <em class="italics">forte</em>. But the +present occasion demanded thought.</p> +<p class="pnext">The afternoon was already far spent. The +sentries--lynx-eyed Indians, rifles in hand--were watching +the bush, and longing for a shot. Roland and Dick, +with Bill and big Brawn, were seated in the shade of +a green and spreading tree, and all had been silent for +some considerable time.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I say, young fellows!" said Bill at last, "this kind +of lounging doesn't suit me. What say you to a council +of war?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, you've been thinking, Bill?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ay, I've been doin' a smart bit o' that. Let us +consult Charlie."</p> +<p class="pnext">Charlie the ex-cannibal was now brought forward +and seated on the grass.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was a deal of practical knowledge in this +Indian's head. His had been a very long experience +of savage warfare and wandering in forests and wilds; +and he was proud now to be consulted.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Charlie," said Bill, "what do you think of the +situation?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"De sit-uation?" was the reply. "Me not likee he. +Me tinkee we sitee too much. Byme by, de cannibal +he come much quick. Ah! dere will soon be muchee +much too much sabage cannibal! Fust de killee you +and den de eatee you, and make fine bobbery. Ha! ha!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, Charlie, I don't think that there is a deal to +laugh at. Howsomever, we've got to do something soon."</p> +<p class="pnext">"So, so," said Charlie, "notwidstanding."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, I've been thinking that we should make +tracks for the other side of the river. You see these +savage rapscallions have no canoes, and they seem to +have no food. They are not herons or storks, and +can't wade through deep water."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Foh true, sah. Dey am not stohks and dey am +not herons notwidstanding, but see, sah, ebery man +he am his own canoe! No stohks, but all same one +frog, notwidstanding foh true!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"And you think they would follow us?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"All same's one eel--two hundred eel. Dey swim +wid spears in mouf, and bow and arrow held high. +Ha! ha! good soldier, ebery modder's son!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I'll tell you my plan," said Dick Temple. "Just +loose off the boats, and make one bold dash for +liberty."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ha! ha! sah!" cried Charlie. "I takes de liberty +to laugh notwidstanding, foh true. You plenty much +all dead men 'fore you get into de big ribber!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, hang it!" said Dick, "we're not going to stay +here with the pretty prospect before us of being all +scuppered and eaten. What say you, Roll?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I think," said Roland quietly, "that Charlie there has +come prepared to speak, for his face is just beaming."</p> +<p class="pnext">"See, sah," cried Charlie, evidently pleased, "you +trust all to Charlie. He makee you free after dark. +Down in de fo'est yondah dere am mebbe two, mebbee +free hunder' sabages. Now dey not want to fight till +de dark. Dey will fight all de same when de moon +rise, and de rifle not muchee good. No hit in de dark, +on'y jes' puff, puff.</p> +<p class="pnext">"See," he continued, "de wind begin to blow a leetle. +De wind get high byme by, den de sun go out, and +Charlie he fiah de forest."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Fire the forest, Charlie?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Notwidstanding," said Charlie grimly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"When," he added, "you see de flame curl up, be all +ready. Soon de flame he bus' highah and highah, and +all by de ribber bank one big blaze."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Charlie," cried Bill, "you're a brick! Give us a +shake of your yellow hand. Hurrah! boys, Charlie's +going to do it!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Never perhaps was sunset waited for with more +impatience.</p> +<p class="pnext">The great and unanswerable question was this: +Would these savages attack immediately after darkness +fell, or would they take some time to deliberate?</p> +<p class="pnext">But behind the rugged mountains down sank the +sun at last, and after a brief twilight the stars shone +out.</p> +<p class="pnext">Charlie was not going alone. He had asked for the +assistance of many Indians, and in a whisper he gave +them their orders.</p> +<p class="pnext">Our heroes did not interfere in any way, for fear +of confusing the good fellow's plans. But they soon +noted that while Charlie himself and two Indians left +in one of the smallest canoes, the others disappeared +like snakes in the grass, creeping northwards over the +plain.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now there was silence, for the wind was hushed; +silence everywhere, that deep, indescribable silence +which nightfall ever brings to a wild and savage land, +in which even the beasts are still and listening in forest +and dell, not knowing from which direction danger +may spring.</p> +<p class="pnext">Within the little camp nothing could be done but +lie still, every man holding his breath with suspense. +Nothing could be done save watch, wait, count the +weary minutes, and marvel at their length.</p> +<p class="pnext">Suddenly, however, the deep silence was broken by +a mournful cry that came from riverwards. It was +apparently that of an owl seeking for its mate, but it +was taken up and repeated northwards all over the +plain twixt camp and forest, and almost at the same +time tiny tongues of fire sprang up here and there and +everywhere.</p> +<p class="pnext">Higher and higher they leapt, along the ground they +ran, meeting in all directions down the dark river +and across the wild moor by the edge of the +woodland. The undergrowth was dry, the grass was +withered, and in an amazingly short time the whole +forest by the banks of the Madeira was sheeted in +devastating flames.</p> +<p class="pnext">The savages had been massed in the centre of the +jungle, and just preparing to issue forth and carry +death into the camp of our heroes, when suddenly +the crackling of the flames fell on their ears, and they +knew they were caught in a fire-trap, with scarcely +any means of escape.</p> +<p class="pnext">Charlie had been terribly in earnest, and, hurrying +on in his canoe towards the Madeira, he lit the bank +all along, and even down the side of the great stream +itself.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was evidently his savage intention to roast these +poor cannibals alive.</p> +<p class="pnext">As it was, the only outlet towards salvation that +remained for them was the Madeira's dark brink.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Now, boys, now!" shouted Roland, when he saw +that the fire had gained entire mastery, and, making +its own wind, was sweeping onwards, licking up +everything in its way.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Now, lads, on board! Let us get off down stream +in all haste. Hurrah!"</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxii-evenings-by-the-camp-fire"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id23">CHAPTER XXII--EVENINGS BY THE CAMP FIRE</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">The moorings were speedily slipped, and by the +light of the blazing forest the peons bent sturdily +to their paddles, and the canoe went dancing down +stream.</p> +<p class="pnext">They had already taken on board the Indians who +had assisted Charlie, and before long his own boat +hove in sight, and was soon taken in tow by the +largest canoe.</p> +<p class="pnext">That burning forest formed a scene which never +could be forgotten. From the south side, where the +boats were speedily rushing down the stream on their +way to the Madeira, and from which came the light +wind that was now blowing, the flames leaned over as +it were, instead of ascending high in air, and the smoke +and sparks took the same direction.</p> +<p class="pnext">The sparks were as thick as snow-flakes in a snow-storm, +and the lurid tongues of fire darted high as the +zenith, playing with the clouds of smoke or licking +them up.</p> +<p class="pnext">The noise was indescribable, yet above the roaring +and the crackling could be heard the shouts of the +maddened savages, as they sought exit from the hell +around them.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was no escape except by the Madeira's bank, +and to get even at this they had to dash through the +burning bushes.</p> +<p class="pnext">Alas! Charlie and his assistants had done their +work all too well, and I fear that one-half of the +cannibals were smothered, dragged down by alligators, +or found a watery grave.</p> +<p class="pnext">As the canoes shot past, the heat was terrible, and +next morning at daybreak, when they were far up the +river, towards the falls, Roland and his friend were +surprised to notice that the palm-leaves which covered +the cabin were brown and scorched.</p> +<p class="pnext">On the whole the experience they had gained of the +ferocity and fighting abilities of these Paynee cannibals +was such as they were not likely to forget.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">During all this period of excitement the suspect +Peter had remained perfectly quiescent. Indeed he +seemed now quite apathetic, taking very little notice +of anything around him, and eating the food placed +before him in a way that was almost mechanical. +Neither Roland nor Dick had taken much heed of +him till now. When, however, they observed his +strange demeanour they took council together and +determined that the watch over him should be made +extra strict, lest he should spring overboard and be +drowned.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland may seem to have been harsh with Mr. Peter. +But he only took proper precautions, and more than +once he assured Dick that if the man's innocence were +proved he would recompense him a hundred-fold.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But," added Dick meaningly, "if he is really guilty +of the terrible crime we impute to him, he cannot be +punished too severely."</p> +<p class="pnext">The expedition had that afternoon to land their +stores once more to avoid rapids, and a little before +sunset they encamped near to the edge of a beautiful +wood well back from the banks of the Madeira.</p> +<p class="pnext">The night passed without adventure of any kind, +and everyone awoke as fresh and full of life and go as +the larks that climb the sky to meet the morning sun.</p> +<p class="pnext">Another hard day's paddling and towing and portage, +and they found themselves high above the Madeira +Falls in smooth water, and at the entrance to a kind +of bay which formed the mouth or confluence of the +two rivers, called Beni and Madro de Dios. This last +is called the Maya-tata by the Bolivians.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is a beautiful stream, overhung by hill and forest, +and rises fully two hundred miles southward and +west from a thousand little rivulets that drain the +marvellous mountains of Karavaya.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Beni joins this river about ten or twelve miles +above the banks of the Madeira. It lies farther to the +south and the east, and may be said to rise in the +La Paz district itself, where it is called the Rio de +la Paz.</p> +<p class="pnext">To the north-west of both these big rivers lies the +great unexplored region, the land of the Bolivian and +Peruvian cannibals.</p> +<p class="pnext">Small need have we to continue to hunt and shoot +in Africa, wildly interesting though the country is, +when such a marvellous tract of tens of thousands of +square miles is hidden here, all unvisited as yet by a +single British explorer.</p> +<p class="pnext">And what splendid possibilities for travel and +adventure are here! A land larger than Great Britain, +France, and Ireland thrown together, which no one +knows anything about; a land rich in forest and prairie; +a land the mineral wealth of which is virtually +inexhaustible; a land of beauty; a land of lake and +stream, of hills and rocks and verdant prairie, and a +veritable land of flowers!</p> +<p class="pnext">A land, it is true, where wild beasts lurk and prowl, +and where unknown tribes of savages wander hither +and thither and hunt and fight, but all as free as the +wind that wantons through their forest trees.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">The boats were paddled several miles up-stream +to a place where the scenery was more open.</p> +<p class="pnext">At every bend and reach of the river Roland +expected to find Benee waiting for them. Perhaps he +had built a hut and was living by fishing-rod and gun.</p> +<p class="pnext">But no Benee was visible and no hut.</p> +<p class="pnext">Together the two friends, Roland and Dick, accompanied +by Charlie and Brawn, took their way across the +plain and through the scrub, towards a lofty, +cone-shaped hill that seemed to dominate all the scenery in +its immediate neighbourhood.</p> +<p class="pnext">To the very top of this mountain they climbed, +agreed between themselves not to look back until they +had reached the summit, in order that the wild beauty +of this lone lorn land should burst upon them in all its +glory, and at once.</p> +<p class="pnext">They kept to their resolution, and were amply rewarded.</p> +<p class="pnext">As far as eye could reach in any direction was a +vast panorama of mountain, forest, and stream, with +many a beautiful lake glittering silvery in the sunshine.</p> +<p class="pnext">But no smoke, no indication of inhabitants anywhere.</p> +<p class="pnext">"It seems to be quite an untenanted country we +have struck," said Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">"All the better for us, perhaps, Dick," said Roland, +"for farther we cannot proceed until poor Benee comes. +He ought to have been here before now. But what +adventures and dangers he may have had to pass +through Heaven and himself only know."