you bet. And what he is going to say is--But here comes the chief and
his principal headmen to meet us. Now, Inaguy, you be very careful in
your interpretation of everything that passes, for a good deal may
depend upon it. And let's hurry; I want to get up as close as possible
to that idol before the palaver begins."
The chief of the tribe was easily distinguishable from all the rest,
from the fact that he walked some half a dozen paces in front of the
others, and also because of his garb, which consisted of a gaudy
head-dress of variously coloured feathers and an enormous jaguar's skin
thrown over his left shoulder, half of it covering the front of his
body--and the other half the rear, the two halves united at his right
hip by knotting the skin of the left foreleg to the left hinder one. He
was, like all the rest of his tribe, coal-black in colour, and, like his
followers, was armed with a sheaf of formidable-looking barbed spears,
the heads of which appeared to be made of bone or horn. They seemed to
be a fine race of men, standing nearly six feet high, and their carriage
was suggestive of great strength and agility, but they were undeniably
ugly and repulsive of feature, the expression being that of mingled
cunning and cruelty. As they drew nearer, King Cole, the black panther,
began to snarl and show his fangs in an exceedingly hostile fashion,
whereupon Dick hurriedly seized one of the tent ropes and deftly looped
it about the animal's neck in a standing bowline knot, at the same time
soothing him by word and touch.
The two parties met and came to a halt at a point some thirty feet from
the altar; and as they did so Earle waved his hand in greeting toward
the figure, airily remarking as he did so:
"How do, old chap! Glad to have the pleasure of seeing you at last."
To which, to the stupefaction of everybody, Dick included, the figure
replied in a high, thin voice:
"The pleasure is mine, oh wonderful medicine-man, who has come to heal
my people. Tell them that ye are my particular friends, and that they
must treat you and yours well during your stay among them, upon pain of
incurring my lasting anger."
"Got that, Inaguy?" asked Earle, turning to his headman, who seemed so
paralysed with amazement that he could scarcely reply in the
affirmative. "Good! Then just translate to the chief and his followers
what I said, and what their god answered."
With chattering teeth and lips that quivered with terror to such an
extent that he could scarcely articulate, the thoroughly frightened
Inaguy obeyed his master's order, and his astonishment and terror were
so obviously genuine that they only added to the already profound effect
produced upon the Indians by the seeming miracle of speech from their
hitherto dumb god. Had the chief been a little less astonished than he
was, it might have occurred to him to wonder why the idol had chosen to
express his will in a language that needed interpretation; but obviously
he was altogether too profoundly impressed by the marvellous happening
for the smallest shred of suspicion to enter his mind, and upon
receiving the message he immediately wheeled round, and prostrating
himself with his face to the ground--an example instantly followed by
those about him--mumbled a long statement which, upon being translated
by Inaguy, proved to be an emphatic assurance that nothing whatever
should be done that could provoke the god's displeasure. This done, he
rose to his feet and shouted an order for the immediate release of the
hostages; after which he turned to Earle and Dick and reverentially bade
them welcome to the village, at the same time requesting them to pitch
their camp wherever they pleased.
Earle, having chosen a spot well out in the open, where anything in the
nature of a sudden surprise would be difficult--though he explained to
Dick that, after what had happened, he had little or no fear of anything
of the kind--intimated to the chief his desire to see the sick people at
once, and went off with that individual, leaving Dick to supervise the
arrangement of the camp.
Meanwhile Dick, who was by no means a fool, had been thinking matters
over, and had come to the conclusion that he understood the apparent
mystery of the idol's speech, and chuckled to himself over Earle's
cleverness, which had been so wonderful as to mystify even the young
Englishman for the moment.
By the time that Earle reached the camp, after paying his professional
visit to the sick, the camp was all in order, and supper was nearly
ready. Earle was in fine feather, for not only had he discovered that
the invalids were all down with swamp fever, which, severe as it was, he
was confident of his ability to cure, but upon questioning the chief
with regard to the great object of his quest, he had been informed that
a tribe of Indians known as the Mangeromas, occupying territory many
days' march toward the south-west, were believed to possess some
knowledge of a wonderful people answering to the description which Earle
had given, but that the Catus--the tribe whose guests the party now
were--had as little as possible to do with the Mangeromas, since the
latter were an exceedingly fierce, warlike and barbarous race, more than
suspected of cannibalism. This unsavoury reputation, however, affected
Earle not in the least, he was out for adventure, and was determined to
have it, moreover he wanted definite information concerning El Dorado
and the city of Manoa, and was prepared to take his chance, even among
cannibals in order to get it.
"Well," remarked Dick, "that's all right; where you go, I go with you,
even if it should be into a country where cannibals are as common as
blackberries in August. And I have no doubt that, if need be, you can
scare them as effectually as you did those niggers this evening. And
let me tell you, while I think of it, that you did it remarkably well.
