Rob Harlow's Adventures: A Story of the Grand Chaco
Page 6
CHAPTER SIX.
THROUGH THE GREEN CURTAIN.
A fair breeze sprang up with the sun, and the boat glided up stream formany miles before a halt was called, in a bend where the wind railedthem. Here, as on previous occasions, a fire was lit, and the breakfastprepared and eaten almost in silence, for Brazier's thoughts were far upthe river and away among the secret recesses of nature, where he hopedto be soon gazing upon vegetation never yet seen by civilised man, whileRob and Joe were just as thoughtful, though their ideas ran more uponthe wild beasts and lovely birds of this tropic land, into which as theypenetrated mile after mile it was to see something ever fresh andattractive.
Shaddy, too, was very silent, and sat scanning the western shore moreand more attentively as the hours passed, and they were once moregliding up stream, the wind serving again and again as they swept roundsome bend.
The sun grew higher, and the heat more intense, the slightest movementas they approached noon making a dew break out over Rob's brow; but thewarmth was forgotten in the beauty of the shore and the abundance oflife visible around.
But at last the heat produced such a sense of drowsiness that Rob turnedto Joe.
"I say, wouldn't an hour or two be nice under the shade of a tree?"
"Yes," said Brazier, who had overheard him. "We must have a rest now;the sides of the boat are too hot to touch. Hullo! where are we going?"he continued. "Why, he's steering straight for the western shore."
Brazier involuntarily stooped and took his gun from where it hung inloops under the canvas awning, and then stood watching the dense wall ofverdure they were approaching till, as they drew nearer, their way wasthrough acres upon acres of lilies, whose wide-spreading leavesliterally covered the calm river with their dark green discs, dottedhere and there with great buds or dazzlingly white blossoms.
The boat cut its way through these, leaving a narrow canal of clearwater at first, in which fish began to leap as if they had beendisturbed; but before the boat had gone very far the leaves graduallyclosed in, and no sign of its passage was left.
"I don't see where we are to land," said Brazier, as he stood in frontof the canvas cabin scanning the shore.
"No; there is no place," said Rob, as they glided out of the lily fieldinto clear water, the great wall of trees tangled together with creepersbeing now about two hundred yards away.
"Go and ask. No; leave him alone," said Brazier, altering his mind."He'll take us into a suitable place, I daresay."
Just then Shaddy, from where he was steering, shouted to the men, wholowered the sail at once; but the boat still glided on straight for theshore.
"Why, he's going to run her head right into the bank," cried Rob, thoughthe said bank was rendered invisible by the curtain of pendent boughsand vines which hung right down to the water.
"How beautiful!" exclaimed Brazier, as he gazed at clusters of snowyblossoms draping one of the trees. "We must have some of those, Rob."
"I say," cried Joe, "what makes the boat keep on going?"
"Impetus given by the sail," replied Brazier. "But it couldn't havekept on all this time," cried the lad, "and we're going faster."
"We do seem to be," said Brazier; "but it is only that we are in aneddy. There always is one close in by the banks of a swift stream."
"But that goes upward while the stream goes down," cried Joe. "This isgoing straight in toward the trees."
"Better sit down, every one," shouted Shaddy. "Lower that spar, mylads," he added, in the _patois_ the men used.
Down went the mast in a sloping position, so that it rested against thecanvas cabin. But Rob hardly noticed this in the excitement of theirposition. For there was no doubt about it: some invisible force hadapparently seized the boat, and was carrying it swiftly forward to dashit upon the shore.
But that was not Brazier's view of the question. "The river is floodedhere and overrunning the bank," he cried. "Hi! Naylor! Do you seewhere you're going?"
"Right, sir. Sit down."
But Brazier, who had risen, did not sit down, for he was quite startled,expecting that the next moment the boat would be capsized, and that theywould all be left to the mercy of the reptiles and fish which hauntedthe rapid waters.