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Charlie," he continued, "in the event of Benee not +turning up within the next week or two, remember +the task of guiding us to the very palace gates of the +cannibal king devolves upon you."</p> +<p class="pnext">"You speakee me too muchee fly-high Englese," +said Charlie. "But Charlie he thinkee he understand. +You wantee me takee you to de king's gate. I can do."</p> +<p class="pnext">"That is enough, Charlie, and we can trust you. You +have hitherto been very faithful, and what we should +do without you I know not."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Now, Dick, I guess we'll get down a little more +speedily than we came up."</p> +<p class="pnext">"We'll try, Roland, old man."</p> +<p class="pnext">All preparations were now made to camp near to +the river, where the canoes were moored.</p> +<p class="pnext">They did not expect any attack by armed Indians, +nevertheless it was deemed well to be on the safe side.</p> +<p class="pnext">Spades and shovels were accordingly brought into +use, and even before sunset a deep trench and +embankment were thrown up around the tents, and at +nightfall sentries were posted at each corner.</p> +<p class="pnext">For a few days the weather was so cold and stormy +that there was little comfort in either shooting or +fishing. It cleared up after this, however, and at noon +the sun was almost too hot.</p> +<p class="pnext">They found caves in the rocks by the river-side in +which were springs bursting and bubbling up through +limestone rocks, and quartz as white as the driven +snow. The water was exquisitely cool and refreshing.</p> +<p class="pnext">The days were spent in exploring the country all +around and in shooting, principally for the purpose of +keeping the larder well supplied.</p> +<p class="pnext">Luckily the Indians were very easy to please in the +matter of food, though their captains liked a little +more luxury.</p> +<p class="pnext">But this land was full of game of every sort, and +the river was alive with fish, and so unsophisticated +were these that they sprang at a hook if it were baited +only with a morsel of glittering mica picked off a rock.</p> +<p class="pnext">What with fish and fowl and flesh of small deer, +little wild pigs and the young of the tapir, there would +be very little fear of starvation should they remain +here for a hundred years.</p> +<p class="pnext">Far up the Maya-tata canoe excursions were made, +and at every bend of this strange river the scenery +seemed more delightfully wild, silent, and beautiful.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Heigh-ho!" said Dick one day. "I think I should +not mind living here for years and years, did I but +know that poor Peggy was safe and well."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah! yes, that is the ever-abiding anxiety, but we +are not to lose heart, are we?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"No," said Dick emphatically. "If the worst +should come to the worst, let us try to look fate +fearlessly in the face, as men should."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bravo, Dick!"</p> +<p class="pnext">The evenings closed in at an unconscionably +early hour, as they always do in these regions, and +at times the long forenights were somewhat irksome.</p> +<p class="pnext">I have not said much about the captains of the great +canoes. With one exception, these were half-castes, +and spoke but little.</p> +<p class="pnext">The exception was Don Rodrigo, who in his time +had been a great traveller.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was a man of about fifty, strongly built, but as +wiry withal as an Arab of the desert.</p> +<p class="pnext">Genial was he too, and while yarning or playing +cards--the cigarette for ever in his mouth, sometimes +even two--there was always a pleasant smile playing +around his mouth and eyes.</p> +<p class="pnext">He liked our young heroes, and they trusted him. +Indeed, Brawn had taken to the man, and often as he +squatted in the large tent of an evening, playing cards +or dominoes with the boys, big Brawn would lay his +honest head down on Rodrigo's knee with a sigh of +satisfaction and go off to sleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">Rodrigo could sing a good Spanish song, and had a +sweet melodious voice that would have gone +excellently well with a guitar accompaniment; but guitar +there was none.</p> +<p class="pnext">Versatile and clever, nevertheless, was Rodrigo, and +he had manufactured a kind of musical instrument +composed of pieces of glass and hard wood hung on +tape bands across a board. While he sang, Rodrigo +used to beat a charming accompaniment with little +pith hammers.</p> +<p class="pnext">Some of his songs were very merry indeed and very +droll, and all hands used to join in the chorus, even +the white men and Indians outside.</p> +<p class="pnext">So the boys' days were for the time being somewhat +of the nature of a long picnic or holiday.</p> +<p class="pnext">The story-telling of an evening helped greatly to +wile the time away.</p> +<p class="pnext">Neither Dick nor Roland had any yarns to spin, but +Charlie had stories of his wild and adventurous life in +the bush, which were listened to with much pleasure. +On the other hand, Rodrigo had been everywhere +apparently, and done everything, so that he was the +chief story-teller.</p> +<p class="pnext">The man's English was fairly good, with just a little +of the Peruvian labial accent, which really added to +its attractiveness, while at times he affected the +Mexican drawl.</p> +<p class="pnext">Around the camp-fire I have seldom or never known +what may be called systematic yarn-spinning. +Everything comes spontaneously, one simple yarn or wild +adventure leading up to the other. If now and then +a song intervenes, all the better, and all the more +likely is one to spend a pleasant evening either in +camp or in galley on board ship.</p> +<p class="pnext">Don Rodrigo did at times let our heroes have +some tales that made their scalps creep, but they +liked him best when he was giving them simple +narratives of travel, and for this reason: they wanted to +learn all they could about the country in which they +now were.</p> +<p class="pnext">And Rodrigo knew it well, even from Arauco on the +western shore to the great marsh-lands of the +Paraguay or the mountain fastnesses of Albuquerque on +the east.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the range of Rodrigo's travels was not bounded +by Brazil, or the great Pacific Ocean itself. He had +been a cow-boy in Mexico; he had bolo'd guanacos on +the Pampas; he had wandered among the Patagonians, +or on fleet horses scoured their wondrous plains; he had +dwelt in the cities, or call them "towns", if so minded, +that border the northern shores of the Straits of +Magellan; he had even visited Tierra del Fuego--the +land of fire--and from the black boats of savages had +helped to spear the silken-coated otters of those wild +and stormy seas; and he had sailed for years among +the glorious sunlit islands of the Southern Pacific.</p> +<p class="pnext">"As to far Bolivia," he said one evening, while his +eyes followed the rings of pale-blue smoke he emitted +as they rose to the tent-roof. "As to far Bolivia, dear +boys, well, you've seen a good slice of the wilder +regions of it, but it is to La Paz you must some +day go, and to the splendid fresh-water ocean called +the Titicaca.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Lads, I never measured it, but, roughly guessing, +I should say that it is over one hundred miles in length, +and in some places fifty wide."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Wait one moment," said Burly Bill, "this is getting +interesting, but my meerschaum wants to be loaded."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Now," he added, a few minutes after, "just fire +away, my friend."</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxiii-a-marvellous-lake-in-a-marvellous-land-la-paz"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id24">CHAPTER XXIII--A MARVELLOUS LAKE IN A MARVELLOUS LAND--LA PAZ</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">"Mebbe," said Rodrigo, "if you knew the +down-south Bolivians as well as I do, you would not +respect them a great deal. Fact is, boys, there is little +to respect them for.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Brave? Well, if you can call slaves brave, then +they're about as bully's they make 'em.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I have mentioned the inland sea called Lake +Titicaca. Ah, boys, you must see this fresh-water +ocean for yourselves! and if ever you get married, +why, take my advice and go and spend your honeymoon there.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Me married, did you say, Mr. Bill? It strikes me, +sir, I know a trick worth several of that. Been in +love as often as I've got toes and fingers, and mebbe +teeth, but no tying up for life, I'm too old a starling +to be tamed.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But think, <em class="italics">amigo mio</em>, of a lake situated in a +grand mountain-land, the level of its waters just +thirteen thousand feet above the blue Pacific.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Surrounded by the wildest scenery you can +imagine. The wildest, ay, boys, and the most +romantic.</p> +<p class="pnext">"You have one beautiful lake or loch in your +Britain--and I have travelled all over that land of the +free,--I mean Loch Ness, and the surrounding +mountains and glens are magnificent; but, bless my buttons, +boys, you wouldn't have room in Britain for such a +lake as the mighty Titicaca. It would occupy all +your English Midlands, and you'd have to give the +farmers a free passage to Australia."</p> +<p class="pnext">"How do you travel on this lake?" said Dick Temple.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah!" continued Rodrigo, "I can answer that; and +here lies another marvel. For at this enormous height +above the ocean-level, steamboats, ply up and down. +No, not built there, but in sections sent from America, +and I believe even from England. The labour of +dragging these sections over the mountain-chains may +easily be guessed.</p> +<p class="pnext">"The steamers are neither so large nor so fine as +your Clyde boats, but there is a lot of honest comfort +in them after all.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And terrible storms sometimes sweep down from +the lofty Cordilleras, and then the lake is all a chaos +of broken water and waves even houses high. If +caught in such storms, ordinary boats are speedily +sunk, and lucky are even the steamers if shelter is handy.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, what would this world be, I wonder, if it +were always all sunshine. We should soon get well +tired of it, I guess, and want to go somewhere +else--to murky England, for example."</p> +<p class="pnext">Rodrigo blew volumes of smoke before he continued +his desultory yarn.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Do you know, boys, what I saw when in your +Britain, south of the Tweed? I saw men calling +themselves sportsmen chasing poor little hares with +harriers, and following unfortunate stags with +buck-hounds. I saw them hunt the fox too, men and +women in a drove, and I called them in my own mind +cowards all. Brutality and cowardice in every face, +and there wasn't a farmer in the flock of stag-hunting +Jockies and Jennies who could muster courage enough +to face a puma or even an old baboon with a supple +stick in its hand. Pah!</p> +<p class="pnext">"But among the hills and forests around this Lake +Titicaca is the paradise of the hunter who has a bit of +sand and grit in his substance, and is not afraid to +walk a whole mile away from a cow's tail.</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, there are no dangerous Indians that ever I +came across among the mountains and glens; but as +you never know what may happen, you've got to keep +your cartridges free from damp.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What kind of game? Well, I was going to say +pretty much of all sorts. We haven't got giraffes +nor elephants, it is true, nor do we miss them much.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But there are fish in the lake and beasts on the +shore, and rod and gun will get but little holiday, I +assure you, lads, if you elect to travel in that +strange land.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I hardly know very much about the fish. They +say that the lake is bottomless, and that not only is it +swarming with fish, wherever there is a bank, but +that terrible animals or beasts have been seen on its +deep-blue surface; creatures so fearful in aspect that +even their sudden appearance has turned gray the +hairs of those who beheld them.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But I calculate that this is all Indian gammon or +superstition.</p> +<p class="pnext">"As for me, I've been always more at home in the +woods and forests, and on the mountain's brow.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I'm not going to boast, boys, but I've climbed the +highest hills of the Cordilleras, where I have had +no companion save the condor.</p> +<p class="pnext">"You Europeans call the eagle the bird of Jove. +If that is so, I want to ask them where the condor +comes in.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Why, your golden eagle of Scottish wilds isn't +a circumstance to the condor of the Andes. He is no +more to be compared to this great forest vulture than +a spring chicken is to a Christmas turkey.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But the condor is only one of a thousand wild +birds of prey, or of song, found in the Andean regions +or giant Cordilleras.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And at lower altitude we find the llamas, the +guanacos, and herds of wild vicuñas.</p> +<p class="pnext">"You may come across the puma and the jaguar +also, and be sorry you've met.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Then there are goats, foxes, and wild dogs, as +well as the viscacha and the chinchilla, to say nothing +of deer.