Real Gold Part 27

"No. They will not let us take a seed out of the country if they can prevent it. I will tell you all the worst at once. They will make a bold effort to master the dread with which I have succeeded in inspiring them, and fight desperately to stop us when we get our little store."

"Then, begging your pardon again, colonel, wouldn't it ha' been better to have come with a couple of companies of foot, and marched up with fixed bayonets, and told him that you didn't mean to stand any nonsense, but were going to take as much seed as you liked?"

"Invited the rulers of the country to send a little army after us?"

"Yes, of course, sir; but they've got no soldiers out here as could face British Grenadiers."

The colonel was ready to listen to every opinion that night, and he replied quietly:

"I thought it all out before I started, and this was the only way--to come up into the mountains as simple travellers, reach the hot slopes and valley regions where the cinchona grows, and then trust to our good fortune to get a good supply of the seed. But, even now, from our start from San Geronimo we have been watched. You have noticed it too, boys.

Even the guide we took has arrayed himself against us from the first, and, while seeming to obey my orders, has taken care to communicate with every one we pa.s.sed that he was suspicious of my motives. Every mile we have come through the mountain-range has been noted, and will be noted, till we get back."

"Why not go back, then, some other way, sir?"

"Because we cannot cross the mountains where we please. The road we followed is one which, no doubt, dates from the days when the Incas ruled, and there are others here and there at intervals, but they will be of no use to us. Somehow or other, we must go back by the way we came, and I hope to take at least one mule-load with us to get safely to England. There, that is enough for to-night. Now for a good rest and we shall see what to-morrow brings forth. Cyril and Perry, you will be on sentry till as near midnight as you can guess, and then rouse me.

I'm going now to take a look round at the mules, and then I shall lie down."

He rose and walked away to where the mules were cropping the gra.s.s, which grew abundantly in the open places, and as soon as he was out of hearing, John Manning began to growl.

"All right, young gentlemen," he said, "I'm ready for anything; but, of all the wild scarum-harum games I was ever in, this is about the wildest. Come up here to steal stuff! for that's what it is, and you can't call it anything else. I've know'd people steal every mortal thing nearly, from a horse down to a pocket-knife. I've been where the n.i.g.g.e.rs tickled you when you was asleep and made you roll over, so that they could steal the blanket you lay upon. I've seen the crows in Indy steal the food out of the dogs' mouths; but this beats everything."

"Why?" said Perry shortly.

"Why, sir? Because physic's a thing as everybody's willing enough to give to someone else; I didn't think it was a thing as anybody would ever dream o' stealing. As you may say, it's a thing as couldn't be stole."

"Father knows what he is about," said Perry shortly.

"Course he does, sir. n.o.body denies that. We've got to begin taking physic with a vengeance. All right: I'm ready. And I was thinking all the time as we should bring back those four-legged jacka.s.ses loaded with gold and precious stones. All right, gentlemen. As I said before, I'm ready; and it's a good beginning for me, for I shall get a long night's rest; so here goes."

He rolled himself in his blanket, then lay down with his feet near the fire, and began to breathe the heavy breath of a sleeper the next minute.

"Well, Cil," said Perry, "what do you think of it?"

"Don't know," said Cyril. "Yes, I do. They're wonderfully watchful over the bark, and as soon as they know what we are after, they'll stop us."

"Then we must not let them see what we are after, my lad," said the colonel, who had returned unseen. "We must collect plants and flowers of all kinds, and load a couple of the mules. That will help to disarm suspicion.--Pieces loaded?"

"Yes, sir."

"That's right. We must keep military watch now regularly; but there will be nothing to fear to-night."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

THE NIGHT-WATCH.

Those were very encouraging words, and they seemed to tingle in the boys' ears as the colonel followed his servant's example, rolled a blanket about his shoulders, and lay down with his head resting on one of the mules' loads; but the impression soon died away, leaving the lads close together, with their guns resting on the gra.s.s, listening in the deep silence of the starlit night, and for some time without speaking a word.

"Come a little farther away," whispered Perry at last. "I want to talk."

They moved a few yards away from the sleepers, and stopped beneath a great spreading tree at about equal distance from the colonel and the fire, which glowed faintly, but gave sufficient light for them to see Diego and the other Indian squatted down, making tents of their long garments, and with their chins bent down upon their b.r.e.a.s.t.s; but whether asleep, or waking and watchful, it was impossible to say.

"Well?" said Perry at last, after they had been straining their ears to catch different sounds, now the trickling murmur of falling water, now some strange cry from far away in the woods, or the whisper of a breeze which came down from the mountains to pa.s.s away among the trees.

"Well?" said Cyril.

"Isn't it awfully quiet?"

"Yes."

"Look over there, just to the left of the fire. Isn't that some one watching us?"

"Tree trunk," said Cyril laconically.

There was a pause, and then Perry whispered again.

"I say, I don't want to be cowardly, but there's some one coming slowly through the trees. I caught a glimpse of his back. He's stooping down--there, between those two big trunks, where it's open. Don't you see--stooping?"

"Yes, I see, and nibbling the gra.s.s as he comes. One of the mules."

Perry shaded his eyes--needlessly, for there was no glare to shut out-- and he soon convinced himself that his companion was right.

But he felt annoyed, and said testily:

"I wish you wouldn't be so ready to contradict everything I say."

Cyril laughed softly.

"Why, you didn't want it to be an enemy, did you?"

Perry made no reply, and they stood for some time together in silence, listening to the _crop, crop_ sound made by the mules, and the whispering sighs of the wind, which came down sharp and chill from the mountains. At last Cyril spoke again.

"Let's walk round the camp."

"You can't for the trees."

"Oh yes, we can. It's cold standing here. We'll work in and out of the trees, and make a regular path round. It will be better than standing still."

"Very well," said Perry shortly. "Go on first."

Cyril shouldered his piece and stepped off cautiously for a couple of dozen yards, and then struck off to the left, meaning to make the fire act as a centre round which they could walk, keeping guard and themselves warm; but before he had gone many steps he stopped short.

"Look here," he whispered, "you are a soldier's son, and ought to teach me what to do in keeping guard."

"There's nothing to teach," said Perry. "All you've got to do is to keep a sharp lookout."

"Yes, there is. If we keep together like this, we leave a lot of the camp exposed. What we ought to do is for one to go one way, and one the other; then meet, cross, and go on again. It would be far better."