Collected Works of Zane Grey, page 187
In spite of the fact that the inducement was irresistible, and that Ken’s father was as proud and eager as Ken’s uncle to have him make a name for himself, and that Hal would be allowed to go with him, Ken had hesitated. There was the responsibility for Hal and the absolute certainty that Hal could not keep out of mischief. Still Ken simply could not have gone to Mexico leaving his brother at home broken-hearted.
At last the thing had been decided. It was Hal’s ambition to be a naturalist and to collect specimens, and the uncle had held out possible recognition from the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. Perhaps he might find a new variety of some animal to which the scientists would attach his name. Then the lad was passionately eager to see Ken win that trip to Africa. There had been much study of maps and books of travel, science, and natural history. There had been the most careful instruction and equipment for semi-tropical camp life. The uncle had given Ken valuable lessons in map-drawing, in estimating distance and topography, and he had indicated any one of several rivers in the jungle belt of Mexico. Traversing one hundred miles of unknown jungle river, with intelligent observation and accurate reports, would win the prize for Ken Ward. Now the race was on. Would Ken win?
Presently the train crossed a bridge. Ken Ward had a brief glance at clear green water, at great cypress-trees, gray and graceful with long, silvery, waving moss, and at the tangled, colorful banks. A water-fowl black as coal, with white-crested wings, skimmed the water in swift wild flight, to disappear up the shady river-lane. Then the train clattered on, and, a mile or more beyond the bridge, stopped at a station called Valles. In the distance could be seen the thatched palm-leaf huts and red-tiled roofs of a hamlet.
The boys got out to stretch their legs. The warm, sweet, balmy air was a new and novel thing to them. They strolled up and down the gravel walk, watching the natives. Hal said he rather liked the looks of their brown bare feet and the thin cotton trousers and shirts, but he fancied the enormous sombreros were too heavy and unwieldy. Ken spoke to several pleasant-faced Mexicans, each of whom replied: “No sabe, Señor.”
The ticket agent at the station was an American, and from the way he smiled and spoke Ken knew he was more than glad to see one of his own kind. So, after Ken had replied to many questions about the States, he began to ask some of his own.
“What’s the name of the waterfall we passed?”
“Micas Falls,” replied the agent.
“And the river?”
“It’s called the Santa Rosa.”
“Where does it go?”
The agent did not know, except that it disappeared in the jungle. Southward the country was wild. The villages were few and all along the railroad; and at Valles the river swung away to the southwest.
“But it must flow into the Panuco River,” said Ken. He had studied maps of Mexico and had learned all that it was possible to learn before he undertook the journey.
“Why, yes, it must find the Panuco somewhere down over the mountain,” answered the agent.
“Then there are rapids in this little river?” asked Ken, in growing interest.
“Well, I guess. It’s all rapids.”
“How far to Tampico by rail?” went on Ken.
“Something over a hundred miles.”
“Any game in the jungle hereabouts — or along the Santa Rosa?” continued Ken.
The man laughed, and laughed in such a way that Ken did not need his assertion that it was not safe to go into the jungle.
Whereupon Ken Ward became so thoughtful that he did not hear the talk that followed between the agent and Hal. The engine bell roused him into action, and with Hal he hurried back to their seats. And then the train sped on. But the beauty of Micas Falls and the wildness of the Santa Rosa remained with Ken. Where did that river go? How many waterfalls and rapids did it have? What teeming life must be along its rich banks! It haunted Ken. He wanted to learn the mystery of the jungle. There was the same longing which had gotten him into the wild adventures in Penetier Forest and the Grand Canyon country of Arizona. And all at once flashed over him the thought that here was the jungle river for him to explore.
“Why, that’s the very thing,” he said, thinking aloud.
“What’s wrong with you,” asked Hal, “talking to yourself that way?”
Ken did not explain. The train clattered between green walls of jungle, and occasionally stopped at a station. But the thought of the jungle haunted him until the train arrived at Tampico.
