CHAPTER SIX.
EMERALDS--AND THE DEATH FLOWER.
The two friends reached their temporary camp in good time for themid-day meal; they therefore decided to have it before proceedingfarther. As soon as the meal was over the camp was struck, and theentire party proceeded in the direction of the gully, or cleft, upontheir arrival at which preparations were at once made for a possiblesojourn of a few days; and while those preparations were being made,Earle and Dick, carrying a pickaxe and shovel, as well as their rifles,started to climb the cleft, bent upon examining the spot where theemeralds had been found, and, if possible, settling the question as towhether or not a mine had actually been discovered.
Their open-air life, and the toil of their recent travels had put bothyoung men into the pink of condition; it was, therefore, not long beforethey reached the spot where Dick had made his momentous find. Arrivedthere, Earle's first act was to subject each of the crystals lying inthe exposed "pocket" to a careful examination. There were fifty-four inall, of varying sizes; and when Earle had pronounced each of them to bea genuine emerald--and most of them of the first water, they were alldeposited in a knapsack which they had taken with them for the purpose.This done, the American seized a pickaxe and began to dig into the faceof the cliff, pausing at intervals to take a rest while Cavendishshovelled away the debris. The rock was not at all difficult to work,yielding readily to the blows of the pickaxe and coming away in lumpsthe size of one's fist, or even bigger, consequently it was not verylong before, between them, they had excavated a cavity of considerablesize. But after nearly two hours of strenuous toil without result, theyretired from the hole for a time to rest, and were debating the questionwhether or not it was worth while to pursue the investigation anyfurther, Earle being rather of opinion that Dick's find had been merelyan isolated pocket, and that they might seek for weeks or possiblymonths, without finding any more emeralds, when, without the slightestwarning, the hole in which they had been working suddenly caved in,laying bare a new face, some nine or ten square yards in area. And whenat length the face had ceased to crumble and the dust had subsided, thefirst thing to attract their attention was an emerald nearly as big as aduck's egg projecting from the newly exposed rock. This they carefullydug out, afterwards proceeding to search among the fallen rock, in whichthey eventually found two other very fine stones.
"There!" exclaimed Earle, with a sigh of satisfaction, when at lengththey had thoroughly examined and cleared away the fallen rock. "I guesswe've done enough; for we've demonstrated that this is a sure-'noughmine. See that stuff round the place where we picked out the emerald?That is calcite, and this rock is a black limestone; all the indicationsare, therefore, in favour of this being a genuine emerald mine, which wecan work, if we choose, on our return journey. Now, we'll just dig outthat mass of calcite and carefully cover it up, so that in theexceedingly unlikely event of any other prospector passing this way,there will be little or nothing to attract his attention; and to-morrow,before we resume our march, we will determine the exact position of thisspot by astronomical observations and make a note of it in our diaries,so that we can find the place again. Meanwhile, we have not done at allbadly this afternoon, for I guess the contents of this knapsack areworth a good many thousand dollars."
It was nightfall by the time that the explorers got back to their camp,and they were bone-weary from their extraordinary exertions; but theyhad, as recompense, the knowledge that they had left their mine in sucha condition that no mere casual visitor would be in the least likely tosuspect its existence.
Immediately after breakfast on the following morning the party struckcamp and proceeded to climb the cleft. It cost the Indian carriers halfan hour's severe toil to accomplish the ascent, and when at length theyreached the summit they were only too glad to lay down their burdens andtake a rest while the two leaders, with the assistance of their pocketsextants and Earle's pocket chronometer, determined the position of thehead of the gully. This done, and the calculations worked out andchecked, the march was resumed; the outer edge of the forest throughwhich their route lay being reached shortly after noon. And when atlength they sat down to their mid-day meal, all hands enjoyed an unusualluxury; for about an hour before pitching camp, Dick, who chanced to beleading the way, saw and shot something as it attempted to make offthrough the long grass, that something proving to be a strange creaturepartaking, in about equal proportions, of the characteristics of a pigand a deer. Dick, of course, not being a naturalist, was unable to namethe creature, and even Earle declared himself puzzled; but whatever itmay have been, its flesh proved to be exceptionally tender, juicy, anddelicious, and the Indians fairly gorged themselves with it.
