Chapter 23. A Sudden Alarm

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_ CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. A SUDDEN ALARM

The silken string Rob had twisted was found to be quite dry, and pretty well kept its shape as it was formed into a loop and passed over the end of the bow nicked for its reception, and after bending secured with a couple of hitches over the other.

"Now, Mr Rob, sir, try it, and send one of your arrows as far as you can. Never mind losing it; we can soon make plenty more. That's the way! Steady! Easy and well, sir! Now then, off it goes!"

_Twang_! went the bow-string, and away flew the arrow high up toward the river, describing its curve and falling at last without the slightest splash into the water.

"Well done!" cried Shaddy, who had watched the flight of the arrow, shading his eyes with his hand. "That's good enough for anything. A little practice, and you'll hit famously."

"Oh, I don't know, Shaddy."

"Well, but I do, sir. If Indians can kill birds, beasts, and fish with their bows and arrows, surely a young Englishman can."

"I shall try, Shaddy."

"Of course you will, and try means win, and win means making ourselves comfortable till we are taken off."

"Then you think we shall be some day?"

"Please God, my lad!" said Shaddy calmly. "Look! Yonder goes Mr Brazier. He's forgetting his troubles in work, and that's what we've got to do, eh?"

Rob shook his head.

"Ah, you're thinking about poor young Jovanni, sir," said Shaddy sadly, "and you mustn't. It won't do him no good, nor you neither. Bring that bow and arrows along with us. I'm going to try and get a bamboo to make a spear thing, with a bit of hard wood for a point, and it may be useful by-and-by."

Rob took up the bow and arrows, but laid the larger part of his sheaf down again, contenting himself with half a dozen, and following Shaddy along the edge of the forest to what looked like a clump of reeds, but which proved to be a fringe of bamboos fully fourteen feet high.

Shaddy soon selected a couple of these suitable for his purpose, and had before long trimmed them down to spear shafts nine feet in length.

"There, sir," he said, "we'll get a couple of heads fitted into these to-night. First thing is to get something else to eat, so let's try for fruit or a bird. Now, if we could only come upon a deer!"

"Not likely, as we want one," responded Rob, who was looking round in search of Mr Brazier, and now caught sight of him right at the far end of the clearing, evidently engaged in cutting down some of his favourite plants.

"Mr Brazier is busy," said Rob; "but isn't it a pity to let him waste time in getting what can never be wanted?"

"How do we know that?" replied Shaddy. "Even if they're not, I did it for the best."

"But is it safe to leave him alone?"

"Safe as it is for us to go out here alone into the forest."

"Are we going into the forest?"

"Must, my lad--a little way."

"But are there likely to be any Indians about?"

"I should say not, Mr Rob, so come along."

Shaddy led the way to where the clearing ceased and the dense growth of the primeval forest began, and after hesitating a little and making a few observations as to the position of the sun--observations absolutely necessary if a traveller wished to find his way back--the guide plunged in amongst the dense growth, threading his way in through the trees, which grew more and more thickly for a short distance and then opened out a little, whereupon Shaddy halted and began to reconnoitre carefully, holding up his band to enforce silence and at the end of a few minutes saying eagerly to Rob,--

"Here you are, my lad! Now's our chance. There's nearly a dozen in that big tree to the right yonder, playing about among the branches, good big ones, too. Now you steal forward a bit, keeping under cover, then lay all your arrows down but one, take a good long aim, and let it go. Bring one down if you can."

"What birds are they?" whispered Rob.

"Who said anything about birds?" replied Shaddy sourly; "I said monkeys."

"No."

"Well, I meant to, my lad. There: on you go."

"Monkey--a little man," said Rob, shaking his head. "No, I couldn't shoot one of them."

"Here, give us hold of the bow and arrow, then, my lad," cried the old sailor. "'Tisn't a time for being nice. Better shoot a monkey and eat it than for me and Mr Brazier to have to kill and eat you."

Rob handed the newly made weapons, and Shaddy took them grumblingly.

"Not the sort of tackle I'm used to," he said. "Bound to say I could do far better with a gun."

He fitted the notch of the arrow to the string and drew the bow a little as if to try it; then moving off a few yards under cover of the trees, Rob was about to follow him, but he turned back directly.

"Don't you come," he said; "better let me try alone. Two of us might scare 'em."

But Shaddy did not have any occasion to go further, for all at once, as if in obedience to a signal, the party of monkeys in the forest a short distance before them came leaping from tree to tree till they were in the one beneath which the two travellers were waiting, stopped short, and began to stare down wonderingly at them, one largish fellow holding back the bough above his head in a singularly human way, while his face looked puzzled as well as annoyed.

"Like a young savage Indian more than an animal," said Shaddy softly, as he prepared to shoot. "Now I wonder whether I can bring him down."

