It was evening when Rob awoke, and found the guide waiting as he had
left him when he lay down.
"Only gone down about an inch, Mr Rob, sir," he said. "Feel as if you
could do your spell at the watch now?"
"Of course. But, Shaddy, I'm terribly hungry."
"So am I, sir. To-morrow morning we must see if we can't do something
to catch some fish."
"Why not to-night?"
Shaddy shook his head, lay down, and in a moment or two was breathing
heavily in a deep sleep.
"I can't watch all night without food," thought Rob, as he looked round
at the waste and wondered how soon the flood would go down. He knew
what food there was, and how it would have to be served, and longed for
his share; but felt that unless the others were present he could not
take his portion, though how he would be able to wait till morning was
more than he felt able to tell.
He looked up at the puma, to see that it had carefully lodged itself on
the upper fork, and was asleep. So was Mr Brazier. Only he was awake
and hungry. Yes, Brazier was, too, for he woke about then with a start,
to question Rob about the advance of time, and their position; ending,
as he heard that the flood had hardly sunk at all, by saying that they
would be compelled to watch fasting that night, so as to make the
provisions last longer.
Rob gave him an agonised look, and, plucking a twig, began to pick off
the leaves to chew them.
"I don't feel as if I could wait till to-morrow," he said faintly.
"It is a case of _must_," said Brazier. "Come, try a little fortitude,
my lad."
"But a little fortitude will not do," said Rob drily. "It seems to me
that we shall want so much of it."
"You know our position, Rob. There, lad; let's be trustful, and try and
hope. We may not have to wait longer than to-morrow for the subsiding
of the flood."
How that night passed neither of them knew, but at last the sun rose to
show that the waters, which had seemed to be alive with preying
creatures, had sunk so that they could not be above four feet in depth;
and just as they had concluded that this was the case Shaddy sprang up,
and sat staring at them.
"Why!--what?--Have I slept all night?" he cried. "Oh, Mr Rob!"
"We both felt that you must have rest, Naylor," said Brazier quietly.
"That's very good of you, sir; but you should have been fairer to
yourselves. Did you--?"
He stopped short.
"Hear anything in the night?" asked Rob.
"Well, no, sir, I was going to say something else, only I was 'most
ashamed."
"Never mind: say it," said Brazier.
"I was going to ask if you had left me a little scrap of the prog."
Rob looked at him sharply and then at Brazier, who did the same, but
neither of them replied; and the old sailor put his own interpretation
upon their silence.
"All right, gentlemen," he said; "you must have both been terrible
hungry. Don't say anything about it. Now, how could I manage to catch
a fish?"
"After breakfast, Shaddy, please," said Rob merrily. "Mr Brazier
thought we ought to wait for you."
"What! You don't mean to say you haven't had any?"
"When three people are situated as we are, Naylor, a fair division of
the food is necessary. Get it at once."
"Well!" ejaculated the old sailor, as he took down the packet from where
he had secured it in the upper branches; and again, as he placed it on
the loose platform, "Well!" Then--"There, gentlemen, I can't tell you
how thankful I am to you for being such true comrades. But there, let's
eat now. The famine's over, and I mean to have some more food soon."
"How, Shaddy?" said Rob, with his mouth full; "you can't wade because of
the reptiles, and the piranas would attack you."
"No, sir, I can't wade unless I could make stilts, and I can't do that.
It will be a climb for fruit, like the monkeys, for luncheon if the
water doesn't go down."
To the despair of all, the day passed on till it was getting late in the
afternoon, and still the water spread around them right into the forest;
but it was literally alive with fish which they could not see their way
to catch.
Rob and Shaddy set to work making a fishing-line. A piece of the
toughest wood they could find was fashioned into a tiny skewer sharpened
at both ends and thrust into a piece of fruit taken from high up the
tree, where Rob climbed, but soon had to come back on account of the
puma following him.
Then they angled, with plenty of shoals swimming about the tree, as they
could see from the movement of the muddy water; but so sure as a fish
took the bait there was a short struggle, and either the line broke or
the apology for a hook gave way, till first one and then the other gave
up in sheer despair, and sat looking disconsolate, till Shaddy's
countenance expanded into a broad grin.
"I don't see anything to laugh at," said Rob. "Here we have only a few
scraps to save for to-morrow, and you treat it all as if it were a
matter of no consequence."
"Warn't laughing at that, Mr Rob. I was only thinking of the fox and
the grapes, for I had just said to myself the fish ain't worth ketching,
just as the fox said the grapes were sour."
"But unless the waters go down ours is a very serious position," said
Brazier.
"Very, sir. And as to that bit of food, strikes me that it will be good
for nothing soon; so I say let's wait till last thing to-night, and then
finish it."
"And what about to-morrow?" said Rob gloomily.
"Let to-morrow take care of itself, sir. Plenty of things may happen
to-morrow. May be quite dry. If not, we must kill the puma and eat
it."
"What!" cried Rob in horror.
"Better than killing one of ourselves, sir," said the man grimly. "We
must have something to eat, and we can't live on wood and water."
