Part 30 (1/2)
No landing was attempted, the experience they had gained making the travellers disposed to wait until more open country was reached and they could feel more secure.
The captain asked Briscoe what more he could wish for.
”If you take a boat it will only be to go up a small stream and look for curiosities. You can do that as well here on board the brig without f.a.gging the men with rowing along under the trees, where there is not a breath of air. Look yonder now: I don't suppose you'd see such a thing as that if you were rowing. The noise of the oars would make it dive and keep out of sight.”
”What is it?” said Brace: ”it looks like a buffalo bathing.”
”Not it, sir. Look again.”
”A dugong,” said Briscoe, c.o.c.king and raising his double rifle.
”Dugong or manatee. Sea-cows, we call 'em. Going to shoot it, sir?”
The American hesitated.
”It seems tempting,” he said; ”but I don't know. It's too big for a specimen.”
”And not very good to eat; at least, I don't suppose we should like it.”
”I've got it now,” said Brace, who had hurriedly adjusted his gla.s.s and was watching the huge creature, which kept on showing itself in a muddy bend of the river a few yards from the bank. ”It looks like a monstrous seal.”
”Something like a seal, squire, but I should say it was more like a walrus. It hasn't got the great tusks of the walrus, though. You can see it well, eh?”
”Capitally,” replied Brace. ”Not dangerous, are they?”
”Not that I ever heard of, squire. They're great stupid innocents, as far as I know. That one wouldn't wait for a boat to get anywhere near it; but if it did I daresay in its fright it might upset the craft. I fancy all they want is to be let alone. Pretty good size, eh?”
”Yes,” said Brace; ”I wish my brother were here to see it.”
”Very tempting for a shot,” said Briscoe, fingering his gun.
”Very,” said the captain sarcastically. ”Couldn't well miss it, sir, eh?”
”Oh, I daresay I could,” said the American; ”I'm very clever that way, skipper, sometimes. But there, I don't want to kill the poor thing.
Would you like to shoot, Brace Leigh?”
”No,” said the young man. ”It seems such a stupid, inoffensive-looking beast. I should like a shot at a jaguar or a leopard, and I could not resist having a shot at one of those loathsome old alligators if I saw one.”
”There you are then,” said Briscoe softly, as he pointed to what seemed to be a trunk of an old tree floating along not very far away from the brig between the verdant bank of the river and the side of the vessel.
Brace looked at it hard before he fully grasped what the object was, and then c.o.c.ked the left-hand barrel of his gun.
”Don't shoot,” said Briscoe. ”It is only waste of powder and bullet.”
”I could hit the brute without any trouble,” said Brace.
”I don't doubt that,” said the American; ”but the bullet will most likely glance off, while if it gets home the reptile will only sink.”
”So I suppose; but it will be one fewer of the savage beasts.”