The Ocean Cat's Paw Part 76

"Do you good, Mr Rodd, sir! I should just think it does! Why, it's natur'. Does you good to have a long talk sometimes, don't it; eh, Mr Morny, sir?"

"Oh yes, I suppose so," replied the lad.

"And you know it does you a lot of good to get your teeth to work when you are hungry, Mr Rodd."

"Yes, Joe," cried the lad eagerly. "What's for breakfast?"

"Ah, you wait a bit, sir, and you will see. But as I was saying about laughing, what's your smiling tackle for, and your grinning kit for, if they aren't to use and set you right when otherwise you would be all in the dumps? Yes, sir; give me a good laugh. But one don't always get one's share along with our old man. Still we like him, for he always means right by us. Ay, there's worse chaps in the world than old Chubb, and I'm just ready and waiting to drink his health and long life to him in a pannikin of the finest coffee a c.o.xswain ever brewed; and as for the frizzled ham that cookie's got thriddled on sticks over them embers to eat with the dough-cakes he's baking in the ashes--Here, let's get back, for fear there's an accident."

"Accident?" said Morny. "Why, what accident could happen?"

"Out of sight, sir, out of mind; and that aren't a French proverb, but you might like to turn it into one as your countrymen could use. They might forget, sir, as we are here."

Well rested, in high spirits, and with a good breakfast waiting, the morning meal was eaten with the greatest of gusto, while to every one the expedition wore more and more the appearance of a delightful holiday.

There was an exception, though, and that was in the person of the Spanish captain, who looked grim and sombre, and ate little, but smoked a great deal.

Just as the tent was being struck and a clearance being made of the remains of the breakfast, Rodd suddenly called out--

"There they are again!" And he called attention to the two nearly nude blacks, who were creeping along the edge of the bank opposite to them in their canoe.

"Why, they are watching us," said Uncle Paul.

"Hungry," said the Spanish skipper laconically.

"Yes, that's it," cried Rodd, and after a glance at his uncle he tore down a wild banana leaf, turned it into a natural green dish, heaped upon it some of the remains of the breakfast, and carried it a short distance along the bank, where he placed it close to the water's edge, signed to the blacks, and then joined his companions, who were about to enter the boat.

Very soon afterwards they were gliding along the stream again, after the sailors, by Uncle Paul's orders, had carefully extinguished the remains of the fire.

"We don't want to start a conflagration, my boys," he said.

As the men slowly dipped their oars, for there was not a breath of wind, the two lads had to make an effort to, as it were, drag their eyes from the lovely floral scene on either side of the little river, while they watched the proceedings of the blacks.

"Well, they are a pair of stupids," said Rodd. "What is it--ignorance or suspicion?"

For the two dark objects remained on the farther bank, one seated with a paddle, the other upright, spear in hand, holding on by an overhanging bough to keep their boat from drifting on with the current.

"Suspicion," said Morny quietly.

"Miserable wretches! Do they think I want to poison them?"

"No. I'll tell you," said Morny. "Poor creatures, they have been so ill-used by the white people with black hearts who come to these sh.o.r.es that they think the food you have put there is the bait of a trap."

"To catch blackbirds! Why, of course! They think we want to carry them off for slaves. They're as bad as old Captain Chubb; eh, uncle? He took us for slavers, Morny, when uncle wanted to engage him. Well, I forgive them, poor chaps.--Ah, they think it's safe now. They're going to risk taking the bait."

For all at once the two negroes began to paddle themselves slowly across the river to where the bright green banana leaf lay glistening upon the sand, and the last the two lads saw then of those they had tried to benefit, as the boat glided on with four oars dipping and making the water flash like silver, was with the canoe drawn up on to the sands, the two savage-looking blacks squatting on their heels, eagerly devouring the remains of the breakfast. "Oh, never mind the sun being hot, uncle," cried Rodd, as they went on and on. "I don't mind if I'm half roasted. Look, Morny; did you ever see anything so lovely? Look at the flowers on that great tree. Why, it seems to blaze with scarlet."

