Chapter 5. A Watch In The Dark

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_ CHAPTER FIVE. A WATCH IN THE DARK

"You do sleep soundly," said the young Italian merrily.

"Why, it's morning, and I didn't know I had been sleeping! Where's Mr Brazier?"

"Forward yonder."

"Why, we're going on."

"Yes; there's a good wind, and we've been sailing away since before the sun rose."

Rob jumped up and hurried out of the tent-like arrangement, to find Shaddy seated in the stern steering, and after a greeting Rob looked about him, entranced by the scenery and the wondrous tints of the dewy morning. Great patches of mist hung about here and there close under the banks where the wind did not catch them, and these were turned by the early morning's sun to glorious opalescent masses, broken by brilliant patches of light.

The boat was gliding along over the sparkling water close in now to the western shore, whose banks were invisible, being covered by a dense growth of tree and climber, many of whose strands dipped into the river, while umbrageous trees spread and drooped their branches, so that it would have been possible to row or paddle in beneath them in one long, bowery tunnel close to the bank.

"Going to have a wash?" said Joe, breaking in upon Rob's contemplative fit of rapture as he gazed with hungry eyes at the lovely scene.

"Wash? Oh yes!" cried Rob, starting, and he fetched a rough towel out of the tent, went to the side, and hesitated.

"Hadn't we better have a swim?" he said. "You'll come?"

"Not him," growled Shaddy. "What yer talking about? Want to feed the fishes?"

"Rubbish! I can swim," said Rob warmly; and leaning over the side, he plunged his hands into the water, sweeping them about.

"Deliciously cool!" he cried. "Oh!"

He snatched out his right and then his left, and as he did so a little silvery object dropped into the water.

Joe looked on in silence, and a peculiar smile came over Shaddy's countenance as he saw Rob examine the back of his hand.

"Something's been biting me in the night," he said. "It bleeds."

Rob thrust in his hand again to wash away the blood, but snatched it out the next minute, for as the ruddy fluid tinged the water there was a rush of tiny fish at his hand, and he stared at half a dozen tiny bites which he had received.

"Why, they're little fish," he cried. "Are they the piranas you talked about, Joe?"

"Yes. What do you say to a swim now?"

"I'm willing. The splashing would drive them away."

Shaddy chuckled again.

"The splashing would bring them by thousands," said Joe quietly. "You can't bathe here. Those little fish would bite at you till in a few minutes you would be covered with blood, and that would bring thousands more up to where you were."

"And they'd eat me up," said Rob mockingly.

"If somebody did not drag you out. They swarm in millions, and the bigger fish, too, are always ready to attack anything swimming in the stream."

"Come and hold the tiller here, Joe, my lad," growled Shaddy, "while I dip him a bucket of water to wash. When he knows the Paraguay like we do, he won't want to bathe. Why, Mr Rob, there's all sorts o' things here ready for a nice juicy boy, from them little piranas right up to turtles and crocodiles and big snakes, so you must do your swimming with a sponge till we get on a side river and find safe pools."

He dipped the bucket, and Rob had his wash; by that time Brazier had joined him.

"Well, Rob," he cried, "is this good enough for you? Will the place do?"

"Do?" cried Rob. "Oh, I feel as if I do not want to talk, only to sit and look at the trees. There, ain't those orchids hanging down?"

Brazier raised a little double glass which he carried to his eyes, and examined a great cluster of lovely blossoms hanging from an old, half-decayed branch projecting over the river.

"Yes," he cried, "lovely. Well, Naylor, how soon are we to land or run up some creek?"

"Arter two or three days," said the guide.

"But hang it, man, the bank yonder is crowded with vegetable treasures."

"What! them?" said Shaddy, with a contemptuous snort. "I don't call them anything. You just wait, sir, and trust me. You shall see something worth coming after by-and-by."

"Well, run the boat in closer to the shore, so that I can examine the plants as we go along. The water looks deep, and the wind's right. You could get within a dozen yards of the trees."

"I could get so as you might touch 'em, sir. There's plenty of water, but I'm not going no closer than this."

"Why?"

"Because I know that part along there. We can't see nobody, but I dessay there's Injuns watching us all the time from among the leaves, and if we went closer they might have a shot at us."

