asleep; but Cyril knew better, for he saw in the dim glow shed by the
fire, a slight tightening of the man's hand upon his bow.
"They're asleep," whispered Perry. "Better come to my father."
"Asleep with one eye open, and on the watch," said Cyril quietly, and he
bent down and whispered a few words.
They were electric in their effect, for both men raised their heads, and
their eyes glittered in the faint light from the fire.
"Didn't take much waking," said Cyril, with a little laugh. Then
turning to Diego, he said, in the man's half-Spanish jargon:
"Why are the Indians on the watch all round here?"
The man looked at the speaker intently.
"Are the Indians watching all round?" he said quietly.
"You know they are. Why is it? To keep us from going away?"
The man looked at him intently, and then nodded his head.
"And suppose we try to go away, what then? Would they fight?"
"Yes," said the guide gravely.
"And try to kill us?"
"Yes, they would kill you."
"Try to, you mean."
"No," said the man gravely. "Kill you. You are few, they are many."
"Stop a moment," said Cyril, as the man turned his head aside wearily.
"Will they try to kill us if we stay?"
"No."
Cyril tried to get more information from the man, but he shook his head,
and made a pretence of being so lazy and unable to comprehend the boy's
words, that Cyril gave up in disgust, and turned impatiently away.
"It's of no good to-night," he said. "We heard all that he is likely to
know. Let's walk round again."
"But they may strike at us in the dark."
"No, they will not do that. I'm not afraid. Let's go through with our
watching, till we think it's midnight, and then wake up the colonel."
"We'd better call him now."
"No; if we did, it would only be giving a false alarm, when we know that
there is no danger. Come along."
The weaker mind yielded to the stronger, and the march round was begun
again, one which required no little courage, knowing, as the boys did,
that there must be quite a dozen Indians within striking distance, and
every rustle they heard, made probably by one of the grazing mules,
might be caused by an enemy creeping forward to strike a blow.
At last, when they felt that it must be getting toward midnight, Cyril
proposed that they should go back close to where the colonel lay asleep,
and they had not been standing near him ten minutes, hesitating to call
him for fear he should be awakened too soon, when he suddenly made a
hasty movement, opened his eyes, looked round, and sprang to his feet.
"Midnight, boys," he said, "is it not?"
"We don't know, father, and did not like to call you too soon."
"Yes, it must be about midnight," he said decisively, "or I should not
have woke up. Well, is all right?"
"No, father," whispered Perry.
"Oh yes; there's nothing to mind," said Cyril hastily. "We only found
that there are a lot of Indians round about the camp."
"You saw them?"
"Yes, sir. So soon as we moved a little way, a man rose up and stopped
us."
"On one side?" said the colonel.
"All round, sir."
"On guard, then, in case we wished to escape. We're prisoners, my lad,
for the present. However, they will not venture to hurt us, unless we
give them good reason, by loading up the mules to take away something
they consider ought to be kept here, and that we shall not be ready to
do for some days to come."
"That's what I wanted Perry to feel sir," said Cyril, "but he would have
it that they were going to attack us to-night."
"There is no fear of that, my boy," said the colonel firmly. "There,
lie down, and sleep till breakfast-time; there is nothing to fear."
"But are you going to watch alone, sir?"
"Yes, quite alone, my lad," said the colonel, smiling. "There, take my
place; I'm rested now, and you have nothing to mind. Don't meet perils
half-way; its bad enough when they come. Till they do, it is our duty
to be patient and watch. Afterwards we must fight--if it is necessary.
Now--to bed."
The boys obeyed, and the colonel commenced his solitary watch.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
COLLECTING THE GOLD.
"Ever see 'em ketch eels at home, Master Cyril?" said John Manning one
morning.
"We used to set night lines in the lake at school," said Cyril. "We
threw the bait out ever so far, and tied the other end to a brick sunk
in the water."
"Oh yes: but I don't mean that way, where every twopenny eel spoils four
pen'orth o' good line and hooks. I mean with an eel-trap, one of those
made of osiers, so that it's very easy to get in, but very hard to get
out."
"Yes; I saw some of those once," cried Perry, "up by a weir. But why?
There are no eels here."
John Manning chuckled, and shook all over, as if he enjoyed what he was
saying.
"Not many, sir, but quite enough. We're the eels, and we've wriggled
ourselves right into a trap, and there's no getting out again."
