WE SEARCH FOR THE VALLEY
At the first sign of light we were off, making to the north until we had
nearly reached the edge of the wood and then following its curves over
the plains toward the west.
In this way we managed to gain a considerable distance northward from
the villages, and although we passed some scattered houses and a few
groups of farmers who were early in the fields, there was no attempt
made to interfere with our progress.
But when we came to the bank of the main river—making the same point
where we had first landed—we found a different condition of affairs
confronting us. Fully a hundred warriors were gathered on the bank,
armed and prepared to receive us. I saw them through our telescope
before they could see us, and we halted at once for a conference.
Nalig-Nad had evidently conceived the notion that in order to leave his
country we would be forced to pass down the river at this point, and
therefore it was here that he had determined to assemble his forces in
order to stop us. He was right in his conclusion that we needed the
waterway to carry us to our ship, but he was wrong in thinking that we
were ready to escape.
The approach to the river was somewhat confined, because the forest was
on one side of us and the high-banked stream entered the river on the
other side, narrowing the plain whereon we could travel to rather a
small space. It would be impossible to proceed without coming into
contact with the band of natives ahead of us.
These warriors seemed intent on watching the river, for they had no idea
that we had altered our course and would come up behind them. Indeed, we
afterward learned that there was a good path around the base of the
hills to the eastward, and had we not been so ignorant of the country we
need not have turned back at all. But here we were, confronting a grave
emergency, and it puzzled us for a time to know what to do.
Duncan solved the difficulty in his own peculiar way.
“Isn’t that a house over there?” he asked, pointing to a roof that
showed above a small hollow.
“It is sure to be,” I answered, and the princess, who was quite at home
in this section, said we were right.
Without more ado Duncan ran the machine over to the house, passing a man
who stood in a field staring at us. As we drew up at the door of the
primitive hut and Moit leaped out of the car, a woman sprang away like a
startled deer carrying a child in her arms and screaming lustily,
although Ilalah called to her not to be afraid.
Duncan entered the house and quickly returned bearing a bow and a sheaf
of arrows in a leathern quiver. His face wore a smile of satisfaction,
but as he rejoined us and started the car again I said to him:
“Do you imagine we can shoot better with that outfit than with our
revolvers?”
“Yes; one shot will be worth a volley from a regiment,” he returned.
I own I was puzzled, but he graciously allowed me to run the car,
although at a moderate speed, so that I had little chance to observe his
immediate actions. I heard him lift the trap in the door, though, and
then, after a period of silence, he touched my arm and told me to stop.
We could now observe with the naked eye the group of Indians on the
river bank.
“Who can make the best shot with this contrivance?” asked Moit.
I turned around and understood his plan at once. To one of the arrows he
had firmly tied the slender glass bottle, and I could see that it had
again been filled with the dreadful explosive.
“I shoot,” said Nux, nodding his head gravely.
Both of the blacks shot splendidly with the bow, I remembered, for it
was their native weapon. But Nux was the best marksman of the two.
Duncan handed the arrow and the bow to him and opened a side window.
“When we get a hundred yards away from the river,” said he, “shoot the
arrow among the San Blas; but try, if you can, to strike one of those
trees growing by the bank. Can you shoot so far, and shoot straight?”
Nux nodded confidently, but held the arrow with great caution and was
evidently afraid of it.
The machine started again and rolled over the thick turf at a great rate
of speed, heading directly toward the river. Soon one of the Indians
discovered us, and gave a cry that turned every face in our direction.
“Now!” shouted Moit, without slackening speed.
Nux drew the bow and the arrow sped swiftly on its mission. The aim was
good, but the bottle so weighted the shaft that I feared for a moment it
would miss the mark. It flew over the heads of the group, in a graceful
curve, and struck a root at the very base of the tree.
The explosion was instantaneous. The tree itself flew skyward and the
air was filled with earth, wood and Indians. I do not know how many of
the San Blas suffered in this catastrophe, but those who were left were
thrown into such dire confusion that they fled in all directions and
many leaped into the river in an endeavor to escape.
Meantime the machine never abated its speed for an instant, although the
ears of all on board were ringing with the shock. We knew that we must
take advantage of our opportunity and the confusion of our foes, so on
we drove until we reached the low, shelving bank, and the next moment
plunged unhesitatingly into the water.
