less; and the current will be _towards_ the river, as now it is _from_
it."
"Your story appears reasonable enough. I suppose we may trust to it.
If so," added Trevannion, "we had better direct our course towards
yonder tree-tops, and lose no time in getting beyond them. All of you
to your paddles, and pull cheerily. Let us make up for the time we have
lost through the negligence of Tipperary Tom. Pull, my lads, pull!"
At this cheering command the four paddlers rushed to their places; and
the galatea, impelled by their vigorous strokes, once more glided gayly
over the bosom of the waters.
CHAPTER NINE.
AN IMPASSABLE BARRIER.
In a few moments the boat's bow was brought within half a cable's length
of the boughs of the submerged trees. Her crew could see that to
proceed farther, on a direct course, was simply impossible. With equal
reason might they have attempted to hoist her into the air, and leap
over the obstruction that had presented itself before them.
Not only were the branches of the adjoining trees interlocked, but from
one to the other straggled a luxurious growth of creepers, forming a
network so strong and compact that a steamer of a hundred horse-power
would have been safely brought to a stand among its meshes. Of course
no attempt was made to penetrate this impenetrable _chevaux de frise_;
and after a while had been spent in reconnoitring it, Trevannion, guided
by the counsel of the Mundurucu, ordered the galatea to go about, and
proceed along the selvage of the submerged forest. An hour was spent in
paddling. No opening. Another hour similarly employed, and with
similar results!
The river might be in the direction pointed out by the Indian. No doubt
it was; but how were they to reach it? Not a break appeared in all that
long traverse wide enough to admit the passage of a canoe. Even an
arrow could scarce have penetrated among the trees, that extended their
parasite-laden branches beyond the border of the forest! By tacit
consent of the patron, the paddlers rested upon their oars; then plied
them once more; and once more came to a pause.
No opening among the tree-tops; no chance to reach the channel of the
Solimoes. The gloomy day became gloomier, for night was descending over
the Gapo. The crew of the galatea, wearied with many hours of exertion,
ceased paddling. The patron did not oppose them; for his spirit, as
well as theirs, had become subdued by hope long deferred. As upon the
previous night, the craft was moored among the tree-tops, where her
rigging, caught among the creepers, seemed enough to keep her from
drifting away. But very different from that of the preceding night was
the slumber enjoyed by her crew. Amidst the boughs of the sapucaya,
there had been nothing to disturb their tranquillity, save the
occasional shower of nuts, caused by the cracking of the dry shells, and
the monkey-pots discharging their contents. Then was the galatea
"grounded" upon a solitary tree, which carried only its own fruit.
To-night she was moored in the middle of a forest,--at all events upon
its edge,--a forest, not of the earth, nor the air, nor the water, but
of all three,--a forest whose inhabitants might be expected to partake
of a character altogether strange and abnormal. And of such character
were they; for scarce had the galatea become settled among the
tree-tops, when the ears of her crew were assailed by a chorus of
sounds, that with safety might have challenged the choir of Pandemonium.
Two alone remained undismayed,--Richard Trevannion and the Mundurucu.
"Bah!" exclaimed the Paraense, "what are you all frightened at? Don't
you know what it is, uncle?"
"I know what it resembles, boy,--the Devil and his legions let loose
from below. What is it, Dick?"
"Only the howlers. Don't be alarmed, little Rosita!"
The little Peruvian, gaining courage from his words, looked admiringly
on the youth who had called her "little Rosita." Any one could have
told that, from that time forward, Richard Trevannion might have the
power to control the destinies of his cousin.
"The howlers! What are they?" inquired the old miner.
"Monkeys, uncle; nothing more. From the noise they make, one might
suppose they were as big as buffaloes. Nothing of the kind. The
largest I ever saw was hardly as stout as a deerhound, though he could
make as much noise as a whole kennel. They have a sort of a drum in the
throat, that acts as a sound-board. That's what enables them to get up
such a row. I've often heard their concert more than two miles across
country, especially in prospect of an approaching storm. I don't know
if they follow this fashion in the Gapo; but if they do, from the way
they're going it now, we may look out for a trifling tornado."
