by L. T. Meade
CHAPTER VI
IN SOUTH AMERICA
Although the two boys were woefully disappointed at not being able tosee anything of Trinidad, yet the fact that they were going toDemerara and would actually have a chance to see something of SouthAmerica more than made up for it.
Rawlins assured them that in British Guiana they would find a far moreinteresting spot than Trinidad and the boys plied him with questions.
"Isn't that the place the blow gun and those poisoned arrows camefrom?" asked Tom.
"Sure thing," replied the diver. "I don't know much about thecountry--except what I've read and been told--but I've been atGeorgetown, or Demerara as it's called, and you'll find enough to keepyou busy right there."
"Gosh, then there must be wild Indians there--if they use blow guns,"said Frank. "Will we be able to see any of them?"
"Country's full of them," declared Rawlins. "But they're allpeaceable. If we go trailing that plane into the bush as I want Mr.Pauling to do, you'll see Indians all right. If we don't, you may seea few in town. I've always wanted to get into the interior myself.It's a wonderful place--most of it unexplored--and there's gold anddiamonds and wild animals and the highest waterfall in the world."
"Now don't get these boys all worked up over it, Rawlins," laughed Mr.Pauling. "If we don't look out, they'll mutiny and refuse to go homeuntil they've had their fill of sightseeing. I admit I'd like nothingbetter than to stretch my legs ashore for a time and see something ofthe country, but this is no pleasure jaunt, you know."
"But if those men are there, we could go after them and then itwouldn't be a pleasure trip," argued Tom.
"You can be sure it would not," replied his father. "It's bad enoughtrailing those scoundrels all over the Caribbean, let alone trying torun them to earth in a tropical jungle. No, I think our chase ends atGeorgetown."
But Rawlins was not to be readily discouraged. He was a mostpersistent character and having once made up his mind to follow the"Reds" to "Kingdom Come," as he put it, he was not easily to bedissuaded. "I'll say it would be a blamed shame to give up now," hedeclared. "We've got 'em narrowed down to two and the plane (the bunchon the _Devon_ don't count) and those two are the chaps you want,Mr. Pauling. We've got 'em on the run--smoked 'em out of every holethey had--chased 'em into the sea and under it and into the air. Nowthey've played their last trump. We'd be a lot of boobs to let 'em getaway with it now."
"But you seem to forget that we haven't the least idea where they areand that Guiana's a big country," Mr. Pauling reminded him. "I've beengoing over the maps with Henderson and Disbrow and it's hopeless. Why,they may be in Dutch Guiana or Brazil or Venezuela by now. While wewere paddling up a few miles of jungle river, that plane could beflying a couple of hundred miles. It would be worse than chasing abird with your hat."
"Just the same I've a hunch that we're going to get 'em," declaredRawlins. "And by glory, if you won't go after 'em, I'm going to dropoff and go it alone!"
Mr. Pauling laughed. "Any one would think you had a personal grudgeagainst them," he chuckled.
"So I have--confound them!" cried the diver. "Didn't they cop mydiving suit idea and didn't they play a dozen low-down, dirty trickson us? And weren't they trying to stick a wurali-tipped dart in meback there at St. John? Besides, I've never gone back on one of myhunches yet and it's too late to begin now."
"Well, we'll see what we find out over at Georgetown, before wedecide," said Mr. Pauling. "After I talk with the officials we canmake plans for our next move. For all we know they may have importantinformation."
The destroyer had now left Port of Spain far astern and was passingout through the Bocas to the open sea. Throughout the afternoon shesteamed steadily eastward through the muddy water and when the boyscame on deck early the following morning there was still no sign ofland.
"Where's Demerara?" asked Tom of the lieutenant in charge. "CommanderDisbrow said we'd be in by breakfast time, but I don't see a sign ofland."
"Straight ahead," replied the officer. "There's the lightship--see,that little schooner there."
"Yes I see it," said Tom, "but what is it out in the ocean here for?"
The lieutenant laughed. "It's not!" he replied. "We're in the rivernow. The lightship's on the bar. We'll be slowing down to take on thepilot in a few moments."
"In the river!" exclaimed Frank. "Oh, you're just fooling! How canthis be a river when there are no banks?"
