CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
COLLECTING THE GOLD.
"Ever see 'em ketch eels at home, Master Cyril?" said John Manning onemorning.
"We used to set night lines in the lake at school," said Cyril. "Wethrew the bait out ever so far, and tied the other end to a brick sunkin the water."
"Oh yes: but I don't mean that way, where every twopenny eel spoils fourpen'orth o' good line and hooks. I mean with an eel-trap, one of thosemade of osiers, so that it's very easy to get in, but very hard to getout."
"Yes; I saw some of those once," cried Perry, "up by a weir. But why?There are no eels here."
John Manning chuckled, and shook all over, as if he enjoyed what he wassaying.
"Not many, sir, but quite enough. We're the eels, and we've wriggledourselves right into a trap, and there's no getting out again."
"It doesn't seem as if there were," said Cyril thoughtfully; "but we'regetting what the colonel wanted, and I don't think the Indians havenoticed it yet."
"'Tain't for want of looking, sir," said the old soldier. "I go for abit of a walk in one direction, and begin picking something, and feel atickling about the back. `Some one's eyes on me,' I says to myself, andI go a bit farther, and feel the same tickling in front. Then one side,then t'other, and it's always eyes watching."
"Yes," said Perry. "We've been a week here, and I get so sick of it: Inever move without there being some one after me; and the worst of itis, you don't see him coming, but find him watching you from behind arock, or out of a bush."
"Yes," said Cyril, "it isn't nice. They crawl about like snakes, andalmost as quietly."
"Don't matter," said John Manning, with another chuckle. "We can be ascunning as they. How have you young gents got on since the colonel givehis orders?"
"Pretty well," said Cyril. "Of course it's of no use to try and getroots or cuttings, they look too sharp after us; but I've found someseed, and he has got more than I have."
"How much have you got, both of you together?" asked the old soldier,with his eyes twinkling.
"Nearly a handful, I should say," replied Cyril.
"A handful, sir! Why, what's that? I've got quite half a gallon."
"You have?" cried Perry. "Father will be so pleased."
"Course he will, sir," said John Manning, with a self-satisfied smile."`Get every seed you can,' he says, `and they'll hardly notice you.'
"`Right, sir,' I says, and I set to work quietly, going a bit here, anda bit there, in among the trees, making believe I was making for themcocoa-nut leaves as the Indians chew; and whenever I caught one of theInjuns watching me, I picked a leaf, and began to chew it, and nodded athim, and said _bono, bono_. You should have seen how he grinned andshowed his teeth at me, Master Cyril, and I could see he was thinkingwhat a fool this Englishman was. But I wasn't quite so stupid as hethought, eh?"
"But that's not cocoa-nut leaf," said Cyril, "but the leaf of the coca."
"Well, sir, that's what I say. I know it isn't the nuts but the leavesthey chew."
"But the coca leaf's a different thing."
"Course it is, sir; one's a leaf and t'other's a nut."
"But, don't you see, cocoa-nut leaf and coca leaf are different things?"
"No, sir; but it don't matter. They think I'm hunting for them leavesto chew, and they laugh at me, and all the time I'm getting a good heapof the seeds the colonel wants. 'Tain't the first time he's sent me toforage."
"But where are the seeds?" said Cyril.
"All right, sir," said John Manning, with a look full of cunning."Never you put all your eggs in one basket, sir."
"Of course not; but I hope you've put them in a dry place. Seeds are nouse if they're not kept dry."
"They're all right, sir. I've got some in each of my pockets, and somealong with my cartridges in my satchel, and some inside the lining of mycoat, and a lot more round my waist."
"Round your waist?" cried Cyril. "You can't wear seeds round yourwaist."
John Manning chuckled once more.
"Can, if you put 'em in an old stocking first, sir," he said. "But lookhere, young gents, as I'm so much more lucky than you are, and knowbetter where to go for 'em, you'd better take part o' mine, and leave mefree to fill up again."
"Yes, that will be best," assented Perry. "I can take a lot in mypockets."
"Any one looking, sir?"
"Very likely; but I shall take no notice. They won't know what we'rechanging from one pocket to the other, so let them watch."
"All right, sir; then here goes," said the old soldier, thrusting a handdeep down into his trousers pocket, and drawing out a quantity of seed."Here you are, sir; and I'd make believe to eat a bit in case any one iswatching."
But as they were seated out of the sun, in the shade of the rough hutthat had originally been put up for drying the kina bark, they werepretty well hidden from watchers, and able to carry on the transfer incomparative secrecy.
"But this isn't seed of the cinchona tree," cried Cyril excitedly.
"What!" said the old soldier sharply, and as if startled. Then alteringhis tone to one of easy confidence, with a dash of the supercilious."Don't you talk about what you can't understand, sir. These here arewhat the colonel showed me, and told me to pick for him."
"They're not the same as my father told me to pick," cried Perry.
