CHAPTER XX
JUNGLE THIEVES
It was easy to sit down, and easy to ponder the question, but anydecision at all was another matter. All the thinking in the world wouldnot tell him either where he was or which way he ought to go; and themore he deliberated, the more puzzled he became.
To mount the hills was impossible, from the impenetrability of thejungle; to follow a stream was to expose himself to the attacks of wildbeasts coming to the water to drink. How then could he proceed? But toremain still was quite as unsafe, for he had but a small quantity ofpowder and shot; and when this was expended, would be wholly at themercy of savage animals.
To follow the windings of a stream must lead him, in process of time, tosome large river; and the danger of this course was no greater than thatof any other. He determined to adopt this plan, and prepared for astart; first recommending his safety, by prayer, to Divine mercy, andimploring for help and guidance from on high.
Forlorn enough did he feel as he resumed his gun and otheraccoutrements, preparatory for so hopeless a task, but he tried to bebrave, and once more set himself, as a preliminary, to "hang his harp ona willow tree."
It would not do, his voice sounded thin and poor, there was no volume init; the silence around him seemed yet more awful in contrast to it; thewords struck him as most intensely foolish in face of the majesty ofnature which surrounded him.
He gave it up, and tried the Old Hundredth Psalm. This brought up, tohis mental vision, the picture of his home, and the dreary oldhand-organ man who droned out that psalm tune in the street regularlyevery Friday morning.
He could see Agnes in the shabby little parlour, and his mother's sweet,sad face, in her widow's cap, with the crippled baby in her arms. Agreat lump rose in his throat, and he dashed his hand across his eyes.
But it would never do to become sentimental, as he termed it, so he sethimself vigorously to finding a suitable stream to follow. Now, thedifficulty became that of finding any at all.
The jungle surrounded him on every side, he could not free himself fromit. Every now and then he found what he thought a free glade or openingpathway, which he would pursue for a short distance, only to be againbrought up in front of a tangle of creepers, glorious in colour, rich inpurple or yellow festoons of exquisite flowers; snowed over with purewhite blossoms, long wreaths of beauty pendant from the branches of thetrees, and wholly preventing any progress.
Exquisite as the orchids and other plants were, he became weary of themand their sameness. Their perfume sickened him, their glory palled uponhis sight. They were the same kinds--now common to him--over and overagain. Oh, for a clump of English primroses nestled among moss and lastyear's brown leaves! Oh, for a bush of pink wild-roses, with goldenhearts and delicate faint fragrance wafted upon a light breeze! Hereeverything was heavy and oppressive; too brilliant, too much, toounfamiliar, too unlike home.
Insect and reptile life troubled him greatly. The weather was growingvery hot, and the density of the trees impeded every current of coolair. This was doubtless the cause of the difficulty in finding water, itwas drying up so fast everywhere. Leeches got upon his legs, fixingthemselves upon him with far too affectionate a tenacity; ants ran uphis trousers, got into his boots; a thousand and one flying and crawlingplagues assailed him.
Snakes and serpents wound their tails round trees, dropped coils in hispath, and lifted flat heads from their meditations, to gaze on him withmalevolent eyes. He did not know which were harmless and which weredeadly, so suffered the same qualms alike from all.
He had a vague idea that a dark-coloured snake was more perilous than ayellow or green one, and never suffered more terror than when, sittingdown to rest, and having fallen asleep, he perceived, upon waking, along black thing reared on end, with pendant head bent over him.
For one moment he felt sick with horror, then perceived that it was thestem of a flower which he had never seen before, and which he had eitheroverlooked from his fatigue when he sat down, or which had shot up itsbloom with the most marvellous celerity while he was unconscious.
He had, indeed, slept for hours, having been quite worn out; and aspecial Providence must have guarded him during this long somnolence, orsome noxious insect would certainly have attacked him the while.
It was late in the day, the dews were falling thickly after the heat ofthe noontide; and a quantity of hares were hopping about, feeding uponthe grass around him. They did not seem to be afraid of him, and he shotone without difficulty, and looked forward to making a good supper uponhim, for he was hungry.
