"Ah! you may hyste your shoulders till you skretches your ears with
them, Mas'r Harry; but that don't make no better of it. I promised your
mother as I'd take care of you and stick to you; but how am I to do that
if you get yourself spoiled somehow or other? But, say, Mas'r Harry,
was it such a werry big un?"
"Was what a very big one?" I said wonderingly.
"Why, the sarpint--it might have been a sea-sarpint, for nobody seemed
to believe in it."
"Yes," I said moodily, "an enormous beast."
"And he got it pretty hot from the tiger thing?"
"You saw the blood about, and now hold your tongue."
"But I ain't done yet, Mas'r Harry," said Tom eagerly. "That there Don
wouldn't believe in it, and we knowed that it went into that brake.
What do you say to going up to the house, getting the guns, and then
shooting the beast and skinning him; so as to show them that English
lads don't go bouncing and swelling about without they've got something
to bounce and swell about?"
There was something in Tom's project that interested me, and I turned to
him with eagerness. Adventure--something to prove that I had been no
boaster, something to divert the current of my thoughts; it was the very
thing, but I said gloomily the next minute:
"We should be too late, Tom; the beast must have taken to the river."
"All wounded beasts make to the water, Mas'r Harry," said Tom; "but we
don't know that we should be too late. What I say is--Let's try."
"Come along then," I cried.
We walked up to the hacienda, encountering Garcia on the portal, ready
to bestow upon us both a sneering grin as we again issued forth, each
carrying a double gun loaded with buck-shot.
I don't think we, either of us, stopped to consider whether it was
prudent to run the risk before us, with a very problematic chance of
success; but hurrying back regardless of the sun, we soon stood once
more by the fallen tree, and began to follow the beaten track left by
the contending enemies till we reached the great brake by the
river-side, when for the first time we turned and looked at each other.
"Oh! it's all right, Mas'r Harry," said Tom; "and if he's in here we'll
soon rouse him out." For it was evident that he had interpreted the
doubt that had found a home in my mind.
"You think it will be here still?" I said.
"Sartain, Mas'r Harry; and--hist! don't speak above a whisper. He's in
there, sure enough; for look yonder at those monkeys, they ain't
chattering and swinging about there for nothing."
In effect a family of monkeys were aloft howling and making a deafening
din, and I could not help thinking with Tom that it meant the presence
of enemies.
"Look out!" I shouted the next minute to Tom; for a huge crocodile that
we had passed unseen, sleeping amongst the dank herbage, had apparently
awakened to the belief that we were trying to cut off its retreat and
charging down straight at Tom in order to reach the river, it was only
by a grand display of activity that might have been learned of the
monkeys above us that he avoided the onslaught, and the next minute the
hideous reptile had disappeared from sight; but we could hear its
rustling onward progress, followed by a heavy splash, one or two ominous
growls, and the increased activity of the monkeys, showing that our
ideas with respect to these latter were not without basis.
"I tell you what, Mas'r Harry," said Tom, as he stood mopping the
perspiration from his face, "them ugly beasts have got a spite against
me, I know they have; and if I'm lost, mind this, I'm swallowed down by
one of them crocks, I know I am, so mind that; and if you do go home
without me tell Sally Smith that I was swallowed by a crockeydile, and
all for love of she. Now, Mas'r Harry, I'm ready if you are? Let's
both keep together, tread softly, and take good steady aim before we
fire; for this ain't like putting a handful of oats in the snow in our
yard and then shooting at cock-sparrers. If we hit what we've come
after, mind 'twill be something to put in the bag!"
I was now as excited as Tom, and together we stepped slowly on through
the dense brake, parting the heavy growth with the barrels of our guns
as we trod lightly over the swampy ground, which sent up a hot,
stifling, steamy exhalation.
Yard after yard we pressed on, watchful ever; but though the track was
plain enough, the elastic water grasses had sprung back so as to
thoroughly impede our view, and we knew that at any moment we might be
ready to plant our feet upon the wounded monster that we sought.
Twice over little alligators went scuttling from beneath our feet, at
the last time drawing forth an ejaculation from Tom, and then we stopped
short with our guns at our shoulders; for Tom's utterance was followed
by a warning shriek from the monkeys, and then, as that ceased, came a
low, fierce, snarling growl from apparently just in front.
