If anyone else on the station had even talked of making an expedition up
the river beneath the beams of that ardent sun Dr Bolter would have
exclaimed:
"Ah, of course. Here am I, toiling from morn to night with hand and
brain, to keep you people in decent health, and yet you propose such a
piece of insanity as that! Why, sir, you must be mad!"
But then the doctor was mad upon his own particular subject, and neither
heat nor storm would would have kept him back. The sun now had
tremendous power, and even his Malay boatmen looked hot; but the
doctor's face only shone, and he sat back in the stern, gun in hand,
carefully scanning the shore, ready to bring down the first attractive
specimen he saw to add to his collection.
The boat was well supplied with necessaries, including a waterproof
sheet, and a handy tent if he should camp ashore; but the boat was to be
for the most part his camping-place; and, according to his preconceived
plan, the doctor meant to force his way right up a branch or tributary
of the main river--a stream that had never yet been, as far as he knew,
explored; and here he was hopeful of making his way close up to the
mountains, continuing the journey on foot when the river became too
narrow and swift for navigation.
In this intent the boat was steadily propelled up-stream, and at the end
of the second day the Inche Maida's campong and home had been passed,
and unseen they had placed some miles between them and the Princess's
people.
The Inche Maida was very friendly, but the knowledge that she would
perhaps be down before many hours were over at the station, made the
doctor fix his time for passing in the dusk of the evening, for he did
not wish his movements to reach his wife's ears sooner than he could
help, nor yet to be canvassed by his friends.
Hence, then, he slept that night with his boat secured to the trunk of a
large cocoa-palm, well covered in from the night dew, and with a bit of
quinine on the tip of his tongue when he lay down to keep off the fever.
Neither he nor his men troubled themselves about the weird noises of the
jungle, nor the rushings and splashings that disturbed the river. There
were dangerous reptiles and other creatures around, but they did not
disturb them; and when the loud roar of a tiger was heard not many yards
away, amidst the dense bushes of the shore, the doctor merely turned
over and uttered a low grunt, muttering in his sleep about Mrs Bolter
breathing so hard.
The next morning before the white mist had risen from the river, the
Malays were busy with their paddles, and they had gone on about five or
six miles when one of the men ceased rowing, and held up his hand to
command silence.
"A big boat coming down the river pulled by many oars, master," said the
man, "a fighting prahu, I think. Shall we hide?"
"Hide? no," exclaimed the doctor. "Why?"
"It may be an enemy who will make us prisoners, perhaps kill us," said
the Malay, softly. "We are thy servants, and we will go on if you say
go."
"Perhaps I had better not," said the doctor, thoughtfully. "It would
spoil the expedition. Hah! yes, I can hear the oars now. But where
could we hide?"
"If the master bids us, we will place the boat so that no one passing
shall see, and we can see all," replied the Malay.
Doctor Bolter did not like hiding, but thinking that in this case
discretion might be the better part of valour, he replaced his shot
cartridge with ball, as he gave the signal to the man, who turned the
sampan in shore; and cleverly guiding it in amongst the overhanging
vegetation, this dropped behind them and they were in a verdant tunnel,
the branches and leaves just touching their heads, and though themselves
completely concealed, able to see everything that passed or repassed
upon the river.
They had occupied their place of hiding so long, that, had he not still
heard the regular beat-beat of the large boat's oars, the doctor would
have concluded that it had passed. Still it seemed wonderful how the
water bore the sound, for it was what seemed to be a considerable time
before they saw the prow of a long prahu come round a bend of the river
with its long banks of oars making the calm surface of the rapid river
foam, as the long vessel glided on, coming in very close to them, so as
to cut off a good deal of the next bend.
They were so close that Doctor Bolter could note the expression upon the
countenances of the men, and it seemed almost impossible that the little
boat and its crew could remain unseen; but the prahu passed on, and
round the next bend, the doctor waiting till the beat of the paddles was
growing faint before he gave the word for them to proceed.
"Are those friends or enemies?" he said to one of the boatmen.
The Malay smiled.
"Who knows?" he said. "To-day they may be friends, to-morrow enemies.
The prahu is Rajah Murad's, and the crew his men."
The doctor did not pay much heed to the rather oracular words of the
Malay, though he recalled it all afterwards, his attention now being
taken up by some choice specimens of the sunbird family, hovering about
the blossoms on the banks.
