"Yes, little Dickie. Mind, I am nearly twelve; andafter I'm twelve I'm in my teens, quite an old girl.A child no longer anyhow. And after I'm in myteens I'll soon be sixteen, and then I suppose I shallmarry."
"Who will marry you, Peggy?"
This was not very good grammar, but Dick was indownright earnest anyhow, and his young voice hadsoftened wonderfully.
"Me?" he added, as she remained silent, with hereyes seeming to follow the rolling tide.
"You, Dick! Why, you're only a child!"
"Why, Peggy, I'm fifteen-nearly, and if I live I'mbound to get older and bigger."
"No, no, Dick, you can marry Beeboo, and I shallget spliced, as the sailors call it, to Burly Bill."
The afternoon wore away, and Beeboo came up tosummon "the chillun" to tea.
Up they started, forgetting all about budding love, flirtation, and future marriages, and made a rush forthe companion-ladder.
"Wowff-wowff!" barked Brawn, and the 'gatorson shore and the tapirs in the woods lifted heads tolisten, while parrots shrieked and monkeys chatteredand scolded among the lordly forest trees.
"Wowff-wowff!" he barked. "Who says cakesand butter?"
The night fell, and Burly Bill came on board withhis banjo, and his great bass voice, which was assweet as the tone of a 'cello.
Bill was funnier than usual to-night, and whenBeeboo brought him a big tumbler of rosy rum punch, made by herself and sweetened with honey, he wasmerrier still.
Then to complete his happiness Beeboo lit his pipe.
She puffed away at it for some time as usual, byway of getting it in working order.
"'Spose," she said, "Beeboo not warm de bowl ob debig pipe plenty proper, den de dear chile Bill take achill."
"You're a dear old soul, Beeb," said Bill.
Then the dear old soul carefully wiped the ambermouth-piece with her apron, and handed Burly Billhis comforter.
The great raft swayed and swung gently to and fro,so Bill sang his pet sea-song, "The Rose of Allandale".He was finishing that bonnie verse-
"My life had been a wilderness,
Unblest by fortune's gale,
Had fate not linked my lot to hers,
The Rose of Allandale",
when all at once an ominous grating was heardcoming from beneath the raft, and motion ceased assuddenly as did Bill's song.
"Save us from evil!" cried Bill. "The raft is aground!"
CHAPTER V-A DAY IN THE FOREST WILDS
Burly Bill laid down his banjo. Then he pushedhis great extinguisher of a thumb into the bowlof his big meerschaum, and arose.
"De good Lawd ha' mussy on our souls, chillun!"cried Beeboo, twisting her apron into a calico rope."We soon be all at de bottom ob de deep, and de'gators a-pickin' de bones ob us!"
"Keep quiet, Beeb, there's a dear soul! Never a'gator'll get near you. W'y, look 'ow calm Miss Peggyis. It be'ant much as'll frighten she."
Burly Bill could speak good English when he tooktime, but invariably reverted to Berkshire when in theleast degree excited.
He was soon on board the little steamer.
"What cheer, Jake?" he said.
"Not much o' that. A deuced unlucky business.May lose the whole voyage if it comes on to blow!"
"W'y, Jake, lad, let's 'ope for the best. No usegivin' up; be there? I wouldn't let the men go toprayers yet awhile, Jake. Not to make a bizness on'tlike, I means."
Well, the night wore away, but the raft neverbudged, unless it was to get a firmer hold of the mudand sand.
A low wind had sprung up too, and if it increasedto a gale she would soon begin to break up.
It was a dreary night and a long one, and few onboard the steamer slept a wink.
But day broke at last, and the sun's crimson lightchanged the ripples on the river from leaden gray todazzling ruby.
Then the wind fell.
"There are plenty of river-boats, Bill," said Jake."What say you to intercept one and ask assistance?"
"Bust my buttons if I would cringe to ne'er a oneon 'em! They'd charge salvage, and sponge enormous.I knows the beggars as sails these puffin' Jimmieswell."