Why, you puzzled even me for the moment."
"Did I, really?" demanded Earle, with every symptom of extreme
gratification. "I am glad of that, for, to tell you the truth, I am a
bit out of practice, and the idea did not occur to me until Inaguy
mentioned the idol this afternoon. Then I thought that if, by means of
ventriloquism, I could make the idol speak, it would cause our friends
here to sit up and take notice, as it did. Ventriloquism, Dick, is a
very useful accomplishment for a man who goes much among savages, as I
have done, and it has got me out of an extremely tight corner more than
once. It always appealed to me powerfully, from the time when, as a boy
of seven years old, I attended a ventriloquial entertainment and heard
the guy conversing with unseen people in mid-air, and heard remarks
addressed to him by obviously inanimate objects. There seemed to me to
be useful possibilities in it, and I started trying to do it at once,
finally taking lessons from a wonderfully clever guy, who told me that
my throat was specially well adapted for it. Ah! here comes Peter with
supper, for which I'm glad, for I happen to be possessed of a ten dollar
appetite to-night."
The meal over, Earle unpacked, his medicine chest and mixed a sufficient
quantity of medicine to serve his patients through the night, and took
it up to the village, where he remained nearly three hours ministering
to the sick, and talking, through Inaguy, to Yahiti, the chief of the
Catus. When at length he returned to the camp he was in the highest
spirits, for the somewhat incomprehensible reason that Yahiti had
informed him that the country lying between the Catu and the Mangeroma
territories was extraordinarily difficult, and full of the most weird
and terrible perils.
On the following morning the two friends were astir with the dawn, Earle
having expressed a desire to inspect the great swamp in the
neighbourhood, to which he attributed the epidemic of fever from which
the inhabitants of the village were suffering. This swamp was situated
at the distance of about a mile south-east from the village, and was of
such an extent that whenever the wind blew from either the east or the
south--these being the prevailing winds there--the pestiferous odours
arising from it were wafted directly toward the village; and Earle's
idea was to investigate, with the view of ascertaining whether anything
could be done to reclaim the swamp, failing which he proposed to
recommend the Catus to abandon the place and take up their abode
elsewhere.
Upon reaching the swamp, it was found to lie in a shallow depression,
roughly circular in shape and some three miles in diameter, its deepest
part--about eight feet--being nearest the village, while at its upper
extremity it was fed by a small stream of a capacity just about
sufficient to neutralise the constant process of evaporation without
being enough to produce an overflow. Further than that, it occupied
such a position that a trench little more than a quarter of a mile in
length and averaging a depth of about nine feet was all that was needed
to drain the swamp by carrying off the water and discharging it into a
valley some three-hundred feet deep.
An alternative scheme which Earle also investigated was the diversion of
the stream which supplied the swamp with water; and this was also found
possible by cutting a trench about two hundred yards long; but it was
open to the objection that, in order to do it, the workers would be
obliged to walk a distance of nearly twelve miles daily to and from
their work, and he doubted whether the Catus were energetic enough to do
it.
The task of convincing the Catus that they must do away with the swamp
or abandon the village, unless they were prepared continually to suffer
from fever, was a long and troublesome one, the Indians having a strong
constitutional objection to anything in the nature of hard work; but
Earle succeeded at length, and actually got them started on the work of
cutting the drainage ditch, that scheme having been chosen as the one
promising the quickest results and involving the least labour. By the
time that this was done the invalids were all recovered from their
sickness; and ten days after their arrival at the Catu village the
exploring party resumed their march, to the loudly expressed regret of
the inhabitants, who urgently pressed them to remain, and would quite
possibly have detained them by force, but for fear of exciting the anger
of the stone god.
The journey was resumed immediately after breakfast on a certain
morning, and before the hour for the first halt arrived the party began
to realise the truth of Yahiti's story that the route was full of
difficulties, if not of dangers; for it lay over rugged country so
thickly bestrewn with enormous boulders that Earle likened the journey
to the exploration of San Francisco immediately after the earthquake.
Of course, they went round the boulders when such a course was possible,
but it very frequently happened that long reefs of rock projected out of
the ground for miles on either hand, when, difficult though the task
might be, it became easier to climb up one side and down the other, than
to pass round. Two miles was the extent of their journey over that kind
of country which they were able to accomplish before sunset; and when at
length they camped they were little more than eight miles from the Catu
village.
To travel over such country was wearisome in the extreme, but there was
nothing for it but to push on, or else make a detour of unknown extent;
and this idea Earle would not entertain for a moment. On the following
day, therefore, they resumed their journey, although with every yard of
advance the difficulties appeared to grow more formidable.