Ten miles or so farther up, and the boatmen pointed to the overgrown
mouth of the little river of which they were in search.
Anyone unacquainted with the place would have passed it unseen, but it
had been noted down by the doctor during one of his expeditions, as a
place to be explored at some future time.
The men turned the head of the sampan towards the tangled mass of bushes
and overhanging trees, and then, as they drew near, one of them rose in
the prow, and drew the long heavy parang he wore, a sword-like knife
much used by the poorer Malays for cutting back the thorns and canes
that a few days' rapid growth led across their path; but the next moment
he had lowered the weapon, and rested the point upon the edge of the
boat.
"Someone has been here, master," he said; "a big boat has broken its way
through."
"All the better for us," said the doctor, and instead of having to cut
and hack right and left, the sampan passed easily along the tangled
channel, the masses of huge water-lilies giving way before the boat,
while, as they got farther on past the grown-up mouth, the river seemed
to widen, and the route of the vessel that had passed before could be
plainly seen in a narrow channel of leaf-sprinkled water.
"That prahu must have been along here, master," said the elder of the
two Malays, thoughtfully. "No small sampan could have broken a way like
this."
"So much the better," said the doctor again; but he grew more
thoughtful, for the fact of a boat having been along this little river
so lately seemed to rob it of a good deal of its mystery. He had hoped
to find it completely unexplored, and here only that day someone had
passed along.
It was, however, in its upper portion that the doctor hoped to find
something to interest him; and after all it was not probable that the
occupants of the prahu would be searching for gold.
Under these circumstances he set himself to examine the banks on either
side, and his men steadily paddled on hour after hour, till a halt was
made at an open part where they landed, and made a fire to cook the
birds that had been shot on the way up. Then a fresh start was made,
and all through the long hot afternoon the doctor sat back scrutinising
most diligently the sides of the little river.
But it was always the same--one dense bank of verdure on either side,
with the trees hanging over the river, and encroaching so that at last
the stream was only a few yards wide; but by pulling the branches aside
the boat could have been thrust in, to glide along under a natural
arcade--the home of thousands of crocodiles, from monsters fifteen and
twenty feet long to their spawn not many more inches.
It was a perfect paradise for a naturalist, and the doctor grew so much
interested that he forgot the prime object of his visit, seeing nothing
but birds and insects, to the exclusion of old gold-workings, though had
there been anything of the kind it would have been completely hidden
amongst the tangled, luxuriant growth.
It was growing fast towards sunset when the doctor was suddenly brought
back to the matter-of-fact every-day life from a kind of dream about the
wondrous beauties of some peculiar beetles he had captured and held
beneath his magnifying glass, by a sudden exclamation from the elder
Malay.
"What is it?" exclaimed the doctor, sharply.
"The prahu came no farther than this. See, master, we shall have to cut
the branches now to get along."
He pointed with his paddle, and it was plain enough to see that the
water-weeds and lilies were unbroken higher up, and that some large
vessel must have been turned here, for the aqueous growth was crushed to
a much greater extent.
"There is a path there," said the Malay, and he showed his employer the
bank beaten down by footsteps, and that the bushes and trees had been
cut away.
"Yes," replied the doctor, "someone has landed there, but it does not
matter. We have come to the fresh ground. Let's get a few miles
farther, and then we'll rest."
The doctor was so anxious to get on that no further notice of the marks
of other travellers was taken, and with his spirits growing more elate
as he went on, he watched the dense jungle on either side, and peered
down into the black water as night came rapidly on, so swiftly indeed
that they had not progressed more than a couple of miles before the
darkness made a halt absolutely necessary.
The waterproof sheet made a good covering, and the night passed
undisturbed, the rising sun being the signal for a fresh start; but the
difficulties of the journey began rapidly to increase.
The stream that had been deep as well as swift seemed to have suddenly
grown shallow, indicating by its noisy brawling, and sparkling over
masses of rock, that the country was rising fast.
In fact, the course of the river was now between high escarpments of
rock, the jungle and its dense masses of trees seeming to be left
behind, the grasses that grew in patches amongst the chinks of the rocks
being different in kind from that which tangled the jungle where it
touched the water.
But in spite of the difficulties of the journey, the doctor was in
ecstasies, and, regardless of getting his feet wet, he was constantly
out of the boat to examine the shallow sands for signs of gold.