Читать книгу A Thousand Miles an Hour - Herbert Strang - Страница 4

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Pedro looked at his watch. "What time did we start?" he asked.

"I haven't an idea," replied Derrick

"It's half-past five now," Pedro went on. "In half an hour the sun will be down: then it will be dark almost at once, as you know. We must have spent nearly an hour chasing the tapir."

"So we couldn't get back before dark even If we knew the way?"

"Unless the tapir led us in a circle. What has become of our wretched guide?"

He made a trumpet of his hands and sent a loud prolonged call rolling through the forest. There was no answer only a muffled echo: it seemed that the sound was blanketed by the vegetation all around. He fired his rifle twice in quick succession: the cracks met with no response except the flitting of a colony of bats disturbed in their leafy perch.

"What's to be done?" said Derrick, his voice sounding huskily.

"Keep cool," returned Pedro, smiling as he brushed the sweat out of his eyes. "I've heard of lost lonely travellers getting frantic: that's fatal. We have each other's company. Let us look at things calmly. It's hopeless to think of finding our way in the dark; we had better seek a shelter for the night. No doubt Juan and the crew will try to find us in the morning."

"They won't carry out their threat and paddle away down stream?"

"They won't dare!" cried Pedro, his black eyes flashing. "In any case we can find our own way tomorrow. Somewhere or other we shall come across a stream, and if we follow that we shall strike the river. The rest will be easy. So we had better set about finding a shelter while daylight lasts."

"Up a tree?"

"No, except as a last resource. I shouldn't feel comfortable in a tree: the forest animals are tree-climbers, many of them, and there are snakes. But the ground hereabouts is rocky: if we are lucky we shall find a bare spot somewhere, with perhaps a tall rock we can set our backs against. Let us try that rising ground over there."

They pushed their way through the undergrowth in the direction Pedro had indicated. The ground rose gradually, and the vegetation grew thinner as they proceeded. Presently they reached a fairly level stretch where there were no large trees, but only dense low-growing scrub.

"The soil's very thin," said Pedro, prodding with his rifle stock. "And see: here's bare rock, volcanic by the look of it. I think we are in luck's way."

They made towards a spot where the ground again rose steeply. Going round a patch of scrub, they found themselves opposite a rugged irregular wall of hard blackish rock, seven or eight feet high. In front of it was a floor of rock bare of vegetation, and here it seemed they might rest with some security from molestation by forest animals.

"It will be a hard bed," said Pedro, "and I am afraid a damp one, for the dew will be as thick as rain before long. But we can't do better."

"Are you sure?" said Derrick, who had wandered a few yards beyond his companion. "Look at this opening."

He pointed to a natural archway in the wall of rock, which appeared to be the entrance to a cave. They went in, looking heedfully around. A few yards within the entrance there was a small pool of water.

"I am frightfully thirsty," said Derrick. "Will it be safe to drink?"

"I am pretty sure of it," said Pedro. "I've myself drunk water from pools and streams and never taken any harm."

Derrick stooped and lapped up a mouthful.

"It's cold, and rather alkaline," he said. "I won't drink any more till I know it's safe."

Beyond the pool the cave was already almost completely dark. As a measure of precaution Pedro fired his revolver, standing aside at the entrance to avoid the rush of any wild animal that the sound might have disturbed. But there was no movement within, and the cousins agreed that Fortune had smiled on them in affording so convenient a shelter. They chose for their resting-place a flat slab of rock about a dozen paces from the entrance, gathered armfuls of grasses to soften their seat, and settled themselves with their backs against the cave wall just as darkness fell.

"We had better sleep in turn," Derrick suggested. "And keep our rifles between our knees," said Pedro. "Some beast may take it into its head to come in during the night."

"Couldn't we start a fire?"

"The plants are so damp that we should only raise a smother. I wish we had had something to eat. By the morning I, at any rate, shall be ravenous, and I daresay you'll have found your appetite too. Have you ever slept upright?"

"Sometimes, at lecture, after I've been up late."

"Well, I'll take first watch. Sleep if you can."

It was some time before Derrick's head nodded forward. At first he was kept awake by the various noises of the forest. From a distance came the hollow booming of frogs, proving that a stream must be somewhere in the neighbourhood. Monkeys yelped in the trees; the nightjar kept up its mournful cry; birds which Derrick could not identify chattered discordantly; and once he was startled by a shrill scream: some small creature had fallen a victim to a more powerful enemy.

He did not know how long he had slept when Pedro awakened him.

"Your turn, old boy," said his cousin. "I've had great difficulty in keeping awake. Nothing has happened. Good luck!"

In a moment Pedro had fallen asleep on his bent arms. Derrick straightened his back and gazed into the darkness. The sounds had died away except for the chorus of frogs and the low drone of myriad insects. Derrick sat musing, going over in his mind the incidents of his long journey, wondering how he would like the life on his aunt's estate, trying to divert his thoughts from the fact that he was lost in the Amazon forest. Presently he noticed that the darkness was thinning; he could make out the outline of the archway. "Surely it's not morning already," he thought, and then realised that the moon was rising. Its light increased: the beams struck directly into the entrance: and Derrick was suddenly aware of a strange flicker in the moonlight, like motes in a sunbeam: it was as if innumerable gnats were flitting in a giddy dance. All at once the flicker ceased; the moonbeam was clear radiance; Derrick supposed that the swarm of gnats had flown away into the open. But no: after a short interval the minute forms came again into the light; they danced for a few moments and again suddenly disappeared.

