Chapter Twelve.
Life in the Wild.
Dawn of the following morning, which in that latitude preceded the rising of the sun by but a bare quarter of an hour, witnessed the awakening of the white men’s camp to a scene of brisk activity; for the after-dinner conversation of the previous evening between Dick and Grosvenor had resulted in their arrival at a decision to make an immediate start on the long trek which they hoped would end in their discovery of the mysterious white race, which rumour persistently asserted to exist somewhere in the far interior of the great Dark Continent, and the approximate situation of which they had gleaned from their friend Mitchell, the Natal sugar planter.
Breakfast was soon over; and while Jantje and ’Nkuku were away, rounding-up the cattle and driving them in, preparatory to inspanning, Dick and Grosvenor opened a case and proceeded to reward munificently the gang of Makolo labourers who had helped them in the acquisition of the rubies, with a generous distribution of beads, brass wire, empty tobacco tins, lengths of coloured print, and toys, finally dismissing them happy in the possession of what, to these simple savages, was wealth beyond anything that they had ever ventured to dream of. Then, the cattle being inspanned, the little party headed away inland, in a north-westerly direction, striking a small stream by which they outspanned, three hours later. On that day week they struck a river of some importance flowing through an exceedingly fertile country abounding in game, and the upward course of this river they followed for the next eight days, although it led them somewhat out of their way; for they found, upon scouting in the direction which they wished to pursue, that their direct course would soon carry them into an arid, waterless district, infested, moreover, by tsetse fly, to enter which would infallibly result in a serious loss of cattle. And the preservation of their cattle was now, or very soon would be, a matter of vital importance to them.
At length the two leaders of the expedition, industriously scouting daily toward the direction in which they wished to travel, found that they had reached a point where it would be safe for them to leave the river and strike away toward the west and north-west, and they immediately did so, the country in that direction being free from fly, and consisting of wide-rolling plateaux, rising one beyond another, somewhat like broad, shallow steps, with a solitary, lofty hill rising in the extreme distance. This district was well watered by a number of tiny rivulets, and was clothed with rich young grass thickly dotted with clumps of mimosa, palmetto, and other tropical growth, amid which game of various kinds could be seen moving, including a small herd of giraffes.
This was much too good an opportunity to be missed. The friends therefore, after taking careful note of the spot where the immense animals were feeding, returned to the wagon and, having provided themselves with an abundant supply of ammunition, changed their saddles from the horses that they had hitherto been riding to the two which had been presented to them by King Lobelalatutu, and cantered off, after giving Mafuta - whom they left in charge of the wagon and stock—strict injunctions to make for a certain indicated spot, and there outspan and await them.
The light breeze which was blowing happened to be favourable to their approach, and they had arrived within a hundred yards of the large clump of mimosa in which they had last seen the giraffes feeding, when a heavy swishing and crashing of branches caused them to draw rein; and the next moment an enormous elephant emerged from the thicket, and stood looking about him as he flourished a great branch of foliage in his trunk, with which he seemed to be keeping the flies at bay. For a few seconds he seemed to be unaware of the presence of the hunters, and stood angrily switching the branch about his head and back, grunting and grumbling to himself, as though he was not in precisely the best of tempers. He was an immense tusker, by far the biggest that the travellers had thus far encountered, and that he was the hero of many battles seemed evident, for both his tusks were broken off short, leaving only about a foot of jagged ivory protruding from each jaw. The first impulse of the two hunters was to swing themselves gently out of their saddles and take a shot at him, for the huge beast was standing in a very favourable position, nearly broadside on; but Grosvenor, happening to notice the broken tusks, settled back into his seat again, murmuring, as he did so:
“Let’s leave the poor beggar alone, Dick; he’s not worth shooting. See his tusks?”
It was practically impossible for the animal to have heard Grosvenor’s voice, for he purposely spoke in low tones, in order to avoid attracting the elephant’s attention; yet as the words were spoken the huge brute faced sharply round toward the two horsemen, and stood attentively regarding them for a moment. Then, tossing aside the branch with which he had been whisking himself, he threw up his trunk, and, trumpeting savagely, charged straight toward them.
