The okapi! That strange new animal of which so much had been heard of
late in zoological and scientific circles, the existence of which had
been so absolutely asserted, and the creature itself so definitely
described, by certain travellers; but of which, thus far, not so much as
a single bone, or even a fragment of skin, had been forthcoming!
Sir Reginald instantly recognised the supreme importance of securing so
pricelessly valuable a specimen, and carefully levelled his rifle.
Kneeling on one knee, and resting his elbow on the other, with nerves as
firm and steady as steel, he brought the two sights of his weapon in one
upon a spot immediately behind the shoulder of the creature, as nearly
as he could guess at it in that awkward light, and pressed the trigger.
And at that precise moment a small stone under his heel slipped, and the
jar of the movement, slight as it was, communicated itself to the
weapon, causing the sights to swerve slightly out of line! An
expression of intense annoyance escaped his lips. Had he missed? No;
as the question presented itself to him he saw the animal throw up its
head, give a single bound forward, and roll over. But, as an
irrepressible shout of triumph was raised by the excited von
Schalckenberg, the watchers saw the quarry scramble to its feet and limp
off into the darkness of the forest, evidently pretty badly hurt.
"We must follow it up!" cried the professor, eagerly; "we must secure
it, at all costs. An okapi is worth a hundred other animals of any kind
that one can name. And that one is wounded; we have but to follow it,
and we are certain to find it, sooner or later. Come, my friends, let
us lose not a moment in pursuing it."
And utterly ignoring any further idea of concealment, forgetting also,
in the excitement of the moment, the imprudence, to say the least of it,
of attempting to pursue a wounded animal through the intricacies of a
dense forest, at night, and communicating his excitement to his
companions by his eager exclamations, the professor led the way out of
their ambush, dashing recklessly over rocks, loose boulders, and other
obstructions in his anxiety to arrive quickly at the spot where he hoped
to pick up the trail.
It took them but a few minutes to find the spot at which the okapi had
left the water, for the rocks were splashed with blood, leaving a clear
trail toward one of the innumerable alleys or "runs" through the forest
that debouched upon the drinking-place. But they had no sooner left the
open and entered the particular alley along which the animal had
retreated than they recognised the absolute hopelessness of attempting
to follow the blood-marks without artificial light of some sort. Sir
Reginald and Lethbridge, indeed, with a partial return to
reasonableness, suggested the abandonment of the chase for the night,
and a return to the _Flying Fish_ until the morning, when they could
come back to the spot, provided with everything necessary to enable them
to carry the pursuit to a successful issue. But von Schalckenberg
protested so vehemently against this course, urging with so much
plausibility the likelihood that the creature would drop exhausted
before it had run a mile, and that, if the search for it were left until
the morning, all that they would find of it would probably be its
mangled remains, so torn and mauled by other animals as to be utterly
valueless, that at length the others allowed themselves to be persuaded
against their better judgment. So gathering together such dry rushes
and other matters as could be converted into torches, they lighted
these, and with the illumination thus obtained, proceeded upon their
quest.
The fresh blood spoor was easily followed for the first half-mile or so,
at which point their hopes of success were stimulated by a sudden
scrambling sound at no great distance ahead of them, as though some
heavy animal had been startled by the light of their torches and the
noise of their approach, and had hastily betaken itself to flight.
Encouraged by the sounds, they hurried forward, and presently came upon
a small puddle of blood and a "form" in the thick carpet of ferns and
fallen leaves, with which the soil was covered, that plainly pointed to
the fact that the wounded animal had here sunk down to rest, and had
only just moved on again. This last impression was clearly borne out by
the circumstance that, even as the party bent over the spot, examining
it, the crushed ferns were slowly raising themselves again.
"Ah!" ejaculated von Schalckenberg, as he commented upon this, "the
chase will soon be over; we shall come up with him again within the next
ten minutes, and then he will not escape us."
