The Ocean Cat's Paw: The Story of a Strange Cruise

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

  NIGHT IN THE JUNGLE.

  In spite of the risks run from the ravenous reptiles, whose daringproved that they had a hard struggle for existence, familiarity soonbred contempt, and the sailors laughed, as they proceeded up thebeautiful river, at perils which not many days before would have madethem turn pale.

  For they were enjoying an excursion that seemed to present freshbeauties at every yard. As a rule the forest came down to the flowingwater on both sides in waves of verdure, with grand trees which everynow and then presented the aspect of some gorgeous flower garden, herered, there blue, at other times in lovely wreaths of white, while itseemed, Joe Cross said to the lads, as if one of the blossoming treestook flight every now and then and came skimming over the boat, fillingthe sky with flowers, so beautiful were the flocks of parrots and otherbirds that, apparently attracted by the strangers, flew screaming andwhistling overhead.

  There was no question about getting a shot at some beautiful green andorange long-tailed paroquet, or at one of the soft grey scarlet-tailedparrots which, as they flew across the river, shrieking at those who hadinterrupted their solitude, gave place to others of a delicate pink; butupon seeing Rodd raise his gun, the Spaniard laughed and said--

  "Never mind them. I could fill my schooner with those things at anytime. You wait till we get up into the little side river. There willbe something better worth shooting then; or perhaps you would like tokill a few as you are coming back."

  "Yes, Rodd," said the doctor; "that would be wiser, my lad."

  "But suppose we don't see them as we come back," said the lad.

  "Not see them?" said the Spaniard, laughing. "Why, the country's alivewith them!"

  Then as the party sated their eyes upon the various objects they passed,a light soft breeze arose when they turned into a bend of the river, andthe Spaniard expressed his satisfaction, and suggested that the sailshould be hoisted.

  This was rapidly done, the oars were laid in, and Joe Cross came aft topreside at the newly-shipped rudder, while all through the rest of theday, and after the tide had run its course and become adverse, theytacked from side to side, or glided onward with the wind astern, the menonly having at very rare intervals to take to their oars.

  It was soon after mid-day that the doctor proposed that the boat shouldbe run ashore and that they should land to dine at a lovely park-likeopening where the dense portion of the forest had receded farther fromthe bank; but the Spaniard shook his head.

  "No," he said, "don't do that. It looks very nice, but it isn't safe.There are the crocodiles basking about the bank, snakes and serpentsnearly everywhere, and the leopards and other great cats hanging aboutamong the trees. Keep aboard. It's safer here."

  "He means to take care of us, Morny," said Rodd, in French, and directlyafter he gave his companion a meaning look, for the Spanish skipperturned to the doctor and said--

  "Tell your men to have their guns handy."

  "What for?" said the doctor. "Do you scent danger?"

  "Nothing particular," replied the man, "but up here in these parts younever know what may happen next. Something may come just when you thinkyou are safe, and it's best to be always ready."

  So that and the following meal were eaten in the boat, which just beforedark was at the Spaniard's suggestion run up into a calm reach where theforest had become very distant, while the river seemed to have widenedout to double its former size.

  Here he proposed that they should anchor for the night and wait for themorning before continuing their journey.

  This was disappointing to the lads, who looked longingly at the shore,while Rodd suggested that there were several places that looked level,and where it would be easy to rig up a tent where they might sleep.

  The Spaniard laughed, and with a grim smile said--

  "You wanted a guide for coming up here, young man. If we did what yousay we shouldn't all be ready to go on again in the morning."

  "What, because of the wild beasts?" said Rodd eagerly.

  The Spaniard nodded.

  "He is quite right, Rodd," said the doctor. "And I suppose we mightcatch fever here?" he continued.

  "Bad," said the Spaniard laconically. "Keep to the boat."

  The night came down dark and beautiful; the great purple velvet archthat spread from side to side of the river was gloriously spangled withstars, for in the day's ascent the little party seemed to have left theriver mists behind, and as they sat together the doctor and his youngcompanions revelled in the loveliness of the scene, while they listenedto the strange sounds from forest and river which constantly smote upontheir ears and now seemed wondrously near.

