"It is a long way to carry the lad," he said; "though if I had him in my hut I would watch over him."
"Perhaps it may be better to build a hut at the spot we proposed, and bring our sister and goods to it," I said.
"No; I will take the lad to mine," answered the recluse. "You can build a hut as you proposed, and when he has recovered I will bring him to you."
I was very glad to hear this, because I was afraid that Arthur might suffer unless we could get him soon placed in a comfortable hammock, and give him better food than we should be able to prepare without our cooking apparatus.
"I am ready to go on whenever you wish it," observed Arthur, who heard the discussion; "but I am afraid I cannot walk very fast."
"I will carry you then," said the recluse; "but it will be better to form a litter, on which you can rest more at your ease. We will soon get one ready."
Duppo and Oria stood by watching us eagerly while we spoke, as if they were anxious to know what we were saying.
"You stay with your young friend, while your brother and I prepare the litter," said the recluse to me, replacing Arthur on the ground.
I sat down by his side, supporting him. He did not allude to the anaconda, and, I suspected, was totally unconscious of the danger he had been in. While the recluse and John were cutting down some poles to form the litter, Duppo and his sister collected a number of long thin sipos, showing that they understood what we proposed doing. In a short time the litter was completed. John and I insisted on carrying it, though we had some difficulty in persuading the recluse to allow us to do so. He spoke for some time to Duppo and his sister, who looked greatly disconcerted and sad.
"I was telling them that they must go and find their people," he said, "and that they must build a house for you on the spot you selected.
They will be true friends to you, as they have ever been to me. I advise you to cultivate their friendship by treating them with kindness and respect."
The young Indians seemed very unwilling to take their departure, and lingered some time after we had wished them good-bye. John and I took up the litter, on which Arthur had been placed. As we had already cut a road for ourselves, we were able to proceed faster than we did when before pa.s.sing through the forest. We hurried on, for the sun had begun to sink towards the west, and we might be benighted before we could reach the hermit"s abode.
We proceeded by the way we had come. After we had gone some distance, Arthur begged that he might be put down and allowed to walk. "I am sure I have strength enough, and I do not like to see you carry me," he said.
Of this, however, we would not hear, and continued on.
At last we sat down to rest. The spot we had chosen was a pleasant one.
Though shaded, it was sufficiently open to allow the breeze to circulate through it. Round us, in most directions, was a thick jungle.
We had brought some water in a sh.e.l.l of one of the large nuts, and after Arthur had drunk some, we induced him to take a little food, which seemed greatly to revive him. We were seated round the contents of our wallets, John and I, at all events, feeling in much better spirits than we had been in the morning; even the recluse threw off some of his reserve. We took the opportunity of telling him of our anxiety about our parents, and of the uncertainty we felt whether they had pa.s.sed down the river. He in return asked us further questions, and seemed interested in our account.
"I may be of use to you," he said at length, "by being able to make inquiries among the Indians on the river, who would probably have observed them should they have pa.s.sed; but promises are so often broken, that I am ever unwilling to make them. Therefore, I advise you to trust to your own exertions," he added.
We were on the point of again taking up Arthur to proceed, when a loud sound of crashing branches was heard in the distance. It seemed as if a hurricane was sweeping through the forest. It came nearer and nearer.
"Oh I what can it be?" cried Arthur. "Leave me and save yourselves. It seems as if the whole forest was falling."
The crashing increased. Boughs seemed broken off, shrubs trampled under foot. Presently we saw, bearing down upon as, a large dark-skinned creature, though its form could scarcely be distinguished amid the foliage.
"Stand fast!" said the recluse. "It will not harm you. See! it has an enemy to contend with."
As the creature drew nearer, I saw that it bore on its back a huge jaguar, distinguished by its spotted hide and its fierce glaring eyes.
Its jaws were fixed in the creature"s neck, to which it clung also with its sharp claws.
"The animal is a tapir," said the recluse. "I am not certain yet though whether the jaguar will conquer it. See, the back of the latter is bleeding and torn from the rough branches beneath which the tapir has carried it."
As he spoke, the animals came close to us, the tapir making for the thick branch of a fallen tree kept up by a network of sipos, which hung like a beam almost horizontally a few feet from the ground. The tapir dashed under it, and we could hear the crash of the jaguar"s head as it came in contact with the hard wood. Still it clung on, but its eyes had lost their fierce glare. Blood covered the backs of the animals, and the next moment the jaguar fell to the ground, where it lay struggling faintly. Twice it tried to rise, but fell back, and lay apparently dead.
John had lifted his rifle to fire at the tapir. "Hold!" said the recluse; "let the victor go; he deserves his liberty for having thus sagaciously liberated himself from his tormentor. Would that we could as easily get rid of ours! How eagerly we should seek the lower branches of the trees!" He gave one of those peculiar, sarcastic laughs, which I observed he was apt to indulge in.
We cautiously approached the jaguar, feeling uncertain whether it might not yet rise up and spring at us. John and I kept our rifles at its head, while True went boldly up towards it. He had been an excited spectator of the scene, and I had some difficulty in keeping him from following the tapir. The jaguar did not move. Even a poke with the muzzle of my rifle failed to arouse it. True began to tear away at its neck; and at length we were convinced that the savage creature was really dead. "There let him lie," said the recluse. "Strong as he was a few moments ago, he will be food for the armadillos before morning."
