The Plant Hunters Part 26

Still he struggled on, with the tenacity by which youth clings to life; he hung on, though certain that every moment would be his last.

He heard voices from below--shouts of encouragement--cries of "Hold on, Karl! Hold on!"

He knew the voices, and who uttered them. They had come too late; a weak scream was all the answer he could make.

It was the last effort of his strength. Simultaneous with its utterance, his hands relaxed their hold, and he fell backward from the cliff!

CHAPTER FIFTY.

A MYSTERIOUS MONSTER.

Karl, poor fellow! was killed, of course; crushed to death upon the rocks; mangled--

Stay--not so fast, reader! Karl was not killed; not even hurt! He was no more damaged by his tall, than if he had only tumbled from a chair, or rolled from a fashionable couch upon the carpet of a drawing-room!

How could this be? you will exclaim. A fall of sheer twenty feet, and upon loose rocks, too! How could he escape being killed, or, at the very least, badly bruised and cut?

But there was neither bruise nor scratch upon his body; and, the moment after he had relinquished his hold, he might have been seen standing by the bottom of the cliff, sound in limb, though sadly out of wind, and with his strength altogether exhausted.

Let us have no mystery about the matter. I shall at once tell you how he escaped.

Caspar and Ossaroo, having expected him to return at an early hour, took it into their heads, from his long absence, that something might be wrong; and, therefore, sallied forth in search of him. They might not have found him so readily but for Fritz. The dog had guided them on his trail, so that no time had been lost in scouring the valley. On the contrary, they had come almost direct from the hut to the ravine where he was found.

They had arrived just at the crisis when Karl was making his last attempt to descend from the ledge. They had shouted to him, when first coming within hail; but Karl, intently occupied with the difficulty of the descent, and his anxiety about the bear, had not heard them. It was just at that moment that he lost his foothold, and Caspar and Ossaroo saw him sprawling helplessly against the cliff.

Caspar's quick wit suggested what was best to be done. Both he and Ossaroo ran underneath, and held up their arms to catch Karl as he fell; but Ossaroo chanced to have a large skin-robe around his shoulders, and, at Caspar's prompt suggestion, this was hurriedly spread out, and held between the two, high above their heads. It was while adjusting this, that Karl had heard them crying out to him to "hold on." Just as the robe was hoisted into its place, Karl had fallen plump down into the middle of it; and although his weight brought all three of them together to the ground, yet they scrambled to their feet again without receiving the slightest injury.

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Caspar, "just in the nick of time! Ha! ha! ha!"

Of course there followed a good deal of rejoicing and congratulation upon this narrow escape. Narrow it certainly was, for had not Caspar and Ossaroo arrived in the "nick of time," as Caspar expressed it, and acted as promptly as they had, poor Karl would never have lived to thank them.

"Well," said Caspar, "I think I may call this one of my lucky days; and yet I don't know about that, since it has come so near being fatal to both my companions."

"Both?" inquired Karl, with some surprise.

"Indeed, yes, brother," answered Caspar. "Yours is the second life I've had a hand in saving to-day."

"What! has Ossaroo been in danger, _too_? Ha! he is quite wet--every rag upon his body!" said Karl, approaching the shikarree, and laying hand upon his garments. "Why, so are you, Caspar,--dripping wet, I declare! How is this? You've been in the lake? Have you been in danger of drowning?"

"Why, yes," replied Caspar. "Ossy has." (Caspar frequently used this diminutive for Ossaroo.) "I might say worse than drowning. Our comrade has been near a worse fate--that of being _swallowed up_!"

"Swallowed up!" exclaimed Karl, in astonishment. "Swallowed up! What mean you, brother?"

"I mean just what I have said--that Ossaroo has been in great danger of being swallowed up,--body, bones, and all,--so that we would never have found a trace of him!"

"Oh! Caspar, you must be jesting with me;--there are no whales in the lake to make a Jonah of our poor shikarree; nor sharks neither, nor any sort of fish big enough to bolt a full-grown man. What, then, can you mean?"

