THE MIDSHIPMEN SEEN ON THE SHORE--A BOAT SENT FROM THE BRIG--THE ENEMY
APPEAR ON THE CLIFFS AND OPEN FIRE--THE BRIG RETURNS IT--THE MIDSHIPMEN
RESCUED--THE BRIG GETS CLEAR OF THE ENEMY--TOM RECOUNTS HIS AND GERALD'S
ADVENTURES.
Evening was approaching, all hands had been busy repairing damages, the
carpenters below stopping shot-holes, the rest of the crew on deck
knotting and splicing the rigging. Some way ahead was seen a lofty
bluff with a range of cliffs, which, the chart showed, extended far
along the shore; a shoal ran off it, so the brig had of necessity to
steer some distance over to the opposite bank.
As had been done all along, a vigilant lookout was kept for any object
moving on the western side. Needham's keen eye was employed in the
service; he felt a sincere affection for the youngsters, and longed to
recover them almost as much as did their relatives. Just abreast of the
brig appeared a shallow valley with a stream in the middle, and trees
growing on either side, reaching down to the edge of the water; Needham
was examining the spot with even more than his usual care.
"I am sure of it!" he exclaimed suddenly. "One of them is waving his
handkerchief, or a bit of rag of some sort. It must be the young
gentlemen!"
Jack and Terence brought their glasses to bear on the spot. The pinnace
towing astern was hauled up alongside. Terence and Needham jumped into
her with a ready crew. Just as she was shoving off a party of artillery
and a body of infantry appeared on the cliffs above.
"Take six small-arm men, in case the enemy should see the lads and
attempt to stop them," exclaimed Jack; "the muskets will probably keep
the Spaniards at a distance while they get on board."
The men who had been called away having received their ammunition, were
in a few seconds in the boat, which now pulled as fast as the crew could
bend to their oars towards the shore.
The enemy must have been surprised at seeing her; for not having
discovered the midshipmen, they probably did not conceive for what
object she was approaching the shore. In the meantime the carronades
had been turned towards the cliff, and the rockets got ready. Until
fired on, however, Jack had determined not to fire; indeed his shot, at
the distance he then was from the cliffs, could not have told with much
effect. As it would have been unwise to heave to in so dangerous a
position, the topsails were lowered on the caps, and topgallant sails
and royals let fly, so as not to leave the boat behind. The midshipmen,
for there was no doubt that it was they who were seen, in their
eagerness to get on board the boat, came out from beneath the
overhanging shrubs which had hitherto concealed them from the view of
those on the cliffs, to the end of a point. The enemy caught sight of
them, and now understanding the object of the boat, instantly began
firing at her, while a party of men hurried down to try and cut them
off.
"We must put a stop to that," cried Jack, giving orders to open fire
with Long Tom and the carronades. The enemy replied with their
field-pieces. The brig, having edged over as close as she could
venture, opened on them with rockets.
The boat by this time had scarcely got half way to the shore, while the
two midshipmen, seeing the party coming to intercept them, threw
themselves into the water and swam off to the boat, regardless of the
bullets flying about their heads. They struck out boldly, the boat's
crew pulling with all their might to reach them, while the small-arm men
kept up a sharp fire on the enemy at the top of the cliffs, which
prevented them from taking so accurate an aim as they would otherwise
have done.
Jack watched them with the deepest anxiety; he saw the shot splashing
into the smooth water and bounding over them. One better aimed might
send either of the lads to the bottom. He had not, however, forgotten
that he had charge of the brig, and was obliged to turn his eyes away
from them to look after her.
Tom being a better swimmer than Gerald might quickly have been on board,
but in spite of the bullets which came flying around his head, he was
seen to stop and support his companion.
"Just like him!" exclaimed Needham, "I would give every year I have to
live to save the lads."
Just then one of the small-arm men in the boat was hit, and dropping his
musket he sank down across the thwarts. Needham seized it, and catching
sight of a Spaniard aiming at the lads, he fired; the man dropped his
piece, which went off in the air. A few more strokes and the boat was
up to the midshipmen. Eager hands were stretched out to haul them on
board.