The forest into which the party plunged when the march was resumedproved to be entirely different in character from that which they hadpreviously traversed. To begin with, the trees were all of new andstrange species, mostly bearing foliage of dark and gloomy tints; theystood much farther apart; the undergrowth was sparse, or absentaltogether; and there were no orchids, or long, trailing garlands oflovely parasitic growth which had rendered the forests already traversedso strangely beautiful. Another peculiarity of the forest was thatscarcely a bird was to be seen, excepting an occasional vulture orcarrion crow perched upon some lightning-blasted stump. Moreover, therewas a strange silence pervading the place, a silence that seemed almostuncanny, as though insects as well as birds shunned the place.Altogether, the effect of the silence, the sombre tints of the foliage,the absence of brilliant-hued blooms, and a certain subtle something inthe atmosphere, was distinctly depressing. There was one redeemingfeature about it, however, which was that the sparseness of theunderbush and the greater space between the trunks of the trees renderedtravelling comparatively easy, and the party made good progress.
As they plunged farther into the depths of the forest, however, theybegan to realise that its gloomy aisles were by no means so devoid oflife as they had at first imagined. The first intimation of this factcame to them in the form of a sudden yell from one of the Indiancarriers, who declared that he had been bitten on the leg by something;and upon investigation this proved to be the case, for the calf of hisbare leg showed two tiny punctures, not more than one-eighth of an inchapart, the flesh around which, even as Earle and Dick examined thewounds, began to swell and turn a curious blue tint, while the injuredman rapidly lost the power of speech and voluntary movements, though hisbody began to be shaken by violent tremors.
Earle now showed himself to be a man of prompt action. Whipping hiskeen hunting knife out of its sheath, he slashed open the flesh athwartthe two punctures and then, kneeling down, applied his lips to the woundand sucked it strongly until the blood began to come, at firstsluggishly and in coagulated clots, but eventually more freely. It wasnoticeable, too, that at first the blood was almost black in colour, butby dint of vigorous sucking it at length came freely and changed to itsnormal colour. Meanwhile, Dick, recalling conversations which he hadhad with Earle, in which the latter had described certain rough andready methods which he had successfully adopted in treating venomoussnake bites, opened a shot cartridge, extracted the powder therefrom,and with it made a squib. This he had ready long before Earle wasprepared to use it; but when at length the blood was flowing freely andnaturally from the wound, they laid the now comatose victim prone uponthe ground, and, while Dick held the wounded limb in position, Earlapplied the squib to the wound and fired it. The result was that thewound was quickly and very effectively cauterised, apparently withoutinflicting the slightest suffering upon the victim, who never moved amuscle while the squib spluttered and burned upon his raw flesh. Earlethen quickly and deftly dressed the wound and bound it up, after whichhe proceeded to revive his patient by moistening his lips with rawwhiskey, with which he finally drenched the man internally as soon asthe unfortunate fellow was able to swallow.
But, of course, there was no more marching for the party that day, andpreparations were at once made for pitching the camp. The
first taskwas to beat the long, dry grass thoroughly, in order to drive away thesnake which had bitten the man, or any other snakes which might belurking therein. But this procedure, while it may possibly have had thedesired effect, had also another, by no means desirable; for it was soondiscovered that the threshing had aroused the anger of a legion ofenormous black ants--fierce, venomous creatures nearly an inch long--which came swarming by thousands up out of holes in the ground, andattacked the intruders with indescribable ferocity. The unfortunatesemi-naked Indians instantly scattered in ignominious flight, leavingthe two white men to deal with the situation as best they could. Andalthough Earle and Dick were, of course, fully clothed, and their bodieswere therefore reasonably well protected, they were both severely bittenbefore, by setting fire to the grass and allowing it to blaze for a fewseconds before beating it out, they were able to put the foe to flight.The burning of the grass, however, revealed the fact that the soil waseverywhere honeycombed with holes, into which the creatures haddoubtless retreated, ready to sally forth again upon the smallestprovocation; therefore, in order to protect themselves from furtherattack, they cut an immense quantity of grass, strewed it over thecentral portion of the already burnt area, and burned it over again;after which, the ashes being first swept away with branches, theyventured to go into camp, the Indians slinking back by twos and threesas soon as they perceived that the risk of renewed hostilities was over.As for the two white men, although they bathed their hurts with diluteammonia as quickly as they could, they both suffered acutely, to such anextent, indeed, that they were both in a high state of fever, borderingon delirium, before midnight. Earle, however, foreseeing what wasimpending, mixed for himself and Dick a strong draught, which no doubthelped to avert even worse consequences, and by dawn of the followingmorning the fever was conquered and the sufferers sank into a somewhattroubled sleep, from which the faithful Peter would not permit them tobe aroused upon any pretext whatsoever. As for the bitten man, hesuffered severely for several hours, the wounded limb swelling to aboutthree times its normal size, while acute pains shot through the whole ofhis tortured body; but at length these gradually grew less, until hesank into a state of coma which eventually became natural sleep, duringwhich the swollen limb gradually resumed its normal dimensions. When heat length awoke, beyond being troubled with a dazed feeling and, ofcourse, a considerable amount of pain arising from the cauterisation ofthe wound, he seemed to be little the worse for his adventure; and whenat length the party struck camp and resumed their march shortly aftermid-day, he was able to hobble along with the rest, although it wasfound necessary to relieve him of all work during that day.