"Yes, and look at the birds," was the reply. "I wish my father were here, with his mind at rest, to enjoy all this as I do, or should if he were with us. There, quick! What's that--running in there among the leaves on that tree?"

"Snake," cried Rodd, who just caught sight of the movement. "No. Who ever saw a snake with four legs? Why, it's a great lizard of a thing!

Why, uncle, that must be one of those queer chaps that turn all sorts of colours."

"Yes," said the doctor, "you are right, Pickle," and he focussed upon it a little old-fashioned single opera-gla.s.s which he carried in his pocket. "That's a chameleon, sure enough; and a big one too, I should say, though it's the first one I ever saw alive."

"What's he after?" said Rodd.

"Having a game, catching b.u.t.terflies, I think, sir," suggested Joe Cross. "So he is, Joe."

"Why, Master Rodd, it makes us chaps wish we was boys again and ash.o.r.e there running after them b.u.t.terflies with our caps; only one couldn't run among the trees, and they fly too high. I never see flutterbies, as we used to call them, with colours like these, though. We used to catch white 'uns, and yaller ones, and sometimes what we used to call tortoisesh.e.l.ls. But I call all this 'ere--Look there, sir; there's one as big as my hand--two--lots on 'em! Yes, I do call this 'ere dead waste both of the b.u.t.terflies and the birds."

"Why, my man?" said the doctor quietly.

"Why, sir, everything you see flying about in the air is as lovely as lovely, and no one to look at them. Why, if I had my way I'd have all these sort of things flying about in old England. Yes, sir, they are all wasted here."

"That they aren't, Joe," cried Rodd. "We are looking at them, and enjoying them; and I say, uncle, isn't it time we began to get some specimens?"

"Plenty of time yet, my boy. Why, captain, the country here on either side is very beautiful."

"Satisfied, then?" said the Spaniard coolly.

"Thoroughly," replied the doctor, "and very glad to have met with such a guide."

"But I say, captain," cried Rodd, "don't forget the big monkeys and the leopards."

"Oh no," said the Spaniard. "Farther on yet; and I can't be sure.

There are plenty in the woods one day, and the next they are gone. But we shall come across some of them." And he sank back smoking again.

"Just look at him," said Rodd. "He doesn't seem to take notice of anything."

"These things have grown common to him," replied Morny quietly; "but don't look only at the trees on the banks. Cast your eyes down sometimes into the clear water."

"Don't say there are any of those great reptiles here," said Rodd hurriedly.

"No, I have not seen one to-day; but look at the fish we disturb. They go gliding away to right and left like so many flashes of silver and gold."

"Now, boys, there's something," said the doctor. "Right across the river." For there was a rush and a splash as some animal that had evidently been wading close in under the bank sprang out of the water with a rush, and disappeared amongst the low growth.

"What's that, captain?" cried Rodd, making a s.n.a.t.c.h at his gun.

"Hog," said the Spaniard quietly. "Did you see it?" asked Rodd. "No; I know the noise they make. Plenty here." And then it was birds, anon flowers, and some two or three miles farther on Joe Cross, who sat just behind the boys, tiller in hand, glanced at the doctor and asked--"Which way?"

For the river forked into two of equal size, and at his question the Spaniard raised his eyelids a little and made a sign with his left hand.

This branch proved to be if anything more rich in its objects of beauty than the winding stream they had left, for there was enough to sate even the most exacting lover of nature, while there always seemed to be something fresh. One minute a sailor would be pointing out a brilliantly-scaled thin green serpent gliding along the surface of the water, eel-like in motion, but with its back quite exposed to the sunshine, giving it the look of frosted silver, while before long another man made his discovery, the whole party being eagerly on the watch for fresh objects of interest, and at this, without waiting for orders, the rowers ceased dipping their oars, to let the boat drift slowly by a lovely curtain of fine strands and leaves dotted with flowers which hung down from some fifty feet up, till the tips of the twigs touched the water.

In amongst these vine-like branches a vividly-coloured serpent that appeared to be some six or eight feet long, and but little thicker than a man's thumb, was deliberately climbing and twining, its eyes having first attracted attention by sparkling in the sunshine.

"Don't seem afraid of tumbling into the water," suggested Joe.