"Honest Injun, 'tis though," declared the officer. "The banks arethere all right, but they're so low you can't see them and the river'sthirty-five miles wide."
"Jimminy crickets!" cried Tom. "Thirty-five miles wide! Say, I thoughtthe Amazon and the Orinoco were the only big rivers down here."
"Oh, this is just a brook compared to the Amazon," said thelieutenant, "but it's wider than the Orinoco. It's really the mouth oftwo big rivers--the Demerara and the Essequibo. Look, there comes thepilot."
A small boat had put off from the lightship and came bobbing towardsthe destroyer, which had slowed down, and presently a grizzled oldnegro came scrambling over the side.
With all the pomposity and dignity of an admiral he saluted thelieutenant and climbed to the bridge and a moment later the destroyerwas steaming once more on its way under the guidance of theincongruous old negro. Presently, far ahead, the boys saw bits of hazydetached land. Then tall chimneys of sugar mills and the slendertowers of a wireless station became visible; the detached bits of dullgreen, which the boys had taken for islands, joined and formed a lowgreen bank, and before they realized it, the boys found they werepassing up a wide muddy stream and that roofs, buildings and spires ofa large town were just ahead.
"Gosh, isn't everything flat!" exclaimed Frank. "I don't see a hill ora mountain or anything but that line of low brush anywhere. And thetown looks as if it were below the water."
"So it is," replied Commander Disbrow. "Or rather it's below the waterlevel. There's a dyke or sea wall to keep the water out, there arecanals running through the streets to drain the place and there arebig tide gates, or 'kokers' as they call them, which are closed athigh tide and opened at low water."
"Why, it must be like Holland then!" exclaimed Tom.
"It used to be Dutch," explained the Commander, "and the Dutchmenalways seem to like to build towns below sea level--sort of habit, Iguess--though why they didn't put it on high land up the river a bitgets me. You'll find Dutch names everywhere, too, and old Dutchbuildings, and if you went a hundred miles or so up the Essequiboyou'd find an old Dutch fort."
The destroyer had now drawn close to the town and a few minutes laterwas being moored to the government dock.
From the height of the vessel's decks the boys could look right overthe buildings. Beyond the sea of roofs and spires they could seewaving palms, long avenues of green shade trees and busy, interestingstreets and they were fairly crazy to go ashore.
The arrival of an American warship at Demerara was such an unusualevent that a huge crowd had collected at the pier and among themulticolored throng of black, white, and yellow were the gold lace anduniforms of officers.
Knowing that his father and the others would be thoroughly occupied inthe formalities of an official welcome, Tom asked permission to goashore with Frank and Rawlins and scarcely was the destroyer mooredwhen the three darted down the gangway and edging through the crowdcame out on the noisy, busy street.
"Gee, this is some town!" exclaimed Tom as the three glanced about."They've automobiles and trolley cars and everything."
"Sure it's some town!" agreed Rawlins. "Come on, let's take a carriageand drive about. We'll see it quicker and better that way."
Tumbling into a rubber-tired Victoria driven by a grinning negro, thediver told him to drive them about Georgetown and out to the botanicstation.
The boys were wildly enthusiastic over everything and Rawlins, who wasalmost as much of a boy as themselves, pointed out the moreinteresting features of the place. The picturesque Hindu men andwomen, who, garbed in their
native costumes, swarmed everywhere,fascinated the boys. They were delighted with the shady streets, withthe cool houses half-hidden in masses of strange tropical flowers, andthey reveled in the calm canals spanned by Oriental-looking bridgesand filled with pink lotus and water lilies.
"It's the quaintest, prettiest place I've ever seen!" declared Tom."And so foreign looking."
"And these bright red roads!" exclaimed Frank. "And all those EastIndians! Why, it's like being in another world!"
"And just look at the way all the houses are built on posts or brickpillars!" put in Tom.
"Yes, that's to keep them dry," Rawlins explained. "In the rainyseason the streets get flooded at times and so they build their houseson stilts."
But all the other sights they had seen were forgotten when at lastthey came to the huge botanic station. Here they drove for milesthrough a veritable tropical forest among gigantic trees, undertrailing lianas, beside jungle streams, all of which, as far asappearances went, might have been in the very heart of South America.But everywhere the red earth roads were as smooth and well kept asasphalt, the grass was green and velvety, beds of gorgeous flowerswere all about, and all the trees and plants were carefully labeled.Only such things were in evidence to show it was a park or garden andnot the untamed wild and when, to the boys' delight, they saw a flockof gaudy parrots feeding overhead and caught a glimpse of huge-billedtoucans, they felt as though they were actually in the "bush."Everywhere, too, were canals filled with the gigantic leaves and hugeflowers of the Victoria Regia lily and at one spot was a lily andlotus-filled lake, bordered with thickets of palms and fairly swarmingwith herons, egrets, and boat-bills, with a pair of great, scarletmacaws screeching from a dead limb over the water.
"Gosh!" exclaimed Frank. "It's like a zoological garden, only better.Oh, look, look there! What's that?" As he spoke, a great, dark objecthad risen through the water and with a hissing noise slowlydisappeared.
"Only a manatee," laughed Rawlins. "Didn't you recognize it? It wasone of those fellows that led you astray in Santo Domingo, you know."
"But I never expected to see one here, right in the town," declaredFrank.
"Lots of 'em in here," said the diver, "and plenty of alligators too.But everywhere you go about Georgetown you'll find wild animals andbirds. See herons and egrets feeding beside the roads and scarlet ibison the mud flats alongside the docks. The city's just at the edge ofthe jungle, you might say, and you could go right through to theAmazon without ever seeing a sign of civilization."
"Golly, I do hope Dad goes after those fellows!" cried Tom. "Afterseeing this place I'm just crazy to see the real jungle."
"And Indians!" added Frank.
"Well, I've a hunch he's going," declared Rawlins. "I'll bet a dollarto a sixpence we're all in the jungle inside of three days."
From the gardens they drove through a picturesque village, swarmingwith East Indians, to the seawall, then through the town to themarket, out to a big sugar estate with miles of enormous royal palmsbordering the road, and finally to the museum where they spent an houror more looking at the collections of native birds, animals, insectsand Indian curios.
When at last they boarded the destroyer in time for lunch, they foundMr. Pauling and Mr. Henderson in earnest conversation with a tall,lean-faced, quiet man dressed in spotless white and a short,roly-poly, red-faced officer who wore a gorgeous uniform and whoseenormous, fiercely twisted mustaches belied the merry twinkle in hiseyes.
"It's all right, Tom, come in, and you too, Frank, and you, Rawlins,"cried Mr. Pauling, as Tom, who had burst impetuously into the room,saw that his father was engaged and hastened to withdraw. "This isColonel Maidely," he continued, introducing the officer, "and this isMr. Thorne. We've been discussing Rawlins' idea of going into the bushafter those rascals. By the way, Rawlins, I told the Colonel youropinion of him for letting the _Devon_ slip by and he's preparedto take a good dressing down!"
The jovial officer laughed heartily. "'Pon my word I deserve it!" hedeclared. "Jolly stupid of me, eh? Fact was we were all so interestedin the two chaps with the plane we were careless--yes, I'll admit it.Wager you if it hadn't been for that we'd have suspected her. Jollyclever idea that--pulling the wool over our eyes with the airship! Andmy word! What nerve, as you Yankees say--using a name as much like_Devon_ as _Devonshire_! But we'll get her yet, olddear--don't worry."
"And I'm beginning to think your idea is worth trying, Rawlins," wenton Mr. Pauling. "Mr. Thorne here is an explorer--just came in from along trip through the interior, and the Colonel says he knows moreabout the bush than the Indians themselves. He says it will be easy totrace the plane--just as you did--and he seems to think that in allprobability they landed somewhere and will await word from theirconfederates that we've abandoned the chase when they can safely comeout of hiding."
"Hurrah!" shouted Tom, quite forgetful of the strangers' presence."Then we _are_ going into the bush!"
"Provided I can induce Mr. Thorne to accompany us," said his father."None of us knows anything about the interior and we'd be helplesslyat sea."
"Oh, you will go, won't you?" begged Frank. "We're crazy to seeIndians and wild animals and everything."
The explorer smiled at the boys' enthusiasm. "I'm inclined to think Iwill," he replied. "I had hoped to go to the States next week--my workis done--but I'm anxious to be of any service I can to Uncle Sam, aswell as to my British Colonial friends, and I'm still young enough inspirit, if not in years, to love adventure and excitement, and thistrip promises both. Yes, Mr. Pauling, you can count on me and thesooner we get off the better."
