Rob Harlow's Adventures: A Story of the Grand Chaco

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

  REALITY OR A DREAM?

  It was evening when Rob awoke, and found the guide waiting as he hadleft him when he lay down.

  "Only gone down about an inch, Mr Rob, sir," he said. "Feel as if youcould do your spell at the watch now?"

  "Of course. But, Shaddy, I'm terribly hungry."

  "So am I, sir. To-morrow morning we must see if we can't do somethingto catch some fish."

  "Why not to-night?"

  Shaddy shook his head, lay down, and in a moment or two was breathingheavily in a deep sleep.

  "I can't watch all night without food," thought Rob, as he looked roundat the waste and wondered how soon the flood would go down. He knewwhat food there was, and how it would have to be served, and longed forhis share; but felt that unless the others were present he could nottake his portion, though how he would be able to wait till morning wasmore than he felt able to tell.

  He looked up at the puma, to see that it had carefully lodged itself onthe upper fork, and was asleep. So was Mr Brazier. Only he was awakeand hungry. Yes, Brazier was, too, for he woke about then with a start,to question Rob about the advance of time, and their position; ending,as he heard that the flood had hardly sunk at all, by saying that theywould be compelled to watch fasting that night, so as to make theprovisions last longer.

  Rob gave him an agonised look, and, plucking a twig, began to pick offthe leaves to chew them.

  "I don't feel as if I could wait till to-morrow," he said faintly.

  "It is a case of _must_," said Brazier. "Come, try a little fortitude,my lad."

  "But a little fortitude will not do," said Rob drily. "It seems to methat we shall want so much of it."

  "You know our position, Rob. There, lad; let's be trustful, and try andhope. We may not have to wait longer than to-morrow for the subsidingof the flood."

  How that night passed neither of them knew, but at last the sun rose toshow that the waters, which had seemed to be alive with preyingcreatures, had sunk so that they could not be above four feet in depth;and just as they had concluded that this was the case Shaddy sprang up,and sat staring at them.

  "Why!--what?--Have I slept all night?" he cried. "Oh, Mr Rob!"

  "We both felt that you must have rest, Naylor," said Brazier quietly.

  "That's very good of you, sir; but you should have been fairer toyourselves. Did you--?"

  He stopped short.

  "Hear anything in the night?" asked Rob.

  "Well, no, sir, I was going to say something else, only I was 'mostashamed."

  "Never mind: say it," said Brazier.

  "I was going to ask if you had left me a little scrap of the prog."

  Rob looked at him sharply and then at Brazier, who did the same, butneither of them replied; and the old sailor put his own interpretationupon their silence.

  "All right, gentlemen," he said; "you must have both been terriblehungry. Don't say anything about it. Now, how could I manage to catcha fish?"

  "After breakfast, Shaddy, please," said Rob merrily. "Mr Brazierthought we ought to wait for you."

  "What! You don't mean to say you haven't had any?"

  "When three people are situated as we are, Naylor, a fair division ofthe food is necessary. Get it at once."

  "Well!" ejaculated the old sailor, as he took down the packet from wherehe had secured it in the upper branches; and again, as he placed it onthe loose platform, "Well!" Then--"There, gentlemen, I can't tell youhow thankful I am to you for being such true comrades. But there, let'seat now. The famine's over, and I mean to have some more food soon."

  "How, Shaddy?" said Rob, with his mouth full; "you can't wade because ofthe reptiles, and the piranas would attack you."

  "No, sir, I can't wade unless I could make stilts, and I can't do that.It will be a climb for fruit, like the monkeys, for luncheon if thewater doesn't go down."

  To the despair of all, the day passed on till it was getting late in theafternoon, and still the water spread around them right into the forest;but it was literally alive with fish which they could not see their wayto catch.

  Rob and Shaddy set to work making a fishing-line. A piece of thetoughest wood they could find was fashioned into a tiny skewer sharpenedat both ends and thrust into a piece of fruit taken from high up thetree, where Rob climbed, but soon had to come back on account of thepuma following him.

  Then they angled, with plenty of shoals swimming about the tree, as theycould see from the movement of the muddy water; but so sure as a fishtook the bait there was a short struggle, and either the line broke orthe apology for a hook gave way, till first one and then the other gaveup in sheer despair, and sat looking disconsolate, till Shaddy'scountenance expanded into a broad grin.

  "I don't see anything to laugh at," said Rob. "Here we have only a fewscraps to save for to-morrow, and you treat it all as if it were amatter of no consequence."

  "Warn't laughing at that, Mr Rob. I was only thinking of the fox andthe grapes, for I had just said to myself the fish ain't worth ketching,just as the fox said the grapes were sour."

  "But unless the waters go down ours is a very serious position," saidBrazier.

  "Very, sir. And as to that bit of food, strikes me that it will be goodfor nothing soon; so I say let's wait till last thing to-night, and thenfinish it."

  "And what about to-morrow?" said Rob gloomily.

  "Let to-morrow take care of itself, sir. Plenty of things may happento-morrow. May be quite dry. If not, we must kill the puma and eatit."

  "What!" cried Rob in horror.

