Rob Harlow's Adventures Part 41

"All right, sir; I won't say no more. Give him time, and don't notice him, and then I daresay he'll soon come round."

"I shall go on just as if nothing had happened," said Rob quietly. "I apologised and said I was sorry, and when his annoyance has pa.s.sed off he'll be friends again. What a glorious morning after the storm!"

"Glorious ain't nothing to it, sir. Everything's washed clean, and the air shines with it. Even looks as if the sun had got his face washed, too. See how he flashes."

"I can feel, Shaddy," said Rob, with a laugh.

"That's nothing to what's coming, my lad. Strikes me, too, that we shall find a little more water in the stream, if Mr Brazier says we're to go down the river to-day. Hear the birds?"

"Hear them?" cried Rob. "Why, they are ten times as lively to-day."

"That they are, sir. They're having a regular feast on the things washed out of their holes by the rain. As for the flowers, Mr Brazier will have no end of beauties to pick. They'll come out like magic after this rain. He won't want to go on to-day."

"Yes, I shall, Naylor," said Brazier, stepping out from under the awning. "We may as well go on, beautiful as all this is. Ah," he continued as he gazed round and took a long, deep breath, "what gloriously elastic air! What a paradise! Rob, my lad, there can be nothing fairer on earth."

"Don't you be in a hurry, sir!" growled Shaddy. "I'm going to show you places as beat this hollow."

"Impossible, my man!" said Brazier.

"Well, sir, you wait and see. Bit o' breakfast before we start?"

"Yes," said Brazier, and the men just then stirred the fire together, and called from the sh.o.r.e that the water was boiling and the cakes in the embers baked.

The sensation of delicious comparative coolness after the storm as they sat under the trees, and the fragrance borne from myriads of flowering plants was so delightful to the senses that Rob looked with dismay at the idea of leaving the place for the present. The thirsty ground had drunk up the rain, and only a little moisture remained where the sun could not penetrate, while the sky was of a vivid blue, without a speck of cloud to be seen.

But, though Brazier did not notice it, there was a jarring element in the concord of that glorious morning, for the young Italian was heavy and gloomy, and hardly spoke during the _alfresco_ meal.

"What's that?" said Rob suddenly as there was a slight rustling among the boughs and undergrowth a short distance away.

"Might be anything, sir," said Shaddy. "Some little animal--monkey praps. It won't hurt us. Maybe it's a snake."

In spite of an effort to seem unconcerned, Rob could not resist the desire to glance at his comrade at the mention of the monkey, and, as he fully expected, even though he could not check it, there was Joe glaring at him fiercely.

Rob dropped his eyes, feeling that Joe fully believed he was doing it to annoy him, and that Shaddy had the same intention.

Meanwhile the sound had ceased, and was forgotten by the time they were all on board once more, the rope which had moored them to a tree being cast off.

"Now, my lads, away with you!" growled Shaddy, and the oars dropped among the lily leaves with a splash, startling quite a shoal of fish on one side and a large reptile on the other, which raised quite a wave as it dashed off with a few powerful strokes of its tail for deeper water.

They were about fifty yards from the sh.o.r.e, when Shaddy suddenly laid his hand upon Rob's shoulder and pointed back to the place they had just left.

"See that, my lad?"

"No. What?" cried Rob hastily. "Bird? lizard?"

"Nay; look again."

Rob swept the sh.o.r.e eagerly, and the next moment his eyes lit upon something tawny standing in a shady spot, half hidden by the leaves.

"The puma!" he cried excitedly, and as the words left his lips the animal made one bound into the undergrowth near the trees, and was gone.

"Or another, one, Rob," said Brazier. "It is hardly likely to be the same. There are plenty about, I suppose, Naylor?"

"Oh yes, sir. Can't say as they swarm, but they're pootty plentiful, and as much like each other as peas in a pod."

"But I feel sure that is the same one," cried Rob excitedly. "It is following us down the lake."

"Maybe," grumbled Shaddy, "but you couldn't tell at this distance."

Rob was going to speak again, but he caught sight of Joe's face, with a peculiar smile thereon, and he held his peace.

An hour later they were drawing close to the mouth of the river, where it quitted the lake, and Shaddy pointed to the sh.o.r.es on either side.

"Look at that," he said in a low tone. "I 'spected as much."

"Look at what?" said Rob.

"The trees. Water's two foot up the trunks, and the river over its banks, lad. We shall go down pootty fast it I don't look out."

But he did "look out," to use his own words, and getting the boat round, he set the four men to back stern foremost into the stream, keeping a long oar over the side to steer by and giving orders to the men to pull gently or hard as he gave instructions, for the river ran like a mill-race. It was swift enough before, but now, thanks to the tremendous amount of water poured into it through the previous night's storm, its speed seemed to be doubled.

Rob stood close by the steersman, while Joe was beside Mr Brazier, who, after the first minute or two of startled interest in their rapid descent, became absorbed in the beauty of the overhanging plants, and had no eyes for anything else.

"We're going along at a tidy rate, Master Rob," said Shaddy.

"Yes; the trees glide by very quickly."

"Ay, they do, sir," said the man, who did not take his eyes from the surface of the river before them. "I did mean to make the boys pull so that we could go down gently, but it wouldn't be much good, and only toil 'em for nothing."

"There's no danger, I suppose, Shaddy?"

"No, sir, no, not much, unless we run on a sharp snag or trunk of a tree, or get swept into a corner and capsized."

"What?" cried Rob.

"Capsized, sir. That would make an end of our expedition. Now, lads,"

he shouted to the men, "pull your best."

He gave his own oar a peculiar twist as the men obeyed, and Rob caught sight of the danger ahead for the first time. It was a huge tree which had been undermined by the water during the past few hours and fallen right out into the stream, its top being over a hundred feet from the sh.o.r.e and showing quite a dense tangle of branches level with the water, to have entered which must have meant wreck.

But Shaddy was too much on the _qui vive_, and his timely order and careful steering enabled him to float the craft gently by the outermost boughs.

They were going onward again at increased speed, when Brazier shouted,--

"Stop! I must have some of those plants."

Shaddy did not stir.

"Do you hear, man? Stop! I want to collect some of those epiphytic plants."