CHAPTER EIGHT.
A GRAND SPECTACLE.
Hitherto the features of Clara had expressed nothing more than a kind ofvague fear; but at the moment when the canoe rounded the last turn inthe river, a sudden terror became depicted upon them. The hunter thuswarned quickly faced round. An immense plain came before his eye, thatseemed to stretch to the verge of the horizon. Through this ran theriver, its waters almost on a level with the banks--which were coveredwith a grassy sward, and without a single tree. At some distance fromthe curve the stream almost doubled back on itself--forming a verdantdelta, around the apex of which ran the road that led to the haciendaLas Palmas.
The rays of the setting sun were flooding the plain with a transparentgolden haze, which hung over the empurpled bosom of the water on whichthe canoe was floating. Just above, in the middle of the current, andscarce two shots distant from where the two men were, a sight appearedto the ravished eyes of the tiger-hunter that caused him at once tochange his position in the boat.
"_Mira_!" exclaimed he in a half-whisper. "Look, Clara! Did you everbehold a more beautiful sight?"
With his claws stuck into the floating carcass of a colt upon which hewas feeding, an enormous jaguar was suffering himself to float gentlydown the stream. It was the male one, the same from which the lasthowlings had proceeded.
With his head outstretched and curving over his fore paws, his hind legsdrawn up under his belly, his back highly arched, and his flanksquivering with a supple undulation that betokened activity and power,was seen the royal beast of the American jungle. The dying rays of thesun falling upon his glossy skin displayed his splendid coat of brightyellow ocellated with spots of deepest black.
It was one of those beautiful savage spectacles often exhibited to theeyes of the Indian hunter--a magnificent episode in that eternal poemwhich the wilderness is constantly repeating.
Scarce taking time to gaze upon it, Costal passed the paddle to hiscompanion; and, gun in hand, crouched down in the bottom of the canoe.
Clara accepted the oar, and half mechanically commenced rowing. He hadmade no reply to the enthusiastic interrogatory of the hunter. Fearheld him speechless.
At that moment a growl, resembling the deepest tones of an ophicleide,resounded from the throat of the jaguar, rolling over the surface of thewater to the ears of the men seated in the canoe. He had seen hisenemies, and this was his signal of defiance.
The Indian replied by a cry somewhat similar, as the bloodhound uttershis wild bay on seeing his victim before him.
"It's the male!" said Costal, apparently pleased that it was so.
"Fire, then!" cried Clara, at last finding his tongue.
"Fire, _Carrambo_! no. My gun does not carry so far. Besides, I shootbest when my game is nearer the muzzle. I wonder," continued he,looking up to the bank, "that the female has not found him! No doubt,if we wait a little, we'll see her coming bounding up with the_cachorros_ at her heels."
"_Dios nos ampare_!" (God preserve us!) muttered the negro in amelancholy tone; for he feared that Costal would still insist upon hiscarrying out the plan he had proposed. "God preserve us! I hope not:one at a time is sufficient."
The words were scarce out of the negro's mouth, when a sharp screech,heard at some distance, proclaimed the coming of the other jaguar; andthe moment after she was seen bounding over the savanna, with a rapidityand gracefulness superb beyond admiration.
At the distance of about two hundred yards from the bank, as also fromthe canoe, she came to a sudden stop; and with muzzle raised aloft,scenting the air, and flanks quivering like an arrow after striking itsmark, she remained for some moments fixed to the spot. Meanwhile thetwo whelps, that had been left in the covert of the bushes, were seenhastening to join her. The canoe, no longer propelled by the paddle,began to spin round with the ripple, keeping about the same distancebetween it and the tiger crouched on the floating carcass.
"For Heaven's sake, Clara," said Costal impatiently, "keep the boat'shead to the current, or I shall never get close enough to fire. Therenow--that is right--keep a steady hand--mine never shakes. It isimportant I should kill this jaguar at the first shot. If not, one ofus is lost, to a certainty. Perhaps both; for if I miss we shall haveboth the brutes to contend with, to say nothing of the brace of whelps."
All this while the jaguar was quietly descending the stream upon hisfloating pedestal, and the distance between him and the canoe wasgradually diminishing. Already could be seen his fiery eyeballs rollingin their sockets, and the quick oscillations of his tail, expressive ofhis gathering rage.
The hunter had taken aim, and was about to pull trigger, when the canoecommenced rocking about, as if tossed upon a stormy sea!
"What the devil are you about, Clara?" inquired the Indian in an angrytone. "If you move in that way I could not hit one in a whole crowd oftigers."
Whether it was through design, or that fear was troubling his senses,and causing him to shift about, Clara, instead of keeping quiet, onlyseemed to shake all the more.
"A thousand devils take you!" cried Costal, with increased rage. "Justthen I had him between the eyes."
Laying down his gun, the hunter snatched the paddle from the hands ofthe black, and set about turning the canoe into its proper position.
This proved a work of some little time; and before Costal could succeedin accomplishing his purpose, the tiger had taken to flight. Givingutterance to a loud scream, the animal buried his sharp teeth in thecarcass, tore from it a large mouthful, and then making a desperatebound passed from the floating body to the bank. In another moment hehad rejoined his mate with her young ones, and all were soon beyond therange of the hunter's carbine. The two terrible creatures appeared tohesitate as to whether they should return to the attack, or retreat.Then giving a simultaneous scream, both stretched off at full gallopacross the plain, followed by their _cachorros_.
The disappointed hunter looked after them, giving utterance to a fierceexclamation expressive of his disappointment. Then seating himself inthe stern of the canoe, he turned its head down stream, and put forthall his strength to regain the point from which they had set out.