About twenty yards below, a wooded rock, some ten feet high, hung over the stream.The river was not there more than fifteen yards broad; deep near the rock, shallow on the farther side; and Amyas's canoe led the way, within ten feet of the stone.
As he passed, a dark figure leapt from the bushes on the edge, and plunged heavily into the water close to the boat.All started.Ajaguar? No; he would not have missed so short a spring.What, then? A human being?
A head rose panting to the surface, and with a few strong strokes the swimmer had clutched the gunwale.It was Ayacanora!
"Go back!" shouted Amyas."Go back, girl!"She uttered the same wild cry with which she had fled into the forest.
"I will die, then!" and she threw up her arms.Another moment, and she had sunk.
To see her perish before his eyes! who could bear that? Her hands alone were above the surface.Amyas caught convulsively at her in the darkness, and seized her wrist.
A yell rose from the negroes: a roar from the crew as from a cage of lions.There was a rush and a swirl along the surface of the stream; and "Caiman! caiman!" shouted twenty voices.
Now, or never, for the strong arm! "To larboard, men, or over we go!" cried Amyas, and with one huge heave he lifted the slender body upon the gunwale.Her lower limbs were still in the water, when, within arm's length, rose above the stream a huge muzzle.
The lower jaw lay flat, the upper reached as high as Amyas's head.
He could see the long fangs gleam white in the moonshine; he could see for one moment full down the monstrous depths of that great gape, which would have crushed a buffalo.Three inches, and no more, from that soft side, the snout surged up--There was the gleam of an axe from above, a sharp ringing blow, and the jaws came together with a clash which rang from bank to bank.
He had missed her! Swerving beneath the blow, his snout had passed beneath her body, and smashed up against the side of the canoe, as the striker, overbalanced, fell headlong overboard upon the monster's back.
"Who is it?"
"Yeo!" shouted a dozen.
Man and beast went down together, and where they sank, the moonlight shone on a great swirling eddy, while all held their breaths, and Ayacanora cowered down into the bottom of the canoe, her proud spirit utterly broken, for the first time, by the terror of that great need, and by a bitter loss.For in the struggle, the holy trumpet, companion of all her wanderings, had fallen from her bosom; and her fond hope of bringing magic prosperity to her English friends had sunk with it to the bottom of the stream.
None heeded her; not even Amyas, round whose knees she clung, fawning like a spaniel dog: for where was Yeo?
Another swirl; a shout from the canoe abreast of them, and Yeo rose, having dived clean under his own boat, and risen between the two.
"Safe as yet, lads! Heave me a line, or he'll have me after all."But ere the brute reappeared, the old man was safe on board.
"The Lord has stood by me," panted he, as he shot the water from his ears."We went down together: I knew the Indian trick, and being uppermost, had my thumbs in his eyes before he could turn:
but he carried me down to the very mud.My breath was nigh gone, so I left go, and struck up: but my toes tingled as I rose again, I'll warrant.There the beggar is, looking for me, I declare!"And, true enough, there was the huge brute swimming slowly round and round, in search of his lost victim.It was too dark to put an arrow into his eye; so they paddled on, while Ayacanora crouched silently at Amyas's feet.
"Yeo!" asked he, in a low voice, "what shall we do with her?""Why ask me, sir?" said the old man, as he had a very good right to ask.
"Because, when one don't know oneself, one had best inquire of one's elders.Besides, you saved her life at the risk of your own, and have a right to a voice in the matter, if any one has, old friend.""Then, my dear young captain, if the Lord puts a precious soul under your care, don't you refuse to bear the burden He lays on you."Amyas was silent awhile; while Ayacanora, who was evidently utterly exhausted by the night's adventure, and probably by long wanderings, watchings, and weepings which had gone before it, sank with her head against his knee, fell fast asleep, and breathed as gently as a child.
At last he rose in the canoe, and called Cary alongside.
"Listen to me, gentlemen, and sailors all.You know that we have a maiden on board here, by no choice of our own.Whether she will be a blessing to us, God alone can tell: but she may turn to the greatest curse which has befallen us ever since we came out over Bar three years ago.Promise me one thing, or I put her ashore the next beach, and that is, that you will treat her as if she were your own sister; and make an agreement here and now, that if the maid comes to harm among us, the man that is guilty shall hang for it by the neck till he's dead, even though he be I, Captain Leigh, who speak to you.I'll hang you, as I am a Christian; and I give you free leave to hang me.""A very fair bargain," quoth Cary, "and I for one will see it kept to.Lads, we'll twine a double strong halter for the captain as we go down along.""I am not jesting, Will."
"I know it, good old lad," said Cary, stretching out his own hand to him across the water through the darkness, and giving him a hearty shake."I know it; and listen, men! So help me God! but I'll be the first to back the Captain in being as good as his word, as I trust he never will need to be.""Amen!" said Brimblecombe."Amen!" said Yeo; and many an honest voice joined in that honest compact, and kept it too, like men.