Part 7 (1/2)

'You better put a wet cloth on your noddle and lay down for a bit, Mr Holy,' she suggested anxiously.

But then he smiled, and seemed more like himself, and even taught her a couple of unfamiliar varieties of cat's-ctadle. And she taught him one invented by herself and christened the Battersea Basket.

During that day the pace of the river-boat gradually slowed down, as the momentum of the bore decreased, and the rowers had to work harder at their levers. Now flies and mosquitoes came on board all kinds of terrible little buzzing biting creatures hummed and cl.u.s.tered and plagued the pa.s.sengers, stinging and piercing every inch of exposed skin, creeping cunningly under the folds of clothes to jab in unexpected and tender spots. Fortunately Mr Holystone's dark-green cactus lotion for repelling c.o.c.kroaches also proved a useful defence against jungle insects, but there was only just enough to go round. Poor Noah Gusset, a big, pink-faced, tow-headed boy, was bitten so badly that he could hardly see out of his eyes. Dido, small and wiry, did not suffer so much, but by the day's end she was heartily weary of the river.

Once, as the boat pa.s.sed through a narrow, tunnellike reach, with the distant mountains lost to view behind dank, ma.s.sed trees, a sudden commotion in the boughs overhead resulted in a slithering thump and a cry of warning from one of the c.u.mbrian deck-hands: ? a thirty-foot snake had fallen in a tumble of coils down the companionway with a half-swallowed Iguana protruding from its jaws. While one of the crew seized the Iguana, three others grappled with the snake and tossed it overboard. There was an immediate and frothing convulsion of water where it had fallen; it struck out like an arrow for sh.o.r.e, but Dido saw, almost with disbelief, that before swimming more than a few yards it was picked clean to the bone by the rapacious little river-fish; a white snake-skeleton sank slowly through the brown water.

'Ain't that something!' she said in wonder to.Mr Multiple. 'No worry getting rid o' garbage hereabouts.'

But Mr Multiple usually so cheerful, had gone white to the roots of his carrot-coloured hair. 'I I can't abide snakes,' he gasped. 'Excuse me, Miss Dido ' and running to the stern of the s.h.i.+p, the poor boy was violently sick over the rail. To draw attention from his sufferings, Mr Holystone said to Dido, 'It is a custom among the tribes of these forests, I have heard, that when someone dies, the dead person's body is lowered into the river and left for three days. Then the skeleton is drawn up again and placed in a sacred cave, set aside for the dead, up in the mountains.'

When they sat down for the noon meal, Dido was disgusted to find that the Iguana which had been rescued from the snake's jaws was served up, roasted and sliced. She could not bring herself to try it, but nibbled a little mango and papaya. However, the rest of the crew, even Mr Multiple, now quite recovered, ate up the Iguana and p.r.o.nounced it first-rate; or, at any rate, better than fried plantain chips.

During the afternoon they entered a region infested with alligators, or caimans, as the c.u.mbrians termed them: ugly brown wrinkled brutes lying, sometimes scores together, on sandbanks, or floating with only their snouts and bulging eyes above water. They made a grunting bubbling noise, and sometimes bellowed loudly and dolefully. Dido thought they were quite the most unpleasant beasts she had ever seen.

Once or twice, as the craft wallowed its way upstream, a heavily-barbed arrow whistled through the air and stuck, quivering, in the soft grey wood of the deck. One of these landed uncomfortably close to the arm of Noah Gusset, who was trailing a fis.h.i.+ng line over the side.

'Lucky that missed you,' said his comrade, the taciturn Plum, 'or you'd a been rolling round like a catherine-wheel in a brace of shakes. The Biruvians that live in the woods tip the barbs with what they call 'angel-juice'; a drop of that 'ud turn you to an angel for sure.'

'If any of us gets back from this trip, it'll be a wonder,' grumbled Noah Gusset.

At last they left the forest behind. The huge trees, thick creepers and dangling mosses were replaced first by groves of bamboo and rush, then by wide gra.s.sy plains, then by pine-clad foothills. Beyond these, reared against the sunset like ghost-castles, were the true mountains, the Children of Silence, Ambage and Arrabe, Ertayne and Elamye, Arryke, Damask, Damyake, Pounce, Pampoyle, Garesse, Caley, Calebe and Catelonde. And somewhere among them, Dido thought, a girl called Elen. Their sides were so steep that they looked like the fingers of two great hands held up in the air as if to say, 'Stop! There is no way past us.'

Just as the sun set between the cratered peaks of Ertayne and Elamye, the river-boat came to a stop at a tiny town in the jaws of a deep and narrow gorge. This was Bewdley, where they must leave the river and take to the rack-railway.

n.o.body was sorry to go on sh.o.r.e. They were to spend the night in Bewdley, which seemed a pleasant little place, very ancient, its narrow timbered houses thatched with palm-leaves, or roofed with great slabs of mountain stone. There were wide cobbled quays on either side of the rus.h.i.+ng Severn, and thick black pine-forest came down the steep valley-sides to the very garden walls. Market stalls along the river-side, lit by flaring torches, displayed reed mats, fruit, earthenware pots and straw hats. The air blazed with fireflies and buzzed with the sound of six-foot bamboo horns which half the population seemed to be blowing.

'They are called bocinas,' Mr Holystone told Dido. 'The people blow them at sunset to keep evil spirits away. Otherwise they believe the spirits might climb in your ears during the night.'

'Well surely they've chased the spirits away by now? They've nigh blasted my ears off my head,' said Dido ungratefully.