Duncan sprung the paddles on the rims and turned the wheel to guide our
course up stream. Before the Indians could recover we were a good
distance away and had turned the first bend so that we were hidden from
their view.
“Get out the revolvers and stand ready,” said Moit. “They will probably
follow, and we cannot tell how long the water will be of a sufficient
depth to float us.”
But the San Blas decided not to give chase. They had ample evidence, by
this time, that we were dangerous enemies, and since we had chosen to
proceed still farther into their territory instead of trying to leave
it, they would have plenty of time to reorganize their forces and
determine on the best method to oppose us.
We found the stream navigable for several miles. Then we reached the
uplands, and the water began tumbling amongst rocky boulders in a way
that made farther progress dangerous. So we took to the land, gaining
the left bank with ease and then rolling along in a southerly direction.
And now we had occasion to blame the map-maker again, for instead of the
single fork in the stream which he had depicted we found a dozen
branches leading down from the mountains and forming a regular network
on this part of the plain. Several we forded, losing more and more our
sense of location, until finally we came to a high embankment that
barred our way and were forced to follow its course up to the forest,
which we reached about the middle of the afternoon.
The grandeur of this immense woodland, as we approached its border, both
awed and amazed us. The wood we had passed at the north was nothing more
than a grove of trees when compared with the grand primeval forest that
covered the mountain as far as the eye could reach.
We hardly knew whether to turn to the east or west from this point, and
so we asked Ilalah if she had any idea in which direction lay the valley
where the “white pebbles” were found.
She had none at all. The law forbidding the Techlas to gather these
pebbles was passed by the king her father years ago, when she was but a
child. No one had ever mentioned in her hearing where they had been
found.
Fairly bewildered as to our whereabouts, by this time, we turned to the
left and, easily fording now the shallow streams we encountered, visited
several valleys without having a notion whether any of them was the one
we sought, or not.
Finally I said to the princess:
“The place we seek has a great rock of red granite stone in the center,
and a part of the rock points like an arm directly at the forest.”
“Oh, yes!” she exclaimed; “that place I remember well, for I have
visited it often as a girl.”
Here was cheering news, indeed.
“Is it near here?” asked Duncan.
“It is far to the right,” she answered, after some thought. “We should
not have come in this direction at all.”
Blaming ourselves for our stupidity in not questioning the girl about
this land-mark before, we turned the machine again and began to double
on our tracks.
“This means spending another night in the wilderness,” said Moit; but he
spoke with unusual cheerfulness, and I reflected that as long as Ilalah
was by his side our inventor was not likely to complain of the length of
this trip.
“But there seem to be no Indians in this neighborhood to annoy us,” I
observed. “Do you know, Duncan, I believe that your invention of the
glycerine explosive is almost as important as the machine itself?”
“Oh, it has helped us nicely in two emergencies, so far,” he answered
soberly; “but I hope we shall not be called upon to use it again. It is
so powerful that it frightens me. Every time I handle it I place all of
us in as much danger as I do our enemies, for a premature explosion is
not unlikely to happen. Especially is this true in so hot a climate as
the one we are now travelling in. The can that contains the glyceroid
was quite warm when I filled that bottle to-day, and this condition adds
to its tendency to explode.”
It made me a little uneasy to hear this.
“Doesn’t it require a jar to set it off?” I asked.
“Almost always. And there is less chance of a jar to the can if we leave
it alone.”
We finally reached the place where we had first arrived at the forest,
and fording the stream, which was shallow as it came from the wood,
continued our search to the westward. The country was very beautiful
around here, and when I asked Ilalah why it was not more thickly settled
she said that the forest was full of terrible beasts and serpents, which
attacked men fearlessly and destroyed them. So few cared to live in the
neighborhood.
We were not afraid, though, with the protection of the car, and when the
princess recognized, just at dark, a familiar landmark, and assured us
the valley we sought was not far distant, we decided to make our camp
where we were and await the morning to complete our quest.
The temperature cooled rapidly in the shade of the forest, and we were
now in the uplands, too, where the day was never as sultry as on the
lower plains; so we thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
Ilalah sang sweetly some of her native songs, and Nux and Bry favored us
with a duet that they had learned in their own far away island home. So
we were merry enough until bedtime, and then, the Sulus being appointed
to keep watch, the rest of us turned in and slept fairly well until
morning, despite the sound of an occasional wild beast prowling around
our glass-covered retreat.