Jungle and Stream: or, The Adventures of Two Boys in Siam

"'The wickets must be pitched,'" read Phra.

"What for? To keep off the wet, I suppose. No! It means pitched into the ground, to make them stand up."

"But I say, what a lot there is to learn here, Hal. See what names they call the players by. Here's wicket-keeper."

"That's the one who attends to the gate, I suppose."

"Short slip."

"What's he got to do?"

"I don't know. – Point."

"Oh, he's the man who keeps the stumps sharp."

"No; he must be a good catcher," cried Phra, and he went on, "'Mid wicket – cover point – leg – long stop – long slip – long field off – long field on – changes of position – fielding.'"

"Bother! Never mind about that," said Harry. "Look here; let's read that bit, 'How to defend your wicket!' That ought to be interesting. 'The bifold task of the batsman.'"

Bang went the book, as Harry shut it up.

"What did you do that for?" cried Phra, staring.

"Because it makes me feel so hot and stupid. I want to learn how to play, and that's all puzzles and problems, and what do I care when I go to play a game about parallels and bifolds? It's too hot here to learn cricket from books. I say, what shall we do?"

"Let's go to sleep," said Phra.

"Bah! It's too lazy."

"I don't think so," said Phra. "Every one goes to sleep here in the middle of the day."

"No, they don't. I never do."

"Oh! I've seen you more than once when it has been very hot."

"Well, it was an accident, then. It seems so stupid to go to sleep when it's light. Here, come along out again, and let's try and find old Sree."

"Who's to find him? Why, he may be miles away in the jungle."

"But I want him to arrange about going up a long way in a boat. Let's go up that little river again, and see how far we can get. Look here, I know what we'll do. We'll start as soon as it's light, and take plenty to eat with us, and have the next size larger boat out, with four men to paddle and four to rest, and then we can go right on."

"You'd have Sree?"

"Of course. He knows the way everywhere. He'd take us right up the little rivers that branch off – I mean, where no one goes. There's no knowing what we may find up there."

"No. Sree says there are plenty of wonders; I've often longed to go."

"Then we'll go now. We ought to have done so before. I should like to go for a week," said Harry.

"I don't think our people would like us to go for so long."

"Oh, I don't know. Let's try. I tell you what; let's have a bigger boat, so that we can sleep on board, and a man to cook for us. Then we can live comfortably for a few days. Why, we should get a wonderful lot of things for the museum."

"It would be very nice," said Phra thoughtfully.

"Nice? It would be grand. Here, I shall go home and speak to my father at once."

"Then I'll ask mine."

"He'll say yes, because he'll think he can trust us. I say, Phra, I wish we had thought of this before."

The boys separated, and Harry did not feel the heat as he hurried home to lay his plans before his father.

"For a week?" said Mr. Kenyon, with a look of doubt. "That's a long time, Hal."

"Not for getting a good lot of things, father. You know, whenever we've been up the river before, directly we have begun it has been time to come back."

"Yes," said Mr Kenyon thoughtfully, "and if you were up the jungle river at daybreak you would have far better chances for getting scarce birds, and it would be a most interesting experience for you."

"Then you'll let me go, father?" cried the boy excitedly.

"I must talk the matter over with the King first."

"If he feels that you do not object, father, he is sure to say yes."

Mr. Kenyon was silent and thoughtful, looking so serious that Harry began to lose heart.

"What are you thinking, father?" he said at last.

"That it's a long time since I had a change."

"Yes, father?"

"That I have nothing particular to do."

"Father!"

"And that the doctor has been saying that he would like to make an expedition up the country."

"Then you think – "

"Yes, Hal, I do think that I should like for the doctor and me to join in your trip. It would only necessitate a larger boat."

"Oh," cried Harry excitedly, "that would be splendid."

"Better than you two alone?" said Mr. Kenyon quietly.

"A hundred times better, father. But think of that!"

"Think of what?" said Mr. Kenyon.

"Doctor Cameron putting us off day after day because he had not time to teach us cricket, when he can find time to go up the country."

Mr. Kenyon smiled.

"My dear boy," he said, "I do not wonder at his putting you off. Cricket is not a very attractive game at this time of year, in a country like this."

