Then you draw in gently, and as soon as he feels the hook run him right out, and you, Mr Brazier, sir, stand ready at the water"s edge to mind he don"t get back. Mind, I don"t say it ain"t a small "gator all the same."
He pa.s.sed the end of the line to Rob as the captive, whatever it was, now lay quiet, but as soon as the lad began to draw the line ash.o.r.e there was another heavy tug.
"Run him out, sir, not hand over hand; run and turn your back," shouted Shaddy, and as fast as he could get over the tangled growth amongst the trees Rob obeyed, with the result that he drew a large golden-scaled fish right out of the river and up the bank a couple of yards, when something parted, and Shaddy uttered a yell as he saw the captive flapping back toward the pool.
"Gone! gone!" cried Rob in dismay. "I knew--"
He said no more for the moment, and then uttered a shout of delight as he saw the efficacy of their guide"s arrangements, for before the fish reached the edge Brazier had thrown himself upon it, and paying no heed to slime, spines, or sharp teeth, he thrust his hands beneath, and flung it far up toward where Rob in turn carried on the attack.
The next minute Shaddy was beside them, knife in hand, with which he rapidly killed, cleaned, and scaled the fish, finding the tough hook broken in two before chopping off a couple of great palm-like leaves, in which he wrapped his prize as he trotted toward the fire. Then with a half-burned branch, he raked a hole in the glowing embers, laid down the fish, raked the embers over again, and said,--
"Not to be touched for half an hour. Who"ll come and try for more solid fruit?"
If Rob"s spirits had not been so low he would have been amused by the boyish manner of their companion as he led them here and there. At the edge of the forest he mounted and climbed about a tree till he was well out on a great branch, from which he shook down a shower of great fruit that looked like cricket-b.a.l.l.s, but which on examination proved to be the hard husks of some kind of nut.
"What are these?" cried Rob.
"Don"t you know "em?" said Shaddy as soon as he had descended.
"No."
"Yes, you do, my lad. You"ve seen "em in London lots of times," and hammering a couple together, he broke open one and showed the contents: to wit, so many Brazil nuts packed together in a round form like the carpels of an orange.
"I never knew they grew like that," cried Rob eagerly.
"And I must confess my ignorance, too," said Brazier.
"Ah, there"s lots to learn in this world, gen"lemen," said Shaddy quietly. "Not a very good kind o" nut, but better than nothing. Bit too oily for me, but they"ll serve as bread for our fish if we get a couple of big stones for nutcrackers. They"re precious hard."
"Then we shan"t starve yet," cried Rob as he loaded himself with the cannon-ball-like fruit--pockets, cap, and as many as he could hold in his arms.
"Starve? I should think not," cried Shaddy, "and these here outsides"ll have to serve for teacups."
"Without tea, Shaddy?"
"Who says so, my lad? You wait, and we"ll find cocoa and mate, and who knows but what we may hit upon coffee and chocolate? Why, I won"t swear as we don"t find sugar-cane. "T all events, we"re going to try."
"Well, Naylor, you are putting a different complexion on our prospects,"
said Brazier, who had joined them.
"Yes, sir, white one instead of a black one. Next thing is to get a roof over our heads ready for the heavy rains, and then we"ve got to save all the feathers of the birds we catch or shoot for feather beds.
We shall have a splendid place before we"ve done, and you can mark out as big an estate as you like. But come along; I"m thinking that fish must be done."
Upon Shaddy sweeping its envelope clean of the embers, he found it was quite done, and soon served it out brown and juicy upon a great banana-like leaf.
"Now, gentlemen, grace! and fall to," said their cook merrily. "Nuts afterwards when I"ve found two big stones."
There was not much of the delicious fish left when a quarter of an hour had pa.s.sed, and then Rob uttered a grumble.
It was very good, he said, only they had no salt.
"If you"d only spoken a bit sooner, Master Rob, I could have got you some pepper," said Shaddy, "but salt? Ah, there you beat me altogether.
It"s too far to send down to the sea."
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
BRAVE EFFORTS.
That same afternoon after a quiet discussion of their position, the result of which was to convince Brazier and Rob of the utter hopelessness of any attempt to escape, they joined with Shaddy in the most sensible thing they could do, namely, an attempt to forget their sorrow and misery in hard work.
"If we want to be healthy," Shadrach had said, "we must first thing get a shelter over our heads where we can sleep at nights, clear of the heavy dews, and which we can have ready next time it comes on to rain."
A suitable position was soon found high up where no flood was likely to reach, and presenting several attractions.
First, it was at the head of the clearing exactly facing the river, so that a pa.s.sing boat could be seen. Secondly, it was between two great trees, apparently twins, whose smooth columnar trunks ran up some twenty feet without a branch; after that they were one ma.s.s of dense foliage, which drooped down nearly to the ground and looked thick enough to throw off, as the leaf.a.ge lay bough above bough, any fall of rain short of a waterspout.
The trees were about twelve feet apart, and from a distance the boughs had so intermingled that they looked like one.
"That"s the spot, sir!" Shaddy exclaimed. "Now then, the first thing is to find a branch that will do for a ridge pole."
That first thing proved to be the most difficult they could have undertaken, for a long search showed nothing portable at all likely to answer the purpose; and though palm after palm was found, all were too substantial to be attacked by pocket-knives. They were getting in despair, when Rob hit upon one close down to the river, which the united strength of all three, after Rob had climbed it and by his weight dragged the top down within reach, sufficed to lever out of the saturated ground.
As soon as the young palm was down, Shaddy set Brazier and Rob to cut off the roots and leaves, which latter they were told to stack ready for use, from where they hung six or eight feet long, while he--Shaddy-- knife in hand, busied himself in cutting long lianas and canes to act as ropes.
An hour later they had the young palm bound tightly to the trees about six feet from the ground, after which branches were cut and carried, so that they could be laid with the thick ends against the ridge pole and the leaves resting upon the ground from end to end.
This done, others were laid on in the same way, the leaves and twigs fitting in so accurately that after a busy two hours they had a strong shed of branches ready for stopping up at one end with thorns and more boughs, while Rob had to climb up the slope and thatch the place with the palm leaves, forming a roof impervious to any ordinary rain.
"That will do for sleeping, eh, gen"lemen?" said Shaddy. "We"ll finish it another time. We can rest in shelter. Now then for getting our wages--I mean a decent supper."
Rob had been conscious for some time past of sundry faint sensations; now he knew that they meant hunger, and as they left the hut they had made he did not look forward with any great feelings of appet.i.te to a meal of nuts.
But it soon became evident that Shaddy had other ideas, for he went to the fire again to obtain a hardened piece of wood for fashioning into a hook, when an idea struck Rob, and he turned to their guide eagerly.
"Did you ever sniggle eels?" he said.
"Did I ever what, sir?"
"Sniggle eels."
Shaddy shook his head.
"No. I"ve bobbed for "em, and set night lines, and caught "em in baskets and eel traps after storms. Is either of them sniggling?"
"No," cried Rob eagerly, "and you might catch fish perhaps that way.
I"ll show you; I mean, I"ll tell you. You take a big needle, and tie a piece of strong thin silk to it right in the middle."