"Natives, and savages at that," remarked Lethbridge, taking in the
situation in an instant. "Now, you fellows," he continued, "our game is
to show a bold front, and to get well into the open straight away, so
that none of our black friends yonder can slip round, under cover of the
forest, and take us at close quarters in the rear. Those chaps may be
perfectly harmless and peaceable, but I confess they don't look it, and
it is a wise thing to be prepared for the worst. And now, Professor,
here is an opportunity for you to come out strong; you are acquainted
with no end of these African lingos, are you not? Better lose no time
in conveying to their intelligences the fact that we are friends, and
that if they are prepared to supply us with food, drink, and a shakedown
for the night, and to pilot us to the river to-morrow, we will
graciously refrain from annihilating them. But you will have to do it
quick, old chap, for it looks remarkably as though they were about to
make an uncommonly ugly demonstration against us."
It did, indeed. For, even while Lethbridge had been speaking, the
blacks had gathered, to the extent of some three or four hundred, each
armed with shield and spears, supplemented in many cases by heavy clubs
with big knotted heads thickly studded with formidable spikes, and were
now arranging themselves in a kind of crescent formation, as though to
attack and surround the four white men.
Von Schalckenberg walked up to and seized a small leafy branch
projecting low down from the trunk of a tree close at hand, and wrenched
it off. Then, raising this above his head, he boldly advanced toward
the threatening phalanx that was already moving forward.
"We must stick close to him," exclaimed Lethbridge, who by tacit consent
had assumed the direction of affairs in this crisis; "we must not allow
him to be cut off from us, or we shall never see him again."
The German boldly advanced, waving aloft his symbol of peace, and
shouting, in as many of the African dialects as he could call to mind,
that they were friends. His assurances, however, if understood,
appeared to be quite unconvincing--to put it mildly--the attitude of the
natives growing momentarily more hostile and menacing, as though the
mere sight of a white man stirred their worst passions to their lowest
depths.
"Halt!" cried Lethbridge, in a low, tense voice. "Those fellows are
about to make a rush. Form up in line, and, the moment they start to
run, open fire upon them, _and keep it up_. If we let them get within
striking distance of us, we are done for!"
Whether or not the sudden halt of the quartette conveyed to the native
mind the mistaken impression that the white men were afraid, or whether
it was that Lethbridge's intuition had rightly interpreted an already
fixed determination, it is impossible to say, but the fact remains that
as the four whites halted in line, a gigantic savage sprang to the front
and, waving his shield and spears above his head, shouted a few words to
the others as he started to run toward the little band.
"I will take the leader; the rest of you fire into the brown," cried
Lethbridge, levelling his rifle. As the words left his lips the _click,
click_ of the rifle-hammers sounded, and the leading savage and three
others stumbled and fell prone to the earth, their shields and spears
flying from their nerveless hands, and ere they were fairly down, four
others rolled over and lay motionless, followed by another and yet
another four, until, within the brief space of some twenty seconds, no
fewer than forty black warriors lay prostrate, either dead, or badly
wounded. And this had happened merely because those four terrible white
men had pointed at them with their long, straight, shining sticks!
There had been no fire, no smoke, no noise; the white men had simply
_pointed_ at them, and lo, forty of their best men were down! The
native mind is quick in its appreciation of the hard logic of facts; and
by the time that those forty warriors were prostrate, it had assimilated
the conviction that the inhabitants of that village had rashly embarked
upon a distinctly unhealthy enterprise when they undertook the seductive
pastime of attempting to massacre that apparently insignificant little
band of white men. And at this point in the drama the whole shouting,
yelling crowd suddenly became silent, pulled up short, and, as four more
of their number dropped, flung themselves on their faces to the earth,
grovelling and howling loudly for mercy. And only just in the nick of
time, too, so far as the white men were concerned, for had the courage
of the savages lasted long enough to carry them a further fifty yards,
they would have arrived within striking distance, and a most
distinguished scientist, in the person of Professor Heinrich von
Schalckenberg, would have been "wiped out," and his three friends with
him.
"Ah!" ejaculated Sir Reginald, "that was `touch and go' with us, and no
mistake! Now, Professor, if you can make them understand you, just ask
them what the dickens they mean by attacking white men in that
gratuitous and light-hearted fashion; and then explain to them that we
have no desire at all to do them the slightest harm if they will but
behave civilly to us."
The professor raised his hand and called, in half a dozen different
dialects, for silence, whereupon one of the savages presently rose to
his feet and delivered himself of a few remarks, in the tones of a
highly injured individual. And then followed quite a lengthy dialogue
between him and the professor, at the conclusion of which the latter,
turning to his friends, explained--
"This fellow, who calls himself 'Msusa, and his tribe the Luewi, informs
me--so far as I can comprehend him--that they attacked us because, some
time ago--I cannot make out how long--some people, wearing long beards,
like ourselves, came here and stole a large number of their young men;
and the Luewi, when they saw us, mistook us for those same thieves come
back upon another man-stealing expedition, which they promptly
determined to nip in the bud."
"Quite right of them, too," agreed Sir Reginald. "But you had better
explain to them, Professor, that it is unwise of them to jump to
conclusions with such lightning-like rapidity as they have just
exhibited, and also that white men are by no means all of them
slave-dealers--which, I take it, is what those other fellows are. And,
by the way, did you mention that we are tired and hungry, and wish to be
guided to the river?"
"Not yet," answered the professor. "Our friend 'Msusa was so busy
explaining and apologising for the attack upon us that I have not yet
had the chance. But I will, though, at once."
And then ensued another long palaver between von Schalckenberg and the
savage, its excessive length being due, as the former explained, to the
difficulty experienced by the principals in understanding each other.
At length, however, 'Msusa turned to his friends and explained the
situation to them, with the result that the four white men were
ultimately invited to enter the village, partake of refreshments, and
remain there for the night, upon the understanding that a guide to the
river would be furnished to them the next morning.
"All right," agreed Sir Reginald. "We will go to their village and
sample their hospitality. But as to remaining with them for the night,
I must confess I do not at all like the idea. Our friends aboard the
_Flying Fish_ will already have suffered several hours of cruel anxiety
on our account, and I am unwilling to prolong that anxiety a moment
longer than is necessary. Why will they not let us have a guide
forthwith? Surely the river cannot be so very far away!"
Von Schalckenberg tried 'Msusa again, but without success.
"The fellow speaks such a barbarous dialect that I find it almost
impossible to understand him," explained the professor; "but he informs
me that, for some reason or other, it is out of the question for us to
go forward to-day."
"Hm!" commented Sir Reginald. "Do you think, Professor, that these
people are to be trusted; or is there some deep scheme to get us into
their power behind this reluctance to help us to go forward this
evening?"
"I don't know," answered the professor. "'Msusa speaks fairly enough,
but one can never tell. Treachery, so far from being a crime, almost
amounts to a virtue, under certain circumstances, with all these African
savages; and I must confess that I have noticed one or two little things
that, to me, seemed to bear rather a sinister significance. But what
can we do? We cannot take 'