The long light canoes of the approaching Indians were well manned, and
as they came nearer Brace could see that most of the occupants wore a
kind of tiara made of the tail feathers of parrots or macaws. Several
held spears or bows, but the major part were busy paddling, and they
came down with the stream, evidently full of fierce determination to
destroy or capture the strange intruders upon their solitudes, striving
hard to increase the speed of their canoes, which were in a well-kept
line.
There was no time for the discussion of plans, for the distance between
the brig's boats and the enemy was rapidly growing less.
"One wouldn't have time to prepare anything if one wanted to," said the
captain, after a sharp glance forward. "Will you leave it to me,
gentlemen, to do my best?"
"Of course," said Sir Humphrey, and Briscoe nodded from where he knelt,
with his double gun held ready in his hand.
"Then here goes," said the captain. "Ahoy there, Dellow; clap on all
you can, take the tiller yourself; and run one of the canoes down. Let
your lads knock all over who try to board you."
"Ay, ay!" came back in answer from the second boat.
"Now, Lynton," continued the captain, "steer for that canoe in the
centre. We're going faster than they are. You, gentlemen, don't shoot,
but use the butt-ends of your rifles if we should happen to get to close
quarters. Every man take an oar or boathook, and use 'em like as if
they were whaling-lances. Ready? Look out!"
Their boat, with the sail straining at the sheet, was now rushing
through the water, the side not two inches above the surface, as she
raced for the centre of the line of canoes.
"Sit fast!" roared the captain. "Down with you, Mr Brace, or you'll be
overboard."
Brace, who had risen in his excitement so as to be able to club his gun,
dropped down on to the seat at once.
Then from in front as their own boat seemed to be standing absolutely
still and the line of canoes dashing rapidly at them with the paddles
churning up the water on either side, there was a fierce yelling, a
gleam of opal-rimmed eyes, a crash which made the boat quiver from stem
to stern. The sail jerked and snapped as if it were going to fall over
the side, and then they were past the centre canoe, sailing on as fast
as ever.
Lynton had done his work well, steering so that he drove the boat's
iron-protected cut-water right upon the centre canoe's bows diagonally
some six feet from the front, when for a few brief moments their
progress seemed to be stopped. Directly afterwards the occupants of the
stoutly-built boat felt her gliding right over the canoe, which rolled
like a log of wood, and then the men were cheering as they looked back
at the glistening bottom of the long vessel and six or eight black heads
bobbing about in the water.
Crash, grind, and there was another canoe capsized, literally rolled
over by the second boat, which seemed to those in the first to rise and
glide over the crank dug-out, now beginning to float broadside on with
her crew swimming to her side.
A hearty cheer rose now from Dellow and his men, which was echoed from
the first boat, as the distance between the party and their fierce
enemies rapidly increased.
"You did that splendidly, captain!" cried Brace excitedly.
"Tidy, sir, tidy," was the reply; "but these boats weren't built for
steeplechasing in South American rivers. Let's see what damage is done.
I don't suppose we're much hurt."
The captain stepped from thwart to thwart as he spoke, and, getting
right forward, he leaned over the bows and carefully examined as far as
he could reach, before raising his face again and turning to Brace, who
had followed him, to now meet his eyes with an enquiring look.
"Right as a trivet," he said. "Took off some of the varnish; that's all
that I can see. Ahoy! what damage, Dellow?" he roared to the mate in
the boat astern.
There was no reply for a minute or so whilst the first mate examined his
boat.
Then came a shout, in Dellow's familiar tones:
"Twopenn'orth o' paint gone, and a bit of a splintery crack in the top
plank."
"Any leakage?"
"Not a doo-drop, sir," was the reply.
"Well done. Keep close up abreast," shouted the captain; and, now that
the safety of the boats was assured, attention was directed to the
canoes, which were being rapidly left astern.
"They seem to be trying to right their craft," said Sir Humphrey, who,
like Briscoe, was making observations with his pocket glass.
"Yes," added Briscoe, "and they turned them over quite easily, but their
sides are down flush with the water."
"The men have got in again, and they appear to be splashing out the
water with their paddles," said Sir Humphrey.
"That's right," said Briscoe, "and the other canoes have ranged up
alongside. I can see quite plainly: there's a canoe on each side of the
injured ones to keep them up."
"It's my belief that they may bale till all's blue before they get 'em
to float. Those dug-outs are worked till they get 'em as thin and light
as they can, and if we haven't cut a good gap in each one's side, it's a
rum one," growled the captain. "What are they doing now, sir? It's
rather far to see, but it seems to me that they're trying to get the
sunken canoes to the shore."
"Yes: that's just what they are trying to do," cried Sir Humphrey. "Oh,
yes, I can see that plain enough."