“No use waiting; let’s scatter!” shouted Grosvenor, and, obedient to a touch of the heel and bridle, the two magnificent horses which the friends bestrode swerved round as though upon pivots, and dashed off in a direction at right angles to each other. For an instant the great beast seemed disconcerted at this manoeuvre, and appeared unable to make up his mind which enemy he would pursue, first following one of them for a yard or two, and then turning in pursuit of the other; but presently it seemed to dawn upon him that he could not possibly hope to overtake both, and his final choice was Grosvenor, whom he settled down to chase in grim earnest, his long trunk outstretched to its utmost limit, his immense ears flapping furiously, and his small eyes sombre with concentrated hatred. As soon as Dick saw that the brute had definitely marked down Grosvenor as his prey he turned his bridle and rode in a direction parallel with that which was being followed by pursued and pursuer, and began to shout loudly, in the hope of again causing the elephant to hesitate, even if he could not altogether divert him from his pursuit of Grosvenor; but the ruse was vain, the monster glanced viciously once in Dick’s direction, but refused to be diverted from his fell purpose.
At the beginning of this singular race there had not been the slightest doubt in Dick’s mind as to its ultimate result; he felt absolutely confident that, suberbly mounted as they were, they would be able to gallop away from their pursuer and elude him with the utmost ease; but now, to his consternation, he began to realise that, so far at least as Grosvenor was concerned, escape was distinctly doubtful, unless something could be done toward altering the existing conditions. For, strong and speedy as were the horses, they were frightfully handicapped in the race by the grass, which at this particular spot happened to be unusually long—reaching as high as the horses’ shoulders—tough, and tangled, rendering it exceedingly difficult for them to force a passage through it, while to the huge bulk and momentum of the elephant it seemed to offer no obstacle at all. The great beast was rapidly gaining upon Grosvenor, and as rapidly forging ahead of Dick, upon whom it began to dawn that, unless something were speedily done to prevent it, a tragedy must inevitably ensue.
He looked anxiously about him, and saw that, at a distance of about a mile, the patch of long rank grass came to an end and was succeeded by short smooth turf, over which the going would be everything that could be desired; but it was much too distant to be of any service in the present emergency. For the elephant was gaining at every stride and must inevitably overtake the fugitive long before he could reach it, while the horses were already beginning to show signs of distress as they plunged panting through the obstructing tangle, in the midst of which they were constantly stumbling as their outflung feet encountered, and were caught in, some especially tough patch of the knotted vegetation.
What was to be done? Something; and that right quickly if— As the thought was flashing through Dick’s brain he saw his friend’s horse stumble heavily, make a desperate effort to recover himself, and finally roll over and disappear completely with his rider in the dense ocean of greenish-grey vegetation, while the elephant, a bare fifty yards in the rear, threw up his outstretched trunk and trumpeted a loud blast of savage exultation. There was now but one thing to
be done, and the only question in Dick’s mind was whether there was time enough left and, excited as he was, whether he had the necessary steadiness of hand to do it. But it must be attempted, at any rate, so, unslinging his rifle, he set it at full cock as he galloped, held it pistol-wise in his hand, pointed it full at the huge bulk of the elephant, and pulled the trigger. The jar of the recoil nearly dislocated his elbow, and for a fraction of a second he feared that all was lost. But even as the fear gripped his heart, turning him sick and faint, the enormous beast suddenly halted, swayed unsteadily for a moment on his great pillar-like legs, and then collapsed in a heap. As he did so Dick, to his intense relief, saw the prostrate horse and rider scramble to their feet almost within arm’s length of the fallen monster.
“Mount and ride, you duffer!” shrieked Dick, as he saw Grosvenor stand, apparently stupefied, staring at the prostrate beast; “he may be only stunned; and if he gets up again nothing can save you. Or, better still, empty your magazine into his skull as he lies.”
“There is no need, my dear chap,” answered Grosvenor calmly; “it would only be a sinful waste of valuable cartridges. The brute is as dead as mutton; your bullet caught him behind the ear all right, and is no doubt deeply embedded in his brain. It was a splendid shot, especially considering that it was fired from the saddle, and at full gallop too. I congratulate you on it, old man. And, before I forget it, let me thank you for saving my life. If you had not fired as promptly as you did he would have had me, sure as fate, and I should have been a goner—eh, what?”
