In Far Bolivia: A Story of a Strange Wild Land Read online

  CHAPTER V--A DAY IN THE FOREST WILDS

  Burly Bill laid down his banjo. Then he pushed his great extinguisherof a thumb into the bowl of his big meerschaum, and arose.

  "De good Lawd ha' mussy on our souls, chillun!" cried Beeboo, twistingher apron into a calico rope. "We soon be all at de bottom ob de deep,and de 'gators a-pickin' de bones ob us!"

  "Keep quiet, Beeb, there's a dear soul! Never a 'gator'll get near you.W'y, look 'ow calm Miss Peggy is. It be'ant much as'll frighten she."

  Burly Bill could speak good English when he took time, but invariablyreverted to Berkshire when in the least degree excited.

  He was soon on board the little steamer.

  "What cheer, Jake?" he said.

  "Not much o' that. A deuced unlucky business. May lose the whole voyageif it comes on to blow!"

  "W'y, Jake, lad, let's 'ope for the best. No use givin' up; be there?I wouldn't let the men go to prayers yet awhile, Jake. Not to make abizness on't like, I means."

  Well, the night wore away, but the raft never budged, unless it was toget a firmer hold of the mud and sand.

  A low wind had sprung up too, and if it increased to a gale she wouldsoon begin to break up.

  It was a dreary night and a long one, and few on board the steamer slepta wink.

  But day broke at last, and the sun's crimson light changed the rippleson the river from leaden gray to dazzling ruby.

  Then the wind fell.

  "There are plenty of river-boats, Bill," said Jake. "What say you tointercept one and ask assistance?"

  "Bust my buttons if I would cringe to ne'er a one on 'em! They'd chargesalvage, and sponge enormous. I knows the beggars as sails these puffin'Jimmies well."

  "Guess you're about right, Bill, and you know the river better'n I."

  "Listen, Jake. The bloomin' river got low all at once, like, after thestorm, and so you got kind o' befoozled, and struck. I'd a-kept furtherout. But Burly Bill ain't the man to bully his mate. On'y listenagain. The river'll rise in a day or two, and if the wind keeps in itssack, w'y we'll float like a thousand o' bricks on an old Thames lumper!Bust my buttons, Jake, if we don't!"

  "Well, Bill, I don't know anything about the bursting of your buttons,but you give me hope. So I'll go to breakfast. Tell the engineer tokeep the fires banked."

  Two days went past, and never a move made the raft.

  It was a wearisome time for all. The "chillun", as Beeboo called them,tried to beguile it in the best way they could with reading, talking,and deck games.

  Dick and Roland were "dons" at leap-frog, and it mattered not which ofthem was giving the back, but as soon as the other leapt over Brawnfollowed suit, greatly to the delight of Peggy. He jumped in such abusiness-like way that everybody was forced to laugh, especially whenthe noble dog took a leap that would have cleared a five-barred gate.

  But things were getting slow on the third morning, when up sprang BurlyBill with his cartridge-belt on and his rifle under his arm.

  "Cap'n Jake," he said, touching his cap in Royal Navy fashion, "presentshis compliments to the crew of this durned old stack o' timber, and begsto say that Master Rolly and Master Dick can come on shore with me for arun among the 'gators, but that Miss Peggy had better stop on board withBeeboo. Her life is too precious to risk!"

  "Precious or not precious," pouted the girl, "Miss Peggy's going, andBrawn too; so you may tell Captain Jake that."

  "Bravo, Miss Peggy! you're a real St. Clair. Well, Beeboo, hurry up,and get the nicest bit of cold luncheon ready for us ever you made inyour life."

  "Beeboo do dat foh true. Plenty quick, too; but oh, Massa Bill, 'sposeyou let any ebil ting befall de poh chillun, I hopes de 'gators'll eatyou up!"

  "More likely, Beeb, that we'll eat them; and really, come to think ofit, a slice off a young 'gator's tail aint 'arf bad tackle, Beeboo."

