was funnier than usual to-night, and whenBeeboo brought him a big tumbler of rosy rum punch, made by herself and sweetened with honey, he wasmerrier still.
Then to complete his happiness Beeboo lit his pipe.
She puffed away at it for some time as usual, byway of getting it in working order.
"'Spose," she said, "Beeboo not warm de bowl ob debig pipe plenty proper, den de dear chile Bill take achill."
"You're a dear old soul, Beeb," said Bill.
Then the dear old soul carefully wiped the ambermouth-piece with her apron, and handed Burly Billhis comforter.
The great raft swayed and swung gently to and fro,so Bill sang his pet sea-song, "The Rose of Allandale".He was finishing that bonnie verse-
"My life had been a wilderness,
Unblest by fortune's gale,
Had fate not linked my lot to hers,
The Rose of Allandale",
when all at once an ominous grating was heardcoming from beneath the raft, and motion ceased assuddenly as did Bill's song.
"Save us from evil!" cried Bill. "The raft is aground!"
CHAPTER V-A DAY IN THE FOREST WILDS
Burly Bill laid down his banjo. Then he pushedhis great extinguisher of a thumb into the bowlof his big meerschaum, and arose.
"De good Lawd ha' mussy on our souls, chillun!"cried Beeboo, twisting her apron into a calico rope."We soon be all at de bottom ob de deep, and de'gators a-pickin' de bones ob us!"
"Keep quiet, Beeb, there's a dear soul! Never a'gator'll get near you. W'y, look 'ow calm Miss Peggyis. It be'ant much as'll frighten she."
Burly Bill could speak good English when he tooktime, but invariably reverted to Berkshire when in theleast degree excited.
He was soon on board the little steamer.
"What cheer, Jake?" he said.
"Not much o' that. A deuced unlucky business.May lose the whole voyage if it comes on to blow!"
"W'y, Jake, lad, let's 'ope for the best. No usegivin' up; be there? I wouldn't let the men go toprayers yet awhile, Jake. Not to make a bizness on'tlike, I means."
Well, the night wore away, but the raft neverbudged, unless it was to get a firmer hold of the mudand sand.
A low wind had sprung up too, and if it increasedto a gale she would soon begin to break up.
It was a dreary night and a long one, and few onboard the steamer slept a wink.
But day broke at last, and the sun's crimson lightchanged the ripples on the river from leaden gray todazzling ruby.
Then the wind fell.
"There are plenty of river-boats, Bill," said Jake."What say you to intercept one and ask assistance?"
"Bust my buttons if I would cringe to ne'er a oneon 'em! They'd charge salvage, and sponge enormous.I knows the beggars as sails these puffin' Jimmieswell."
"Guess you're about right, Bill, and you know theriver better'n I."
"Listen, Jake. The bloomin' river got low all atonce, like, after the storm, and so you got kind o'befoozled, and struck. I'd a-kept further out. ButBurly Bill ain't the man to bully his mate. On'ylisten again. The river'll rise in a day or two, andif the wind keeps in its sack, w'y we'll float like athousand o' bricks on an old Thames lumper! Bustmy buttons, Jake, if we don't!"
"Well, Bill, I don't know anything about the burstingof your buttons, but you give me hope. So I'll goto breakfast. Tell the engineer to keep the firesbanked."
Two days went past, and never a move made the raft.
It was a wearisome time for all. The "chillun", asBeeboo called them, tried to beguile it in the best waythey could with reading, talking, and deck games.
Dick and Roland were "dons" at leap-frog, and itmattered not which of them was giving the back, butas soon as the other leapt over Brawn followed suit, greatly to the delight of Peggy. He jumped in sucha business-like way that everybody was forced tolaugh, especially when the noble dog took a leap thatwould have cleared a five-barred gate.
But things were getting slow on the third morning, when up sprang Burly Bill with his cartridge-belt onand his rifle under his arm.
"Cap'n Jake," he said, touching his cap in RoyalNavy fashion, "presents his compliments to the crewof this durned old stack o' timber, and begs to saythat Master Rolly and Master Dick can come on shorewith me for a run among the 'gators, but that MissPeggy had better stop on board with Beeboo. Herlife is too precious to risk!"
"Precious or not precious," pouted the girl, "MissPeggy's going, and Brawn too; so you may tell CaptainJake that."
"Bravo, Miss Peggy! you're a real St. Clair. Well,Beeboo, hurry up, and get the nicest bit of coldluncheon ready for us ever you made in your life."
"Beeboo do dat foh true. Plenty quick, too; butoh, Massa Bill, 'spose you let any ebil ting befall depoh chillun, I hopes de 'gators'll eat you up!"
"More likely, Beeb, that we'll eat them; and really, come to think of it, a slice off a young 'gator's tailaint 'arf bad tackle, Beeboo."
An hour after this the boat was dancing over therippling river. It was not the dinghy, but a gig.Burly Bill himself was stroke, and three Indianshandled the other bits of timber, while Roland tookthe tiller.
The redskins sang a curious but happy boat-lilt asthey rowed, and Bill joined in with his 'cello voice:
"Ober de watter and ober de sea-ee-ee,
De big black boat am rowing so free,
Eee-Eee-O-ay-O!
De big black boat, is it nuffin' to me-ee-ee,
We're rowing so free?
"Oh yes, de black boat am some-dings to me
As she rolls o'er de watter and swings o'er de sea,
Foh de light ob my life, she sits in de stern,
An' sweet am de glance o' Peggy's dark e'e,
Ee-ee-O-ay-O-O!"
"Well steered!" said Burly Bill, as Roland ran thegig on the sandy beach of a sweet little backwater.
Very soon all were landed. Bill went first as guide, and the Indians brought up the rear, carrying thebasket and a spare gun or two.
Great caution and care were required in venturingfar into this wild, tropical forest, not so much onaccount of the beasts that infested it as the fear ofgetting lost.
It was very still and quiet here, however, and Billhad taken the precaution to leave a man in the boat, with orders to keep his weather ear "lifting", and ifhe heard four shots fired in rapid succession late inthe afternoon to fire in reply at once.
It was now the heat of the day, however, and thehairy inhabitants of this sylvan wilderness were allsound asleep, jaguars and pumas among the trees, andthe tapirs in small herds wherever the jungle wasdensest.
There was no chance, therefore, of getting a shotat anything. Nevertheless, the boys and Peggy werenot idle. They had brought butterfly-nets with them, and the specimens they caught when about five milesinland, where the forest opened out into a shrub-cladmoorland, were large and glorious in the extreme.
Indeed, some of them would fetch gold galore in theLondon markets.
But though these butterflies had an immense spreadof quaintly-shaped and exquisitely-coloured wings, thesmaller ones were even more brilliant.
Strange it is that Nature paints these creatures incolours which no sunshine can fade. All the tints thatman ever invented grow pale in the sun; these neverdo, and the same may be said concerning the tropicalbirds that they saw so many of to-day.
But no one had the heart to shoot any of these.Why should they soil such beautiful plumage withblood, and so bring grief and woe into this