CHAPTER V
A HUNDRED AND EIGHT FEET OF CROCODILE
The party were stirring as soon as it was daylight; for in the tropics the early hours are the pleasantest, and they had fallen into the habit of early rising in India. The trees were alive with monkeys of several kinds, though the proboscis tribe seemed to be in the majority. Felix came out of the cabin with his gun in his hand, and began to regard the denizens of the tree-tops with interest.
"What are you going to do, Flix?" asked Louis, who was sitting on the rail, busily cutting out a notch in the end of a long piece of board.
"Don"t you see there is plenty of game here, my darling?" demanded Felix, pointing up into the trees.
"Game!" exclaimed Louis contemptuously. "Monkeys!"
"Didn"t you shoot a couple of them yesterday afternoon, Louis?"
"I did; but I wanted them in order to study the creature. Now every fellow knows what a proboscis monkey is, as he did not before except by name. I got my books out, and read him up with the animal before me. I am glad I did; for the picture of him I had seen was nothing like him in his nasal appendage, which gives him his name."
"What is the reason of that?"
"The portrait was taken from a young one, before his nose had attained its full growth. But I don"t believe in shooting monkeys for the fun of it. Our party are not inclined to eat them."
"I"d as soon eat a cat as a monkey," added Felix.
"Then, don"t shoot those long-nosed fellows, for we have all the specimens of them we need," said Louis.
"What are you going to do with them, my darling? You can"t keep them much longer, and you will have to throw them overboard, for they won"t smell sweet by to-morrow."
"Achang learned something about taxidermy from the naturalist he travelled with, and he has promised to skin and mount one of them for me."
"But what"s that you are making, Louis?" asked Felix, who had been trying to take the measure of the implement the young Crsus was fashioning.
Its use was not at all evident. A triangular piece had been sawed out of the end of a strip of board four inches wide, and the rest of it had been cut down and rounded off, and the thing looked more like a pitchfork than anything else.
"Is it to pitch hay with?" persisted Felix.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "WHAT HAVE YOU GOT THERE, MR. BELGRAVE?"
_Page 41._]
"No, it is not; when you see me use it, you will know what it is for.
You must wait till that time before you know," replied Louis, who appeared to have finished the implement just as the other brought his gun to his shoulder.
"That"s the handsomest schnake I iver saw since me modther, long life to her, left ould Ireland before I was bahrn."
"Don"t shoot him, Flix!" protested Louis vigorously. "Where is he?"
"Jist forninst the bow of the boat. Sure, Oi"m the schnake-killer of the party, and he"s moi game."
"I don"t want him killed yet," replied Louis, as he moved forward from the waist with the forked stick in his hand. "He is handsome, as you say, Flix."
Creeping very cautiously till he could see over the bow, he discovered the serpent, which was nearly six feet long, working slowly down a dead log towards the water. Springing to his feet on the bow, he struck down with his weapon, directing the fork at the neck of the reptile. The outside of the log was nothing but punk, or the operation would have been a failure. As it was, the two points of the implement sunk into the wood, and the snake was pinned in the opening at the end of the stick.
"What have you got there, Mr. Belgrave?" asked Achang, hurrying to the side of the operator.
"A snake; do you know him?" demanded Louis, as the reptile struggled to escape.
"I saw one like it years ago;" and he gave a long Dyak name to it which the others did not understand. "Wait a minute or two, and I will bring him on board for you."
"I don"t know that we want him on board," added Louis.
"He is not poison, and he won"t hurt you," said the Bornean, as he made a slip-noose at the end of a piece of cord.
Hanging over the bow, he pa.s.sed the noose over the head of the snake, and hauled it taut, and then made the end he held fast to the boat.
Louis lifted his implement from the neck of the snake, and he squirmed and wriggled as though he "meant business." Achang leaped to the sh.o.r.e, and seizing the serpent by the tail, tossed him into the boat. He struck on one of the cushions, and the cord prevented him from going any farther.
Scott and Morris had just reached the fore cabin at this moment, and they started back as though they had been bitten by the snake. His head, tail, and belly were bright red, with white stripes upon a dark ground along his back and sides. No one but Achang had ever seen such a serpent, even in a museum. His snakeship was disposed to make himself comfortable on the cushion, and the Bornean loosed the cord around his neck.
"I saw a small snake, not more than two feet long, swimming near the sh.o.r.e of Lake Cobbosseecontee, in Maine, that had nearly all the colors of the rainbow in his skin," said Morris. "I tried to knock him over with my fishing-rod, and catch him; but I failed. I told the people where we boarded about him, but no one had ever seen a snake like him."
"There are plenty of such snakes in South America, some that are not poisonous, which the native women tame and wear as necklaces," added Louis.
"Well, what are you going to do with him?" asked Captain Scott. "I think you had better kill him, and throw him into the river, pretty as he is.
He isn"t a very desirable fellow to have as a companion on board."
"What is the use of killing him? He would only be food for the crocodiles," protested Louis.
"Do what you like with him, Louis," added the captain.
"I certainly will not have him killed. If Achang never saw but one of the kind, there cannot be a great many of them in this part of the island. Put him ash.o.r.e, Achang," said the humane young gentleman.
The Bornean complied with this request; and the handsome snake skurried off in the woods, none the worse for his adventure. But the others were not quite satisfied with the policy of the young millionaire. They wanted to shoot whatever they could see in the nature of game, including monkeys, and he was opposed to this destructive action. Of course they could kill whatever they pleased, but the moral influence of the real leader prevailed over them.
"Steam enough!" shouted Felipe from the engine.
"Take the wheel, Clingman, back her out and go ahead," said the captain; and in a few moments they were steaming down the river.
"I suppose you haven"t any tenderness for crocodiles, have you, Louis?"
inquired Scott, with a smile.
"You seem to believe that I am as chicken-hearted as a girl; but I believe in killing all harmful animals, including poisonous snakes; but I do not like to see these innocent monkeys shot down for the fun of it," replied Louis. "You can kill them if you choose, but I will not."
"The rest of us will not, if you are opposed to it," added Scott.
"Crocodile on the port hand!" exclaimed Clingman. "He is swimming across the river, about three boats" lengths from us."
"Stop her!" said the captain.