Harry picked himself up with a rather woebegone countenance, and, as may
be imagined, he received a sound rating for his temerity from Topsie, in
deliberately disobeying the advice of El Toro, not to fire at the bull’s
forehead.
“I never saw a nearer shave, Harry,” she concluded. “If it had not been
for our dear old Shag nothing could have saved you from being impaled on
the brute’s horns. It’s too horrible to think of.”
“I was a fool, Topsie!” answered her brother; “I acknowledge it. There,
don’t scold any more; one lives and learns, you know. Most boys are
fools till they have had experience, and this is one I shall not
forget.”
“Well, dear, I do hope you will not, for the sake of others, as well as
your own. Ah, Harry! what should I have done if you had been killed?”
Topsie replied gently, as she laid her hand affectionately on her twin
brother’s shoulder.
“God bless my dear old Topsie, and thank God, too, that I am preserved,”
he remarked quietly. “But I say, old girl, that must have been a rare
good shot of yours, for the brute is stone dead.”
“Thanks to Shag,” she repeated; “but for his splendid help I could not
have shot the bull as I did.”
They clustered round the dead animal, and examined him curiously.
Topsie’s bullet had gone right to his heart, causing instantaneous
death, and thus he had fallen on the top of Shag with some violence.
Chorlo, Aniwee, and El Toro had, however, at once rushed to the dog’s
assistance directly they saw his perilous position, and had extracted
him therefrom before Topsie and Harry came up.
“Good Shag, brave, dear, good Shag!” exclaimed the former, as she threw
her arms round the splendid Labrador’s coal-black neck. “Ah, Shag! you
are a hero; you have saved our dear old Harry’s life.”
But as of yore, the massive beast only wagged his tail gently, while
modestly refusing to be proud or vain, and wearing his honours like the
canine hero that he was.
“Well, now we’ve got him, we’ve got to cut him up, and skin him too,”
remarked Harry complacently, as he seated himself on the bull’s huge
side, and gently stroked the soft, white hide of his would-be destroyer.
“Chorlo and El Toro will skin the bull,” observed Aniwee. “They will do
it quicker than the Caciques, and it is not the first by many which the
latter has skinned. El Toro knows his work there well enough. Will not
the Caciques rest on yonder bank and refresh themselves on the scarlet
fruit that grows thereon? Aniwee knows the fruit; it is safe to eat, and
refreshing to the thirsty.”
Looking in the direction pointed out by the young Queen, Harry and
Topsie perceived beneath a crag-festooned rock, a bank, scarlet all over
with the fruit alluded to, and on going up to examine it, they found
that this fruit consisted of masses of splendid wild strawberries;
large, luscious, and tempting in the extreme.
Being terribly hot, the spot looked inviting beyond measure, and brother
and sister at once threw themselves down, prepared to enjoy a _dolce far
niente_ and strawberry feast.
The scene around them was certainly magnificent,—dark forests in the
foreground, behind them the towering, unbroken wall of the Cordilleras,
and around them emerald glades and fairy nooks, where splendid flowers,
with unknown names, lit up the dark forest background into radiance and
light. As they lay there peacefully resting and eating their
strawberries, these children, who had learnt to love the glories of
God’s great earth, surveyed the scene in silence and rapture. It was as
Topsie afterwards described it, “like being in fairyland.”
The silence which reigned over this scene, was suddenly broken by two
rifle shots, which sounded not far away from where they were sitting. At
once the two young people opened their ears and listened attentively.
They had not to listen long, however, before fresh shots broke the still
air, followed by loud shouts and vigorous yells. What could they mean?
Brother and sister looked inquiringly at each other, and Aniwee came
running up. Already Chorlo and El Toro had forsaken the half-skinned
bull, and had followed the young Queen.
“Let us haste to the rescue,” exclaimed Aniwee excitedly. “I know what
those yells mean. It is the Araucanians’ signal of danger, and would
never be uttered unless peril threatened some of the other parties.
Haste, Señors, haste.”
She had grasped her rifle, which after the death of the bull she had
stood against a tree, and only awaited her white friends’ companionship
before setting off to the assistance of her other friends. And it may be
imagined that neither Harry nor Topsie required much bidding. Leaving
the dead bull to its fate, all five set off up one of the glades in the
direction whence the sounds proceeded at a headlong pace, led by the
fleetfooted Warrior Queen.
No doubt remained in Harry and Topsie’s minds but that some of their
party had been attacked, and their anxiety in consequence was extremely
acute and painful. They did not spare themselves in the efforts which
they made to reach the scene of action. Very suddenly they came upon it,
and then at once realised the terrible danger in which their friends
were placed. Standing in a small square, facing all ways, they perceived
Sir Francis and Lady Vane, Freddy, Mary, Willie, Coquet, and the four
Araucanians firing and loading quickly, while around them danced some
fifty or sixty hideous hairy beings, brandishing their clubs and yelling
fiercely. Quite a dozen were lying dead or wounded on the ground, while,
nothing daunted, the remainder were advancing slowly on the guns.
Now the position was an extremely awkward one, for none of the newly
arrived party could fire without endangering their own friends, while
they themselves were in imminent peril from the bullets of the others.
