Wild Life in the Land of the Giants Part 39

"Ma Onques?" (Do you understand?) on which Nadi would merely nod a.s.sent, without taking her eyes a moment from my face.

I have often thought since then what a blessing it is that all a poor human being needs for his soul's salvation is so easily understood, that even the intellect of a savage can compa.s.s and comprehend it. What a hard road it would be to the New Jerusalem were the finger-posts that point the way written in a language few could understand, or the directions couched in technicalities only a limited few could fathom.

But no, there it is in a nutsh.e.l.l. "Repent, love, believe and be forgiven."

The truth had got firm hold of Jeeka, or Jeeka had got firm hold of the truth. I was soon sure of that. It was not so much that he tried to be a better man, as that he seemed ever afterwards to live as if he were only "down here"--the woods are his own for a brief time,--and that his real home was in the far beyond.

He used often now to make Jill or me repeat the story of the world to him, and especially the story of the Cross. He always brought Nadi with him when he desired to speak to me on such subjects. But he sometimes asked us strange questions. Such as about the gra.s.s: was it a good crop in heaven? Horses: were they well trained? etc, etc. Once Jill read to him from the Revelation a pa.s.sage where white horses are mentioned in a vision.

Jeeka was delighted, and made him read it over and over again. He was also greatly pleased with descriptions of Bible battles.

One day Jill read to him the description of the great fight between the Israelites and the Canaanites, in which it is said that the Lord caused great stones to be rained from heaven upon the enemy.

Jeeka here grew quite excited.

"Hum-m-m. So. So. So!" he cried. "The same thing I have seen."

"You, Jeeka?"

"So, so. Big stone. Terrible fire, much smoke and t'under. Big stone fall eberywhere. So, so."

As he spoke Jeeka waved his arm away towards the west, and I at once understood him to refer to an eruption of some great volcano of the Cordilleras, for there are several such.

What pleased Nadi more than anything else was the singing of hymns. She used to join with us, but it was more of a child's voice than anything else.

However, Nadi was very young, not more than sixteen perhaps, wife and mother though she was.

Our route lay even more to the north than the west now, and it was soon evident that we were on the great border-line betwixt the wild bleak Pampas and the forest-clad mountains, which are but a continuation of the great Andes chain.

The way was now a winding one, for we often had to make long detours to get round a lake or the spur of a mountain, although the lower hills we still continued to face and cross.

Sport, and plenty of it, still fell to our lot, though the gun and revolver and spear came in now more handy than the bolas and la.s.so.

Even here, however, in the midst of the wildest mountain and sylvan scenery, there were vast stretches of level valleys and plateaus between the hills. Most of these were the feeding-grounds for vast herds of guanacos and of wild horses.

Our camping grounds of a night were now generally in some gra.s.s-covered glade, and it was indeed a pleasure to fall asleep in our toldo with the sound of the wind whispering through the trees like the murmur of waves on a sandy beach.

There were many night sounds now, however, besides the whispering of the trees, and some of these, to say the least, were not over-pleasant to listen to. If, for instance, we were anywhere near to rocky ground, there was the mournful and weird yelling of wild cats. These were mingled at times with the "Yap-yap-yeow--ow" of the Patagonian fox.

There were also many strange cries and sounds which we could not account for, so we were fain to put them all down to the birds.

It was not safe to enter the forests by night; sometimes even in daytime there was danger enough. I remember I went to bathe one day by myself in a bright clear pool formed by a mountain torrent. The water was delightfully cool, so I stopped for a full hour enjoying myself.

After lounging a little by the river's bank, dressing leisurely and falling into a kind of day-dream, I prepared to return. No one knew where I was, and if I were missed, both Jill and Peter would be anxious.

I commenced to retrace my steps up a little pathway through an entanglement of bush and thorn, but had only advanced a short way when from the scrub in front I heard a low growl, emitted evidently by a puma, and he could not be many yards away. To fly was to court pursuit, and that meant death, for I had no arms of any kind. I shaded my eyes with my hand, and looked cautiously under the bush. Yes, yonder was a pair of huge green fiend-like eyes glaring at me, watching me as a cat watches a mouse.

