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Rob Harlow's Adventures: A Story of the Grand Chaco, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 6. Through The Green Curtain |
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_ CHAPTER SIX. THROUGH THE GREEN CURTAIN A fair breeze sprang up with the sun, and the boat glided up stream for many miles before a halt was called, in a bend where the wind railed them. Here, as on previous occasions, a fire was lit, and the breakfast prepared and eaten almost in silence, for Brazier's thoughts were far up the river and away among the secret recesses of nature, where he hoped to be soon gazing upon vegetation never yet seen by civilised man, while Rob and Joe were just as thoughtful, though their ideas ran more upon the wild beasts and lovely birds of this tropic land, into which as they penetrated mile after mile it was to see something ever fresh and attractive. Shaddy, too, was very silent, and sat scanning the western shore more and more attentively as the hours passed, and they were once more gliding up stream, the wind serving again and again as they swept round some bend. The sun grew higher, and the heat more intense, the slightest movement as they approached noon making a dew break out over Rob's brow; but the warmth was forgotten in the beauty of the shore and the abundance of life visible around. But at last the heat produced such a sense of drowsiness that Rob turned to Joe. "I say, wouldn't an hour or two be nice under the shade of a tree?" "Yes," said Brazier, who had overheard him. "We must have a rest now; the sides of the boat are too hot to touch. Hullo! where are we going?" he continued. "Why, he's steering straight for the western shore." Brazier involuntarily stooped and took his gun from where it hung in loops under the canvas awning, and then stood watching the dense wall of verdure they were approaching till, as they drew nearer, their way was through acres upon acres of lilies, whose wide-spreading leaves literally covered the calm river with their dark green discs, dotted here and there with great buds or dazzlingly white blossoms. The boat cut its way through these, leaving a narrow canal of clear water at first, in which fish began to leap as if they had been disturbed; but before the boat had gone very far the leaves gradually closed in, and no sign of its passage was left. "I don't see where we are to land," said Brazier, as he stood in front of the canvas cabin scanning the shore. "No; there is no place," said Rob, as they glided out of the lily field into clear water, the great wall of trees tangled together with creepers being now about two hundred yards away. "Go and ask. No; leave him alone," said Brazier, altering his mind. "He'll take us into a suitable place, I daresay." Just then Shaddy, from where he was steering, shouted to the men, who lowered the sail at once; but the boat still glided on straight for the shore. "Why, he's going to run her head right into the bank," cried Rob, though the said bank was rendered invisible by the curtain of pendent boughs and vines which hung right down to the water. "How beautiful!" exclaimed Brazier, as he gazed at clusters of snowy blossoms draping one of the trees. "We must have some of those, Rob." "I say," cried Joe, "what makes the boat keep on going?" "Impetus given by the sail," replied Brazier. "But it couldn't have kept on all this time," cried the lad, "and we're going faster." "We do seem to be," said Brazier; "but it is only that we are in an eddy. There always is one close in by the banks of a swift stream." "But that goes upward while the stream goes down," cried Joe. "This is going straight in toward the trees." "Better sit down, every one," shouted Shaddy. "Lower that spar, my lads," he added, in the _patois_ the men used. Down went the mast in a sloping position, so that it rested against the canvas cabin. But Rob hardly noticed this in the excitement of their position. For there was no doubt about it: some invisible force had apparently seized the boat, and was carrying it swiftly forward to dash it upon the shore. But that was not Brazier's view of the question. "The river is flooded here and overrunning the bank," he cried. "Hi! Naylor! Do you see where you're going?" "Right, sir. Sit down." But Brazier, who had risen, did not sit down, for he was quite startled, expecting that the next moment the boat would be capsized, and that they would all be left to the mercy of the reptiles and fish which haunted the rapid waters. "Hi!" he shouted again. "Naylor, are you mad?" "No, sir, not yet," was the reply. "Better sit down. Mind your hat!" For all through this the boat was gliding slowly but straight for the curtain of leaves and flowers which hid the bank of the western side of the river; and as the position seemed perilous to Rob, he saw with astonishment that the four Indian boatmen lay calmly back furling up the sail as if nothing was the matter, or else showing that they had perfect faith in their leader and steersman, who was not likely to lead them into danger. What followed only took moments. They were out in the dazzling sunshine, were rapidly, as it seemed, approaching the bank, and directly after plunged right into the lovely curtain of leaves and flowers which swept over them as they glided on over the surface of the swiftly running clear black water, the sun entirely screened and all around them a delicious twilight, with densely planted, tall, columnar trees apparently rising out of the flood on either hand, while a rush and splash here and there told that they were disturbing some of the dwellers in these shades. "What does this mean?" said Brazier, stooping to recover his hat which had been swept off on to the canvas awning, and which he only just recovered before it slipped into the stream. There was no answer to the question as they watched, and then they saw light before them, which rapidly brightened till they glided into sunshine and found that they had passed through a second curtain of leaves, and were in a little river of some hundred yards wide, with lovely verdure on either side rising like some gigantic hedge to shut them in; in fact, a miniature reproduction of the grand stream they had so lately left. "Why, Naylor," cried Brazier, "I thought you were going to run us ashore or capsize us." "Yes, sir, I know you did," was the reply. "But where are we? What place is this?" "This here's the river I wanted to bring you to, sir." "But it does not run into the Paraguay, it runs out." "Yes, sir, it do. It's a way it has. It's a curious place, as you'll say before we've done." "But it seems impossible. How can it run like this?" "Dunno, sir. Natur' made it, not me. I've never been up it very far, but it strikes me it's something to do with the big waterworks higher up the big river." "Waterworks! Why, surely--" "Natur's waterworks, sir, not man's; the big falls many miles to the north." Rob and Joe exchanged glances. "Strikes me as the river being very full here the bank give way once upon a time, and this stream winds about till it gets close up to where the falls come down." "But water can't go up hill, man." "No, sir, course not; but I thought that if it goes along some valley up to the mountains where the falls come down, it would be an easy way of getting to the foot of the high ground and striking the big river again." "Stop a moment: I have heard some talk of a great cascade up north." "Yes, sir, where nobody's never been yet. Seemed to me as it was rather in your way, and you might find some orchids up there as well as here." "Of course, of course!" cried Brazier; the idea of being first in the field with a great discovery making his pulses throb. "Tell me all about it." "Right, sir, when we've had something to eat. It's 'bout twelve o'clock, and here's a shady place, so if you give the word we'll land and cook a bit. Place looks noo, don't it, sir?" "New, Naylor! I can never thank you enough." "Don't try then, sir," said Shaddy, steering the boat in, and with the help of the boatmen laying it ashore close to some huge trees. "Now we shall have to make her fast, for if our boat gets loose the stream will carry her where nobody will ever find her again." "I can't understand it," said Brazier impatiently, as the Indians leaped ashore, one to make a rope fast, the others to light a fire; "this stream running out of the main river is contrary to nature, unless where it divides at its mouths." "Not it, sir; it's right enough. Right down south in the Parana the river does it lots of times, for the waters there are like a big net all over the land, and--I say, Mr Rob, sir, where's your gun? There's a carpincho just yonder among them reeds. Try for it, sir; we can manage with it for a bit o' roast and boiled." Rob seized the piece, and Shaddy pointed out the spot where he was to fire and hit the beast in the shoulder, but just then they were interrupted by a hideous yell. _ |
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