The next morning the sun was drinking up the mists at a wonderful rate
when Rob opened his eyes, saw Joe close by him fast asleep, and raised
his hand to give him a friendly slap, but he checked himself.
"We're not friends yet," he said to himself, with a curious, regretful
feeling troubling him; and as he went forward to get one of the men to
fill him a bucket of water for his morning bath, for the first time
since leaving England he felt dismal and low-spirited.
"Morning, sir!" said Shaddy. "Mr Joe not wakened yet?"
"No."
"Did you two make friends 'fore you went to sleep?"
"No, Shaddy."
"Then I lay tuppence it wasn't your fault. What a pity it was you let
your tongue say that about the monkey!"
"Yes, Shaddy," said Rob as he plunged his head into the pail and had a
good cool sluice. "I wish I hadn't now. It was a great pity."
"True, sir, it was. You see, there ain't no room in a boat for
quarrelling, and if it came to a fight you'd both go overboard together
and be eaten by the fish afore you knew where you were. And that would
not be pleasant, would it?"
"Don't talk nonsense, Shaddy," said Rob shortly as he plunged his head
into the bucket again.
"Certinly not, sir," replied the man seriously. "You see, I know how it
would be as well as can be. 'Talian lads don't fight like English lads.
They can't hit out straight and honest, but clings and cuddles and
wrastles. Soon as ever you began he'd fly at you, and tie his arms and
legs about you in knots, and hamper you so that you couldn't keep your
balance, and as there's no room in the boat, you'd be ketching your toe
somewhere, and over you'd go. If I were you, Mr Rob, sir, I wouldn't
fight him."
"Will you leave off talking all that stupid nonsense, Shaddy?" cried Rob
angrily as he began now polishing his head and face with the towel.
"Who is going to fight? I suppose you think it's very clever to keep on
with this banter, but I can see through you plainly enough."
Shaddy chuckled.
"All right, sir; I won't say no more. Give him time, and don't notice
him, and then I daresay he'll soon come round."
"I shall go on just as if nothing had happened," said Rob quietly. "I
apologised and said I was sorry, and when his annoyance has passed off
he'll be friends again. What a glorious morning after the storm!"
"Glorious ain't nothing to it, sir. Everything's washed clean, and the
air shines with it. Even looks as if the sun had got his face washed,
too. See how he flashes."
"I can feel, Shaddy," said Rob, with a laugh.
"That's nothing to what's coming, my lad. Strikes me, too, that we
shall find a little more water in the stream, if Mr Brazier says we're
to go down the river to-day. Hear the birds?"
"Hear them?" cried Rob. "Why, they are ten times as lively to-day."
"That they are, sir. They're having a regular feast on the things
washed out of their holes by the rain. As for the flowers, Mr Brazier
will have no end of beauties to pick. They'll come out like magic after
this rain. He won't want to go on to-day."
"Yes, I shall, Naylor," said Brazier, stepping out from under the
awning. "We may as well go on, beautiful as all this is. Ah," he
continued as he gazed round and took a long, deep breath, "what
gloriously elastic air! What a paradise! Rob, my lad, there can be
nothing fairer on earth."
"Don't you be in a hurry, sir!" growled Shaddy. "I'm going to show you
places as beat this hollow."
"Impossible, my man!" said Brazier.
"Well, sir, you wait and see. Bit o' breakfast before we start?"
"Yes," said Brazier, and the men just then stirred the fire together,
and called from the shore that the water was boiling and the cakes in
the embers baked.
The sensation of delicious comparative coolness after the storm as they
sat under the trees, and the fragrance borne from myriads of flowering
plants was so delightful to the senses that Rob looked with dismay at
the idea of leaving the place for the present. The thirsty ground had
drunk up the rain, and only a little moisture remained where the sun
could not penetrate, while the sky was of a vivid blue, without a speck
of cloud to be seen.
But, though Brazier did not notice it, there was a jarring element in
the concord of that glorious morning, for the young Italian was heavy
and gloomy, and hardly spoke during the _alfresco_ meal.
