Part 10 (1/2)
VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SIX
THE CROCODILE'S VICTIM
”You won't think I', sir, or that ere unmanly; but I assure you that one and all of us broke down under this disappointment, and cried as if ere a parcel of children It was like the last straw, you know, that broke the camel's back!
”As soon as we all recovered a bit from the disappointment, I told the men that we must make the best or worst of it, and that it would probably ease their thirst if they bathed in the lagoon This soave way to despair; and if we had not lugged one chap out he would have drowned hi rest here, if rest you can call it when fellows felt utterly burnt up with the heat, and so parched with thirst and fa crave for food and drink; but it eased us a bit, and Magellan and I held a council of war, as youour position
”As near as I could judge fro off the coast, we should have to cross three ot over, and travel through threewithin hail of Majunga; for I knew there were three bays between Cape Tangan and the port ere aiet The question ould we ever get over the distance? If we did not meet ater soon, it would be utterly impossible for us to accomplish the journey; and, as the dry season had now set in, our chance of finding stray rivulets and row each day less and less--unless, sir, you've ever been in the tropics you can't tell how quickly the appearance of the country alters with the change of the season! A place, one day,doith cataracts andin your way that you would have to swiet over to the other side of it; while, the next time you visit the same locality, even within a week, the mountain torrents and cataracts will have vanished as if by ic, and the river you had to swim over or found impassable will now have dwindled down to a tiny streamlet that a child could paddle in, or else have coround with huge boulders tossed about here and there to shohere it had been
”It was fortunate for us we had the sun to guide us through all this forest waste, as othere could not possibly have steered in any constant direction, but would probably have gone round in a circle like a horse in a mill As it was, however, even ale by the side of the salt-water lagoon where ere cauish the western point of the co almost directly towards that quarter after it had passed the rees south of the equator; and in thee faced east
”Under these circuet up when they felt a little less tired and trudge on steadily due south, where our only hope of safety lay, as long as the light through the trees enabled us to see where ere going Once the light becaht than to wander about and fatigue ourselves unnecessarily, only perhaps to find out when the sun rose again at dawn that we had been ood
”It was a hard job to ain, and it was as et them to start One of them, Denis Brown, he was a faint-hearted man even on board shi+p, entreated us to let him lie down there and die where he was; but of course ould not leave him behind, and he had to coellan and I forcing hi hioon, which was so overgroith reeds and suchlike rank vegetation as grows in swaan or ended; but as the sea must lay towards the west, I came to the conclusion that if we skirted the bank in the opposite direction ould soon come to the neck of the water and be able to wade across it This we did, but it was arduous walking--throughout every now and then upon us, and huge crocodiles crawling out of our way, just as we alhtened some of the tied to get round the lagoon; and then, steering steadily again to the south, this bit of easting having taken us a good deal out of our straight course southwards, we had a second le This seeood deal than the first one, for ere almost tired out e started on the journey, while our feet were so swollen and blistered with all the walking we had already done, besides being torn to pieces with the stones and jagged bits of tree roots we had trodden on, that we could hardly crawl up, although we grasped hold of the branches of the shrubs and brushwood to drag ourselves up by When we arrived at the top of this chain of hills--for it was first up and then down ; so, doe squatted in the first open place we reached, resting for the night and leaving the descent into the valley for the nextIndeed, ere so weary and worn out that if we had known for a certainty that water ithin reach of us at the bottoh ere so thirsty that we couldn't hardly speak to one another, I don't believe a et a drink--we really couldn't have stirred a step!
”The sun had been up a good tiround, on this, the third day of our being in the bush, and e got up it was as much as we could do to stand in an erect position at all, our energies being so exhausted that hardly ahimself up Of all the miserable scarecrows you ever saw in your life, we must have then looked the worst--with our bare pelts burnt and blistered, our tangled hair and beards, our woebegone faces, out of which our eyes were al feet and limbs, the latter all scratched, and with pieces of flesh torn out of theh which we had to scramble in our climb up the mountain!
”'We look just fit for Mada hi at the rest of us, ere all in the saes
”'Aye,' said I, 'and I wouldn'tthere in London now!
Howso that the fellows laughed and cheered up a bit at Magellan's coe on now Our course is all downhill, thank goodness, and perhaps we'll ully'
”'That's your sort,' shouted out Magellan heartily; 'rouse up,here, and the sooner we start, why, the sooner we'll get to Majunga Yo, heave ho! Up anchor, men, and make sail! Heave ahead with a will and follow ellan leading, as he was stronger than me now, and the firstafter hi as I was able In proportion as it had been harder to clierous to descend than the first one we had surmounted, for it sloped down so suddenly in so down the pointed roof of a house; while we had to look out narrowly for several ugly chasround on which we popped every now and then most unexpectedly
Denis Brown, the enerally happens to tiot his neck broken in one of these gullies soon after we started, and it was only by the exertions of all our party that we saved his life
”Slipping, sliding, swinging ourselves forward sometimes by the branches of the trees fro, we oing on till we thought we e was so deep Occasionally, e arrived at some little open space, we could see the tops of the trees underneath us, as if under our feet, and felt inclined to juround beloith a crash, and have done with it at once The work, however, was so different to the cli we had the day before that the men went at itdownhill, and when once they had begun descending they could not stop the ball
”Thank God, though, it was toil well spent! As we got nearer the botto, the sound co to my ear in the silence of the still soleh the brushwood had ceased I couldn't believe it, however, at first, and thought it was a dream, or arose out of the deliriu; but it grew clearer andassured of this I halted of a sudden
”'Je a way for us, 'stop a ?'
”He therefore halted likeon between us, he leading and I bringing up the rear, the other four being in the e
”'Listen!' I cried All was stillness for a moment, but soon, above the hush that succeeded the noise of our h the bush, we could hear a faint silvery trickling sound that eeter than the sweetestwater, with an occasional splash as it leaped over a stone
”'Hooray, boys!' exclaimed Jem 'We've fetched the water at last-- follow my leader now, and we'll be able to slake our thirst!'