Derrick began to be interested. The coming and going of these tiny objects seemed to occur at regular intervals, and were always sudden. Idly, as a means of passing the time, he took to measuring the interval, counting as though marking the seconds. He found that the flickering lasted about half a minute: for half a minute it ceased: then it suddenly recurred, and after the same interval disappeared.

"Strange insects!" he thought. "They keep time like a clock."

He watched the periodic movement until the moonbeam slanted across the cave and finally left the entrance altogether. Then his thoughts wandered into other fields, and by the time he woke Pedro for another spell the phenomenon had passed from his mind.

The long night dragged itself out. When Pedro roused Derrick from his last nap the dawn was stealing into the cave.

"Sorry to disturb you, old man. You were snoring beautifully. You wouldn't snore if you kept your neck straight: I've learnt that."

"I'm frightfully stiff," said Derrick, getting up and stretching himself. "And hungry!-my word, I am hungry. But I suppose we can't get anything to eat in the forest, so the sooner we find our camp the better."

They left the cave and came into the open. The forest was alive with noise, trumpeter birds, macaws, parrots, monkeys vying with one another in creating pandemonium.

"I'll try another shot," said Pedro, "in case our men are searching for us."

But, as on the previous evening, the sound of the rifle-shot died away without awakening any response.

"Our direction should be eastward," said Derrick, "but we can't tell east from west until the sun gets higher. Shall we wait, or try our luck?"

"I'm for starting. Anything rather than inaction."

"Very well. But wait just a minute."

Derrick had suddenly remembered the strange phenomenon he had witnessed in the moonlight, and was curious to discover whether the multitude of gnats had their home in the cave. He walked back through the archway; several yards of the cave were now visible in the daylight. The floor was for the most part of hard volcanic rock, but at one spot, on the side opposite to his resting-place, he came upon a pocket of sand some nine or ten feet across; it was greyish in colour, and almost as finely divided as ground pepper. Derrick took up a handful, and let it slip through his fingers, half expecting a swarm of gnats to rise from it. But there was no sign of insect life: the fine particles, apparently, were nothing but sand.

He went all round the cave, poking here and there with his rifle. So far as he could discover, there was no nest of gnats. Retracing his steps, he was suddenly aware of a disturbance in the sand. "They are there after all," he thought, and stooped down to examine it more closely. Instantly he drew back, uttering a low cry: for his face was peppered by innumerable particles of sand, which stung his flesh and made his eyes smart.

"Pedro, come here," he called.

"What is it?" asked his cousin, entering hurriedly. "Nothing alarming, but something very strange," replied Derrick. He explained what he had seen in the moonlight, and the sudden upward shower of sand. "I was fairly pelted," he added: "it came with extraordinary force."

"Strange, indeed! Let us see if it happens again." They stood back against the wall. For half a minute there was no movement in the sand: then a small cloud of particles rose with astonishing velocity to the roof, where they appeared to cling. The cousins noticed now for the first time that the roof was deeply encrusted with this finely divided powder. They prodded it with their rifles, and a small quantity fell; but a good deal, though apparently quite loose, remained clinging to the roof.

The upward shower ceased, but in half a minute it was repeated.

"I never saw anything so extraordinary," said Derrick. "One would think that the roof had some magnetic attraction for the sand; but that can't be the explanation, because the attraction couldn't be switched on and off at regular intervals."

"We haven't time for scientific investigation," said Pedro. "We've still to find our camp. Someday, if you like, we can come back here and—"

"I say," Derrick interrupted, "I've just noticed another thing. That last shower happened just after a trickle of water from the pool had reached the sand. Let us watch: a few minutes won't make much difference to us." In a minute or two they had definitely established the coincidence. An upward flight of sand took place only when water had trickled on to it from the pool. This fact led to a further discovery: that the pool overflowed periodically, and the overflow was caused by a periodic inflow of water from a narrow fissure at the base of the arch. About twice a minute a small gush from the fissure entered the pool, and a tiny rivulet trickled over the rocky floor until it reached the sand. As soon as the water touched the fringe of the sand pocket, the particles covered by the water instantly sprang vertically upward as though under some electric impulsion. When the inflow from the fissure ceased, the overflow from the pool ceased correspondingly, and the sand was left dry and undisturbed.

"Well, have you solved the mystery?" asked Pedro quizzingly.

"No; it's deeper than before. All we know is that this water-it has an alkaline taste, you remember-appears to force the sand in mad haste towards the roof. But nothing is explained. We don't know the properties of the water, or of the sand: I haven't the least idea why the sand behaves as it does; but there's no question that when the sand and the water meet, a tremendous force is generated, and I shan't be happy until I know more about it."

"Now you really must come away. Have you forgotten that we are lost?"

"Upon my word I had almost forgotten it; but—"

He paused. The archway had been suddenly darkened. Looking round, the cousins saw a tall figure standing in the daylight.

"You've given me a mighty deal of trouble," growled the stranger.

"YOU'VE GIVEN ME A MIGHTY DEAL OF TROUBLE."