"Take him first," cried Tom, and Terence, grasping his nephew's hands,
lifted him on board; Needham hauled in Tom, and after the boat had been
put round the crew pulled away for the brig. Several round shot were
fired at her, but fell fortunately either ahead or astern; the musketry
was most annoying, but as the summit of the cliff offered no shelter to
the Spaniards, they were exposed to a sharp fire kept up by the
small-arm men in the boat, and were obliged to retreat in order to
reload their pieces every time they fired. They could thus as they ran
forward to the edge take but an unsteady aim.
As soon as the midshipmen were in the boat, Needham gave up the helm to
Terence, and, reloading his musket, continued to fire at every Spaniard
who appeared.
Eager as Terence was to learn how the midshipmen escaped, there was no
time just then to ask them questions. The boat was quickly alongside;
Tom and Gerald managed to climb on deck without much assistance. Jack
only gave Tom a short and hearty greeting; he then ordered him and
Desmond at once to go below and stow themselves away.
"We must not have you hit now we have got you," he said. "We will hear
all about your adventures when we are out of fire, and that will be, I
hope, before long."
Though several shot had struck the brig no one was killed, and two men
only slightly wounded, while, as far as could be seen from her deck, it
was believed that the enemy had suffered pretty severely. The flying
artillery continued along the edge of the cliffs and occasionally fired
a shot, but at last, the ground sloping, and being rough and uneven, and
covered with trees, they were unable to make way, and wheeling round,
disappeared, a shot from Long Tom, which had been brought to bear on
them, making them gallop off at the top of their speed.
As it was now growing dusk and the wind had fallen, the _Supplejack_
came to an anchor. Tom and Gerald had, in the meantime, got a change of
clothes and enjoyed a hearty meal, which they acknowledged they greatly
wanted. Jack had desired them to go to his cabin, and by the time he
could leave the deck he found them sitting there, laughing and talking
if nothing very particular had occurred.
"Well, my boys, you don't seem much the worse for your adventures," he
said, as he took his seat at the table.
"No, sir," answered Gerald. "The swim was the worst part of them;
indeed, had it not been for Tom, I believe I should have sunk before the
boat could have picked us up."
"I want you to tell me all that happened to you; how you escaped from
the gauchos who, we heard, carried you off, and how you managed to make
your way to the river, which we, by the bye, always thought that you
would do if you could."
"Are we to begin from the first?" asked Tom.
"Yes," answered Jack. "I should like to hear all about it, and how the
gauchos did not kill you at first."
"I am sure I thought that they would when I found one of their long
lassos round my waist, and myself hauled along till the breath was
nearly squeezed out of my body. The fellow who caught hold of me,
however, dragged me quickly upon his saddle, and galloped away like the
wind. I saw that Gerald was treated in the same manner, and though I
was sorry for him, I must confess that I was glad to have a companion in
my misfortune. I fancy that the fellows thought they had got hold of
two very important personages. Away we went for some twenty miles or so
without drawing rein, when we found that we had reached the camp of
General Rosas. Had he been at Obligado, I suspect that his troops would
not have run away so soon. Our captors carried us at once into his
presence, and were somewhat disappointed by finding that we were only a
couple of midshipmen, and not the important personages they supposed.
"The general, however, told them to take care of us, and bring us along
with him, as he was marching with the chief part of his army to the
northward. I must say that our captors were not bad-tempered fellows,
and we soon got into their good graces by talking and laughing, though
they could not understand much more of what we said than we could of
their language. They got us each a horse, which was much pleasanter
than riding behind them, and at night we lay down to sleep with a
horse-rug over us, and our saddles for pillows. We asked them to teach
us how to use the lasso whenever there was a halt, and they were
surprised to find how well we soon learnt to use it, though of course we
could not equal them.
"Whenever we encamped, they and a good many others used to go out
foraging in all directions, and as there was game of all sorts we never
came back without a supply.
