Bunyip Land Part 34

But Ti-hi's voice rose directly, now pleading softly in his own tongue, now in tones of command, and the murmur trailed off into a few mutterings which resulted in the men beginning to descend.

"They were grumbling about having to go down there, weren't they, Joe Carstairs," said Jack Penny in a whisper.

"Yes," I said.

"And 'nough to make 'em," he said. "I don't like it; even Gyp don't like it. Look at him, how he's got his tail between his legs. I say, can't we wait till daylight?"

"And be shot by poisoned arrows, Penny?" said the doctor quietly.

"Come: on with you! I'm sure you're not afraid?"

"Afraid! What! of walking along there?" said Jack, contemptuously.

"Not likely. Was I afraid when I hung over the waterfall?"

"Not a bit, my lad; nor yet when you so bravely helped us to defend ourselves against the savages," said the doctor quietly. "Come along.

I'll go first."

The blacks were all on ahead save Aroo and Jimmy, who followed last, I being next to the doctor, and Jack Penny and his dog close behind me.

We had to go in single file, for the ledge was not above a yard wide in places, and it was impossible to avoid a s.h.i.+ver of dread as we walked slowly along, a.s.suming a confidence that we did not feel.

The path rose and fell--rose and fell slightly in an undulating fas.h.i.+on, but it did not alter much in its width as we journeyed on for what must have been quite a mile, when we had to halt for a few minutes while the bearers readjusted their loads. And a weird party we looked as we stood upon that shelf of rock, with the perpendicular side of the gorge towering straight up black towards the sky, the summit showing plainly against the starry arch that spanned the river, and seemed to rest upon the other side of the rocky gorge fifty yards away. And there now, close to our feet, so close that we could have lain down and drunk had we been so disposed, rushed on towards the great fall the gla.s.sy gold-speckled water.

I was thinking what an awful looking place it was, and wondering whether my father had ever pa.s.sed this way, when Jack Penny made me jump by giving me a poke with the barrel of his gun.

"Don't do that," I said angrily, for I felt that I might have slipped, and to have fallen into that swiftly gliding water meant being borne at headlong speed to the awful plunge down into the basin of foam into which I had looked that day.

"Oh, all right!" whispered Jack. "I only wanted to tell you that it must be cramp."

"What must be cramp?" I replied.

"Don't speak so loud, and don't let the doctor hear you," whispered Jack. "I mean in one of my legs: it will keep waggling so and giving way at the knee."

"Why, Jack!" I said.

"No, no," he whispered hastily, "it ain't that. I ain't a bit afraid.

It's cramp."

"Well, if you are not afraid," I whispered back, "I am. I hope, Jack, I may never live to be in such an awful place again."

"I say, Joe Carstairs, say that once more," whispered Jack excitedly.

"I hope I may never be--"

"No, no, I don't mean that. I mean the other," whispered Jack.

"What, about being afraid?" I said. "Well, I'm not ashamed to own it.

It may be cramp, Jack Penny, but I feel as if it is sheer fright."

"Then that's what must be the matter with my leg," said Jack eagerly, "only don't let's tell the doctor."

"Ready behind there?" said the latter just then.

"Yes," I said, "quite ready;" and I pa.s.sed the word to Jimmy and Aroo, who were close to me.

"Let's get on then," said the doctor in a low voice. "I want to get out of this awful gorge."

"Hooray!" whispered Jack Penny, giving me such a dig with his elbow that for the second time he nearly sent me off the rocky shelf. "Hooray! the doctor's frightened too, Joe Carstairs. I ain't ashamed to own it now."

"Hist!" whispered the doctor then, and slightly raised as was his voice it seemed strangely loud, and went echoing along the side of the chasm.

Going steadily on at once we found the shelf kept wonderfully the same in width, the only variation being that it dipped down close to the rus.h.i.+ng water at times, and then curved up till we were fifteen or twenty feet above the stream. With the walls on either side of the river, though, it was different, for they gradually rose higher and higher till there was but a strip of starry sky above our heads, and our path then became so dark that but for the leading of the sure-footed blacks we could not have progressed, but must have come to a halt.

I was wondering whether this gorge would end by opening out upon some plain, through its being but a gap or pa.s.s through a range of hills, but concluded that it would grow deeper and darker, and bring us face to face with a second waterfall, and I whispered to the doctor my opinion; but he did not agree with me.

"No," he said, "the gorge is rising, of course, from the way in which the river rushes on, but there can be no waterfall this way or we should hear it. The noise of the one behind us comes humming along this rocky pa.s.sage so plainly that we should hear another in the same way. But don't talk, my lad. Look to your footsteps and mind that we have no accident. Stop!" he exclaimed, then, "Halt!"

I did not know why he called a halt just then in that narrow dangerous place, but it seemed that he heard a peculiar sound from behind, and directly after Aroo closed up, to say that the enemy were following us, for he had heard them talking as they came, the smooth walls of the rocks acting as a great speaking-tube and bearing the sounds along.

"That's bad news, my lad," said the doctor, "but matters might be worse.

This is a dangerous place, but it is likely to be far more dangerous for an attacking party than for the defenders. Our guns could keep any number of enemies at a distance, I should say. Better that they should attack us here than out in the open, where we should be easy marks for their arrows."

"I do wish they'd leave us alone," said Jack Penny in an ill-used tone.

"n.o.body said anything to them; why can't they leave off?"

"We'll argue out that point another time, Jack Penny," said the doctor.

"Only let's get on now."

"Oh, all right! I'm ready," he said, and once more our little party set forward, the doctor and I now taking the extreme rear, with the exception that we let Aroo act as a scout behind, to give warning of the enemy's near approach.

And so we went on in the comparative darkness, the only sounds heard being the hissing of the swiftly rus.h.i.+ng water as it swept on towards the fall, and the dull deep roar that came booming now loudly, now faintly, from where the river made its plunge.

Twice over we made a halt and stood with levelled pieces ready to meet an attack, but they only proved to be false alarms, caused by our friends dislodging stones in the path, which fell with a hollow sullen plunge into the rus.h.i.+ng water, producing a strange succession of sounds, as of footsteps beating the path behind us, so curiously were these repeated from the smooth face of the rock.

_Hiss-hiss_, _rush-rush_ went the water, and when we paused again and again, so utterly solemn and distinct were the sounds made by the waterfall and the river that I fancied that our friend Aroo must have been deceived.

"If the savages were pursuing us," I said, "we should have heard them by now."

"Don't be too satisfied, my dear boy," said the doctor. "These people have a great deal of the animal in them, and when they have marked down their prey they are not likely to leave the track till the end."

I did not like the sound of that word, "end." It was ominous, but I held my tongue.

"As likely as not," continued the doctor, "the enemy are creeping cautiously along within a couple of hundred yards of where we stand, and--"

"I say," cried Jack Penny eagerly, "it's rather cold standing about here; hadn't we better make haste on?"

"Decidedly, Penny," said the doctor. "Forward!"

"Yes, let's get forward," I said, and the doctor suddenly clapped his hand over my mouth and whispered: