O'er Many Lands, on Many Seas, Gordon Stables [microsoft ebook reader TXT] 📗

will, Nie; it appears to me

almost as bad as shooting a human being.

 

"`We'll go back to the lake-side now, Friday,' I said, `and have

dinner.'

 

"Alas! I had no dinner that day, Nie, nor for many a long day to come.

 

"There is no fiercer wild beast in all the forests or jungles than the

cougar or puma, and none more treacherous. I have an idea myself that

the darker in colour the more courageous and bloodthirsty they are;

however that may be, I would any day as soon fight hand-to-hand with a

man-eating tiger as I would with some of the monstrous pumas I have seen

in South America. And yet I have heard sportsmen despise them, probably

because they have never met one face to face as I have done, and as I

did on the day in question.

 

"We were quietly returning, Friday and I, to the place where we had left

our provisions and bags, when he suddenly cried, `Look, massa! look

dere!' We had disturbed one of the largest boa-constrictors I had ever

seen, and it was moving off, strange to say, instead of boldly attacking

us, but hissing and blowing with rage as it did so. It looked to me

like the trunk of some mighty palm-tree in motion along the ground.

 

"`Fire!' I cried; `fire! Friday.'

 

"The crack of both of our rifles followed in a second, but though

wounded, the terrible creature made good its escape.

 

"I hurried after him, loading as I went, and thus got parted for a short

time from my faithful servant and body-guard.

 

"I soon discovered, to my sorrow, the reason why the boa had not

attacked us.

 

"In these dense forest lands, the wildest animals prey upon each other.

Thus the boa often seizes and throttles the life out of even the puma,

agile and fierce though it be. This particular boa had been watching a

puma, evidently, when we came up. The brute gave me not a moment to

consider, nor to finish my loading.

 

"I yelled in terror as I found myself seized by the shoulder. I

remember no more then.

 

"Friday had boldly rushed to my rescue. He struck the puma over the

head with his useless rifle. The beast sprang backwards fully fifteen

feet, and prepared to give Friday battle, but the brave fellow was on

him, knife in hand, in a moment. Friday told me afterwards that he

literally flung himself on the puma. Had he missed his aim, he would

never have had another chance, but deep into the monster's very heart

went the dagger, and he never moved a muscle more. Friday was

unwounded."

 

"And you, Ben?"

 

"Fearfully cut in the shoulder with the puma's teeth, cut in the back

with the talons of his fore feet, and lacerated in the stomach with his

hind. They have an ugly way of cutting downwards with those talons of

theirs, few who have felt it are likely to forget."

CHAPTER TWELVE.

Wide-rent, the clouds

Pour a whole flood; and yet, its flame unquenched

Th' unconquerable lightning straggles through

Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls,

And fires the mountains with redoubled rage."

 

Thomson.

 

My old friend Captain Roberts is quite a remarkable man in his way--yes,

I might go farther and say, in many of his ways. As a pedestrian, for

example, there are few young men can beat him. When he and I make up

our minds to have a walk, the elements do not prevent us. We start and

go through with it.

 

But in summer or spring weather, when the roads are not quite ankle-deep

in mud, we dearly love to mount our tricycles and go for a good long

spin. We like to return feeling delightfully hungry and delightfully

tired; then we dine together, and after dinner, when good old Ben gets

his pipe in full blast, it would indeed do your heart good to listen to

him. Everything or anything suggests a yarn to Ben, or brings back to

his mind some sunny memory or gloomy recollection.

 

One day last summer we started for a ride, for the morning looked very

promising, and the roads were in splendid form. We followed the course

of the Thames upwards, and about noon found ourselves enjoying our

frugal luncheon near a pretty little reach of the river, one of the

thousand beautiful spots by the banks of this famous old stream.

 

As the clouds, however, began to bank up rather suddenly in the west,

and as they soon met and quite hid the sun, and as the day was still and

sultry, we expected, what we soon got, a thunderstorm. Neither my

friend nor I am very shy, when it comes to the push, so we ran for

shelter, and just as the thunder began to roll and the raindrops to

fall, we got our 'cycles comfortably housed in a farmer's shed.

 

The farmer was not content, however, until he had us both indoors in his

comfortable parlour. He threw the window wide open, because, he said,

the glass drew the lightning; so there we sat with the thunder rattling

overhead, the rain pattering on the grass and sending up delicious

odours of red and white clover, while the lightning seemed to run along

the ground, and mix itself up with the sparkling rain-rush in quite a

wonderful way.

 

"Terrible thunder!" said Captain Roberts. "Terrible! puts me in mind of

South America."

 

The farmer looked eagerly towards him.

 

The farmer's wife entered with tea, and this completed our feeling of

comfort.

 

"You've got something to tell us, Ben," I said. "There is something

which that storm reminds you of. Better out with it, without much

further parley."