  An hour after this the boat was dancing over the rippling river. It wasnot the dinghy, but a gig. Burly Bill himself was stroke, and threeIndians handled the other bits of timber, while Roland took the tiller.

  The redskins sang a curious but happy boat-lilt as they rowed, and Billjoined in with his 'cello voice:

  "Ober de watter and ober de sea--ee--ee, De big black boat am rowing so free, Eee--Eee--O--ay--O! De big black boat, is it nuffin' to me--ee--ee, We're rowing so free?

  "Oh yes, de black boat am some-dings to me As she rolls o'er de watter and swings o'er de sea, Foh de light ob my life, she sits in de stern, An' sweet am de glance o' Peggy's dark e'e, Ee--ee--O--ay--O--O!"

  "Well steered!" said Burly Bill, as Roland ran the gig on the sandybeach of a sweet little backwater.

  Very soon all were landed. Bill went first as guide, and the Indiansbrought up the rear, carrying the basket and a spare gun or two.

  Great caution and care were required in venturing far into this wild,tropical forest, not so much on account of the beasts that infested itas the fear of getting lost.

  It was very still and quiet here, however, and Bill had taken theprecaution to leave a man in the boat, with orders to keep his weatherear "lifting", and if he heard four shots fired in rapid succession latein the afternoon to fire in reply at once.

  It was now the heat of the day, however, and the hairy inhabitants ofthis sylvan wilderness were all sound asleep, jaguars and pumas amongthe trees, and the tapirs in small herds wherever the jungle wasdensest.

  There was no chance, therefore, of getting a shot at anything.Nevertheless, the boys and Peggy were not idle. They had broughtbutterfly-nets with them, and the specimens they caught when about fivemiles inland, where the forest opened out into a shrub-clad moorland,were large and glorious in the extreme.

  Indeed, some of them would fetch gold galore in the London markets.

  But though these butterflies had an immense spread of quaintly-shapedand exquisitely-coloured wings, the smaller ones were even morebrilliant.

  Strange it is that Nature paints these creatures in colours which nosunshine can fade. All the tints that man ever invented grow pale inthe sun; these never do, and the same may be said concerning thetropical birds that they saw so many of to-day.

  But no one had the heart to shoot any of these. Why should they soilsuch beautiful plumage with blood, and so bring grief and woe into thislove-lit wilderness?

  This is not a book on natural history, else gladly would I describe thebeauties in shape and colour of the birds, and their strange manners,the wary ways adopted in nest-building, and their songs and queer waysof love-making.

  Suffice it to say here that the boys were delighted with all thetropical wonders and all the picturesque gorgeousness they saweverywhere around them.

  But their journey was not without a spice of real danger and at times ofdiscomfort. The discomfort we may dismiss at once. It was borne, asBeeboo would say, with Christian "forty-tood", and was due partly to theclouds of mosquitoes they encountered wherever the soil was damp andmarshy, and partly to the attacks of tiny, almost invisible, insects ofthe jigger species that came from the grass and ferns and heaths toattack their legs.

  Burly Bill was an old forester, and carried with him an infallibleremedy for mosquito and jigger bites, which acted like a charm.

  In the higher ground--where tropical heath and heather painted thesurface with hues of crimson, pink, and purple--snakes wriggled anddarted about everywhere.

  One cannot help wondering why Nature has taken the pains to paint manyof the most deadly of these in colours that rival the hues of thehumming-birds that yonder flit from bush to bush, from flower to flower.

  Perhaps it is that they may the more easily seek their prey, their gaudycoats matching well with the shrubs and blossoms that they wriggleamongst, while gliding on and up to seize helpless birds in their nestsor to devour the eggs.

  Parrots here, and birds of that ilk, have an easy way of repelling suchinvaders, for as soon as they see them they utter a scream thatparalyses the intruders, and c
auses them to fall helplessly to theground.

  To all creatures Nature grants protection, and clothes them in a mannerthat shall enable them to gain a subsistence; but, moreover, everycreature in the world has received from the same great power the meansof defending or protecting itself against the attacks of enemies.