"Then they have guns?"

"No, sir, bows and arrows some of 'em, but mostly blowpipes."

"With poisoned arrows?"

"That's so, sir, and, what's worse, they know how to use 'em. They hit a man I knew once with a tiny bit of an arrow thing, only a wood point as broke off in the wound--wound, it weren't worth calling a wound, but the little top was poisoned, and before night he was a dead man."

"From the poison?"

"That's it, sir. He laughed at it at first. The bit of an arrow, like a thin skewer with a tuft of cotton wool on the end, didn't look as if it could hurt a strong man as I picked it up and looked where the point had been nearly sawed off all round."

"What, to make it break off?" cried Rob.

"That's so, my lad. When they're going to use an arrow they put the point between the teeth of a little fish's jaw--sort o' pirana thing like them here in the river. Then they give the arrow a twiddle round, and the sharp teeth nearly eat it through, and when it hits and sticks in a wound the point breaks off, and I wouldn't give much for any one who ever got one of those bits of sharp wood in their skins."

"What a pleasant look-out!" said Brazier. "Oh, it's right enough, sir. The thing is to go up parts where there are no Indians, and that's where I'm going to take you. I say, look at that open patch yonder, where there's a bit o' green between the river and the trees."

"Yes, I see," said Joe quickly--"three Indians with spears."

"Right, lad!"

"I don't see them," said Brazier. "Yes," he added quickly, "I can see them now."

"Only one ain't got a spear. That's a blowpipe," said Shaddy quietly.

"What! that length?" cried Rob. "Ay, my lad, that length. The longer they are the smaller the darts, and the farther and stronger they sends 'em."

"But we don't know that they are enemies," said Brazier.

"Oh yes, you do, sir. That's the Injuns' country, and there's no doubt about it. White man's their enemy, they say, so they must be ours."

"But why?" said Rob. "We shouldn't interfere with the Indians."

"We've got a bad character with 'em, my lad. 'Tain't our fault. They tell me it's all along o' the Spaniards as come in this country first, and made slaves of 'em, and learnt 'em to make 'em good, and set 'em to work in the mines to get gold and silver for 'em till they dropped and died. Only savages they were, and so I s'pose the Spaniards thought they weren't o' no consequence. But somehow I s'pose, red as they are, they think and feel like white people, and didn't like to be robbed and beaten, and worn to death, and their children took away from 'em. Spaniards never seemed to think as they'd mind that. Might ha' known, too, for a cat goes miaowing about a house if she loses her kittens, and a dog kicks up a big howl about its pups; while my 'sperience about wild beasts is that if you want to meddle with their young ones, you'd better shoot the old ones first."

"Yes, I'm afraid that the old Spaniards thought of nothing out here but getting gold."

"That's so, sir; and the old Indians telled their children about how they'd been used, and their children told the next lot, and so it's gone on till it's grown into a sort of religion that the Spaniard is a sort o' savage wild beast, who ought to be killed; and that ain't the worst on it."

"Then what is?" said Rob, for Shaddy looked round at him and stopped short, evidently to be asked that question.

"Why, the worst of it is, sir, that they poor hungered, savage sort o' chaps don't know the difference between us and them Dons. English means an Englishman all the wide world over, says you; but you're wrong. He ain't out here. Englishman, or Italian, or Frenchman's a Spaniard; and they'll shoot us as soon as look at us."

"Why, you're making for the other shore, Naylor."

"Yes, sir. I'd ha' liked to land you yonder, but you see it ain't safe, so we'll light a fire on the other side, where it is, and get a bit o' breakfast, for I'm thinking as it's getting pretty nigh time."

"But is it safe to land there?" asked Brazier.

"Yes, sir; you may take that for granted. East's sit down and be comfortable; west side o' the river means eyes wide open and look out for squalls."

"But you meant to go up some river west."

"True, sir; but you leave that to me."

As they began to near the eastern shore, where the land was more park-like and open, the wind began to fail them, and the sail flapped, when the four boatmen, who had been lying about listlessly, leaped up, lowered it down, and then, seizing the oars, began to row with a long, steady stroke. Then Shaddy stood up, peering over the canvas awning, and looking eagerly for a suitable place for their morning halt, and ending by running the boat alongside of a green meadow-like patch, where the bank, only a couple of feet above the water level, was perpendicular, and the spot was surrounded by huge trees, from one of which flew a flock of parrots, screaming wildly, while sundry sounds and rustlings in that nearest the water's edge proved that it was inhabited.

"What's up there?" whispered Rob to Joe as he looked. "Think it's a great snake?"

"No," was the reply. "Look!" and the captain's son pointed up to where, half hidden by the leaves, a curious little black face peered wonderingly down at them; and directly after Rob made out one after another, till quite a dozen were visible, the last hanging from a bough like some curious animal fruit by its long stalk, which proved to be the little creature's prehensile tail, by which it swung with us arms and legs drawn up close.

"Monkeys!" cried Rob eagerly, for it was his first meeting with the odd little objects in their native wilds.

"Yes; they swarm in the forests," said Joe, who was amused at his companion's wondering looks.

Just then Shaddy leaped ashore with a rope, after carefully seeing to the fastening of the other end.

"May as well give you gents a hint," he said: "never to trust nobody about your painter. It's just as well to use two, for if so be as the boat does break loose, away she goes down-stream, and you're done, for there's no getting away from here. You can't tramp far through the forest."

He moored the boat to one of the trees, gave a few orders, and the Indian boatmen rapidly collected dead wood and started a fire, Shaddy filling the tin kettle and swinging it gipsy fashion.

"I'd start fair at once, gentlemen," he said. "One never knows what's going to happen, and I take it that you ought to carry your gun always just as you would an umbrella at home, and have it well loaded at your side, ready for any action. Plenty of smoke!" he continued, as the clouds began to roll up through the dense branches of the tree overhead.

The result was a tremendous chattering and screaming amongst the monkeys, which bounded excitedly from branch to branch, shaking the twigs and breaking off dead pieces to throw down.

"Hi! stop that, little 'uns!" roared Shaddy. "Two can play at that game. It ain't your tree; be off to another, or we'll make rabbit-pie o' some on you."

Whether the little creatures understood or no, they chattered loudly for a few moments more, and then, running to the end of a branch, which bent beneath their weight, they dropped to the ground, and galloped off to the next tree, each with his peculiar curling tail high in air.

The guide's advice was taken respecting the pieces, and, in addition to his cartridge-pouch, each mounted a strong hunting-knife, one that, while being handy for chopping wood or cutting a way through creepers and tangling vines, would prove a formidable weapon of offence or defence against the attack of any wild animal.

"That's your sort," said Shaddy, smiling as he saw Rob step out of the boat with his piece under his arm. "Puts me in mind of handling my first gun, when I was 'bout your age, sir, or a bit older. No, no, don't carry it that way, my lad; keep your muzzle either right up or right down."

"Well, that is down," said Rob pettishly, for he felt conscious, and wanted to appear quite at ease, and as if he were in the habit of carrying a rifle; consequently he looked as if he had never held one before in his life.

"Ay, it's down enough to put a bullet in anybody's knees."

"No, it isn't, Shaddy, for it's a shot-gun, and has no bullet in it."

"I know, lad, one o' them useful guns with a left-hand bore as'll carry a bullet if you like. More down. Wound close at hand from charge o' shot's worse than one from a bullet."

"Because it makes so many wounds?" said Rob.

"Nay, my lad; because at close quarters it only makes one, and a big, ragged one that's bad to heal. That's better. Now, if it goes off, it throws up the earth and shoots the worms, while if you hold it well up it only shoots the stars.--Water boils."

Breakfast followed--a delightful _alfresco_ meal, with the silver river gliding by, birds twittering, piping, screaming, and cooing all around, and monkeys chattering and screeching excitedly at having their sanctuary invaded; but they were quite tame enough to drop down from the trees and pick up a piece of biscuit, banana, or orange when thrown far enough. But this was not till they felt satisfied that they were not being watched, when the coveted treasure was seized and borne off with a chattering cry of triumph, the actions of the odd little creatures taking up a good deal of Rob's time which might have been devoted to his breakfast.