  "It seems very different," whispered Rodd to Morny, for something preyedupon his spirits and stayed him from speaking aloud.

  "Yes," said Morny, in the same subdued tone; "it is very different frombeing aboard the vessels. I shan't go to sleep to-night; shall you?"

  "No. Who could go to sleep? Why, as soon as one lay down I shouldexpect to see the great slimy snout of a crocodile thrust over theboat's gunwale, and then--"

  "I say," said Morny, "don't!"

  But nothing worse than sounds troubled the party that night, as not longafter this conversation the two lads obeyed the doctor's suggestion thatthey should creep under the awning, whose canvas sides were tightlybelayed to the gunwale; and though both declared that they would neverclose their eyes, they and the watches into which the little crew wasdivided followed the Spanish skipper's example, and in turn sleptheavily till sunrise, the great orange globe slowly rolling up over theedge of the forest and shining brilliantly down upon the glitteringriver, for as over-night there was not a sign of mist.

  About half the day passed with plenty of favouring gales to help theboat along, and spare the men's arms, and Rodd commented on this totheir guide.

  "Wait a bit," he said. "A little farther on, and we shall turn into oneof the little rivers where the high trees are close together at thesides. There won't be much wind there, and the men will have to row."

  Everything was as he said, for as they passed out of the main stream thebanks were but a little way apart, and in place of the full flow of thegreat river the stream grew sluggish; but everything being so close athand the beauties of the forest became far enhanced.

  "You said rivers," said the doctor suddenly. "Are there more than thisone?"

  "Plenty," replied the man, and he made himself a fresh cigarette as hesat back in the boat, to go on smoking. "Not so many crocodiles here,"he said, "and they are smaller. More birds too. Look!" And as the mendipped their oars to row slowly up the winding stream, which oftenseemed to turn back upon itself, the Spaniard pointed now to tinybee-like sunbirds with their dazzling metallic casques and gorgets--thebrilliant little creatures that take the place of the humming-birds ofthe New World.

  At another time, though the two lads, eagerly observant and with thedoctor to back them, needed no showing, their guide pointed to the manybrilliantly-tinted birds of the thrush family, at the barbets andtrogons, not so brilliant as those of the Western world, but each lovelyin itself, while as they went on and on along their meandering riverpath, the birds that struck them as being most novel and at the sametime tame in the way in which they came down the overhanging branches ofthe great forest trees, as if their curiosity had been excited by thestrangers, were the many-tinted plantain eaters, with their crestedheads, and the lovely green and crimson touracoos, which, while theirviolet and crimson relatives wore, as it were, a feather casque,displayed on their part a vivid green ornamentation that passed frombeak to nape, which when they were excited looked more like a plume.

  They had come thus far without firing a shot, for the doctor had said--

  "Let us leave the shooting till our return, and be contented withcharging our memories and feasting our eyes, for no dried skins, howevercarefully they are preserved, will ever display the beauties of thesebirds' nature as we watch them here in life. But we must
have a skin ortwo of these touracoos, for I want to show you lads the wonders of thatvivid crimson upon their underparts."

  "Oh, I can see it plainly enough, uncle," said Rodd.

  "Yes," said Uncle Paul, "but you don't notice what I mean. Instead ofthat crimson being a beautiful dye fixed in the feathers, it is a softred pigment which can be washed out into water and--I saw somethingmoving up that creek," he added, in a low voice.

  "Niggers perhaps," said the Spaniard, without turning his head.

  "Likely to attack?" asked Rodd.

  "Pish!" said the Spaniard contemptuously. "Harmless. Fishing perhaps.We shall see more, I expect, farther on."

  He did not trouble himself to turn his head, though the rest in the boatkept a sharp look-out for what had attracted the doctor's attention up anarrow inlet arched over by the overhanging trees, but it was not untilclose upon evening that, as they pursued their winding way, this sidestream opened out more into a reach, and then for the first time amovement some hundreds of yards behind brought forth a warning from JoeCross, who was seated with the tiller in his hand.