"Then they won't follow us up to-day, gentlemen," said the captain; "and
perhaps we may not see them again. Might like to sail back, p'r'aps,
Mr Briscoe," he continued, "and give the copperskins a friendly word
about hope they're not damaged, and then settle down in the shallows for
a good afternoon's gold-washing."
"Not to-day, thankye, skipper," said the American drily. "It might be
teaching the savages how to catch the gold fever, as you called it, and
be bad for their health."
"P'r'aps so," said the captain, with a peculiarly grim look and a glance
round at the crew; "and they'll be better employed gumming up those
holes in the sides of the canoes."
"Do you think they'll pursue us, captain?" said Brace.
"Most likely, sir," was the cheerful reply. "They'll be wanting to
bring us the bill for damages. I'm thinking it would be the safest
thing to try and drop down by 'em after dusk. This part begins to be
rather unsafe."
He looked at Sir Humphrey as he spoke, and the latter turned to his
brother.
"Well, I don't know, captain," he said: "the wind holds good, and we
seem to have passed the danger. I don't like to give up yet. What do
you say, Mr Briscoe?"
"I think it would be a hundred pities," was the quick reply. "The
country is getting more and more attractive. Who knows what we may
discover, eh, Brace?"
"I feel exactly as you do, and think we should proceed," said the latter
quickly.
"We've got whole skins now," said the captain dubiously, "all but one of
us."
"You think it running too much risk to go on?" said Sir Humphrey.
"Well, I can't say that, sir," was the reply, "because we may sail on
for weeks and weeks and not see another Indian, while if we go back we
are sure to see some."
"Exactly," said Sir Humphrey; "but I can't help thinking that we are
getting now into a more uninhabited part of the country, perhaps where
travellers have never been before."
"Then I say let's go on," said Briscoe, "and we may find El Dorado,
after all."
"El Dorado or no El Dorado, I say don't let's give up yet," said Brace.
"Let's keep on till we are obliged to go back to the brig for stores;
and by that time we shall know whether it is worth while to come up here
again."
"That's good advice, sir," said the captain, smiling at Brace as he
spoke. "I don't want to give up: I like it as well as you do. There's
only one thing wherrits me."
"What's that?" said Brace.
"My brig. I lay awake for a good ten minutes last night thinking about
what we should all feel if we got back to where we left her and found
that the old `Jason' had dragged her anchors and navigated herself out
to sea."
"Oh, but if she had dragged her anchors, captain," said Brace, "they'd
lay hold again somewhere lower down."
"Yes, sir," said the captain drily; "that's what comforted me. All
right, gentlemen. On we go then. I'm thinking now that after the
lesson we gave those gentlemen to-day they mayn't care to meddle with us
again."
"Do you think any of them were killed?" said Brace.
"Hardly, sir. Certainly not with the buckshot. If any of them lost the
number of their mess it would be just now in the river."
"Drowned?"
"Oh, no. They swim like seals. It would be through some of the natives
below: old friends of theirs."
Brace felt a shudder run through him as he glanced down over the side,
where the water glided deep and dark now from where they were sailing to
the tree-clothed shore.
But the conversation took another turn then, the captain proposing that
a good midday meal should be eaten now, and no halt made till a suitable
well-screened resting-place was reached about an hour before dusk.
"Why not keep right on till it is quite dusk?" said Sir Humphrey.
"He means so that we can land and light our fire in the forest, do our
cooking, and put it out again before it's dark, when it would show our
position to any prowling natives," said Briscoe.
"That's right," said the captain.
These tactics were carried out, a strong wind wafting the boats along
mile after mile to a far greater distance than any amount of paddling
would bring canoes in pursuit; and fortune favoured them far more, for,
just about the time decided upon, the fine river up which they had come
suddenly opened out fan-like, offering them five different routes
onward.
"Which shall it be, Brace?" said Sir Humphrey, as he stood up with his
brother in the bows. "If the enemy is following us he is as likely to
take one as the other."
"I don't know," said Brace, with a laugh. "They are all beautiful.
That left one seems the deepest, and the stream flows slowly, so I think
we had better choose that."
"Best too for the wind," said Briscoe. "There's a ripple up it as far
as we can see."
"It's to the left and not to the right," said Brace.
"All the better," said Briscoe, laughing. "You know what you English
folks say about driving: `If you go to the left you are sure to be
right; if you go to the right you'll be wrong.' I think we might well
stick to that rule in this case."
The left branch was chosen, and they sailed swiftly up it, finding to
their surprise that there was scarcely any appearance of current, and
soon after a suitable spot for a landing-place presented itself in one
of the many bends of the river's sinuous course.
Here they landed, and Dan was soon busy preparing food, while as far as
they could make out they were where human foot had never pressed the
soil before.