In the Eastern Seas Part 27

"No fear of that, young lady," said Mr Sedgwick. "They will seldom injure any one unless they themselves are attacked, though the big fellow you saw would be a formidable antagonist to any one unsupported."

I thought so too, and was very thankful that we had come up in time. We were making our way towards the sh.o.r.es of the lower lake, Mr Sedgwick leading; but on this occasion we young people lingered behind. I was walking with Grace; Oliver and Emily were a short distance behind us.

Emily had brought her sketch-book, which she had used in taking views from the inner lake. Presently Oliver came running after us to say that she wished to take a view of the gap, and bid us wait a few minutes for her while she hastily sketched it. I went on to the party ahead to beg them also to stop, or, at all events, when they had found the way, to wait till we had come up to them. I had almost got back to where I had left Grace, when I heard a loud scream, and I saw a huge black monster-- so he seemed to me--drop from the branch of a tree near to where my sister was standing. Oliver quickly ran forward and threw himself between her and the creature, which I now saw was a huge mias, very like the one we had before seen. Oliver had his gun in his hand, and presenting it at the animal's head, he drew the trigger, but it failed to go off, and the mias closed upon him. One grip of the fierce creature's powerful mouth would, it seemed, have been sufficient to deprive him of life. Oliver had lifted up his gun with the other hand.

The creature seized the weapon. What was my horror the next moment to see it rising on its hind legs, and bending forward, fix its teeth into Oliver's arm, which he had raised to defend his head. Meantime Merlin, who had been with the rest of the party, came bounding back, and attacked with his powerful jaws the leg of the mias. The creature for an instant let go Oliver's arm.

"Fly, Miss Emily! fly!" he cried out. "Never mind me."

"But I do! I do!" exclaimed Emily; "I cannot have you hurt for my sake."

"Fly! fly!" again cried Oliver.

While this was going on Grace was shrieking loudly, and I shouting out to our friends to come to Oliver's a.s.sistance, while I ran forward to give him what aid I could. I did not of course stop to consider the danger I also was in, as the beast would have probably seized us both, had I got within his grasp. I also cried out to Emily to fly. I saw that not only her safety depended on her doing so, but that of Oliver, for he would not move till she was at a distance from the orang-outan.

Meantime the rest of our party were hurrying up to our support. Oliver sprang back to avoid the creature's hand-like claws, which he stretched out towards him. Never had I seen anything so ferocious as those powerful paws and the grinning row of teeth exhibited as he ran forward to attack us, regardless for the moment of Merlin, who was now in greater danger than we were. The mias still held the gun in his claws.

While he again advanced towards Oliver, I levelled my fowling-piece and fired. The ball with which it was loaded, however, although it certainly pa.s.sed through the creature's neck, only increased his fury, without apparently greatly injuring him. Oliver's danger was fearful.

Already the creature was within a couple of yards of him, in spite of the impediment which Merlin offered. I had no time to load again, though I attempted to do so as I retreated, shouting at the top of my voice, and urging Oliver to do the same, in the hope that we might frighten the huge ape. He, however, was in no way alarmed by our shouts and cries. He still advanced, holding the musket. Already, if he was to stretch out one of his long arms, he might again grasp Oliver and draw him towards him. Oh, what would I not have given for a loaded gun at that moment! In vain I attempted to load mine while I stepped backward. Oliver was attempting to escape; but just then his heel caught in the root of a tree, which grew at the base of the cliff, and down he fell, rolling in the sand. His fate appeared to be sealed. I cried out in terror and alarm. The mias, uttering a shout of mocking laughter, seemed prepared to throw himself on his victim. At that instant, as he changed the gun from one hand to the other, apparently intending to get rid of Merlin before he attacked Oliver, it suddenly exploded, bursting into twenty fragments, and wounding him severely in the hands, face, and chest. He uttered a loud scream of anger, but still advanced. Suddenly, when I thought that my friend's life would be in an instant more taken from him, the creature fell back to the ground, where he lay struggling violently, biting the earth and tearing it up with his claws, while Merlin, evading his clutches, attacked him wherever he could get a gripe, without risk of being seized, and prevented him probably from again rising.

"Oh, he is killed! he is killed!" cried Emily, who had hitherto stood terror-stricken, running to Oliver and kneeling down by him. She heard the report, and probably thought that he had been wounded by the gun.

"No, no, Miss Emily; do not be alarmed, I am not much hurt," said Oliver, trying to lift himself up. "The creature only tore my flesh, and I have sprained my foot in falling. I have been mercifully preserved."

For some time, however, Emily could scarcely be convinced of the fact.

There lay the monstrous mias, still struggling violently, while Merlin pertinaciously hung on to him. I had now reached Oliver, and a.s.sisted Emily in supporting him, while we put a safer distance between the creature and ourselves. Grace, who was far more timid than Emily, had stood transfixed, as it were, to the ground, unable to advance or fly.

The rest of the party now came up, and a blow from d.i.c.k's hatchet deprived the mias of life.