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But on the great lake itself, apart from all thought +of fish, you need never go without a jolly good dinner +if the rarest of water-fowl will please you. Ducks +and geese galore, and other species too many to name."</p> +<p class="pnext">"That is a land, and that is a lake," said Dick +musingly, "that I should dearly like to visit. Yes, +and to dwell in or on for a time.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I suppose labour is cheap?" he added enquiringly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I guess," returned Rodrigo, "that if you wanted +to erect a wooden hut on some high and healthy +promontory overlooking the lake--and this would be +your best holt--you would have to learn the use of +axe and adze and saw, and learn also how to drive +a nail or two without doubling it over your thumb +and hitting the wrong nail on the head."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, anyhow," said Dick, "I shall dream to-night +of your great inland ocean, of your Lake Titicaca, +and in my dreams I shall imagine I am already there. +I suppose the woods are alive with beautiful birds?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes," said Rodrigo, "and with splendid moths and +butterflies also; so let these have a place in your +dreams as well. Throw in chattering monkeys too, +and beautiful parrots that love to mock every sound +they hear around them. Let there be evergreen trees +draped in garments of climbing flowers, roaring +torrents, wild foaming rivers, that during storms roll +down before them, from the flooded mountains, +massive tree trunks, and boulders houses high."</p> +<p class="pnext">"You are quite poetic!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"But I am not done yet. People your paradise +with strangely beautiful lizards that creep and crawl +everywhere, looking like living flowers, and arrayed +in colours that rival the tints of the rainbow. +Lizards--ay, and snakes; but bless you, boys, these are very +innocent, objecting to nothing except to having their +tails trodden on."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, no creature cares for treatment like that," +said Roland. "If you and I go to this land of beauty, +Dick, we must make a point of not treading on snakes' +tails."</p> +<p class="pnext">"But, boys, there are fortunes in this land of ours +also. Fortunes to be had for the digging."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Copper?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, and gold as well!"</p> +<p class="pnext">Rodrigo paused to roll and light another cigarette. +I have never seen anyone do so more deftly. He +seemed to take an acute delight in the process. He +held the snow-white tissue-paper lovingly in his +grasp, while with his forefinger and thumb he apportioned +to it just the right quantity of yellow fragrant +Virginia leaf, then twisting it tenderly, gently, he +conveyed it to his lips.</p> +<p class="pnext">Said Dick now, "I have often heard of the wondrous +city of La Paz, and to me it has always seemed a sort +of semi-mythical town--a South American Timbuctoo."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah, lad, it is far from being mythical! On the +contrary, it is very real, and so are everything and +everybody in it.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I could not, however, call it, speaking conscientiously, +a gem of a place, though it might be made +so. But you see, boys, there is a deal of Spanish or +Portuguese blood in the veins of the real whites +here--though, mind you, three-fourths of the population +are Indians of almost every Bolivian race. Well, the +motto of the dark-eyed whites seems to be Mañana +(pronounce Mah-nyah-nah), which signifies +'to-morrow', you know. Consequently, with the very +best intentions in the world, they hardly ever finish +anything they begin. Some of the streets are decently +paved, but every now and then you come to a slough +of despond. Many of the houses are almost palatial, +but they stand side by side with, and are jostled by, +the vile mud-huts of the native population. They +have a cathedral and a bazaar, but neither is finished yet.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, La Paz stands at a great altitude above +the ocean. It is well worthy of a visit. If you go +there, however, there are two things you must not +forget to take with you, namely, a bottle of +smelling-salts and plenty of eau-de-Cologne."</p> +<p class="pnext">"The place smells--slightly, then, I suppose," ventured Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ha! ha! ha!" Rodrigo had a hearty laugh of his +own. "Yes, it smells slightly. So do the people, I +may add.</p> +<p class="pnext">"The natives of La Paz, although some of them +boast of a direct descent from the ancient Incas, are +to all intents and purposes slaves.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, boys, when I say 'slaves' I calculate I +know pretty well what I am talking about. The +old feudal system holds sway in what we call the +civilized portions of Bolivia. Civilization, indeed! +Only in the wilds is there true freedom and +independence. The servants on ranches and farms are +bought or sold with the land on which they live. So, +Mr. Bill, if you purchase a farm in Bolivia, it won't +be only the cows and cocks and hens you'll have to +take, but the servants as well, ay, and the children +of these.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bolivian Indians, who are troubled with families +that they consider a trifle too large for their income, +have a simple and easy method of meeting the difficulty. +They just take what you might call the surplus +children to some white-man farmer and sell them as +they do their cows."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Then these children are just brought up as slaves?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, their masters treat them fairly well, but they +generally make good use of the whip. 'Spare the +rod and spoil the child' is a motto they play up to +most emphatically, and certainly I have never known +the rod to be spared, nor the child to be spoiled +either.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh! by the way, as long as my hand is in I may +tell you about the servants that the gentry-folks of +La Paz keep. I don't think any European would +be plagued with such a dirty squad, for in a household +of, say, ten, there must be ten slaves at the very least, +to say nothing of the pongo man.</p> +<p class="pnext">"This pongo man is in reality the charwoman of +La Paz. It is he who does all the dirty work, and +a disagreeable-looking and painfully dirty blackguard +he is himself. It is not his custom to stay more than +a week with any one family. He likes to be always +on the move.</p> +<p class="pnext">"He assists the cook; he collects dried llama manure +for firewood, as Paddy might say; he fetches water +from the fountain; he brings home the marketing, in +the shape of meat and vegetables; he cleans and scrubs +everywhere, receiving few pence for his trouble, but +an indefinite number of kicks and cuffs, while his bed +at night is on the cold stones behind the hall door. +Yet with all his ill-usage, he seems just about as +happy as a New Hollander, and you always find him +trotting around trilling a song.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah, there is nothing like contentment in this +world, boys!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, Mr. Bill, I have seen one or two really pretty +girls among the Bolivians, but never lost my heart to +any of them, for between you and me, they don't +either brush or comb their hair, and when walking +with them it is best to keep the weather-gauge. And +that's a hint worth having, I can assure you."</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">On the very next evening after Don Rodrigo spoke +his piece, as he phrased it, about the strange customs +and habits of the Bolivians, all were assembled as +usual in the biggest tent.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill and his meerschaum were getting on +remarkably well together, the Don was rolling a +cigarette, when suddenly Brawn started up as if from +a dream, and stood with his ears pricked and his head +a little to one side, gazing out into the darkness.</p> +<p class="pnext">He uttered no warning growl, and made no sound +of any sort, but his tail was gently agitated, as if +something pleased him.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then with one impatient "Yap!" he sprang away, +and was seen no more for a few minutes.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What can ail the dog?" said Roland.</p> +<p class="pnext">"What, indeed?" said Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now footsteps soft and slow were heard +approaching the tent, and next minute poor Benee +himself staggered in and almost fell at Roland's feet.</p> +<p class="pnext">The honest hound seemed almost beside himself +with joy, but he had sense enough to know that his +old favourite, Benee, was exhausted and ill, and, +looking up into his young master's face, appeared to +plead for his assistance.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee's cheeks were hollow, his feet were cut and +bleeding, and yet as he lay there he smiled feebly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I am happy now," he murmured, and forthwith +fell asleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">Both Roland and Dick trembled. They thought +that sleep might be the sleep of death, but Don Rodrigo, +after feeling Benee's pulse, assured them that it +was all right, and that the poor fellow only needed +rest and food.</p> +<p class="pnext">In about half an hour the faithful fellow--ah! who +could doubt his fidelity now?--sat painfully up.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick went hurrying off and soon returned with +soup and with wine, and having swallowed a little, +Benee made signs that he would rest and sleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">"To-morrow," he said, "to-morrow I speak plenty. +To-night no can do."</p> +<p class="pnext">And so they did all they could to make him +comfortable, and great Brawn lay down by his side to +watch him.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxiv-benee-s-story-the-young-cannibal-queen"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id25">CHAPTER XXIV--BENEE'S STORY--THE YOUNG CANNIBAL QUEEN</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">I cannot help saying that in forbearing to talk +to or to question poor Benee on the evening of +his arrival, our young heroes exhibited a spirit of +true manliness and courage which was greatly to +their credit.</p> +<p class="pnext">That they were burning to get news of the +unfortunate Peggy goes without saying, and to hear at +the same time Benee's own marvellous adventures.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nor did they hurry the poor fellow even next day.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is a good plan to fly from temptation, when you +are not sure you may not fall. There is nothing +dishonourable about such a course, be the temptation +what it may.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland and Dick adopted the plan this morning at +all events. Both were awake long before sunrise; +long before the beautiful stars had ceased to glitter +gem-like high over mountains and forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">The camp was hardly yet astir, although Burly Bill +was looming between the lads and the light as they +stood with honest Brawn in the big tent doorway. +Over his head rose a huge cloud of fragrant smoke, +while ever and anon a gleam from the bowl of his +meerschaum lit up his good-humoured face.</p> +<p class="pnext">It had not taken the lads long to dress, and now +they sauntered out.</p> +<p class="pnext">The first faint light of the dawning day was already +beginning to pale the stars. Soon the sun himself, +red and rosy, would sail up from his bed behind the +far green forest.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Bill!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Hillo! Good-morning to you both! I've been up +for hours."</p> +<p class="pnext">"And we could not sleep for--thinking. But I say, +Bill, I think Benee has good news. I'm burning to +hear it, and so is Dick here, but it would be downright +mean to wake the poor fellow till he is well rested. +So, for fear we should seem too inquisitive, or too +squaw-like, we're off with bold Brawn here for a +walk. Yes, we are both armed."</p> +<p class="pnext">When the lads came back in about two hours' time, +they found Benee up and dressed and seated on the +grass at breakfast.</p> +<p class="pnext">When I say he was dressed I allude to the fact that +he very much needed dressing, for his garments were +in rags, his blanket in tatters. But he had taken the +clothes Bill provided for him, and gone straight to the +river for a wash and a swim.</p> +<p class="pnext">He looked quite the old Benee on his return.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah!" said Bill, "you're smiling, Benee. I know +you have good news."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Plenty good, Massa Bill, one leetle bitee bad!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, eat, old man; I'm hungry. Yes, the boys are +beautiful, and they'll be here in a few minutes."</p> +<p class="pnext">And so they were.</p> +<p class="pnext">Brawn was before them. He darted in with a rush +and a run, and licked first Benee's ears and then Bill's. +It was a rough but a very kindly salute.</p> +<p class="pnext">In these sky-high regions of Bolivia, a walk or run +across the plains early in the morning makes one +almost painfully hungry.</p> +<p class="pnext">But here was a breakfast fit for a king; eggs of +wild birds, fish, and flesh of deer, with cakes galore, +for the Indians were splendid cooks.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then, after breakfast, Benee told the boys and Bill +all his long and strange story. It was a thrilling one, +as we know already, and lost none of its effect by +being related in Benee's simple, but often graphic and +figurative language.