It was a relief at last, after many days of hard work, sailing and
rowing and poling over the shallows by means of the light bamboos we cut
upon the banks, to find that we were well above the dense, jungle-like
forest where, save in places, landing was impossible. Instead of
creeping along between the two high walls of verdure, the river ran
clear, shallow, and sparkling, among gravelly beds and rocks; while,
though the growth was abundant on banks, there were plenty of open
places full of sunshine and shadow, where flowers bloomed and birds far
brighter in colour flitted from shrub to shrub, or darted in flocks
among the trees. Mountains rose up in the distance, and every now and
then we had glorious peeps of the valleys, which near at hand were of
the richest golden-green, but in the distance gradually grew from
amethyst into the purest blue.
"At last!" cried Uncle Dick, for we had reached the outskirts of the
land he sought--one with the natural roads necessary; for by careful
management we contrived to penetrate some distance up the various
streams which came down from the mountains to join the main river, and
when we had forced the boat up a little stream till it was aground, we
there camped and made expeditions on foot in all directions, coming back
to the boat with our treasures.
It was difficult to decide which stream to try, and one in particular
whose mouth we passed several times in our journeys to and fro attracted
me--I could not tell why--and I suggested more than once that we should
go up it; but Uncle Dick shook his head.
"It is the least likely, Nat," he said on one occasion, and when, after
several expeditions, I proposed it again, because most of those we tried
evidently bore to the north, while this had a southward tendency, he
refused tetchily.
"Can't you see how covered it is with water-weed and tangled growth? It
would be impossible to go up there without a small canoe."
So I said no more, but contented myself with his choice.
For of treasures we had plenty, the wild mountain valleys swarming with
beautifully plumaged birds, especially with those tiny little objects
which were actually less than some of the butterflies and moths.
These humming-birds we generally shot with sand, sometimes merely with
the wad of the cartridge, and even at times brought them down by the
concussion caused by firing with powder only, when very near.
I was never tired of examining these little gems of the bird world, and
wondering at their excessive beauty in their dazzling hues, exactly like
those of the precious stones from which they are named--ruby, emerald,
topaz, sapphire, amethyst, and the like.
"It caps me," Pete used to say, as he stared with open mouth when I
carefully skinned the tiny creatures to preserve them.
Then came the day when, after a long tramp along with Pete, we found
ourselves at the end of a narrow valley, with apparently no farther
progress to be made.
We had started, after an early breakfast in the boat, and left my uncle
there to finish off the drying of some skins ready for packing in a
light case of split bamboo which the carpenter had made; and with one
gun over my shoulder, a botanist's collecting-box for choice birds, and
Pete following with another gun and a net for large birds slung over his
shoulder, we had tramped on for hours, thinking nothing of the heat and
the sun-rays which flashed off the surface of the clear shallow stream
we were following, for the air came down fresh and invigorating from the
mountains.
We had been fairly successful, for I had shot four rare humming-birds;
but so far we had seen no specimens of the gorgeous quetzal, and it was
for these that our eyes wandered whenever we reached a patch of
woodland, but only to startle macaws, parroquets, or the
clumsy-looking--but really light and active--big-billed toucans, which
made Pete shake his head.
"They're all very well, with their orange and red throats, or their pale
primrose or white, Master Nat; but I don't see no good in birds having
great bills like that."
We had a bit of an adventure, too, that was rather startling, as we
slowly climbed higher in tracking the course of the little stream
towards its source in the mountain. As we toiled on where the rocks
rose like walls on either side, and the ground was stony and bare, the
rugged glittering in the sunshine, Pete had got on a few yards ahead
through my having paused to transfer a gorgeous golden-green beetle to
our collecting-box.
I was just thinking that the absence of grass or flowers was probably
due to the fact that the flooded stream must at times run all over where
we were walking, the narrow valley looking quite like the bed of a river
right up to the rocks on either side, when Pete shouted to me--
"Come and look, Master Nat. What's this here? Want to take it?"
I looked, and then fired the quickest shot I ever discharged in my life.
