CHAPTER NINE.
THE CASCADE.
The canoe carrying the two men continued slowly to descend the course ofthe river--the negro felicitating himself on his escape from the clawsof the jaguars; while the thoughts of the Indian were dwelling withregret upon his want of success.
Clara, however, did not enjoy an unalloyed satisfaction. The jaguarshad fled, it was true, but in what direction? It was evident they hadgone down stream, and might be encountered below.
This thought troubling Clara, he inquired of his companion if there wasany probability of their again falling in with this dangerous enemy.
"Probable enough," responded Costal, "and more than probable. If wedescend below the cascade, we shall be almost certain of seeing thejaguars there. The carcass of a fine young colt is not to be met withevery day; and these brutes can reason like a man. They know wellthough that the current will carry the floating body over the fall, andthat, below, it will be rendered up to them again. I do not say it willthen be whole; for I have seen the trunks of great trees broken intofragments from being carried over that very cascade."
"Then you really think the jaguars may be waiting below?"
"No doubt but they will be there. If I don't mistake, you shall heartheir roar before ten minutes have passed, and it will come from thebottom of the cascade, just where our business is now taking us."
"But they may feel inclined to take revenue on us for having driven themfrom the carcass?"
"And if they should, what care I? Not a straw. _Vamos_! friend Clara,we've given too much thought to these animals. Fortunately we have notlost much; and now to our affair. The young moon will be up in a trice,and I must invoke Tlaloc, the god of the waters, to bestow some gold onthe Caciques of Tehuantepec."
The two men had by this time arrived at the place from which the canoehad been taken; and here both disembarked, Costal carefully refasteningthe craft to the trunk of the willow. Then leaving his companion, hewalked off down the bank alone.
"Do not go far away!" said Clara, entreatingly, still troubled with thefear of the jaguars.
"Bah!" exclaimed Costal, "I leave my gun with you!"
"Oh, indeed!" murmured the negro; "what signifies that? one bullet forfour tigers!"
Without vouchsafing any reply to this last speech, the Indian advanced alittle farther along the bank, and then came to a pause. A large treegrew upon the edge of the stream, its branches extending outwards. Intothis he climbed; and then stretching out his arms over the water, hecommenced chaunting a lugubrious measure--a species of Indianinvocation, of which Clara could hear the words, but without in theleast comprehending their signification.
There was something in the wild melody of the Indian's voice to causehis companion a certain mysterious dread; and this was increased byadditional notes of an equally mournful character that came pealing upthe ravine, mingling with the hoarse roaring of the cascade. It was thescream of the jaguar; though it actually appeared as if some demon wasanswering to the invocations of the Indian. The lugubrious chaunt ofthe pagan, and the coincident scream of the tiger, formed a kind ofinfernal accompaniment, well calculated to strike awe into the mind ofone of Clara's superstitious race; and as he stood upon the bank hefancied he saw fiery eyes glaring upon him through the leaves, and theSiren with the dishevelled hair rising above the surface of the water.
A double chill passed through his black skin, from the soles of his feetto the roots of his kinky hair.
At this moment Costal returned to him.
"Are you ready?" inquired the Indian.
"For what?"
"To accompany me to the cascade--there to invoke the Siren, and ask ifshe may be seen."
"What! down there, where the tigers are roaring?"
"Oh, a fig for them! Remember, Clara, it is gold _we_ seek; and,believe me, if fortunate in our application, the Siren will tell uswhere it is to be found. Gold in masses!"
"Enough!" cried Clara, overcome by the rich prospect. "I am with you,"continued he--"lead on! From this hour I am the slave of the Siren whocan show us the _placers_ of gold!"
The Indian took up his hat and carbine, both of which he had laid asidewhile chaunting his invocation; and, throwing the gun over his shoulder,started down stream. Clara followed close at his heels--his spiritalternately possessed with cupidity and fear.
As they advanced, the banks rose higher above the surface of the stream,and the channel became the bottom of a deep, narrow ravine, where thewater rushed foaming among rocks. The great trees growing on each sidestretched towards one another, until their branches interlocked, forminga dark sombre tunnel underneath. At the lower end of this, the stream,once more bursting forth into light, leaped vertically at one boundthrough a space of two hundred feet sheer, falling into the bottom of adeep gorge, with a noise louder than the roar of the mighty ocean.
Just where the foaming flood broke over the crest of the rocks, grew twoenormous cypresses of the kind known to the Mexicans as _ahuehuetes_, or"lords of the water." They stood on opposite sides of the stream, withtheir long arms extended towards each other. Thickly loaded withllianas, and profusely festooned with the silvery Spanish moss, which,drooping downwards, every now and then dipped into the foaming arch ofthe cascade, these two great trees looked like the ancient genii of thewaters.
At this point the two men made a halt. Although they were now very nearto the place where the jaguars were supposed to be, Clara had becomemore regardless of the danger. His fear, both of wild beasts and evilspirits, had yielded to his thirst for gold, which had been graduallygrowing stronger.
"Now, Clara!" said Costal, turning a severe look upon his comrade;"listen attentively to the instructions I am about to give you. If theSiren should appear to you, and you should exhibit, either by look orgesture, the slightest symptoms of fear, you are a lost man!"
"All right!" replied the negro. "The hope of being shown a mine of goldgives me courage to risk even my neck in a halter, if need be. Neverfear, Costal. Speak on--I am ready to listen."
As the negro pronounced these words, his countenance to all appearanceexpressed as much firmness as that of Costal himself. The Indian, thusassured, seated himself upon the very edge of the precipice, overlookingthe gorge into which the waters were precipitated, while Clara, withoutinvitation, sat down by his side.