Part 19 (1/2)

”It is a long way to carry the lad,” he said; ”though if I had him in my hut I would watch over him.”

”Perhaps it may be better to build a hut at the spot we proposed, and bring our sister and goods to it,” I said.

”No; I will take the lad to mine,” answered the recluse. ”You can build a hut as you proposed, and when he has recovered I will bring him to you.”

I was very glad to hear this, because I was afraid that Arthur might suffer unless we could get him soon placed in a comfortable hammock, and give him better food than we should be able to prepare without our cooking apparatus.

”I am ready to go on whenever you wish it,” observed Arthur, who heard the discussion; ”but I am afraid I cannot walk very fast.”

”I will carry you then,” said the recluse; ”but it will be better to form a litter, on which you can rest more at your ease. We will soon get one ready.”

Duppo and Oria stood by watching us eagerly while we spoke, as if they were anxious to know what we were saying.

”You stay with your young friend, while your brother and I prepare the litter,” said the recluse to me, replacing Arthur on the ground.

I sat down by his side, supporting him. He did not allude to the anaconda, and, I suspected, was totally unconscious of the danger he had been in. While the recluse and John were cutting down some poles to form the litter, Duppo and his sister collected a number of long thin sipos, showing that they understood what we proposed doing. In a short time the litter was completed. John and I insisted on carrying it, though we had some difficulty in persuading the recluse to allow us to do so. He spoke for some time to Duppo and his sister, who looked greatly disconcerted and sad.

”I was telling them that they must go and find their people,” he said, ”and that they must build a house for you on the spot you selected.

They will be true friends to you, as they have ever been to me. I advise you to cultivate their friends.h.i.+p by treating them with kindness and respect.”

The young Indians seemed very unwilling to take their departure, and lingered some time after we had wished them good-bye. John and I took up the litter, on which Arthur had been placed. As we had already cut a road for ourselves, we were able to proceed faster than we did when before pa.s.sing through the forest. We hurried on, for the sun had begun to sink towards the west, and we might be benighted before we could reach the hermit's abode.

We proceeded by the way we had come. After we had gone some distance, Arthur begged that he might be put down and allowed to walk. ”I am sure I have strength enough, and I do not like to see you carry me,” he said.

Of this, however, we would not hear, and continued on.

At last we sat down to rest. The spot we had chosen was a pleasant one.

Though shaded, it was sufficiently open to allow the breeze to circulate through it. Round us, in most directions, was a thick jungle.

We had brought some water in a sh.e.l.l of one of the large nuts, and after Arthur had drunk some, we induced him to take a little food, which seemed greatly to revive him. We were seated round the contents of our wallets, John and I, at all events, feeling in much better spirits than we had been in the morning; even the recluse threw off some of his reserve. We took the opportunity of telling him of our anxiety about our parents, and of the uncertainty we felt whether they had pa.s.sed down the river. He in return asked us further questions, and seemed interested in our account.

”I may be of use to you,” he said at length, ”by being able to make inquiries among the Indians on the river, who would probably have observed them should they have pa.s.sed; but promises are so often broken, that I am ever unwilling to make them. Therefore, I advise you to trust to your own exertions,” he added.

We were on the point of again taking up Arthur to proceed, when a loud sound of cras.h.i.+ng branches was heard in the distance. It seemed as if a hurricane was sweeping through the forest. It came nearer and nearer.

”Oh I what can it be?” cried Arthur. ”Leave me and save yourselves. It seems as if the whole forest was falling.”

The cras.h.i.+ng increased. Boughs seemed broken off, shrubs trampled under foot. Presently we saw, bearing down upon as, a large dark-skinned creature, though its form could scarcely be distinguished amid the foliage.

”Stand fast!” said the recluse. ”It will not harm you. See! it has an enemy to contend with.”

As the creature drew nearer, I saw that it bore on its back a huge jaguar, distinguished by its spotted hide and its fierce glaring eyes.

Its jaws were fixed in the creature's neck, to which it clung also with its sharp claws.

”The animal is a tapir,” said the recluse. ”I am not certain yet though whether the jaguar will conquer it. See, the back of the latter is bleeding and torn from the rough branches beneath which the tapir has carried it.”

As he spoke, the animals came close to us, the tapir making for the thick branch of a fallen tree kept up by a network of sipos, which hung like a beam almost horizontally a few feet from the ground. The tapir dashed under it, and we could hear the crash of the jaguar's head as it came in contact with the hard wood. Still it clung on, but its eyes had lost their fierce glare. Blood covered the backs of the animals, and the next moment the jaguar fell to the ground, where it lay struggling faintly. Twice it tried to rise, but fell back, and lay apparently dead.

John had lifted his rifle to fire at the tapir. ”Hold!” said the recluse; ”let the victor go; he deserves his liberty for having thus sagaciously liberated himself from his tormentor. Would that we could as easily get rid of ours!How eagerly we should seek the lower branches of the trees!” He gave one of those peculiar, sarcastic laughs, which I observed he was apt to indulge in.

We cautiously approached the jaguar, feeling uncertain whether it might not yet rise up and spring at us. John and I kept our rifles at its head, while True went boldly up towards it. He had been an excited spectator of the scene, and I had some difficulty in keeping him from following the tapir. The jaguar did not move. Even a poke with the muzzle of my rifle failed to arouse it. True began to tear away at its neck; and at length we were convinced that the savage creature was really dead. ”There let him lie,” said the recluse. ”Strong as he was a few moments ago, he will be food for the armadillos before morning.”