"Don't shoot at it, Shaddy!" said Rob, laying his hand upon his guide's arm.

"Must, my lad. Can't afford to be particular. There, don't you look if you don't like it! Now then!"

He raised the bow, and, after the fashion off our forefathers, drew the arrow right to the head, and was about to let it fly after a long and careful aim; but being, as he had intimated, not used to that sort of tackle, he kept his forefinger over the reed arrow till he had drawn it to the head, when, just as he had taken aim and was about to launch it at the unfortunate monkey, the reed bent and snapped in two.

Probably it was the sharp snap made by the arrow which took the monkey's attention, for it suddenly set up a peculiarly loud chattering, which acted as a lead to its companions, for the most part hidden among the boughs, and it required very little stretch of the imagination to believe it to be a burst of derisive laughter at the contemptible nature of the weapons raised against their leader's life.

"Oh, that's the way you take it, is it, my fine fellow?" cried Shaddy, shaking the bow at the monkey. "Here, give us another arrow, Mr Rob, sir; I'll teach him to laugh better than that. I feel as if I can hit him now."

Rob made no attempt to hand the arrow, but Shaddy took one from him, fitted it to the string, raised it to the required height, and was about to draw the reed to its full length, but eased it back directly and left go to rub his head.

"See him now, Mr Rob, sir?"

"No," said Rob, looking carefully upward among the branches; and, to his great satisfaction, not one of the curious little four-handed animals was visible.

"Right!" said Shaddy. "He has saved his skin this time. Here, take the bow again. It may be a bird we see next."

"Hadn't we better go back to the river?" said Rob. "Perhaps I should be able to shoot a duck if I saw one swimming about."

"Daresay you would, my lad," said the old sailor drily, "send the arrow right through one; but what I say is, if the 'gators want a duck killed they'd better kill it themselves."

"I don't understand you," said Rob.

"Understand, my lad? Why, suppose you shoot a duck, it will be on the water, won't it?"

"Of course!"

"Then how are you going to get it off?"

"I forgot that," said Rob. "Impossible, of course."

"Come on, then, and don't let's waste time. We'll keep along here and get some fruit, perhaps, and find birds at the same time."

Their journey through the forest was very short before they were startled by a sudden rush and bound through the undergrowth. So sudden was it that both stopped short listening, but the sound ceased in a few moments.

"What's that?" whispered Rob.

"Deer, I thought at first, my lad; but it could not have been, because a deer would have gone on racing through the forest, and one would have heard the sounds dying away, not end suddenly like those did. You see, there was a sudden rustle, and then it stopped, as if whatever it was had been started up by our coming and then settled down again to hide and watch us."

"Indian?" whispered Rob uneasily.

"Nay, more like some great cat. Strikes me it was one of the spotted tigers, and a hardened arrow's not much good against one of those beasts. I say, let's strike off in the other direction, and try if we can find something there. Cats are awkward beasts to deal with even when they're small. When it comes to one as strong as a horse, the best way to fight 'em is to get out of their way."

Shaddy took a few steps forward so as to be able to peer up through a green shaft among the trees to the sunshine and satisfy himself as to their position, and then led off again.

"Can't be too particular, Mr Rob, sir," he said; "stitch in time saves nine. Bit of observation now may save us hours of walking and fighting our way through the tangle."

Rob noted his companion's careful management, and that whenever they had to pass round a tree which stood right in their way Shaddy was very exact about starting afresh exactly straight, and after a time in making off again to their left, so as to hit the river near the clearing. But for some time they found nothing to take their attention.

"And that's the way of it," said Shaddy in reply to an observation of Rob's. "You generally find what you are not looking for. Now, if we wanted plenty of fine hardwood timber, here it is, and worth fortunes in London town, and worth nothing here. I'd give the lot, Mr Rob, for one of our fine old Devonshire apple-trees, well loaded down with yellow-faced, red-cheeked pippins, though even then we've no flour to make a dumpling."

"And no saucepan to cook it in."

"Oh, we could do without that, my lad. Worse things than baked dumplings."

"Are we going right, Shaddy?" said Rob suddenly.

The old sailor took an observation, as he called it, before he answered, so as to make sure.

"Yes," he said thoughtfully, "and if we keep straight on we shall hit the clearing. Strikes me that if we go pretty straight we shall come upon Mr Brazier loaded down to sinking point with plants, and glad of a bit of help to carry 'em. Don't you be down-hearted, sir! This is a bit of experience; and here we are! something at last."

As he spoke he pointed to a tree where the sun penetrated a little, and they could see that it was swarming with small birds evidently busy over the fruit it bore. Shaddy was pressing forward, but Rob caught his arm.

"What is it, lad?"

"Look!" whispered Rob. "What's that?"

"Eh? Where? See a tiger?"

"No, that horrible-looking thing walking along the branch. It has gone now."

