*XXIII*
*OUT OF THE JUNGLE*
Before the natives had reached the shore they were hidden from Ken'ssight by leaning cypress-trees. Ken, however, had no fear for theirsafety. He was sorry to cause the Indians' loss of a gun and a canoe;nevertheless, he was not far from echoing Pepe's repeated: "Bueno!Bueno! Bueno!"
Upon examination Ken found two little bloody holes in the muscles ofPepe's leg. A single shot had passed through. Ken bathed the woundswith an antiseptic lotion and bound them with clean bandages.
Pepe appeared to be pretty weak, so Ken did not ask him to take theoars. Then, pulling with long, steady stroke, Ken set out to put a longstretch between him and the angry natives. The current was swift, andKen made five miles or more an hour. He kept that pace for three hourswithout a rest. And then he gave out. It seemed that all at once heweakened. His back bore an immense burden. His arms were lead, and hishands were useless. There was an occasional mist or veil before hissight. He was wet, hot, breathless, numb. But he knew he was safe frompursuit. So he rested and let the boat drift.
George sat up, green in the face, a most miserable-looking boy. Butthat he could sit up at all was hopeful.
"Oh, my head!" he moaned. "Is there anything I can drink? My mouth isdry--pasted shut."
Ken had two lemons he had been saving. He cut one in halves and dividedit between Pepe and George. The relief the sour lemon afforded bothshowed Ken how wise he had been to save the lemons. Then he roused Hal,and, lifting the lad's head, made him drink a little of the juice. Halwas a sick boy, too weak to sit up without help.
"Don't--you worry--Ken," he said. "I'm going--to be--all right."
Hal was still fighting.
Ken readjusted the palm-leaf shelter over the boys so as to shade themeffectually from the hot sun, and then he went back to the oars.
As he tried once more to row, Ken was reminded of the terrible lassitudethat had overtaken him the day he had made the six-hour climb out of theGrand Canon. The sensation now was worse, but Ken had others dependingupon his exertions, and that spurred him to the effort which otherwisewould have been impossible.
It was really not rowing that Ken accomplished. It was a weary putteringwith oars he could not lift, handles he could not hold. At best hemanaged to guide the boat into the swiftest channels. Whenever he feltthat he was just about to collapse, then he would look at Hal's paleface. That would revive him. So the hot hours dragged by.
They came, after several miles, upon more huts and natives. And fartherdown they met canoes on the river. Pepe interrogated the natives.According to George, who listened, Panuco was far, far away, manykilometers. This was most disheartening. Another native said thevillage was just round the next bend. This was most nappy information.But it turned out to be a lie. There was no village around anyparticular bend--nothing save bare banks for miles. The stretches ofthe river were long, and bends far apart.
Ken fell asleep. When he awoke he found Pepe at the oars. Watchinghim, Ken fancied he was recovering, and was overjoyed.
About four o'clock in the afternoon Pepe rowed ashore and beached theboat at the foot of a trail leading up to a large bamboo and thatch hut.This time Ken thought it well to accompany Pepe. And as he climbed thepath he found his legs stiffer and shakier than ever before.
Ken saw a cleared space in which were several commodious huts, gardens,and flowers. There was a grassy yard in which little naked children wereplaying with tame deer and tiger-cats. Parrots were screeching, andother tame birds fluttered about. It appeared a real paradise to Ken.
Two very kindly disposed and wondering native women made them welcome.Then Ken and Pepe went down to the boat and carried Hal up, and wentback for George.
It developed that the native women knew just what to do for thefever-stricken boys. They made some kind of a native drink for them, andafter that gave them hot milk and chicken and rice soup. Georgeimproved rapidly, and Hal brightened a little and showed signs ofgathering strength.
Ken could not eat until he had something to quench his thirst. Uponinquiring, Pepe found that the natives used the river-water. Ken couldnot drink that. Then Pepe pointed out an orange-tree, and Ken made adive for it. The ground was littered with oranges. Collecting anarmful, Ken sat under the tree and with wild haste began to squeeze thejuice into his mouth. Never had anything before tasted so cool, sosweet, so life-giving! He felt a cool, wet sensation steal all throughhis body. He never knew till that moment how really wonderful andprecious an orange could be. He thought that as he would hate mourningturtle-doves all the rest of his life, so he would love the sight andsmell and taste of oranges. And he demolished twenty-two before hesatisfied his almost insatiable thirst. After that the chicken and ricemade him feel like a new boy.
Then Ken made beds under a kind of porch, and he lay down in one,stretched out languidly and gratefully, as if he never intended to moveagain, and his eyes seemed to be glued shut.
When he awoke the sun was shining in his face. When he had gone to bedit had been shining at his back. He consulted his watch. He had sleptseventeen hours.
When he got up and found Pepe as well as before he had been taken withthe fever and George on his feet and Hal awake and actually smiling, Kenexperienced a sensation of unutterable thankfulness. A terrible burdenslipped from his shoulders. For a moment he felt a dimming of his eyesand a lump in his throat.
"How about you, Ken, old man?" inquired Hal, with a hint of his usualspirit.
"Wal, youngster, I reckon fer a man who's been through some right perthappenin's, I'm in tol'able shape," drawled Ken.
"I'll bet two dollars you've been up against it," declared Hal,solemnly.
Then, as they sat to an appetizing breakfast, Ken gave them a briefaccount of the incidents of the two days and two nights when they weretoo ill to know anything.
It was a question whether George's voluble eulogy of Ken's feat or Hal'ssilent, bright-eyed pride in his brother was the greater compliment.
Finally Hal said: "Won't that tickle Jim Williams when we tell him howyou split up the Indians' canoe and spilled them into the river?"
Then Ken conceived the idea of climbing into the giant ceiba that stoodhigh on the edge of the bluff. It was hard work, but he accomplishedit, and from a fork in the top-most branches he looked out. That was awarm, rich, wonderful scene. Ken felt that he would never forget it.His interest now, however, was not so much in its beauty and wildness.His keen eye followed the river as it wound away into the jungle, andwhen he could no longer see the bright ribbon of water he followed itscourse by the line of magnificent trees. It was possible to trace themeandering course of the river clear to the rise of the mountains, dimand blue in the distance. And from here Ken made more observations andnotes.
As he went over in his mind the map and notes and report he had preparedhe felt that he had made good. He had explored and mapped more than ahundred miles of wild jungle river. He felt confident that he hadearned the trip to England and the German forests. He might win ahunting trip on the vast uplands of British East Africa. But he feltalso that the reward of his uncle's and his father's pride would be moreto him. That was a great moment for Ken Ward. And there was yet muchmore that he could do to make this exploring trip a success.
Ken Ward's Map]
When he joined the others he found that Pepe had learned that thevillage of Panuco was distant a day or a night by canoe. How many milesor kilometers Pepe could not learn. Ken decided it would be best to goon at once. It was not easy to leave that pleasant place, with its musicof parrots and other birds, and the tiger-cats that played like kittens,and the deer that ate from the hand. The women would accept no pay, soKen made them presents.
Once more embarked, Ken found his mood reverting to that of the lastforty-eight hours. He could not keep cheerful. The river was dirty andthe smell sickening. The sun was like the open door of a furnace. And
Ken soon discovered he was tired, utterly tired.
That day was a repetition of the one before, hotter, wearier, and thestretches of river were longer, and the natives met in canoes werestolidly ignorant of distance. The mourning of turtle-doves almostdrove Ken wild. There were miles and miles of willows, and every treewas full of melancholy doves. At dusk the boys halted on a sand-bar,too tired to cook a dinner, and sprawled in the warm sand to sleep likelogs.
In the morning they brightened up a little, for surely just around thebend they would come to Panuco. Pepe rowed faithfully on, and bendafter bend lured Ken with deceit. He was filled with weariness anddisgust, so tired he could hardly lift his hand, so sleepy he couldscarcely keep his eyes open. He hated the wide, glassy stretches ofriver and the muddy banks and dusty cattle.
At noon they came unexpectedly upon a cluster of thatched huts, to findthat they made up the village of Panuco. Ken was sick, for he hadexpected a little town where they could get some drinking-water and hirea launch to speed them down to Tampico. This appeared little more thanthe other places he had passed, and he climbed up the bank wearily,thinking of the long fifty miles still to go.
But Panuco was bigger and better than it looked from the river. Theboys found a clean, comfortable inn, where they dined well, and learnedto their joy that a coach left in an hour for Tamos to meet thefive-o'clock train to Tampico.
They hired a _mozo_ to row the boat to Tampico and, carrying the lighterthings, boarded the coach, and, behind six mules, were soon bowling overa good level road.