"I suppose he good for dinner," observed Potto Jumbo, surveying him. "I cut steak out of him before we go away."

"Out on you for a cannibal!" exclaimed Tarbox, with a look of horror.

"I would as soon think of eating a n.i.g.g.e.r boy."

"No, no, Ma.s.sa Tarbox," answered Potto, in an indignant tone. "n.i.g.g.e.r boy got soul. Dis," and he gave the brute a kick with his foot, "just like hog or cow."

"You may spare yourself the trouble of cutting a steak out of him," said Roger Trew. "I do not think any of us would make up our minds to eat him, whatever he may be."

"If it was not so far off, I should have liked the skin, though," said Mr Sedgwick. "However, we will hang him up in a tree, and some day I may have his skeleton, when the ants have picked it clean."

Under his direction the men now got some ratan, with which they surrounded the body of the monster, and then, in a sort of framework, they hoisted him up to the stoutest branch of a tree which they could manage to reach. We left him there, for all the world, as Roger Trew observed, like a pirate hanging in chains, and then began our homeward march with greater speed than before, to make amends for the time we had lost.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

TERMINATION OF OUR EXCURSION.

We made our way along the sh.o.r.es of the lower lake till we came out by the side of a beautiful cascade, which fell down over the cliff into a river below us, whence the water flowed away, we concluded, towards the sea; but the dense forest prevented us seeing the course it took. The lower lake I have been describing was raised but a little way above the level of the country. The height of the cascade was fifty feet; and, giving another fifty for the fall of the river, we supposed that we were not much more than one hundred feet above the sea. My uncle, having examined his compa.s.s, now settled, as far as he was able, the course we were to take. The river would be our guide, we saw, for a considerable distance; indeed, the stream we crossed by the bamboo bridge was evidently a portion of it. Turning back, we saw, rising above us, the lofty mountain, a shoulder of which we had crossed. We were now better able to judge of its height. Numerous other lofty hills rose on either side of it--mostly bare of trees--some almost black, others of a s.h.i.+ning white, which might have been mistaken at a distance for snow; while, from the centre of the cone, wreaths of smoke circled upwards to the sky, giving unmistakable signs of its volcanic character. Our uncle looked at it earnestly.

"It seems to me to be sending forth denser smoke than I have hitherto observed," I heard him remark to d.i.c.k Tarbox. "I hope it is not going to play us any trick."

"Maybe a little more tobacco has been put into the pipe," observed the boatswain, in return; "and the old gentleman, whoever he is, who is smoking it, is having a harder pull than usual."

"I hope so; but I had rather he had put off his smoking for a few weeks longer, till we are clear of the place," said my uncle, turning round.

I remembered the fearful danger Oliver and I had escaped when carried off by the Papuans from our island; and I prayed that we might be again preserved from a similar catastrophe. We had made no great progress when it was time to encamp.

"I must charge you, my friends," said Mr Sedgwick, "whoever is on the watch at night, to keep a bright look-out. The orang-outans are our least formidable enemies, for it is seldom that they will attack a person, as the one did we have just encountered; but tigers are far more daring; and if we were to allow the fire to get low, we should run a great risk of a visit from one of them."

We had still an hour or two of daylight. We were all somewhat tired with our long climb: the girls especially required rest. We immediately set to work to form our encampment, making huts, as we had done on the previous nights. Having collected a good supply of dried leaves, we spread mats over them inside the young ladies' bower, to which they retired to rest while supper was preparing. We had still some birds remaining; but my uncle took his gun, saying that he would try to shoot a few more for our meal, and I begged to be allowed to accompany him.

"You will not have much difficulty in providing our supper," I observed, "considering the number of birds flying about in all directions."

The woods were indeed full of sounds of all sorts. I fancied that among them I could distinguish the voices of wild beasts.

"Hark!" I said. "Surely that must be a lion! It is just like the cry I have heard they often give."

My uncle laughed.

"No, indeed," he said. "The voices you hear are those of pigeons."

I could scarcely suppose, however, that he was right, so loud and booming was the sound which came from the woods.

"Oh, what beautiful apples are those?" I observed, as I looked up at a tree in which a number of various birds were collected, among which were several white c.o.c.katoos. "I should like to carry some back to the camp."

The fruit we were looking at was round, with a smooth s.h.i.+ning skin of a golden orange colour, which might rival in appearance the golden apples of the Hesperides.

"Let them remain where they hang," he answered. "Whoever might attempt to eat them would certainly be made very ill, if they did not die.

Those beautiful apples possess the most poisonous properties of any fruit in these regions. They are what we naturalists call _Apocynaceae_. The birds, however, eat those rosy seeds which you see displayed from the ripe fruit, which has burst open.--But stay! There's a fellow; I must have him." He raised his gun, and brought down a fine jungle c.o.c.k, which Merlin, who had accompanied us, instantly ran forward to catch. He brought it to us, highly pleased with his performance.

"He, at all events, will afford a supper for a couple of us, hungry as we may be," said my uncle. "This fellow, or his ancestors rather, is the grandfather of all our domestic poultry in England. They have lost a good deal of their beauty, to be sure, by civilisation, though they may have improved in size and egg-laying powers."