Ken had the name of an American hotel, and that was all he knew about Tampico. The station was crowded with natives. Man after man accosted the boys, jabbering excitedly in Mexican. Some of these showed brass badges bearing a number and the word Cargodore.
“Hal, I believe these fellows are porters or baggage-men,” said Ken. And he showed his trunk check to one of them. The fellow jerked it out of Ken’s hand and ran off. The boys ran after him. They were relieved to see him enter a shed full of baggage. And they were amazed to see him kneel down and take their trunk on his back. It was a big trunk and heavy. The man was small and light.
“It’ll smash him!” cried Hal.
But the little cargodore walked off with the trunk on his back. Then Ken and Hal saw other cargodores packing trunks. The boys kept close to their man and used their eyes with exceeding interest. The sun was setting, and the square, colored buildings looked as if they were in a picture of Spain.
“Look at the boats — canoes!” cried Hal, as they crossed a canal.
Ken saw long narrow canoes that had been hollowed out from straight tree-trunks. They were of every size, and some of the paddles were enormous. Crowds of natives were jabbering and jostling each other at a rude wharf.
“Look back,” called Hal, who seemed to have a hundred eyes.
Ken saw a wide, beautiful river, shining red in the sunset. Palm-trees on the distant shore showed black against the horizon.
“Hal, that’s the Panuco. What a river!”
“Makes the Susquehanna look like a creek,” was Hal’s comment.
The cargodore led the boys through a plaza, down a narrow street to the hotel. Here they were made to feel at home. The proprietor was a kindly American. The hotel was crowded, and many of the guests were Englishmen there for the tarpon-fishing, with sportsmen from the States, and settlers coming in to take up new lands. It was pleasant for Ken and Hal to hear their own language once more. After dinner they sallied forth to see the town. But the narrow dark streets and the blanketed natives stealing silently along were not particularly inviting. The boys got no farther than the plaza, where they sat down on a bench. It was wholly different from any American town. Ken suspected that Hal was getting homesick, for the boy was quiet and inactive.
“I don’t like this place,” said Hal. “What’d you ever want to drag me way down here for?”
“Humph! drag you? Say, you pestered the life out of me, and bothered Dad till he was mad, and worried mother sick to let you come on this trip.”
Hal hung his head.
“Now, you’re not going to show a streak of yellow?” asked Ken. He knew how to stir his brother.
Hal rose to the attack and scornfully repudiated the insinuation. Ken replied that they were in a new country and must not reach conclusions too hastily.
“I liked it back up there at the little village where we saw the green river and the big trees with the gray streamers on them,” said Hal.
“Well, I liked that myself,” rejoined Ken. “I’d like to go back there and put a boat in the river and come all the way here.”
Ken had almost unconsciously expressed the thought that had been forming in his mind. Hal turned slowly and looked at his brother.
“Ken, that’d be great — that’s what we came for!”
“I should say so,” replied Ken.
“Well?” asked Hal, simply.
That question annoyed Ken. Had he not come south to go into the jungle? Had he come with any intention of shirking the danger of a wild trip? There was a subtle flattery in Hal’s question.
“That Santa Rosa River runs through the jungle,” went on Hal. “It flows into the Panuco somewhere. You know we figured out on the map that the Panuco’s the only big river in this jungle. That’s all we want to know. And, Ken, you know you’re a born boatman. Why, look at the rapids we’ve shot on the Susquehanna. Remember that trip we came down the Juniata? The water was high, too. Ken, you can take a boat down that Santa Rosa!”
“By George! I believe I can,” exclaimed Ken, and he thrilled at the thought.
“Ken, let’s go. You’ll win the prize, and I’ll get specimens. Think what we’d have to tell Jim Williams and Dick Leslie when we go West next summer!”
“Oh, Hal, I know — but this idea of a trip seems too wild.”
“Maybe it wouldn’t be so wild.”