  On both sides, then, is Nature just, for though she does her best tokeep living species extant until evolved into higher forms of life, shepermits each species to prey on the overgrowth or overplus of othersthat it may live.

  Knocking over a heap of soft dry mould with the butt end of his rifle,Dick started back in terror to see crawl out from the heap a score ormore of the most gigantic beetles anyone could imagine. These weremostly black, or of a beautiful bronze, with streaks of metallic blueand crimson.

  They are called harlequins, and live on carrion. Nothing that dies comeswrong to these monsters, and a few of them will seize and carry away adead snake five or six hundred times their own weight. My readers willsee by this that it is not so much muscle that is needed for feats ofstrength as indomitable will and nerve force. But health must be at thebottom of all. Were a man, comparatively speaking, as strong as one ofthese beetles, he could lift on his back and walk off with a weight ofthirty tons!

  Our heroes had to stop every now and then to marvel at the huge workingants, and all the wondrous proofs of reason they evinced.

  It was well to stand off, however, if, with snapping horizontalmandibles and on business intent, any of these fellows approached. Fortheir bites are as poisonous as those of the green scorpions orcentipedes themselves.

  What with one thing or another, all hands were attacked by healthyhunger at last, and sought the shade of a great spreading tree tosatisfy Nature's demands.

  When the big basket was opened it was found that Beeboo had quiteexcelled herself. So glorious a luncheon made every eye sparkle to lookat it. And the odour thereof caused Brawn's mouth to water and his eyesto sparkle with expectancy.

  The Indians had disappeared for a time. They were only just round theshoulder of a hill, however, where they, too, were enjoying a good feed.

  But just as Burly Bill was having a taste from a clear bottle, which, asfar as the look of it went, would have passed for cold tea, two Indianboys appeared, bringing with them the most delicious of fruits as wellas fresh ripe nuts.

  The luncheon after that merged into a banquet.

  Burly Bill took many sips of his cold tea. When I come to think overit, however, I conclude there was more rum than cold tea in that brownmixture, or Bill would hardly have smacked his lips and sighed with suchsatisfaction after every taste.

  The fruit done, and even Brawn satisfied, the whole crew gave themselvesup to rest and meditation. The boys talked low, because Peggy'smeditations had led to gentle slumber. An Indian very thoughtfullybrought a huge plantain leaf which quite covered her, and protected herfrom the chequered rays of sunshine that found their way through thetree. Brawn edged in below the leaf also, and enjoyed a good sleepbeside his little mistress.

  Not a gun had been fired all day long, yet a more enjoyable picnic in atropical forest it would be difficult to imagine.

  Perhaps the number of the Indians scared the jaguars away, for noneappeared.

  Yet the day was not to end without an adventure.

  Darkness in this country follows the short twilight so speedily, thatBurly Bill did well to get clear of the forest's gloom while the sun wasstill well above the horizon.

  He trusted to the compass and his own good sense as a forester to comeout close to the spot where he had left the boat. But he was deceived.He struck the river a good mile and a half above the place where thesteamer lay at anchor and the raft aground on the shoals.

  Lower and lower sank the sun. The ground was wet and marshy, and the'gators very much in evidence indeed.

  Now the tapirs--and droll pig-bodied creatures they look, though inSouth America nearly as big as donkeys--are of a very retiringdisposition, but not really solitary animals as cheap books on naturalhistory would have us believe. They frequent low woods, where theirlong snouts enable them to pull down the tender twigs and foliage onwhich, with roots, which they can speedily unearth, they manage toexist--yes, and to wax fat and happy.

  But they are strict believers in the doctrine of cleanliness, and arenever found very far from water. They bathe every night.

  Just when the returning picnic was within about half a mile of the boat,Burly Bill carrying Peggy on his shoulder because the ground was damp, aterrible scrimmage suddenly took place a few yards round a backwater.

  There was grunting, squeaking, the splashing of water, and cries ofpain.

  "Hurry on, boys; hurry on; two of you are enough! It's your show, lads."

  The boys needed no second bidding, and no sooner had they opened out thecurve than a strange sight met their gaze.