Notwithstanding the apparent unconcern with which young Trevannion
declared himself, there was something in his manner that arrested the
attention of his uncle. While pronouncing his hypothetical forecast of
a storm, he had turned his glance towards the sky, and kept it fixed
there, as if making something more than a transient observation. The
fog had evaporated, and the moon was now coursing across the heavens,
not against a field of cloudy blue, but in the midst of black, cumulus
clouds, that every now and then shrouded her effulgence. A dweller in
the tropics of the Western hemisphere would have pronounced this sign
the certain forerunner of a storm; and so predicted the young Paraense.
"We'll have the sky upon us within an hour," said he, addressing himself
more especially to his uncle. "We'd better tie the galatea to the
trees. If this be a _hurricane_, and she goes adrift, there's no
knowing where we may bring up. The likeliest place will be in the
bottom of the Gapo."
"The young patron speaks truth," interposed Munday, his eyes all the
while reading the signs of the heavens; "The Mundurucu knows by yonder
yellow sky."
As he spoke, the Indian pointed to a patch of brimstone-coloured clouds,
conspicuous over the tops of the trees. There was no reason why Ralph
Trevannion should not give credit to the two weather-prophets, who could
have no personal motive in thus warning him. He yielded, therefore, to
their solicitation; and in ten minutes more the galatea was secured
among the tree-tops, as fast as cords could make her.
CHAPTER TEN.
A TROPICAL TORNADO.
Notwithstanding the apparently complete security thus obtained for the
craft, the Mundurucu did not seem to be easy in his mind. He had
climbed up the mast to the yard, and, having there poised himself, sat
gazing over the tops of the trees upon the patch of brimstone sky which
was visible in that direction. The others all talked of going to sleep,
except the young Paraense, who counselled them to keep awake. He, too,
like the Mundurucu, was troubled with forebodings. He understood the
weather-signs of the Solimoes, and saw that a storm was portending.
Though the sun had not been visible during the whole day, it was now
about the hour of his setting; and as if the storm had been waiting for
this as a signal, it now boldly broke forth. A few quick puffs, with
short intervals between them, were its precursors. These were soon
followed by gusts, stronger, as well as noisier, in their advent; and
then the wind kept up a continuous roaring among the tops of the trees;
while above the thunder rolled incessantly, filling the firmament with
its terrible voice. Deep darkness and the vivid glare of the
lightning-flashes followed each other in quick succession. At one
moment all was obscure around the crew of the galatea,--the sky, the
trees, the water, even the vessel herself; in the next, everything was
made manifest, to the distance of miles, under a brilliance garish and
unearthly. To add to the unnatural appearance of things, there were
other sounds than those of the thunder or the storm,--the cries of
living creatures, strange and unknown. Birds they might be, or beasts,
or reptiles, or all these, commingling their screams, and other accents
of affright, with the sharp whistling of the wind, the hoarse rumbling
of the thunder, and the continuous crashing of the branches.
The crew of the galatea were on the alert, with awe depicted on every
face. Their fear was lest the craft should be blown away from her
moorings, and carried out into the open water, which was now agitated by
the fury of the storm. Almost under the first lashing of the wind, huge
waves had sprung up, with white crests, that under the electric light
gleamed fiercely along the yellow swell of the turbid water. Their
anxiety was of short continuance; for almost on the instant of its
rising, it became reality. Unfortunately, the tree to which the craft
had been tied was one whose wood was of a soft and succulent nature,--a
species of _melastoma_. Its branches were too brittle to bear the
strain thus unexpectedly put upon them; and almost at the first onset of
the tornado they began to give way, snapping off one after the other in
quick succession. So rapid was the process of detachment, that, before
fresh moorings could be made, the last cord had come away; and the
galatea, like a greyhound loosed from the leash, shot out from among the
tree-tops, and went off in wild career over the waves of the Gapo.
Before any control could be gained over her by her terrified crew, she
had made several cables' length into the open water, and was still
sweeping onward over its seething surface. To turn her head towards the
trees was clearly out of the question. The attempt would have been
idle. Both wind and waves carried her in the opposite direction, to say
nothing of the current, against which she had been already contending.