He laid it at the foot of the tree beneath which he had reposed, andbegan to collect wood with which to make a fire. Whilst doing this, helost sight of the hare for a few minutes; and, on returning to the spotwhere he had laid it, he found a couple of huge crows tugging away at itto make it their own; and the burying beetles already digging a gravebeneath it. An army of ants was swarming over it, and so persistent intheir attentions that they would not leave it even when Ralph tore theskin off its back, and set it down to cook by his fire, wrapped thicklyup in leaves.
However, he was too hungry to be very particular, although nothing hadever yet brought him to eat fried caterpillars or maggots, as a Burmanwill. He scraped off the ants to the best of his ability, and sought,while his meal was preparing, for some fruits, of which to make anagreeable conclusion to it.
He had the good fortune to discover some, of which he immediatelypartook, being parched and feverish. They refreshed him; and it wasperhaps partly from this cause, and partly from his long sleep, that,his senses being perfectly alert, he chanced to notice a small orchidblooming upon a tree which he was convinced was one quite new to Mr.Gilchrist's collection. It differed in several material points from allwhich he had yet seen, but was certainly an orchid.
He carefully cut away the piece of bark upon which it grew, and lookedabout for more of it. He found another very small plant, which hesecured, but the evening was becoming too dark for him to seek farther.He therefore returned to his fire, and made himself as comfortablebeside it as circumstances permitted.
He did not sleep much that night, but dozed and woke again manytimes,--piling green wood upon the embers every time, so that the smokethus engendered should keep off the mosquitoes from him.
At a little distance, beneath the trees, the fireflies swarmed,flashing about hither and thither, and making light in shady places.This light was caught and returned by the shining backs of a thousandbeetles,--green, blue, crimson, and copper-hued. Flying foxes flitted byin search of guavas and other fruits; and bats of every size anddescription swarmed around, hawking on the wing for their suppers.
Ralph watched all these creatures dreamily, seeing, but too drowsy tothink about them actively. The heavy scent of night-perfumed flowersoverpowered his faculties, and confused his powers of mind, almost asmuch as if he had partaken of a narcotic.
Was it only a dream, or a dream-like fancy then, or did he really hearthe faint ripple of flowing water? His senses became all at oncepreternaturally acute. He sprang up from his reclining position, andlistened intently. No, it was not a mistake,--it was not a trick of theimagination; a little rill of water was running over stones hard by. Inthe comparative silence of the night the gentle sound made itselfplainly audible.
He did not dare to leave the friendly protection of his fire in thedark, the jungle was too full of danger for that, but he laid a longbranch, torn from a bush, in the direction from which the soundproceeded, and anxiously awaited the dawn.
It came at last,--dank and chilly even in that tropical climate; herose, and perceived not far from him a slender thread of water slippinggaily along beneath ferns and grass and reeds; now breaking into a laughover a few scattered stones and branches, then spreading into a tinypool looking deep from brown shadows cast by overhanging growth.
Ralph laved his brow in it, cast its refreshing coolness over head andneck, drank of it, bathed his orchids in it, and knelt down to thank Godfor having at last fo
und the clue by which he might possibly escapefrom the horrors of death in this lonely jungle. If die he must, hemight now, at anyrate, die in the open country, with the sun of heavenabove him.
Not even Arethusa herself, "shepherding her bright fountains," slippingdown the rocks "with her golden locks, streaming among the streams," inthe land of poesy, on the other side of the world, could have been solovely in his eyes as this little unheard of, unnamed, unknownstreamlet, in the heart of a Burmese forest.
The wild cat lapped it, and slunk away; a magnificent, many-hueddragon-fly, just burst from the sheath of its chrysalis upon the stem ofa reed, was drying its gauzy wings in the level beams of the rising sun,as they shot through the trees just above the flower-enamelled grass,that sparkled with dew as if besprinkled with gems of every colour. Athousand little birds, awakened by the recurring daylight, chirped andsang and preened their feathers in the freshness of those early hours.Ralph's spirits also arose from the depression which had overcome them,and he sang once more as he arranged his dress, and reloaded himselfwith his accoutrements.
