The three sufferers had no illness to fight against, and began to regain their normal strength very rapidly, while nature was hiding the destruction wrought upon the face of the land at a rapid rate. Tropical showers washed the mud left by the flood from leaf and twig, and the lower boughs, which had been stripped of leaves by the rushing waters, put forth new ones, so that in a very few days’ time not many traces of the flood were visible, save where banks had crumbled in and great gaps of broken earth stood out.
Fully equipped once more, Brazier, as he regained his strength, went on adding to his collection of choice plants, which had come back to him intact; and as they dropped on and on down the river, finding clearings at pretty frequent intervals, greater and greater grew the natural stores of botanical treasures, so that the collector was more than satisfied with Shaddy’s guiding.
“But what I want to know is how we are to get back,” Rob said over and over again. “We shall never be able to pull the boat up again.”
Shaddy chuckled.
“Might have another big storm and a flood, Mr Rob,” he said, “and get back as Mr Jovanni did.”
“But you don’t mean to go back that way?”
“Right, sir! I don’t. But you go on with your fishing and shooting, and let Mr Brazier do his vegetables up in his baskets. Leave the rest to me.”
The task was left to him, and they went on down the river day after day till one evening they rounded a bend, and, in obedience to their leader’s orders, the boat was rowed into a narrow stream which joined that which they had left, the junction being plainly marked by the distinct colour of the waters.
“Going up this, Naylor?” asked Brazier wonderingly.
“Yes, sir. It’s the place I’ve been making for, and I’m thinking you’ll find something quite fresh along here, for it leads up into higher ground on and on into the mountains, where the trees and flowers are quite different.”