 

"Ah, well," he said, "I suppose I must. Not that it is very much of a

story; only, gentlemen, it is true. I haven't lived long enough yet to

have to invent yarns. I haven't told half what I've seen and come

through. But not to weary you--what delicious tea, ma'am!"

 

"So glad it pleases you, sir."

 

"I've sailed around a good many coasts in my time; but I think you will

find scenery more charming on the seaboard of some parts of South

America than in any other country in the world. Round about Patagonia,

now, what can beat the coast line for grandeur and stern beauty?

Nothing that I know of.

 

"But farther north--on the shores of Bolivia, for instance--the scenery

is just a trifle disappointing; the coast is low and sandy, and very

rough in places.

 

"They call the ocean that laves it the Pacific. Bless my soul! friends,

had you but seen it one day in the month of April, 18--, you wouldn't

have said there was much `pacific' about it. The bit of a barque I was

coasting in was on a lee-shore, too, and there was nothing short of a

miracle could save her. We all saw that from the first. That miracle

never took place. We were carried on shore--carried in on top of a

mountain wave, struck with fearful force, and broke in two in less than

an hour.

 

"It was a wonder anybody was saved. As it was, seven of us got on shore

one way or another, and there we lay battered and bruised. The sun

dried one half of our clothes; then we rolled round, and he dried the

other. We had tasted no food for four-and-twenty hours, for we had been

battened down, and all hands had to be on deck. So when a case rolled

right up to our very feet we weren't long looking inside it, and glad

enough to find some provisions in the shape of tinned soup.

 

"Stores floated on shore next day, and spars, and one thing and another,

so we rigged a tent, and made ourselves as much at home as it was

possible for shipwrecked mariners to do.

 

"We had been shipwrecked apparently on a most inhospitable shore. To

say there wasn't a green thing in sight would hardly be correct. Bits

of scrubby bushes grew here and there in the sand, and a kind of strong

rough grass also in patches; but that was all. Inland, the horizon was

bounded by a chain of mountains; to the west was the ocean, calm enough

now, very wide and dark and blue, with not even an island to break its

monotony.

 

"It was a poor look-out for us, only we all agreed that it would be

better to stay where we were until our wounds and bruises were somewhat

healed, and until we had gathered sufficient strength to explore the

country.

 

"We had plenty to eat and drink where we were; we could not tell how we

might fare elsewhere. Only we were quite out of the way of ships, and

our provisions would not last for ever.

 

"For the first three or four days, I may say we did nothing else but

bury our dead. Sad enough employment, you must allow. But after this a

breeze of wind sprang up, which during the night increased to a gale,

blowing right on to the shore. When the darkness lifted, to our great

joy we found our ship, or rather the pieces of her that had in a sort of

way held together, floated high and dry on the beach.

 

"Had we wished now to become Crusoes we should have had every

convenience, for we not only got provisions of all kinds out of the

wreck, but boxes of stores, guns, and ammunition. For the last we were

very grateful; and rough sailors though we were, we did not forget to

kneel down there on the sands and thank the Giver of all good, not only

for having mercifully spared us from the violence of the sea, but for

giving us this earnest of future good fortune.

 

"The hawk scents the quarry from afar, and early next morning we were

not surprised to receive a visit from some armed Indians. They rode on

horses and on mules that seemed as fleet as they were sure-footed.

These Indians were kind enough to express a wish, not over-politely

worded, to possess samples of our various stores. We gave them to eat

as much as they liked; but when they attempted to pillage the wreck, we

first and foremost smilingly and persuasively hinted our disapproval of

such a proceeding.

 

"This hint not being taken, we tried another: we levelled guns at them,

and they fled.

 

"They came again the next day; and we made them many presents, and asked

them, in broken Spanish and a deal of sign language, to conduct us

safely over the mountains to the nearest Bolivian town or settlement.

 

"They were in all about twenty, and if they were half as bad in heart as

they looked, then they were indeed scoundrels of the first water. But

we numbered seven--seven bold hearts and true, and we were well armed,

and able enough to drive a bargain with these fellows to our mutual

advantage.

 

"We did so in this way: we were to have several horses and five mules,

which should be laden with all our own especial baggage. They--the

Indians--should have as much as they liked of the stores that remained.

 

"They appeared to consent to this willingly enough. So we made our

packs up--taking the best of everything, of course, and whatever was of

the greatest value.

 

"It was now well on in the afternoon, so we determined to start on our

journey inland the very next morning. The Indians had still half a

dozen good mules left, and they at once set about making preparations

for loading them.

 

"There was a deal of squabbling and wrangling over the division, and

more than once they seemed coming to blows.

 

"As soon as they had chosen all they could carry, we set about piling up

the rest of the wreckage in a heap, preparatory to setting fire to it.

This was absolutely necessary, for if anything was left behind it would

be but a short convoy those Indians would give us. They would hide

their mule packs among the mountains and hurry back for more.

 

"They were very much displeased, therefore, to see what we were about.

 

"But nothing cared we;