The travellers had brought plenty of fruit and provisions with them, and an ample supply of _mate_--the leaves that take the place of tea amongst the South American tribes, whose example is largely followed by the half-breeds and those of Spanish descent; and after watching how the preparation was made Rob found himself quite ready to partake of that which proved on tasting to be both palatable and refreshing.

Then, somewhat unwillingly--for both Brazier and the lads were disposed to stay on shore to collect some of the natural objects so plentiful around them--they re-entered the boat; it was pulled into mid-stream, with the monkeys flocking down from the trees about the fire to pick up any scraps of food left, notably a couple of decayed bananas, and then running quite to the edge of the water to chatter menacingly at the departing boat.

The sail was soon after hoisted, and for the whole of that day and the next the little party ascended the river, making their halts on the right bank, but sleeping well out in the stream, held by a rope mooring the boat's head to a tree, and a little anchor dropped in the stream.

Progress was fairly swift, and there was so much to see along the banks that the time glided by rapidly; but at every cry of exultation on the discovery of some fresh bird, flower, or insect, Shaddy only smiled good-humouredly, and used the same expression:--

"Yes; but just you wait a bit."

The third day had passed, and the conversation in the boat threatened a revolution against the will of Shaddy, whose aim seemed to be to get them up higher, while they were passing endless opportunities for making collections of objects of natural history such as they had never had before, when all at once, as he stood in the boat looking up stream, after she had once more been carefully moored for the night, the guide turned and said quietly:--

"To-morrow, long before the sun's highest, I shall get you up to the place I mean, and, once there, you can begin business as soon as you like."

"A river on the left bank," said Brazier, as eagerly as a boy.

"Yes, sir, one as runs for far enough west, and then goes north."

"And you think there are no Indians there?"

"I don't say that, sir, because we shall see some, I daresay; but they'll perhaps be friendly."

"You are not sure?"

"Well, no, sir. There, the sun's dipping down; it will be heavy darkness directly in this fog, and what we want is a good night's rest, ready for a long, hard day's work to-morrow."

It was Brazier's turn to keep watch half the night, and at about twelve, as nearly as they could tell, Rob rose to take his place.

"Nothing to report," said Brazier. "The same noises from the forest, the same splashings from the river, the Indians sleeping as heavily as usual. There, keep your watch; I wish I had it, for you will see the day break that is to take us to the place which I have been longing to see for years."

Saying "good-night," Brazier went into the shelter, and Rob commenced his solitary watch, with his brain busily inventing all kinds of dangers arising from the darkness--some horrible wild creature dropping down from the tree, or a huge serpent, which had crawled down the branch, twining its way along the mooring rope and coming over the bows past the Indian boatmen. Then he began to think of them, and how helpless he would be if they planned to attack him, when, after mastering him, which he felt they could easily do, he mentally arranged that they would creep to the covered-in part of the boat and slay Brazier and Giovanni.

"Poor Joe!" he said to himself. "I was beginning to like him, though he was not English, and--Oh, Joe, how you startled me!"

For a hand had been laid upon his shoulder as he sat watching the dark part where the Indians lay, and he started round to find that Giovanni had joined him.

"I did not mean to frighten you," said the lad, in his quiet, subdued way. "Mr Brazier woke me coming in to sleep, and I thought you would be alone, and that I could come and talk to you about our journey to-morrow."

"I'm glad you've come, but it would be too bad to let you stop. There, stay a quarter of an hour, and then be off back to bed--such as it is," he added, with a laugh.

"Oh, I'm used to hard beds. I can sleep anywhere--on the deck or a bench, one as well as the other."

"I say, have you ever been up as high as this before?"

"No, never higher than the town. It's all as fresh to me as to you."

"Then we go up a river to-morrow?"

"I suppose so. Old Shaddy has it all his own way, and he keeps dropping hints about what he is going to take us to see."

"And I daresay it will all turn out nothing. What he likes may not suit us. But there, we shall see."