"In truth, brother, I am quite serious. We have been very near losing our comrade,--almost as near as he and I have been of losing you; so that, you see, there has been a double chance against your life; for if Ossaroo had not been saved, neither he nor I would have been here in time to lend you a hand, and both of you in that ease would have perished. What danger have I been in of losing both? and then what would have been my forlorn fate? Ah! I cannot call it a lucky day, after all. A day of perils--even when one has the good fortune to escape them--is never a pleasant one to be remembered. No--I shudder when I think of the chances of this day!"

"But come, Caspar!" interposed the botanist, "explain yourself! Tell me what has happened to get both of you so saturated with water. Who or what came so near swallowing Ossaroo? Was it fish, flesh, or fowl?"

"A fish, I should think," added Karl, in a jocular way, "judging from the element in which the adventure occurred. Certainly from the appearance of both of you it must have been in the water, and under the water too? Most undoubtedly a fish! Come, then, brother! let us hear this _fish story_."

"Certainly a fish had something to do with it," replied Caspar; "but although Ossaroo has proved that there are large fish in the lake, by capturing one nearly as big as himself--I don't believe there are any quite large enough to swallow him--body, limbs, and all--without leaving some trace of him behind: whereas the monster that did threaten to accomplish this feat, would not have left the slightest record by which we could have known what had become of our unfortunate companion."

"A monster!" exclaimed Karl, with increased astonishment and some little terror.

"Well, not exactly that," replied Caspar, smiling at the puzzled expression on his brother's countenance; "not exactly a monster, for it is altogether a _natural_ phenomenon; but it is something quite as dangerous as any monster; and we will do well to avoid it in our future wanderings about the lake."

"Why, Caspar, you have excited my curiosity to the highest pitch. Pray, lose no more time, but tell me at once what kind of terrible adventure is this that has befallen you."

"That I shall leave Ossy to do, for it was his adventure, not mine. I was not even a witness to it, though, by good fortune, I was present at the 'wind up,' and aided in conducting it to a different result than it would otherwise have had. Poor Ossy! had I not arrived just in the right time, I wonder where you'd have been now? Several feet under ground, I dare say. Ha! ha! ha! It certainly is a very serious matter to laugh at, brother; but when I first set my eyes upon Ossaroo--on arriving to relieve him from his dilemma--he appeared in such a forlorn condition, and looked the thing so perfectly, that for the life of me I could not help breaking out into a fit of laughter--no more can I now, when I recall the picture he presented."

"Bother, Caspar!" cried Karl, a little vexed at his brother's circ.u.mlocution, "you quite try one's patience. Pray, Ossaroo, do you proceed, and relieve me by giving me an account of your late troubles.

Never mind Caspar; let him laugh away. Go on, Ossaroo!" Ossaroo, thus appealed to, commenced his narration of the adventure that had occurred to him, and which, as Caspar had justly stated, had very nearly proved fatal; but as the shikarree talked in a very broken and mixed language, that would hardly be intelligible to the reader, I must translate his story for him; and its main incidents will be found in the chapters that follow.

CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.

"BANG."

It so happened that Ossaroo had made for himself a regular fish-net.

Not being permitted to poison the lake with wolf's-bane, and having no bamboo to make wicker-work of, he looked around for some other substance wherewith to construct a net; and soon found the very thing itself, in the shape of a plant that grew in abundance throughout the valley, and particularly near the sh.o.r.es of the lake.

This plant was a tall single-stemmed annual, with a few digitate and toothed leaves, and a loose panicle of greenish flowers at its top.