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh!" cried impulsive Dick, when he had finished, +and there were tears in the lad's eyes that he took +small pains to hide, "you have made Roland and me +happy, inexpressibly happy, Benee. We know now +that dear Peggy is well, and that nothing can harm +her for the present, and something tells me we shall +receive her safe and sound."</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee's face got slightly clouded.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Will it not be so, Benee?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"The Christian God will help us, Massa Dick. Der +is mooch--plenty mooch--to be done!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"And we're the lads to do it," almost shouted Burly Bill.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Wowff! Wowff!" barked Brawn in the most emphatic manner.</p> +<p class="pnext">In another hour all were once more on the march +towards the land of the cannibals.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Life at the court of Queen Leeboo, as her people +called poor Peggy, was not all roses, but well the girl +knew that if she was to harbour any hopes of escape +she must keep cool and play her game well.</p> +<p class="pnext">She had all a woman's wits about her, however, and +all a woman's wiles. Vain Peggy certainly was not, +but she knew she was beautiful, and determined to +make the best use of the fact.</p> +<p class="pnext">Luckily for her she could speak the language of +this strange wild people as well as anyone, for Charlie +himself had been her teacher.</p> +<p class="pnext">A strangely musical and labial tongue it is, and +figurative, too, as might be expected, for the scenery +of every country has a certain effect upon its language.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was soon evident that Queen Leeboo was expected +to stay in the royal camp almost entirely.</p> +<p class="pnext">This she determined should not be the case. So +after the royal breakfast one morning--and a very +delightful and natural meal it was, consisting chiefly +of nuts and fruit--Queen Leeboo seized her sceptre, +the poisoned spear, and stepped lightly down from her +throne.</p> +<p class="pnext">"That isn't good enough," she said, "I want a little +fresh air."</p> +<p class="pnext">Her attendants threw themselves on their faces +before her, but she made them get up, and very much +astonished they were to see the beautiful queen march +along the great hall and step out on to the +skull-decorated verandah.</p> +<p class="pnext">The palace was built on a mountain ledge or table-land +of small dimensions. It was backed by gigantic +and precipitous rocks, now most beautifully draped +with the greenery of bush and fern, and trailed over +by a thousand charming wild flowers.</p> +<p class="pnext">Leeboo, as we may call her for the present, seated +herself languidly on a dais. She knew better than to +be rash. Her object was to gain the entire confidence +of her people. In this alone lay her hopes of escape, +and thoughts of freedom were ever uppermost in her mind.</p> +<p class="pnext">This was the first time she had been beyond the +portals of her royal prison-house, but she determined +it should not be the last.</p> +<p class="pnext">While her attendants partially encircled her she +gazed dreamily at the glorious scenery beyond and +beneath her.</p> +<p class="pnext">From her elevated position she could view the +landscape for leagues and leagues on every side. Few of +us, in this tame domestic land that we all love so well, +have ever visited so beautiful a country as these +highlands of Bolivia.</p> +<p class="pnext">Fresh from the hands of its Maker did it seem on +this fresh, cool, delightful morning. The dark green +of its rolling woods and forests, the heath-clad hills, +the streams that meandered through the dales like +threads of silver, the glittering lakes, the plains where +the llamas, and even oxen, roamed in great herds, and +far, far away on the horizon the serrated mountains, +patched and flecked with snow, that hid their summits +in the fleecy clouds; the whole formed as grand and +lovely a panorama as ever human eyes beheld.</p> +<p class="pnext">But it was marred somewhat by the immediate +surroundings of poor Leeboo.</p> +<p class="pnext">Oh, those awful skulls! "Is everything good and +beautiful in Nature," she could not help asking +herself, "except mankind?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Here was the faint odour of death, and she beheld +on many of these skulls the mark of the axe, +reminding her of murder. She shuddered. Her palace +was but a charnel-house. Those crouching creatures +around her, waiting to do her bidding or obey her +slightest behest, were but slaves of tyrant masters, +and every day she missed one of the youngest and +fairest, and knew what her doom would be.</p> +<p class="pnext">And out beyond the gate yonder were her soldiers, +her guards. Alas, yes! and they were her keepers also.</p> +<p class="pnext">But behold! yonder comes the great chief Kaloomah, +her prime minister, and walking beside him is Kalamazoo.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kaloomah walks erect and stately, as becomes so +high a functionary. He is stern in face even to +grimness and ferocity, but as handsome in form as some of +the heroes of Walter Scott.</p> +<p class="pnext">And Kalamazoo is little more than a boy, and one, +too, of somewhat fragile form, with face more delicate +than is becoming in a cannibal Indian.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kalamazoo is the only son of the late queen. For +some reason or other he wears a necklace of his +mother's red-stained teeth. Probably they are a charm.</p> +<p class="pnext">Both princes kneel at Leeboo's feet. Leeboo strikes +both smartly on the shoulders with her sceptre and +bids them stand up.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I would not have you grovel round me," she says +in their own tongue, "like two little pigs of the +forest." They stand up, looking sheepish and nonplussed, and +Leeboo, placing one on each side of her--a spear-length +distant,--looks first at Kaloomah and then at Kalamazoo +and bursts into a silvery laugh.</p> +<p class="pnext">Why laughs Queen Leeboo? These two men are +both very natural, both somewhat solemn. Not even +little pigs of the forest like to be laughed at.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the queen's mistress of the robes--let me call +her so--has told her that she is expected to take unto +herself a husband in three moons, and that it must be +either Kaloomah or Kalamazoo.</p> +<p class="pnext">This is now no state secret. All the queen's people +know, from her own palace gates to the remotest mud +hut on this cannibalistic territory. They all know it, +and they look forward to that week of festivity as +children in the rural districts of England look forward +to a fair.</p> +<p class="pnext">There will be a monster carousal that day.</p> +<p class="pnext">The soldiers of the queen will make a raid on a +neighbouring hill tribe, and bring back many heads +and many hams.</p> +<p class="pnext">If Kaloomah is the favourite, then Kalamazoo will +be slain and cooked.</p> +<p class="pnext">If the queen elects to smile on Kalamazoo with his +necklace of the maternal molars and incisors, then +Kaloomah with the best grace he can must submit to +the knife.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet must I do justice to both and say that it is not +because they fear death that they are so anxious to +curry favour with the young and lovely queen. Oh +no! for both are over head in love with her.</p> +<p class="pnext">And a happy thought has occurred to Leeboo. She +will play one against the other, and thus, in some way +to herself at present unknown, endeavour to effect her +escape from this land of murder, blood, and beautiful +scenery.</p> +<p class="pnext">So there they stand silently, a spear-length from her +dais, she glorying in the power she knows she has +over both. There they stand in silence, for court +etiquette forbids them to speak until spoken to.</p> +<p class="pnext">Very like a couple of champion idiots they are too. +Big Kaloomah doesn't quite know what to do with his +hands, and Kalamazoo is fidgeting nervously with his +necklace, and apparently counting his dead mother's +teeth as monks count their beads.</p> +<p class="pnext">Leeboo rises at last, and, gathering the loose portion +of her skirts around her, says: "Come, I would walk."</p> +<p class="pnext">She is a little way ahead, and she waves her spear +so prettily as she smiles her sweetest and points to the +grimly ornamental gate.</p> +<p class="pnext">And after hesitating for one moment, both Kaloomah +and the young prince follow sheepishly.</p> +<p class="pnext">The guards by the gate, grim, fully armed cut-throats, +seeing that her majesty expects obedience, fall back, +and the trio march through.</p> +<p class="pnext">But I do not think that either of Leeboo's lovers +is prepared for what follows.</p> +<p class="pnext">If they had calculated on a solemn majestic walk +around the plateau, they were soon very much undeceived.</p> +<p class="pnext">Leeboo had no sooner begun to breathe the glorious +mountain air, than she felt as exuberant as a child +again. Indeed, she was but little else. But she placed +her spear and sceptre of royalty very unceremoniously +into Kaloomah's hand to hold, while she darted off +after a splendid crimson specimen of dragon-fly.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kaloomah looked at Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo looked +at Kaloomah.</p> +<p class="pnext">The one didn't love the other, it is true, yet a +fellow-feeling made them wondrous kind. And the feeling +uppermost in the mind of each was wonder.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kaloomah beckoned to Kalamazoo, and pointed to +the queen. The words he spoke were somewhat as +follows:</p> +<p class="pnext">"Too much choorka-choorka! Suppose the queen +we lose--"</p> +<p class="pnext">He pointed with his thumb to his neck by way of +completing the sentence.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Too much choorka-choorka!" repeated the young +prince. "You old--you stop her."</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, no, you young--you run quick, you stop her!"</p> +<p class="pnext">That dragon-fly gave Leeboo grand sport for over +half an hour. From bush to bush it flitted, and flew +from flower to flower, over rocks, over cairns, and +finally down the great hill that led to the plain below.</p> +<p class="pnext">Matters looked serious, so both lovers were now in +duty bound to follow their all-too-lively queen.</p> +<p class="pnext">When they reached the bottom of the brae, however, +behold!--but stay, there was no behold about it. +Queen Leeboo was nowhere to be seen!</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxv-benee-s-mother-to-the-front"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id26">CHAPTER XXV--BENEE'S MOTHER TO THE FRONT</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Here was a difficulty!</p> +<p class="pnext">If they returned without the queen, they +would be torn in pieces and quietly eaten afterwards.</p> +<p class="pnext">They became excited. They looked here, there, and +everywhere for Leeboo. Up into the trees, under the +bushes, behind rocks and stones, but all in vain. The +beautiful girl seemed to have been spirited away, or +the earth had opened and admitted her into fairy-land, or--</p> +<p class="pnext">But see! To their great joy, yonder comes the +young queen holding aloft the dragon-fly and singing +to herself.</p> +<p class="pnext">Not a whit worse was the lovely thing; not one of +its four gauzy wings was so much as rumpled.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then she whispered something to it, and tossed it +high in air.</p> +<p class="pnext">And away it flew, straight to the north-east, as +if bent upon delivering the message she had entrusted +to its keeping.</p> +<p class="pnext">She stood gazing after it with flushed cheeks and +parted lips until it was no longer visible against the +sky's pale blue, then turned away with a sigh.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Leeboo was not tired yet. There were beautiful +birds to be seen and their songs listened to. And +there were garlands of wild flowers to be strung.</p> +<p class="pnext">One she threw over Kaloomah's neck.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kalamazoo looked wretched.</p> +<p class="pnext">She made him even a larger, and he was happy. +This garland quite hid his mother's frightful teeth.</p> +<p class="pnext">But it must be said that these two lovers of Leeboo's +looked--with those garlands of flowers around their +necks--more foolish than ever.</p> +<p class="pnext">She trotted them round for two whole hours. Then +she resumed her sceptre, and intimated her intention +to return to the palace.</p> +<p class="pnext">For a whole week these rambles were continued +day after day.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then storm-winds blew wild from off the snow-patched +mountains, and Leeboo was confined to her +palace for days.</p> +<p class="pnext">Her maids of honour, however, did all they could +to please and comfort her. They brought her the +choicest of fruits, and they told her strange weird +tales of strange weird people and mannikins who in +these regions dwell deep down in caves below the +ground, and often steal little children to nurse their +tiny infants.</p> +<p class="pnext">And they sang or chanted to her also, and all night +long in the drapery-hung chamber, where she reposed +on a couch of skins, they lay near her, ready to start +to their feet and obey her slightest command.</p> +<p class="pnext">Leeboo ruled her empire by love. But she could +be haughty and stern when she pleased, only she +never made use of that terrible spear, one touch of +which meant death.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">In less than six-weeks' time Queen Leeboo had so +thoroughly gained the confidence of her people that +she was trusted to go anywhere, although always +under the eyes of the young prince or Kaloomah.</p> +<p class="pnext">I believe Leeboo would have learned to like the +savages but for their cannibal tastes, and several times, +when men returned from the war-path, she had to +witness the most terrible of orgies.