Although Grosvenor spoke in a tone of light raillery it but thinly disguised the depth of feeling that stirred him, as Dick fully realised when he pulled up alongside his friend and they exchanged hand-grips. Lightly as he spoke of the incident, Phil knew right well that he was on the very edge of disaster at the moment that Dick pulled trigger, and though he would fain have treated the whole adventure as a joke he was none the less grateful to Dick for his timely intervention, and the pressure of his hand was quite as eloquent as much outpouring of words.
“By Jove,” exclaimed Dick, as he swung out of his saddle and loosened the girths, to enable his horse the more readily to recover his wind, “what a monster! He is far and away the biggest elephant that I have ever seen; and if his tusks had been unbroken they would have been a prize worth having, if only as curiosities. As it is, I don’t think it will be worth while to waste time in cutting out the stumps; do you? Poor beggar, he must have been suffering pretty badly from toothache; see how tremendously that left gum is swollen. That means an abscess at the root of the tusk that must have been dreadfully painful. No wonder that he was in such a dickens of a bad temper! Well, he is of no value to us, except as a contribution to our larder, so we may as well be going. We will mark the spot where he lies, and send Mafuta and Jantje for one of his feet, which will furnish us with an epicurean dinner to-night. And now I suppose we may as well go and look for the wagon, for of course the giraffes cleared out directly the rumpus began.”
They camped that night in the midst of a wide plateau dotted here and there with low kopjes of outcropping granite, and clothed for the most part with melkboom interspersed with patches of low thornbush and sun-dried grass; and, from the fact that they had met with no water since noon, they greeted with much satisfaction the discovery of a shallow water-hole of some two acres in extent, within about half a mile of which they outspanned for the night, an hour before sunset. They did not care to approach nearer to the water than this, for upon inspecting the place they became aware, from the spoor in the mud all round the margin, that it was the favourite if not the only drinking place for all the animals in the neighbourhood, and past experienced had taught them that the nocturnal sounds emanating from such a spot were the reverse of favourable to sleep. Moreover, they had detected among the most recent spoor that of lions; and for the sake of their cattle they preferred to keep at a respectful distance from a place frequented by such formidable animals.
At one spot this miniature lake was bordered by a patch of reeds of considerable extent, which looked as though it might harbour a few wild duck; therefore, as soon as the wagon was outspanned, the two friends took their shot guns and a couple of dogs which had manifested some talent at retrieving, and made their way toward the reeds, warning Jantje to be careful to water the cattle as far as possible from the spot toward which they were making. Leo, the lion cub, by this time very nearly half-grown, would fain have accompanied the sportsmen, for he had developed an extraordinary attachment to both of his white masters. He loved nothing better than to accompany them on their rambles, and was as obedient as any of the dogs, with whom he was on the best of terms; but it was deemed best on this occasion that he should be taken to water on a leash, with the cattle, and return with them to the wagon. He was therefore left behind, much to his disgust.
Choosing what seemed to be advantageous positions, the two sportsmen, each accompanied by a dog, carefully ambushed themselves among the reeds at a distance of about a hundred yards from each other and, crouching low, patiently awaited the course of events. They had not long to wait for proof of the soundness of their judgment, for they had not been in position more than half an hour—by which time the sun, magnified to twice his size by the evening vapours through which he glowed, palpitating like a ball of white-hot steel, hung upon the very edge of the horizon—when a whirring of wings warned them to be on the alert, and a moment later a flock of some fifty teal, which must have been feeding on some far-off marsh during the day, settled down upon the surface of the water, with much splashing and loud quacks of satisfaction at having once more reached what they doubtless believed to be a haven of safety. But if they really entertained any such belief they were most deplorably mistaken, for that fate which rules the destiny of wild duck ordained that they should settle on the precise patch of water that was fully commanded by both sportsmen, and some three seconds later both guns spoke practically at the same instant, and up went the teal again with a great whir of wings and loud cries of consternation, leaving behind them a round dozen or more of dead and wounded floating upon the rippled surface of the water.
