Part 4 (2/2)
”It seems to me, Professor Ditson,” he remarked aggressively, ”that you're pretty uppity about this trip. Other people here have had experience in treasure-huntin'.”
”Meaning yourself, I presume,” returned Professor Ditson, acidly.
”Yes, sir!” shouted Jud, thoroughly aroused, ”that's exactly who I do mean. I know as much about--_ouch!_” The last exclamation came when Jud brought down his open hand for emphasis on the side of his chair and incidently on a lurid brown insect nearly three inches in length, with enormous nippers and a rounded body ending in what looked like a long sting. Jud jerked his hand away and gazed in horror at his threatening seat-mate.
”I believe I'm stung,” he murmured faintly, gazing anxiously at his hand. ”What is it?”
”It would hardly seem to me,” observed Professor Ditson, scathingly, ”that a man who is afraid of a harmless arachnid like a whip-scorpion, and who nearly falls out of a canoe at the sight of a manta-ray disporting itself, would be the one to lead an expedition through the unexplored wilds of South America. We are going into a country,” he went on more earnestly, ”where a hasty step, the careless touching of a tree, or the tasting of a leaf or fruit may mean instant death, to say nothing of the dangers from some of the larger carnivora and wandering cannibals. I have had some experience with this region,” he went on, ”and if there is no objection, I will outline my plan.”
There was none. Even Jud, who had removed himself to another chair with great rapidity, had not a word to say.
”I propose that we take a steamer by the end of this week to Manaos, a thousand miles up the Amazon,” continued the professor. ”In the meantime, we can do some hunting and collecting in this neighborhood.
After we reach Manaos we can go by boat down the Rio Negros until we strike the old Slave Trail which leads across the Amazon basin and up into the highlands of Peru.”
”Who made that trail?” inquired Will, much interested.
”It was cut by the Spanish conquerors of Peru nearly four hundred years ago,” returned the scientist. ”They used to send expeditions down into the Amazon region after slaves to work their mines. Since then,” he went on, ”it has been kept open by the Indians themselves, and, as far as I know, has not been traversed by a white man for centuries. I learned the secret of it many years ago, while I was living with one of the wilder tribes,” he finished.
The professor's plan was adopted unanimously, Jud not voting.
Then followed nearly a week of wonderful hunting and collecting. Even Jud, who regarded everything with a severe and jaundiced eye, could not conceal his interest in the mult.i.tude of wonderful new sights, sounds, and scents which they experienced every day. As for Will, he lived in the delightful excitement which only a bird-student knows who finds himself surrounded by a host of unknown and beautiful birds. Some of them, unlike good children, were heard but not seen. Once, as they pushed their way in single file along a little path which wound through the jungle, there suddenly sounded, from the dark depths beyond, a shriek of agony and despair. In a moment it was taken up by another voice and another and another, until there were at least twenty screamers performing in chorus.
”It's only the ypicaha rail,” remarked the professor, indifferently.
Hen Pine, who was in the rear with Will, shook his head doubtfully.
”Dis ol' jungle,” he whispered, ”is full o' squallers. De professor he call 'em birds, but dey sound more like ha'nts to me.”
Beyond the rail colony they heard at intervals a hollow, mysterious cry.
”That,” explained Pinto, ”is the Witch of the Woods. No one ever sees her unless she is answered. Then she comes and drives mad the one who called her.”
”Nice cheery place, this!” broke in Jud.
”The alleged witch,” remarked Professor Ditson severely, ”happens to be the little waterhen.”
Later they heard a strange, clanging noise, which sounded as if some one had struck a tree with an iron bar, and at intervals from the deepest part of the forest there came a single, wild, fierce cry. Even Professor Ditson could not identify these sounds.
”Dem most suttinly is ha'nts,” volunteered Hen. ”I know 'em. You wouldn't catch dis chile goin' far alone in dese woods.”
One of the smaller birds which interested Will was the many-colored knight, which looked much like one of the northern kinglets. His little body, smaller than that of a house-wren, showed seven colors--black, white, green, blue, orange, yellow, and scarlet, and he had a blue crown and a sky-blue eye. Moreover, his nest, fastened to a single rush, was a marvel of skill and beauty, being made entirely of soft bits of dry, yellow sedge, cemented together with gum so smoothly that it looked as if it had been cast in a mold. Then there was the Bienteveo tyrant, a bird about nine inches long, which caught fish, flies, and game, and fed on fruit and carrion indiscriminately. It was entirely devoted to its mate, and whenever a pair of tyrants were separated, they would constantly call back and forth to each other rea.s.suringly, even when they were hunting. When they finally met again, they would perch close to each other and scream joyously at being reunited. Another bird of the same family, the scarlet tyrant, all black and scarlet, was so brilliant that even the rainbow-hued tanagers seemed pale and the jeweled humming-bird sad-colored in the presence of ”coal-o'-fire,” as the Indians have named this bird.
Jud was more impressed with the wonders of the vegetable kingdom.
Whenever he strayed off the beaten path or tried to cut his way through a thicket, he tangled himself in the curved spines of the pull-and-haul-back vine, a th.o.r.n.y shrub which lives up to its name, or was stabbed by the devil-plant, a sprawling cactus which tries quite successfully to fill up all the vacant s.p.a.ces in the jungle where it grows. Each stem of this well-named shrub had three or four angles, and each angle was lined with thorns an inch or more in length, so sharp and strong that they pierced Jud's heavy hunting-boots like steel needles.
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