CHAPTER XXVII.
A TRAIL IN THE AIR.
Travellers and tourists who have only seen European forests, cannotimagine the grand, majestic, and sublime view offered by a virgin forestin the New World. There are none of those glades four or five yardswide, stretching out before you, straight and stiff for miles, buteverything is abrupt and savage. There is no prospect, for the eyecannot see more than thirty or forty paces at the most in any direction.The primitive soil has disappeared beneath the detritus of trees deadfrom old age, and which time, rain, and sunshine have reduced to dust.
The trees grow very freely, enveloped by thick lianas, which twinearound the stems and branches in the strangest curves, dashing in everydirection, plunging into the ground to reappear again a yard further on,and chaining the trees together for enormous distances. The wood variesbut slightly in certain districts, and hence, one tree serves therepetition of all. Then again, a grass, close and thick like the strawof a wheat field, grows to a height of five and often six feet.
Suddenly immense pits open beneath the feet of the imprudent traveller,or bogs covered by a crust scarce an inch in thickness, which swallow upin their fetid mud the man who ventures to put a foot on them; furtheron, a stream runs silent and unvisited, forming rapids, and forcing apath with difficulty through the heaps of earth and dead trees which itcollects and deposits on the banks. From this short description it maybe understood that it is not so difficult as might be supposed to passfrom one tree to another for a long distance.
In order, however, to explain this thoroughly to the reader, we willtell him what he is probably ignorant of: that in certain parts of theprairie this mode of travelling is employed, not, as might be supposed,to escape the obstinate pursuit of an enemy, but simply to get on themore rapidly, not to be obliged to cut a path with the axe, and run norisk of falling down a precipice, the more so as most of the trees areenormous, and their solid branches so intertwined, that they thus form aconvenient flooring, at eighty feet above the ground.
Hence Red Cedar's proposition had nothing extraordinary in itself, whenmade to men who had probably tried this mode of locomotion before. Butwhat would have been an easy and simple thing for the adventurers,became serious and almost impossible for a girl like Ellen, who, thoughstrong and skillful, could not take a step without running a risk ofbreaking her neck, owing to her dress catching in every branch. A remedyfor this must be found, and the three men reflected on it for an hour,but discovered nothing which offered the necessary security. It wasEllen again who came to their help, and relieved them from the trouble.
"Well," she asked her father, "what are we doing here? Why do we notstart? Did you not say we had not a moment to lose?"
Red Cedar shook his head.
"I said so, and it is true; each moment we lose robs us of a day oflife."
"Let us be off, then."
"It is not possible yet, my child, till I have found what I am seeking."
"What is it, father? Tell, me, perhaps I can help you."
"Bah!" Red Cedar said, suddenly making up his mind, "Why should I make asecret of what concerns you as much as myself?"
"What is it, then, father?"
"Hang it all, your confounded gown, which renders it impossible for youto leap from one branch to another as we shall do."
"Is that all that troubles you?"
"Yes, nothing else."
"Well then, you were wrong not to speak to me sooner, for the evil wouldhave been repaired, and we on the road."
"Is it true?" the squatter exclaimed joyfully.
"You shall see how quickly it will be done."
The girl rose, and disappeared behind a clump. In ten minutes shereturned; her gown was so arranged that while allowing her the free useof her limbs, it no longer floated, and consequently ran no risk ofbeing entangled in the trees.
"Here I am," she said, with a laugh; "how do you find me?"
"Admirable."
"Well, then, we will start when you please."
"At once."
Red Cedar made his final preparations; these were not long, for he hadbut to remove all traces of his encampment. More difficult still, noneof the pursuers, if they happened to pass that way, should be able todiscover the road taken by the adventurers. In consequence, Red Cedartook his daughter on his muscular shoulders, and heading the party inIndian file he followed for about an hour the road taken by Nathan.Then, he and his comrades returning, marching backwards, graduallyeffacing the footprints, not so carefully that they could not bediscovered, but sufficiently so for those who found them not to supposethey had been left expressly.
After two hours of this fatiguing march, during which the adventurershad not exchanged a syllable, they reached a granite plateau, where theywere enabled to rest for a few moments without any fear of leaving atrail, for the rock was too hard to take their footprints.
"Ouf!" Fray Ambrosio muttered, "I am not sorry to take breath, for thisis the devil's own work."
"What, are you tired already, senor Padre?" Sutter replied with a grin;"You are beginning early; but wait a while; what you have done isnothing compared with what you have to do."
"I doubt whether the road we shall now follow can present so manydifficulties; if so, we had better give it up."
"Well, if you prefer making a present of your scalp to those demons ofComanches, it is the easiest thing in the world; you need only remainquietly, where you are, and you may be certain they will soon pay you avisit. You know that the redskins are like vultures; fresh meat attractsthem, and they scent it for a long distance."
"Canarios! I would sooner be roasted at a slow fire than fall into thehands of those accursed pagans."
"Come, come," Red Cedar interposed, "all that talking is of no use--whatis written is written--no one can escape his destiny; hence, troublingoneself about what is going to happen is folly, take my word for it."
"Well said, Red Cedar; you have spoken like a man of great good sense,and I am completely of your opinion. Well, what have you to say to us?"