"Their mode of catching partridges is very curious. Each man supplies
himself with a long thin stick, at the end of which a loop is attached;
he rides on till he sees a covey of birds on the ground, and then,
instead of darting at them, he circles round and round, the birds not
attempting to fly, do nothing but run along the ground; the gaucho keeps
narrowing his circle till he gets within reach of a bird, when he drops
the loop over its head and whips it up a prisoner on his saddle. They
used to catch a number of birds in this way, and in an hour or so a
fellow would have a dozen or more hanging to his saddle. We imitated
them, and after a little practice we also managed to catch a good many,
though we did not equal them, of course. From the first we determined
to make our escape, and we agreed that if we could catch birds in this
way we might supply ourselves with food. In the wilder places we found
a number of animals very much like rabbits, only with longer tails and
larger teeth, which live in burrows close together. Before camping in
an evening we saw hundreds of the creatures, sitting on their haunches
in front of their burrows; they would look at us for some time, as if
wondering who we were, and would then scamper off and pitch down head
foremost into their holes, giving a curious flourish with their hind
legs and tails before they disappeared. They are much more difficult to
catch than the partridges, though we still hoped to get hold of some of
them, should we be hard pressed for food.
"When the day's march was over the gauchos amused themselves by
horse-racing, gambling, either with cards, dominoes, or coin, a sort of
pitch and toss game, and they would frequently make bets on the strength
of their horses. To settle the point their plan was to fasten the two
horses stern to stern by a short lasso, secured to the saddle, or girth
of either animal, at a short distance from each other. The gauchos
having mounted their respective horses, one being placed on one side of
a line, drawn on the ground, and the other on the other side, then set
to work to lash and spur their steeds in opposite directions until the
strongest drew the weaker over the line, the former being thus declared
the victor. Their custom of racing gave Desmond and me the idea that we
might manage some evening to make our escape. We appeared always to
watch their performances with great interest, and, at last, we proposed
to race any of them who would like to try with us. None of the grown
men would condescend to do so, but two lads came forward and agreed to
start. Away we went to the westward, taking good care to let our
competitors win. Next evening we had another race, when we were again
beaten hollow. We complained that it was the fault of our horses, and
that if they would give us better ones they should see that Englishmen
were able to ride as well as they could. They agreed to this, and we
started in the same direction as before. Gerald's horse was the best,
and reached the tree which was to be our goal before either of the young
gauchos, who, however, got in before me. I had as long as I was in
sight of the camp belaboured and spurred my steed, but as soon as our
competitors got ahead of me I let the animal go at the pace he chose.
"We had now, we hoped, gained the confidence of our captors, and Gerald
and I agreed that the next evening we would propose racing together.
"We had each of us some reals and smaller pieces of money in our
pockets. We pulled several of them out as stakes, which, to assist in
disarming suspicion, we gave to one of the gauchos to hold for us.
"This evening we were fortunately on the right of the camp, that is to
say on the side nearest the river. We fixed on a tree which appeared on
the outskirts of a wood in the south-east as our goal. We both
pretended to be much interested in the race, and jabbered away in the
same fashion as they do. We felt anxious enough, as you may suppose,
about the result, though not in the way our captors fancied.
"We had managed to get hold of some line which we stowed in our pockets,
as well as enough food to last us for a couple of days, at all events.
The gauchos seemed to think it very good fun, not in the slightest
degree suspecting our intentions. Having furnished us with whips, and
fastened huge spurs to our feet, they assisted us to mount our somewhat
fiery steeds. When once in our saddles we stuck on like wax, though the
animals did their best to get rid of us. Our only fear was that some of
the gauchos might take it into their heads to accompany us, which would
have effectually prevented the success of our undertaking. We rode
backwards and forwards several times among the men, and talked away to
each other in the style they were accustomed to do, our object being to
put off starting as long as possible, till darkness was approaching,
that we might have a better chance of escaping. At last we could delay
no longer, so riding up side by side to the natives we begged them to
start us fairly, when off we set digging nor spurs into our horses'
flanks and whacking the unfortunate beasts with our whips. The tree,
towards which we were directing our course, was fully half a mile off,
and as the border of the wood was in shadow, we hoped that we should be
able to get into it, and pass through on the other side before our
flight was discovered. We dared not turn our heads to see if we were
followed, but keeping close together urged on our steeds till the wood
was reached.
