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My sleep was disturbed that night by dreams of sea cows as big as elephants, orange-coloured birds in huge flocks, and golden-green quetzals flying round my head, with their yard-long tails spread out, and their scarlet breasts gleaming in the sunshine which flashed through my cabin window.
And that evening I feared for a moment that Pascoe was spoiled for me. He had admitted me to a close view of some secret treasured charms of his memory, and believing that I was not uninterested, now, of course, he would be always displaying, for the ease of his soul, supposing we had a fellowship and a bond, his fascinating quetzals and Toltecs. Yet I never heard any more about them.
"No; but I'm not going to miss getting rare specimens, Nat. We may not find the quetzals, and we must not go back empty-handed. Is the anchor quite fast?" "Yes, uncle, perfectly," I said. "Then let's get what good birds we can while we're waiting. The sound of our guns may bring those fellows back."
"Yes," I said, on one of these occasions, "it is a glorious place, uncle, and anyone might make it a lovely garden with hardly any trouble; but I shouldn't like to live here after all." "Why?" he said. "You seem very hard to please." "The place isn't perfect, uncle," I said. "No place is, but I don't see much to find fault with. Oh, you mean that we can find no quetzals." "No, I did not," I said.
"That's it, sir; the doctor says they must be Caribs, and Caribs is cannibals, and we ought to go back." "So we will, Pete," I said, "when we have found the quetzals."
I did not reply, for I did not know which part of my uncle's remark to answer first; so I stared at the lovely little birds flitting about some flowers. "Steamer's getting a good way along," said my uncle, after a few minutes' silence. "Here, I must have two or three of those little beauties." "They're not quetzals, uncle," I said, smiling.
We stood together, leaning over the side and talking about our plans, which were to collect any new and striking birds that we could find, while specially devoting ourselves to shooting the quetzals, as they were called by the natives, the splendid trogons whose plumes were worn by the emperors of the past.
By the way, he did not seem to bear any malice." "Perhaps he will, uncle, when he knows I shot him." "Don't tell him, then. We'll all share the blame." "So you mean to stop here, then?" I said. "Yes, certainly, for the present. Why, if we were to begin to pack up, I daresay the next thing we should see would be a flock of quetzals flying about." "But suppose a whole tribe of Indians attack us?"
The great forest trees would be, I felt sure, full of the screaming parrot tribe, in their uniforms of leafy green, faced with orange, blue, and crimson; while, farther up the country, there would be the splendid quetzals, all metallic golden-green and scarlet. But I had little time for thought.
Ought not the quetzals to be found in a place like this?" "We are in their region, Nat," he replied, "and that is all I can say. We know so little about them, the skins having been mostly supplied by the Indians. But these rocks and patches of timber ought to be their home."
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