Rob Harlow's Adventures: A Story of the Grand Chaco Read online

  CHAPTER FOUR.

  NOISES OF THE NIGHT.

  "Not asleep, my lad?" said a voice at his elbow as Rob crept out fromunder the awning to the extreme stern.

  "You, Shaddy? No, I can't sleep. It all seems so strange."

  "Ay, it do to you," said the man in a husky whisper. "You've got itjust on you now strong. You couldn't go to sleep because you thoughtthat them four Indian chaps forward might come with their knives andfinish you and drop you overboard--all of us."

  "How do you know I thought that?"

  "Ah, I know!" said Shaddy, with a chuckle. "Everybody does. I didfirst time. Well, they won't, so you needn't be afeared o' that. Nex'thing as kept you awake was that you thought a great boa-constructormight be up in the tree and come crawling down into the boat."

  "Shaddy, are you a witch?" cried Rob.

  "Not as I knows on, my lad."

  "Then how did you know that?"

  "Human natur', lad. Every one thinks just like that. Next you beganthinking that them pretty creeturs you can hear singing like great catswould swim across and attack us, or some great splashing fish shove hishead over the side to take a bite at one of us. Didn't you?"

  Rob was silent for a few moments, and then said,--

  "Well, I did think something of the kind."

  "Of course you did. It is your nature to think like that, but you maymake your mind easy, for there's only one thing likely to attack you outhere."

  "What's that?" whispered Rob--"Indians who will swim out from theshore?"

  "No, wild creeturs who will fly--skeeters, lad, skeeters."

  "Oh," said Rob, with a little laugh, "they've been busy enough already,two or three of them. But what's that?"

  He grasped Shaddy's arm, for at that moment there was a plunge in theriver not very far-away in the darkness from where they were moored, andthen silence.

  "Dunno yet," said Shaddy in a whisper. "Listen."

  Rob needed no telling, for his every nerve was on the strain. Therecame a peculiar grunting sound, very unlike any noise that might havebeen made by a swimming Indian, and Shaddy said quietly,--

  "Water hog. Carpincho they calls 'em; big kind of porky, beavery,ottery, ratty sort of thing; and not bad eating."

  Rob pressed his arm again as a sharp, piercing howl came from far-awayover the river, here about four or five hundred yards across.

  "That's a lion," said Shaddy quietly. "Strikes me they shout like thatto scare the deer and things they live on into making a rush, and thenthey're down upon 'em like a cat upon a mouse."

  "Lion? You mean a puma."

  "Means a South American lion, my lad."

  "There it is again," whispered Rob in an awe-stricken voice, "only it'sa deeper tone, and sounds more savage."

  "That's just what it is," said Shaddy, "ever so much more savage. Thatwasn't a lion; that was a tiger--well, jagger, as some calls 'em. Dealfiercer beasts than the lions."

  The cries were repeated and answered from a distance, while many otherstrange noises arose, to which the man could give no name.

  "One would want half a dozen lives to be able to get at all of it, mylad," said Shaddy quietly, "and there's such lots of things that cheatyou so."

  "Hist! There's another splash," whispered Rob.

  "Ay; there's no mistake about that, my lad. There it goes again, doubleone. It's as plain as if you can see it, a big fish springing out ofthe water, turning over, and falling in again with a flop. You don'tthink there's no fish in the river now, do you?"

  "Oh no. I don't doubt it now," whispered Rob, as he listened to fishafter fish rising, and all apparently very large.

  "Makes a man wonder what they are jumping after, unless it is the starsshining in the water. You hear that?"

  "Yes."

  "And that, too?"

  "Yes, I hear them," replied Rob, unable to repress a shiver, so strangeand weird were the cries which came mournfully floating across.

  "Well, them two used to puzzle me no end--one of 'em a regular roar andthe other quite a moan, as if somebody was a-dying."

  "You know what it is now?"

  "Yes, and you'd never guess, my lad, till you said one was made by abird."

  "A bird?"

  "Yes, a long-legged heron kind of thing as trumpets it out with a roarlike a strange, savage beast; and the other moaning, groaning sound ismade by a frog. I don't mind owning it used to scare me at first."

  Rob sat listening to the weird chorus going on in the forest andwatching the stars above, and their slightly blurred reflections in thewater which went whispering by the prow and side of the boat. It wasall so solemn, and strange, and awe-inspiring that, in spite of afeeling of dread which he could not master, he was glad to be there,wakeful, trying to picture the different creatures prowling about in thedarkness of the primeval forest. He had listened time after time on thevoyage up, but then the schooner was close at hand, and they passedtowns and villages on the east bank; but here they were farther away inthe heart of the wild country, and on the very edge of a forestuntrodden by the foot of man, and maybe teeming with animal life as newas it was strange. And in amongst this they were soon going to plunge!

  It had been the dream of the boy's life to penetrate one of theuntrodden fastnesses of nature, but now that he was on the thresholdlistening in the darkness of night, there was something terrible both inthe silence and in the sounds which made him ask himself whether he haddone wisely in accompanying Martin Brazier, an old friend of his father,who, partly for profit, but more for the advancement of science, hadmade his arrangements for this adventurous journey. But it was too latenow to recede, even had he wished to do so. In fact, had any one talkedof his return, he would have laughed at him as a proposer of somethingabsurd.

  "I suppose it comes natural to most boys to long for adventures and tosee foreign countries," he thought to himself, and then he went mentallyover the scene with Giovanni.

  "Joe is as eager as I was," he muttered, and then he started, forsomething swept by his face.

  "What's matter, my lad?" said Shaddy quietly.

  "I--I don't know, something--There it goes again, some bird. An owl, Ithink, flew past my face. There, it skimmed just over our heads with afluttering noise."

  "I heard it, lad--bat, big 'un. Put your toes in your pockets if youhaven't got on your shoes."

  "What do you mean?"

  "It's a blood-sucker--wampire, that's all."

  "But that's all nonsense," said Rob, with a slight shudder, "atraveller's tale."

  "Oh, is it, boy? You'll see one of these times when we wake in themorning. They come in the night and suck your blood."

  "Oh, that can't be true?"

  "Why not? Get out, will you?" said Shaddy gruffly, as he made a blow atthe great leathern-winged creature that kept fluttering about theirheads. "He smells his supper, and is trying for a chance. You don'tbelieve it, then?"

  "No."

  "Humph! Well, you've a right to your own opinion, my lad," said Shaddyquietly, "but I suppose you believe that if you dabbled your legs in thewater a leech might fix on you and suck your blood?"

  "Oh yes; I've had many on me in England."

  "And you've had skeeters on you and maybe sucked your blood here?"

  "Yes."

  "Then why can't you believe as a bat wouldn't do the same?"

  Rob found the argument unanswerable.

  "It's true enough, my lad. They'll lay hold on a fellow's toe or thumb,ay, and on horses too. I've known 'em quite weak with being sucked somuch night after night."

  "Horses? Can they get through a horse's thick skin?"

  Shaddy chuckled.

  "Why, dear lad," he said, "a horse has got a skin as tender as a man's,so just you 'member that next time you spurs or whips them."

  Rob sat in silence, thinking, with the weird sounds increasing for atime; and, in spite of his efforts, it was impossible to keep down ashrinking sense of dread.

  Everythi
ng was thrilling: the golden-spangled water looked so black, andthe darkness around so deep, while from the Grand Chaco, the great,wild, untrodden forest across the river stretching away toward themighty Andes in the west, the shouts, growls, and wails suggestedendless horrors going on as the wild creatures roamed here and there insearch of food.

  _Plash_! right away--a curious sound of a heavy body plunging into theriver, but with the noise carried across the water, so that it seemed tobe only a few yards away.

  "What's that?" whispered Rob.

  "Can't tell for sartain, my lad, but I should say that something camealong and disturbed a big fat 'gator on the bank, and he took a dive inout of the way. I say! Hear that?"

  "Hear it?" said Rob, as a creeping sensation came amongst the roots ofhis hair, just as if the skin had twitched; "who could help hearing it?"

  For the moment before Shaddy asked his question a blood-curdling,agonising yell, as of some being in mortal agony, rang out from acrossthe river.

  "Ay, 'tis lively. First time I heered that I says to myself, `That'sone Injun killing another,' and I cocked my rifle and said to myselfagain, `well, he shan't do for me.'"

  "And was it one Indian murdering another in his sleep?"

  Shaddy chuckled.

  "Not it, lad. Darkness is full of cheating and tricks. You hearsnoises in the night, and they sound horrid. If you heered 'em when thesun's shining you wouldn't take any notice of 'em."

  "But there it is again," whispered Rob, as the horrible cry arose, andafter an interval was repeated as from a distance. "Whatever is it?"

  "Sort o' stork or crane thing calling its mate and saying, `Here's lotso' nice, cool, juicy frogs out here. Come on.'"

  "A bird?"

  "Yes. Why not? Here, you wait a bit, and you'll open your eyes wide tohear 'em. Some sings as sweet as sweet, and some makes the most gashlynoises you can 'magine. That's a jagger--that howl, and that's a lionagain. Hear him! He calls out sharper like than the other. You'llsoon get to know the difference. But I say, do go and have a sleep now,so as to get up fresh and ready for the day's work. I shall have lotsto show you to-morrow."

  "Yes, I'll go and lie down again soon. But listen to that! What's thatbooming, roaring sound that keeps rising and falling? There, it's quiteloud now."

  "Frogs!" said Shaddy promptly. "There's some rare fine ones out here.There, go and lie down, my lad."

  "Why are you in such a hurry to get rid of me? You are watching. Can'tI keep you company?"

  "Glad to have you, my lad, but I was picked out by Skipper Ossolobecause I know all about the country and the river ways, wasn't I?"

  "Yes, of course."

  "Very well, then. I give you good advice. You don't want to be ill andspoil your trip, so, to keep right, what you've got to do is to eat anddrink reg'lar and sensible and take plenty of sleep."

  "Oh, very well," said Rob, with a sigh. "I'll go directly."

  "It means steady eyes and hands, my lad. I know: it all sounds verywild and strange up here, but you'll soon get used to it, and sleep aswell as those Indian lads do. There, good-night."

  "Good-night," said Rob reluctantly. "But isn't it nearly morning?"

  "Not it, five hours before sunrise; so go and take it out ready for abig day--such a trip as you never dreamed of."

  "Very well," replied Rob, and he crept quietly back to his place underthe canvas covering, but sleep would not come, or so it seemed to him.But all at once the mingling of strange sounds grew muffled and dull,and then he opened his eyes, to find that the place where he lay wasfull of a soft, warm glow, and Joe was bending over him and shaking himgently.