"It doesn't seem as if there were," said Cyril thoughtfully; "but we're
getting what the colonel wanted, and I don't think the Indians have
noticed it yet."
"'Tain't for want of looking, sir," said the old soldier. "I go for a
bit of a walk in one direction, and begin picking something, and feel a
tickling about the back. `Some one's eyes on me,' I says to myself, and
I go a bit farther, and feel the same tickling in front. Then one side,
then t'other, and it's always eyes watching."
"Yes," said Perry. "We've been a week here, and I get so sick of it: I
never move without there being some one after me; and the worst of it
is, you don't see him coming, but find him watching you from behind a
rock, or out of a bush."
"Yes," said Cyril, "it isn't nice. They crawl about like snakes, and
almost as quietly."
"Don't matter," said John Manning, with another chuckle. "We can be as
cunning as they. How have you young gents got on since the colonel give
his orders?"
"Pretty well," said Cyril. "Of course it's of no use to try and get
roots or cuttings, they look too sharp after us; but I've found some
seed, and he has got more than I have."
"How much have you got, both of you together?" asked the old soldier,
with his eyes twinkling.
"Nearly a handful, I should say," replied Cyril.
"A handful, sir! Why, what's that? I've got quite half a gallon."
"You have?" cried Perry. "Father will be so pleased."
"Course he will, sir," said John Manning, with a self-satisfied smile.
"`Get every seed you can,' he says, `and they'll hardly notice you.'
"`Right, sir,' I says, and I set to work quietly, going a bit here, and
a bit there, in among the trees, making believe I was making for them
cocoa-nut leaves as the Indians chew; and whenever I caught one of the
Injuns watching me, I picked a leaf, and began to chew it, and nodded at
him, and said _bono, bono_. You should have seen how he grinned and
showed his teeth at me, Master Cyril, and I could see he was thinking
what a fool this Englishman was. But I wasn't quite so stupid as he
thought, eh?"
"But that's not cocoa-nut leaf," said Cyril, "but the leaf of the coca."
"Well, sir, that's what I say. I know it isn't the nuts but the leaves
they chew."
"But the coca leaf's a different thing."
"Course it is, sir; one's a leaf and t'other's a nut."
"But, don't you see, cocoa-nut leaf and coca leaf are different things?"
"No, sir; but it don't matter. They think I'm hunting for them leaves
to chew, and they laugh at me, and all the time I'm getting a good heap
of the seeds the colonel wants. 'Tain't the first time he's sent me to
forage."
"But where are the seeds?" said Cyril.
"All right, sir," said John Manning, with a look full of cunning.
"Never you put all your eggs in one basket, sir."
"Of course not; but I hope you've put them in a dry place. Seeds are no
use if they're not kept dry."
"They're all right, sir. I've got some in each of my pockets, and some
along with my cartridges in my satchel, and some inside the lining of my
coat, and a lot more round my waist."
"Round your waist?" cried Cyril. "You can't wear seeds round your
waist."
John Manning chuckled once more.
"Can, if you put 'em in an old stocking first, sir," he said. "But look
here, young gents, as I'm so much more lucky than you are, and know
better where to go for 'em, you'd better take part o' mine, and leave me
free to fill up again."
"Yes, that will be best," assented Perry. "I can take a lot in my
pockets."
"Any one looking, sir?"
"Very likely; but I shall take no notice. They won't know what we're
changing from one pocket to the other, so let them watch."
"All right, sir; then here goes," said the old soldier, thrusting a hand
deep down into his trousers pocket, and drawing out a quantity of seed.
"Here you are, sir; and I'd make believe to eat a bit in case any one is
watching."
But as they were seated out of the sun, in the shade of the rough hut
that had originally been put up for drying the kina bark, they were
pretty well hidden from watchers, and able to carry on the transfer in
comparative secrecy.
"But this isn't seed of the cinchona tree," cried Cyril excitedly.
"What!" said the old soldier sharply, and as if startled. Then altering
his tone to one of easy confidence, with a dash of the supercilious.
"Don't you talk about what you can't understand, sir. These here are
what the colonel showed me, and told me to pick for him."
"They're not the same as my father told me to pick," cried Perry.
"Well, seeing as you're young gents, and I'm only a sarvant," grumbled
the man, "it ain't for me to contradict, and I won't; but I will say
them's the seeds the colonel told me to pick, and there they are, and
you'd better put 'em away."
