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

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.

  WET DUST IN THE EYE.

  It was the precursor of a terrible tropic tempest, with bluish lightningthat was blinding, while the roar of heaven's artillery was incessant.But not a man blenched as the rowers bent to their oars, gladdened bythe feeling that the current was with them, as they sent the boatrapidly along for their last halting-place. But a mile had hardly beencovered when, with a wild shriek and roar, down came the rain, not inshowers or in drops, but in sheets so heavy that before a minute hadelapsed every one was drenched, and soon after two of the men had tobegin to bale.

  To proceed was impossible, and braving the risk, the boat was rowedbeneath the overhanging branches of one of the monarchs of the primevalforest which reached its limbs far out over the stream, and there,somewhat protected, the boat was moored. For quite a couple of hoursthe little party crouched in the bottom, aiding the shelter by spreadingthe sail over the awning, the men holding on to keep the canvas frombeing swept off by the howling gale, while the rain poured off inbuckets-full, as the men said.

  Then a new danger attacked them. The stream swelled and swelled tillthe boat rose feet higher and was forced in among the low-hangingbranches, while the great risk now was that they might be swept out andalong the furious torrent into which the sluggish river had been turned.

  But just as it seemed impossible to hold on any longer, and when theforest on either side had become river too, the rain ceased as suddenlyas it had begun, the wind dropped, and the clouds began to pass away,while in less than an hour the sun was shining brightly down, and hugeclouds of steam floated over the flooded land.

  It was impossible to cast off from their mooring, for every man agreedthat to follow the course of the rushing water would mean that theywould be swept away from the river and in all probability be capsizedbefore they had gone many hundred yards.

  There was nothing for it, then, but to bale hard and free the boat fromwater, wring out and try to dry their saturated garments, and do whatthey could in the way of drying the sail and awning, in the hope thatthe flood would soon pass away.

  Fortunately Cross was soon able to announce that the water was sinking,and this continued so rapidly that before many hours had passed theywere able to put off once more into the stream, which had pretty wellreturned to the limits of its banks; and the drying of their clothes andof such stores as had suffered followed in rapid course.

  But it was a disheartening commencement of their journey back to themain river, and darkness fell upon a desolate and terribly depressedcompany, who passed the night of solitude and despair wondering what hadhappened at the anchorage where the brig had been left careened.

  Rodd had tried to whisper comfort to his comrade, but only to be metwith imploring words, the lad begging to be allowed to sit and think;and Rodd respected his prayer.

  No better fortune attended him with Uncle Paul, who sternly bade him besilent.

  "I too must think, my lad," he said--"and pray."

  The silence was shared by the sailors, who only indulged in a whispernow and then.

  And how the rest of that night passed away Rodd hardly knew. Of onething only was he quite certain, and that was that sleep never visitedthe occupants of that boat.

  Daylight at last, when such provisions as were absolutely necessary werepartaken of as the boat went steadily down-stream, for there was waterenough in the river still to have completely changed its sluggishcharacter, while this was hailed by the men with delight, seeing that ithelped their course, while wherever the wind was available the sail washoisted and they sped along, every one keeping a sharp look-out fortheir last bivouac but one, it having been decided amongst them thatthey must have been swept by that one, which was hidden by the swollenstream.

  But in spite of the keen observation of the sailors and the sharplook-out by the doctor and the two lads, that day passed without thefamiliar sandy embayment among the trees being sighted, and before longit became a certainty that they were gliding along a different channelto any they had passed before.

  The flood might have altered the stream to a certain extent, but theypassed banks that were certainly different, and just at dusk when abrisk breeze was blowing they glided through an opening among the treeswhich did not seem familiar, and the question arose, should they turnback?

  But before it was settled, darkness fell, and another dismal night waspassed.

  The next day broke bright and fine, and encouraged thereby, every manwas keenly on the alert to try and sight one of the Spaniard'shalting-places; but it was long before such an opening was found, andthen when it was hailed with delight as their resting-place at the endof that day's work, it was forced upon them that they had never beenthere before.

  Fortunately, though their stores were diminished in quantity, fish wereplentiful, and every now and then a bird fell to Rodd's or the doctor'sgun, for it was felt to be a necessity, as more and more all realisedthat they were involved in a perfect labyrinth or network of wateryways, and that their stores should be supplemented. For opening afteropening in the great walls of verdure kept presenting itself, nearlyalways involving the party in a dispute as to whether they had beenthere before, till their mental confusion became greater, their ideasmore sadly confused, and the tract of low-lying water-netted country,far from seeming the paradise through which they had glided on their wayup, now seemed the dwelling-place of despair.

  "Isn't there one of you who can guide us aright?" cried the doctordespairingly. "Is it possible that what seemed so easy to thattreacherous Spanish wretch should prove such a horrible problem to usall?"

  For a time no one spoke, the men hanging their heads, and by way ofshowing their earnestness tugging harder at their oars. But at the nextappeal Joe Cross was egged on to make some answer.