"Well, seeing as you're young gents, and I'm only a sarvant," grumbledthe man, "it ain't for me to contradict, and I won't; but I will saythem's the seeds the colonel told me to pick, and there they are, andyou'd better put 'em away."
"I'm not going to put these in my pocket," said Cyril, "for I knowthey're wrong."
"And I certainly shan't put them in mine," said Perry.
"Look here, young gents, ain't this a bit mutinous?" said John Manning."Colonel's orders were that we should collect them seeds, and if you'dgot the best lot, I should have helped you; but as you haven't got thebest lot, and I have, ain't it your duty to help me?"
"Yes; and so we should, if you hadn't made a blunder."
"But I ain't, young gents; these here are right."
"No," said Perry. "These are right," and he took a few seeds from hispocket.
"And these," said Cyril, following his companion's example.
"Not they," cried John Manning warmly. "They ain't a bit like mine."
"No, not a bit," said Cyril triumphantly.
"No, nor his ain't like yours, Master Perry."
The boys stared, for this was a new phase of the question, and theyeagerly inspected the treasures.
"I'm sure I'm right," said Perry confidently.
"And I'm sure I'm right," cried Cyril.
John Manning put his arms round his knees, as he sat on the ground, androcked himself to and fro, chuckling softly.
At that point the colonel came up, and looked round wonderingly.
"You're just in time, father," cried Perry. "Look at this seed JohnManning has collected.--Show him, John."
The old soldier triumphantly pulled out a handful, and held it under thecolonel's nose.
"What's that?" said his master.
"The seed you told me to forage for, sir."
"Absurd! There: throw it away."
"Throw it away, sir?"
"Of course. It is not what I told you. There, take and throw it away,where the Indians see you do it, and they will pay less attention nexttime they see you collecting."
John Manning said nothing then, but went out of the slight hut frowning,came back, and the colonel turned to the boys.
"Well," he said, "what have you got?"
They both eagerly showed a little of the seed, and the colonel utteredan ejaculation full of impatience.
"No, no," he said; "pray be careful. That is not the same as you gotfor me the day before yesterday."
"Not mine?" cried Perry.
"No, sir; nor yours either, Cyril. They are both cinchona, but of theinferior, comparatively useless kinds."
; John Manning chuckled.
"But the seeds are so much alike, sir," said Cyril.
"Yes, but the broken capsules with them are not, boy. The good splitsdown one way, the inferior the other. There, I suppose I must give youall another lesson. Come and have a walk at once."
He led the way out, all taking their guns, in the hope of getting alittle fresh provision, as well as to throw off the attention of theIndians, who smiled at them pleasantly enough, as they looked up fromtheir tasks of cutting and peeling the bark from the trunks andbranches, most of the men with their jaws working, as they chewed awayat the coca leaf, which every one seemed to carry in a little pouchattached to the waist.
No one seemed to pay further heed to them, but they were soon consciousthat they were being watched, for an Indian was visible, when they wentpast the spot where their two guides were watching the browsing mules;and then, as they plunged into the forest, from time to time there wasan indication that they were being well guarded, and that any attempt atevasion would result in an alarm being spread at once.
Once well out among the trees, the colonel began picking leaf and flowerindiscriminately, to take off the watcher's attention; but he contrived,at the same time, to rivet the boys' attention upon the flower and seedof the most valuable of the cinchona trees, indicating the colour of theblossom, and the peculiarities of the seed-vessels, till even JohnManning declared himself perfect.
"Seeds only," said the colonel. "I give up all thought of trying totake plants. We must depend upon the seeds alone, and we ought to get agood collection before we have done."
"And then, father?" asked Perry.
"Then we go back as fast as we can, if--"
"If what?" asked Perry.
"The Indians will let us depart."
"That's it, sir," put in John Manning. "What I was saying to the younggentleman this morning. They don't mean to let us go. We've regularlywalked into a trap."
There was silence for a few moments, the colonel frowning, as ifresenting the interference of his servant, but directly after he saidquietly:
"I'm afraid you are right, John Manning, but we must set our witsagainst theirs. In another week we shall have quite sufficient of thetreasured seed to satisfy me--that is, if you three are more careful--then we must start back, before our stores begin to fail."
"What about the guides, sir?" said Cyril. "They will not help us."
"No," said the colonel. "Not the Indian guides, but I have a littleEnglish guide here, upon which we shall have to depend. There must beother passes through the mountains, and we know that our course is duewest. We shall have to trust to this."
He held out a little pocket-compass as he spoke, and then, after theyhad added somewhat to the store of seed already collected, both boysthis time making the proper selection of tree from which to gather thereproductive seeds, they walked slowly back toward the camp.
But not alone: the Indians who had followed them outward, returningslowly behind them, carefully keeping far in the background, and tryingto conceal the fact that they were on the watch; but it was only tooplain to all that it would require a great deal of ingenuity to escapenotice and get a fair start when the time came for making their escape.