“Och, ye murtherer! would ye attimpt that same?” cried Barney, catching the man by the wrist and hurling him on his back.  The other sprang up on being thus unexpectedly freed, and darted away, while the thwarted man uttered a yell of disappointment and sprang like a tiger at Barney’s throat.  A blow, however, from the Irishman’s fist, quietly delivered, and straight between the eyes, stretched the Brazilian on the ground.  At the same moment a party of men, attracted by the cries, burst through the bushes and surrounded the successful champion.  Seeing their countryman apparently dead upon the ground, they rushed upon Barney in a body; but the first who came within reach was floored in an instant, and the others were checked in their career by the sudden appearance of the hermit and Martin Rattler.  The noise of many voices, as of people hastening towards them, was heard at the same time.

“We have no time to lose, do as I bid you,” whispered the hermit.  Whirling a heavy stick round his head the hermit shouted the single word “Charge!” and dashed forward.

Barney and Martin obeyed.  Three Brazilians went down like ninepins; the rest turned and fled precipitately.

“Now, run for life!” cried the hermit, setting the example.  Barney hesitated to follow what he deemed a cowardly flight, but the yells of the natives returning in strong force decided the question.  He and Martin took to their heels with right good will, and in a few minutes the three friends were far on the road which led to their night bivouac; while the villagers, finding pursuit hopeless, returned to the village, and continued the wild orgies of their festa.

CHAPTER XIV

COGITATIONS AND CANOEING ON THE AMAZON—­BARNEY’S EXPLOIT WITH AN ALLIGATOR—­STUBBORN FACTS—­REMARKABLE MODE OF SLEEPING

It is pleasant, when the sun is bright, and the trees are green, and when flowering shrubs and sweet-smelling tropical trees scent the balmy atmosphere at eventide, to lie extended at full length in a canoe, and drop easily, silently, yet quickly, down the current of a noble river, under the grateful shadow of overhanging foliage; and to look lazily up at the bright blue sky which appears in broken patches among the verdant leaves; or down at the river in which that bright sky and those green leaves are reflected; or aside at the mud-banks where greedy vultures are searching for prey, and lazy alligators are basking in the sun; and to listen, the while, to the innumerable cries and notes of monkeys, toucans, parrots, orioles, bemtevi or fly-catchers, white-winged and blue chatterers, and all the myriads of birds and beasts that cause the forests of Brazil, above all other forests in the world probably, to resound with the gleeful songs of animated nature!