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Title: Aniwee: or, the Warrior Queen. A tale of the Araucanian Indians and the mythical Trauco people
Author: Dixie, Florence, Lady
Language: English
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ANIWEE;
THE WARRIOR QUEEN.
[Illustration: ANIWEE LEADING THE CHARGE (_p. 270_).]
ANIWEE;
THE WARRIOR QUEEN.
_A TALE OF THE ARAUCANIAN INDIANS AND THE MYTHICAL TRAUCO PEOPLE._
BY
LADY FLORENCE DIXIE,
AUTHOR OF
“REDEEMED IN BLOOD,” “GLORIANA; OR, THE REVOLUTION OF 1900,” “THE YOUNG
CASTAWAYS,” ETC., ETC.
LONDON:
HENRY AND COMPANY,
BOUVERIE STREET, E.C.
1890.
Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
Dedication.
TO
THE MEMORY OF
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
PRINCE LEOPOLD, DUKE OF ALBANY,
THIS VOLUME
Is respectfully Dedicated,
BY THE GRACIOUS PERMISSION OF
HER ROYAL HIGHNESS
THE DUCHESS OF ALBANY.
God gave thee life,—a life of noble aims,
Brief, yet inspired by loftiness of thought,—
Thought, the great offspring of a mighty pow’r,
Which thou didst wield to lead thy fellow-men
Along great duty’s hard and ruggèd path.
Thine was a bright example. High aloft
Thy virtues flash’d their pure inspiring rays,
Piercing the murky clouds of human sin,
And lighting up the realm where goodness dwells.
To know thee was to love thee. Thine the pow’r
To weave thy spell around the hearts of men.
A noble life is wondrous, beautiful.
And such was thine, brief—yea, alas! too brief,—
Yet not one mis-spent hour could claim of thee
Its stern account, as o’er the bound’ry line,
Across the frontier, ’twixt life and death,
With fearless step thou sought’st the better land.
They call thee dead! Nay, surely ’tis not Death
To pass from one world to another realm?
’Tis but a pilgrimage, a heavenly tour
Throughout the vast creation of our God.
Nay, dead thou art not, for thy spirit lives,
And its pure influence will never die.
Hist’ry will bid the rising youth behold
A bright example and a stainless life.
If, then, to others ’tis a beacon light,
A model for the Imitator’s art,
Ah! surely, brief as was thy sojourn here,
Thou hast not dwelt amongst us all in vain.
F. D.
[Illustration]
INTRODUCTION.
I was once a child myself, and dearly loved those books of adventure
which told of strange lands and strange people I had never seen. Yet,
when I read about the North American Indians and their wild ways, I
would often wonder why there were so few books which told us about the
Indians of South America and the beautiful countries contained therein;
and I determined some day to visit those lands if I lived, and tell the
generation of girls and boys following me all about them. Well, my young
friends, I have told you a good deal in “The Young Castaways,” and now I
am going to tell you still more in the following pages. I am going to
tell you about a splendid unexplored country, and several adventures
that happened therein, and I hope some day that some of you will go and
see those countries, and penetrate even further into their mysteries,
than did the girls and boys who figure in this book. Those amongst you
who have read “The Young Castaways” will renew acquaintance with old
friends, which, no doubt, will give you pleasure.
I remain, my dear girls and boys,
Your sincere friend,
THE AUTHORESS.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGES
The youthful Warrior Queen—Joyful
News—Expectation—Inacayal—Tolderias—La Guardia Chica—Every
Inch a Queen—The Whites’ Approach 1–11
CHAPTER II.
A Ceremony—Aniwee’s Welcome—A Happy Meeting—Midshipman
Harry—The Girl Cacique—The Cristianos’
Attack—Treachery—Foiled 12–20
CHAPTER III.
Aniwee Fighting—A False Alarm—Wounded—Inacayal’s
Charge—Graviel’s Tale—A Great Feast—The young Queen speaks 21–29
CHAPTER IV.
Harry and Topsie—Jest and Earnest—Lazies!—A Sport Programme—The
great Gold Mine—Hospitality—The Start—A Fairy Scene 30–38
CHAPTER V.
Welcome—A Hunt proposed—The Hunting Party—Baguales—Wild Horses
sighted—The Indian Charge—The Stallion’s Charge—The Grey
Mare—“I say, where’s Topsie?” 39–47
CHAPTER VI.
Hunter and Hunted—A Race for Life—A risky Alternative—A
terrible Crash—Topsie’s Captor—The Trauco Being—A painful
Position—A silent Conversation—Thirst 48–56
CHAPTER VII.
Missing—Anxiety—The Haunted Forest—Traces of Topsie—The wounded
Labrador—Shag’s Impatience—Shag under the Surgeon’s
Knife—Preparing for Action—To the Rescue—“It is God’s Will” 57–66
CHAPTER VIII.
Plans made—Shag to the Fore—Shag takes the Field—At Fault—The
Sun shines—A tedious March—Demons of the Andes—The Mystic
Bell—“Topsie, dear old Topsie” 67–76
CHAPTER IX.
Retrospect—The Wild young Lady of the Forest—An alarming
Situation—Strange Tactics—A skilful Shot—Again the Mystic
Bell—A mysterious Incident—Piñone—A Discovery 77–85
CHAPTER X.
“The Trauco People!”—Piñone and Topsie—Plans of Escape—Caught
in a Trap—A Tale—A chance of Escape—A desperate
Enterprise—Recapture 86–95
CHAPTER XI.
A Traitor—Hostilities—A cunning Device—Drugged—A Thief in the
Night—“Treason!”—Graviel Disconsolate—Search 96–104
CHAPTER XII.
Anguish—The Trauco’s Retreat—A successful Ruse—Topsie saved—A
piteous Sight—The Trauco’s Death—Aniwee startled—The Face of
the Dead—A joyful Meeting 105–113
CHAPTER XIII.
The Search begun—Regrets—A suspicious Movement—Pursuit—A Ride
for Life—Capture 114–122
CHAPTER XIV.
Once more—The Hand of Time—Forebodings—Terrible News—Stolen—A
sullen Captive—“Speak or Die”—“Where is La Guardia Chica?” 123–131
CHAPTER XV.
Gloom—Good Advice—Aniwee Busy—A fruitless Search—Kai Chileno’s
Treachery—Led Forth to Judgment—A Speech—“If the Men fear,
the Women do not”—Piqued 132–140
CHAPTER XVI.
Volunteers chosen—In for a Lark—Harry again—Entering the
Forest—“A Black Jaguar!”—Piñone’s Attack—Death of the
Jaguar—A Bivouac—A Story asked for 141–149
CHAPTER XVII.
Piñone’s Tale—A strange Scene—A heavy Sleep—Departure—The
Mystic Bell—White Traucos—The terrible Demons 150–158
CHAPTER XVIII.
“The Demons of the Andes!”—A fierce Fight—The great Trauco
Village—The Queen’s Welcome—A mysterious Fire—Equal
Occupations—A Gold Forge—A Black-ringed Jaguar—Liberty 159–167
CHAPTER XIX.
Preparations—A kindly Queen—Escape—Flight—Pursuit—A heavy
Sleep—A Welcome—Food Supply—The great Gold Mine of Or 168–175
CHAPTER XX.
Wonderful!—Exploring the Mine—A terrible Catastrophe—Agony and
Joy—Suspense—Splendid Self-sacrifice—The Wild Queen’s
Heroism—Under Guard 176–183
CHAPTER XXI.
Sleepless—A restless Night—Through the Forest—A Gallop to the
River—Aniwee Moody—Mary in Jeopardy—A Monster—“A diabolical
Serpent” 184–191
CHAPTER XXII.
The Search Party—Caution—Reconnoitring—The Baby
Prisoner—Departure—Consultation—In Council—A Critical Moment 192–199
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Trauco Village—Reconnoitring—The Prisoner sighted again—A
noble Impulse—The only Refuge—The Virtue of Powder and Shot—A
formidable Array—Retreat 200–208
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Old Man’s Grave—Provisions—A Hunt Party—The Start—A monster
Bull—“El lazo, el lazo!”—An indiscreet Shot—A narrow Squeak
for Life 209–216
CHAPTER XXV.
Topsie remonstrates—Shag the Hero—A Rest and a Feast—Startled—A
perilous Encounter—Just in Time—The Demons again—Sir
Francis’s Tale—The Raft 217–225
CHAPTER XXVI.
Travelling—Memories of the Past—Excitement—The great Gold Mine
of Or—Blocked—Gold, Gold, Gold everywhere—Earthquake—A
terrible Calamity—Buried Alive! 226–234
CHAPTER XXVII.
British Pluck—A Chance—Topsie’s noble Resolve—The Girl
Volunteer—Steadfast in Hope—The Sandstone
Vein—Suspense—Excelsior—Victory 235–243
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Communication—The Ascent begun—Shag goes Aloft—“Aniwee will
leave the Last”—Piñone troubled—Graviel’s Devotion—The
Avalanche—A brave young Queen—Gratitude—A great
Landslip—Buried 244–254
CHAPTER XXIX.
Old Scenes—Last Day in the Mountains—A Bird’s
Paradise—Preparations—Good News—Horses in Plenty—Gilwinikush
and Aniwee—A Joyful Meeting 255–262
CHAPTER XXX.
“Something’s up”—Serious News—An entrenched Position—A forced
March—Preparations for the Fight—Before the Battle—The
Charge—Aniwee transformed—A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing—Struck
down 263–272
CHAPTER XXXI.
The War-whoop—“It is Graviel!”—A personal Encounter—An anxious
Moment—“Aniwee is Well”—White Prisoners—A Calm—Safe 273–280
CHAPTER XXXII.
Terms of Peace—The Return of the Baguales—A great Peace—Freedom 281–284
CONCLUSION.
What followed—For the Sake of the Trauco Queen 285–286
[Illustration]
ANIWEE;
OR,
_THE WARRIOR QUEEN_.
A TALE OF THE ARAUCANIAN INDIANS AND THE MYTHICAL TRAUCO PEOPLE.
CHAPTER I.
Day was drawing to a close. The setting sun was glinting and gleaming on
the sparkling mica rocks, which border the deep gorges and high cliffs
of the gradually rising ground that leads upwards from the plains of
Geylum in Patagonia, to Las Manzanas in the territory of the Araucanian
or Warrior Indians. High above the mica rocks rise the hills that skirt
the Andes chain, and from the summit of these hills, the scene is one of
magnificence and glory.
So thought Aniwee, the youthful Warrior Queen, as she sat astride her
horse, and watched the sunlight streaking the Rio Limay far below, and
bathing in rose-coloured brilliance the snow-clad Cordilleras, which
look down on the wooded ranges of hills beneath them, and which contain
the splendid apple groves belonging to the great Manzaneros tribe.
When we last saw Aniwee she had just bidden Harry and Topsie Vane a
tender and pathetic farewell. Those who have perused the pages of “The
Young Castaways,” will remember that she was the only child and daughter
of Gilwinikush, head Cacique of the Tehuelches or Patagonian Indians,
and that at the age of fourteen and a half she had married Piñone, the
only son of the great Cuastral, Lord of the Araucanian, Manzaneros,
Chenna, or Warrior Indians. They will also remember how Aniwee had
distinguished herself, how she had won the proud titles of Huntress and
Warrior, and how at length she had become one of the Warrior tribe
herself.
But Aniwee’s spell of wedded life was brief. Scarce a year and a half
had passed away, when news was brought to her that Cuastral and Piñone
had been treacherously slain by a party of Argentines who had lured them
to attend an ostensible peace parliament, the Araucanians and
Argentines—or, as these latter were better known to the Indians, the
Cristianos—having previously been at war with one another.
Thus at the age of sixteen Aniwee had found herself deprived of her
dearly loved husband, and the mother of a little baby girl, his child
and hers. And so impressed were the Araucanians with their young Queen’s
sagacity, courage, and devotion to their interests, that they had,
without a dissentient voice, elected the child to be Cacique over them,
and appointed Aniwee, its mother, as Queen-Regent.
Surely this was a triumph for Aniwee. Barely over the age of sixteen,
and yet indeed a Warrior Queen—Queen of a mighty tribe, famed far and
wide for its valour and its deeds of daring and renown.
Yet was Aniwee equal to the occasion. Had she not Cuastral’s death and
her own Piñone’s death to avenge? Was not her beautiful adopted country
hemmed in on all sides by foes—Chilenos on the one hand, Argentines on
the other—and should she not fight to the very death in its defence? It
was a country well worth fighting for, extending from Las Manzanas on
the south to Mendoza far away in the north, and peopled by hundreds of
the great Warrior tribe, dwelling in fixed tolderias, many amidst the
rich groves of piñones, apples, and araucarias with which the country
abounded. Considerable wealth had fallen to her share when the Caciques’
deaths were announced, all of which she purposed holding for her child.
Large flocks and herds, stores of silver ornaments, immense troupiglias
of horses, and numberless ponchos, mantles, etc., were stored away
amongst her subjects and in their safe keeping. Her power was absolute,
her word law, her army efficient and devoted. Little had Aniwee dreamt,
only three years previously, when she chafed and fretted at her
seemingly useless life in the Patagonian toldos of her father
Gilwinikush, that in so short a time would she wield power over so
magnificent a people as the Araucanians.
She had ridden almost to the boundary line of Araucanian territory for
the fifth time that day, and had anxiously scanned the distant pampas of
Patagonia with the true, unerring eye of an Indian. The reason for this
was that ten days previously Aniwee had received joyous news, news which
had brought the blood rushing to her cheeks with glad surprise, news in
the shape of a letter from Harry and Topsie Vane, her dearly loved white
friends, in which they apprised her of their intention to proceed at
once to visit her, in the company of their uncle and aunt, Sir Francis
and Lady Vane, and their three cousins, Freddy, Willie, and Mary.
On receiving this news, Aniwee was hunting away in the distant hills
which fringe the Cordillera range beyond Las Manzanas, but immediately
calling together her followers, she bade them summon from different
parts three hundred picked warriors, and likewise gave orders to others
to proceed at once to Las Manzanas, and prepare there the fixed
tolderias for the reception of her white guests. Then Aniwee selected
fifty of her best horses, a fine herd of cattle, and a flock of sheep,
and sent them forward to the rendezvous, following herself with the
little baby Cacique, and attended by the three hundred picked warriors,
who had assembled quickly at her summons.
The letter from Harry and Topsie had been written from El Carmen or
Patagones on the Rio Negro, and Aniwee had calculated, that if they
started at once, they would reach Las Manzanas in ten days. She had sent
forward a small escort preceded by a Chasqui, and then settled down to
await their coming.
But when the day came for which she had timed their arrival, Aniwee grew
feverish with excitement. All the morning and afternoon she had watched
for her friends, but there were no signs of their coming. Then, as the
sun sunk low over the distant prairies and lit to radiance the snowy
Andes far away in the background, the youthful Queen aroused herself
from the reverie into which she had fallen, and gave one last glance
ahead. At once her dark eyes lit up with eagerness and expectation, a
happy smile parted her lips, a low, glad cry escaped them as she stood
straight up in her stirrups and waved a silken handkerchief around her
head. The next moment she unslung from off her shoulders a neat
Winchester repeater, and through the still evening air in quick
succession rung the sharp reports of the rifle. A pre-arranged signal,
evidently; for no sooner did these reports ring forth, than far down in
a valley beneath, a succession of bright fires began to shoot up, a
Union Jack flag floated from a high pole, and dusky forms came and went
amid the lurid glare.
Just a faint cloud on the pampa. That was all that Aniwee’s gaze had
rested upon, and yet her practised sight could not deceive her. She knew
full well that it heralded the approach of a party of mounted persons,
and Aniwee had not the slightest doubt as to who these persons were.
They were coming on at a smart pace, and the young Queen, after taking
stock of the distance which yet lay between her and her white friends,
turned her horse’s head in the direction of the Indian camp. A pretty
steep descent she had to make, too, in order to reach it; but her steed
was wary and sure-footed, and with the blood of the bagual or wild horse
in him, not likely to make a mistake.
On reaching the tolderias Aniwee found her warriors busy adorning
themselves with bright-coloured ponchos, and fastening on their silver
spurs. A troupiglia of horses had been driven up, and the owners were
picking out their steeds therefrom, and saddling and bridling them.
Each warrior carried a long lance, from the point of which a small
pennon fluttered, and many of the Caciques and Caciquillos were
conspicuous for the richness of their attire and the brightness of their
silver ornaments.
A small boy, gaudily dressed, was awaiting outside Aniwee’s tolderia,
and as she rode up respectfully held her bridle rein. As she sprung from
her horse, a young man stepped forward to meet her.
If abundance of fine clothes, gleaming ornaments, and jingling spurs can
make a man handsome in a woman’s eyes, then Inacayal might be styled
good-looking. Now Inacayal was a Cacique of high degree, being none
other than the son of Quintuhual, brother of the great Cuastral, and
therefore first cousin to Piñone, Aniwee’s dead husband. In the natural
course of events, and in accordance with the laws hitherto prevailing
amongst the Araucanians, Inacayal ought to have been proclaimed
paramount Cacique on the death of Cuastral and Piñone, inasmuch as this
latter’s child was _only a girl_. But the example of Aniwee had so
impressed the warriors, and both Piñone and Cuastral had been so highly
respected and loved by the great tribe, that by a vast majority this
people had declared that Guardia, Piñone’s baby girl, should reign over
them; and, as we have already seen, Aniwee had been appointed
Queen-Regent, with the full powers of an absolute Cacique.
Now this arrangement did not at all suit the ambition of Inacayal, who
had every desire to wield the power entrusted to Aniwee. Had not he,
Inacayal, accompanied Cuastral and Piñone on their great raid? Had he
not, with his own eyes, seen them treacherously killed, and their bodies
carried off by the Cristianos, and had he not brought back the news,
expecting to see himself at once proclaimed Cacique? His anger and
disappointment may well be imagined when affairs took the turn
described, and he found himself supplanted by a mere baby, and a girl.
But Inacayal, though he had thought it politic to assume an air of
submission and acquiescence, was far from feeling well disposed towards
Aniwee. Very bitterly did he resent her intrusion where he had hoped to
stand alone, and he had secretly made up his mind to work not only her
destruction, but that of the little Guardia as well. A very King John
was this crafty Inacayal.
“Do the friends of the Great Queen draw nigh?” he inquired, with a
smile, after saluting Aniwee Indian fashion, by raising his right hand,
shading his right eye, and touching his forehead with his thumb, middle,
and right fingers.
“Yes, Inacayal,” she answered, with a glad laugh, “and they will be here
ere the sun seeks its rest. Do you form up the companies of our warriors
while I deck myself as befits a Warrior Queen.”
The young man’s eyes sparkled with anger and rage at these words, but
deftly concealing his feelings, he again saluted respectfully and
retired, Aniwee passing into her own tolderia.
This erection stood some seventeen feet high, being spacious enough
inside to accommodate fifty persons. It was closed in all round by skin
coverings, the doorway being fronted by a curtain of gay-coloured silk.
All round the tolderia ran a kind of verandah, the canopy of which was
formed of interwoven branches covered with bright green leaves. A small
Union Jack flag ornamented the top of this structure, which inside
possessed an air of comfort and civilisation, quite strange to behold.
Several beds, made of the soft warm skins of the vicuña and guanaco, and
raised from the ground on neatly arranged blocks of wood, stood side by
side in line; and shields, bows and arrows, spears, guns and rifles,
puma, guanaco, and vicuña heads were tastefully and skilfully hung from
the woodwork and pine-posts, to which the hide walls of this spacious
dwelling were attached. Lying on one of these beds, and cosily wrapped
in a magnificent skunk and wild cat fur capa, was a little
copper-coloured baby, with large dark eyes and a solemn grave face. Its
tiny hands grasped two small silver bell ornaments, which they jingled
together unceasingly. Every now and then the baby would break into a
joyous laugh and crow with delight, sounds which instantly chased away
the solemn look on its face, and brought in its place a merry, happy
expression.
When Aniwee entered, baby at once dropped its playthings, and stretching
out its little arms to the girl, gave vent to sounds of delight, judging
by the smiles that wreathed its well-formed dark red lips. The young
Queen at once responded to its evident invitation to approach, and
crossing to the bed, lifted the tiny mite in her arms.
“Guardia, child of my heart,” she exclaimed tenderly, as the little
creature clasped her round the neck, “was Guardia looking for Mamita?”
Again the little Guardia crowed and laughed. She could not speak, being
barely eight months old, but she could show how much she loved her young
mother by the numberless caresses which she bestowed upon her.
Aniwee had however the important duty to perform of arraying herself in
warrior attire.
“Graviel,” she called; and as she spoke a tall slim Indian youth arose
from the side of the baby Cacique’s bed, by which he had been keeping
watch. Whenever Aniwee left the child she always placed it in the care
of this boy, for she knew that she could trust him. He had been Piñone’s
favourite attendant, and Graviel worshipped the very ground that Aniwee
trod on. He would have died before harm befel his charge.
“Graviel, take the Cacique,” observed Aniwee gravely, “and amuse her.”
The Indian youth obeyed, handling his baby chieftainess with the
greatest care, and in a few moments he had completely engrossed her
attention by singing to her in a low chanting voice.
Meanwhile Aniwee turned her attention to her attire. Drawing aside a
silken curtain, she entered an alcove in the tolderia, which was
reserved as her robing room, and was soon busy, aided by her Indian
women. When she issued therefrom she looked splendid indeed. A
magnificent crimson poncho hung over her shoulders adorned with
sparkling golden threads, and she had on snowy-white drawers and neat
potro boots, upon which silver spurs jingled. A short sword in a bright
silver scabbard hung by her side, and on her head, poised slightly on
one side, was a cap of crimson velvet encircled by a band of massive
silver, from which drooped two grey ostrich feathers. Decidedly Aniwee
looked very handsome, and every inch a Queen.
Under the soothing influence of Graviel’s chant the baby Queen had
fallen asleep, and lay peacefully in the arms of her faithful young
retainer. Bending over her, the girl mother imprinted a gentle kiss on
her forehead. Even as she did so, the far-off sound of a bugle-call
penetrated to the tolderia, and brought Aniwee at once to attention.
“Quick, Graviel!” she exclaimed. “Take the Cacique to Blancha, and bid
her put the child to rest, and do you keep watch on the tolderia. Yonder
bugle heralds the approach of the great British Caciques, whom Aniwee
must hasten to welcome.”
A loud shout from three hundred warrior throats greeted her appearance.
A milk-white horse waited her in front of the tolderia. In a moment
Aniwee was in the saddle, and looking eagerly ahead. Ah! yes, indeed,
her white friends were near. There was no mistaking Harry Vane’s loud
and familiar “whoo whoop.” The next instant the white horse swept up the
valley at full speed in the van of three hundred shouting warriors,
brandishing their spears, firing off their guns, and charging upon the
advancing party.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER II.
It may be naturally surmised that Sir Francis and Lady Vane and their
children, who had never before witnessed a South American Indian
“Ceremony of Welcome,” were not a little startled on beholding Aniwee
and her warriors charging to meet them in apparently so warlike a
fashion. But to Harry and Topsie, it was neither an unusual nor a
terrifying sight, accustomed as they had been during their sojourn
amongst the Patagonians to scenes and occurrences of a like nature.
Knowing, however, the punctilious etiquette of both Patagonians and
Araucanians, in the matter of going religiously through the whole
ceremony, our two young friends drew rein, and with a few reassuring
words to their uncle, aunt, and cousins, awaited the Araucanian charge.
“It’s all right, Uncle Francis,” volunteered the young midshipman (for
Harry had long overstepped the important boundary which separates the
naval cadet from the midshipman); “they are not going to hurt us. But I
say, watch them closely and all they do; for directly they form up quiet
into line, we must go through exactly the same form of antics as they.
Oh, Topsie! do look,” he continued somewhat eagerly; “there’s Aniwee,
dear little Aniwee, as I live.”
“Little indeed,” laughed his sister slyly as she criticised the tall,
graceful figure of the young Amazon on the rapidly approaching white
horse. “If I’m not very much mistaken, Harry, old boy, she’s bigger than
you. My word, she has grown since we saw her last!”
Ere Harry could reply, Aniwee and her warriors were upon them. Halting
suddenly when within fifty paces of the new-comers, the warriors formed
rapidly into columns of three abreast, and began galloping madly around
the small party, firing off their guns and revolvers, shouting and
yelling, and waving their bolas around their heads. This having been
continued for several minutes, ranks were suddenly opened, and each man
charged forward shouting, “Koue,” and thrusting at an imaginary foe. The
supposed enemy having been dislodged, a halt was sounded, the Indians
formed quickly into several long lines, and remained motionless as
statues, conspicuous at their head being Aniwee, Inacayal, and other
Caciques and Caciquillos.
“Now, aunt, now, uncle, come on, Freddy, Willie, and Mary, it’s our
turn,” cried Topsie, as she brought her horse alongside her brother’s,
and beckoned to Willie to fall in on the other side of her. The
Araucanian escort, which had been sent forward by Aniwee to meet them,
quickly formed into threes, and in another moment the little party were
galloping as madly as the others had done, around the long lines of
solemn Araucanians. Joining in the scrimmage, with loud barks of glee,
was Topsie’s dog Shag, our dear old friend Shag of Castaway renown.
The shouting, firing, and galloping having come to an end, Harry and
Topsie at once rode up to Aniwee with loud cries of welcome. It is not
easy to describe the joy of the Indian girl at seeing her old friends
again; for the Indian character is phlegmatic, and by no means
demonstrative in its affections; and although Aniwee was an exception to
this rule, she had a part to play before her warriors, and was bound to
look dignified, as befitted a great Cacique.
But Harry and Topsie could see tears in her great dark eyes as she
clasped their hands, and bade them welcome to Araucanian soil. They had
heard all about the deaths of Cuastral and Piñone, and therefore avoided
touching on delicate and painful ground by alluding to them.
“How big you have grown, Aniwee!” exclaimed Topsie, after the first
greetings were over, and the Queen, with her guests, was riding along
the valley towards the tolderias, followed by her warriors. “We left you
a child, but you look like a woman now.”
“Aniwee is a woman,” answered the Indian girl with all the dignity of
sixteen and a half summers. “Aniwee is no longer a child.”
They were conversing in Spanish, a language which, by the way, Harry had
“got up” sufficiently to make himself understood in view of the visit to
Aniwee. “He wasn’t going to be made a fool of again, and look like one,
as had been the case in Patagonia,” he had declared, “when all the
speaking and interpreting had been done by Topsie, and he had had to sit
by and act the part of audience.” Of course, now that he had become a
Spanish scholar, this was no longer necessary, and he rejoiced thereat
exceedingly.
“Of course you are not a child now, Aniwee,” he answered in a somewhat
important tone. “We are all three grown up. Let me see, you are sixteen
and a half, and I and my sister celebrated our seventeenth birthday a
few days ago. We are all of a great age.” Harry possessed the knack of
saying funny things with a face grave as an owl. His remark tickled
Topsie immensely, but was received by Aniwee with dignified
complaisance.
“How old are your cousins?” she inquired, looking at Freddy, Willie, and
Mary Vane, who were riding close alongside them.
“Well, that one there is a man,” observed Harry, indicating Freddy with
his finger. “He is sixteen, and a great warrior. The other two are
children still. The boy is fourteen, the girl thirteen,—just about the
age you were, Aniwee, when we first met you. The boy, like myself, is a
sailor, and the girl would like to be one too, if only the laws of our
country would permit it.”
“Then women, too, are slaves in the great white land, the same as my
father’s people are?” inquired the Indian girl, with a bitter smile.
“Oh no, Aniwee!” answered Topsie quickly; “not slaves. For you see,
Aniwee, unlike the Patagonian women, they don’t do the whole work of the
nation. The men have to work, too, and not simply feast, hunt, and make
war as your father’s men do. All the same, women in our country can’t be
warriors, or be sailors on ships, or attend Parliament. That is what my
brother means.”
“And don’t they want to be warriors, and sea Caciques, and attend
Parliamentos?” again inquired the young Queen.
“Some do, Aniwee,” replied Topsie. “I, for instance, and my cousin Mary,
would like to be sea Caciques. But we must alter the laws before we can
become so. Great changes often come quickly, however. If, four years
ago, the Araucanians had been told that a woman would reign over them,
they would have laughed to scorn the very idea. Yet, behold your little
girl is head Cacique of the great Warrior tribe, and you are the
Queen-Regent. Would this great people have acted thus if they had not
recognised in you a fearless ruler and an undaunted warrior?”
The Indian girl’s cheeks flushed, as she listened to Topsie’s words.
“It is true!” she murmured; “and yet it was Piñone, my beloved Piñone,
who made his people love me. He always called Aniwee their Warrior
Queen, and it was he who gave her her first lessons in war. Piñone, love
of Aniwee’s heart, where art thou?”
A plaintive, far-away look shone in the dark eyes of the young Warrior
Queen as the memory of her beloved shot across her. Topsie was just
meditating some cheerful remark, to drive away, if possible, sad
thoughts from the girl’s mind, when shouts and yells were suddenly borne
up the valley on the soft evening breeze. They came from the direction
of the Indian camp. A look of horror overspread the features of Aniwee.
Full well she knew the meaning of those cries. Reining up her horse, she
turned suddenly round, and faced her warriors.
“Inacayal!” she called out in a commanding voice; “where art thou,
cousin?”
In a moment the Cacique was by her side.
“Heard you not the war cry, Inacayal, or did Aniwee dream?” she inquired
anxiously.
“The Queen did not dream,” he answered, with flashing eyes. “Hark! there
it is again. Bid Inacayal speed quickly to the tolderias with two
hundred of these warriors, and do thou, O Queen, remain here with the
great white Caciques, in the care of the remaining hundred.”
A gleam of anger flashed in the girl’s eyes as she fixed them on the
scheming chief.
“What!” she exclaimed proudly, “I, the Warrior Queen, skulk, hiding like
a poltroon, behind my men? Inacayal, you are a strange counsellor. Know,
however, that I will it otherwise. I will lead the two hundred to the
rescue, and do you, with the remaining hundred, guard my guests. Do you
hear, Inacayal! It is my command.”
A vicious, disappointed look came over the Cacique’s face, but he had no
alternative than to obey. In quick, rapid tones Aniwee issued her
orders, and then hurriedly explained the situation to Harry and Topsie,
imploring them to remain where they were with their uncle, aunt, and
cousins, “for,” she added significantly, “when the Indian’s blood is up,
he might not distinguish you from the Cristianos, and then your fates
would be death. Farewell for the moment. Aniwee goes to restore peace
and defend her child.”
As she spoke she struck her silver spurs into her horse’s side, and with
a loud cry sped along the valley, followed by the two hundred
Araucanians whom she had bidden attend her.
“Well, Harry and Topsie, you have led us into a warrior land indeed,”
exclaimed Lady Vane, laughing. “Hardly has your Queen welcomed us than
she dashes away into strife and turmoil. What can it all mean?”
“I can’t make out, aunt,” answered Harry, just a shade anxiously. “Those
cries we hear are war cries. You, who understand Spanish, heard what she
said to us. Really, I think we had better obey her. I know Aniwee well,
and can trust her. But what a scowling-looking chap the Cacique is, in
whose care she has left us. I don’t half like his looks, do you, Uncle
Francis?”
“I can’t say I am impressed by them, my boy,” answered Sir Francis
quietly. “I’m a bit of a character reader, and it strikes me he
entertains no good feeling to the young Queen. His expression was savage
and sullen when she addressed him just now.”
Again shouts and cries came floating up the valley. The face of Inacayal
wore a triumphant expression. Suddenly he turned to the warriors who
surrounded him. “There is a fight down yonder,” he exclaimed. “Shall we
stand idle while a woman bears the brunt of war? Say, brothers, shall we
not charge?”
An approving shout greeted his suggestion, and before Sir Francis and
Lady Vane, Harry, Topsie, and their cousins had fathomed what was going
to happen, they felt themselves borne forward in the midst of a hundred
or more stalwart warriors, all shouting and yelling like so many demons.
Madly excited, Shag brought up the rear.
“We’re in for it, Topsie, and no mistake,” gasped Harry, as he got his
horse tight by the head, and tried to check his headlong career. He had
quite forgotten that this was a signal to go faster, so that the animal
merely redoubled its efforts. In a few minutes they had dashed into the
Indian camp.
What a sight they beheld! A scene of fierce turmoil indeed. Some hundred
white men, surrounded by Aniwee and her braves, fighting desperately for
their lives. They had sought to catch the Warrior Queen in a trap, and
had been caught themselves, and now they saw no chance of escape from
the furious Araucanians who pressed upon them.
A weird scene indeed! The sun had sunk, the gloom of night was already
upon everything, throughout the camp huge fires gleamed and sparkled,
lighting up the faces of the combatants, and giving them a strange,
fantastic appearance. As Inacayal swept upon the scene with his bevy of
warriors, he took it all in at a glance. His plan had failed.
Yet must he save the Cristianos whom his vile intrigues had lured to the
spot. His had been the intention to rob the Queen-Regent of her baby
child, during her brief absence and when all the warriors were withdrawn
from the camp. For this purpose he had put himself in communication with
the Cristianos, who, at war with the Araucanians, had willingly agreed
to secure the little Guardia, in hopes of forcing her great tribe to
accept disadvantageous and degrading terms of peace. As we have seen,
Inacayal’s plan had failed.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER III.
No sooner did these reserves of warriors make their appearance than a
sudden wavering was seen in the ranks of the white men, who had hitherto
kept well together and fought desperately. It seemed now as though they
must be all cut to pieces and destroyed, surrounded as they were by
three hundred of picked braves from the Warrior tribe. Aniwee was
fighting like a young demon, and Harry and Topsie, as they sought
shelter with the others of their party in the rear of the Queen’s toldo,
could hear her war cry distinctly above the fierce shouts of the
combatants. The colonists were all armed with guns and rifles, but they
were at too close quarters with their assailants to make it possible to
use them. They had therefore only their swords to depend on, and when
these, in some instances, fell shivered from their grasp by the powerful
stroke of some Araucanian’s axe, they had only a short stabbing knife, a
revolver, and a small hatchet slung at their sides, to fall back upon.
The Araucanians, as we have seen, were all armed with long lances. They
were stout, powerful, and ugly customers to encounter when, in serried
array and with their lances well set, they swept down upon an enemy. But
on this occasion lances were at a disadvantage, hemmed in as the
combatants were by rocks, trees, and steep hillsides, where only hand to
hand fighting was possible, and the warriors were obliged to have
recourse to their short axes and stabbing knives. Already some twenty
white men had fallen. Quarter was not asked for, because the Cristianos
knew that it would not be given. Had they not been themselves the
aggressors, and had they not themselves alone to thank for their present
plight? They had come slinking as a fox does at night when he thinks the
coast is clear, intent on a brutal and cruel act, and behold their
reward!
Suddenly loud cries and shouts resounded through the valley down which
Aniwee had charged so furiously, and amidst the din of the combat a few
talismanic words brought the Queen and her warriors to attention.
“Help, help! To the rescue of the child Cacique; to the rescue of
Guardia!”
An icy chill ran through Aniwee’s heart. Then the baby Queen for whom
she was risking her life, the beloved child of her lost Piñone, was a
prisoner after all? The thought was maddening; it thrilled her to the
quick; it almost unnerved her; it certainly made her lose her presence
of mind; it was the means of saving many a white man’s life.
“Hark!” she cried, reining up her horse. “Warriors, the Cacique is in
danger. Forward to the rescue!”
Like lightning she had taken her animal by the head, turned it in the
direction whence the cries had proceeded, and the next moment she and
her warriors were streaming up the valley once more, leaving the
Cristianos struck dumb with astonishment. But they soon aroused
themselves to the situation as the voice of Inacayal rung out—
“Fools, would ye wait to be slain when the Gualichu gives you this
chance of escape?”
In a moment they had understood, and leaving their dead to the mercy of
Indians and condors, had paid attention to discretion, which is the
better part of valour, by taking to flight.
When Aniwee, furious and crestfallen, returned at the head of her
warriors, she found them gone.
Her first impulse was to start in pursuit, but her next evinced greater
caution. It was quite possible that an ambush might have been laid to
entrap her. She had been deceived by the false cry of danger to her
child. She would not be befooled twice.
For there was the little Guardia safe and well in the arms of her nurse
Blancha, with Graviel, her faithful attendant, covered with blood,
standing near. The warriors presented a grim sight. Many of them were
suffering from sword thrusts and hatchet cuts, and the gay ponchos, in
which they had decked themselves to do honour to Aniwee’s guests, were
in many instances torn and dishevelled and covered with blood. In a few
brief, dignified words the Queen thanked them for their support, and
bade them seek their toldos to dress their wounds; “but,” she added,
“rest your spears against the sides of your tents, and be on the alert,
for treachery may still lurk around. The Cristianos creep like snakes
and slink like the pampa foxes. Be therefore on the watch.”
“But, Aniwee, you are wounded!” exclaimed Topsie, as she noticed blood
coming from the young Queen’s arm.
“A ball from one of the Cristiano’s medicine engines did it,” she
replied, with a laugh; “but it is nothing. Aniwee will wash it, and
drive the traces away. Let us enter and prepare for the feast.”
On either side of the chief tolderia two others, nearly as large, were
erected. These had been prepared for the use of Sir Francis and Lady
Vane and their children, as well as for Harry and Topsie. Large fires,
fed by huge billets of wood, blazed in front of these snug abodes, which
were lighted up within by stone lamps filled with oil, and in which moss
served the place of wick.
“Will the Queen allow me to dress her arm for her?” inquired Sir Francis
Vane gallantly. “I am something of a medicine man.”
“The great white Cacique is kind,” answered the girl gratefully, “but I
dare not let him. If I fell ill, or suffered from the wound, the tribe
would blame you for it, therefore it must not be; but the Cacique knows
that Aniwee is grateful.”
As she spoke the evil-featured Inacayal stood by her side.
“The Queen is hurt?” he inquired with affected solicitude. “Shall
Inacayal call hither the medicine man?”
“No, Inacayal,” she answered quietly, “but bid him use his arts against
the evil Gualichu. By whose black arts think you the Cristianos obtained
an entrance here?”
The chief shrugged his shoulders, but glanced meaningly at the youth
Graviel, who, still bloody and covered with wounds, stood near.
“You know well, cousin, that I like not the presence of Graviel, and
that I have ever warned you that the boy is haunted by an evil spirit.
It is Inacayal’s firm belief, that the approach of the Cristianos was
not unknown to him.”
The Queen turned sharply round. “Graviel,” she commanded imperiously,
“come here.”
The youth at once obeyed. Not till he had done so did Aniwee realise how
grievously he was wounded. A nasty sword cut had slashed his cheek, his
left arm hung powerless by his side, and one of his potro boots was
saturated with blood, and cut clean through in one part.
“The Cristianos have made you weak as a child, Graviel,” exclaimed
Aniwee. “How was it you became wounded thus? Did you take part in the
fight?”
“Great Queen,” answered the youth proudly, “my duty was to be beside the
young Cacique. I fought on her behalf till I could no more. Then you
came to the rescue. It was well, for Graviel was well-nigh overpowered.”
“And how came the Cristianos to fall upon a peaceful camp like condors
on the dead?” again inquired the Queen.
“How know I that?” answered the youth. “Graviel is not in the confidence
of the evil one. But shall I tell the great Queen all that which I
witnessed after her departure to meet the great white chiefs?”
Aniwee bowed her head. “Speak,” was all she said.
“It was thus, great Queen,” proceeded the youth excitedly. “I had
surrendered the young Cacique to Blancha’s care according to the Queen’s
command, and had gone outside the tolderia to keep my customary watch
over the safety of the Pride of Piñone’s heart. I had watched the Queen
and warriors up the valley out of sight, and having nothing else to do,
strolled round the tolderias. Then it was that I thought I heard a
rustling sound not far away. I halted, and stood still. Suddenly I saw
gliding through the forest, like snakes crawl, the forms of several
white-faced men. I ground my teeth as I recognised the hated Cristianos.
There might have been six of them, though of their number I took no
note; for, like the wailing of a sad blast at night, a despairing cry
arose within the tolderia of the Queen. Next moment I saw a man spring
forth through a rent in the hide, carrying something in his arms. Then
arose once more the despairing cry, and I recognised the voice of
Blancha. If I had doubted, my doubt was at once dispelled, for behold
she came springing through the rent in the tolderia, her face distorted
with fear and passion. At once the good Gualichu opened my eyes. I
divined the cause. The Cristiano, whom I had seen spring forth from the
toldo, had robbed the Araucanians of their brightest jewel. Guardia,
under my especial care, had been stolen! As the lightning shoots from
heaven, thus did Graviel spring to the rescue. With a cry of fury I
rushed upon the loathsome creature, and before he was aware of my
intention had torn the young Cacique from his grasp. Blancha rushed
forward. I gave her the babe, then turned to face as best I could the
men that pressed upon me. I fought desperately. Was not the treasure of
Aniwee’s heart in peril? I would die, I resolved, ere harm again befel
the young Cacique. My shouts brought around me the few men left in camp
and the women as well. But the Cristianos seemed to swell in numbers.
They came over the hill and pressed us sorely, and though we fought
desperately we were driven back. I felt the cold steel of a Cristiano’s
blade strike into my cheek, then my arm fell powerless by my side under
a furious blow, and next the same cold steel struck into my leg. My eyes
grew dizzy, pain made my brain reel, and I thought that death hovered
above me. Then, my Queen, I heard thy war cry, I heard the thunder of
thy warriors’ steeds, and Graviel knew that Guardia was saved.”
“Brave Graviel! Aniwee thanks thee deeply,” answered the young Queen
with much emotion. “Inacayal, thou hast judged him wrongly.”
“Aniwee, thou art too trustful. I bid thee beware,” exclaimed the
Cacique addressed. “Thou art nursing a snake in thy bosom.”
But the Queen waved him angrily on one side.
“Go, Graviel,” she commanded, turning to the young warrior; “go, wash
thy wounds; Blancha will aid thee. Then lay thee on the couch which is
next to that of the young Cacique, and Aniwee will, with her own hands,
bring thee a draught of soothing medicine water. Aniwee will never
forget how thou hast saved to her the child of her heart. Brave Graviel,
thou hast thy Queen’s gratitude.”
Graviel’s eyes sparkled with pleasure as he raised his hand to his
forehead in humble obeisance, and then turned to obey the will of his
Queen; but the eyes of Inacayal shone with a malignant hatred which he
could ill conceal. As Aniwee entered the toldo of her child he cast
after her a meaning look, muttering as he strode away:
“The vicuña may strive to protect its young, but the power of the condor
is greater. Yet shall Inacayal triumph.”
An hour later a great feast was held in the Queen’s tolderia, where
Aniwee right royally entertained her guests. A cow had been killed, and
some sheep as well, and these were roasted whole around a monster fire,
where the braves of Aniwee were congregated. Loud was the rejoicing over
the defeat of the hated Cristianos, and dire were the threats of
vengeance which the Warriors promised to wreak in their next frontier
raid. High and mighty were the speeches delivered and stories recounted
of the deeds of valour performed by the speaker’s ancestors; yet when
Aniwee stepped forth from the chief toldo and stood quietly in the gleam
of the great fire, one long loud shout went up, and then silence fell.
“Warriors,” exclaimed the girl Queen, advancing a few steps forward and
raising her hand above her head, “to-day has the evil Gualichu been
defeated. Treachery sought to steal from you all the little Cacique, the
child of Piñone, to carry her away as the puma does its prey. But she
was saved—saved by the devotion of the youthful warrior Graviel, and
protected by the few brave women and men of the Warrior tribe left
within the camp. From her heart, Aniwee your Queen thanks them. Their
deeds will be sung by the great tribe, and their children will tell
their children, how a youth and a few brave women and men saved the baby
Cacique, the child of Piñone.”
“And of Aniwee,” broke from hundreds of throats, “child of our Warrior
Queen.”
“What a splendid sight!” exclaimed Lady Vane enthusiastically.
“Children, I have never seen a scene more impressive.”
As in effect it was. Freddy, Willie, and Mary dreamt of it that night,
as they lay comfortably curled up on their beds of warm skins. Full well
they understood now how much Harry and Topsie had enjoyed themselves,
when as young Castaways they had lived their free, exciting lives
amongst the Patagonian Indians, and congratulated themselves in being
where they were.
But all night long Aniwee watched by the fevered couch of the youth
Graviel, who had preserved to her the child of her heart.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IV.
Harry and Topsie were awakened the morning following upon that of the
fight, by the sounds of the Araucanians returning from the river’s side,
where they had been to perform their morning ablutions. It must have
been about dawn.
“I say, Harry,” observed his sister, raising herself up from off her
couch of warm skins, “I should uncommonly like a plunge. I caught sight
of a beautiful stream in the forest yesterday which I think I could find
again. I daresay Aunt Ruby and Mary will be glad to be shown it, so I’ll
just stir them up and ask them.”
“Right you are, old girl!” ejaculated Harry, yawning, “and I will pilot
Uncle Francis, Freddy, and Willie. I know the stream you mean. It is not
ten minutes’ stroll from here. Yes, a plunge will be uncommonly
refreshing. I wonder how all the Warriors are, and Queen Aniwee! Does it
not seem like a dream to you, to be back amongst these wild scenes
again?”
“Well, you see, Harry,” remarked Topsie gravely, “these are not exactly
old scenes, because you know although we saw something of the
Araucanians when they joined the Tehuelches in the Patagonian pampas, we
never entered their country. What a lovely one it is, to be sure!”
“Yes, indeed; and you were a brick to get uncle and aunt to come,
Topsie. I am looking forward to a real good time of it after all the
hardships I have gone through on the Pacific station,” continued Harry,
with a sly twinkle in his eye.
“Oh, Harry, you conceited monkey!” laughed Topsie. “To hear you talk one
would think you were martyred day and night, instead of living in
clover, as you have been doing on father’s ship.”
“I say, what _are_ you two jabbering about?” queried a sleepy voice from
under a heap of skins, and Freddy’s head at length appeared in view. His
hair was very much ruffled, and he looked extremely comical.
At the sight of him both his cousins burst into fits of laughter.
“Oh, Freddy, what a guy you look!” exclaimed Topsie.
Now Freddy in reality was a broad-shouldered, fine, handsome youth, with
yellow hair and beautiful blue eyes. I think he just knew that he was
not altogether plain, and therefore resented the description of his
personal appearance given by his good-looking cousin.
“Guy, am I?” he pretended to remark indignantly. “People who live in
glass houses should not throw stones. Look at yourself, Topsie. I never
saw such a scarecrow in my life.”
“I tell you what, Freddy,” put in Harry, struggling to repress his
laughter, “if you insult my charming sister I’ll sit on you, and squash
you as flat as a pancake. Remember who I am, and who you are. Why, you
are a mere fledgeling, aspiring to enter the army, while I am a
full-blown officer in Her Majesty’s service.”
How this passage of arms might have ended I do not pretend to be able to
say, but it was rudely interrupted by the entrance of Willie and Mary.
“Lazies!” cried this latter. “Why, I and Willie have been for ever such
a long ramble, and we had a splendid swim in the Rio Limay far away
below. We have seen the sun rise on those glorious Andes, and come
across all sorts of funny and strange things. Oh, Topsie! I just do call
this Paradise.”
“Well, did I not tell you how nice it was, miss?” put in Harry, “and you
would not believe me. Now you see I am always right. But I say, Freddy,
come on, old chap, and we’ll go and have a plunge. I’ll just ask Uncle
Francis if he will come.”
“And I will ask Aunt Ruby,” put in Topsie, as she made for the tent’s
entrance. “Come on, Shag, old boy.”
For Shag had risen and shaken himself demurely the moment he saw that it
was his beloved mistress’s intention to leave the tent. He was just a
little stiff after his long gallop of the day before, but that was no
reason in Shag’s honest mind for taking him away from his mistress’s
side.
On returning to the toldos about an hour and a half later, our white
friends found a great bustle going on in the camp. Horses were being
caught and saddled, the flock of sheep and herd of cattle were being
driven in, and preparations for departure evidently being indulged in on
an extensive scale.
“Ah! I see it is to be a case of forward to-day,” remarked Topsie in a
pleased voice. “Now for a dash into the unknown.”
“But, Topsie, we must not forget to arrange with Aniwee for an
expedition to the great gold mine of Or, which you know is the principal
object of our presence here,” interposed Sir Francis. “Will you speak to
her, or shall I?”
“Well, I think you had better let me do so, uncle,” answered his niece.
“Aniwee is not superstitious to the same extent as are the Patagonians
and Araucanians, still, you know, she will have to overcome these
latter’s prejudices if she is to accompany us.”
As Topsie spoke the Queen entered. She looked a shade weary, and her
wounded arm was stiff and painful. Her watch all night by the couch of
the youth Graviel, had deprived her of the sleep which is so necessary
to the young, after fatigue and excitement.
“Aniwee salutes the great Caciques,” she said, with an inclination of
her head, and raising her right hand slightly. “Are they willing to
accompany her to-day? A large herd of wild horses has been observed not
an hour’s march from here, and the Caciques may like to join the
Araucanos in attempting the capture of some of them. To-morrow we hunt
the wild bull, and next day a puma fastness is to be stormed. The
Caciques shall not want excitement or feel dull, if Aniwee can prevent
it.”
“We will gladly accompany you, Aniwee, and we thank you much for your
kind thoughts for our pleasure,” answered Topsie. “But, Aniwee, there is
one thing I must tell you. My friends and myself desire to see the great
gold mine of Or again, also the hut far up near the snows of the Andes
peaks, where I, and you and my brother found that old white-haired man,
living all alone. You remember it all, of course—how we went on with him
to the mine of Or, while you went back to fetch Piñone; how, during our
expedition to the mine, the old man died and was buried by the side of
his long dead wife, on the banks of that dark mysterious river up which
we had paddled to reach the mine; but I don’t think I ever told you the
most wonderful thing of that wonderful adventure, how, in that old
hermit of one hundred and thirteen years, I and my brother discovered an
ancient relative, a great-great-uncle, in fact, whom every one thought
had been drowned eighty years before; nor did I tell you, at the time,
of the existence of the great gold mine of Or, which was discovered by
Sir Harry Vane—for such was the name of the hermit—and shown to us. I
did not make known its existence for the reason, that I wished to return
later on and explore it in your company. And it is for this very purpose
that we have sought you. Tell us, Aniwee. Will you come?”
The young Queen looked puzzled for a moment, and then replied:
“You know well that Aniwee has no fear. But she must consult the
warriors of Piñone, and obtain their consent. Is she not pledged to rule
over them for her child, and must she not consult their interests and
those of the young Cacique?”
“You speak rightly and well, Aniwee,” put in Sir Francis; “you wish, in
fact, to consult your people ere giving a definite reply? I am sure we
respect your wishes.”
“The great Cacique understands Aniwee,” she answered in a grateful
voice. “And now will they come to her toldo, and take some refreshment
ere setting out on the trail?”
On entering Aniwee’s tolderia our white friends found a large fire
burning therein. A pot, hanging on a tripod, simmered over the fire.
Some fish on a gridiron stood near, and seven cups of steaming maté,
with silver bombiglias stuck into each, stood round the fire.
To Harry and Topsie, this evidence of thoughtful attention on Aniwee’s
part was all the more pleasing, inasmuch as they knew that it was not
the custom of the Indians to eat before setting out on a journey. It was
plain that she had not forgotten the habits of her white friends.
The baby Queen was rolling about on some skins, playing with her silver
toys, and close by sat Graviel on a low stool. His face, arm, and leg
were all neatly bandaged, the work of Blancha and Aniwee; for the former
loved the handsome youth with tender devotion, and the latter made it
her special care and pleasure to attend on Piñone’s favourite retainer,
and the saviour of her child.
The scene at starting was a busy one. Every man and woman mounted their
own especial horse, the women riding astride like the men—a sensible
custom which white women would do well to imitate—as indeed did Lady
Vane, Topsie, and Mary, who were all dressed in neat, comfortable
knickerbockers, and well-fitting Norfolk jackets and stalking caps, with
strong plain brown leather top riding boots, roomy and waterproof. A
broad leathern belt encircled their waists, to which hung a sharp
hunting knife and a bull-dog revolver in neat cases. Across one shoulder
they carried a belt ribbed all round with rifle cartridges, and over the
other shoulder each had a rifle slung. A similar attire and equipment
composed Sir Francis’s, Harry’s, Freddy’s, and Willie’s rig-out, which
possessed the merit of being comfortable and not too cumbersome.
They had brought two baggage horses with them, carrying a change of
clothing for each, their surplus ammunition, and various presents for
Aniwee and her Caciques, not omitting many a gaudy trinket for the
common people. Aniwee was made intensely happy by the present of a
beautiful rifle, which Sir Francis Vane had brought specially for
presentation to the young Queen. Thus they set out. The cattle and sheep
had preceded them, being driven forward by boys; and now the cavalcade
consisted of about three hundred and fifty warriors, some thirty women
and a few children, a fine troupiglia of mares and horses, and Aniwee,
the baby Queen (or La Guardia Chica, as she was called by her subjects),
attended by the faithful Blancha and Graviel, the latter sitting his
horse stoically, in spite of the pain which he was evidently suffering.
Our white friends completed the imposing-looking party.
The way led through grassy valleys and rock-strewn gorges, which
presently debouched into hillocky plains, whereon guanacos could be
discerned, feeding in small knots of twenty or thirty together. Now and
then an ostrich would start up and scud away in front of the advancing
party, or a small silver fox spring forth from its seat, and gallop
hastily forward in search of safety; for the Indian dogs, although
trained to hunt the ostrich and guanaco only at the word of command,
were always allowed free play with the foxes.
Aniwee explained to her young friends that here ended the limit of the
guanaco, which entirely disappeared as they went more inland, giving
place to the vicuña, an animal greatly resembling him, only with softer
fur, and a habitant of the mountains in contradistinction to the
guanaco, which favoured the plains, and she promised them many an
exciting stalk after the former.
Before long they fell in with vast stretches of shady woods, which
looked cool and inviting from the hot plains; and when at length they
came into close proximity to them, Harry and Topsie, Freddy, Willie, and
Mary, all uttered loud cries of delight as they beheld in this forest a
veritable fairy scene. From the trees in every direction high up the
mountain sides, and stretching along the valleys far and wide, hung
thousands of red-cheeked, yellow-faced apples, tempting to the sight and
pleasant to the palate,—a scene enticing in the highest degree to the
young people, who gazed thereon with rapture.
“Mother, what a lovely sight!” cried Mary, as she dropped her reins on
her horse’s neck, and clasped her hands together. “Oh, mother! I never
dreamt of anything so beautiful. Are we in fairyland, I wonder?”
“It would seem so,” answered Lady Vane, smiling, as they suddenly rode
into a green sunny valley watered by a bright running stream, and hemmed
in on each side by apple groves, for in the valley erected on either
side of the stream stood some hundred or more tolderias, with crowds of
busy Indian men, women, and children moving to and fro. All along the
valley pastured fine herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, and immense
troops of horses. Truly a beautiful scene!
“See!” exclaimed Aniwee, proudly pointing towards it; “of all my great
possessions I love that spot the best, for Piñone loved it.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER V.
No sooner did the Indians catch sight of the approaching cavalcade, than
they hastened to meet it with loud cries of welcome. But these
rejoicings were turned to anger when they learnt of the danger that had
threatened their baby Cacique. As may be imagined, both Graviel, and
those who had been instrumental in saving her from, and defending her
against the Cristianos, came in for an extra share of applause and
congratulation from the large body of Indians that thronged around their
Queen. Graviel was at once carried off by his mother and relations to be
carefully attended to. He was loth to leave his little charge’s side,
and only consented to do so, on receiving strict orders from Aniwee to
that effect.
Meanwhile La Guardia Chica, under the superintendence of Blancha, was
carried to the chief toldo, and most of the warriors dispersed to their
various tolderias to doff their gay war attires for the every-day
habiliments of Araucanians, while Aniwee issued orders for the saddling
and bridling of eight of her most wary-footed and renowned hunting
steeds for the use of herself and her white friends.
“Will the white Caciques be ready to set off at short notice?” she
inquired of Topsie, who was nearest to her.
“Most certainly, Aniwee,” replied this latter with alacrity. “We shall
be ready whenever you are, and are all excitement and eagerness to see
how the Araucanians hunt the baguales.”
“Aniwee remembers the two baguales which the Caciques captured in
Patagonia,” continued the Queen. “Are they still alive?”
“Yes, Aniwee, alive and flourishing. I and my brother sent them across
the sea to our own country; but the Araucanians capture them differently
to what we did, I suppose?”
“You shall see,” remarked Aniwee briefly, “and you shall take part in
the hunt. I will arrange for twenty-five of our best hunters to
accompany me. You will all be provided with horses of my own, skilled in
the chase and wary-footed, which know their business well. Meanwhile,
yonder tall tolderias on either side of the chief one, are the two
reserved for the white Caciques. You may wish to visit them ere setting
out on the hunt. Has Aniwee spoken well?”
The question having been answered in the affirmative, every one repaired
to their different quarters to make ready for the hunt.
“I think, young people, that I will remain behind,” remarked Lady Vane a
little later on. “I have got a bit of a headache, and am somewhat tired.
I think I shall rest for an hour, and then unpack the baggage panniers,
get out the trinkets, and put everything straight in the toldos against
your return. Topsie, dear, you can explain it to the Queen.”
“All right, Aunt Ruby. I see her coming now,” answered Topsie, and as
she spoke Aniwee and her hunters rode up.
There were twenty men and five women amongst these hunters, all mounted
on wiry-looking horses, and provided with stout lassoes and bolases.
They each carried, in addition, a revolver and a short sharp knife, but
no other arms, about half-a-dozen powerful-looking hounds accompanying
them.
Our young friends, as well as Sir Francis, decided on taking their
rifles; there was no knowing that they might not come in useful, they
declared. And when they had mounted their well-bred, strong little
steeds, they found that to each of their saddles was attached, not only
a light lasso, but a pair of bolas as well.
“Oh, what fun!” exclaimed Willie in a delighted voice, as he found
himself fully equipped for the fray. “I feel every inch an Araucanian
hunter, don’t you, Mary?”
“I mean to have a good try to catch a horse to-day,” answered the girl,
with a laugh; “though I can’t say I feel the adept that you profess to
do, brother mine. However, have a care. Pride cometh before a fall. You
know that, I suppose?”
They started, a gay party. The sun was shining brightly, the apple
groves looked green, cool, and inviting. Far away wooded heights arose.
These were the forests of araucarias, wherein abounded the luscious
piñones so esteemed by the Indians; and high above these shady retreats
dazzled the snowy Andes, resplendent in their robes of untrodden virgin
snow. The spirits of our young friends were at their highest. They
laughed and jabbered away at their fastest, Harry bubbling over with fun
and mischief unquenchable. In vain his cousins and sister strove to
suppress him. The happy young midshipman refused to be repressed.
They must have been riding for quite an hour, and had entered a large
circular plain some five or six miles in circumference, when Aniwee and
Sir Francis, who were riding about a hundred yards ahead, suddenly
halted, and the former held up her hand warningly, as though to enjoin
silence. Then indeed Harry became serious, and his mirth was at once
checked.
No sooner had Aniwee made the sign described, than she lay flat along
her horse’s neck, an attitude which was immediately imitated by all the
hunters following in the rear of the children, and these latter and Sir
Francis, perceiving their movements, were quick to imitate their dusky
friends. As for Shag, who had been bounding along beside his mistress’s
horse, he at once lowered his tail, and came quietly to heel in the rear
of her steed, no doubt noticing the like action on the part of the
Indian hounds.
“Baguales,” murmured the Indians half audibly as they rode slowly
forward to join the Queen; yet look as hard as ever they could, our
young friends could make out no sign of the wild horses, about which the
Indians appeared so confident.
“Calificura, creep forward like a snake; be wary as the doe,” whispered
the young Queen, as she signed to a big stalwart Araucanian to approach;
and the man, with a low grunt, and still lying flat along his horse,
trotted forward, and in a few minutes was out of sight.
“Lenketrou, let thy step be swift but silent, thy eye keen as the
hovering hawk,” was the next remark with which Aniwee detached another
of her followers from the group; and he too trotted forward and quickly
disappeared. In this way the Queen sent forward some fifteen hunters,
keeping around her five men, five women, and our young friends.
“I see them!” suddenly exclaimed Freddy in an excited whisper. “Look,
Harry and Topsie, a splendid herd on the port hillside. There! can’t you
see them? They seem to be moving towards the plain, and I can see some
white specks amongst them.”
“I see them!” gasped Mary. It was her first sight of a herd of wild
horses, and the thrill of excitement which rushed through her made her
feel inclined to shout for joy. She wisely, however, restrained herself,
for the slightest sound would have spoiled the anticipated sport.
The herd referred to could be plainly distinguished making its way down
the rocky face of a somewhat steep incline, difficult enough to descend,
but almost impossible of ascent on account of the roughness of the
ground. Away to the right, a deep river shut out all outlet from the
plain on that side, while straight ahead, high cliffs closed in, leaving
only a narrow gorge some fifty yards wide through which anything could
pass.
Suddenly two mounted figures could be discerned coming through the gorge
from the far side. At the sight of them Aniwee nodded her head, and
ejaculated the words “Calificura, Lenketrou.” In effect the two figures
were no other than these Indians, whom the Queen had started forward
from the hunting party, when the troop of wild horses was first
distinguished.
No sooner did they show themselves, than a number of mounted horsemen
appeared one after the other, along the left-hand ridge which looked
down on the plain below. Almost simultaneously they began to whirl
around their heads the coiled lassoes which they held in their right
hands. The next moment, a distant shout rang forth, and in less time
than it takes to tell, the herd had caught sight of the Indians, and
were careering madly across the plain in the direction of the river.
With a loud yell the horsemen on the ridge charged down the steep slope
at an amazing pace, and then Aniwee for the first time raised herself
erect in her stirrups.
Whirling her lasso round her head, the young Queen shouted the order to
charge. Full well the horses understood the signal; and almost before
they knew where they were, our young friends found themselves racing
across the plain at the top of their horses’ speed.
In their first fright, we have seen that the wild horses made straight
for the river; but apparently recollecting that there was no outlet
thence, they wheeled to the left, and bore away for the narrow gorge
where, motionless as statues, Calificura and Lenketrou awaited them.
The Indians who had descended from the ridge made every effort to cut
them off, but weight will tell. A mounted horse is no match for an
unmounted one; and although the herd had a circle to perform, where the
Indians had nothing but straight riding before them, the wild horses
won. Heading them was a magnificent black stallion, whose long mane and
tail swept grandly in the breeze.
But, lo! as he was about to enter the gorge, followed pell-mell by the
troop behind him, he suddenly halted, gave a loud warning neigh, and
stamped the ground furiously with his right forefoot. Immediately every
one of the baguales came to a standstill, and huddled together behind
their leader.
On came the Indians upon their racing steeds. The stallion raised his
head and looked all round him, but wherever he looked he saw danger, and
beheld the figures of his foes. The gorge was guarded, and behind him a
long line of mounted horsemen were bearing rapidly upon the herd.
In a moment the monarch of the plains had made up his mind. There was
but one chance of escape, one road to freedom. It was a dangerous
attempt, yet was there no other; for it was now a question of making a
supreme effort to be free, or surrendering at discretion. The game beast
chose the former.
With a defiant neigh he wheeled round and trotted towards the steep
ridge down which he and his troop had so lately descended, then breaking
into a gallop, he charged straight at the left wing of the advancing
Indians.
No sooner did Aniwee perceive his tactics, than she shouted her orders
to close into the left wing’s assistance, and putting spurs to her horse
made him literally fly along. Then our young friends perceived that the
Indians, dropping their lassoes on their saddles, were each whirling a
bolas round their heads. It was evident that they meant first to
entangle their prey, and to use the lasso afterwards.
Both Harry and Topsie were experts with the bolas, and by no means bad
lasso throwers. They therefore singled out their separate victims, and
bore down upon them.
If the whole herd had been as plucky as their leader, and had charged as
furiously against their attackers as the brave old veteran did, they
would probably have broken through the Indians and got away scot free;
but many of them became dazed and frightened by the terrific yells in
which the Araucanians indulged, and breaking away from the others, began
galloping madly about.
In a moment a score of bolases whizzed forth, and several horses and
mares became hopelessly entangled in their meshes. As they reared and
struggled to get free, the lassoes were cast about them, and the nooses
being drawn tight, the poor animals were entirely overcome.
One of these, in falling, uttered a loud scream. It was a beautiful grey
mare, and must evidently have been a favourite of the black stallion,
for the moment he heard her scream he halted, and wheeling round charged
back to her rescue.
The quick eye of Topsie caught sight of him approaching. She had just
bolased a horse which was struggling on the ground, but her lasso was
still free. As the furious animal galloped forward, she whirled it round
her head, and with a grand cast landed the noose right over his ears. A
skilful jerk made it safe round his neck, and Topsie, double notching
the other end round the bent stern of her saddle-bow, sat firmly
awaiting the shock.
And it was a shock with a vengeance. As the noose tightened around his
massive neck, the lord of the harem reared straight on end, and pawed
the air furiously. Coming to the ground he stood on his forefeet, and
lashed out with his hind ones. Then he threw himself down, and rolled
over and over in his anger, and finally springing up, dashed off at a
mad gallop across the plain, with Topsie holding tight to the lasso
following in his wake, while beside the girl galloped the faithful Shag.
It must have been an hour later. Several horses had been secured, and
Aniwee had despatched some of the Indians to fetch a troupiglia of tame
horses to assist in driving the wild ones in, when Harry startled every
one by exclaiming:
“I say, where’s Topsie?”
But though eyes were strained all round there was no sign of the missing
girl.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VI.
When the stallion started forward on his mad gallop, he pointed once
more for the narrow gorge, from which he had already been turned by the
presence of Calificura and Lenketrou. But those Indians, no sooner had
they seen their fellows come to close quarters with the baguales, had
galloped forward to take part in the fray, and themselves secure, if
possible, a prize each, leaving the gorge for the nonce unguarded.
With his head thrown back and his tail furiously lashing his sides, the
stallion held on his way. Although Topsie clung to the lasso like grim
death, and kept it as tight as possible, it seemed to have very little
effect in checking the animal’s speed. His blood was up, and he
evidently meant fighting it out to the bitter end.
His quick eye had swept the gorge, and ascertained that the pass was
clear, and for this outlet, therefore, he made as straight as a die. In
a few minutes it was reached, entered, and traversed at the same
headlong pace, and the hunter and hunted passed out of sight of the
circular plain where the Indians and the others were engaged with the
baguales.
And now Topsie was able to gauge for the first time the enormity of the
task which she had set herself to accomplish. It was perfectly clear
that the wild horse had no intention of giving in, and that his powers
of endurance were unlimited. Then, too, the country they had entered was
rough and hillocky, and some five or six miles ahead a dense,
impenetrable forest appeared to intervene and to bar all further
progress. It would be extremely awkward if the stallion took to the
woods at this headlong pace, and nothing she could do, could apparently
induce him to alter his course in any way.
As they galloped along, Topsie had an opportunity of testing the speed
and stamina of the horse which she bestrode. Putting spurs to it, she
endeavoured to get it to race up close alongside the wild one, when she
thought by luck she might be able to put a bullet from her revolver
through the sensitive part of his crest, and so bring him to the ground
and stun him, in the same way as she had done to the two baguales, which
she and Harry had captured at the outset of their wanderings in
Patagonia two years before. Her horse was a game one and a good one, and
he made a brave effort to obey his rider’s wishes. Gradually he crept up
alongside the angry bagual, and Topsie, drawing her revolver, took as
careful an aim as possible, and fired.
But the pace at which they were going made it impossible to fire true.
The bullet just grazed the stallion’s crest, terrifying him more than
ever, and infusing into him a new strength and an accelerated speed.
Thus they flew along. The thick forest ahead was growing nearer and
nearer, and the position was becoming perilous in the extreme; so
perilous indeed, that much as she hated doing so, Topsie was perforce
obliged to acknowledge herself beaten, and to make up her mind to cast
the stallion loose, and give up the struggle as hopeless.
But when she came to slacken and cast off the lasso, she found that the
knot had become so tight in consequence of the enormous strain put upon
it, that she was utterly unable to free the saddle from the line that
now held her horse coupled to the wild one. What was she to do? The pace
at which they were going was breakneck, and yet she had but two choices
before her. One was to stick to her horse, and take her chance of being
dashed to pieces as they entered the forest; the other was to throw
herself off the animal. This latter alternative probably meant death, or
a multiplicity of broken bones. She chose the former.
Grasping the lasso with both hands, she endeavoured, by a supreme
effort, to draw the noose so tightly round the stallion’s neck as to
choke him; but the running loop refused to do its work, and the wild
horse went faster than ever.
I wonder what poor Shag thought of it all? He was straining his utmost
to keep up with the racing animals, by no means an easy task, for Shag
was a big, heavy dog, and not bred for racing. However, he did his best,
and with his great red tongue lolling out of his mouth, struggled along.
They were within about two hundred yards of the forest, and Topsie had
slipped her feet out of the stirrups, so as to be free for a spill, when
a loud neigh sounded ahead. To this the stallion replied briskly, though
chokingly; for the heavy strain on his neck was beginning to tell, and
he was decidedly short of wind. The next moment a troop of wild horses
swept into the open from a nook in the forest, where they had been
seeking shelter from the hot sun, and stood staring wildly ahead. What
they saw probably produced terrifying effects, for with loud neighs,
screams, and whinnyings, they wheeled about and fled precipitately
towards the forest, into which they quickly penetrated, and became lost
to view.
Buoyed up with hope at the sight of his fellows, the stallion put on a
tremendous spurt. After this everything was confused in Topsie’s memory.
She had a faint recollection of entering the forest, then of hearing a
loud crack, after that a crash and a bang, a whizzing in the brain, and
then no more.
When her senses returned her first feeling was that of movement. She
seemed to be carried along in some one’s arms; but she felt too weak and
knocked about to open her eyes, and indeed, feeling was all too confused
and transitory to enable her to realise where she was or what had
happened.
She must have swooned again, and some time elapsed between her first
awakening and her second; for when she came to once more, she found
herself lying on a soft bed of leaves, beneath a green canopy of
interwoven branches, which sheltered her from the hot rays of the sun.
Her first impulse was to call Shag, and to put out her hand to feel for
him. As she did so, it came in contact with a soft, hairy skin; but
Topsie had enough consciousness to know, that what she touched was not
the rough Labrador coat of her faithful dog, nor had Shag, in response
to her call, come near her.
What then could this soft hair be? It was warm, and apparently belonged
to some living creature.
With an effort Topsie turned her head to look. Then she gave a terrified
cry, and attempted to spring to her feet, but a strong arm restrained
her, an arm in which both gentleness and herculean strength appeared to
be blended; for though it resisted and repelled her attempt to rise, its
grasp was neither rough nor brutal. What was it that drew from the
naturally plucky girl, this cry of terror? What was it whose grasp was
strong yet tender? A tall hairy man was bending over her, a man or huge
ape, or monster baboon. Topsie could not make out what the apparition
was as she scanned it with creeping horror, but it looked to her more
like a human being than a monkey. Yet such a curious human being. As
Topsie, bravely submitting to circumstances, took stock of her strange
captor, she noticed that his face was hairy all over, and, unlike the
ape, showed no sign of bare skin anywhere. The hair was of a lightish
brown, which became darker on the head, where it was slightly longer,
and somewhat curly. The hair upon the neck and arms, like the face, was
much lighter, as was also that on the chest and back. But what inclined
Topsie more than ever to the belief that this strange being was human,
was the short kilt or narrow skirt of skins which he wore round his
loins, and which reached almost to his knees. Just below the knees, and
sinking deep into the hair of his legs, glittered two golden rings, the
same adorning his ankles and arms. Then his aspect was not savage, nor
was his head formed after the hideous appearance of the ape, gorilla, or
baboon. It was a perfectly human face, one, that if it had been
white-skinned, would have been called handsome, while the eyes were dark
with just a snatch of blue, which showed itself from time to time. But
the lips of this extraordinary man were quite black, and there was not a
tinge of red of any kind in them.
“Who are you?” Topsie found courage to say when she found that her
captor apparently meditated no harm to her. “Speak, and tell me who you
are.”
But the hairy man made no reply; not even a guttural sound escaped him.
What was she to do? Where on earth was she? Was it all a dream? Could it
possibly be real? Over and over again the girl put these questions
anxiously to herself, without being able to give to them any
intelligible reply. Then gradually the recollection of the wild horse
hunt came back to her, her tussle with the stallion, and the mad gallop
across the plain.
Where then was Shag? Surely under no circumstances would the faithful
dog have left her, unless he had been killed, or unless—and here
Topsie’s heart throbbed with hope—he had returned to fetch her uncles,
brother, cousins, Aniwee, and the other hunters to the rescue. She lay
back and closed her eyes, and tried to realise the situation. She could
not recall being knocked from her horse, and yet she clearly must have
been, and struck senseless. She could feel that her rifle was gone,
though the cartridge belt was still slung around her shoulders; and when
her hand sought her side, she found that her revolver pouch was empty,
though her knife remained in its sheath.
Remaining very quiet for a time, she heard the silent creature by her
side move gently away, and then surreptitiously unclosing her eyes, she
sought to make out his movements.
He was standing with his back to her, leaning against a tall tree around
which his right arm was thrown, and in his left hand Topsie made out
that he held a light bow and a pair of beautifully fashioned arrows
tipped with gold. And in looking she perceived that she was no longer on
a plain, but high up a mountain side, and beneath her was a deep,
precipitous gorge, and across it ranges of wooded heights, which rose
one above the other, until they came in contact with the snow line of
the glittering Andes.
“I must have been a long time insensible, and he must have carried me a
great distance,” moaned poor Topsie to herself, as the horror of her
position gradually forced itself upon her. And if her surmise was
correct, she reflected with all the more despair, that if Shag was
alive, he would not be able to trace her. In spite of herself, Topsie
groaned aloud. In a moment the hairy man had turned and fixed his dark
eyes upon her. Topsie could not help observing that they were beautiful
eyes, with all the lustre and softness of the gazelle. He had evidently
no intention of harming her; he was clearly no cannibal. On the
contrary, he seemed tenderly solicitous for her safety and comfort. At
least it so seemed, for he came over to her side and offered her a large
rosy-cheeked apple, which he had apparently but lately plucked from a
tree which grew near, and which was loaded with them.
Being terribly thirsty, and not a little hungry, the girl gratefully
accepted the proffered fruit, and pressed it to her hot lips. It was
deliciously cool and juicy, and proved exceedingly refreshing.
Nevertheless, it did not altogether appease her thirst, and she looked
about her to see if she could detect any evidence of water in any
direction.
Failing in her eye quest, she felt that she must appeal to her strange
companion. Half closing her hand, she laid it on the ground, and made
signs as if she was ladling water to her mouth from an imaginary stream.
In a moment the silent, hairy man seemed to understand her, for he bent
over her, lifted her in his arms as though she had been a feather, and
strode through the forest at a quick, swinging pace. In a short time the
sound of running water struck on Topsie’s ears, and a few minutes later
they passed into a sort of natural glade, across whose path foamed and
tossed a sparkling mountain torrent. At the sight of the water Topsie
struggled to get free; but again she felt herself held tight by the same
herculean strength which had restrained her on a former occasion. Her
captor evidently feared that she would attempt to escape.
“Let me go, let me go!” cried poor Topsie, struggling vainly in his
powerful grasp, and then, as the hopelessness of her position rushed
through her mind, she burst into a passionate flood of tears.
In an instant the strange creature let go his hold, and stared at her
with a piteous, deprecating expression. Then he put up both his hands to
his eyes, as though to shut out from them the picture of her grief. Next
he stroked her head, and gave vent to the first sound she had heard him
utter, a sort of purring noise, like the purring of a big cat, and
lastly, he took her by the hand and led her to the water’s edge, and
then let it go.
In spite of her misery, Topsie could not resist the tempting sight of
the cool stream. She threw herself face downwards, and took a long deep
draught. When she rose up the tears still stood in her eyes, but her
sobs were hushed.
This appeared to give the hairy man great pleasure, for he opened his
lips and smiled, showing two rows of well-formed, even, and very white
teeth, distinctly human in appearance. At the same time a low, soft cry
broke forth close at hand, and looking round in the direction whence it
came, Topsie found herself face to face with two more hairy beings.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VII.
We must return to the hunters in the plain, where we left them looking
round in every direction in search of the vanished Topsie. Most of them
had been so intent on their own business, that the episode in which
Topsie figured had not been noticed by them. Calificura, however, had
observed it, and had, moreover, seen the wild horse and his pursuer pass
through the gorge which he and his companion had but lately quitted.
“Poor Topsie! I am afraid she has set herself to a task almost beyond
_her_ even,” exclaimed Sir Francis, when the situation was explained to
him. “I think, Harry, my lad, I and you and Freddy will proceed to her
assistance, and Mary and Willie can remain with our friends here. But
first ask the Queen.”
No sooner did Aniwee learn how it was situated with her dear friend
Topsie, than she at once singled out three of her most expert
horse-catchers, and bade them follow her, instructing the remainder to
watch the captured horses, seven in all, and return with them to camp as
soon as the troupiglia of tame horses arrived; and then, without further
delay, she started off to the assistance of her friend.
“Mary, Willie,” commanded Sir Francis, “you will return with the Indians
to the camp, and in case we are late, explain to your mother the cause
of the delay. I expect the stallion will give a good deal of trouble.”
And before the two children could reply he had followed in the wake of
Aniwee, accompanied by his son Freddy and his nephew Harry. When these
three reached the gorge through which Aniwee and her hunters had already
ridden, they found all but one seated motionless on their horses,
scanning the horizon on all sides. Not a sign of either Topsie, Shag, or
the stallion could be seen in any direction, and the situation was
mysterious in the extreme.
“What can have happened to her?” broke from Harry in a trembling,
anxious voice. “Oh, Uncle Francis! what can have happened?”
But of course Sir Francis could say nothing, for he knew as little as
any of the rest. Suddenly, however, Lenketrou, whom Aniwee had
despatched to the top of a hill on the right to make observations, came
galloping back with the information that far away on the verge of the
distant forest he had distinguished a troop of wild horses, which had
suddenly disappeared, and a few seconds afterwards, following in their
tracks, he had made out the figures of two other horses and a small
black object moving by their side. These latter he had little doubt were
Topsie mounted on her own horse, the wild horse, and Shag.
Harry felt inclined to shout for joy, but checked himself on observing
Aniwee’s grave face.
“It is the haunted forest,” he heard her exclaim, “the home of the
Trauco people. Evil is the Gualichu which has lured her there.”
“But, Aniwee,” burst out the boy excitedly, “what do you mean? Surely
there is nothing to be afraid of in a big wood?”
“The forest stretches beyond the ken of man,” answered the Queen. “Both
my people and the Araucanians believe that in its untrodden depths lies
the hidden city of a powerful people, the Ciudad Encantada,[1] and that
amidst those woods dwells a strong hairy race, whom to meet is death.”
Footnote 1:
The Enchanted City.
“But surely, Aniwee, you don’t believe this rubbish? Don’t you remember
all you learnt in the Andes once before as to La Ciudad Encantada?”
answered Harry impatiently. “And as to the hairy men—why, they are
nothing but big monkeys, that’s all.”
“Aniwee is not a coward,” answered the Queen gravely, “but all her arts
will not make the Araucanians enter yon belt of trees. However, let us
ride forward, and see if we can render assistance to the white Cacique.
She may have given up the struggle on reaching the forest.”
They galloped forward in silence, Lenketrou leading in the direction
whence he had caught sight of the wild horses and the three galloping
figures. No one seemed to care to speak, and a foreboding of evil
oppressed both Sir Francis and Harry. It was midday, the sun was
streaming down upon them in hot fury, and all were more or less
oppressed and tortured by thirst. Even the wiry horses suffered acutely.
Thus they rode for nearly an hour, and at length approached the confines
of the forest. As they did so, the Indians drew rein and brought their
horses together.
“It is as I said,” remarked Aniwee sadly. “The Araucanians will not
enter there, and it is plain that the white Cacique has passed that way.
See yonder,” she continued, pointing to something which was lying on the
ground; “what is that?”
With a low cry Harry spurred his horse forward, followed by Sir Francis
and Freddy, and more slowly by Aniwee, the other Indians remaining where
they had first drawn rein.
Lying on the ground was a saddle, from which the girths had been torn
away, doubtless by a tremendous shock, and around the bent hilt of the
saddle-bow was coiled a lasso, which had been snapped in two between the
loop or noose and the casting end. Not far away lay Topsie’s rifle and
her revolver, with one chamber discharged. That was all. In vain the
boys searched all round. In vain they and Sir Francis rent the air with
loud cries, in the hope of receiving an answer from the missing girl.
Only the echoes of their own voices returned to them, mocking, as it
were, their futile efforts.
What was to be done? To attempt to search the vast forest would be
madness. Its impenetrable mazes forbade so hopeless a venture. Ah, God!
what was to be done?
Large tears stood in the Queen’s eyes. She would have braved any
superstitious terrors to render assistance to her white friend, but,
like Sir Francis, Harry, and Freddy, she felt how forlorn was the hope
of being able to track Topsie in that dense, dark jungle before her.
Suddenly a rustling and panting sound struck upon their ears. It came
nearer and nearer. It brought hope to the sinking hearts of Sir Francis
and the two boys, who strained their eyes to catch a sight of the animal
from which the sounds proceeded. They were successful at last, as out of
the forest came bounding the huge, rough form of the noble Shag, who,
with great red tongue hanging out and covered with foam, was galloping
nose to the ground, on the heel of his own tracks.
“Shag, Shag!” shouted Harry; and at the sound of the boy’s voice the
Labrador raised his head and cocked his ears. On perceiving Harry and
the others, he bounded forward to meet them with a low yelp of delight.
As he did so, and as he came full at them, they perceived that two
arrows were sticking in his side.
“Good God!” burst from Sir Francis’s lips. “Oh! where is my poor
Topsie?”
At once Shag began to behave in a very strange manner. First of all he
whined piteously, then he put his nose to the ground, and galloping
forward towards the forest came to a sudden halt, looked back at the
others, and gave two or three sharp, distressed barks, and then a long,
melancholy howl.
“Oh, Uncle Francis! he knows where Topsie is; depend upon it he does,”
cried Harry excitedly. “I know the dear old dog well. I know he would
never leave her unless she sent him, or unless something has happened
which he can’t remedy, and so has come to look for us. You can trust
him, indeed you can. Let us follow him and find my darling sister.”
“Harry, you must be calm, my boy, and remember in all difficulties never
to lose your head,” answered his uncle gravely. “To begin with, those
arrows must be cut out of Shag’s side and the wounds dressed, or he may
die, and our last hope of tracking Topsie will be gone. I plainly see
that she is a captive in some unknown tribe’s hands, and if we are to
rescue her we must proceed with great caution and care. It is a most
terrible position, but let us keep our heads clear, and put our trust in
God.”
All this time Shag was howling, and barking, and wagging his tail, and
doing all he could to attract the others forward.
“Come here, Shag,” called out Sir Francis, and the noble beast at once
obeyed. “Lie down, Shag,” again commanded the baronet; and as the dog
stretched himself out on his left side Sir Francis bent over him to
examine where the arrows had penetrated.
One proved to be a mere flesh wound, the arrow having entered the flank,
and it was easily extracted, for Sir Francis had practised in surgery,
and understood the art well.
But the other arrow had gone deeply in towards the last rib, and it took
quite a quarter of an hour of careful manipulation before it could be
removed. Fortunately the points were smooth and not barbed, which made
the operation less dangerous and difficult than it would have been had
they been turned up.
Poor Shag lay very patient and still under the surgeon’s knife, but his
eyes turned restlessly in the direction of the forest, and his honest
heart was evidently far away with his lost mistress, and beating for her
alone. If he could only have spoken he might have told them a strange
and startling tale. As it was, he could only plead with his honest brown
eyes, and hold a conversation with them, as far as he was able.
From a small case which he always kept slung across his shoulders, Sir
Francis took out some lint, a linen bandage, and two or three safety
pins. Then he opened a little bottle, and poured some of its contents on
the lint, which he applied to the most serious of the two wounds, and
bound it up with the bandage firmly and securely. Having thus done all
he could for the dog he turned to consult the Queen.
He found her attentively examining the two arrows which had been drawn
from Shag’s side. They were deftly fashioned and deeply tipped with
solid gold.
“They are undoubtedly the arrows of the Trauco,” she observed in a
troubled voice. “It is the Trauco who fired those, and who has made
captive my white friend.”
“But who and what are the Traucos, Aniwee?” inquired Sir Francis
eagerly. “Are they a tribe that you have seen and which you know?”
Aniwee smiled. “Seen them? Oh no!” she answered quickly; “but they live
in the traditions of both the Patagonians and Araucanians. A Trauco is a
man covered all over with hair, a man of giant strength, and haunted
with the medicine which makes him invisible.”
“Well, Aniwee, Trauco or no Trauco, I am determined to try and track the
white Cacique now that her dog has returned. Will you help me?”
The young Queen regarded him sadly.
“What can I do?” she asked, somewhat bitterly. “Absolute as my power is,
not an Araucanian would obey me if I ordered one or any of them to enter
yon forest, but Aniwee is not afraid. If the Caciques decide on going,
she will go with them. However, they must eat and rest first, and
prepare for action, for the forest is full of unknown and terrible
dangers.”
“Will you then, Aniwee, send back for food, and my son shall accompany
the Indians to bear the news to the other white Caciques?” exclaimed Sir
Francis eagerly.
“I will go myself,” she replied quietly, “and bring back all that I
think you will require. When the head works, the body acts quicker.”
With these words Aniwee put spurs to her horse, and followed by her
Indians, set forward across the plain on her return journey.
“Freddy, my lad,” said Sir Francis, laying his hand upon his son’s
shoulder, “do you return with the Queen, and ask the mother to mount and
join me, but tell her to strictly enjoin on Willie and Mary to remain
where they are. Tell the two youngsters that I trust to them to
superintend everything in our absence, and that I shall move heaven and
earth to bring back their cousin to them. Of course you will return with
the mother, and meanwhile I and Harry will keep watch here.”
“All right, dear father,” answered Freddy, as he promptly mounted his
horse. The next moment he was galloping hard after the retreating
figures of Aniwee and her Indians.
Left to themselves, uncle and nephew looked at each other. Poor Harry
was in a terrible way. The waiting and suspense were hard upon him, and
he would have liked to have set off there and then in the tracks of his
sister. However, he could not help seeing that his uncle’s plan was the
most prudent and the most likely to succeed in the end.
As for Shag, he was extremely upset at first; but it gradually dawned on
the wise beast that important preparations were in progress for the
rescue of his mistress, and no doubt he had every confidence in his
powers of tracking her. Searching about the outskirts of the forest, a
little stream was found, which proved a great boon to all three, thirst
having attacked them in a most acute form.
Time passed on slowly. It seemed as though the others would never
arrive; but all things come at last if we only wait for them. It was
well on in the afternoon, when a cavalcade of horses could be seen
threading the distant gorge, which gave outlet from one plain into the
other. About an hour later Freddy, Lady Vane, and Aniwee came galloping
up.
“Oh, Francis!” was Lady Vane’s first words, “this is terrible. Poor,
poor Topsie!”
“It is God’s will, Ruby,” answered her husband; “trust in Him. I have
prayed for our poor darling, and I feel sure my prayer will be
answered.”
In a short time the Indians rode up, bringing provisions of meat,
apples, and araucarias. It was arranged to snatch a brief rest, and
start on the search with the break of dawn, which would come early. In
spite of the protestations of her tribe, Aniwee had decided on
accompanying the relief party, and had left La Guardia Chica in
Graviel’s care, with Inacayal to rule in her absence. She would have
been less easy could she have seen the villainous smile with which the
Cacique bade her farewell, but Graviel witnessed it.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VIII.
Grey dawn was just beginning to shed its uncertain light over the long
chain of the white-robed Andes, when Harry, whose sleep had been nothing
but a disturbed and fitful doze, sprang up. He at once turned his
attention to lighting a fire and getting some water to boil for the
purpose of making maté, and then he looked to see if any of the others
were awake.
The Indians still slept with the exception of Aniwee, who rose up and
joined the lad, and then, one by one, Sir Francis, Lady Vane, and Freddy
came over to the fire.
While Aniwee made and mixed the maté, plans were laid for the guidance
of the relief party. The Queen was quite resolved on accompanying them,
in spite of her superstitions, which showed that the true spark of
courage, which had always been a characteristic of Aniwee, still gleamed
in her heart. It was decided that each person should carry his or her
cartridge belt, well stocked with ammunition, and a supply of maté,
matches, and meat were also to be taken. The latter consisted of long
hard strips, which had been dried in the sun, and which were therefore
not heavy to carry.
As a matter of duty, though no one was hungry, every one of the party
about to set forth made a hearty and full meal, and Shag’s comforts were
seen to and provided for. Poor Shag! His side was very stiff, and no
doubt as painful in proportion, but the honest fellow would give no
thought to his own sufferings, his thoughts being still with his
mistress. When, therefore, the time arrived for setting out he was all
there.
“Now, Shag, lead on; dear old Shag, find Topsie,” exclaimed Harry
eagerly; and the sagacious animal, with a hark of delight, sprung
forward nose to the ground.
Let any of my young readers who are inclined to bully a dog, or whose
hearts are not warm towards the noblest friend of man, recall Shag to
their minds when they feel thus. Let them imagine the position of utter
helplessness which Sir Francis and the rest of this little search party
would have been in, on the verge of a dense, unknown, untrodden forest,
if it had not been for the sagacious assistance and keen, unerring
knowledge of the Labrador. All depended on him. Topsie’s fate was
practically in his—I can’t say hands—paws. And thus it was that the
Indians, who by this time were up and stirring, beheld their beloved
young Queen enter the dreaded and Trauco-haunted forest, from which they
hardly dared to hope to see her return alive.
But Aniwee had no fear, and her heart was at rest in regard to her
child. Was not La Guardia Chica in the care of Graviel, and had not her
faithful Araucanians sworn to protect and guard the baby Queen in her
absence?
Without the slightest hesitation Shag piloted the party through a narrow
clearing in the forest, and then entered a wild horse path which led
through it, and which must have been often used, judging by the manner
in which the soil had been trampled into a hard, opaque cake. This made
travelling easy work at first, and our friends, proceeding in Indian
file, covered a good distance in the first hour of their march.
At starting, the forest had been on a level with the plain, but the
direction in which Shag led the party gradually bore away into hilly
slopes, still thickly covered in with trees. Natural clearings in the
forest would, however, from time to time, occur; and these clearings
were generally covered with a long, luxuriant grass and stumpy bushes,
and in nearly every case had a mountain torrent dashing down their
sides.
All of a sudden the Labrador came to a halt, and planting his forefeet
firmly on the ground, raised his head and sniffed the air. Then he
looked back at Harry, who was just behind him, and wagged his tail.
“Steady, Shag,” whispered the young midshipman, hastening forward, and
laying his hand on the noble dog’s massive head. “What is it, old boy?”
Again Shag wagged his tail and sniffed the air, but did not move.
Turning round to those behind, Harry laid his finger on his lips and
made a sign of caution, at the same time whispering to Shag to down
charge, which the dog at once obeyed. Then the lad stole forward
noiselessly and carefully, to see if he could make out anything ahead.
They were close to another of the natural clearings just described, and
it was towards this that Harry directed his footsteps. Keeping well out
of sight behind the trees, he gradually made his way to within sight of
the opening. Then he drew back and crouched down.
For there in the clearing grazed a large troop of horses, and in their
midst was not only the stallion which Topsie had striven to capture,
with the noose and snapped lasso still around its neck, but Topsie’s
horse itself, saddleless, yet still bridled!
But though he searched with his eyes in every direction, Harry could
make out no sign of his darling twin sister, and the feeling of hope
which had set his heart beating, quickly died, stifled in his breast.
He stole back noiselessly to the others and reported what he had seen,
when it was decided to proceed forward at once.
No sooner did the party emerge from the thick trees, than the stallion
sprang to attention. Then he wheeled round, got between the troop and
the new-comers, and with bent head and nose outstretched, and uttering
shrill screams, drove them in front of him pell-mell down the steep
slope; the thunder of their hoofs echoing far and wide as they fled from
the danger from which he had protected them.
And now for the first time Shag appeared at fault. He ran hither and
thither, sniffing the ground, and vainly endeavouring to pick up the
scent which he had apparently been following with such ease before.
Twenty times or more he returned to the wild horse track, took up the
scent right enough, and brought the trail to within thirty feet or so of
the clearing; but there he always stopped, completely at fault, and
unable to proceed further. At length, with a piteous expression in his
honest brown eyes, he raised his head and gave a long, melancholy howl.
“Harry, you know Shag better than any one else, except poor Topsie. Do
you think he has led us right so far?” inquired Lady Vane in an anxious
voice.
“Sure of it, Aunt Ruby; I would stake my life that the dear old fellow
is right so far,” answered the boy. “What do you think, uncle? Perhaps
the captors of our poor Topsie have followed this stream downwards,
purposely to throw any one following off the scent. I think I will just
give Shag a cast along its edges, and see if there is anything in my
idea.”
Suiting his action to his words, Harry made Shag follow the left bank of
the mountain torrent bed, which, coming from the forest, ran straight
down the clearing in the direction of the valley below. The sun had
already risen, but its rays had not yet penetrated the dew-besprinkled
ground, and scent was therefore necessarily hard to pick up. But Shag,
with almost human intelligence, worked carefully along, painstaking and
minute in his canine observations.
He was rewarded. Harry suddenly noticed that he pressed his nose tighter
against the ground, and began snorting and sniffing loudly; next the
dog’s tail moved gently, then fast, next faster. Finally he sprang
forward, giving tongue across the clearing, and into the forest on the
opposite side.
At once Harry turned and waved his cap. Thank God, the trail had been
hit once more! With a cheer Freddy came rushing down the slope to meet
him, followed more soberly by Sir Francis, Lady Vane, and Aniwee. But it
was no longer such plain sailing as it had been up till then. Shag was
making his way slowly along a rough and rocky line indeed. Every now and
then the undergrowth of the forest became almost impassable, and
recourse had to be had to the party’s short axes to clear a way. Yet
every now and then the trackers would notice that the brushwood was
beaten down and trampled upon, as though some one had already passed
that way.
As may be imagined, progress through such a line of march was but slow,
and rendered exceedingly wearisome and difficult, yet all plodded
bravely on, and worked their hardest to secure an appreciable advance.
They had certainly been four or more hours at their laborious work when
they came on a muddy and boggy patch of ground, where Sir Francis
decided to call a short halt, and spend half an hour in regaining breath
and snatching a brief repose. Shag was called in to heel and bidden to
down charge, an order which he obeyed with the greatest reluctance, and
indeed evinced a considerable amount of eagerness and impatience.
“What is this?” exclaimed Freddy excitedly. He had knelt down to drink
at a pool in the bog, when his eyes were attracted by the sight of a
number of human footprints all round the edge of the water, apparently
much of the same size.
In a moment every one was by his side, and on seeing the cause of his
exclamation, every eye was turned on Aniwee.
The young Queen examined the footprints for several minutes without
speaking. Then she looked up, and said gravely:
“Aniwee was right. The feet that made those marks are the feet of a
Trauco. The white Cacique has undoubtedly been carried off by one of
them.”
“By a baboon!” exclaimed Harry aghast. “Oh, Aniwee, what a terrible
idea! Uncle Francis, it must be one of those awful ‘demons of the
Andes,’ which I told you had slain Miriam Vane and James Outram long
ago, and which our old uncle told us about at the great gold mine of
Or.”
“The Traucos are not monkeys,” continued Aniwee in the same grave voice;
“they are real people covered all over with hair. They dwell in these
forests preying on the wild cattle, horses, and other animals, and have
even been known to steal the tame cattle of the Araucanians; but they
are not the people that dwell in the Ciudad Encantada. These last are
the Los Cesares, who are a white people; but whether they war with the
Traucos or are at peace with them Aniwee knows not. Aniwee has spoken.”
“Then you think this is the footstep of a Trauco, Aniwee? Are you sure
you are not mistaken?” inquired Sir Francis Vane anxiously. It was
terrible to think of Topsie in the power of these wild men of the woods,
which could only present themselves to his mind as apes of a large size,
possibly the terrible demons of which Harry spoke, and with which those
of my readers who have read “The Young Castaways” will be already
acquainted.
Before Aniwee could reply, a loud roar sounded across the valley.
Crashing rocks and the booming as of a hundred cannon filled the still
air with mysterious noises, and high above the turmoil rung out, as it
apparently seemed, the clear notes of a bell.
An expression of awe filled the dark eyes of the Warrior Queen, and she
averted them from the direction whence the sounds came. Even Sir
Francis, Lady Vane, Harry, and Freddy stood dumb and struck with wonder.
“What, in God’s name, is that?” exclaimed the baronet, as he passed his
hand across his forehead, upon which the sweat stood in large beads.
“Have I not told the Caciques?” answered Aniwee in a low voice. “The
Señors laugh; they call those sounds the thunder of falling snow. But if
they will know the truth, it is the Cesares people and their
enchantments.”
Our friends may be excused for feeling a little uncomfortable. These
strange sounds, and above all, the melancholy notes of the distant
bell,[2] had decidedly impressed them. Aniwee’s superstitious
explanations did not tend to make matters any better; and then the
vague, uncertain feeling pervading every one as to Topsie’s fate,
accentuated the uncomfortable experiences of this handful of white
beings, struggling through a densely wooded, unexplored region.
Footnote 2:
Bell-like chimes are often to be heard in the Cordilleras, and the
Indians attribute them to a white people, whom they call “Los
Cesares,” and who they believe dwell in La Ciudad Encantada, or
Enchanted City.
“Let us start on again,” exclaimed Sir Francis.
Judging rightly, that action was the best cure for the low spirits which
seemed to pervade every one; and in obedience to Harry’s order Shag
sprang forward once more.
Now he led them down the slope of the forest towards the valley beneath,
and kept straight on his way until he had reached it. Then he struck
across the valley, and crossed the shallow river which ran through it,
and began to breast the hillside opposite to the one he had just
descended. On this side the trees were wider apart, and there was little
undergrowth, while the grass was soft and mossy. High above them towered
the snowy Andes, piercing the skies with their glittering peaks.
It was hard going, and Shag moved too quickly, so much so that Harry was
forced to put a leash upon him. They had been toiling upwards for over
half an hour, when the dog halted as abruptly as before, sniffed the air
again, and then, with a low whine, endeavoured to spring forward.
Every one hurried on, but in another moment all halted, as though turned
to stone. In a large circular clearing stood three roughly built huts,
covered over with green boughs, and lying under one of these, apparently
asleep, was Topsie. She was not fifty yards away from where the relief
party stood. Her face was very pale, and her eyes looked red and
swollen, as though she had been weeping.
Harry was the first to recover from the surprise which the sudden
apparition of his sister had taken possession of all.
“Topsie, dear old Topsie!” he cried.
She could not have been asleep, for in a moment her eyes unclosed, and
she sprang to her feet. The next instant she was rushing to meet them.
As she did so, however, three or four tall, dark, hairy figures rushed
forth from the huts, and all made for the forest except one. This one,
bigger than the rest, strode after the running girl. In a moment he had
snatched her in his arms, and before any one could unsling their rifles
had dashed away into the forest, and as he disappeared a despairing
voice, the voice of Topsie, was heard piteously calling for help.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IX.
Our last glimpse of poor Topsie previous to the episode related in the
chapter just terminated, was when she and her hairy companion had been
suddenly joined by two other hairy beings.
Though her first feeling had been one of horror at seeing them, her
second had been one of relief. After all, it was better to be in the
company of three beings, however strange, than in that of one; and in
spite of the miserable position in which she was situated, the girl eyed
the new arrivals with curiosity. One of them was nearly as tall as her
companion, but of slighter and more delicate build, while the other was
quite a wee creature, not anything like so big as Topsie herself. This
latter at once concluded that the three apes, baboons, or wild human
beings, whatever they were, must be husband, wife, and child, as in
reality they were.
Though the wife took good stock of Topsie, she did not appear to be
overwhelmed by any great surprise at seeing her, but the joy of the
child was excessive. A little female one, she danced round Topsie
uttering strange cries of delight, sounds in which reigned a mixture of
laughter and a peculiar cooing noise, something between the purring of a
cat and the cooing of a dove. Both she and her mother possessed
beautiful eyes, large and languishing, like those of a guanaco or
gazelle, and with the same gentle look in them as had the father’s.
For a short time, the wild young lady of the forest did not venture too
near to the strange being whom her father had brought captive to his
stronghold; but gradually taking heart, she approached nearer and nearer
to Topsie, at length venturing to touch her sleeve. Then she sprang
back, frightened, no doubt, at her own temerity, and still overcome with
awe and wonder at the figure before her. But taking courage again, she
soon approached once more, intent on a farther examination. As there was
nothing repulsive in the little creature, and as Topsie judged it to be
good policy to appear friendly, she tried to smile through her tears,
and held out her hand to the curious child. This latter appeared to
appreciate and understand Topsie’s attitude, for with a low cry she
sprang forward, seized the proffered hand, and began to kiss it gently,
purring and cooing loudly all the time. Next she stroked it, as also the
arm belonging to it, and finally ventured to touch Topsie’s face. After
this she was altogether friendly, and every fear became quickly
dispelled.
Pleased, no doubt, by the conciliatory attitude of the girl, the mother
advanced and stroked her face and hands, examined the texture of her
clothes, and appeared full of wonder at the cartridge belt; but the man
remained silent and motionless in his apparently favourite attitude,
with his arm round a tree and his large dark eyes fixed upon his
captive, whom he had evidently no intention of losing sight of.
One thing appeared certain to Topsie, and that was, that the beings
amongst whom she found herself, intended her no harm. She felt perfectly
sure that if poor Shag was alive, he would come to her rescue, and she
tried to believe that he had gone back in search of Harry and the
others. But then, again, she had not the slightest notion where she was.
She had no doubt been insensible a long time, for the sun was high in
the heavens when she dashed into the forest in her forced pursuit of the
wild horse, and now it was well along on its daily course.
If she had hoped that their journey was at an end for the day, her hope
was quickly dispelled, for the hairy captor suddenly advanced towards
her, lifted her in his arms again, and began striding through the dense
forest. As he held her in a sort of upright position she was able to
look back over his shoulder, and she then perceived that the other big
creature was following close behind, with the child in her arms,
carrying it in the same way as the hairy man carried his burden. The
going was rough, the undergrowth of the forest thick and resisting. It
was astonishing, however, to see the way in which these powerful wild
beings of the forest trampled every obstacle down with their broad, flat
feet. At length Topsie felt that they were beginning to descend to the
plain below, a glimpse of which she had lately caught sight of while
crossing one of the natural clearings, which have been already referred
to as occasionally occurring.
On reaching the plain, Topsie’s captor halted and set her on her feet.
Then he took her very gently by the hand, and led her by his side,
endeavouring to accommodate his giant strides to her shorter and more
civilised ones. Released from her mother’s arms, the little wild child
ran joyfully on ahead, laughing and clapping her hands, purring and
cooing, but never uttering a word; and it was plain to Topsie, that if
these hairy beings were human, they could not speak. That was quite
certain.
Suddenly the wee creature came to a full stop, stared across the valley
plain, and then dropping on all fours, came wriggling back to her
father. Both the latter and the mother, on seeing their child in this
position, dropped into the same attitude; and Topsie, judging it best to
copy them, went down too. Then she cast her eyes forward, to see what it
was that had thus attracted their attention. Filing out of the forest on
the opposite hillside, and feeding head to wind as they came, Topsie
made out a herd of some twenty deer; and as the setting sun cast its
light upon them, their rich red coats gleamed like burnished gold.
What followed filled her with astonishment and amazement, and more than
ever confirmed her in her suspicions as to the humane genus of her
captors.
The hairy man, who had never relaxed his grasp of her, now held out her
hand to the female, who, wriggling forward, received it from him; and
thus Topsie found herself made over to the care of the hairy woman. But
the husband seemed suddenly to change his mind in this respect, and once
more taking her hand in his, he handed over to his wife the bow and
arrows which Topsie had noticed him carrying that morning, and which he
had never relaxed his hold of throughout the march.
No sooner had this strange species of woman received the weapons of
destruction, than she began to creep forward on her hands and knees in
the direction of the feeding deer, every now and then bending her face
to the ground, as if she, too, was browsing, and looking for all the
world like some four-footed animal busy with its evening meal.
In this manner she managed to come quite close to the herd, without
frightening the members thereof; when, suddenly pausing in her
four-legged perambulations, she fitted an arrow to her bow, and rising
to her full height, sent the shaft winging with true and deadly
precision at a fine monarch of the glen that was standing a little
distance apart from the other deer.
Bounding forward about twenty paces, the noble animal reared straight on
end, and fell back with a crash. There was a slight struggle, and then
all was still. At the same time the members of the herd, wheeling round
in a semicircle, gazed first affrightedly upon their dead leader, and
the next moment fled precipitately towards the forest which they had but
lately quitted.
No sooner had the hairy woman drawn her bow than her husband jumped up
from his crouching attitude, and still holding Topsie with one hand,
caught hold of that of his child, and began hurrying across the plain to
where the dead deer lay. Already the hairy woman was by its side,
abstracting from its heart the golden-pointed arrow which had wrought
its death.
Topsie was amazed at the dexterity with which the bow had been handled
and the arrow aimed. Truly the skill of these wild denizens of the Andes
was marvellous! But she was still full of curiosity to learn how they
would skin and cut up the deer, having perceived no knife of any
description about them.
But she quickly learnt that such implements were not lacking amongst the
possessions of her captors. Diving their hands into a slit in front of
the fur kilt or short skirt which each wore, both man and woman produced
knives, the blades of which were made of pure gold, and set strongly in
thick wooden handles, black as ivory. With these they proceeded to
skilfully skin and cut up the deer, reserving only the choicest portions
for consumption, and leaving the remainder for the condors to feast
upon, numbers of which were already beginning to hover like specks far
up in the sky. But the deer’s skin was carefully preserved, rolled up,
and tied round with a thin strip of hide, cut from around the neck,
doubtless to serve as clothing on some future occasion.
At this juncture the sound of a distant bell, apparently tolling far up
the mountain side, came floating into the valley beneath, striking
Topsie dumb with astonishment. But her surprise increased when the three
hairy beings threw themselves flat on the ground, and bowed their faces
in the long grass with both hands flat, outstretched, and held just
above the back of their heads. What could they be doing, and what on
earth were the mysterious sounds which had, as it were, so suddenly
bound them by its spell, and prostrated them in this attitude of humble
obeisance and apparent adoration?
As abruptly as they had begun the bell sounds ceased, and then the hairy
beings arose from the ground, and went on as unconcernedly as before
with their work. The meat was divided into three bundles, the two
heaviest being set aside as the portions for the grown-up beings, while
a lighter consignment was awarded to the child as its fair share in the
labour.
Topsie, wishing to gain the confidence of her hairy companions, at once
stooped down and selected some of the meat from each of the bundles,
making signs to the man that she would undertake the porterage thereof
herself. A diplomatic act assuredly, for it evidently ingratiated her in
the good opinion of Madame Hairy Being, who smiled and showed her white
teeth, and cooed approvingly. Then a start was made, and for the first
time since her capture, Topsie was allowed liberty to walk alone,
without being held by the hand.
They entered the forest not far from the spot where the herd of deer had
first filed out into the valley plain, and then the ascent of the
hillside was begun. After about half-an-hour’s climb they emerged into a
natural clearing, and thereon Topsie perceived several huts made of
poles and green boughs standing. Uttering a shrill whistle, the hairy
man threw down his meat burden, an act in which he was imitated by his
wife and child, and Topsie was not slow to follow their example, for she
was not a little blown after the climb. At the same time several beings
emerged from the huts, three of which, hairy like her captors, came
running to meet them grinning and laughing, and clapping their hands.
But it was not upon these creatures that Topsie’s eyes were fixed, nor
were they the cause of their dilated surprise. She was staring at two
other figures, tall copper-coloured ones, not hairy like the others, but
perfectly human in appearance, who had come out of the huts, and were
standing side by side watching the arrival of Topsie and her companions.
For a few seconds the girl stood as one turned to stone. Then she
recovered from her surprise. With a low cry she sprung forward, and in
another moment her hands were grasping those of Piñone and Cuastral, the
former the husband of Aniwee, whom the Warrior Queen accounted dead, and
the latter his father, the great Cuastral, Lord of the Araucanians, both
of whom Inacayal had sworn to seeing lifeless in the hands of the
Cristianos. Topsie could not be mistaken. Her intimate acquaintance with
both, a circumstance with which readers of “The Young Castaways” will be
acquainted, ensured a certain recognition.
“Piñone,” she cried, “how came you here? Aniwee thinks you and Cuastral
dead. Did not Inacayal, Quintuhual’s son, swear it?”
“Aniwee, is she well?” burst from the Cacique’s lips; but even as he
spoke Topsie’s captor was by her side, and seizing her hand drew her
hastily away from the two Araucanian chiefs. The girl knew it was
useless to resist, and with great presence of mind appeared to obey
willingly, stroking the hairy being’s hand with her free one, and
testifying by every means in her power her friendliness and good will.
And so well did she act her part that she managed to allay his
suspicions, so that after a few minutes he released her, and allowed her
to wander about, keeping, however, a good watch upon her movements.
Gradually, and by degrees, Topsie worked her way back to the two
Araucanians. These, divining the object of her manœuvres, had thrown
themselves on the ground, and were apparently paying no attention to her
whatever. But the girl knew better; and when at length she sat herself
down beside them she inquired quickly: “Who are these people, Piñone?
Are they men or beasts?”
“They are men,” answered the Cacique. “They are the Trauco people.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER X.
“The Trauco people!” exclaimed Topsie, into whose mind those words
infused a flood of meaning. During her wanderings in Patagonia she had
often heard the Indians speak with awe of these wild beings, in whose
existence they implicitly believed, but both she and Harry had always
laughed at the idea, and declared that the Trauco must be a species of
large ape; and this belief had more than ever been confirmed in their
minds, by the descriptions given to them by their old hermit uncle, of
those “demons of the Andes” who had guarded the great gold mine of Or.
But between the demons and these hairy people a wide gulf of difference
yawned, and for the first time Topsie found the word Trauco impressed
upon her as the name of a reality of the human species, instead of a
mythical ape.
“But, Piñone, how did you get here?” she again inquired in a low voice.
“Aniwee and the Araucanians think you dead. After the raid made by you
and Cuastral on the Cristianos, Inacayal returned, saying he had seen
your dead bodies.”
“Son of a serpent!” hissed the young Indian between his teeth; “and they
have elected him Cacique in Cuastral’s place!”
“Not so, Piñone,” answered Topsie quickly. “The Araucanians have made
your little daughter, ‘La Guardia Chica,’ Queen, and Aniwee reigns as
Queen-Regent. They call her the Warrior Queen, and there is hardly an
Araucanian who would not die for her and for the child of Piñone, whose
name as well as his father’s is still sung and remembered by them. But
how did you and Cuastral get here?”
“It is a story which will occupy some time in telling,” replied the
young Cacique; “but first tell me how you have had the ill-luck to
become a Trauco’s prisoner.”
“Well, Piñone, it is just this. I and my brother, whom you remember, as
well as the tallest of the three Caciques who found us in Patagonia,
together with his wife and three children, formed a party to visit
Aniwee. In due course we arrived at Las Manzanas, where she welcomed us
at the head of three hundred warriors. But even while she was in the act
of receiving us the camp was attacked by a body of Cristianos, who
endeavoured to carry off the baby Cacique. The child was, however, saved
by Graviel, and defended by the few men and women left in camp, till the
Queen came to the rescue. A fierce fight ensued. Many of the Cristianos
were killed, and the remainder put to flight. Aniwee fought as befitted
a Warrior Queen.
“This morning at an early hour we struck tolderias, and marched inland
to a beautiful camping ground, which Aniwee said she loved best, because
it had been your favourite resting spot. A troupiglia of baguales having
been reported, we set forth to try and capture some. During the
confusion of a general _mêlée_, I managed to lasso the leader of the
troop, who gave me a terrible long gallop, and at length entered a big
forest which bounded the plain across which we had raced. I must have
been knocked from my horse and stunned, for I remember no more until I
came to and found myself in the power of a Trauco. Since then we have
travelled far, and here I am, as you perceive, Piñone. But I do not
despair, for my dog Shag is missing, and I firmly believe that he has
gone for help, and will pilot my brother and the others to the rescue.”
Piñone smiled bitterly. “You do not know the Trauco people,” he replied;
“they have caves and inaccessible retreats far and near. An attempt made
to rescue you would simply result in your being carried off and confined
in one of these caves, where no mortal power could reach you. No; escape
is the only hope. If we can steal away in the dark, and secrete
ourselves, we might manage to obtain our freedom; and it is strange that
both Cuastral and myself had made up our minds to attempt flight this
very night—and lo! you come upon us.”
“What, Piñone! You are going to try and escape from these people in a
strange country without arms, and without a knowledge of your
whereabouts?” inquired the girl anxiously. “Surely you will fail, be
tracked, and again taken prisoners. Have you tried it before? If so,
being still here, you must have learnt the hopelessness of the attempt.”
“We tried to escape once, and once only, and we were recaptured and
taken far from the spot,” answered the young chief. “I will tell all to
you if you like to hear the story. The sun is not yet set, and the
feeding hour is still some time distant. Would the Señorita like to
hear?”
“Yes, Piñone, indeed I would,” exclaimed Topsie eagerly. “Speak quickly,
and tell me all.”
“Many suns have come and gone,” began the Araucanian, “since my father
Cuastral, accompanied by myself and five hundred warriors, set out for
the frontier, across which the Cristianos dwell. As you know well, we
were at war with them because they wished to steal not only the Indian’s
land, but the Indian himself. We swept the frontier in a succession of
raids, and, loaded with booty, had encamped on Patagonian territory,
secure, as we thought, from reprisal or surprise. Yet treachery lurked
around us. News was brought to me that not far away a small party of
Cristianos were dogging and watching our movements. Both Cuastral and
myself thought well to fall upon them and drive them from our path.
Inacayal, who had brought the information, offered to act as spy, and he
was entrusted with the task of watching and reporting. One day he came
riding into camp, with the information that the Cristianos had retired
across the frontier, and were engaged in drinking and gaming in the
Bahia settlement, which consists of a few huts erected amidst a dark
wood. We at once arranged to surprise them, and for that purpose
selected sixty of our most skilled warriors, amongst whom was Inacayal.
To be brief, we fell upon them, as we believed, unawares, but at once
perceived that we had been caught in a trap, for we were surrounded by
some four or five hundred Cristianos, who lay concealed in the wood, and
the greater number of our brave warriors were slain. Cuastral and myself
were overwhelmed and taken prisoners. We were carried away to the
settlements, where we were kept closely confined. At the expiration of
four or five days we were blindfolded, had our hands tied behind us, and
were placed on horses, being securely guarded all the time. We journeyed
for several days in this manner, arriving at last on the outskirts of a
great forest, where, still blindfolded, we were removed from our horses
and securely lashed to some trees. For several hours we remained thus,
helpless and confined, when suddenly we felt ourselves being released,
and the handkerchiefs removed from our eyes. Terrible was our anguish
when we found ourselves surrounded by five or six tall hairy men, who,
having released us, took us by the hands, and compelled us to accompany
them. These men were Traucos, and with them and others of their tribe we
have dwelt and wandered through many a long and weary day amidst the
haunted mountains and gloomy woods, sighing for the bright plains and
lovely valleys where the Araucanian dwells in plenty and happiness. Once
only we attempted escape, but were recaptured, conveyed up a dark
flowing river, and confined for many days in a dreary cavern. But hist!
close your eyes, and feign sleep, for the Trauco is approaching, with
suspicion in his eyes.”
Quick as lightning Topsie did as she was bid, and the Trauco on coming
to her side found her, to all appearance, asleep. Piñone made pretence
to be lazily peeling some bark off a small branch which he held in his
hand, and Cuastral, to all intents, like Topsie, was indulging in a
peaceful doze.
Satisfied with his inspection the Trauco withdrew, and Topsie and the
old chief were free to reopen their eyes. They judged it, however,
prudent to preserve the same attitudes, for fear of another inspection.
“And now,” continued Piñone, “will not the white Cacique join in our
flight this night? It is arranged that we steal forth silently when all
are asleep, make our way across the valley and into the forest opposite,
travelling as far as we can till light dawns, and then secreting
ourselves as best we may till the return of night. There is a chance of
escape. From what you tell me, we are no more than two days’ march from
the land of Cuastral, and such an opportunity may never present itself
again. Piñone has spoken.”
“But how can I join you?” inquired Topsie anxiously. “I shall probably
be confined in a different hut to you.”
“No,” answered Cuastral, who here interposed; “the Trauco never mixes
with his captives; and as there are only four huts, you will assuredly
be placed in the one which I and my son occupy. Say, O white Cacique,
will you join with us in our attempt to regain the freedom that we
crave?”
“I will,” answered Topsie, screwing up her courage to make the desperate
attempt.
“It is well,” replied the Cacique laconically; “midnight will be the
hour.”
A whistle at this juncture sounded, and the two Araucanians at once
arose and walked over to where the Traucos were seated, receiving from
one of them several apples, araucarias, piñones, and strips of dried
meat, with which they retired to their hut. At the same time Topsie’s
captor came over to where she lay with her portion in his hands, and
after handing it to her laid his hand gently on her arm, and drew her
towards the hut occupied by Cuastral. With a feeling of relief the girl
obeyed his unmistakable sign to enter it, and her relief was shared by
her companions in misfortune.
They made a hearty meal, not knowing when they might taste food again,
and then all three lay down apparently to rest. Really tired and worn
out, Topsie soon fell asleep. No sham about it on this occasion; and
when about an hour later the Trauco made his last rounds of inspection,
he found her buried in a profound slumber, with Cuastral and Piñone
apparently fast asleep beside her. Uttering a low purr of content, the
Trauco withdrew, and entered his own dwelling.
It must have been midnight, when Topsie was awakened by a hand being
laid across her mouth. So startled was she, that she would have cried
out, only the hand prevented her from doing so. Suddenly recollection
came to her aid, and she then remembered the desperate enterprise upon
which she and her companions were bent.
“Follow me,” whispered Piñone, as soon as he perceived that she was
quite awake; and one by one the three captives stole forth into the cold
midnight air. As noiselessly as possible they traversed the open space
in which the huts were situated, and entered the forest at the same
place from where Topsie had first espied them. Thence they rapidly
descended towards the plain. How the girl’s heart beat! She could hear
it sounding like a hammer in her ears, and a cold sweat broke out all
over her, as a night jar shrieked forth its warning, gruesome note. The
Indians looked startled, for the night jar was regarded by their tribe
as an ill-omened bird, whose note predicted evil, and whose presence was
the herald of misfortune. Still they kept on their path, and after a
time reached the valley for which they had been making.
They crossed it at as rapid a rate as the darkness permitted, and in
about half an hour reached the opposite forest. But here their worst
difficulties began. It was pitch dark, and the undergrowth was so thick,
that to make headway was almost impossible. Topsie at once perceived
that there was not the slightest hope of her finding the tracks, which
the two Traucos had made that morning, and that all they could do was to
work their way forward as rapidly as the dense undergrowth permitted.
But even as they struggled along the blood froze in her veins, as a loud
trumpeting sound came floating across the valley in the still night air.
“It is the Trauco!” gasped Cuastral, in a despairing voice. “They have
discovered our flight, and are in pursuit. We must separate, and seek
shelter in the densest brushwood possible, and lie as quiet as the dead,
without movement and without sound. Child of my heart, may the Great
Spirit hide thee and guide thee back to Aniwee.”
These last words were addressed exclusively by the chief to his son. For
a moment the two held each other’s hands, and then they parted, each
fugitive taking a different direction.
The trumpeting noise, evidently one of anger, was getting nearer, and
Topsie, having struggled forward a short distance, crept beneath the
thick underwood, in the faint hope that the darkness would screen her
from observation. Vain indeed! She had been hardly a quarter of an hour
in her nook of refuge, when she heard strong breathing not far off. It
came nearer and nearer, the crashing of a heavy tread sounded beside
her, and a minute later she was in the grasp of her pursuer, the same
Trauco who had made her captive the day before.
Dawn was breaking in the heavens when he bore her back to her prison on
the forest slope beneath the Andes heights. Almost heart-broken, Topsie
threw herself down outside her hut, and gave way to a passionate burst
of weeping. She must have sobbed herself to sleep, for when she awoke
the sun was scorching down upon her, and the Traucos were dozing under
the shade of their huts. Several were absent, however, and looking all
round she could make out no sign of Cuastral or Piñone. Could it be that
they had escaped? She must have dozed again, when she was suddenly
awakened by the sound of a familiar voice. There could be no mistaking
it. A flood of joy rushed over her. For a moment a vision of glory
gladdened her eyes. On the edge of the forest she could see her brother,
her uncle and aunt, her cousin Freddy, Aniwee, and Shag. In an instant
she had sprung to her feet and raced to meet them. But even as she sped
along she heard the swift tread of the Trauco beside her. She felt
herself once more seized and lifted from the ground, and helpless in his
powerful grasp she felt herself borne away from the freedom which she
had all but grasped once more.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XI.
We must return to the Indian camp, where Lady Vane and Freddy had left
Mary and Willie when starting to join Sir Francis and Harry on the
borders of the forest. As may be imagined, the two younger children were
not over-pleased at being left behind. They were, to begin with, very
unhappy about their cousin, and longed to take part in the search for
her, and the suspense which they suffered, and which they felt they
would continue to suffer, was very great. However, as Lady Vane pointed
out to them, some one must remain in camp to look after the things; and
this giving our young friends somewhat of an air of importance, they
resigned themselves to the position, wisely resolving to make the best
of it, and do their duty under the circumstances. They had made friends
with Blancha and Graviel, both of whom could speak Spanish, and this
latter had returned to the head toldo on receiving from Aniwee the
guardianship of the baby Cacique, Inacayal, as we have already seen,
being placed in command during the Queen-Regent’s absence.
But Aniwee had hardly departed, when a war messenger rode into camp, to
announce that hostilities had broken out some twenty miles north, and
that he had been sent to implore immediate help.
In the natural course of events, if Aniwee had been in camp, she would
have proceeded at once to the relief of her people, and therefore it was
not thought strange when Inacayal gave orders that every warrior, save
those who had been wounded in the fray of the previous night, should get
ready in haste, and be prepared to accompany him at short notice on his
northward march against the foe.
As may be imagined, therefore, the Indian camp was denuded of its
warriors, and left practically defenceless. No one thought anything of
this, as the only foes they had to dread were the Cristianos, and these
never attempted to penetrate deeply into Araucanian territory, always
attacking its frontier or border line, with the object of driving back
the tribes into the forest recesses.
But before taking his departure, Inacayal in the privacy of his toldo
held the following strange conversation with one Guaitu, an Araucanian
Caciquillo, whom he had appointed to command the camp during his
absence, and in that of the Queen’s.
“The baby is safe in your keeping, Guaitu?” he inquired anxiously.
“Safe as though a Trauco held it,” answered the Caciquillo.
“The exchange must be effected to-night,” continued Inacayal in a low
voice. “Never will the Gualichu give us such a chance again. Be wary,
Guaitu; all depends on thy cunning and address.”
“Guaitu will not fail,” answered the Indian, with a leer. “Ere the sun
comes back again, La Guardia Chica will be far away.”
“It is well, Guaitu. Inacayal can put his faith in thee,” exclaimed the
Cacique joyfully, as he turned to leave the toldo.
Outside, his war-horse stood ready, and the chief, mounting hastily,
departed, followed by over five hundred warriors, many of whose homes
lay in the threatened north, and who were therefore anxious to set forth
to its rescue or defence, as the case might be.
It wanted several hours to sunset, and Mary and Willie employed the time
in wandering about the camp, making friends with the women, children,
and animals, which appeared to abound in every direction, picking out
here and there one of the former who could speak Spanish, and with whom,
in consequence, conversation was possible. Meanwhile Guaitu, in his
position of commander, was going the rounds of the camp, looking into
the toldos, and assuring himself that all was snug and in order for the
night. He was followed by an Indian lad carrying a large skin of
spirits, out of which Guaitu was pleased to give to every man and woman
whom he visited a small draught, telling them that Inacayal had left it,
that they might drink to the health and success of the warriors, whom he
was leading against the foe.
Unsuspectingly, every one accepted the proffered draught. The Indians
are fond of, and will rarely refuse an offer of spirits. How could they
know that the traitor Guaitu had previously drugged this liquor, so that
soon after taking it they would sleep heavily and without danger of
awakening? They could not know it, of course; yet such had been done by
Inacayal’s scheming tool. When the conspirator arrived at the chief
tolderia he paused and listened. Blancha was singing in a low voice to
the baby Queen, and he could hear the measured breathing of poor
Graviel, whom the woman had bidden sleep while she watched beside his
little charge. Lifting the skin flap which covered the opening to the
tolderia, Guaitu entered with a soft smile, and an air of interested
solicitude on his face.
“Is all well with the young Cacique?” he inquired softly; yet quietly as
he spoke the sound aroused Graviel, who started up from the skin couch
on which he lay and stared at the intruder, at the same time grasping
his spear.
“Ah! no fear, Graviel,” said Guaitu soothingly. “There is no harm
intended;” and he proceeded to explain to the youth how Inacayal had
departed with all the warriors, leaving the camp in his charge.
“And he bade me bring to you and Blancha a draught of war cordial, and
bid you drink to the health and success of the Queen’s warriors and the
defeat of her foes,” continued Guaitu cunningly. Now, neither Blancha
nor Graviel desired the draught, but to have refused it would have been
to lay themselves open to the charge of desiring evil to the warriors of
their tribe, therefore they accepted it as had done the others, and
drank, as they had been requested to do, to the health and success of
the warriors and to the defeat of the Queen’s foes. This was exactly
what Guaitu desired; and as he watched the cordial go down, he chuckled
to himself ominously, and muttered the words, “All goes well.” Then he
bent over the baby Cacique, who had sunk into a peaceful sleep. “How
quietly she lies,” he said a little anxiously. “You are sure, Blancha,
that all is well with her?”
“Ay, all is well,” answered the girl curtly. She did not love Guaitu,
and he knew it.
“Then watch her carefully, girl,” he continued as he turned to go. “If
evil befel the little Cacique in the absence of the Warrior Queen and
Inacayal, heavy would be the blame that Guaitu would have to bear.”
“Have no fear,” answered the Indian girl coldly. “In our care the
Guardia Chica is safe.”
Alas! Blancha could not look into the future and see what was coming.
She was haughty and confident in her own powers and those of Graviel to
protect and guard their precious charge.
The sun went down, and everything became hushed in the Indian camp.
Sleep held its reign over all.
After Guaitu had quitted the tolderia, Blancha had made up the fire that
burnt therein, and again importuned Graviel to snatch a few hours’
sleep. She was not tired, she affirmed, and would hold the first watch,
awaking him later on to take up the second. In her heart, however, the
Indian girl had resolved to take the whole watch upon herself, and thus
afford the wounded youth the rest he so sorely needed; and Graviel,
yielding to her entreaties, had consented to her proposal, and the
drugged draught quickly taking effect, he was soon plunged in a profound
and heavy slumber. And as she sat and watched beside the baby Queen, a
strange drowsiness crept over the Indian girl Blancha. It came upon her
so suddenly, that she yielded to its influence without being aware of
doing so. Her eyes closed, her head fell forward on her chest, and, like
Graviel, her slumber was heavy and profound.
Then a creeping figure stole noiselessly into the tolderia, carrying
something in its arms. The figure was Guaitu’s. In a moment he made his
way to the little Queen’s couch, laid amongst the warm skins a tiny baby
of the same age as the Guardia Chica, and dressed in every respect in
the same manner. Then he seized hold of the baby Cacique, stifled the
piteous cry to which she tried to give vent, and like lightning vanished
from the tolderia. It was all the work of a few seconds. The exchange
had been deftly and quickly made, and no one had witnessed the deed.
Daylight had begun to glimmer in the heavens when Blancha awoke with a
start. The child by her side was crying, and she sprung towards it with
a terrible foreboding of evil. Her head ached, and she felt dull and
heavy; but she shook herself, and tried to free herself from the stupor,
which still seemed to cling to her brain. On his couch Graviel lay
sleeping. The child’s cries appeared to make no impression upon him,
which seemed to her to be a most unusual thing. She bent over the baby
and took it in her arms. The poor little thing felt cold, and she
bitterly reproached herself for her neglect. The fire, though it had
burnt low, was not out, and she stirred the embers and put on some dry
logs, and fanned the former until they ignited with the fresh fuel and
burst out into flame. Then she sat down by the fire and laid the baby on
her lap, and strove tardily to repair for her neglect of the child.
Suddenly, however, a loud cry echoed throughout the tolderia, arousing
even the dulled senses of poor Graviel. Springing towards Blancha, who
had fallen on her knees, and was moaning bitterly with her head bowed in
her clasped hands, he excitedly inquired of her what was the matter. A
child’s whining lament sounded from one of the corners of the toldo, and
looking that way, he perceived what appeared to him to be the baby
person of the child Cacique.
With an exclamation of anger he rushed towards it, but as he did so, he
heard Blancha call out to him in a voice of anguish not to touch it.
“It is not La Guardia Chica, Graviel,” she wailed in heart-broken
accents. “The Cacique is not here; she has been stolen, and that child
of a viper has been put in her place.”
“Treason!” shouted Graviel, rushing from the tent, and he commenced to
call aloud for assistance. His cries attracted Mary and Willie, who
hurried to his side, and a few minutes later Guaitu came running up.
“What ails Graviel?” he inquired angrily; “and why these wild cries
outside the tolderia of the head Cacique? Art thou mad, boy?”
Graviel turned fiercely towards him. “Where is the head Cacique?” he
demanded furiously. “She has been stolen, and a child of a creeping
viper put in her place. Where is everybody? Why is all silent and dead
in the camp? Why do children only show themselves? Where are the women,
the warriors, and the rest?”
“Thy brain is troubled, Graviel. Dost thou not recall last night’s
events, when Inacayal and his warriors departed to fight the hated
Cristianos on the northern borders? All are gone save the women,
children, and the wounded men. So this is how thou hast safeguarded thy
charge; and how will Aniwee greet thee on her return?”
A low wail of intense anguish burst from the young Indian, and he
covered his face with his hand. But here Mary interposed, and questioned
Graviel in Spanish as to what had happened.
No sooner had the miserable youth explained the situation, than the
quick-witted girl made up her mind as to the course to be adopted.
“Graviel,” she exclaimed, “we must mount and scour the country all
around. Maybe we shall obtain traces of the lost child. At least, let us
try. Both I and my brother will accompany you, and do all we can to help
you in this moment of fearful trial. Will you see to the horses being
saddled? And meanwhile we will get ready our guns and ammunition. But
haste, Graviel; let us not waste a moment.”
Still dazed and suffering from the drug which had been administered to
him overnight, Graviel hurried off, and summoning several boys to his
assistance, sent them to drive up the troupiglia of horses that grazed
not far off. Quickly three of them were caught and saddled, and led
round to the chief tolderia, where Mary and Willie stood ready equipped
for the expedition.
Inside the moans of Blancha could still be heard, mingled with the
feeble cries of the poor little substituted baby, who had been made the
innocent tool of the wicked Inacayal’s ambition. Guaitu was hurrying to
and fro, arousing the still sleeping camp, and making a great show of
grief and consternation, which he was far from feeling, and endeavouring
to collect volunteers to accompany him in a search expedition, which he
knew perfectly well beforehand would prove futile.
In the midst of the confusion caused by his announcement, Graviel,
Willie, and Mary rode out of the camp, bent on a search which had all
the appearance of a forlorn hope.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XII.
To describe the anguish which poor Harry suffered when he saw his
beloved sister on the verge of freedom, snatched therefrom by the big
powerful Trauco, is not easy; nor can the consternation of Sir Frances,
Lady Vane, and their son be adequately gauged. For a few seconds they
stood staring in front of them, despair written on their features and
horror in their eyes. Not so Shag. Barking furiously, he sprung forward,
tearing the leash that held him from Harry’s grasp, and then crest on
end, and with every fibre in his body strained to its utmost, he set off
in pursuit of the Trauco that bore from him his beloved mistress. His
decided action awoke the others from their stupor. Unslinging their
rifles, they followed as quickly as they could in the wake of the baying
Labrador, whose deep notes could be heard mounting higher and higher in
the direction of the realms of snow.
The ascent proved of no ordinary difficulty. As they mounted the steep
forest slope, they came upon big, frowning and jagged rocks, whose
perpendicular faces and peaked crests proved almost inaccessible. How
Shag had managed to negotiate them was a perfect marvel to every one.
For some time the dog’s baying, though faint, sounding as if some
distance off, appeared to be stationary, a proof, as Sir Frances
surmised, that the Trauco had taken refuge with his captive in some
inaccessible spot beyond the reach of the Labrador. This idea filled
them with a new hope, and spurred on their drooping energies to renewed
exertion.
Guided by Shag’s savage barks and loud prolonged howls, the rescue
party, after a long, desperate, and arduous struggle, reached the spot
where the dog was standing. It was a deep crevassed rock, above which a
sheet of straight precipice ascended to a ledge above, and leading
inward from this ledge they perceived a cave. Was it possible that the
Trauco had taken refuge therein? By what human means had he managed to
scale the perpendicular face which led up to it? Surely Shag was at
fault?
But Shag was not at fault, and he plainly said so. If a pair of faithful
brown eyes could speak, then his distinctly did so, and they declared
that the Trauco and Topsie were above.
If they had doubted, all doubt was quickly dispelled when a low whistle
sounded from the cave. It was a signal well known to Harry, a mode of
communication which he and Topsie had practised from their earliest
days, when as little children they had played hide-and-seek together. It
was a whistle which Shag knew full well likewise, for on hearing it he
pricked his ears, wagged his tail, and barked louder than ever.
“Topsie, darling, we will save you; keep up heart,” called out Harry
encouragingly; and as he spoke his eyes devoured the steep face above
him. Then he perceived the means by which the Trauco had ascended, as a
coil of green lichens arrested his gaze. They were clinging to a long
thick stem similar to what is seen on ivy trees, but more extended in
dimensions.
“See, Uncle Francis! Look, Aunt Ruby!” he cried excitedly; “that is how
the brute reached yon ledge, but he has drawn it up after him. Oh! what
shall we do?”
Here the quiet voice of Aniwee interposed. “Will the white Caciques be
guided by Aniwee?” she inquired. “There is but one way to destroy the
Trauco. Still the barking of the dog, and bid him crouch down, and then
let each of us, with rifle ready, secrete ourselves behind these rocks,
and keep a steady eye upon the cave. When all is silent the Trauco will
come and look out, and the moment he shows himself we must fire at the
same time. If we kill him, or wound him mortally, the white Cacique will
be saved. But first call out and tell her how we purpose acting.”
At once the idea was joyfully adopted, and Harry duly shouted directions
to his sister, who replied with the same low whistle, to show that she
understood. Then every one took up as convenient a position as possible
in sight of the cave, and waited with rifle cocked, ready to shoot, the
moment the Trauco showed himself, Shag being made to down charge flat at
Harry’s feet.
They had a long time to wait. More than two hours sped by, and no sign
was visible of the Trauco. A sharp, warning whistle, however, suddenly
brought them to attention, and as they strained their eyes, glazed by
long and minute watching, the form of the hairy man showed itself on the
ledge above. He was sniffing the air like a dog, and peering curiously
below.
In a moment the ping of five rifles rang forth. Far and wide the reports
echoed and re-echoed. They started an avalanche high above, which was
trembling in the balance, and brought it roaring and dashing down the
mountain’s sides. At the same time the Trauco uttered a hoarse cry, the
first human sound which Topsie had heard him utter. Throwing up his
arms, he fell forward over the steep side, and came crashing into the
crevassed rock below.
In a moment Topsie sprung to her feet, and rushing to the cave’s mouth,
cast down the supple stem which her captor had drawn up on to the ledge.
Hand over hand she descended, and the next moment stood beside her
brother, uncle, aunt, cousin, and Aniwee, with Shag—brave dog!—fawning
upon her, and uttering loud, joyous barks of delight.
Harry burst into tears, and threw his arms around his sister. The
pent-up heart of the poor lad gave vent to the full measure of the
suffering it had endured, and sought relief in tears. It is rare that we
shed them in joy, but when we do so they bring comfort, and rest, and
relief to the over-taxed brain.
In the excitement of the moment the Trauco was forgotten, when a groan
of anguish made Topsie start violently, and look in the direction whence
it came. She at once perceived her late captor doubled up and writhing
in agony not ten paces away.
“Poor thing!” she exclaimed pitifully. The sufferings of this strange
wild creature stirred her curiously. Unlike Sir Francis, Lady Vane,
Harry, and Freddy, she had come to regard him in the light of a human
being, and far removed from the ape; and after all, though he had
captured her, and had thereby caused her intense suffering, his manner
and behaviour to her had always been thoughtful and gentle.
“Stop, Aniwee! Do not shoot him,” she cried hastily, as she saw the
Indian girl raise her rifle as if to fire at the wounded creature.
“Uncle Francis, Harry, that is no ape. It is assuredly a human being. I
fear, however, he is mortally wounded.”
As she spoke she went over to the Trauco, and laid her hand on his
shoulder. No sooner did the poor creature feel her touch, than he rolled
over on to his back, and gazed at her with a piteous expression in his
large gazelle-like eyes. There were two bullet wounds in his chest, and
from these blood was oosing. His breathing came thick and fast, and
there could be little doubt that life was rapidly ebbing to a close.
“Poor Trauco, poor, poor Trauco!” exclaimed the girl, as she drew out
her handkerchief and laid it against the wounds. It was strange how
cruelly the sight affected her.
At the sound of her voice, tears filled the large languishing eyes of
the dying Trauco, but he smiled gently, and caught hold of her hands,
which he pressed in his. Then he began to purr and coo softly, never
taking his gaze from off her face. He took no notice of Lady Vane or the
others. His whole attention appeared to be absorbed in the pretty
fair-haired girl who seemed to sympathise in his sufferings, and to
share his woe.
“Oh, Uncle Francis! cannot we save him? Are his wounds mortal?” inquired
the girl, looking round piteously at the baronet, who advanced as she
spoke and bent over the wounded creature. But as he did so a fierce look
came into the Trauco’s eyes, he relaxed his hold of Topsie’s hands, and
tried to raise himself up on his elbows. He evidently meant mischief,
and she, who knew his great strength, at once called out to her uncle to
stand back. Warned by Topsie’s earnest voice Sir Francis retired,
whereupon the Trauco relaxed his efforts and lay back again. Once more
his hands seized those of Topsie, and held them gently, while the great,
dark eyes were riveted again to her face. Suddenly a shiver ran through
his huge frame, and she felt his grasp tighten, while a piteous,
pleading look came into his eyes. At the same time he drew her hands
slowly towards his lips and gently kissed them, the purring and cooing
being renewed. Only for a minute though; it was his last exertion. A
heavy film clouded the beautiful eyes, one long, low sigh escaped him,
and then the head of this strange being fell backwards as Death claimed
him for his own.
“It is all over,” whispered Topsie, as she rose from his side; “let us
get away quickly. If the other Traucos surround us, we shall fare badly.
Aniwee, I have strange news for you. I will tell you when we reach the
valley; but if you will all take my advice, let us keep silence till
then.”
They made their way down the steep hillside, Topsie leading. She was
wondering whether Cuastral and Piñone had escaped, and was revolving in
her mind how she should break to Aniwee the startling tidings that they
lived. An unforeseen incident assisted her.
They had reached the valley, and were proceeding to cross it, when
something lying on the ground attracted their attention. On going up to
it they perceived that it was an old poncho, the threads of which had
been wrought in gold, but were now considerably faded. Something on it,
however, caught Aniwee’s eye. She stooped to pick it up, and at the same
time uttered a low cry. Then she stared fixedly at the poncho in her
hands, on the breast of which was embroidered a single name, the name of
Piñone.
“It is Piñone’s poncho,” she gasped. “It is the one which he wore when
he started on the raid against the Cristianos, and from which he never
returned; but how comes it here in the land of the Trauco?”
“That is just what I have to tell you, Aniwee,” now put in Topsie; “the
great strange news I promised you is this. Both Cuastral and Piñone
live. For many a weary day they have been the Traucos’ prisoners. Last
night we all three escaped and reached yon forest, but the Traucos
pursued, and I was retaken. Since then I have seen nothing of either
Cuastral or Piñone, and I believe and hope that they have eluded their
pursuers. If so, we may come upon them in the forest yet. You stare, but
it is true. Inacayal told you they were dead, but Inacayal is a traitor.
It was he who betrayed Cuastral and Piñone. To him they owe their long
captivity.”
“And I have left my child in his care,” moaned the young Queen, wringing
her hands. “He will do evil to the Guardia Chica. Ah! why did I not
listen to Graviel, who never loved him?”
“Come, Aniwee, be brave; remember you are a Warrior Queen. Inacayal will
not dare to harm the child amidst so many warriors,” said Topsie
encouragingly, for the young Queen was visibly overcome.
“And we must give all our energies now to the assistance of Cuastral and
Piñone, Aniwee,” put in Sir Francis Vane. “What the white Cacique has
related is truly wonderful, and sounds like a dream.”
They had begun to cross the valley once more, and were making for the
base of the forest fronting them, when Freddy suddenly pointed upwards,
exclaiming:
“Look, mother, look, father! What are those figures high up the mountain
side? Are they more Traucos, do you think?”
“No,” cried Topsie in a glad voice. “Look up, Aniwee! What I told you is
true indeed. See, it is no dream.”
The young Queen looked in the direction pointed. She, in common with the
rest, could see two figures on the skyline waving and making signals to
them. Then a bright look came into her eyes, and she laughed aloud for
very joy.
“It is Piñone,” she cried in an ecstasy of happiness. “The white Cacique
said truly, and it is no dream. Piñone, love of Aniwee’s heart, thou art
not dead; Aniwee will clasp thee again.”
She sprung forward, fleet of foot, and reached the forest belt, into
which she plunged. Then she commenced to work her way upwards through
the thick undergrowth, the others following in her wake. Thus she
struggled forward amidst numerous difficulties, but reward came at last.
As she neared the summit of the forest-clothed mountain a tall handsome
Indian rushed forward to meet her. In another moment Aniwee was locked
in Piñone’s arms.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XIII.
When Willie and Mary rode out of the Araucanian camp with Graviel, they
had little or no notion in which direction to proceed, and small idea
how to act. Graviel himself was half distraught with misery, and seemed
quite beside himself. Wounded, suffering, still under the influence of
the drug which Guaitu had administered, it may readily be supposed that
he was not a fit subject from whom to seek counsel or advice. The youth
was faithful and brave. He could sacrifice anything for the child of
Piñone; he would fight to the death in her defence; but when that child
had been spirited away by the evil machinations of the Gualichu, where
could he turn, what could he do to find her again? To feel that she was
gone—he knew not where—was maddening to the poor lad.
Silently, and utterly broken down with misery, Graviel sat on his horse,
not seeming to care in which direction it proceeded, and hardly noticing
Mary and Willie when they spoke to him. It was at once evident to the
children that they must rely on their own ideas and plans in this
emergency, and leave the Indian’s counsel out of the question.
“I tell you what we will do, Willie,” said Mary at length. “We will make
for the plain where we caught the wild horses yesterday, and passing
through the gorge where Topsie was last seen, ride on in that direction.
It is quite possible that whoever stole the poor wee baby may have made
for the forest, in which case we shall come upon his tracks, and at any
rate meet Aniwee and the others returning with Topsie, for, Willie dear,
I don’t for a moment think that any great harm will have befallen her;
she is far too clever.”
It must be explained that Mary possessed the greatest admiration for
Topsie, up to whom she looked with a veneration and awe inexpressible.
Nothing that her beautiful cousin did was short of perfection in Mary’s
eyes; and though she was anxious about her, she could not bring herself
to believe that any difficulty existed out of which Topsie could not
disentangle herself.
“All right,” assented Willie. The boy was game for anything which
promised adventure of some sort or other, and was quite willing to be
guided by his sister as to the direction they should take.
So they rode briskly forward, over the same ground across which they had
galloped the previous day before sighting the wild horses, little
dreaming that their father, mother, brother, cousin, and Aniwee were at
that very moment struggling through the dense untrodden forest in the
wake of Shag, and on the track of Topsie and her captor. Little did they
dream either of the strange adventures through which their cousin had
gone the previous day, of her meeting with the captive Araucanians, of
her desperate attempt at escape, of her recapture and despairing
abandonment thereafter. Ignorance is bliss, they say. Certainly on this
occasion it was so to Mary, who, could she have seen Topsie at that
moment, stretched outside the Trauco’s hut, where she had sobbed herself
to sleep after her recapture, would certainly have endured throes of
intense misery, the very idea of which is painful even to contemplate.
Suddenly Graviel looked up, and inquired in a quick, sharp voice, “Where
are we going, Señors?”
“Where to, but in search of the young Cacique?” answered Mary, looking
at him reprovingly. “It has struck me, Graviel, that her captor may have
made for the forest; and as Guaitu will be searching eastward, I thought
it best to ride westward.”
“Guaitu is a traitor!” burst out the youth furiously. “Graviel always
hated him with his cunning, snake-like face. Is he not a Caciquillo in
the pay of Inacayal? Did he not last night give Graviel to drink, and
was there not poison in that hated water of hell? Then the Gualichu,
with evil intent, took possession of Graviel and Blancha; he laid the
hand of sleep heavy on their eyes, so that when the thief stole in they
saw him not, and thus was La Guardia Chica spirited away. Ah! ma mia
Guardia, where art thou? Child of Aniwee and Piñone, where art thou, my
beautiful?”
He dropped the reins on his horse’s neck as he spoke, and stretched out
his hand and arm with an imploring gesture. The other arm lay helpless
in a sling, and his poor slashed face bore a most piteous expression.
His whole appearance touched Mary deeply.
“Graviel,” she said earnestly; “do not fret, my poor Graviel. We will
assuredly find the young Cacique, and you shall be happy once more;
only, Graviel, try and keep up your spirits and your wits, for we shall
need them all. Won’t you try, for La Guardia Chica’s sake?”
His face brightened, and he smiled softly as he answered:
“For La Guardia Chica, Graviel would die.”
“Then come on, Graviel, and let us see if we can find any trace of her
in the forest direction,” said Mary encouragingly, at the same time
putting her horse into a canter. The drug must have worn off, for
Graviel after this became more himself again.
They galloped along the same plain in which they had tackled the wild
horses the previous day, and as they did so they perceived a mounted
figure coming through the gorge at the far end. Apparently the noise of
their horses’ hoofs attracted his attention, for he reined up, kept his
horse still for a few seconds, and then turning him round retreated
along the route he had just come.
“Did you see that, Graviel?” exclaimed Willie hastily; and then he
added, addressing Topsie in English: “The beggar fights shy of us;
depend upon it he is up to no good.”
Yes, Graviel had seen him; and though the distant figure was quite
three-quarters of a mile away, thought that he had recognised him. The
Indian youth’s eyes gleamed fire, and he urged his horse into a swinging
gallop, muttering at the same time, “May the bones of my fathers smother
me if that is not Kai Chileno who brought the message to Inacayal
yesterday. What does he there? Why is he not with Inacayal? Oh yes,
there is treachery, treachery indeed.”
His horse was going at racing pace now, and he called out to Mary and
Willie to urge theirs on to their topmost speed, at the same time
pointing to the vanishing figure in front of them, who, having passed
through the gorge, bore away to the right at a headlong pace.
But Graviel held on. He knew that Kai Chileno was a big and heavy man,
and that a horse could not hope with such a weight to keep up the same
pace long. He knew that he himself, Mary, and Willie were light weights,
and, moreover, being mounted on three of Aniwee’s picked hunters, could
gain ground on the flying Araucanian. He had put two and two together in
the twinkling of an eye the moment that he had recognised this Indian,
and saw him fly. He felt sure that a diabolical plot had been hatched,
in which Inacayal, Guaitu, and the villainous Kai Chileno had each a
part; for was not this Kai Chileno reputed a very desperado among the
Araucanians, a wild, free-booting robber, who for pay would be willing
to embark in any villainy? Graviel saw it all plainly. He clearly
perceived that the summons northwards against the Cristianos was a mere
trick to draw off the warriors from the Indian camp, in order to enable
Guaitu to carry out his fell purpose during their absence. Yet Graviel,
as he read the plot clearly enough now, knew that Guaitu and Kai Chileno
were mere tools in the hands of an arch-conspirator, and he had not the
slightest doubt but that this arch-conspirator was Inacayal himself.
Still, if Kai Chileno could be captured, threats or bribes might induce
him to disclose the plot, and reveal where the baby Queen was hidden,
therefore Graviel felt that he must be captured at any cost.
“Ride, Señors, ride!” he called out to the children; “yonder Indian must
be captured. He is the thief, the thief who has stolen La Guardia Chica.
Ride, Señors, ride!”
Thus abjured, as may be supposed, Mary and Willie did their best, and
beneath their light weights, their game little horses raced across the
rough pampa at an amazing pace. They very soon reached the gorge through
which Kai Chileno had disappeared, and having crossed it emerged into
the other and greater plain which former chapters have described. They
could see the fugitive still far ahead of them, urging his horse towards
the broad river that flowed eastwards, and which came from a westerly
direction.
“We will ride down the wily fox,” gasped Graviel exultingly. “Let the
Señors keep pace with me, and assuredly we will gain upon him ere long.
Ah! he may gallop, but the rich-blooded baguales of the Warrior Queen
can gallop faster.”
Graviel spoke truly. There was both speed and stamina in the horses
which he, Mary, and Willie bestrode. The more they galloped the keener
they became, and showed no signs of slackening speed or failing “staying
powers.”
Imperceptibly almost, yet gradually and by degrees, they lessened the
distance between themselves and Kai Chileno. This latter had made for
the river at first, but for some reason or other had changed his mind,
and wheeling more to the left, had pointed towards the forest, that same
forest where Topsie had disappeared, and into which the rescue party had
penetrated in search of her. He did not know that ahead of him a small
party of Araucanians were bivouacked, awaiting the return of their
Queen, and he rode on entirely unsuspecting the trap into which he was
fast galloping. Every now and then he would glance back and curse aloud,
for the hoofs of his pursuers’ horses were getting nearer and nearer,
and he could hear their thunder closer and closer every minute. He dug
the spurs savagely into the heaving sides of his fast tiring horse, and
strove to urge him to renewed exertion.
Graviel, Mary, and Willie noticed the fast failing movements of the
fugitive’s horse, and became highly exultant in consequence. Graviel
could ill contain his triumph, and more than once shouted aloud the war
cry of his tribe.
Kai Chileno breasted a low hill with difficulty which lay barely half a
mile distant from the forest; but what was his horror when his eyes
alighted suddenly on the bivouac of Araucanians already referred to.
Turn back he could not. He was unarmed, and his horse was done to a
turn. His only chance was to reach the forest and take refuge therein;
but Graviel was close behind him shouting his war-whoop, and he could
see the Araucanians rushing to their horses, and mounting in hot haste.
The bivouac had been seen by the pursuers as well, and they sought to
attract its members’ attention to Kai Chileno by loud shouts and cries.
These had decidedly the desired effect, for the Indians thus appealed to
began galloping quickly across the path of the hunted man, apparently
with the intention of intercepting and arresting him. Then Kai Chileno
bethought himself of a last attempt at escape. As the Indians bore down
upon him he began shouting his war cry, and pointing towards the forest,
as though he would implore them to gallop in that direction to avert
some dreaded danger. For a moment the Indians hesitated, as if not
knowing what to make of the rival cries and gesticulations, and this
gave the fugitive a good chance of escape.
“Stop him!” yelled Graviel in a frenzy of desperation, urging on his
horse to its utmost speed, while the sweat sprung out in large beads on
his anxious-stricken face. At the same time two shots rang out beside
him from Mary’s rifle. The girl had unslung it, and fired twice after
the flying Indian.
Then the Araucanians grasped the situation, and with terrific yells set
out in pursuit of Kai Chileno. In vain the desperate man spurred his
horse, and sought by every means to urge him forward. The poor brute was
done to a turn, and could do no more. Staggering forward a few paces, it
came with a crash to the ground. But Kai, prepared for the collapse,
deftly landed on his feet—only fifty paces from the forest! He strove to
reach it. Vainly. In another second a bolas whizzed out and encircled
his legs, and he fell to the ground a helpless captive.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XIV.
“Aniwee, love of Piñone’s heart, do I see thee once more? Child of the
breezy plain, doth Piñone dream?”
Such was the greeting of the Araucanian chief as he clasped to his
breast the girl whom in his dreary captivity amongst the Trauco people,
he had dreamt of, thought of day and night, yet never dared hope to see
again.
And Aniwee, who had deemed him dead, who had thought of her young
warrior husband as beyond the pale of human communication, in this
moment of glad reunion, of joy indescribable, could find no words in
which to answer him.
Large tears stood in her dark eyes; tears of joy they were. Like Piñone,
she feared that this meeting must be a dream. But the sound of voices
behind her aroused her from any further thoughts of such a kind, and
brought speech back to her paralysed lips.
“Piñone,” she cried, “and hast thou been a prisoner all this time, and
Aniwee so near, yet knowing nothing of it?”
“Ah! no, Carita; at one time Piñone and Cuastral were far from this.
They have descended a great river, and come from forest scenes, strange,
weird, and wonderful. For the fortresses of the Traucos are hidden deep
in the forests and amidst the awful crags that hold aloft the monster
snow Gualichus, which tower so mightily to the skies.”
Thus answered Piñone, who shuddered as he recalled the scenes through
which he had wandered as the captive of the Traucos.
As he spoke, Sir Francis, Lady Vane, Topsie, Freddy, and Harry arrived
upon the scene; the first and the last being at once recognised by
Piñone, who grasped their hands cordially, at the same time
congratulating Topsie on her escape. Of course she had to relate all the
circumstances of her recapture and deliverance, and hear in turn from
Piñone and Cuastral how they had managed to elude their pursuers. The
latter explained how both he and his son had adopted similar tactics in
climbing a high tree, and remaining concealed in its thick bushy top,
while the Traucos hunted the forest below. Their experience amongst
these hairy people had taught them the fact, that although they
possessed strong nasal powers for following ground scent, these powers
did not extend further, and that they rarely sought to use them save in
the former capacity. Thus the fugitives had remained safe in their
perch, from which they had not descended for several hours. They had
then betaken themselves to the heights in the hope of sighting some
hilltops, which they might recognise, and which would serve as a guide
to direct them in their flight. Then the rifle shots had attracted their
attention, and made them certain that the rescue party, which Topsie had
told them she felt sure would come to her aid, was in the vicinity.
After watching for some time they had caught sight of it, and had sought
to attract its attention by wavings and gesticulations, with what
success we already know.
Seated in the shade of the forest, the whole party feasted on the
luscious apples, piñones, and araucarias that abounded, and rested after
the real hard work they had undergone. The appearance which Piñone and
his father presented was wild in the extreme, their hair having grown
long and matted, while the roughly made skin clothing which they wore,
added to their generally savage aspect. Harry and Topsie could not help
comparing them with the smart, well-appointed men whom they had known
two years previously, and mutually agreed that it was quite impossible
for two people to be more unlike than the Cuastral and Piñone whom they
had formerly known, and the Cuastral and Piñone whom they now saw before
them.
Suffering, hardship, and superstitious dread had left their marks on
Cuastral. The tall, stately Araucanian looked considerably aged, and
grey hairs mingled thickly with the dark ones. His features were
furrowed deeply, and testified to the sufferings which he had endured.
After the first excitement and joy of this strange, unlooked-for, and
unforeseen meeting had worn off, the thoughts of Aniwee flew away to her
child, and she found herself growing anxious and nervous about it. And
Piñone, too, when she had related the stirring events of the past few
days, was not a little distressed at the thought that La Guardia Chica
was in the power of Inacayal, though he tried to reassure Aniwee and
dispel her fears. She continued restless and miserable, however, and Sir
Francis, noticing the nervous, yearning look in her face, gave the order
to set out once more for the borders of the forest, where her followers
were bivouacked, awaiting her.
It was a rough and stiff march, but aided by Shag, who guided them to
the wild horse track, they reached their destination at last.
Feverish and eager to hear if there was good or bad news awaiting her,
Aniwee had pushed on ahead, and as the sun, shooting its last farewell
to-day, cast over the plain its warm, soft glow, she halted on the
forest’s edge, and looked eagerly towards the bivouac. Then she started
and uttered a low cry, as her eyes fell on Mary and Willie standing by
the camp fire, and Graviel not far away, walking moodily up and down
beside a figure stretched out upon the ground, and which appeared to lay
motionless.
She could understand Willie and Mary being there, but the sight of
Graviel increased her forebodings of evil. Had she not, in giving him
the charge of her child, enjoined him not to leave her side for a
moment? Yet there was Graviel, but where La Guardia Chica?
He heard the cry, and raised his head, which had sunk upon his breast as
he kept guard over Kai Chileno. Then, as he caught sight of the Queen,
he uttered a deep groan, but at once moved forward to meet her. In a
moment she felt and knew the worst instinctively, the dread of a great
evil overcame her, and she stood still covering her face with her hands
and trembling in every limb.
“Queen, have mercy; forgive Graviel!” she heard him imploring, and in a
moment she had burst out wildly:
“Graviel, where is La Guardia Chica?”
“Stolen!” he answered in a broken voice. And then he proceeded rapidly
to recount to her what had happened, ending up with the capture of Kai
Chileno. “And yonder he lies,” he concluded savagely. “Graviel knows
that he knows where La Guardia is, yet he will not open his lips, and
but glares defiance upon me, as I ask him.” She rushed from his side
towards the captive Indian, and as she did so the rescue party, with
Topsie, Cuastral, and Piñone, hove in sight. Graviel stared. Then he
rubbed his eyes, and stared again. What was it that he saw? Were they
spectres of the lost and well-loved dead? Did others see them besides
himself? What could they be?
In spite of their wild, unkempt appearance Graviel recognised at once
the features of Cuastral and his own beloved master Piñone. Yet he never
dreamed that they were themselves in living life. His tortured brain
imagined them spectres, risen from the dead, and approaching to menace
and destroy him, for the loss of the baby Cacique.
With a terrible cry he turned and fled, fear and horror gleaming in his
eyes, and Willie and Mary, as they rushed forward to welcome the rescue
party and their much-loved cousin, stopped petrified by the mad
appearance which he presented. The Indians, who had been lying or
squatting around the fire, all sprang up at the sight of Aniwee. Several
of them set off in pursuit of Graviel, whom they thought had been
stricken with madness, while the remainder stood and stared, as though
turned to stone, at the sight of their long-lost chiefs, whom they had
mourned as dead; for had not Inacayal testified most positively to their
deaths?
Piñone was the first to break the silence. In a few brief words he
sought to reassure the terrified Araucanians, and to impress them with
the reality of his presence and that of Cuastral’s; for, like Graviel,
they deemed they saw spectres before them—the spectres of those dead men
whom Inacayal had so graphically described as stretched in life’s last
sleep.
As they crowded round the great Cuastral and his son Graviel was led up,
and then Piñone’s eye fell upon Aniwee, who was kneeling by Kai Chileno.
He at once hurried to her side. “Aniwee,” he cried, “why is Graviel
here, and why does he look so wild? Where is La Guardia Chica?”
“Stolen!” she wailed forth, “and Kai Chileno knows where she is, as such
Graviel affirms; but see, he will not speak or answer, as I entreat
him.”
“Does a Queen entreat a common Indian?” inquired Piñone proudly. “The
Warrior Queen in her grief forgets who she is. Come hither, Aniwee. We
will have Kai Chileno brought before us, and he shall answer or die
under torture.”
He drew the girl Queen away as he spoke, and in the old authoritative
voice of yore bade the Warriors bring up the prisoner before Cuastral.
All this while Mary and Willie had been hastily explaining to their
parents and the others, the stirring events which had taken place during
their absence in regard to the kidnapping of the baby Cacique, and at
the recital of which the indignation of Sir Francis, Lady Vane, Topsie,
Harry, and Freddy knew no bounds.
“You did well, my girl, to choose this route,” said Lady Vane
approvingly. “What a wonderful providence of God that you did so,
otherwise that scoundrel Kai Chileno would have escaped.”
“Yes, mother, I thank God that He put it into my head to do so, for, as
you truly say, that thief would otherwise have got clean away.”
“Look there; they are bringing him up before Cuastral,” put in Harry
quickly. “Perhaps he will confess what he has done with the poor little
Cacique. Poor Aniwee, how miserable she looks; and Graviel, I believe,
has gone out of his mind. What a terrible spectacle he presents!”
A large circle had formed around the captive, who stood sullenly facing
Cuastral and Piñone. It was strange, this latter thought, that Kai
Chileno evinced no surprise at beholding his father and himself, a fact
which at once impressed the young warrior with the belief, that this
conspirator knew something of the plot, whereby he and Cuastral had been
carried away captives from their people, and handed over to the mercies
of the Traucos.
“Speak, Kai Chileno,” exclaimed Cuastral vehemently, “or by slow torture
you die. What know you of the fate of the child of Piñone and Aniwee?
Whither has it been spirited? Thou knowest Cuastral of old; beware that
thou dost not lie.”
“And if I tell thee, Cuastral, that I know not, what then?” inquired the
sullen thief, looking up boldly at the Araucanian Cacique.
“Then, as I have told thee, thou shalt die. Once only has Cuastral been
fooled, and that was when a traitor betrayed him into the hands of the
Cristianos. It shall never more happen, I tell thee, Kai Chileno,”
answered the chief in a stern voice.
“But how can my lips tell thee that which I do not know?” continued the
accused stubbornly.
The Cacique waved his hand.
“Warriors,” he commanded peremptorily, “place the prisoner on the fire,
and let him burn to death.”
The wretch eyed first the Cacique and then the gleaming wood of the
bivouac fire. Then he looked back at Cuastral. He saw nothing but a
stern, determined face, and he knew that he must either confess or die.
“Be it so,” he answered sullenly. “If I must know I must; but first
promise me my life, Cuastral.”
The Araucanian chief bent his eyes fiercely upon the speaker.
“Thy life, Kai Chileno, depends entirely on the life of La Guardia
Chica. Speak quickly, or you die.”
“Even so,” answered the prisoner. “Inacayal framed the plot. It was
arranged that I should ride into the Queen’s camp and report a raid from
the Cristianos on the north, and that I should bring with me a child of
the same age as the young Cacique. Inacayal’s object was to withdraw
Aniwee and her warriors from the Araucanian camp, and when they were
gone Guaitu was to drug those who remained, including Blancha and
Graviel. Then, while all slept, the young Cacique was to be stolen by
Guaitu, and the other child put in its place, the little Queen being
handed to me. All this was done, with the exception, that Inacayal took
Aniwee’s place during her absence with the Señors.”
“And where is La Guardia Chica?” cried Aniwee, springing forward and
glaring fiercely at the man who had robbed her of her child.
Kai Chileno smiled. There was a gleam of triumph in his eyes as he
replied carelessly:
“Of a certain, O Queen, I know not now. But I left her upon the hill we
call ‘Traucos’ Rest,’ and as I rode away, I saw the Traucos issue from
the forest and cluster round the babe. Of a sooth she is a Trauco’s baby
now.”
He ceased suddenly, as with a savage yell Graviel sprang upon him like a
wild beast, and bore him to the ground.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XV.
Gloom reigned over the camp of the Araucanians. The gay and happy scenes
of a few days back had disappeared, and all looked lonely and deserted.
Here and there a few old crones sat and howled their lamentations, but
there was no one to heed them, save children and beasts. Every man and
woman whom Inacayal had left in camp, were away searching for the young
Cacique.
In this state Aniwee found it, when she rode into it as night was
falling, in the company of our white friends, Cuastral, Piñone, Graviel,
and her followers, who guarded in their midst the still bound form of
Kai Chileno. It was a dismal homecoming, a sad reception indeed for the
two chiefs, after their captivity amongst the Traucos.
When Kai Chileno confessed the fate of the baby Queen, we have seen how
Graviel sprang upon him, and youth though he was, had borne the big
powerful Indian to the ground. Over and over they had rolled, fought,
struggled, and hit, until the former had been forcibly torn away, and a
safe distance been placed between himself and the captive. Then a
council of war had been held, and the position anxiously discussed, and
Sir Francis Vane had spoken as follows:—
“If Aniwee the Queen, the Caciques Cuastral and Piñone will believe me,
I tell them that we are the true friends of the Araucanians, and wish
them well. We have heard with deep concern of the wicked plot whereby
the young Cacique has been stolen, and made over to the hairy tribe, and
we unhesitatingly declare that every effort must be made to trace and
release her. But it would be rash to embark on such an expedition
unprepared, and my counsel is, that we return to the camp, lay in a
stock of ammunition, and secure volunteers to take part in the search
which must be instituted. I and the white Caciques with me, place our
services at the disposal of Aniwee and Piñone. Have I spoken well?”
“Yes, well,” they had answered with one voice, and then as the sun sunk
low, the whole party had mounted and turned their horses’ heads towards
the Araucanian camp. Both Cuastral and Piñone had sought to cheer the
young Queen with the assurance that the child would receive no
ill-treatment at Trauco hands, their experience having established the
fact very clearly, that amongst these strange, wild people, gentleness
and kindness to the weak were pronounced characteristics, and that both
male and females evinced great tenderness for the young.
But while they howled their lamentations, the old crones had not
forgotten to keep alight the sacred fires which burned within and
without the chief tolderia of the Queen, so that when the party arrived,
the members thereof, at least, had the comfort of a warm blaze. The
horses were unsaddled and turned loose, a huge tripod and iron bowl,
with meat in the latter, were set over the fire, and the grateful maté
cup soon went round to cheer the weary travellers.
Poor Aniwee strove hard to suppress her feelings, as she looked at the
couch whereon she had last seen her chubby baby, kicking its little fat
legs and clapping its tiny hands. Some one had tidied up the tolderia,
and removed the other baby which had been introduced as a substitute—a
fortunate act, as the sight of it would have overcome the young mother
altogether.
After sharing the contents of the iron bowl, and indulging in various
sucks at the maté bowl, our white friends retired to their tolderias,
thoroughly worn out, and greatly in need of a night’s rest and
refreshing sleep. But for more than an hour Aniwee busied herself in
clipping, combing, and dressing the long, unkempt, and matted hair of
Piñone and Cuastral, and in looking out and arranging for the morrow
suitable warrior attires, befitting the rank and position of those for
whom they were intended. She did not forget that the rightful lord of
the great Warrior tribe, over whom she had been lately reigning, on
behalf of her child, was once more represented in the person of
Cuastral, who, previous to his captivity amongst the Trauco people, had
ruled over it for fifteen years, doing more than any other chief before
him, to make the tribe great, united, and powerful.
But Nature will assert itself in the end, and Cuastral, Piñone, and the
girl Queen began to feel the power of its will. Fatigue and sleep closed
their eyes at last, as, like their white friends, they sought assistance
from repose, praying it to rehabilitate their wearied frames, and make
them fit and strong for renewed exertion.
Still tightly bound, and coupled to a stake, lay Kai Chileno, around
whom guards kept watch and slept by turns. They were determined that he
should not escape, and indeed the wretched captive knew that, desperate
and determined as he was, his case was hopeless. Like the rest he was
weary, and in spite of his fetters sleep wooed him too, and brought him
rest.
With daylight the searchers began to drop in one by one. None of them
had been able to find any trace of the stolen child, and were
proportionately down in their luck, and low-spirited in consequence.
Blancha returned looking the ghost of her former self, her eyes swollen
with weeping, her face drawn and pinched with mental pain. Her interview
with Aniwee was of the most agonising nature, although her young
mistress, knowing the truth, through the confession of Kai Chileno,
exonerated her from all blame. Then the wonder and astonishment which
the sight of Piñone and Cuastral caused to the mourning woman, served
for a short time to wean her mind from her great grief. It was all too
wonderful and extraordinary.
As the sun rose a number of mounted Indians rode into the camp. They
proved to be the advance guard of the company, which Inacayal had led
northwards to attack an imaginary foe. No sooner had they learned how
they had been hoaxed, than they turned their horses’ heads for the camp
again, vowing vengeance on the messenger who had brought the false news;
but Inacayal had declared that he would abide where he was for the
nonce, in order to watch and see if all was quiet. Cunning fellow! He
had no intention for the time being of running into danger, by returning
to Aniwee’s camp.
Of course the first news which greeted the returning Warriors was the
wonderful and startling intelligence, all in one breath, of the
treachery of Kai Chileno, Guaitu, and Inacayal, the disappearance of the
baby Cacique, and the marvellous discovery of Cuastral and Piñone amidst
the haunts of the Trauco people. Messengers or Chasquis were dispatched
to hurry up the warriors in the rear, and to make known the painful and
joyous announcements at the same time. They brought them along on the
wings of speed, and soon the Araucanian camp was the scene of a noisy,
gesticulating band of warriors, all clamouring to look upon their old
chief and his son once more.
In the midst of the hubbub Guaitu rode in from his pretended search, and
was promptly arrested, bound hand and foot, and tied to the same stake
as was Kai Chileno. As he was led into the tolderia where the other
captive lay, the two men exchanged significant glances, and tried
anxiously to read each other’s faces. Guaitu could not make out whether
Kai had confessed or not, and feared to compromise himself by speaking
openly before the guards or putting any questions to him.
A loud and long-prolonged shout arrested his attention. It came from
hundreds of throats, and terrified him, for he attributed it to a cry
for vengeance against himself. He ventured, however, to inquire of his
guards whence its cause.
“Is it not the welcome of Warriors to their long-lost Caciques, Cuastral
and Piñone, whom the white chiefs discovered and rescued from the Trauco
people?” they answered.
Guaitu started and trembled violently.
“Cuastral and Piñone have returned?” he gasped inquiringly. “Great
Gualichu of evil, what hast thou done?”
“Ah! then thou knewest that they were not dead?” asked one of the guards
sharply; and at once Guaitu perceived the mistake he had made.
“I never said it,” he retorted angrily. “I was struck with wonder, that
is all.”
“It is so much,” answered the Warrior guard who had previously spoken,
“that I shall report it to the Caciques.”
Guaitu ground his teeth and remained silent, as he caught a warning
glance directed at him by his fellow-captive. The shout which had so
startled the guilty wretch increased in volume, and was repeated again
and again. At length the flaps of the tolderia were drawn aside, and a
messenger entered, bearing an order to the guards from Cuastral that the
prisoners were to be conducted before him.
On being led forth from the tolderia, Kai Chileno found time to whisper
to Guaitu:
“They forced confession from me on the threat of slow torture. All is
therefore known.”
His confederate looked at him angrily, but could not reply, for the
guards hustled him roughly forward. A huge ring, many files deep,
surrounded Cuastral, Piñone, Aniwee, and our white friends as the
captives were led forward. A savage shout greeted their appearance, and
many an angry look was bent upon the offenders, who nevertheless assumed
a defiant air.
Cuastral and Piñone, arrayed in snow-white drawers, neat potro boots
adorned with silver spurs, and magnificent ponchos, looked very
different to the wild beings whose appearance had so startled Graviel
the day before. This latter, who had recovered from his wild frenzy,
occupied his old position at Piñone’s side, Aniwee being next to
Cuastral.
“Guaitu and Kai Chileno,” began the chief as the two prisoners were
brought to a halt opposite him, “you are prisoners on a charge of having
joined in a vile and wicked conspiracy, whereby was sought to destroy
the reigning chiefs of the Araucanians, and substitute in their places
Inacayal and his wicked assistants. Your plots have failed. Everywhere I
have despatched messengers to warn the Warrior tribe against Inacayal,
to slay him if they can. A hunted wanderer in any case he will become.
Thou, Kai Chileno, hast confessed to stealing the little Cacique. Dost
thou still assert as true that thou didst place her on Traucos’ Rest,
and didst thence see her borne away by Traucos?”
“Cuastral,” replied the Indian addressed, “it is even so. What I
confessed yesterday is the truth. I can say no more. Yet was not my life
promised me on condition that I disclosed the secret of her
whereabouts?”
“Thou speakest like the son of a coward, as thou art, Kai Chileno,”
burst out the Cacique angrily. “Thy life was not promised on the
conditions named; only I said that thou shouldst die by slow torture
unless thou didst confess. And now I tell thee, and Guaitu likewise,
that on the discovery and rescue of La Guardia Chica depends both your
lives. If she be not recovered, you die. Guards, remove the prisoners,
and see well they do not escape.”
Loud shouts of approval greeted the great Cacique’s decision, which was
regarded by the assembled Warriors as both wise and just. Then Aniwee
stepped forward and raised her hand to command attention, silence being
at once restored.
“Warriors,” she exclaimed, “though I am no longer your Queen, am I not
the wife of Piñone, and therefore the daughter of Cuastral? The child of
our heart has been taken from us, and we fly to its search and rescue.
The great white Caciques have promised to accompany and aid us, but we
should have quite twenty more to make the party strong. Who amongst you
will cast aside the dread of the Trauco-haunted forest, and aid Piñone
and Aniwee to recover their child?”
For a moment there was silence after she ceased speaking. The
superstitious dread of the Indian is hard to overcome. Suddenly two
beautiful girls pushed their way through the crowd and stood before the
ex-Queen.
“If the men fear, the women do not,” they exclaimed eagerly. “We two
will follow you to the death.”
At this there arose a shout, and forty Warriors or more sprang forward,
indignant at being thus gibed by two mere girls.
But as Aniwee and Piñone made their selections from the volunteers who
had presented themselves, they took care to include therein the two
Indian girls, whose upright example had overcome the fears of
superstition.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XVI.
After the choice of volunteers had been made another Council of War was
called, and it was agreed that the rescue party should start at midday,
having in command Sir Francis Vane and Piñone, and that it should
consist besides these two of Aniwee, the remainder of our white friends,
Graviel, Blancha, the two girl volunteers, and sixteen young Warriors,
who had been selected for their skill in the chase, and for their
dexterity in handling the bolas, lasso, and rifle. Cuastral, as head
Cacique, was to remain behind to watch and safeguard the authority
against which Inacayal had plotted, and which he had so nearly succeeded
in overthrowing.
At midday, therefore, every one had assembled, and several pack-horses,
well loaded with ammunition and necessaries, had been added to the
group. Farewells were hastily exchanged, and the rescue party started
off, amidst the fervent good wishes of all, Shag of course accompanying
the expedition.
It took them four good hours of hard riding before they reached the spot
known to the Araucanians as Traucos’ Rest. The place was so called
because these hairy people often appeared thereon in small groups at a
certain time every year, and seemed to make it a kind of halting or
resting-place; but they never remained long, and always took their
departure soon after their arrival. Piñone, whose experience amongst
them now stood the searchers in good stead, declared that the Traucos
were a wandering people, never remaining long in one place, and betaking
themselves every year to the dense and lonely forests which bordered the
most inaccessible heights of the Cordilleras, to reach which passage was
made up a deep river, to whose source he and Cuastral had been able to
penetrate; and he was confident that the party of Traucos, into whose
hands the little Guardia had fallen, were making their way in that
direction. He had little hope, he declared, of overtaking them; for the
Trauco travels at great speed, a speed which no civilised or
semi-civilised human being could hope to emulate. Nevertheless, he did
believe, that with Shag’s sagacious assistance they might be able to
push rapidly forward on the track of the captors of his child.
“Well, we are in for a lark, and no mistake,” chuckled Freddy to Harry,
as the two cousins rode along side by side, talking over the events of
the past few days.
“Yes, indeed,” answered the latter gravely; “but Freddy, old chap, it is
just a little awe-inspiring when one realises how we are about to plunge
into the unknown, from which who knows if we shall ever return.”
“Oh! I say, Harry, you are gloomy indeed,” laughed his cousin lightly.
“For myself I have no misgivings, and I look forward to a very jolly
time, and all sorts of exciting adventures; at least, I hope so.”
“What’s that?” inquired Topsie, riding up; “what are you two boys
talking about?”
“Men, you mean, Topsie, I suppose?” remarked Harry demurely. “You should
never call a spade a shovel.”
“Oh, oh!” laughed Mary, mischievously, who, being in close attendance on
Topsie, had overheard the last two remarks. “You a man, indeed, Harry.
Funny class of man then, conceited person that you are.”
“Now look here, Miss Mary, I must exact respect,” exclaimed Harry, with
a comical attempt to look reproving; but the corners of his mouth
twitched, and he was obliged to give way to laughter. It was while
joking thus that the whole party arrived at Traucos’ Rest.
It now became a question as to whether they should continue the journey
on foot or on horseback. Traucos’ Rest itself consisted of a high
plateau, dotted here and there with shady trees, which gradually became
less wide apart as they neared the outskirts of the forest. Several
well-worn tracks led into this latter at this point, severally formed,
no doubt, by wild horses and the migrating Traucos. It was surmised that
these tracks led through the forest belts to the open valleys far away
below, and it appeared not unlikely that they would be worn enough to
permit of easy riding, if they had been traversed by the baguales. In
any case, it was resolved to stick to the horses as long as possible, a
horse’s back being second nature to an Araucanian, who finds himself
less at home on his legs.
A halt was here called, and the order of march arranged. Harry and
Topsie, as experienced in forest travelling, were deputed to head the
van, next to them being Aniwee and Piñone. Then followed Sir Francis and
Lady Vane, behind whom came Freddy, Willie, and Mary, and next in order
Graviel and Blancha. After these followed Coquet and Chorlo, the two
girl volunteers, and bringing up the rear, riding two abreast, were the
sixteen Araucanian braves, who had been chosen, as aforementioned, to
take part in the expedition.
As they entered the forest in the order described, every Indian,
including Piñone, bowed his head, and raised his hand to his forehead,
saluting thus the Gualichu and hidden spirits, whom they believed
haunted the forest, and whom they deemed it necessary to propitiate by
acts of obeisance. As they rode along Harry and Topsie kept a sharp
look-out, while Shag trotted ahead of them, with his nose to the ground,
wise as Solomon, and evidently extremely keen on scent of some kind.
“I wonder if it is Trauco spoor he is on,” remarked Topsie to her
brother as they watched the dog’s evident eagerness to get forward.
“Look how his bristles are up. It seems uncommonly like as if there was
danger ahead. I vote we get our rifles ready, Harry.”
“Right you are, dear,” answered her brother, as he unslung his weapon
from off his shoulder, and put himself into what he called an attention
attitude, Topsie doing the same.
Suddenly Shag halted, cocked his ears, sniffed the air two or three
times, and growled. Then he looked round rather anxiously at Topsie.
There was clearly something ahead which Shag regarded as disquieting,
for he kept on growling and showing his fine white teeth in a most
menacing fashion.
“Halt!” called out the girl to those behind her, at the same time
raising her hand in a warning attitude.
“Look out for squalls!” shouted Harry, at the same time bringing his
rifle to his shoulder. As he did so an angry roar reverberated through
the forest, and the next moment a messenger of death pinged forth from
the young midshipman’s rifle, which was followed by a roar fiercer and
more menacing than the one which had preceded it.
“A black jaguar!” shouted Topsie excitedly. “Have a care, all of you!
Harry must have hit him, for he has bolted into the undergrowth. We
shall have to be wary, for if he is lying in wait, he will spring out on
some one as we ride by, and woe to the person on whom he springs.”
The jaguar had disappeared from view, but Shag’s angry attitude bespoke
his near proximity. Topsie had to speak sternly to the dog, to prevent
him springing forward in the track of the savage beast, a blow from
whose paw, she knew well, would finish Shag’s career for ever, and apart
from the great love which she bore the faithful animal, his life was too
valuable to the success of the expedition, to permit of his courting the
great danger of a personal encounter with the jaguar. Now what was to be
done? To advance would be rash, to remain all huddled together in the
narrow track impossible. In this dilemma Piñone came to the rescue.
During his sojourn amongst the Traucos, he had seen these people attack
both the jaguar and the puma, and he determined to copy their tactics on
this occasion.
Dismounting from his horse, he handed the reins to Aniwee, and taking
his spear out of its rest in the saddle, as well as two short
javelin-looking darts, he walked boldly forward in front of the growling
Shag. Then he began to limp as if in pain, and to moan pitifully,
keeping, however, a sharp look-out in all directions for the sign, which
he knew would shortly appear.
It came at last in the shape of two gleaming balls of fire, which showed
all the more vividly that they were encased in the gloom of the thick
forest. Then at once Piñone sprang to attention, knowing well that the
gleaming balls were the jaguar’s eyes, and that if he did not strike
quickly, the savage beast would do so instead. Like lightning the young
Cacique drew himself up, and poised his darts, one after the other, in
quick succession, hurling them with full force at the two gleaming
lights. Then he grasped his spear and sprang forward, for the darts,
aimed by a master hand, had struck straight home into the jaguar’s eyes.
With a savage cry of agony and fury the poor brute reared himself up,
every claw distended, and gnashing his teeth in mad fury, while his tail
swept his sides with dull thuds terrible to hear. Yet even as he
alighted with a crash amongst the undergrowth, from which he had just
sprung, Piñone’s spear struck straight home into his heart, and passing
right through his body, pinned him tightly to the earth. A shudder ran
through his form as he gave one feeble wriggle and then lay still.
“That is how the Trauco kill the lione,” the Indian observed coolly, as
the rest pressed forward to congratulate him on his prowess.
“What! the Traucos have darts, have they?” inquired Lady Vane in some
surprise.
“Not so,” replied Piñone, “but they have arrows, which they shoot into
the brute’s eyes, even as I flung the darts, and then they advance and
stab their victim with their golden knives. It is of them that Piñone
learned to kill the lione in this wise.”
“Are there many of these black jaguars about, Piñone?” inquired Topsie,
as she knelt beside the splendid beast, and smoothed its soft, glossy
skin. “It is the second black jaguar that I have ever seen. Alas! the
first one was under circumstances sad enough.”
“Do not talk of it, Topsie,” exclaimed Harry hastily. He could never
bear reference being made to the day when, as we have read in “The Young
Castaways,” his imprudence brought about the death of his ancient
relative Sir Harry Vane, the hermit of the Andes.
Of course a halt had to be called while two of the braves skinned and
cut up the lione, a name which the Indians give alike to pumas and
jaguars. In point of fierceness, however, the two animals cannot be
compared, the latter being far and away the most dangerous to encounter,
being more powerful, more determined and brave than their yellow
_confrères_.
They had been riding almost continuously for five hours, and the sun was
beginning to get low, so that when the jaguar had been skinned and cut
up, and his meat divided amongst the Indians, it was decided to halt in
the very next clearing reached, which was sure to be provided with one
of the numerous torrents that hurled their waters forward to the valley
far below. They were not long before they came upon one of them, and
then the horses were unsaddled, and picketed amongst the rich grass,
which they thoroughly appreciated. To have turned them loose would have
been dangerous, for the Indian horse has a proclivity for finding his
way home, besides which, if a herd of wild horses crossed his path,
there would be no hope of ever seeing him again.
Freddy, Willie, and Mary, to whom this wild forest life was quite new,
worked hard to make a comfortable bivouac. They collected wood, and
helped to light the fires, fetched water from the torrent, got out the
maté from the pack-saddles, and made themselves extremely useful. Meat
was put on to boil, and soon the whole party were enjoying their evening
meal. Then the Indians coiled themselves up in their fur robes, and lit
their pipes preparatory to seeking repose. Sentries or watchers had to
be set, and Piñone offered to take the first watch along with Aniwee and
Sir Francis. Topsie thought this a good opportunity to prefer a request.
“Piñone,” she said, “if we sit around this fire, will you tell me the
story of your captivity amongst the Traucos?”
“Hurrah!” shouted Harry, as Piñone gravely assented.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XVII.
“After our bonds were loosened, and we were relieved from our helpless
position by being untied from the trees, as may be imagined,” began
Piñone, “we thought that we had been delivered by friends. On tearing
the bandages from our eyes, however, our horror was deep and intense
when we saw ourselves surrounded by quite twenty tall, hairy beings,
who, taking us by the hands, made us enter the dreaded forest. At first
we tried resistance. We might as well have wrestled with a granite rock,
for the Traucos, as at once we knew them to be, were strong as the
mountains before us. There was no resisting them, and no hope of escape.
“We spoke to them in our language, but they did not reply, and we
noticed that they never addressed each other save in a kind of rumbling
sound, like the low rippling of a running stream. It was not speech at
all, merely what I have described it to be, and nothing more.
“For hours we travelled through the forest, now coming upon tracks made
by wild horses, or wild cattle anon struggling through the dense
underwood, which in parts grew so thick that it was almost impassable. I
and Cuastral could not go the pace which our captors adopted, and both
giving way to fatigue and despair fell prone upon the earth. We expected
rough treatment, probably death, but were surprised when two of the
Traucos lifted us into their arms as I would lift a feather, and bore us
gently over the rough ground, giving us apples to suck and araucarias to
gnaw, with which we allayed our hunger and our thirst, both of which had
for some time made themselves uncomfortably felt. And thus we travelled
for the greater part of the day. Towards sunset, however, we emerged
into a plateau very similar in appearance to Traucos’ Rest, and here we
came in sight of a number of huts formed out of stakes stuck in the
ground, and fastened in all round with the green boughs and leaves of
the araucaria. A great many Traucos were seated in and about these huts,
and numberless young Traucos gambolled and played around. Some were
climbing trees and pelting their playmates with piñones, others were
shooting with tiny bows and arrows at marks made out of broad leaves
fastened to the stems of the trees, that everywhere dotted the plateau
profusely. Many of the hairy creatures appeared to be busily engaged
sewing together skins, and I noticed that they used thick gold-looking
needles, which I afterwards made out to be of pure gold, while their
thread consisted of the twisted fibre they obtain from a tree, which
until I entered these Trauco realms I had never seen before.
“On perceiving us they all jumped up and came running to meet us,
crowding round us and cooing softly, many showing their white teeth in
laughter and apparently pleased surprise. They smoothed us gently with
their furry hands, and offered us piñones and araucarias to eat, but I
and Cuastral longed for meat, and cast our eyes around to see if we
could perceive any. Then we saw that there were large strips of it
hanging from the trees, and we pointed to it, and made signs that we
would like some. They understood us at once, and one of them, a big
powerful female, climbed up one of these trees, and brought us down two
goodsized lumps. As there was no sign of a fire in any direction, we
concluded that they knew not the art of obtaining light, and we
therefore eat the meat raw, washing its somewhat hard substance down
with a draught of water from a torrent, which flowed by the huts in
close proximity.
“No sooner had the sun sunk behind the green groves of araucarias, than
all the Traucos hurried to their huts, and curling themselves up within
were soon fast asleep. But before betaking herself off, the big woman
who had fetched and given us the meat, led us, like two children,
towards a large hut, and motioned to us to enter. We did so, and found
the ground strewn with skins of the wild cat, puma, and sundry other
kinds, which at any rate made it soft and warm. We were terribly tired,
and had no thought of attempting escape that night; indeed, we felt too
despairing and hopeless to wish to do so. Yet, as I thought of thee,
Aniwee,” and here the young Cacique looked lovingly at the pretty face
of the youthful Warrior Queen, “my heart felt weighted with a heavy
load, and I threw myself face downwards and wept. Ay, love of my heart,
they were the first tears almost that have fallen from Piñone’s eyes
since he played a thoughtless child.
“Then Cuastral upbraided me for showing such weakness, and I strove to
be brave; but the parting in spirit with my Aniwee was terrible, and I
felt like one that has entered another world, far away from all that his
heart loves best. Worn out, however, with fatigue, sleep brought its
balm to heal the weary soul, and soon both I and my father had sunk
beneath its soothing influence. We must have been strangely wearied, for
the sun shone high above our heads when I opened my eyes next day. My
father still lay sleeping, and looked so still and worn that I grew
alarmed, and sought to arouse him. At my touch he sprang to his feet
with a loud cry, his eyes staring wildly before him, but as my voice
sounded in his ear, he became calm and composed.
“We looked out of our hut. The Traucos were up, about and busy. Indeed
they seemed unusually so, for even the children were hurrying to and fro
with lumps of meat in their hands, which they deposited in a common heap
on the ground. Just outside our hut lay a small mound of rosy-cheeked
apples, and close beside these apples were two lumps of meat. The
Traucos had evidently put them there for our use.
“Before eating, we went outside to the stream and washed all over in its
cool waters, and then, refreshed, we made a meal on a few of the apples
and part of the meat. We saw several of the Traucos watching us, but
they did not interfere with our movements until I and my father walked
towards the forest, and then several of them followed us hastily, and
taking us by the hands led us back to the huts. There could be no longer
any doubt that we were closely watched, and that the Traucos did not
intend to give us a chance of escape.
“A few minutes after this occurrence I saw several of these hairy beings
select each a piece of meat from the aforementioned heap, and start off
in the direction of the forest. In small groups the whole encampment did
likewise, and we were led along by the same Traucos who had
superintended our movements the day before. And thus another sun went on
its course, while the long cavalcade travelled swiftly through the
forest, the men and the women carrying the children when they tired, as
our guards did likewise by us. That night we encamped in a pleasant
valley, through which ran a gurgling stream, which made its way towards
the distant mountains. There were no huts, and we lay in the open under
the shelter of a great tree. All the children cuddled together, and
around them lay their parents in a similar manner. As for ourselves, we
were put next the children, doubtless with a view to prevent any attempt
at escape.
“With dawn every one arose and trooped down to the stream, and every
member of the party washed therein. Then we ate piñones, apples, and
meat, after which we started on our journey once again. We made a very
long march that day, and it was getting dark when we entered a wooded
plain, heavy with the scent of flowers, and crossing it arrived on the
banks of a broad river which flowed northwards. Several large rafts were
moored to the land, and on them lay a pile of apples, araucarias, and
piñones. There were several Trauco huts standing along the banks, and
when we arrived two or three strange figures came out of them leaning on
sticks. They were exactly like the Traucos in build and make, save that
their fur was pure white all over instead of brown as the others were,
and their eyes, instead of being dark, and languishing, were pink.”
“Albinos!” exclaimed Topsie quickly. “Trauco Albinos.”
“At first we took them for very old people of the Trauco species,”
continued Piñone gravely, “but we soon saw that they were young enough.
Yet the brown-haired Traucos appeared to regard them with respect, for
they all prostrated themselves, and raised their hands above their
heads.
“Suddenly, and apparently from amidst the snow crags that towered far
above, a clear bell-like note rang forth. At once the strange white
figures raised the staves which they carried and pointed to the sky, and
then the Traucos fell flat again, and made obeisance to the unseen
Gualichu.
“Both I and my father were seized with a great awe, and we raised our
hands to our foreheads, and saluted the spirit that apparently reigned
over these scenes and these people, in order to propitiate him and
shield ourselves against evil.
“Then the white Traucos retired to their huts. We formed a circle, and
after we had eaten retired to rest in exactly the same manner as we had
done the night before. When morning came, every Trauco arose as usual,
and going down to the river’s edge plunged in. They swam with long
powerful strokes, and kept their chests high out of the water as they
did so. Both I and Cuastral followed their example, and the swim greatly
refreshed us.
“I noticed that the white Traucos did not enter the water. Yet, as their
fur was extremely white, I have no doubt but that they bathed at other
times. When we had bathed we ate, and then every one began to crowd upon
the rafts. The children all seated themselves in the centre, their
elders round them, leaving a free space on either side for the Traucos,
whose duty it was to propel the rafts forward.
“This they did by means of long poles, tipped at the end with gold. On
each side of the raft a male and female Trauco took their stand, and
dipping their poles into the water, pressed them to the bottom, and then
walking along the raft pushed her up against the stream. The strength of
these Traucos must have been very evenly balanced, for they kept the
head of the raft as straight as an arrow flies.
“As we left the banks the white Traucos stood thereon with their staves
raised and cooing like doves. It was thus I saw them standing as we
glided from their midst, with the forest trees sweeping the dark, cool
river on either side.
“We saw several strange sights that day. A large black-headed swan was
sighted up the stream, and two Traucos were landed to stalk it along the
banks, while the rafts were kept close to the shore. A Trauco on either
side, stealing like snakes through the long grass, was a curious vision;
and in spite of our downcast thoughts, both I and Cuastral could not but
watch it with interest.
“Suddenly, and at the same moment, the creeping, hairy beings uprose
themselves, startling the great white bird, who spread his wings and
began to soar aloft. The next moment two golden-headed arrows winged
their flight, and the lordly king of the watery-feathered tribe fell
dead to rise no more. His great white body floated down the stream
towards the rafts, and was drawn on board one of them. Then the hunters
retook their places thereon, and the journey was continued.
“We travelled on for many miles after this. The heat was terrific, and
the Traucos, perceiving that I and Cuastral were overcome by it, gave us
some branches of green leaves with which to shield ourselves from the
sun’s rays. Beneath their grateful shelter we both lay down and fell
asleep.
“I was awakened by loud and blood-curdling yells, and springing to my
feet beheld a scene of weird and fantastic horror. Dancing along the
banks, and springing from tree to tree, were a crowd of dark hairy
creatures bearing the shape of men. Like the Traucos, they were furry
all over, but that was all. They lacked the fine, powerful build, the
shapely body, the well-formed head, the large dark eyes and splendid
teeth of this people. Unlike them, they wore no chiripas of fur around
the loins, their faces were black and skinny, their teeth sharp and
pointed, their eyes small and gleaming. Their noses were merely two
holes in a slight bridge, and in their hands they carried thick clubs,
which they brandished above their heads.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XVIII.
“The demons of the Andes!” exclaimed Harry and Topsie in one breath; and
then the girl added, “the same as killed poor Miriam Vane and James
Outram in the great gold mine of Or. When our Uncle Harry told us of
them we used to call them Traucos, which now, to all appearance, they
are not, but far more appropriately termed ‘demons of the Andes.’”
She made this remark to Sir Francis and Lady Vane and the others,
addressing them in English. Then turning to Piñone she inquired:
“These were surely not Traucos?”
“No,” answered Piñone decidedly, “for the Traucos are human. These were
fiends, raging monsters, with all the thirst of wild beasts for blood.
But the river was broad, and they had no other weapons than their clubs,
so as long as we kept in mid-stream they could not reach us. At length,
however, the Traucos appeared to get impatient, for their men and women
all arose, unslung their bows, and fitted a golden-tipped arrow in each
string. The big woman, to whom I have already alluded, now appeared to
assume command, for she marshalled them into line, and signed to the men
with the poles to keep the rafts stationary. Then she raised her bow,
and aiming at one of the yelling monsters on the bank sent the shaft
winging at him. Next moment a wild shriek rent the air, as the black
fiend relaxed his grasp of the branch to which he had been clinging, and
crashing through the leafy boughs, came with a dull thud to the ground,
the gold-headed arrow having penetrated the centre of his forehead.
“As he fell, twenty arrows winged their deadly flight, and five fiends
bit the dust. Two, after struggling for a moment or two, stretched their
limbs out with a shudder, and lay still, but the other three sprang up
and darted away into the forest, shrieking hideously, and grasping with
both hands the arrows which stuck into their bodies. This attack seemed
to discourage and overawe the others, for they all took to the trees,
and amidst a chorus of weird cries and general hubbub, sprang from
branch to branch and disappeared. Then several Traucos landed to recover
their arrows from the bodies of the slain, which they lifted up and
hurled into the water. The dead fiends sank almost immediately after
immersion in a flood of bubbles and eddying whirlpools.
“All that day, and for several days after it, we worked up the great
river on these rafts with little or nothing occurring to break the dull
monotony of the journey. And ever as we went my heart and that of my
father beat heavy with a great load as we thought of the beloved country
daily getting further away, and of all that it contained for which our
spirits yearned.
“One evening, as the red sun pierced the trees and bathed the sluggish
river in its rosy light, we rounded a wide bend thereof, and came
suddenly in view of a great Trauco village. We could see hundreds of
hairy forms moving to and fro, and children running races along the
banks.
“At once the little ones on the rafts sprang up and began to clap their
furry hands, while their large soft eyes were suffused with happiness,
and they showed their white teeth in broad grins. The racing children on
the river’s bank at once came to a standstill, and then rushed crowding
down to the water’s edge. At the same time a large number of Traucos
hurried forward apparently to welcome the new-comers, judging by the
smiles and loud cooings that took place. As their eyes fell upon myself
and my father, they dilated with wonder and curiosity, and when the
rafts touched the shore and we landed, the crowd which collected around
us became quite dense.
“They smoothed us, and patted us, and offered us fruit, the like of
which we had never seen before. These fruits were like a lot of round
balls of a rich, dark purple colour, luscious, sweet, and refreshing.
They had no stones or pips in them, and clustered together in great
bunches on the same stalk. I afterwards saw a similar kind of fruit
growing in profusion in a big open plain, only this latter was of a
pale, transparent green.”
“Monster grapes!” ejaculated Harry. “Wouldn’t you like to be amongst
them, Mary?”
“Of course I should, and so would you, you greedy boy,” laughed the girl
archly.
“Come now, don’t interrupt Piñone,” said Lady Vane reprovingly. “This
account is really most strange and wonderful.”
“At length,” continued the Cacique, “the crowd separated, and made way
apparently for some one. It was the big woman whom I have spoken of. She
was a very fine specimen, tall as the tallest of the men, with graceful,
well-formed limbs, splendidly proportioned, and evidently possessed of
immense strength. Her eyes were magnificent, and she had the most
perfect row of teeth which I ever beheld. Her word appeared to be
implicitly obeyed, or, I should rather say, her gestures; for, as I have
already remarked, these people do not talk.
“She advanced towards us, and coming between us, gave each of us a hand,
and in this manner led us up towards the village which stood not far
away. Then more Traucos trooped up to stare, but she waved them off, and
motioned to us to enter a large roomy hut, capable of holding some
twenty people with ease. It was like a tolderia, only entirely covered
in with boughs and leaves instead of skins. On the ground was stretched
some splendid jaguar and puma furs fastened by gold pegs into the earth,
and in the corner lay heaps of the soft, furry vicuña skins, to be used
as we surmised, for couches. As we entered, the Trauco queen gave a
sharp, shrill whistle, and immediately a number of Traucos came running
up to the hut. Moving her hands in quick gestures she cooed loudly,
whereupon they hastened away, returning shortly afterwards with a bundle
of dry moss, some sticks, several logs of wood, and some meat. We
watched them curiously, and were surprised to see them set the moss,
sticks, and wood as if for lighting, and cluster round the whole
erection in a circle. Suddenly we heard two or three sharp clicks, then
smoke began to arise. In a few minutes the moss flared up, ignited the
sticks, and soon a cheery blaze burst forth. The Trauco retired, and the
furry queen looked at us triumphantly from out her large dark eyes.
“We took advantage of this fire to cook the meat which the fire lighters
had left lying beside it, and when it was sufficiently roasted, drew
forth our knives and began to cut it up. At the sight of these knives
the queen cooed loudly, and came close up to examine them, her eyes
dilating with wonder and astonishment. Feeling in a slit or pocket in
the fur chiripa which surrounded her loins, she drew forth a gold-bladed
knife, set strongly in a piece of very black wood, and held it up for us
to look at. I reached forward and laid my own against hers, an act which
pleased her greatly, for she laughed pleasantly, and showed her
beautiful teeth. After this she watched us eat our meat, and then sent
for fruit, which was piled up outside our hut.
“As the sun went down every Trauco made for the huts, dived into them,
and for the night were seen no more. Our furry queen motioned to us to
enter the one assigned for our use, while she disappeared into an
adjoining one of her own. It was clear that after sunset we were not to
be permitted liberty outside these huts, for on I and Cuastral going out
to look around, several Traucos thrust their heads out of some small
huts which surrounded the queen’s residence, and made vigorous signs to
us to re-enter our own at once, an order which we reluctantly obeyed.
“Every morning these Traucos assembled together, and stood in long
straight rows awaiting the queen’s approach. Then she would issue from
her hut, make signs to some of them, who at once formed into a party and
disappeared into the forest, others would go forth to the open plain
with strange tools made out of pure gold, others would start away with
their bows and arrows, while some would take to the rafts and propel
them up stream. A few would remain in camp, and busy themselves with
skin sewing, skin curing, arrow and bow fashioning, and other
occupations. But I noticed that in all things the men and women shared
alike, fought side by side, enjoyed their simple pleasures in each
other’s company, as well as their daily toil. Then I thought of thee,
Aniwee, and all that thou hadst striven to teach thy Piñone, as to the
rights of the Indian women to share alike in all things with the men,
and I saw how wisely thou hadst spoken; for the Traucos are a happy
people, and I rarely saw disagreement amongst them.
“When the sun had made many strides through the heavens the Traucos
would return, some carrying large bundles and blocks of wood, others
green branches, those with the strange implements brought them back
covered with earth, and washed them in the river, and I afterwards
learnt that they used them for turning over the soil of the plain, in
which they planted the shrub that produced the great bunches of
ball-like fruit. Then the Traucos who had gone forth with the bows and
arrows would return, bringing dead birds, sometimes foxes and a puma, at
other times vicuña or deer, and also, but this rarely, a jaguar. As for
the rafts, they always remained away a day or two, but when they
returned they brought large stores of gold-quartz, sometimes lumps of
pure gold. These the children unloaded from the rafts, washed in the
river, and carried to a big heap piled up upon the bank, beside which a
large fire was often lit, and around which men and women busied
themselves in heating the gold, and beating it, when red hot, into
various shapes, such as knives, arrow and spear heads, implements to
till the ground with, and other strange devices.
“On several occasions the queen accompanied the rafts up stream, and
took us with her. On the first occasion, after a journey of two days, we
emerged from the thick forest, and came suddenly in view of several
caves running earthwards from some high cliffs. Up these the rafts were
guided, until we could go no further, and then the Traucos landed, and
soon began hammering away at the rocks inside, detaching large masses,
and breaking them up into smaller lumps, which they piled upon the
rafts. Thus we learnt how these people came by their gold, and no longer
wondered why they used it for everything. There seemed to be no end to
the rich store which they possessed.
“It was when returning from our first expedition to these caves, that I
and Cuastral first learned and witnessed the manner in which the Traucos
attacked and slew the jaguar. We were floating lazily downstream with
our cargo of gold, and lying at ease in the sun, when the queen Trauco
suddenly clapped her hands, and pointed towards the forest. Looking in
that direction, neither I nor Cuastral could make out anything, but we
noticed that the Traucos were visibly excited. In a moment the queen had
possessed herself of her bow and arrows, and had signed to the raftsmen
to push the raft inland. They obeyed, and she at once sprang on shore,
the Traucos again pushing out into mid-stream. Then the queen bent
herself double, and began moaning in a strange way, as if she were
wounded and suffered pain, all the time keeping her head turned towards
the forest. Suddenly she reared herself from her stooping attitude, and
fixing an arrow in her bow shot into the thickest portion thereof. A
roar followed her act, and a great crashing sounded loudly amongst the
undergrowth. But quick as lightning another arrow winged its fatal
shaft, and the next moment a splendid jaguar sprung into the open, with
both arrows sticking in his eyes. He staggered about, gnashing his teeth
and lashing his tail, but while doing so, his assailant, protected by
his lost vision, stole up to his side, and aiming an arrow at the region
of the heart, drew the bow. Bearing straight up on end, in the same
manner as did the one I lately killed, the great beast fell back with a
crash, and stretched out his limbs with a quiver, to stir no more. It
was a black-ringed jaguar.
“Thus our life sped on amidst these strange people. The queen took us on
hunting expeditions, and was our constant companion. But Cuastral and I
yearned for our beautiful land, and we had made up our minds to try and
escape. With the account of how we sought to regain our liberty, of our
flight, the chase, recapture, and subsequent sufferings, I will close
this tale of mine, for the night is drawing on. See how the ghostly
Andes gleam in the moonlight, inviting man to rest.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XIX.
“Talking over the question of escape, I and Cuastral had decided that we
should make the attempt the very next time that the Trauco queen took us
with her to the gold caves.
“We had noticed in our previous visits, that the river flowed onwards
due south, but that it narrowed considerably at this point, and seemed
to pass through a thick, almost impenetrable jungle. It appeared to us,
that if we could gain this jungle unperceived, we might lie concealed
therein with a faint hope of escaping detection. The chance seemed of
course forlorn, and yet we judged that it was worth while to risk it. It
was terrible to see the months flying by, and to know that we had, in
all probability, been given up as dead by all those whom we loved. And
therefore we resolved to make the attempt, come what might.
“Our opportunity came sooner than we anticipated. I must explain that
the Trauco village was frequently attacked by the black fiends who had
offered us battle on the way up the river. A few days before the time I
am alluding to, they had invaded the Traucos’ territory in large
numbers, but had been repulsed with great slaughter, and had retired,
taking away with them many wounded comrades. These frequent combats had
used up not a few of the Traucos’ arrows, and more gold was required in
consequence to weight and point the new ones, which had been hastily
fashioned to replace the lost ones.
“Our hearts beat high with hope and excitement, therefore, when the
queen beckoned to us one morning to accompany her on the raft, which had
been deputed to go up stream in search of more gold. We hastened to her
side with more than usual alacrity, which seemed to please her vastly,
for she gave several happy laughs, and cooed gently for a considerable
time afterwards. She had been very kind to us, in truth, had this Trauco
queen, most solicitous for our comfort, and especially tender and gentle
towards myself, whom she seemed to view with more than ordinary favour,
and to make an especial pet of. Indeed, though my heart was far away, I
could not help a pang of regret shooting through it, when I looked at
this strange beautiful-eyed being, and thought to myself, that before
long I should have passed out of her presence for ever. Aniwee, I know,
will not grudge that thought, which was more an expression of gratitude
than anything else; for though she held us captives, she had always
shown us kindness and extreme gentleness. And it seemed to me on this
journey that she was more than usually kind. Often, when we passed a
fine fruit tree, she would have the raft taken in shore, herself land,
and choose from the tree the best of the fruit, which she always brought
and handed to me with a kind light shining in her dark eyes. The idea of
watching us closely seemed to have left her, and she had entirely got
over her suspicions as to our desire to escape. When we arrived at the
gold cave, she would let us wander along the banks of the river without
setting a Trauco to watch us, as she had formerly done.
“Everything appeared ripe, therefore, for our escape, and after we had
been at the gold cave for two days we determined to make the attempt
that night. We proposed to drop silently into the river, swim to the
opposite bank, follow it as far as possible, and plunge into the jungle
at the first sign of pursuit. It wanted a few hours to midnight when we
rose silently from our bed of skins within the gold cave. The Traucos
were all curled up fast asleep, and the queen lay close by, breathing
gently, with her ebony lips slightly apart showing her white teeth. Her
graceful head was pillowed on her arm, and her dark eyes were fast
closed. Very quietly we entered the water and struck out quickly,
emerging into the river some forty yards away from the cave. The stream
flowed sluggishly, and we had no difficulty in gaining the opposite
bank. How my heart beat as I thought of thee and liberty, Aniwee; how I
prayed the good Gualichu to help us and shield us from recapture! We set
off along the river’s bank as hard as we could, and travelled on in this
wise till daylight, often looking back to see if we could perceive any
signs of the Traucos; for we knew them to be speechless, and therefore
thought that their pursuit would be conducted in pure silence. We slaked
our thirst by the river, and appeased our hunger on piñones and apples
gathered by the way, which were very refreshing. About midday we entered
the forest, and lay down to snatch a short rest. In doing so we both
fell fast asleep, overcome by the heat and the fatigue of our hasty
journey. When we awoke the sun was still shining brightly, but it had
evidently moved several hours on its course since we had lain down. We
jumped up quickly, and, as if impelled by a sudden sense of fear,
hastily continued our flight, almost without addressing a word to each
other. My father was stiff and footsore. An Araucanian is not accustomed
to much travelling on foot, and I could see that he suffered severely;
but he was too brave to acknowledge it, and worked his utmost to keep up
a uniform pace, for we knew that should the Traucos track us, they would
move quicker than we.
“Sundown found us still moving on; but my father limped wearily, and my
heart was torn on his behalf. I, too, young and vigorous as I was, began
to feel the weight of fatigue, and to long for rest.
“We had begun to discuss the advisability of halting, when suddenly,
faint and far away in the background, the sharp sound of a trumpet note
came floating to our ears. Cuastral looked at me with a great fear in
his eyes, for both he and I knew whence the sound came. It told us that
we were being pursued. Now it was not the first time that we had heard
that sound. It was the only sound which the Traucos made use of, and
then only on the battle-field, or in the midst of danger, or as an
expression of anger. Undoubtedly, therefore, they were on our track, and
were in full pursuit. The knowledge that this was so, gave fresh zest to
our tired frames. My father would not hear of halting, assuring me that
he could go still many miles, and increasing his pace into a run.
Pressing through the thick brushwood, which now almost swept the water’s
edge, we came suddenly on a branch in the river, and beheld the main
part of it leading straight for the mountains, hemmed in on either side
by a dark deep gorge, the sides of which towered high above us. The
other offshoot flowed towards the plains, but had no banks, and was
completely canopied by the forest trees.
“We halted to discuss the situation. To follow the last branch would be
impossible, and only two ways remained open to us. One was to scale the
steep gorge to our left, which in our present weary condition seemed
impracticable. The other was to follow the dark river that flowed
towards the mountains. We felt that the latter alternative was the only
one, and decided accordingly. Thus, as we pressed on, we came suddenly
upon a tiny bay in the river, and in the bay was moored a raft, with a
bunch of paddles lying upon it. You may judge of our surprise, half joy,
half fear, for the raft might betoken the presence of man, or that of
the tribe from which we were flying.
“We at once determined to take possession of the raft and paddle up the
river, and accordingly boarded her without delay. She appeared, on
examination, to have laid a long time unused, for moss and climbing
lichens clung to her, and the thong that bound her to the land was
rotting fast. It had all the appearance of an old lasso.
“Cutting it close to the knot we launched the raft into the stream, and
each taking a paddle began to paddle vigorously up the sluggish river.
As we advanced we congratulated ourselves on having elected to travel by
water instead of land, for the banks frequently ran into the sheer
cliff, which would have made progress on foot impossible.
“We paddled on until human nature could support the strain no longer,
and we were forced to desist. But we had reached a comparatively safe
position, for the rocks on either side had risen to a great height, and
above us sheer precipices looked down, while there were no banks or
shore along which our pursuers could pass. Climbing plants of great
thickness grew down the sides, and to one of these we made fast the
raft, and throwing ourselves face downwards thereon, fell at once into a
profound slumber.
“How long we lay unconscious I know not. It might have been a night and
part of a day, it might have been for nights and days, but when I opened
my eyes my limbs were numbed and powerless, blistered and shrivelled by
the sun, which makes me incline to the belief that our sleep had been
heavy and prolonged. Cuastral lay stretched beside me still face
downwards, though as I was lying on my back, I must have turned into
that position during sleep. But what immediately fixed my attention was
the sight that I viewed above. On the edge of the precipice, which
frowned down upon us, I beheld several Trauco forms, one of which lay
motionless at full length and peering over. This one was the Trauco
queen.
“I groaned aloud, and tried to move my arms, but they were useless. Then
I lifted up my voice and shouted to Cuastral. He never moved, but I felt
that the action of shouting restored feeling to my limbs, so I kept on
at it.
“Gradually, and by degrees, my powers came back to me, and I was able to
rise. I then turned my attention to my father. I found him numbed in the
same way as I had been, but by dint of rubbing his limbs circulation was
brought back, and he was able to stand on his feet. Then I told him how
we were being watched from above, and we deliberated again on the course
to be followed. There was only one to adopt, and that was to continue to
follow the river. It might happen that the cliffs would become more
accessible, in which case we could scale the left side, and thus put the
deep gorge between ourselves and our pursuers. As we prepared to start a
strange thing happened. The Trauco queen had risen and stretched out her
arms towards me, as though imploring me to come to her. As if to entice
me, she threw me several splendid apples. A happy thought struck me, and
I clapped my hands in the same way as I had seen the Traucos do when
they were pleased, and held out my hands as if pleading for more. She
understood, and threw more down, adding to them some fine araucarias. I
continued my gestures and apparent prayers in the mute language of her
tribe, until we had stacked a fine supply. Then we both resumed our
paddles and our toil up stream.
“At the sight of this she uttered a loud trumpet note of anger, and
followed along the precipitous edge, holding out her arms, and again
signing to us to come to her.
“And thus for several days we travelled, she and her followers never
losing sight of us for a moment. When we anchored and slept, they took
up their position on the cliff above, for they had clearly no intention
of abandoning the pursuit.
“One evening, after a more than unusually hard day’s toil, we sighted a
tiny miniature raft tied to the land, for narrow banks on either side
had reappeared, though the cliffs still prevented escape. Above the raft
was a small plateau bank covered with flowers and creeping plants. A
perfect fairy nook, as if the hand of man had given to it especial care.
The tiny raft mystified us, but we determined to exchange it for the
heavier one, and after spending the night amidst the flowers, we resumed
our journey on the mysterious raftling. But we did not go far. We had
barely paddled an hour when a bend in the river opened a fresh scene to
our view. Ahead of us yawned a wide open cave; the stream, which had
narrowed considerably, came to an end. The road was barred against all
further outlet of escape. We stared at each other, despair in our eyes.”
Harry and Topsie had for some minutes been looking at each other. As
Piñone paused, the latter exclaimed—
“Good heavens, Harry! it must have been the great gold mine of Or.”
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XX.
“How know you that it was a gold mine?” inquired Piñone, visibly
surprised at Topsie’s exclamation.
“Because, Piñone,” answered the girl, “by your descriptions we recognise
the place. It was this mine that we visited with the old man of the
Andes, and it was there he died. He lies buried in the bank of flowers
which you mentioned, and where you found the little raft. You remember
when we rejoined you in the Andes, two years ago, and all we told you?
Well, that is the very river up which I and my brother voyaged.”
“Wonderful!” mused the Indian; “the medicine of the great Gualichu is
inscrutable. Ay, truly it was a gold mine, stacked with piles of the
precious stuff. When I and Cuastral perceived how this cave terminated,
we determined to enter and explore it, and to see if by any chance there
was an outlet of escape from within it. On bringing the raft up to the
opening, we found that the river ran in part of the way, and the cave
was dark save for a small blue light at the end. We made our raft safe
to some creepers and entered, whereupon the queen Trauco sent forth an
angry trumpet note from above. In entering we stepped up to our chiripas
in water, but as we advanced it grew shallower and shallower, and soon
barely covered our feet. We made towards the blue light at the far end,
which, on reaching, turned out to come from a huge, wide fissure in the
roof of the cave, which opened into two separate compartments, one on
the right, the other on the left. To reach this latter, we had to follow
the stream of water issuing from the cave, and suddenly came upon the
river’s source. A huge deep pool lay in the centre of this compartment,
fed from a mountain torrent that came dashing from the rocks above with
sullen roar; and all around the pool lay lumps of gold, some big, some
small, in thousands and thousands. But why describe it? Have not your
eyes feasted already on those wonders? With feelings of mixed
astonishment and awe we gave ourselves up to a thorough search of the
cave, examining every nook and corner, to see if escape was possible
without detection from the Traucos. We were busily employed in this
work, when above the roar of the cataract a strange rumbling made itself
heard. We paused and listened. The rumbling increased, and quickly
developed into a crashing sound, as if the trees of the forest were
being uprooted and hurled below with terrific violence. Outside we could
hear the shrieking wind and hissing rain, and we knew that a frightful
tornado had burst upon us. We were congratulating ourselves upon being
safely protected from its fury, and were peering into a small cave-like
aperture in the rock, when a grinding sound above our heads made us look
upwards. As I did so, the blood froze in my veins, but I retained
sufficient presence of mind to seize my father and push him into the
little cave which we had been examining, and to follow him myself with
as much speed as possible. Only just in time, though, as a huge rock
came crashing down upon the spot whereon a second before we had been
standing. For a few minutes we were too dazed by the danger from which
we had escaped, to notice that we stood in a situation of extreme peril,
in comparison with which death would indeed have been preferable. But it
quickly dawned upon us, as we saw all exit from our place of refuge
barred by the huge rock which had fallen in front of the cavelet’s
mouth. Then, indeed, the whole horror of our position faced us as does
the grinning skull of the dead, and we felt that we were doomed. Here we
should die of slow hunger and thirst, with food not a stone’s throw
away, with the sound of rushing water in our ears, and with tons of gold
before us.
“Ah, it was terrible! In those hours of suffering my father’s raven hair
turned grey.
“As if to mock us, the huge rock had fallen in such a way, that its
sides were jammed against protruding masses of stone either way, and a
wide gap opened from below on the outer side, large enough to admit of a
big man’s head and shoulders. But on our side the rock rounded to the
ground, leaving an aperture only large enough to admit one’s hand and
arm. Above, too, the uneven formation of the fallen block enabled us to
look out and see the outer cave, but that was all.
“Our position was enough to turn the coolest brain mad. Nothing could
save us but herculean strength from outside, which could raise the rock
sufficiently high to enable us to crawl under. Strong men with thick
bars might have accomplished this. Alas! we were far away from human
help.
“In this moment of agony I bethought me of the Trauco queen and her
followers who watched outside, and for the first time felt myself
longing for her presence. If she could but behold our plight, I argued
to myself, she would assuredly come to our aid.
“And thus we remained for many hours, my father half stupefied with the
magnitude of our misfortune, while I paced our narrow prison in an agony
of suffering and mental pain. I had given up hope; I was contemplating
the wisdom of a self-imposed death, for had we not our knives still by
us?
“A vigorous cooing awoke me suddenly from my painful thoughts. The blood
rushed to my face with a great joy. It was the Trauco queen, surrounded
by her followers, who had traced us to our prison, and who would
assuredly devise some method of rescue.
“I cried out for joy, clapped my hands together, and did all I could to
attract her attention to our whereabouts. In this I was successful, and
a minute later she stood without the barrier that confined us.
“The Traucos, in spite of the soft fur on their faces, have expressive
features. Looking through one of the upper outlets, I could see the
Trauco queen’s face pucker with anxiety and perplexity. She laid her
hands upon the fallen rock and tried to move it, but as it budged not so
much as a hair’s breadth, she at once perceived the magnitude of the
weight before her, and turned to her followers. I saw her point to it,
then to the hollow below, then move her arms up and down, as though
lifting a great weight. The other Traucos cooed, but shook their heads
gravely; she stamped her foot, and gave vent to a low trumpet note, at
the same time waving her arm. Thereupon the other Traucos bowed
submissively and retired.
“When they were gone the queen stretched out her arms towards me and
cooed piteously, and I could see tears large as crystals glittering in
her splendid eyes. I never saw them look so soft and gentle before, and
for the first time the truth flashed across me that this strange
creature loved me. Ah, poor thing! she was soon to prove it, and thus
more than ever convince me of the humanity of the Trauco nature.
“At length the other Traucos returned, bearing enormously thick poles,
roughly hewn from the pinewood tree, whose wood is like iron, and whose
resisting powers are remarkable. I at once understood that the queen’s
idea was to raise the rock from below in such a manner as to enable us
to crawl out from beneath. Knowing the wonderful strength of these
Traucos, I rejoiced greatly, feeling sure now that our freedom at least
was certain, and I aroused Cuastral to share in my joy. But he only
shook his head.
“The hopes which had flooded me were soon, however, doomed to be
shattered. One after the other the massive poles were inserted, and the
rock slightly raised, but each time it sought its level again at the
expense of the inserted pole, which its weight snapped asunder.
“In vain fresh poles were procured, and further attempts made to
liberate us with no greater success than the first. It soon became
apparent that even this powerfully resisting wood was not proof against
the enormous weight it had to bear.
“Then the queen moaned piteously, and wrung her hands, presenting a
moving picture of real grief. A thought seemed suddenly to strike her,
for she pointed to the hollow in the rock, and made signs to the other
Traucos, moving her shoulders up and down. Apparently the proposal
horrified them, for they cooed piteously, and appeared to reason
vigorously against it. The queen, however, was not to be convinced, and
shook her head imperiously. I can see her still as I saw her then, tall
and majestic, indeed a queen of power and strength amongst her fellows,
a born ruler and leader. She turned once more towards me, her white
teeth showing as she smiled gently. There was a look of intense yearning
in her dark eyes, which seemed to speak the feelings of her heart. I do
not think I read their meaning wrongly in the light of what followed.
“She knelt down and crawled into the outer aperture, and then across my
brain flashed the magnitude of this wild creature’s self-sacrifice. With
the herculean strength with which Nature had endowed her, I perceived
that she was going to raise the rock on her back and shoulders, thus
enabling Cuastral and I to creep forth to freedom, yet assuredly at the
expense of her own life.
“‘Quick Cuastral,’ I cried, as I heard the breath of this splendid
creature come quick and fast under the influence of enormous exertion. I
remember well how I saw the great rock heave up, and the head and
shoulders of the queen show themselves on our side. She was gasping for
breath, and the sinews in her arms stood out like ropes. There was not a
second to be lost. Any moment her strength might succumb and in the act
of passing to freedom we should have been crushed to death. Like
drowning men clutching at rescue, we threw ourselves down and crawled
through the opening to the outer cave, Cuastral first, I following.
“I sprung to my feet, but as I did so my heart sank, and a pain passed
through it, as though a poisoned arrow had transfixed it. For I heard a
shriek, so sad, so despairing, and so pathetic, that it almost deprived
me of my senses. It was the first human note I had heard for many a day.
“Tremblingly I turned, dreading to look on what I felt had taken place.
It was even so. The Trauco queen had used the last physical power which
she possessed to save my life, but in doing so had succumbed to her
brave, unselfish act. Crushed beneath the huge lump of rock, she lay
motionless, the piercing, heart-rending cry having been her last.
“The sight unnerved me, and I burst into tears. In that moment, much as
I loved thee, Aniwee, I would have given my life to have restored hers
to the Trauco queen. Unavailing. She was dead, and her last act had been
one of magnificent heroism.
“The other Traucos seemed overcome with terror, staring vacantly at the
crushed and motionless body of their great queen. No sooner had they
recovered, than they seized us, and led us hastily from the cave. They
put us on the raft, and we paddled down stream to where the other one
was moored, exchanging on to it, but taking the smaller one in tow. And
thence we drifted on, until several days later we reached the caves,
whence we had effected our escape. From there we proceeded on our
journey to the Trauco village, and were at once hurried up to our hut
and kept in strict confinement. After this we were never allowed to go
out at large, save under the strict guard of several Traucos, and the
inhabitants seemed to regard us with horror. We could only divine that
in their thoughts, they attributed to us the death of the queen.
“A new chief had evidently been chosen in her place, for he dwelt in her
hut, and carried out all the duties which she had formerly undertaken.
And many days later, several of the Traucos took us on a raft, and we
floated down the river, passing the White Traucos, and travelling on day
after day. At length we quitted the raft, and journeyed on foot through
the forest, until we arrived at the spot whence we made our last
escape.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXI.
It must have been midnight when Piñone’s solemn, chanting voice ceased,
and the strange story of his own and his father’s wonderful adventures
amongst the Trauco people came to an end. Then he arose from his seat by
the fire, and aroused half a dozen of the Indians, bidding them take
their turn at watching, and keeping up the fires, after which both he
and Aniwee, rolling themselves up in their fur capas, gave themselves up
to sleep.
“Now, boys and girls, down you lie, and try and get some rest, if indeed
the startling story you have heard does not drive sleep from your eyes,”
exclaimed Lady Vane, as she prepared to follow the Indians’ example. And
the boys and girls obeyed her at once, for fatigue was already beginning
to make itself felt on their young frames.
But Topsie, tired as she was, could not sleep. As she lay on her back,
cosily enveloped in her warm fur capa, she could see the stars twinkling
above her, and the pale moon shining its green light on the distant
snow-capped peaks of the Andes looming against the sky. The dark trees
of the forest looked like huge giants in the same fantastic light, and
the night wind rustled in their leaves, and enabled imagination to
people them with many a laughing elf and fairy sprite. Then the girl’s
eyes wandered to the horses, as they quietly cropped the long grass
beneath them, thence to the sleeping forms of her companions, and on to
the six watching Indians as they sat around the fire chatting and
smoking their pipes, two of the number being Coquet and Chorlo.
Topsie’s brain was busy, and her thoughts were far away. She was
thinking of that great gold mine of Or, which had claimed a victim to
the arms of death each time that it had been visited. She was thinking
of the gallant, large-eyed Trauco queen, to whose heart had come that
feeling of love, which, old since the world began, has aroused many to
do and dare for its sake, and her thoughts dwelt lingeringly around the
spot, where the brave strange being had died to save the life of the
handsome Cacique, whom she had loved, not selfishly but with the all
true instincts of human nature. And then she found herself wondering how
the expedition on which they had embarked would end, and picturing the
great, unknown, and untrodden scenes through which they were destined to
make their way; then the firelight danced in her eyes, the figures of
the Indians around it grew dim, the weird forest faded from her sight,
the stars and moon went out, as the weary girl succumbed at length in
the arms of refreshing sleep.
When she awoke, the dim grey of first dawn held sway, but soon it became
tinged with yellow, and red, and gold, and purple light, as the
revolving earth wound on its course to meet the God of day, and bathe in
his glowing and effulgent warmth. As he appeared rosy and beautiful
above the dark forest, the sleeping Indians began to open their eyes;
for with these children of nature, did not this gorgeous lamp herald the
birth of a new-born day? In a short time business and activity, bustle
and movement reigned, where all had been peaceful and still.
First came the maté bowl, and then a general saddling of steeds, after
which every one mounted, and headed by Shag, the journey was recommenced
in the same order as the previous day. But not before Sir Francis and
Piñone, as leaders of the expedition, had held careful and anxious
council, and thoroughly discussed the proposed search for La Guardia
Chica. From what Piñone had recounted of his experience amongst the
Traucos, Sir Francis had little doubt in his mind but that the child had
been carried off to the village on the banks of the river where her
father and grandfather had so long lived in captivity. In this opinion
the Araucanian Cacique concurred, and he expressed himself as confident
of being able to lead the expeditionary party thereto, after once
gaining the banks of the river which he had so lately quitted as the
Traucos’ captive.
Three days were spent in traversing the forest, and in reaching the
borders thereof, which opened on to the plain, through whose basin
flowed the sluggish river, which had played so important a part in the
fortunes of Harry and Topsie two years previously during their
wanderings in Patagonia, when, as young Castaways, they had roamed that
lonely, mysterious land with the Tehuelche Indians, and in the girl
Aniwee’s company. And a very important part, too, it had played in the
fortunes of Piñone, as we have seen. It was, therefore, with mixed
feelings that every one halted and viewed it from afar, as it wound its
snake-like course through the wooded ranges which girt the bases of the
glorious Cordilleras.
“Who votes a race for the river?” cried Freddy, appealing to the younger
members of the party as they sat at ease on their respective steeds.
Tired with the slow pace at which they had been proceeding for the last
few days, they accepted the challenge. Amidst the laughter of the
Indians, in which Sir Francis and Lady Vane cordially joined, our five
young friends set off as hard as their horses could gallop, each
desirous of first reaching the river.
“It is not wise,” remarked Piñone gravely, “for the Caciques to leave
the main party. If they fell into Trauco hands they could not escape.
Let us gallop after them, and rejoin them quickly.”
It was wise advice, and Sir Francis and Lady Vane hastened to adopt it.
Next moment the whole party were thundering across the plain in the wake
of the girls and boys, whom Shag, as a matter of course, had
accompanied. On reaching the river’s banks Piñone at once declared that
he recognised the spot, and pronounced it to be about twenty or thirty
miles due north of the settlement where dwelt the half-dozen
white-haired Traucos. He strongly advised a halt at this juncture, and
urged the wisdom of constructing a strong raft, upon which, in case of
necessity, they could take refuge. As they had axes and an abundance of
strong hide-thongs with them, he declared that the raft could easily be
put together in a few days.
Sir Francis yielded to this prudent advice, and when not busy lending a
hand in its construction, the young people of the party would amuse
themselves by fishing in the river or bathing therein. But Aniwee sat
apart, moody and restless. The loss of her child had grievously affected
her spirits, and the anxiety and suspense to which she fell a victim
were hard to bear. She strove to be brave, this girl Queen, but her
heart was grievously torn, and she who could charge in the fiercest
battle, ride the wildest of horses, take a foremost part in the most
dangerous of sports, found it hard to face the trial which had come to
darken her life, just at the very moment when, by the restoration of
Piñone, she had thought her life brimful of promise, and good fortune,
and happiness bright beyond compare. Blancha was her faithful attendant,
seldom quitting her side, and Graviel, when not otherwise engaged in
serving Piñone, would render her many a little service and respectful
attention. The young Cacique, too, did all in his power to cheer her,
and give her hope in the successful issue of the expedition, at the same
time assuring her of the kind treatment which the child would receive.
This had helped, more than anything else, to raise Aniwee’s spirits from
their deep despondency, though suspense still made her moody and sad.
One afternoon the two girls and the three boys were fishing by the
river, when Mary, who was about fifty yards down stream, suddenly began
to call loudly for help. Harry, Topsie, and Freddy at once ran towards
her, but as they did so they saw her jerked violently forward, and still
clinging to the line, fall headlong into the river. Being a first-rate
swimmer, this did not concern them so much; but they were a good deal
startled when they saw her dragged right across to the other side, then
up stream, and then down stream again, at an alarming rate, the water
rising in foam, and swirling all round her with a hissing sound.
“What is it, Mary?” shouted Harry to his cousin.
“I have hooked something big,” gasped the girl.
“But let it go, Mary, let it go!” cried Topsie and Freddy in one breath.
At the same time Sir Francis, Lady Vane, and Aniwee came running up.
“I can’t,” again gasped the girl; “the line is tied to my wrist, and I
can’t break it.”
As she spoke she was almost dragged under by the force of the animal,
whatever it might be, which she had hooked to her line, and for a second
her head was entirely submerged. In a moment Harry had jumped in to help
her, followed by Freddy. It was lucky they did so, for the furious
captive had begun lashing the water, and doing its utmost to drag its
captor below, and if Mary had not been a strong, muscular girl she must
have succumbed. As it was, when Harry and Freddy swam to her side and
grasped the line, it was all the united three could accomplish to
prevent themselves being towed down stream.
At this juncture Piñone came running up with a lasso, followed by the
rest of the Indians, and Shag, who had been off on a private hunt of his
own, put in an appearance. Topsie at once called him, and putting the
noose end of the lasso in his mouth, bade him swim with it to Harry. The
good dog at once obeyed, and the lad, on receiving it, slipped it over
Mary’s shoulders, and bade Freddy catch hold of it as well as the line.
He then proceeded to do the same himself, after which he called to those
on land to haul in. They responded with a will, but the burden was
heavy, and the strain very great. Yet the good lasso held out stoutly,
and presently all were landed.
Poor Mary’s wrist was considerably lacerated by the line, from which she
was at once freed, and then began the business of landing the big catch,
still a mystery to every one.
It resisted to its utmost, lashing the water furiously, and swirling to
and fro like a very torpedo, but it was no match for twenty strong pair
of arms, and was finally brought to the surface amidst the shouts of the
Indians, the cries of astonishment of the children, and the loud
barkings of Shag. Amidst this pandemonium of noises the wretched monster
was landed from the cool waters of that river, to which it was never
destined to return.
With the instincts of true humanity, Sir Francis at once put an end to
its life by a blow from his hatchet on its head, and then every one
crowded round to inspect the extraordinary creature, the like of which
had never been seen by any of those present before. It was truly a
monster and a monstrosity as well.
Its head was broad and flat, and the skull stood forward over the
beast’s eyes like a cap. These eyes were small and fiery-looking, and
the mouth, which it had unclosed in its death gasp, was ornamented with
two rows of thin sharp pointed teeth, very like French nails in
appearance. Its body was about six feet long, between an eel and serpent
in shape, and about two feet in diameter. The skin, however, was not
smooth, like either the former or the latter, but scaly, and very
similar to the mailed coat of a crocodile, and apparently of extreme
toughness, for the axe blow dealt by Sir Francis had inflicted no mark
thereon, though the force thereof had killed the life in the monster’s
body.
“Well, Mary, if I ever—no, Mary, no I never!” sang out Harry as he
looked at his pretty cousin, who had been instrumental in bringing to
light this extraordinary animal; “talk of sea-monsters and sea-serpents,
I call this the most diabolical serpent I ever saw in my life. What is
your opinion, Shag?”
Shag looked wise at this remark, and wagged his tail. He evidently
agreed with Harry.
“Well, you all look like drowned rats,” laughed Lady Vane; “fortunately
you have each got a change of clothing. Run, Mary, and do you dear boys
go and get changed, while the Indians bring this dreadful-looking
monster to the raft. It must be skinned, and kept as a trophy by Mary
the discoverer.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXII.
It was a glorious morning when the search party embarked on the raft two
days after the capture of the mammoth river-serpent, to which Mary the
discoverer had given the name of the demon-snake. Of course the creature
had been skinned, and his shining, scaly coat was pegged out in the hot
sun, which soon dried it up without any further curing being necessary.
Then it was neatly rolled and tied up by the Indians, and placed on one
of the pack-horses.
It had been decided to drive these horses, and all the other ones as
well, another ten miles or so, where Piñone reported rich pasturage to
abound, and turn them loose thereon under the care of their bell mare, a
steady old lady, so called because she always wore a bell around her
neck, the tinkling of which while she fed kept the rest of the herd
together. She was pretty well to be trusted not to stray away from these
plentiful feeding grounds, and the Indians knew that the others would
not leave her.
No sooner, therefore, had the animals been committed to her care, and
the saddles and the rest of the equipments stacked in the centre of the
raft, than every one embarked, and the punters set to work to propel the
craft up stream. Harry and Topsie, and indeed all the others, were
looking out eagerly for the white Trauco settlement, through which
Piñone had told them they would pass that day. He had no idea what their
reception would be, however; and after consultation with Sir Francis, it
was decided to lay to some two miles before the spot was reached, and to
send a spy party to reconnoitre, and to see if danger lay ahead. If it
was ascertained that the station was quiet, a forward movement could be
made at once, but if a large number of Traucos were discerned to be in
temporary possession of the locality, it was deemed prudent to delay an
advance until they had proceeded on their way. The fact was, that Sir
Francis wished, if possible, to avoid collision with these strange
people, of whose humanity he had little doubt. He had not forgotten the
pathetic death of the Trauco who had stolen Topsie, while the splendid
courage and self-sacrifice of the Trauco queen, had raised her people in
his estimation high above the realm wherein the brute creation dwells.
Thus, when they had proceeded up the river for several hours, Piñone
called a halt, and the raft was paddled to land and made fast in the
shade of the forest, and under the overhanging branches of a great tree.
He then selected to accompany him, Harry and Topsie, Aniwee, Graviel,
and two of his Indian followers, and with a caution to Sir Francis to be
on the _qui vive_, the Indian chief stole noiselessly forward, with
Aniwee and his two white friends beside him, and the others following
closely in the rear.
At first the going was pretty easy, but soon, Piñone having dived deeper
into the forest, progress became more difficult. They had to keep a
sharp look-out too, for there was no knowing what these strange,
unexplored forests contained, and they might at any moment be confronted
by an angry jaguar, or, more terrible still, an Andes demon, to say
nothing of creatures yet unseen, and yet in all probability no less
existent, for the vast solitudes which stretch beneath the mighty chain
of South America’s giants have yet to be explored; and who knows what
wonders they may not have in store for the adventurous explorer who is
hardy enough to penetrate their mysterious depths?
As luck would have it, however, nothing arose to dispute the passage of
the small reconnoitring party, and after about an hour’s fight with the
dense undergrowth the Indian cacique was able to call a halt. Then,
laying his fingers on his lips, he stole forward in the direction of the
river, signing to the others to follow as quietly as possible.
Now the river for some time had been hidden from view, and with it the
opposite banks thereof. Aniwee and her companions were therefore not a
little astonished when, with its sudden appearance, a strange scene
presented itself to their gaze on the frontage across the water.
Peering through some thick bushes behind which they lay effectively
concealed, they made out the figures of some thirty or forty Traucos,
all stretched out, or sitting in the sun and basking themselves in its
rays. Two large rafts lay moored to the shore, of which both the centres
were piled up with fruit. Behind, and higher up the bank, stood several
bright green huts newly thatched, and sitting outside them were six
white hairy forms, the Albino Traucos.
But as she looked upon this novel scene Aniwee could hardly repress a
cry, as her eyes alighted on a tiny figure which she knew full well.
Under a big awning of green branches, and lying on a thick jaguar skin,
playing with two little Traucos a shade bigger than herself, lay La
Guardia Chica, the little Indian child, upon whom the malice of Inacayal
had fallen, Aniwee’s baby girl, the love of her tender heart. Her
impulse was to spring forward, but with a tremendous effort she
restrained herself, and Piñone, half divining the temptation, laid his
hand on her arm.
“Courage, Aniwee,” he whispered; “see, La Guardia Chica does not suffer.
Did I not tell thee, Carita, that they would treat her with kindness and
care? Did I not say well?”
The Indian girl nodded, and a look of relief overspread her hitherto
anxious, eager face, as she inquired, “But cannot we rescue her now,
Piñone?”
“And lose her perchance for ever,” answered the young chief quickly.
“No, no, Aniwee; the child can only be safely secured by cunning and
ruse. The Traucos are merely resting ere proceeding up the river, and in
a short space they will embark on their journey up country. We must
watch for their departure, and make no attempt to pass this spot on our
raft until the white Traucos are asleep. I see well that if they
perceived us they would probably carry forward the alarm, and put the
village on its guard, and thus we should lose the child, and place
ourselves and our friends in a most dangerous position. Piñone has
spoken.”
“And wisely, I feel sure, Aniwee,” put in Topsie kindly. “It would be
madness to discover ourselves just now. Let us squat down here as Piñone
advises, watch the Traucos depart, and then return to the raft.”
Softly and quietly the little reconnoitring party went down on their
knees, and thence into a more comfortable position, keeping their eyes
fixed upon the scene before them. Aniwee never took hers off her child,
who appeared very happy, and who had evidently struck up a firm
friendship with its little comrades.
The watchers had not very long to wait, for suddenly the leader of the
Trauco party arose, and clapping his hands gave the signal for
departure. With prompt discipline all the others sprang up, and began
trooping towards the raft, and then the Indian girl saw her child lifted
up by a big Trauco, who kissed it gently, and carried it down to the
water’s edge. Here it was made pleased and comfortable once more on its
jaguar skin, and its tiny comrades restored to it, whereat Aniwee could
hear it laughing and crowing with delight. And a smile parted the girl’s
lips as she watched her darling play, and a great load was lifted off
her mind, for she knew that at least it was happy, well, and well cared
for.
Having divided themselves into two companies, the Traucos took their
places on the rafts, their Albino brethren, with staves uplifted,
superintending their departure. In a short time both crafts were under
weigh, and La Guardia Chica passed out of the sight of its yearning
mother’s gaze, as it floated up stream with its hairy companions, still
laughing, and crowing, and clapping its tiny hands, altogether oblivious
that close by, its father and mother watched it with hungry eyes.
As soon as the rafts had disappeared, the reconnoitring party stole
quietly forth from their place of observation, and made their way back
towards those awaiting them down stream. There was nothing to keep them
any longer, as the white Traucos had retired to their huts as soon as
their brown brethren had taken their departure. Piñone, too, was all
eagerness to report the result of the expedition to Sir Francis, and to
take counsel with the great white Cacique, as he called him, and in whom
he placed the highest confidence.
“Aunt Ruby, Aunt Ruby, we have had such luck,” cried Harry excitedly, as
he and his companions rejoined the others on the river’s banks.
“How, dear boy?” inquired Lady Vane, as she laid her hand on the eager
young midshipman’s shoulder, while his cousins crowded round to hear the
news.
“We’ve sighted the lost lamb, Aunt Ruby; we saw the Guardia Chica
amongst the Traucos. She looked awfully well and happy, and not a bit
like a prisoner, I can tell you.”
“Then they treat her properly, Harry, you think?” again inquired his
aunt.
“Rather, Aunt Ruby, and the picaninny was clapping her hands, and
playing all sorts of high jinks with two dear little Traucolings, about
her own age, and who looked just like wee balls of fur. I never saw such
ducks as they were.”
Here Piñone claimed Sir Francis’s ear, and a council was at once held.
It was decided to try and snatch a few hours’ sleep until sundown, and
to start as the shades of evening fell. In this way they would escape
observation by the Albinos, as they punted past that small, queer
station on the river’s banks. Thence he proposed to make way for some
fifteen miles or so, and as that would bring them into territory
frequented by Traucos, to lay concealed during the daytime, proceeding
on again next night. His object was to pass the head-quarters of the
hairy people unnoticed, take the raft some miles up stream, where it
could be concealed in a small side affluent of the river, and which he
had frequently taken notice of during his up country expeditions with
the Trauco queen. From this point of vantage reconnoitring would have to
be resorted to, observations carefully taken of the whereabouts of the
baby Cacique, and a well-organised rescue raid undertaken, if no other
suitable plan could be decided upon.
Thus, after an interval for rest, the rescue party set forth once more
in the track of the tiny prisoner. A lovely moon lit them on their way,
and the stars gleamed through the dark forest with curious gaze,
scrutinising the unwonted sight, which presented itself in the picture
of this small band of pioneers, passing through the old primeval
strongholds, which had until then resisted the presence of civilised
man, tolerating only the human species in the shape of the strange,
hairy, large-eyed beings, to whom the Araucanians gave the name of
Trauco.
There is something inexpressibly delightful in penetrating unexplored
regions, regions virgin hitherto to the foot of civilised man. The
thrilling sensation which pervades the explorer can only be properly
realised by one who has experienced it, and there is no language which
adequately conveys the mixed feelings with which one surveys a beautiful
and hitherto unveiled scene, and realises that one is the first that yet
has burst upon its lonely loveliness. So thought the young Vanes, as
they lay outstretched on the raft, and revelled in the beauty which that
moonlight night unveiled before them. Though these children had
travelled far and wide, and had had various opportunities for feasting
their eyes upon the glorious creations of God, they all agreed that
nothing lovelier than this moonlight scene had ever gladdened them
before.
An hour’s punting brought them parallel with the Albinos’ huts, and the
greatest caution was observed in passing them. All held their breath
while the punters dipped their long poles gently into the water, and
sent the raft swiftly against the stream. It was a critical moment, and
all felt that the success of the expedition hung on the slender chance
of avoiding detection. All prayed silently for success—our white friends
to God, the Indians to their good Gualichu. And the prayer was answered,
as the raft glided by the dangerous spot, and passed up stream in the
darkness of night.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXIII.
All that night the rescue party paddled and punted, and worked its way
up the lonely river, so that when morning began to dawn Piñone advised a
halt. The raft was made safe under a dark, overhanging tree, whose
branches swept the water, and concealed their charge from any outside
observation. Then the occupants of the craft spread their skins under
the shade of this tree, and gave themselves up to the soothing influence
of sleep, those who had slept during the night being deputed to watch
while the others rested.
As evening came on the journey was resumed, and Piñone assured every one
that about midnight they would reach the vicinity of the Trauco village.
Though silence and caution were necessary, he averred that he had little
fear of detection, no watch being kept at night by these hairy people.
In effect, about the hour named, the moon disclosed the village to view.
Silence reigned over it as quiet as death, and Aniwee’s heart beat loud
and excitedly, as she pictured her darling sleeping therein.
Thus they passed it undetected and unobserved, reaching the tiny branch
river or affluent of the parent stream as morning dawned.
This affluent, some seventy yards broad, plunged at right angles into
the forest on the same side of the big river as was the Trauco village.
It was, therefore, decided to take the raft up about a quarter of a
mile, and after making it fast to the right bank, start off on another
reconnoitring expedition to discover and make _all_ search for the
whereabouts of La Guardia Chica.
The reconnoitring party this time consisted of Piñone, Aniwee, Sir
Francis, Freddy, Harry, Topsie, Coquet, Chorlo, Graviel, and five other
Indians, all armed with rifles. Lady Vane, Willie, Mary, and Blancha
stayed behind to superintend the remainder of the party, and to take
action if they heard firing break out. Piñone calculated that a rescue
would be very possible that day if they could approach near enough to
the child, inasmuch as the greater part of the inhabitants of the Trauco
village would be absent on their different duties.
So off they set, full of hope and excitement, the expedition being one
of no small difficulty and risk. Good travelling, they calculated, would
bring them to their destination in about three hours. As long as they
dared, they hugged the banks of the river, travelling being more easy
along this line than through the forest itself.
But when they got within a mile or so of the village, Piñone and Sir
Francis deemed it wise to enter the forest, so that the last part of
their journey was toilsome and wearisome enough. But the worst of
difficulties has its end at last, and in due course they arrived on the
outskirts of their destination.
It was situated in a long wide glen, and had rows of huts facing each
other. These all appeared to have been newly thatched, and as the spy
party peered through the dense underwood behind which they lay
concealed, they could see here and there a Trauco walking about, some
entering, some coming out of the huts before mentioned.
Not far from where they stood, a group of children were playing. It was
a novel enough game. Seated pickaback on the shoulders of the biggest,
several tiny little Traucos charged each other with reed lances, and
whoever broke the other’s lance first, was considered the victor, and
the unfortunate one, and his or her steed, led off into captivity, and
deposited in a palisaded square, which no doubt occupied the _rôle_ of a
prison fortress. Close by, another group of younger children were
sleeping peaceably under the shade of a drooping tree, and not fifty
feet away from where the watchers stood. Suddenly Aniwee’s heart gave a
great jump and throb, as she perceived her child amongst them.
Grasping Piñone’s hand, she pointed towards the spot, whispering
excitedly, “See, see; she is there!”
“Keep calm, Carita; she shall be ours ere long,” answered the young
chief in a low voice. “The Mamita shall have her child again.”
But even as he spoke a Trauco woman was observed making towards the
sleeping group. In a moment it flashed through Aniwee’s brain that she
was approaching for the purpose of picking up and carrying off La
Guardia Chica. If this were so, never again might such a chance arise,
never again might it be possible to come into such close proximity to
the baby Cacique. In an instant the Indian girl’s resolve was taken.
Come what might, she would clasp her baby to her heart once more.
Ere any one divined her intention, or could prevent her, she had glided
from Piñone’s side, bounded through the brushwood which concealed her
party, and rushed straightway towards the sleeping group. Like lightning
she traversed the short distance which separated her therefrom, seized
the child in her arms, and turned to fly. But as she did so, she
perceived that the Trauco woman had sprung forward to intercept her
return to the jungle. There was only one way of escape left, and that
was the river; and thither she at once turned her fleeing footsteps. Of
course the child set up a loud cry, and this was followed by an ominous
trumpet note of anger from the Trauco, who followed swiftly in pursuit.
At the same time several hairy forms came running out of the huts, and
at once joined therein.
“Forward!” exclaimed Piñone in an agonised voice. “They will gain upon
her, and her capture is assured unless we can cut off her pursuers. Ah,
Aniwee! rash hast thou been, my beautiful!”
Keeping still under cover, the whole party hurried forward towards the
river, prepared at any moment to use their rifles if necessary. They
could see the Trauco woman was gaining on Aniwee, who, fleet as a deer
as she was, was of course hampered by the weight of the child. As she
reached the river’s bank she looked back, and perceived her pursuer
close behind her, but could make nothing of the reconnoitring party.
What should she do? The river was her only refuge.
There was not a moment for hesitation. Grasping her child’s hair in her
mouth, she sprung in and struck out for the opposite bank; at the same
time she heard a rifle shot ping forth, and knew by that, that her
comrades were endeavouring to protect her retreat. Aniwee was a
magnificent swimmer, and she was also strong and active. She sent
herself along through the water with quick powerful strokes, and would
have proceeded at a faster rate than she did, only the baby would
struggle and cry, which impeded her movements greatly. She could hear
sharp firing now, and a movement of rushing water behind her. A big,
powerful Trauco was following in her wake. As she reached the opposite
bank, she heard a bullet strike the water, and looking back perceived
that her pursuer was close behind. Fear gave lightning speed to her
limbs, and she flew along the side of the river at an amazing pace. She
could see her companions on the opposite side retiring in good order,
and she determined to make an effort to rejoin them. Springing once more
into the river, she again struck out for the opposite shore, holding her
child in a similar manner to that before adopted. But even as she
plunged in she could hear the splash of the Trauco behind her, and she
groaned with anguish as she felt that he must overtake her.
“Try hard, try hard, Aniwee!” she heard Topsie call out; and she
clenched her teeth, and summoned all her energies for a final effort. As
she did so her white friend fired, the rushing sound behind her ceased,
and she knew that the progress of her pursuer had been stayed. Six more
strokes, and she was on the side of the bank once more, and clambering
up its sides.
The Traucos were gathering fast, and their gold-headed arrows were
beginning to do execution. One had struck Topsie’s leg, and another
pierced Piñone’s shoulder. It was clear that they must take refuge in
the forest, and beat as hasty a retreat as possible, or more serious
injury might be done. Indeed, matters looked black and ugly enough, and
Sir Francis found himself earnestly wishing for the reinforcements,
which Lady Vane would at once bring up, as soon as she heard the firing.
As they dived into the jungle they could hear loud trumpetings in the
distance, which warned them of the approach of another body of
assailants. Up till then the order had been to endeavour to wound
without killing these hairy beings, but now self-preservation held
uppermost sway, and several Traucos bit the dust, to rise no more.
As they fell, their comrades surrounded them, wonder dilating their
eyes. The ping and noise of the rifle had not alarmed them, for they
apparently ascribed it to human agencies; but when they saw their
species stretched out dead, and no sign of the missile which had
inflicted death visible, the effect was extremely subduing. Indeed, they
loitered so long round their fallen brothers, that the refugees were
able to put a good distance between the pursuers and themselves.
But the Traucos had no idea of giving up the chase, and being joined by
those in their rear, they again advanced, headed this time by their
chief or king. Piñone at once recognised him as the Trauco who had
assumed authority after the Trauco queen’s death, and he rightly judged,
that the loss of this leader would signally discomfit the hairy tribe.
Nevertheless shooting these brave and mysterious people was extremely
antagonistic to Sir Francis’ feelings, as well as to Topsie’s, and it
was with a heavy heart that the former issued orders for a fresh
fusillade so soon as the Traucos came within reach once more.
An unexpected diversion made this unnecessary, and interfered to protect
their retreat. Loud yells of a most ghastly and ferocious nature
suddenly broke forth on their left, and looking in that direction, they
beheld advancing some thirty hairy forms, armed with large and
formidable-looking clubs.
“Good God!” burst from Sir Francis, “we are surrounded. Fire all, and
quickly.”
“Stay!” shouted Piñone, raising his hands imploringly; “do not fire, but
retreat hastily. These are not Traucos; they are those big apes whom the
young Caciques call demons; they are the fiends I told you of. They will
attack the Traucos, and while they do so we must retreat at the run,
along the river’s banks. They are our saviours; it is the white Gualichu
of good, that has sent them to aid our escape. All hail to the
Gualichu!”
As he spoke he handed his rifle to Aniwee, and seizing the child started
off as hard as he could go, followed by the remainder of the party. At
the same time loud yells arose from the Andes demons as they beheld the
Traucos advancing, and the next moment the hairy men and their hideous
counterparts, were engaged in mortal combat.
Hot and breathless with exertion, the runaways halted after they had
proceeded about two miles, and listened anxiously for any sound of
pursuit, but only the distant yells of the demons came back to their
ears, telling them that the fight still raged.
At this juncture they were joined by Lady Vane, who had come to meet
them, and who uttered an exclamation of thankfulness as she beheld the
child. But there was no time for explanations, and the retreat was
resumed at the same pace as before. On reaching the raft every one
hastily embarked, and its head was put up stream as soon as it had been
punted down and out of the affluent, and heartily, as may be imagined,
did Sir Francis, his wife, children, nephew, and niece, thank God for
their most wonderful luck and escape from death, at the hands of the
Traucos and their arrows. Both Topsie and Piñone had their wounds
dressed at once, and very sore and painful they proved for a time, but
fortunately the arrows were not poisoned, so that no evil results
followed.
All that day, and the remainder of that night, and the next day, the
raft was kept going, the Indians taking it by turns to sleep and
manœuvre the craft. It had been finally decided not to attempt a return
past the Trauco village, but to proceed to Araucanian territory through
Patagonia. Previously, however, it was agreed to by all that the great
gold mine of Or must be visited, and Harry and Topsie’s hearts bounded
at the thought of seeing that wonderful cave once more, and revisiting
the grave of their old hermit uncle, Sir Harry Vane.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXIV.
The raft lay moored in the little alcove where Harry and Topsie two and
a half years previously had encountered the jaguars, and where old Sir
Harry had received his death wound. To readers of “The Young Castaways,”
therefore, these scenes will come back as old spots revisited, friends
of the past looked upon once more.
As such they were viewed again by Harry and Topsie, who never seemed
tired of showing them to their cousins; and they had an especial
interest, too, for Sir Francis and Lady Vane, sacred to the memory as
they were of their old relative, who, having died to this world as every
one thought, had been discovered nearly eighty years later on by his
young descendants—alas! only to be discovered, to die.
Then there was his grave to be visited, and those of the loved dead ones
who lay beside him, and finally the wonderful cave all teeming with
gold, in which so many strange events had come to pass.
Aniwee, too, had quite recovered her spirits, and bubbled over with
laughter and happiness. Had not Piñone been lost to her, and had he not
been restored? Had not her child been stolen and recovered?
She went about a great deal with the young folks—for was she not a mere
child herself?—and La Guardia Chica was again made over to the arms of
Blancha, and guarded jealously by Graviel.
It was arranged that our white friends, together with Piñone, Aniwee,
the child, its nurse, and attendant, should embark on the raft, and that
Chorlo, Coquet, and the other Indians should follow the left heights,
which overlooked the river. This was considered a wise precaution in
case of attack and renewed pursuit from the Traucos, in the event of
which the raft party could be drawn up by the foot party above, by means
of their strong lassos, and thus place the wide gulf between themselves
and their pursuers. Piñone, however, was of opinion that no further
pursuit would be engaged in, though of course it was wise to take every
possible precaution.
Previous to starting, a hunt expedition had been organised, to provide
the party with meat, fruit having for some time been their sole
sustenance. This class of food, though it agreed well enough with the
white travellers, told sadly on the constitutions of the Indians, who
had always been accustomed to plenty of meat. Now Harry and Topsie knew
that any number of deer and vicuña abounded on the higher plateaux, and
that a good supply of meat could be obtained if a hunt expedition were
organised. When, therefore, they proposed to spend a few days in
hunting, their proposal was at once agreed to, and as they were the only
members of the party who were not strangers to the locality, the
arrangements for the hunt were put into their hands.
The two young people, therefore, began by selecting those who should
take part in the expedition. Of course they chose first of all their
uncle, aunt, and cousins, and as Piñone professed his willingness to
remain and guard the raft in the company of eleven of the Indians, they
were able to induce Aniwee to join them. Chorlo and Coquet were allowed
to go with them, five of the Indians likewise, while Blancha and Graviel
were left in charge of the baby Cacique.
The youthful leaders of this hunt party remembered how, in their former
wanderings, they had passed through a portion of the forest teeming with
game, and they were in hopes that these parts were still as thickly
populated as they had formerly been. They therefore led the way up the
steep jungle hillside, and directed their footsteps for these old
haunts. The climb was both stiff and tiring, but the hunters were all in
good condition, and so full of keenness and expectation, that they
really paid little attention to the difficulties which at first
confronted them. The old path cut by the hermit had become greatly
overgrown, but the axes of the party soon opened a way again.
At length, after several hours of hard work, a beautiful grassy plateau
was reached, covered all over with long rich grass, branching off in
different directions in shady avenues, and bounded on the far side by a
mass of thick jungle and almost impenetrable forest. Here Harry and
Topsie called a halt, and gave it as their opinion that the party must
break up at this point, and take different routes. They suggested that
it should consist of three sections, namely, of Harry, Topsie, Aniwee,
Chorlo, and an Indian in one, Sir Francis, Willie, Mary, Coquet, and an
Indian brave in the second, while Lady Vane, Freddy, and the three
remaining Indians it was thought would make up a suitable third. After
refreshing the inner man on a few piñones and araucarias, which they had
brought with them, the party having divided into its respective
sections, separated with many a laughing challenge as to which of them
should get the best bag.
Each section selected one of the spacious glades that seemed to open a
path in each instance through the otherwise dark and gloomy jungle, and
they soon disappeared from each other’s view.
Harry, Topsie, and Aniwee had at once bent their steps in a
south-westerly direction, followed close behind by Chorlo and the other
Indian who accompanied them. Of course Shag formed one of the party. It
would have been strange if he had not been found close to his mistress’s
heels in devoted attendance, for the brave dog was never absent unless
executing some commission for her.
They were walking along and keeping their eyes and ears wide open, when
a low cry from Chorlo brought them to a standstill. Turning round, they
saw both her and her companion crouching on the ground, and they at once
followed her example, Shag of course imitating his mistress.
