CHAPTER VIII--INTO THE WILDERNESS
For these few days, it happened that I was left in the charge of JoshuaTrust. In other words, he was the watch-dog that guarded me, day andnight; and a dull dog he was. He never opened his mouth, save togrumble at everything--the heat, the insects, the very food he cookedhimself. Now and again, he would sigh; which puzzled me, until I solvedthe problem for myself: he was inclined to regret the idle days aboardthe _Mary Greenfield_ when he had naught to think about except his grogand cards.
So, in this man's company, I learned nothing concerning what was afoot.But I was free to use my eyes, and I could scarce fail to observe thatthey were turning by degrees that ruined habitation into a kind ofdepot. For, day and night, came stores and arms and ammunition to theplace--all manner of such things as might be required upon an expeditioninto the wild hinterland of that strange country, where there were fewroads, but many bridle-paths and broad rivers to be crossed.
Amos came often to the hut, and Mr. Forsyth was always with him; and, asI knew, it was the last-named who had paid for all. That, however, wasall one to me. I was safely caught, thousands of miles from dear, sillySussex; and even if I was so fortunate as to escape from Joshua Trust,what was I to do in that foreign land, where I could not speak a word ofthe language and had no friend to whom to go?
On the fourth day of my captivity came six mules, and with them threemen whom I took to be half-castes of a sort, for they were no more thantwo parts black and spoke Spanish, shouting at one another when theyconversed. But I was more interested in the mules, which were of a kindthat I had never seen before; for they were small animals, little largerthan donkeys, with mouse-grey woolly coats like sheep. Each of thesewas provided with a pack-saddle; and when they were loaded for theinspection of Amos Baverstock and Forsyth, I was amazed at the greatweight that such slender and seemingly fragile beasts could carry.
On the fifth day after we had left the ship, we set forth upon our greatmarch towards the south. Our party numbered eight in all: Amos,Forsyth, and Trust (the first the acknowledged leader of theexpedition); myself and the three mulemen, whilst the other was aguide--a lean, cadaverous Spaniard, black as a raven, whom I never heardcalled by any other name than that of Vasco. I do not think this fellowwas an evil man by nature, except in so far as he was capable of doingalmost anything for money. In that, at any rate, he was honest: heserved his masters faithfully, no matter who they were.
And now we come to the march itself that, step by step, led me fartherand farther from the confines of civilisation and into the heart of acruel and magic wilderness where things happened that I should notbelieve, had I not seen them with my eyes.
The first stage of our journey was uneventful enough; and thescenery--especially on the mountains we were obliged tocross--surprisingly beautiful. We first climbed to a great height,following a zig-zag road, along which the little mules struggledgallantly with their heavy loads. I had thought that, on gaining thecrestline, we must again descend to something approaching the level ofthe sea. But this was not so; for the mountains proved to consist of aseries of parallel chains, and no sooner had we negotiated one valleythan we found ourselves upon the watershed of another.
These valleys were thickly populated. We were seldom out of sight ofvillages and towns, many of which contained considerable buildings. Thecountry had the aspect of being extremely fertile and prosperous. Therewere plantations of coffee and cocoa, tobacco and cotton, but a fargreater area of the valley regions was given over to the cultivation ofmanioc and maize. For all I could ever learn, there was no flour in theland, for I never tasted bread, but subsisted upon hot maize cakes, madeby Vasco, the guide, which I found as good as hot-cross buns.
When we were clear of the mountains, we began to descend into the valleyof a great river which, had I learned more geography when I was atschool, I would have known to be the Orinoco. The course of this greatstream we followed for many days, marching in a south-westerlydirection, against the current. The climate was now a great deal hotterthan it had been near the coast, and towns and villages were few and farbetween. One thing that I observed was the courteous behaviour of theinhabitants, who seldom failed to wave their hands to us and pass thetime of day.
We came to a vast sea of grass where, here and there, were scatteredwoods; and finally, after crossing a river of some importance, atributary of the Orinoco, we sighted a great mountain that overtoppedthe surrounding hills like a giant in the midst of pygmies.
Amos, who had been unusually reticent upon the line-of-march, now becametalkative, almost hilarious. He carried constantly a grin upon hisfox-like countenance, and would often chuckle to himself.
For the great mountain in front of us might be described as the gatewayof the road to the Treasure we were seeking, and was marked upon theleft-hand top corner of the map. It was called Mount Tigro, but by thatname I have never been able to trace it upon any modern map, though itwas shown to be about twenty miles south of the Rio Guaviare.
We were now--though I did not know it at the time--close upon thefrontier of Colombia, and, I think, for a time our route lay throughthat little-known country, until we turned eastward again into theterritories of the Amazonas.