In all fairness Ken could not deny this, so he kept silent.
“Ken, listen,” went on Hal, and now he was quite cool. “If we’d promised the Governor not to take a wild trip I wouldn’t say another word. But we’re absolutely free.”
“That’s why we ought to be more careful. Dad trusts me.”
“He trusts you because he knows you can take care of yourself, and me, too. You’re a wonder, Ken. Why, if you once made up your mind, you’d make that Santa Rosa River look like a canal.”
Ken began to fear that he would not be proof against the haunting call of that jungle river and the flattering persuasion of his brother and the ever-present ambition to show his uncle what he could do.
“Hal, if I didn’t have you with me I’d already have made up my mind to tackle this river.”
That appeared to insult Hal.
“All I’ve got to say is I’d be a help to you — not a drag,” he said, with some warmth.
“You’re always a help, Hal. I can’t say anything against your willingness. But you know your weakness. By George! you made trouble enough for me in Arizona. On a trip such as this you’d drive me crazy.”
“Ken, I won’t make any rash promises. I don’t want to queer myself with you. But I’m all right.”
“Look here, Hal; let’s wait. We’ve only got to Tampico. Maybe such a trip is impracticable — impossible. Let’s find out more about the country.”
Hal appeared to take this in good spirit. The boys returned to the hotel and went to bed. Hal promptly fell asleep. But Ken Ward lay awake a long time thinking of the green Santa Rosa, with its magnificent moss-festooned cypresses. And when he did go to sleep it was to dream of the beautiful waterfowl with the white-crested wings, and he was following it on its wild flight down the dark, mysterious river-trail into the jungle.
CHAPTER II
THE HOME OF THE TARPON
HAL’S HOMESICKNESS MIGHT never have been in evidence at all, to judge from the way the boy, awakening at dawn, began to talk about the Santa Rosa trip.
“Well,” said Ken, as he rolled out of bed, “I guess we’re in for it.”
“Ken, will we go?” asked Hal, eagerly.
“I’m on the fence.”
“But you’re leaning on the jungle side?”
“Yes, kid — I’m slipping.”
Hal opened his lips to let out a regular Hiram Bent yell, when Ken clapped a hand over his mouth.
“Hold on — we’re in the hotel yet.”
It took the brothers long to dress, because they could not keep away from the window. The sun was rising in rosy glory over misty lagoons. Clouds of creamy mist rolled above the broad Panuco. Wild ducks were flying low. The tiled roofs of the stone houses gleamed brightly, and the palm-trees glistened with dew. The soft breeze that blew in was warm, sweet, and fragrant.
After breakfast the boys went out to the front and found the hotel lobby full of fishermen and their native boatmen. It was an interesting sight, as well as a surprise, for Ken and Hal did not know that Tampico was as famous for fishing as it was for hunting. The huge rods and reels amazed them.
“What kind of fish do these fellows fish for?” asked Hal.
Ken was well enough acquainted with sport to know something about tarpon, but he had never seen one of the great silver fish. And he was speechless when Hal led him into a room upon the walls of which were mounted specimens of tarpon from six to seven feet in length and half as wide as a door.
“Say, Ken! We’ve come to the right place. Those fishermen are all going out to fish for such whales as these here.”
“Hal, we never saw a big fish before,” said Ken. “And before we leave Tampico we’ll know what it means to hook tarpon.”
“I’m with you,” replied Hal, gazing doubtfully and wonderingly at a fish almost twice as big as himself.
Then Ken, being a practical student of fishing, as of other kinds of sport, began to stroll round the lobby with an intent to learn. He closely scrutinized the tackle. And he found that the bait used was a white mullet six to ten inches long, a little fish which resembled the chub. Ken did not like the long, cruel gaff which seemed a necessary adjunct to each outfit of tackle, and he vowed that in his fishing for tarpon he would dispense with it.