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was always young girls or boys who were the +victims of those fearful feasts. Her heart bled for +them, but all remonstrance on her part was in vain.</p> +<p class="pnext">Leeboo had got her pony back, and often had a +glorious gallop over the prairie.</p> +<p class="pnext">But something else had happened, which added +greatly to Leeboo's comfort and happiness. Shooks-gee +himself came to camp and brought with him little +Weenah, his beautiful child-daughter.</p> +<p class="pnext">Leeboo took to her at once, and the two became +constant companions.</p> +<p class="pnext">Weenah could converse in broken English, and so +many a long delightful "confab" they had together.</p> +<p class="pnext">Child-like, Weenah told Leeboo of her love for +Benee, of their early rambles in the forest, too, and of +her own wild wanderings in search of him. Told her, +too, that Benee was coming back again with a fresh +army of Indians and white men, with Leeboo's own +lover and her brother as their captains; told her of the +fearful fight that was bound to take place, but which +would end in the complete triumph of the good men +and the rescue of Leeboo herself.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yes, Weenah had her prophecy all cut and dry, and +her story ended with a good "curtain", as all good +stories should.</p> +<p class="pnext">Whether Weenah's prophecy would be fulfilled or +not we have to read on to see, for, alas! it was a dark +and gloomy race of savages that would have to be dealt +with, and rather than lose their queen, Kaloomah and +his people would--but there! I have no wish to +paint my chapters red.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Leeboo was not slow to perceive that her chief +chance of escape lay in the skill with which she might +play her two lovers against each other.</p> +<p class="pnext">Whoever married her would be king. He would +rank with, but after, the queen herself, for, to the +credit of these cannibals be it said, they always prefer +female government.</p> +<p class="pnext">In civilized society Leeboo might have been accused +of acting mischievously; for she would take first one +into favour and then the other, giving, that is, each +of them a taste of the seventh heaven time about. +When Kalamazoo's star was in the ascendant, then +Kaloomah was deep down in a pit of despair; but +anon, he would be up and out again, and then it was +Kalamazoo's turn to weep and wail and gnash his +triangular red-stained teeth.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is needless to say that the game she was playing +was a sad strain upon our poor young heroine. No +wonder her eyes grew bright with that brightness +which denotes loss of strength, and weariness, and that +her cheeks were often far too flushed.</p> +<p class="pnext">Hope deferred makes the heart sick, and but for +little Weenah I think that Leeboo would have given +up heart altogether and lain down to die.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Weenah was always bright, cheerful, and +happy. She was laughing all day long. Benee was +coming for her; of that she was very certain and +sure, so she sang about her absent lover even as +birds in the woodlands sing, and with just as sweet +a voice.</p> +<p class="pnext">The plot was thickening and thickening, and Leeboo +managed matters now so that only one of her +guardians at a time accompanied herself and Weenah in +their rides or rambles.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dixie--as the pony was named--was a very faithful +little horse, and though when Weenah had to trot +beside him he never was allowed to go the pace, he +was exceedingly strong, and could scour the plain +or prairie as fleet as the wind whenever his young +mistress put him on his mettle. On such occasions, +no matter which of Leeboo's admirers was with her, +he dropped far astern, and after running for a mile +or so, had to sit down to pant.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the young queen always returned, and so she +was trusted implicitly.</p> +<p class="pnext">So too was Weenah, but then Weenah was one of +themselves.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">In their very long and toilsome march, up the Mayatata, +well was it indeed for Roland and Dick that they +had guides so faithful and clever as Benee and Charlie. +But for them, indeed, the expedition would have been +foredoomed to failure.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee indeed was really the guiding star. For in +his own lonesome wanderings he had surveyed the +whole country as it were, and knew every fitting +place for a camp, every ford on every stream, and +every pathway through the dense and dark forests.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were but the pathways made by the beasts, +however, and often all but impassable. Still, in single +file they marched, and were always successful in +making their way. Two whole months passed away, +and now, as they were nearing the cannibal highlands, +greater precautions than ever were required.</p> +<p class="pnext">And for a week they had to turn night into day, +and travel while the savages slept.</p> +<p class="pnext">They kept away, too, from any portion of the +country which seemed to have the slightest claim to +be called inhabited. Better they should herd with +the wild beasts of the forest than sight the face of +even a single savage. For swift as deer that savage +would run towards the cannibal head-quarters and +give information of the approach of a pale-face horde +of enemies.</p> +<p class="pnext">At last there came a day when Benee called a +council of war.</p> +<p class="pnext">"We now get near de bad man's land," he said. +"Ugh! I not lub mooch blood."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Then what would you have us do?" said Roland. +"Shall we advance boldly or make a night attack?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, no, no, sah. Too many cannibal warrior, too +much pizen arrow, sling, and spear. No; build here +a camp. Make he strong. Benee will go all same. +Benee will creep and crawl till he come to father and +mother house. Den Benee make all right. Pray for +Benee."</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee left, poor Brawn bidding him a most +affectionate farewell. Surely that honest dog knew he +was bent on saving his little mistress, if only he +could.</p> +<p class="pnext">Charlie, the ex-cannibal, stayed in camp for the +time being, but he might be useful as a spy afterwards.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is needless to say that the prayers of both our +heroes were offered up night and day for Benee's +success, and that their blessings followed him.</p> +<p class="pnext">But we do not always receive the answers that +would appear to us the best to our prayers, however +earnest and heartfelt they may be. Still, we know +well, though we are generally very loth to admit it, +that afflictions are very often blessings in disguise.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now Benee was once more all alone on the +war-path, and he followed his old tactics, creeping +quietly through the jungle only by night, and retiring +into hiding whenever day began to obliterate the stars. +Roland gave orders for the camp to be immediately +fortified. It was certainly a well-chosen one, on the +top of a wooded hill.</p> +<p class="pnext">This hill was scarcely a hundred feet high, but +although it might be taken by siege, its position +rendered it almost impregnable as far as assault was +concerned.</p> +<p class="pnext">A rampart with a trench was thrown round three +sides of it. That was apparently all that would be +needed.</p> +<p class="pnext">Looking from below by daylight even, hardly a +savage could have told that an enemy held the hill.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now there was nothing to do but to wait. And +waiting is always wearisome work.</p> +<p class="pnext">But let us follow Benee.</p> +<p class="pnext">His progress was slow, but it was sure, and at last +he reached the cottage where good Shooks-gee and +his wife resided.</p> +<p class="pnext">But here was no one save his "mother", as Benee +lovingly called her.</p> +<p class="pnext">A great fear took possession of his mind. Could it +be that his father himself was dead, and that Weenah +was captive?</p> +<p class="pnext">His lips and voice almost refused to formulate the +question nearest to his heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">But his mother's smile reassured him. Weenah +was safe, and at the court of the queen, and Shooks-gee +himself was there. So Benee grew hopeful once more.</p> +<p class="pnext">But his task would be by no means an easy one.</p> +<p class="pnext">First and foremost he must establish communication +between the captive girl and himself. How could +this be done?</p> +<p class="pnext">Had Shooks-gee been at home it might have been +managed simply enough. But he himself dared not +appear anywhere in sight of the savages.</p> +<p class="pnext">He felt almost baffled, but at last his mother came +to his rescue.</p> +<p class="pnext">The risk would be extreme. These cannibal savages +are as suspicious of strangers as they are fierce and +bloodthirsty, and if this poor, kindly-hearted woman +was taken for a spy her doom would be sealed.</p> +<p class="pnext">But see the young queen she must, or little Weenah, +her daughter; for great though Benee's abilities were, +he did not possess the accomplishment of writing.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Dressed as one of the lowest of peasants, the mother +of Weenah set boldly out on her forlorn hope the very +next day, and in the afternoon she was within one +mile of the palace itself.</p> +<p class="pnext">Here she hid herself in the jungle, and after eating +a little fruit went to sleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">The stars were still shining when she awoke, but +she knew them all, and those that were setting told +her that day would soon break.</p> +<p class="pnext">To pass through the soldier-guards and enter the +palace would, she knew, be an utter impossibility. +There was nothing for it but to wait with patience, +for her husband had told her that the queen rode out +for a scamper over the plains every forenoon.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had even told her the direction she usually +took, not riding fast, but with Weenah running by +her side, keeping a long way ahead of her lover +guardian, whichever one of them might happen for +the time being to be the happy man.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee's mother was as courageous as a mountain +cat. She had a duty to perform, and she meant to +carry it out.</p> +<p class="pnext">Well, we are told in some old classic that fortune +favours the brave.</p> +<p class="pnext">It does not always do so, but in this case, at all +events, this good woman was successful.</p> +<p class="pnext">At a certain part of the plain there were bushes +close and thick enough, and just here Leeboo with +her little charger must pass if she came out to-day at all.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was at this spot, then, that Weenah's mother +concealed herself.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nor had she very long to wait, for soon the +sound of the pony's hoofs fell on her ear, beating a +pleasant accompaniment to two sweet voices raised in +song.</p> +<p class="pnext">The Indian woman raised herself and peeped over +the bushes.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yes, they were coming, and alone too, for Kaloomah +could not run so fast as Kalamazoo, and was a long +way behind.</p> +<p class="pnext">With characteristic impulse Weenah rushed forward +and was clasped for a moment in her mother's arms.</p> +<p class="pnext">And, somewhat astonished, Leeboo immediately +reined up.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxvi-the-pale-face-queen-has-fled"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id27">CHAPTER XXVI--THE PALE-FACE QUEEN HAS FLED</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Leeboo, the young queen, could see that the +woman was flurried and excited.</p> +<p class="pnext">She stood with her face to the pony and one arm +was held aloft in the air. Her eyes were gleaming, +and her hat had fallen over her back, allowing her +wealth of coal-black hair to escape.</p> +<p class="pnext">Weenah stood by the saddle.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I have that to say," exclaimed her mother, in her +strangely musical language, "that must be said speedily. +If I am seen we are all doomed. But listen, and listen +intently. You are free if you are fortunate. Liberty +is at hand. Your friends are twenty miles down +stream in camp. Down the stream of Bitter Waters. +Ride this way to-morrow, and when far enough +away take Weenah in your saddle, and gallop for +your life into the forest. Weenah will be your guide."</p> +<p class="pnext">So quickly did the woman vanish that for a few +moments our heroine half believed she must have been +dreaming.</p> +<p class="pnext">But she pulled herself together at once, and now +rode back to meet Kaloomah.</p> +<p class="pnext">She was all smiles too.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Why waits poor Kaloomah here?" she said, in her +softest sweetest tones.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kaloomah placed his hand on the saddle pommel, +and panted somewhat. But Kaloomah was in the +seventh heaven.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Say--say--say 'poor Kaloomah' again," he muttered.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Poor Kaloomah! Poor dear Kaloomah!"</p> +<p class="pnext">She could even afford to place emphasis on the +"dear", she was so happy.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh--ugh!" sighed the savage; "but to-morrow it +may be 'poor dear Kalamazoo!'"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah, you are jealous! A little forest bird is +pecking, pecking at your heart. But listen; to-morrow it +shall not be Kalamazoo, but Kaloomah once again."