Rob Harlow's Adventures Part 26

"But what will dare to attack such a terrible beast?"

Shaddy chuckled.

"Anything--everything, sir; little and big. Why, them little pirani fishes will be at him in thousands, and there's 'gators enough within fifty yards to make a supper of him as if he was spitchc.o.c.ked eel. Ah!

there he goes--part of him's in the water already; but I should have liked the master to have his skin."

Invisible though the serpent was, its course was evident by the rustling and movement of the growth, and some idea too was gained of the reptile's length.

"There! what did I say?" shouted Shaddy excitedly, as all at once there was the sound of splas.h.i.+ng and agitation in the water down beneath the submerged trees; and directly after the serpent's tail rose above the trunk of one of those lying p.r.o.ne, and gleamed and glistened in the blaze as it undulated and bent and twined about. Then it fell with a splash, and beat the water, rose again quivering seven or eight feet in the air, while the water all around seemed terribly agitated. There was a snapping sound, too, horribly ominous in its nature, and the rus.h.i.+ng and splas.h.i.+ng went on as the tail of the serpent fell suddenly, rose once more as if the rest of the long lithe body were held below, and finally disappeared, while the splas.h.i.+ng continued for a few minutes longer before all was silent.

Rob drew a long breath, and Joe shuddered.

"Well," said Shaddy quietly, "that's just how you take it, young gentlemen. Seems so horrible because it was a big serpent. If it had been a worm six inches long you wouldn't have thought anything of it.

Look at my four chaps there: they don't take any notice--don't seem horrid to them. You'll get used to it."

"Impossible!" said Brazier.

"Oh! I don't know, sir," continued Shaddy. "You've come out where you wanted to, in the wildest wilds, where the beasts have it all their own way, and they do as they always do, go on eating one another up. Why, I've noticed that it isn't only the birds, beasts, and fishes, but even the trees out here in the forest do just the same."

"Nonsense!" cried Rob merrily. "Eat one another?"

"Yes, sir; that's it, rum as it sounds to you. I'll tell you how it is.

A great ball full of nuts tumbles down from one of the top branches of a tree, when it's ripe, bang on to the hard ground, splits, and the nuts fly out all round, right amongst the plants and rotten leaves. After a bit the nuts begin to swell; then a shoot comes out, and another out of it. Then one shoot goes down into the ground to make roots, and the other goes up to make a tree. They're all doing the same thing, but one of 'em happens to have fallen in the place where there's the best soil, and he grows bigger and stronger than the others, and soon begins to smother them by pus.h.i.+ng his branches and leaves over them. Then they get spindly and weak, and worse and worse, because the big one shoves his roots among them too; and at last they wither and droop, and die, and rot, and the big strong one regularly eats up with his roots all the stuff of which they were made; and in a few years, instead of there being thirty or forty young trees, there's only one, and it gets big."

"Why, Naylor, you are quite a philosopher!" said Brazier, smiling.

"Am I, sir? Didn't know it; but a man like me couldn't be out in the woods always without seeing that. Why, you'd think, with such thousands of trees always falling and rotting away, that the ground would be feet deep in leaf mould and decayed wood; but if you go right in the forest you'll find how the roots eat it up as fast as it's made."

"But what about these big trunks?" said Joe, pointing to the fallen trees.

"Them? Well, they're going into earth as fast as they can, and in a few years there'll be nothing of 'em left. Why, look at that one; it's as if it were burning away now," he continued, pointing to the hole through which Rob had fallen: "that's nature at work making the tree, now it's dead, turn into useful stuff for the others to feed on."

"Yes," said Brazier, as he broke out a piece of the luminous touchwood, which gleamed in the darkness when it was screened from the fire: "that's a kind of phosphoric fungus, boys."

"Looks as if it would burn one's fingers," said Joe, handling the beautiful piece of rotten, glowing wood.

"Yes; and so do other things out here," said Shaddy. "There's plenty of what I call cold fire; but you'll soon see enough of that."

Shaddy ceased speaking, for at that moment a strange, thrilling sound came from the depths of the forest, not more, apparently, than a hundred yards away.

Its effect was electrical.