It was here that the spirit of Ken's mood again changed, and somehowseemed subtly conveyed to the others. The gloom faded away as Ken hadseen the mist-clouds dissolve in the morning sunlight. It was the endof another wild trip. Hal was ill, but a rest and proper care wouldsoon bring him around. Ken had some trophies and pictures, but he alsohad memories. And he believed he had acquired an accurate knowledge ofthe jungle and its wild nature, and he had mapped the river from MicasFalls to Panuco.
"Well, it certainly _did come_ to us, didn't it?" asked George, naively,for the hundredth time. "Didn't I tell you? By gosh, I can't rememberwhat did come off. But we had a dandy time."
"Great!" replied Ken. "I had more than I wanted. I'll never springanother stunt like this one!"
Hal gazed smilingly at his brother.
"Bah! Ken Ward, bring on your next old trip!"
Which proved decidedly that Hal was getting better and that he aloneunderstood his brother.
Pepe listened and rubbed his big hands, and there was a light in hisdark eyes.
Ken laughed. It was good to feel happy just then; it was enough to feelsafe and glad in the present, with responsibility removed, without athought of the future.
Yet, when some miles across country he saw the little town of Tamosshining red-roofed against the sky, he came into his own again. The oldcalling, haunting love of wild places and wild nature returned, and withdreamy eyes he looked out. He saw the same beauty and life andwildness. Beyond the glimmering lagoons stretched the dim, dark jungle.A flock of flamingoes showed pink across the water. Ducks dotted theweedy marshes. And low down on the rosy horizon a long curved line ofwild geese sailed into the sunset.
When the boys arrived at Tampico and George had secured comfortablelodgings for them, the first thing Ken did was to put Hal to bed. Itrequired main strength to do this. Ken was not taking any chances withtropical fever, and he sent for a doctor.
It was not clear whether the faces Hal made were at the little dried-updoctor or at the medicine he administered. However, it was very clearthat Hal made fun of him and grew bolder the more he believed the mancould not understand English.
Ken liked the silent, kindly physician, and remonstrated with Hal, andoften, just to keep Hal's mind occupied, he would talk of the universityand baseball, topics that were absorbing to the boy.
And one day, as the doctor was leaving, he turned to Ken with a twinklein his eyes and said in perfect English: "I won't need to come anymore."
Hal's jaw began to drop.
"Your brother is all right," went on the doctor. "But he's a fresh kid,and he'll never make the Wayne Varsity--or a good explorer, either--tillhe gets over that freshness. I'm a Wayne man myself. Class of '82.Good day, boys."
Ken Ward was astounded. "By George! What do you think of that? He's aWayne med. I'll have to look him up. And, Hal, he was just right aboutyou."
Hal looked extremely crestfallen and remorseful.
"I'm always getting jars."
It took a whole day for him to recover his usual spirits.
Ken had promptly sent the specimens and his notes to his uncle, and asthe days passed the boys began to look anxiously for some news. In tendays Hal was as well as ever, and then the boys had such sport with thetarpon and big sharks and alligator-gars that they almost forgot aboutthe rewards they had striven so hard for and hoped to win. But finally,when the mail arrived from home, they were at once happy and fearful.George was with them that evening, and shared their excitement andsuspense. Hal's letters were from his mother and his sister, and theywere read first. Judge Ward's letter to Ken was fatherly andsolicitous, but brief. He gave the boys six more weeks, cautioned themto be sensible and to profit by their opportunity, and he inclosed abank-draft. Not a word about rewards!
Ken's fingers trembled a little as he tore open the uncle's letter. Heread it aloud:
DEAR KEN,--Congratulations! You've done well. You win the trip toAfrica. Hal's work also was good--several specimens accepted by theSmithsonian. I'll back you for the Yucatan trip. Will send letters tothe American consul at Progreso, and arrange for you to meet theAustrian archaeologist Maler, who I hope will take you in hand.
I want you to make a study of some of the ruins of Yucatan, which Ibelieve are as wonderful as any in Egypt. I advise you to make thistrip short and to the point, for there are indications of comingrevolution throughout Mexico.
With best wishes, UNCLE G.
The old varsity cheer rang out from Ken, and Hal began a war-dance.Then both boys pounced upon George, and for a few moments made lifemiserable for him.
"And I can't go with you!" he exclaimed, sorrowfully.
Both Ken and Hal shared his disappointment. But presently. Georgebrightened up. The smile came back which he always wore when prophesyingthe uncertain adventures of the future.
"Well, anyway, I'll be safe home. And you fellows! You'll be gettingyours when you're lost in the wilderness of Yucatan!"
THE END
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