CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
TERMINATION OF OUR EXCURSION.
We made our way along the shores of the lower lake till we came out bythe side of a beautiful cascade, which fell down over the cliff into ariver below us, whence the water flowed away, we concluded, towards thesea; but the dense forest prevented us seeing the course it took. Thelower lake I have been describing was raised but a little way above thelevel of the country. The height of the cascade was fifty feet; and,giving another fifty for the fall of the river, we supposed that we werenot much more than one hundred feet above the sea. My uncle, havingexamined his compass, now settled, as far as he was able, the course wewere to take. The river would be our guide, we saw, for a considerabledistance; indeed, the stream we crossed by the bamboo bridge wasevidently a portion of it. Turning back, we saw, rising above us, thelofty mountain, a shoulder of which we had crossed. We were now betterable to judge of its height. Numerous other lofty hills rose on eitherside of it--mostly bare of trees--some almost black, others of a shiningwhite, which might have been mistaken at a distance for snow; while,from the centre of the cone, wreaths of smoke circled upwards to thesky, giving unmistakable signs of its volcanic character. Our unclelooked at it earnestly.
"It seems to me to be sending forth denser smoke than I have hithertoobserved," I heard him remark to Dick Tarbox. "I hope it is not goingto play us any trick."
"Maybe a little more tobacco has been put into the pipe," observed theboatswain, in return; "and the old gentleman, whoever he is, who issmoking it, is having a harder pull than usual."
"I hope so; but I had rather he had put off his smoking for a few weekslonger, till we are clear of the place," said my uncle, turning round.
I remembered the fearful danger Oliver and I had escaped when carriedoff by the Papuans from our island; and I prayed that we might be againpreserved from a similar catastrophe. We had made no great progresswhen it was time to encamp.
"I must charge you, my friends," said Mr Sedgwick, "whoever is on thewatch at night, to keep a bright look-out. The orang-outans are ourleast formidable enemies, for it is seldom that they will attack aperson, as the one did we have just encountered; but tigers are far moredaring; and if we were to allow the fire to get low, we should run agreat risk of a visit from one of them."
We had still an hour or two of daylight. We were all somewhat tiredwith our long climb: the girls especially required rest. We immediatelyset to work to form our encampment, making huts, as we had done on theprevious nights. Having collected a good supply of dried leaves, wespread mats over them inside the young ladies' bower, to which theyretired to rest while supper was preparing. We had still some birdsremaining; but my uncle took his gun, saying that he would try to shoota few more for our meal, and I begged to be allowed to accompany him.
"You will not have much difficulty in providing our supper," I observed,"considering the number of birds flying about in all directions."
The woods were indeed full of sounds of all sorts. I fancied that amongthem I could distinguish the voices of wild beasts.
"Hark!" I said. "Surely that must be a lion! It is just like the cryI have heard they often give."
My uncle laughed.
"No, indeed," he said. "The voices you hear are those of pigeons."
I could scarcely suppose, however, that he was right, so loud andbooming was the sound which came from the woods.
"Oh, what beautiful apples are those?" I observed, as I looked up at atree in which a number of various birds were collected, among which wereseveral white cockatoos. "I should like to carry some back to thecamp."
The fruit we were looking at was round, with a smooth shining skin of agolden orange colour, which might rival in appearance the golden applesof the Hesperides.
"Let them remain where they hang," he answered. "Whoever might attemptto eat them would certainly be made very ill, if they did not die.Those beautiful apples possess the most poisonous properties of anyfruit in these regions. They are what we naturalists call_Apocynaceae_. The birds, however, eat those rosy seeds which you seedisplayed from the ripe fruit, which has burst open.--But stay! There'sa fellow; I must have him." He raised his gun, and brought down a finejungle cock, which Merlin, who had accompanied us, instantly ran forwardto catch. He brought it to us, highly pleased with his performance."He, at all events, will afford a supper for a couple of us, hungry aswe may be," said my uncle. "This fellow, or his ancestors rather, isthe grandfather of all our domestic poultry in England. They have losta good deal of their beauty, to be sure, by civilisation, though theymay have improved in size and egg-laying powers."
I was fortunate in shooting a couple of great green fruit-pigeonsdirectly afterwards; indeed, in a short time we had as many birds aswould supply us for supper and breakfast. We were passing through awood which consisted chiefly of the great palm, which my uncle said theMalays call the _gubbong_. The trees were in various conditions. Somewere simply in leaf, others had flowers on them, others fruit, whilemany were dead, apparently ready to fall. The leaves were large andfan-shaped, and I remarked that those which had flowers were destituteof leaves; indeed, I could scarcely have supposed that they were thesame trees. The full-grown trees had lofty cylindrical stems, and weremostly two hundred feet in height, and two or three feet in diameter.The flowers were on the summit, in the form of a huge terminal spike.On the top of this was the fruit, consisting of masses of smooth roundballs, of a green colour, and about an inch in diameter. My uncle toldme that each tree only flowers once in its life; and that when the fruitripens the tree dies, though it remains standing a year or two before itfalls to the ground. It was on a branch of one of these trees that Isaw the pigeons, where they had settled after feeding on the fruit.
