WANDERING WILL TRAVELS, FINDS HIS PROFESSION PROFITABLE, AND SEES A GOOD
DEAL OF LIFE IN NEW FORMS.
The first part of the journey was performed in a canoe on the Tacames
river, up which they ascended with considerable speed. The scenery was
delightfully varied. In some places the stream was wide, in others very
narrow, fringed along the banks with the most luxuriant timber and
brushwood, in which the concert kept up by birds and beasts was
constant, but not disagreeable to the ears of such enthusiastic
sportsmen as Will Osten, Larry O'Hale, and Bunco. The only disagreeable
objects in the landscape were the alligators, which hideously ugly
creatures were seen, covered with mud, crawling along the banks and over
slimy places, with a sluggish motion of their bodies and an antediluvian
sort of glare in their eyes that was peculiarly disgusting. They were
found to be comparatively harmless, however. If they had chanced to
catch a man asleep they would have seized him no doubt, and dragged him
into the water, but being arrant cowards, they had not the pluck to face
even a little boy when he was in motion.
Towards the afternoon of the first day, the hunters came to a long bend
in the river. Here Will Osten resolved to leave Bunco to proceed alone
with the canoe, while he and Larry crossed the country in search of
game. Their friend Gordon had given them an elaborate chart of the
route up to the mountains, so that they knew there was a narrow neck of
jungle, over which they might pass, and meet the canoe after it had
traversed the bend in the river.
"Have you got the tinder-box, Larry?" inquired Will, as they were about
to start.
"Ay, an' the powder an' shot too, not to mintion the bowie-knife. Bad
luck to the wild baists as comes to close quarters wid me, anyhow."
He displayed an enormous and glittering knife as he spoke, with which he
made two or three savage cuts and thrusts at imaginary tigers before
returning it to its sheath.
Cautioning Bunco to keep a good look-out for them on the other side of
the neck of land, the hunters entered the forest. For several hours
they trudged through bush and brake, over hill and dale, in jungle and
morass, meadow and ravine, without seeing anything worth powder and
shot, although they _heard_ the cries of many wild creatures.
"Och! there's wan at long last," whispered Larry, on coming to the edge
of a precipice that overlooked a gorge or hollow, at the bottom of which
a tiger was seen tearing to pieces the carcase of a poor goat that it
had captured. It was a long shot, but Larry was impatient. He raised
his gun, fired, and missed. Will Osten fired immediately and wounded
the brute, which limped away, howling, and escaped. The carcass of the
goat, however, remained, so the hunters cut off the best parts of the
flesh for supper, and then hastened to rejoin the canoe, for the shades
of night were beginning to fall. For an hour longer they walked, and
then suddenly they both stopped and looked at each other.
"I do belaive we've gone an' lost ourselves again," said Larry.
"I am afraid you are right," replied Will, with a half smile; "come, try
to climb to the top of yonder tree on the eminence; perhaps you may be
able to see from it how the land lies."
Larry went off at once, but on coming down said it was so dark that he
could see nothing but dense forest everywhere. There was nothing for it
now but to encamp in the woods. Selecting, therefore, a large spreading
tree, Larry kindled a fire under it, and his companion in trouble
discharged several shots in succession to let Bunco know their position
if he should be within hearing.
Neither Will nor Larry took troubles of this kind much to heart. As
soon as a roaring fire was blazing, with the sparks flying in clouds
into the trees overhead, and the savoury smell of roasting goat's flesh
perfuming the air, they threw care to the dogs and gave themselves up to
the enjoyment of the hour, feeling assured that Bunco would never desert
them, and that all should be well on the morrow. After supper they
ascended the tree, for the howling of wild beasts increased as the night
advanced, warning them that it would be dangerous to sleep on the
ground. Here they made a sort of stage or platform among the branches,
which was converted into a comfortable couch by being strewn six inches
deep with leaves. Only one at a time dared venture to sleep, however,
for creatures that could climb had to be guarded against. At first this
was a light duty, but as time passed by it became extremely irksome, and
when Larry was awakened by Will to take his second spell of watching, he
vented his regrets in innumerable grunts, growls, coughs, and gasps,
while he endeavoured to rub his eyes open with his knuckles.
"Have a care, lad," said Will, with a sleepy laugh as he lay down; "the
tigers will mistake your noise for an invitation to--"
A snore terminated the speech.
