Old Gold Part 50

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 a.s.sured, 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 gla.s.s.

"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 sh.o.r.e."

"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 pa.s.sed 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 sh.o.r.e.

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.