"Now, gentlemen," said the captain firmly, "what is it to be: turn this
into a fort and fight, or into the boats, hoist sail, and go down
stream? You see it runs our way now."
"Take to the boats," said Sir Humphrey decisively, and the captain gave
the order.
"Slow and steady, my lads," he said; "they can't reach us for some time
yet, and by then we shall be sailing steadily down."
The canoes seemed to be coming on very fast, but the captain was
correct.
The sails were hoisted as soon as every man was in his place, and, to
the satisfaction of all, the heavily-ballasted boats began to glide down
stream before a pleasant breeze with a steadiness that was all that
could be desired.
But by the time they were well moving the first of the canoes was very
near, and their occupants started their savage yelling again and began
to paddle with all their might, till, seeing that the boats were leaving
them behind, they dropped their paddles and seized their bows, to let
fly a shower of arrows.
At this the captain gave the word, and a little volley was fired,
followed by another.
The walls of the great canon took up the reports and echoed them to and
fro till, startled by this novel thunder, the enemy paused in confusion,
many of the canoes being paddled back.
"Anyone hit?" cried Brace.
"No, sir," came loudly from both boats, and the next minute they glided
round the promontory they had passed in coming up, and the rock city
disappeared.
A few minutes later and the last of the canoes was seen.
The wind being favourable and the night following lit up by a full moon,
the retreat was kept up so as to get well beyond danger.
It was far on into the next day before a halt was made to light a fire
and prepare a meal.
The flood had passed away, and with wind and stream in their favour, and
a total absence of danger, the two boats glided down and down from river
to river till after many days the adventurers came within hearing of the
falls.
They ran the boats safely aground just above where the river made its
plunge, and then came a long and toilsome task.
But the boats were safely unladen--for the men worked with a will--run
ashore, and up and down the two slopes, to be re-launched and all the
stores and treasure replaced by dark one night.
The next morning at daybreak a start was made for the brig, which was
found a mile lower down, where it had been swept by the flood, but was
safely re-anchored.
In due time the men were cheering loudly again, for the treasure was
safe on board.
"Now," said Briscoe, "one day's rest, and then we'll start with three
boats, skipper, and stouter tackle so as to handle some of those big
images better. We ought to take three or four planks."
"Then you want to get some more?" said the captain, smiling.
"More?" said Briscoe, staring; "why, man, it would be a sin to leave
that treasure wasting there. What do you say, gentlemen?"
"Well," said Sir Humphrey, "I can't help feeling as you do, Briscoe.
What do you say, Brace?"
"I don't want any more gold," was the reply; "but I should like to get
those curiosities to England. It would be such a shame to leave them up
there."
"And so say we," said Dellow and Lynton eagerly.
"But what about the men?" said Brace; "would they go?"
"Would a dozen ducks swim, sir?" said the captain scornfully. "Ask
'em."
The men were asked, and their answer was a tremendous cheer.
"Of course, sir," one of them cried. "We must clear out the lot."
"Very well," said the captain. "I shall stay on board here with two men
as guards, and you shall start with three boats to-morrow morning."
There was another tremendous cheer at this, and then Dellow threw a wet
blanket over all.
"I dunno," he said slowly: "I don't think it will be to-morrow, for
there's some weather about. Look at that lightning playing away to the
west'ard."
The first mate was right, for that night there was a frightful storm to
announce the breaking-up of the season.
The next day the river was in flood, and in spite of all the captain's
skill the brig was torn from her moorings and borne rapidly down stream.
The days passed, and the weather grew worse and worse. Efforts were
made to moor or anchor over and over again, but the river rapidly became
like one vast lake with the water extending for miles on either side.
After terrible vicissitudes the captain at last breathed freely when at
the end of some weeks the "Jason" was rising and falling in half a gale
well out to sea.
"Hah!" he said; "this is something like. I can turn in now for a rest
without expecting to be capsized by being swept over a clump of trees.
There's nothing like the sea, after all."
"But what about going up the river again?" asked Briscoe.
"It will be in flood for months to come, sir, I should say, and my
advice would be for us to get safe home with what we've got, and make
another trip next year."
The captain's advice was taken, and to a man the men volunteered to go
again the next season.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
That trip was made, and proved to be quite a blank, for the brig was
never got up to the falls.
The next year, though, the party started with high hopes, for the
weather was magnificent, and they reached the falls; but not without
finding that the course of the river had been a good deal altered by two
seasons of tremendous floods.
But there were the stupendous falls and one morning, leaving the brig
snugly anchored in a bay of the river to wait for her golden freight,
three boats, with the men well armed, started for their journey up
stream.
The course of the river below the falls had been greatly altered, but
that was as nothing to the complete change in the network of rivers
higher up.
Let it suffice to say that they rowed and sailed for days which grew
into weeks, and then to months, from river into river, and then in and
out of what was a great watery puzzle; but the canon with its golden
city might have sunk right out of sight, for in spite of every effort
the party were driven back at last when the torrential rains set in.
The next year the captain said he had had enough of it, and Brace and
his brother declined to go, the latter saying that the proverb was
right: "You can buy gold too dearly."
Briscoe then declared that he would freight another brig and go by
himself.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
He went, and, at the end of six months, returned, visited London, and
called upon his old companion.
"Haven't found it yet," he said; "but there's a lot of gold there, and I
mean to try till I do."
Brace met him again and again as the years rolled on, but he had not
found the gold.
"No," he said; "there's something about that puzzle place of rivers that
I don't quite understand. I can't find it, and the longer I live the
more I feel, Brace Leigh, that we ought to have eaten our bread when it
was ready buttered, and brought the stuff away upon a raft."
"Why don't you be content with what you had for your share?"
"Oh, I am," said Briscoe: "just as contented as you are, but I want to
find the rest of that treasure all the same. You see, old fellow, I'm
this sort: I'm Amurrican, and I don't like being beat."