Rob Harlow's Adventures Part 51

"Take care, Rob!" he shouted; "the water here swarms with alligators.

One little wretch was coming at me just now."

"Yes, sir, better mind!" cried Shaddy. "We've just had one here." Then turning to Rob,--

"Now, Master Rob, sir, what do you say to our spending the day making bows and arrows?"

"I'm ready."

"And perhaps, Mr Brazier, sir, you wouldn't mind trying for another fish for dinner, in case we don't get our shooting tackle ready."

Brazier nodded, and soon after prepared to fish, but even in their peculiar strait he could not refrain from looking longingly at plant, insect, and bird, especially at a great bunch of orchids which were pendent from a bough.

He did not seem likely to have much success in the pool or eddy where the other fish had been caught, and soon after moved off to another place, but meanwhile Rob and Shaddy were busy in the extreme, the latter making some half-charred pieces of wood from the fire into little hardened points ready for Rob to fix into the cleft he split in the end of each reed and then binding them tightly in, making a notch for the bow-string at the other end, and laying them down one by one finished for the sheaf he had set himself to prepare.

These done, Rob began upon the silken bow-string, pulling out the threads from his neckerchief and tying them together till he had wound up what promised to be enough, afterwards doubling and twisting them tightly, while Shaddy was whistling softly and using his pocket-knife as if it were a spoke-shave to fine down the thick end of the piece of wood intended for the bow.

"Strikes me, Mr Rob," he said, "that we shall have to use this very gingerly, or it will soon break. I know what I wish I had."

"What?" asked Rob.

"Rib of an old buffalo or a dead horse."

"What for?"

"To make a bow, my lad. It would only be a short one, but wonderfully strong. You'd have to use short arrows, and it would be hard to pull, but with a bow like that you could send an arrow through a deer. But as we haven't got one, nor any chance of finding one, we must do the best with this."

Rob watched with the greatest of interest the progress of the bow, busying himself the while with the string, which was finished first; and as it displayed a disposition to unwind and grow slack, it was thoroughly wetted and stretched between two boughs to dry.

"Shall you succeed in getting a bow made?" said Brazier, coming up.

"Oh yes, sir, I think so," said the guide; "better bow than archer, I'm thinking, without Mr Rob here surprises us all by proving himself a clever shot."

"Don't depend upon me," said Rob mournfully, for his thoughts were upon Joe and his sad end, and when by an effort he got rid of these depressing ideas, his mind filled with those of the Indians turning against them in so cowardly a way, leaving them to live or die, just as it might happen, while they escaped with the plunder in the boat.

"What are you thinking about, Rob?" said Brazier, after speaking to him twice without eliciting an answer.

"Of the men stealing our boat. It was so cruel."

"Don't you fret about it, Mr Rob! They'll soon get their doo of punishment for it. Worst day's work they ever did in their lives.

You'd think that chaps like they would have known better, but they're just like children. They see something pretty, and they'll do anything to get hold of it, and when they've got it they find it's of no use to 'em and are tired of it in an hour. I'll be bound to say they're wis.h.i.+ng they hadn't gone and were back along of us."

"Then they may repent and come?" said Brazier.

Shaddy uttered a low chuckling sound.

"And I shall save my collection after all."

"Don't you think it, sir!" said Shaddy seriously. "They couldn't get back, as I said; and if they could they daren't, on account of you and me. They've got a wholesome kind of respect for an Englishman, and no more dare face us now than fly."

Brazier sighed.

"Oh, never mind, sir!" said Shaddy cheerily. "Things might be worse than they are. We're alive, and can find means to live. We don't know but what we may get away all right after all. If I might give you my advice--"

"Give it, by all means," said Brazier.

"Well then, sir, seeing that you came out to collect your flowers and plants, I should say, 'Go on collecting just as you did before, and wait in hopes of a boat coming along.'"

"But it might be years first."

"Very well, sir; wait years for it. You'd have made a fine collection by that time."

Brazier smiled sadly as he thought of his dried-up specimens.

"Me and Mr Rob here will find plenty of some sort or another for the kitchen, so as you needn't trouble about that. What do you say?"

"That you teach good philosophy, and I'll take your advice. Not much virtue in it, Rob," he said, smiling, "for we cannot help ourselves.

There, I will do as you suggest as soon as we have made a few more arrangements for our stay."

"You leave them to us, sir," said Shaddy. "Mr Rob and I are quite strong enough crew for the job, and I saw some wonderful fine plants right at the edge of the forest yonder. I'd go and try for 'em now, sir."

"Shaddy's afraid that some one will come along and pick them first,"

cried Rob, laughing.

"No fear, sir, unless it's some big, saucy monkey doing it out of imitation and mischief. What do you say?"

"I say yes," replied Brazier. "It would be wrong to despair and foolish to neglect my chance now that I am thrown by accident among the natural history objects I came so many thousand miles to find."

As he spoke he moved off in the direction pointed out by their guide, while Shaddy chuckled directly they were alone.

"That's the way, Mr Rob," he said; "give him something to think about and make him busy. 'A merry heart goes all the day; a sad one tires in a mile,' so the old song says. Mind, I don't mean he's merry, but he'll be busy, and that's next door to it. Now then, I'm ready. Let's get the string on and bend our bow."

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

A SUDDEN ALARM.

The silken string Rob had twisted was found to be quite dry, and pretty well kept its shape as it was formed into a loop and pa.s.sed over the end of the bow nicked for its reception, and after bending secured with a couple of hitches over the other.

"Now, Mr Rob, sir, try it, and send one of your arrows as far as you can. Never mind losing it; we can soon make plenty more. That's the way! Steady! Easy and well, sir! Now then, off it goes!"

_Tw.a.n.g_! went the bow-string, and away flew the arrow high up toward the river, describing its curve and falling at last without the slightest splash into the water.

"Well done!" cried Shaddy, who had watched the flight of the arrow, shading his eyes with his hand. "That's good enough for anything. A little practice, and you'll hit famously."

"Oh, I don't know, Shaddy."

"Well, but I do, sir. If Indians can kill birds, beasts, and fish with their bows and arrows, surely a young Englishman can."