These calls and answers soon brought Coffee and Chicory to the mouth of the pitfall, closely followed by Mr Rogers and the boys, and amongst them by help of their guns the unfortunate General reached the track in safety, and leaving the hyaena dead, they set off back to the waggon, the General congratulating himself on having escaped from a terrible death.
Chapter Thirty.
The King’s Hunting-Party.
There was no mistaking the joy of Coffee and Chicory at finding their father safe and sound, and they showed it by performing some most ridiculous antics, making even the stern warrior smile with satisfaction.
Mr Rogers also noticed it a good deal, and from that time the two Zulu boys stood far higher in his estimation than of old.
They had a visit at the camp that morning from the king, one of the first of whose questions, as he partook of a sugar-stick with great gusto, was, had they heard the hippopotami shouting in the night, and were they frightened?
Both Dick and Jack declared that they were not in the least alarmed; and thereupon the king, who seemed to get on far better with them than with their father, proposed that they should come up the little river, and see his warriors hunt the great river-horse.
Mr Rogers consented with a nod; and taking their rifles, the boys accompanied the king back to the town, where, orders being given, his majesty’s big canoe was prepared, and half-a-dozen great hunters, armed with throwing-spears, each entered a canoe of his own—a frail rickety-looking affair, that threatened to turn over at any moment, even with the weight of one man, but which its occupant sent through the water at a famous rate, by his clever management of a long paddle.