The Devil-Tree of El Dorado: A Novel. Aubrey Frank
declared. “He fairly fascinated me. I felt I should have to do anything he told me; even to taking my pistol and killing the first person I met. I do believe I should have done it – or any other out-of-the way thing. And he made you feel, too, as though you liked him so, that you longed to do any mortal thing you could to please him.”
“What’s his name?” asked Templemore.
“Monella.”
“Monella? Is that all? No other name?”
“None that I heard. And as to his nationality, I cannot even so much as guess. I have been in Central Africa, in Siam, in India, in China, in Russia, and have picked up a smattering of the languages of those countries; but this man jabbered away in all; additionally, he spoke French, German, Spanish and Portuguese, besides English. So much I know. How many more he speaks I can’t say.”
“Injun,” said Harry.
“Oh yes, I forgot that. We had some of three different tribes with us, and he spoke to each in his own tongue.”
“And what is his object in going in for this Roraima exploration?” asked Mr. Kingsford.
“He has a curious theory. He declares that the ancient island-city of El Dorado – or Manoa – was not at the lower end or part of the Pacaraima mountains, as some have surmised, but at the further and highest point of the range, which is Roraima itself. He holds that the great lake or inland sea of Parima once washed around the bases of all those mountains, making islands of what are now their summits; and that the highest and most inaccessible of all, Roraima, was selected by the Manoans for their fastness, and for the site of their wonderful ‘Golden City.’”
“But that theory won’t help him to get up there, will it?” Jack asked.
“Ah, but there is something else. He states that he was brought up by some people, the last members of what had once been a nation, but has now died out. They lived in a secluded valley high up on the slopes of the Andes. He has travelled all over the world, and went back to these friends of his, only to find that they were all dead, save one, and that he was fast dying. This survivor gave him an ancient parchment with plans and diagrams, by means of which, it was declared, the top of the mountain can be reached, where will be found whatever traces may be left of the famous city of Manoa or El Dorado. This man, Monella, has other old parchments which he can read, but I could not – he showed me some – and from these he declared his belief that there is almost unlimited wealth to be gained by those who find the site of this wonderful city.”
All this time Leonard had been listening with sparkling eyes and flushed cheeks, though in silence. Here he glanced with a satisfied smile at Templemore, and said,
“There’s method in all that; at all events he is not undertaking the thing in a haphazard way and without something to go upon, that’s certain.”
Jack did not look hopeful.
“It is probably just as wild and hopeless an adventure all the same,” was his reply. “What ‘directions’ or ‘plans’ or ‘diagrams’ can help a man to-day after the lapse of hundreds and hundreds of years – even if they were reliable, and the old party who handed them over was not mad – as he probably was?”
“As to Monella,” observed the doctor, “I could see no sign of madness in him. He is one of the most intelligent, best-informed men I ever met. I cannot say anything, of course, of his informant.”
“Has he any money, do you suppose – this man?” Robert asked.
“I don’t know. But he pays the Indians well, and has got together a lot of stores, it seems; which must have been a costly thing to do. They have been brought over the mountains from Brazil. And he specially said you need not trouble to load yourself up with much in the way of stores – only sufficient to get to him. After that you will be all right. And he said nothing about money being wanted. But,” and here the doctor hesitated, “he is very particular as to the character and disposition of those he purposes to work with. In fact, he subjected me to a long sort of cross-examination respecting our friend Leonard here. He had already gained a lot of information about him from the old Indian nurse, it seemed, and I was surprised at the details he had picked up and remembered. In fact, Master Leonard,” continued the doctor, addressing the young man, “he seemed to know you almost as well as if he had lived with you for years. And your friend Mr. Templemore, too, he seemed to know about him, and to expect that he would join you.”
“How could that be?” Jack demanded.
“Oh, from the old nurse and Matava, I suppose.”
“To tell you the honest truth,” Harry interposed, “I believe there’s some hocus-pocus business about those two. She is reputed to be a witch, you know; not a bad witch, but a good sort. And I quite believe Monella to be a wizard; also of a good sort. And when those two laid their heads together, they could know a lot between them, I suspect. I should not at all wonder if he were not magician enough to lead you to the ‘golden castle,’ or ‘city,’ or whatever it is, and find its hidden stores of gold. I wish I had a chance to join him. But dad’s wanting me somewhere else. So I am out of it.”
“Yes,” observed his father. “We have to go on to Rio, where I have some law business on. But we shall not be away a great while, and then we are going back to that district.”
“Going back?” said Templemore in surprise.
“Yes, there is a lot to be done there. It is a wonderful place for my sort of work, and we really saw but very little of it after all. So we are going again when we return from Rio; but I cannot at all tell when that may be.”
The doctor was a fine-looking specimen of a hardy, bronzed traveller. He was, as has been said, over six feet in height; his hair and beard were iron-grey, his complexion was a little florid beneath its tan, and his expression good-humoured and often jovial. His son, Harry, was somewhat slight in build, but wiry, and had been used to knocking about with his father. He was a young fellow with boundless animal spirits and plenty of pluck and courage. His ready kindness to every one made him a general favourite; and the lively, captivating Stella and he were special friends.
Mr. Kingsford asked the doctor whether any time had been estimated for the length of the expedition.
“That would be difficult,” Dr. Lorien answered. “Apart from the long and tedious journey there, there is the girdle of forest that surrounds Roraima to be cut through. That may take months, I am told.”
“Months!” The exclamation came from Maud who, with Stella, had been a silent but appreciative listener.
“Yes. It is a curious thing, but this forest belt is never approached even by any of the Indian tribes. They look upon it with superstitious awe and will not even go near it. Indeed, they all regard Roraima with a sort of horror. They declare there is a lake on the top guarded by demons and large white eagles, and that it will never be gazed on by mortal eyes; that in the forest that surrounds it are monstrous serpents – ‘camoodis’ they call them – larger far than any to be found elsewhere in the land; besides these, there are ‘didis’, gigantic man-apes, bigger and more ferocious and formidable than the African gorilla. Altogether, this wood has a very bad reputation, and no Indian will venture near it. Indeed, the mountain of Roraima and all its surroundings are looked upon as weird and uncanny. As a former traveller has expressed it, ‘its very name has come to be surrounded by a halo of dread and indefinable fear.’”
“How, then, is the necessary road to be made through this promising bit of woodland?” asked Templemore.
“There has been Monella’s difficulty,” returned the doctor. “But for that, doubtless, he would not have troubled about any one else’s joining him. But, though he is very popular amongst the Indians, they cannot get over their fear of the ‘demons’’ wood, as they call it. They are, in fact, quite devoted to him, for he has done much that has made him both loved and feared – as one must always be to gain the real devotion of these people. He has effected many wonderful cures amongst them, I was told; but, more than that, he has saved the lives of two or three by acts of great personal courage. So that, at last, he even prevailed