The crew no longer thought of returning to the tree-tops, out of which
they had been so unceremoniously swept: Their only chance of safety
appeared to be to keep the craft, as well balanced as circumstances
would permit, and run before the wind. Even this for a time seemed but
a doubtful chance. The wind blew, not in regular, uniform direction,
but in short, fitful gusts, as if coming from every point of the
compass; and the waves rolled around them as high as houses. In the
midst of a chopping, purging sea, the galatea tumbled and pitched, now
head, now stern foremost, at times going onward in mad career, and with
headlong speed. The parrots and macaws upon the yard had as much as
their strong claws could do to keep their perch; and the monkeys,
cowering under the shelter of the _toldo_, clung close to its timbers.
Both birds and beasts mingled their terrified cries with the creaking of
the galatea's timbers and the shouts of her crew. The Gapo threatened
to ingulf them. Every moment might be their last! And with this dread
belief, scarce for a moment out of their minds, did our adventurers pass
the remainder of that remarkable night, the galatea galloping onward,
they could not tell whither. All they knew or could remember of that
nocturnal voyage was, that the vessel kept upon her course, piloted only
by the winds and waves,--at times tossing within deep troughs of
turbulent water, at times poised upon the summits of ridge-like swells,
but ever going onward at high speed, seemingly ten knots an hour!
For a long while they saw around them only open water, as of some great
lake or inland sea. At a later hour, the lightning revealed the tops of
submerged trees, such as those they had left behind; but standing out of
the water in clumps or coppices, that appeared like so many islands.
Amidst these they were carried, sometimes so close to the trees as to
give them hopes of being able to grasp their boughs. Once or twice the
rigging of the galatea brushed among the branches; and they used every
effort to stay their runaway craft, and bring her to an anchorage. But
in vain. The storm was stronger than the united strength of the crew.
The twigs clutched with eager hands parted in twain, and the
storm-driven vessel swept on amid the surging waters.
Daylight arrived at length, breaking through a red aurora, soon followed
by a brilliant sunrise. This somewhat cheered our despairing
adventurers. But the tempest was still raging with undiminished fury,
the wind as loud and the waves as high as at any period throughout the
night. Once more they were in the middle of a waste of waters, neither
trees nor land in sight. Another great lake or inland sea? It could
not be that over which they had been already carried? No. The wind was
now blowing more steadily; and could it not have shifted? Even if it
had, they had not returned through the archipelago of tree-top islands.
They were in another opening of the Gapo. Munday was of this opinion,
and that was proof sufficient to satisfy his companions. As we have
said, the returning day did little to restore the confidence of the
galatea's crew. The tornado still continued. Despite the sunlit sky,
the storm showed no signs of abating; and the crazy craft gave tongue in
every timber of her frail frame. The sounds were ominous to the ears of
those who listened to them. It was too evident, that, unless there
should soon come a lull, the galatea would go to the bottom. She had
not been constructed to stand a strain like that to which she had been
thus unexpectedly exposed, and an anchorage either to _terra firma_ or
the tree-tops would soon become necessary to her salvation. Her crew,
convinced of this, were one and all upon the lookout, scanning the
horizon as closely as the crested billows would admit. The Mundurucu
had mounted to the top of the mast, where, with one of the monkeys that
had perched itself on his shoulders, he clung with the tenacity of
despair. All at once he was heard to cry out, the monkey mocking him in
mimic tone.
"What is it, Munday? What do you see?" were the inquiries that reached
him from below.
"Land," was the laconic reply.
"Land!" went up the echo from half a score of joyous voices.
"Maybe not land,--I mean the _terra firma_," pursued the observer, in a
less confident tone. "It may be only the top of a thick forest like
what we tried to penetrate yesterday. Whatever it is, patron, it seems
along the whole edge of the sky. We are drifting towards it, straight
as the wind can carry us."
"Thank God!" exclaimed Trevannion, "anything is better than this. If we
can get once more among the tree-tops, we shall at least be saved from
drowning. Thank God, children. We shall be preserved!"
The Indian descended from the mast, close followed by the monkey, whose
serio-comic countenance seemed to say that he too was satisfied by the
observation just made. Still careering madly onward before the tempest,
the boat soon brought the tree-tops within view, and, after a brief
debate, the conclusion was reached that it was only a submerged forest.
But even this was better than buffeting about on the open billows,--
every moment in danger of being swamped; and with a universal feeling of
joy our adventurers perceived that their craft was drifting toward that
dark line. They were powerless to control her course. Her rudder had
been unshipped during the night, and they could trust only to the
tempest still raging to carry them to the confines of the forest. In
full hope that this would be the result, they took no measures either to
promote or frustrate the steering of the storm.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
THE GALATEA TREED.
Tossed by the tempest, the galatea preserved her course towards the
tree-tops, thus keeping up the spirits and confidence of her crew.
Despite some divergences caused by an occasional contrary gust of wind,
she kept an onward course, in due time arriving within such distance of
the forest, that it was no longer doubtful about her drifting among the
trees. In this there was a prospect of temporary safety at the least,
and our adventurers had begun to congratulate themselves on the
proximity of the event. Just then, a gigantic tree--it must have been
gigantic to stand so high over its fellows, though it could scarce be
fifty feet above the surface of the water--presented itself to their
eyes. It stood solitary and alone, about a quarter of a mile from the
edge of the forest, and as much nearer to the craft, still struggling
through the wind-lashed water. Like that in the top of which they had
first gone aground, it was a sapucaya,--as testified by the huge
pericarps conspicuously suspended from its branches. High as may have
been the inundation, its stem rose still higher, by at least ten feet;
but half-way between the water's surface and the branches, the colossal
trunk forked in twain,--each of the twin scions appearing a trunk of
itself. Through the fork was the water washing at each heave of the
agitated Gapo,--the waves with foaming crests mounting far up towards
the top of the tree, as if aspiring to pluck the ripe fruit depending
from its branches.
Towards this tree the galatea was now going as straight as if she had
been steered by the finger of Destiny itself. There was no other power
to control her,--at least none that was human. The wind, or destiny,--
one of the two,--must determine her fate. The waves perhaps had
something to do with it; since the next that followed lifted the galatea
upon its curling crest, and lodged her in the sapucaya in such a fashion
that her keel, just amidships, rested within the forking of the twin
stems.
"Thank God!" exclaimed her owner, "we are safe now. Moored between two
stanchions like these, neither the winds of heaven nor the waves of the
great ocean itself could prevail against us. Make fast there! Make
fast to the limbs of the tree! Tie her on both sides. These are no
twigs to be snapped asunder. Hurrah! we are anchored at last!"
The gigantic stems of the sapucaya, rising on both sides above the
beam-ends of the galatea, looked like the supporters of a graving-dock.
It is true the craft still floated upon the bosom of a troubled water;
but what of that? Once made fast to the tree, she could not be carried
farther; therefore was she secure against wind and wave. The tornado
might continue, but no longer to be a terror to the crew. These, partly
relieved from their fears, hastened to obey the master's commands.
Ropes were grasped, and, with hands still trembling, were looped around
the stems of the sapucaya. All at once action was suspended by a loud
crash, which was followed by a cry that issued simultaneously from the
lips of all the crew; who, before its echoes could die away among the
branches of the sapucaya, had become separated into two distinct groups!
The crash had been caused by the parting of the galatea's keel, which,
resting in the fork of the tree, had broken amidships, on the subsidence
of the wave that had heaved her into this peculiar position. For a few
seconds the two sections of the partly dissevered craft hung balanced
between the air and the water, the fore-deck with its stores balancing
the quarter with its _toldo_. But long before the beam was kicked, the
occupants of both had forsaken them, and were to be seen, some of them
clinging to the branches of the sapucaya, some struggling beneath
against the storm and the current of the Gapo. By noble devotion on the
part of those who could swim, the whole crew were placed beyond the
reach of the waves upon the branches of the sapucaya, where, from their
elevated position, they beheld the craft that had so long safely carried
them parting in two and sinking out of sight.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
A DANGEROUS DUCKING.