By the time that the whole of the “bag” had been retrieved the dusk was deepening into darkness, and star after star was twinkling into view from the vast, cloudless, purple dome above. The two friends, therefore, scrambled forth from their hiding places and, perfectly satisfied with themselves and all things else, prepared to make their way back to the wagon.
They had not progressed above two dozen paces beyond the margin of the reeds, however, when Grosvenor, who was leading the way along a narrow track through the coarse grass, uttered a sharp ejaculation, and halted suddenly in his tracks, the next moment stamping violently on something just before him.
“What is the matter, old chap?” demanded Dick, stepping quickly to his friend’s side.
“Snake!” replied Grosvenor briefly, and in a rather tremulous tone of voice; “trod on him—unintentionally of course—and the beggar turned sand bit me. Take that—and that—and that, you brute—”
“Where is the thing?” demanded Dick anxiously.
“There,” responded Grosvenor, pointing to a writhing, twisting something that squirmed on the grass as he ground the heel of his heavy boot on it.
“Take your foot away, man, and let me have a look at it,” commanded Dick; and as the other did as he was ordered Maitland bent down and directed a quick, keen glance at the reptile, about six inches of whose body was crushed almost to a jelly. Then, quickly pinning the flat, heart-shaped head to the ground with the muzzle of his gun, he pulled the trigger, and thus effectually put an end to the creature’s existence. With the barrel of his weapon he deftly whisked the still writhing body half a dozen yards away into the long grass, and then turned sharply to his friend.
“Sit down, old chap, quick,” he said, “and show me where you were bitten.”
Somewhat startled by his companion’s abrupt manner, Grosvenor seated himself on the ground and drew up his left trouser leg, pulled down his sock, and revealed two small punctures close together in the lower part of the calf of the leg, barely visible in the fast-decreasing light.
“I see,” ejaculated Dick, fumbling in his waistcoat pocket as he spoke. “Take your pocket handkerchief, quick; tie it round your leg below the knee, and with the barrel of your revolver twist it as tight as you possibly can, tourniquet fashion, so as to stop the passage of the blood into your body. Now,” as he drew forth and opened a penknife, the blade of which he made a point of always keeping razor-keen, “I am going to hurt you a little bit, so set your teeth and bear it, old man.”
“All right; go ahead,” responded Grosvenor. “Was the brute venomous, then?”
“Can’t say,” responded Dick evasively, as he quickly slashed the flesh across and across over the two punctures; “but we are not taking any more chances to-day, my boy.”
The blood, instead of spurting from the knife wounds, oozed forth thick and sluggishly; whereupon Dick, without a second’s hesitation, applied his lips to the gashes, which were close together, and sucked strongly for about a quarter of an hour, spitting out the blood which gradually began to flow a little more freely. Finally, when the flow had ceased, he groped in his pocket and produced a small case containing a stick of lunar caustic; then from another pocket he drew forth a box of matches, which he handed to Grosvenor.
“I’ll relieve you of this,” he said, laying his hand upon the revolver, the barrel of which Phil had twisted in the handkerchief and had been holding in place all this while, “and you can start striking matches, so that I may see what I am doing.” Then, giving the revolver an extra twist or two, he pulled out his own handkerchief and deftly secured the weapon in place, after which he proceeded, by the light of the matches which Grosvenor struck, one after the other, carefully and thoroughly to cauterize the wounds.
“There,” he remarked cheerfully, with a sigh of relief as he finished his task, “that is as much as we can do here. The next thing is to get you back to the camp as soon as possible.”
