Rob Harlow's Adventures Part 18

There, Rob, you said how horrid just now; and yet we are as bad. The alligators and fish only sought for their daily food. We are going to do worse than they did with our guns and tackle. Well, Naylor, what are we to do?"

"I'm thinking, sir, that if the young gents here, or one of them, will try a fishing-line with an orange or half an orange bait, you might sit quiet at your corner and watch for something--bush turkey, or parrots even, for they're good eating."

"But suppose I shoot a bird, and it falls in the river, what then?"

"Why, we must go after it with the boat; but I expect that something or another would take it down before we could get to it. This river swarms, sir, with big fish and 'gators."

"Why not go a few hundred yards into the forest? We might put up a deer."

"Dessay you would, sir, if you could get in. Why, you couldn't get in a dozen yards without men to hack a way for you; and if you went in alone, even so far, it's a chance if you could find your way out again. You'll have to be careful about that."

"Why?" said Rob, eagerly. "The wild beasts?"

"They're the least trouble, sir," replied Shaddy. "It's the getting lost. A man who is lost in these forests may almost as well lie down and die at once out of his misery, for there's no chance of his getting back again."

"I'm afraid you try to make the worst of things, Naylor," said Brazier, smiling. "Well, I'll take my position at the corner yonder while you lads fish."

Rob felt as if he would far rather try his luck with a gun, for he wanted to practise shooting; and Shaddy read the disappointment in his face.

"It'll be all right, my lad," he said, as Brazier went to the boat to get some different cartridges; "you'll have plenty of chances of shooting for the pot by-and-by. Why, you haven't done so very bad to-day--bagging a whole tiger. Here, I'll help you rig up a line."

"And suppose I hook one of those alligators?"

"Hardly likely, my lad; but if you do it will be bad for the 'gator or bad for your line. One'll have to come, or the other'll have to go."

Just then Brazier returned from the boat with the cartridge-pouch and examining the breech of his gun, after which he walked slowly to the corner of the green opening and took his place close to the edge of the river, where he was partly hidden by some pendent boughs, while Rob, Joe, and Shaddy got on board the boat again, and were soon fitting up a line with an orange bait.

"May as well fish from the boat, my lads," said Shaddy; "it's peaceabler and comfortabler. What do you say?"

"No," said Joe, "but one from the boat, and one from the other corner there. If we fish together we shall get our lines tangled."

"Right, my Hightalian man o' wisdom," said Shaddy. "There you are, then," he continued, as he fixed the half of an orange as securely as he could; "you begin there, and Mr Rob will try up yonder, while I'll go to and fro with the gaff hook ready to help whichever of you wants a hand."

"Hi! you chaps," he shouted to the men in their own tongue, as they were settling themselves down for a long sleep, "make that fire up again; we're going to stop here to-night."

"I wish I could speak their language, Shaddy," said Rob, as the men deliberately began to pile some of the wood they had collected on the embers.

"You'll soon pick it up, my lad. It's soft and easy enough. Not as I speak it, you know, because I'm so rough and keep chopping in broken English. They're not bad fellows. But now look here," he continued, as they reached their corner where the stream flowed very deep and made quite an eddy; "it strikes me that the best thing we can do is to try a different bait, one as will tempt the fish that don't care so much for flesh. What do you say to a quarter of a biscuit?"

"Too hard, and will not stick on."

"Get soft in the water; and it will stick on, for I shall tie it with some thin string, making quite a net round it."

"That will do then," said Rob, who felt some compunction at trying for fish which had been lunching off a large cat; and in due time the bait was carefully bound on.

"This place will suit," said Shaddy, "because the water will carry the hook out softly right toward the middle in this eddy, and we shan't have to throw and knock off our bait. Ready?"

_Bang_!

CHAPTER NINE.

THE DOUBLE CATCH.

The sharp report was from Brazier's piece, and as all looked round it was to see a large turkey-like bird beating and flapping the ground with its strong pinions, evidently being badly wounded.

"Ah!" cried Shaddy, "that'll be better meat than our fish;" and dropping the line, he trotted towards the spot where the bird lay close to the edge of the forest, just as Brazier started on the same mission from his end of the opening; while quite a flock of small birds and a troop of monkeys came flying and bounding through the trees, as if to see what was the meaning of the strange noise, and filling the air with their chatterings and cries, but hardly displaying the slightest dread.

"I happened to look round," cried Brazier, "and saw it come out from among the trees."

This was just as he and Shaddy neared the bird, where it lay half a dozen yards from the dense ma.s.s of interwoven foliage, when, to the disgust of both, the bird suddenly rose to its feet, made a bound, and, with its wings whistling loudly, flew right in through an opening, while its would-be captors were brought up short by the to them impenetrable forest.

"How vexatious!" cried Brazier, stamping his foot.

"There goes our supper!" grumbled Shaddy; "and that's about the joociest bird I know."

"I wish I'd given it the other barrel," said Brazier.

"Better load, sir," said Shaddy. "Never mind. You'll get another chance soon. Eh? Oh, very well then, have a try."

This was to one of the boatmen, who, roused by the shot, came up smiling with his sword-like knife in his hand, evidently with the intention of cutting his way in and trying to retrieve the bird.

"I don't think it is of any use," said Brazier.

"Dunno, sir. Perhaps it is. The bird was hard hit, and maybe hasn't gone far. Let him try. He may just as well do that as lie and sleep."

They both stopped for a few minutes watching the man, who bent down, and going on all-fours, pa.s.sed in between the interlacing growth. They saw his feet for a few moments, and then he disappeared altogether, while Brazier and Shaddy both returned to their stations.

"What a pity!" grumbled the latter. "'Bout the nicest birds I know-- when you're hungry. There'll be another shot for him soon, though, for they go in flocks in open bits of land near water."

"What bird was it?" said Rob--"a turkey?"

"Nay, not so big as a turkey, lad; I dunno what they call 'em. I call 'em Argentine larks."

"What?" cried Rob, with a laugh.

"Ah, you may grin, my lad, but it ain't such a bad name; and if you'd seen 'em do what I have, you'd say so too."

"What do you mean?" said Rob; "do they make their nests on the ground?"

"I don't know nothing about their nests, but I'll tell you what they do: they rise off the ground and fly up in the air higher and higher, and sail round and round singing just like a lark does, only lots of times as loud."

Rob looked keenly in the man's face.

"Oh, I ain't a-stuffing of you with nonsense, my lad; that 'ere's a nat'ral history fact. They flies up singing away till they're out of sight, and the music comes down so soft and sweet then that it makes you want more and more, as you get thinking of when you was away in the country at home."

"But that bird was so big," cried Rob.