"I believe that, thanks to the manoeuvre we have employed, we havemanaged to hide our trail so cleverly, that the demon himself could notguess the direction we have taken. The first part of our task has beenaccomplished without an obstacle; now let us not betray ourselves byimprudence or extreme precipitation. I have brought you here, because,as you see, the virgin forest begins at the end of this platform. Themost difficult task is to climb the first tree without leaving a trail;as for the rest, it is merely a question of skill. Leave me to act as Ithink proper, and I warrant you will have no cause to repent it."
"I know it; so, for my part, I assure you that you are quite at libertyto act as you please."
"Very good; that is what we will do; you see that enormous branchjutting out about thirty feet above our heads?"
"I see it--what next?"
"I will seize its end with my lasso, and we will pull it down till ittouches the ground; we will hold it so while daughter mounts and reachesthe higher branches; you will pass next, then Sutter, and myself last;in that way we shall leave no sign of our ascent."
"Your idea is very ingenious, I approve of it highly, especially as thatway of mounting will be easy for your daughter and myself, while Sutterwill not have much trouble. Still one thing bothers me."
"Out with it."
"So long as anyone is here to hold the branch, of course it will remainbent; but when we are up and you remain alone, how will you follow us?That I do not understand, and I confess I should not be sorry to learnit."
Red Cedar burst into a laugh.
"That need not bother you, senor Padre; I am too much used to the desertnot to calculate my slightest actions."
"As it is so, we will say no more it. What I said was through theinterest I take in you."
The squatter looked him in the face.
"Listen, Fray Ambrosio," he said as he laid his hand lightly on hisshoulder, "we have known one another for a long while, so let us have nofalsehoo
ds; we shall never manage to divine each other, so let us remainas we are. Is that agreed, eh?"
The monk was upset by this harsh address; he lost countenance, andstammered a few words. Red Cedar had taken his lasso, and row whirled itround his head. He had measured so exactly, that the running knot caughtthe end of the branch.
"Help, all!" the squatter shouted.
Under their united efforts the branch gradually bent down to the levelof the platform, as Red Cedar had foreseen.
"Make haste; Ellen, make haste, my child!" he shouted to the maiden.
The latter did not need any repetition of the invitation; she ranlightly along the branch, and in a twinkling was leaning against thestem. By her father's request she mounted to the upper branches, amongwhich she disappeared.
"It is your turn, Fray Ambrosio," the squatter said.
The monk disappeared in the same way.
"It is yours, lad," the squatter said.
Sutter rejoined the other two. When left alone, Red Cedar put forth allhis strength to hold the branch down, while he clung to its lowersurface with his hand and feet. So soon as the branch was no longer helddown, it rose, with a shrill whistle and a rapidity enough to make himgiddy. The tree trembled to its roots. Ellen uttered a cry of terror andclosed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw her father astrideon the end of the tree engaged in unfastening the running knot of hislasso, after which the squatter rose with perfect calmness, and whilerolling the lasso round his loins, joined his companions.
"Well," he said to them, "you see it is finished; now we must continueour journey; are you ready?"
"Quite," they all said.
We repeat our assertion, that with the exception of the strangeness ofthe road, this way of travelling had nothing dangerous or eveninconvenient about it, owing to the immense network of lianas thattwined capriciously round the trees and the interlaced branches. Theparty proceeded, almost without perceiving it, from one tree to theother, constantly suspended over an abyss of sixty, even eighty, feet indepth.
Beneath them they at times perceived the wild beasts which they troubledin their mysterious lairs, and which, with outstretched necks andflashing eyes, watched them pass in surprise, not understanding whatthey saw. They marched thus the whole day, stopping for a moment to takebreath, and starting again immediately. They had crossed, still on theirfloating bridge, a rather wide stream, and would soon find themselves inthe lowlands.
It was about five in the evening; the beams of the setting sunlengthened the shadows of the trees; the owls, attracted by the startledflight of the beetles, of which they are excessively fond, were alreadyflying about; a dense vapour rose from the ground, and formed a mist, inwhich the four persons almost disappeared: all, in a word, announcedthat night would soon set in.
Red Cedar had taken the lead of the little party for fear lest hiscompanions might take a wrong direction in the inextricable labyrinth ofthe virgin forest; for at the height where they were the outlines of theground entirely disappeared, and only an immense chaos of tuftedbranches and interlaced creepers could be seen.
"Hilloa, gossip!" Fray Ambrosio said, who, little accustomed to longwalks, and weakened by the lengthened privations he had gone through,had walked for some time with extreme difficulty, "Shall we soon stop? Iwarn you that I can go no further."
The squatter turned sharply and laid his large hand on the monk's mouth.
"Silence!" he hissed; "Silence, if you value your scalp!"
"Cristo, if I value it!" the other muttered, with a movement of terror;"But what is happening fresh?"
Red Cedar cautiously moved a mass of leaves, and made a sign to hiscomrades to imitate him.
"Look," he said.
In a second the monk drew himself back with features convulsed withterror.
"Oh," he said, "this time we are lost!"
He tottered, and would have fallen, had not the squatter seized him bythe arm.
"What is to be done?" he said.
"Wait," Red Cedar coldly answered: "our position for the present is notso desperate; you see them, but they do not see us."
Fray Ambrosio shook his head sadly,
"You have led us to our ruin," he said, reproachfully.
"You are an ass," Red Cedar answered with contempt; "do I not risk asmuch as you? Did I not warn you that we were surrounded? Leave me toact, I tell you."