"Never mind the cricket," cried Harry. "Look here, father, will you go?"

"I am very much tempted to say yes."

"Say it then, father. I say, you'd take Mike, wouldn't you?"

"Certainly; he would be very useful."

"Here, I must go and tell Phra."

"There is no need; here he comes."

For the lad was crossing the garden, and as Harry met him with his face lit up with excitement, Phra's countenance was dark and dejected.

"It's all over, Hal," he said. "My father says it is out of the question for us to go alone."

"He said that?" cried Harry.

"Yes, and that if your father and Doctor Cameron were going too it would be different."

"They are going too, lad," cried Harry, slapping him on the shoulder.

"They – your father and Mr. Cameron?"

"Yes; isn't it splendid?"

"Here, I must go back at once," cried Phra, and, regardless of the heat, he set off at a trot.

Harry returned to the museum, where his father was seated.

"Where's Phra?" said the latter.

"Gone back to tell the King."

"To tell him what?"

"He said that it was out of the question for us two boys to go upon such an expedition alone."

"I expected as much."

"But if you and the doctor had been going, it would have been different."

"Indeed?"

"Yes, father. Poor old chap! he did look disappointed, till I told him that you two were going, and he has gone to tell the King."

"Tut – tut – tut!" muttered Mr. Kenyon. "What a rash, harem-scarem fellow you are! You shouldn't have taken all I said for granted, sir. Even if I fully make up my mind, we don't know that Doctor Cameron would be able to leave."

"But you said, father – "

"I said – you said – look here, sir, you are far too hasty. The doctor only said he thought he should go."

"That's enough, father," said Harry, laughing. "As soon as he hears that there is going to be such an expedition, do you think he will not manage to go with it?"

"Well, I must say I should be surprised if he did not come."

"So should I, father. I say, it will be capital. The King is sure to say yes now, and we can have the pick of his boats, and which men we like. I say, I wonder whether we can get a man who will find old Sree, because we ought to start to-morrow morning."

"Stuff! Rubbish!" cried Mr. Kenyon, laughing. "If we get off in a week, we shall do well. But I think I will go. I should be very glad of a change. So you may go and see the doctor and chat the matter over with him – not telling him that we are going, but that we are thinking of such a trip. You can then hear what he says about it."

"Go now, father?"

"If you like."

Harry did like, and was off at once, to find Mrs. Cameron under the tree, as he had seen her on that terrible day, but with the doctor seated back in another long cane-seated chair, fast asleep.

"Doctor not well?" said Harry, after the customary salute.

"Not at all well, Harry," said Mrs. Cameron, with a sigh. "He has been working too hard lately over his native patients, and he is quite done up. He must have a change."

"That's what I've come about," said Harry excitedly, and he told her what was proposed.

"I should not like losing him for a week, but I think it would do him a great deal of good."

"Quite set me up, dear," said the doctor, opening his eyes.

"Did you hear what I was saying, Doctor?" cried Harry wonderingly.

"Pretty well every word, my boy. It will be the very thing for me, for I am completely fagged. A long ride day after day up the river will be rest and refreshment. But I can't take you, my dear."

"I shall not mind, Duncan," said his wife. "Nothing could be better.

Yes, you must go."

He sat up, and then sank back again, closing his eyes.

"It is of no use to fight against it, Mary," he said sadly. "I am doctor enough to thoroughly grasp all my symptoms. I really am overdone, and there is nothing for it but to try change – such a change as this. I wish it did not look like going for a thorough holiday and leaving you behind. It does not seem right."

"You will make me unhappy if you talk like this," cried Mrs. Cameron. "How can you think I should be so selfish as to mind your doing what is for your health?"

"It will do him good, Mrs. Cameron," said Harry, who was not enjoying the scene.

"Of course," she cried. "You may go back and tell Mr. Kenyon that the doctor will be delighted to make one of the party, for he wants a change badly."

"Look here, Harry; I don't think I ought to go," said the doctor.

"He ought, Harry, and he shall," cried his wife. "You take that message."

"Harry, lad, this is a horrible piece of tyranny. I am not very well, and my oppressor treats me like this. But there, it is of no use to protest, so I give in. I'll come."