The half-bred natives who formed Shaddy's crew of boatmen had watched the encounters with the two serpents in the most unconcerned way, while the weird chorus of sounds from the depths of the forest, with yells, howls, and cries of dangerous beasts, was so much a matter of course that they did not turn their heads even at the nearest roar, trusting, as they did, implicitly in the security afforded them by the fire. But now, as this strange sound rang out, silencing the chorus of cries, they leaped up as one man, and made for the boat, hauling on the rope and scrambling in as fast as possible.

Rob's first impulse was to follow suit, especially as Giovanni took a few hurried steps, and tripping over a little bush, fell headlong. But seeing that Shaddy stood fast, and that Brazier c.o.c.ked his piece, he stopped where he was, though his heart throbbed heavily, and his breath came as if there were some strange oppression at his chest.

"What's that?" whispered Brazier, as the thrilling sound died away, leaving the impression behind that some huge creature must be approaching in a threatening manner, for a curious rustling followed the cry.

"Well, sir," said Shaddy, taking off his cap, and giving his head a rub as if to brighten his brain, "that's what I want to know."

"You don't know?"

"No, sir," said the man, coolly; "I know pretty well every noise as is to be heard out here but that one, and it downright puzzles me. First time I heard it I was sitting by my fire cooking my dinner--a fat, young turkey I'd shot--and I ups and runs as hard as ever I could, and did not stop till I could go no further. Ah! I rec'lect it now, how hungry and faint I was, for I dursen't go back, and I dessay whatever the beast was who made that row ate my turkey. Nex' time I heard it I didn't run. I was cooking ducks then, and I says to myself, 'I'll take the ducks,' and I did, and walked off as fast as I could to my boat."

"And you did not see it?"

"No, sir. P'r'aps we shall this time; I hope so, for I want to know.

Third time never fails, so if you don't mind we'll all be ready with our guns and wait for him. May be something interesting to a nat'ral hist'ry gent like you, and we may get his head and skin for you to take home to the Bri'sh Museum. What do you say?"

"Well," said Brazier, drily, "self-preservation's the first law of nature. I do not want to show the white feather, but really I think we had better do as the men have done--get on board and wait for our enemy there. What do you say, lads!"

"Decidedly, yes," cried both eagerly.

"But we don't know as it is our enemy yet, sir," replied Shaddy, thoughtfully. "Hah! hark at that!"

They needed no telling, for all s.h.i.+vered slightly, as another cry, very different from the last, rang out from the forest--half roar, half howl, of a most appalling nature.

"Here, let's get on board," said Brazier.

"Not for that, sir," cried Shaddy, with one of his curiously harsh laughs. "Why, that's only one of them big howling monkeys who would go off among the branches twisting his tail, and scared 'most into fits, if you looked at him."

"A monkey!" cried Rob. "Are you sure?"

"Oh, yes, I'm sure enough 'bout that, gentlemen. It's the other thing that puzzles me."

They ceased speaking and stood watchfully waiting; but after a retrograde movement toward the boat, so as to be able to retreat at any moment. The cry was not repeated, though, and the feeling of awe began to die off, but only to return on Shaddy continuing,--

"There's a something there, or else that there howler wouldn't have hollered once and then gone off. The lions and tigers, too, have slinked away. That's a lion--puma you call him--ever so far off; and, I can hear a couple of tigers quite faint-like; but all the things near here have stopped calling, and that shows there's that thing prowling about."

"But the men?" whispered Rob. "They ran away as if they knew what it was."

"Tchah! They don't know. Their heads are full of bogies. Soon as they hear a noise, and can't tell what it is, they say it's an evil spirit or a goblin or ghost. Babies they are. Why, if I was to go near a lot of natives in the dark, hide myself, and let go with Scotch bagpipes, they'd run for miles and never come nigh that part of the forest again."

All at once the chorus in the forest was resumed, with so much force that it sounded as if the various creatures had been holding their noises back and were now trying hard to make up for the previous check.

That was Rob's opinion, and he gave it in a whisper to his companion.

"Then, it's gone," said Joe. "I say, didn't you feel scared?"

"Horribly."

"Then I'm not such a coward after all. I felt as if I must run."

"So you did when the serpent came."

"Well, isn't it enough to make one? You English fellows have the credit of being so brave that you will face anything without being frightened; but I believe you are frightened all the same."

"Of course we are," said Rob, "only Englishmen will never own they are frightened, even to themselves, and that's why they face anything."