The Devil-Tree of El Dorado: A Novel Page 8

  CHAPTER IV.

  THE FIRST VIEW OF RORAIMA.

  When Leonard came to himself sufficiently to see and understand whatwas going on around him, for the moment he thought himself once more inhis days of childhood; for the first face he recognised was Carenna's,his Indian nurse, who was bending over him in much the same way andwith the same expression as of yore. But, when he looked round, hesaw that he was in an Indian hut; and slowly the memory of what hadoccurred came back to him.

  Carenna, when she saw that he was himself again, gave a joyous cry;then, conscious of her indiscretion, put her finger on her lipsto imply that he must remain quiet. He felt no inclination to dootherwise, and soon fell into a refreshing sleep, which lasted for sometime.

  When next he opened his eyes they rested on another pair, large andsteady, and that seemed to have a wondrous depth and meaning in them.Then he saw that they belonged to the stranger who had pulled thejaguar off, and was now sitting alongside the mattress on which he lay.

  "Keep thee quiet, my son," said he in a low, musical voice. "All goeswell, and in two or three days you will be as strong as ever again."

  There was something soothing in the mere glance of the eye, and in thevery tones of the man's voice; and Leonard, reassured by them, remainedpassive for a while, till Carenna again appeared with a drink she hadprepared for him.

  When, later, Jack Templemore came in, and Leonard was able to talk, hefound he had been ill for a week, and that he was then in the hut ofCarenna at the village of Daranato.

  "I've had an awfully anxious time of it," Jack said; "but Monella seemsskilled in doctoring, and Carenna has been most devoted in her nursingand attention and would brook no interference; so I've had to hangaround and pass the time as best I could."

  When once Leonard had 'turned the corner,' as Jack called it, herecovered rapidly, and was able, in a few days, as Monella hadpredicted, to get about again. Nor was he any the worse for his mishap;for the beast's teeth had just missed scrunching the bone.

  When he wished to offer his thanks to Monella, the latter put him offwith a quiet smile.

  "We think nothing of little incidents like that, my son, in a land suchas this. Your thanks are due to God who sent me to you at the moment;not to me. Being there, I could not well have done otherwise than Idid."

  It appeared that Monella had come out from the village a day or twobefore to look out for them, and had fallen in with Matava. The Indianhad led him towards the camp, near which they had met Jack, who waswandering about in search of Leonard. On learning that he was missing,Monella had proceeded to the camp and thence--by some method known onlyto himself--had tracked Leonard's footsteps--a thing that even Matavaconfessed himself unable to do--and thus had come upon him just in time.

  "When I saw how matters stood," said Jack, "my very heart seemedto stand still. Neither I nor Matava dared to risk a shot, for thebrute stood up nearly facing us and holding you in his mouth. Butthat wonder, Monella, quietly laid down his rifle and drew his knife,keeping the beast fixed with his eye all the time; then he walked up toit as coolly as though he were going to stroke a pet cat, put out hishand and caught it with such a grip on the throat that it nearly chokedand had to let go of you at once. And presto! Before it could get itsbreath, whizz went the knife into its heart! And he lifted it up andthrew it away from him, clear of you, as easily as one might a smalldog. Then he picked you up and carried you to the camp, as though youwere but a baby. The whole affair took only a few moments, and passedalmost like a dream. It's fortunate he happened to come out to meet us.How could he possibly know we were coming?"

  "I have always told you," said Leonard dreamily, "that there seemsto be a strange sympathy between my old Indian nurse and myself. Shetells me she 'felt' that I was in the neighbourhood, and sent word toMonella, who at once went to her, and then came on to try to interceptus. Only, you know, you never believed in those things. Yet here, yousee, Monella must have believed her, or he would not have had suchconfidence in our coming as to wait about for us as he did."

  "It's very strange," Jack admitted. "I confess I do not understand you'dreamers.' I am out of the running there altogether.