Such was the first adventure of the party in that terrible forest; butthere were others still worse to follow, as they soon found. Nothingvery particular, however, befell them on that second day's march, forafter their experiences of the previous day they were careful to conducttheir march with all due precaution, Inaguy leading the way andindustriously beating the grass before him with a long, slender switch,while Dick and Earle, following him on either flank, did likewise. Andthe wisdom of this method of procedure was manifested a dozen times ormore during the afternoon's march by sudden, quick scurrying sounds inthe grass immediately ahead, bearing witness to the fact that a lurkingsnake had been startled and was effecting a hasty retreat.
When at length the time came to pitch camp for the night, the tactics ofthe previous day were repeated, the grass being thoroughly burnt awayover an area spacious enough to accommodate the party. And here againthe wisdom of their action was made manifest; for when the ashes wereswept up for removal the shrivelled remains of several centipedes andscorpions--some of them of quite unusual size--were found, which woulddoubtless have given trouble had not the flames rendered them harmless.
It was well on toward mid-afternoon of their third day's march throughthe forest when the explorers met with their next adventure. The totalabsence of flowers in this forest has already been remarked upon, butabout the time named above it appeared as though this reproach was nolonger to apply. For, after pressing through a part where both thetimber and the undergrowth had been found thicker than usual, the partyentered a wide open glade of considerable extent without a single treein it. To make up for the absence of trees, however, there were, dottedabout here and there in the midst of the long grass, several clumps ofperfectly white flowers, ten or a dozen flowers in each clump. And asthese clumps of flowers came into view, the whole party haltedinvoluntarily, struck with amazement; for the sight was, beyond allquestion, the most wonderful that any of them had ever beheld. Theblooms, shaped somewhat like the familiar Canterbury bell, were ofabsolutely gigantic proportions, some certainly not less than six feetin height, exclusive of the short, thick stem, while many were evenlarger than this. Each clump was surrounded by a kind of spray of stillmore enormous leaves, each leaf being about twelve feet long by someeight feet broad, lying almost flat upon the grass and forming acomplete barricade round the clump. The air was charged with a peculiarbut exceedingly pleasant fragrance, which no doubt emanated from thesewonderful botanical curiosities; and after a short halt to take in thedetails of the extraordinary picture, Earle announced his determinationto halt for the remainder of the day in the glade, in order that hemight examine the flowers at leisure. Accordingly, a wide, clear spacein about the centre of the glade was chosen, and preparations forpitching the camp were briskly proceeded with.
The discovery of these gigantic flowers threw Earle into a condition ofquite pleasant excitement. He was a man of method, and, as such, hadnaturally kept a diary of the proceedings of the party from the momentof its departure from New York. Hitherto, however, the diary had beenkept solely as a future aid to memory, and for his own individualpurposes alone; but now the discovery of what at the moment he believedto be an entirely new species of plant, suddenly inspired him with theambition to become enrolled in the ranks of those scientific explorerswho have become famous by virtue of the remarkable character of theirdiscoveries, and it began to dawn upon him that there were possibilitiesin this journey of his which might enable him to become one of theimmortals of scientific discovery. So elated was he at the prospectthat he could not resist the temptation to communicate his hopes toDick, who, somewhat matter-of-fact individual though he was,nevertheless heartily sympathised with his friend's ambition, andcheerfully undertook to assist in every way possible, if Earle would butindicate the direction in which assistance might be valuable.
