"And there is nothing hereabout from which we could construct even the
most elementary sort of raft. Besides, before we could put anything
together, even if we had the material, the brute would be gone. See, he
has almost gorged the whole of his prey already."
"I've a mind to try a shot at him--and I will, too," said Earle. "Hi,
there, Peter, bring me my point-three-five Remington and some
cartridges. Hurry, you black angel! Perhaps if the brute is very
savage, and we can attract his attention, or hurt him a bit, he may take
it into his head to attack us. He could jump across the stream a little
lower down, easily enough. Or he may be a swimmer. He looks a good
deal more like a reptile than a beast, anyhow."
Peter, the black cook, came running up at this juncture with the
Remington, and Earle, snatching it from him, quickly adjusted the back
sight and throwing himself prone upon the ground, took careful aim at
the formidable-looking brute, which had ceased to feed and was now
squatting on its haunches, facing toward the two men. A few seconds of
suspense and the rifle flashed, the hum of the bullet was heard, and
then a thud as it struck. Coincident with the thud of the bullet, the
great body sprang high into the air, a loud, blood-curdling scream
pealed out, and then, with a succession of prodigious leaps, it
disappeared among the rank herbage.
The result was a bitter disappointment for Earle, who declared that he
would not move from the spot until he had satisfied himself that it was
impossible to cross to the other side of the water. But, short of
swimming, there was no means of crossing, for there was nothing
wherewith to make a raft of even the most flimsy description. This fact
being at length conclusively established, the march was resumed
immediately after the conclusion of the mid-day meal.
About an hour before sunset that day, they were rather unexpectedly
brought to a halt by finding themselves on a small peninsula of some
five acres in extent, thrusting itself forward into a great lagoon, the
waters of which stretched away on either hand for many miles, while in
the direction toward which they wished to travel, the nearest point of
land was distant about a mile and a half. After surveying their
surroundings for some time, the two leaders agreed that it was too late
in the day to retrace their steps across the narrow isthmus by which
they had arrived and seek some other route; the camp was therefore
pitched on the south-westerly slope of the peninsula, quite close to a
little strip of sandy beach, with a background consisting of a hummock
some fifteen feet high crowned by an extensive clump of strange-looking
shrubs, the nature of which Earle was anxious to investigate.
The day had been overpoweringly hot, the sun blazing down upon them
unintermittently out of a cloudless sky; but now, while the camp was
being pitched, a thin haze began insidiously to overspread the blue,
while away toward the south-west a great bank of slatey blue cloud
appeared above the ridge of the distant hills, working up against the
wind and seeming to portend a thunderstorm.
Now that they had come to a halt, the leaders mutually confessed to a
feeling of great fatigue, while the listless manner in which the Indians
were going about their duties showed that they, too, were longing for an
opportunity to rest their weary limbs. Earle flung himself down upon
the short moss-like turf bordering the strip of beach and gazed
longingly at the rippling waters of the lagoon as they sparkled in the
slanting rays of the declining sun. Unlike the turbid, black and almost
stagnant water in the canals which they had been passing during the
day's march, the tiny wavelets which rippled in upon the adjacent beach
were crystal clear, and gave off the fresh, wholesome smell of pure
water; and when, a little later, Earle rose languidly to his feet, and
advancing a few paces to the water's edge, scooped up a handful of the
liquid and tasted it, he expressed the opinion that it was quite
wholesome enough for drinking purposes.
"And it is deliciously cool, too," he remarked to Dick. "For two pins I
would strip and have a swim."
"Not if I know it, my friend," retorted Dick. "I grant you that the
water looks almost irresistibly tempting, and I have no doubt that a
swim would be amazingly refreshing--if we could only be sure of going in
and coming out again unharmed. But who knows what dangers may be
lurking beneath that sparkling surface? The place may be swarming with
alligators, for aught that we know, and--"
"Why, you surely don't mean to say that you are afraid, Dick?"
"No, I don't," returned Dick, "and if there were any real necessity to
do so, I would not hesitate a moment to plunge in and swim across to the
other side. But when one knows that there is a possibility of being
seized and pulled down by an alligator, I contend that it would be folly
to risk one's life merely for the pleasure of a swim. I once saw a man
seized by a shark. We were becalmed in the Indian Ocean, and the fellow
determined to avail himself of the opportunity to go overboard and
indulge in the luxury of a salt-water bath; so he got a chum to go up
into the foretopmast crosstrees and have a look round. The chum
signalled all clear, and the would-be bather slipped surreptitiously
over the bows, passed along the martingale stays, dropped quietly into
the water, and struck out. And before he had swum three strokes a shark
darted from under the ship's bottom and--that was the end of him. No,
sir--look there! See that swirl? That means something big--an
alligator, or a big fish of some sort, which is as likely as not to be
dangerous. No; no swimming for me--or for you, either, thank you. But
it wouldn't be at all a bad idea to have our portable bath-tubs set up
on the sand, and have a good dip in them."
CHAPTER EIGHT.
A NIGHT ADVENTURE IN THE GREAT SWAMP.
With the setting of the sun, the gentle zephyr of a breeze that had been
blowing all day dropped, and the night fell, close and suffocatingly
hot. A young moon hung low over the western horizon, but the bank of
thunder cloud was rising fast, and by the time that the two friends had
finished their evening meal, the silver sickle of the moon had become
effaced, as had the stars, by the thickening of the veil of haze which
had been gradually over-spreading the heavens.
So close and breathless was the atmosphere that the two friends declared
the interior of the tent to be insupportable, they therefore walked down
to near the inner margin of the beach and flung themselves down upon the
curious moss-like turf, to indulge in their usual after-dinner chat and
watch the gathering of the storm that now seemed inevitable, while Earle
smoked. For a wonder, there were neither flies, mosquitoes, nor midges
on this little peninsula; there was therefore nothing but the excessive
heat and the closeness of the atmosphere to interfere with their
comfort. The Indians were camped on the summit of the mound, grouped as
usual round a small fire, the materials for which they had collected
during the day's march, and were conversing in low tones, while they,
too, smoked. King Cole, who had dined luxuriously and to repletion upon
a big bustard-like bird which Earle had shot an hour or two earlier,
crouched at the feet of his two masters, purring contentedly.
The conversation between the two friends, which was of a desultory and
discursive character, ebbed and flowed in unison with the interest of
the speakers, and was punctuated with many spells of silence while the
two gazed dreamily out across the glass-like surface of the lagoon,
indistinguishable now in the velvet blackness, save when a faint flicker
of sheet lightning momentarily illuminated it. At the beginning the
night was intensely still and silent; there was not even the customary
hum of insects or rolling clatter of frogs to accentuate the silence,
under the influence of which the white men first, and finally the
Indians, fell silent. Then the fatigue consequent upon the day's toil
began to make itself felt, and after a somewhat longer spell of silence
than usual, Earle allowed his body to settle back luxuriously upon the
soft sward and soon gave audible evidence that he was fast asleep,
whereupon Dick promptly followed his companion's example.
Their sleep was, however, destined to be of brief duration. They were
both by this time so thoroughly accustomed to the ordinary nocturnal
sounds of the wild that, although so fully aware of them as to be able
instantly to detect anything unusual in their character, and to start up
awake in a moment if the unusual note seemed to portend danger, they
could still sleep soundly and refreshingly through them all. But the
nocturnal sounds of this particular night were of so startling a
character that sleep soon became an impossibility.
They began with a low, melancholy, distant howl which, while it
penetrated the consciousness of the sleepers, failed to disturb them,
because its remoteness was a guarantee against imminent danger, and
nothing less than imminent danger now had the power to chase sleep from
those seasoned wanderers. Nor were the howls any more effective as
disturbers of the party's rest after several repetitions in varying
keys. But when a weird, unearthly, blood-curdling scream rang out upon
the startled air it awoke the entire party upon the instant, though the
sound seemed to emanate from a considerable distance.
"What the dickens was that?" demanded Dick, sitting up and instinctively
groping for his rifle.
"Give it up," returned Earle. "No, I don't though," he quickly added.