We had gone a little way after I had last fired, when, as we werestanding under a tree looking for another shot, a shower of the fruit Ihave described came falling down thickly about our heads. We quicklyran from under it, when, looking up, my uncle shouted loudly, andimmediately a loud chattering was heard, and away scampered a wholetribe of monkeys, making an enormous rustling as they leaped among thedead palm-leaves. One would have fancied that some huge beast wasrushing through the wood, so loud was the noise.
It was now time to turn back to the camp. My uncle was a little inadvance. He had just fired at a couple of birds, one of which he hadbrought to the ground, when I saw him start back with an expression ofalarm which I had never before heard him utter. Merlin, who was nearme, stood still for a moment in an unusual way, poking his head outsomewhat like a pointer; and there I saw on the ground, not ten pacesfrom my uncle, a huge snake, with head erect, as if about to make aspring. I well knew that it must be of a venomous character from theexclamation that I heard. Merlin instinctively seemed to think thesame. I dreaded lest it should make its spring. In an instant it mightdo so. I trembled lest I should miss it. I might run the risk also, infiring, of hitting my uncle. I would gladly have rushed forward in hisdefence. In another instant its envenomed fangs might be fixed in hisbody. I levelled my fowling-piece, and took a steady aim. I fired! AsI did so, Merlin rushed forward with a bound. I thought I saw throughthe smoke the snake in the air. My uncle had sprung on one side,lifting his gun by the muzzle. "I am safe!" he shouted out. "Walter,you did it well!"
The snake had sprung, but, wounded by the shot, had failed to reach itsobject, and had been struck to the ground by the butt of the gun. I didnot suppose from what I had seen of my uncle that he could be soagitated as he now was. He knew, he told me, the venomous nature of theserpent, and that had it struck him, he should probably have been deadin the course of a few minutes.
"You saved my life by your coolness, my boy," he said. "I believe thisserpent is rare in the island, for I have never seen one like it; and itis far more dangerous than the larger python, of which there are many.They can swallow a deer whole, but seldom attack human beings. Theywould take our friend Merlin down in a gulp; but he proba
bly hassagacity enough to keep out of their way, so you need not be alarmed onhis account."
I begged that I might carry the serpent as a trophy to the camp. To doso I coiled it round a stick, and secured it with a piece of thin ratan.As I walked along, Merlin every now and then came up sniffing behindme, and seemed very much inclined to have a bite at it. We saw severalmore jungle cocks on our way. They were very like the common game-cock,but the voice was much shorter, and more abrupt. The Malays call it the_bekeko_. We had reached an open space, when we saw running before us acouple of the most magnificent peacocks. Their tails, spread out asthey ran along, were fully seven feet in length. They had been feedingapparently on the ground, till they were frightened at our approach.Having the snake over my shoulder, I could not fire. My uncle raisedhis gun, but recollected that he had not loaded. He stopped to do so,when the birds, running on rapidly for a short distance, rose obliquelyin the air, and, to my surprise, flew over some lofty trees before themand disappeared. I could scarcely have supposed that birds with suchlarge appendages could have risen thus easily. It was a magnificentsight, as they spread out their spangled tails to aid them in theirflight.
At length we reached the camp, where Potto Jumbo had already preparedpart of the supper, and was eagerly waiting our return to cook the gamewe might bring. The tea was boiling in our kettle, and we sat down toour repast, while he plucked and cooked the remainder. Emily and Gracecame out of their bower, and officiated at our rural tea-table. Tarboxand Roger Trew arrived directly afterwards. They had gone on anexcursion down the river, and reported that they had seen a large animalbounding through the underwood. They had not got a clear sight of it;but, from the account they gave, my uncle pronounced it to be a tiger.
"I must again warn you, my friends, to be on the alert," he observed."The scent of our cooking may attract him here; but unless he is veryhungry, I do not think he will venture among us."
All the party were eager to examine the snake which I had brought in.Emily and Grace, however, shuddered when they saw it, and still more sowhen they heard the risk to which Mr Sedgwick had been exposed. Heagain complimented me on the coolness I had displayed when firing at theanimal.
Before leaving the camp, we had persuaded Oliver to lie down. My uncleexamined his arm, and bathed it in the cool water which we brought fromthe river.
"You are in good health, or it might have been a serious affair," heobserved. "However, I hope, after a night's rest, you will be able toproceed on the journey."