  "You see, sir," he said, "there isn't anything we wouldn't do for you.The lads here are sharp enough, but they wants a handle to work them.We are only sailors, used to having an officer over us, and without himwe aren't much account."

  "Oh," groaned the doctor to Rodd, "and I cannot direct them! Rodd, boy,my brain feels as if it were giving way."

  "Don't be down-hearted, sir. Don't chuck up your pluck, younggentlemen," continued the poor fellow earnestly. "We must get out atlast. It all seemed so easy as we come up; but without that Spanishchap, and now that it seems to be all turned upside down like, as we arecoming back'ards, it's like looking for a needle in a bottle of hay.You see, me and my messmates have turned it all over in our heads, andit always comes to this, that that storm either made us take a wrongturning, or else that that Spaniard took us into a tangle ofwatercourses out of which no one but him and them niggers could find theway."

  "Yes, yes," said the doctor; "we were thoroughly trapped into what hasproved to be a horrible maze."

  "Ay, ay, sir!" cried Joe. "And amazing it is; but we are not going togive up, sir. Wish we may all die if we do; for you see, it must allcome right at last. We have a lot of provisions, plenty of powder andshot; we can't fail for fresh water, which is a great thing for sailors;there's wood enough to make fires for five hundred years; and as forgood fish to eat, why, you could almost catch them with your hands."

  "No, my men," said the doctor, more firmly, "we are not going todespair, for if we keep going down-stream we must reach the main riverat last."

  "That's what I keep thinking, uncle," cried Rodd; "but every time weturn out of one of these rivers we seem to get into another, and I wantto know why it is that we have never yet come upon a sandy patch wherewe made a fire."

  Embayments of this kind they found again and again during the next fewdays of their, so to speak, imprisonment in this labyrinth, and in whichthey were fain to halt for food and sleep; but whether the flood hadobliterated all signs of their occupation, or whether the places wereabsolutely fresh, they never knew.

  One thing was determined on, and that to keep on with dogged Britishobstinacy till the problem was solved, and after losing count of thedays that th
ey had spent in the forest, and after vain usage of thecompass, which had only seemed to lead them more and more astray, theyhad their reward one noon, when the boat was run up on to the sand of aforest nook which seemed strikingly familiar, and Rodd and Morny bothsprang out, gun in hand, followed by Joe Cross, who excitedly cried--

  "All right, gentlemen! Here we are at last! I'd just swear to thistree and that other big one right across the river."

  "Yes," cried the doctor; "this, I am quite certain, is where we set upour tent the night we missed our guide."

  "The morning, uncle," cried Rodd. "Yes, boy; I should have said themorning. Look, Morny! You do not speak. Isn't this our lasthalting-place on our way up?"

  The French lad gave his hands a despairing wave in the air.

  "Yes," he said; "that's what I feel, sir. Why, we have been all theseweary, weary days trying to get back to the river so that we might rowaway to the brig, and this is the spot from which we started!"

  "Well, gentlemen," cried Joe Cross, "I say hooray to that. Yes, this isthe place, aren't it, messmates?"

  "Yes, yes," came in an excited chorus, for the discovery seemed to havesent a thrill of joy through all the men.

  "That's right, messmates," cried Joe. "Then all we have got to do now,gentlemen, is to try and take our bearings right, rub the wet dust outof all our eyes, and make a fresh start."

  "The wet dust, Joe!" cried Rodd, with the nearest approach to a smilewhich had appeared upon his face for many days. "Here, uncle, get outthe compass, and let's see what we can do with that."

  "No," said the doctor quietly. "We must make a fresh start, but it mustbe calmly and well, and after food and a good night's rest. Collectwood, my lads, to make a fire. Boys, take your guns and go up-stream alittle higher where we have never been before, and shoot what birds youcan. Two or three of you men do what you can from the shore with thefishing-lines. To-morrow morning we will start calmly and trustingly tothe river once again. Be of good heart, Morny, my lad, for the end ofour awful struggle must be coming near, and every one of us must do allhe can to help his brother for the one great end."

  A cheer rose at the doctor's words, and the change in the whole partywas wonderful.

  All worked with such energy that long before darkness set in the tentwas rigged up for the night, a good meal had been prepared, and almostas full of hope as on the night when they had last encamped there fortheir rest, a couple of hours were pleasantly passed before the fire wasonce more made up and the watch set. Very soon afterwards all wereplunged in a deep and restful sleep, one from which Rodd and Morny werestartled by a terrific clap of thunder. Then the interior of their tentwas lit up by a vivid blue flash of lightning, by which they saw thewatch--Joe Cross and one of the sailors leaning over them, the formersaying--

  "There's going to be an awful--"

  "Storm," he would have said, but his words were drowned by another crashwhich came instantly upon a sheet of lightning, and pretty well stunnedthem with its roar.