I drew cautiously back, glad to get away with my life, and re-crossed the stream. But here I was on another horn of the dilemma, for the only other way back to the camp would take me fully three miles about, with the probability, too, that I might lose myself and wander about all night long. No, this would not do; I must scare that puma. The little pathway, it just then occurred to me, must have been made by wild beasts--perhaps pumas.

"Whatever man dares, he can do," I said to myself, as I gathered an armful of big round stones. Then I advanced once more towards the puma's bush, and shouting, threw a stone I was answered by a snap and a growling roar. Another stone: result the same, only the snap more vicious and the growl more angry. I was in for it now, so I threw the third stone with all the force I could command, giving vent at the same time a yell that would have startled a Chak-Chak Indian.

This had an effect that I had hardly bargained for. I had counted upon the denizen of that incense bush going off in any direction rather than mine. Not so. With a spitting coughing roar, that went through my nerves like a shock from a powerful battery, the brute sprang out towards me. But a merciful Providence was surely protecting me, for at the very moment the huge extended talons were nearly in my neck, another and larger puma bounded from the bush, striking the first and sending it rolling down the little pathway. Then over and over they rolled like two huge overgrown kittens, until they finally disappeared. Indeed it is evident enough the two beasts had been all the time romping together, and that even my presence did not suffice to interfere with their sense of fun.

Peter laughed heartily when I told him of the occurrence; but Jill did not. He even scolded me. What right had I to go away into the bush without him? he inquired, and hoped it would be a warning to me.

Poor innocent Jill!

The Indians, and even Jeeka, were rather afraid of the wood in which this adventure had taken place. It was haunted.

Strange, I thought, that so many woods were haunted.

Yet one cannot wonder at these poor people being superst.i.tious, wandering so much as they do in this wild lone land, seeing so many sights and hearing so many strange sounds for which they cannot account.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

A JOURNEY TO THE COUNTRY OF THE GUALICHU--THE EARTHQUAKE--A WONDROUS SIGHT--"I WILL PRAY TO THE GREAT GOOD SPIRIT."

"I feel unusually fresh this morning," said Peter one day as we all squatted down to breakfast.

"Considering," he added, "the roughish time we had yesterday, I'm a little astonished at my recuperative powers."

"What s.h.i.+p did you say?" said Ritchie.

"Recuperative powers, Edward. That's the s.h.i.+p. And I didn't know I had any. Why, when I turned in last night I said to Jack there, 'Jack,'

says I, 'I'm feeling ninety years of age.' But this morning I can hold my age like a young hawk."

"And the b.u.mps, Peter?" I said.

"Gone down beautifully, Jack. Hardly a b.u.mp visible to-day. Just a blueness on some of the bone ends. Greenie, I'll trouble you for another slice of that ostrich gizzard."

"Well," said Castizo, "I'm glad to see you all looking so bright and jolly. 'Jolly' is English, is it not?"

"Oh, thorough Englis.h.!.+"

"Because, my boys all, I want to make a _detour_ to-day, and pay a visit to an old friend of mine, Kaiso to name--King Kaiso in full. Kaiso means big, and big he is."

"A giant."

"A giant among giants, for he has surrounded himself with the biggest fellows he could find anywhere. He's a funny fellow himself. He has been far travelled too: been to Chili and Monte Video, where he went as a show on the boards of a small theatre or concert place. As soon as he made money, however, he bought all the pretty and useful things he could find, and so retired to the fastnesses of his mountains. His troops are a strange band, of northern and southern Indians. The wonder to me is how he manages to keep peace among them. He keeps a private witch, however, a tame puma, and a medicine man."

"I don't mind the witch much," said Peter, "they are usually pretty tame; but the puma, _mon ami_, is it tame? Has he a dog licence? Does he keep it chained up?"

"Oh, no, but it is very affectionate. Don't let it lick your hand, that is all, for its tongue is exceedingly rough, and if it tastes blood, it is like King Kaiso with rum, it wants more. Jill, my plate is empty."

"And does this King Kaiso," said Ritchie, "live far from here."

"Yes, several days' hard ride."

Peter groaned.

"But we'll have a good rest when we get there. Then a few days more will take us home."