Reaching out, he caught her gently by the upper arms at the shoulder. She trembled, knowing that he was about to take her in his arms again, and in a sharply commanding voice she said, "No! Don't!"
Angered by words and tone, he dropped his hands at once. Suddenly she reached up, took his face between her hands and kissed him on the mouth. He was too surprised to move when she turned swiftly and left him standing there in the soft, warm lamplight.
20
UNTIL the very moment of departure from the Caroline’s side in the smaller of her two boats Scott hoped he would not have to go. And not until he was actually in the boat and the seamen were bending with a will to the oars did he see Dorcas again. She came to the rail of the brig and waved a scarf, and the last he saw of her she was flanked by Bryant and Fox. They entered Rocky River, which in no way belied its name, as the tropical sun lifted the thick white mist from the dense jungle and the inevitable cumulus clouds began forming over the mountainous land. The morning cacophony of bird and animal calls soon died out; but soon after the brilliant sea was lost to sight a troop of large gray monkeys spotted men and boat and followed them for almost a mile, howling angrily and pelting them with sticks and filth. Peary, whose temper seemed shorter than usual this morning, finally drew a pistol and shot one of the more venturesome creatures. It fell into muddy water, which suddenly was lashed to foam by a fifteen-foot crocodile making a successful grab for breakfast.
"Hell's bells!" a sailor grunted. "I didn't even see that son-of-a-bitch when we passed."
Back from the sea they were in day-long semidarkness, in a water-floored tunnel formed by the forbiddingly dark walls of the rain forest on either bank and the interlacing foliage above. In occasional spots sunlight seeped through the leafy roof, warming mud flats where dozens of crocodiles up to eighteen feet long dozed. The monstrous reptiles were sleepily malevolent creatures whose lower front teeth showed in evil grins even when their long, narrow mouths were shut. Once they glimpsed a pair of long-armed, barrel-chested orangutan, great black apes that paid them little attention; and several times they were startled by the booming cries of unseen gibbons. But most of the time no animal life was visible to the sweating men and the jungle itself was shrouded in menacing silence.
A few miles above its mouth the stream narrowed considerably and its flow became perceptibly swifter. The humid heat, steamy and strength-sapping, seemed to rise from the earth to wrap them in invisible cloaks. Once the boat rammed into a submerged rock, springing a leak which had to be calked immediately, and twice it ran aground on an unseen shelf of sand. The men who leaped into the water to drag it free came out with their legs dotted with fat gray leeches that were bloated before they could be scraped off.
Scott found himself wondering how much farther they would be able to travel in the boat. The river was growing shallower as it decreased in width.
"Th' Malays made it all th' way, sir," Hurst assured them.
" 'Course their boats wasn't as heavy as this 'un."
Less draft, too, Scott thought.
In midafternoon, when the tough seamen were exhausted by fighting the current, Scott called a halt. They beached the boat on a sand bar and, under Hurst's direction, hacked out a place to camp on the bank.
"Jesus!" Peary exclaimed in disgust. "What a lovely country!"
"It ain't too bad, sir," Hurst assured him. "We ain't but halfway now. Little higher up th' nights are cool."
They all were thankful for Hurst's presence before nightfall. A knowing woodsman, he was the only one expert with an ax and the only one who could make a fire with damp wood. He found a fallen tree, a hulk wrapped in creepers and crawling with insects, and chopped away rotten wood to get at sound wood. He built a small cooking fire for the brewing of tea, which Scott laced with rum for all hands, and toward nightfall he piled dry wood on the coals, so that flame leaped skyward.
"It's too big for cookin' now," he explained to Scott, "but it'll keep th' varmints away after dark. It's them damn' crocs that scare me. Darus told me how they'd sneak outa th' river sometimes an' catch a man by th' foot."
In the middle of the stream they had been unworried by insects; now mosquitoes and gnats attacked them in ravenous swarms. The men slapped at exposed faces and arms and cursed bitterly. None of them slept well, coming awake at the sound of distant trumpeting by elephants, starting up and grasping weapons when a hunting tiger roared with its great, hairy face close to the natural sounding board of the perpetually moist earth.
Next day all hands were in the water frequently, towing and pushing the boat over shoals and through stretches of fast water. And after each time they had to scrape off the repulsive-looking leeches infesting the stream. Once a venomous snake fell from an overhanging branch into the craft, and a man was wounded in the foot when one of his fellows slashed the reptile with a cutlass. What a hellish country, Scott thought time and again.
Late in the afternoon they glimpsed a man in the jungle, and the feeling they were being spied on tightened the nerves of every man. Hurst caught the captain's eye. "We ain't more'n a mile from th' village, sir."
Scott wiped his sweaty forehead with the damp sleeve of his shirt. His skin itched from insect bites irritated further by perspiration. He was about to come to grips with Darus and he consciously prepared his mind for it. Be calm. Be firm. He steered for the right-hand bank.
The nervous men were too tired to talk. A few smoked pipes or chewed on fresh quids of tobacco. Scott studied the shore carefully. Here there was a path leading upstream. He let the seamen rest a full five minutes. Then he spoke to them. "Hear this, all hands. Draw the charges of muskets and pistols and reload."
That put new life into them. Only four of the ten all told were more than twenty years old.
"Mr. Peary," Scott said, "you'll keep the men together when we reach the village. There'll be no straggling, no ogling of women, and no carelessness with firearms. We're not going to start anything we can't finish."
Through lips swollen by insect bites the mate answered sullenly. "Aye, aye, sir."
Scott maintained a front of cool self-assurance as they came in sight of the village of more than two hundred huts, most of them raised six or eight feet on pilings. He calmly steered for the landing, where twenty-odd boats were beached, despite the fact fully one hundred armed men and boys were waiting there. In vain he searched the faces, which were more blank than overtly hostile, for the recognizable round countenance of the rajah. He did see young Muzaffar leaning on a long bamboo spear with a fire-hardened point.
The landing was unopposed, much to Scott's relief, and he went directly to Muzaffar. "Why did you leave us, boy? You were kindly treated."
The lad looked away, keeping silent, but a powerfully built fellow with a scarred face answered for him. "His father sent me to fetch him."
"You're Hamzah?"
The man nodded with dignity. He was armed with sword, creese and a rusty musket.
"Where is Rajah Darus?"
"In his house. He mourns his fourth son, who was carried away by the Lame One."
Scott, who had made good progress with the language, did not fully understand. Hurst spoke up at his elbow. "They told me about the Lame One when I was here. He's a man-eatin' tiger."
"Lame One," Scott said, his face clearing. "Tiger. Harimau."
Hamzah drew back suddenly, superstitious fear in his eyes. Hurst explained quickly. "They never call a tiger a tiger, sir. They're afraid he'll hear and come."