</p> +<p class="pnext">Well, I dare say that love-making is very much the +same all over the wide, wide world, and so we cannot +even laugh at this cannibal if he did bend rapturously +down and kiss the toe of Leeboo's sandal-shaped +stirrup.</p> +<p class="pnext">"And now, Kaloomah," she added, "I would gather +some wild flowers, and listen for a little while to the +soo-soo's song while you twine my wild flowers into +a garland. My little handmaiden, Weenah, will assist +you.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But, Kaloomah!" she continued archly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, my moon-dream."</p> +<p class="pnext">"You must not make love to my maiden, else a +little forest bird will peck poor Leeboo's heart to +pieces and Leeboo die."</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">I hardly think it would be putting it one whit too +strongly to say that the pale-face maiden queen had +turned this savage's head.</p> +<p class="pnext">They all returned together at last to the palace, and +the queen with her little handmaiden retired to her +chamber to dine.</p> +<p class="pnext">As to Kaloomah, the spirit of pride had got into him, +and this is really as difficult to get rid of as if one +were possessed of an evil spirit. So the chief, decorated +with the garland of wild flowers that Leeboo the +queen had placed around his neck, could not resist +the temptation to parade himself on the plateau before +Kalamazoo's tent. He wished the prince to see him. +And the prince did.</p> +<p class="pnext">The prince, moreover, was strongly tempted to +rush forth, spear in hand, and slay his rival where +he stood.</p> +<p class="pnext">But he remembered in time that Kaloomah was not +only a great chief but a mighty warrior. Over and +over again had he led the cannibal army against the +glens and valleys of distant highland chiefs. And he +had been ever victorious, his soldiers returning after +a great slaughter of the foe, laden with heads and +hams, to hold nights and nights of fearful orgie.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kalamazoo knew that Kaloomah was the people's +favourite, and that if he slew him, he himself would +speedily be torn limb from limb.</p> +<p class="pnext">So he was content to gnash his own teeth, to count +his mother's over and over again, and to remain quiescent.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is seldom indeed that a savage is troubled with +sleeplessness, but that night poor Benee was far too +anxious to slumber soundly. For he knew not what +another day might bring forth. It might be pregnant +with happiness for him and the young girls he loved +so dearly, or it might end in bloodshed and in death.</p> +<p class="pnext">What a glorious morning broke over the woodlands +at last! Looking eastwards Benee could note a strip +of the deepest orange just above the dark forest +horizon. This faded into palest green, and above all +was ethereal blue, with just one or two rosy clouds. +And westwards those patches of snow in the hollow of +the mighty Sierras were pink, with purple shadows.</p> +<p class="pnext">And this innocent and unsophisticated savage bent +himself low on his knees and prayed to Him who +is the author of all that is beautiful, to bless his +enterprise and take his little mistress safe away +from this blood-stained land of darkness and woe.</p> +<p class="pnext">He felt better when he rose to his feet. Then he +entered the cottage and had breakfast.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I will come again some day," he said, as his "mother" +bade him a tearful farewell. "I will come again and +take Father and you to the far-off happy land of the +pale-faces."</p> +<p class="pnext">So he hied him away to the forest, looking back +just once to wave his hand.</p> +<p class="pnext">He well knew the road that Weenah and Leeboo--no, +let us call her Peggy once more--would take, if +indeed they should succeed in escaping.</p> +<p class="pnext">He walked towards the river of Bitter Waters therefore, +and, journeying for some miles along its wild +romantic banks, lay down to wait.</p> +<p class="pnext">Wild flowers trailed and climbed among the bushes +where he hid; he saw not their bright colours, he +was scarcely sensible of their perfume.</p> +<p class="pnext">The soo-soo's song was sweet and plaintive; he +heard it not.</p> +<p class="pnext">He was wholly absorbed in thought. So the sun got +higher and higher, and still he waited and +watched--waited and hoped.</p> +<p class="pnext">Only, ever and anon he would place his ear against +the hard ground and listen intently.</p> +<p class="pnext">'Twas noon, and they came not.</p> +<p class="pnext">Something must have happened. Everything must +have failed.</p> +<p class="pnext">What should he do? What could he do?</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">But hark! A joyful sound. It was that of a horse +at the gallop, and it was coming nearer and nearer.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee grasped his rifle.</p> +<p class="pnext">It must be she. It must, and was poor Peggy, and +Weenah was seated behind her.</p> +<p class="pnext">He looked quickly to his repeating rifle, and patted +the revolvers in his belt.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, Benee, Benee! how rejoiced I am!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"But are you followed, Missie Peggy?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, no, Benee, we have ridden clean and clear +away from the savage chief Kaloomah, and we fear +no pursuit."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Ah, Missie! You not know de savage man. I do. +Come. Make track now.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Weenah," he added. "Oh, my love, Weenah! But +come not down. We mus' fly foh de cannibal come +in force."</p> +<p class="pnext">It seemed but child's play to Benee to trot lightly +along beside the pony.</p> +<p class="pnext">Love, no doubt, made the labour lighter. Besides, +on faithful little Dixie's back was all that Benee cared +much for in the world, Weenah and "Missie Peggy".</p> +<p class="pnext">True enough, he liked and respected Roland, and +Dick as well, but they were not all the world to +him as these girls were. And ever since he had +found Roland and Peggy in the dark forest and +rescued them, his little mistress had been in his eyes +an angel. Never an unkind word was it possible for +her to say to anyone, least of all--so he flattered +himself--to Benee.</p> +<p class="pnext">The poor, untutored savage felt, in his happiness, at +this moment, that it would be sweet to die were the +loved ones only near to hold his hand.</p> +<p class="pnext">But he could die, too, fighting for them; ay, fighting +to the end. Who was he that would dare touch the +ground where Peggy or Weenah trod if he--Benee--were +there?</p> +<p class="pnext">And so they journeyed on and on by the river's side +and through jungle and forest, never dreaming of +danger or pursuit.</p> +<p class="pnext">Ah! but wild as a panther was Kaloomah now.</p> +<p class="pnext">When he found that he was baffled, befooled, +deserted, then all his fury--the fury of an untamed +savage--boiled up from the bottom of his heart.</p> +<p class="pnext">Love! Where was love now? It found no place in +this wild chief's heart; hate had supplanted it, and it +was a hate that must be quenched in blood. Yes, her +blood! He would be revenged, and then--well then, +the sooner he should die after that the better. For +his life's sun had gone out, his days could only be days +of darkness now.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet how happy had he been only this morning, and +how proud when he stalked forth from his hut and +passed that of Kalamazoo, still wearing the wild +flowers with which she had adorned him!</p> +<p class="pnext">He tore those wild flowers from his neck now, and +scattered them to the winds.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then, as fast and fleet as ever savage ran, he hied +him back to the palace.</p> +<p class="pnext">Few had more stentorian lungs than Kaloomah!</p> +<p class="pnext">"The queen has gone! The white queen has fled!"</p> +<p class="pnext">That shout awakened one thousand armed men to +action, and in less than an hour they were on the warpath.</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxvii-the-fight-at-the-fort"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id28">CHAPTER XXVII--THE FIGHT AT THE FORT</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">So toilsome was the road to trace, and so far away +was the fortified camp of our heroes, that the sun +was almost setting before Benee arrived with his +precious charge.</p> +<p class="pnext">Why should I make any attempt to describe the +meeting of Roland and Dick with the long-lost Peggy?</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland and she had always been as brother and +sister, and now that they were once more united, all +her joy found vent in a flood of tears, which her +brother did what he could to stem.</p> +<p class="pnext">It seemed hardly possible that she should be here +safe and sound, and in the presence of those who +loved her so well and dearly.</p> +<p class="pnext">And here, too, was Brawn, who was delirious with +joy, and honest Bill with his meerschaum.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Oh, surely I shall not awake and find it all a +dream!" she cried in terror. "Awake and find myself +still in that awful palace, with its dreadful surroundings +and the odour of death everywhere! Oh--h!"</p> +<p class="pnext">The girl shuddered.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Dear Peggy," said Dick tenderly, "this is no dream; +you are with us again, and we with you. All the +past is as nothing. Let us live for the future. Is that +right, Roland?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, you must forget the past, Peggy," said Roland. +"Dick is right. The past shall be buried. We are +young yet. The world is all before us. So come, +laugh, and be happy, Peggy."</p> +<p class="pnext">"And this charming child here, who is she?" said +Dick. He alluded to Weenah.</p> +<p class="pnext">"That is little Weenah, a daughter of the wilds, a +child of the desert. Nay, but no child after all, are +you, Weenah?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Weenah bent her dark eyes on the ground.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I am nothing," she said. "I am nobody, only--Benee's."</p> +<p class="pnext">"But, Weenah," said Peggy, taking the girl by the +hand, "oh, how I shall miss you when you go!"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Go?" said Weenah wonderingly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, dear, you have a father and a mother, who +are fond of you. Must you not return soon to them?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"My father and my mother I love," replied Weenah. +"And you I love, for you have taught me to pray to +the pale-face's God. You have taught me many, many +things that are good and beautiful. My life now is +all joy and brightness, and so, though I love my +mother and my father, oh! bid me not to leave you."</p> +<p class="pnext">All this was spoken in the language of the country. +It was Greek to those around them, but even Bill could +see that the dark-eyed maiden was pleading for +something, for her hand was in Peggy's, her eyes upon +hers.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">It was just at this moment that scouts came +hurrying in from the forest, bringing news that was +startling enough, as well as surprising.</p> +<p class="pnext">These men had come speedily in, almost as fleet of +foot as deer, and the word they brought was that the +savages, at least six hundred strong, were not more +than three hours distant.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland showed no excitement, whatever he might +feel. Nor did Dick. Yet both were ready for action.</p> +<p class="pnext">Burly Bill, who had been quietly smoking a little +way off, put his great thumb in the bowl of his +meerschaum, and stowed away that faithful companion of +his in his coat-pocket.</p> +<p class="pnext">Can a young fellow still in his teens, and whom we +older men are all too apt to sneer at as a mere boy, +prove himself a good general. He may and he can, if +he has grit in him and a head of some sort surmounting +his shoulders.</p> +<p class="pnext">From what followed I think Roland proved that he +was in possession of both.</p> +<p class="pnext">Well, he had descended from a long line of hardy +Cornish ancestors, and there is more in good blood +than we are apt to believe.</p> +<p class="pnext">He came to the front now at all events, and Dick +and Bill, to say nothing of Benee, Rodrigo, and the +other canoe captains, were ready to obey his every +command.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland called a council of war at once, and it did +not take long to come to a decision.</p> +<p class="pnext">Our chief hero was the principal speaker. But +brave men do not lose much time in words.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Boys," he said, "we've got to fight these rascally +savages. That's so, I think?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"That's so," was the chorus.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, and we've got to beat them, too. We want +to give them something that shall keep them both +quiet and civil until we can afford to send out a few +missionaries to improve their morals.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Now, Rodrigo, I cannot force you to fight."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Force, sir? I need no force. Command me."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, I will. I wish to outflank these beggars. +You and our Indians, with Benee as your guide, are +just the men to do so.</p> +<p class="pnext">"The moon will be up in another hour. It will be +the harvest-moon in England. The harvest-moon here, +too--but a harvest, alas! of blood.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Now, Benee," he continued, "as soon as we are +ready, guide these men with Captain Rodrigo for some +distance down-stream, then curl round the savages, +and when they begin to retreat, or even before that, +attack them in the rear. Good luck to you!"