CHAPTER I--JAGUAR AND HYDROPLANE
The level rays of the early sun were struggling with the mist thatlingered upon a broad full river, like a sluggard loth to quit his bed.As yet the contest was unequal, for the banks of the stream were coveredwith trees and shrubs, crowding upon one another as if in competitionfor elbow-room, through whose thick ravelled foliage the sunbeams couldnot clear a way. Here and there, however, the dense screen was partedby little alleys or open spaces carpeted with grass or moss, and throughthese a golden radiance shone, dispersing the mist, and throwing aglistening pathway across the river.
At one such glade, withdrawn a little from the brink, stood a jaguar,which, from moment to moment, lifted its head and gave utterance to aroar. It faced the stream: its tail lashed its flanks, to the annoyanceof countless flies which would fain have found a temporary lodgment inits sleek and glossy coat. It roared, and roared again, with curiouspersistence, for the mere pleasure of roaring, an observer might havethought. And yet such a person, had he been worthy of the nameobserver, would have detected a reason for this strange behaviour. Hadhe watched the surface of the water opposite to where the jaguar stood,he would have marked a gradual assembling of greenish-yellow objects,scaly and hard; and, set in each, two glassy leering eyes. They were infact the snouts of alligators, or caymans as they are known inVenezuela.
Moment by moment the assemblage increased, the hideous creatures gapingat the jaguar like an enraptured audience at a popular baritone. Thequadruped, indeed, was executing his solo for their amusement, thoughhardly for their benefit. One could have fancied, as the audience grew,that he derived encouragement from their presence, and exerted himselfwith ever greater abandon. The performance, however, came to an endsurprisingly abrupt. Suddenly the roarer turned his head up-stream andset off with lolloping gait along a winding track that led among thetrees. The observer, following him, would have seen him force his waythrough the undergrowth, now leaping a fallen trunk that lay across hispath, now pressing his body through a tangle that might have seemedimpenetrable.
Meanwhile the caymans also had turned upstream, and swam after thejaguar, like an idle crowd following at the heels of a street singer.But though their movements were rapid, they had to stem the current, andthe object of their solicitation drew away from them. Nor did he stopto practise his vocal powers again. Steadily he pursued his way untilhe had left them a mile or more behind. Then, compelled to strike offto the left by a peculiarly dense mass of thorn, he quitted the brink ofthe stream for a few yards. Coming upon it again through a glade, helooked warily about him, advancing with slow and stealthy tread. It wasat this spot that he purposed to cross the river. All at once hestopped short, and sinking to the ground, lay motionless, scarcelydistinguishable from the jungle around him, so closely did his colouringharmonize with it. In a few moments, with the silent undulatingmovement of a cat stalking a bird, he crept forward. No caymans werenear; having attracted them by his vocalization he had left them in thelurch, and was content. But on a branch of a tree overhanging the riverhe had spied the form of a dark-skinned man stretched at full length.The hunted was now the hunter. The reptiles had lost their victim; hein his turn was intent on seizing his prey.
The man lay close upon the branch, his eyes fixed upon some object onthe farther bank, a little distance up-stream. The tree being rooted inthe base of the bank, which here rose a few yards above the river, thejaguar was somewhat higher than the man, stretched all unsuspecting upona lower bough. Noiselessly, without so much as a rustle, the animalglided down the face of the bank, and coming to the tree, began to climbup the slanting trunk behind his destined victim. No ear could havedetected his furtive movements; the man's attention was absorbed by theobject of his gaze; yet, when the beast was only a few feet from him,some instinct warned him of impending danger. He turned his head, andbeheld the savage creature crouching for a spring. Quick as thought,the man rolled himself round the branch, and dropped with a heavy splashinto the river. The jaguar was already launched in air when the man letgo his hold, but instead of striking his prey, he lighted on the vacantbranch. The force of his spring was too great to be checked by the gripof his claws upon the bark. He lost his footing, and fell plump intothe water where it still eddied from the plunge of the man.
A hundred yards up the river, moored to a tree-stump in the furtherbank, lay a motor-boat of unusual shape. Its only occupant, a youngwhite man, in the act of casting off, had looked up when he heard thefirst splash. Before he could see what had caused it, the jaguartumbled headlong from the branch. With the instinct of a sportsman, theyoung man instantly stretched his hand towards the rifle that lay at hisside, only to draw it back as he remembered that the charge was smallshot. The head of the jaguar appeared above the surface; the white manwondered what had caused the first splash, but seeing the animalswimming downstream he was not specially interested, and was on thepoint of lifting his mooring-rope on board when he suddenly caught sightof a black head on the surface, a little beyond the jaguar. It was thehead of a man swimming desperately towards the nearer bank.
Will Pentelow was interested enough now. The jaguar also had seen theswimming man, and with a low snarl started in pursuit. There was littlechance of the swimmer gaining the bank before the beast. Even if hedid, it would merely be to fall a prey. Flinging the rope into thebottom of the boat, Will pressed the lever. The little vessel started,and, assisted by a four-knot current, rapidly gathered way. But the manand the jaguar were also helped by the current, though they wereswimming diagonally across the stream. They were so near to each othernow that Will doubted whether, at the full speed of the engine, he couldovertake them in time to intervene. If he fired, the spreading of theshot would injure the man as well as the beast. Our observer wouldcertainly have concluded that the swimmer was doomed.
Suddenly, however, the boat shot forward with marvellous velocity. Thebow, or rather the platform at the forepart, rose clean out of thewater, and the vessel seemed to skim along the surface. Fast as thejaguar was overhauling the man, the vessel was still faster closing inupon the jaguar. Will steered straight upon the tawny head. The boatappeared to fly along.
Hitherto the jaguar had been so intent upon his victim as to beoblivious of all else. Even the whirring of the propeller had notstruck upon his senses. But when no more than three yards separated himfrom the man, he became suddenly aware that he in his turn was pursued.He turned half round, to see a rushing monster almost upon him. Inanother instant there was a heavy thud; the boat quivered from stem tostern, but with no perceptible slackening of speed passed clean over thespot where the animal had been.
A few moments more, and the hydroplane was floating on the water like anordinary boat. Looking back, Will saw the swimmer scramble up the bank.Almost opposite him was the jaguar's head, bobbing up and down on thesurface. The impact of the vessel had broken the creature's back.Immediately the Indian caught sight of it, he rushed along the bank inpursuit. The animal disappeared, but emerged again a few yards lowerdown. Then the man drew a knife from his belt, and plunged into theriver. A few strokes brought him level with the carcase, and catchingit by the ear, he drew it after him to the bank.
Meanwhile Will Pentelow had turned his vessel round, and, driving heragainst the current, came opposite to the Indian just as he reached thebank. The ground was steep and slippery, and the man was unable to dragthe huge body out of the water. Will glanced all round with a cautionborn of familiarity with this haunt of caymans; but reflecting that thehydroplane would have scared away any of the dread reptiles that mighthave been lurking near, he threw out an anchor, and waded to theassistance of the Indian. Together they heaved the carcase out of thewater and threw it on the bank. Then they looked at each other.