"Ah," said the hermit, smiling, "I know what you mean. Yes, the dogs are safe. My pet pumas will not come near you. I do not think that even my jaguars would object to your presence; but for safety"s sake Archie shall go along with you, and he shall also come for you in the evening. Give him these peaches when you reach camp. They are our own growing, and Archie dotes upon them."
So away back by the banks of the stream we went, our strange guide, club in hand, going hopping on before. It did really seem all like a scene of enchantment.
We gave Archie the peaches, and he looked delighted.
"Good-bye, old man," said Dugald, as he presented him with his.
"Speak a word or two of Gaelic to him," said our Archie.
Sandie Donaldson was indeed astonished at all we told him.
"I suppose it"s all right," he said, "but dear me, that was an uncanny-looking creature you had hirpling on in front of you!"
In the evening, just as we had returned from a most successful guanaco hunt, we found Donaldson"s uncanny creature coming along the path.
"I suppose he means us to dine with him," I remarked.
"Ah, ah, ah! Yah, ah, yah!" cried the baboon.
"Well, will you come, Sandie?"
Sandie shook his head.
"Not to-night," said Sandie. "Take care of yourselves, boys. Mind what the old proverb says: "They need a lang spoon wha sup wi" the deil.""
We found the hermit at his gate, and glad he seemed to see us.
"I"ve been at home all the afternoon," he said, "cooking your dinner. Most enjoyable work, I can a.s.sure you. All the vegetables are fresh, and even the curry has been grown on the premises. I hope you are fond of armadillo; that is a favourite dish of mine. But here we have roast ducks, partridges, and something that perhaps you have never tasted before, roast or boiled. For bread we have biscuit; for wine we have _mate_ and milk. My goats come every night to be milked. Archie does the milking as well as any man could. Ah, here come my dogs."
Two deerhounds trotted up and made friends with us.
"I bought them from a roving Scot two years ago while on a visit to Chili."
"How about the pumas? Don"t they--"
"No, they come from the trees to sleep with Rob and Rory. Even the jaguars do not attempt to touch them. Sit down; you see I dine early. We will have time before dusk to visit some of my pets. I hope they did not keep you awake."
"No, but the noise would have done so, had we not known what they were."
Conversation never once flagged all the time we sat at table. The hermit himself had put most of the dishes down, but Archie duly waited behind his master"s chair, and brought both the _mate_ and the milk, as well as the fruit. This dessert was of the most tempting description; and not even at our own _estancia_ had I tasted more delicious grapes. But there were many kinds of fruit here we had never even seen before. As soon as we were done the waiter had _his_ repast, and the amount of fruit he got through surprised us beyond measure. He squatted on the ground to eat. Well, when he commenced his dinner he looked a little old gentleman of somewhat spare habit; when he rose up--by the aid of his pole--he was decidedly plump, not to say podgy. Even his cheeks were puffed out; and no wonder, they were stuffed with nuts to eat at his leisure.
"I dare say Archie eats at all odd hours," I said.
"No, he does not," replied the hermit. "I never encouraged him to do so, and now he is quite of my way of thinking, and never eats between meals.
But come, will you light a cigarette and stroll round with me?"
"We will stroll round without the cigarette," I said.
"Then fill your pockets with nuts and raisins; you must do something."
"Feed the birds, Archie."
"Ah, ah, ah! Yah, ah! Yah, yah!"
"The birds need not come to be fed; there is enough and to spare for them in the woods, but they think whatever we eat must be extra nice. We have all kinds of birds except the British sparrow. I really hope you have not brought him. They say he follows Englishmen to the uttermost parts of the world."
We waited for a moment, and wondered at the flocks of lovely bright-winged doves and pigeons and other birds that had alighted round the table to receive their daily dole, then followed our hermit guide, to feast our eyes on other wonders not a whit less wonderful than all we had seen.
CHAPTER XXI.
WILD ADVENTURES ON PRAIRIE AND PAMPAS.
If I were to describe even one half of the strange creatures we saw in the hermit"s glen, the reader would be tired before I had finished, and even then I should not have succeeded in conveying anything like a correct impression of this floral wilderness and natural menagerie.
It puzzled me to know, and it puzzles me still, how so many wild creatures could have been got together in one place.
"I brought many of them here," the hermit told us, "but the others came, lured, no doubt, by the water, the trees, and the flowers."
"But was the water here when you arrived?"
"Oh yes, else I would not have settled down here. The glen was a sort of oasis even then, and there were more bushes and trees than ever I had seen before in one place. The ducks and geese and swans, in fact, all the web-footed fraternity, had been here before me, and many birds and beasts besides--the biscachas, the armadilloes, the beetle-eating pichithiego, for instance--the great ant-eater, and the skunk--I have banished that, however--wolves, foxes, kites, owls, and condors. I also found peccaries, and some deer. These latter, and the guanaco, give me a wide berth now.
They do not care for dogs, pumas, and jaguars. Insects are rather too numerous, and I have several species of snakes."
Archie"s--_our_ Archie"s--face fell.
"Are they?" he began, "are they very--"
"Very beautiful? Yes; indeed, some are charming in colour. One, for example, is of the brightest crimson streaked with black."
"I was not referring to their beauty; I meant were they dangerous?"
"Well, I never give them a chance to bite me, and I do not think they want to; but all snakes are to be avoided and left severely alone."
"Or killed, sir?"
"Yes, perhaps, if killed outright; for the pampan Indians have an idea that if a rattlesnake be only wounded, he will come back for revenge. But let us change the subject. You see those splendid b.u.t.terflies? Well, by and by the moths will be out; they are equally lovely, but when I first came here there were very few of either. They followed the flowers, and the humming-birds came next, and many other lovely gay-coloured little songsters. I introduced most of the parrots and toucans. There are two up there even now. They would come down if you were not here."
"They are very funny-looking, but very pretty," said Dugald. "I could stop and look at them for hours."
"But we must proceed. Here are the trees where the parrots mostly live.
Early as it is, you see they are retiring."
What a sight! What resplendency of colour and beauty! Such bright metallic green, l.u.s.trous orange, crimson and bronze!