Bunyip Land: A Story of Adventure in New Guinea

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

  HOW THE DOCTOR TOOK ME IN HAND.

  It is surprising how elastic the mind is in young people, and myexperience has shown me that there is a great deal of resemblancebetween the minds of savages and those of the young.

  In this case we had all been, I may say, in a state of the most terribledespair one hour. The next, our black companions were laughing andchattering over their wet damper, and Jimmy was hopping about in thehighest of glee, while I must confess to a singular feeling ofexhilaration which I showed in company with Jack Penny, who, afterresuming his garments, seemed to have been seized with the idea that theproper thing to do was to go round from one to another administeringfriendly slaps on the shoulder accompanied by nods and smiles.

  I used to wish that Jack Penny would not smile, for the effect upon hissmooth boyish countenance was to make him look idiotic. When the doctorsmiled there was a grave kindly benevolent look in his fineheavily-bearded massive face. When Jimmy smiled it was in a wholesalefashion, which gave you an opportunity of counting his teeth from theincisors right back to those known as wisdom-teeth at the angles of hisjaws. He always smiled with all his might and made me think of the manwho said he admired a crocodile because it had such a nice opencountenance.

  Jimmy had a nice open countenance and a large mouth; but it in norespect resembled a crocodile's. His regular teeth were white with achina whiteness, more than that of ivory, and there was a genuinegood-tempered look about his features which even the distortion producedby anger did not take away. It was only the rather comic grotesquenessseen sometimes in the face of a little child when he is what his mothercalls a naughty boy, and distends his mouth and closes his eyes for agenuine howl.

  But Jack Penny had a smile of his own, a weak inane sickly smile thatirritated instead of pleasing you, and made you always feel as if youwould like to punch his head for being such a fool, when all the time hewas not a fool at all, but a thoroughly good-hearted, brave, and cleverfellow--true as steel--steel of the very elastic watch-spring kind, forthe way in which he bent was terrible to see.

  So Jack Penny went about smiling and slapping people's backs till it wastime to go, and we all watched the cessation of the flood witheagerness.

  The doctor, in talking, said that it was evident that this gorge ranright up into quite a mountainous region acting as a drain to perhaps ascore of valleys which had been flooded by the sudden storm, and thatthis adventure had given us as true an idea of the nature of theinterior we were about to visit as if we had studied a map.

  Down went the water more and more swiftly till, as I was saying to thedoctor how grand it must have been to see the flood rolling over thegreat fall, we saw that the rocky ledge along which we had come and thaton the other side of our little haven of safety were bare and drying up,being washed perfectly clean and not showing so much as a trace of mud.

  "Let us get on at once," the doctor said; "this is no road for atraveller to choose, for the first storm will again make it adeath-trap."

  So here we were rescued, and we started at once, every one carefullyavoiding the slightest reference to the fate of our pursuers, while inthe broad light of day, in place of looking terrible, the chasm wassimply grand. The cool rolling water seemed to bring with it a softsweet breeze that made us feel elastic, and refreshed us as we trudgedalong at an ordinary rate, for there was no fear now of pursuit.

  So with one or two halts we walked on all day till I felt eager to getout from between the prison-like walls to where the trees were waving,and we could hear the voices of the birds. Here there was nothing butstone, stone as high as we could see.

  It was a great drawback our not being able to converse with the bearers,but we amended this a little every hour, for Ti-hi struggled hard tomake us understand how much he knew about the place and how he knew thatthere were such floods as this from time to time.

  We managed to learn from him, too, that we should not escape from thegorge that night, and to our dismay we had to encamp on a broad shelfwhen the sun went down; but the night proved to be clear and calm, andmorning broke without any adventure to disturb our much-needed rest.

  The gorge had been widening out, though, a great deal on the previousevening, and by noon next day, when we paused for a rest after a longtramp over constantly-rising ground, we were beyond risk from any suchstorm as that which had nearly been our destruction, but as we restedamid some bushes beside what was a mere gurgling stream, one of severalinto which the river had branched, Ti-hi contrived to make us understandthat we were not in safety, for there were people here who were ready tofight and kill, according to his words and pantomimic action, whichJimmy took upon himself to explain.

  For days and days we journeyed on finding abundance of food in the riverand on its banks by means of gun and hook and line. The blacks wereclever, too, at finding for us roots and fruit, with tender shoots ofsome kind of grassy plant that had a sweet taste, pleasantly acid aswell, bunches of which Jimmy loved to stick behind him in his waistbandso that it hung down like a bushy green tail that diminished as hewalked, for he kept drawing upon it till it all was gone.

  Now and then, too, we came upon the great pale-green broad leaves of abanana or plantain, which was a perfect treasure.

  Jimmy was generally the first to find these, for he was possessed of afine insight into what was good for food.

  "Regular fellow for the pot," Jack Penny said one day as Jimmy set upone of his loud whoops and started off at a run.

  This was the first time we found a plantain, and in answer to Jimmy's_cooey_ we followed and found him hauling himself up by the largeleaf-stalks, to where, thirty feet above the bottom, hung, like abrobdignagian bunch of elongated grapes, a monstrous cluster of yellowplantains.

  "I say, they ain't good to eat, are they?" said Jack, as Jimmy beganhacking through the curved stalk.

  "Yup, yup! hyi, hyi!" shouted Jimmy, tearing away so vigorously at thegreat bunch that it did not occur to him that he was proceeding in amanner generally accredited to the Irishman who sawed off a branch,cutting between himself and the tree.

  The first knowledge he, and for the matter of fact we, had of hismistake, was seeing him and the bunch of bananas, weighing about ahundredweight, come crashing down amongst the undergrowth, out of atangle of which, and the huge leaves of the plantain tree, we had tohelp our black companion, whose first motion was to save the fruit.