"I guess it's that thing I shot at and wounded during the mid-day halt,
or another of the same species."
"Y-e-s, very possibly," agreed Dick. "Look at King Cole. What is the
matter with him now, I wonder?"
By the declining light of the fire on the summit of the hillock the
panther could be seen, in a half-standing, half-crouching attitude, a
few paces away, staring intently out across the black water, his black
fur all a-bristle, and his body visibly quivering with either excitement
or fear.
"King--King Cole, come here, sir! What's the matter with you, anyway?"
called Earle. And the animal at once turned and crept cowering to the
feet of the pair, his eyes glowing like a pair of green lamps, and his
lips drawn into a silent snarl.
That the weird cry was not repeated in no wise detracted from its
startling character; but although profound silence followed, it did not
remain long unbroken, for a few minutes later there came the sound as of
great wings sweeping hither and thither. And scarcely had this sound
died away when it was succeeded by others--low moans, sighs, whistlings,
grunts, bellowings, rustlings, splashings--some from a considerable
distance, others apparently close at hand; some obviously from the land
to the rear of the party, and others quite as obviously from the water
in their front. And, most disturbing consideration of all, every one of
them was absolutely unfamiliar, therefore in some vague, undefinable
fashion, the more alarming. This effect was quickly made manifest by
the agitated murmurings of the Indians, and the haste with which they
replenished the dying fire, heaping on fuel with such a lavish hand
that, for the space of a few yards all round the blaze, the light was
almost as brilliant as that of day.
"Gee!" exclaimed Earle, as the weird sounds multiplied on all sides,
"what would I not give for a full moon and a clear sky, just now. Bet
your life, Dick, there are some very queer scenes being enacted all
round us at this moment, had we but light to reveal them. I have come
to the conclusion that this swamp is unique in many respects. By some
freak of nature, things here are entirely different from what they are
elsewhere. Even the vegetation is new and strange to me; and I am
convinced that it is also the home of many forms of animal life unknown
elsewhere. The exasperating part of the whole thing is that most of the
creatures inhabiting it seem to be of nocturnal habit, hiding themselves
during the day, and only emerging into the open at night. Just listen
now to the hubbub of sound all about us. Why, the place must be fairly
teeming with life! And, by a perverse combination of circumstances, we
can see nothing of it--Ah! thank goodness, the lightning is becoming
more vivid. I would give a good round sum for a real first-class
thunderstorm; and, by ginks! I believe we are going to have it."
It seemed quite probable, for as though in response to Earle's ardently
expressed desire, a brilliant flash of sheet lightning flickered out of
the now rapidly rising bank of cloud over the distant hills, illumining
the landscape for the fraction of a second, during which a momentary
glimpse was afforded of certain strange forms dotting the waters of the
lagoon; but the illumination was too brief to leave anything more than
the most vague impression of those forms upon the retina of the
observers. The glimpse, however, transient as it was, revealed enough
to stimulate their interest and curiosity to the highest pitch, and the
two friends, with their rifles grasped ready for instant action, sprang
to their feet and stood eagerly awaiting further revelation with the
next flash of lightning, while the Indians, cowering round the roaring
fire on the summit of the knoll, were visibly suffering the extremity of
terror.
Then, while the two friends stood together awaiting the coming of
another lightning flash, with King Cole quivering and shivering at their
feet, a huge shape, elusively revealed in the flickering firelight,
slowly emerged from the intense darkness overshadowing the lagoon,
ponderously splashing through the shallows toward the beach--and toward
the two white men, a pair of enormous eyes, glistening in the uncertain
light of the flames, being all that could be distinctly seen. The
thing--whatever it may have been--was not more than ten yards distant
when first seen, and there was a gleam of such deadly malignancy in
those two glistening eyes, and a suggestion of such implacable purpose
in the ponderous movement of the imperfectly seen bulk, that Earle and
Dick, taken completely unawares by its sudden appearance, incontinently
flung up their rifles and fired, at the precise moment that King Cole,
utterly demoralised by the weird apparition, sprang to his feet and
fled, snarling, to the rear. The two rifles spoke as one, and instantly
following the whip-like reports, the double clap of the bullets was
heard--not a dull sound like that of a bullet striking yielding flesh,
but a sharp crack, suggesting the impingement of lead upon unyielding
bone; there was a frightful bellowing roar, a terrific splash, the spray
of which flew over and far beyond the two white men, and the thing was
gone.
