“Pigs, I suspect,” observed the padre. “We may shoot one or two, and they will prove a welcome addition to our larder.”
“Pigs they certainly are; but of a species which I have no wish to encounter unless I am safe out of their reach,” exclaimed the doctor. “My friends, it is no joke; if they once get up to us, we are as good as dead men. They are peccaries,—terrible little brutes, with tusks as sharp as lancets, savage as jaguars, and too stupid to know fear. Were we to shoot down half-a-dozen of them, the rest would come on as fiercely as at first. Here, señor padre, let me hoist you up into the fork of this tree. Don’t hesitate, as you value your life.”
Saying this, the doctor seized the padre round the legs, and together we lifted him up till his hands could reach a branch, when by further efforts we enabled him to seat himself safely in the tree.
We were going to follow, when the doctor remarked that it would be as well to divide our foes; and observing another tree at a little distance, he ran towards it, when, giving such a spring as I scarcely believed him capable of, he caught hold of a branch and hoisted himself up.
“Quick, quick, Barry!” he cried out, stooping down and giving me his hand.
Turning one glance over my shoulder, there I saw a herd of apparently harmless little pigs tearing
through the forest, as if possessed by some uncontrollable impulse. I had barely time to get my feet off the ground, with the doctor’s help, when a dozen or more, aiming at my legs, dashed their snouts against the trunk of the tree; and others, turning round, began leaping up at me, uttering all the time the most fearful grunts and squeaks, indicative of savage rage. As they did so they opened their jaws, exhibiting the sharp, terrible little tusks of which the doctor had spoken. The herd now divided; some, having espied or smelled out the padre, surrounded the tree in which he had taken refuge, while others endeavoured to reach us. Having my lance, which had assisted me in getting on to the branch, I darted it down and transfixed one of the fierce little monsters; but this produced not the slightest effect on the rest, even though the doctor fired and killed another. The padre, meantime, was blazing away, at each shot bringing down one of the peccaries besieging him; but the rest continued as furious as before the fall of their companions. There were a hundred or more, but as they kept rushing about it was difficult to count them. It was also clear that, unless we could manage to kill every one of them, it would be unsafe for us to descend from our perches. The question was, whether our powder and shot would last out the siege. That I might husband mine, I made good use of my lance, and was thankful that I had brought it.
“How are you getting on, señor padre?” shouted the doctor.
“I have killed a dozen; and I should be glad if I could get a few slices off one of them roasted, and handed up to me, for the exercise and excitement have increased my hunger wonderfully,” answered the padre; and he again fired, and sent a peccary rolling over on its back.