Crack--crack--crack! six times in all.
"Bravo!" cried the shopkeeper. "Why, almost every shot has. .h.i.t the spot."
Moncrieff threw the revolver towards the man as if it had been a cricket-ball.
"Take off the trigger," he said.
"Off the trigger, sir?"
"Yes," said Moncrieff, quietly; "I seldom use the trigger."
The man obeyed. Then he handed back the weapon, which he had loaded.
Moncrieff looked one moment at the target, then the action of his arm was for all the world like that of throwing stones or cracking a whip.
He seemed to bring the revolver down from his ear each time.
Bang--bang--bang! and not a bullet missed the bull"s-eye.
"How is it done?" cried Dugald, excitedly.
"I lift the hammer a little way with my thumb and let it go again as I get my aim--that is all. It is a rapid way of firing, but I don"t advise you laddies to try it, or you may blow off your heads. Besides, the aim, except in practised hands like mine, is not so accurate. To hit well it is better to raise the weapon. First fix your eye on your man"s breast-b.u.t.ton--if he has one--then elevate till you have your sight straight, and there you are, and there your Indian is, or your "Gaucho malo.""
Moncrieff pointed grimly towards the ground with his pistol as he spoke, and Dugald gave a little shudder, as if in reality a dead man lay there.
"It is very simple, you see."
"Oh, Mr. Moncrieff," said Dugald, "I never thought you were so terrible a man!"
Moncrieff laughed heartily, finished his purchases, ordering better cartridges, as these, he said, had been badly loaded, and made the weapon kick, and then we left the shop.
"Now then, boys, I"m ready, and in two days" time hurrah for the Silver West! Between you and me, I"m sick of civilization."
And in two days" time, sure enough, we had all started.
The train we were in was more like an American than an English one. We were in a very comfortable saloon, in which we could move about with freedom.
Moncrieff, as soon as we had rattled through the streets and found ourselves out in the green, cool country, was brimful of joy and spirits.
Aunt said he reminded her of a boy going off on a holiday. His wife, too, looked "blithe" and cheerful, and nothing could keep his mother"s tongue from wagging.
Bombazo made the old lady a capital second, while several other settlers who were going out with us--all Scotch, by the way--did nothing but smile and wonder at all they saw. We soon pa.s.sed away for a time beyond the region of trees into a rich green rolling country, which gave evidence of vast wealth, and sport too. Of this latter fact Dugald took good notice.
"Oh, look!" he would cry, pointing to some wild wee lake. "Murdoch!
Donald! wouldn"t you like to be at the lochside yonder, gun in hand?"
And, sure enough, all kinds of feathered game were very plentiful.
But after a journey of five hours we left the train, and now embarked on a pa.s.senger steamer, and so commenced our journey up the Parana. Does not the very name sound musical? But I may be wrong, according to some, in calling the Parana beautiful, for the banks are not high; there are no wild and rugged mountains, nor even great forests; nevertheless, its very width, its silent moving power, and its majesticness give it a beauty in my eye that few rivers I know of possess. We gazed on it as the sunset lit up its wondrous waters till an island we were pa.s.sing appeared to rise into the sky and float along in the crimson haze. We gazed on it again ere we retired for the night. The stars were now all out, and the river"s dark bosom was studded here and there with ripples and b.u.t.tons of light; but still it was silent, as if it hid some dark mysterious secret which it must tell only to the distant ocean.
We slept very soundly this night, for the monotonous throb-throb of the engine"s great pulse and the churning rush of the screw not only wooed us to slumber, but seemed to mingle even with our dreams.
All night long, then, we were on the river, and nearly all next day as well. But the voyage appeared to my brothers and me to be all too short.
We neared Rosario about sunset, and at last cast anchor. But we did not land. We were too snug where we were, and the hotel would have had far fewer charms.
To-night we had a little impromptu concert, for several of Moncrieff"s friends came on board, and, strange to say, they were nearly all Scotch.
So Scotch was spoken, Scotch songs were sung, and on deck, to the wild notes of the great bagpipes, Scotch reels and strathspeys were danced.
