There was no occasion for alarm, the cry only coming from Ebo, who, as
soon as he saw us, began making frantic signs to us to come.
"That means the pigeons are cooked, Nat," said my uncle, laughing; and
this was the case, for, as soon as he saw us, the black came running up
gesticulating and pointing behind him in the direction of the fire,
where the delicious birds were waiting for us to eat.
Those were delightful meals that we had out in the shade of some grand
wide-spreading tree, in whose branches every now and then a parrot would
come shrieking, to be followed by others; and as we ate our dinner so
would they busily find and eat theirs, hanging by their legs, perhaps
head downwards, or perching on one leg and using the other with its soft
clasping yoke toes like a hand to convey the food towards its beak.
I never felt tired of watching the parrots and paroquets, for besides
their beauty of plumage of all kinds of soft tints of green, brightened
with orange and scarlet and blue, they always looked such plump and
delicately feathered birds. I have seen hundreds of them stuffed, and
have admired the bird-mounters' skill, but they never get anywhere near
nature and the soft and downy beauty of a bird in its native state.
The wonder to me was that they could keep themselves so prim, and with
every feather in such perfect order. The paroquets, for instance, had
the central feathers of their tail so long and thin and delicate, that
it seemed that, flitting and climbing about the trees so much, they must
get them broken, but they apparently never did, except when they were
damaged by our shot.
It was the same with the lovely racket-tailed kingfishers and the
fly-catchers, some of which had tails double the length of their own
bodies, and of a delicacy that was beautiful in the extreme.
But I must go back to the rest of our adventures that day, for as soon
as we had dined and had a rest, Uncle Dick signed to Ebo that he should
make a rough hut beneath this tree, ready for our sleeping that night,
and leaving him industriously at work, we started off together to try
and explore a little more of the island.
Going as straight as we could, we were not very long before, from a bit
of a hill, we could see the blue waters of the ocean spreading far and
wide, and soon after we made out the great rollers falling over upon the
sands, which spread right and left, of a dazzling whiteness, being
composed entirely of powdered-up coral and madrepore.
There was no need, my uncle said, to go farther that day, for we had
found out that it was no great distance across the island; the thing now
was to discover its length.
"It seems a foolish thing to do, perhaps, Nat," said my uncle, "but I
should very much like to try a little more exploration to-day. I don't
think we will shoot any more birds, but examine the land instead, so as
to be a little at home with its shape, ready for making a trip here and
there in the future. We shall be able to mark down good spots, too, for
finding specimens in the future."
"But shall you stay here long, uncle?" I asked.
"That I cannot answer, Nat," he replied, as we shouldered our guns and
trudged on. "It all depends upon the number of specimens we find, and
so far it seems to me that we might travel far before we hit again upon
such a wild paradise."
"I wonder how Uncle Joe would like to live here!" I said laughing.
"What a garden he might have, and how things would grow! Oh, how I
should like to help him build the house and get the garden in order!"
"Your Uncle Joe would be happy anywhere, Nat," said my uncle. "He is
one of those contented amiable men who are always at rest; but I'm
afraid your Aunt Sophia would soon find it dull, and be grumbling
because there was no gas, no pavement, no waterworks, no omnibuses, no
cabs, no railroads. No, Nat, my boy, your Aunt Sophia would be
miserable here."
"And yet it is such a lovely place," I cried enthusiastically.
"Everything is so beautiful. Oh! uncle, I could stay here forever."
"No, Nat, you could not," he replied laughing; "but it is very beautiful
all the same. I have travelled a great deal, and have seen some
wonderful scenery, but I have never met with so much beauty condensed in
so small a space."
We kept on walking, but it was only to stop every now and then before
some fresh find--sometimes it would be a curiously-shaped orchid, or a
pitcher-plant half full of dead insects. Then some great forest tree
full of sweet-scented blossoms, and alive with birds and insects, would
arrest our attention; or down in some moist hollow, where a tiny stream
trickled from the rocks, there would be enormous tree-ferns springing up
twelve or fifteen feet above us, and spreading their beautiful fronds
like so much glorious green lace against the sky. A fern is always a
beautiful object, but these tree-ferns were more than beautiful--they
were grand.
The farther we went the more beauties we found, and we kept on noting
down places to visit again where there were palm and other trees full of
fruit, which evidently formed the larder of various kinds of beautiful
birds. We could have shot enough in that walk to have kept us busy
making skins for days, but we kept to the determination my uncle had
made, not to shoot any more that day, except once, when the curious
hoarse cry of some bird of paradise, answered by others at a distance,
tempted us away.
"Birds of paradise are exceptions, Nat," said my uncle, smiling. "We
must get them when we can."