  "They say," he continued, "that from the top of yonder low mountainbefore us you can see Roraima pretty plainly. But I had no heart togo out to look for it while you were so ill, and, since you have beengetting better, I have preferred to stay and keep you company. But now,I suppose, it will not be long before we set eyes, at last, upon thewonderful mountain that is to be our 'El Dorado'!"

  "THERE BEFORE THEM ... THEY SAW THE MYSTERIOUS RORAIMA." [_Page 39._]

  When Elwood heard this, he became anxious to get a sight of the objectof their journey; so, two days after, they started before dawn, withMonella, to walk to the top of the low mountain Jack had pointed out.

  They reached the summit of the ridge just when the sun was rising,and there before them, like a veritable fairy-land in the sky, theysaw the mysterious Roraima, its pink-white and red cliffs illuminedby the morning sun, and floating in a great sea of white mist, abovewhich showed, here and there, the peaks of other lower mountains likethe islands they once were, but looking dark and heavy, in theirhalf-shadow, beside the glorious beauty of this queen of them all, thatreared herself far above everything around.

  It is impossible to give an adequate idea of the impressive grandeur ofthis mountain, which might be likened to a gigantic sphinx, serene andimpassive in its inaccessibility.

  Or it might be likened to a colossal fortress, built by Titans to guardthe entrance to an enchanted land beyond; for the cliffs at its summitappeared curiously turreted, while at the corners were great roundedmasses that might pass for towers and bastions.

  In places, with the light-coloured cliffs were to be seen darker rocks,black and dark green and brown, worked in, as it were, with strangefigures, as though inlaid by giant hands. And everywhere the sides wereperpendicular, smooth, and glassy-looking. Scarce a shrub or creeperfound a precarious hold there; but down from the height, at one spot,fell a great mass of water--like a broad band of silver sparkling andglistening in the sunlight--that came with one mad leap from the topand disappeared in a cloud of spray and mist two thousand feet below.Further along could be seen other narrower falls like silver threads.

  There was no crest or peak as with most mountains. The top was atable-land, beyond whose edge one could see nothing. This edge wasfringed with what looked like herbage, but, seen through a powerfulfield-glass, proved to be great forest trees.

  Then, as the sun rose higher and warmed the air, the mist clearedsomewhat around the lower part of the precipitous cliffs, so thatfar, far down could now be seen the foliage that crowned the greatprimaeval forest--the 'forest of demons'--that girdled the cliffs' base.Gradually the mist descended, and the full forest's height showed uplike a Titanic pedestal of green, itself floating in the haze thatstill remained below.

  By degrees the mist rolled down the mountain's side, for below thisextensive forest-girdle the actual base and lower slopes began slowlyto appear, with waterfalls, and cascades, and rushing torrents andgreat rivers dashing and foaming in their rocky beds. Then otherintervening ridges and patches of forest and open savanna graduallycame into view, with the full forms of the surrounding smallermountains, the whole making up a panorama that was marvellous in itsextent and in the variety of its shapes and tints.

  But scarcely had the sun revealed this wondrous sight to theirastonished eyes, when a cloud descended upon Roraima's height.

  Almost imperceptibly it grew darker, then darker still and yet moresombre, till the erst-while fairy fortress seemed to frown in gloomygrandeur. Its salmon-tinted sides, but now so airy-looking in theirlightness, turned almost black, and seemed to glower upon the brilliantlandscape. The forest also lost its verdant colouring and looked darkand forbidding enough to pass for an enchanted wood peopled by dragons,demons, and hobgoblins to guard the grim castle in its centre.

  Then the cloud descended lower still,
and castle and haunted forestpassed out of sight, as swiftly and completely as though all had been amagical illusion that had vanished at a touch of the magician's wand.

  Leonard rubbed his eyes and felt half inclined to think he had beendreaming. All this time not a word had been exchanged. Each had seemedwrapped up in the weird attraction of the scene; and the new-comers,even the practical Jack, had been astounded, almost overwhelmed, at thesight of the stupendous cliffs and tower-like rocks of the mysteriousmountain, and its changes from gorgeous colouring and ethereal beautyto black opacity and shapelessness.

  Presently Monella turned and led the way back to the camp, the othersfollowing, each absorbed in his own thoughts.

  Templemore was more impressed by what he had just witnessed than hewould have cared, perhaps, to own. Never before had he seen such amountain, though he had crossed the Andes, and had looked upon theloftiest and grandest on the American Continent. To him there wassomething about Roraima that was wanting in all other mountains;a suggestiveness of the unseen, of latent possibilities. He couldnow understand why the Indians regarded it with fear and awe. Itwas, indeed, impossible to look upon it without believing that somewonderful story was hidden in its inaccessible bosom; some mysterioussecret that it kept jealously concealed from the rest of the world.For, perhaps, the first time in his life, he was conscious of a feelingthat bordered on the superstitious. What if that which they hadwitnessed were meant to shadow forth a warning; to be an omen! Did itportend that, should they gain the summit of Roraima, they would findthere indeed a sort of earthly Paradise, but that it would turn--assuddenly and completely as the fairy-like first view had changed thatmorning--to the darksome solitude of a charnel house?

  But Leonard, for his part, when he came to talk upon the matter, wasonly more enthusiastic than before; and Monella smiled with indulgentapprobation when, with the ingenuous impulsiveness of youth, heenlarged upon his delight and expectations.

  When they returned to the Indian village preparations were begun for aforward move to the place Monella had made his head-quarters; not farfrom the commencement of the mysterious forest the Indians regardedwith such dread.

  During the march thither they had many more glimpses of Roraima;finally they emerged upon the last ridge that faced it, from which afull view of its towering sides and of the forest at their base couldbe obtained.

  Between them was a deep ravine, along which flowed a narrow riverdotted with great boulders. Having crossed this with some difficultyand ascended the other side, they reached an extensive undulatingplateau, an open savanna with here and there small clumps of trees.They were now almost under the shadow of the great cliffs, and beforethem, three or four miles away, was the beginning of the encirclingwood.

  Rounding the end of a thicket distant a mile or so from this wood, theycame suddenly upon a large and substantially built log hut, and this,Monella told them, was his temporary residence. Near it were severalsmaller huts roughly but ingeniously formed of boughs and wood poles,which the Indians who worked with him had constructed for themselves.

  As they entered the larger dwelling Monella thus addressed them:

  "This, my friends, is where we shall have to live until our work in'Roraima Forest' shall be completed. Make yourselves as much at homeas the circumstances will permit; we are likely to occupy it for sometime."

  And a fairly comfortable home it was; far more so indeed than the youngmen had ventured to expect. There was rough furniture, there were lampsfor light at night, a number of books, and many other things that tookthem altogether by surprise.

  "It must have taken you a long time," said Jack Templemore, "to get allthese things transported here, and this place built and its furnituremade."

  "It has taken me years!" was the reply.

  The Indians who accompanied them, numbering about twenty, were allof Matava's own tribe; altogether a different race from those whohad accompanied them nearly to Daranato and had been paid off andgone home. When Monella had left his abode, temporarily, at Carenna'srequest, to come to meet the two, all the Indians had gone with him,objecting to be left so near to the 'demons' wood' without him. Now,however, they quickly distributed themselves among the huts, one actingas cook and servant in the house, and Matava attending to all othermatters as general overlooker.

  So far little had been said between the young men and their strangehost as to the objects and details of their enterprise. Thecircumstances of their introduction had been so unusual that thediscussion had been tacitly postponed until Leonard should haverecovered sufficiently to take part in it. And even then, when Jack hadbroached the subject, Monella had remarked,

  "You had better wait till you have been to my cabin near Roraima, whenI can better explain the nature of the undertaking. Then, if you do notcare to join me in it, or we seem unlikely to get on well together, wewill part friends and you will merely have had an interesting bit oftravelling." So all farther explanation had been adjourned.

  "I call this more than a 'cabin,'" said Leonard, when they had had timeto make a sort of tour of inspection. "I think we ought to give it abetter name. Suppose we call it 'Monella Lodge.'" And 'Monella Lodge'it was henceforth called.