I hardly know how I managed it; but one moment I was carrying my gun
over my shoulder, the next I had let the barrels fall into my left hand
and fired.
Pete leapt off the ground, uttering a yell which would have made anyone
who could have looked on imagine that I had shot him. He dropped the
gun he carried and turned round to face me.
"What did you do that for, Master Nat?" he cried.
"For that," I said, pointing, and then raising my piece to my shoulder,
I fired again at something writhing and twining among the loose stones.
"Thought you meant to shoot me, sir," said Pete, picking up the gun and
covering a dint he had made in the stock, as he stared down at the
object that was now dying fast. "Well, it's of no good now. You've
reg'larly spoiled it."
"Do you know what that is?" I said, with my heart beating fast.
"Course I do," he said with a laugh. "Snake."
"Yes, the most deadly snake out here. If I had waited till you touched
it you would have been stung; and that generally means death."
"My word!" said Pete, shrinking away. "Think of it, sir! Shouldn't
have liked that, Master Nat. What snake is it?"
"A rattlesnake."
"I didn't hear him rattle. But I was just going to lay hold of him
behind his ears and pick him up."
"And yet uncle told you to beware of poisonous snakes."
"Ah! so he did, sir; but I wasn't thinking about what he said then. So
that's his rattle at the end of his tail, with a sting in it."
"Nonsense!" I cried. "Rattlesnakes do not sting."
"Hark at him!" cried Pete, addressing nobody. Then to me--
"Why, you said just now they did."
"I meant bite."
"But wapses have their stings in their tails."
"But rattlesnakes do not," I said. "Look here."
I drew the hunting knife I carried, and with one chop took off the
dangerous reptile's head. Then picking it up I opened the jaws and
showed him the two keen, hollow, poisonous fangs which rose erect when
the jaws gaped.
"Seem too little to do any harm, Master Nat," said Pete, rubbing his
head. "Well, I shall know one of them gentlemen another time.--Oh,
don't chuck it away!" he cried. "I should like to put that head in a
box and save it."
"Too late, Pete," I said, for I had just sent the head flying into the
rippling stream; and after reloading we went on again till it seemed as
if we were quite shut in.
For right in front was a towering rock, quite perpendicular above a low
archway, at whose foot the stream rushed gurgling out, while the sides
of the narrow ravine in which we were rose up like a wall.
"We shall have to go back, Pete, I suppose," I said, as I looked upon
either side.
"I wouldn't, sir," he replied; "it's early yet."
"But we couldn't climb up there."
"Oh, yes, we could, sir, if we took it a bit at a time."
Pete was right. I had looked at the task all at once, but by taking it
a bit at a time we slowly climbed up and up till we reached to where
there was a gentle slope dotted with patches of woodland, and looking
more beautiful than the part we had travelled over that day.
It was just as we had drawn ourselves up on to the gentle slope which
spread away evidently for miles, that Pete laid his hand upon my arm and
pointed away to the left.
"Look!" he whispered; "thing like a great cat. There she goes."
But I did not look, for I had caught sight of a couple of birds gliding
through the air as if they were finishing their flight and about to
alight.
"Look there!" I panted excitedly, as I watched for the place where the
birds would pitch, which proved to be out of sight, beyond a clump of
trees.
"This way, Master Nat," whispered Pete.
"No, no; this way," I said hoarsely. And I hurried forward, having to
get over about a hundred yards before I could reach the patch behind
which the birds had disappeared.
My heart beat faster with excitement as well as exertion as I checked my
pace on reaching the trees and began to creep softly along in their
shelter, till all at once there was a harsh scream, followed by a dozen
more, as a little flock of lovely green parroquets took flight, and Pete
stopped short for me to fire.
But I did not; I only kept on, wondering whether the objects of my
search would take fright.
They did the next moment, and I fired at what seemed like a couple of
whirring patches of orange, one of which to my great joy fell, while the
other went right away in a straight line, showing that it had not been
touched.
