All right, sir! We will keep a sharp look-out. You wont be away many hours, I suppose?
Certainly not. We dont want to do any exploring. All we want to do is to look for food, and the most likely food for us to find is a troop of monkeys among the trees overhanging the river. As a rule, I should not like to shoot the beasts. They are too much like human beings. But if we can get a supply of meat it will be welcome, no matter what it may be. Of course we should not shoot many, for a couple of days would be the outside that meat would keep good here.
But might not firing a gun bring the natives down on you, sir? Stephen said.
Oh, we have seen no signs of natives! the mate said impatiently, and there maynt be any within miles and miles of us, probably not nearer than those hills; for I believe it is there that they principally do what cultivation there isin the first place, because it is cooler, and in the next place because there are, we know, tremendous swamps in the low land of Sumatra, though whether this is Sumatra or not I cannot say.
The next morning the boat started as soon as a supply of cocoa-nuts, sufficient for the day, had been thrown down, two or three of the sailors adopting the means the mate had taught Joyce, and going up the trees very much more quickly than he had done.
What do you think of this ere business, Master Stephen? Wilcox said as they watched the boat making its way slowly against the current.
I dont know, Wilcox, what to think of it.
I calls it a risky affair, the sailor said after a pause. Mr. Towel is a good officer, I dont say as he isnt, but I would rather see an older head on his shoulders just at present. It is all very well for him to say as there may be no natives within twenty miles; but how is he to know that? There may be a village just round the turn of the river. All these chaps are pirates when they get a chance, every mothers son of them, and there may be half a dozen war-canoes lying a mile up this river. It would be natural that they should be somewhere near its mouth, ready to start out if a sail is sighted, or news is brought to them that there is a ship anchored off a coast village within a few hours row. As to firing a gun, in my opinion it is just madness. As he says himself, meat wont keep two days, and it is just flying in the face of Providence to risk attracting the attention of the natives, for the sake of a days rations of fresh meat.
It was all very well to bring the boat up here so as to lie out of sight of any canoes that happened to be passing along the shore; but I would much rather have left her where she was, though I allows it would have been risky. I would have just chucked the sail over her and covered that with an inch or so of sand, so that it would not have been noticed by a boat a short way out. But if there is a village up here, why, a boat might come down any moment to do some fishing, and there we should be caught at once; as for getting away with them makeshift paddles, it would not be worth even thinking of. I hope our chaps will come back without having seen a monkey or a village, or as much as a banana, then the mate wont be hankering to go up again; and I should make free to advise him to get the boat up amongst the trees here till we have decided that the ship wont come, and agree to make a start.
I am with you to some extent, Wilcox, and I do think that it is a risky thing going up the river. If we were to fill up with cocoa-nuts they would last us for a week anyhow, and then when we saw another grove of them we could land and load up again.
You cant take an observation, I suppose, Mr. Stephen, and find out in a rough way whereabouts we are?
Steve shook his head. No, Wilcox. If I had had my quadrant I might have got near enough to have made a rough guess, for I have got that watch I bought in my pocket, and I have timed it every day with the chronometers, and find that it does not gain more than half a minute a day, so that at the present moment it is not much more than a minute out by them, and if I had had the quadrant I could have made a pretty close calculation. We were about a degree and a half south at noon before that cyclone struck us, but I dont see that that would help us now.
It is a pity, sir, the sailor said, for it would help us wonderful if we could find out our position within fifty miles or so.
I wish we could, Wilcox; and Stephen sat for some time thinking. At last he said, I might, anyhow, find out in a rough sort of way whether we have been blown north or south. We will see if we can find a perfectly straight stick, ten or twelve feet long. If I fix that upright in sand the shadow would help us. It was the 25th of March yesterday, and the sun at noon would therefore be exactly overhead of the line at twelve oclock. Therefore, if we have been blown north, we should get a very short shadow to the south at twelve oclock; whereas if we have been blown south, there would be a shadow north. It might not be more than an inch long; but even that would tell us something.
They selected a long straight stick, drove it deeply into the sand, walked round it several times so as to assure themselves that it was perfectly upright, and then returned again to the shelter of the trees. An hour later the sound of a gun came to their ears.
He has found some of them monkeys, Wilcox growled.
Three more shots were heard. How far are they off, do you think? Stephen asked.
I dunno, sir. If it was on the open sea and calm like this, I should say they might be two or three miles, but in this ere forest there aint no saying at all. I dont reckon they would be above two miles anyhow, that is if the stream is as strong up there as it is here. They were making very slow way against it when they started. I reckon they have been gone about an hour, and they would not have got more than two miles away against this stream. Well, I hope that they will be content now and turn back again.
Half an hour passed, then they heard a gun again; it was quickly followed by another and another.
More monkeys, Wilcox exclaimed in a tone of disgust.
I hope it is monkeys, Stephen said. Listen. There are four more shots close together.
The sailor leapt to his feet. I believe you are right, sir, that cussed firing has brought the natives down upon them. They would not want to keep on firing at the monkeys. We shall hear in a minute if they fire again. They have all emptied their pieces. If they load quick and fire again it will be a bad sign. There they are! he broke off as two shots were heard. I am afraid that settles it, sir, and settles us too, for if they are attacked there aint a ghost of a chance of their getting away, and there wont be much more chance of our doing so.
Four more shots were heard, and then all was quiet. Now, sir, we will be getting pretty deep in among these trees, keeping close to the bank, so that we can look through the bushes without being seen. If the boat comes along all right, there aint no harm done; if it dont come along after a bit, we shall know what has happened.
Picking up his gun, Wilcox was about to turn off into the wood when Stephen said:
We had better take three or four cocoa-nuts each, Wilcox. There is no saying whether we shall come back to this place, and it is as well to have something to eat.
Each tied some nuts together, threw them over their shoulders, and started along the river bank. The stream was bordered by a thick undergrowth, which afforded an effectual screen for anyone behind it. After going for about a quarter of a mile they stopped to listen. There was a faint throbbing sound in the air.