In the meantime, the three boys on the _Rambler_ were becoming a bit
restless, and not a little anxious too. The Brazilian night was dark,
and there was a whisper of wind in the trees. The water lapped the
shores and the sides of the boat unceasingly, as if uttering a warning
to them to be up and away. It was almost unbearably hot, too, for they
were nearly under the equator.
“I think I know what the kid is thinking about when he talks of a
cargo,” Alex said, presently. “He has often talked to me about gathering
Brazil nuts and taking a load out to some shipping point. They bring
good prices in New York.”
“Do you mean these three-cornered nuts?” asked Jule.
“Sure! The ones you whittle the shells from with a knife, and find a
solid, triangular piece of meat on the inside. They grow in big clusters
which look like hornets’ nests, and they break open the heads of the
Indians when they fall from the tree. A ton would bring nearly $400 in
Chicago, and that would help some, especially as we’ll probably get back
there broke and hungry.”
“When did you take up Case’s role of prophet of evil?” asked Clay.
Alex laughed and said no more at that time.
“I’ve got a better guess than that,” Jule began, then. “He is going
after rubber. They tap trees and a white sap runs out, and they cook the
sap in smoke, over moulds, and make rubber coats. I’ll wager he’s got a
cache of rubber in there.”
“I wonder where the rubber trees first came from?” asked Alex.
“Oh, they came down from the mountains.”
This from Jule, who had been reading books about South America all the
way down—books presented by Captain Joe.
“A few million years ago,” Jule went on, glad of a chance to air his
knowledge, “a sort of Mediterranean sea covered all the Amazon basin.
The mouth of the big river was away up to the west there, near the
foothills. Then the rains of the long years washed the soil down into
the valley, inch by inch, and the rivers pushed it along until the
continent east of the mountains was formed.”
“Must have taken a long time to wash this continent down!” yawned Alex.
“I said millions of years, didn’t I?” reproved Jule. “And the continent
isn’t finished yet. Do you comprehend that, boys? The continent isn’t
finished to-day! Not after millions of years!”
“That’s about the length of time Case and Frank have been gone!”
declared Alex, nudging Clay to watch Jule display anger at the
irrelevant observation.
“The continent won’t be completed for millions of years,” Jule went on,
not at all put out by the alleged witticism. “The Amazon alone is
carrying enough sediment to the Atlantic every day to make a cube of
earth five hundred feet each way. How long will it take all the rivers
running down from the Andes to wash the hills into the sea? Perhaps you
can tell me that, Smarty?” he added, tapping Alex on the head with his
open palm, whereat Captain Joe rolled up his red eyes, though the boys
could not see them in the darkness, and emitted a series of low growls.
“Where will it all end?” asked Clay, musingly.
“When there are no more mountains,” Jule answered, proudly, sure of his
ground. “The mountains will be washed into the seas, and the seas will
fill up, and then the world will be finished.”
“I wish this night was finished!” Alex broke in. “I wish Case and Frank
would come back, cargo or no cargo.”
“I think I’ll go a little way into the forest and see what they are up
to,” Clay suggested, and Alex and Jule were on their feet in a moment.
“That’s just what we’ll do,” Jule cried. “We will go look ’em up!”
“But we can’t all go and leave the boat alone.”
“Why, the boat won’t run away!”
“Someone might run away with it, though.”
“Tell you,” Jule suggested, “we’ll leave the prow light burning, so we
can see if anyone goes near it, and then we won’t go out of sight of the
light. How will that answer?”
“Fine!” Alex panted, trying to pull Captain Joe back into the cabin. His
highness, the dog, did not relish the notion of being locked up in the
hot little coop while the boys had a run on shore, so he drew back with
all his strength.
Alex won at last, however, and the door was closed on the indignant
bulldog. To speak the truth, Clay was rather glad that the boys had
chosen to accompany him to the shore, for it was dark and uncanny in the
forest. There was an indication of rain, though it was in the midst of
the dry season, and a strange odor which they could not account for came
to the nostrils of the lads.
“A Brazilian forest,” Jule said, as they left the row-boat tied up in a
thicket and faced the jungle, “is about the most mysterious place on the
round earth. Down here where we are, in the basement, it is always
twilight, even at noon of a sunny day. We see only the stems of plants
and creepers and the boles of the trees. The beauty, the blossoms, the
colors, the magnificence, is all at the top. Someone said that the only
place from which to view a South American forest in all its glory is
from the top of a mountain, or from an aeroplane.”
“There isn’t much magnificence down here,” Alex answered. “Here, Jule,
what you got in your clothes that smells like matches, and what you
sneaking off there alone for?”
“Never you mind!” Jule replied. “You just stick to your guesses and let
me alone. I’m going to give those boys the scare of their lives. I’ll
teach them to go off and stay like this!”
