Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics by Oliver Optic (best romantic novels to read .TXT) 📗

of the woods, and might have to stay here a week or two, waiting for water to float her. No, no; I won't take the risk."

The game was dragged to the shore, and loaded into the sampan; for the appalling picture the captain had made of low water induced them all to hurry on board of the yacht.[106]

CHAPTER XII A FORMIDABLE OBSTRUCTION REMOVED

The deer shot by Felix was a little fellow, though he was full grown, Achang said, when it was taken on board the yacht. The one killed by Louis was much larger. The pigs were in better condition than the one shot before. The men were set at work to skin the deer, and the cook cut out the best parts of the two swine. There was plenty of salt pork in the stores, so that the sides were not needed.

Achang kept himself very busy in his workshop. He had a difficult job on his hands; for he had to skin the fingers and toes of the animal, and to keep every part in its original shape. Captain Scott went to the wheel as soon as he came on board, and started the engine. Clingman reported the depth of water the same as when the party went on shore. By backing and going ahead a short distance at a time, he got the boat about, and headed her for the river.

The water was deep enough, and there was no particular difficulty in the navigation, though he was to follow the course he had taken at first. He had carefully observed the shape and location of the trees, and the stream was reached in a short time. Louis declared that it was a great pity they could not re[107]main near the high ground, for he had no doubt that plenty of game would have been found.

"It seems to me that we have got all the game we want," said Scott. "What could we do with a couple more deer and a brace of wild hogs?"

"Perhaps you are right; but the fellows want to hunt, though I think I have had enough of it. I enjoy the sailing up this river, and it will be pleasant to explore the lakes farther up the stream," added Louis.

"I hope we shall get to some place where we can do some fishing for a change; besides, I am fish hungry," replied Scott.

"Most of the fishing here is done with the tuba plant; and I think it is mean to stupefy the fish, and then pick them up on the top of the water. But the river is clearer up this way, and we will drop our lines when we come to a good place."

"If you want to do any more shooting just now, there is a flock of long-noses" (by which he meant proboscis monkeys), said the captain, as he pointed to them.

"We have one good specimen of that creature, and I don't want any more at present; but I would give something to know why they prefer to be in trees which grow out of the water," added Louis.

"I give it up, for I don't see any reason for it; but I suppose the long-nose understands the matter himself, and he won't tell us. Here we are at the river."[108]

The captain rang the speed-bell as the steamer entered the stream where it was only thirty feet wide. There was a considerable current, and the screw-pines were densely packed together on both sides. The boat continued on her course for half an hour longer, when she seemed to have come to the end of all things, and the gong rang to stop her.

"Here we are!" exclaimed Scott. "And here we are likely to remain, unless we back down stream till we find a place wide enough to turn in."

The obstruction which closed the passage of the river against the Blanchita was a bridge of dead pines which the current had brought down, and they had caught at the sides till they formed the barrier. It was not more than six feet wide, though it might as well have been a hundred so far as blocking up the river was concerned.

"I don't like the idea of stopping here, for I want to see the lakes above; and I hoped we might get some fishing there," said Louis.

"What the matter is?" called Achang from his workshop.

He moved to one side so that he could see the obstruction.

"You can go through that, Captain," he continued, after Morris had corrected his English. "I have come up here before, and we have cut a way through."

"All right; we will see what the bridge is made of," said the captain, as he rang to back the boat.

She backed down the stream about twenty rods,[109] and then he stopped her. He then ordered Clingman to draw a piece of sailcloth over the stem, to prevent the dead pines from scratching the paint on the bow. As soon as this was done, she went ahead again at full speed, and the captain called to the engineer to give her all the steam he could. She went ahead at a furious rate, and Scott pointed her to what seemed to be the weakest place in the barrier.

"Now hold on, fellows, or she will tip you over!" shouted the captain as the boat approached the obstruction.

She struck the mass of pines, and drove her bow far into it, but stopped without going through it. The barrier was not solid, and was held together by the entanglement of the bushes as they were driven into the nucleus of the mass by the current.

"We can't cut through in that way," said Scott, as he looked at the half-sundered bridge.

"We don't want to take the back track," added Louis.

"There are more ways than one to skin a mosquito, and we haven't half tried yet," replied the captain. "The thing is softer than I supposed, and yielded when the boat hit it. I could go through, but it would take all the paint off the sides. Get out the anchor, Clingman, and we will see what can be done."

"I think we shall stick fast enough without anchoring," said Morris with a laugh.

"Wait a few minutes, my hearty; for I was not thinking of coming to anchor just now," answered[110] Scott, as he went forward to the stem, and mounted the rail.

