"A WAS AN ARCHER, WHO SHOT--"
No more was seen of the blacks, while a fortnight passed; and encouraged
by the utter solitude of the place, the well-armed parties which left
the yacht made longer and longer excursions, coming home with an
abundance of specimens to preserve. The sailors took to the task with
the greatest of gusto, and evidently thoroughly enjoyed the hunt for
rare birds and butterflies, of which there proved to be an abundance.
One day Jack would be helping his father collect the wonderfully painted
insects which hovered or darted about in the sunny glades or in the
moist shady openings over the streams, where they hung over the lovely
blossoms of the orchids. At another time the doctor would claim his
attention, and shouldering one gun, while Edward carried another and the
cartridges, long tramps were taken over the mountain slopes and at the
edge of the forest, to penetrate which, save in rare places, was
impossible. Their sport was plentiful enough, for the birds were fresh
to the gun, and when startled their flight was short, and they alighted
again within reach. They were all new to the boy, who seemed never
weary of examining the lovely plumage of the prizes, which one or other
of the sailors carried afterwards, slung by their beaks from a stick, so
that the feathers should not be damaged. Now it was a green paroquet,
with long slender tail and head of the most delicate peach-colour or of
a brilliant orange yellow. At another time, after a careful stalk, one
or other of the pittas, the exquisitely-coloured ground thrushes, in
their uniforms of pale fawn and blue, turquoise, sapphire, and amethyst.
And perhaps the next shot would be at one of the soft feathery trogons,
cuckoo-like birds in their habits, but instead of being pale
slate-coloured, barred and flecked like a sparrowhawk, Jack's specimens
would display a breast of the purest carmine, and a back glistening with
metallic green. Something like cuckoos, Ned declared them to be, but
not in aspect.
One morning, after several times hearing their calls in a clump of
gigantic trees up one of the volcanic ravines, the doctor called the lad
to be his companion to try and stalk what he believed to be birds of
paradise; but they had evidently chosen the wrong time, for to their
disappointment not a sound was heard, and they would have gone back to
the yacht empty-handed if it had not been for Ned's sharp eyes.
"There they are!" he whispered, pointing across the ravine to where
another little forest of tall trees feathered the steep sides of the
slope.
"What are?" said Jack excitedly.
"The birds you are looking for, sir. Saw about a dozen, big as
pheasants, fly across and settle there."
He pointed with the gun he carried to one tree which towered above the
rest.
"They went down under there, sir. I could lead you straight to the
place."
Jack took out his small glass, and after gazing through it attentively
he suddenly said--
"I saw a big bird fly down. Yes, and another."
"They can't be those we want," said the doctor, "but they may be good
specimens of something. What do you say, Jack, will you go down and
across?"
"Oh yes," he replied.
"It's very steep, and will mean lowering ourselves cautiously."
"I don't mind," said the lad. "If it's very bad they will help me."
"Oh yes, sir, we'll help," said Lenny, turning to his companions; "won't
us, lads?"
There was a chorus of "Ay, ays," and the steep descent from the great
grove commenced, it being necessary to get to the bottom of what became
low down a precipitous gully, along which one of the springs which had
its source high up in the mountain dashed along. This had to be
crossed, and then there was a similar climb on the other side.
The start was made, and proved difficult enough, for where the trees
were not close and their roots interlaced, there were openings where
masses of volcanic rock were tumbled-together in inextricable confusion,
and the way over them was made more difficult by the bushy, shrubby
growth and creepers which bound them together.
But the sailors were activity itself, and they slashed and trampled down
and hauled and lowered till the whole party found themselves upon a
broad stony shelf at the very edge of a sharply-cut rift, whose sides
showed that it must have been split from the opposite side by some
convulsion of Nature, so exactly was the shape repeated.
At the bottom of this crack--for it could be called little else--the
water of the stream rushed foaming along some thirty feet beneath, the
whole place looking black and forbidding enough to make any one hesitate
before attempting to cross, though the distance to the other ledge was
not above five feet, a trifling jump under ordinary circumstances. But
here, with the deep black rift and the foaming water beneath, it looked
startling to a lad accustomed to a quiet home life. He, however, put a
bold face on the matter and stood looking on.
Jack was, however, conscious of the fact that the doctor was watching
him in a side-long way, as if expecting to hear him make some
objections. As, however, the boy was silent, the doctor spoke.
"Rather an ugly jump, Jack," he said. "Think you can manage it?"
"Oh, I think so. I shall try."
"Try? It must not be a try. It has to be done."
"Yes, I can do it," said the lad confidently.
"Oh yes, you can do that, Mr Jack," said Ned in a whisper, as the
doctor turned off to speak to Lenny; "think it's only a ditch a foot
deep."
The boy could not think that with the water roaring beneath him far
below, and he could not help glancing back up the steep slope they had
descended. This looked so forbidding and meant so much toilsome work,
that he felt as if he would rather do the leap, though all the same
there was the climb on the other side. Still there was an attraction
there in the shape of the strange birds, which he was as eager to secure
as the doctor.
"Who'll go first?" said the doctor. "Here, I will."
He handed his gun and satchel to Ned, walked a little way to select the
broadest and clearest path, which happened to be a couple of feet higher
than the opposite side, stepped back as far as he could, took a short
run, and landed easily a couple of feet clear.