"Well, `shiver my timbers!' as you sailors are supposed to remark,"
exclaimed Earle in tones of ineffable disgust. "If that doesn't beat
the band! Oh, Dick Cavendish--and Wilfrid Earle, you--you twenty-volume
unabridged fools, why on earth couldn't you have waited another two or
three seconds before shootin' and so have made sure of getting the
brute? Kick me, Dick, and I'll kick you, for we both deserve it! It
was the chance of a lifetime, and we flung it away by being over-eager.
I'm ashamed of you, Dick--and a blamed sight more ashamed of myself; for
I am an old hand at this sort of thing, while you are comparatively
fresh at it, and therefore there is some sort of excuse for you, while
there is none for me."
"But we hit him," remonstrated Dick. "What more do you want?"
"Hit him!" retorted Earle, disgustedly. "Of course we hit him; we
couldn't help hitting him. He was as big as a house! But, my gentle
boy, that wasn't enough. We wanted to kill him, so that we might have a
chance to see what he looked like. Hit him! Yes; we hit him on his
skull, and the blows sounded as though his head was encased in five-inch
Harveyized armour plate! If we had waited five seconds longer, we
should have had a good view of him and been able to shoot him through
the heart--if he happens to possess such an organ."
"That's all very fine," retorted Dick. "But I'll bet that if we had
waited the extra five seconds, you would still have aimed to hit him
fair between the eyes--as I did."
"Well--yes, I guess I should," returned Earle, his vexation suddenly
evaporating. "As a matter of fact, that is the precise spot I aimed at.
And as you say that you did also, we will hope that one at least of our
bullets got home, and that to-morrow morning, we shall find him floating
dead out there in the offing waiting to be inspected. Anyway, there is
no sense in crying over spilt milk; and who knows what chances may still
be in store for us. And now, Dick, while your memory is still fresh,
have the goodness to describe to me exactly the impression left upon
your mind by what you saw. Gee! what a time the inhabitants of this
swamp seem to be having. The row is growing worse than ever."
Dick dutifully responded to his friend's request, but alas! his
description amounted to very little more than the bald statement that
the thing struck him as possessing a body about as bulky as an elephant,
standing upon disproportionately short legs; that the eyes were as big
round as dinner-plates; that they glared with a most unholy malevolence;
and that they were spaced about thirty inches apart. These details,
such as they were, corresponded with the impression produced upon Earle,
who forthwith proceeded to jot down the meagre facts in his notebook by
the light of the fire.
Meanwhile the "row," as Earle had observed, seemed to be growing worse
than ever, and it was presently added to by the low mutterings of
distant thunder, the precursor of what threatened to be a thunderstorm
of unusual violence. The flickering of sheet lightning became more
frequent, while occasional flashes of forked lightning emanating from a
point low down upon the south-western horizon, began to light up the
surroundings for a fraction of a second with their transient glare.
Soon low moaning sounds became fitfully audible far aloft, and little
scurrying gusts of hot wind came sweeping across the lagoon, causing the
fire on the knoll to roar and blaze with sudden intensity, while the
sparks flew far inland.
"Stand by the topsail halliards!" remarked Dick, with a grin. "We are
going to have it hot and heavy in a minute or two, or I'm a Dutchman!"
And the words were hardly out of his mouth when, with a shrieking roar,
the tempest swooped down upon them, and they abruptly sat down, to avoid
being swept off their feet, while the blazing embers of the fire,
snatched up by the wind, went whirling far and wide. At the same
instant a flash of blindingly vivid lightning leapt from the zenith and
seemed to strike the waters of the lagoon only a few yards away, while
simultaneously there came a crash of thunder that caused their ears to
ring and tingle, and effectually deafened them for several minutes.
