"We did, Shaddy, every time we heard you."
"Nay, my lad, didn"t seem to me as if you did. S"pose the trees kep" it off at times. But all right, gentlemen, I shall soon hit it off, and we"ll get to the boat, have a good feed, and go to work again. Don"t look down, Mr Rob, sir! How do we know as Mr Jovanni isn"t there already waiting for us?"
Rob shook his head.
"Ah, you don"t know, sir. Seems queer, don"t it, to get so lost! but it ain"t the fust time. I"ve known men go into the forest only a score of yards or so and be completely gone, every step they took carrying "em farther away and making "em lose their heads till their mates found "em."
"Stop! Which way are you going now?"
"This way," said Shaddy.
"But that"s back--the way we came."
Shaddy laughed, and without another word forced his way again in among the trees.
"I give up," said Brazier in despair. "It is too confusing for ordinary brains. I could have taken an oath that he was wrong."
He answered a whistle, and they stood waiting till the crackling and rustling made by their guide"s pa.s.sage ceased.
"I couldn"t have believed that we came so far," said Rob, breaking the silence.
"I don"t think we did come very far, Rob," replied Brazier; "it is only that the place is so hopelessly puzzling and intricate. Time is getting on, too. We must not be overtaken by the night."
Rob could hardly repress a shudder, and, to make the dismal look of the narrow s.p.a.ce, darkened by close-cl.u.s.tering trees, more impressive, the peculiar exaggerated cat-like call of the beast they had heard or another of its kind rang out hollowly apparently not very far-away.
Almost simultaneously, though, came Shaddy"s whistle, and this was answered and repeated steadily at some little distance, but at last growing quite faint.
As they were waiting for the next call there was a rustling sound overhead, which took their attention, but for some time nothing but moving leaves could be made out in the subdued light, till all at once Brazier pointed to a spot some fifty feet above them, and at last Rob caught sight of the object which had taken his companion"s attention.
"Looking down and watching us," he said quickly, as he gazed at the peculiar little dark, old-looking face which was suddenly withdrawn, thrust out again, and finally disappeared.
"There is quite a party of monkeys up there, Rob," said Brazier; "and the tree-tops are thoroughly alive with birds, but they are silent because we are here. Ahoy!" he shouted as Shaddy now hailed from somewhere nearer, and after a few shouts to and fro they heard him say,--
"Found it!"
A thrill of joy ran through Rob, but it pa.s.sed away and he felt despondent again as they started to rejoin their guide, for the thoughts of poor Joe were uppermost, and he began thinking of the day when they should go back and join the schooner to announce the terrible accident that had befallen the captain"s son.
But he had to toil hard to get through the trees, and this work took away the power of thinking much of anything but the task in hand.
Shaddy, too, had stopped short, waiting for them to come to him, and they had to squeeze themselves between trees, climb over half-rotten trunks, and again and again start aside and try another way as they found themselves disturbing some animal, often enough a serpent.
""Bliged to stop here, gen"lemen, and mark the direction," rang on their ears all at once. "You see, one can"t travel in a straight line, and I was afraid of losing my way again."
"How far is the river away?"
"Not quarter of a mile if you could go straight, my lad, but it"ll be half a mile way we have to twist about. But come along. Once we get to the water"s edge, we"ll soon make the boat."
He turned, and led on slowly and laboriously, the difficulties increasing at every step, and more than once Rob was about to break down. The last time he took hold of a tree to support himself, and was about to say, "I can go no further," when, looking up, there was Shaddy pointing down at the water, which had flooded over right in among the trunks.
Rob dropped upon his knees directly, bent down, placed his lips to the water, and drank with avidity, Brazier following his example.
The discovery of a guide which must lead them to the spot where they had left the boat, and the refreshment the river afforded, gave Rob the strength to follow Shaddy manfully along the margin of the flood over twice the ground they had traversed in the morning--for their wanderings had taken them very much further astray than they had believed--and the result was that just at sundown, after being startled several times by the cries of the jaguar or puma close on their left apparently, Shaddy suddenly gave a hoa.r.s.e cheer, for he had emerged upon the clearing at whose edge the boat was moored.
CHAPTER TWENTY.
A TERRIBLE SURPRISE.
Shaddy looked sharply round as they crossed the clearing, all three breathing more freely at being once more in the open and without the oppression of being completely shut in by trees on all sides, while the dense foliage overhead completely hid the sky. This was now one glorious suffusion of amber and gold, for the sun was below the horizon, and night close at hand, though, after the gloom of the primeval forest, it seemed to Rob and his companions as if they had just stepped out into the beginning of a glorious day.
"Don"t see no fire," growled Shaddy. "We"re all horribly down about losing poor Mr Jovanni. But we must have rest and food, or we can"t work. Here, my lads, where are you?" he shouted in the dialect the men best understood.
They were about half-way across the opening in the forest as he shouted to the men, and the river was running like a stream of molten gold; but the boat had been probably moored somewhere among the trees, so as to be safer than in the swift current, for it was not visible.
"D"ye hear, you?" roared Shaddy fiercely, for he was out of temper from weariness with his exertions during the day. "Are you all asleep?
There"s going to be about the hottest row over this, Mr Brazier, as ever them lazy half-breed dogs got into. You pay them well to work, and instead of there being a good fire, and cooked meat and fish, and hot cake, and boiling water, they"re all fast asleep in that boat."
He stopped short and looked about him; then, placing both hands to his mouth to make a trumpet, he uttered a stentorian roar, which echoed from the tall bank of trees on the opposite side of the river.
The only answer was the shriek of a macaw from across the water, where a pair of the long-tailed birds rose from a tall tree and winged their way over the tops. Directly after there was a sharp yell, evidently the call of some cat-like beast.
"I"ll go over yonder and look among the trees, Mr Brazier, sir," said Shaddy, after waiting for some more satisfactory reply, "and I"ll take it kindly if you and Mr Rob will have a look among them standing in the water that side. I dessay the boat"s run up close as they can get it one side or the other."
Brazier nodded, and went to one side of the clearing, while Shaddy forced his way through the low growth toward the other, Rob following close upon his leader"s steps till they reached the submerged trees and worked along their edge, peering in amongst them as rapidly as they could, for there was no time to be lost. Night was coming on with tropical swiftness, and already the glorious amber tint was paling in the sky, and the water beneath the trees looking black.
"See anything of them, Rob?" cried Brazier again and again; but the answer was always the same: a low despondent "No."
All at once there was a loud shout, and they looked back to see Shaddy waving his cap and beckoning to them.
"Found them?" cried Rob as he ran to meet their guide.
"No, my lad; they"re not here. Might have known it by there being no fire. Hi, Mr Brazier, sir!"
The latter came panting up, for it required no little exertion to get through the dense bushes and thick gra.s.s.
"What is it? Where are they?"
"That"s what I want to know, sir. But look here, I"m so f.a.gged out that my head won"t go properly. I mean I can"t think straight."
"What do you mean, man?"
"This, sir: look round, both of you, "fore it gets darker. I"m all doubty, and I"ve got thinking that we"ve come to the wrong place."
"What?" cried Rob excitedly.
"I say I"ve got a fancy that this ain"t the right place, for there"s no one here, and no boat, and there ain"t been no fire."
"How do you know, Shaddy?"