"A narrow opening which we had not before perceived was before us. We
dashed into it and to our satisfaction found that we were not compelled
even to pull rein, but galloped on as fast as at first.
"We were now sorry that we had not started earlier, as we should have
had more daylight to see our way. Another wide extent of open ground
was before us; we urged on our steeds across it, their feet narrowly
escaping the rabbit-holes, which existed in one or two parts. We
escaped them, however, and reached a copse, through which we, in vain,
tried to find a passage for our horses.
"Afraid at last of losing time, and being overtaken, we agreed to
abandon them, and make our way on foot towards the river, which we
thought must be at no great distance. Desmond proposed that we should
fasten our silver spurs and whips to the saddles, to show the owners
that we did not wish to steal their property. No sooner, however, had
we dismounted, than having incautiously let go our reins, while we were
unstrapping our spurs, our steeds galloped off and prevented us from
putting our laudable intentions into execution. It was well that we did
not do as we proposed, we agreed, because should our steeds return, the
gauchos would know that we had intentionally made our escape, whereas
now they might suppose we had tumbled off, and broken our necks, or, at
all events, have been unable to remount.
"`In either case the fellows will probably come to look for us,'
observed Desmond, `for they will not like to lose their spurs, on which
they set high value.'
"`Well then, we will fasten them and our whips on this branch, which
will show them the honesty of our intentions, if they come to look for
us,' I said; `we shall have, at all events, several hours' start, as
they cannot get through the copse on horseback better than we can.'
"We did as I proposed, and then plunging into the copse tried to make
our way through it. We tore our clothes and nearly scratched our eyes
out, however, but still we made way, our chief fear being that we might
fall in with a jaguar; but as we had heard that they are cowardly
beasts, and will not attack two people together, we were not much
troubled on the subject. Before it grew quite dark, therefore, we cut
two sticks to defend ourselves, and two long wands, such as the gauchos
use for catching birds; the thick sticks helped us also to make our way
through the bushes.
"The stars soon came out brightly, and enabled us to keep a tolerably
direct course towards the east, still we could not help wishing to get
out of the wood as soon as possible. I had heard about jaguars tracking
people; the unpleasant thought came across me, that one might at any
moment pounce down upon us. I did not tell Desmond, not wishing to make
him as uncomfortable as myself on the subject. I was afraid, had we
shouted, which would have been the best means of keeping these creatures
off, that we might be heard by the gauchos or any other enemies who
might pursue us, and as that was the greatest risk of the two, I thought
it would be wiser to make our way in silence. At last we again got into
open ground, and fancied that we were going to make good progress, when
suddenly we ran against an object which made us start back, with several
severe pricks in our legs and hands; had we not had our sticks before us
we should have been regularly impaled. On examination we found that
they were those prickly plants which we used to call `puzzle monkeys' in
the West Indies, only these grew like so many swordblades, with thorns
on both sides, sticking out of the ground. It was impossible to get
through this bristling barrier, so we had to turn on one side, and run
along it, hoping, at length, to double round the end.
"The hedge might, for what we knew, extend for miles, and we were almost
in despair; for should the gauchos follow us we should lose all chance
of escaping.
"At last, however, we came to a dip; our hopes revived; it was, we felt
sure, the head of a valley, for we saw the ground rising on the other
side, and that it must lead us down to the Parana itself, or to some
stream running into it. Trees, instead of those abominable prickly
pears, thinly covered the banks, and on reaching the bottom we found a
rivulet, from which we thankfully quenched our thirst. We agreed that
things were beginning to look brighter, the horsemen were not likely to
find us, and we should have no difficulty in making our way either in
the water, or along the edge of the stream. Gerald reminded me that
Bruce, or some other Scotch hero of ancient days, when pressed by his
enemies, had escaped from them by wading along the bed of a stream, so
that all traces of his footsteps were lost. The only question was,
whether our enemies would take the trouble to hunt us so far, and if
they did not, we should have had all our pains for nothing. However, as
it was the safest plan, we stepped into the stream; on we went down it,
feeling with our sticks, for fear of tumbling into a hole. The water
was fortunately shallow, and the bed tolerably smooth, so we got on
better than we should have done on dry ground.