“All right,” assented Grosvenor. “But,” he added, as he attempted to rise, “I’m afraid I shall have to get you to help me, old chap; I couldn’t possibly—”
“Of course you couldn’t,” responded Dick, “and I don’t mean that you shall try. Just sit where you are for a little while longer, and leave me to arrange things.” Therewith he drew a whistle from the pocket of his hunting shirt, and upon it blew three piercing blasts in quick succession that, in the breathless stillness of the night, might have been heard at least a mile away. He repeated the signal at brief intervals for about ten minutes, when answering shouts were heard, whereupon he drew three or four matches from the box, bunched them together, ignited them, and held the tiny torch aloft to guide Mafuta and Jantje, whose voices he recognised. A minute later they both arrived upon the scene, anxious to know what was amiss, and received Dick’s hurried explanation with many Au’s! of surprise and apprehension. Then, in obedience to his brief but concise instruction, they hurried away again at a run, to return with very commendable celerity, bearing Grosvenor’s hammock and a long pole, hacked from the nearest tree they could find. The hammock having been spread upon the ground, the patient was, under Dick’s anxious supervision, laid very carefully upon it, so that there might be as little movement of his body as possible; and finally, the hammock having been securely lashed to the pole, the whole was raised upon the shoulders of the two blacks and by them borne to the camp. Arrived there, the hammock was, still with the utmost gentleness and care, slung inside the tent, the lamp was lighted, and Dick proceeded to examine his patient afresh.
By this time the wounded limb had become terribly swollen, and Grosvenor complained of severe pain about the injured region. This, of course, was not to be wondered at, considering the rather heroic treatment to which the leg had been subjected, and Dick was not very greatly concerned about it. But what caused him to look very grave was the fact that his patient also complained of feeling cold, and manifested symptoms of approaching delirium, while his whole body was now beginning to be convulsed, at rapidly shortening intervals, by spasms of violent and uncontrollable twitching. Without wasting a moment Dick now had recourse to alcohol, freely dosing his patient with neat brandy, in the hope of inducing a condition of intoxication—for he knew that if he could succeed in this the excess of alcohol in the system would neutralise the venom, and his patient would be saved. But it was not until he had administered nearly a quart of the spirit that the desired symptoms began to appear; and it was long past midnight before the twitching convulsions entirely ceased and the patient sank into a deathlike sleep; by this time also the swelling of the limb was perceptibly subsiding; and when at length Dick turned down the lamp and disposed himself to take such rest as he might be able to snatch in a folding chair by the side of his friend’s hammock, he had the satisfaction of knowing that the crisis was past and Phil would live.
Up to this moment the young doctor had been far too busy and altogether too deeply preoccupied in attending upon his patient to give any attention to, or indeed be more than vaguely aware of, what was happening outside the tent, although there certainly had been moments when sounds of a more than usually alarming character had reached his ears so distinctly and obtrusively as partially to distract his attention for the fraction of a second or so; but now that Grosvenor was asleep and safe, and Dick began to feel that he also would be the better for a little rest, outside sounds began to obtrude themselves upon him with a force and persistency that would not be denied, and he awoke to a consciousness of the fact that something quite out of his ordinary experience was happening.
At first he was disposed to attribute the babel of sound that reached his ears to the fact that the party were outspanned in close—almost too close—proximity to the only water that, so far as he knew, existed for many miles round, and which was consequently the regular drinking place for every living creature in the neighbourhood, as he and his chum had already ascertained. Indeed the incessant bellowing, snorting, trumpeting, roaring, splashing, and squealing that, slightly mellowed by distance, penetrated to the interior of the tent, was quite enough to justify such an idea. But he had scarcely settled himself in his chair beside Grosvenor’s hammock, and closed his eyes in the hope of wooing sleep to them, than he became aware of other and nearer sounds, dominating the first, the sound of crackling flames, frequent low, muttered ejaculations, the occasional soft thud and swish of feet running through long grass, followed by a shout or two which was almost invariably responded to by a low, angry snarl, while the clashing of horns, the rattling of the trek chain, the almost continuous lowing and moaning of the oxen, the stamping of the horses tethered to the wagon, and the whining of the dogs, indicated the extreme restlessness and uneasiness of the animals. The disturbance was so much greater than usual that Dick finally felt called upon to investigate. So, rising from his chair, he cast a quick glance at his patient which assured him that all was well there, and then, raising the flap of the tent, stepped forth into the open air.
The first sight that greeted him was that of about a dozen fires arranged in a circle round about the tiny camp, in the ruddy-yellow, flickering glare of which he saw Mafuta, Jantje, and ’Nkuku flitting hither and thither, tending the fires and feeding them from an enormous stack of thorns and branches piled up near the wagon, while Ramoo Samee, the Indian groom, stood with the horses, talking to them, caressing them, and soothing their excitement by every means in his power. Most of the oxen, instead of lying down, were on their feet, their tails swishing agitatedly from side to side, their heads turning quickly this way and that, their ears twitching, their nostrils distended, sniffing the air, their hoofs stamping the earth impatiently, while their eyes glowed and shone in the light of the fires, and ever and anon one or another of them would throw up his head and give vent to a low, moaning bellow, which told, as eloquently as words, their state of terror. As for the dogs, they were all huddled together beneath the wagon, shivering with fear, their tails between their legs, and their lips drawn back, revealing their fangs, in a sort of snarling grin. Leo was the only animal who did not seem very greatly perturbed, but even he was awake, and lay crouching at the extreme end of his tether, his eyes lambently aglow, and his tail softly beating the earth now and then.
“Ho there, Mafuta!” called Dick, as he stood taking in the scene and admiring the generally romantic effect of it all—the glowing fires, the wavering columns of smoke, the uneasy animals, the flitting figures, the great bulk of the wagon with its white canvas tent aglow with the firelight, and the mellow stars raining down their soft radiance; “what is all the disturbance about?”
“Lions, baas,” answered the Kafir as he paused for a moment, his arms filled with a great bundle of branches which he was carrying to the fires, and his great bronze body shining with perspiration; “we are beset by them; and if the fires were allowed to die down they would rush in upon us, and kill or stampede the whole of the oxen and horses. See there—and there—and there,” he added, pointing into the darkness beyond the glow of the fires.
Dick looked, but could at first see nothing, his eyes as yet being dazzled by the light of the flames, but presently, looking in the direction toward which Mafuta pointed, he caught sight of first one pair of greenishyellow orbs, and then another, and another, gleaming out of the darkness, until finally he counted no less than seven pairs of eyes, all intently staring inward. By the flitting to and fro of some of these pairs of eyes Dick perceived that certain of the lions were regularly making the circuit of the camp, some in one direction, some in the other, apparently searching for an unguarded spot at which they might venture to make a dash; but there were three pairs of eyes that remained stationary, as though their owners were patiently awaiting a signal of some sort. These, Dick decided, were the most dangerous of their foes, and at the same time the most easy to deal with, because of their immovability; so, returning to the tent he first cast a quick glance at the still soundly sleeping form of Grosvenor. Then he took up his bandolier, threw it over his shoulder and adjusted it in position, seized his rifle and satisfied himself that it was fully loaded, and again made his way outside.
It took a minute or two for his eyes again to adjust themselves to the peculiar conditions of the light, but presently he again caught sight of one of the motionless pairs of eyes, and, sinking upon one knee, he raised his rifle to his shoulder, carefully brought its two sights accurately in line with a point midway between the two glowing orbs, and pressed the trigger. The sharp, whip-like crack of the weapon was answered by several low, snarling growls, and a swishing of the grass suggestive of several heavy bodies bounding away through it, while the stationary and moving pairs of eyes vanished, as if by magic; and a minute or two later some four or five of the oxen lay down where they were tethered to the trek chain, with a sigh of obvious relief.
“They are gone, baas,” remarked Mafuta, as he again passed with more fuel; “but we must keep up the fires; for they are almost certain to come back again. They are young lions who have been driven away from the pool, and not allowed to hunt there by the old ones, and they are hungry. Yes, they will come back again; and you will perhaps have to kill two or three more before they will go away and leave us alone.”
“Do you think, then, that I got the fellow I fired at?” demanded Dick.
“Yes, baas,” answered Mafuta with confidence. “I heard the bullet strike. You will find the beast, dead, out there, when the day breaks. But see, yonder, baas, they are slinking back; there is one pair of eyes over there, and I saw another in that direction—yes, there they are again. Ah! now they are gone—but, look there, baas, see you those two pairs? No, no, do not shoot yet; wait until they come quite close; then—shoot and kill. Where is that schelm, Jantje, and why is he not feeding the fires? If they are not kept up we shall yet lose half our oxen!”