"Guess you're about right, Bill, and you know theriver better'n I."
"Listen, Jake. The bloomin' river got low all atonce, like, after the storm, and so you got kind o'befoozled, and struck. I'd a-kept further out. ButBurly Bill ain't the man to bully his mate. On'ylisten again. The river'll rise in a day or two, andif the wind keeps in its sack, w'y we'll float like athousand o' bricks on an old Thames lumper! Bustmy buttons, Jake, if we don't!"
"Well, Bill, I don't know anything about the burstingof your buttons, but you give me hope. So I'll goto breakfast. Tell the engineer to keep the firesbanked."
Two days went past, and never a move made the raft.
It was a wearisome time for all. The "chillun", asBeeboo called them, tried to beguile it in the best waythey could with reading, talking, and deck games.
Dick and Roland were "dons" at leap-frog, and itmattered not which of them was giving the back, butas soon as the other leapt over Brawn followed suit, greatly to the delight of Peggy. He jumped in sucha business-like way that everybody was forced tolaugh, especially when the noble dog took a leap thatwould have cleared a five-barred gate.
But things were getting slow on the third morning, when up sprang Burly Bill with his cartridge-belt onand his rifle under his arm.
"Cap'n Jake," he said, touching his cap in RoyalNavy fashion, "presents his compliments to the crewof this durned old stack o' timber, and begs to saythat Master Rolly and Master Dick can come on shorewith me for a run among the 'gators, but that MissPeggy had better stop on board with Beeboo. Herlife is too precious to risk!"
"Precious or not precious," pouted the girl, "MissPeggy's going, and Brawn too; so you may tell CaptainJake that."
"Bravo, Miss Peggy! you're a real St. Clair. Well,Beeboo, hurry up, and get the nicest bit of coldluncheon ready for us ever you made in your life."
"Beeboo do dat foh true. Plenty quick, too; butoh, Massa Bill, 'spose you let any ebil ting befall depoh chillun, I hopes de 'gators'll eat you up!"
"More likely, Beeb, that we'll eat them; and really, come to think of it, a slice off a young 'gator's tailaint 'arf bad tackle, Beeboo."
An hour after this the boat was dancing over therippling river. It was not the dinghy, but a gig.Burly Bill himself was stroke, and three Indianshandled the other bits of timber, while Roland tookthe tiller.
The redskins sang a curious but happy boat-lilt asthey rowed, and Bill joined in with his 'cello voice:
"Ober de watter and ober de sea-ee-ee,
De big black boat am rowing so free,
Eee-Eee-O-ay-O!
De big black boat, is it nuffin' to me-ee-ee,
We're rowing so free?
"Oh yes, de black boat am some-dings to me
As she rolls o'er de watter and swings o'er de sea,
Foh de light ob my life, she sits in de stern,
An' sweet am de glance o' Peggy's dark e'e,
Ee-ee-O-ay-O-O!"
"Well steered!" said Burly Bill, as Roland ran thegig on the sandy beach of a sweet little backwater.
Very soon all were landed. Bill went first as guide, and the Indians brought up the rear, carrying thebasket and a spare gun or two.
Great caution and care were required in venturingfar into this wild, tropical forest, not so much onaccount of the beasts that infested it as the fear ofgetting lost.
It was very still and quiet here, however, and Billhad taken the precaution to leave a man in the boat, with orders to keep his weather ear "lifting", and ifhe heard four shots fired in rapid succession late inthe afternoon to fire in reply at once.
It was now the heat of the day, however, and thehairy inhabitants of this sylvan wilderness were allsound asleep, jaguars and pumas among the trees, andthe tapirs in small herds wherever the jungle wasdensest.
There was no chance, therefore, of getting a shotat anything. Nevertheless, the boys and Peggy werenot idle. They had brought butterfly-nets with them, and the specimens they caught when about five milesinland, where the forest opened out into a shrub-cladmoorland, were large and glorious in the extreme.
Indeed, some of them would fetch gold galore in theLondon markets.