Oliver said nothing, but I saw by the expression of his countenance thathe was suffering a good deal of pain; indeed, it seemed surprising, whenI looked at his slight arm, and thought of the big jaws of the mias,that it had not been bitten through. As may be supposed, after thewarning we had received, we kept up a blazing fire all night, andinstead of one watchman, we had two, always awake--either Roger Trew andI, or the boatswain and Potto Jumbo. All night long our ears wereassailed with strange sounds--the croaking of frogs, the shrieks ofnight-birds, and the terror-inspiring cries of beasts of prey. I wentto sleep with them still ringing in my ears, and when I awoke, the samesounds were heard. I had been seated on the ground for some time,carefully making up the fire, when a loud rustling among the driedleaves and shrubs at a little distance reached my ears. I started up,fowling-piece in hand, and telling Roger Trew to be on his guard,advanced carefully towards the spot whence the sound had proceeded. Iwas standing near the camp, behind Emily and Grace's hut, when I saw thehead of a huge creature with glaring eyes fixed on me. Still I did notlike to arouse my friends. I kept my hand, however, on the trigger,ready to fire should it advance, for it seemed as if it was about tomake a spring towards me. There I stood gazing at the animal, with theanimal gazing at me, and wondering, probably, what sort of a creature Iwas. I doubted whether it would be wise to fire; for though my gun wasloaded with ball, I might possibly miss it, when it was likely to becomemore furious than if let alone. I cast one glance behind me at ourleafy village, towards which I slowly retreated. As soon as I got nearenough for Roger Trew to hear me, I asked him to accompany me to thespot where I had been, that we might be sure what the creature was. Hewas soon by my side.
"Why, a tiger, to be sure!" he exclaimed, levelling his musket.
He fired, and there was a loud rustling among the trees, as if somelarge creature were bounding through them. I caught a glimpse of it,and fired. In an instant the whole camp was alarmed. The girls lookedout of their bower with scared looks, wondering what had happened, whilemy uncle and Dick Tarbox came out with their guns in their hands.
"I thought it would be so," said the former; "but you have done well tokeep the creature at a distance. However, he is perhaps not far off,and we may before long have another shot at him."
We had some difficulty in persuading the girls to return to their bowerafter this, while my uncle and Roger Trew insisted on remaining on watchfor the remainder of the night. We added fresh fuel to our fire, andloaded and frequently fired our muskets, and kept, as may be supposed, avery strict watch. Next morning we found some hair of the creature inthe spot where he had been observed clinging to the bushes, while dropsof blood were seen for some distance in the direction he had taken.
At an early hour we proceeded on our road to the house. The banks ofthe river were very picturesque, though there was not much water in it.It was, however, my uncle supposed, the only full stream in the island.He had discovered the beds of several others, which remained perfectlydry. We were eagerly looking out in the hope of seeing another mias, myuncle being as anxious as any one. He had some time before, he told us,captured a couple; but one of them had managed to escape, and the other,left alone, had pined for his mate, while he evidently resented theclose captivity to which he was subjected. Proceeding down the banks ofthe river, we came to a part where, though not much increased in width,it was evidently deeper, with two or three calm pools, over which thetrees threw their boughs, clearly reflected on the smooth surface. Atthe lower end of one of the pools I caught sight of what appeared to bea log floating on the water. Presently I saw it moving against thestream. "There must be a powerful eddy there," I thought. I pointed itout to Mr Sedgwick. After looking at it for an instant, he made a signto the rest of the party to keep back. We were all collected togetherbehind a bush, through the branches of which we could observe the banksof the river below us. Presently there was a rustling in the underwoodin the direction we were looking, and we caught sight of a hugeorang-outan making his way down to the water. Some fruit-bearing treehung over it, in the branches of which he took his seat, and began toeat away at his leisure, letting the husks and rind fall into the water,and now and then a whole fruit. The log, so it still seemed, was comingclose under where the baboon was seated, and remained stationary. Theorang-outan apparently took no notice of the object in the water.
"If we were nearer, we should see a pair of wicked eyes looking up outof the end of that log," whispered my uncle, "with some rows offormidable teeth, and a huge mouth below it."
"What! is that log a crocodile?" I asked.
"No doubt about it," was the answer. "The creature expects to make itsdinner off the mias; but from what I have heard, the mias will be tooclever to be caught by it. But we will see."