"Hi!" he shouted again. "Naylor, are you mad?"
"No, sir, not yet," was the reply. "Better sit down. Mind your hat!"
For all through this the boat was gliding slowly but straight for thecurtain of leaves and flowers which hid the bank of the western side ofthe river; and as the position seemed perilous to Rob, he saw withastonishment that the four Indian boatmen lay calmly back furling up thesail as if nothing was the matter, or else showing that they had perfectfaith in their leader and steersman, who was not likely to lead theminto danger.
What followed only took moments. They were out in the dazzlingsunshine, were rapidly, as it seemed, approaching the bank, and directlyafter plunged right into the lovely curtain of leaves and flowers whichswept over them as they glided on over the surface of the swiftlyrunning clear black water, the sun entirely screened and all around thema delicious twilight, with densely planted, tall, columnar treesapparently rising out of the flood on either hand, while a rush andsplash here and there told that they were disturbing some of thedwellers in these shades.
"What does this mean?" said Brazier, stooping to recover his hat whichhad been swept off on to the canvas awning, and which he only justrecovered before it slipped into the stream.
There was no answer to the question as they watched, and then they sawlight before them, which rapidly brightened till they glided intosunshine and found that they had passed through a second curtain ofleaves, and were in a little river of some hundred yards wide, withlovely verdure on either side rising like some gigantic hedge to shutthem in; in fact, a miniature reproduction of the grand stream they hadso lately left.
"Why, Naylor," cried Brazier, "I thought you were going to run us ashoreor capsize us."
"Yes, sir, I know you did," was the reply.
"But where are we? What place is this?"
"This here's the river I wanted to bring you to, sir."
"But it does not run into the Paraguay, it runs out."
"Yes, sir, it do. It's a way it has. It's a curious place, as you'llsay before we've done."
"But it seems impossible. How can it run like this?"
"Dunno, sir. Natur' made it, not me. I've never been up it very far,but it strikes me it's something to do with the big waterworks higher upthe big river."
"Waterworks! Why, surely--"
"Natur's waterworks, sir, not man's; the big falls many miles to thenorth."
Rob and Joe exchanged glances.
"Strikes me as the river being very full here the bank give way onceupon a time, and this stream winds about till it gets close up to wherethe falls come down."
"But water can't go up hill, man."
"No, sir, course not; but I thought that if it goes along some valley upto the mountains where the falls come down, it would be an easy way ofgetting to the foot of the high ground and striking the big riveragain."
"Stop a moment: I have heard some talk of a great cascade up north."
"Yes, sir, where nobody's never been yet. Seemed to me as it was ratherin your way, and you might find some orchids up there as well as here."
"Of course, of course!" cried Brazier; the idea of being first in thefield with a great discovery making his pulses throb. "Tell me allabout it."
"Right, sir, when we've had something to eat. It's 'bout twelveo'clock, and here's a shady place, so if you give the word we'll landand cook a bit. Place looks noo, don't it, sir?"
"New, Naylor! I can never thank you enough."
"Don't try then, sir," said Shaddy, steering the boat in, and with thehelp of the boatmen laying it ashore close to some huge trees. "Now weshall have to make her fast, for if our boat gets loose the stream willcarry her where nobody will ever find her again."
"I can't understand it,"
said Brazier impatiently, as the Indians leapedashore, one to make a rope fast, the others to light a fire; "thisstream running out of the main river is contrary to nature, unless whereit divides at its mouths."
"Not it, sir; it's right enough. Right down south in the Parana theriver does it lots of times, for the waters there are like a big net allover the land, and--I say, Mr Rob, sir, where's your gun? There's acarpincho just yonder among them reeds. Try for it, sir; we can managewith it for a bit o' roast and boiled."
Rob seized the piece, and Shaddy pointed out the spot where he was tofire and hit the beast in the shoulder, but just then they wereinterrupted by a hideous yell.