Then they sat in silence, listening to the rustlings and whistlings in the air as of birds and great moths flitting and gliding about; the shrieks, howls, and yells from across the river; and to the great plungings and splashings in the black water, whose star-gemmed bosom often showed waves with the bright reflections rising and falling, and whose surface looked as if the fire-flies had fallen in all up the river after their giddy evolutions earlier in the night, and were now floating down rapidly toward the sea.

Rob broke the silence at last.

"How is it this stream always runs so fast?" he said.

"Because the waters come from the mountains. There's a great waterfall, too, higher up, where the whole river comes plunging down hundreds of feet with a roar that can be heard for miles."

"Who says so? who has seen it?"

"Nobody ever has seen it. It is impossible to get to it. The water is so swift and full of rocks that no boat can row up, and the shores are all one dank, tangled mass that no one can cut through. Nobody can get there."

"Why not? I tell you what: we'll talk to Shaddy to-morrow."

"He wouldn't go. He told me once that he tried it, and couldn't get there. He nearly lost his life."

"I'll make him try again and take us."

"I tell you he wouldn't."

"Well, you'll see."

"What will you do?"

"Tell him--fair play, mind: you will not speak?"

"Of course not."

"Then look here, Joe; I'll say to him that I've heard of the place, and how difficult it is, and that I wish we had some guide who really knew the country and could take us there."

Joe shook his head.

"Beside, we could not attempt it without Mr Brazier wished to go."

"If you told him about that great fall, he would wish to go for the sake of being the discoverer. You'll see. What's that?"

A tremendous splash, so near to them that quite a wave rose and slightly rocked the boat as the boys sat there awe-stricken, listening and straining their eyes in the darkness which shut them in.

The noise occurred again--a great splash as of some mighty beast rearing itself out of the water and letting itself fall back, followed by a peculiar, wallowing noise.

This time it was lower and more as though it had passed the boat, and directly after there was another splash, followed by a heavy beating like something thrashing the water with its tail. Then came a smothered, bellowing grunt as if the great animal had begun to roar and then lowered its head half beneath the water, so that the noise was full of curious gurglings. The flapping of the water was repeated, and this time forty or fifty yards away, as near as they could guess, and once more there was silence.

"I didn't know there were such horrible beasts as that in the water," whispered Rob.

"Nor I. What can it be?"

"Must have been big enough to upset the boat if it had seen us, or to drag us out. Shall we wake Shaddy and ask him?"

"No," said Joe; "I don't suppose he would be able to tell us. It sounds so horrible in the darkness."

"Why, I thought you were too much used to the river to be frightened at anything."

"I did not say I was frightened," replied Joe quietly.

"No, but weren't you? I thought the thing was coming on right at the boat."

"So did I," said Joe, very softly. "Yes, I was frightened too. I don't think any one could help being startled at a thing like that."

"Because we could not see what it was," he continued thoughtfully. "I fancied I knew all the animals and fish about the river, but I never heard or saw anything that could be like that."

Just then they heard a soft, rustling sound behind, such, as might have been made by a huge serpent creeping on to the boat; and as they listened intently the sound continued, and the boat swayed slightly, going down on one side.

"It's coming on," whispered Rob, with his mouth feeling dry and a horrible dread assailing him, as in imagination he saw a huge scaly creature gliding along the side of the boat and passing the covered-in canvas cabin.

It was only a matter of moments, but it was like hours to the two boys. The feeling was upon Rob that he must run to the fore-part, leap overboard, and swim ashore, but he could not move. Every nerve and muscle was paralysed, and when he tried to speak to his fellow-watcher no words came; for, as Joe told his companion afterwards, he too tried to speak but was as helpless.

At last, in that long-drawn agony of dread, as he fully expected to be seized, Rob's presence of mind came back, and he recollected that his gun was lying shotted beneath the canvas of the sail at the side, and, seizing it with the energy of despair, he swung the piece round, cocking both barrels as he did so, and brought them into sharp contact with Joe's arm.

"Steady there with that gun," said a low familiar voice. "Don't shoot."

"Shaddy!" panted Rob.

"Me it is, lad. I crep' along so as not to disturb Mr Brazier. I say, did you hear that roar in the water?--but o' course you did. Know what it was?"

"No!" cried both boys in a breath. "Some great kind of amphibious thing," added Rob.

