Rob Harlow's Adventures: A Story of the Grand Chaco

  CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

  PEACE IN THE FOREST.

  The three sufferers had no illness to fight against, and began to regaintheir normal strength very rapidly, while nature was hiding thedestruction wrought upon the face of the land at a rapid rate. Tropicalshowers washed the mud left by the flood from leaf and twig, and thelower boughs, which had been stripped of leaves by the rushing waters,put forth new ones, so that in a very few days' time not many traces ofthe flood were visible, save where banks had crumbled in and great gapsof broken earth stood out.

  Fully equipped once more, Brazier, as he regained his strength, went onadding to his collection of choice plants, which had come back to himintact; and as they dropped on and on down the river, finding clearingsat pretty frequent intervals, greater and greater grew the naturalstores of botanical treasures, so that the collector was more thansatisfied with Shaddy's guiding.

  "But what I want to know is how we are to get back," Rob said over andover again. "We shall never be able to pull the boat up again."

  Shaddy chuckled.

  "Might have another big storm and a flood, Mr Rob," he said, "and getback as Mr Jovanni did."

  "But you don't mean to go back that way?"

  "Right, sir! I don't. But you go on with your fishing and shooting,and let Mr Brazier do his vegetables up in his baskets. Leave the restto me."

  The task was left to him, and they went on down the river day after daytill one evening they rounded a bend, and, in obedience to theirleader's orders, the boat was rowed into a narrow stream which joinedthat which they had left, the junction being plainly marked by thedistinct colour of the waters.

  "Going up this, Naylor?" asked Brazier wonderingly.

  "Yes, sir. It's the place I've been making for, and I'm thinking you'llfind something quite fresh along here, for it leads up into higherground on and on into the mountains, where the trees and flowers arequite different."

  "Of course--yes," said Brazier eagerly. "Let's go up it."

  "But there's one thing to be said, sir."

  "What's that?"

  "We shall have to be careful."

  "Is the river dangerous?"

  "Tidy, sir; but we can get over that. It's the Indians."

  "Indians?"

  "Yes, sir; some of them may be along the side, but if we are on thewatch and take care, being well armed and a fairly strong party, I thinkthey are not likely to interfere with us much."

  Rob pricked up his ears at this as they began gliding up the stream,noting the difference directly, for it was far less powerful, the menhaving no difficulty at all in forcing the boat along, save here andthere where they encountered a rapid, up which they thrust the boat withpoles.

  "Did you hear what old Shaddy said?" Rob whispered to his companion.

  "Yes. We shall have to look out then and have our guns ready."

  "But have the Indians guns?"

  "No, spears and blowpipes, through which they send poisoned arrows."

  "Ugh!" ejaculated Rob uneasily.

  "Horrid things! Shaddy has often told me about them," said Joe.

  "What has he often told you about, my lad?"

  The boys started, for the old sailor had approached them unheard.

  "Indians' blowpipes," said Joe.

  "Ah, yes; they're not nice things, my lads. Can't say as I would liketo be killed by one of their arrows."

  "Why?" said Rob. "What are they like?"

  "Stop a moment, my lad, and I'll tell you."

  He left them to give some instructions to the men as to the use of theirpoles, but returned directly.

  "Know what we're doing now?" he said, with one of his dry quaint smileson his weather-beaten face.

  "Yes, going up this river."

  "Right, my lad! But we're going upstairs like. You'll see we shallkeep on rowing along smooth stretches where the water seems easy; thenwe shall come to rapids and have to pole on against a swift rush ofwater, and every time we get to the top of the rapid into smooth waterwe shall have gone up one of my water steps, and so by degrees get rightup into the mountains."

  "Why are we going up into the mountains? Is it to get back to the mainriver?" said Rob.

  "Wait a bit, my lad, and you'll see. Besides, Mr Brazier'll get plantsup here such as he never saw before. But you were talking about theIndians and their blowpipes. I don't mind the blowpipes; it's thearrows."

  "Poisonous?"

  "Horrid, my lad. They're only little bits of things with a tuff ofcotton at one end and the wood at the other sharpened into a point, butthey dip it into poison, and just before they shoot it out of theblowpipe they hold it nipped between the jaws of one of those littlesharp-toothed piranis, then give it a bit of a twirl with their fingers,and the teeth saw it nearly through."

  "What's the use of that?" asked Rob.

  "Makes it so that the arrow breaks off and leaves the point in thewound. Anything don't live very long with one of those points left inits skin."

  "Think we shall meet any Indians, Shaddy?" said Joe.

  "Maybe yes, my lad; maybe no. You never know. They come and go likewild beasts--tigers, lions, and such-like."

  "Do you think my lion will follow us, Shaddy?" said Rob eagerly.

  "No, my lad; I don't. He had a long swim before him to get to shore;and it's my belief that he would be 'tacked and pulled under before hehad gone very far."

  "How horrible!"

  "Yes, my lad; seems horrid, but I don't know. Natur's very curious. Ifhe was pulled under to be eaten it was only to stop him from pullingother creatures down and eating them. That's the way matters go on outin these forests where life swarms, and from top to bottom one thing'skilling and eating another. It's even so with the trees, as I've toldyou: the biggest and strongest kill the weak 'uns, and live upon 'em.It's all nature's way, my lads, and a good one."

  "Well, we don't want the Indians to kill us, Shaddy," said Rob merrily.

  "And they shan't, my lad, if I can help it. Perhaps we mayn't see anyof them, and one side of the river's safe, so we shall keep that side;but if they come any of their nonsense with us they must be taught tokeep to themselves with a charge or two of small shot. If that don'tteach them to leave respectable people alone they must taste largershot. I don't want to come to bullets 'cept as a last resource."

  "I should have liked to have found the puma again," said Rob after atime.

  "Perhaps it's as well not, my lad," said their guide. "It was all verywell, and he liked you, but some day he'd have grown older, and he'dhave turned rusty, and there would have been a fight, and before he waskilled you might have been badly clawed. Wild beasts don't tame verywell. You can trust dogs and cats, which are never so happy as whenthey are with human folk; but I never knew any one who did very wellwith other things. Ah, here's another of my steps!"

  He went to his men again, for they were rowing along a smooth-glidingreach, at the end of which rough water appeared, and all hands werecalled into requisition to help the boat up the long stretch of rapids,at the end of which, as they glided into smooth water again, Shaddydeclared that they had mounted a good twenty feet.

  Day after day was spent in this steady journeying onward. The weatherwas glorious, and the forest on either side looked as if it had neverbeen trod by man. So full of wonders, too, was it for Brazier, thatagain and again as night closed in, and they moored on their right tosome tree for the men to land and light their fire and cook, he thankedtheir guide for bringing him, as the first botanist, to a region whereevery hour he collected treasures.

  "And some folk would sneer at the pretty things, and turn away becausethey weren't gold, or silver, or precious stones," muttered Shaddy.

  All this time almost imperceptibly they were rising and climbingShaddy's water steps, as he had called them. They fished and hadsuccess enough to keep their larder well stocked. Birds were shot suchas were excellent eating, and twice over Shaddy brought down iguanas,which, though looked upon with
distrust by the travellers, were welcomedby the boatmen, who were loud in their praise.

  It was a dream-like existence, and wonderfully restful to the lads whohad passed through so many troubles, while the boat presented anappearance, with its load of drying specimens, strongly suggestive ofthere being very little room for more.