</p> +<p class="pnext">As silently as ghosts two hundred and fifty well-armed +Indians, a short time after Roland made that +brave little speech, glided down the brow of the hill, +and disappeared in the woods beyond.</p> +<p class="pnext">Though our heroes listened, they could not hear a +sound, not even the crackling of a bush or broken +branch.</p> +<p class="pnext">Soon the moon glared red through the topmost +boughs of the far-off trees, and flooded all the land +with a light almost as bright as day. The stars above, +that before had glittered on the river's rippling breast, +and the stars beneath--those wondrous flitting +fire-insects--paled before its beams, and the night-birds +sought for shelter in caves among the rocks. So over +all the prairie and woodlands there fell a stillness +that was almost oppressive. It was as if Nature held +her breath, expectant of the fight that was to follow.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nor was that fight very long delayed. But it must +have been well on towards midnight before the first +indication of an approaching foe was made manifest.</p> +<p class="pnext">Only a long, mournful hoot, away in the bush, and +bearing a close resemblance to that of the owl.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was repeated here and there from different +quarters, and our heroes knew that an attack was +imminent.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was in the centre of the camp a roomy cave. +In this all stores had been placed, with water enough +for a night at all events, and here were Peggy and +Weenah safely guarded by Brawn. Roland had +managed to make the darkness visible by lighting +two candles and placing them on the wall.</p> +<p class="pnext">In a smaller cave was Peter, and as he had given +evidence lately of a great desire to escape, the boys +had taken the liberty to rope him.</p> +<p class="pnext">"You shall live to repent this," hissed the man +through his teeth.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had thrown overboard all his plausibility now, +and assumed his natural self--the dangerous villain.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Have a care," replied Dick, "or you will not live +long enough to repent of anything."</p> +<p class="pnext">On one side of the camp was the river, down under +a cliff of considerable height. It was very quiet and +sluggish just here, and its gentle whispering was no +louder than a light breeze sighing through forest +trees.</p> +<p class="pnext">There were, therefore, really only three sides of the +parapet and hill to defend.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now Burly Bill's quick ear caught the sound of +rustling down below.</p> +<p class="pnext">"The savages are on us," he said quietly.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Then give them a volley to begin with," answered +Roland.</p> +<p class="pnext">The white men started down scores of huge stones; +but this was more for the purpose of bringing the +savages into sight than with a view to wound or kill any.</p> +<p class="pnext">It had the desired effect, and probably another, for +the cannibals must have believed the pale-faces had +no other means of defence.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were seen now in the bright moonlight +scrambling up-hill in scores, with knives in their +mouths and spears on their backs.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Fire straight and steadily, men," cried the young +chief, Roland. "Fire independently, and every man +at the enemy in front of him."</p> +<p class="pnext">A well-aimed and rattling volley, followed by +another and another, made the Indians pause. The +number of dead and wounded was great, and impeded +the progress of those who would have rushed up and on.</p> +<p class="pnext">Volley after volley was now poured into the savage +ranks, but they came pressing up from behind as +black and fierce and numerous as a colony of +mountain-ants.</p> +<p class="pnext">Their yelling and war-cries were terrible to hear.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the continuous volley-firing still kept them +at bay.</p> +<p class="pnext">"The rockets, Dick, are they ready?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Yes, captain, all ready."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Try the effect of these."</p> +<p class="pnext">It was a fearful sight to witness those dread +weapons of warfare tear through the ranks of these +shrieking demons.</p> +<p class="pnext">Death and mutilation was dealt on every side, and +the fire from the ramparts grew fiercer and fiercer.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet so terrible in their battle-wrath are these +cannibals, that--well our heroes knew--if they were +to scale the ramparts, even the white men would not +be able to stand against them.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then the fight would degenerate into a massacre, +and this would be followed by an orgie too awful to +contemplate.</p> +<p class="pnext">At this moment there could not have been fewer +than five hundred savages striving to capture the little +hill on which stood the camp, and Roland's men in all +were barely eighty. Some who had exposed +themselves were speedily brought down with poisoned +arrows, and already lay writhing in the agonies of +spasmodic death.</p> +<p class="pnext">But see, led on by the chief Kaloomah himself, who +seems to bear a charmed life, the foremost ranks of +those sable warriors have already all but gained +footing on the ramparts, while with axe and adze the +pale-faces endeavour to repel them.</p> +<p class="pnext">In vain!</p> +<p class="pnext">Kaloomah--great knife in hand--and at least a score +of his braves have effected an entrance, and the whites, +though fighting bravely, are being pushed, if not +driven back.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is a terrible moment!</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxviii-the-dream-and-the-terror"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id29">CHAPTER XXVIII--THE DREAM AND THE TERROR!</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Far more acute in hearing are these children of the +wilds than any white man who ever lived, and +now, just as hope was beginning to die out of even +Roland's heart, a sudden movement on the part of the +savages who had gained admittance caused him to +marvel.</p> +<p class="pnext">More quickly than they had entered, back they +sprang towards the parapet, and on gazing after them, +our heroes found that the hill-sides were clear.</p> +<p class="pnext">It was evident, however, that a great battle was +going on down beneath on the prairie.</p> +<p class="pnext">Explanation is hardly needed.</p> +<p class="pnext">Rodrigo's men, guided by Benee, had outflanked--nay, +even surrounded--the foe, and with well-aimed +volleys had thrust them back and back towards the +river, into which, with wild agonizing shouts, all that +was left of Kaloomah's army was driven.</p> +<p class="pnext">They were excellent swimmers, the 'gators were +absent from this river, and doubtless hundreds of +fugitives would find their way back into their own +dark land to tell how well and bravely the pale-faces +can fight.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Kaloomah, where is he?</p> +<p class="pnext">Intent on revenge, even while the battle raged the +fiercest and the whites were being driven back, his quick +eye caught the glimmer of the candle-light in the cave.</p> +<p class="pnext">Leeboo was there, he told himself, and the false +witch Weenah.</p> +<p class="pnext">He shortened his knife, and made a rush for the +entrance.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Hab--a--rabb--rr--rr--ow!" That was the voice +of the great wolf-hound, as he sprang on the would-be +assassin and pinned him to the ground.</p> +<p class="pnext">Kaloomah's knife dropped from his hand as he tried +to free himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Brawn had him by the throat now, and had not +brave Peggy sprung to the assistance of the savage, +the dog would have torn the windpipe from his neck.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Kaloomah was prisoner, and when the fight was +all over, the dog was released from duty, and the chief +was bound hand and foot and placed in the other cave +beside Peter.</p> +<p class="pnext">This cave, which had thus been turned into a prison, +possessed an entrance at the side, a kind of doorway +through the dark rocks, and a great hole at the top, +through which daylight, or even moonlight, could +stream. At some not very distant date it had +evidently been used as a hut, and must have been the +scene of many a fearful cannibal orgie, for scores of +human skulls were heaped up in corners, and calcined +bones were also found. Altogether, therefore, an +unhallowed kind of place, and eerie beyond conception.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is as well to tell the truth concerning the battle +on the hill-top, ghastly though it may appear. There +were no wounded men there, for even in the thick +of the fight the savages not only slew the white men +who dropped, but their own maimed as well.</p> +<p class="pnext">So long as the brave fellows under Roland and +Dick held the ramparts, and poured their volleys into +the ranks of the enemy beneath, scarcely a white man +was hurt; but when the battlements were carried by +storm, then the havoc of war commenced in earnest; +and at daylight a great deep trench was excavated, +and in this no fewer than eleven white men were +placed, side by side.</p> +<p class="pnext">A simple prayer was said, then a hymn was +sung--a sad dirge-like hymn to that sacred air +called "Martyrdom", which has risen in olden times +from many a Scottish battle-field, where the heather +was dripping blood. I take my fiddle and play it +now, and that mournful scene rises up before me, in +which the white men crowd around the long quiet +grave, where their late companions lie sleeping in the +tomb.</p> +<p class="pnext">Every head is bared in the morning sunshine, every +eye is wet with tears.</p> +<p class="pnext">It is Bill himself who leads the melody.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then clods are gently thrown upon the dead, and +soon the grave is filled.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">There was not the slightest apprehension now that +the battle would be renewed, and so all the day was +spent in getting ready for the long march back to the +spot where, under the charge of one of the captains +and his faithful peons, the great canoes had been left.</p> +<p class="pnext">Among the stores brought here to camp--the +suggestion had emanated from Roland's mother and +Beeboo--was a chest containing many changes of +raiment and dresses belonging to Peggy. In the cave, +then, both she and Weenah conducted their toilet, and +when, some time after, and just as breakfast was +about to be served, they both came out, it would +have been difficult, indeed, to keep from exclamations +of surprise.</p> +<p class="pnext">Even Benee gave way to his excitement, and, seizing +Weenah, held her for a moment high in air.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I rejoice foh true!" he cried. "All ober my heart +go flapperty-flap. Oh, Weenah! you am now all same +one red pale-face lady."</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick thought Peggy, with her bonnie sun-tanned +face, more lovely now than ever he had seen her.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">But while they are breakfasting, and while the +men are quietly but busily engaged getting the stores +down-hill, let us take a peep into the cave where the +prisoners are.</p> +<p class="pnext">When Kaloomah was thrust into the cave, Peter +was fast asleep. Of late he had become utterly +tired and careless of life. Was his not a wrecked +existence from beginning to end? This was a question +that he oftentimes asked himself sadly enough.</p> +<p class="pnext">During the fight that had raged so long and fiercely +he had remained perfectly passive. What was it to +him who won or who lost? If the Indians won, he +would speedily be put out of pain. If the white men +were the victors--well, he would probably die just +the same. At all events, life was not worth having now.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then, when the lull of battle came, when the wild +shrieks and shouting were over, and when the rattling +of musketry was no longer heard, he felt utterly tired. +He would sleep, he told himself, and what cared he +if it should be</p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line">"The sleep that knows not breaking,</div> +<div class="line">Morn of toil or night of waking"?</div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">The cords that bound him hurt a little, but he would +not feel their pressure when--he slept.</p> +<p class="pnext">His was not a dreamless sleep by any means, though +a long one.</p> +<p class="pnext">His old, old life seemed to rise up before him. He +was back again in England--dear old England! He +was a clerk, a confidential clerk.</p> +<p class="pnext">He had no care, no complications, and he was happy. +Happy in the love of a sweet girl who adored him; +the girl that he would have made his wife. Poor? +Yes, both were; but oh! when one has innocence and +sweet contentment, love can bloom in a garret.</p> +<p class="pnext">Yet envy of the rich began to fill his soul. The +world was badly divided. Why had he to tread the +streets day after day with muddy boots to his office, +and back to his dingy home after long hours of toil +and drudgery at the desk?</p> +<p class="pnext">Oh for comfort! Oh for riches!</p> +<p class="pnext">The girl that was to be his was more beautiful than +many who lolled in cushioned carriages, with liveried +servants to attend their beck and call.</p> +<p class="pnext">So his dream went on, and dreams are but half-waking +thoughts.</p> +<p class="pnext">But it changes now!</p> +<p class="pnext">He sees Mary his sweetheart, wan and pale, with +tears in her eyes for him whose voice she may never +hear again.</p> +<p class="pnext">For the tempter has come with gold and with +golden promises.</p> +<p class="pnext">And he has fallen!