The result was that they finished the last scrap of food after Shaddy
had spent the evening vainly looking out for the carcass of some drowned
animal. Then night came once more, and all lay down to sleep, but only
to have a disturbed night through the uneasy wanderings of the hungry
puma, which kept climbing from branch to branch uttering a low,
muttering cry. Sometimes it curled up beside Rob and seemed to sleep,
but it soon rose again and crawled down the most pendent branch till it
could thrust its muzzle close to the surface of the water and quench its
thirst.
"We shall have to shove it off to swim ashore," said Shaddy the next
morning.
"Why?" cried Rob. "The fish and alligators would attack it."
"Can't help it, sir," replied the old sailor. "Better eat him than he
should eat us."
"Why, you don't think--" began Rob.
"Yes, I do, sir. Wild beasts of his kind eat enough at one meal to last
'em a long time; but when they get hungry they grow very savage, and he
may turn upon us at any time now."
Rob looked at the puma anxiously, and approached it later on in the day,
to find the animal more gentle than ever; though it snarled and ruffled
up the hair of its back and neck whenever there was the slightest
advance made by either of the others.
That day passed slowly by--hot, dreamy, and with the water keeping
exactly to the same depth, so that they were hopelessly prisoned still
on their tree. They tried again to capture a fish, but in vain; and
once more the night fell, with the sounds made by bird, insect, and
reptile more weird and strange to them than ever.
Rob dropped asleep from time to time, to dream of rich banquets and
delicious fruits, but woke to hear the croaking and whistling of the
different creatures of the forest, and sit up on the pile of boughs
listening to the splash of the various creatures in the water, till day
broke, to find them all gaunt, wild-eyed, and despairing.
"We must try and wade to shore, and chance the creatures in the water,"
said Brazier hoarsely, for, on account of his weakness, he seemed to
suffer more than the others. "Where's shore, sir?" said Shaddy gruffly.
"Well, the nearest point, then."
"There ain't no nearest point, sir," said the man. "Even if we could
escape the things swarming in the muddy water, we could not wade through
the forest. It's bad enough when it's hard; now it's all water no man
could get through the trees. Besides, the land may be a hundred miles
away."
"What can we do, then?" cried Rob in desperation. "Only one thing, sir:
wait till the water goes down."
"But we may be dead before then--dead of this terrible torture of
hunger."
"Please God not, sir," said the old sailor piously: and they sat or lay
now in their terrible and yet beautiful prison.
From time to time Shaddy reached out from a convenient branch, and
dipped one of Rob's vessels full of the thick water, and when it had
been allowed to settle they quenched their burning thirst; but the pangs
of hunger only increased and a deadly weakness began to attack their
limbs, making the least movement painful.
For the most part those hours of their imprisonment grew dreamy and
strange to Rob, who slept a good deal; but he was roused up by one
incident. The puma had grown more and more uneasy, walking about the
tree wherever it could get the boughs to bear it, till all at once,
after lying as if asleep, it suddenly rose up, leaped from bough to
bough, till it was by the forest, where they saw it gather itself up and
spring away, evidently trying to reach the extreme boughs of the next
tree; but it fell with a tremendous splash into the water, and the
growth between prevented them from seeing what followed.
Rob uttered a sigh, for it was as if they had been forsaken by a friend;
and Shaddy muttered something about "ought not to have let it go."
They seemed to be very near the end. Then there was a strange, misty,
dreamy time, from which Rob was awakened by Shaddy shaking his shoulder.
"Rouse up, my lad," he said huskily. "No, no: let me sleep," sighed
Rob. "Don't--don't!"
"Rouse up, boy, I tell ye," cried the old sailor fiercely. "Here's help
coming, or I'm dreaming and off my head. Now; sit up and listen.
What's that?"
Rob struggled feebly into a sitting position, and fancied he could hear
a sound. There was moonshine on the smooth water, and the trees cast a
thick shade; but he closed his eyes again, and began to lower himself
down to drop into the sleep from which there would be no waking here on
earth.
"Ask--Mr Brazier--to look," he muttered feebly, and closed his heavy
eyes.
"No, no: you," cried Shaddy, who was kneeling beside him. "He's asleep,
like. He can't move. Rouse up, lad, for the sake of home and all you
love. I'm nearly beat out, but your young ears can listen yet, and your
eyes see. There's help coming, I tell you."
"Help?" cried Rob, making a snatch at his companion's arm.
"Yes, or else I'm dreaming it, boy. I'm off my head, and it's all
'mazed and thick. That's right, listen. Hold up by me. Now, then,
what's that black speck away yonder, like a bit o' cloud? and what's
that noise?"
"Oars," said Rob huskily, as he gave a kind of gasp.
"What?"
"Oars--and--a boat," cried the boy, his words coming with a strange
catching of the breath.
"Hurray! It is--it is," cried Shaddy; and collecting all his remaining
strength, he uttered a hoarse hail, which was supplemented by a faint
harsh cry from Rob, as he fell back senseless in their rough nest of
boughs in the fork of that prison tree.