"What shall we do?" I thought.
For a moment I felt disposed to try and get round some other way, but
the slightest movement now was sufficient to bring forth a growl from
our invisible enemy; and it was very plain that we had tracked the
jaguar to his lair while the boa had escaped.
To have retreated would have been to bring it down upon us; so after a
glance at Tom's resolute face I made a sign and we took a step in
advance.
Only one; we had time for no more, for with a savage yell the jaguar
bounded right at Tom from the opening; we just obtained a glimpse of it,
and it was like firing at a streak of something brown passing rapidly
through the air, but fire I did, both barrels almost simultaneously; and
the next moment Tom was knocked down and the jaguar had disappeared
amongst the reeds we had but just passed.
"Are you hurt, Tom?" I cried anxiously, as I stooped to secure his
undischarged gun.
"Hurt!" he exclaimed angrily; "of course I am! Just as if you could
have one of them great cats fly at you and knock you over without being
hurt! But I ain't killed, Mas'r Harry," he said, rising and shaking
himself. "`Them as is born to be hanged won't never be drowned,' and
them as is born to be swallowed by crocks won't never be torn to pieces
by wild cats. Look out, Mas'r Harry! Give it him again!"
At that moment, snarling and lashing its tail from side to side as it
showed us its white teeth, the jaguar now crept back, cat-like, on its
belly, as if about to spring, when, with the best aim I could, I gave it
both barrels of Tom's gun, and with a convulsive bound the brute rolled
over, dead.
"That's hotter than the country, Mas'r Harry!" said Tom. "But we killed
him, anyhow; so load up. But, my! Mas'r Harry, what a beauty! And did
you see when he showed his teeth?--he was the very image of the Don!"
I did not reply to Tom's remarks; but as I reloaded I could not help
admiring the glossy, spotted coat of the great beast I had just slain--a
brute whose activity and power must have been immense.
But we had not performed the task we had come to complete. This was
something upon which I had not counted; and now, though quite satisfied
in my own mind that the serpent had escaped, we left our conquered
assailant and once more began cautiously to pursue the track with guns
pointed in advance, but without the expectation of a fresh assault,
when, as if determined to be first this time, Tom suddenly fired at an
upraised, threatening head, and it fell upon the monstrous, helpless,
writhing coils of the immense serpent.
For it was evident that here the reptile had become too exhausted to
continue its retreat, and Tom had administered the _coup de grace_.
It was almost an unnecessary shot, for the jaguar had terribly mangled
the serpent, which was half-torn and bitten through in one place where
it had been first seized; but even now I felt a strong desire to fire
again, as I saw a hideous coil rise slowly and then fall motionless,
while for the first time the monstrous proportions of the creature
became apparent.
"Don't stir, Mas'r Harry!" cried Tom triumphantly. "Keep watch over
'em, or some one else will swear as he did it. I'll be back in less
than half an hour."
Then, before I could utter a word of remonstrance, Tom had dashed off,
leaving me to my loathsome wardership. But not for long; he was soon
back with four Indians, giving his orders lustily, and we stood and
looked on while they skinned the trophies.
"Perhaps they'll believe you now, Mas'r Harry," said Tom. "We'll take
the skins up in triumph--that we will! But who'd ever have thought of
my coming out here to shoot adders a hundred foot long?"
"Say five hundred, Tom," I said laughing.
"Well, ain't he, Mas'r Harry?" cried Tom innocently.
For from the effect of his elation it is probable that his eyes
magnified, though, upon the skin being stretched out and measured, it
proved to be exactly twenty feet three inches in length, while the
reptile's girth was greater than the thigh of a stout, well-built man.
But at last, with our trophies borne in front, we made our way back to
the hacienda, the Indians shouting, and the whole of the workpeople
turning out to welcome us. But though my uncle expressed pleasure, and
took the first opportunity of telling me that he had never for an
instant doubted my word, it was plain enough that he was constrained in
his manner; while as to Pablo Garcia, I believe that a blow would not
have given him greater offence than did this proof which I forced upon
him of the truth of my assertions.