The ten minutes, however, became twenty, and the twenty lengthened out
to forty, and still they had not overtaken the okapi, although they
frequently heard sounds at no great distance ahead which led them to
believe that they were close upon its heels. But they had been greatly
delayed by the constant necessity to pause while they renewed their
torches; and latterly the blood spoor had been steadily growing less
distinct. It appeared that the wound had almost ceased to bleed, and
this had greatly added to the difficulty of pursuit. Finally, the
blood-marks ceased altogether, and thenceforward they could do nothing
but press forward along what, in the uncertain light of their torches,
seemed to be the most well-defined track, finding encouragement for
their persistency in those occasional rustlings ahead of them. At
length, however, these also ceased, and when they had been plodding
doggedly forward for at least a quarter of an hour without hearing a
sound save that made by themselves, Lethbridge called a halt.
"Look here, you fellows," he said, "I don't want to discourage you--and
especially _you_, Professor--but don't you think this affair has gone
quite far enough? I am bitterly sorry and disappointed to be obliged to
say it, but I think there can be no doubt that we have lost that okapi.
Whether the poor beast has recovered sufficiently to have been enabled
to out-distance us, or whether, on the other hand, finding himself hard
pressed, he has made a dash ahead and then quietly slipped into cover
somewhere, I am not prepared to say, but I am morally convinced that we
shall not see him again. Now, if your opinion upon this matter is the
same as mine, I would suggest that we turn back forthwith, since nothing
is to be gained by going any farther forward, while there is just a
possibility that we may experience some difficulty in finding our way
back out of this maze."
It appeared that Sir Reginald was of the same opinion as Lethbridge.
Von Schalckenberg, on the other hand, was so absolutely certain that
they were still upon the track of the okapi, and that they would soon
come up with it, also that there would be no difficulty whatever in the
matter of finding their way back, that, as he explained, he felt quite
justified in urging the others to continue the pursuit, pleading at the
same time the folly of giving up, now that they had come so far, and
done so much. The result was that Sir Reginald and Lethbridge
ultimately yielded to the professor's entreaties, the baronet with a
certain amount of inward misgiving, and Lethbridge with a resigned shrug
of the shoulders.
The trail--or rather, what von Schalckenberg believed to be the trail--
was accordingly followed for another half-hour, but without the
discovery of any further sign of the okapi. And then a difficulty arose
in connection with the torches. There was nothing now available for
these but such dry twigs and branches as they could gather from the
ground, or the adjacent scrub, as they went; and while the small twigs
were so exceedingly combustible that they were consumed in a minute or
two, the larger ones refused to burn at all. And finally even the
professor himself at length very reluctantly came to the conclusion that
the okapi was irretrievably lost, and that to seek further for it would
but be a useless expenditure of time and energy.
With the arrival of the professor at this conclusion, and his admission
thereof, the party at once turned back and began to retrace their steps;
the difficulty with the torches increasing as they went. They struggled
on for a considerable time, however, von Schalckenberg leading the way,
until at length they came to a small open space in the centre of which
grew an enormous mahogany tree. With one accord the four men came to a
dead halt, regarding each other with an expression very nearly
approaching to consternation.
"We have missed our way," exclaimed Sir Reginald, with decision; "I am
certain that we never passed that tree on our outward journey."
The others were equally convinced of the truth of this, as also of
Lethbridge's terse statement that there was nothing for it but to try
back by the way that they had come until they again hit the right path.
But they decided that, before doing so, they would endeavour to provide
themselves with a good supply of torches, a large quantity of dry twigs
and branches from the mahogany tree offering them the opportunity to do
so, and the professor blaming the inadequacy of the light for his
mistake in having led them into a wrong path.
They accordingly spent the best part of an hour in this manner, by the
end of which they had as many torches--of a sort--as they could
conveniently carry. During this period the four men had been wandering
round and round the open space in which they had so unexpectedly found
themselves, seeking the most suitable material for their purpose; and
when at length they were ready to make a fresh start a question arose as
to the precise whereabouts of the spot at which they had entered. Each,
it appeared, had his own opinion, which differed from that of the
others; and when, in order to settle the question, they decided to
search for their own footprints as a guide, they made the disconcerting
discovery that the imprints were altogether too faint to be traceable by
such comparatively inexperienced trackers as themselves. Furthermore,
although before entering this open space it had appeared to them that
they had been following a tolerably well-defined path, or "run," now
that they came to look for such a thing it proved impossible to find
anything of the kind, an experimental advance of a few yards in any
given direction yielding a precisely similar impression. The final
conclusion arrived at was that, having once got out of the proper track,
they had not been following a path at all, but simply making their way
at haphazard between the innumerable patches of underscrub.