But though these butterflies had an immense spreadof quaintly-shaped and exquisitely-coloured wings, thesmaller ones were even more brilliant.
Strange it is that Nature paints these creatures incolours which no sunshine can fade. All the tints thatman ever invented grow pale in the sun; these neverdo, and the same may be said concerning the tropicalbirds that they saw so many of to-day.
But no one had the heart to shoot any of these.Why should they soil such beautiful plumage withblood, and so bring grief and woe into this love-litwilderness?
This is not a book on natural history, else gladlywould I describe the beauties in shape and colour ofthe birds, and their strange manners, the wary waysadopted in nest-building, and their songs and queerways of love-making.
Suffice it to say here that the boys were delightedwith all the tropical wonders and all the picturesquegorgeousness they saw everywhere around them.
But their journey was not without a spice of realdanger and at times of discomfort. The discomfortwe may dismiss at once. It was borne, as Beeboowould say, with Christian "forty-tood", and was duepartly to the clouds of mosquitoes they encounteredwherever the soil was damp and marshy, and partlyto the attacks of tiny, almost invisible, insects of thejigger species that came from the grass and ferns andheaths to attack their legs.
Burly Bill was an old forester, and carried with himan infallible remedy for mosquito and jigger bites, which acted like a charm.
In the higher ground-where tropical heath andheather painted the surface with hues of crimson, pink, and purple-snakes wriggled and darted about everywhere.
One cannot help wondering why Nature has takenthe pains to paint many of the most deadly of these incolours that rival the hues of the humming-birds thatyonder flit from bush to bush, from flower to flower.
Perhaps it is that they may the more easily seektheir prey, their gaudy coats matching well with theshrubs and blossoms that they wriggle amongst, whilegliding on and up to seize helpless birds in their nestsor to devour the eggs.
Parrots here, and birds of that ilk, have an easyway of repelling such invaders, for as soon as theysee them they utter a scream that paralyses theintruders, and causes them to fall helplessly to the ground.
To all creatures Nature grants protection, andclothes them in a manner that shall enable them togain a subsistence; but, moreover, every creature inthe world has received from the same great power themeans of defending or protecting itself against theattacks of enemies.
On both sides, then, is Nature just, for though shedoes her best to keep living species extant untilevolved into higher forms of life, she permits eachspecies to prey on the overgrowth or overplus ofothers that it may live.
Knocking over a heap of soft dry mould with thebutt end of his rifle, Dick started back in terror to seecrawl out from the heap a score or more of the mostgigantic beetles anyone could imagine. These weremostly black, or of a beautiful bronze, with streaks ofmetallic blue and crimson.
They are called harlequins, and live on carrion.Nothing that dies comes wrong to these monsters, and a few of them will seize and carry away a deadsnake five or six hundred times their own weight.My readers will see by this that it is not so muchmuscle that is needed for feats of strength as indomitablewill and nerve force. But health must be at thebottom of all. Were a man, comparatively speaking,as strong as one of these beetles, he could lift on hisback and walk off with a weight of thirty tons!
Our heroes had to stop every now and then tomarvel at the huge working ants, and all the wondrousproofs of reason they evinced.
It was well to stand off, however, if, with snappinghorizontal mandibles and on business intent, any ofthese fellows approached. For their bites are aspoisonous as those of the green scorpions orcentipedes themselves.
What with one thing or another, all hands wereattacked by healthy hunger at last, and sought theshade of a great spreading tree to satisfy Nature'sdemands.
When the big basket was opened it was found thatBeeboo had quite excelled herself. So glorious aluncheon made every eye sparkle to look at it. Andthe odour thereof caused Brawn's mouth to water andhis eyes to sparkle with expectancy.
The Indians had disappeared for a time. Theywere only just round the shoulder of a hill, however, where they, too, were enjoying a good feed.
But just as Burly Bill was having a taste from aclear bottle, which, as far as the look of it went, would have passed for cold tea, two Indian boysappeared, bringing with them the most delicious offruits as well as fresh ripe nuts.