"What's that?" said Rob suddenly as there was a slight rustling among
the boughs and undergrowth a short distance away.
"Might be anything, sir," said Shaddy. "Some little animal--monkey
praps. It won't hurt us. Maybe it's a snake."
In spite of an effort to seem unconcerned, Rob could not resist the
desire to glance at his comrade at the mention of the monkey, and, as he
fully expected, even though he could not check it, there was Joe glaring
at him fiercely.
Rob dropped his eyes, feeling that Joe fully believed he was doing it to
annoy him, and that Shaddy had the same intention.
Meanwhile the sound had ceased, and was forgotten by the time they were
all on board once more, the rope which had moored them to a tree being
cast off.
"Now, my lads, away with you!" growled Shaddy, and the oars dropped
among the lily leaves with a splash, startling quite a shoal of fish on
one side and a large reptile on the other, which raised quite a wave as
it dashed off with a few powerful strokes of its tail for deeper water.
They were about fifty yards from the shore, when Shaddy suddenly laid
his hand upon Rob's shoulder and pointed back to the place they had just
left.
"See that, my lad?"
"No. What?" cried Rob hastily. "Bird? lizard?"
"Nay; look again."
Rob swept the shore eagerly, and the next moment his eyes lit upon
something tawny standing in a shady spot, half hidden by the leaves.
"The puma!" he cried excitedly, and as the words left his lips the
animal made one bound into the undergrowth near the trees, and was gone.
"Or another, one, Rob," said Brazier. "It is hardly likely to be the
same. There are plenty about, I suppose, Naylor?"
"Oh yes, sir. Can't say as they swarm, but they're pootty plentiful,
and as much like each other as peas in a pod."
"But I feel sure that is the same one," cried Rob excitedly. "It is
following us down the lake."
"Maybe," grumbled Shaddy, "but you couldn't tell at this distance."
Rob was going to speak again, but he caught sight of Joe's face, with a
peculiar smile thereon, and he held his peace.
An hour later they were drawing close to the mouth of the river, where
it quitted the lake, and Shaddy pointed to the shores on either side.
"Look at that," he said in a low tone. "I 'spected as much."
"Look at what?" said Rob.
"The trees. Water's two foot up the trunks, and the river over its
banks, lad. We shall go down pootty fast it I don't look out."
But he did "look out," to use his own words, and getting the boat round,
he set the four men to back stern foremost into the stream, keeping a
long oar over the side to steer by and giving orders to the men to pull
gently or hard as he gave instructions, for the river ran like a
mill-race. It was swift enough before, but now, thanks to the
tremendous amount of water poured into it through the previous night's
storm, its speed seemed to be doubled.
Rob stood close by the steersman, while Joe was beside Mr Brazier, who,
after the first minute or two of startled interest in their rapid
descent, became absorbed in the beauty of the overhanging plants, and
had no eyes for anything else.
"We're going along at a tidy rate, Master Rob," said Shaddy.
"Yes; the trees glide by very quickly."
"Ay, they do, sir," said the man, who did not take his eyes from the
surface of the river before them. "I did mean to make the boys pull so
that we could go down gently, but it wouldn't be much good, and only
toil 'em for nothing."
"There's no danger, I suppose, Shaddy?"
"No, sir, no, not much, unless we run on a sharp snag or trunk of a
tree, or get swept into a corner and capsized."
"What?" cried Rob.
"Capsized, sir. That would make an end of our expedition. Now, lads,"
he shouted to the men, "pull your best."
He gave his own oar a peculiar twist as the men obeyed, and Rob caught
sight of the danger ahead for the first time. It was a huge tree which
had been undermined by the water during the past few hours and fallen
right out into the stream, its top being over a hundred feet from the
shore and showing quite a dense tangle of branches level with the water,
to have entered which must have meant wreck.
But Shaddy was too much on the _qui vive_, and his timely order and
careful steering enabled him to float the craft gently by the outermost
boughs.