Full of excitement, the boy hurried back to the bungalow to announce the result of his visit, his father hearing him silently to the end, and then looking so serious that Harry asked anxiously what it meant.

"This is very disappointing, my boy," said Mr. Kenyon. "After you had gone I began to be in hopes that the doctor would not go, and now he says he will."

"Yes, that he will, father."

"Then I suppose we shall have to go. I don't know, though: there is another chance, the King may refuse to sanction the journey, and of course you would not care to go without Phra."

"Well, no," said Harry, in a hesitating way; "it would not seem fair to go without him. Ah, here he is. – Well, what does he say?"

"That he thinks it will be a very interesting trip, and that he wishes he could leave all the cares and worries of his affairs and come with us. – My father says, Mr. Kenyon, that you are to choose whichever boat will be best for the journey, and select as many men as you think necessary, and store the boat with everything you want."

"Then this means going," said Mr. Kenyon.

"Of course, father. Shall we start to-morrow?"

"Can we be ready?"

"Can we be ready?" cried Harry scornfully. "What do you say, Phra?"

"Oh yes, we can be ready, only what about Sree?"

"I forgot old Sree!" cried Harry. "We must have him, and he's somewhere up the jungle."

"Yes," said his father, "we must have him with us; so I take it that we may make all our preparations, but do not start till Sree returns."

CHAPTER XVI

THE HOUSE-BOAT

The disappointment caused by the absence of the old hunter was modified by the interest in the preparations. These filled the two lads with excitement, for a journey into unknown parts in such a land as Siam was full of the suggestions of wonders.

The first thing seen to was the choice of a boat, the requirements being that it should be light, strong, drawing very little water, and well provided for the accommodation of fourteen or sixteen people, with a fair amount of room, night and day. Then there would be boxes containing stores for a week, cooking apparatus, and cases for containing the specimens of all kinds that were to be saved.

But in a country like Siam, where house-boats are necessities of domestic daily life, there was little difficulty. One of the plainest of the King's light barges was found to answer all the requirements upon being provided with a few bamboo poles and an awning, so that the forward part of the boat could be sheltered at night and during storms, for the protection of the men. The central part was covered in, according to the regular custom, with a bamboo-supported roof, and matting curtains were so placed at the sides that the whole could be turned into a comfortable cabin at night, while the after-part had its matting cover that could be set up or removed at pleasure, this portion being intended for the after rowers and servants.

Boxes and chests were selected, filled, and placed on board. There were loops for the guns and spears to be taken, and lockers for the ammunition, and at last there seemed to be nothing more that could be done, for the crew were selected by Phra, who had his favourites among the King's servants, these including men who had never evinced any dislike to the English and were always eager to attend to the wishes of their young Prince.

The time had passed so rapidly that it was hard to believe two days had slipped away before everything could be declared to be in readiness. But on the second evening nothing more seemed needed, and it was felt that they might start at daylight the next morning.

For the crew was on board to protect the stores and other things; even the stone, barrel-shaped filter fitted in a basket cover – a clumsy, awkward thing which the doctor declared to be absolutely necessary – was on board.

Harry had exclaimed against its being taken, and the doctor heard him.

"Look here, young fellow," he said, "do you know what I am going up the river for?"

"A holiday, of course," replied Harry.

"Exactly. Then do you suppose I want my holiday spoiled by being called upon to attend people who are ill through drinking unwholesome water?"

"Of course not, sir; but would any one be ill?"

"Every one would," said the doctor angrily.

Harry thought this was a sweeping assertion, but he said nothing, and the filter was placed astern.

"I wish some one would knock it over," Harry whispered to Phra. "It would go to the bottom like a stone."

"Never mind the filter."

"I don't," said Harry; "but I do mind about old Sree. Oh, don't I wish

I could have three wishes!"

"What would they be? What's the first?"

"I should have had that," said Harry. "Wishing to have three wishes."

"Well, then, what would the second be?"

"That the third might for certain be had," said Harry, laughing.

"What would the third be?"

"That old Sree would come here to-night."

"You've got your wish, then," cried Phra excitedly, "for here he comes."

"No! Nonsense!" cried Harry, who felt staggered and ready to turn superstitious.

