Rob Harlow's Adventures Part 23

"What I telled him, sir."

"And you didn't shoot!"

"I was just going to when you fired, and the deer darted away."

"Naturally," said Brazier, smiling; and by this time the boat was gliding down the river in the wake of the ducks. These were secured, all but one, which, being wounded, flapped and swam toward the sh.o.r.e, where it was suddenly sucked down by a reptile or fish. Those they secured dropped silvery little arrows, apparently, back into the water in the shape of the tiny voracious fish that had forced their way already between their feathers to reach the skin.

The birds secured, Rob sat gazing with delight at the fresh beauties of the river where it wound off to the right. Birds innumerable were flitting about, chirping and singing; noisy parrots were climbing and hanging head downwards as they hunted out a berry-like fruit from a tall tree; and toucans, with orange-and-scarlet b.r.e.a.s.t.s and huge bills, hopped about, uttering their discordant cries. Everything looked so beautiful and peaceful that for the moment he forgot the dangerous occupants of the river, and his eyes grew dim with the strange sense of joy that came over him that glorious morning. But the next moment he became aware of the fact that to all this beauty and brightness there was a terrible reverse side. For suddenly a great falcon dashed with swift wing high up along the course of the river, and cries of fear, warning, and alarm rang out from the small birds, the minute before happy and contentedly seeking their food.

The change was magical. At the first cry, all dropped down helter-skelter beneath the boughs and leaves, seeking shelter; and as the falcon gave a harsh scream it was over groves that had suddenly become deserted, not a tenant being visible, except some half-dozen humming-birds, whose safety lay in their tiny size and wonderful powers of flight. Three of these, instead of showing fear, became immediately aggressive, and, darting like great flies at the falcon, flashed about it in different directions, apparently acting in concert and pestering the great bird, so that it winged its way over the great wall of trees and was gone.

But almost at the same moment a vulture appeared, with its hideous naked head and neck outstretched, making the humming-birds ruffle up again and resume their attack till they literally drove the great intruder away.

"What daring little things they are!" said Rob, who was watching the tiny bird gems with keen delight, while Brazier's admiration was as much taken up by the cl.u.s.ters of blossoms hanging from a branch over the water.

"I shall be obliged to have those, Rob," he said, pointing to the orchids. "Do you think you could get out along that bough if the boat were run in to the bank?"

"Yes," said the boy; "but suppose I drop into the river! What then?"

"We would keep the boat under you."

"Can't be done," growled Shaddy, who had been trying to force the boat back to their little camp by paddling with one oar over the stern.

"'Bliged to ask you, gentlemen, to take an oar apiece. Stream runs mighty fast here."

Rob seized an oar, and Brazier followed suit, at the same time glancing toward their last night's halting-place to see if their men were within reach to come and row and enable him to make an effort to obtain some of the green, bulbous-looking stems and flowers of the lovely parasite which had taken his attention. But they were as un.o.btainable as if they were a hundred miles away, for it would have taken them days to cut a way to opposite where the boat was now being held against the swift stream, and even when they had reached the spot it would have been impossible to force her in through the tangled growth to the sh.o.r.e.

"Now together, gentlemen!" growled Shaddy. "Keep stroke, please. Pull hard."

They were already tugging so hard that the perspiration was starting out upon Rob's brow, and in that short row, with Shaddy supplementing their efforts by paddling with all his might, they had a fair sample of the tremendous power of the stream.

"At last!" said Shaddy as they regained their old quarters, where Joe and the four men had stood watching them. "It will give my chaps a pretty good warming if we come back this way. Strikes me that we four had better practise pulling together, so as to be able to give them a rest now and then when the stream's very much against us."

"By all means," said Brazier.

"You see, men ain't steam-engines, sir, and we might be where there was no place for landing. O' course we could always. .h.i.tch on to the trees, but that makes poor mooring, and we should be better able to make our way. There's hardly a chance of getting into slack water in a river like this: it all goes along with a rush."

"But I must get that plant, Naylor," said Brazier. "If you'll believe me, sir," was the reply, "you needn't worry about that one. I'm going to take you where you'll find thousands."

