And so resulted the cure of sea-sickness by brandy, of which the lad had taken such a dose as to shake him severely, although a strong young fellow, for several days after it; in fact, we both became afraid of him, and vowed never again to recommend the medicine, except in quantities less than a bottle at a time.
CHAPTER XV.
Adam W—— having on a former shooting expedition been at Tanay, had at the time made the acquaintance of some of the townspeople, who had shown him all the attentions in their power; so that soon after our arrival, having dressed and refreshed at the Casa Real, we sallied out together to call on several of his old acquaintances, hoping to obtain from some of them such information and assistance as would help us discovering the whereabouts of a good huntsman and guide, in order that we might avail ourselves of his local knowledge in selecting the best district of the neighbourhood for sport.
On entering the house of the Fiel of Tobacco, we were most hospitably received and warmly invited to take quarters there during our residence in Tanay; and as the offer was much too good to be refused, even had it been less warmly backed by the unequivocal demonstrations of welcome than those which they evinced, it was at once accepted, with not the less good-will because there was only the Casa Real to sleep in had we chosen to refuse it, which assuredly no one who had the fear of bugs, fleas, or musquitoes before his eyes would do, these animals being of the utmost size and activity in every one of the Casas Reales I have ever slept in.
After some conversation with our host, who was rather a fine-looking Spanish Mestizo, as to our plans, &c., he most good-naturedly set off to seek a huntsman whom he recommended as a guide, leaving us in the meantime to the society of his wife—a strapping native beauty, although somewhat swarthy, full of good nature and the gossip of the place. From her, Adam soon learned all about his former acquaintances, and among others of the Capitan Tomas, his buxom wife, and pretty daughter, who we were told was considered the beauty of the town.
After their names had been mentioned with that addition, he got rather impatient all of a sudden for a stroll about the town; so we started together, after paying a visit to our portmanteaus and the still insensible Fernando, at the town-house, where my friend armed himself with a bottle of eau de Cologne, a box of which I found that he carried about with him for distribution among such native beauties as he was ambitious of standing well with, for they were sure to like this perfume, which his experience of the country taught him was seldom procurable in such out-of-the-way places, and to a dead certainty always procured him favour in the eyes of the unsophisticated fair, whom he taught how to use it.
For this it was that he had hinted something about thieves and the state of Fernando, and proposed looking in to see if the portmanteaus were still safe at the Casa Real, so I resolved to be revenged for the double dealing of his proposal upon seeing the top of the Cologne bottle peeping out from his shooting-jacket pocket. I watched a chance, and snatched it away without being noticed, determined that the half-caste beauty whose praises he was so eloquent in during our promenade, should not have him to thank it for at all events.
We reached the house, and were well received by the Capitan, who pressed us to stop with him, and when he found we were engaged, invited us to pass next day with him, which, as the beauty was looking her very best, there was great risk of our doing, in preference to prosecuting our pig-shooting scheme, as had been originally intended. Poor Adam was evidently smitten by her attractions. After talking with these good people for some time, I observed that his attention was engrossed in watching Rita’s movements, when, as the Capitan, his wife, and myself were all standing at an open window, looking at the flowers in his garden, and talking away, and their daughter, occupied in some household duty, was leaving the sala, Adam, who had been watching like a lynx for such an opportunity, seized it on the moment, and managed to slip away from us, and get out of the room after her, in the hopes of being able to snatch a kiss or something of the sort, and to present the scented water, which he had not missed from his pocket, although as he slipped away in all the agitation of pursuit, I saw first one hand and then the other slipped into the pockets of the coat where it should have been; but he was so much engaged in getting out of the room quickly and silently, that he did not miss it. Reaching the open door just as she had gone out, when about two paces beyond it, he popped his head over her shoulder unobserved, and stole a kiss; I heard the smack, then a rustle, and then a titter, during which Adam was searching his pockets for the missing bottle, which of course he did not find there; and when he said something or other about the kiss, he foolishly, in his search for it, told her that he had lost so very desirable a present; upon which, as he afterwards told me, the beauty looked saucy, and very plainly did not believe a word about it, but fancied he had invented the story to excuse the kiss, and pretended to get a little angry with the liberty taken with her blooming cheek; so she walked off, and left him quite at a loss to account for its disappearance.
Before leaving, I took an opportunity of presenting the missing bottle at a time when the owner of it was not by, and fancied, from the blush which gave additional beauty to her cheek as I did so, that with the natural quickness of a woman and a beauty, she had read the stratagem played off on poor Adam; so she frankly offered me the same reward, by presenting her blooming lips to be kissed, even by so very recent an acquaintance.
On making arrangements for a shooting party, it is quite necessary to hire beaters to drive the game, which there would be little chance otherwise of sighting, without undergoing more walking than most people find pleasant under a tropical sun.