</p> +<p class="pnext">Other men have fallen before. Why not he when +so much was to be gained? So much of--nay, not of +glory, but of gold. What is it that gold cannot do?</p> +<p class="pnext">A conscience? Yes, he had possessed one once. +But this tempter had laughed heartily when he talked +of so old-fashioned a possession. It was all a matter +of business.</p> +<p class="pnext">Behold those wealthy men who glide past in their +beautiful landaus. Did they have consciences? If +they did, then, instead of a town and country house, +their home would soon be the garret vile in some +back slum in London.</p> +<p class="pnext">Again the dream changes. To the fearful and +awful now. For, stretched out before him is Mary, +wan and worn--Mary, DEAD!</p> +<p class="pnext">He awakes with a shriek, and sits up with his back +against the black rock.</p> +<p class="pnext">His hand touches something cold. It is a skull, +and he shudders as he thrusts it away.</p> +<p class="pnext">But is he awake? He lifts his fettered hands and +rubs his eyes.</p> +<p class="pnext">He gazes in terror at someone that is sitting, just +as he is, with his back against the wall--and asleep.</p> +<p class="pnext">The rough dress is all disarranged, and the brown +hands are covered with blood. It is an awful vision.</p> +<p class="pnext">He shuts his eyes a moment, but when he opens +them again the man is still there! The terror!</p> +<p class="pnext">The morning sun is glimmering in and falling +directly on the awful sleeping face.</p> +<p class="pnext">He sits bolt upright now and leans forward.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Kaloomah!" he cries. "Kaloomah!"</p> +<p class="pnext">And his own voice seems to belong to some spirit +behind those prison walls.</p> +<p class="pnext">But the terror awakes.</p> +<p class="pnext">And the eyes of the two men meet.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Don Pedro! You here?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Kaloomah. I am."</p> +</div> +<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxix-eastward-ho-for-merrie-england"> +<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref" href="#id30">CHAPTER XXIX--EASTWARD HO! FOR MERRIE ENGLAND</a></h2> +<p class="pfirst">Captain Roland St. Clair, as he was called +by his men, was busy along with Dick and Bill +in superintending the sending-off of all heavy +baggage down-stream, when a man came up and saluted him.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, Harris?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"The prisoner Peter desires to speak with you, sir, +in the presence of two witnesses. He wished me to +request you to bring paper, pen, and ink. It is his +desire that you should take his deposition."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Deposition, Harris? But the man is not dying."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Well, perhaps not, sir. I only tell you what he says."</p> +<p class="pnext">"I will be in his cell in less than twenty minutes, +Harris."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Dick," said Roland, at the appointed time, "there +is some mystery here. Come with me, and you also, +Bill."</p> +<p class="pnext">"What I have to say must be said briefly and +quickly," said Peter, sitting up. "I will not give +myself the pain," he added, "to think very much +about the past. It is all too dark and horrible. But +I make this confession, unasked for and being still in +possession of all my faculties and reasoning power."</p> +<p class="pnext">He spoke very slowly, and Dick wrote down the +confession as he made it.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I am guilty, gentlemen. Dare I say 'with +extenuating circumstances'? That, however, will be for +you to consider. As the matter stands I do not beg +for my life, but rather that you should deal with me +as I deserve to be treated.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Death, believe me, gentlemen, is in my case preferable +to life. But listen and judge for yourselves, and +if parts of my story need confirmation, behold yonder +is Kaloomah, and he it was whom I hired to carry +your adopted sister away, where in all human +probability she could never more be heard of again. +Have you got all that down?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I have," said Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But," said Roland, "what reason had you to take +so terrible a revenge on those who never harmed you, +if revenge indeed it was?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"It was not revenge. What I did, I did for greed +of gold. Listen.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I was happy in England, and had I only been +content, I might now have been married and in +comfort, but I fell, and am now the heart-broken villain +you see before you.</p> +<p class="pnext">"You know the will your uncle made, Mr. St. Clair?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I have only heard of it."</p> +<p class="pnext">"It was I who copied it for my master, the wretched +solicitor.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I stole that copy and re-copied it, and sold it to +the only man whom it could benefit, and that was +your Uncle John."</p> +<p class="pnext">"My Uncle John? He who sent you out to my +poor, dear father?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"The same. But let me hurry on. The real will +is still in possession of the solicitor, and it gives +all the estates of Burnley Hall, in Cornwall, to +John, in the event of Peggy's death."</p> +<p class="pnext">"I begin to see," said Dick.</p> +<p class="pnext">"My reward was to have been great, if I managed +the affair properly. I have never had it, and, alas! +I need it not now.</p> +<p class="pnext">"But," he continued, "your villainous uncle was too +great a coward to have Peggy murdered. His last +words to me on board the steamer before I sailed +were: 'Remember--not one single drop of blood +shed.'</p> +<p class="pnext">"I might have done worse than even I did, but these +were the words that instigated my vile plot, of which +I now most heartily repent. All I had to do was to +get apparent proof of Peggy's death."</p> +<p class="pnext">"And my Uncle John now holds the estates of +Burnley Hall? Is that so?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"He does. The solicitor could not help but produce +the will, on hearing of Peggy's capture and death.</p> +<p class="pnext">"That, then, is my story, gentlemen. Before Heaven +I swear it is all true. It is, moreover, my deposition, +for I already feel the cold shadow of death creeping +over me. Yes, I will sign it."</p> +<p class="pnext">He did so.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I makee sign too," said Kaloomah.</p> +<p class="pnext">"That is the man whom I hired to do the deed," +said Peter again.</p> +<p class="pnext">And Kaloomah made his mark.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I feel easier now, gentlemen" continued Peter. +"But leave me a while. I would sleep."</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Kaloomah had all a savage's love for the horrible, +and he was merely an interested spectator of the +tragedy that followed.</p> +<p class="pnext">Between him and Peter lie two poison-tipped arrows.</p> +<p class="pnext">At first Peter looks at them like one dazed. Then +he glances upwards at the glorious sunshine streaming +in through the opening.</p> +<p class="pnext">Nearer and nearer he now creeps to those arrows!</p> +<p class="pnext">Nearer and nearer!</p> +<p class="pnext">Now he positions them with his manacled hands.</p> +<p class="pnext">Then strikes.</p> +<p class="pnext">In half an hour's time, when Burly Bill entered the +cave to inform the prisoners that it was time for them +to be on the road, he started back in horror.</p> +<p class="pnext">Peter, fearfully contorted, lay on the floor of the +cave, dead.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Some weeks after this the party found themselves +once more near to the banks of the rapid Madeira.</p> +<p class="pnext">Everything had gone well with those captains and +peons whom they had left behind, and now every +preparation was made to descend the stream with all +possible speed, consonant with safety.</p> +<p class="pnext">They had taken Kaloomah thus far, lest he should +return and bring another army to attack them.</p> +<p class="pnext">And now a kind of drum-head court-martial was +held on this wild chief, at which even Charlie and +Benee were present.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I really don't see," said Roland, "what good has +come of saddling ourselves with a savage."</p> +<p class="pnext">"No, I agree with you, Roll," said Dick. "Peter has +gone to his account, and really this Kaloomah has +been more sinned against than he has sinned."</p> +<p class="pnext">"What would you advise, Bill?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"Why, I'd give him a rousing kick and let him go."</p> +<p class="pnext">"And you Benee?"</p> +<p class="pnext">"I go for hangee he."</p> +<p class="pnext">"Charlie, what would you do?"</p> +<p class="pnext">Charlie was smiling and rubbing his hands; it was +evident he had formulated some plan that satisfied +himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">"I tie dat savage to one biggee stake all by de +ribber, den watch de 'gator come, chumpee, chumpee +he."</p> +<p class="pnext">But a more merciful plan was adopted. Kaloomah +evidently expected death, but when Roland himself +cut his bonds and pointed to the west, the savage gave +just one wild whoop and yell, and next moment he +had disappeared in the forest.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">Were I beginning a story instead of ending one, I +should not be able to resist the temptation to describe +that voyage down the beautiful Madeira.</p> +<p class="pnext">It must suffice to say that it was all one long and +happy picnic.</p> +<p class="pnext">Just one grief, however, had been Peggy's at the +start. Poor Dixie, the pony, must be left behind.</p> +<p class="pnext">She kissed his forehead as she bade him good-bye, +and her face was wet with tears as she turned her +back to her favourite.</p> +<p class="pnext">Roland did what he could to comfort her.</p> +<p class="pnext">"Dixie will soon be as happy as any horse can +be," he said. "He will find companions, and will live +a long, long time in the wilds of this beautiful land. +So you must not grieve."</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">There are times when people in this world are so +inexpressibly happy that they cannot wish evil to +happen even to their greatest enemies. They feel +that they would like every creature, every being on +earth, to be happy also.</p> +<p class="pnext">Surely it is with some such spirit that angels and +saints in heaven are imbued.</p> +<p class="pnext">Had you been on board the steamship <em class="italics">Panama</em> +as she was swiftly ploughing her way through the +wide blue sea that separates Old England from South +America, from Pará and the mouths of the mighty +Amazon, you could not have been otherwise than +struck with the evident contentment and happiness of +a group of saloon passengers there. Whether walking +the quarter-deck, or seated on chairs under the awning, +or early in the morning surrounding their own special +little breakfast-table, pleasure beamed in every eye, +joy in every face.</p> +<p class="pnext">Who were they? Listen and I shall tell you.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was Roland, Dick, Roland's sweet-faced +mother, Peggy; and last, but certainly not least +in size at all events, there was dark-skinned +jolly-looking Burly Bill himself.</p> +<p class="pnext">But Burly Bill did not obtrude his company too +much on the younger folks. He was fond of walking +on the bridge and talking to the officer on duty. +Fond, too, of blowing a cloud from his lips as they +dallied with his great meerschaum. Fond of telling +a good story, but fonder still of listening to one, +and often chuckling over it till he appeared quite +apoplectic.</p> +<p class="pnext">There was someone else on board who must be +mentioned. And this was Dixie, the pony!</p> +<p class="pnext">Did he remain on the banks of the Madeira? Not +he. For by some means or other he found his way--so +marvellous is the homing instinct in animals--back +to the old plantation long before Roland and his +little army, and was the first to run out to meet Peggy +and get a kiss on his soft warm snout.</p> +<p class="pnext">Need I add that Brawn was one of the passengers? +And a happy dog he was, and always ready for a lark +when the sailors chose to throw a belaying-pin for him.</p> +<p class="pnext">Dick had had a grief to face when he returned.</p> +<p class="pnext">His uncle was dead. So he determined--as did +Roland with his plantation--to sell off and return to +England, for a time at all events.</p> +<p class="pnext">The two estates are now worked by a "Company +Ltd.", but Jake Solomons is head overseer.</p> +<p class="pnext">Benee, who has married his "moon-dream", little +Weenah, is second in command, and right merry of +a morning is the boom and the song of the old buzz-saw.</p> +<div class="center transition"> +<p class="pfirst">――――</p> +</div> +<p class="pfirst">So happy, then, were Roland and Dick and Peggy +that they concluded they would not be too hard on +wicked Uncle John.</p> +<p class="pnext">This wicked Uncle John went into retirement after +the arrival of our heroes and heroine. He might have +been sent into retirement of quite a different sort if +Roland had cared to press matters.</p> +<p class="pnext">Peggy got all her own again. She is now +Mrs. Temple, and Dick and she are beloved by all the +tenantry--yes, and by all the county gentry and +farmer folks round and round.</p> +<p class="pnext">I had almost forgotten to say a last word about +Beeboo. She is Mrs. Temple's chief servant, and a +right happy body is Beeboo, and Burly Billy is estate +manager.</p> +<p class="pnext">Now, if any of my readers want a special treat, let +him or her try to get an invitation to spend Christmas +at Burnley Old Hall.</p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> +<div class="backmatter"> +</div> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39728 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |