Gordon Stables

“ There were the usual sounds in the forest and all about, but otherwise the deep solitude was unbroken; for not a breath of wind was there to move the long grass that grew near the tent. It was unusually sultry and hot too. But for the creepies Tom would have laid himself down as the men were lying, on a bed of palm leaves, and slept sound till morning. He envied the poor fellows their sweet repose. The creepies did not appear to trouble them. Musquitoes might sing and buzz about their heads, drink their blood and go, but the men slept on. ”

“ Tom had already enjoyed some of the delights of Ecuador travelling—if, indeed, there was very much delight in it—and his adventures as far as Riobamba would be worth relating were it not that those which followed were far more thrilling. But there had been rivers to cross, over tumble-down bridges, mountains to climb along tracks called roads which sheep in England would disdain, deep forests to force through, and long stretches of sandy plains to struggle over by paths that seemed interminable. ”

“ So the cavies were cooked for Tom himself, and his guide shared them, washing the excellent food down with a cup of yerba-maté, which Samaro assured his white chief came all the way from Patagonia. A most delightful beverage it made; and it turned out that the guide had quite a store of it. After drinking it a gentle feeling of comfort seems instilled through every vein and nerve in the body, far more pleasant than that produced by tea, but by no means approaching the stimulating effects of wine or beer. ”

“ Tom was rejoiced. What if Bernard himself were in that village! Perhaps he would be one of the first to come to meet them. And what a strange story it would be his to tell!
Tom could not think of his captain’s son as a slave. No white man ever remained long in a position of actual slavery among Indians; and Bernard, if indeed he were alive, would doubtless be some great chief or warrior. ”

“ He was a good old-fashioned sailor, this uncle of Tommy, and a man who never could grow old; because he loved nature so, and nature never grows old: it is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
Uncle Robert was quite as good-natured as the big horse Glancer. But Glancer drew the line at pebbles under his saddle. The best-tempered horse in the world will draw the line at something or other. And uncle was the same. If anyone wanted to annoy him they had only to mention Tommy in a disparaging sort of way; then, like Glancer, Uncle Robert buck-jumped at once. ”

“ Perhaps a shoal of porpoises in the offing, and great jelly-fishes floating everywhere in the water like animated parasols.
They were entirely independent of the land when once fairly afloat; for the Oceana was well provisioned, and had over and above all her other stores a tiny library of the most readable books of adventure and poetry.
No, it was little wonder that Tom became a sailor under so pleasant a captain as Uncle Robert, and on board so fairy-like a yacht. ”

“ To keep stray pumas, or a wandering and inquisitive jaguar—the American tiger, at a respectable distance, a fire of wood was lit every evening, and near this lay talking low, and sometimes singing strange uncouth lilts of love and war, Tom’s five men. There was one drawback to their pleasure—the snakes. But it was a very slight one; for as a rule snakes do not bite unless you tread on their tails. They take good care you never tread on their heads; they glide away quickly enough to save the front portions of their anatomy. ”

“ He had never returned; but rumours reached the tribe that their white chief had been captured far beyond the rocky Andes, and that all his followers were killed by the hands of hostile Spaniards.
The poor ayah! She held Tom’s hand as her life was ebbing away. But she evidently was not afraid to die. The religion that had been instilled into her mind on board the Southern Hope had been all through her weary life a guiding star to her, and let us hope that when daylight streamed through the fence, and fell on her pale dead face, the soul had gone to a land where there is no more sorrow. ”

“ There was rejoicing fore and aft at the glad news; for if there is one word in our language that can convey a thrill of happiness to a sailor’s heart, that word is “home.” And every seaman on board a ship carries about with him all over the world affections and ties with the dear ones he has left behind that nothing but death itself can sever.
“In nine months’ time, my lad,” said Captain Herbert cheerily to Tom, who was walking the deck with his constant companion the cat at his heels. “In nine months’ time I hope we’ll be sailing up the Clyde. ”