"I'm not going to put these in my pocket," said Cyril, "for I know
they're wrong."
"And I certainly shan't put them in mine," said Perry.
"Look here, young gents, ain't this a bit mutinous?" said John Manning.
"Colonel's orders were that we should collect them seeds, and if you'd
got the best lot, I should have helped you; but as you haven't got the
best lot, and I have, ain't it your duty to help me?"
"Yes; and so we should, if you hadn't made a blunder."
"But I ain't, young gents; these here are right."
"No," said Perry. "These are right," and he took a few seeds from his
pocket.
"And these," said Cyril, following his companion's example.
"Not they," cried John Manning warmly. "They ain't a bit like mine."
"No, not a bit," said Cyril triumphantly.
"No, nor his ain't like yours, Master Perry."
The boys stared, for this was a new phase of the question, and they
eagerly inspected the treasures.
"I'm sure I'm right," said Perry confidently.
"And I'm sure I'm right," cried Cyril.
John Manning put his arms round his knees, as he sat on the ground, and
rocked himself to and fro, chuckling softly.
At that point the colonel came up, and looked round wonderingly.
"You're just in time, father," cried Perry. "Look at this seed John
Manning has collected.--Show him, John."
The old soldier triumphantly pulled out a handful, and held it under the
colonel's nose.
"What's that?" said his master.
"The seed you told me to forage for, sir."
"Absurd! There: throw it away."
"Throw it away, sir?"
"Of course. It is not what I told you. There, take and throw it away,
where the Indians see you do it, and they will pay less attention next
time they see you collecting."
John Manning said nothing then, but went out of the slight hut frowning,
came back, and the colonel turned to the boys.
"Well," he said, "what have you got?"
They both eagerly showed a little of the seed, and the colonel uttered
an ejaculation full of impatience.
"No, no," he said; "pray be careful. That is not the same as you got
for me the day before yesterday."
"Not mine?" cried Perry.
"No, sir; nor yours either, Cyril. They are both cinchona, but of the
inferior, comparatively useless kinds."
John Manning chuckled.
"But the seeds are so much alike, sir," said Cyril.
"Yes, but the broken capsules with them are not, boy. The good splits
down one way, the inferior the other. There, I suppose I must give you
all another lesson. Come and have a walk at once."
He led the way out, all taking their guns, in the hope of getting a
little fresh provision, as well as to throw off the attention of the
Indians, who smiled at them pleasantly enough, as they looked up from
their tasks of cutting and peeling the bark from the trunks and
branches, most of the men with their jaws working, as they chewed away
at the coca leaf, which every one seemed to carry in a little pouch
attached to the waist.
No one seemed to pay further heed to them, but they were soon conscious
that they were being watched, for an Indian was visible, when they went
past the spot where their two guides were watching the browsing mules;
and then, as they plunged into the forest, from time to time there was
an indication that they were being well guarded, and that any attempt at
evasion would result in an alarm being spread at once.
Once well out among the trees, the colonel began picking leaf and flower
indiscriminately, to take off the watcher's attention; but he contrived,
at the same time, to rivet the boys' attention upon the flower and seed
of the most valuable of the cinchona trees, indicating the colour of the
blossom, and the peculiarities of the seed-vessels, till even John
Manning declared himself perfect.
"Seeds only," said the colonel. "I give up all thought of trying to
take plants. We must depend upon the seeds alone, and we ought to get a
good collection before we have done."
"And then, father?" asked Perry.
"Then we go back as fast as we can, if--"
"If what?" asked Perry.
"The Indians will let us depart."
"That's it, sir," put in John Manning. "What I was saying to the young
gentleman this morning. They don't mean to let us go. We've regularly
walked into a trap."
There was silence for a few moments, the colonel frowning, as if
resenting the interference of his servant, but directly after he said
quietly:
"I'm afraid you are right, John Manning, but we must set our wits
against theirs. In another week we shall have quite sufficient of the
treasured seed to satisfy me--that is, if you three are more careful--
then we must start back, before our stores begin to fail."
"What about the guides, sir?" said Cyril. "They will not help us."
"No," said the colonel. "Not the Indian guides, but I have a little
English guide here, upon which we shall have to depend. There must be
other passes through the mountains, and we know that our course is due
west. We shall have to trust to this."