  "Better than killing one of ourselves, sir," said the man grimly. "Wemust have something to eat, and we can't live on wood and water."

  The result was that they finished the last scrap of food after Shaddyhad spent the evening vainly looking out for the carcass of some drownedanimal. Then night came once more, and all lay down to sleep, but onlyto have a disturbed night through the uneasy wanderings of the hungrypuma, which kept climbing from branch to branch uttering a low,muttering cry. Sometimes it curled up beside Rob and seemed to sleep,but it soon rose again and crawled down the most pendent branch till itcould thrust its muzzle close to the surface of the water and quench itsthirst.

  "We shall have to shove it off to swim ashore," said Shaddy the nextmorning.

  "Why?" cried Rob. "The fish and alligators would attack it."

  "Can't help it, sir," replied the old sailor. "Better eat him than heshould eat us."

  "Why, you don't think--" began Rob.

  "Yes, I do, sir. Wild beasts of his kind eat enough at one meal to last'em a long time; but when they get hungry they grow very savage, and hemay turn upon us at any time now."

  Rob looked at the puma anxiously, and approached it later on in the day,to find the animal more gentle than ever; though it snarled and ruffledup the hair of its back and neck whenever there was the slightestadvance made by either of the others.

  That day passed slowly by--hot, dreamy, and with the water keepingexactly to the same depth, so that they were hopelessly prisoned stillon their tree. They tried again to capture a fish, but in vain; andonce more the night fell, with the sounds made by bird, insect, andreptile more weird and strange to them than ever.

  Rob dropped asleep from time to time, to dream of rich banquets anddelicious fruits, but woke to hear the croaking and whistling of thedifferent creatures of the forest, and sit up on the pile of boughslistening to the splash of the various creatures in the water, till daybroke, to find them all gaunt, wild-eyed, and despairing.

  "We must try and wade to shore, and chance the creatures in the water,"said Brazier hoarsely, for, on account of his weakness, he seemed tosuffer more than the others. "Where's shore, sir?" said Shaddy gruffly."Well, the nearest point, then."

  "There ain't no nearest point, sir," said the man. "Even if we couldescape the things swarming in the muddy water, we could not wade throughthe forest. It's bad enough when it's hard; now it'
s all water no mancould get through the trees. Besides, the land may be a hundred milesaway."

  "What can we do, then?" cried Rob in desperation. "Only one thing, sir:wait till the water goes down."

  "But we may be dead before then--dead of this terrible torture ofhunger."

  "Please God not, sir," said the old sailor piously: and they sat or laynow in their terrible and yet beautiful prison.

  From time to time Shaddy reached out from a convenient branch, anddipped one of Rob's vessels full of the thick water, and when it hadbeen allowed to settle they quenched their burning thirst; but the pangsof hunger only increased and a deadly weakness began to attack theirlimbs, making the least movement painful.

  For the most part those hours of their imprisonment grew dreamy andstrange to Rob, who slept a good deal; but he was roused up by oneincident. The puma had grown more and more uneasy, walking about thetree wherever it could get the boughs to bear it, till all at once,after lying as if asleep, it suddenly rose up, leaped from bough tobough, till it was by the forest, where they saw it gather itself up andspring away, evidently trying to reach the extreme boughs of the nexttree; but it fell with a tremendous splash into the water, and thegrowth between prevented them from seeing what followed.

  Rob uttered a sigh, for it was as if they had been forsaken by a friend;and Shaddy muttered something about "ought not to have let it go."

  They seemed to be very near the end. Then there was a strange, misty,dreamy time, from which Rob was awakened by Shaddy shaking his shoulder."Rouse up, my lad," he said huskily. "No, no: let me sleep," sighedRob. "Don't--don't!"

  "Rouse up, boy, I tell ye," cried the old sailor fiercely. "Here's helpcoming, or I'm dreaming and off my head. Now; sit up and listen.What's that?"

  Rob struggled feebly into a sitting position, and fancied he could heara sound. There was moonshine on the smooth water, and the trees cast athick shade; but he closed his eyes again, and began to lower himselfdown to drop into the sleep from which there would be no waking here onearth.

  "Ask--Mr Brazier--to look," he muttered feebly, and closed his heavyeyes.

  "No, no: you," cried Shaddy, who was kneeling beside him. "He's asleep,like. He can't move. Rouse up, lad, for the sake of home and all youlove. I'm nearly beat out, but your young ears can listen yet, and youreyes see. There's help coming, I tell you."

  "Help?" cried Rob, making a snatch at his companion's arm.

  "Yes, or else I'm dreaming it, boy. I'm off my head, and it's all'mazed and thick. That's right, listen. Hold up by me. Now, then,what's that black speck away yonder, like a bit o' cloud? and what'sthat noise?"

  "Oars," said Rob huskily, as he gave a kind of gasp.

  "What?"

  "Oars--and--a boat," cried the boy, his words coming with a strangecatching of the breath.

  "Hurray! It is--it is," cried Shaddy; and collecting all his remainingstrength, he uttered a hoarse hail, which was supplemented by a faintharsh cry from Rob, as he fell back senseless in their rough nest ofboughs in the fork of that prison tree.