The luncheon after that merged into a banquet.
Burly Bill took many sips of his cold tea. When Icome to think over it, however, I conclude there wasmore rum than cold tea in that brown mixture, orBill would hardly have smacked his lips and sighedwith such satisfaction after every taste.
The fruit done, and even Brawn satisfied, the wholecrew gave themselves up to rest and meditation. Theboys talked low, because Peggy's meditations had ledto gentle slumber. An Indian very thoughtfullybrought a huge plantain leaf which quite covered her, and protected her from the chequered rays of sunshinethat found their way through the tree. Brawn edgedin below the leaf also, and enjoyed a good sleep besidehis little mistress.
Not a gun had been fired all day long, yet a moreenjoyable picnic in a tropical forest it would be difficultto imagine.
Perhaps the number of the Indians scared thejaguars away, for none appeared.
Yet the day was not to end without an adventure.
Darkness in this country follows the short twilightso speedily, that Burly Bill did well to get clear of theforest's gloom while the sun was still well above thehorizon.
He trusted to the compass and his own good senseas a forester to come out close to the spot where hehad left the boat. But he was deceived. He struckthe river a good mile and a half above the placewhere the steamer lay at anchor and the raft agroundon the shoals.
Lower and lower sank the sun. The ground waswet and marshy, and the 'gators very much in evidenceindeed.
Now the tapirs-and droll pig-bodied creatures theylook, though in South America nearly as big as donkeys-areof a very retiring disposition, but not reallysolitary animals as cheap books on natural historywould have us believe. They frequent low woods, where their long snouts enable them to pull down thetender twigs and foliage on which, with roots, whichthey can speedily unearth, they manage to exist-yes, and to wax fat and happy.
But they are strict believers in the doctrine ofcleanliness, and are never found very far from water.They bathe every night.
Just when the returning picnic was within abouthalf a mile of the boat, Burly Bill carrying Peggy onhis shoulder because the ground was damp, a terriblescrimmage suddenly took place a few yards round abackwater.
There was grunting, squeaking, the splashing ofwater, and cries of pain.
"Hurry on, boys; hurry on; two of you are enough!It's your show, lads."
The boys needed no second bidding, and no soonerhad they opened out the curve than a strange sightmet their gaze.
CHAPTER VI-"NOT ONE SINGLE DROP OF BLOOD SHED"
A gigantic and horribly fierce alligator hadseized upon a strong young tapir, and wastrying to drag it into the water.
The poor creature had both its feet set well in front, and was resisting with all its might, while two otherlarger animals, probably the parents, were clawing thecayman desperately with their fore-feet.
But ill, indeed, would it have fared with all threehad not our heroes appeared just in the nick oftime.
For several more of these scaly and fearsomereptiles were hurrying to the scene of action.
Dick's first shot was a splendid one. It struck theoffending cayman in the eye, and went crashingthrough his brain.
The brute gasped, the blood flowed freely, and as hefell on his side, turning up his yellow belly, the youngtapir got free, and was hurried speedily away to thewoods.
Volley after volley was poured in on the enraged'gators, but the boys had to retreat as they fought.Had they not done so, my story would have stoppedshort just here.
It was not altogether the sun's parting rays that soencrimsoned the water, but the blood of thoseold-world caymans.
Three in all were killed in addition to the one firstshot. So that it is no wonder the boys felt elated.
Beeboo had supper waiting and there was nothingtalked about that evening except their strangeadventures in the beautiful forest.
—
Probably no one could sleep more soundly than didour heroes and heroine that night.
Next day, and next, they went on shore again, andon the third a huge jaguar, who fancied he would liketo dine off Brawn's shoulder, fell a victim to DickTemple's unerring aim.
But the raft never stirred nor moved for a whole week.
Said Bill to Jake one morning, as he took his meerschaumfrom his mouth:
"I think, Jake, and w'at I thinks be's this like.There ain't ne'er a morsel o' good smokin' and on'yjust lookin' at that fine and valuable pile o' timber.It strikes me conclusive like that something 'ad betterbe done."
