*XI*
*AN ARMY OF SNAKES*
For a moment Ken Ward was utterly crushed under the weight of thissudden blow. It was so sudden that he had no time to think; or his mindwas clamped on the idea of attempting to haul the boat up that long,insurmountable series of falls.
"It 'll be an awful job," burst out Hal.
No doubt in the mind of each boy was the same idea--the long haul,wading over slippery rocks; the weariness of pushing legs against theswift current; the packing of supplies uphill; and then the toil oflifting the heavy boat up over a fall.
"Mucho malo," said Pepe, and he groaned. That was significant, comingfrom a _mozo_, who thought nothing of rowing forty miles in a day.
"Oh, but it's tough luck," cried Ken. "Why didn't I choose the rightbranch of this pesky river?"
"I think you used your head at that," said Hal. "Most of the water camedown on this side. Where did it go?"
Hal had hit the vital question, and it cleared Ken's brain.
"Hal, you're talking sense. Where did that water go? It couldn't allhave sunk into the earth. We'll find out. We won't try to go back. We_can't_ go back."
Pepe shoved off the oozy mud, and, reluctantly, as if he appreciated thedilemma, he turned the boat and rowed along the shore. As soon as Kenhad recovered somewhat he decided there must be an outlet which he hadmissed. This reminded him that at a point not far back he had heard thetinkle and gurgle of unseen water flowing over rocks.
He directed Pepe to row slowly along the bank that he thought was theisland side. As they glided under the drooping bamboos and silkycurtains of moss George began to call out: "Low bridge! Low bridge!"For a boy who was forever voicing ill-omened suggestions as to whatmight soon happen he was extraordinarily cheerful.
There were places where all had to lie flat and others where Pepe had touse his _machete_. This disturbed the _siesta_ of many aquatic birds,most of which flew swiftly away. But there were many of thegray-breasted, blue-backed bitterns that did not take to flight. Thesecroaked dismally, and looked down upon the boys with strange, protrudingeyes.
"Those darn birds 'll give me the willies," declared Hal. "George, youjust look like them when you croak about what's coming to us."
"Just wait!" retorted George. "It 'll come, all right. Then I'll havethe fun of seeing you scared silly."
"What! You'll not do anything of the kind!" cried Hal, hotly. "I'vebeen in places where such--such a skinny little sap-head as you--"
"Here, you kids stop wrangling," ordered Ken, who sensed hostilities inthe air. "We've got trouble enough."
Suddenly Ken signaled Pepe to stop rowing.
"Boys, I hear running water. Aha! Here's a current. See--it's makingright under this bank."
Before them was a high wall of broad-leaved vines, so thick that nothingcould be seen through them. Apparently this luxuriant canopy concealedthe bank. Pepe poked an oar into it, but found nothing solid.
"Pepe, cut a way through. We've got to see where this water runs."
It was then that Ken came to a full appreciation of a _machete_. He hadoften fancied it a much less serviceable tool than an ax. Pepe flashedthe long, bright blade up, down, and around, and presently the boat wasits own length in a green tunnel. Pepe kept on slashing while Ken poledthe boat in and the other boys dumped the cut foliage overboard. Soonthey got through this mass of hanging vine and creeper. Much to Ken'ssurprise and delight, he found no high bank, but low, flat ground,densely wooded, through which ran a narrow, deep outlet of the river.
"By all that's lucky!" ejaculated Ken.
George and Hal whooped their pleasure, and Pepe rubbed his muscularhands. Then all fell silent. The deep, penetrating silence of thatjungle was not provocative of speech. The shade was so black that when aray of sunlight did manage to pierce the dense canopy overhead itresembled a brilliant golden spear. A few lofty palms and a few clumpsof bamboo rather emphasized the lack of these particular species in thisforest. Nor was there any of the familiar streaming moss hanging fromthe trees. This glen was green, cool, dark. It did not smell exactlyswampy, but rank, like a place where many water plants were growing.