But Aniwee was equal to the occasion. Some tall fir trees grew near to
the place where they were standing, having strong flowery branches
sticking out from the stems. Signing to her companions to imitate her,
she climbed into one of these trees, an act quickly followed by the
others. Topsie, however, had some difficulty in getting Shag up, but
with El Toro’s assistance he was at length hoisted aloft and placed on
one of the broadest branches, where Chorlo, who was unarmed, promised to
hold him safe.
The young Queen and her two white friends were the only three of this
little party armed with rifles. But they determined to render what help
they could. In effect, when the shots pinged forth from their weapons,
three more Andes demons—for such they were—bit the dust, while this
sudden and counter attack seemed to take the horrible creatures by
surprise.
Knowing little of the arts of warfare, they wheeled round in a
semicircle, and turned their attention to this new source of danger. As
they did so, Sir Francis shouted to his square to form into line, and
pour a broadside into the huddled group of demons. At the same time our
friends in the trees fired another volley. The effect was terrible, and
raked the demon force from top to bottom, adding many more victims to
the ghastly heap already lying low. But the effect was electrical. With
wild shrieks and yells the remainder gave way before such fearful
punishment, and turning tail, fled from the magic force of the white man
and his terrible weapons.
Then our five friends made haste to descend from their perches aloft,
and hurried to join the others, who were all more or less shaken by the
severe attack to which they had been subjected. Both Mary and Willie
were deathly white; and though they had behaved with the greatest pluck
and obedience to discipline, it could not be wondered at, that they felt
somewhat frightened by such an experience.
“Thank God you arrived in time!” exclaimed Sir Francis in a voice full
of earnest feeling. “My dear children, had it not been for your valuable
help, I am confident we should have all been killed. But what a fearful
demon-haunted place this is. For goodness’ sake, let us quit it without
delay!”
“Ah, uncle! let us put those poor creatures out of their misery,” put in
Topsie, as her eye fell on the writhing forms of several of the fallen
demons. “We cannot leave them like that.”
This most unpleasant task was entrusted to the Indians, who soon made
short work of the dying apes, and the whole party without delay made
haste to depart from a scene of such horror. Hunting was no longer
thought of, every one being desirous of getting back to the raft. It was
agreed, however, to make a halt by the dead bull, and to complete the
skinning and cutting up of the animal, the meat being too valuable and
precious to leave behind.
On reaching the spot where he lay, several vultures rose from the
carcase. Huge creatures they were indeed, being condors in very fact;
but no one attempted to shoot them, as it was deemed inadvisable to make
any unnecessary noise, which might draw upon them a renewed attack from
the demons.
While the Indians busied themselves over the bull, Harry and Topsie led
Sir Francis and Lady Vane and their cousins to the strawberry bed to
refresh and rest themselves, and then Topsie exclaimed:
“And now, Uncle Francis, do tell us how you came upon those awful
brutes, and how you all managed to be together, for when we left you,
both parties were separate.”
“Well, I will tell you, my dears, how it happened,” answered the
baronet, as he seated himself and accepted from Harry several large
strawberries which the lad had plucked and handed to him. “It was in
this way. Very soon after we left you, we sighted a splendid herd of
deer, who took to the forest the moment they saw us. I sent Coquet and
our Indian round to try and get on the other side of them, and drive
them our way. While making the wide _détour_ which they found necessary,
they came upon your aunt, Freddy, and the other Indians, who, having
seen nothing, joined them, and they all seven entered the wood together.
The deer were soon sighted, and every effort was being made to drive
them to where we lay concealed, when loud yells suddenly startled us out
of our senses. Out of the forest, at the very point where we expected to
see the herd break, broke a very different sight, in the shape of some
fifty or more hideous hairy monsters, which we at once recognised as
Andes demons. We held our breath and lay still, but they seemed to
divine our whereabouts, for they came straight at us. Seeing this, we
sprung up, and fled, making for that part of the forest where the others
were beating. We had not gone far when the demons caught sight of us,
and set off in hot pursuit. We managed to reach your aunt and Freddy,
however, who were hurrying forward to meet us. We at once signed to them
to turn and fly with us, having no time in which to explain. Briefly,
our pursuers came up with us. We fired several volleys, but these did
not stop them from coming on, and we were finally driven into the open
space in which you, Aniwee, Chorlo, and El Toro found us. Forming into a
large wide circle the demons began to close in upon us, and I was forced
to place my little party in a square. Some were armed, some were not. We
loaded, and fired as quickly as we could, but the brutes, though they
fell in numbers, came slowly on, and indeed would soon have come to
close quarters with us, and battered in our brains had you not all
arrived in the nick of time.”
“And now, Topsie, it is your turn to tell us how you got the bull,” put
in Lady Vane. “Anything to turn one’s thoughts from the horrible trial
we have gone through and the fearful danger which we have escaped. Very
earnestly should we thank God for His great mercy in delivering us.”
But the Indians had completed their task and loaded up, so that Topsie’s
story had to be told as the party tramped along. She spun it out as long
as she could, until the jungle slopes were reached, and then they all
had their work cut out to make their way through its dense growth. When
at length they gained the raft the moon was shedding its soft light on
all around.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]