There was nothing _very_ remarkable about its appearance, except that its stem was covered with short rigid hairs, and rose undivided to a height of nearly twenty feet. Many plants were growing together, and when first discovered--all three of our adventurers were present at the discovery--Caspar had said that they reminded him of hemp. It was not a bad comparison Caspar had hit upon, for the plant was _hemp_, as Karl immediately made known--the true _Cannabis sativa_, though the variety which grows in India, or rather a drug extracted from it, is called _Cannabis Indica_, or "Indian hemp." It was the tallest hemp either Karl or Caspar had ever seen--some of the stalks actually measuring eighteen feet in length, whereas that of the northern or middle parts of Europe rarely reaches the height of an ordinary man. In Italy, however, and other southern portions of the European Continent, hemp attains a much greater height, rivalling that of India in the length of its stalk and fibre. It was noticed that nearly one half of the plants, although growing side by side, and mingled with the others, were much riper, and, in fact, fast withering to decay. The botanist explained this to his companions, by saying that these were the male plants, and the growing ones the females; for hemp is what is termed by botanists "dioecious"-- that, is, having male flowers on one plant, and female ones upon another. Karl farther observed that the male plants, after having performed their office--that is, having shed their pollen upon the females--not only cease to grow taller, but soon wither and die; whereas the females still flourish, and do not arrive at maturity until several weeks afterwards. In consequence of this peculiarity, people who make a business of cultivating hemp pull the male plants at the time they have shed their pollen, and leave the females standing for four or five weeks after.

It is well-known that hemp is one of the finest articles in the world for the manufacture of coa.r.s.e cloth, and every sort of cordage and ropes. The material used for the purpose is the fibrous covering of the stalk, which is separated almost by the same means that are employed in obtaining flax. The hemp, when pulled up, is tied in bundles, and for a time submitted to the action of water. It is then dried and broken, and afterwards "scutched," and rendered still cleaner and finer by a process called "hackling." It makes no difference in the fineness of the fibre whether the stalks be small or large, since the great coa.r.s.e stems of the Italian and Indian hemp produce a staple equally as fine as the small kinds grown farther north.

The Russians extract an oil from the seeds of hemp, which is used by them in cooking, and by painters in mixing their colours.

Hemp-seed is also given to poultry--as it is popularly believed that it occasions hens to lay a greater number of eggs. Small birds are exceedingly fond of it; but a singular fact has been recorded in relation to this--that the effect of feeding bullfinches and goldfinches on hemp-seed alone, has been to change the red and yellow feathers of these birds to a total blackness!

Notwithstanding the many valuable properties of this plant, it has some that are not only deleterious, but dangerous. It contains a narcotic principle of great power; and, strange to say, this principle is far more fully developed in the Indian or Southern hemp than in that grown in middle Europe. Of course this is accounted for by the difference of temperature. Any one remaining for a length of time in the midst of a field of young growing hemp, will feel certain ill effects from it--it will occasion headache and vertigo. In a hot country the effect is still more violent, and a kind of intoxication is produced by it.

From observing this, the Oriental nations have been led to prepare a drug from hemp, which they make use of in the same way as opium, and with almost similar results--for it produces a drowsy ecstatic feeling, always followed by a reaction of wretchedness. This drug is known by the Turks, Persians, and Hindoos, under a variety of names, such as "bang," "haschish," "chinab," "ganga," and others; but under any name it is a bad article to deal in, either for the health of the body or the mind.

But Ossaroo was not deterred by any considerations about its baneful effects; and as soon as he saw the hemp growing in the valley, he recognised the plant with a shout of joy, and proceeded to prepare himself a dose of "bang." This he did by simply powdering some of the dry leaves, which he obtained from the withered male stalks, and then mixing the powder with a little water. An aromatic substance is usually added to give flavour to the mixture, but Ossaroo did not care so much for flavour as strength; and he drank off his "bang" without any adulteration, and was soon in the land of pleasant dreams.

The discovery of the hemp had made Ossaroo unusually happy. He had been suffering for the want of his "betel" for a long while, and the rhubarb tobacco had proved but a poor subst.i.tute. But the hemp was the very thing, as it not only afforded him an intoxicating drink, but its dry leaves were also good for smoking; and they are often used for this purpose when mixed with real tobacco. Of course Ossaroo had none of the genuine "weed" wherewith to mix them, else he would not have troubled his head about the rhubarb.

Ossaroo, however, was glad at discovering the hemp for another reason.

From its fibres he could make cordage, and with that cordage a net, and with that net he would soon provide their table with a supply of fish.

He was not long about it. The hemp was soon pulled, tied in bundles, and carried to the hot spring. There it was immersed under the water, and soon sufficiently "steeped;" for it is well-known that hot water will bring either flax or hemp to the same state in a few hours that can be obtained by weeks of immersion in water that is cold.