KEN SHOT TWICE AT THE HEAD OF THE SNAKE]
The outlet was so narrow that Ken was not able to use the oars. Still,as the current was swift, the boat went along rapidly. He saw a lightahead and heard the babble of water. The current quickened, and theboat drifted suddenly upon the edge of an oval glade, where the hot sunbeat down. A series of abrupt mossy benches, over which the stream slidalmost noiselessly, blocked further progress.
The first thing about this glade that Ken noted particularly, after thedifficulties presented by the steep steps, was the multitude of snakessunning themselves along the line of further progress.
"Boys, it 'll be great wading down there, hey?" he queried.
Pepe grumbled for the first time on the trip. Ken gathered from thenative's looks and speech that he did not like snakes.
"Watch me peg 'em!" yelled Hal, and he began to throw stones withremarkable accuracy. "Hike, you brown sons-of-guns!"
George, not to be outdone, made a dive for his .22 and began to pop asif he had no love for snakes. Ken had doubts about this species. Thesnakes were short, thick, dull brown in color, and the way they slippedinto the stream proved they were water-snakes. Ken had never read of abrown water-moccasin, so he doubted that these belonged to thatpoisonous family. Anyway, snakes were the least of his troubles.
"Boys, you're doing fine," he said. "There are about a thousand snakesthere, and you've hit about six."
He walked down through the glade into the forest, and was overjoyed tohear once more the heavy roar of rapids. He went on. The timber grewthinner, and light penetrated the jungle. Presently he saw the gleam ofwater through the trees. Then he hurried back.
"All right, boys," he shouted. "Here's the river."
The boys were so immensely relieved that packing the outfit round thewaterfalls was work they set about with alacrity. Ken, who had on hisboots, broke a trail through the ferns and deep moss. Pepe, beingbarefoot, wasted time looking for snakes. George teased him. But Pepewas deadly serious. And the way he stepped and looked made Kenthoughtful. He had made his last trip with supplies, and was about tostart back to solve the problem of getting the boat down, when a hoarseyell resounded through the sleeping jungle. Parrots screeched, andother birds set up a cackling.
Ken bounded up the slope.
"Santa Maria!" cried Pepe.
Ken followed the direction indicated by Pepe's staring eyes andtrembling finger. Hanging from a limb of a tree was a huge black-snake.It was as thick as Ken's leg. The branch upon which it poised its neckso gracefully was ten feet high, and the tail curled into the ferns onthe ground.
"Boys, it's one of the big fellows," cried Ken.
"Didn't I tell you!" yelled George, running down for his gun.
Hal seemed rooted to the spot. Pepe began to jabber. Ken watched thesnake, and felt instinctively from its sinister looks that it wasdangerous. George came running back with his .32 and waved it in theair as he shot. He was so frightened that he forgot to aim. Ken tookthe rifle from him.
"You can't hit him with this. Run after your shotgun. Quick!"
But the sixteen-gage was clogged with a shell that would not eject.Ken's guns were in their cases.
"Holy smoke!" cried George. "He's coming down."
The black-snake moved his body and began to slide toward the tree-trunk.
Ken shot twice at the head of the snake. It was a slow-swaying mark hardto hit. The reptile stopped and poised wonderfully on the limb. He wasnot coiled about it, but lay over it with about four feet of neckwaving, swaying to and fro. He watched the boys, and his tongue, like athin, black streak, darted out viciously.
Ken could not hit the head, so he sent a bullet through the thick partof the body. Swift as a gleam the snake darted
from the limb.
"Santa Maria!" yelled Pepe, and he ran off.
"Look out, boys," shouted Ken. He picked up Pepe's _machete_ and tookto his heels. George and Hal scrambled before him. They ran a hundredyards or more, and Ken halted in an open rocky spot. He was angry, anda little ashamed that he had run. The snake did not pursue, andprobably was as badly frightened as the boys had been. Pepe stoppedsome distance away, and Hal and George came cautiously back.