After that,
"The nicht drave on wi" songs and clatter,"
till it was well into the wee short hours of the morning.
At Rosario we stopped for a day--more, I think, because Moncrieff wished to give aunt and his young wife a chance of seeing the place than for any business reason. Neither my brothers nor I were very much impressed by it, though it is a large and flourishing town, built somewhat on Philadelphia principles, in blocks, and, like Philadelphia, gridironed all over with tramway lines. It is a good thing one is able to get off the marble pavements into the cars without having far to go, for the streets are at times mere sloughs of despond. It is the same in all new countries.
Rosario lies in the midst of a flat but fertile country, on the banks of the Parana. The hotel where we lodged was quite Oriental in its appearance, being built round a beautiful square, paved with marble, and adorned with the most lovely tropical shrubs, flowers, and climbing plants.
There seems to be a flea in Rosario, however--just one flea; but he is a most ubiquitous and a most insatiably blood-thirsty little person. The worst of it is that, night or day, you are never perfectly sure where he may be. It is no use killing him either--that is simply labour thrown away, for he appears to come to life again, and resumes his evil courses as merrily as before.
Fifty times a day did I kill that flea, and Dugald said he had slain him twice as often; but even as Dugald spoke I could have vowed the lively _pulex_ was thoroughly enjoying a draught of my Highland blood inside my right sock.
Although none of our party shed tears as we mounted into the train, still the kindly hand-shakings and the hearty good-byes were affecting enough; and just as the train went puffing and groaning away from the station they culminated in one wild Highland hurrah! repeated three times thrice, and augmented by the dissonance of a half-ragged crew of urchins, who must needs wave their arms aloft and shout, without the faintest notion what it was all about.
We were now _en route_ for Cordoba, westward ho! by Frayle Muerto and Villa Neuva.
CHAPTER X.
A JOURNEY THAT SEEMS LIKE A DREAM.
It was towards sunset on the day we had left Rosario, and we had made what our guard called a grand run, though to us it was a somewhat tedious one.
Moncrieff had tucked his mother up in the plaid, and she had gone off to sleep on the seat "as gentle as "ewe lammie,"" according to her son. My aunt and the young bride were quietly talking together, and I myself was in that delightful condition called "twixt sleeping and waking," when suddenly Dugald, who had been watching everything from the window, cried, "Oh, Donald, look here. What a lovely changing cloud!"
Had Moncrieff not been busy just then--very earnestly busy indeed--discussing the merits of some sample packets of seeds with one of his new men, he might have come at once and explained the mystery.
It was indeed a lovely cloud, and it lay low on the north-western horizon.
But we had never before seen so strange a cloud, for not only did it increase in length and breadth more rapidly than do most clouds, but it caught the sun"s parting rays in quite a marvellous manner. When first we looked at it the colour throughout was a bluish purple; suddenly it changed to a red with resplendent border of fiery orange. Next it collapsed, getting broader and rounder, and becoming a dark blue, almost approaching to black, while the border beneath was orange-red. But the glowing magnificence of the colour it is impossible to describe in words; and the best artist would have failed to reproduce it even were he ten times a Turner.
At this moment, and just as the cloud was becoming elongated again, Moncrieff came to our side. His usually bright face fell at once as soon as he glanced at it.
"Locusts!" He almost gasped the word out.
"Locusts!" was re-echoed from every corner of the carriage; and immediately all eyes were strained in the direction of our "lofty golden cloud."
As we approached nearer to it, and it came nearer to us, even the light from the setting sun was obscured, and in a short time we were in the cloud, and apparently part of it. It had become almost too dark to see anything inside our carriage, owing to that dense and awful fog of insect life. We quickly closed the windows, for the loathsome insects were now pattering against the gla.s.s, and many had already obtained admittance, much to the horror of young Mrs. Moncrieff, though aunt took matters easy enough, having seen such sights before.
The train now slowly came to a standstill. Something--no one appeared to know what--had happened on ahead of us, and here we must wait till the line was clear. Even Moncrieff"s mother had awakened, and was looking out with the rest of us.