It was about mid-morning when they reached the base of a cliff some
forty feet high that, being practically vertical, seemed to bar their
further progress, and after contemplating it for several minutes, Earle
decided to make the spot a halting place while he and Dick explored the
cliff in opposite directions in search of a practicable crossing.
Accordingly, while the natives were forming camp, the two white men,
taking their rifles and a few cartridges, set off along the foot of the
cliffs, Earle proceeding in a north-westerly direction, while Dick
proceeded toward the south-east.
The rock of which the cliff was formed was, for some considerable
distance in the direction followed by Dick, quartzite; but at a point
about a mile from the spot where he had parted from Earle it changed to
a black, bituminous limestone, studded here and there with ammonites.
Dick, who knew little or nothing about geology, merely noticed the
change in the character of the rock, and sauntered on, eagerly scanning
its face, in the hope of finding a spot where it might be scalable by
men carrying moderately heavy burdens. And at length he reached, as he
believed, such a spot, where the black rock seemed to have been riven by
some mighty natural convulsion, the rift forming a steep and exceedingly
narrow gully leading to the summit. Naturally, he at once started to
climb this gully, with the object of testing its practicability; and he
had traversed nearly two-thirds of its length when, as he scrambled up,
his attention was suddenly attracted to a sort of pocket in the rock,
which had been laid open by a fall. What particularly attracted his
attention toward this pocket was the fact that it contained a
considerable number of bright green crystals, which struck him as being
peculiar not only from their rich colour, but also from the fact that
they were all of practically the same shape, namely hexagonal. So
greatly did he admire them that he put a couple of the largest in one of
his pockets, intending to show them to Earle and ask him whether
perchance they were of any value. Then he pushed on again and soon
reached the upper end of the gully, when he found himself, somewhat to
his amazement, on a vast tableland, stretching as far as could be seen,
with what looked like a big forest at a distance of some ten miles.
Having completed his survey, Dick descended the gully and returned to
the camp, to find that Earle was still absent; he therefore set out to
seek him and report his success. Some two miles beyond the camp he met
the American returning, considerably disgusted, he having failed in his
search, and at once Dick reported his triumph, incidentally producing
the crystals and asking if Earle happened to know what they were.
"Know what they are?" echoed Earle, after most carefully and
interestedly examining the stones. "Why, of course I do. Don't you?"
"Haven't the least idea," answered Dick. "But they struck me as being
rather pretty, and I thought I would take them back to my sister as
souvenirs of my travels. There are dozens more where these came from."
"Are there?" caustically remarked Earle. "Then, my dear Cavendish,
permit me to congratulate you; for these two crystals are remarkably
fine emeralds; and the probability is that you have accidentally
stumbled upon an emerald mine rich enough to make the fortunes of a
dozen men. Let's get back to camp and move on to this gully of yours.
We'll overhaul it at once, and if it should prove--as I strongly
suspect--to be a true emerald mine, we'll work it for a few days and
ascertain something like its probable worth."
"But," protested Dick, "I didn't know that emeralds were found in South
America."
"What!" ejaculated Earle, in amazement. "You ignorant sailorman! Why,
some of the most famous emeralds in the world have been unearthed in
this country. The Spaniards, under Pizarro, took enormous quantities of
them from the Peruvians, but were never able to learn exactly where they
were obtained; and the only mine now known in South America is, I
believe, situated near Bogota. But I have long been convinced that this
is the country, _par excellence_, for emeralds--ay, and possibly rubies
and sapphires as well. Come along, man; let's go and have a look at the
mine that's going to make a millionaire of you."
CHAPTER SIX.
EMERALDS--AND THE DEATH FLOWER.
The two friends reached their temporary camp in good time for the
mid-day meal; they therefore decided to have it before proceeding
farther. As soon as the meal was over the camp was struck, and the
entire party proceeded in the direction of the gully, or cleft, upon
their arrival at which preparations were at once made for a possible
sojourn of a few days; and while those preparations were being made,
Earle and Dick, carrying a pickaxe and shovel, as well as their rifles,
started to climb the cleft, bent upon examining the spot where the
emeralds had been found, and, if possible, settling the question as to
whether or not a mine had actually been discovered.
Their open-air life, and the toil of their recent travels had put both
young men into the pink of condition; it was, therefore, not long before
they reached the spot where Dick had made his momentous find. Arrived
there, Earle's first act was to subject each of the crystals lying in
the exposed "pocket" to a careful examination. There were fifty-four in
all, of varying sizes; and when Earle had pronounced each of them to be
a genuine emerald--and most of them of the first water, they were all
deposited in a knapsack which they had taken with them for the purpose.
