CHAPTER XIII--THE MARCH TO THE LOVELESS LAND
On and on hurried Benee now, at his old swinging trot.
On and on beneath the splendid stars, his only companions, that lookedso calmly sweet and appeared so near. God's angels surely they,speaking, as they gazed down, words from their home on high, peace andgood-will to men, and happiness to all that lived and breathed.
On and on over plains, through moor and marsh, by lake and stream, byforest dark and jungle wild. It was evident that Benee meant to putleagues between himself and the camp of his recent enemies before eachstar grew beautiful and died; before the fiery sun leapt red above theeastern hills, and turned the darkness into day.
Benee had come onwards with such a rush that even the slimy alligators,by pond or brown lake, left their lairs among the tall nodding reeds anddashed in terror into the water.
Prowling wild beasts, the jaguar and puma, also hurried off at hisapproach, and many a scared bird flew screaming up into the darklingair.
But Benee heeded nothing. His way lay yonder. That bright particularstar away down on the southwestern horizon shone over the greatunexplored region of Bolivia.
Morning after morning it would be higher and higher above him, and whenit shone at an angle of forty-five degrees he would be approaching theland of the cannibals.
Yes, but it was still a far cry to that country. By the time the sundid rise, and the mists gathered themselves off the valleys and glensthat lay low beneath him, Benee felt sadly in want of rest.
He found a tree that would make him a good sleeping place, for thecountry he was now traversing abounded in hideous snakes and giganticlizards, and he courted not the companionship of either.
The tree was an Abies of some undefined species.
Up and up crawled Benee, somewhat encumbered by his arms.
He got through a kind of "lubbers' hole" at last, though with muchdifficulty, and, safe enough here, he curled up with his face to thestem, and was soon so fast asleep that cannons could not have awakenedhim.
But satisfied Nature got uneasy at last, and far on towards evening heopened his eyes and wondered where he was.
Still only half-awake, he staggered to his feet and made a step forward.It was only to fall over the end of a huge matted branch, but thisbranch lowered him gently on to the one immediately beneath it, and thisdown to the next, and so on. A strange mode of progression certainly,but Benee found himself sitting on the ground at last, as safe and soundas if he had come down in a parachute.
Then his recollection came back to him. He sought out some fruit-treesnow and made a hearty meal, quenched his thirst at a spring, and oncemore resumed his journey.
For three days he marched onwards, but always by night. The country wasnot safe by day, and he preferred the companionship of wild beasts tothat of wilder men. In this Benee was wise.
But awaking somewhat earlier one afternoon, he saw far beneath him, atown, and in Benee's eyes it was a very large one.
And now a happy idea struck him. He had money, and here wascivilization. By and by he would be in the wilds once more, and amongsavages who knew nothing of cash. Why should he not descend, mix withthe giddy throng, and make purchases of red cloth, of curios, and ofbeads. He determined to do so.
But it would not do to go armed. So he hid his rifle and pistols in thebush, covering them carefully up with dried grass. Then he commencedthe descent. Yes, the little town, the greater part of which was builtof mud hovels, was full, and the streets crowded, many in the throngbeing Spaniards, Peruvians, and Portuguese.
Benee sauntered carelessly on and presently came to the bazaar.
Many of the police eyed him curiously, and one or two followed him.
But he had no intention of being baulked in his purpose.
So he entered a likely shop, and quickly made his purchases.
Wrapping these carefully up, he slung the bundle over his shoulder andleft.
He stumbled over a lanky Portuguese policeman a few yards off.
The man would have fallen had not Benee seized him in his iron grasp andbrought him again to his equilibrium.
Then he spoke a few words in Bolivian, and made signs that he wished toeat and drink.
"Aguardiente!" said the officer, his eyes sparkling with joy.
He had really harboured some intentions of throwing Benee into thetumble-down old prison, but a drink would be a far better solution ofthe difficulty, and he cheerfully led the way to a sort of hotel.
And in twenty minutes' time this truly intelligent member of the forceand Benee were lying on skin mats with apparently all the good things inthis life spread out before them.
The officer was curious, as all such men are, whether heathens or not,to know all about Benee, and put to him a score of questions at least,part of which Benee replied to with a delicate and forgivable fib.
So the policeman was but little wiser at the end of the conversationthan he was at the beginning.
About half an hour before sunset, Benee was once more far up on themoorlands, and making straight for the place where he had hidden hisguns and ammunition.
But he stopped short and stared with astonishment when, before roundingthe corner of the wood, a pistol shot rang out in the quiet air,followed by the most terrible shrieking and howling he had ever listenedto.
He hurried on quickly enough now, and as he did so, a whole herd of hugemonkeys, apparently scared out of their senses, rushed madly past him.
Close to the jungle he found one of his revolvers. One chamber had beenemptied, and not far off lay a baboon in the agonies of death. Benee,who, savage though he was, evidently felt for the creature, mercifullyexpended another shot on it, and placed it beyond the reach of woe.
He was glad to find his rifle and other revolver intact, but thecartridges from his belt were scattered about in all directions, andstrenuous efforts had evidently been made to tear open his leathernammunition-box.
It took some time to make everything straight again.
Now down went the sun, and very soon, after a short twilight, out camethe stars once more.
Benee now resumed his journey as straight as he could across theplateau.
He had not travelled many hours, however, before clouds began to bank upand obscure the sky, and it became very dark.
A storm was brewing, and, ushered in by low muttering thunder in the fardistance, it soon came on in earnest.