"There: nothing," he cried, "but I shouldn't like to try it back. Throw
my satchel over, Ned."
This was done and deftly caught. Then the gun was carefully pitched
across, the others followed, and the specimens shot that morning.
Then one by one the sailors leaped over, and Jack and Ned remained.
"Will you go next, Ned?"
"Me, sir, and leave you behind? 'Tisn't likely. Don't think about it,
sir. It's easy enough. Off you go. The thinking's worse than the
doing."
To an ordinary school-boy it would have been nothing. His legs,
hardened by exercise, would have sent him across like a deer, but Jack's
muscles only a short time before were flaccid and weak in the extreme.
Still the voyage had done something; the strong will growing up within
him did more, and without a moment's hesitation, feeling as if his
reputation was at stake, he went sharply to the starting-point, took the
short run, and leaped, but too hurriedly. If he had gone quietly to
work it would have been different; as it was, he cleared the gulf and
landed on the other side, but without throwing himself forward
sufficiently to recover himself, and Ned uttered a cry of horror as he
saw the lad apparently about to totter backward into the depths below.
Lenny saved him by a curiously awkward-looking act. He had been on the
look-out on one side, the doctor on the other, to give the lad a hand as
he landed, but instead of a hand he gave him an arm, delivering a sharp
blow on the back, and driving him into safety just as he was hopelessly
losing his balance, and the men gave a cheer.
"Thank you, Lenny," gasped the boy breathlessly, as he saved himself
from falling forward by catching at the nearest sailor; "but don't hit
quite so hard next time; it hurts."
A roar of laughter followed this, and the doctor took off his pith
helmet to wipe his forehead.
"That's a nice sort of an example to set a fellow," muttered Ned as he
stood on the other side, rather unnerved by what he had seen. "Makes a
poor man feel as if he would rather be at home cleaning the plate."
Then in a fit of determination he flung up his arms, and in regular
boyish fashion shouted--
"Clear the way, there. Here comes my ship full sail."
He cleared the gulf with a good foot to spare, and felt triumphant.
Each took his gun or rifle directly without a word of allusion to Jack's
narrow escape, and with the doctor leading the way they began to climb
the steep ascent in silence.
"I hope that fellow's shouting has not scared our birds," said the
doctor after a time. "Quiet as you can, below there."
"They were so far off I don't think the birds could have heard him,"
replied Jack. "Perhaps the noise would not have gone out of the gully."
"Perhaps not," said the doctor. Then laconically: "Hurt?"
"Oh, not much," said Jack, smiling. "He did hit me a good bang though."
"Never mind, my lad; I like to see you bear it stoically. Shows me
you're recovering tone. Phew! this is warm work. How much more of it
is there?"
"Not half-way up yet," panted Jack.
"Take it coolly, men, or our hands will be all of a tremble, so that we
can't shoot straight."
There was no need to advise an impossibility, for no one could have
taken it coolly. The blocks of stone, the tangled creepers, and higher
up the dense undergrowth, made it a slow, laborious task; but at last
the huge trees of the upper slope were reached, and the work promised to
be lighter.
The doctor made a sign, and they both sat down to rest for a few
minutes, the men who came on smilingly following suit; but all at once a
peculiarly hoarse cooing sound arose from not far away among the trees,
and all the fatigue passed away as if by magic.
"Pigeons!" whispered the doctor excitedly. "Hark! more of them! They
must be the big fruit birds, Jack, and we must have a pair or two of
these. When you're ready we'll go on."
"I'm ready," whispered Jack.
"Then we'll go abreast. Don't you study me. Keep your eyes open, and
the first moment you have a good chance you fire. Get one with each
barrel if you can."
Jack nodded, and directly after they advanced among the trees, with Ned
about a couple of yards behind, carrying a second gun for whichever
needed it.
These were exciting moments, more exciting than they knew of, as they
crept forward among the huge trunks, and gazing upward among the
branches, expecting moment by moment to catch sight of the flock of
great fruit-pigeons, whose cooing kept stopping and commencing again.
It had sounded to be so close that they felt puzzled, and wondered
whether they had passed them, for the doctor argued that if they had
taken fright the rustle of their wings would have been heard among the
branches.
All at once Jack, who walked on the doctor's left, held his gun in his
left hand only, and made a sign with his right.
His companion crept close to him, and the next moment a flock of
enormous pigeons, which had been feeding on the fallen nuts of one of
the biggest trees, rose with a tremendous rushing of wings, and four
barrels were fired into them, with the result that three birds fell.
"Our dinner, Jack, and the men's too," cried the doctor; and the boy
felt a chill of horror run through him, as from close behind there was a
wild cry from Ned, followed by a shouting amongst the men a dozen yards
below. Then _shot_--_shot_--_shot_ followed one another quickly, and
Lenny cried--
"Down, gentlemen, down!"
The doctor dropped instinctively, and began to creep to Ned, who had
fallen heavily, when he heard Lenny cry--
"Down, Mr Jack--down!" and he saw the lad standing motionless, staring
with horror at the ground.
The next instant something whizzed by his ear and struck quivering in
the tree-trunk behind. Then he dropped into shelter, and began rapidly
to reload.
"Fall back on us, my lads," said the doctor sharply, "and don't fire
unless you have a good chance. Keep well under cover."
"The blacks?" panted Jack.