As the party from the Thrush straggled along the quay towards the inn, Dido noticed a very short woman pluck at the arm of Silver Taffy, who was walking by himself. The woman was almost completely shrouded in a black shawl; her face could not be seen. Taffy started at her touch, then turned and followed her up a side-alley.

The other travellers went on to the Black Tree Tavern, where they were to pa.s.s the night. This was not such a large establishment as the White Hart. It seemed comfortable enough, but Captain Hughes was affronted to discover that there was no private parlour where he could dine by himself; he must eat in his bedroom, or with the rest of the crew.

'Vexatious!' he said shortly to the landlord. 'I have not been used to sit down to sup with my own steward!'

Dido heard this with some indignation. Mr Holystone, she privately considered, was far more gentlemanly than Captain Hughes, and it would do the latter no harm at all to have his toploftiness reduced.

The captain was due to be further vexed. Just before dinner Silver Taffy came to him and, in a deferential manner but with a very determined look in his eye, requested a week's sh.o.r.e-leave.

'What, you rascal!' exclaimed the captain. 'At your own request I include you in the sh.o.r.e party, and this is how you repay my kindness? We are under strength as it is I cannot spare you! A week's furlough? It is out of the question.'

Respectfully, Silver Taffy reminded the captain that, in a gale off Cape Orange, he had saved the second lieutenant at risk of his own life, and had been promised leave as a reward.

It was Captain Hughes's pride that he never went back on his word.

'Oh, very well!' he said testily. 'But a whole week! That is the outside of enough. You may have three days no more. And you must rejoin the party in Bath Regis.'

A gleam of satisfaction came into Taffy's eye.

'Very good, Cap'n,' he said, and speedily left the inn.

'Very good riddance, I call it,' Dido muttered to Mr Holystone. 'I daresay that was his auntie the short old girl he was talking to as we came along.'

Mr Holystone, however, had not seen her. He seemed excessively tired this evening, slow in his movements and troubled in his thoughts.

After supper which was a silent and somewhat constrained meal, with n.o.body in good spirits Mr Holystone requested a private word with the captain.

'G.o.d bless my soul, now what?' irritably exclaimed the latter. 'Private? There is nowhere to be private in this wretched little hostelry. Oh well, you had best come up to my bedroom. You too, Miss Twite; I daresay whatever Holystone has to say is fit for your ears, and if it ain't, it can't be helped; I am not leaving you to be abducted a second time.'

Rather put out at being considered to be such an enc.u.mbrance, Dido followed them to the small room under the eaves which was the best accommodation that could be provided for the captain.

'Well, Holystone, what is it? Make haste, man; I have my log still to write; and my aeronautical calculations.'

'Sir,' said Mr Holystone desperately, T believe I ought not to accompany you on this expedition.'

'What?' The captain stared at him with bulging eyes. 'Oh, stap me this is too much!'

'I believe I should return to the s.h.i.+p, sir. My presence with you may be endangering all your lives.'

'Return to the s.h.i.+p? And leave me without a steward? What is all this about? I won't have it!' said the captain, now thoroughly roused. 'It's bad enough that one of my most able-bodied men should virtually abscond -and now you wish to slope off too! Well, it's not to be thought of! So you may put that in your pipe and smoke it!'

'Sir, allow me to explain,' said Mr Holystone, who looked miserably ill and shaky, but was endeavouring to maintain his calm. He's sick, Dido thought anxiously; he oughta be in bed. Maybe that's what he's a-going to say.

'Explain till you are blue in the face,' snapped Captain Hughes. 'It won't make a particle of difference.'

'Sir, as you are no doubt well aware, the three kingdoms of New c.u.mbria, Lyonesse and Hy Brasil meet, like three segments of cake, at one point only, the southernmost tip of Lake Arianrod (or Dozmary) which lies among the high mountains to the west of this region.'

'A geography lesson, now!' grumbled the captain. 'I thank you; you need not teach me my hornbook, man; I daresay I am as well acquainted with the topography of this locality as you!'

'I doubt that, sir,' civilly replied Mr Holystone, 'since I, as a child, was first discovered lying among the rushes at the southern end of Lake Arianrod.'

'Oh you were, were you? Well, what is that to the purpose?'

'The whole extent of this lake,' flatly pursued Mr Holystone, 'is contained in New c.u.mbria, but Hy Brasil and Lyonesse each claim one yard of sh.o.r.e, where the river Camel (which forms a boundary between the latter countries) flows out of the lake or did before it was d.a.m.ned.'

'So?'

'I was found on the yard of sh.o.r.e pertaining to Hy Brasil. I was discovered at midnight by one of the king's advisers, a wise man who was making astrological observations and collecting medicinal mosses at the time. This man read my horoscope, since it was plain I was but a few hours old. From that and from a birthmark which I have on my forearm he ascertained that I come of very ancient blood. Accordingly the king of Hy Brasil, Huayna Ccapac, took me and had me brought up in the palace with his son Huascar. I was given the name of Atahallpa.'

'Humph, were you though?' remarked the captain, not best pleased, evidently, to discover that his personal steward came of ancient blood and had been brought up with royalty. 'So why ain't you there still, hey?'

Mr Holystone laboured on with his tale, speaking more and more slowly.

'My adopted father who always treated me with the utmost kindness had me tutored with his son until I was fourteen. But then -' the level voice faltered for a moment; then he recovered and went on firmly, 'but then my royal foster-father judged it best to send me to a university in Europe. So I travelled to Salamanca with my tutor, and remained there for many years.'