He now found more of the new orchid; and, still further impressed by aconviction of its rarity, he possessed himself of all that he couldcarry safely. This did not overburden him, for it was not plentiful;and, having packed it up, carefully swathed in damp grass, bound overthat with liana stems, and protected by bark, he set himself to followthe course of the stream.
The water bubbled along in a very tortuous course, marking its wayeverywhere by a line of brighter, more tender emerald; and doubtless fedby hidden springs, for it grew wider in process of time, spreading outinto a large pool whereon water-lilies reposed.
The blossoms had mostly gone to seed, which stood up from the stems likeacorns, but a few late ones still floated on the bosom of thelake,--blue, pink, and white.
The edges of the water were fringed with flowering reeds;passion-flowers tossed clinging tendrils from tree to tree on itsmargin, and long wreaths of bud and blossom hung pendant from them.
Myriads of new-born butterflies flitted sportively among them, andbright birds skimmed over the quiet water. It was a most lovelysight,--one which Ralph never afterwards forgot. He rested upon theshore of this lake through the hottest part of the day; breakfastingupon some plantains which he had found, and upon the lily seeds andsprouts.
When a little air sprang up towards evening, he resumed his course.
The jungle closed around him again; but he now held the thread of themaze, and lost heart no more. He passed the night in a tree, and hisevening orisons were heartfelt.
Day by day he plodded on. The stream grew wider, but wound so much thathis progress through the country was very slow. When it grewsufficiently broad to admit of the navigation of any kind of craft,Ralph made up his mind to try whether he could not proceed faster upon araft; and pondered much upon the means of constructing one which, thoughrudely fashioned, might serve his purpose.
His thoughts reverted at first to the coracles of ancient Britain, whichhe had heard were of basket-work covered with skins. Canes forbasket-work abounded, but he did not see how to procure skins of asufficiently large size, or how to cut them into shape or join themtogether.
He then thought of the North-American Indian's birch-bark canoe. But hehad no means of felling a suitable tree, or of peeling the bark off inlarge sheets.
His mind reverted again to the wicker-work. He could cut down bamboos,and they grew plentifully everywhere. Could he tie them together bymeans of the cord-like lianas which bound the jungle so closely togetherinto impenetrable masses? If not, he might weave them together withsplit cane or supple reeds.
Another consideration puzzled him. The stream was narrow; his raft mustbe no wider than necessary,--but what ought its length to be? It wouldnot be manageable if very long; but how much surface should there be tosupport his weight on the water. He had no data upon which to go thatcould enable him to decide this point; experiment alone could do so. Hewould try making it as long as his own height; and, if that did notsuffice, he could then enlarge it.
He cleared a space upon the borders of the stream, laid down upon it,and marked out his own proportions. Then he narrowed each end to a pointbeyond these limits, so that he might work the raft either way; droveshort stakes into the ground all around the enclosure, laid stoutbamboos athwart the centre of it, and bound them to the stakes. He tiedtogether a bundle of long bamboos at each end, laid them lengthways uponthose firmly affixed to the points, and spreading them out in themiddle, began to weave all together with split canes, which had beensteeping in water, to make them pliant, while everything else was beingprepared.
When this was made as firm as lay in his power, he perceived that,though it might float and bear his weight, that burden would sink it alittle below the surface of the water, so that he would always be wet.The stakes with which he had begun his contrivance were about two feetlong--perhaps nearer three feet; and though not very regular in height,were all driven into the ground about equally far. It was above theground that they were uneven.
He therefore began again, weaving a second floor about six inches abovethe first one. This had also the effect of making all steadier; and uponnoticing this, he once more set to work, and wove a narrow bulwark abovewhat he called his upper deck.
He cut a couple of bundles of long bamboos, which he tied along thebulwarks, to use in case of need; fashioned rude rowlocks in the centre;cut a quantity of grass, which he spread as a carpet for his feet; boundup a sheaf of the same to serve for a pillow at night; provided a storeof liana twigs and split cane for repairs, if necessary; made his packetof orchids secure to stakes; and, finally, began to lay in a small storeof fruit for food.