This done, the American seized a pickaxe and began to dig into the face
of the cliff, pausing at intervals to take a rest while Cavendish
shovelled away the debris. The rock was not at all difficult to work,
yielding readily to the blows of the pickaxe and coming away in lumps
the size of one's fist, or even bigger, consequently it was not very
long before, between them, they had excavated a cavity of considerable
size. But after nearly two hours of strenuous toil without result, they
retired from the hole for a time to rest, and were debating the question
whether or not it was worth while to pursue the investigation any
further, Earle being rather of opinion that Dick's find had been merely
an isolated pocket, and that they might seek for weeks or possibly
months, without finding any more emeralds, when, without the slightest
warning, the hole in which they had been working suddenly caved in,
laying bare a new face, some nine or ten square yards in area. And when
at length the face had ceased to crumble and the dust had subsided, the
first thing to attract their attention was an emerald nearly as big as a
duck's egg projecting from the newly exposed rock. This they carefully
dug out, afterwards proceeding to search among the fallen rock, in which
they eventually found two other very fine stones.
"There!" exclaimed Earle, with a sigh of satisfaction, when at length
they had thoroughly examined and cleared away the fallen rock. "I guess
we've done enough; for we've demonstrated that this is a sure-'nough
mine. See that stuff round the place where we picked out the emerald?
That is calcite, and this rock is a black limestone; all the indications
are, therefore, in favour of this being a genuine emerald mine, which we
can work, if we choose, on our return journey. Now, we'll just dig out
that mass of calcite and carefully cover it up, so that in the
exceedingly unlikely event of any other prospector passing this way,
there will be little or nothing to attract his attention; and to-morrow,
before we resume our march, we will determine the exact position of this
spot by astronomical observations and make a note of it in our diaries,
so that we can find the place again. Meanwhile, we have not done at all
badly this afternoon, for I guess the contents of this knapsack are
worth a good many thousand dollars."
It was nightfall by the time that the explorers got back to their camp,
and they were bone-weary from their extraordinary exertions; but they
had, as recompense, the knowledge that they had left their mine in such
a condition that no mere casual visitor would be in the least likely to
suspect its existence.
Immediately after breakfast on the following morning the party struck
camp and proceeded to climb the cleft. It cost the Indian carriers half
an hour's severe toil to accomplish the ascent, and when at length they
reached the summit they were only too glad to lay down their burdens and
take a rest while the two leaders, with the assistance of their pocket
sextants and Earle's pocket chronometer, determined the position of the
head of the gully. This done, and the calculations worked out and
checked, the march was resumed; the outer edge of the forest through
which their route lay being reached shortly after noon. And when at
length they sat down to their mid-day meal, all hands enjoyed an unusual
luxury; for about an hour before pitching camp, Dick, who chanced to be
leading the way, saw and shot something as it attempted to make off
through the long grass, that something proving to be a strange creature
partaking, in about equal proportions, of the characteristics of a pig
and a deer. Dick, of course, not being a naturalist, was unable to name
the creature, and even Earle declared himself puzzled; but whatever it
may have been, its flesh proved to be exceptionally tender, juicy, and
delicious, and the Indians fairly gorged themselves with it.
The forest into which the party plunged when the march was resumed
proved to be entirely different in character from that which they had
previously traversed. To begin with, the trees were all of new and
strange species, mostly bearing foliage of dark and gloomy tints; they
stood much farther apart; the undergrowth was sparse, or absent
altogether; and there were no orchids, or long, trailing garlands of
lovely parasitic growth which had rendered the forests already traversed
so strangely beautiful. Another peculiarity of the forest was that
scarcely a bird was to be seen, excepting an occasional vulture or
carrion crow perched upon some lightning-blasted stump. Moreover, there
was a strange silence pervading the place, a silence that seemed almost
uncanny, as though insects as well as birds shunned the place.
Altogether, the effect of the silence, the sombre tints of the foliage,
the absence of brilliant-hued blooms, and a certain subtle something in
the atmosphere, was distinctly depressing. There was one redeeming
feature about it, however, which was that the sparseness of the
underbush and the greater space between the trunks of the trees rendered
travelling comparatively easy, and the party made good progress.
As they plunged farther into the depths of the forest, however, they
began to realise that its gloomy aisles were by no means so devoid of
life as they had at first imagined. The first intimation of this fact
came to them in the form of a sudden yell from one of the Indian
carriers, who declared that he had been bitten on the leg by something;
and upon investigation this proved to be the case, for the calf of his
bare leg showed two tiny punctures, not more than one-eighth of an inch
apart, the flesh around which, even as Earle and Dick examined the
wounds, began to swell and turn a curious blue tint, while the injured
man rapidly lost the power of speech and voluntary movements, though his
body began to be shaken by violent tremors.