Before the dismembered vessel quite disappeared under the storm-lashed
waves, every individual of her crew had found a foothold upon the
branches of the sapucaya. The tree, while causing the wreck of their
vessel, had saved them from going with her to the bottom of the Gapo.
For some time, however, they were far from feeling secure. They were in
different parts of the tree, scattered all over it, just as they had
been able to lay hold of the limbs and lift themselves above the reach
of the swelling waves. Scarce two of them were in the same attitude.
One stood erect upon a branch with arms around an upright stem; another
sat astride; a third lay along a limb, with one leg dangling downwards.
The young Paraense had taken post upon a stout _lliana_, that threaded
through the branches of the trees, and, with one arm around this and the
other encircling the waist of his cousin, Rosita, he kept both the girl
and himself in a position of perfect security. Young Ralph found
footing on a large limb, while his father stood upon a still larger one
immediately below. The pets, both birds and beasts, had distributed
themselves in their affright, and were seen perched on all parts of the
tree.
For a time there was no attempt made by any one to change his position.
The tornado still continued, and it was just as much as any of them
could do to keep the place already gained. There was one who did not
even succeed in keeping his place, and this was Tipperary Tom. The
Irishman had selected one of the lowest limbs, that stretched
horizontally outward, only a few feet above the surface of the water.
He had not exactly made choice of his perch, but had been flung upon it
by the swelling wave, and, clutching instinctively, had held fast. The
weight of his body, however, had bent the branch downward, and, after
making several fruitless efforts to ascend to the stem, he had
discovered that the feat was too much for him. There was no choice but
to hold on to the bent branch or drop back into the boiling Gapo, that
threatened from below to ingulf him; terrified by the latter
alternative, Tom exerted all his strength, and held on with mouth agape
and eyes astare. Soon the tension would have proved too much for him,
and he must have dropped down into the water. But he was not permitted
to reach this point of exhaustion. A wave similar to that which had
landed him on the limb lifted him off again, launching him out into the
open water.
A cry of consternation came from the tree. All knew that Tipperary Tom
was no swimmer; and with this knowledge they expected to see him sink
like a stone. He did go down, and was for some moments lost to view;
but his carrot-coloured head once more made its appearance above the
surface, and, guided by his loud cries, his situation was easily
discovered. He could only sink a second time to rise no more. Sad were
the anticipations of his companions,--all except one, who had made up
his mind that Tipperary Tom was not yet to die. This was the Mundurucu,
who at the moment was seen precipitating himself from the tree, and then
swimming out in the direction of the drowning man. In less than a score
of seconds he was in the clutch of the Indian, who grasping him with one
hand, with the other struck out for the tree.
By good fortune the swell that had swept Tipperary from his perch, or
one wonderfully like it, came balancing back towards the sapucaya,
bearing both Indian and Irishman upon its crest, landing them in the
great fork where the galatea had gone to pieces, and then retiring
without them! It seemed a piece of sheer good fortune, though no doubt
it was a destiny more than half directed by the arm of the Indian, whose
broad palm appeared to propel them through the water with the power of a
paddle.
To whatever indebted, chance or the prowess of the Mundurucu, certain it
is that Tipperary Tom was rescued from a watery grave in the Gapo; and
on seeing him along with his preserver safe in the fork of the tree, a
general shout of congratulation, in which even the animals took part,
pealed up through the branches, loud enough to be heard above the
swishing of the leaves, the whistling of the wind, and the surging of
the angry waters, that seemed to hiss spitefully at being disappointed
of their prey.
Tom's senses had become somewhat confused by the ducking. Not so much,
however, as to hinder him from perceiving that in the fork, where the
wave had deposited him and his preserver, he was still within reach of
the swelling waters; seeing this, he was not slow to follow the example
of the Mundurucu, who, "swarming" up the stem of the tree, placed
himself in a safe and more elevated position.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
A CONSULTATION IN THE TREE-TOP.