We were now in a mountainous and savage land, where we could make butthe slowest progress. For not only were the hills steep and pathless,but in places clothed in such luxuriant vegetation that we had often tobreak a way with hatchets for the mules.
We were marching by the map, and Amos had become our guide. He andForsyth--who never seemed to tire--would lead our little column, myselfwalking in company of Joshua, and the pack-mules bringing up the rear.
We were soon to bid good-bye to these faithful, dumb companions; for,after we had climbed the slopes of another range of mountains, wefollowed the course of a river valley that led us rapidly downward, toland us into the very heart of such a forest as I did not dream to bepossible.
The mulemen were paid off--by no means too handsomely, I thought--toreturn upon that long and tedious journey to the coast. And we fivewent on alone--Amos and his two confederates, Vasco and myself--carryingour stores and provisions in knapsacks on our backs, and all armed asthough we were like to meet with savage men.
In the first place, I must tell you that the heat was insufferable, forall this while we had been approaching the equator. The forest swarmedwith myriads of stinging insects, and sometimes I saw great tree snakesof a magnitude that even now makes my blood run cold when I think ofthem. We came upon one, lying half coiled upon the bank of a woodlandpool, and I am ready to swear that he was longer than a cricket-pitch,and of a thickness almost equal to my own waist.
But I marvelled most at the forest trees, the names of some of which Ilearned from Vasco, who had a little English, of which he wasexceedingly vain. One of these was a palm-tree, the very leaves ofwhich were forty feet in length, standing almost erect, all bunchedtogether--a magnificent sight to behold. And these forest giants wereintertwined and intermingled with thousands of creepers, parasites, andclimbers, so that in places, even at mid-day, when the tropic sun was atits height, it was dark as night in the vast Region of the Woods.
For weeks we struggled onward, literally fighting our way through thatall but impenetrable wilderness. I saw that Amos had more than he coulddo to trace our route upon the map; and there were times, I amconvinced, when even Vasco and Baverstock himself truly believed that wewere lost.
He told us he was looking for a certain landmark; and in that dark andendless forest he might as well have searched for a pin. At one time,there was not a living soul within hundreds of miles of us. There weregreat alligators in the rivers that we crossed by means of rough dug-outcanoes, which we made upon one bank and left upon the other; the jungleteemed with snakes, many of the venomous kind besides the greatloathsome pythons, in whose coils an ox might have been crushed todeath; thousands of gaily-coloured birds were among the tree-tops highabove us, and the dead leaves about our pathway
swarmed with littlethings that crept and crawled and stung so vilely that we were coveredfrom head to foot with painful swellings. But never a sign did we seeof any human being. Nature reigned in that black wilderness,untrammelled and supreme.
And then, as one steps on a sudden from a darkened room, we came forthone morning from the forest into the blazing light of the sun. Andthere was such a wonder as I had never seen before.
Before us was a plain upon which was growing a tall, reed-like grass;and in the centre of this plain was a long, hog-backed hillock, bare oftrees. Remember, we were in the very heart of the Unknown, for monthswe had seen no sign or trace of humanity, and I, at least, judged myselfto be hundreds of miles from the very outposts of the civilised world;and yet, upon the summit of this hillock was a great ruined palace or atemple, encircled by a colonnade of vast stone pillars, no less in theirproportions than those of Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain in England,only they were there by the score, and stood perpendicular and massive,not one having fallen from its place.
I stood rooted in amazement, when my attention was attracted by Amos,whose behaviour was now that of a madman. He threw both his arms intothe air, which action--in view of his hunched back and his pig-like,glittering eyes--made him look more evil and gleeful than ever, andshouted at the top of his voice:
"Found!" he cried. "The Temple of Cahazaxa, who fled from Cuzco withthe Treasure! And now, boy, the matter rests with you!"
He changed as in a flash from unbounded joy to passion. He seized me bythe shoulders, gripping me so tightly that it was as if his fingersburned into my flesh like red-hot irons.
"I'll have the truth from you!" he shrieked, dancing like a maniac onhis feet. "The truth, and nothing but the truth! Or else, I swear asI'm a living man, you die here and now."
"What truth?" I asked.
My voice was trembling; for so terrible did the man seem that a coldsweat had broken out upon my forehead. He drew nearer to me still,peering into my face and whispering.
"Henceforward," said he, "you guide us. Either you have seen the map orBannister has told you all he knows. In any case, you guide us fromhere to the place where the Greater Treasure is hid. Refuse, and youdie, here and now, in the midst of this almighty desert."
One glance at the man was enough to tell me that he meant every word hesaid. And yet, I do not think I was any longer afraid.
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