"That's got him!" cried Pete excitedly. And he ran forward to pick up
the bird, while I began to reload, but stopped in astonishment, for from
some bushes away to the left, in a series of bounds, a magnificent puma
sprang into sight, and seemed to be racing Pete so as to get first to
the fallen bird.
Pete was nearest, and would have been there first, but he suddenly
caught sight of the great active cat and stopped short.
This had the effect of making the puma stop short too, and stand lashing
its tail and staring at Pete as if undecided what to do.
I ought to have behaved differently, but I was as much taken by surprise
as Pete, and I, too, stood staring instead of reloading my gun, while it
never once occurred to the lad that he had one already charged in his
hand.
Suddenly, to my astonishment, he snatched off his straw hat.
"Shoo!" he cried, and sent it skimming through the air at the puma.
The effect was all he desired, for the beautiful animal sprang round and
bounded away towards the nearest patch of forest, Pete after him till he
reached his hat, which he picked up in triumph and stuck on his head
again, grinning as he returned.
"That's the way to scare that sort, Master Nat," he cried. And he
reached me again just as I stooped to pick up the fallen bird.
"Cock of the Rocks, Pete," I cried triumphantly, too much excited to
think about the puma.
"Is he, sir?" said Pete. "Well, he ran away like a hen."
"No, no! I mean this bird. Isn't it a beauty?"
"He just is, sir. Lives on oranges, I s'pose, to make him that colour."
"I don't know what it lived on," I said as I regularly gloated over the
lovely bird with its orange plumage and soft wheel-like crest of
feathers from beak to nape. "This must go in your net, Pete; but you
must carry it very carefully."
"I will, Master Nat. Going back now?"
"Back? No," I cried. "We must follow up that other one. I saw which
way it flew. Uncle will be in ecstasies at our having found a place
where they come."
"Will he, sir? Thought it was golden-green birds with long tails.
Quizzals. That one's got hardly any tail at all."
"He wants these too," I said, closing the breech of my gun. "Come
along."
"But how about that there big cat, sir? He's gone down that way."
"We must fire at it if it comes near again, or you must throw your hat,"
I said, laughing.
"All right, sir, you know. Only if he or she do turn savage, it might
be awkward."
"I don't think they're dangerous animals, Pete," I said; "and we must
have that other bird, and we may put up more. Here, I'll go first."
"Nay, play fair, Master Nat," said Pete; "let's go side by side."
"Yes, but a little way apart. Open out about thirty feet, and then
let's go forward slowly. I think we shall find it among those trees
yonder."
"The big cat, sir?" said Pete.
"No, no!" I cried; "the other bird, the cock of the rocks. Now then,
forward."
A little flock of brightly-coloured finches flew up before we had gone a
hundred yards, but I was so excited by the prospect of getting my
prize's mate that these seemed of no account, and we went on, my
intention being to fire at the cock of the rocks, and nothing else,
unless the golden plumage of a quetzal flashed into sight.
In another five minutes we had forgotten all about the puma, for we were
leaving the trees where it had disappeared away to our left, and we went
on and on, starting birds again and again, till we had passed over a
quarter of a mile and were pushing on amongst open clumps of bushes with
patches of woodland here and there.
Pete was abreast of me with the other gun, and I was sweeping the ground
before me in search of the orange plumage of the bird I sought, which
might spring up at any time, when I had to pass round a pile of rugged
stones half covered with herbage.
"Sort of place for snakes to bask," I said to myself, as I gave it a
little wider berth, when all at once, to my surprise, up rose with a
whirr not the bird I sought, but a little flock of seven or eight, and
as I raised my gun to fire at the group of whizzing orange--_Thud_!
Something heavy had bounded from the pile of stone I had passed, to
alight full upon my shoulders.
_Bang, bang_! went both barrels of my gun, and the next moment I was
down, spread-eagle fashion, on my face, conscious of the fact that what
was probably the puma's mate had bounded right upon me as I stooped
forward to fire, and as I heard Pete utter a yell of horror, the beast's
muzzle was pressed down on the back of my neck, and its hot breath
stirred the roots of my hair.