"At last the water, which had been growing deeper and deeper, came
almost up to our hips, and we agreed that it would be safer to land and
try and make our way through the bushes, or near the stream, which would
serve as a guide. I cannot tell you how delighted we were after we had
gone on in this way for a couple of hours to see before us, with the
stars reflected on its smooth surface, the broad channel of the river;
we could scarcely believe that we had reached it in so short a time. We
forgot, indeed, how far we had galloped, and the distance we had come on
foot. We at once began to look along the shore for a spot where we
might hide ourselves while we rested, for, as you may suppose, we were
very tired. For fear that the smoke would betray us we dared not light
a fire, which we should have liked to do, to dry our wet clothes.
However, we sat down and emptied our shoes of water, which we had been
afraid of taking off for fear of hurting our feet, and wrung out our
socks and trousers.
"Our hopes of ultimately escaping depended, we believed, on our being
seen by some vessel going up or down the river, but before one should
appear, we might, we knew full well, be overtaken by the gauchos.
Sleepy as we both were, we agreed that one of us must be ever on the
watch, while the other slept.
"We tossed up who should keep the first watch. It came to my lot, so
Desmond lay down, and I sat by his side, trying hard to keep awake, and
I must confess that it was about the most difficult job I ever had in my
life. I winked at the stars till they all seemed winking at me, I
pinched myself black and blue, I rubbed my hands, I kicked my feet, but
all to no purpose; I kept blinking and nodding as much as ever. I
should have been off in another moment, so I jumped up and took several
short turns along the shore. The thought that a jaguar might spring on
Gerald prevented me from going far. As I got to the farther end of the
beat I had marked out for myself I stopped, for I fancied that I heard
some curious squeaking and grunting, not unlike that made by a litter of
very young pigs. I listened attentively, and crept silently towards the
spot. The sounds came from beneath the roots of an old tree. I
suspected that they must be produced by a litter of capybaras, or
water-hogs, which creatures, as you know, frequent these shores in great
numbers. I marked the spot so as not to mistake it. Should we not be
able to catch the old animals we might secure the young ones if hard
pressed for food. This raised my spirits, and I was able to keep awake,
thinking of the best way to trap them.
"When my watch was over, I awoke Desmond, and told him what I had
discovered; he agreed with me that we need have no fear of starving.
"`Capital!' he answered, `and I dare say that we shall find some roots
and nuts.'
"`I am afraid, however, that we shall have to eat our meat raw,' I
observed.
"`That will be better than having no meat to eat, and I dare say a young
capybara will be very tender.'
"Desmond let me sleep on till daylight, or, rather, he fell asleep, and
neither of us awoke till the rising sun struck in our eyes. We then
discovered that the spot where we lay was exposed to the view of any one
coming up or down the river. To our left, rising directly out of the
river, were some high cliffs, but we were concealed by the overhanging
bushes from any one standing on their summit; while on our right, down
the river beyond the mouth of the valley, the ground was broken, and
covered with trees and shrubs. We could see no plantations or cottages,
or any sign that the country was inhabited. We had, therefore, hopes
that we should be able to conceal ourselves till we could get on board
some passing vessel, provided we could, in the meantime, obtain food,
but on that score we were not much troubled. Having hung up our shoes
and trousers to dry in the sun, we had a bathe, which was very
refreshing, and then sat down and breakfasted on the dried meat and
biscuit we brought with us. The next most important thing we had to do
was to find a secure hiding-place. After hunting about we found a
regular cave, large enough to conceal half a dozen persons. The mouth
was very narrow, which was all the better; it was formed partly by the
roots of a large tree, the earth from beneath which had been washed
away. There was a hole between the roots which would serve as a
chimney, and we agreed, that though it might be dangerous to light a
fire in the daytime, when the smoke would betray us, we might venture to
do so at night. To hide the light we tore off a number of branches
which we stuck into the ground in front of our cave. Having swept out
and, levelled the ground, we considered that we had got a very
comfortable abode. We did not forget the old capybara and the young
ones. We had fitted nooses at the end of our wands, and armed with
these we crept close to the tree I had marked. The squeaking was still
going on within, so we knew that Dame Capybara and her family were at
home. Before long, however, out she came, followed by five or six young
ones in line. We should have liked to try and noose her, but she would
have broken away from us, so we waited for the last small one of her
progeny. I threw my noose over its head, and whipped it up in a moment,
when Gerald, seizing hold of it, quickly stopped its cries. The old
capybara turned round, but we having got behind a tree, she did not see
us, and she, being unacquainted with arithmetic, did not discover that
one of her young ones was missing. Feeling pretty sure that we should
be able to capture the others in the same way, and perhaps catch her, we
returned to our cave. Here we amused ourselves by skinning and
preparing the young capybara for the spit. When it was ready we hung it
up on a stick stuck in the wall. We then set to work and formed a
fireplace of earth, and, as soon as it was finished, we went out again
and collected a supply of firewood. When this was done, we were greatly
tempted to light a fire and roast our capybara, but prudence prevailed.
