The Rajah of Dah Part 20

"Well, it is a little different. The neck's green."

"Yes, instead of blue. That's the Javanese peac.o.c.k, and a splendid specimen. We'll hang this up till our return. Anything likely to touch it if we hang it on a branch?"

"No, I think not, sir," replied Frank; and after the bird had been carefully suspended fully six feet from the ground, the party walked on, to find that the ground was beginning to rise steadily, an indication of their nearing the hills.

"So that's the bird you wanted me to find, was it?" said Murray, after a long silent tramp, for the bush had grown rather dense.

"Oh no. The birds I mean only come out of a night. I've only seen two since I've been here, but you can hear them often in the jungle."

"Owls?"

"Oh no; pheasants, father says they are. Birds with tremendously long tails, and wings all over great spots like a peac.o.c.k's, only brown."

"Argus pheasants," said Murray, quietly. "Yes, I must try and get some specimens of them."

The ground began to rise more rapidly now, till it was quite a climb through open forest, very different to the dense jungle by the river-side. The ground, too, had become stony, with great gray ma.s.ses projecting here and there, and still they rose higher and higher, till, hot and breathless, they stopped in a narrow gorge to look back at the narrow plain they had crossed, just beyond which, and fringed on the far side by the dark jungle, they could see the river winding along like a ribbon of silver.

There were several umbrageous trees here, and the air was so fresh and comparatively cool that it was decided to halt now for an hour to rest.

Then, after a good look round had been taken, Murray suggested that they should return by another route to where the peac.o.c.k had been hung, after which they could go direct to the boat.

The Malays lay down and began preparing fresh pieces of betel-nut to chew; but Murray's rest was short, and jumping up again, he took a geological hammer from his belt, and began to crack and chip the stones and ma.s.ses of rock which peered from the barren-looking ground, the two boys, one of whom carried the gun, watching him intently.

"Plenty of quartz, Ned," said Murray. "Quite possible that one might find gold here."

As he spoke, he broke a piece of gray stone which he had hooked out from among the gra.s.s, and laid in a convenient place. A quick e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n came from his lips, and Frank cried excitedly, "Why, you haven't found gold?"

"No, my lad, but I have found a valuable metal. Look!"

He handed the broken halves of the stone to the boys, while the Malays crouched together, chewed away at their betel, and watched them.

"Well," said Ned, "I don't see any valuable metal. Do you?"

Frank shook his head.

"That is a fairly rich piece of ore too," said Murray. "Don't you see those little black grains running through the quartz?"

"No. These are all standing still," said Frank, laughing.

"Facetious, eh?" said Murray, smiling. "Well, those black grains are tin."

"Oh, they do get tin somewhere up the river," said Frank, eagerly; "but it isn't a bit like this."

"But it is like what this would be if it were smelted, young gentleman,"

cried Murray; "and, judging from appearances, I should say that the rajah could get tin enough in these hills to make him as wealthy as he likes."

"He ought to be satisfied, then, with what you have done, uncle," said Ned.

"But he will not be, my boy. He will not care to set up works, and he'll want us to try again for something better. There, we'll take our specimens to show to Mr Braine, and start back now. Give me the gun, and I'll go in the centre, and you two shall walk on either side of me, say fifty yards or so distant. You may beat up some specimens, and give me a better chance. Ask the men to keep about a hundred yards behind us."

Frank went and spoke to the men, and told them what was about to be done, and they rose, took their spears and waited while the boys started off to right and left, Murray waiting till they had guessed their distances, and then at his signal, a low whistle, the start was made for the river, down the steep slope, and bearing off so as to leave their outward track on their left.

It was a laborious descent, and Ned found the path he had to follow enc.u.mbered by loose gray stones, and full of gins and traps, in the shape of narrow cracks in the rock, and bramble-like canes ever ready to trip him up. However, fortunately, the trees and bushes were pretty open on that dry hill-side, and he could pick his way. But there was no shot, and he saw no sign of bird or reptile; only a few b.u.t.terflies which started up from among the dry herbage, and went flapping away among the trees.

Once or twice he heard the crackling of twigs on his left, and once he fancied that he could hear the Malays coming on behind him; but he was not sure, and he toiled on, bathed in perspiration, thinking how wonderfully still everything was out there, and how loud the rustling noise was he made with his boots in forcing his way through the scrub.