This was the outburst of the storm, which thereafter raged with
indescribable fury for a full hour, the lightning incessantly flashing
all round the little knoll with such dazzling brilliancy that the entire
landscape, almost to its uttermost confines, was nearly as fully
revealed as at noonday, while the thunder crashed and rattled and boomed
with a nerve-shattering violence that effectually drowned all other
sounds. And, to add still further to the weird impressiveness of the
scene, the storm had scarcely been raging ten minutes when the swamp was
seen to be on fire in several places immediately to leeward of the
knoll, the dry herbage having been undoubtedly kindled by the flying
embers and sparks of the fire, which had been completely swept away by
the wind. For the first half-hour of its duration the storm was a dry
one, that is to say, it was unaccompanied by rain; and while the tempest
raged about them Dick and Earle lay prone, side by side, watching the
marvellous scene revealed by the incessant lightning flashes. And Earle
afterwards confided to Dick--and, still later, to many others--that what
he then beheld more than repaid him for all that the entire journey cost
him, not only in money, but also in toil and privation. For although
the flickering of the lightning and its almost blinding vividness were
by no means conducive to accuracy of observation, he saw enough to fully
confirm his previous conviction that the swamp was the habitat of
several forms of life hitherto unknown and unsuspected by naturalists.
True, most of the creatures seen were apparently amphibious, their forms
only partially revealed as they sported or fought in the waters of the
lagoon; but transient glimpses were occasionally caught of others
roaming about the patches of dry ground; while all were too distant for
the watchers to obtain any very clear impression of their shapes and
proportions. Then the wind and the lightning suddenly ceased, pitchy
darkness fell upon the scene, and the rain descended in such a deluge as
is known only to those who have dwelt in the tropics, lasting until
within half-an-hour of sunrise.
The appearance of the sun was hailed with feelings of unqualified
delight by the entire party, for not only did the remaining clouds
vanish with his uprising, but he brought what was, for once, welcome
warmth with him, to the relief of the drenched and thoroughly chilled
occupants of the camp, who had lain exposed for hours to the pitiless
pelting of the rain--Dick and Earle suffering equally with the rest, the
wind having temporarily wrecked their tent. They felt that a hot
breakfast would have been indescribably welcome that morning; but such a
meal was impossible, for the rain had saturated everything and rendered
a fire out of the question; they were consequently obliged to content
themselves with cold viands, which they consumed in haste, for they had
the prospect of a busy day before them.
The problem which confronted them was, how were they to transport
themselves and their belongings across the lagoon? For it was on the
opposite side of it that their road lay, and if they would proceed, only
two alternatives seemed open to them; one to find some means by which
they could ferry themselves across, while the other was to pass round
one or the other of the extremities of the lagoon. And this last meant
the retracing of their steps for a considerable distance, with the
prospect of a long march to follow, the lagoon extending to right and
left as far as the eye could see.
It was at this crisis that Huanami, one of the bearers, a Peruvian
half-breed, came to the rescue with a suggestion. During the march of
the previous day, this man, it appeared, had taken note of vast
quantities of a particular kind of reed growing some three or four miles
back, upon the opposite side of a canal-like watercourse, along the
margin of which the party had been travelling, and he was of opinion
that those reeds could be used in the construction of excellent
_balsas_, if they could only be got at. And he believed that it would
be possible to get at them if the white lords would permit him and two
or three of his comrades to go still further back to a point where, on
the near side of the canal, he had noted a sufficient growth of reeds to
construct a single _balsa_ of a capacity which would enable him to float
himself across the canal to the opposite side, where the reeds were
growing in profusion. The suggestion found immediate favour with the
"white lords," for it appeared to indicate the shortest way out of the
difficulty; and orders were at once given to carry it into effect.
But Earle made one important modification in Huanami's proposal. After
the experiences of the previous day--and, still more, of the past
night--he was not at all disposed to permit two or three unarmed men to
retrace their steps, unaccompanied, with the possibility that they might
be set upon and destroyed by some unknown monster inhabitant of the
swamp; he therefore gave orders for the entire party to countermarch,
and five minutes later they were under way.