"See dat? Massa Jim, dere an openin' ober dere. Dose scum race for um!" shouted Sam a moment later, stretching one black arm out in front, and pointing eagerly. "Me see de light shinin' on de water ob a stream, and de launch just about to enter. Steady, sah! Not do to dash right in at dis pace. P'raps smash de launch, run ashore, or pile her up on a mudbank. S'pose we take it easy."
"Steady! Stop her again!" commanded the Major, his eyes fixed on the retreating launch. "Sam is right. Those gentlemen have discovered a channel leading out of the lagoon, and have made for it at their fastest pace. That shows that they have been there before. Look at them; they have sent their boat in without attempting to slow down. Steady, Jim! Let her push ahead slowly; those rascals are a long way from making good their escape. I'll follow them even if it takes me miles into the interior."
Had the Major but known it, there was every prospect of this pursuit carrying him and his party many miles beyond the margin of the lagoon, for the band of ruffians who had so lately attracted his attention, and on the catching of two of which he was now bent, had not confined their thieving attentions to the various settlements along the coast. They had even exploited the peoples of the interior of the unsettled regions lying adjacent to the canal zone. There were wide areas of trackless forest, of jungle, and of swamp, which to this day are unexplored and unknown by the white man. That deadly malarial fever, more than attack by unfriendly natives, has kept the white man at a distance. Only along the immediate line of the coast has trading been done in some of the districts, and even then the results have not been always satisfactory.
"It's a queer place," said Phineas Barton, when describing the isthmus to our hero. "Here along the canal zone you have civilization. Uncle Sam has come in with his dollars and his men, and has worked with an energy which, one of these days, when the facts are known, will surprise the world. As I tell you, you've civilization right here. But jest step out of the canal zone, and what do you find? Savages, sir. Wild men, armed with spears and bows and poisoned arrows. Yes, sir, poisoned arrows that will kill a man inside thirty minutes, even if they only happen to have just broken the skin. And they tell me that 'way along in the jungle, where the fever's that bad that a white man don't dare to go, there are gangs of tall natives that won't allow a stranger to put so much as his nose into their territory."
It is all true enough, and is, indeed, one of the curious features of the Isthmus of Panama. There, where one of these days, when America has completed her gigantic task, a mighty canal will stretch from coast to coast, bearing the commerce of the nations to and fro between Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, there lie side by side the modern dwellings and the civilization which an enormous undertaking of this description must inevitably produce, and a condition of savagery unchanged since the Middle Ages. Even Spain, with her huge capacity for conquest, failed to penetrate into many of the wide areas of jungle adjacent to Panama and Colon. Doubtless her gallant sons made the attempt; but history records the fact that the fierce tribes within drove them back, murdering those upon whom they could lay their hands, and showing such courage and ferocity that further attempts were not embarked upon. Moreover, the malarial fever, which haunts these jungles in its most virulent form, was deterrent enough, without thought of the natives.
Still, there were some who had contrived to open up negotiations with the tribes. There are men who will risk anything for a handsome profit, and the gang of rascals we are dealing with had seen in these tribes an opportunity of enriching themselves. They tempted the natives with the offer of guns and powder, and already the bartering of those weapons had given them access to a part which would have brought inevitable destruction, had they entered on any other pretext. Cheap guns and powder were to be obtained, and in return the natives willingly parted with huge quantities of precious stones and gold. Sam was perfectly right when he suggested that the man aboard the steam launch had visited the lagoon and its surroundings before.
"I's sure of that," he cried, bending forward and peering into the gloom. "Dem scum know ebery foot of de way, for dey steam hard ahead for a place dat no one else can see."
"Know it or not, we're going on after them," growled the Major. "Where they can run we can follow. But steady with her, Jim. This chase is not going to be finished yet awhile, and we shall do better now that there is no longer a chance of catching them on the lagoon. Take it easy. After all, they can't go on for ever; some time or other the stream they are making for will fail them, and then they must take to the jungle or fall into our hands. Steady with her! Slow but sure must be our motto."
"Steady it is, sir!" cried Jim. "But say, I can see a line of water running out of the lagoon. Those fellows are steering straight ahead into it."
All eyes aboard followed the movements of the fleeing launch, and watched as she crossed in the gleam of the moonlight the last few yards of open lagoon. They saw her shoot across the dark line which till a moment before had seemed unbroken; she sped on up the stream to which Jim had called their attention, then once again she was lost to sight. The blackness swallowed her; there was not even a glowing funnel to show her whereabouts.