"Nay! It's all water underneath me. Come on, sir. Here I am."

A few more strokes of the oars ran us close in beneath the pendent boughs, and the next minute the carpenter caught hold of one of the overhanging branches and kept the boat there, while Pete descended from where he had climbed, to lower himself into the boat and sit down shivering and dripping.

"Thought he'd got me, sir," he said, looking white. "I dived down, though, and only come up once, but dove again so as to come up under the trees; and then I found a place where I could pull myself up. It was precious hard, though. I kep' 'specting one of 'em would pull me back, till I was up yonder; and it arn't safe there."

"Why not?" I said.

"There's great monkeys yonder, and the biggest snake I ever see, Master Nat."

"But did you not see the boat? Didn't you see us hunting for you?" said my uncle angrily.

"No, sir; I had all I could do to swim to one of the trees, diving down so as the 'gators shouldn't see me; and when I did get up into the tree, you'd gone back down the river, so that I couldn't see nothing of you."

"But why didn't you shout, Pete?" said the carpenter. "Everyone's been afraid you was drowned."

"Who was going to shout when there was a great snake curled up in knots like a ship's fender right over your head? Think I wanted to wake him up? Then there was two great monkeys."

"Great monkeys!" said my uncle. "Pray, how big were they?"

"Dunno, sir, but they looked a tidy size, and whenever I moved they begun to make faces and call me names."

"What did they call you, Pete?" I said.

"I dunno, Master Nat. You see, it was all furren, and I couldn't understand it; but one of 'em was horrid howdacious: he ran along a bough till he was right over my head, and then he took hold with his tail and swung himself to and fro and chattered, and said he'd drop on my head if I dared to move."

"Are you sure he said that, Pete?" said my uncle drily.

"Well, sir, I can't be quite sure, because I couldn't understand him; but it seemed something like that."

"Yes, but I'm afraid there was a good deal of imagination in it, Pete, and that you have bad eyes."

"Oh, no, sir," said Pete; "my eyes are all right."

"They cannot be," said my uncle; "they must magnify terribly. Now then, take off your wet clothes, wring them out, and hang them up in the sun, while we look after this huge serpent and the gigantic monkeys. Draw the boat along by the boughs, Cross, till we can look through that opening. Be ready with your gun, Nat. Put in a couple of those swanshot cartridges. You shall do the shooting."

I hurriedly changed the charges in my double gun and sat in my place, looking up eagerly, trying to pierce the green twilight and tangle of crossing boughs, while Pete slowly slipped off his dripping shirt and trousers, watching me the while.

"See anything yet?" said my uncle, as he helped Cross to push the boat along, pulling the boughs aside, which forced him to lower the sail and unship the mast.

"No, uncle; the boughs are too thick--yes--yes, I can see a monkey hanging by his tail."

"A six-footer? Bring him down, then. We must have his skin."

"Six-footer? No!" I said. "It's about as big as a fat baby."

"I thought so," said my uncle. "Never mind the poor little thing; look-out for the monstrous snake. I daresay it's one of the anacondas crept up out of the river. See it?"

"No, uncle; but there might be a dozen up there."

"Keep on looking. You must see it if it's as big as Pete here says.

Was it close to the trunk, my lad?"

"Not very, sir; it was just out a little way, where the boughs spread out."

"I see it!" I cried. "Keep the boat quite still. It's curled up all in a knot."

"A hundred feet long?" said my uncle, laughing.

"Not quite, uncle."

"Well, fifty?"

"I don't think so, uncle."

"Five-and-twenty, then?"

"Oh, no," I said; "it's rather hard to tell, because of the way she folds double about; but I should think it's twelve feet long."

"I thought so," said my uncle. "Pete, you'll have to wear diminishing gla.s.ses."

"That aren't the one, sir," said Pete gruffly.

"Shall I shoot, uncle?"

"No; we don't want the skin, and it would be a very unpleasant task to take it off. Push off, Cross, and let's go up the stream. I want to get to clearer parts, where we can land and make some excursions."

Pete hung his head when I looked at him, but he said no more, and a couple of hours after, with his clothes thoroughly dry, he was helping to navigate the boat, rowing, poling, and managing the sail till night fell, when we once more moored to a great tree trunk, as we had made a practice all the way up, and slept in safety on board, with the strange noises of the forest all around.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

SNAKES AND PUMAS.

It was a relief at last, after many days of hard work, sailing and rowing and poling over the shallows by means of the light bamboos we cut upon the banks, to find that we were well above the dense, jungle-like forest where, save in places, landing was impossible. Instead of creeping along between the two high walls of verdure, the river ran clear, shallow, and sparkling, among gravelly beds and rocks; while, though the growth was abundant on banks, there were plenty of open places full of sunshine and shadow, where flowers bloomed and birds far brighter in colour flitted from shrub to shrub, or darted in flocks among the trees. Mountains rose up in the distance, and every now and then we had glorious peeps of the valleys, which near at hand were of the richest golden-green, but in the distance gradually grew from amethyst into the purest blue.

"At last!" cried Uncle d.i.c.k, for we had reached the outskirts of the land he sought--one with the natural roads necessary; for by careful management we contrived to penetrate some distance up the various streams which came down from the mountains to join the main river, and when we had forced the boat up a little stream till it was aground, we there camped and made expeditions on foot in all directions, coming back to the boat with our treasures.

It was difficult to decide which stream to try, and one in particular whose mouth we pa.s.sed several times in our journeys to and fro attracted me--I could not tell why--and I suggested more than once that we should go up it; but Uncle d.i.c.k shook his head.

"It is the least likely, Nat," he said on one occasion, and when, after several expeditions, I proposed it again, because most of those we tried evidently bore to the north, while this had a southward tendency, he refused tetchily.

"Can't you see how covered it is with water-weed and tangled growth? It would be impossible to go up there without a small canoe."

So I said no more, but contented myself with his choice.

For of treasures we had plenty, the wild mountain valleys swarming with beautifully plumaged birds, especially with those tiny little objects which were actually less than some of the b.u.t.terflies and moths.

These humming-birds we generally shot with sand, sometimes merely with the wad of the cartridge, and even at times brought them down by the concussion caused by firing with powder only, when very near.