"I don't see anything of him," said Ken. "I'm going back."
He walked slowly, keeping a sharp outlook, and, returning to the glade,found blood-stains under the tree. The snake had disappeared withoutleaving a trail.
"If I'd had my shotgun ready!" exclaimed Ken, in disgust. And he made anote that in the future he would be prepared to shoot.
"Wasn't he a whopper, Ken?" said Hal. "We ought to have got his hide.What a fine specimen!"
"Boys, you drive away those few little snakes while I figure on a way toget the boat down."
"Not on your life!" replied Hal.
George ably sustained Hal's objection.
"Mucho malo," said Pepe, and then added a loud "No" in English.
"All right, my brave comrades," rejoined Ken, scornfully. "As I've notdone any work yet or taken any risks, I'll drive the snakes away."
With Pepe's _machete_ he cut a long forked pole, trimmed it, and, armedwith this weapon, he assaulted the rolls and bands and balls of brownsnakes. He stalked boldly down upon them, pushed and poled, and evenkicked them off the mossy banks. Hal could not stand that, andpresently he got a pole and went to Ken's assistance.
"Who's hollering now?" he yelled to George.
Whereupon George cut a long branch and joined the battle. They whackedand threshed and pounded, keeping time with yells. Everywhere along thewet benches slipped and splashed the snakes. But after they were driveninto the water they did not swim away. They dove under the banks andthen stretched out their pointed heads from the dripping edge of moss.
"Say, fellows, we're making it worse for us," declared Ken. "See, thebrown devils won't swim off. We'd better have left them on the bank.Let's catch one and see if he'll bite."
He tried to pick up one on his pole, but it slipped off. George fishedafter another. Hal put the end of his stick down inside the coil ofstill another and pitched it. The brown, wriggling, wet snake shotstraight at the unsuspecting George, and struck him and momentarilywound about him.
"Augrrh!" bawled George, flinging off the reptile and leaping back."What 'd you do that for? I'll punch you!"
"George, he didn't mean it," said Ken. "It was an accident. Come on,let's tease that fellow and see if he'll bite."
The snake coiled and raised his flat head and darted a wicked tongue outand watched with bright, beady eyes, but he did not strike. Ken went asclose as he thought safe and studied the snake.
"Boys, his head isn't a triangle, and there are no little pits under hiseyes. Those are two signs of a poisonous snake. I don't believe thisfellow's one."
"He'll be a dead snake, b' gosh," replied George, and he fell topounding it with his pole.
"Don't smash him. I want the skin," yelled Hal.
Ken pondered on the situation before him.
"Come, the sooner we get at this the better," he said.
There was a succession of benches through which the stream zigzagged andtumbled. These benches were rock ledges over which moss had grown fullya foot thick, and they were so oozy and slippery that it was no easytask to walk upon them. Then they were steep, so steep that it wasremarkable how the water ran over them so smoothly, with very littlenoise or break. It was altogether a new kind of waterfall to Ken. Butif the snakes had not been hidden there, navigation would have presentedan easier problem.
"Come on boys, alongside now, and hold back," he ordered, gripping thebow.
Exactly what happened the next few seconds was not clear in his mind.There was a rush, and all were being dragged by the boat. The gladeseemed to whizz past. There were some sodden thumps, a great splashing,a check--and lo! they were over several benches. It was the quickestand easiest descent he had ever made down a steep waterfall.
"Fine!" ejaculated George, wiping the ooze from his face.
"Yes, it was fine," Ken replied. "But unless this boat has wingssomething 'll happen soon."
Below was a long, swift curve of water, very narrow and steep, with amoss-covered rock dividing the lower end. Ken imagined if there was arepetition of the first descent the boat would be smashed on that rock.He ordered Pepe, who was of course the strongest, to go below and jumpto the rock. There he might prevent a collision.