“What is it, Chorlo?” whispered Topsie in a low voice; but the Indian
girl never moved, and her eyes remained fixed on the dark forest to her
left. Looking in the same direction, the young Araucanian Queen’s eyes
fell upon a large white object, which faced them, motionless as death.
“A bull!” she exclaimed in a whisper, and Harry and Topsie’s heart beat
with excitement as they heard her words.
Yes, there he was, a glorious, milk-white fellow, staring at them
savagely from out his dark retreat, and wondering no doubt who and what
these strange two-legged creatures were, who had come to disturb him in
his lair.
“Do not fire,” entreated the Indian hastily, as he saw Harry raise his
rifle. “Not even the medicine ball will penetrate his skull, unless it
hits one place. We must decoy him into the open, for if you merely hit
and wound him in there, we shall never see him again.”
Strangely enough the name of this Indian was El Toro, a name which had
been given to him in consequence of his skill in hunting the wild
cattle. His advice was therefore to be respected, and Harry lowered his
rifle without firing.
But how get him into the open? That was the question, and El Toro was
again consulted. He at once ordered every one to take refuge in a small
dark clump close to the spot, and bade them be on the look out, then he
threw himself on the ground, and began wriggling in the direction of the
jungle in which the white bull stood, looking for all the world like
some strange serpent of immense proportions.
But the moment he reached the jungle he sprung to his feet and plunged
in. A few seconds later the ambushed hunters saw the bull turn his head
and look behind him. Then they heard a yell, whereat Shag sprung up, his
eyes starting, and his coat bristling with defiance, and Topsie had hard
work to control him. The next minute, with a furious bellow, the bull
came crashing through the jungle into the open, with El Toro seated
astride his back!
It was a most extraordinary sight, and fascinated the onlookers. The
bull, terrified out of his wits, bounded high in the air with his head
between his forelegs, and his knotted tail lashing his sides in wild
anger, but El Toro was not to be dislodged by any buck-jumping; he was
far too fine a rider for that. He was somewhat discomfited, however, for
in his wriggles he had dropped his knife, and was consequently unarmed.
Failing to dislodge his rider by buck-jumping, the bull threw itself
down and proceeded to roll over, bellowing all the time loudly and
angrily. Like lightning, however, El Toro sprung to the ground, shouting
to his companions to fire. This they did at once; but in the excitement
and hurry of the moment, Aniwee missed the bull altogether, and Harry
and Topsie’s shots only wounded him. This thoroughly roused his ire to
its highest pitch, and he charged straight at the clump whence the shots
had proceeded.
“El Lazo, el Lazo!” shouted El Toro, frantically waving his right hand
above his head; “Chorlo, lazo el Toro!”
As he spoke, the Indian girl appeared to sprung forward from out her
hiding-place waving the lasso which she carried around her head. She was
a picture of grace and beauty and glorious muscular strength, a true
Amazon of the breezy plain. The bull perceived her, and altering his
course so as to front her fully, bore straight at her as a die. But when
within fifty paces of the unflinching girl, the whirr of the lasso
sounded, and flying straight to meet him like a winged serpent, it
alighted gracefully above his sharp-pointed horns. With a sudden jerk
the noose closed tight upon them, and the stout hide thong was secure
thereon.
Then Chorlo sprung nimbly towards the place of ambush once more, just as
the bull, unable to arrest his course, thundered over the ground on
which a moment before she had stood luring him on.
As he dashed by, Shag could no longer be restrained, and rushing out
sprung savagely at his haunches.
By this time El Toro had come up to Chorlo’s assistance, and had
clutched hold of the lasso, which the maddened beast no sooner felt than
he reared straight up, and struck out furiously as if fighting the air,
and then threw himself on the ground, rolling over and over, and sending
Shag flying as if he were a piece of brown paper. But no efforts on the
angry captive’s part could dislodge the fatal noose which clung tight
around his horns.
As Shag picked himself up and prepared to renew his attack, the bull
caught sight of his assailants. With a bellow of defiance, he charged
once more pell-mell on the little party. Loudly did El Toro shout to his
companions to make a run for the jungle, as still clinging to the lasso
he gave the example, an example in which he was imitated by Aniwee,
Chorlo, and Topsie. But Harry, with the headstrong inexperience of
youth, thought that the opportunity for distinguishing himself was too
good to be lost. Instead of obeying El Toro’s advice he knelt down, took
careful aim at the charging bull, and fired.
Ping went the bullet as it crashed against the hard skull of the
maddened animal, but did not arrest his course. Before Harry could fire
again the rifle was dashed from his grasp, and he felt himself raised on
the horns of the bull and tossed high in the air. Assuredly if he fell
on them in his descent, he must be impaled alive.
But Shag, brave and watchful, was at hand to rescue. With a savage bark
he sprang at the bull’s throat, and the brute, tackled by this new
assailant, bent its head to the ground, and strove to stamp Harry’s
deliverer with its fore feet. As it did so, the boy alighted face
downwards on the bull’s back, and rolled therefrom to the ground,
fortunately, beyond a good shaking and severe bruising, unhurt. At the
same moment El Toro and Chorlo tightened the lasso, and Topsie, rushing
from her retreat, took careful aim and fired. With a loud bellow the
mighty beast fell forward, almost crushing poor Shag to death beneath
its weight.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXV.
Harry picked himself up with a rather woebegone countenance, and, as may
be imagined, he received a sound rating for his temerity from Topsie, in
deliberately disobeying the advice of El Toro, not to fire at the bull’s
forehead.
“I never saw a nearer shave, Harry,” she concluded. “If it had not been
for our dear old Shag nothing could have saved you from being impaled on
the brute’s horns. It’s too horrible to think of.”
“I was a fool, Topsie!” answered her brother; “I acknowledge it. There,
don’t scold any more; one lives and learns, you know. Most boys are
fools till they have had experience, and this is one I shall not
forget.”
“Well, dear, I do hope you will not, for the sake of others, as well as
your own. Ah, Harry! what should I have done if you had been killed?”
Topsie replied gently, as she laid her hand affectionately on her twin
brother’s shoulder.
“God bless my dear old Topsie, and thank God, too, that I am preserved,”
he remarked quietly. “But I say, old girl, that must have been a rare
good shot of yours, for the brute is stone dead.”
“Thanks to Shag,” she repeated; “but for his splendid help I could not
have shot the bull as I did.”
They clustered round the dead animal, and examined him curiously.
Topsie’s bullet had gone right to his heart, causing instantaneous
death, and thus he had fallen on the top of Shag with some violence.
Chorlo, Aniwee, and El Toro had, however, at once rushed to the dog’s
assistance directly they saw his perilous position, and had extracted
him therefrom before Topsie and Harry came up.
“Good Shag, brave, dear, good Shag!” exclaimed the former, as she threw
her arms round the splendid Labrador’s coal-black neck. “Ah, Shag! you
are a hero; you have saved our dear old Harry’s life.”
But as of yore, the massive beast only wagged his tail gently, while
modestly refusing to be proud or vain, and wearing his honours like the
canine hero that he was.
“Well, now we’ve got him, we’ve got to cut him up, and skin him too,”
remarked Harry complacently, as he seated himself on the bull’s huge
side, and gently stroked the soft, white hide of his would-be destroyer.
“Chorlo and El Toro will skin the bull,” observed Aniwee. “They will do
it quicker than the Caciques, and it is not the first by many which the
latter has skinned. El Toro knows his work there well enough. Will not
the Caciques rest on yonder bank and refresh themselves on the scarlet
fruit that grows thereon? Aniwee knows the fruit; it is safe to eat, and
refreshing to the thirsty.”
Looking in the direction pointed out by the young Queen, Harry and
Topsie perceived beneath a crag-festooned rock, a bank, scarlet all over
with the fruit alluded to, and on going up to examine it, they found
that this fruit consisted of masses of splendid wild strawberries;
large, luscious, and tempting in the extreme.
Being terribly hot, the spot looked inviting beyond measure, and brother
and sister at once threw themselves down, prepared to enjoy a _dolce far
niente_ and strawberry feast.
The scene around them was certainly magnificent,—dark forests in the
foreground, behind them the towering, unbroken wall of the Cordilleras,
and around them emerald glades and fairy nooks, where splendid flowers,
with unknown names, lit up the dark forest background into radiance and
light. As they lay there peacefully resting and eating their
strawberries, these children, who had learnt to love the glories of
God’s great earth, surveyed the scene in silence and rapture. It was as
Topsie afterwards described it, “like being in fairyland.”
The silence which reigned over this scene, was suddenly broken by two
rifle shots, which sounded not far away from where they were sitting. At
once the two young people opened their ears and listened attentively.
They had not to listen long, however, before fresh shots broke the still
air, followed by loud shouts and vigorous yells. What could they mean?
Brother and sister looked inquiringly at each other, and Aniwee came
running up. Already Chorlo and El Toro had forsaken the half-skinned
bull, and had followed the young Queen.
“Let us haste to the rescue,” exclaimed Aniwee excitedly. “I know what
those yells mean. It is the Araucanians’ signal of danger, and would
never be uttered unless peril threatened some of the other parties.
Haste, Señors, haste.”
She had grasped her rifle, which after the death of the bull she had
stood against a tree, and only awaited her white friends’ companionship
before setting off to the assistance of her other friends. And it may be
imagined that neither Harry nor Topsie required much bidding. Leaving
the dead bull to its fate, all five set off up one of the glades in the
direction whence the sounds proceeded at a headlong pace, led by the
fleetfooted Warrior Queen.
No doubt remained in Harry and Topsie’s minds but that some of their
party had been attacked, and their anxiety in consequence was extremely
acute and painful. They did not spare themselves in the efforts which
they made to reach the scene of action. Very suddenly they came upon it,
and then at once realised the terrible danger in which their friends
were placed. Standing in a small square, facing all ways, they perceived
Sir Francis and Lady Vane, Freddy, Mary, Willie, Coquet, and the four
Araucanians firing and loading quickly, while around them danced some
fifty or sixty hideous hairy beings, brandishing their clubs and yelling
fiercely. Quite a dozen were lying dead or wounded on the ground, while,
nothing daunted, the remainder were advancing slowly on the guns.
Now the position was an extremely awkward one, for none of the newly
arrived party could fire without endangering their own friends, while
they themselves were in imminent peril from the bullets of the others.
But Aniwee was equal to the occasion. Some tall fir trees grew near to
the place where they were standing, having strong flowery branches
sticking out from the stems. Signing to her companions to imitate her,
she climbed into one of these trees, an act quickly followed by the
others. Topsie, however, had some difficulty in getting Shag up, but
with El Toro’s assistance he was at length hoisted aloft and placed on
one of the broadest branches, where Chorlo, who was unarmed, promised to
hold him safe.
The young Queen and her two white friends were the only three of this
little party armed with rifles. But they determined to render what help
they could. In effect, when the shots pinged forth from their weapons,
three more Andes demons—for such they were—bit the dust, while this
sudden and counter attack seemed to take the horrible creatures by
surprise.
Knowing little of the arts of warfare, they wheeled round in a
semicircle, and turned their attention to this new source of danger. As
they did so, Sir Francis shouted to his square to form into line, and
pour a broadside into the huddled group of demons. At the same time our
friends in the trees fired another volley. The effect was terrible, and
raked the demon force from top to bottom, adding many more victims to
the ghastly heap already lying low. But the effect was electrical. With
wild shrieks and yells the remainder gave way before such fearful
punishment, and turning tail, fled from the magic force of the white man
and his terrible weapons.
Then our five friends made haste to descend from their perches aloft,
and hurried to join the others, who were all more or less shaken by the
severe attack to which they had been subjected. Both Mary and Willie
were deathly white; and though they had behaved with the greatest pluck
and obedience to discipline, it could not be wondered at, that they felt
somewhat frightened by such an experience.
“Thank God you arrived in time!” exclaimed Sir Francis in a voice full
of earnest feeling. “My dear children, had it not been for your valuable
help, I am confident we should have all been killed. But what a fearful
demon-haunted place this is. For goodness’ sake, let us quit it without
delay!”
“Ah, uncle! let us put those poor creatures out of their misery,” put in
Topsie, as her eye fell on the writhing forms of several of the fallen
demons. “We cannot leave them like that.”
This most unpleasant task was entrusted to the Indians, who soon made
short work of the dying apes, and the whole party without delay made
haste to depart from a scene of such horror. Hunting was no longer
thought of, every one being desirous of getting back to the raft. It was
agreed, however, to make a halt by the dead bull, and to complete the
skinning and cutting up of the animal, the meat being too valuable and
precious to leave behind.
On reaching the spot where he lay, several vultures rose from the
carcase. Huge creatures they were indeed, being condors in very fact;
but no one attempted to shoot them, as it was deemed inadvisable to make
any unnecessary noise, which might draw upon them a renewed attack from
the demons.
While the Indians busied themselves over the bull, Harry and Topsie led
Sir Francis and Lady Vane and their cousins to the strawberry bed to
refresh and rest themselves, and then Topsie exclaimed:
“And now, Uncle Francis, do tell us how you came upon those awful
brutes, and how you all managed to be together, for when we left you,
both parties were separate.”
“Well, I will tell you, my dears, how it happened,” answered the
baronet, as he seated himself and accepted from Harry several large
strawberries which the lad had plucked and handed to him. “It was in
this way. Very soon after we left you, we sighted a splendid herd of
deer, who took to the forest the moment they saw us. I sent Coquet and
our Indian round to try and get on the other side of them, and drive
them our way. While making the wide _détour_ which they found necessary,
they came upon your aunt, Freddy, and the other Indians, who, having
seen nothing, joined them, and they all seven entered the wood together.
The deer were soon sighted, and every effort was being made to drive
them to where we lay concealed, when loud yells suddenly startled us out
of our senses. Out of the forest, at the very point where we expected to
see the herd break, broke a very different sight, in the shape of some
fifty or more hideous hairy monsters, which we at once recognised as
Andes demons. We held our breath and lay still, but they seemed to
divine our whereabouts, for they came straight at us. Seeing this, we
sprung up, and fled, making for that part of the forest where the others
were beating. We had not gone far when the demons caught sight of us,
and set off in hot pursuit. We managed to reach your aunt and Freddy,
however, who were hurrying forward to meet us. We at once signed to them
to turn and fly with us, having no time in which to explain. Briefly,
our pursuers came up with us. We fired several volleys, but these did
not stop them from coming on, and we were finally driven into the open
space in which you, Aniwee, Chorlo, and El Toro found us. Forming into a
large wide circle the demons began to close in upon us, and I was forced
to place my little party in a square. Some were armed, some were not. We
loaded, and fired as quickly as we could, but the brutes, though they
fell in numbers, came slowly on, and indeed would soon have come to
close quarters with us, and battered in our brains had you not all
arrived in the nick of time.”
“And now, Topsie, it is your turn to tell us how you got the bull,” put
in Lady Vane. “Anything to turn one’s thoughts from the horrible trial
we have gone through and the fearful danger which we have escaped. Very
earnestly should we thank God for His great mercy in delivering us.”
But the Indians had completed their task and loaded up, so that Topsie’s
story had to be told as the party tramped along. She spun it out as long
as she could, until the jungle slopes were reached, and then they all
had their work cut out to make their way through its dense growth. When
at length they gained the raft the moon was shedding its soft light on
all around.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXVI.
It was a burning hot day, not a cloud decked the dark blue sky which
clothed the heavens, the very water of the river, generally so cool and
pleasant, was hot, and muggy, and unrefreshing. An unnatural stillness
pervaded the air, and nature seemed to have been metamorphosed into
stone. In their voyage up the dark river, the travellers had been amused
and interested by the numerous and strange birds which were continually
flying overhead. Lovely green woodpeckers, with scarlet heads and
waistcoats, parrots of gaudy plumage and impudent ways, tiny parroquets,
which sought to ape their superiors in size and cousins in species by
many absurd movements, would continually enliven the raft party as they
worked their way up stream. But on this occasion, all was still, even
the birds being affected by the general oppressiveness.
After the attack by the Andes demons, it had been decided that the whole
party should stick to the raft, which had been pushed off and started
upon its journey, the morning following upon the events related in the
last chapter. For ten days the party had been making its way up the
river, landing when possible on the banks at night to sleep and stretch
the limbs of those composing it, which could not fail to become cramped
in such a situation; and it was on the night of the tenth day that the
spot where Sir Harry and Miriam Vane and James Outram lay sleeping, was
at length reached, and here the party bivouacked.
It was with mixed feelings that Sir Francis and Lady Vane stood by the
side of these graves for the first time, and looked down on the
flower-decked canopy which grew above the last resting place of the old,
old man, who through so many lonely years had watched and tended the
spot where all that he loved most on earth, lay sleeping away her last
great rest. So often had Harry and Topsie recounted their first meeting
with the hermit, the wonderful tale which he had related to them, and
the tragic end of their voyage to the great gold mine of Or, that both
their uncle and aunt seemed as if they had gone through the whole
experiences themselves, and were looking again on scenes already
witnessed.
Thus they had bivouacked on this lonely spot, taking care not to trample
or destroy the flowers that blazed upon it in their many and variegated
hues, flowers planted and trained by the old man’s hand, to beautify the
grave of his darling.
The oppressiveness had made itself first felt that night, and with such
force that every one threw off the fur capas in which they had rolled
themselves to sleep. If they hoped for relief with the morning they were
disappointed, for it continued as bad as ever beneath a cloudless sky.
The eagerness and excitement to see the cave of gold had, however,
buoyed the party up, and they had embarked once more upon the raft full
of the keenest expectation.
“Do you see yonder bend ahead, Uncle Francis?” suddenly exclaimed Harry,
who had been looking ahead for some time.
“Certainly, my boy,” answered his uncle.
“Well, round that corner the river ends, and the cave will face us.”
This announcement aroused every one to the highest pitch of excitement.
Over and over again Willie, and Mary, and Freddy had dreamt about this
wonderful cave, and now actually they were nearing it, and in a few
minutes would look upon it in all reality.
The raft flew through the water, urged forward by the eager Indians, who
were quite as keen as the children to behold the cave wherein their
young chief and Cuastral had both so nearly met a tragic fate. Soon the
bend pointed out by Harry was reached, and the corner turned, and then
they looked and beheld the scene of that dangerous adventure.
And Sir Francis and Lady Vane and their children, as they, too, gazed
thereon, felt that Harry’s and Topsie’s description thereof had been in
nowise over-coloured or overdrawn, for there stretched the long
lake-like termination of the river they had been following, cased in by
the huge precipices, which culminated in the giant cave or mine of Or.
“Oh, how glorious! How splendid!” burst out Freddy enthusiastically.
“Just look, Mary and Willie; such a cave! Won’t we have fun exploring it
and carrying away the gold! Do you know, Harry and Topsie,” he added a
little mischievously, “I never quite believed the cave was so splendid
as you described it to be, but now I ask your pardon for my
incredulity.”
“Wait till you get inside, my man,” answered Harry loftily, as he rose
from his recumbent attitude in the prow of the raft, which was pointing
straight for the cave, “and you will see if I and Topsie are inventors
or not. Dear old Mine, I little thought to see you so soon again.”
As he spoke the craft glided alongside the mouth of the great gold mine
of Or, and in a moment the boy had sprung into the archway up to his
knees in water. He was quickly followed by his sister and cousins,
Aniwee, Piñone, Sir Francis, and Lady Vane, behind whom came Blancha
carrying the baby Cacique, who, by-the-bye, made a capital traveller,
being always in the best of tempers, and willing to be amused. In close
attendance was Graviel, who followed his little charge about like a
shadow, and then came Chorlo, Coquet, and all the other Indians, the
raft having been made safe to the same giant creeper as had held all the
previous ones.
The blue light shone at the far end, and splashing through the water
went the long procession in orderly line, and as it came nearer to the
light at the end, the stream grew shallower and shallower, until the
water scarcely covered their feet.
But, when they reached that portion of the passage which opened to the
right and left, Harry and Topsie, who were walking in the van of the
party, suddenly uttered exclamations of surprise and halted, for the
opening to the right was completely blocked up by huge detached rocks,
which reached high above them, and entirely barred the way in that
direction.
“Here’s a pretty go!” exclaimed the girl; “all chance of seeing that
part of the cave is gone. This must have fallen since you were here,
Piñone,” she continued, turning to the Indian Cacique.
“Even so,” he answered, in a voice of awe. “The Gualichu of evil has
placed a giant barrier there, and within, the body of the Trauco queen
is sleeping alone, and shut out from the presence of the man to save
whose life she died.”
“It must have been an avalanche, or perhaps an earthquake, which has
done this,” remarked Lady Vane, as she looked upwards, and noted the
place whence the huge block of rock had been detached. “Not fifty Trauco
queens would lift this, Piñone; and had it fallen when you were in
there, your bones would have been quietly mouldering ere this.”
“Even so,” replied the Indian again, and in the same awe-struck voice.
“Well, come on down this way,” put in Harry. “The greater part of the
gold is in this cave, and it was therein that dear old Uncle Harry died,
and where Miriam Vane and her child and James Outram were killed by the
Andes demons. I am glad this way is not choked up.”
“What if it should so become while we are in it?” exclaimed Lady Vane in
a startled voice. “Is it wise, Francis, for us to linger here, do you
think, with these evidences of demolition going on? I don’t want to
appear an alarmist, dear, but such a possibility is possible, and I
think we should be careful.”
“Quite right to be prudent, Ruby,” answered her husband, “but I don’t
think there is any danger. All these rocks look solid enough. Let us, at
least, go and look at the cave in which the big pool lies surrounded by
gold. I must see that. To have come all this way and not see it would be
absurd.”
So Lady Vane, who was quite as anxious as Sir Francis to look upon the
scene, about which she had heard so much, put aside her fears and
followed him.
The boys and girls had already preceded them, and when the rest entered
the cave, they saw them standing on the shores of the lake, with their
arms thrown round each other’s necks, gazing silently upon the wonderful
scene before them; for even as Harry and Topsie had related, all round
the lake stretched gold—gold, gold everywhere.
The sight of this vast store of wealth, lying silent, useless, and out
of the ken of man, was a most wonderful spectacle, enough to strike the
mind as something almost incredible. Yet there was the reality staring
the explorers in the face—gold in vast abundance, untouched and unused.
The Indians were quick to appreciate the situation, and soon the whole
party of them were on their knees, filling their capas and ponchos with
the precious metal. Even Sir Francis and Lady Vane seemed struck with
the gold fever, for they, too, began collecting nuggets, an occupation
in which the children soon joined them, Shag sitting on his haunches and
looking gravely on, and wondering if everybody had gone mad, and why his
beloved mistress was so busy picking up stones.
As he sat with wonder plainly depicted in his honest eyes, he suddenly
seemed to lose his balance, falling violently forward on to his nose,
where he lay sprawling and unable to rise. At the same time a curious
sight might have been witnessed, of Indian forms heaving up and down,
and waving to and fro, as they clutched at the ground and tried to hold
on to it. Our white friends were all precipitated earthwards, presenting
much the same appearance as the Indians, while the water in the passage
leading from the lofty cave in which they were all assembled, could be
heard lashing itself against the rocky walls that confined it.
Immediately cries of terror began to resound throughout the cave, the
Indians becoming distraught with fear; but their cries were soon drowned
in a more overwhelming sound, that of crashing and falling rocks.
“Children, here; come here, quick!” cried Sir Francis, in a loud
terrified voice; and with the promptitude of implicit obedience they
staggered towards him. Even as they did so, a terrible crash almost
deafened them, as a huge rock, detached from the opening above, came
thundering down into the middle of the lake, casting aloft and around a
perfect deluge of spray and water. Just along the passage another
fearful crash followed the fall of this rock, making the whole cave
tremble with the shock.
After this the heaving of the ground became still, whereupon Lady Vane
gave quick, sharp orders to retreat at once from the cave, and Piñone
and Aniwee joined her in giving a like order to the Indians. They were
on the point of obeying, when another upheaving of the ground took
place, precipitating every one face downwards once more, and adding to
the wild terror which had seized upon the Indians. Again the waters
lashed the walls in fury, once more the crashing of rocks resounded, and
then a distant sullen roar became audible, like the booming of cannon
far away. It approached nearer and nearer, there was a rushing, hissing
sound, the shriek of a whirlwind on high, as through the aperture above
the mountain torrent there came pouring down upon the terrified group, a
cloud of stones, wood, snow, and _débris_ of all sorts and kinds. Most
of it fell into the lake where the detached rock had already fallen, but
some of it struck the cowering Indians, and severely injured many of
them, a stone striking Graviel with fearful force, and half stunning
him.
“Let us get out of this accursed place,” cried Sir Francis vehemently.
“Any risk is better than remaining here to be crushed to death. Come,
children, come, Ruby, let us make a rush for the passage and gain the
raft. Piñone, Aniwee, entreat your people to make an effort to follow
us. If we remain here we shall be killed, or buried alive.”
As he spoke, he made for the passage leading from the cave, and Aniwee,
possessing herself of the little Guardia, who was crying piteously,
followed close behind him. But Lady Vane and the children, as they
brought up the rear, heard a deep groan escape Sir Francis as he came
suddenly to a full stop before a huge jagged rock, which barred all
forward progress, and prevented any exit that way.
“Good God!” burst from the baronet’s lips as he stared helplessly before
him, “the worst has happened. We are buried alive!”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXVII.
So Lady Vane’s misgivings had not been without cause. The worst that she
had surmised as possible had happened.
Buried alive! Was this the end of this terrible mine, to enter which
seemed for ever to bring death and misfortune? First, Miriam Vane, her
child, and James Outram, next, old Sir Harry Vane, then the Trauco
queen, and now a large band of human beings, had come under its
merciless sway.
The earthquake had passed away, leaving entombed considerably over
twenty, all more or less young, none over the prime of life. Ah! to die
thus was bitter indeed.
Mary and Willie behaved splendidly. There was no whining or crying on
their part; they took example by their father and mother, who, after the
first shock of horror had run through them, pulled themselves together,
and prepared to meet the fearful situation with courage and fortitude.
So, too, did Harry, Topsie, and Freddy, like the plucky young Britishers
that they were, and Shag of course knew as yet nothing about the
impending doom. But it took a long time to make some of the Indian
braves understand the situation. When they did, however, they howled and
shouted in their despair, and rushed frantically to and fro like beings
distraught, in spite of Aniwee and Piñone’s efforts to preserve order.
But they were not all cowardly. Blancha, though she wept, did so
silently. She had taken La Guardia Chica from Aniwee’s arms again, and
seating herself on the ground rocked it gently to and fro, while Chorlo
and Coquet stood silent and dumfounded, yet too brave to wail or lament.
Was there no outlet for escape? Sir Francis and Lady Vane scanned their
surroundings eagerly. Far above them they could see the blue sky, and
even the green of forest verdure, growing without. How they longed for
wings, to soar aloft to the opening, and escape!
“Aunt Ruby,” exclaimed Topsie suddenly, “if one could only reach yon
outlet above, one would be safe.”
“Mere mockery, Topsie, to mention it,” replied Lady Vane almost
reprovingly. “Who amongst us could scale that terrible face? One false
step, and we should be precipitated into the icy waters of this lake,
and dashed to pieces against yon fallen rock.”
“Yet we shall die of a worse death if we remain here,” persisted the
young girl, in whose face shone the light of a high resolve taken.
“Listen, Aunt Ruby, listen, Uncle Francis. Why should not one of us make
the attempt? If we reached the top we could descend the precipice to the
raft by one of those giant creepers. It was up and down them that our
old uncle told us the demons passed to and fro to the cave. Then, with
the help of some lassos made firm to yon trees above, and let down here,
the whole lot of us could escape. Let me try and make the attempt. You
know you always said I could scale rocks better than my brother and
cousins. What is the good of perfecting oneself in anything, if at a
moment like this, one does not try and turn it to good use? Let me try,
at any rate. I believe that if perfect silence were enjoined, and with
God’s great help, I might find a way to the top. Anyhow, I can but try.”
Brave Topsie. Yet in face of this courageous proposal, this high
resolve, so modestly and quietly put, there are many who still presume
to train the boy up to believe himself the girl’s superior in daring,
skill, strength, and physical activity. It is a false and unnatural
idea, one to which the beautiful, athletic girl gave the lie direct, as
she stood there prepared to face a violent death, in a great effort to
save the lives of her companions in misfortune.
Yet why was Topsie plucky and strong, the equal, nay, the superior, of
her brother? Because she had been given fair play. Equal opportunities
_had_ been meted out to her in all things possible, where not denied by
law. There stood the result, justifying the plea in favour of giving
perfect equality to the boy and girl in their bringing up, and their
mental and physical education.
Who shall gauge the thoughts of Sir Francis Vane as he saw before him
the noble result of his efforts to give Topsie the same fair play as
that which had been meted out to her brother? Yes, who? Large tears
sprung to his eyes, as he laid his hand on the shoulder of his undaunted
niece.
“My dearest child,” he said, and his voice trembled. “Who shall refuse
your brave offer? Not I. Say a prayer to God, and try your best, and may
the great and good God protect you.”
But Harry sprung forward and threw his arms around his sister’s neck. He
could not bear to see her go from him to risk her life, even in the
fearful situation in which they were placed.
“Let me go, Topsie,” he cried pleadingly. “You are worth a dozen of
myself. Let me have the first try.”
“No, dear,” she answered firmly. “Uncle Francis has given me leave, and
I mean to try. I think, Harry, I can do it. I am a good climber, you
know, and I am strong. Pray to God that I may succeed.”
She kissed her brother as she spoke, and unclasping the knife which hung
from her belt, opened the big blade, put the handle between her teeth,
motioned to Shag to remain beside Harry, and then not daring to trust
herself to look at those she loved so dearly, walked quickly along the
gold-shingled shore towards the frowning precipice facing her, and adown
whose sides the sullen cataract seemed to roar defiance on the desperate
attempt which she was about to make. The gallant girl prayed as she went
along, prayed more earnestly than she had ever done in her life before;
for did she not know that skill, and dexterity, a firm grip, an iron
nerve, all of which she possessed, were nothing without the great
sustaining power and protection of the God who made her?
Yes, Topsie prayed. But she prayed not only. She trusted with all her
might and main, trusted so implicitly in the Power that she prayed to,
that when she reached the base of the precipice and looked upwards,
ghastly and forbidding as the ascent appeared, it did not appal her.
The cataract shot down from the heights above in such a manner that it
formed a kind of arch between itself and the rocky side of the lofty
cave, and under it Topsie passed, and for a time became lost to her
companions’ view in the water curtain that intervened between her and
their anxious gaze.
She scanned the face of the precipice with the eye of a connoisseur. She
had not scaled the eyrie heights at home in vain. The experience of her
childhood’s scrambles over and up those steep and difficult crags, had
taught her many a valuable lesson in the art of climbing. They stood her
in good stead now, and enabled her to decide on the best line to take.
She found, to her delight, that thick creepers hung down from above, and
that between the rocks of the steep face, a vein of sandstone followed
an upward course. If the creepers were strong enough to support a
portion of her weight, she felt that she could cut notches in the
sandstone for a footing, whenever the harder rock became steep, or
denied her purchase thereon.
She ceased praying. She would pray no more. So firm was Topsie’s trust,
that she would have thought it a mockery against God to have done so.
She placed her foot on a low ledge of rock, caught hold of a pointed
crag above her, and drew herself slowly up to it. She had determined to
husband her strength to its utmost, that exhaustion might not intervene
to frustrate success. Then she seized another jutting point above this,
and got into a standing position in the first.
Here she paused to take breath and bearings, both hands clasped around
the second point, both feet planted firmly together on the first one.
Over her head hissed the falling waters of the cataract as they
performed their gigantic leap ere joining hands with the cold, dark lake
below, on their way to feed the silent river up which the explorers had
worked their way so hopefully, only to be entombed.
As she stood and rested herself, Topsie’s quick eye perceived across the
soft sandstone vein a stretch of rock slanting hollow-wards, which she
saw at once, if only it could be reached, would enable her to scale at
least thirty feet of the precipice without very great exertion, and
which would thus bring her to some thick interlacing creepers, strong
with the growth of ages, which would be of enormous assistance to her in
her desperate enterprise. But the sandstone vein was as smooth as
crystal, and there was but one way to cross it, namely, by cutting
notches for the hands and feet, a difficult and dangerous task indeed.
Yet it must be attempted, so Topsie did not flinch. She felt certain of
success, if it was God’s will. So letting herself down on to her knees,
she cut into the sandstone with her knife, balancing herself with her
other hand.
She managed the first notch right enough, and at once regained her
former position, this time cutting a notch on a level with her hands,
and another just beyond it. Then she replaced the knife between her
teeth, put both hands into the two upper notches, and let her feet into
the lower one.
She was now standing in such a position that the two upper notches were
on a level with her waist, and they being hollowed above and below she
was able to hook her right hand upwards and hold on thereby, leaving her
left one free to handle the knife, which was to cut the next notch above
her slanting to the left. Into this fresh notch, when finished, she
would insert her left hand, after replacing the knife in her teeth, and
draw her feet up into the one in which her right hand was at that moment
fixed.
Slowly but surely, step by step, notch by notch, the brave girl made her
way across the glassy surface, until at length her hand grasped the
primeval creepers with triumphant clutch. For the next thirty feet
progress was easy enough to this lithe, athletic child of Nature, as
hand over hand she drew herself up higher and higher towards the spot
where rescue lay.
Then another difficulty intervened in the shape of the sandstone vein
again, but this time there was no slant about it, as it ran straight up,
perpendicular above the girl’s head for some forty feet.
Well, there was nothing for it but notch-cutting again, and Topsie
buckled to her work. The spray of the cataract blew into her face and
refreshed her greatly, for the sweat of exertion had burst out upon her,
and stood in large beads across her brow.
It took her more than an hour to creep slowly upwards and encompass this
forbidding obstacle. Several times her brain reeled, and exhaustion
almost overcame her, but she battled bravely with her weakness, summoned
all her remaining strength and courage, and won.
Ragged rock and crevassed crags now faced her, but after her late
difficult experiences, these appeared easy sailing enough; for there was
footing room and creepers to grasp and support her. Very adroitly she
worked her way upwards, never once looking below, her climbing
experiences having taught her how fatal the practice is, even to the
best of mountaineers. No; with Topsie it was all Excelsior. Her aim was
to gain the summit.
And she gained it. Within two hours of the moment when she had placed
her foot on the first crag, full of confidence in God, Topsie Vane had
grasped the flag of victory, and passed from her prison to the outer
world.
She heard a glad, wild cheer burst forth from her darling Harry, and
then cheer after cheer from those entombed with him; she heard it all as
she dropped on her knees, and poured forth a silent prayer of
thanksgiving for her deliverance, to the God to whom she had prayed and
in whom she had trusted. Then she arose and looked about her. All around
her grew primeval forest, but the earthquake which had entombed her
party and the avalanche, parts of which had swept into the mine, as
already related, had up heaved and borne to the ground many a noble
tree, which had reared its head for centuries. The mountain stream which
fed the cataract from the giant Andes was in many parts almost blocked
up with the _débris_, but Topsie did not waste time looking about her.
She had still a difficult and dangerous as well as arduous climb to
perform, down and up the precipice which overlooked the entrance to the
cave, and the dark, silent river below. If aught befell her in this
climb, hers would be the fate to die close to and yet without the range
of all she loved so dearly; for were they not entombed within the cave,
and powerless to reach her?
She scrambled across jagged rocks and fallen trees, making her way over
the head of the cave with all speed possible, and never pausing until
she reached the deep gorge and looked down on the raft below.
Yes, there hung the thick creepers, heavy and interlaced with the growth
of years, a veritable beanstalk leading up and down from the river to
the heights above. Topsie grasped the head of one, and fearlessly let
herself down over the precipice. More than a hundred feet yawned beneath
her, but her nerve was of iron, her wrists like steel, and in less than
half an hour she had loosed her hold and sprung on to the raft.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXVIII.
On gaining the raft, Topsie at once quitted it for the watery entrance
to the cave, and groping her way along the dark passage, made for the
place wherein all those she loved so dearly were confined. The blue
light showed very dimly ahead, and on reaching it she found that large
masses of rock had fallen, blocking up the way on both sides. She pushed
on as far as possible, and then stopped and shouted to Harry. He heard
her, and his voice came back in quick reply.
“Safe so far, Harry, by God’s mercy!” she cried. “I am going to climb up
the face again. The creepers are strong, but I shall have to be very
wary, and it will take me some time. Keep up heart, darling, and pray
for me.”
“That I will!” she heard him answer, and then she turned and groped her
way back to the raft.
With great care she inspected the lassos, and selected four of the
strongest and most supple she could find. Then she tied them all
together, and as they were very heavy, she knotted several more of them
together, and attaching one end to the ones which she had selected, she
fastened the other end round her waist, and without further ado
recommenced her arduous climb.
Arduous indeed, but nothing when compared with the perilous ascent which
she had so lately attempted and accomplished.
The creepers hung thick and matted, and it required but a firm grip, a
clear head, and physical strength to negotiate them, all of which, as we
know, Topsie Vane possessed in the highest degree. But the heat was now
her greatest enemy, the sultriness which had reigned before the
earthquake having in no way abated, a fact which strongly impressed
itself upon the girl, and made her fear for a recurrence of the
upheaval, before she could come to the rescue of her imprisoned friends.
The idea haunted her, and filled her with the most acute anxiety.
It was therefore with heartfelt thankfulness, that after about an hour’s
hard work the gallant girl gained the summit, and proceeded to draw up
the face she had just scaled the four lassos which she had left tied
together on the raft. Slinging them over her shoulder, she hurried
across the rough way of fallen trees which she had lately traversed, and
in a short time reached the yawning, crater-like mouth of the great gold
mine of Or.
It was a happy, triumphant moment, that in which she looked down on the
anxious faces far below, and told the imprisoned party of her success.
Then she undid the coiled lassos, and knotting them firmly together,
made them fast to the stems of two giant trees, and let the other ends
down to her friends.
Meanwhile Sir Francis, and Piñone, and Aniwee had been marshalling the
Indians into order, and strict instructions were issued that they were
not to attempt to avail themselves of the lassos, until called upon to
take their turn. The first sent forward were Lady Vane and Mary, and as
both were active and athletic, and neither were novices in the climbing
art, the ascent was accomplished happily and safely. Then the baby
Cacique, amidst loud protestations on its part, was tied up securely in
a poncho, to which the end of the lasso was affixed, and this precious
burden was drawn up by those above, guided and guarded from sharp points
and jagged rocks by Graviel, who ascended by means of the other lasso.
After this, four of the strongest Indians were sent up in succession,
and then Willie and Freddy.
Thus those on the top were able to help their friends below, by drawing
them up the difficult and most precipitous places, and in less than an
hour all were safely hauled up, except Piñone, Aniwee, Sir Francis,
Harry, _and_ Shag.
“Now, my boy, we must send poor Shag aloft,” exclaimed the baronet, as
the lassos came tumbling down the sides of the precipice once more.
“Look here, Harry, you must go with him, and do your best to keep him
off the sharp rocks, in the same way as Graviel did by the baby Cacique.
Aniwee will follow, and finally Piñone and myself. Then, thanks be to
God and our brave, dear Topsie, we shall have been all delivered from
our terrible position.”
“All right, uncle,” answered Mr. Midshipman Harry briskly; “will you tie
old Shag, or shall I?”
“I will, Harry,” replied Sir Francis, and he then proceeded to make the
lasso safe under the shoulders and loins of the Labrador.
Shag stood very still. He knew perfectly well what was going to happen,
being far too wise not to understand the turn affairs had taken. No one
had watched Topsie’s ascent more closely and keenly than the big, shaggy
Newfoundland, whose heart beat so lovingly for his young mistress. With
cocked ears and gently wagging tail, therefore, he awaited his turn.
Poor Shag! He looked very helpless when he was being hauled up, and in
spite of all Harry could do, he was cruelly bumped against the rocks and
jagged points. But he uttered no sound of murmuring or complaint, and
submitted bravely to the unpleasant ordeal.
As the lassos were being let down again, there was a slight shock of
earthquake, which filled the Indians with fear, for they began shouting
and running about, and behaving in a disordered manner. At once this
information was shouted to those in the cave below, and Lady Vane
suggested that Aniwee or Piñone should be hauled up next. But when Sir
Francis invited the young Queen to take her turn she hung back.
“No!” she said, at once, and decidedly. “Aniwee will leave the cave the
last. Did not the white girl Cacique risk her life for us, and shall
Aniwee show fear because she is an Indian girl? Not so. Will Piñone and
the white Cacique go now? Aniwee will follow. Aniwee has spoken.”
The girl’s eyes flashed as she spoke, and there was an imperious ring in
her voice, which spoke clearly her determination to be the last to leave
their dangerous position. She was a girl—yes. But what of that? She was
as brave as any man, and would brook no semblance of inequality between
herself and the other sex.
Sir Francis at once saw her determination and respected it, and Piñone
knew Aniwee too well not to be aware, that when she made up her mind to
anything, nothing would move her from it. The two men, therefore,
grasped the lassos, and began to swing themselves aloft.
When halfway up, another shock shook the cave, and sent Aniwee on to her
knees, while a lump of rock, not twenty paces from Sir Francis, detached
itself, and thundered into the lake beneath. For a moment Piñone
hesitated, and glanced at the yawning gulf below, where the girl Queen
was standing alone amidst the falling rocks.
“Oh, Aniwee!” he groaned, “love of Piñone’s heart! How can I leave
thee?” and he began letting himself down again.
“Piñone!” shouted Sir Francis sternly, “are you mad? Do you not know
Aniwee well enough to be certain that what she has said, she has said?
Ah! if you would save her, make haste to reach the top, and then we can
drag her up.”
The Indian still hesitated, when Aniwee’s voice reached him in clear,
ringing notes. “Mount, Piñone, mount. Aniwee will be the last to leave
the cave. Has not Aniwee spoken?”
Then he knew that Sir Francis was right, and with desperate exertion
made haste to reach the top. He was at that time fully forty feet from
the summit, and could see the eager faces looking down upon him from
above. But the forty feet appeared to him like miles, and it seemed as
though he would never reach the end of his dreary ascent.
Far off there was a distant rumbling, a sound which none mistook; for
since they had entered the mountains it had been frequently heard, and
its causes witnessed by the party on each occasion.
“Hurry, Francis, hurry!” cried Lady Vane, as she seized the lasso to
which her husband clung, and assisted by some of the others, pulled him
clean up the remaining face, Chorlo, Coquet, and El Toro acting likewise
by Piñone. As they grasped the summit, willing hands seized them and
drew them into safety. But as they did so, the booming noise grew
louder. It was a great rushing sound.
“Follow me, for your lives!” shouted Topsie, as she darted back, and
hurried across the fallen trees and wreck created by the late avalanche.
And the others were quick to obey, save Piñone, Blancha, and Graviel.
“Aniwee,” groaned the former, as he peered into the crater mouth, at the
base of which the young Queen stood alone, “sweet prairie flower, Piñone
will not leave thee.”
