Rob Harlow's Adventures Part 35

"Ah well, we need not discuss the matter, for the puma has gone."

"Thought you were going to shoot at it again, sir," said Rob in rather an ill-used tone, for he was disappointed at the sudden interruption to his friendly intercourse with the beautiful beast.

By this time Giovanni was out of the boat, and stared rather at the account of the morning's adventure; but the announcement soon after that the coffee was boiling changed the conversation, and for the time being the puma was forgotten.

The great natural clearing at the edge of the lake and the opening out of the river itself gave so much opportunity for Brazier to prosecute his collecting that he at once decided upon staying in the neighbourhood--certainly for that day, if not for one or two more, and in consequence the fire was left smouldering, while the boat was forced along close in sh.o.r.e, which was no easy task, on account of the dense growth of lilies.

The heat was great, but forgotten in the excitement of collecting, and, with the help of his young companions, Brazier kept on making additions to his specimens, while Rob's great regret was that they were not seeking birds and insects as well.

"Seems such a pity," he confided to Joe. "The orchids are very beautiful when they are hanging down from the trees, with their petals looking like the wings of insects and their colour all of such lovely yellows and blues, but we shall only have the dried, bulb-like stems to take back with us, and how do we know that they will ever flower again?"

"If properly dried, a great many of them will," said Brazier at that moment.

Rob started.

"I didn't know you were listening, sir," he said.

"I was not listening, Rob, but you spoke so loudly, I could not help hearing your words. I can quite understand your preference for the brilliant-coloured and metallic-plumaged birds, and also for the lovely insects which we keep seeing, but specimens of most of these have been taken to Europe again and again, while I have already discovered at least four orchids which I am sure are new."

"But if they do not revive," said Rob, "we shall have had all our journey for nothing."

"But they will revive, my boy, you may depend upon that--at least, some of them; and to my mind we shall have done a far greater thing in carrying to England specimens of these gorgeous flowers to live and be perpetuated in our hothouses, than in taking the dried mummies of bird and insect, which, however beautiful, can never by any possibility live again."

"I didn't think of that," said Rob apologetically.

"I suppose not. But there, be content to help me in my collecting; you are getting plenty of adventure, and to my mind, even if we take back nothing, we shall carry with us recollections of natural wonders that will remain imprinted on our brains till the end of our days."

"He's quite right," thought Rob as he sat alone some time after; "but I wish he wouldn't speak to me as if he were delivering a lecture. Of course I shall help him and work hard, but I do get tired of the flowers. They're beautiful enough on the trees, but as soon as they are picked they begin to fade and wither away."

The conversation took place at the end of the lake, just where the river issued in a narrow stream, walled in on either side by the trees as before, and the intention was to cross this exit and go back by the other side, round to the wide clearing where they had pa.s.sed the previous night.

Plans in unknown waters are more easily made than carried out.

They had halted for a short time at the foot of a majestic tree, one evidently of great age, and draped from where its lower boughs almost touched the water right to the crown with parasitic growth, much of which consisted of the particular family of flowers Brazier had made his expedition to collect.

Here several splendid specimens were cut from a huge drooping bough which was held down by the men while the collector operated with a handy little axe, bringing down as well insects innumerable, many of which were of a stinging nature, and, to the dismay of both boys, first one and then another brilliantly marked snake of some three feet long and exceedingly slender.

These active little tree-climbers set to at once to find a hiding-place, and at once it became the task of all the band to prevent this unsatisfactory proceeding, no one present looking forward with satisfaction to the prospect of having snakes as fellow-travellers, especially poisonous ones. But they were soon hunted out and thrown by means of a stick right away into the water, but not to drown, for they took to it, swimming as actively and well as an eel.

"Why, that last fellow will reach one of those boughs and get back into a tree again," cried Joe.

"If a fish does not treat him like a worm," said Rob; and he did not feel at all hopeful about the little reptile's fate.

But the next minute he had to think of his own.

One minute the boat was being propelled gently through the still waters amongst the great lily leaves; the next they were in sight of the exit, and something appeared to give the boat a sudden jerk.

"Alligator?" asked Rob excitedly.