Pepe obeyed, but as he went he yelled and doubled up in contortions ashe leaped over snakes in the moss.
Then gently, gingerly the boys started the boat off the bench, where ithad lodged. George was at the stern, Ken and Hal at the bow. SuddenlyHal shrieked and jumped straight up, to land in the boat.
"Snakes!" he howled.
"Give us a rest!" cried Ken, in disgust.
The boat moved as if instinct with life. It dipped, then--_wheeze!_ itdove over the bench. Hal was thrown off his feet, fell back on thegunwale, and thence into the snaky moss. George went sprawling facedownward into the slimy ooze, and Ken was jerked clear off the benchinto the stream. He got his footing and stood firm in water to hiswaist, and he had the bow-rope coiled round his hands.
"Help! Help!" he yelled, as he felt the dragging weight too much forhim.
If Ken retarded the progress of the boat at all, it was not much.George saw his distress and the danger menacing the boat, and he leapedvaliantly forward. As he dashed down a slippery slant his feet flew uphigher than where his head had been; he actually turned over in the air,and fell with a great sop.
Hal had been trying to reach Ken, but here he stopped and roared withlaughter.
Despite Ken's anger and fear of snakes, and his greater fear for theboat, he likewise had to let out a peal of laughter. That tumble ofGeorge's was great. Then Ken's footing gave way and he went down. Hismouth filled with nasty water, nearly strangling him. He was almostblinded, too. His arms seemed to be wrenched out of their sockets, andhe felt himself bumping over moss-covered rocks as soft as cushions.Slimy ropes or roots of vegetation, that felt like snakes, brushed hisface and made him cold and sick. It was impossible to hold the boat anylonger. He lodged against a stone, and the swift water forced him uponit. Blinking and coughing, he stuck fast.
Ken saw the boat headed like a dart for the rock where Pepe stood.
"Let 'er go!" yelled Ken. "Don't try to stop her. Pepe, you'll besmashed!"
Pepe acted like a man determined to make up for past cowardice. He madea great show of brave intentions. He was not afraid of a boat. Hebraced himself and reached out with his brawny arms. Ken feared for theobstinate native's life, for the boat moved with remarkable velocity.
At the last second Pepe's courage vanished. He turned tail to get out ofthe way. But he slipped. The boat shot toward him and the blunt sternstruck him with a dull thud. Pepe sailed into the air, over the rock,and went down cleaving the water.
The boat slipped over the stone as easily as if it had been a wave and,gliding into still water below, lodged on the bank.
Ken crawled out of the stream, and when he ascertained that no one wasinjured he stretched himself on the ground and gave up to mirth. Peperesembled a drowned rat; Hal was an object to wonder at; and George, inhis coating of slime and with strings of moss in his hair, was thefunniest thing Ken had ever seen. It was somewhat of a surprise to himto discover, presently, that the boys were convulsed with fiendish gleeover the way he himself looked.
By and by they recovered, and, with many a merry jest and chuckle ofsatisfaction, they repacked the boat and proceeded on their way. Nofurther obstacle hindered them. They drifted out of the shady jungleinto the sunlit river.
In half a mile of drifting the heat of the sun dried the boys' clothes.The
water was so hot that it fairly steamed. Once more the boat entereda placid aisle over which the magnificent gray-wreathed cypresses bowed,and the west wind waved long ribbons of moss, and wild fowl wingedreluctant flight.
Ken took advantage of this tranquil stretch of river to work on his map.He realized that he must use every spare moment and put down hisdrawings and notes as often as time and travel permitted. It had dawnedon Ken that rapids and snakes, and all the dangers along the river, madehis task of observation and study one apt to be put into eclipse attimes. Once or twice he landed on shore to climb a bluff, and waspleased each time to see that he had lined a comparatively true courseon his map. He had doubts of its absolute accuracy, yet he could nothelp having pride in his work. So far so good, he thought, and hopedfor good-fortune farther down the river.