by Mayne Reid
"Wha' shud I mean, but de voices ob de animal dat lib in de forress. Debirds an' de beast, an' de tree frogs, an' dem 'ere crickets dat chirps'mong de trees. Dat's what dis nigger mean."
"I b'lieve ye're right, nager. It's just that same. It can't be thewather, for that's did calm; an' it can't purceed from the sky, for itdon't come in that direction. In trath it's from the forest, as yesay."
"In dat case, den, we muss be near de odder side ob de lagoa, as deIndyun call um,--jess wha we want to go."
"Sowl, thin, that's good news! Will we wake up the masther an' till himav it? What do yez think?"
"Dis nigga tink better not. Let um all sleep till de broke ob day. Datcan't be far off by dis time. I hab an idee dat I see de furs light obmornin' jess showin' out yonner, at de bottom ob de sky. Gora! what'syon? Dar, dar! 'trait afore de head. By golly! dar's a fire outyonner, or someting dat hab de shine ob one. Doan ye see it, MassaTum?"
"Trath, yis; I do see somethin' shinin'. It a'n't them fire-flies, divyez think?"
"No! 'ta'n't de fire-fly. Dem ere flits about. Yon ting am steady, an'keeps in de same place."
"There's a raal fire yandher, or else it's the willy-wisp. See! be metroth thare's two av thim. Div yez see two?"
"Dar _am_ two."
"That can't be the willy-wisp. He's niver seen in couples,--at laste,niver in the bogs av Oireland. What can it be?"
"What can which be?" asked Trevannion, who, at this moment awaking,heard the question put by Tom to the negro.
"Och, look yandher! Don't yez see a fire?"
"Certainly; I see something very like one,--or rather two of them."
"Yis, yis; there's two. Mozey and meself have just discovered thim."
"And what does Mozey think they are?"
"Trath, he's perplixed the same as meself. We can't make hid or tail avthim. If there had been but wan, I'd a sayed it was a willy-wisp."
"Will-o'-the-wisp! No, it can scarce be that,--the two being together.Ah! I hear sounds."
"Yes, masther, we've heerd thim long ago."
"Why didn't you awake us? We must have drifted nearly across the lagoa.Those sounds, I should say, come out of the forest, and that, whateverit is, must be among the trees. Munday! Munday!"
"Hola!" answered the Indian, as he started up from his squattingattitude: "what is it, patron? Anything gone wrong?"
"No: on the contrary, we appear to have got very near to the other sideof the lagoa."
"Yes, yes!" interrupted the Indian as soon as the forest noises fellupon his ear; "that humming you hear must come thence. _Pa terra_!lights among the trees!"
"Yes, we have just discovered them. What can they be?"
"Fires," answered the Indian.
"You think it is not fire-flies?"
"No; the _loengos_ do not show that way. They are real fires. Theremust be people there."
"Then there is land, and we have at last reached _terra firma_."
"The Lord be praised for that," reverently exclaimed the Irishman. "Ourthroubles will soon be over."
"May be not, may be not," answered the Mundurucu, in a voice thatbetrayed both doubt and apprehension.
"Why not, Munday?" asked Trevannion. "If it be fires we see, surelythey are on the shore; and kindled by men. There should be somesettlement where we can obtain assistance?"
"Ah, patron! nothing of all that need follow from their being fires;only that there must be men. The fires need only be on the shore, andas for the men who made them, instead of showing hospitality, just aslike they make take a fancy to eat us."
"Eat us! you mean that they may be cannibals?"
"Just so, patron. Likely as not. It's good luck," pursued the tapuyo,looking around, "the wind went down, else we might have been carried tooclose. I must swim towards yon lights, and see what they are, before wego any nearer. Will you go with me, young master?"
"O, certainly!" replied Richard, to whom the question was addressed.
"Well, then," continued the tapuyo, speaking to the others, "you mustnot make any loud noise while we are gone. We are not so very distantfrom those fires,--a mile or thereabout; and the water carries the sounda long ways. If it be enemies, and they should hear us, there would beno chance of escaping from them. Come, young master, there's not aminute to spare. It must be very near morning. If we discover danger,we shall have but little time to got out of its way in the darkness; andthat would be our only hope. Come! follow me!"