“ They had to fight almost every yard of the way against trees and creepers and rocks. There were pumas in this forest; they sighted and startled jaguars even, and snakes seemed to be everywhere, but they thought of nothing but how best to get onwards.
When they reached the mountain top at last, and lay down to rest—fully five thousand feet above the sea-level—every man in the company felt as tired as if a long day’s work had been done.
A cool breeze was blowing at this great altitude however, and having partaken of a moderate luncheon, everybody felt once more as active as Black Tom himself. ”

“ Those elephantic tortoises that came almost every day to look for their favourite food in the valley—a species of sweet and esculent cactus—grew so tame at last that they no longer drew in their necks or even hissed when Tom or Brandy approached, which they never did without an armful of something for them to eat. ”

“ The birds screaming around the boat became spirits with human voices and kept saying things to him, and awful-looking black lizards swam in the water near.
Then through the mist and haze that had gathered before his eyes he could dimly see the negro lad approach nearer. The boy took someone’s oars gently out of his hand, and laid someone down in the bottom of the boat. But who was the someone, Tom wondered. It could not be himself, for he felt nothing. ”

“ When Tom awoke one morning and looked out of his window he could see a beautiful black painted barque lying at anchor in the bay, with tall tapering spars shining white in the sunlight, as if they had been formed of satin-wood. Then Tom knew that his time had come. ”

“ It was a delightful morning, with a breeze blowing from the distant mountain slopes of Chimborazo; and the throng of Indians spear-armed and clad in their gay-coloured ponchos, the huts and houses, the cattle, horses, and strange-looking llamas, the greenery of the shrubs and bushes, the jagged hills and blue sky above, flecked with many a fleecy cloud, made up a scene that was both beautiful and picturesque. ”

“ You shall be wealthy. In the orange grove down yonder, under the grave you dug, are more gold and precious stones than we could carry or even lift. I found the treasure; but I touch it not unless you consent to share it.”
“This, then,” said Tom laughing now, “is the secret of the grave we had thought desecrated. Come, then, we shall bury the skeletons elsewhere; and, if we are fortunate ever to get away from this lonely island, I will share your treasure.”
“Thank you, brother, thank you. How good the Great Spirit is to us at last!”
CHAPTER XX.
“O, BERNARD, IT IS YOUR FATHER’S SHIP!.” ”

“ They were not left long in doubt; for Samaro, who had entered the town some distance in front of Tom, stopped short, then turning round beckoned to his master to hurry.
Here on its back lay a corpse. The neck had been fearfully gashed with a spear, and one hand was almost severed through. The unfortunate man must have been alive but a short time before, for decomposition, so rapid in these hot regions, had not yet set in.
They found the bodies of many more murdered Indians; indeed, almost every house told its sad story of massacre, not even the children nor old women having been spared. ”

“ Out at last came the wanderers upon a higher region still, and now they had to traverse for miles a kind of hilly plateau that looked altogether like the work of some wonderful landscape gardener. It was a plateau covered with innumerable little tree-clad, fern-clad, moss-clad, flower-covered hills, with rocks in the shape of gray needles, silvery boulders, square towers, domes, and minarets, peeping up through the foliage everywhere. Round and among these wound many a little footpath—the footpaths of wild beasts—but none, probably, more dangerous than the timid agouti, the cavy, or peccary. ”

“ He knew all the dangers to which he would be exposed; and although the very idea of being a lonely wanderer through Ecuador wilds appealed to the romance of his character, he would not willingly have risked his young life had not a greater reward than pleasure only seemed to depend upon the success of his expedition, namely, the realization of his dream, and the finding of lost Bernard Herbert. So he prayed now for a blessing on his endeavours; and for an unseen hand to support him in his journeyings, and to shield him from the dangers in forest, in jungle, and plain. ”

“ It is but little more than a fortnight since Tom was busily engaged getting cargo on board the Caledonia at the noisy and far from romantic seaport of Callao. It is little over a week since he bade adieu to Captain Herbert and his friends{79} in the ship, and started from Guayaquil on his daring journey into the wilds of this veritable land of mountain and flood. It is little over a week, and yet it seems an age, and here he is at Riobamba; a town of strange low houses, few of which can boast more than a single apartment, but standing in their own grounds nevertheless. ”