I immediately seemed to see the beautiful bird flying amongst the trees,
with its lovely buff plumes trailing behind like so much live sunshine,
and glancing once at my gun to see that the cartridges were in all
right, I crept cautiously on amongst the trees on one side as Uncle Dick
made a bit of a curve round in another, so that we had a good many great
forest trees between us, whose foliage we carefully watched as we went
cautiously on.
Every now and then, after a silence that made us think that our labour
was all in vain, and we were about to give up, the loud harsh cry would
come echoing from amongst the trees, and always seeming so near that I
thought I must get a shot at the bird in a moment or two, and I bent
down and crept on as quietly as I could, till the tree from which the
sound seemed to come was reached.
Then I would stand ready to fire, watching carefully for a shot, peering
amongst the boughs, and fancying a dozen times over that I could catch
glimpses of the bird amongst the leaves, when, as if laughing at me for
my pains, the cry would come again from a couple of hundred yards away,
and the chase went on.
I did not shout to Uncle Dick, for by stopping to listen now and then I
could hear the rustling of the leaves and twigs as he went on, besides
every now and then catching through the dim light a glimpse of his face.
Once or twice, when a beautiful bird sprang up between us, my heart
began to beat more quickly, for I thought that if uncle was tempted to
shoot at it he might hit me; but by degrees I grew more confident and
walked boldly on, feeling that I had nothing to fear.
That bird must have led us for miles. Every time we were ready to give
up, the hoarse cry rang out again, and we followed once more, feeling
sure that sooner or later we must get a shot at it, or at one of the
others which kept answering from a distance; but at last I heard a
peculiar whistle from where my uncle would be, and I forced my way
through the undergrowth and joined him.
"Nat," he said, wiping the perspiration from his face, "that must have
been a wild-goose instead of a bird of paradise. Have you heard it
lately?"
"No, uncle; not for quite a quarter of an hour. I think it must have
taken a longer flight this time."
"_Yawk, yawk--wok, wok, wok, wok, wok_," rang out close behind us, and
we both fired simultaneously at a faint gleam of what seemed to be
yellow light as it flitted through the glade, running forward to get
beyond the smoke in the hope that we might have hit it.
But even if we had we should not have been able to find it, for in the
eagerness of our pursuit we had come now into one of the densest parts
of the forest that we had found, and after wandering on through a faint
warm glow caused by the setting sun shining through the tree trunks, a
sudden dull greyness had come upon us, followed almost at once by
darkness, and we knew that we were lost.
"I ought to have known better, Nat," said my uncle, with an exclamation
of impatience. "I have not the most remote idea where our camp is, and
Ebo will be expecting us back."
"Oh! never mind, uncle," I said; "let's have a try. I dare say we can
find the way back."
"My dear boy, it would be sheer folly," he replied. "How is it
possible? We are tired out now, and it would be only exhausting
ourselves for nothing, and getting a touch of fever, to go striving on
through the night."
"What are we to do then, uncle?"
"Do, my boy? Do as Adam did, make ourselves as comfortable as we can
beneath a tree. We can do better, for we can cut some wood and leaves
to make ourselves a shelter."
"What, build a hut, uncle?" I said in dismay; for I was now beginning
to find out how tired I really was.
"No; we won't take all that trouble; but what we do we must do quickly.
Come along."
I followed him up a slope to where the ground seemed to be a trifle more
open and the trees larger, and as we forced our way on my uncle drew his
great hunting-knife and chopped down a straight young sapling, which,
upon being topped and trimmed, made a ten-feet pole about as thick as my
arm was then.
This he fixed by resting one end in the fork of a tree and tying the
other to a branch about five feet from the ground.
"Now then, Nat," he cried, "get your big sheath-knife to work and clear
the ground here. Does it seem dry?"
"Yes, uncle, quite," I said.
"Well, then, you chop off plenty of soft twigs and leaves and lay them
thickly for a bed, while I make a roof over it."
We worked with a will, I for my part finding plenty of tree-ferns, whose
fronds did capitally, and Uncle Dick soon had laid sloping against the
pole a sufficiency of leafy branches to form an ample shelter against
the wind and rain should either come.
"So far, so good, Nat," he said; "now are you very hungry?"
"I'm more tired than hungry, uncle," I said.
"Then I think we will light a fire and then have as good a night's rest
as we can."
There was no difficulty in getting plenty of dried wood together, and
after a few failures this began to blaze merrily, lighting up the leaves
of the trees with a rich red glow; and when it was at its height setting
a good many birds flitting about in the strange glow, so that we could
have procured more specimens here. But after sitting talking by the
fire for some time we crept in under our leafy shed, and it seemed to me
that no sooner had I stretched myself out than I fell fast asleep.