The boy explorers in darkest New Guinea — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The boy explorers in darkest New Guinea
John Stuart Mill · en
The curator put some brandy to Baderoon’s lips and the “boy” revived.
The first thing he felt for was the tin mirror in his nose. Finding
this still there, he sank back with a sigh of relief.
“There! That’s fine!” encouraged the curator, holding up the Papuan’s
woolly head. “You-fellah come good-fellah soon, Baderoon! He’s got
quite a rap on the roof and he’s lost a lot of blood from that arrow
wound where it got torn out during the scrimmage. Get me my first-aid,
quick. He feels a lot better, now that he knows his charm is all
right!” he chuckled.
Baderoon opened his eyes and an irresistible grin cracked his thick
lips.
“No _kai-kai_ [eat] me-fellah! _Orang-kaya_ him go _Boom!--Boom!_--All
stop!” he grinned weakly, snapping all his fingers to imitate the
explosion.
“All right, boy,” beamed the curator. “You-fellah stop, quiet! Will
plenty debbil-debbil your arm,” he warned, producing the antiseptics.
He shot the iodine into the open wound, while Baderoon set his teeth
obediently, enduring the pain as best he could. Then his master wrapped
on the gauze and bandages and hung the arm in a sling, and they all
went out, leaving the native resting easily on a bench, afraid to touch
his bandages under fear of the _orang-kaya’s_ displeasure.
The proa was bowling along up the lagoon, sailing farther and farther
in behind the Charles Louis Mountains as they looked about them. A
large river flowed in up at the head of the lagoon, they knew, but
the curator had decided to take the first creek mouth that looked
uninhabited on the mountain shore. Not a sign of a village or even a
canoe had they seen, so dense are the mangrove swamps. Finally a dent
in them, at the end of a long valley between two of the mountains, came
in sight. A careful search of the trees around it with the glasses
revealed no more native scouts. The curator judged that they had gotten
up to sparsely inhabited country, and the proa was nosed into a little
bay with the swift, clear water of the creek running into it. With
slack sheet she laid her prow into the mouth of it, the shores slipping
by close at hand.
He gave the order to go ashore, and, shouldering their packs, Nicky and
Dwight leaped into the jungle, followed by Sadok with a huge crate of
empty collection boxes on his back. Baderoon jumped next, able to walk
now, and carrying nothing but his bow and shield, a borrowed quiver
of arrows, and his captured war club. Then the curator turned to the
_jurugan_.
“Come back here in three weeks, Captain,” he said. “We’ll be here
waiting for you--or dead. Good-by, all! Nice fight, wasn’t it!” A
flash of grins swept the crew’s faces as he seized his light double
shotgun and jumped for the bank. The proa backed off and soon her sails
filled and she stood down the lagoon, bound for Aru.