"Stream!" growled Shaddy, seizing an oar and rowing with all his might just as they were being swept rapidly down the lower river, the trees gliding by them and the men appearing to have no power whatever to check the boat's way as it glided on faster and faster, leaving the open lake the next minute quite out of sight.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

IN A TROPIC STORM.

Rob and Joe looked at each other quite aghast as the boat was literally s.n.a.t.c.hed away out of the boatmen's control and went tearing down the river. For, beside the alteration in their plans, there was the fire waiting, all glowing embers, that would cook to perfection; there were wild fruits which the two lads had noted from the boat; and there was the puma, whose society Rob felt a strong desire to cultivate.

Then, too, there was something startling in being suddenly robbed of all power to act and being swept at a headlong speed along a rapid, for aught they knew, toward some terrible waterfall, over which they would be hurled. So that it was with no little satisfaction that they saw Shaddy seize the boat-hook and, after urging the crew to do their best to pull the boat toward the trees, stand up in the bows and wait his turn.

The crew worked hard, and kept the boat's head up stream, and by degrees they contrived to get it closer to the side, while Shaddy made three attempts to catch hold of a branch. In each case the bough snapped off, but at the fourth try the bough bent and held, though so great was the shock that when the hook caught, the strong-armed man was nearly drawn over the bows into the river, and would have been but for one of the boatmen's help.

It was a sharp tussle for a few moments, and then two of the men caught hold of hanging branches as the boat swung within reach. The next minute a rope was pa.s.sed round a branch, and the boat was safely moored.

"Mind looking to see whether I've got any arms, Mr Rob?" said Shaddy.

"Feels as if they were both jerked out of their sockets."

"Are you hurt much?" asked the boys in a breath.

"Pootty tidy, young gents; but I ain't going to holler about it.

There's no time. I don't mind going fast, you know, either in a boat or on horseback, but I do hate for the boat or the horse to take the bit in its teeth and bolt as this did just now."

"What do you propose doing, Naylor?" said Brazier. "It is impossible to get back, and yet I should have liked a few hours more at that clearing."

"And them you shall have, sir, somehow. I'm not the man to be beaten by a boat without making a bit of a fight for it first. Let's get my breath and my arms--ah! they're coming back now. I can begin to feel 'em a bit."

He sat rubbing his biceps, laughing at the boys, Brazier looking up and down-stream uneasily the while.

"Do you know exactly where this river runs, Naylor?" he said at last.

"Well, not exactly, sir. I know it goes right through the sort of country you want to see, and that was enough for me; but I've a notion that it goes up to the nor'-west, winding and twisting about till it runs in one spot pootty nigh to the big river we left, so that we can perhaps go up some side stream, drag the boat across a portage, and launch her for our back journey over the same ground or water as we came up."

"But we shall never get back to the lake," said Rob, as he glanced at the running stream which glided rapidly by, making the boat drag at its tethering rope as if at any moment it would s.n.a.t.c.h itself free.

"Never's a long time, Mr Rob. We'll see."

He turned to his men, gave them a few instructions in a low tone of voice, and three seated themselves on the port side, while Shaddy and the fourth, a herculean fellow with muscles which bulged out like huge ropes from his bronzed arms, stood in the bows, the latter with the boat-hook and Shaddy with the rope.

"Praps you young gentlemen wouldn't mind putting a hand to the branches when you get a chance," said Shaddy; "every pound of help gives us a pound of strength."

Then, renewing his orders, he seized the light rope, hauled upon it, the man beside him making good use of his hook, and between them they dragged the boat a few feet and made fast the rope, hauled again, cast off the rope, and made fast again--all helping wherever a bough could be caught.

And so they slowly fought their way back against the gigantic strength of the rapid stream, but not without risks. Rob was hauling away at a bough with all his might, when it suddenly snapped, and he would have gone overboard had not Joe thrown himself upon him and held on just as he was toppling down without power to recover his balance.

"That was near," said Rob as he gazed on the young Italian's ghastly face. "I say, don't look scared like that."

Joe shuddered and resumed his work, while Rob put a little less energy into his next movements for a few minutes, but forgot his escape directly after, and worked away with the rest.