He held out a little pocket-compass as he spoke, and then, after they
had added somewhat to the store of seed already collected, both boys
this time making the proper selection of tree from which to gather the
reproductive seeds, they walked slowly back toward the camp.
But not alone: the Indians who had followed them outward, returning
slowly behind them, carefully keeping far in the background, and trying
to conceal the fact that they were on the watch; but it was only too
plain to all that it would require a great deal of ingenuity to escape
notice and get a fair start when the time came for making their escape.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
PREPARING FOR FLIGHT.
"I say, Cil, I don't quite know what to make of it," said Perry, a few
days later. "These people are as civil and amiable as can be; they
surely won't try to stop us when we want to go?"
"You wait and see," was the reply. "They will. I know them better than
you do."
"But they don't think we have got anything to take away."
"Perhaps not; but they will think that as soon as we are out of their
sight we shall be searching for and taking something away that they want
to preserve, and if we do get away unseen, they will be after us
directly."
"Well, we shall soon see," said Perry rather gloomily, as he sat gazing
down into a deep valley running due south, in whose depths a bright
gleam here and there told of the presence of water.
"Yes, we shall soon know now. Your father and John Manning have been
carefully examining the mules, and going over the stores and packages."
"Have they? I didn't know."
"I did, and then they came out here and sat for some time over their
guns."
"On the lookout for birds?"
"On the lookout to see if this way would do for us to escape."
Perry whistled.
"Did they tell you so?"
"No; but I put that and that together."
"Put why go this way? This does not lead over the mountains."
"Because the Indians will not think we should choose this route."
"But we couldn't get over the mountains from down there."
"We must," said Cyril quietly.
"But," said Perry, "we can't get the mules and their loads away without
Diego knowing."
"Must again," replied Cyril. "We can't escape without a supply of food,
and we must have the mules to carry it, for we may be weeks wandering
about in the gorges of the mountains. So it's must, must, must, my lad.
We've got it to do, and we're going to do it."
"I say."
"Well--what?"
"Do you think it will come to a fight?"
"Not if your father can help it; but if it does, we shall have to do
some shooting."
Perry drew his breath hard.
"Don't stare down the valley any more," said Cyril, after a pause.
"Why? It's very beautiful."
"Because you're watched. We're watched always, sleeping or waking."
"Then we shall never be able to get away," said Perry despondently.
"Must, my lad. Why, we're not going to let a pack of half-savage
Indians prove too clever for us. What are you thinking about? There,
let's get back at once, or they'll be thinking we mean something by
sitting here."
Perry rose and followed his companion, who made several halts in the
forest before they reached the shelter-hut, to find the colonel and John
Manning away; but they returned soon after, each carrying a couple of
good-sized birds, which gave a colour to their morning's walk.
This game John Manning bore off to prepare by the fire which Diego and
his companion kept going night and day; and as soon as he had gone, the
colonel seated himself, and looked curiously from one boy to the other.
"Well Cyril," he said sharply, "ready to go home and meet your father?"
"Yes, sir," replied the boy promptly. "I want to get it over."
"And you, Perry, ready to go back to where you can sleep in a decent bed
again?"
"Yes, father," replied Perry; but there was a dubious tone to his words.
"That's right. Listen, then, both of you. I trust to you to make no
sign whatever, but to go on precisely the same as usual, so as to keep
the Indians in ignorance of our intentions."
"Then you are going to make a start, sir?" said Cyril eagerly.
"All being well, very soon, my lad."
"But the mules, sir?"
"Ah, we shall see about that," said the colonel. "I have now got
together quite as much of the seed as I dared to hope for, and it would
be foolish to delay longer. These Indian labourers are only working for
somebody of importance, and if whoever he may be comes and finds us
here, our position may be made very unpleasant, so I have decided for us
to start at dark, to-morrow evening."
This announcement caused a peculiar fluttering in the breasts of both
lads, for they felt that they would not be able to get away without a
struggle, since that they were detained here until some one in authority
arrived, seemed certain; and they well understood how necessary it was
for them to get away if possible.
The rest of the day passed like a feverish dream to Cyril, whose
thoughts were of a very mingled nature. On the one hand, there was the
risk to be run in making their escape, and the long perilous journey
before them; on the other hand, there was home at San Geronimo, and his
father's stern face rose before him, full of reproach for his conduct;
and now, more than ever, he asked himself how he could have been so mad
and so cruel to those who loved him, as to leave in the way he had.
