THE VOICES IN THE WOODS
After the boys had gone some little distance from the water cave they pulled at a more easy stroke and began to talk again, their thrilling experience with the devil fish having made them silent for a time.
They did not allude to it again, but talked of other matters, Percival saying as they neared a green, shady wood where the trees grew thick and cast a deep shade on the white sands and showed a more than twilight darkness in their farther recesses, everything being quiet and peaceful within those heavy shadows:
"That's a place where everything seems to be asleep even at midday, Jack. It looks like the cave of the seven sleepers that we used to read about in mythology."
"It seems quiet enough for a fact," said Jack with a smile, "but it is hot outside and the birds are probably all taking a rest. Probably just before dawn or at sunset you would hear them making noise enough."
"It is a thick wood all right, just the place to get lost in. If the African jungle is any worse than this I don't care to enter it."
"The trouble is you can't see far ahead and then there are briars and brambles and a lot of spiky plants, prickly pears and Spanish bayonets and cactus to run against and get scratched and cut with. Our own woods are good enough for me, or bad enough, I might say."
"I wonder if we could find anything if we did go in there?" said Percival musingly as they rowed along shore, fascinated by the bright glare of the sands, the dense green of the woods and the dear blue of the skies. "We might have a try at it, Jack."
"Yes, I suppose we might if we did not go too——" And then Jack suddenly paused and a look of alarm came across his face.
A harsh voice from the wood suddenly interrupted him and he glanced here and there to see whence it came.
The words he heard were in Spanish, as far as he could judge, but he could see no one.
Other voices quickly joined the first and the boys rowed out somewhat from shore and looked closely at the woods, expecting to see some one.
"There are people on the island after all, Jack."
"Yes, Spaniards, I think. Sailors, I guess. At any rate they are not using the choicest language from what little I know of the language; Jack. I do not see any one. Do you?"
There were loud and angry voices in the woods, but the boys could see no one and went on slowly, farther out from shore so as to be out of danger in case any one appeared.
"A lot of drunken sailors would not be good company," declared Jack. "I would rather be alone."
"It can't be any one from the yacht, can it?"
"No, I don't think so. We have no Spaniards and Captain Storms brings his men up better than that. Besides, if it were some of our men we would see a boat, and there is nothing."
They still heard the voices at intervals as they rowed on and had no desire to enter the woods as long as the men were there.
"That's a nuisance," said Percival with a half-growl as they rowed on. "I would have liked to go ashore there, but of course if there are a lot of swearing Spaniards hanging about it wouldn't do."
"I'd like to know what brought them here," remarked Jack. "We got in by the sheerest good luck and it does not seem possible that another vessel could have done the same. Those things don't happen twice."
"Well, they are here, at all events, and it stops our going ashore. I'd like to know if they saw us in the boat?"
"I don't suppose so. They did not show themselves and they would not have made so much noise if they had——"
Just then the voices were heard again and the boys stopped rowing.
"There they are again!" muttered Percival. "We may have trouble, Jack."
The voices were very loud and the language used was not of the choicest, although, being in Spanish, it was not as offensive as it would have been in English, the boys not understanding much of what was said.
"Are they quarreling, do you suppose?" asked Percival.
"No, I don't think so," and Jack suddenly laughed.
"What are you laughing at?" asked Percival, somewhat impatiently.
"Listen a minute, Dick," said Jack.
The voices had ceased, but presently they were heard again, closer than before, and then a big, gorgeously feathered parrot flew out of a clump of trees not ten feet from shore.
"There are your quarrelsome Spaniards, Dick," laughed Jack, as another parrot joined the first.
"Well, I declare!" laughed Dick. "Are you sure, Jack?"
"Yes. The first time I heard them I was deceived, but just now I fancied there was something queer about those voices and I decided that there were parrots in the woods."
"Yes, but Jack, Spanish is not the natural language of parrots and they must have heard it from men. That proves that there are men on the island."
"Or that there have been, at any rate, but we don't know that there are any here at present."
"Well, as long as we know that there is nothing more dangerous than a lot of parrots, suppose we go ashore and look about a bit."
They found a good landing place where there was a shelving beach extending for some distance in either direction, and a clump of trees close to the water, where they tied the warp of the boat to keep it from floating away.
They saw more of the parrots, but not all of them imitated the human talk, chattering and making harsh sounds after their own fashion and making the glades bright with their gorgeous plumage.
Both boys laughed at the recollection of their first fright when they heard the birds and thought that there were men on the island, and then, taking their bearings, set out to explore the island for a short distance.
As Jack had a good idea of direction, they were not likely to get lost, although in the jungle they were often in a twilight shade and could not see the sun, which might have told them which way they were going.
"It gave me something of a start when I thought there were other people on the island besides ourselves," remarked Percival as they went on through a semi-darkness, the vegetation being thick above and around them so that they could see nothing of the sky. "It's pretty dark here."
"Yes," agreed Jack, turning on his pocket flash. "Hello!"
"What's the matter?" asked Percival, Jack's tone being one of alarm.
A shot rang out, and then Jack jumped back, exclaiming:
"I guess I've settled him, Dick!"
"What have you settled, Jack?"
"That fellow there," and Jack turned the light upon something at his feet and then pushed it aside.
"A snake!" exclaimed Percival. "You blew his head off. Is he very dangerous, Jack?"
"Well, not now," said the other with a dry laugh.
"No, I should say not. Would he have been?"
"He belongs to the family of dangerous snakes, one of the most dangerous, in fact. He is either a fer de lance or a first cousin to it, and either is a sort of creature to keep away from. The bite is nearly always fatal, as the virus acts so rapidly upon the system. It was lucky I turned on the light when I did. These creatures inhabit the dark places and are always ready for an unwary traveler."
"H'm! I think we had better keep in the light, Jack. We go into a dark water cave and run across a devil fish. Then we go into the dark woods and meet with this poison gentleman. Let's go back to the light!"
"I think we had better," returned Jack. "We are strangers here and the residents seem to resent our coming. I am sure I'll be glad enough to leave the place for good."
It did not seem to be such an easy matter, however, for difficulties beset them on every side as soon as they started to leave the jungle, as though there were some malign influence in those gloomy shades which was endeavoring to hold them captive.
There were morasses which they had to avoid, there were bramble thickets which barred their way, and Percival questioned whether Jack was going in the right direction and asked him to try another.
"We are going toward the shore, Dick," said Jack, "and if we keep on you will see that I am right."
"I don't doubt that we were going that way in the beginning, Jack, but we were thrown out of our path by the brambles and again by the swamp, not to mention the snake, and I don't believe we are going that way now. Don't the trees give you any idea?"
"Yes, and I am sure we are going toward the water. If we had a bit of daylight I could convince you, but it is as dark as a pocket here. I never saw trees grow so thick."
Jack had his way, for Percival had confidence in him and at length the boy paused and said:
"Listen, Dick! There are the parrots again. They won't talk if it is dark and all we have to do is to follow the sound and we will shortly come out into the light."
"I guess you're right," laughed the other. "I know we always used to cover our bird with a dark cloth when it got to chattering too much, and it stopped in an instant. But I don't hear them."
"Listen!" said Jack, pressing forward by the light of his pocket torch.
"I hear them now," said Percival. "They are using as bad language as ever. Those are educated parrots, although their education has not been of the best."
In a short time they heard the parrots much plainer than before and then it grew lighter and still lighter till at length they were able to see the sky overhead through the branches and finally the sun itself, by which time they were right among the parrots, who were making a tremendous chattering.
"Well, we are obliged to you at any rate, even if you are a noisy lot," laughed Percival. "You frightened us first and then you showed us the way to the light. Still, are we in the right direction, Jack?"
"Certainly," and pushing on, Jack led the way into more open ground and in a short time they came in sight of the inner bay where the vessel lay at anchor.
"We are not so far out of our way, Dick," said Jack. "The boat lies just on the other side of that clump of trees and we can reach it in a few minutes."
He proved to be correct and, getting in, the boys rowed back to the yacht, where they amused and interested a party of their companions by telling of their adventures.
"Well, it is certainly not safe to go far away from the vessel," declared Billy Manners, "and I think if I do I will be sure to take Jack along as a guide."
"Not very complimentary to me," said Percival dryly.
"Oh, you want your own way too much."
"H'm! if I had had it we would have been lost yet, so I guess you are out there, William."
"Well, that only proves what I said in the first place," said Billy with a chuckle.