The Wonder Island Boys: Conquest of the Savages Part 7

"You must have your weapons, because your people must have food. Go to your villages now, and take with you the warriors we took three days ago. We have given them back their weapons, as you see."

Ralsea, Oma and Suros then pressed forward, and held out the hands of friends.h.i.+p to him. He then turned to the Professor and said: "I do not see Uraso."

"No; he is with the people who are coming from our village, but he will be the first one to go to you and tell you what the others have said."

The first act of Tastoa was to select the fleetest runner, to attempt overtaking the Illyas, in order to deliver the message which the Professor had instructed him to communicate.

CHAPTER V

THE NEW TOWN SITE. THE WATER WHEEL AND THE SAWMILL

The Professor and his party immediately left for the Brabos' village, and before noon of the next day, Uraso, with the wagons and package train, came in sight. The warriors, together with the chiefs, and the two boys, Jim and Will, rushed to meet them, leaving the Professor and Chief Suros almost deserted. They smiled at the eagerness of all. They were just like boys.

When the procession from the village came up they surrounded the wagon and Uraso's warriors, and took the packages from the carriers, bearing them in triumph to the village, and pa.s.sed before the Professor and Suros. The boys began the dancing, and the warriors took up the suggestion, and improved on it. The hilarity knew no bounds.

Uraso was the first to tell the warriors who were with him of the surrender of the Kurabus. This acted like a stimulant to the a.s.sembly.

Later in the day, when peace and order had been restored, the Professor addressed them as follows: "Suros and I have enjoyed the dance and the joys you have had as much as you who have taken part in it. We are both so happy to know that you have become brothers. When we leave this village the Brabos will know that they are safe from all harm, and that their enemy is our enemy, and that if anyone in either of the tribes is injured it is the duty of all the tribes to come to his aid.

"You must also know that everyone has a right to his own property. If I should take anything from one of you I ought to be punished. Everyone should be made to know this. If a Saboro takes anything from an Osaga without his consent, the Saboros should be the first to punish him, and if they do not then the other tribes should punish him.

"We are bringing all the tools from our village, so that we can teach you how to make many wonderful things. We must find a suitable place to put up the machinery. Each tribe will send some of their people there to learn, and then the same things will be put up in your own lands.

To-morrow we will go south to establish this place."

There was one thing which was a source of grief to the boys, and that was the herd of yaks, which had been left behind. John spoke to Uraso about it, and Sutoto, who always considered the boys first, suggested that he and Muro would take two dozen of the warriors and bring the herd back.

The boys would have enjoyed this outing with him, but the necessity of utilizing their services in the erection of the workshop and installing the machinery, was too urgent to permit it. The boys made it a condition, however, that Sutoto should be with them in the active work, as soon, as he returned.

The Brabos regretted the leave-taking, but were delighted to learn from the Professor that he expected them to contribute a number of their men to accompany the expedition.

They pa.s.sed through the Kurabus' village the next day, and the Professor called the Chief to him. "We want some of your men to accompany us, because we want to teach them the same as the other tribes."

This announcement was a most gratifying one, and he answered: "The White Chief has made us give him our hearts. My brother and my son will go with you."

Could anything have been more expressive of the intention of the Kurabus Chief? The lad was about the same age as the boys, and they led him out to the wagon, and showed him the wonderful things, and then began the efforts to find words to express their meaning, and enable them to understand each other.

It was an amusing thing to see the struggles of Blakely, who was whipping the warriors into a fighting force. Whenever Blakely was around the warriors would give him the military salute, as though they had been trained up to it all their lives.

"I have often wondered where the military salute of raising the hand up to the eyebrows comes from," said Ralph.

"Its origin dates from the commencement of the English army. During the tournaments of the Middle Ages, after the 'Queen of Beauty' was enthroned, the knights, who were to take part in the sports of the day, marched past the dais upon which she sat, and, as they pa.s.sed, s.h.i.+elded their eyes from the rays of her beauty. Thus the habit continued, only in a modified form, to this day."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 5. The Banyan Tree._]

Uraso had charge of the advance, and when they halted that day it was under the spreading shade of a tree that was a marvel to the boys, although Blakely said there were plenty of them in the southern part of the island.

This was a tree, with a large central trunk, the branches of which spread out in all directions, to distances which were fully fifty feet on each side, and at irregular intervals were straight stems which shot down straight to the earth, the lower ends of which took root and thus served as supports for the long branches.

The boys went around, examining it from all sides. "What is it?" asked the boys.

"It is the banyan tree," answered John. "This is not the only kind which exhibits this peculiarity. What is called the screw pine also sends down shoots in the same way."

"Well, does each of these vertical stems become a tree of itself?"

"In the case of the mangrove these aerials, as they are called, carry up the sap, and form leaves at their upper ends, long after the main trunk dies."

"Do you mean that these drooping branches carry up the sap in the opposite direction, after they take root?"

"Yes; but that is not so remarkable, when it is understood that the buds of all trees are, in a measure, roots, and perform the same functions as roots. The plum tree, and many others, will form roots out of the buds, if the latter are buried in the earth."

"I have heard about the orchids, as I believe they are called. Do they act in the same way?"

"Not altogether; there are certain plants which live on other plants and get sustenance from them, just as some insects attach themselves to animals and live on them."

"There is one thing I could never understand," remarked Tom, "and that is, why the sap of the trees goes upwardly."

"I shall try and answer that question by asking another. If you put the end of a piece of blotting paper in water, what causes the water to travel along to the other end?"

"That is just as much a mystery," he replied.

"But as you know that to be so, because you can see the process, it will enable me to explain the principle of the movement of the sap. A wick in a lamp becomes saturated and the oil travels upwardly as long as the upper end is burning; but as soon as the light is put out the oil ceases to creep toward the burned end."

"But in the case of a tree there is nothing to do that same thing."

"That is what the sun does. It s.h.i.+nes on the leaf, and absorbs the sap, or portions of it, and the sap tries to move upwardly to again moisten the dried pores of the wood."

"I always thought the sap moved upwardly, because the tree was alive."

"The blotting paper and the wick are not alive, are they? Still, you see the same process going on. This is due to what is termed capillary attraction. Suppose you take two tubes, one larger than the other, each open at both ends, and stand them in water. The water will rise in the tubes above the surface of the water outside, and the height it rises depends on the inside diameters of the tubes. The smaller the bore the higher will the water go up. So with the pores in the wood. They are very small, and thus the water moves to the greatest heights."

It was now a question of the greatest importance to set up their home at the most desirable point. The Chiefs, together with John and Blakely, had numerous conferences with the Professor, on this subject. Many things had to be taken into consideration.

First: It should be located at a point convenient to all the tribes.

Second: It should be on or near the seacoast.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 6. Showing Capillary Attraction._]

Third: Everything else being equal, the most desirable place would be in a section which had the richest soil.

These considerations were suggested to the Chiefs, and all agreed that the river separating the land of the Osagas and the Berees would be most suitable.

"I know a place," said Uraso, "where there is a running water like you have at the Cataract, and it is a little river that flows into the big river."

"Does the water go down steep as we had it?"