Instead of that we hunted about, and were rewarded by finding some
berries and small plums, which were very ripe, and, as we saw the birds
eating them, we had no doubt that they were wholesome.
"`We need have no fear of starving now, faith,' observed Gerald; `I am
not certain but that I would rather live this Robinson Crusoe sort of
life for a few weeks than go on board and have to keep watch.'
"Come, come, you ought not to tell the commander that, Tom," exclaimed
Gerald, interrupting Tom when he said this. "You know you agreed with
me that it would be very jolly fun if it was not for the chance of being
caught."
"Yes, I know I did," answered Tom, "but remember I added, if it were not
for the anxiety we were causing my brother and Lieutenant Adair."
"Well, youngsters," observed Jack, "it was very natural, though you
would have soon got tired of the life; but how did you get on for the
remainder of the time?"
"Very well, considering all things," continued Tom; "it was fortunate,
however, that we did not light the fire, for as I went down to the river
to get some water in my shoe, having nothing else to carry it in, as I
looked up towards the cliff I caught sight of several people standing on
the top. As their eyes were, however, directed further up the stream, I
hoped that they had not caught sight of me, though I could not be sure.
At all events, I quickly drew back and hurried to the cave to warn
Desmond of the danger we were in. We at once went inside and covered up
the entrance as well as we could with the boughs, so that even should
any one come to look for us and pass the spot we might escape
discovery."
"We lay down anxiously listening for any sound, but none was heard, and
at last we both dropped off to sleep.
"`This must not happen again, though,' I said to Gerald, when at length
we awoke. `Perhaps a vessel may have passed down the river while we
were snoozing, and we have lost our chance of getting on board. Those
fellows were probably looking out for her.'
"This thought made us feel quite unhappy."
"You certainly did lose your chance," observed Jack, "for a steamer
which I spoke came down about that time, and you might probably have got
on board her."
"I told you so, Gerald," exclaimed Tom, "I was--"
"But it does not matter now," answered Gerald, "all's well that ends
well."
"You are right, but it might not have been so had we been shot by those
fellows as we were swimming off to the _Supplejack's_ boat," observed
Tom. "Well, I suppose you want me to cut my yarn short. As soon as it
was dark we lighted our fire, which we should have been puzzled to do,
had not Gerald had some fusees in his pocket, which he carries, you will
understand, to give a light to any one who wants to smoke a cigar."
"I understand," observed Jack, laughing. "You, of course, Mr Desmond,
never dream of smoking one yourself?"
"Only occasionally, sir, and Tom and I had finished all I had when we
were captured by the gauchos."
"Our fires burned well," continued Tom, "and we roasted our young
capybara to perfection; we only wanted salt and pepper, and an onion or
two to make it delicious. As it was, with the addition of a little
brown bread we had remaining, we made a good meal, and slept like tops
till daylight. One of us, you will understand, regularly kept watch on
the river while the other searched for provisions, except when we wanted
to catch another young capybara, when we had to assist each other. We
captured the second in the same way we had the first, with our long
wands and nooses; we also caught several birds after dark, roosting on
the branches of the trees; we were afraid, however, to venture out as
far as the plain above to look for partridges, lest we might have been
seen by any of the country people or soldiers who might have been on
their way to the cliff I spoke of; we found, indeed, that men were
constantly on the watch for passing vessels, and we should to a
certainty have been discovered.