But El Toro and Sir Francis had hurried back, and this latter, seizing
the Indian from behind, swung him over his shoulders, and in spite of
his struggles bore him from the spot, El Toro doing likewise by Blancha.
Then Graviel, turning, beheld the measure of his danger in the great
avalanche rushing towards him. He did not fly, however, but seized the
lassos and swung himself into the yawning mouth once more, letting
himself down hand over hand with wonderful rapidity. The brave lad
expected death. At least, thought he, “I will die by my Queen.”
The roar and turmoil increased above his head, a fierce rush dinned his
ears, he heard a splash below him, then another and another, as he hung
in mid-air against the smooth face of the rock which he was descending.
The crashing of trees resounded, and a mass of hard snow struck him on
the head. But it did not stun him immediately, though sparks flew in his
eyes, and his head reeled round like a spinning wheel. He had sufficient
sense left to double-notch the lasso around his wrist, and grasp it
tightly with the other. Then consciousness left him, and he remembered
no more.
When he came to, the hot air of a tropical day was blowing in his face.
But he hung no longer suspended over the dark lake, with the hissing
avalanche above him and destruction at hand.
He was lying on soft, mossy ground, with shady trees above his head, and
by him knelt Blancha pouring cold water upon his forehead. The scene had
assuredly changed. Back across his mind rushed the lately occurring
events, and he groaned with horror. “The Queen!” he cried, starting up
and staring at Blancha; “where is the Queen?”
“Safe, Graviel,” answered the Indian girl, smiling. “She is saved, and
moreover, she saved you at the risk of her own fair life. Did she not
brave the falling avalanche and mount the rocks to your rescue as you
hung suspended by the wrist? She reached you just in time, for the coil
was rapidly loosing itself, and in a few moments you would have fallen
below. There she supported you until the avalanche had passed, and we
were able to come to your assistance. Then she made the lasso fast under
your shoulders, and we drew you up, next her, the brave young Queen. Did
she not say she would be the last to leave the cave, and did she not
speak well and keep her word? Blancha has spoken.”
The girl’s eyes filled with tears as she spoke. If Graviel had died, the
light of life would have left her heart, and darkness would have crept
in to take its place. She loved Graviel, and knew it. Therefore her
heart beat with a profound gratitude to Aniwee for saving the handsome
youth from the jaws of death.
“But where are they?” inquired the young Indian. “How is it that you and
I are alone, Blancha?”
“The white Caciques, Piñone, and the Queen are busy drawing up the
rifles and fire powder from the raft. They wish to hasten from this
spot, and they left me to watch beside you, Graviel,” answered the girl.
“I am well, I am well,” he muttered hastily, with a troubled and
half-ashamed look; “saved by the Queen, you say, Blancha, and at the
risk of her life?”
“Did not Blancha say so?” she replied in a low voice, with just a shade
of envy therein. It would have made her happy indeed to have acted as
Aniwee had done.
Graviel hardly heeded her, however, for he had caught the distant sound
of voices lower down, and started at once to gain the spot whence they
came. But he had miscalculated his strength, for dizziness gathered
across his eyes as he did so, and he tottered forward. He would
assuredly have fallen with force to the ground, had not Blancha sprung
forward and supported him.
“Lean on Blancha,” she said gently, “and we will walk slowly to where
the Queen is. Graviel, you were hard hit, and the mists have not yet
passed from your brain. Lean on Blancha.”
She put her arm round his waist, and he laid his right hand heavily on
her shoulder, and in this wise they descended a steep slope, until they
came upon the whole party standing on the edge of the cliffs which
overlooked the river, just at the mouth of the great gold mine of Or.
Then Graviel started forward and threw himself at Aniwee’s feet.
“Didst not thou, great Queen, risk thy life for Graviel?” he cried
gratefully; “and shall Graviel ever forget it?”
“It was nothing,” answered Aniwee quietly, as she motioned him to rise.
“I dared to save you; simply what you dared, in order to die beside your
Queen. But the Great Gualichu was merciful, and we are both safe.”
At this moment the head and shoulders of Harry appeared on the ledge of
the cliff. He had been let down its face to the raft, in order to send
aloft the things packed thereon, and was now on the point of being
safely drawn up himself. The heat was stifling, and his face was very
red.
“I am hot, and no mistake!” he exclaimed, as he regained his feet.
As he spoke the earth began to tremble once more under the feet of every
one, who, instinctively rushing back from the edge of the precipice,
threw themselves upon the ground. Almost immediately afterwards a heavy
fall of rock resounded, followed by a tremendous crash, a rush, and a
dull thud. The ground rippled yet a while, and then grew still.
Sir Francis and Topsie were the first to rise, and they beheld a strange
sight indeed. A great landslip had taken place, and that which had but a
moment before been a wide-stretching cave full of gold, was now a
confused heap of rocks, and earth, and uprooted trees, lying pell-mell
on the top of each other, and completely filling up the crater mouth of
the wonderful mine. The raft had disappeared, and in its place a heap of
earth, some twenty feet high by forty long, rose from out the river,
entirely hiding the entrance. Wreck and ruin had indeed fallen above the
vast store of gold.
“Merciful Providence!” exclaimed Sir Francis, as he gazed on the scene
with deep awe. “Had it not been for Thy Almighty mercy, the great gold
mine of Or would have been our grave and sepulchre. My children,” he
continued, in a voice which trembled with feeling, “let us thank God
from the bottom of our hearts for this almost miraculous deliverance.”
So this was the end of the mine of wealth which had lured James Outram
to destruction, in which Miriam Vane and her child had met their death,
and in which, nearly seventy years later, Sir Harry Vane had died?
There, beneath those rocks, piled high above each other, slept the
Trauco queen, and as Harry and Topsie looked on the old familiar scene,
now so distorted, and thanked God for their strange deliverance, they
could not help shuddering as they thought how near to hers had been
their fate likewise.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXIX.
Undisturbed, the travellers had made their way through the primeval
forests which girt the Andes, and guided by Harry and Topsie, had at
length reached the lonely hut, far up the mountain side, in which for so
many years Sir Harry Vane had dwelt, and where Topsie, and Harry, and
Aniwee in former wanderings had come upon him, living the life of a
hermit, dead to that world to which he had died more than half a century
before his young relatives had found him.
The hut still stood, yet in and around it the thick semi-tropical
vegetation of those parts had grown up, almost obscuring it from view,
and busy with the work of decay within. But all else Harry and Topsie
had found unchanged. The broad green slope on the borders of which the
hut stood, and which opened from the jungle around, was the same, and on
it herds of wild cattle and horses were pasturing as of yore, while
vicuña and deer made free with the rich grass which abounded thereon.
And much as the party required meat, Sir Francis had forbidden these
trusting animals to be attacked. It would have been a desecration in his
eyes to have brought carnage and slaughter into a scene so peaceful,
where the old hermit had taught the beasts of Nature to confide in,
rather than fear man, and whose lesson still held sway amongst them, as
was evidenced by their perfect trustfulness in the new-comers.
Only a short stay had been made in these parts, as Piñone was fidgeting
to regain his own country, averring that unless they fell in with
Tehuelche Indians in the Patagonian pampas, for which they were heading,
the journey to the land of the Araucanians would be long and wearying.
They had, therefore, journeyed on through those scenes of glory,
familiar now to the eyes of Harry and Topsie, as also to those of Piñone
and Aniwee, but strange to those of all the other members of the party,
and had come across herds of the milk-white cattle, golden deer, and
vicuña. Meat was therefore plentiful, and as the piñones and araucarias
no longer grew in abundance, it was much needed. But our travellers only
killed when necessary, not for the sake of sport, but for food.
“Our last day in these dear old mountains!” exclaimed Topsie sadly, as
she opened her eyes with the rising sun one glorious morning, and about
a month after the departure of the party from the mine of Or.
They were encamped not far from the shores of a lovely lake, whose
waters gleamed with all the splendid tints of the reappearing sun, and
upon whose surface thousands, I might truthfully say, myriads of wild
duck and wild fowl of various species plumed and washed themselves in
happy content, previous to winging their flight to far-away feeding
grounds.
There was the grebe, with its beautiful plumage, but sad and mournful
cry, the Barbary duck, with its rich coat of colours and handsome
figure, large milk-white swans, with black heads, flamingoes, gorgeous
and splendid, troops of geese raising discordant clamour, and the holy
ibis of biblical renown. Every species and kind of duck seemed to
inhabit that lake, a veritable birds’ paradise.
“I wish I’d been there!” I hear some of my young readers exclaim,
“No doubt,” I answer; but hear the reason of one who has travelled, and
hunted, and shot as much as most men in different parts of the world,
why it was that Harry, and Topsie and their cousins let their guns lie
idle. There comes a time often to the most hardened sportsman, when to
slay is distasteful, to destroy, more pain than pleasure; when to look
upon the glories and joys of animal life, is worth all the heavy bags of
game which this world could purvey. For be it remembered—and this the
writer has often thought, as she surveyed her dead spoil—not all the
power of man can restore to his silent, motionless victim the life which
he so lightly took away. This was the reason, my young friends, why the
broad lagoon was left in peace, and the happy life that reigned upon it
allowed to remain undisturbed by Harry, Topsie, Freddy, Willie, and
Mary.
“Eh! what’s that?” inquired Freddy, raising himself sleepily on his
elbow; “did you speak, Topsie?”
“Yes, lazy, I did,” she replied, laughing. “I was bemoaning the fact
that this is our last day in these splendid mountains. To-day we shall
make the pampas.”
“And some friends and horses, I hope,” grumbled Harry, who was awake
too. “I tell you what, Topsie, my feet are as tender as can be, and I
shall not be sorry to be astride a dear old gee again; what say you
all?”
Every one agreed. The travelling had been pretty stiff, and had told
somewhat severely on the Indians, who in a manner are born on a horse.
Their potro boots had been quite worn through, and they had been obliged
to wrap their feet up in the hide of the animals shot for food, which
did not answer very well, and gave considerable trouble. As may be
imagined, therefore, they looked forward with no little anxiety to their
arrival in the pampas, where they hoped to fall in with some of Aniwee’s
tribe, the Patagonian or Tehuelche Indians.
The morning plunge over, every one reassembled for breakfast round the
fire which Graviel had kindled, and upon which he was cooking some
venison. The maté bowl went round, a fair supply of meat was apportioned
to each person for present needs, and a good supply was half cooked and
pegged out to dry in the sun, to be carried on for future use.
“The sun is well up; I think we should be starting, Piñone,” put in Sir
Francis suddenly, as he saw the maté bowl reach its last recipient. “As
there is no sign of Aniwee, Chorlo, and Coquet, I suppose they have not
fallen in with Indians as yet, and will therefore await us at
Gatchenhaik.”
“The Señor speaks well,” answered the Indian Cacique, as he rose and
gave the order to form into marching order—that is to say, Indian file.
It should be explained that Aniwee and the two Indian girls mentioned,
had preceded the party the previous day, and had proceeded towards the
pampas, in the hopes of coming across some Tehuelche hunting parties,
and securing horses upon which to return to Araucanian territory. They
were directing their steps for Lake Nahuel Hualpi, which occupied the
pampas at the entrance to the mountain region somewhat higher up. Thus
the party set out in Indian file, each person carrying his or her
portion of meat, as well as ammunition and rifle, our white friends
being, moreover, overburdened with a change of clothing each, so that
all were pretty well loaded. It was extremely hot, walking was trying,
and the baby Cacique had begun to vent her displeasure in a series of
protesting miniature yells, when Willie sung out—
“Holloa! look there, mother!”
Lady Vane and the others did look, and what they saw made them joyful
indeed, for there, coming over a distant hill, was a troop of horses
with Aniwee at their head, and a group of Indians bringing up the rear.
“Hip, hip, hoorah!” shouted Harry and Freddy together, and then the
latter added, in a delighted tone, “Bless you, Aniwee, you are a trump!”
The moment that the young Queen sighted the weary travellers she put her
horse into a canter, and came flying along to meet them. In a few
minutes she had reached them.
“Good news!” she cried exultingly, as she rode up. “Gilwinikush and a
thousand Tehuelches are on the borders of the Great Lagoon. I heard of
it from a hunting party of my own people, with whom I, Chorlo, and
Coquet fell in on the plain of Telcke. They were on their way to join
him, so I sent on Chorlo and Coquet to tell him of our coming, and
myself returned with these horses here. See, Warriors,” she continued,
pointing to the welcome troupiglia, “here are horses in plenty. The
Indians need walk no more.”
A short halt was made to enable every one to tidy and furbish themselves
up. Coming off such an expedition as that on which they had been
engaged, as may be readily supposed, no one looked as if he or she had
come out of a bandbox! The whites were all tremendously sunburnt, and
rocks, thorns, and dense jungles had played havoc with their clothes.
A desire, however, to cut as smart a figure as possible before the
Patagonians, whom they would so shortly meet, contributed to the zest
with which the Araucanians made their toilets. The sight of the horses,
and the knowledge that there were toldos and comforts ahead, had raised
the spirits of every one; and the hardships of the past weeks of toil
and severe work were quickly forgotten in the pleasant _rencontre_ of
the moment. At length every one had mounted, and the cavalcade which set
forth for the Nahuel Hualpi Lagoon was by no means an unimposing one.
A ride of three or more hours through rock-strewn gorges, across narrow
valley plains and occasional brushwood thickets, brought the whole party
at length on to the border line which marked the point where the hilly
region ceased, and the vast stretching pampas began. The sight of them
raised Harry’s spirits to the highest pitch, and he began whooping and
cheering like an Indian in full war-paint, much to the amusement of all
the other Indians.
His antics, however, came suddenly to an abrupt conclusion, as over the
horizon of a low hillocky ridge, dust appeared to rise up like smoke,
and the noise of many horses galloping resounded across the plain. In a
moment every eye was fixed and every ear open, intent on the sight and
sounds before, and rapidly nearing them.
A long line of mounted horsemen were advancing at topmost speed,
horsemen whose size looked gigantic against the sky line, but whose
figures were small when compared with the tall and magnificent Indian
that rode at their head. In a moment Aniwee had recognised him, and with
a cry of joy had put her horse into full swing, and sent him galloping
over the pampas to meet the stately giant. This was no other than the
great Cacique, Gilwinikush, her father, and paramount head of the
Tehuelche or Patagonian Indians.
As the chief caught sight of the slim, graceful figure of his only
child, he raised his hand, brought his horse abruptly on to its
haunches, becoming motionless thereon, the Tehuelches behind him doing
likewise. Then, as Aniwee galloped up, a hoarse shout of welcome greeted
the young Queen, who the next moment was clasped in her father’s arms.
More than a year had elapsed since they had met, and the meeting was a
joyful and happy one. The chief had received from Coquet and Chorlo a
hurried sketch of all that had happened during the past few weeks, and
was therefore not wholly in the dark as to the reason of this unexpected
meeting.
When the party rode up, Gilwinikush at once recognised Harry, Topsie,
and Sir Francis Vane, but had to be introduced to the others. He
received them with stately courtesy and with becoming Indian dignity,
though he could not quite dispel the smile of happiness which hovered
round his lips as his eyes sought the face of his child.
“Gilwinikush salutes the great chiefs and his old friends, and bids them
welcome,” he said in a voice the genuine ring whereof could not be
mistaken, and then the whole party proceeded on its way towards the big
lagoon, around which the toldos of his tribe were pitched. As they
neared it, they could see numerous mounted Indians awaiting their
approach, while crowds of women and children pressed forward to catch a
glimpse of their young chieftainess, the news of her approach having
spread like wild fire.
“Just like coming home, eh, Topsie?” said Harry in his happy, eager
voice, as brother and sister rode side by side, picking out faces that
they knew, and recognising old friends. “All’s well that ends well.
We’ve had an awfully jolly expedition, and one that I shall look back to
as long as I live, sha’n’t you?”
“Rather,” answered Topsie. “It has been a very happy time.”
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXX.
The fact may perhaps be forgiven that our five young friends
considerably overslept themselves, and did not awake next morning until
long after the Indians had arisen and were about. After many weeks on
the hard ground at night, the luxury of the Indian skin couches was a
novel change to every one, the consequence being little sleep to begin
with, followed by slumber, heavy, fatigued, and prolonged.
When, therefore, the two girls and three lads arose, they found life in
the Indian camp both awake and in full swing. Not only that, but unusual
activity appeared to reign therein.
“Something’s up,” said Harry knowingly, as the five stood together
watching the busy scene. “I wonder where Aniwee is. She would tell us?”
“Why, there she is, Harry,” put in Mary eagerly, and pointing towards
several mounted figures at the far end of the toldos riding their way.
These proved to be Piñone, Aniwee, Graviel, Chorlo, and Coquet; and our
young friends at once walked to meet them.
“What’s up, Aniwee?” inquired Topsie, as the Indians reined up on
reaching them and she noted a disturbed look in Aniwee’s face.
“A Chasqui has just arrived,” answered the Indian Queen, “with a message
from Cuastral. The Cristianos are raiding our country in force, and some
are entering it by way of Patagonia. Cuastral warns Gilwinikush of the
approach of a large body of Cristianos, and has begged him to advance at
once and attack them by Las Manzanas, while he himself encounters them
from the other side. Seven days ago the Chasqui left Cuastral’s camp,
and lo! he is only here to-day, though he has ridden hard.”
“This is serious news, Aniwee. And what is going to happen?” again
inquired Topsie.
“What else, but a forward march at once, and an attack on the
Cristianos,” answered the Indian girl quickly. “Is it not enough to make
our blood burn angrily, to feel that we are as yet so far away from our
hated foe?”
In effect, what Aniwee had foretold was soon verified, for toldos were
struck, and hasty preparations were made for an immediate departure.
Large troupiglias of horses were driven up, and in less than two hours
from the statement of the young Queen, the whole of the immense
cavalcade was on the march in Indian file. Gilwinikush calculated that
it would take him quite three days to reach the borders of Patagonian
and Araucanian land, but he had decided to camp finally north-westward
of Geylum, a spot situated some forty miles south of the frontier, where
there was water and game in abundance, and where, leaving the bulk of
the camp in charge of three hundred of his warriors, he could advance
with some seven hundred to co-operate with Cuastral against the common
enemy.
The young people enjoyed the march over the plains tremendously. The
Patagonian Cacique had placed plenty of horses at their disposal, and
permitted them to accompany the severally detached bands of hunters
whose business it was to provide food for the multitude.
Freddy, Willie, and Mary became quite versed in the art of throwing the
bolas and lasso, and many was the spin which they had after fleet
ostriches, and still fleeter guanacos, generally ending in the triumph
of the latter, and the intense fatigue of Shag.
The sun was setting low, when one evening the whole cavalcade rode into
the valley which girt the plain of Geylum. This valley extended for
several miles, abruptly terminating in a long narrow lake, fringed in
with shady trees and fallen rocks. Westward, rough hills rose up, jagged
and precipitous, forming a capital barrier against attack, the lake
serving the same purpose in front and on the right, while the narrow
rear alone required protection.
It was here that the Tehuelche Cacique had determined to pitch the
toldos, as being an unexceptionally safe position for them, and one
easily defended.
And it was from here that the following morning a column of seven
hundred warriors rode forth, headed by Gilwinikush, Piñone, and Aniwee,
and bound for Las Manzanas.
Accompanying this force were Sir Francis, and Lady Vane and their
children, as well as Harry and Topsie, besides whom were Graviel,
Blancha, Chorlo, Coquet, and the Araucanian following. The baby Cacique
was left in the charge of Keoken, Aniwee’s mother, to be cared for by
her until the war was over.
Scouts sent out had reported the existence of a white force encamped
between the border line and Las Manzanas, and Gilwinikush, after holding
a council of war, had determined to try and surprise them, for the
Cristianos, intent on taking their Araucanian foes by stratagem, knew
nothing of the approaching force of Tehuelche allies in their rear.
A forced march of thirty-five miles brought these latter within ten
miles or so of the Cristianos’ camp. Here they bivouacked in a low
valley with a running stream, wherein the abundance of grass ensured
good feeding for the horses; and it was decided that with the break of
day an advance should be made upon the white foe, and a determined
effort made to drive them from their position once and for all. After a
hurried meal, therefore, of dried meat, every one lay down to rest,
intent on obtaining as much repose as possible, in view of the hard work
before them.
“Quite understand, young people, that although we accompany the Indians,
we take no part in the fight to-morrow if there is one,” said Sir
Francis, as the children bade him good-night.
“For,” put in Lady Vane, “though our sympathies are entirely with the
Indians, we cannot engage in bloodshed on their account, nor would it be
of the slightest assistance to them. I fear a fight is inevitable,
however, and I only hope it will be a decisive one, and result in
driving the enemy pell-mell from these brave people’s land.”
It was very dusky and dark when every one arose the following morning,
but the horses were rapidly driven up, singled out, and saddled by their
respective owners, who all preserved the strictest silence, and went
through their work in a business-like manner, which showed them to be no
novices at such performances.
Our white friends found their horses all ready saddled for them,
prepared by the willing hands of the Araucanians at the command of
Aniwee.
The young Queen’s heart beat high with hope and expectation as she
thought of the coming struggle, and she prayed to the good Gualichu to
bring triumph to her people, and rout and disaster to the invaders of
her adopted country.
Truly she felt that a blow must be struck once and for all of a
character so decisive, as to put an end to the incessant guerilla
warfare which the Cristianos kept up, in the hope of stealing the red
man’s land; for peace could never be established between the two people
until one or the other obtained the upper hand.
Amidst a profound silence the Tehuelche warriors set forth, our white
friends bringing up the rear, and rode smartly across the undulating
plains which led from one valley into another. The Indians were divided
into three companies, respectively commanded by Gilwinikush, Piñone, and
Aniwee, the former leading two hundred and thirty-four, and the two
latter two hundred and thirty-three followers each. It was agreed to try
and encircle the Cristianos’ camp, and fall upon it with the three
companies simultaneously.
At length they sighted the enemy’s position, and every one halted. Here
Gilwinikush took his dispositions and bearings, and deputed to Aniwee
the task of circumventing the camp, and attacking it from the far end,
Piñone being ordered westward, and the chief himself electing to begin
his attack from the east. It was pointed out by Sir Francis that the
Indians would gain a great advantage if they could take as many of the
Cristianos prisoners as possible, and he strongly urged the chief to
abstain from unnecessary slaughter, impressing upon him the importance
of hostages, if a peace of any value was to be obtained; and
Gilwinikush, recognising this wise advice, promised a horse in return
for every white prisoner that was brought to him.
Aniwee shook hands with her white friends before setting off with her
company. Though disinclined to look forward to anything but triumph and
victory, yet nevertheless, as she observed, death might come, and then
she would not be able to say good-bye.
And as she rode away in the grey dusk of early morning at the head of
her warriors, the children felt lumps rising in their throats, as they
thought to themselves that perchance in life they might not meet again.
Piñone tacked westward at the same time as Aniwee set forth, and our
friends remained with Gilwinikush.
This latter moved his men slowly towards the east, and then threaded a
narrow defile which he averred led forth into the plain where the
Cristianos were encamped, and here taking his stand, he awaited the
first sign of attack, which was to come from Aniwee’s side.
Grey dawn had passed away, and the sun was fast shooting forward into
light. The clouds were glowing with crimson tints, and here and there a
yellow streak of light sped across the sky, heralding the advent of the
God of day. As the golden orb rose slowly into life, and glimmered in
the eyes of the watching and silent Indians, the first note of war came
echoing across the quiet plain.
It came from Aniwee’s company, who, having made a wide _détour_, had
crept round under cover of a thick wood almost exactly facing the spot
where Gilwinikush stood, and then, without losing a second of time, the
young girl leader, standing up in her stirrups, had given the order to
charge, as she dashed forward herself at the head of her men. They
streamed across the plain towards the white invaders’ camp, and as they
did so, dusky forms charged from the west and south-east as well. The
Cristianos, rushing from their tents, at the loud warning cry uttered by
their sentinels, beheld the angry and pitiless Indians, whom they had
done their best to make their foes, bearing in this manner down upon
them.
They rushed to their arms and to their horses. These latter had been
kept picketed, as luck would have it, otherwise there would have been no
time to collect them. Many of the white men mounted saddleless, so great
was their haste.
With a succession of fierce, wild cries the Tehuelche warriors came on.
Our white friends, watching from some heights above, shivered as they
beheld the first crash of meeting. Aniwee seemed transformed. She was
standing up in her stirrups cheering her followers on, and waving her
small, but strong and sharp axe around her head. This was the principal
weapon of her tribe, for, unlike the Araucanians, they did not carry
spears.
The charging Indians were met by a steady fusilade from the Cristianos,
and many saddles were emptied. Mary closed her eyes and shuddered, as
she pictured Aniwee one of the victims. But no, Freddy’s voice reassured
her on that point, and she looked again. A Cristiano had tackled the
young Queen, for the Indians under her command had swept on in spite of
the fusilade, and had come hand to hand in combat with their foes. The
Cristiano had clubbed his rifle, and was on the point of bringing the
butt-end on to her head, when by a movement of her knee she made the
horse she was riding swerve aside, and the rifle hit nothing but the
air. At the same time she turned her wrist sharply, giving a back stroke
at his shoulder, and the axe, well directed by a practised hand, cut
clean into the shoulder blade, completely disabling her assailant. The
rifle dropped from his grasp, and the next moment he was her prisoner.
Shouts, cries, yells, resounded over the plain. All three companies of
Indians were now at work, fiercely contending for victory with their
enemies. They fought for their country, for peace, for freedom, did
these children of the breezy plain, and therefore they fought bravely
and unflinchingly. The Cristianos resisted as doggedly, for it was for
life they were struggling; and amidst the confusion of this ghastly
fight could they not see the pictures of their homes across the border
line, which they had foolishly quitted in order to rob, annoy, pillage,
and maltreat the red man?
Amidst this scene of carnage loomed the huge figure of Gilwinikush.
Wherever he turned the Cristianos gave way before him. Piñone, too, was
fighting savagely, and the Araucanians of his following could be easily
distinguished from the Tehuelches in different parts of the field, by
the difference in their apparel. All these were following their
Cacique’s example, and helping to keep up the renown of their name.
A tall figure, riding a barebacked horse, suddenly confronted Aniwee,
and made a thrust at her with a short spear. She parried the thrust, and
pulling up her horse with a movement of anger, stood up in her stirrups,
and waved her axe round her head defiantly. But the weapon almost fell
from her grasp as, beneath his Cristiano’s apparel, she recognised
Inacayal, and became aware with whom she was dealing.
“Creeping serpent!” she cried, as she struck her spurs into her horse
and charged straight at him. “Dare you attack your Queen? Even so, she
will leave her mark upon you,” and as she spoke she made a blow at him
with her axe. The sharp weapon struck into his cheek, laying it clean
open. But Inacayal was not to be conquered so easily. Uttering a cry of
rage, he wheeled round, and brought the butt-end of his revolver down on
Aniwee’s skull as she flashed past him. The next moment she had thrown
up her hands, and her white friends, watching her from afar, saw her
fall back from her horse and roll to the ground. As she did so the
war-whoop of hundreds of voices broke in upon the already noisy tumult
of battle.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXXI.
At the sound of it, the face of every Indian lit up with hope and joy,
while despair rushed quickly to the hearts of the Cristianos. Full well
they knew that terrible war-whoop, the precursor of a charge from the
disciplined and valorous warriors of Cuastral. As these came streaming
across the plain with their lances set and ready for action, the white
men knew that the day was lost. Some essayed flight, but watchful
Tehuelches pursued them, and brought them back prisoners, and then it
was that Gilwinikush remembered Sir Francis Vane’s advice.
In a moment he resolved to act upon it, and rode forward at once to meet
the Indian warriors of Cuastral.
As they came forward, they could see his tall form sitting motionless on
his horse with his hand raised. This made them slacken their pace, until
at length they halted in a long line before him.
“Warriors,” he exclaimed, “the great white Caciques, the Indians’
friends, are here, and the head Cacique counsels you to surround the
Cristianos and make them prisoners. He is right; for shall we not have
more power over living men in our possession, than with cold clay?”
The advice was sound, but many of the new-comers were young and ardent,
and longed to gain their laurels in a fight. So they received
Gilwinikush’s suggestion with shouts of disapproval, which were,
however, quickly silenced as Piñone galloped up. A few words from the
Tehuelche chief sufficed to convey to him the situation. Then he, too,
faced his people.
“Warriors!” he cried, “has not Gilwinikush fought the hated enemy on our
ground, on our behalf, and shall we scout advice from our best friends?
Not so. Piñone bids ye charge and surround the Cristianos, and he will
give a horse in exchange for every prisoner.”
As he spoke the Araucanian warrior turned, and with Gilwinikush charged
straight upon the scene of battle. But as they reached it, the sharp
order was passed along the ranks of Araucanians to open and surround,
and like magic it was done. The effect, too, was magical; the Cristianos
saw it was hopeless to resist, and their leader bade them surrender, an
order they were not loth to obey. But one of the Cristianos apparently
did not heed this command. He was engaged in fierce combat with an
Araucanian youth, who parried his furious blows with a strange skill. It
seemed as though both had resolved that one or the other must die, so
obstinately and determinedly did both dispute the struggle for mastery.
“It is Graviel!” exclaimed Piñone, as he eyed the combatants. “The boy
fights well. Yet, have I not given the order to desist fighting? Has not
the chief spoken? Why does the warrior disobey?”
He rode towards the fighting men as he spoke, his eyes keenly roving the
battle field. Then for the first time he missed Aniwee.
Again his eyes scoured the plain. But ten minutes since, and he had seen
her well, and in good fighting trim, but now he could see her nowhere.
Then an anxious expression stole across his face, and a troubled look
settled in his roving eyes.
“Aniwee,” he murmured, “where art thou?”
Unconsciously he quickened his pace, and came up with the combatants
just as the seeming Cristiano, rushing at Graviel, had thrown his long
arms round the slim youth’s form, and borne him from his horse by
spurring his own forward. Quick as lightning, however, a knife flashed
out in the hand of the young Araucanian, and before his assailant could
disarm him, he had plunged it into that assailant’s breast.
With a yell of agony Graviel’s antagonist let go his hold. Not so the
former, however, for seizing the wounded man round the neck, he dragged
him from his horse, and the two rolled struggling to the ground.
In a moment Piñone was off his steed and bending over them. As he did
so, he started back as if an adder had stung him. The next instant,
however, he had swung his axe above his head, and brought it with fierce
force upon the skull of Graviel’s foe. This settled for good and aye the
life for which that foe was struggling. The victim relaxed his grasp of
the Araucanian, his teeth became clenched, and he fell back dead. In
that moment his features became disclosed, revealing those of Inacayal.
“So perish the traitor and serpent,” burst from Piñone’s lips, as he
bent over Graviel and raised him up.
For a moment the youth appeared dazed, but quickly recovering himself,
he looked anxiously around.
“Where is she?” he cried in a piteous voice. “Oh, Cacique! say she is
well.”
“She! who, Graviel?” asked Piñone, trembling.
“The Queen, Cacique. Do I not mean the Queen, whom yon creeping thief
struck down, and would have murdered as she lay helpless under his
horse’s feet, had the good Gualichu not guided my footsteps to the
rescue?”
As he spoke, the clatter of horse’s hoofs sounded near them, and looking
in the direction whence the sound came, the two Indians beheld Harry and
Topsie galloping to meet them. A few minutes later, and both pulled up
some fifty yards away, and dismounted beside a motionless figure, which
was lying stretched out in a narrow canon, and concealed from view. The
motionless figure was Aniwee.
Kneeling down beside the young Queen, Topsie raised her head, and looked
long and anxiously into her pretty dark face. Aniwee’s eyes were wide
open, her white teeth were clenched, and every muscle seemed rigid.
In a moment Piñone and Graviel were beside her, horror and despair in
their eyes.
“Graviel, get water, quick!” commanded Topsie authoritatively, and as
the youth rushed off, she sat down on the ground and took Aniwee’s head
in her lap.
“Piñone,” she said gently, “keep up thy heart; she is not dead, only
stunned. I saw yon villain strike her, but he never touched her
afterwards, for Graviel rushed in and engaged him. Water will bring her
round in a very short time, you will see.”
And when Graviel came back with a plentiful supply in his skin potro
top-boot, she took some in her mouth and blew it into Aniwee’s face,
repeating the operation several times. And an unfailing cure—as she knew
it to be—it proved on this occasion, for in a few minutes the Indian
girl moved, her teeth unclosed, and the light of intelligence came back
into her eyes. She at once recognised Piñone, and smiled.
“Fear not,” she said in a weak, faint voice, “Aniwee is well.”
“She said no more, for Piñone had her in his arms, and was pressing her
to his heart, while a smothered sob burst from Graviel.
“Now, Piñone, you must not squeeze the little breath she has got left in
her, entirely out of her body,” put in Topsie, laughing. “You must give
Aniwee to me to look after, while you go and see to your prisoners. You
will find the head white Caciques with Gilwinikush, and they will need
you. Trust Aniwee to me.”
“I am well, quite well,” exclaimed Aniwee, as Piñone set her down, but
there was a dazed look in her eyes, which showed she was not altogether
recovered.
Her horse was grazing near, and Topsie directed Piñone to lift her upon
it, and then she and Harry mounted, and placed themselves on either side
of her to be ready to support her in case of need.
Piñone, seeing he could be of no further use, and implicitly trusting in
Topsie’s power to completely cure his treasure, after signing to Graviel
to follow him, rode off quickly to rejoin Gilwinikush.
The white prisoners had all surrendered and been disarmed when he rode
up, and had likewise had their horses taken from them. When joined by
Piñone, Gilwinikush was busy forming them into a column, thirty deep,
around which the Araucanian warriors were massed to guard them.
As Las Manzanas was within a few miles of their present position, it was
hastily agreed to send on the prisoners to that place, and Gilwinikush,
while electing to accompany Piñone and the remaining Araucanians,
decided to send back the greater part of his Tehuelche followers to the
valley camp, in order to guard against an entry into Patagonia from that
side.
It was judged prudent not to send for the baby Cacique while hostilities
continued. She was safer in Keoken’s keeping than she could be amongst a
lot of warriors, and Aniwee’s heart was quite at rest about her.
Chasquis, in the persons of Chorlo and Coquet, had been sent on by
Piñone to the Araucanian camp, whence the rescue party had started in
search of La Guardia Chica so many weeks before, and they were charged
to fully report all that had happened during that time to Cuastral, as
well as the results of the battle, which had just taken place, the death
of Inacayal, and the valuable capture of prisoners. Piñone further
requested that Cuastral would at once join him at Las Manzanas, there to
discuss terms of peace with the Cristiano leader, Sir Francis having
offered to act as mediator between the rival people.
That night, therefore, our white friends found themselves seated around
a roaring camp fire, in front of the same tolderias which they had
occupied on the first night of their arrival in the land of the
Araucanians. Aniwee had been “put to bed,” so to say. That is, she had
been relegated to a couch in her tolderia, and ordered by doctor Topsie
to lie quite still, her head being bandaged up with cold water. Piñone
was in constant attendance, and Blancha never left her side, while
Graviel hovered about anxious and depressed.
They were discussing a fine steak of ostrich picane, several of these
fleet birds having been bolased that day, and consequently tasted for
the first time by Sir Francis, Lady Vane, and their children, though to
Harry and Topsie they were of course no strangers. Every one pronounced
the meat delicious, and supper was appreciated that night more than it
ever had been during their wanderings. A strange rest had settled upon
every one, and the quiet which reigned was doubly felt after the
excitement and turmoil of that eventful day. The prisoners were all
bivouacked in the neighbourhood of a thick copse, and were liberally
provided with meat at the earnest request of Sir Francis, who had begged
that they might be properly treated. But around them Araucanian warriors
kept stern watch, the sentinels being replaced every three hours.
“Heigh ho!” exclaimed Harry, as the time arrived for turning in. “We
have had a jolly time of it, and no mistake. I’ve enjoyed our trip
uncommonly. Won’t I spin the fellows a yarn when I rejoin my ship!”
“And draw the long bow, too,” laughed Mary, as she dived into her
tolderia, and evaded the pretended blow which her cousin levelled at her
with his clenched fist.
Thus night fell upon Las Manzanas and the safe return of our white
friends.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXXII.
CONCLUSION.
Three weeks had passed away since the events related in the last
chapter, a three weeks full of fun and adventure for our young friends.
Faithful to his promise, Sir Francis had acted the true part of mediator
between the Indians and the Argentines, and in company of Lady Vane and
a mixed escort of Cristianos and Araucanians, had visited the Argentine
Republic, and there concluded a most satisfactory peace for both sides,
the Government agreeing—on condition the prisoners were released—to
grant an annual subsidy to both the Tehuelches and Araucanians, of
horses, blankets, guns, and ammunition, and these latter undertook, in
consideration of such subsidy, to desist from raiding the frontier of
the white men, and to live at peace with them, and punish all
depredators thereon. While these satisfactory and happy terms were being
discussed and arranged, our five young friends, with Aniwee and Piñone,
were enjoying many a wild horse hunt and prairie gallop after ostriches
and guanacos, varied now and again by a jaguar or puma encounter, which
afforded plenty of excitement. And a strange thing had happened during
one of their forest expeditions, for the sound of a bell had struck upon
their ears, and proceeding in the direction whence it came, they had
fallen across the old bell mare and troupiglia which they had turned
loose by the banks of the Trauco river, during their expedition in
search of the baby Cacique. With true sagacity, the madrina had worked
her way homewards, and would doubtless have eventually made her way back
to the pastures amidst the araucaria groves, where she had been bred and
raised.
Several of the troupiglia were missing, and had doubtless fallen victims
to jaguars during their wanderings. They greeted the hunters with neighs
of recognition, and seemed truly glad to come across them again.
And now the great day had arrived for the signing of the peace and the
restoration of the Cristianos’ prisoners to liberty. Sir Francis and
Lady Vane and their escort were momentarily expected, and a gallant
array of over two thousand Araucanian and Tehuelchan warriors followed
in the wake of Cuastral, Gilwinikush, Piñone, Aniwee, and our five young
friends, as they rode forward to meet and welcome them. It was a
glorious day, the sun was shining on the sparkling mica rocks which
bound the rocky gorges through which they rode, turning them into a
living mass of silver light, and glorifying all around. In the distance
stretched the rugged plains of Patagonia, presenting a strange contrast
to the mountain and valley-bedecked country through which this great
array was riding.
“Mark forward yonder!” shouted Freddy suddenly, as a column of dust rose
up upon the horizon.
“There they are; I see them!” echoed his brother with a triumphant
cheer, and the next moment our five young friends, regardless of rough
ground and rocky descents, were galloping as hard as they could to meet
the approaching party.
As may be imagined, the meeting was a glad and happy one; for much as
they had enjoyed themselves, our young friends had missed Sir Francis
and Lady Vane sadly. As for Harry, his mirth was quite boisterous, and
he never seemed to cease talking. But his voice quickly became drowned
in the rattle of musketry with which Cuastral’s and Gilwinikush’s two
thousand warriors greeted the approach of their peace-bringing envoys.
Far and wide this salute of a half-tamed people re-echoed, giving to the
meeting a most imposing aspect; and hardly had these echoes died away,
when the thunder of thousands of horses’ hoofs resounded, as in splendid
array the two thousand red men came charging forward with Cuastral,
Piñone, Aniwee, and Gilwinikush at their head. A monster ceremony of
welcome was then gone through, and when the shouting, firing, and
galloping had come to an end, every one was very hot, and Harry declared
that he was utterly exhausted.
Having formed again into order, the big cavalcade, swollen by the
arrival of the new-comers, faced round and retraced its steps towards
Las Manzanas, where, when reached, a monster Parliament was held, when
the articles, and stipulations, and conditions of peace were read over,
and made clear to both sides, and assented to amidst loud acclamation by
the Indians. Then Sir Francis and Lady Vane wrote out the signatures of
Cuastral and Gilwinikush, to which these Caciques appended their marks,
and the happy peace was concluded amidst general rejoicing. Finally the
white prisoners filed, to the number of five hundred, before the chiefs,
who shook hands with each, pledging a mutual friendship with the
friendly grasp; and as each Cristiano received back in this manner his
freedom, his horse, fully saddled, was led forward and restored to him.
When all had mounted, they turned and faced Cuastral and Gilwinikush,
who addressed a few friendly words to them. As soon as he had ceased
speaking the Cristianos’ leader replied, and then, amidst a fusilade of
rifle salutes, the liberated whites rode away from Las Manzanas, where
they had been prisoners for more than a month.
“So begins the great peace,” exclaimed Sir Francis, as he turned from
watching the last man disappear. “Thank God! everything has terminated
so fortunately. I know you and I, Ruby, have spared no pains to make it
a success.”
“As it will be, dear, assuredly,” answered his wife, linking her arm in
his. “It would seem as if Providence had brought us here to help in its
establishment. Well, young people, we have had a very pleasant
expedition, have we not?”
“Rather,” answered all the children eagerly; and then Topsie added
gravely, “We shall never forget it. It will be a very bright spot
through life.”
[Illustration]
CONCLUSION.
So ends my tale, though there are one or two points my young readers may
yet like to know. Well, I can tell them this. About a week after the
great peace had been signed our white friends took leave of the Indians,
and retraced their steps towards the Rio Negro. The pain of parting was
softened by a promise, which both Aniwee and Piñone made to the
children, and that was, that they would join them at Patagones some nine
months later, and accompany them on a visit to the great free land of
Great Britain, where a woman Cacique reigns. It was indeed a pleasure to
look forward to. After they were gone the baby Cacique was sent for, and
conducted, amidst much pomp and rejoicing, back to the peaceful valley
whence she had been so rudely stolen. As for Guaitu and Kai Chileno,
they were liberated and magnanimously forgiven by Cuastral, who did so
at the earnest request of Sir Francis Vane. And a few months later a gay
Araucanian wedding was celebrated when Blancha became the wife of
Graviel, whom she had loved so faithfully and well.
And often after this Traucos would be seen hovering on the borders of
the great forests which girt the Araucanian plains. But Piñone would
permit no war to be made upon them, and had strictly ordered that no
attack should ever be made against them. No doubt he had in his mind the
memory of the brave, unselfish act of the large-eyed Trauco queen, who
had given her wild, free life so that his might be spared.
[Illustration]
Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
GLORIANA; or, the REVOLUTION of 1900.
By LADY FLORENCE DIXIE,
Author of
“Redeemed in Blood,” “The Young Castaways,” “Across Patagonia,”
_1 vol., with Portrait, Crown 8vo, 6s._
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
REDEEMED IN BLOOD.
By LADY FLORENCE DIXIE,
Author of
“Gloriana; or the Revolution of 1900,” “The Young Castaways,” “Across
Patagonia,” etc.
_In Three Vols., crown 8vo, £1 11s. 6d._
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* * * * *
LONDON: HENRY AND CO., 6, BOUVERIE STREET, E.C.
AND AT ALL LIBRARIES.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. P. 189, changed “the line is tied to my waist” to “the line is tied
to my wrist” to be consistent with rest the tale.
2. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in
spelling.
3. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Aniwee: or, the Warrior Queen. A tale of the Araucanian Indians and the mythical Trauco people" ***
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