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Old Gold; or, The Cruise of the "Jason" Brig, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 32. The Way To Nowhere |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTY TWO. THE WAY TO NOWHERE The long light canoes of the approaching Indians were well manned, and as they came nearer Brace could see that most of the occupants wore a kind of tiara made of the tail feathers of parrots or macaws. Several held spears or bows, but the major part were busy paddling, and they came down with the stream, evidently full of fierce determination to destroy or capture the strange intruders upon their solitudes, striving hard to increase the speed of their canoes, which were in a well-kept line. There was no time for the discussion of plans, for the distance between the brig's boats and the enemy was rapidly growing less. "One wouldn't have time to prepare anything if one wanted to," said the captain, after a sharp glance forward. "Will you leave it to me, gentlemen, to do my best?" "Of course," said Sir Humphrey, and Briscoe nodded from where he knelt, with his double gun held ready in his hand. "Then here goes," said the captain. "Ahoy there, Dellow; clap on all you can, take the tiller yourself; and run one of the canoes down. Let your lads knock all over who try to board you." "Ay, ay!" came back in answer from the second boat. "Now, Lynton," continued the captain, "steer for that canoe in the centre. We're going faster than they are. You, gentlemen, don't shoot, but use the butt-ends of your rifles if we should happen to get to close quarters. Every man take an oar or boathook, and use 'em like as if they were whaling-lances. Ready? Look out!" Their boat, with the sail straining at the sheet, was now rushing through the water, the side not two inches above the surface, as she raced for the centre of the line of canoes. "Sit fast!" roared the captain. "Down with you, Mr Brace, or you'll be overboard." Brace, who had risen in his excitement so as to be able to club his gun, dropped down on to the seat at once. Then from in front as their own boat seemed to be standing absolutely still and the line of canoes dashing rapidly at them with the paddles churning up the water on either side, there was a fierce yelling, a gleam of opal-rimmed eyes, a crash which made the boat quiver from stem to stern. The sail jerked and snapped as if it were going to fall over the side, and then they were past the centre canoe, sailing on as fast as ever. Lynton had done his work well, steering so that he drove the boat's iron-protected cut-water right upon the centre canoe's bows diagonally some six feet from the front, when for a few brief moments their progress seemed to be stopped. Directly afterwards the occupants of the stoutly-built boat felt her gliding right over the canoe, which rolled like a log of wood, and then the men were cheering as they looked back at the glistening bottom of the long vessel and six or eight black heads bobbing about in the water. Crash, grind, and there was another canoe capsized, literally rolled over by the second boat, which seemed to those in the first to rise and glide over the crank dug-out, now beginning to float broadside on with her crew swimming to her side. A hearty cheer rose now from Dellow and his men, which was echoed from the first boat, as the distance between the party and their fierce enemies rapidly increased. "You did that splendidly, captain!" cried Brace excitedly. "Tidy, sir, tidy," was the reply; "but these boats weren't built for steeplechasing in South American rivers. Let's see what damage is done. I don't suppose we're much hurt." The captain stepped from thwart to thwart as he spoke, and, getting right forward, he leaned over the bows and carefully examined as far as he could reach, before raising his face again and turning to Brace, who had followed him, to now meet his eyes with an enquiring look. "Right as a trivet," he said. "Took off some of the varnish; that's all that I can see. Ahoy! what damage, Dellow?" he roared to the mate in the boat astern. There was no reply for a minute or so whilst the first mate examined his boat. Then came a shout, in Dellow's familiar tones: "Twopenn'orth o' paint gone, and a bit of a splintery crack in the top plank." "Any leakage?" "Not a doo-drop, sir," was the reply. "Well done. Keep close up abreast," shouted the captain; and, now that the safety of the boats was assured, attention was directed to the canoes, which were being rapidly left astern. "They seem to be trying to right their craft," said Sir Humphrey, who, like Briscoe, was making observations with his pocket glass. "Yes," added Briscoe, "and they turned them over quite easily, but their sides are down flush with the water." "The men have got in again, and they appear to be splashing out the water with their paddles," said Sir Humphrey. "That's right," said Briscoe, "and the other canoes have ranged up alongside. I can see quite plainly: there's a canoe on each side of the injured ones to keep them up." "It's my belief that they may bale till all's blue before they get 'em to float. Those dug-outs are worked till they get 'em as thin and light as they can, and if we haven't cut a good gap in each one's side, it's a rum one," growled the captain. "What are they doing now, sir? It's rather far to see, but it seems to me that they're trying to get the sunken canoes to the shore." "Yes: that's just what they are trying