Ken was not backward about asking questions, and he learned that Tampico, during the winter months, was a rendezvous for sportsmen from all over the world. For the most part, they came to catch the leaping tarpon; the shooting along the Panuco, however, was as well worth while as the fishing. But Ken could not learn anything about the Santa Rosa River. The tierra caliente, or hot belt, along the curve of the Gulf was intersected by small streams, many of them unknown and unnamed. The Panuco swung round to the west and had its source somewhere up in the mountains. Ken decided that the Santa Rosa was one of its headwaters. Valles lay up on the first swell of higher ground, and was distant from Tampico some six hours by train. So, reckoning with the meandering course of jungle streams, Ken calculated he would have something like one hundred and seventy-five miles to travel by water from Valles to Tampico. There were Indian huts strung along the Panuco River, and fifty miles inland a village named Panuco. What lay between Panuco and Valles, up over the wild steppes of that jungle, Ken Ward could only conjecture.
Presently he came upon Hal in conversation with an American boy, who at once volunteered to show them around. So they set out, and were soon becoming well acquainted. Their guide said he was from Kansas; had been working in the railroad offices for two years; and was now taking a vacation. His name was George Alling. Under his guidance the boys spent several interesting hours going about the city. During this walk Hal showed his first tendency to revert to his natural bent of mind. Not for long could Hal Ward exist without making trouble for something. In this case it was buzzards, of which the streets of Tampico were full. In fact, George explained, the buzzards were the only street-cleaning department in the town. They were as tame as tame turkeys, and Hal could not resist the desire to chase them. And he could be made to stop only after a white-helmeted officer had threatened him. George explained further that although Tampico had no game-laws it protected these buzzard-scavengers of the streets.
The market-house at the canal wharf was one place where Ken thought Hal would forget himself in the bustle and din and color. All was so strange and new. Indeed, for a time Hal appeared to be absorbed in his surroundings, but when he came to a stall where a man had parrots and raccoons and small deer, and three little yellow, black-spotted tiger-cats, as George called them, then once more Ken had to take Hal in tow. Outside along the wharf were moored a hundred or more canoes of manifold variety. All had been hewn from solid tree-trunks. Some were long, slender, graceful, pretty to look at, and easy to handle in shallow lagoons, but Ken thought them too heavy and cumbersome for fast water. Happening just then to remember Micas Falls, Ken had a momentary chill and a check to his enthusiasm for the jungle trip. What if he encountered, in coming down the Santa Rosa, some such series of cascades as those which made Micas Falls!
It was about noon when George led the boys out to the banks of the broad Panuco. Both Hal and Ken were suffering from the heat. They had removed their coats, and were now very glad to rest in the shade.
“This is a nice cool day,” said George, and he looked cool.
“We’ve got on our heavy clothes, and this tropic sun is new to us,” replied Ken. “Say, Hal—”
A crash in the water near the shore interrupted Ken.
“Was that a rhinoceros?” inquired Hal.
“Savalo,” said George.
“What’s that?”
“Silver king. A tarpon. Look around and you’ll see one break water. There are some fishermen trolling down-stream. Watch. Maybe one will hook a fish presently. Then you’ll see some jumping.”
It was cool in the shade, as the brothers soon discovered, and they spent a delightful hour watching the river and the wild fowl and the tarpon. Ken and Hal were always lucky. Things happened for their benefit and pleasure. Not only did they see many tarpon swirl like bars of silver on the water, but a fisherman hooked one of the great fish not fifty yards from where the boys sat. And they held their breath, and with starting eyes watched the marvelous leaps and dashes of the tarpon till, as he shot up in a last mighty effort, wagging his head, slapping his huge gills, and flinging the hook like a bullet, he plunged back free.
“Nine out of ten get away,” remarked George.
“Did you ever catch one?” asked Hal.
“Sure.”
“Hal, I’ve got to have some of this fishing,” said Ken. “But if we start at it now — would we ever get that jungle trip?”