"Hurrah! Hip hurrah!" yelled the two boys, fairly dancing with joy.
"Bully for you!" cried Rawlins grasping Mr. Thorne's hand. "I'll sayyou're a good sport. Didn't I tell you we'd be in the bush in threedays, boys?"
"Well I hope the rest of your hunch comes true as quickly," laughedMr. Pauling. "I've been telling the Colonel and Mr. Thorne about yourfamous hunches and the way they've saved the day so many times."
"Bet you didn't tell them about the inspector over at Trinidadthinking they were a new Yankee drink!" chuckled the diver.
"My word, that _is_ rich!" choked Colonel Maidely when thelaughter had subsided, "Jolly good joke! Just like old May--wait 'tilI tell that to His Excellency and to Philip! By Jove, yes!"
Mr. Thorne rose. "I'll be starting things going," he announced. "Canyou gentlemen be ready to leave to-morrow morning? I think my Indianboys are still here--at least some of them are, and if we get off onto-morrow morning's steamer so much the better."
"We can be ready," Mr. Pauling assured him. "I suppose we had bettertake a radio outfit along."
"By all means," replied the other. "Doubtless these men with the planeare in touch with events by radio and I count largely on trailing themby that means. I understand you boys have a radio compass outfit."
"Better than that," declared Tom. "We've got a resonance coil."
"Well, take it," directed the explorer. "Don't bother about the restof the outfit--except arms and ammunition and old clothes. I'll see tosupplies and camp kit."
"Gosh, isn't it great?" exclaimed Tom after Mr. Thorne had gone. "Justto think we're really going into the jungle!"
"You bet!" agreed Frank.
"And when we get back we can go looking for that loot that they hid,"went on Tom, "unless these rascals confess and tell us where it is."
"Jehoshaphat! I'd forgotten all about that," exclaimed Frank.
"You might just as well forget it, once and for all," declared Mr.Pauling, laughing at the boys' enthusiasm. "I don't think even Rawlinshas any idea of being able to recover that."
"I'll say I have!" cried the diver. "But it will take some figuringwith what we have to go on. But I'm more keen on getting the old HighMuck-a-Muck and his mate than finding that loot just now."
Throughout the rest of the day the boys busied themselves withpreparations for their trip, going over their radio instruments andpacking the few belongings they
were to take with them. Finally, inthe evening, when Mr. Pauling and Mr. Henderson left for the receptionat Government House, they took another long drive about the town andoutlying country with Rawlins. Early the next morning, Mr. Thornearrived, accompanied by two short, stockily built, broad-faced, brownmen, who shouldered the party's baggage and carried it to a waitingcart.
"Everything's arranged," the explorer told Mr. Pauling. "Most of myboys have gone up the river, but I telegraphed for them to be readyand I found a couple of them still in town."
"Why, were those men you brought Indians?" asked Tom in surprise. "Ithought they were Chinese or something."
"Akawoias," replied Mr. Thorne. "All the Indians here have a Mongolianappearance."
"Gosh, if I'd known that, I'd have been more interested," declaredFrank.
"You'll see them and a lot more for day after day," laughed theexplorer, "and you'll find them very decent boys. They've been with mefor months."
"Do they talk English?" asked Tom.
"Well, not exactly," replied Mr. Thorne. "They have a queer jargonthey call 'talky-talky'--something like Pigeon English. You'll learnto speak it easily enough. Now if you're all ready, let's be off. Theboat leaves in half an hour."
"By the way," remarked the explorer, as the party left the destroyerand walked up the street towards the dock or "stelling" where theriver steamer was moored, "I've a bit of news for you. The seaplanepassed over Wismar and was headed almost due south. I think thatrather does away with the idea that they were making for Venezuela orDutch Guiana."
"Hmm," muttered Mr. Pauling. "Is there any place in that vicinitywhere they could hide?"