I was fortunate in shooting a couple of great green fruit-pigeons directly afterwards; indeed, in a short time we had as many birds as would supply us for supper and breakfast. We were pa.s.sing through a wood which consisted chiefly of the great palm, which my uncle said the Malays call the _gubbong_. The trees were in various conditions. Some were simply in leaf, others had flowers on them, others fruit, while many were dead, apparently ready to fall. The leaves were large and fan-shaped, and I remarked that those which had flowers were dest.i.tute of leaves; indeed, I could scarcely have supposed that they were the same trees. The full-grown trees had lofty cylindrical stems, and were mostly two hundred feet in height, and two or three feet in diameter.

The flowers were on the summit, in the form of a huge terminal spike.

On the top of this was the fruit, consisting of ma.s.ses of smooth round b.a.l.l.s, of a green colour, and about an inch in diameter. My uncle told me that each tree only flowers once in its life; and that when the fruit ripens the tree dies, though it remains standing a year or two before it falls to the ground. It was on a branch of one of these trees that I saw the pigeons, where they had settled after feeding on the fruit.

We had gone a little way after I had last fired, when, as we were standing under a tree looking for another shot, a shower of the fruit I have described came falling down thickly about our heads. We quickly ran from under it, when, looking up, my uncle shouted loudly, and immediately a loud chattering was heard, and away scampered a whole tribe of monkeys, making an enormous rustling as they leaped among the dead palm-leaves. One would have fancied that some huge beast was rus.h.i.+ng through the wood, so loud was the noise.

It was now time to turn back to the camp. My uncle was a little in advance. He had just fired at a couple of birds, one of which he had brought to the ground, when I saw him start back with an expression of alarm which I had never before heard him utter. Merlin, who was near me, stood still for a moment in an unusual way, poking his head out somewhat like a pointer; and there I saw on the ground, not ten paces from my uncle, a huge snake, with head erect, as if about to make a spring. I well knew that it must be of a venomous character from the exclamation that I heard. Merlin instinctively seemed to think the same. I dreaded lest it should make its spring. In an instant it might do so. I trembled lest I should miss it. I might run the risk also, in firing, of hitting my uncle. I would gladly have rushed forward in his defence. In another instant its envenomed fangs might be fixed in his body. I levelled my fowling-piece, and took a steady aim. I fired! As I did so, Merlin rushed forward with a bound. I thought I saw through the smoke the snake in the air. My uncle had sprung on one side, lifting his gun by the muzzle. "I am safe!" he shouted out. "Walter, you did it well!"

The snake had sprung, but, wounded by the shot, had failed to reach its object, and had been struck to the ground by the b.u.t.t of the gun. I did not suppose from what I had seen of my uncle that he could be so agitated as he now was. He knew, he told me, the venomous nature of the serpent, and that had it struck him, he should probably have been dead in the course of a few minutes.

"You saved my life by your coolness, my boy," he said. "I believe this serpent is rare in the island, for I have never seen one like it; and it is far more dangerous than the larger python, of which there are many.

They can swallow a deer whole, but seldom attack human beings. They would take our friend Merlin down in a gulp; but he probably has sagacity enough to keep out of their way, so you need not be alarmed on his account."

I begged that I might carry the serpent as a trophy to the camp. To do so I coiled it round a stick, and secured it with a piece of thin ratan.

As I walked along, Merlin every now and then came up sniffing behind me, and seemed very much inclined to have a bite at it. We saw several more jungle c.o.c.ks on our way. They were very like the common game-c.o.c.k, but the voice was much shorter, and more abrupt. The Malays call it the _bekeko_. We had reached an open s.p.a.ce, when we saw running before us a couple of the most magnificent peac.o.c.ks. Their tails, spread out as they ran along, were fully seven feet in length. They had been feeding apparently on the ground, till they were frightened at our approach.

Having the snake over my shoulder, I could not fire. My uncle raised his gun, but recollected that he had not loaded. He stopped to do so, when the birds, running on rapidly for a short distance, rose obliquely in the air, and, to my surprise, flew over some lofty trees before them and disappeared. I could scarcely have supposed that birds with such large appendages could have risen thus easily. It was a magnificent sight, as they spread out their spangled tails to aid them in their flight.

At length we reached the camp, where Potto Jumbo had already prepared part of the supper, and was eagerly waiting our return to cook the game we might bring. The tea was boiling in our kettle, and we sat down to our repast, while he plucked and cooked the remainder. Emily and Grace came out of their bower, and officiated at our rural tea-table. Tarbox and Roger Trew arrived directly afterwards. They had gone on an excursion down the river, and reported that they had seen a large animal bounding through the underwood. They had not got a clear sight of it; but, from the account they gave, my uncle p.r.o.nounced it to be a tiger.

"I must again warn you, my friends, to be on the alert," he observed.

"The scent of our cooking may attract him here; but unless he is very hungry, I do not think he will venture among us."