“You stay here!” commanded Clay, but the mischievous boy was already
gone. They heard him pushing through the underbrush for a time, saw the
round eye of his flashlight as it swept aloft, and then the jungle was
once more still—save for the natural life within it—and dark.
“Shall we go on in after him?” asked Alex. “He may get into trouble, and
he’s none too strong yet.”
“I think we would better remain here,” Clay replied. “If there is danger
we will hear the signal agreed upon.”
“Frank says he remained hidden in a tree in there for some time,” Alex
remarked, then. “Now, what was he hiding from, and how did he get down
here? If he came in a steamer, and the steamer was waiting for him
outside, that wouldn’t be hiding at all. Might as well try to hide while
riding on the neck of an elephant!”
“Have you ever thought that Frank may be the one who put the marked
paper on the _Rambler_ that morning?” asked Clay, irrelevantly.
“Yes, I have thought of that, but why should he have done it—if he did?
If he knew where the diamonds were, why didn’t he arrange things so he
could secure the reward for himself? He needed the money badly enough,
according to his own story.”
“But how could he know where the diamonds were?” asked Clay.
“Well, the person who left the marked paper on the boat knew where the
stones were! You can’t get away from that! Besides, Frank had been seen
loitering outside, and there had been a motion at the glass panel of the
door just before he showed himself. Oh, it is all rather suspicious!”
“We’ll have to give the boy time to explain everything,” Clay
admonished. “I have great faith in him.”
“How long do you think that kid, Jule, will remain in there?” Alex
yawned.
“Not long, I hope.”
It had been the original intention to enter the jungle as far as the
boat light could be seen, but now the necessity of remaining where they
were, or close to the shore, was apparent, as they had no means of
knowing in which direction either of the boys had gone, and there were
three wanderers to watch for instead of only two. If they followed in
the direction supposed to have been taken by Frank and Case, they would
be apt to get farther and farther from Jule, and if they tried to follow
the latter, it would be the two who would be farthest from their help,
should help be required.
The only course to pursue, then, with reference to boys who were in the
dark forest, was to remain where they were, guard the boat, and be
prepared to get back to the _Rambler_ in quick time should necessity
demand such action.
The boys waited with premonitions of approaching evil in their minds.
Now and then Captain Joe, disgusted with the conduct of his master, sent
out a call for sympathy and liberty, and the voice of the dog sounded
cheerful and friendly to the anxious lads.
Small creatures of air and thicket were talking all around them, and now
and then a gruffer utterance in the distance told of larger denizens of
the forest aroused by the visit of the boys. After a time a crunching in
the undergrowth warned the listeners that some creature of large size
was approaching them on a visit of inspection.
“It may be an Indian!” Alex whispered, when the sounds were very close
indeed.
“An Indian wouldn’t advance in the midst of a racket like that,” Clay
reasoned. “It is probably some wild animal coming up to see what all
this row is about. Keep your automatic and your flashlight ready.”
Alex did not need any such warning, for he stood with the automatic in
one hand and the dark flashlight in the other.
The trampling came on, closer and closer, and the boys involuntarily
drew nearer together. They could hear shrubs cracking and breaking under
the heavy tread of their approaching visitor.
“It must be a jaguar!” whispered Alex. “Shall I turn on my light before
he gets up to us?”
“More likely a peccary, or wild hog,” Clay suggested. “They are
dangerous only when attacked.”
Snorts and grunts coming from the thicket soon proved the correctness of
this supposition, and then the peccary turned back, much to the relief
of the boys and the disgust of Captain Joe, who had from the cabin
scented a possible enemy and a chance at pursuit.
Then another and much more surprising and disquieting sound came from
the forest. This was nothing less than the gruff voices of two men,
speaking in English. The boys listened in wonder and dismay. Who could
these people be? Why were they there in that lonely spot? Were their
intentions friendly or hostile? These questions were soon answered, and
in a most unsatisfactory manner.
“The Indian will take care of the two kids, all right,” they heard a
coarse voice say, “and we’ll get into the boat before the others wake
up.”
“Lucky to find a boat here—and a motor boat at that,” another voice
said. “It won’t take us long to get to the headwaters now.”
The boys stood perfectly still, listening to the throaty chuckles which
followed this last remark. And so the new comers were enemies, and had
designs on the boat! More than that, their conversation indicated that
two of the boys, probably Case and Frank, had been discovered by the
marauders and left in the custody of a native! The situation was
serious, especially as the prow light disclosed the deserted condition
of the _Rambler_.
One of the men moved out to the shore, so that a burly figure was
outlined against the light on the prow of the boat. The lads moved
forward a pace, in order to inspect the intruder at closer range, and a
snapping twig betrayed their presence.
“Stay where you are!” a rough voice called back to them, “and we’ll just
take charge of this boat!”
“Step into that light,” Clay answered, “and you’ll take charge of a
bullet!”