The Castaways

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

  STARTING FOR THE INTERIOR.

  Reclining on the soft silvery sand, inhaling the fresh morning breezeblowing in from the Celebes Sea, every breath of it seeming to infusefresh blood into their veins and renewed vigour into their limbs, thecastaways felt their health and strength fast returning. Saloo'sprognosis was rapidly proving itself correct. He had said they wouldsoon recover, and they now acknowledged the truth of his prediction.

  Their cheerfulness came back along with their returning strength, andwith this also their appetites. Their dinner-supper of roast hornbillhad done them little good; but although for a time scared by such diet,and determined to eschew it when better could be had, they were now onlytoo glad to resort to it, and it was agreed upon that the old hen,stewed as intended, should supply the material of their breakfast.

  A fresh fire was kindled far away from the dangerous upas; the hugeshell, with its contents, was hastily snatched from the deadly shade,and, supported by four large pebbles to serve as feet for the queerstew-pan, it was placed over the burning embers, and soon commenced tosteam and squeak, spreading around an odorous incense, far pleasanter tothe olfactories of the hungry party than either the fresh saline breeze,or the perfume of tropical flowers now and then wafted to them from therecesses of the forest.

  While waiting for the flesh of the old hen to get properly and tenderlystewed, they could not resist the temptation of making an assault uponthe chick; and it, too, was hurriedly rescued from the tainted larderbeneath the upas-tree, spitted upon a bamboo sapling, and broiled like asquab-pigeon over the incandescent brands.

  It gave them only a small morsel each, serving as a sort of prelude tothe more substantial breakfast soon to follow, and for which they couldnow wait with greater composure.

  In due time Saloo, who was wonderfully skilled in the tactics of theforest _cuisine_, pronounced the stew sufficiently done; when thestew-pan was lifted from the fire, and set in the soft sand for itscontents to cool.

  Soon gathering around it, each was helped to a share: one to a wing withliver or gizzard, another to a thigh-joint with a bit of the breast, athird to the stripped breast-bone, or the back one, with its thincovering of flesh, a fourth to a variety of stray giblets.

  There was still a savoury sauce remaining in the pan, due to the herbcondiments which Saloo had collected. This was served out in some tinpannikins, which the castaway crew had found time to fling into the boatbefore parting from the sinking ship. It gave them a soup, which, ifthey could only have had biscuits or bread with it, would have beenquite as good as coffee for their breakfast.

  As soon as this was eaten, they took steps to change their place ofencampment. Twice unfortunate in the selection of a site, they were nowmore particular, and carefully scrutinised the next tree under whoseshadow they intended to take up their abode. A spreading fig not faroff invited them to repose beneath its umbrageous foliage; and removingtheir camp paraphernalia from the poison-breathing; upas, they once moreerected the tarpaulin, and recommenced housekeeping under the protectingshelter of a tree celebrated in the Hindu mythology as the "sacredbanyan."

  "It was a goodly sight to see That venerable tree For o'er the lawn, irregularly spread. Fifty straight columns propt its lofty head; And many a long depending shoot, Seeking to strike its root, Straight like a plummet grew towards the ground. Some on the lower boughs which crost their way, Fixing their bearded fibres, round and round, With many a ring and wild contortion wound; Some to the passing wind at times, with sway Of gentle motion swung; Others of younger growth, unmoved, were hung Like stone-drops from a cavern's fretted height."

  The banyan often measures thirty feet in girth; the one selected byCaptain Redwood was probably not less than twenty-five feet. Itspeculiarity is that it throws out roots from all its branches, so thatas fast as each branch, in growing downwards, touches the ground, ittakes root, and in due time serves as a substantial prop to thehorizontal bough, which, without some such support, would give waybeneath its own weight.

  They intended it for only a temporary dwelling-place, until theirstrength should be sufficiently established to enable them to start ontheir contemplated overland journey, with a prospect of being able tocontinue it to its end.