  This done he began to examine himself to see how much he was hurt, andended by seizing my axe and bounding back into the jungle, to hew andhack at the tree till we called him back.

  "Big bunyip tree! Fro black fellow down," he cried furiously. "Got umbana, though!" he exclaimed triumphantly, and turning to the big bunchhe began to separate it into small ones, giving us each a portion tocarry.

  "I say, what's these?" said Jack Penny, handling his bunch with a lookof disgust.

  "Bananas," I said. "Splendid fruit food."

  "How do you know?" said Jack sourly. "There's none in your garden athome."

  "My father has often told me about them," I replied. "They are rich andnutritious, and--let's try."

  I ended my description rather abruptly, for I was thirsty and hungry aswell, and the presence of a highly flavoured fruit was not to be treatedwith contempt.

  I cut off one then, and looking at Jack nodded, proceeded to peel it,and enjoyed the new sweet vegetable butter, flavoured with pear andhoney, for the first time in my life.

  "Is it good?" said Jack, dubiously.

  "Splendid," I said.

  "Why, they look like sore fingers done up in stalls," he said. "I say,I don't like the look of them."

  "Don't have any, then," I said, commencing another; while every onepresent, the doctor included, followed my example with so much vigourthat Jack began in a slow solemn way, peeling and tasting, and making astrange grimace, and ending by eating so rapidly that the doctor adviseda halt.

  "Oh, all right!" said Jack. "I won't eat any more, t
hen. But, I say,they are good!"

  There was no likelihood of our starving, for water was abundant, andfruit to be found by those who had such energetic hunters as the blacks.So we proceeded steadily on, hoping day by day either to encounter somefriendly tribe, or else to make some discovery that might be of value tous in our search.

  And so for days we journeyed on, hopeful in the morning, dispirited inthe heat of the day when weary. Objects such as would have made gladthe heart of any naturalist were there in plenty, but nothing in theshape of sign that would make our adventure bear the fruit we wished.If our object had been hunting and shooting, wild pig, deer, and birdsinnumerable were on every hand. Had we been seeking wonderful orchidsand strangely shaped flowers and fruits there was reward incessant forus, but it seemed as if the whole of the interior was given up to wildnature, and that the natives almost exclusively kept to the land nearthe sea-shore.

  The doctor and I sat one night by our watch-fire talking the matterover, and I said that I began to be doubtful of success.

  "Because we have been all over the country?" he replied, smiling.

  "Well, we have travelled a great way," I said.

  "Why, my dear boy, what we have done is a mere nothing. This island isnext in size to Australia. It is almost a continent, and we have justpenetrated a little way."

  "But I can't help seeing," I said, "that the people seem to be alldwellers near the sea-coast."

  "Exactly. What of that?" he replied.

  "Then if my poor father were anywhere a prisoner, he would have beensure to have found some means of communicating with the traders if hehad not escaped."

  "Your old argument, Joe," he said. "Are you tired of the quest?"

  "Tired? No!" I cried excitedly.

  "Then recollect the spirit in which we set about this search. We saidwe would find him."

  "And so we will: my mind is made up to find him--if he be living," Iadded mournfully.

  "Aha!" said the doctor, bending forward and looking at me by the lightof the burning wood, "I see, my fine fellow, I see. We are a bit upsetwith thinking and worry. Nerves want a little tone, eh? as we doctorssay. My dear boy, I shall have to feel your pulse and put you to bedfor a day or two. This is a nice high and dry place: suppose we camphere for a little, and--"

  "Oh no, no, doctor," I cried.

  "But I say, Oh yes, yes. Why, Joe, you're not afraid of a dose ofphysic, are you? You want something, that's evident. Boys of your agedon't have despondent fits without a cause."

  "I have only been thinking a little more about home, and--my poorfather," I said with a sigh.

  "My dear Joe," said the doctor, "once for all I protest against thatdespondent manner of speaking. `My poor father!' How do you know he ispoor? Bah! lad: you're a bit down, and I shall give you a littlequinine. To-morrow you will rest all day."

  "And then?" I said excitedly.

  "Then," he said thoughtfully--"then? Why, then we'll have a fishing ora shooting trip for a change, to do us both good, and we'll take JackPenny and Jimmy with us."

  "Let's do that to-morrow, doctor," I said, "instead of my lying here incamp."

  "Will you take your quinine, then, like a good boy?" he said laughingly.

  "That I will, doctor--a double dose," I exclaimed. "A double dose youshall take, Joe, my lad," he said; and to my horror he drew a littleflat silver case out of his pocket, measured out a little light whitepowder on the blade of a knife into our pannikin, squeezed into it a fewdrops of the juice of a lemon-like fruit of which we had a pretty goodnumber every day, filled up with water, and held it for me to drink.

  "Oh, I say, doctor!" I exclaimed, "I did not think I should be broughtout here in the wilderness to be physicked."

  "Lucky fellow to have a medical man always at your side," he replied."There, sip it up. No faces. Pish! it wasn't nasty, was it?"

  "Ugh! how bitter!" I cried with a shudder.

  "Bitter? Well, yes; but how sweet to know that you have had a dose ofthe greatest medicine ever discovered. There, now, lie down on theblanket near the fire here, never mind being a little warm, and go tosleep."

  I obeyed him unwillingly, and lay attentively watching the doctor'sthoughtful face and the fire. Then I wondered whether we should havethat savage beast again which had haunted our camp at our firststarting, and then I began to dose off, and was soon dreaming of havingfound my father, and taken him in triumph back to where my mother waswaiting to receive us with open arms.