"I guess you can help me very shortly then," said Earle. "First of all,I am going to take a photograph from somewhere over there, showing ageneral view of this glade, with especial reference to the arrangementand distribution of those clusters of gigantic flowers; and when I havedone that I propose to select the cluster containing the finest blooms,station myself on one of the leaves--I guess they'll bear my weighteasily enough--and stand upright against a flower, so that my figurewill serve as a sort of scale by which a correct idea of its size may beconveyed. And that is where you will come in. I shall want you to takethe photograph of me as I stand there. I will select the spot fromwhich the photograph is to be taken, and will focus the camera, stopdown the lens to the extent required to get satisfactory definition, andgenerally arrange the picture; and all that you will need to do will beto remove the cap and give the proper exposure when I am ready. Thelight is not too good, and I intend to use the orange screen, so I guessthe exposure will be rather a lengthy one, but I will determine itscorrect duration by means of the exposure metre; so all that you willhave to do will be to remove the cap and carefully note the time. See?"
"Certainly," replied Dick, "and you may depend upon me to carry out yourinstructions."
The camera--a compact quarter-plate instrument, adapted for use eitherin the hand or mounted upon a tripod--was routed out, the fact thatthere were four unexposed films still in it ascertained, and the pairwent off together, intent upon taking the proposed photographs.
The determination of
the precise position from which to take the firstpicture was a rather lengthy process, for Earle had the eye of an artistand was anxious that the result should be not only a photograph, butalso a picture. A suitable spot was, however, at length found, and thephotograph was taken, the correct exposure involving the uncapping ofthe lens for no less than forty-five seconds. Fortunately, there was nowind, consequently there was no movement, and Earle was sanguine that hehad secured a thoroughly satisfactory picture.
Then came the choice of the particular clump of blooms to bephotographed at close quarters, with Earle standing in the midst of themto show their enormous size. This was an even more lengthy process thanthe other; but at length everything was ready, and Earle, leaving Dickstanding by the camera, strode across the few yards of interveningspace, and proceeded to climb upon one of the monster leaves preparatoryto posing himself. He did this by pressing the point of the leaf downto the ground and then stepping on it and walking up its centre,intending to pose himself at the junction of the leaf with its massivestalk, in which position he would be able to stand quite close to theenormous flower which was to be the principal object in the proposedpicture.
But when Earle had traversed a little more than half the length of thehuge leaf, it suddenly curled up and, to Dick's horror, completelyenveloped the adventurous American's form, round which it tightlyenfolded itself, while a half-smothered cry for help issued from itsfolds.
Leaving the camera where it was, Dick rushed forward, drawing his heavyhunting knife from its sheath as he did so, and dashing in, began tohack desperately at the stem of the leaf, believing that if he couldsever it from its parent plant, he would be able to deliver his friendfrom its stifling embrace. But he soon found that, stout as was theblade he was wielding, and strong as was the arm that wielded it, hecould do little or nothing against the marvellously tough stem which hewas attempting to sever. It was as thick as his own leg and so hard andslippery that the keen blade simply slithered along it instead of bitinginto it; and realising his helplessness, he rushed out into the open,where he could be seen and heard from the camp, and yelled to Inaguy andPeter to bring axes, and for the rest of the men to bring alongmachetes.
There was a note of urgency in Dick's stentorian tones which caused allhands instantly to drop what they were doing and rush to his call; butit was nearly ten minutes before the stubborn stalk yielded to thedesperate onslaught made upon it; and when at length it drooped to theground and the party threw themselves upon it, it cost them anotherarduous five minutes to slit the tough, leather-like fibre of the leafapart and haul out the imprisoned and, by that time, insensible body oftheir leader.