"And what would you propose, Bill?" said Jake.
"Well, Jake, you're captain like, and my propositionis subject to your disposition as it were. But I'dlighten her, and lighten her till she floats; then towher off, and build up the odd timbers again."
"Good! You have a better head than I have, Bill; and it's you that should have been skipper, not me."
Nothing was done that day, however, except makinga few more attempts with the steamer at full speed totow her off. She did shift and slue round a little, butthat was all.
Next morning dawned as beautifully as any thathad gone before it.
There were fleecy clouds, however, hurrying acrossthe sky as if on business bent, and the blue betweenthem was bluer than ever our young folks had seen it.
Dick Temple, with Roland and Peggy, had made uptheir minds to go on shore for another day while thework of dismantling the raft went on.
But a fierce south wind began to blow, drivingheavy black clouds before it, and lashing the riverinto foam.
One of those terrible tropic storms was evidentlyon the cards, and come it did right soon.
The darkest blackness was away to the west, andhere, though no thunder could be heard, the lightningwas very vivid. It was evident that this was thevortex of the hurricane, for only a few drops of rainfell around the raft.
The picnic scheme was of course abandoned, and allwaited anxiously enough for something to come.
That something did come in less than an hour-thedescent of the mighty Amazon in flood. Its tributarieshad no doubt been swollen by the awful rainand water-spouts, and poured into the great queen ofrivers double their usual discharge.
A bore is a curling wave like a shore breaker thatrushes down the smaller rivers, and is terriblydestructive to boating or to shipping.
The Amazon, however, did not rise like this. Itcame rushing almost silently down in a broad tallwave that appeared to stretch right across it, from theforest-clad bank where the raft lay to the far-offgreen horizon in the north.
But Burly Bill was quite prepared for eventualities.
Steam had been got up, the vessel's bows wereheaded for up stream, and the hawser betwixt raftand boat tautened.
On and on rushed the huge wave. It toweredabove the raft, even when fifty yards away, in themost threatening manner, as if about to sweep allthings to destruction.
But on its nearer approach it glided in under theraft, and steamer as well-like some huge submarinemonster such as we read of in fairy books of thelong-long-ago-glided in under them, and seemed to liftthem sky-high.
"Go ahead at full speed!"
It was the sonorous voice of Burly Bill shouting tothe engineer.
"Ay, ay, sir!" came the cheery reply.
The screw went round with a rush.
It churned up a wake of foaming water as thePeggy began to forge ahead, and next minute, drivenalong on the breeze, the monster raft began to followand was soon out and away beyond danger from rockor shoal.
Then arose to heaven a prayer of thankfulness, anda cheer so loud and long that even the parrots andmonkeys in the forest depths heard it, and yelled andchattered till they frightened both 'gators and jaguars.
Just two weeks after these adventures, the littlePeggy was at anchor, and the great raft safely beached.
Burly Bill was left in charge with his white menand his Indians, with Dick Temple to act assupercargo, and Jake Solomons with Roland and Peggy, not to mention the dog, started off for Pará.
In due course, but after many discomforts, theyarrived there, and Jake, after taking rooms in ahotel, hurried off to secure his despatches from thepost-office.
"No letters!" cried Jake, as his big brown fist camedown with a bang on the counter. "Why, I see thevery documents I came for in the pigeon-hole behind you!"
The clerk, somewhat alarmed at the attitude ofthis tall Yankee backwoodsman, pulled them out andlooked at them.
"They cannot be delivered," he said.
"And why?" thundered Jake, "Inasmuch as towherefore, you greasy-faced little whipper-snapper!"
"Not sufficient postage."
Jake thrust one hand into a front pocket, and onebehind him. Then on the counter he dashed down abag of cash and a six-chambered revolver.
"I'm Jake Solomons," he said. "There before youlies peace or war. Hand over the letters, and you'llhave the rhino. Refuse, and I guess and calculate I'llblow the whole top of your head off."