At this point Sziszkinski interposed with a remark that offered a
possible solution of the difficulty.
"I know not, gentlemen," he said, "whether any of you took particular
notice of the appearance of that mahogany tree at the moment when we
entered this enclosure; but my recollection of it is that, as we first
became aware of its presence, that big lower limb extended almost at
right angles to our track, pointing to our left. Carrying my memory
back to that moment, I think I must have been standing here, or
hereabout,"--placing himself in position to illustrate his remark--"and
facing this way. And if I am correct, that,"--as he faced right about
and pointed--"must be about the point at which we entered."
With their memories thus jogged, the other three men presently came to
the conclusion that the Russian was right; and starting afresh, upon
this assumption, they instituted a further and still closer search for
their own spoor, eventually finding certain faint and indefinite
indentations in the carpet of withered leaves which they agreed must be
their own footprints. Following these faint indications as well as they
could, they now pushed forward eagerly; for Sir Reginald had by this
time become seriously apprehensive that they might not get back to the
_Flying Fish_ by breakfast-time, in which case he knew that those left
behind on board her would quickly become alarmed, and suffer much
distress at the non-appearance of the absentees. And a gratifying
assurance that they were going right was afforded the wanderers, about
half an hour after their departure from the mahogany tree, by the
discovery of the charred remains of one of the torches that had helped
to light them on their way.
This discovery put fresh heart into the little party; for if they had
come thus far all right there was no reason, they told themselves, why
they should not keep right, and soon hit the track back to the
drinking-place. Then they found another charred brand, and another; and
now, quite happy in the assurance that they were passing back over
ground that they had already traversed, they pressed forward
light-heartedly enough until, after the lapse of nearly another
half-hour, Lethbridge again damped their ardour by saying--
"Look here, you fellows, doesn't it strike you that we are going a
little too fast? It must be nearly half an hour since we passed the
remains of that last torch; and I have not yet seen another. Have any
of you? Because, if you haven't, we are going wrong again! The best of
those things only lasted about ten minutes, you know."
This was perfectly true, and the inference drawn by the ex-colonel was
so obvious that, without pausing to discuss the matter, they at once
wheeled round and proceeded to retrace their steps. But although each
one of them felt convinced that they were really going back again over
precisely the same ground that they had already traversed, that last
relic of a torch was not again encountered; and at length, having
wandered on for another hour or more, in the hope of getting back to the
mahogany tree, from which to make a fresh start, the alarming conviction
forced itself upon them that they were _lost_--utterly lost in this
great illimitable African forest!
"I am afraid there is no doubt about it," said Lethbridge, when, a
little later, the party had come to a halt in their perplexity, and the
grim truth had found expression in words, "and, that being the case, I
think the best thing we can do is to sit down--for I imagine that we are
all beginning to feel a trifle fagged--and nibble a sandwich or two,
washing it down with a nip from our flasks, as we discuss the
situation."
"Of course," remarked Sir Reginald, when they had seated themselves and
produced their refreshments, "although this is a rather awkward
adventure, there is no need for us to feel any alarm or apprehension.
We are certain to extricate ourselves sooner or later, and I think we
may take it for granted that we are not likely to starve, so long as we
have any cartridges left. The thing that worries me is the anxiety that
our friends aboard the _Flying Fish_ will suffer when we fail to turn up
in decent time."
"Yes, certainly, that is the worst feature of the case," agreed
Lethbridge, "because, of course, they will know that something has
happened to detain us, but they will not know what it is; and there is
always a tendency among women to imagine the worst. It would not matter
so much if we possessed a means of communicating with them, for although
we could not, perhaps, direct Mildmay how to find us, we could, at all
events, keep them advised of our welfare. I suppose," he continued,
turning with a smile to von Schalckenberg, "you do not happen to possess
the power of telepathy, do you, Professor?"
