CHAPTER VI—IN SOUTH AMERICA
Although the two boys were woefully disappointed at not being able to see anything of Trinidad, yet the fact that they were going to Demerara and would actually have a chance to see something of South America more than made up for it.
Rawlins assured them that in British Guiana they would find a far more interesting spot than Trinidad and the boys plied him with questions.
“Isn’t that the place the blow gun and those poisoned arrows came from?” asked Tom.
“Sure thing,” replied the diver. “I don’t know much about the country--except what I’ve read and been told--but I’ve been at Georgetown, or Demerara as it’s called, and you’ll find enough to keep you busy right there.”
“Gosh, then there must be wild Indians there--if they use blow guns,” said Frank. “Will we be able to see any of them?”
“Country’s full of them,” declared Rawlins. “But they’re all peaceable. If we go trailing that plane into the bush as I want Mr. Pauling to do, you’ll see Indians all right. If we don’t, you may see a few in town. I’ve always wanted to get into the interior myself. It’s a wonderful place--most of it unexplored--and there’s gold and diamonds and wild animals and the highest waterfall in the world.”
“Now don’t get these boys all worked up over it, Rawlins,” laughed Mr. Pauling. “If we don’t look out, they’ll mutiny and refuse to go home until they’ve had their fill of sightseeing. I admit I’d like nothing better than to stretch my legs ashore for a time and see something of the country, but this is no pleasure jaunt, you know.”
“But if those men are there, we could go after them and then it wouldn’t be a pleasure trip,” argued Tom.
“You can be sure it would not,” replied his father. “It’s bad enough trailing those scoundrels all over the Caribbean, let alone trying to run them to earth in a tropical jungle. No, I think our chase ends at Georgetown.”