Watch was kept that night and several more, while the days were passed
suspiciously and uneasily. But we saw no sign of more Indians, those
who shared our camp seeming quite at home, and proving to be gentle,
inoffensive creatures, now that they were satisfied that we intended to
do them no harm.
The woman began at once to see to the fire, and fetch water from the
river, and only once showed any sign of resentment. That was on the
morning following her coming, when my uncle began to unfasten his
patient's bandages after dressing my arm.
This she tried to stop by seizing my uncle's hand, but at a word from
her husband she sat down and watched the whole process. After that the
morning performance of the surgical duties was looked for with the
greatest interest, the woman fetching water and waiting upon my uncle
during his attention to both his patients.
The days passed on, with my wound troubling me but very little. The
prisoner's was far worse, but he did not seem to suffer, settling down
quite happily in a dreamy way, and as no danger came near, the shooting
and collecting went on, my uncle going alone, and leaving Pete and Cross
to protect me and the camp.
Fortunately we had a sufficiency of stores, my uncle shot for provisions
as well as science; I helped by sitting down in one particular spot by
the rushing stream and catching fish almost as fast as I could throw in,
and Mapah, as the woman's name seemed to be, went off every morning and
returned loaded with wild fruit and certain roots, which she and her
husband ate eagerly.
Some very good specimens were brought in by my uncle, and the two
Indians sat watching us curiously as we busily skinned them, filled them
out, and laid them to dry, Mapah eagerly taking possession of the
tail-feathers of some parrots intended to be cooked for the evening's
meal, and weaving them into a band of plaited grass so as to form tiaras
of the bright-hued plumes for herself and her husband, both wearing them
with no little show of pride.
"And only to think of it, Master Nat," said Pete. "Reg'larly cheated me
when I see 'em first over the bushes; I made sure they was birds."
They expressed a good deal of pleasure, too, over some of the brighter
birds brought in, and our prisoner talked and made signs to me and
pointed in one direction as he tried hard to make me understand
something one day; but I was alone with him, and very dense for a time,
as in a crippled way I put the finishing touches to the skin of a
brilliant kingfisher.
Then all at once I grasped his meaning.
"Why, of course!" I cried. "How thick-headed of me!"
I went to the bamboo half-box, half-basket Cross had made, and brought
it back to where the Indian was sitting nursing his wounded leg, took
off the lid, and carefully withdrew the trogon.
"Is that the sort of bird you mean?" I said.
"Hah!" he said, in a long-drawn cry, full of the satisfaction he felt,
and both he and his wife chattered to me eagerly, Mapah shaking her
head, though, and pointing at the bird's tail with one dusky hand,
before holding both out before me a yard apart.
"You've seen them with tails as long as that?" I said, placing my hand
by the caudal feathers of our one specimen, and then slowly drawing it
away till it was some distance off.
"Hah!" cried the Indian again, and he laughed and chatted, and pointed
across the river to the south, while his wife took off her feather
crown, held it before me, and drew each long feather through her hand as
if stretching it to three feet in length, and then touched the
golden-green plumage of our solitary specimen.
The trogon was carefully put away, the kingfisher laid to dry, and then
I could hardly contain myself till my uncle's return, well laden with
ducks and a dusky bird that was evidently a half-grown turkey.
"Tired out, Nat," he said, throwing down the birds, for Mapah and her
husband to seize and begin to pluck for our evening meal. "We must make
a fresh start."
"Why?" I said quietly.
"Because we have shot the only trogon in the district, and we are
wasting time here."
"Nonsense," I said; "there are plenty more."
"If we could find them," he replied wearily.
I had intended to keep him waiting longer, but I could not hold back
what I felt certain I had discovered, and hurrying to the case I brought
out the precious specimen and made Mapah and her husband go through the
whole pantomime again.
"Why, Nat," cried my uncle excitedly, while Pete and Cross looked on,
"it's as plain as a pikestaff: these people are quite familiar with the
long-tailed species--_resplendens_--and they could take us to places
where they could be found."
"That's it, uncle," I cried, and Pete and Cross joined in a hearty
cheer.
"Oh, but to think of it--the misery and disappointment," cried my uncle:
"that poor fellow will not be able to walk and act as guide for a month,
and it may be a hundred miles away."
"That don't matter, sir," cried Pete; "he's only a little chap. Me and
Bill Cross'll take it in turns pig-a-backing him; won't we mate?"
"We will that, Pete, lad," cried the carpenter, and somehow that seemed
to be the brightest evening of our expedition, even the two Indians
seeming to share our satisfaction, for they readily grasped the idea
that they had afforded us pleasure by promising in their fashion to show
us the objects of our weary search.
As we lay down to sleep that night I felt more wakeful than ever I had
been before, and I could hear my uncle turning restlessly about.