"It's the least known district in the entire colony," Mr. Thorneassured him. "Until I explored it, the upper reaches of the Demerarawere absolutely unknown--even the source of the river had never beendiscovered--and between the Berbice and the Essequibo rivers above theDemerara is a vast area of absolutely unexplored territory. They couldcome down anywhere in that district without the slightest chance ofbeing seen--except by Indians--and it's near enough the coast to be inradio communication with a confederate here or a ship at sea. But myown opinion is that their friends are over in Dutch Guiana. Judging byyour experiences, they have a particular fondness for the Dutch andDutch colonies."
"Could they communicate with people there at this distance?" asked Mr.Henderson.
"I don't see why not," replied the explorer. "In a direct line,Paramaribo, the capital and port, is a little over two hundred milesdistant. Of course, I do not know the sending range of the plane'soutfit, but they could certainly receive and I suppose that's just asimportant."
"If they've got as good an outfit on the plane as they had on the suband at St. John they could send twice that distance," declared Tom."Do you understand radio, Mr. Thorne?"
The explorer smiled, "As Colonel Maidley would say, 'rawther'," hereplied. "I don't suppose I'm up-to-date, but it is something of ahobby with me."
"Gee, that's bully!" cried Tom. "Did Dad tell you about our subsearadio?"
Once started on this subject the two boys and Mr. Thorne forgot allelse and held an animated conversation which continued withoutcessation until they reached the little river steamer and the boys'interests were aroused by new sights.
Never had the two boys seen such an odd, many colored cosmopolitancrowd as thronged the "stelling" and the boat. Swathed in cotton,bare-legged and with their heads covered with immense turbans of red,white, or green the East Indian men stalked about. There were Parseeswith their odd embroidered hats; Brahmins with the painted marks ofholy men upon their foreheads; fakirs in rags, with long matted hairand beards, carrying their highly polished brass begging bowls andtheir goatskins as their total possessions; fat, sleek "Baboos" insilk, protecting their turbaned heads under huge, green umbrellas;and East Indian women by the score, ablaze with color and laden downwith heavy barbaric jewelry, their wrists, ankles and arms encircledby scores of heavy bands and rings of beaten silver and gold, theirsleek, black hair bound with dangling silver and jeweled ornaments,huge golden hoops in their noses--clad, besides, in brilliantembroidered jackets, fluttering gauze veils and silken draperies. Achattering, dark-hued throng that transformed the spot to a bit ofIndia. Back and forth among them, elbowed the big, burlynegroes--"pork knockers," as Mr. Thorne called them--each carrying his"battell" or gold pan strapped to his pack and all bound for the goldand diamond diggings. Chinese there were too, prosperous merchants inEuropean garments; farmers with huge, saucerlike hats, loose trousersand blouses; Chinese women in flapping, pajamalike costumes, andtoddling Chinese kiddies that might have stepped from an Orientalscreen. To swell the crowd and add to the multiplicity ofnationalities there were sallow Portuguese, mulattoes, quadroons, andoctoroons; bronzed English planters; dark-eyed Venezuelans;broad-shouldered, mighty-muscled "Boviander" rivermen; and half adozen short, deep-chested, stolid-faced native Indians or "bucks," asthe explorer told the boys they were called.
And such confusion! Such a chaos of live stock, baggage, squallingbabies, and wildly clucking and clacking fowls! How they would everget straightened out; how they would ever find their own belongings,or how the tiny side-wheel steamer could ever accommodate them all wasa mystery to the boys. But gradually order came out of chaos; the big,heavily booted, blue-clad "bobbies" shooed and berated and shoved andordered and helped and at last, with a toot of the whistle, the gangplank was drawn in, the mooring lines were cast off and loaded to thegunwales, the little steamer swung into the swirling muddy stream andpoked her blunt bow up river to the deafening cheers, farewells, andparting shouts of the kaleidoscopic crowd upon the stelling.
"Well, we're off!" exclaimed Rawlins, "We may not know where we'regoing but we're on our way!"
"Yes, and to think we're way down in South America!" cried Tom. "Ican't really believe it yet."
"It isn't much like the popular idea of South America, I admit,"laughed the explorer who had joined them. "But you've only begun tosee unexpected and surprising things."
"You'll have to tell us everything," declared Frank. "We want to learnall we can and everything's absolutely new to us, you know."
"I'll do my best," replied Mr. Thorne, "but even I learn something newevery time I go into the bush."
"If we learn where that plane's hanging out, I'll be satisfied,"declared the diver.