"Like that?"

"Ay, and other sorts too. Seems to me, sir, we want to catch a monkey and teach him how to use a knife. He'd be the sort of chap to run up the trees." Rob laughed at the idea, and said it was not possible.

"Well, sir," said Shaddy, "you may believe it or no, but an old friend of mine 'sured me that the Malay chaps do teach a big monkey they've got out there to slip up the cocoa-nut trees and twist the big nuts round and round till they drop off. He said it was a fact, and I don't see why not."

"We'll try and dispense with the monkey," said Brazier; and trusting to finding more easily accessible specimens of the orchid, he gave that up, and a couple of hours after they were gliding swiftly along the stream, rapt in contemplation of the wonders on either hand, Shaddy being called upon from time to time to seize hold of some overhanging bough and check the progress of the boat, so that its occupants might watch the gambols of the inquisitive monkeys which kept pace with them along the bank by bounding and swinging from branch to branch.

The birds, too, appeared to be infinite in variety; and Rob was never weary of watching the tiny humming-birds as they poised themselves before the trumpet blossoms of some of the pendent vines to probe their depths for honey, or capture tiny insects with their beaks.

Their journey was prolonged from their inability to find a suitable place for a halt, and it was easy work for the boatmen, who smiled with content as they found that only one was required to handle the oars, so as to keep the boat's head straight.

It was nearly night, when a narrow place was found where by the fall of a huge tree several others had been torn up by their roots, and lay with their water-worn branches in the river.

The place offered just room to run the boat between two of the trees, but it could be easily moored, and there was the clear sky overhead.

Moreover, they had an ample supply of dead wood to make a fire, and by the time this was blazing merrily and lighting up the wall of trees and the river night had fallen intensely dark.

The lads were for leaping out directly and climbing about amongst the fallen trunks which nearly filled the opening, but Shaddy checked them.

"Wait a while, my lads, till the fire's been burning a bit. I don't quite like our quarters."

"But that fire will scare away any wild beasts that may be near," said Rob.

"Yes, but the place looks snaky, Mr Rob; and I daresay there's lots o'

them big spiders about."

"What big spiders?"

"Them as bites so bad that you remember it for months. Why, there's one sort out in these parts as'll run after you and attack you--fierce."

"No, no, Shaddy, not spiders," said Rob, laughing.

"Look ye here, Mr Rob, sir," said Shaddy solemnly, "when I tell you a story of the good old traveller sort--I mean a bouncer--you'll see the corners of my lips screwed up. When I'm telling you what's true as true, you'll see I look solid as mahogany; and that's how I'm looking now."

"Yes, it's true, Rob," said Joe. "There are plenty of spiders out on the pampas--great fellows that will come at you and bite horribly."

"I should like to see one," said Rob.

"Wait a bit, my lad, and you shall," said Shaddy.--"Humph! don't like this place at all," he growled. "Look there!" he continued, pointing at where three big trees lay close together, with their branches worn sharp by the action of the water. "If there ain't 'gators under all them sharp snags my name ain't Shadrach Naylor! Water's quite still, too, there. I hope there ain't anything worse."

"Do you think we had better go on?" said Brazier.

"Nay, we'll risk it, sir. Let's wait till the fire burns up big and strong. We'll have a roarer to-night, and that'll scare away most of the trash. Worst of it is, I'm 'fraid it 'tracts the 'gators and fish."

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

AN EVENTFUL NIGHT.

"I do like a good fire, Joe," said Rob, as he gazed at the ruddy flames rushing up.

"Why, you're not cold?"

"No, I'm hot, and this fire brings in a breeze and makes it cooler--on one side. But what I like in a fire of this kind is that you can burn as much wood as you like, and n.o.body can say it's waste, because it's doing good--clearing the ground for the trees around to grow. I say, look at the birds."

"After supper," said Joe, as he watched the actions of the princ.i.p.al boatman, who was head cook, busily preparing the ducks and two good-sized fish which they had caught by trailing a bait behind the boat as they came.

"Yes, I'm hungry," said Rob. "What's that?"

"It was Shaddy."