We again lifted up Arthur, and proceeded onwards, the recluse leading and clearing away the branches which might have injured Arthur as we pa.s.sed between them. Of course we now required a broader pa.s.sage than when we came through ourselves. We took exactly the same route; our guide never faltering for a moment, though in many places I should have had difficulty, where the marks of our axes were not to be seen, in finding the road. Several times he offered to take my place, observing that I might be tired; but John and I begged him to allow us to carry our young friend, as we did not like to impose the task on him. Thus we went on till my arms and shoulders began to ache, but I determined not to give in. Arthur had not spoken for some time. I looked at his face.
It was very pale, and his eyes were closed. I was afraid he had received more injury from the fearful serpent than we had at first supposed. We hurried on, for it was evidently very important that he should as soon as possible be attended to. We did not stop, therefore, a moment to rest. Thinking that he would not hear me, I expressed my fears to John. "Oh no, no," said Arthur; "I do not feel so very ill. I wish you would put me down, for I am sure you must be tired."
I was greatly relieved when I heard him speak; at the same time his voice was so weak, that we were unwilling to do as he begged us. It was getting late, too, as we could judge by the increasing gloom in the forest. Looking up through the occasional openings in the dark-green canopy above our heads, we could see the sky, which had now become of the intensest shade of blue. A troop of allouattes commenced a concert, their unmusical howlings echoing through the forest. Numerous macaws pa.s.sed above us, giving vent to strange harsh cries; while whole families of parrots screamed in various notes. Cicadas set up the most piercing chirp, becoming shriller and shriller, till it ended in a sharp screeching whistle. Other creatures--birds, beasts, and insects--added their voices to the concert, till the whole forest seemed in an uproar.
As the sky grew darker, and the shades of night came thickly round us, the noises gradually ceased, but were soon succeeded by the drumming, hoohooing, and the croaking of the tree-frogs, joined occasionally by the melancholy cries of the night-jar. "Follow me closely," said the recluse, "and step as high as you can, not to catch your feet in the tangled roots. My eyes are well accustomed to this forest-gloom, and I will lead you safely."
At length we found ourselves pa.s.sing through a narrow pa.s.sage between thick bushes, which reminded us of the approach to the recluse"s hut.
Emerging from it, we saw light ahead, and now reached the steps which led to the verandah.
"You have come on well," he observed. "I will carry up your young friend. Leave the litter on the ground."
I had to stop and a.s.sist up True, for although he made several attempts to mount the ladder by himself, it was somewhat too high for him to succeed. On entering the hut I found Ellen, in a state of agitation, leaning over Arthur.
"Oh! what has happened?" she asked. "Will he die? Will he die?"
"I trust not, young lady," remarked our host. "He wants rest and careful nursing, and I hope in a few days will have recovered. I will now attend to him, and afterwards leave him under your care."
"Do not be alarmed, Miss Ellen," whispered Arthur. "I only fainted from the hot sun and anxiety about you all. Now I am with you, I shall soon get well."
"As I have by me a store of medicines, with which I have doctored occasionally the poor natives, I can find, I hope, some remedies which may help to restore your friend," observed the recluse. "Rest is what he chiefly now requires."
Arthur was put into his hammock, and after he had taken a mess which Maria had prepared, fell asleep.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
THE RECLUSE--MORE ADVENTURES IN THE FOREST.
Three days pa.s.sed away, and Arthur had almost recovered. We none of us had liked to ask the recluse any questions about himself, and he had given us no information as to who he was, where he had come from, or how long he had lived in that secluded spot. He had merely told us that he was English, and he certainly seemed from his conversation to be a man of education. He made no inquiries about us, though he listened from politeness, apparently, rather than from any interest he took in the matter, to the account we gave him of our adventures. One thing was very evident, that, though he bore with our society, he would rather be left alone to his usual solitude.
I awoke early the following morning, and found John already on foot. He proposed going down to the igarape to bathe, and asked me to accompany him. Our host, we found, had already left the hut. Arthur was asleep, so we would not disturb him. Domingos also had gone out, and we concluded had accompanied the recluse to obtain provisions, as he had taken with him a couple of baskets which usually hung on the wall at the entrance of the hut. At all events, they were not there when we looked for them. Taking our guns, we proceeded as we proposed. The rays of the rising sun came through the few openings among the tall trees, their light flashing on the wings of the gorgeous b.u.t.terflies and still more brilliant plumage of several humming-birds, which flitted here and there amid the opening in the forest.
There was a sandy spot where we thought that we could venture into the water, without the risk of being seized by an alligator or anaconda. We were making our way towards it, when we caught sight of a small canoe, in which a man, whom we at once recognised as the recluse, was seated.
He was paddling slowly up the igarape. We watched him for some time, till he was lost to sight among the thick foliage which lined the banks.
We naturally concluded that he was merely taking a morning excursion, perhaps to fish or bathe, and expected to see him again at breakfast.
While John took a bath, I stood by and beat the water with a long pole, to frighten away any alligator which might be near, and he performed the same office for me--a very necessary precaution, from the number of the huge reptiles which swarm in all the rivers.
Much refreshed, we returned to the hut. We waited for the recluse some time before beginning breakfast, which Maria had prepared; but he did not appear, nor did Domingos. We all agreed that we ought no longer to impose our society on our strange friend. The first thing to be done was to build a canoe, but we had not found a tree in the neighbourhood of the hut exactly suited to our purpose.
"We may perhaps discover one near the place at which we landed the other day, and we may get our Indian friends to help us to build a canoe," I observed. "Or it is possible that they may have recovered some of theirs, and be ready to sell one of them to us."
"Then the sooner we find them out the better," observed John.
"I wonder Duppo and his sister, or some of the other Indians, have not come here to look for us," said Arthur. "I thought Duppo, at all events, would have shown more regard for us."
"Perhaps the recluse has taught them not to visit his hut without his leave," I remarked. "They seem to hold him in great respect."