As the Indian ceased speaking, he slipped gently down into the water,and swam off to the two lights whose gleam appeared every moment moreconspicuous.
"Don't be afraid, Rosetta," said Richard, as he parted from his cousin."I warrant it'll turn out to be some plantation on the bank, with ahouse with lights shining through the windows, and white people inside,where we'll all be kindly received, and get a new craft to carry us downto Para. Good by for the present! We'll soon be back again with goodnews."
So saying, he leaped into the water and swam off in the wake of thetapuyo.
CHAPTER EIGHTY ONE.
AN AERIAL VILLAGE.
The swimmers had not made many hundred yards when they saw beyond doubtthat the forest was not far off. It was even nearer than they had atfirst imagined, the darkness having deceived them; and perhaps the logmay have drifted nearer while they were under the impression that theylay becalmed.
At all events, they were now scarcely a quarter of a mile from theforest, which they knew stretched along the horizon as far as they couldhave seen had it been daylight. They could only just distinguish a darkbelt or line rising above the surface of the water before them; but thatthis extended right and left to a far distance could be told from thesounds that came from it. There was the hum of tree-crickets andcicadas, the _gluck_ of toads and frogs, the screams of aquatic birds,the hooting of owls, and the strange plaintive calls of thegoat-suckers, of which several species inhabit the Gapo forests; thewhip-poor-will and the "willy-come-go" all the night long givingutterance to their monotonous melody. Harsher still were the criesproceeding from the throats of howling monkeys, with now and then themelancholy moaning of the _ai_, as it moved slowly through the branchesof the _embauba_ (cecropia-tree). All these sounds, and a score ofother kinds,--some produced by insects and reptiles of unknownspecies,--were blended in that great choir of nature which fills thetropical forest with its midnight music.
The two swimmers, however, paid no attention to this fact; their wholethoughts being occupied by the lights, that, as they advanced, grewevery moment more conspicuous. There was no longer any doubt aboutthese being the blaze of fires. It was simply a question of where thefires were burning, and who had kindled them.
The young Paraense supposed them to be upon the shore of the lagoa.About this, however, his companion expressed a doubt. They did not seemto burn steadily, their discs appearing now larger and now less.Sometimes one would go out altogether, then blaze up afresh, whileanother was as suddenly extinguished. The younger of the two swimmersexpressed astonishment at this intermittence, which his companion easilyexplained. The fires, he said, were placed at some distance from theedge of the forest, among the trees, and it was by some tree-trunk nowand then intervening that the illusion was caused.
Silently the swimmers approached, and in due time they glided in underthe shadow of the thick foliage, and saw the fires more distinctly. Tothe astonishment of Richard--for the tapuyo did not seem at allastonished--they did not appear to be on the ground, but up in the air!The Paraense at first supposed them to have been kindled upon the top ofsome eminence; but, on scanning them more closely, he saw that thiscould not be the case. Their gleaming red light fell upon water shiningbeneath, over which, it was clear, they were in some way suspended.
As their eyes became accustomed to the glare, the swimmers could makeout that the fires were upon a sort of scaffold raised several feetabove the water, and supported by the trunks of the trees. Othersimilar scaffolds could be
seen, on which no fires had been kindled,--from the fact, no doubt, that their occupants were not yet astir.
By the blaze human figures were moving to and fro, and others were onthe platforms near by, which were more dimly illuminated; some entering,some coming forth from "toldos," or sheds, that stood upon them.Hammocks could be seen suspended from free to tree, some empty, and somestill holding a sleeper.
All this was seen at a single glance, while at the same time were heardvoices, that had been hitherto drowned by the forest choir, but couldnow be distinguished as the voices of men, women, and children,--such asmight be heard in some rural hamlet, whose inhabitants were aboutbestirring themselves for their daily avocations.