"Ugly monkey?"

"Oh no," whispered Rob, "a curious creature. Alligators don't climb trees, do they?"

"Never saw one," said Shaddy. "Might if they were taught, but it wouldn't be a pleasant job to teach one. Well, where is it?"

"Gone," whispered Rob. "No; there it is on that branch where it is so dark."

"I see him," said Shaddy in a subdued tone. "Ought to have known. Now then, your bow and arrows! That's a skinful of good meat for us. You won't mind shooting that?"

"No," said Rob, quickly fitting an arrow to the string, "I don't mind shooting that. But not to eat, thank you."

"You will not be so particular soon. That's iguana, and as good as chicken. Ready?"

Rob nodded.

"Keep behind the trees, then, and creep slowly forward till you are pretty close--I daresay you'll be able to--and then aim at his shoulder, and send the arrow right through."

"I will," said Rob drily, "if I can."

"Make up your mind to it, my lad. We want that sort of food."

"You may," thought Rob as he began to stalk the curious old-world, dragon-like beast, which was running about the boughs of a great tree in complete ignorance of the neighbourhood of human beings, probably even of their existence.

The lad's heart beat heavily as he crept from tree to tree in full want of faith as to his ability to draw a bow-string with effect; for his experience only extended to watching ladies shooting at targets in an archery meeting; and as he drew nearer, stepping very softly from shelter to shelter and then peering out to watch the reptile, he had an admirable opportunity for noting its shape and peculiarities, none of which created an appetite for trying its chicken-like flesh. He gazed at a formidable-looking animal with wide mouth, a hideous pouch beneath its jaw, and a ridge of sharp-looking, teeth-like spines along its back ending in a long, fine, bony tail. These, with its fierce eye and scaly skin, and a habit of inflating itself, made it appear an object which might turn and attack an aggressor.

This struck Rob very strongly as he stopped at last peering round the bole of a huge tree. He was about thirty yards from the lizard now, and in a position which commanded its side as it stood gazing straight before it at some object, bird or insect, in front.

It was just the position for resting the bow-arm against the tree for steadiness of aim, and feeling that he could do no better, but doubtful of his skill and quite as doubtful of the likelihood of the wooden arrow-head piercing the glistening skin of the iguana, Rob took a careful aim, as he drew his arrow to his ear in good old archer style, and let his missile fly.

Roughly made, unfeathered, and sent by a tyro, it was no wonder that it flew far wide of the mark, striking a bough away to the left and then dropping from twig to twig till it reached the undergrowth below.

Where it struck was some distance from the lizard, and the sound and the falling of the reed gave it the idea that the danger point was there, so that it directed its attention in that quarter, stood very erect, and swelled itself out fiercely.

This gave Rob ample time to fit another arrow to his string, correct his aim, and loosen the shaft after drawing it to the head. This one whizzed by the iguana, making it flinch slightly; but treating it as if it had been a bird which had suddenly flashed by, the lizard fixed its eyes on the spot where this second arrow struck.

"I shall never hit the thing," thought Rob as he fitted another arrow and corrected his aim still more, but this time too much, for the arrow flew off to the lizard's right.

"Three arrows gone!" muttered the lad as he prepared for another try, took a long aim, and, to his great delight, saw the missile strike the bough just below where the iguana stood, but only for it to make a rush forward out of his sight.

"But I should have hit it if I had only aimed a little higher," he thought.

The lizard being invisible, he was about to return to Shaddy, thinking of his companion's disappointment, when, to his surprise, he suddenly saw the reptile reappear upon a lower branch, where it stood watchful and eager, and once more presenting a splendid opportunity for a skilled archer.

"It's of no good," thought Rob. "I must practise every day at a mark," and once more taking aim without exercising much care, but more with an idea of satisfying his companion if he were watching his actions than of hitting his mark, he drew the arrow quickly to the head, gave one glance along the slight reed at the iguana, the bow-string twanged, and the next moment the reptile was gone.

"That settles it," said Rob as he listened to the rustling of the leaves and twigs; "but I must have gone pretty near for it to have leaped off the bough in such a hurry. I'll be bound to say poor old Joe would have made a better shot. Italian! Genoese archers!" he continued thoughtfully. "No, they were cross-bow-men. Poor old Joe, though! Oh, how shocking it does seem for a bright handsome lad like he was to--"

"Here! hi! T'other way, my lad! He dropped down like a stone."

"No, no; leaped like a deer off the branch. I saw him."

"Well, so did I," cried Shaddy, hurrying up. "The arrow went clean through him."

"Nonsense!"

"Nonsense, sir? What do you mean?"

"I did not go near him."

"What? Why, you shot him right through the shoulder. I haven't got much to boast about except my eye, and I'll back that against some people's spy-glasses. That iguana's lying down there at the bottom of the tree dead as a last year's butterfly, and I can put my foot right on the place. Come along."

