The Quadroon Part 28

As he spoke he pressed his thumb against the fauces of the serpent, until its mouth stood wide open. I could plainly see its terrible fangs and poison glands. Then, holding its head close up to his lips, he injected the dark saliva into its throat, and once more flung it to the ground. Up to this time he had used no violence--nothing that would have killed a creature so retentive of life as a snake; and I still expected to see the reptile make its escape. Not so, however. It made no effort to move from the spot, but lay stretched out in loose irregular folds, without any perceptible motion beyond a slight quivering of the body. In less than two minutes after, this motion ceased and the snake had all the appearance of being dead!

"It am dead, ma.s.s'," replied the black to my inquiring glance, "dead as Julium Caesar."

"And what is this plant, Gabriel?"

"Ah, dat is a great yerb, ma.s.s'; dat is a scace plant--a berry scace plant. Eat some ob dat--no snake bite you, as you jes seed. Dat is de plant ob de _snake-charmer_."

The botanical knowledge of my sable companion went no farther. In after years, however, I was enabled to cla.s.sify his "charm," which was no other than the _Aristolochia serpentaria_--a species closely allied to the "bejuco de guaco," that alexipharmic rendered so celebrated by the pens of Mutis and Humboldt.

My companion now desired me to chew some of the roots; for though he had every confidence in the other remedy, he deemed it no harm to make a.s.surance doubly sure. He extolled the virtues of the new-found plant, and told me he should have administered it instead of the seneca root, but he had despaired of finding it--as it was of much more rare occurrence in that part of the country.

I eagerly complied with his request, and swallowed some of the juice.

Like the seneca root, it tasted hot and pungent, with something of the flavour of spirits of camphor. But the polygala is quite inodorous, while the guaco gives forth a strong aromatic smell, resembling valerian.

I had already experienced relief--this would have given it to me almost instantaneously. In a very short time time the swelling completely subsided; and had it not been for the binding around my wrist, I should have forgotten that I had been wounded.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

KILLING A TRAIL.

An hour or more we had spent since entering the glade--now no longer terrible. Once more its flowers looked bright, and their perfume had recovered its sweetness. Once more the singing of the birds and the hum of the insect-world fell soothingly upon my ears; and there, as before, sat the pretty doves, still repeating their soft "co-co-a"--the endearing expression of their loves.

I could have lingered long in the midst of this fair scene--long have enjoyed its sylvan beauty; but the intellectual must over yield to the physical. I felt sensations of hunger, and soon the appet.i.te began to distress me. Where was I to obtain relief from this pain--where obtain food? I could not ask my companion to guide me to the plantations, now that I knew the risk he would run in so doing. I knew that it really was as he had stated--_the loss of an arm, perhaps of life, should he be caught_. There was but little hope of mercy for him--the less so as he had no master with power to protect him, and who might be _interested_ in his not being thus crippled!

By approaching the open country on the edge of the clearings, he would not only run the hazard of being seen, but, what he feared still more, being _tracked by hounds_! This mode of searching for "runaways" was not uncommon, and there were even white men base enough to follow it as a calling! So learnt I from my companion. His information was afterwards confirmed _by my own experience_!

I was hungry--what was to be done? I could not find my way alone. I might again get lost, and have to spend the night in the swamp. What had I best do?

I appealed to my companion. He had been silent for some time--busy with his thoughts. They were running on the same subject as my own. The brave fellow had not forgotten me.

"Jes what dis n.i.g.g.a am thinkin' 'bout," replied he. "Well, ma.s.s'," he continued, "when sun go down, den I guide you safe--no fear den. Gabr'l take you close to de Lebee road. Ma.s.s' must wait till sun go down."

"But--"

"Ma.s.s' hungry?" inquired he, interrupting me.

I a.s.sented.

"Jes thot so. Dar's nuffin' yeer to eat 'cept dis ole snake. Ma.s.s' no care to eat snake: dis n.i.g.g.a eat 'im. Cook 'im at night, when smoke ob de fire not seen ober de woods. Got place to cook 'im, ma.s.s' see.

Gabr'l truss ma.s.s' Edwad. He take him to caboose ob de runaway."

He had already cut off the head of the reptile while he was talking; and having pinned neck and tail together with a sharp stick, he lifted the glittering body, and flinging it over his shoulders, stood ready to depart.

"Come, now, ma.s.s'," continued he, "come 'long wi' Ole Gabe; he find you somethin' to eat."

So saying, he turned round and walked off into the bushes.