The tapuyo, gliding close up to the Paraense, whispered in his ear, "Amalocca!"
"An Indian village!" Richard rejoined. "We've reached _tierra firme_,then?"
"Not a bit of it, young master. If the dry land had been near, thosefires wouldn't be burning among the tree-tops."
"At all events, we are fortunate in falling in with this curiousmalocca, suspended between heaven and earth. Are we not so?"
"That depends on who they are that inhabit it. It may be that we'vechanced upon a tribe of cannibals."
"Cannibals! Do you think there are such in the Gapo?"
"There are savages in the Gapo who would torture before killing,--you,more especially, whose skins are white, remember, with bitterness, whatfirst drove them to make their home in the midst of the water-forests,--the white slave-hunters. They have reason to remember it; for the cruelchase is still kept up. If this be a malocca of Muras, the sooner weget away, the safer. They would show you whites no mercy, and less thanmercy to me, a red man like themselves. We Mundurucus are theirdeadliest enemies. Now, you lie still, and listen. Let me hear whatthey are saying. I know the Mura tongue. If I can catch a word it willbe sufficient. Hush!"
Not long had they been listening, when the Indian started, an expressionof anxiety suddenly overspreading his features, as his companion couldperceive by the faint light of the distant fires.
"As I expected," said he, "they are Muras. We must be gone, without amoment's loss of time. It will be as much as we can do to paddle thelog out of sight before day breaks. If we don't succeed in doing so, weare all lost. Once seen, their canoes would be too quick for us. Back,back to the monguba!"
CHAPTER EIGHTY TWO.
A SLOW RETREAT: IN THE ARCADE.
Their report spread consternation among the crew. Trevannion,incredulous of the existence of such bloodthirsty savages as Mundayrepresented the Muras to be, was disposed to treat it as anexaggeration. The young Paraense, who, when in his father's house, hadmet many of the up-river traders, and heard them conversing on this verytheme, was able to endorse what the Mundurucu said. It was well-knownto the traders that there were tribes of wild Indians inhabiting theGapo lands, who during the season of the inundation made their homeamong the tree-tops,--that some of these were cannibals, and all of themsavages of a most ferocious type, with whom an encounter in their nativewilds, by any party not strong enough to resist them, might prove bothdangerous and deadly.
There was no time to argue; and without further opposition the ex-minerhimself sprang to one of the paddles, the tapuyo taking the other. Theyhad no idea of going back across the lagoa. To have proceeded in thatdirection would have been to court discovery. With such slow progressas theirs, a mile would be about all they could make before daybreak;and, out on the open water, their craft would be distinguishable atthree times that distance. The course counselled by the tapuyo was tokeep at first parallel to the line of the trees; and then enter amongthese as soon as the dawn began.
As the party retreated, not two, but ten fires were seen gleaming amongthe trees, filling the forest with their bright coruscation. The tapuyoexplained that each new light denoted the uprising of a fresh family,until the whole malocca was astir. The fires were kindled to cook thebreakfast of the Indians. Notwithstanding this domestic design, ouradventurers looked back upon them with feelings of apprehension; forthey were not without fears that, roasted over those very fires, theymight furnish the savages with the material for a cannibal repast!
To all appearance never did the ceiba go slower,--never lie so dull uponthe water. Despite the vigorous straining of strong arms, it scarcelyseemed to move. The sail was of no service, as there was not a breathof air, but was rather an obstruction; and, seeing this, Mozey let loosethe halyards and gently lowered it.
They had hardly made half a mile from the point of starting, when theysaw the dawn just appearing above the tops of the trees. They were uponthe equator itself, where between dawn and daylight there is but a shortinterval of time. Knowing this, the craft was turned half round, andpulled towards a place of concealment. As they moved on to make it,they could see the sunlight stealing over the surface of the water, andthe fires becoming paler at its approach. In ten minutes more, daylightwould be upon them!
