INTO THE UNKNOWN
"Well, Doctor," announced Schoverling the next morning, "How near through are you? The sooner we get off the better."
"I will be through to-morrow night," said von Hofe contentedly. "The skins have been pared down to the right thickness, and to-day and to-morrow they will be fixed up and sent off. What does the country look like ahead?"
"It looks like several weeks of rough work," smiled the explorer. "We'll have no trouble in getting on, at least for the present. When we strike down into the plains on the north, however, we may have a harder time. But there are fig-trees in plenty, and on the northern rivers cabbage palms and other wild fruits which ought to supply us. Then we can count on leaving on the third morning?"
Von Hofe nodded, and fell to work. The sections of skins were set out on the ground and by this time were well dried, while their superfluous thickness had been pared off by scores of Kikuyu and Masai knives. Now the doctor mixed gourd after gourd of his preparative, and set the natives to work rubbing it into the under side of the skins.
At one side stood the skulls and a few other bones, boiled clear of all flesh and varnished. These, with the tusks of the bull, the doctor began packing up while the skins were being attended to. Guru and the other Indians did all this work with great care, to the entire satisfaction of the scientist. Then the well-wrapped packages were slung to poles, for greater safety and more ease in carriage, and by evening were ready.
The boys pitched in and gave good assistance in this work, directing the natives in putting on coat after coat of preservative and rubbing it in well. But von Hofe was everywhere, mixing his chemicals, seeing that everything was done exactly as he wished it, and seemingly endowed with superhuman energy.
"He's no slouch when he gets a-going," murmured Charlie that night, as von Hofe was getting his sketches and films into shape for packing.
"He's done more hustling to-day than on all the rest of the trip put together."
"That's no lie," agreed Jack. "I kind of thought the old boy was a bluff, at first. But he's all to the good, Chuck. Shouldn't wonder if he surprised us a heap later on."