"He is here, I tell you. Look, talking to that sentry by the gate."

"I say," said Harry, "isn't it rather queer?"

"It's rather good fortune," replied Phra.

"But after what we said."

Phra laughed.

"Why, you're not going to believe in old fables, are you?"

"No, of course not; but it did seem startling for him to turn up just as I had been wishing for him."

"Nonsense. Why, I have been wishing for him to come every hour for the last two days. Let's go and meet him. He's coming this way."

In another minute they had leaped ashore, run up the stone steps of the landing-place in front of the palace, and encountered Sree.

"Here, I say, where have you been?" cried Harry.

"I have been through the jungle and up towards the head of the little river, Sahibs, so as to find out whether it is worth your going up too."

"Well, is it?" cried Harry.

"Oh yes, well worthy," replied Sree. "No one ever goes there to hunt or shoot, and the birds are very tame and beautiful, and the river full of fish."

"Fish!" cried Harry excitedly. "There, I knew we had forgotten something, Phra. Fishing tackle."

"Yes, we must take some."

"I was coming to advise you to get a boat and go up there for two or three days to shoot, fish, and collect."

"Then you are too late, old Sree," cried Harry.

"Too late, Sahib?" said the man, whose countenance looked gloomy from disappointment.

"Yes; we're going for a week in that big boat."

"I am sorry, Sahib," said the man sadly. "I worked hard, and it took long to get through the jungle, and I had to sleep in trees. The Sahib's servant was not neglectful of his master. He is grieved that he is too late."

"Don't tease him, Hal; he doesn't like it. It hurts him. Never mind,

Sree; we wanted you to help, but everything is ready now."

"I am glad, Sahib," said the man; "but I am sorry too, for I should have liked to go as hunter with the young Sahibs."

"Does that mean you can't go?" said Harry, laughing.

"Not unless the young Sahib will take his servant," said the man sadly.

"Why, of course we shall take you," cried Harry, "and we are as glad as glad that you have come. Here, let's go to the boat, Phra. I want Sree to see everything, so as to say whether we ought to take anything else."

The old hunter brightened up on the instant, and hurried with the boys to the boat, where for the next hour he was examining arrangements and suggesting fresh places for some of the articles, so that they might be stowed where they would be handier and yet more out of the way. He was able to suggest a few more things too, notably a stout net to hang by hooks from the roof of the cabin, ready to place specimens in to dry, or hold odds and ends for common use; more baskets, and a coil of rope, and a stout parang or two for cutting a way through creepers or cane-brakes.

At last, with a smile full of content, Sree announced himself as being satisfied, and having received permission from Phra, took possession of one corner at the back of the cabin, while Harry went to see the doctor respecting starting quite early the next morning, and then returned home.

CHAPTER XVII

JUNGLE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

The heavy dew lay thick on leaf and strand, and the sky in the east was still grey, as the little party met at the landing-place, where the men were on the look-out and ready for the start; while when they pushed off and four oars sent the boat well up against the stream, past the house-boats clustered against the farther shore, nothing could have looked more peaceful and still.

The men eagerly worked at their oars in their peculiar Venetian, thrusting fashion, standing to their work; and it was a satisfaction to see that, in spite of its size and load, the boat was wonderfully light, and rode over the water like a duck.

The calmness and peace of everything was most striking as it grew lighter; and when the eastern sky began to glow, and the tips of the towers and spires of the different temples became gilded by the coming sun, both Mr. Kenyon and the doctor expressed their admiration, declaring the King's city to be after all, in spite of its lying in a flat plain, beautiful in the extreme.

Then the sun rose, shedding its glorious light around and giving everything a beauty it did not really possess. For sordid-looking boats, with nothing but a few mats hung from bamboo poles, looked as if they were made of refined gold; while the trees which fringed the water, and hung their pendent boughs from the banks, shed a wondrous lustre, as if flashing gems from every dewy leaf.

The river too, in spite of its muddy waters, seemed more beautiful than ever, and the boys were revelling in the new delight of their journey up stream, when sundry preparations being made by Mike in the extreme after part of the boat changed the bent of Harry's thoughts to quite a different direction from that of admiring the beauty of the scene through which they were passing.

It was just as his father exclaimed, —

"Are you noticing how beautiful all this is, Hal?"

"Oh yes, father, I've been looking at it ever so long. But when are we going to have breakfast?"

The doctor burst into a hearty fit of laughter, in which Phra joined, and the boy seemed puzzled.

"What is it?" he said, looking from one to the other. "Have I said something queer?"

"Very, Hal," said his father. "Getting hungry?"

"I was – terribly," replied Harry uneasily; "but I don't feel so now. I don't like to be laughed at."

"It will not hurt you, my boy. As to breakfast, you will have to wait an hour or so, till we turn out of the main stream. Then we must land at the first opening, and have a fire made ashore."

Harry nodded, and wondered how he should get over the time.

There proved to be so much to take his attention, however, that he was ready to wonder when the boat was run in between two magnificent clumps of trees soon after they had turned off into the lesser river and entered the jungle by one of its water highways.

The men sprang out, and one made the prow fast by a rope, while others scattered, parang in hand, to collect and cut up dead or resinous wood, of which a heap was soon made and set alight, the air being so still that the blue smoke rose up quite straight, to filter, as it were, through the boughs overhead, the men feeding the flames carefully till a good mass of glowing embers was produced.

Over this sylvan fireplace Mike, with a cloth tied about his waist, apron fashion, presided, and in a very short time had prepared the coffee and taken it aboard.

There had been no preparations – no hunting for provisions, to add to the toothsomeness of the breakfast; but eaten out there in the open boat, under the shade of the majestic trees, with the river gliding by, the strange cries from the jungle heard from time to time, and the attention of the lads constantly attracted to bird, insect, or reptile, they were ready to declare that they had never enjoyed such a breakfast before.

"How grand it would be to live always like this!" cried Harry.

"Beautiful," said the doctor; "especially in the rainy seasons, when you could keep nothing dry and find no wood that would burn."

"Yes," said Mr. Kenyon; "rain does damp one's enthusiasm."

"Oh, of course it would not be so pleasant then," said Harry; "but generally it would be glorious, wouldn't it, Phra?"

"I should get tired of it after a time, I think," was the reply.

"Pooh! I shouldn't. Look how the men are enjoying it."

Harry nodded towards their people, who had all landed to take their meal on shore, leaving the boat free to their superiors, and certainly the party looked very happy, squatted round the fire, in spite of the heat; while the smoke curled up in great wreaths in company with the suffocating carbonic acid gas evolved by the burning wood.

"Yes, they look happy enough, Hal," said the doctor. "They don't trouble themselves much about tablecloths or knives and forks."

In fact, the party formed quite a picture, one that it seemed a pity to disturb.

But it was disturbed, for at a word from Mike, Sree rose to dip some fresh, clear water to fill up the coffee-pot, and this done, Mike took a piece of half-burned bamboo, stirred the embers and parted them so as to make a steady place for the big coffee-pot, when there was a whirl of flame, sparks, and smoke rushing up among the boughs in a spiral, for the fire was now at its hottest.

There was no warning.

Sree had squatted down again, and Mike had seated himself, supporting himself upon one hand, leaving the other to snatch off the coffee-pot directly the brown froth began to rise with the boiling up, whenbang – rush – scatter! Something fell suddenly from high up among the boughs overhead right into the fire, and as the men turned and rolled themselves away in every direction, they were bombarded as it were, by showers of red-hot embers and half-burned sticks, which were driven after them by the object which had fallen from the tree, and was now writhing, twining, and beating the burning wood and ashes till the fire was scattered over a surface some yards across.

The matter needed no explanation; it was all plain enough. After the manner of such reptiles, a good-sized boa had tied itself up in a bundle of curves, knots, and loops on a convenient bough, after a liberal meal probably of monkey, and had been fast asleep exactly over the spot where the fire was made. It had borne heat and smoke without moving until the last stir up of the embers delivered by Mike, but this had sent so stifling a flame that the sleeping serpent had been aroused, started into wakefulness, and in the heat and suffocation fallen into the flames, to writhe in agony, turning over and over in knotty convolutions, in one spot a yard or two square.