"No," answered the professor, "unhappily I do not. But your remark has
suggested to me the idea of a little experiment which I will attempt
when we get back to the ship. If it should prove successful it may help
us on some subsequent occasion similar to the present. But the question
is, how are we to get back to the ship?"
"Well," remarked Sir Reginald, "it appears to me that we cannot do
anything more until daylight. We are lost in this forest, and have not
at present the slightest notion as to the direction we ought to take.
That, I think, is indisputable, and it is useless to shut our eyes to
the fact. We may, therefore, as well stay here as anywhere, and rest
until daylight. It is now just half-past four; we shall, therefore, not
have very long to wait. Now, as to our position. We know that we left
the river by way of its south bank; and, since we have not again touched
it, we must still be somewhere to the southward of it. Therefore, if,
when daylight comes, we head northward, we are certain to strike the
river before long; and, once there, we ought not to meet with much
difficulty in finding our ambush again, from which, of course, we can
easily find our way back to the ship."
"Excellent, and thoroughly well reasoned out," remarked Lethbridge. "I
quite agree with you, Elphinstone. We cannot do better than remain here
until daylight, as you say; and then, with the coming of sunrise, we
shall get at the points of the compass and know which way to steer in
order to hit off the river again."
The professor and Colonel Sziszkinski also agreed that Sir Reginald's
plan was a good one. They therefore settled themselves comfortably,
and, with the aid of their pipes and chat, beguiled the time as best
they could.
The moon had set some hours before this, and the forest was consequently
plunged in darkness so profound that it was impossible to see anything
beyond their immediate surroundings, which were illuminated for the
space of some four or five yards by the flickering light of their
torches. The silence also was profound, for the buzzing _chirr_ of the
insect-life of the place had long since ceased, and only the occasional
crackle of dry leaves or twigs betrayed the fact that the great solitude
held other denizens than themselves. At length, however, when their
watches marked the hour of seven a.m. they became aware of a dim,
ghostly light filtering down upon them from above and stealthily
revealing the presence of tree-trunk, twisted creepers, and tangled
underscrub at gradually widening distances from them. Whereupon they
charged and lighted their pipes afresh, extinguished their torches, and,
after allowing themselves a few minutes longer to enable their eyes to
become accustomed to the dim, sombre twilight that alone pervaded those
illimitable forest aisles, set out upon a course which they agreed would
ultimately lead them back to the river.
Their course was anything but a straight one, for they were obliged to
wind hither and thither between and around enormous masses of tangled,
impenetrable undergrowth; and there were many occasions when they were
compelled to go some little distance in a direction the very opposite of
that which they wished to follow, ere they could again hit off a
practicable path leading northward. Yet notwithstanding this, they
began to feel some disappointment and recurrence of anxiety when, at
eleven o'clock in the forenoon, they still seemed as far off as ever
from finding the river. There was nothing for it, however, but to press
forward as they were going; and this they did, in somewhat noisy
fashion--for there seemed to them to be no very especial reason for
silence--until there suddenly broke upon their ears a deep, hollow,
drumming sound, speedily followed by a series of loud, fierce roars.
The sounds emanated from somewhere close at hand, and after a moment's
instinctive pause to listen, they all with one accord hastened forward
to investigate, with the result that they suddenly found themselves
emerging from the cramped and gloomy environment of the forest depths
into a comparatively open arena, roughly circular in shape, and nearly a
mile in diameter, thickly carpeted with rich, lush grass, and but
sparsely dotted with trees.
As the wanderers entered this space, they saw, about a dozen yards away,
a very fine gorilla, upreared, with his back toward them, fiercely
beating his chest with his huge fists, and giving vent to a succession
of savage, barking roars. The exciting cause of this exhibition of
anger was not at first apparent. But presently the little party of
interested witnesses caught sight of a dark object nearly hidden in the
grass; and as they watched this object, its details gradually revealed
themselves, and they recognised it as an animal of the leopard species,
of about the same size as the ordinary leopard, and similarly, marked,
save that the tint of the skin, instead of being tawny yellow, was a
rich brown, approaching very nearly to chocolate.
