"All right, gentlemen," he said; "you must have both been terrible hungry. Don"t say anything about it. Now, how could I manage to catch a fish?"
"After breakfast, Shaddy, please," said Rob merrily. "Mr Brazier thought we ought to wait for you."
"What! You don"t mean to say you haven"t had any?"
"When three people are situated as we are, Naylor, a fair division of the food is necessary. Get it at once."
"Well!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the old sailor, as he took down the packet from where he had secured it in the upper branches; and again, as he placed it on the loose platform, "Well!" Then--"There, gentlemen, I can"t tell you how thankful I am to you for being such true comrades. But there, let"s eat now. The famine"s over, and I mean to have some more food soon."
"How, Shaddy?" said Rob, with his mouth full; "you can"t wade because of the reptiles, and the piranas would attack you."
"No, sir, I can"t wade unless I could make stilts, and I can"t do that.
It will be a climb for fruit, like the monkeys, for luncheon if the water doesn"t go down."
To the despair of all, the day pa.s.sed on till it was getting late in the afternoon, and still the water spread around them right into the forest; but it was literally alive with fish which they could not see their way to catch.
Rob and Shaddy set to work making a fishing-line. A piece of the toughest wood they could find was fashioned into a tiny skewer sharpened at both ends and thrust into a piece of fruit taken from high up the tree, where Rob climbed, but soon had to come back on account of the puma following him.
Then they angled, with plenty of shoals swimming about the tree, as they could see from the movement of the muddy water; but so sure as a fish took the bait there was a short struggle, and either the line broke or the apology for a hook gave way, till first one and then the other gave up in sheer despair, and sat looking disconsolate, till Shaddy"s countenance expanded into a broad grin.
"I don"t see anything to laugh at," said Rob. "Here we have only a few sc.r.a.ps to save for to-morrow, and you treat it all as if it were a matter of no consequence."
"Warn"t laughing at that, Mr Rob. I was only thinking of the fox and the grapes, for I had just said to myself the fish ain"t worth ketching, just as the fox said the grapes were sour."
"But unless the waters go down ours is a very serious position," said Brazier.
"Very, sir. And as to that bit of food, strikes me that it will be good for nothing soon; so I say let"s wait till last thing to-night, and then finish it."
"And what about to-morrow?" said Rob gloomily.
"Let to-morrow take care of itself, sir. Plenty of things may happen to-morrow. May be quite dry. If not, we must kill the puma and eat it."
"What!" cried Rob in horror.
"Better than killing one of ourselves, sir," said the man grimly. "We must have something to eat, and we can"t live on wood and water."
The result was that they finished the last sc.r.a.p of food after Shaddy had spent the evening vainly looking out for the carca.s.s of some drowned animal. Then night came once more, and all lay down to sleep, but only to have a disturbed night through the uneasy wanderings of the hungry puma, which kept climbing from branch to branch uttering a low, muttering cry. Sometimes it curled up beside Rob and seemed to sleep, but it soon rose again and crawled down the most pendent branch till it could thrust its muzzle close to the surface of the water and quench its thirst.
"We shall have to shove it off to swim ash.o.r.e," said Shaddy the next morning.
"Why?" cried Rob. "The fish and alligators would attack it."
"Can"t help it, sir," replied the old sailor. "Better eat him than he should eat us."
"Why, you don"t think--" began Rob.
"Yes, I do, sir. Wild beasts of his kind eat enough at one meal to last "em a long time; but when they get hungry they grow very savage, and he may turn upon us at any time now."
Rob looked at the puma anxiously, and approached it later on in the day, to find the animal more gentle than ever; though it snarled and ruffled up the hair of its back and neck whenever there was the slightest advance made by either of the others.
That day pa.s.sed slowly by--hot, dreamy, and with the water keeping exactly to the same depth, so that they were hopelessly prisoned still on their tree. They tried again to capture a fish, but in vain; and once more the night fell, with the sounds made by bird, insect, and reptile more weird and strange to them than ever.
Rob dropped asleep from time to time, to dream of rich banquets and delicious fruits, but woke to hear the croaking and whistling of the different creatures of the forest, and sit up on the pile of boughs listening to the splash of the various creatures in the water, till day broke, to find them all gaunt, wild-eyed, and despairing.
"We must try and wade to sh.o.r.e, and chance the creatures in the water,"
said Brazier hoa.r.s.ely, for, on account of his weakness, he seemed to suffer more than the others. "Where"s sh.o.r.e, sir?" said Shaddy gruffly.
"Well, the nearest point, then."
"There ain"t no nearest point, sir," said the man. "Even if we could escape the things swarming in the muddy water, we could not wade through the forest. It"s bad enough when it"s hard; now it"s all water no man could get through the trees. Besides, the land may be a hundred miles away."
"What can we do, then?" cried Rob in desperation. "Only one thing, sir: wait till the water goes down."
"But we may be dead before then--dead of this terrible torture of hunger."
"Please G.o.d not, sir," said the old sailor piously: and they sat or lay now in their terrible and yet beautiful prison.
From time to time Shaddy reached out from a convenient branch, and dipped one of Rob"s vessels full of the thick water, and when it had been allowed to settle they quenched their burning thirst; but the pangs of hunger only increased and a deadly weakness began to attack their limbs, making the least movement painful.
For the most part those hours of their imprisonment grew dreamy and strange to Rob, who slept a good deal; but he was roused up by one incident. The puma had grown more and more uneasy, walking about the tree wherever it could get the boughs to bear it, till all at once, after lying as if asleep, it suddenly rose up, leaped from bough to bough, till it was by the forest, where they saw it gather itself up and spring away, evidently trying to reach the extreme boughs of the next tree; but it fell with a tremendous splash into the water, and the growth between prevented them from seeing what followed.
Rob uttered a sigh, for it was as if they had been forsaken by a friend; and Shaddy muttered something about "ought not to have let it go."
They seemed to be very near the end. Then there was a strange, misty, dreamy time, from which Rob was awakened by Shaddy shaking his shoulder.
"Rouse up, my lad," he said huskily. "No, no: let me sleep," sighed Rob. "Don"t--don"t!"
"Rouse up, boy, I tell ye," cried the old sailor fiercely. "Here"s help coming, or I"m dreaming and off my head. Now; sit up and listen.
What"s that?"
Rob struggled feebly into a sitting position, and fancied he could hear a sound. There was moonshine on the smooth water, and the trees cast a thick shade; but he closed his eyes again, and began to lower himself down to drop into the sleep from which there would be no waking here on earth.
"Ask--Mr Brazier--to look," he muttered feebly, and closed his heavy eyes.
"No, no: you," cried Shaddy, who was kneeling beside him. "He"s asleep, like. He can"t move. Rouse up, lad, for the sake of home and all you love. I"m nearly beat out, but your young ears can listen yet, and your eyes see. There"s help coming, I tell you."
"Help?" cried Rob, making a s.n.a.t.c.h at his companion"s arm.
"Yes, or else I"m dreaming it, boy. I"m off my head, and it"s all "mazed and thick. That"s right, listen. Hold up by me. Now, then, what"s that black speck away yonder, like a bit o" cloud? and what"s that noise?"
"Oars," said Rob huskily, as he gave a kind of gasp.
"What?"
"Oars--and--a boat," cried the boy, his words coming with a strange catching of the breath.
"Hurray! It is--it is," cried Shaddy; and collecting all his remaining strength, he uttered a hoa.r.s.e hail, which was supplemented by a faint harsh cry from Rob, as he fell back senseless in their rough nest of boughs in the fork of that prison tree.