I took up my gun and followed. I could not do better. To have attempted to find my own way back to the clearings might again have resulted in failure, since I had twice failed. I had nothing to hurry me back. It would be quite as well if I returned to the village after night--the more prudent course, in fact--as then my mud-bedaubed and blood-stained habiliments would be less likely to attract attention; and this I desired to avoid. I was contented, therefore, to follow the runaway to his "lair," and share it with him till after sunset.

For some hundred yards he led on in silence. His eyes wandered around the forest, as though he was seeking for something. They were not directed upon the ground, but upward to the trees; and, therefore, I know it was not the path he was in search of.

A slight exclamation escaped him, and, suddenly turning in his tracks, he struck off in a direction different to that we had been following. I walked after; and now saw that he had halted by a tall tree, and was looking up among its branches.

The tree was the frankincense, or loblolly pine (_Pinus toeda_). That much of botany I knew. I could tell the species by the large spinous cones and light-green needles. Why had he stopped there?

"Ma.s.s' Edwad soon see," he said, in answer to my interrogatory.

"Please, ma.s.s'," he continued, "hold de snake a bit--don't let um touch de groun'--dam dogs dey smell um!"

I relieved him of his burden; and, holding it as he desired, stood watching him in silence.

The loblolly pine grows with a straight, naked shaft and pyramidal head, often without branches, to the height of fifty feet. In this case, however, several fronds stood out from the trunk, at less than twenty feet from the ground. These were loaded with large green cones, full five inches in length; and it appeared to be these that my companion desired to obtain--though for what purpose I had not the remotest idea.

After a while he procured a long pole; and with the end of this knocked down several of the cones, along with pieces of the branchlets to which they adhered.

As soon as he believed he had a sufficient quant.i.ty for his purpose, he desisted, and flung the pole away.

What next? I watched with increasing interest.

He now gathered up both the cones and the adhering spray; but to my surprise he flung the former away. It was not the cones, then, he wanted, but the young shoots that grew on the very tops of the branches.

These were of a brownish-red colour, and thickly coated with resin--for the _Pinus taeda_ is more resinous than any tree of its kind--emitting a strong aromatic odour, which has given to it one of its trivial names.

Having collected the shoots until he had both hands full, my guide now bent down, and rubbed the resin over both the soles and upper surface of his coa.r.s.e brogans. He then advanced to where I stood, stooped down again, and treated my boots to a similar polishing!

"Now, ma.s.s', all right--de dam, blood-dogs no scent Ole Gabe now--dat _hill de trail_. Come, ma.s.s' Edwad, come 'long."

Saying this, he again shouldered the snake and started off, leaving me to follow in his tracks.

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

THE PIROGUE.

We soon after entered the _cypriere_. There the surface was mostly without underwood. The black taxodiums, standing thickly, usurped the ground, their umbellated crowns covered with h.o.a.ry epiphytes, whose pendulous drapery shut out the sun, that would otherwise have nourished on that rich soil a luxuriant herbaceous vegetation. But we were now within the limits of the annual inundation; and but few plants can thrive there.

After a while I could see we were approaching a stagnant water. There was no perceptible descent, but the dank damp odour of the swamp, the noise of the piping frogs, the occasional scream of some wading bird, or the bellowing of the alligator, admonished me that some constant water-- some lake or pond--was near.

We were soon upon its margin. It was a large pond, though only a small portion of it came under the eye; for, as far as I could see, the cypress-trees grew up out of the water, their huge b.u.t.tresses spreading out so as almost to touch each other! Here and there the black "knees"

protruded above the surface, their fantastic shapes suggesting the idea of horrid water-demons, and lending a supernatural character to the scene. Thus canopied over, the water looked black as ink, and the atmosphere felt heavy and oppressive. The picture was one from which Dante might have drawn ideas for his "Inferno."

On arriving near this gloomy pond, my guide came to a stop. A huge tree that had once stood near the edge had fallen, and in such a position that its top extended far out into the water. Its branches were yet undecayed, and the parasites still clung to them in thick tufts, giving the whole the appearance of a ma.s.s of hay loosely thrown together. Part of this was under water, but a still larger portion remained above the surface, high and dry. It was at the root of this fallen tree that my guide had halted.

He remained but a moment, waiting only till I came up.

As soon as I had reached the spot, he mounted upon the trunk; and, beckoning me to follow him, walked along the log in the direction of its top. I climbed up, and balancing myself as well as I could, followed him out into the water.

On reaching the head of the tree, we entered among the thick limbs; and, winding around these, kept still farther towards the top branches. I expected that there we should reach our resting-place.