By Dick's direction they carried Earle's body to the camp, and,stripping it, laid it upon one of the camp beds already arranged in thetent. This done, Dick carefully examined the inanimate form in searchof wounds or other injuries, but found nothing. The heart was beatingstrongly and steadily, the pulse was firm, though a trifle rapid, andthe breathing was somewhat irregular; otherwise Earle's aspect was thatof a man plunged in profound sleep. So completely, indeed, was this thecase that after Dick had ineffectually striven by every means in hispower to arouse his friend, he was fain to leave him as he was,contenting himself by remaining by the side of the bed, keeping hisfingers on Earle's pulse so that he might at once become aware of anyfluctuations in its beat, and awaiting the moment when a change of somesort should occur.
Hour after hour dragged its slow length along and still the American layplunged deep in that strange slumber, the only changes in his conditionbeing that from time to time his pulse and his heart quickened theirbeats and his breath came more heavily, as though the sleeper labouredunder some strong excitement; until at length, about eleven o'clock,when the camp was wrapped in silence and all its members, except Dick,fast asleep, Earle suddenly opened his eyes and stared first at thelantern and then at Dick, with a puzzled and distinctly annoyedexpression. At length he exclaimed:
"Hello, Dick! What the mischief are you sitting there for, looking asglum as an owl? And why on earth did you wake me? Man alive, I--"
"I didn't wake you," answered Dick, "but, all the same, I am profoundlythankful to see you awake once more, and apparently in the possession ofall your senses. Do you remember what happened to you?"
"You bet I do!" answered Earle emphatically. "Shall I ever forget it?Why, man, I've been in Elysium. I've been--oh! dash it all, there areno words to describe the delights of the last few--Say! how long have Ibeen asleep?"
Dick looked at his watch. "Getting well on for eight hours," heanswered.
"Eight _hours_!" reiterated Earle, in tones of intense disgust. "Onlyeight _hours_, did you say? Why, man alive, if what you say be true, inthose measly eight hours I have lived _years_ of joy and delightunspeakable. I have beheld scenes of unearthly indescribable beauty; Ihave participated in pageants glorious and magnificent beyondconception; I have--oh! what's the use? If I were to talk from nowuntil doomsday I couldn't even begin to convey to your gross mind themost feeble and shadowy notion of the joys and delights which have beenmine."
He spoke rapidly in tones of feverish excitement, and his eyes werealmost as luminous as those of King Cole, who sat up on his haunches,alert and quivering, on the other side of the pallet.
"Look here, old chap," said Dick anxiously, "easy on. Don't getexcited, whatever you do. Your adventure of this afternoon has givenyou a rather bad shaking up. You've had a pretty severe shock, bothmental and physical, if I'm any judge, and it looks to me very much asthough you are going to be ill. Better let me mix you a soothingdraught, hadn't you? Just tell me what ingredients to take, and howmuch of each, and I'll mix them in a brace of shakes--"
But by the time that Dick got thus far, Earle had begun to talk again,loudly and excitedly, and was sitting up on the pallet, waving his armswildly. And when Dick attempted to force him back into a recliningposition the American suddenly developed a kind of frenzy, seizingCavendish by the throat and doing his utmost to throttle him, while KingCole, sorely puzzled at such extraordinary behaviour on the part of histwo especial friends, snarled angrily and bolted out of the tent intothe velvety star-lit darkness.
So violent did Earle become, and such extraordinary strength did hedevelop under the influence of the delirium which had now seized himthat Dick was compelled in self-defence to shout for help; and presentlyPeter, Inaguy, and some three or four others came rushing in, and, underthe impression that the two leaders were fighting, separated them. Buta few hurried words of explanation from Cavendish "put them wise" to thesituation, and while by main force they restrained Earle from rising andrushing naked into the night, Dick routed out the medicine chest and,hurriedly consulting the pages of the accompanying book of instructions,prepared a strong sleeping draught, which, among them, they compelledthe now violently crazy patient to swallow.
But it was nearly an hour before the potion became fully effective, andeven then Earle's sleep was fitful and disturbed, his semi-coherentmutterings showing that his mind was still unhinged. To be brief, theoutbreak of delirium was followed by a period of extreme weakness andprofound dejection, during which the patient lost all memory of hissplendid dream, and, at least temporarily, of several other things aswell, so that nearly a fortnight elapsed before Earle was again wellenough for the party to resume their journey.