It was now a struggle against time,--a trial of speed between the ceibaand the sun,--both slowly approaching a critical point in their course.Trevannion and the tapuyo plied the paddles as men rowing for theirlives and the lives of others dear to them. They almost felt as if thesun favoured them; for he not only seemed to suspend his rising, but tosink back in his course. Perhaps it was only the shadow of the trees,under which they had now entered. At all events, they were in the midstof obscurity, propelling the dead-wood into the embouchure of anigarape, overshadowed with drooping trees, that, like a dark cavern,promised them a hiding-place.
At the moment of entering, it was so dark they could not tell how farthe opening extended. In this uncertainty they suspended the stroke oftheir paddles, and suffered the ceiba to come to a standstill. As yetthey had no other light than that afforded by the fire-flies thatflitted under about the trees. But these were of the large species,known as _Cocuyos (Elater noctilucus_), one of which, when held over thepage of a printed book, enables a person to read; and as there were manyof them wandering about, their united sparkle enabled our adventurers tomake out that the creek was of very limited extent.
Gradually, as the sun rose higher, his light fell gently glimmeringthrough the leaves, and showed that the arcade was a _cul de sac_,extending only about a hundred yards into the labyrinth of branches andparasitical plants. They had entered, so to speak, a court throughwhich there was no thoroughfare; and there they must remain. They couldonly get out of it by taking to the tree-tops, or else by returning tothe open lagoa. But they had had enough of travelling through thetree-tops, while to abandon the craft that had carried them socomfortably, and that might still avail them, was not to be thought of.
As to returning to the open water, that would be like deliveringthemselves into the very jaws of the danger they were desirous to avoid;for, once seen by the savages, there would not be the slightest chanceof escape. They were provided with canoes moored among the tree-trunksthat formed the supports of their aerial habitations. Clumsy structuresenough; but, no matter how clumsy or slow, they were swifter than thedead-wood; and in the event of a chase the latter would be easilyoverhauled and captured. Only one course offered any prospect ofsafety,--to remain all day in the arcade, trusting that none of thesavages might have any business near the place. At night they couldsteal out again, and by an industrious use of their paddles put a saferdistance between themselves and the dangerous denizens of the malocca.
Having determined on this, they drew their craft into the darkestcorner, and, making it fast to a tree, prepared to pass the time in thepleasantest possible manner.
There was not much pleasure sitting in that silent, sombre shadow;especially as they were in dread that its silence might be disturbed bythe wild shout of a savage. They had taken every precaution to escapediscovery. The little fire left burning upon the log had beenextinguished by Munday, immediately on seeing the two lights firstdescribed. They would fain have rekindled it, to cook a breakfast; butfearing that the s
moke might be seen, they chose that morning to eat thecharqui raw.
After breakfast they could do nothing but keep their seats, and await,with such patience as they might command, the development of events. Itwas not all darkness around them. As the little creek penetrated thetrees in a straight line, they commanded a view of a portion of thelagoa. Their situation was very similar to that of a person inside agrotto or cavern on the sea-shore, which commands a view of the oceanstretching away from its mouth, the bright space gradually widening asit recedes in the distance. Though themselves seated in the midst ofobscurity, they could see brightness beyond the opening of the bay,--thesun shining with a golden gleam upon the water.
On this their eyes were kept,--not in the hope of seeing anything therethat might give them gratification, but rather desiring that nothingshould be seen. Notwithstanding the obscurity that surrounded them,they could not divest themselves of the idea that one passing theentrance of the creek could see them distinctly enough; and this keptthem in constant apprehension.
They had no need to keep watch in any other direction. Behind them, andon each side, extended the unbroken wall of tree-tops, shaded withllianas, worked and woven together into a network that appearedimpenetrable even to the wild animals of the forest. Who would havelooked for an enemy in human shape to come that way?
Up to noon no incident occurred to disturb the tranquillity of the placeor in any way add to their apprehensions. Now and then a bird appeared,winging its way over the bright band illumined by the sun, or poisingitself for a moment and then plunging downward upon some prey it haddetected in the water. All these appearances only increased theirconfidence; as the presence of the birds, undisturbed at their ordinaryavocations, indicated the absence of human beings.