Rob smiled, raised his eyebrows a little, and followed.

"Better let him convince himself," he thought; and as Shaddy forced back the low boughs and held them apart for his companion to follow, he went on talking.

"I knew you could do it by the way you handled your bow and arrow. Your eyes are as straight as mine is, and I watched you as you sent an arrow first one side and then another till you got the exact range, and then it was like kissing your hand: just a pull of the string, off goes the arrow, and down drops the lizard, and a fine one, too. Round that trunk, my lad! There you are, and there he lies, just down in that tuft of grass."

"Where?" said Rob banteringly. "Why, Shaddy, I thought your eye was better than spy-glasses."

Shaddy made a dash at the tuft of thick growth beneath the bough where the iguana had stood, searched about, and then rose and took off his cap to give his head a scratch.

"Well, I never!" he said in a tone full of disappointment; "I was as sure as sure that you hit that thing right through."

He looked round about, and then all at once made a rush at a spot whence came a faint rustling; and the next minute he returned dragging the iguana by the tail, with the half of the arrow through its shoulder.

"Now then," he cried, "was I right, or was I wrong? He made a big scramble to get away, and hid himself in that bush all but his tail. My word, Mr Rob, sir, what a shot you will make!"

"Nonsense, Shaddy!" said the lad, looking down with a mingling of compunction and pride at his prize.

"Ah, you may call it nonsense, Mr Rob. I calls it skill."

"Why, it was a mere accident."

"Hark at him!" cried Shaddy, looking round at the trees as if to call their attention to the lad's words. "Says it was an accident when I told him to aim straight at the thing's shoulder, and there's the arrow right through it from one side to the other, and the poor brute dead as dead."

"But I hardly aimed at it, Shaddy," protested Rob.

"Of course you didn't. A good shot just makes up his mind to hit a thing, and he hits it same as you did that lizard. Well, sir, that's one trouble off my mind; and I can say thankfully we shan't starve. There'll be times when the river's so flooded that we can't fish, and then we might have come worst off; but you can shoot us birds and beasts. Then we can find eggs, and lay traps, and search for fruit. Why, Mr Rob, sir, we're going to have our bread buttered on both sides, and we can keep Mr Brazier going while he collects. It looked very black indeed time back, but the sun's shining in on us now. We shall be a bit like prisoners, but where are you going to find a more beautiful prison for people who want to study natural history? Hooray I look here, too--mushrooms."

"What, those great funguses?"

"To be sure: they're good eating. I know 'em, sir. Found 'em before, and learnt to eat 'em off the Indians. Here, wait a moment; let's take enough of 'em for supper, and then get back to the kitchen and have a turn at cooking. That's enough," he continued, picking up from the mouldering stump of a huge decaying tree a great cluster of fungi; "those others'll do for another time."

"I hope you will not be disappointed in my shooting next time," said Rob, taking the cluster of mushroom growth and thrusting an arrow through it like a skewer. "I have very little faith in it myself, Shaddy."

"More likely to do good, and I believe in you all the more, Mr Rob," said the man, seizing the lizard, tying its legs together with a band of twisted twigs, thrusting his bamboos through, and swinging the prize over his shoulder. "If you went puffing and blowing about and saying you was going to shoot this, and hit that, I should begin to wonder how ever we were to get our next dinner. Never you mind about feeling afraid for yourself. 'Modesty's the best policy,' as the old saying goes, or something like it. Now then, best foot foremost! Tread in my steps, and I think I can lead you straight for the head of the clearing, pretty close to home, sweet home. D'yer mind what I say?" he continued, with a queer smile. "Think. I ain't quite sure, my lad, but I'll try."

Shaddy took a fresh observation, and then gave a satisfied nod of the head.

"Forrard!" he said; and he made off as if full of confidence, while Rob followed behind, taking care of his mushrooms and watching the nodding head of the iguana low down at Shaddy's back in a curiously grim fashion, and thinking that it looked anything but attractive as an object for the cook's art.

They had been walking nearly an hour, very slowly--for it was difficult work to avoid the tangled growth which hemmed them in--when Shaddy, who had been chatting away pleasantly about the trees and their ill-luck in not finding more fruit out in the forest, warning his companion, too, every now and then about ant-hills and thorns, suddenly exclaimed, "Wonder what luck Mr Brazier's had?" and almost directly after as they entered an open place where orchids were growing, some of which had suggested the man's last speech, he cried, "Why, hullo! Look here, Mr Rob; look here," and as he pointed down at the dead leaves beneath their feet, Rob started back with a shudder of horror, and looked wildly round for the cause of that which he saw. _

Read next: Chapter 24. A Gap In The Ranks

Read previous: Chapter 22. Brave Efforts

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