All at once, just as he was thinking what a likely place that steep stony hill-side looked for snakes, a magnificent b.u.t.terfly sprang up within a yard or two of his feet, and as he stopped short, he saw it go fluttering on in a zigzag fas.h.i.+on, and then pounce down all at once, only a little way on before him, and right in the direction he had to go.

"I don't see why I shouldn't have a specimen too," he said to himself, as, regardless of the heat, he took off his straw hat, and crept silently on with his eyes fixed upon the spot where the beautiful insect had disappeared. He was within a yard of it, with upraised hat ready to strike, when it darted up, and he made a bound forward, striking downward with his hat at the same time.

The result was unexpected. Ned's step was on to nothing, and, letting go of his hat, he uttered a cry of horror as he felt himself falling through bushes, and then sliding along with an avalanche of stones, apparently right away into the bowels of the earth, and vainly trying to check himself by stretching out his hands.

One moment he saw the light dimmed by the green growth over the mouth of the opening, the next he was in utter darkness, and gliding down rapidly for what seemed, in his horror and confusion, a long period. Then all at once the rattling, echoing noise of falling stones ceased, and so did his progress, as he found himself, scratched and sore, lying on his side upon a heap of stones, some of which were right over his legs. It did not take him long to extricate himself, and stand upright with his hands resting on a cold rocky wall, and as he stood there in the darkness, he obeyed his first impulse, which was to shout for help. But at every cry he uttered there was so terrible a reverberation and echo, that he ceased, and began to try to climb back up the great crack to the light of day.

To his horror and despair he soon found that such a climb would be impossible in the darkness, and as a flood of terrible thoughts threatened to sweep away his reason, and he saw himself dying slowly there from starvation, it seemed to him that it was not quite so dark as he thought, and peering before him, he felt about with hand and foot, and changed his position slowly, finding that the stones beneath him were pretty level till he made one unlucky step on a loose flat piece, which began to glide rapidly down. Although he tried hard to save himself, he slipped and rolled again for some distance before he could check his way, when he sat up with his heart bounding with joy, for, about a hundred yards or so before him, he could see a rough opening laced over by branches, through which gleamed the sunlight.

And now, as he cautiously made his way toward the light, he began to realise that he was in a rough rift or chasm in the rock, whose floor descended at about the same rate as the hill-slope; and five minutes after, he forced his pa.s.sage out through the bushes which choked the entrance, to hear, away on his left, a distant "cooey."

He answered at once, and went on descending the hill, thinking how strange his adventure had been, and that after all it was only a bit of a fright, and that he had come part of the way underground, instead of above.

And now the heat of the sun reminded him that he had lost his hat, and he stopped short with the intention of going back, but another shout on his left warned him that he must proceed or he might be lost.

"And perhaps the Malays may find it," he argued; so tying his handkerchief over his head with a great leaf inside, he trudged on, answering the "cooeys" from time to time, till he drew nearer, and at last, in obedience to a whistle, joined his uncle about the same time as Frank.

"Nothing to show," cried the former. "I say, Ned, you got too far away.

I thought at one time I'd lost you. Why, where's your hat?"

"Lost it," replied the boy, looking toward Frank as he spoke.

That young gentleman was laughing at him, and this so roused Ned's ire, sore and smarting as he was, that he did not attempt to make any explanation of his mishap, feeling a.s.sured that he would only be laughed at the more, for not looking which way he went.

They were all beginning to feel the effect of their walk in the hot sun, and in consequence they trudged back rather silently to where the peac.o.c.k had been hung, and this was borne in triumph back to the boat, where the rest of the men were patiently awaiting their return.

"Wonder what they've got ready for us," said Frank, rousing up a little as they came near the river.

"Got ready? What, refreshments? Will they have anything?"

"There'll be a tremendous uproar if they have not," cried Frank. "The rajah is a regular old pirate, as my father says, and he helps himself to whatever he fancies from everybody round, but there's nothing stingy about him as you'll find."

The lad was quite right in his surmises respecting refreshments, for the men had quite a pleasant little repast spread, and most welcome of all, a great piece of bamboo, about five feet long, hanging from the side of the boat in the full suns.h.i.+ne, with one end swaying in the river.

"Look at that!" cried Frank. "Know what that is?"

"A very thick piece of bamboo."

"Yes, but what's in it?"

"I did not know anything was in it."

"But you will know directly. That's the big decanter, with a whole lot of deliriously cool drink in it. I don't know what it is, only that it's the old chap's favourite tipple, and it's precious good."