The stream was drying up so fast upon its shallow borders that fish wereleft flapping about in holes, or on the mud, every day; and, not sharingin the Burman's superstition as to taking life, he had made many a mealupon them,--for the construction of his raft had occupied several days.So few charges of powder and shot had he left, that he would not use hisgun, thinking that he might want it for self-preservation before hecould reach civilised regions.
When fish was not to be got, he had eaten fruit when he could find it;he had knocked down a bird or two by throwing sticks at them, for theywere very tame at first, but were now becoming more afraid of him; andonce he had been fortunate enough to come across some jungle-fowl'seggs.
Such a piece of luck had not befallen him again, however; and he hadcleared his immediate neighbourhood of plantains, so he must go fartherafield for stores.
The weather was very hot, and he had worked about his boat building,all these days, in his shirt and linen drawers. His other garments, withhis gun and other small possessions, were neatly laid together on thelow-growing branch of a shrub, in a place where he could easily seethem; and now, taking up his knife, which he carried with a lanyardabout his neck, and with a coil of grass-rope in his hand, he pulled onhis boots, and set off into the jungle.
He was tolerably successful in his quest, but had to roam about for sometime first. As the sun was preparing to set, he returned to the placethat had begun to feel almost like a home to him,--that naturalclearance among the trees; the clump of bushes on the little promontoryjutting out into the stream; the huge _Amherstia_ crowning themany-tinted scrub, with the white _Dendrobium Formosum_ hanging downfrom it in such rich masses.
What were those parti-coloured figures at the foot of the tree where hisgarments hung? Men? Burmese? _Not dacoits?_ But what else could they be?The ragged gaudy "putsoes," the white fillets around the heads, thegaunt frames, the fierce yet sly faces, all told their own tale. Ralphhad heard of these robbers, and slipt stealthily back into the jungle,where, himself concealed, he could watch their proceedings.
They were examining his clothes with grins of delight. One had hisbeloved watch hung round his neck, and dangling about with everymovement. One was cutting buttons off with great glee; and one wasinvestigating the gun.
Now this gun was not a very good
one; it had been purchased in thebazaar of Moulmein, in preparation for Ralph's first expedition with Mr.Gilchrist, when money was short with them both, while awaiting theirbetter equipments from home.
But it was lighter than the fine new ones sent out from England, andwas a favourite one with its young owner, though Wills often told himthat he would meet with some accident with it one of these days, theweapon being so worn.
The Burman who held it was ramming in powder and shot most liberally;driving in more and more with the greatest delight, laughing and jokingthe while with more merriment than discretion.
Suddenly, in the middle of the fun, the old thing exploded--burst!--witha mighty report, and all the Burmese thieves were prostrate immediately.
Ralph thought at first that they were all killed, and was on the pointof rushing forward to see the extent of the injuries received, when oneraised himself, and then another. With the most rueful faces they waggedtheir heads to each other, each looking solemnly at his neighbour for amoment.
The third was hurt and bleeding, but whether seriously injured Ralphcould not tell. His companions rose, seized him by the feet, and drewhim, on his back, by that means to some distance from the scene of thedisaster; and, passing near enough to Ralph's hiding-place, he heardthem jabbering together about the "beloo" which had thus revenged itselfupon them. They seemed shy of approaching the place where the shatteredgun lay, and Denham thought that it would do them good to hear a littlemore of the "beloo."
Accordingly, he began to moan, upon which the fellows gave a greatstart, and gazed around with terrified faces. Seeing this, and beinghimself concealed behind a large tree, the boy increased his moan to ahowl,--a yell,--the most unearthly screeches which he could raise. Itwas too much for the dacoits, they sprang to their feet and ran off asfast as their legs could take them, becoming quickly lost in the shadowsof night.
Rightly judging that their dwellings could not be very far off, and thatthey might return by daylight, Ralph hastened to loose his raft, andpush it off from its moorings down the stream, determining to pursue hisway as far as possible before morning.
The raft floated well, to his joyful surprise; he punted it alongsuccessfully, and was far away before the day star rose.