The clerk preferred peace, and Jake strode awaytriumphant.
When he returned to the hotel and told the boysthe story, they laughed heartily. In their eyes, Jakewas more a hero than ever.
"Ah!" said the giant quietly, "there's nothing bringsthese long-shore chaps sooner to their senses thanletting 'em have a squint down the barrel of a six-shooter."
The letters were all from Mr. St. Clair, and hadbeen lying at the post-office for over a week. Theyall related to business, to the sale of the timber andthe other commodities, the best markets, and so onand so forth, with hints as to the gold-mine.
But the last one was much more bulky than theothers, and so soon as he had glanced at the firstlines, Jake lit his meerschaum, then threw himselfback in his rocker to quietly discuss it.
It was a plain, outspoken letter, such as one man ofthe world writes to another. Here is one extract: -
Our business is increasing at a rapid rate, JakeSolomon. I have too much to do and so have you; therefore, although I did not think it necessary toinform you before, I have been in communicationwith my brother John, and he is sending me out ashrewd, splendid man of business. He will havearrived before your return.
I can trust John thoroughly, and this Don PedroSalvador, over and above his excellent businesscapabilities, can talk Spanish, French, and Portuguese.
I do not quite like the name, Jake, so he must becontent to be called plain Mr. Peter.
—
About the very time that Jake Solomons was readingthis letter, there sat close to the sky-light of anoutward-bound steamer at Liverpool, two men holdinglow but earnest conversation. Their faces were partlyobscured, for it was night, and the only light aglimmer from the ship's lamp.
Steam was up and roaring through the pipes.
A casual observer might have noted that one was aslim, swarthy, but wiry, smart-looking man of aboutthirty. His companion was a man considerably over forty.
"I shall go now," said the latter. "You have myinstructions, and I believe I can trust you."
"Have I not already given you reason to?" was therejoinder. "At the risk of penal servitude did I notsteal my employer's keys, break into his room atnight, and copy that will for you? It was but a copyof a copy, it is true, and I could not discover theoriginal, else the quickest and simplest plan wouldhave been-fire:"
"True, you did so, but" – the older man laughedlightly-"you were well paid for the duty you performed."
"Duty, eh?" sneered the other. "Well," he added,"thank God nothing has been discovered. Myemployer has bidden me an almost affectionate farewell, and given me excellent certificates."
The other started up as a loud voice hailed the deck:
"Any more for the shore!"
"I am going now," he said. "Good-bye, old man, and remember my last words: not one single drop ofblood shed!"
"I understand, and will obey to the letter. Obedience pays."
"True; and you shall find it so. Good-bye!"
"A Dios!" said the other.
The last bell was struck, and the gangway washauled on shore.
The great ship Benedict was that night rolling andtossing about on the waves of the Irish Channel.
—
Jake Solomons acquainted Roland and Peggy withthe contents of this last letter, and greatly did thelatter wonder what the new overseer would be like, and if she should love him or not.
For Peggy had a soft little heart of her own, andwas always prepared to be friendly with anyone who, according to her idea, was nice.
Jake took his charges all round the city nextday and showed them the sights of what is now oneof the most beautiful towns in South America.
The gardens, the fountains, the churches and palaces, the flowers and fruit, and feathery palm-trees, allthings indeed spoke of delightfulness, and calm, andpeace.
And far beyond and behind all this was theboundless forest primeval.
This was not their last drive through the city, andthis good fellow Jake, though his business took himfrom home most of the day, delighted to take thechildren to every place of amusement he could thinkof. But despite all this, these children of the forestwilds began to long for home, and very much rejoicedwere they when one evening, after dinner, Jake toldthem they should start on the morrow for Bona Vista, near to which town the little steamer lay, and so upthe great river and home.
Jake had done all his business, and done it satisfactorily, and could return to the old plantation andBurnley Hall with a light and cheerful heart.
He had even sold the mine, although it was not tobe worked for some time to come.
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