"Our chief exploit was catching the big capybara, which we attempted
when we had eaten nearly all her young ones. We were afraid if we took
the last, that she might suspect that something was wrong and make off.
We accordingly got up at night, when we thought that she would be
asleep, and placed a couple of nooses at the mouth of her hole, securing
the end to a part of the root of the tree which rose above the ground.
We then went back to our cave, and roasted the last of the young ones we
had caught. As usual, we kept watch by turns: we had become somewhat
anxious at night, for we could not help thinking that the smell of our
roast pig might attract some keen-scented jaguar to the spot, and I can
tell you that the thought of being snatched up at any moment by one of
those beasts made us keep our eyes about us, and prevented us from going
to sleep. I know it did me, and I am pretty sure that Gerald was not
more comfortable in his mind on the subject than I was.
"It was my morning watch, and as soon as daylight returned I called
Gerald, and we crept carefully up to the capybara's hole.
"We had not long to wait before we heard her barking, for strange to
say, though she was like a pig she did not grunt. She was calling to
her solitary young one to get up, I suppose. Presently we felt a pull
on one of our lines, and directly afterwards the other was drawn taut.
We gave each of them a jerk, and then springing forward with our sticks,
we were just in time before the capybara drew back into her hole to give
her a couple of stunning blows on the head. We quickly had her out, and
a few more blows deprived her of life. It occurred to us that if we
dragged her up to our cave, the track might lead any passer-by to it.
We therefore fastened her legs together, and carried her on one of our
sticks, the little one following, wondering, I dare say, why its mother
had taken to move in so curious a fashion, and not seeming to notice us.
Desmond proposed that we should tame it, but as we could not manage to
find it food, we were obliged to kill it. Not being expert butchers, we
were employed most of the day in skinning and cutting up the beasts.
Our chief puzzle was to know what to do with the offal. At last we put
it into the skin, and carrying it down at night threw it into the river.
In the meantime our cave had the not over-pleasant odour of a butcher's
shop in hot weather, while we were in the constant apprehension of a
visit from a jaguar. Our regret was that though we had a superabundance
of meat we should soon be reduced to short commons, as it was not likely
to keep, even when cooked, for more than a couple of days. We had just
returned from the river, having accomplished the task I spoke of, and
had lighted our fire, when we heard a rustling of the leaves at the
entrance, the flames just then blazing up brightly; the next instant we
caught sight of the savage-looking head of one of the monsters we
dreaded, which had poked its way between the boughs, and was apparently
about to spring on us. Desmond instinctively laid hold of the first
thing which came to hand. This happened to be one of the capybara's
legs which we were about to spit.
"We then seized our sticks to fight for our lives; but the jaguar having
caught the tempting morsel, either satisfied with it, or frightened by
the bright flames and our sticks, which we flourished in his face,
sprang back and bounded away with the meat in his mouth.
"Having repaired our fence, and made it, as we hoped, more secure, we
returned to cook and eat our supper. I confess that neither of us felt
very comfortable on watch that night, lest the jaguar should come back
for a further supply of capybara.
"That was only last night; we little thought at the time how soon our
Robinson Crusoe life was coming to an end. Though pleasant in some
respects, it was not, as you see, without its drawbacks. Directly the
_Supplejack_ hove in sight we recognised her; but having seen the enemy
on the top of the cliffs, we were in great doubt whether we should
succeed in getting off--it seems, indeed, a wonder to me that we were
not killed, and I only hope we feel sufficiently grateful for our
preservation."
"I am afraid, Tom, that we are not, and never can be, sufficiently
grateful for the mercies shown to us," observed Jack gravely. "If we
had not been watched over and taken care of, we should none of us be
here at the present moment. Now, as you and Desmond look somewhat
sleepy, go and turn in."
Gerald was half asleep already, and Tom having given one or two
significant yawns, they were both very glad to obey Jack's order.