"'Phibious thing!--no. I couldn't see it, but there was no doubt about it: that threshing with the tail told me."

"Yes, we heard its tail beating," said Joe quickly. "What was it?"

"What was them, you mean! Well, I'll tell you. One of them tapir things must have been wading about in a shallow of mud, and a great 'gator got hold of him, and once he'd got hold he wouldn't let go, but hung on to the poor brute and kept on trying to drag him under water. Horrid things, 'gators. I should like to shoot the lot."

Rob drew a long breath very like a sigh. An alligator trying to drag down one of the ugly, old-world creatures that looks like a pig which has made up its mind to grow into an elephant, and failed--like the frog in the fable, only without going quite so far--after getting its upper lip sufficiently elongated to do some of the work performed by an elephant's trunk! One of these jungle swamp pachyderms and a reptile engaged in a struggle in the river, and not some terrible water-dragon with a serpentlike tail such as Rob's imagination had built up with the help of pictures of fossil animals and impossible objects from heraldry! It took all nervousness and mystery out of the affair, and made Rob feel annoyed that he had allowed his imagination to run riot and create such an alarming scene.

"Getting towards morning, isn't it?" said Joe hastily, and in a tone which told of his annoyance, too, that he also should have participated in the scare.

"Getting that way, lad, I s'pose. I ain't quite doo to relieve the watch, but I woke up and got thinking a deal about our job to-morrow, and that made me wakeful. And then there was that splashing and bellowing in the water, and I thought Mr Rob here would be a bit puzzled to know what it was. Course I knew he wouldn't be frightened."

"None of your sneering!" said Rob frankly. "I'm not ashamed to say that I was frightened, and very much frightened, too. It was enough to scare any one who did not know what it was."

"Right, my lad! enough to scare anybody!" said Shaddy, patting Rob on the shoulder. "It made me a bit squeery for a moment or two till I knew what it was. But, I say, when I came softly along to keep you company, you warn't going to shoot?"

"I'm afraid I was," said Rob. "It sounded just like some horrible great snake creeping along toward us out of the darkness."

"Then I'm glad I spoke," said Shaddy drily, "Spoiled your trip, lad, if you'd shot me, for I must have gone overboard, and if I'd come up again I don't bleeve as you'd have picked me up. Taken ever so long to get the boat free in the dark, and if you hadn't picked me up I don't see how you could have got on in the jungle. Look here, now you two gents have taken to gunning, I wouldn't shoot if I were you without asking a question or two first."

"But suppose it is a jaguar coming at us?" said Joe.

"Well, if it's a jagger he won't answer, and you had better shoot. Same with the lions or bears."

"Bears?" said Rob eagerly; "are there bears here?"

"Ay, lad! and plenty of 'em, not your big Uncle Ephrems, like there is in the Rocky Mountains--grizzlies, you know--but black bears, and pretty big, and plenty savage enough to satisfy any reasonable hunter, I mean one who don't expect too much. Wait a bit, and you'll get plenty of shooting to keep the pot going without reckoning them other things as Mr Brazier's come out to hunt. What d'yer call 'em, awk'ards or orchards--which was it?"

"Orchids," said Rob.

"Oh! ah! yes, orchids. What's best size shot for bringing o' them down?"

"Don't answer him, Rob; it's only his gammon, and he thinks it's witty," said Joe.

Shaddy chuckled, and it was evident that his joke amused him.

"There," he said, "it ain't worth while for three on us to be keeping watch. One's enough, and the others can sleep, so, as I'm here, you two may as well go and roost."

"No," said Rob promptly; "my time isn't up."

"No, my lad, not by two hours, I should say; but I'll let you off the rest, for it's a-many years since I was up this part, and I want to sit and think it out before we start as soon as it's light."

But Rob firmly refused to give up his task till the time set down by Mr Brazier for him to be relieved. Joe as stubbornly refused to return to his bed, and so it was that when the birds gave note of the coming of the day, after the weird chorus had gradually died away in the forest they were still seated upon one of the thwarts, watching for the first warm rays of the sun to tinge the dense river mist with rose. _

Read next: Chapter 6. Through The Green Curtain

Read previous: Chapter 4. Noises Of The Night

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