Too late for repentance then, as he knew, and he had to face the
inevitable, and take the punishment he deserved as patiently as he
could.
Toward dark the boys found themselves alone with John Manning, who
whispered: "Been over the arms and ammunition, gentlemen, and they're in
splendid order. Bit touched with rust, but that won't interfere with
their shooting."
"Don't talk about it," said Perry petulantly.
"Can't help it, sir. We're off to-morrow night, and some of us may have
to cover the retreat. You can't do that sort o' work without tools."
"Look here," said Cyril eagerly. "How about the mules?"
"I don't know, sir," replied the old soldier. "That's the puzzle of it.
But the colonel knows what he means to do, of course. I've been with
him before, when he was going to make an advance."
"But this is a retreat," said Cyril sharply.
"What, sir? Retreat? British soldiers don't retreat. Of course they
have to make an advance the other way on sometimes. You can't always be
going in one direction; but they don't retreat. It'll be all right,
though, sir. You'll see: for following orders, I've got all the packs
ready to stow on the saddles at a moment's notice, and we shan't leave
nothing behind."
They had a hint soon after of there being a plan all ready, for the
colonel came and hunted Cyril out to act as interpreter, and walked down
with him to where Diego and his companion were seated, while the mules
were browsing here and there, some fifty yards away.
"Now, interpret as well as you can," said the colonel. "Tell him that I
am very angry about the state of the mules, which look half-starved.
The feed about here is disgraceful, and all the time there is a splendid
supply on the other side of the clearing, beyond where the Indians are
cutting and stacking the bark."
Cyril's voice shook a little from anxiety as he began his
interpretation, but it soon grew stronger, and he gave the colonel's
wishes with so much energy that the guide looked terribly disturbed as
he replied.
"What does he say?" cried the colonel angrily.
"That the head-man of the kina gatherers gave orders that they were to
be pastured here."
"Then tell him to go to the head-man, and say I order them to be moved
at once over to the other side of the huts, ready for me when I wish to
go on."
Diego started off at once, and returned soon after with the head-man and
about a dozen of the Indians, to whom the colonel's wishes were
repeated; and then came quite a deprecating reply that it was
impossible, for the woodcutters were going in that direction the very
next day, and the mules would be disturbed again.
"Tell him my mules are of more consequence than his bark gatherers,"
said the colonel, "and that I insist upon the mules being moved."
There was a laboured interpretation, a short buzz of conversation, and
then a reply came through Diego that the head-man would obey the white
chief's orders, and remove the mules to better pasture; but it could not
be there, in the place he wished.
"Tell him anywhere, so long as the poor beasts are properly fed."
The colonel stalked away, with his rifle in the hollow of his arm, the
Indians giving place obsequiously; but he turned back to Cyril. "Tell
John Manning to stop and see where they are driven, and then come and
report to me.--You two follow."
Cyril gave the colonel's orders, and then went after him to the hut,
where they sat waiting for nearly an hour before Manning arrived.
"Well, where are the mules?"
"They've driven 'em out of the bit of forest, sir, and down on the other
side toward the slope of that big valley."
"Hah!" ejaculated the colonel; and then, after a pause, "The very spot."
"But you said the other side," said Cyril; "at the back of their huts."
"Where I knew they would not have them," said the colonel. "It looked
to them, in their childish cunning, like an attempt on my part to get
the animals down toward the point from which we came; and, of course,
they would not do that. I hardly expected such good fortune, boys; but
the mules are in the very place I wish. Now we have to devise a means
of getting those mules loaded unseen, and then starting off down the
valley as soon after dark to-morrow night as possible."
A long conversation followed as to those best means, and the colonel
heard each one's proposal impatiently.
Perry said it was impossible, and that they must all take as much
provision as they could carry, and leave the mules behind.
John Manning said there was only one way of doing it, and that was for
him to take the stock off one of the guns, and as soon as it was dusk
creep round the camp, and catch every one of the sentries by surprise,
and then club him, and bind his hands and feet.
"I could stun 'em, sir, and then they couldn't give no alarm."
"You mean, murder the poor wretches," said the colonel quietly.
"No, no, sir; not so bad as that," grumbled the man. "These Injuns have
got heads as thick as rams. More likely to spoil the gun."