  "Just cast your eye back, Mr Rodd, sir," he said; "yonder there wherethe stream opened out it seems to me there's a canoe with a couple ofIndians in it. Nay, I mean blacks."

  "Yes; look, captain," said Rodd eagerly; and the Spaniard slowly raisedhimself up from where he was leaning back, took his cigarette from hislips, shaded his eyes, and then after a cursory glance replaced thecigarette and sank back.

  "Niggers," he said. "Fishing."

  Then they rowed on, leaving the two occupants of the canoe behind, till,coming to what he considered to be a suitable place, the Spaniardsuggested that they should stay there for their meal upon an open sandylittle beach some fifty yards across, beyond which the forest rose darkand thick again.

  "We can land and light a fire," he said, "and make coffee and stretchour legs."

  "It would not be safe," said the doctor, "to rig up a tent here, wouldit?"

  "Oh yes," said the captain. "The only thing to trouble us here might bea leopard or two; but a shot would scare them away."

  This was good news, and heartily welcomed by the whole party, and in ashort time cooking was going on in the glowing embers of a fire, forwhich there was abundant fuel close at hand, while a canvas tent,strengthened by branches thrust deep in the sand, was cleverly contrivedby the sailors.

  "I say, Morny, this is something like!" cried Rodd, as they sat togetherwatching the men finishing their meal, with their jovial contented faceslit up by the glowing fire which flashed and cast shadows and sent upgolden clouds dotted with tiny spark-like embers, as it was made up fromtime to time, according to the Spanish captain's suggestion that itwould keep away all wild beasts and clear off the snakes.

  "Yes; my legs were beginning to feel cramped. I wonder how my fatheris."

  "Oh, he's happy enough," said Rodd, "and enjoying himself with thethought that Skipper Chubb has had a good day's work getting on a newouter skin over the hole."

  "Ah, yes, I hope so," cried Morny eagerly, his friend's suggestionseeming to brighten him up.

  "And I say," cried Rodd, "shan't we sleep to-night! How I shallstretch! I don't think I should much mind a great spotted cat comingand sniffing round the tent. Of course it would be very horrid to beclawed or bitten, but there's something natural about that. The idea ofbeing grabbed by one of those great slimy reptiles and dragged underwater, and before you have had time to squeak--"

  "Rodd, don't, please!" cried Morny, with a shudder. "It makes my fleshcreep."

  "Yes; I was going to say it's time you lads changed your conversation,"said the doctor quietly, "for none of the forest creatures are likely todisturb us to-night with a watch-fire kept up like this."

  "But I say, uncle," said Rodd mischievously, later on--when the watchhad been set, with a big pile of dead firewood laid ready to replenishthe fire, and Uncle Paul was about to follow the example of the Spanishcaptain and select his patch of dry sand covered with canvas, beneaththe extemporised tent.

  "Well, what, my boy?" said the doctor drowsily. "Don't talk now. I amsure every one wants to go to sleep."

  "Yes, uncle; I am sure I do," said the boy, who was already fitting theprojecting bones of his back into the yielding sand; "but do you thinkit's likely--"

  Rodd stopped to give Morny, who was beside him, a nudge with his elbow.

  "Do I think what's likely, Pickle?" replied the doctor.

  "That those two black fellows we saw in the canoe will sneak ashore tocome and do anything to us with their spears?"

  "Rodney!" cried the doctor indignantly.

  "But they are sure to have spears, uncle, or else they couldn't besticking the fish."

  "Go to sleep, sir!" said the doctor angrily.

  Rodd went at once, and did not stir again, till an extra loud cracklingof burning wood made him start up in wonder and alarm.

  But it was only the morning watch, in the persons of Joe Cross and theappointed cook, making up the fire afresh in view of what Joe calledboiling the billy and to give the cook some good broiling embers, for itwas the break of day once more.