  It seemed, at length, as if fortune, hitherto so adverse, had turned asmiling face toward them; and they were not much longer to be detainedupon that wild and dangerous shore. For the same day on which theyremoved from the upas to the fig-tree, the latter furnished them with anarticle of food in sufficient quantity to stock their larder for nearlya week, and of a quality superior in strengthening powers to eitherroast or stewed hornbill, and quite equal to the eggs of themound-making birds.

  It was not the fruit of the fig that had done this; but an animal theyhad discovered crawling along one of its branches. It was a reptile ofthat most hideous and horrid shape, the _saurian_; and only thehungriest man could ever have looked upon, with thoughts of eating it.But Saloo felt no repugnance of this kind; he knew that the huge lizardcreeping along the limb of the banyan-tree, over five feet long, andnearly as thick as the body of a man, would afford flesh not onlyeatable, but such as would have been craved for by Apicius, had theRoman epicure ever journeyed through the islands of the MalayanArchipelago, and found an opportunity of making trial of it.

  What they saw slowly traversing the branch above them was one of thosehuge lizards of the genus _Hydrosaurus_, of which there are severalspecies in Indian climes--like the _iguanas_ of America--harmlesscreatures, despite their horrid appearance, and often furnishing to thehunter or forester a meal of chops and steaks both tender and delicious.

  With this knowledge of what it would afford them, Saloo had nodifficulty in persuading Captain Redwood to send a bullet through theskull of the _hydrosaurus_, and it soon lay lifeless upon the ground.

  The lizard was nigh six feet from snout to tail; and Saloo, assisted byMurtagh, soon slipped a piece of his vegetable rope around its jaws, andslung it up to a horizontal branch for the purpose of skinning it. Thussuspended, with limbs and arms sticking out, it bore a very disagreeableresemblance to a human being just hanged. Saloo did not care anythingabout this, but at once commenced peeling off its skin; and then he cutthe body into quarters, and subdivided them into "collops," which weresoon sputtering in the blaze of a bright fire. As the Malay hadpromised, these proved tender, tasting like young pork steaks, with aslight flavour of chicken, and just a _soupcon_ of frog. Delicate asthey were, however, after three days' dieting upon them all feltstronger--almost strong enough, indeed, to commence their grand journey.

  Just then another, and still more strengthening, kind of food was addedto their larder. It was obtained by a mere accident, in the form of ahuge wild boar of the Bornean species, which, scouring the forest insearch of fruits or roots, had strayed close to their camp under thefig-tree. He came too close for his own safety; a bullet from CaptainRedwood's rifle having put an abrupt stop to his "rootings."

  Butchered in proper scientific fashion, he not only afforded them foodfor the time in the shape of pork chops, roast ribs, and the like; butgave them a couple of hams, which, half-cooked and cured by smoking,could be carried as a sure supply upon the journey.

  And so provisioned, they at length determined on commencing it, takingwith them such articles of the wreck-salvage as could be convenientlytransferred, and might prove beneficial. Bidding adieu to the pinnace,the dear old craft which had so safely carried them through the dangersof the deep, they embarked on a voyage of a very different kind, in thecourses of which they were far less skilled, and of whose tracks andperils they were even more apprehensive. But they had no otheralternative. To remain on the eastern coast of Borneo would be to staythere for ever. They could not entertain the slightest hope of any shipappearing off shore to rescue them. A vessel so showing itself wouldbe, in all probability, a prau filled with bloodthirsty pirates, whowould either kill or make captives of them, and afterwards sell
theminto slavery: and a slavery from which no civilised power could redeemthem, as no civilised man might ever see them in their chains.

  It was from knowing this terrible truth that Captain Redwood hadresolved upon crossing the great island overland at that part where hesupposed it to be narrowest,--the neck lying between its eastern coastand the old Malayan town of Bruni on the west, adjacent to the islet ofLabuan, where he knew an English settlement was situated.

  In pursuance of this determination, he struck camp, and moved forwardinto a forest of unknown paths and mysterious perils.