to do," cried Sir Humphrey. "Oh, yes, I can see that plain enough." "Then they won't follow us up to-day, gentlemen," said the captain; "and perhaps we may not see them again. Might like to sail back, p'r'aps, Mr Briscoe," he continued, "and give the copperskins a friendly word about hope they're not damaged, and then settle down in the shallows for a good afternoon's gold-washing." "Not to-day, thankye, skipper," said the American drily. "It might be teaching the savages how to catch the gold fever, as you called it, and be bad for their health." "P'r'aps so," said the captain, with a peculiarly grim look and a glance round at the crew; "and they'll be better employed gumming up those holes in the sides of the canoes." "Do you think they'll pursue us, captain?" said Brace. "Most likely, sir," was the cheerful reply. "They'll be wanting to bring us the bill for damages. I'm thinking it would be the safest thing to try and drop down by 'em after dusk. This part begins to be rather unsafe." He looked at Sir Humphrey as he spoke, and the latter turned to his brother. "Well, I don't know, captain," he said: "the wind holds good, and we seem to have passed the danger. I don't like to give up yet. What do you say, Mr Briscoe?" "I think it would be a hundred pities," was the quick reply. "The country is getting more and more attractive. Who knows what we may discover, eh, Brace?" "I feel exactly as you do, and think we should proceed," said the latter quickly. "We've got whole skins now," said the captain dubiously, "all but one of us." "You think it running too much risk to go on?" said Sir Humphrey. "Well, I can't say that, sir," was the reply, "because we may sail on for weeks and weeks and not see another Indian, while if we go back we are sure to see some." "Exactly," said Sir Humphrey; "but I can't help thinking that we are getting now into a more uninhabited part of the country, perhaps where travellers have never been before." "Then I say let's go on," said Briscoe, "and we may find El Dorado, after all." "El Dorado or no El Dorado, I say don't let's give up yet," said Brace. "Let's keep on till we are obliged to go back to the brig for stores; and by that time we shall know whether it is worth while to come up here again." "That's good advice, sir," said the captain, smiling at Brace as he spoke. "I don't want to give up: I like it as well as you do. There's only one thing wherrits me." "What's that?" said Brace. "My brig. I lay awake for a good ten minutes last night thinking about what we should all feel if we got back to where we left her and found that the old 'Jason' had dragged her anchors and navigated herself out to sea." "Oh, but if she had dragged her anchors, captain," said Brace, "they'd lay hold again somewhere lower down." "Yes, sir," said the captain drily; "that's what comforted me. All right, gentlemen. On we go then. I'm thinking now that after the lesson we gave those gentlemen to-day they mayn't care to meddle with us again." "Do you think any of them were killed?" said Brace. "Hardly, sir. Certainly not with the buckshot. If any of them lost the number of their mess it would be just now in the river." "Drowned?" "Oh, no. They swim like seals. It would be through some of the natives below: old friends of theirs." Brace felt a shudder run through him as he glanced down over the side, where the water glided deep and dark now from where they were sailing to the tree-clothed shore. But the conversation took another turn then, the captain proposing that a good midday meal should be eaten now, and no halt made till a suitable well-screened resting-place was reached about an hour before dusk. "Why not keep right on till it is quite dusk?" said Sir Humphrey. "He means so that we can land and light our fire in the forest, do our cooking, and put it out again before it's dark, when it would show our position to any prowling natives," said Briscoe. "That's right," said the captain. These tactics were carried out, a strong wind wafting the boats along mile after mile to a far greater distance than any amount of paddling would bring canoes in pursuit; and fortune favoured them far more, for, just about the time decided upon, the fine river up which they had come suddenly opened out fan-like, offering them five different routes onward. "Which shall it be, Brace?" said Sir Humphrey, as he stood up with his brother in the bows. "If the enemy is following us he is as likely to take one as the other." "I don't know," said Brace, with a laugh. "They are all beautiful. That left one seems the deepest, and the stream flows slowly, so I think we had better choose that." "Best too for the wind," said Briscoe. "There's a ripple up it as far as we can see." "It's to the left and not to the right," said Brace. "All the better," said Briscoe, laughing. "You know what you English folks say about driving: 'If you go to the left you are sure to be right; if you go to the right you'll be wrong.' I think we might well stick to that rule in this case." The left branch was chosen, and they sailed swiftly up it, finding to their surprise that there was scarcely any appearance of current, and soon after a suitable spot for a landing-place presented itself in one of the many bends of the river's sinuous course. Here they landed, and Dan was soon busy preparing food, while as far as they could make out they were where human foot had never pressed the soil before. _ |
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