As the big drops of rain began to fall, shining in the flashes of thelightning like a shower of molten gold, Benee sought the shelter of arocky cave which was near to him.
He laid him down on the rough dry grass to wait until the storm shouldclear away.
He felt drowsy, however. Perhaps the unusually good fare he hadpartaken of in the village had something to do with this; but of latehis hardships had been very great indeed, so it is no wonder that nowexhausted Nature claimed repose.
The last thing he was conscious of was a long, low, mournful cry thatseemed to come from the far interior of the cave.
It was broad daylight when he again awoke, and such an awakening!
Great snowy-breasted owls sat blinking at the light, but all the rocksaround, or the shelves thereof, were alive with coiling, wrigglingsnakes of huge size.
One had twined round his leg, and he knew that if he but moved a muscle,it would send its terrible fangs deep into his flesh, and his journeywould be at an end.
Gradually, however, the awful creature unwound itself and wriggled away.
The sight of this snake-haunted cave was too much for even Benee'snerves, and he sprang up and speedily dashed, all intact, into the openair.
----
Notwithstanding his extraordinary adventure in the cave of serpents, thewandering Indian felt in fine form that day.
The air was now much cooler after the storm, all the more so, no doubt,that Benee was now travelling on a high table-land which stretchedsouthwards and west in one long, drea
ry expanse till bounded on thehorizon by ridges of lofty serrated mountains, in the hollow of which,high in air, patches of snow rested, and probably had so rested formillions of years.
The sky was very bright. The trees at this elevation, as well as thefruit, the flowers, and stunted shrubs, were just such as one finds atthe Cape of Good Hope and other semi-tropical regions. The ground onwhich he walked or trotted along was a mass of beauty and perfume, richpink or crimson heaths, heather and geraniums everywhere, with patchesof pine-wood having little or no undergrowth. Many rare and beautifulbirds lilted and sang their songs of love on every side, strange larkswere high in air, some lighting every now and then on the ground, themusic of their voices drawn out as they glided downwards into one longand beautiful cadence.
There seemed to be a sadness in these last notes, as if the birds wouldfain have warbled for ever and for aye at heaven's high gate, thoughduty drew them back to this dull earth of ours.
But dangers to these feathered wildlings hovered even in the sunlit sky,and sometimes turned the songs of those speckled-breasted laverocks intowails of despair.
Behold yonder hawk silently darting from the pine-wood! High, high hedarts into the air; he has positioned his quarry, and downwards now heswoops like Indian arrow from a bow, and the lark's bright and happysong is hushed for ever. His beautiful mate sitting on her cosy nestwith its five brown eggs looks up astonished and frightened. Down falla few drops of red blood, as if the sky had wept them. Down flutter afew feathers, and her dream of happiness is a thing of the past.
And that poor widowed lark will forsake her eggs now, and wander throughthe heath and the scrub till she dies.
----
Benee had no adventures to-day, but, seeing far off a band oftravellers, he hid himself in the afternoon. For our Indian wanted nocompany.
He watched them as they came rapidly on towards his hiding-place, butthey struck off to the east long before reaching it, and made for theplains and village far below.
Then Benee had his dinner and slept soundly enough till moonrise, forbracing and clear was heaven's ozonic breath in these almost Alpineregions.
Only a scimitar of a moon. Not more than three days old was it, yetsomehow it gave hope and heart to the lonely traveller. He rememberedwhen a boy he had been taught to look upon the moon as a good angel, butChristianity had banished superstition, and he was indeed a new man.
After once more refreshing himself, he started on his night march,hoping to put forty miles behind him ere the sun rose.
Low lay the white haze over the woods a sheer seven thousand feetbeneath him.
It looked like snow-drifts on the darkling green.
Yet here and there, near to places where the river glistened in theyoung moon's rays were bunches of lights, and Benee knew he was not farfrom towns and civilization. Much too near to be agreeable.
He knew, however, that a few days more of his long weary march wouldbring him far away from these to regions unknown to the pale-face, to aland on which Christian feet had never trodden, a loveless land, acountry that reeked with murder, a country that seemed unblessed byheaven, where all was moral darkness, as if indeed it were ruled bydemons and fiends, who rejoiced only in the spilling of blood.
But, nevertheless, it was Benee's own land, and he could smile while hegazed upwards at the now descending moon.
Benee never felt stronger or happier than he did this evening, and hesang a strange wild song to himself, as he journeyed onwards, a kind ofchant to which he kept step.
A huge snake, black as a winter's night, uncoiled itself, hissed, anddarted into the heath to hide. Benee heeded it not. A wild beast ofsome sort sprang past him with furious growl. Benee never even raisedhis rifle. And when he came to the banks of a reed-girt lake, and sawhis chance of shooting a huge cayman, he cared not to draw a beadthereon. He just went on with his chant and on with his walk. Benee wastruly happy and hopeful for once in his life.
And amid such scenery, beneath such a galaxy of resplendent stars, whocould have been aught else?
"How beautiful is night! A dewy freshness fills the silent air; No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain, Breaks the serene of heaven. In glory yonder moon divine Rolls through the dark-blue depths, Beneath her steely ray The desert circle spreads, Like the round ocean girdled with the sky. How beautiful the night!"
But almost before he could have believed it possible, so quickly dohealth and happiness cause time to fly, a long line of crimson cloud,high in the east, betokened the return of another day.
The night-owls and the great flitting vampire bats saw it and retreatedto darksome caves. There was heard no longer far over the plain themelancholy howl of the tiger-cat or snarl of puma or jaguar.
Day was coming!
Day was come!