“ A town which does not look very imposing from a distance, and certainly does not improve on closer acquaintance; built on a sandy plain, in sight of and surrounded by the highest giants of the Andes.
It is night, and Tom, tired of wandering through the streets, is returning to the outskirts, where his little encampment is stationed. He prefers the company of Indians even, to a sojourn for even a single night in the inexpressibly filthy rooms of the city. ”

“ On rushes the maddened brute, with tail erect and awful horned head at the charge. It seems as if nothing can save Tom. The cartridge will neither go in nor come out from where it has stuck. But at that moment something rushes past Tom which at first he can hardly see. It is his feline friend, and he springs at once on the bull’s head with a yell of anger and claws at his eyes. This is more than the bull has bargained for. He pauses and tosses his head wildly in the air, but the cat keeps firm hold. ”

“ Yonder are green parks or fields, with cattle and donkeys quietly browsing in them, and shrubby knolls and patches of trees in their midst; yonder a beautiful lake or pond, with cattle wading therein or standing drowsily in its shallows; yonder a racing streamlet, like a thread of silver, winding through the plain till lost among the woods.
Down towards this paradise the Crusoes now hurry, new wonders greeting their sight at every turn. The forest itself is garlanded and festooned with flowers, trailing, climbing, and hanging, and shedding beauty everywhere. ”

“ The ingenuity of man has resuscitated me, and now I have gladly become his servant and slave. I warm the castle, the palace, and the humble cot. I give light as well as heat; I am swifter than the eagle in my flight. I am more powerful than the wind; I drag man’s chariots across the land, I waft his ships to every clime and every sea. ”

“ But a horse occasionally got frightened, and lost for a time all his presence of mind.
One day Tom was riding on in front on just such a pathway as that I have mentioned. It was nowhere more than five feet wide; the mountain rising steep close on one side, the yawning gulf at the other, with bushes clinging to its edges. Stones occasionally came tumbling down from above with a hurtling noise; but when they rolled over the precipice they were heard no more, for they had fallen into space, and the sudden silence was awfully suggestive. Now and then came a sharp angle or curve in the pathway ”

“ Before he sat down on a package—which was the only thing by way of a chair the tent contained—he began to empty his pockets, and Tom could not help smiling at the magnitude and diversity of their contents. Pots of jelly, parcels of Iceland moss, boxes of marvellous tonic pills, bags of arrow-root, and bottles of wine. He handed the things one by one to Samaro, and then he sat down.
“Now, young fellow,” he said, “you haven’t got anything else in this world to do or to think about but getting well. And as to that, why, your worthy servant and myself will shore you up in a brace of shakes. ”

“ It is seldom indeed that they can be seen so distinctly as they are to-night; but when the moon rises slowly up into the deep-blue sky,{80} flooding all the scene with its dreamy light, the view on every side is grand in the extreme.
And those everlasting hills, the brilliant moon, and the silvery stars, are to Tom’s mind but steps in a ladder that leads his thoughts to heaven itself. He is so impressed with the solemnity of the whole scene, that before he retires to his tent he must needs kneel down and pray. He has much to pray for ”

“ But had Tom been even in robust health, a voyage like that he was now embarked in would have been pleasant in the extreme.
The ship was everything that could be desired from bowsprit to binnacle. She had every good quality except speed. But who could wish to speed over an ocean like that which sparkled all around them in the sun’s rays; a sun, mind, that did not feel a single degree too hot, albeit they were almost on the equator. ”

“ Dick and Jack don’t care anything about ancestors; but I do, Theena. And do you know what I am going to do?”
“No,” said ’Theena.
“After I grow a big man, I mean.”
“Yes, after you grow a big man.”
“Well, I’m going to make lots of money first, you know. For I shall be a sailor, and sail away to strange countries where the gold lies in heaps in the woods and wilds, watched over by terrible dragons.”
“Yes, Tom, I suppose there would be dragons.” ”