"Look! what animal is that?" ejaculated the professor, in a husky
whisper. "I do not know him. He is new to me--a new species! And the
gorilla, too; what a splendid specimen!--"
Von Schalckenberg fell suddenly silent, constrained thereto by his
interest in the impending drama, for it was evident that the leopard
meditated an attack upon the gorilla. The great cat was crouching low
in the grass, with its ears laid back flat to its head, its savage eyes
gleaming with hate as it watched every movement of its antagonist, and
its tail twitching jerkingly now to this side, now to that. The
gorilla, meanwhile, as fully alert as the leopard, was advancing
craftily toward it, a single pace at a time, with the apparent intention
of getting within leaping distance, and then suddenly springing upon its
foe. The leopard, however, appeared to be fully aware of its enemy's
intention, and also of how to frustrate it; for it remained patiently
crouching until the gorilla was in the very act of pulling itself
together for a leap, and then, at the psychological moment, sprang high
into the air, leaping clear and clean over the gorilla's head, and
landing a yard or so in his rear; then, before the huge creature had
time to recover from his astonishment at such extraordinary tactics, the
leopard again gathered itself together for a spring, and was in a moment
on the gorilla's back, with its teeth deeply sunk in the back of the
creature's neck, while with its terrible claws it dug and tore at the
gorilla's throat. So completely was the latter taken by surprise, that
he seemed utterly incapable of striking a blow in self-defence. Instead
he simply threw up his long, hairy, tremendously muscular arms,
staggered backward a pace or two, and fell to the earth, moaning and
groaning horribly as he clasped his terribly lacerated throat with both
hands, the leopard having meanwhile leaped nimbly aside and crouched
afresh as its enemy fell. It was evident, however, that there was no
more fight left in the gorilla; the creature was, beyond doubt, mortally
injured, and lay there moaning piteously, with the blood streaming
through his fingers, making no attempt to regain his feet. His enemy at
length seemed to realise this, for after remaining crouched and watching
for some three or four minutes, it rose to its feet and began to slink
away, but was promptly stopped and laid low by a shot from Sir
Reginald's rifle; while Lethbridge, cautiously approaching the prostrate
gorilla, sent a bullet through his skull, and thus put him out of his
misery.
"Now we must push on again," exclaimed Sir Reginald. "I don't know,
Professor, whether or not you wish to have either of those skins; but,
if you do, we must wait until we get back to the ship, and then come and
look for them. We cannot spare the time to take them now, or cumber
ourselves with them when taken. Now, gentlemen, it is noon, and there
is the sun. He is on the meridian, and consequently due north of us.
He certainly does not cast a very long shadow, but he casts enough to
show that yonder lies our path; so, forward!"
Their path happened to lead almost directly through the centre of this
wide, open space, and the going being easy they quickly traversed it,
and plunged again into the forest shadows on the other side, where their
slow, toilsome, groping style of progress was resumed. For three long
hours they struggled on, weary, now, beyond power of expression, often
in grave doubt as to whether or no they were pursuing the right
direction, and every moment growing more seriously disconcerted at the
extraordinary circumstance that, although during the day they must have
journeyed many more miles than they had during the previous night, they
still failed to reach the river for which they were aiming.
At length, quite late in the afternoon, they again unexpectedly emerged
from the forest into another open space, very similar in size and
appearance to the one in which they had witnessed the combat between the
gorilla and the leopard. As they stood for a moment in the open,
blinking their dazzled eyes in the strong and unaccustomed sunshine, in
a vain effort to classify the several objects, moving and motionless,
that they saw dotted about the plain, a shout reached their ears,
answered by another and another, and half a dozen more. Then they
became aware of the sound of lowing cattle, and presently, as their eyes
adjusted themselves to the sudden change in the light conditions, they
recognised that they were on the outskirts, so to speak, of a native
village, and that the inhabitants, whose quick eyes had detected their
presence upon the instant of their emergence from the forest, were
already mustering, with spear and shield, in unquestionably menacing
fashion.