"Bad luck to them," yawned Larry, endeavouring to gaze round him. In
less than a minute his chin fell forward on his breast, and he began to
tumble backwards. Awaking with a start under the impression that he was
falling off the tree, he threw out both his arms violently and recovered
himself.
"Come, Larry," he muttered to himself, with a facetious smile of the
most idiotical description, "don't give way like that, boy. Ain't ye
standin' sintry? an' it's death by law to slaip at yer post. Och! but
the eyes o' me won't kape open. Lean yer back agin that branch to kape
ye from fallin'. There--now howld up like a man--like a--man--ould--
b-o-oy." His words came slower and slower, until, at the last, his head
dropped forward on his chest, and he fell into a profound sleep, to the
immense delight of a very small monkey which had been watching his
motions for some time, and which now ventured to approach and touch the
various articles that lay beside the sleepers, with intense alarm, yet
with fiendish glee, depicted on its small visage.
Thus some hours of the night were passed, but before morning the rest of
the sleepers was rudely broken by one of the most appalling roars they
had yet heard. They were up and wide awake instantly, with their guns
ready and fingers on the triggers!
"It's draimin' we must have--"
A rustling in the branches overhead checked him, and next moment the
roar was repeated. Larry, with an irresistible feeling of alarm, echoed
it and fired right above his head--doing nothing more serious, however,
than accelerating the flight of the already horrified monkey. The shot
was followed by another roar, which ended in something like a hideous
laugh.
"Sure 'tis a hieena!" exclaimed Larry, reloading in violent haste.
"A hyena!" exclaimed Will--"ay, and a black one, too! Come down, Bunco,
you scoundrel, else I'll put a bullet in your thick skull."
At this invocation the rustling overhead increased, and Bunco dropped
upon the platform, grinning from ear to ear at the success of his
practical joke.
"Och, ye blackymoor!" cried Larry, seizing the native by the throat and
shaking him; "what d'ye mean be such doin's, eh?"
"Me mean noting," said Bunco, still chuckling prodigiously; "but it am
most glorus fun for fright de bowld Irishesman."
"Sit down, ye kangaroo, an' tell us how ye found us out," cried Larry.
"You heard our shots, I suppose?" said Will. To this Bunco replied that
he had not only heard their shots, but had seen them light their fire,
and eat their supper, and prepare their couch, and go to sleep, all of
which he enjoyed so intensely, in prospect of the joke he meant to
perpetrate, that he was obliged to retire several times during the
evening to a convenient distance and roar in imitation of a tiger,
merely to relieve his feelings without betraying his presence. He
added, that the canoe was about five minutes' walk from where they sat,
and somewhat mollified the indignation of his comrades by saying that he
would watch during the remainder of the night while they slept.
Next morning at daybreak the party re-embarked in the canoe and
continued their journey. Soon the character of the country changed.
After a few days the thick forests had disappeared, and richly
cultivated small farms took their place. Everywhere they were most
hospitably entertained by the inhabitants, who styled Will "Physico,"
because Bunco made a point of introducing him as a doctor. One evening
they arrived at a little town with a small and rapid stream of water
passing through it. There was a square in the centre of the town,
surrounded by orange, lemon, and other trees, which formed an agreeable
shade and filled the air with fragrance. Not only was there no doctor
here, but one was seldom or never seen. Immediately, therefore, our
Physico was besieged for advice, and his lancet, in particular, was in
great request, for the community appeared to imagine that bloodletting
was a cure for all the ills that flesh is heir to! Will of course did
his best for them, and was surprised as well as pleased by the number of
doubloons, with which the grateful people fed him. After passing some
days very pleasantly here, Will made preparations to continue his
journey, when an express arrived bringing intelligence from several of
the surrounding towns to the effect that a sort of revolution had broken
out. It was fomented by a certain colonel in the employment of the
State, who, finding that his services and those of his followers were
not paid with sufficient regularity, took the simple method of
recruiting his finances by a levy on the various towns in his
neighbourhood. He was, in fact, a bandit. Some towns submitted, others
remonstrated, and a few resisted. When it was ascertained that the
colonel and his men were on their way to the town, in which our
travellers sojourned, preparations were at once made for defence, and of
course Will Osten and his comrades could do no less than volunteer their
services.