The anchor was stowed under the forward seat; and Clingman, after overhauling the cable, passed it up to the captain. It was not very heavy, and with a skilful toss he threw it just over the edge of the barrier on the up-stream side. All wondered what he was going to do, for they saw no way to get through by means of the anchor; but they were willing to believe that the captain knew what he was about, and they said nothing.

"Now pay out about fifty feet of cable," continued Scott, as he rang the gong to back her. "Haul steady on it till you are sure it is fast in the stuff, Clingman."

The seaman humored the cable till he was unable to haul the rope home, and then reported the situation. The boat continued to back till the cable was hauled taut, when he stopped her. Then he spoke through the tube to the engineer, and rang the gong. The craft moved again, but very gently, for Scott was afraid the anchor would not hold; but it did, and speaking through the tube, he gradually increased the speed. The cable swayed and groaned, and it was evident that a heavy strain was upon it. The barrier was shaking and quivering under the pressure, and it was plain that something would yield very soon.

"Hurrah!" shouted Felix, who was looking over the bow at the bridge of pines; and the cry was[111] repeated by the rest of the cabin party, and taken up by the sailors. "Bully for you, Captain Scott! Upon me wurrud, ye's have skinned the muskitty!"

This demonstration was called forth by the rupture of the barrier in two places, so that about one-half of it gave way, and was towed down stream by the steamer. Scott kept the craft moving till he found a place in the green banks of the river to leave the tow, for it was wide enough to obstruct the channel.

"Clingman and Wales, jump on the raft with the boathooks, and crowd the stuff over to the starboard side," said the captain when he had found the place he wanted.

He stopped the boat, and then went ahead, to enable the men to get upon the mass, after they had thrown a couple of boards upon it to stand on. Backing her again, he hugged the starboard side of the stream, and drew the raft abreast of the place, and close to it, where it was to be left. The men on it hooked into the screw-pines, and hauled it into the opening. Pulling vines from the trees, they moored it where it was. As soon as the two men came aboard the boat, the captain went ahead again.

"You did that job handsomely, Captain Scott," said Louis. "I thought the only way we could get through was by cutting a passage for the boat."

"That would have taken too long," replied Scott, as he called Clinch to the wheel. "Mind your eye! for the river is very crooked up here. Look out for the swing as she goes around the bends."[112]

The boat had not gone a great distance when she came to a considerable expanse of territory which had been swept over by fire. The party did not think that the green bushes would burn; but they had burned so that nothing was left of them but the blackened stems, and there was no room for an argument.

"When the fire gets started, it scorches and dries the bushes till they will burn," Louis explained. "But what are we coming to now?" he asked, looking ahead where the country seemed to be level, and covered with a sheet of water, in which the screw-pines were abundant.

"That must be one of your lakes, Louis," added the captain.

"If it is mine, I will sell it to you," replied he.

"I don't want to buy; but I am not so sure that we can get through as shoal a place as that seems to be, for it is only the spreading out of the river. The greater the expanse, the less the depth. How is that, Achang?"

"Plenty water; float the boat," answered the Bornean. "Little Padang Lake. Plenty pandanus."

"What are pandanuses?" asked Scott.

"The plural of the word is pandanaceæ; and they are the same thing as the screw-pines, and sometimes are found thirty feet high. There is one; and you can see roots starting out of the stem, and heading downward. The leaves are very useful to the na[113]tives. We shall get tied in a hard knot if we follow the twists of this stream much farther."

Presently the boat came to the lake. The captain was considerably exercised about the depth of water; and as they entered the lake, which was not very different from the overflowed region they had visited that day, he ordered the wheelman to stop her.

"There must be some sort of a channel through this pond," said he, looking about him. "There is a bigger lake than this one farther up. There are mountains in sight in the distance, and the water from them must find an outlet to the sea."

"I have no doubt you are right; and probably there is a channel through this lake, for its water must get to the sea, unless it dries up on the way," added Louis.

"It will be easier to find this channel near the river than it will when we are half-way across the lake;" and the captain sent two men with Morris in the sampan to search for it.

The water was tolerably clear; and they went to the mouth of the outlet, sounding all the time with the boathooks. They found the channel at this point, and then followed it up beyond the steamer. Morris shouted that the sampan was in the channel, and the Blanchita moved into it. The searching-party returned to the steamer. Morris was the mate; and, with the two men who had gone with him, he was directed to keep the run of the deeper water.[114]

In another half-hour they came to the forest again, though the trees were growing in the shallow lake. Achang was hard at work all the time, taking all the pains with his operation which Louis had required of him; but his occupation did not prevent him from looking about him, and he soon made a discovery.

"Mias! Mias!" he shouted, pointing to a tall tree a few rods from the boat. "Mias fast asleep!"

All the party looked in the direction indicated, and saw the orang. He was lying on his back in the crotch of the tree, holding on with both hands to the branches.