After a time, the mias, having eaten as much food as he required,descended the tree towards the edge of the water, holding on to a branchwith one of his powerful hands, while he stooped down to spoon out thewater with the other. By an almost imperceptible motion the crocodileapproached; but the mias, although he appeared to be only intent onquenching his thirst, had evidently a corner of his eye resting on theseemingly harmless log. The crocodile thought it was sure of its prey,and opening its huge jaws, attempted to seize the mias. The latter,however, swung himself quickly up the tree with his arms, and remainedlooking down on the crocodile within a few feet of its jaws. Thenquietly stooping down, he held out a hand within as many inches of hisenemy's nose. Th
is, evidently, excited the crocodile's desire to gethold of him, and the amphibious monster began to climb up the bank ofthe river. The mias waited quietly till it was within two feet of him,and then swung himself along a short distance above it from bough tobough, stopping again when the crocodile had got securely up the bank.As the crocodile got near him, he proceeded on a little further; andthus he went on till he had allured the monster to a considerabledistance from the stream. What he was going to do we could notconjecture; indeed, so daring had the mias become, that it seemed verylikely, after all, he would fall into the crocodile's jaws. Suddenly,however, we saw him climb up a tree to some distance, and run along abranch which hung directly over where the crocodile was crawling. Thensuddenly he flung himself off the branch right on the animal's back, andwith his powerful fists began belabouring away at its head and eyes. Itseemed, from the movements of the crocodile, that it was alreadyblinded. In vain it snapped its enormous jaws--the loud sound, as itshuge teeth met each other, reverberating through the woods. The miashad not the slightest difficulty in keeping his position on the scalymonster's back, as its movements were far too slow to throw him off. Hecontinued belabouring it with his fists till it ceased to move. Then,as the upper jaw was lifted up, he seized it in his powerful grasp, andplacing his feet upon its neck, with a power which his lever-likeposition and prodigious strength made irresistible, he literally toreback the monster's jaw. Having done this, he sprang up a tree, andawaited the result of the injuries he had inflicted. The creature was,however, not completely dead; but though it struggled violently andmoved its tail about, its once formidable jaw had lost its means ofdoing harm. After sitting there a little time we saw him, as if contentwith his triumph, move off through the forest among the lofty branchesof the trees, swinging himself from one to the other with an ease whichgave almost grace to his movements.
"The fellow deserves his victory. We will not attempt to shoot him,"said Mr Sedgwick.
Indeed, I suspect by that time he might easily have escaped our bullets,had we attempted to kill him. We now hurried out from our shelter,eager to see the injuries which the mias had inflicted on hisantagonist. There it lay, utterly helpless, and we could stand by andexamine its huge proportions and strong coat of armour without danger.Its struggles became fainter and fainter, and in a short time it seemedperfectly still and dead. Knowing the strength of the crocodile, itgave us a good idea of the immense power of muscle exercised by themias; and Oliver said it made him feel doubly grateful that he hadescaped from the creature which had so nearly killed him. His hurtsstill gave him pain. We stopped every now and then that a coolinglotion might be applied to them, and he got over the ground as well asthe rest of us.
Our return journey gave us rather more anxiety than we had felt on theprevious days. The knowledge that there were wild beasts on the islandkept us constantly on the alert; but, for my part, I dreaded those hugeserpents more than anything else. They none of them gave signs of theirapproach, as the rattlesnake of America does, while several were of amost venomous description.
We had been going along, keeping a bright look-out on either side, when,being ahead as usual, my uncle looking out for game, I saw a number ofbirds flying round and round a tree in a curious fashion. I was on thepoint of levelling my gun and firing, when I thought I would refrain,that I might ascertain what they were about. My uncle just then cameup, having observed the same unusual movement of the birds. Most ofthem were wood-pigeons.
"Look up there," said my uncle in a whisper. "Do you see that seemingbranch, and the huge lifeless creeper clinging to the trunk?"
I earnestly watched the object he pointed at, when I perceived that whatI took to be the stump of a branch was in reality the head of a hugeserpent, whose body was coiled round the tree. The birds came nearerand nearer. One beautiful pigeon was standing on a bough directly abovethe serpent's head, while others of gay plumage flitted round and round,evidently brought there by some fascinating power it was exerting. Theupper part of its body was not coiled round the tree, but simply pressedagainst it, so that in an instant it could reach to a considerabledistance. We watched without uttering a sound, and suddenly its tongueprojected from its mouth, and, quick as lightning, it darted forward itshead and seized the beautiful pigeon on the nearest branch. So rapidwas the movement, that I thought the bird had fallen to the ground; but,as we looked, we saw by the swelling in the creature's throat that ithad secured its prey. Again it drew back into its former position,where it remained perfectly motionless; while the other birds camenearer and nearer, and one at length took the place of its unfortunatefellow which had been captured. After a little time the first bird wasswallowed, and another caught in the same manner. I was anxious toshoot the serpent. I fired, but missed, I suppose, for the creature didnot move. My uncle then took aim at its head. He killed it apparently;but instead of falling down, it remained coiled up, the head as it fellcatching in the fork of a branch, which held it securely. There ithung, and we were unable to reach it to ascertain more particularly thespecies to which it belonged. The birds, frightened by the report, flewaway.