It was while Earle was still an invalid, and before their march wasresumed, that on a certain occasion, while Dick was sitting at hisbedside, he besought the latter to tell him exactly what had happened onthe memorable afternoon which witnessed their arrival in the glade, heapparently having forgotten everything about it. With some reluctance,after much earnest entreaty, Dick consented; and after he had relatedall, Earle became very thoughtful for some time. At length, however, helooked up and said:
"Yes; I am beginning to remember; it is all coming back to me--theoccurrences of that afternoon, I mean. I suppose you haven't attemptedto develop that negative giving the general view of the
glade, haveyou?"
"Not I," answered Dick, "I've had too many other things to think about.But I'll do so to-night, if you like."
"I wish you would, old chap," said Earle. "If my suspicion is correct,that negative should be peculiarly interesting, and I should like itdeveloped before we leave here, in order that if it should be imperfect,we may take another, as well as a near view of one of the clumps ofblooms. By the way, did you ever happen to have heard of the DeathFlower?"
"N-o, I can't say that I have," answered Dick. "Is there such aflower?"
"So it is said," responded Earle. "I remember having read somewhere ofsuch a flower, which, it is asserted, blooms in a certain island in thePacific. The flower is said to be big enough to allow a man to standupright in it; but if anyone chances to be so ill-advised as to try theexperiment, the experimenter falls asleep, lulled to slumber by thepeculiar fragrance of the flower, and is at once favoured with the mostglorious dreams, in the midst of which the flower closes its petals andsuffocates him. Now, that was very much my own experience, except thatI was enveloped by the leaf instead of the flower; you dug me outinstead of leaving me to die; and my gorgeous dream came afterwards--atleast, so I suppose--instead of while I was enveloped. It will beexceedingly interesting if it should prove that the flowers in thisglade are Death Flowers, for I believe it has hitherto been understoodthat they flourish only in one spot in the world, namely, that smallisland in the Pacific, the name of which I have for the momentforgotten."
Accordingly, as soon as it was dark that night, Dick lighted the rubylamp and proceeded very carefully to develop the precious negative,which proved to be absolutely flawless, to Earle's great delight. Andon the following morning, at Earle's urgent request, Dick took out thecamera and photographed at close quarters the identical clump of flowersthat had so nearly proved fatal to his friend, taking care to include inthe picture the severed stem and the shredded leaf which had done themischief. And this negative also proved eminently satisfactory.
As they sat together, on that particular afternoon, examining the twonegative films, Earle suddenly looked up and remarked:
"That is three times that you have saved my life, Dick; and if I havenot said anything about it up to the present, you mustn't think that Iam not profoundly grateful to you--"
"Oh, yes, of course, I know, old chap," interrupted Dick, who had anintense dislike to being effusively thanked for any little service thatit might be in his power to render a friend. "Please oblige me bysaying no more about it. At the same time, let me remark that I havenot the slightest notion of what you are talking about. How do youreason it out that I've saved your life three times? I only know of--"
"Three times, I said; and three times I mean," returned Earle. "Thefirst time was when the _Everest_ sank; the second time was when you gotme out of the fatal embrace of that enveloping leaf; and the third timewas when you gave me that draught that sent me to sleep while I wasdelirious. For now that I am again in my right mind, and the danger isall over, I may as well admit that, while the delirium held me, theparamount idea in my mind was to get away from you, by hook or by crook,slip away to the flowers, and throw myself upon another leaf, so that Imight enjoy a repetition of those glorious dreams and sensations that Itold you of. In which case, of course, I should have died. So thereyou are."
"Thanks!" said Dick grimly. "I'm glad you have told me, for I shall nowknow exactly what to do, if anything similar should happen."
Earle's strength was slow to return to him, for there were two adverseinfluences with which to contend, one being the depressing influence ofthe forest itself in the midst of which they were encamped, while theother was the total absence of game, which necessitated their fallingback upon the stock of canned and preserved food provided for such anemergency, in order to sustain the invalid and restore him to perfecthealth. At length, however, Earle pronounced himself so farconvalescent as to be capable of resuming the march; and one morning theparty broke camp and continued their journey. The length of the marcheswas of course greatly curtailed, especially during the first two orthree days, to fit them to the diminished powers of the invalid, and atthe expiration of that time the party were fortunate enough to pass intoa belt of forest of a totally different character, where game was againto be found, and from that moment Earle's progress toward completerecovery was rapid.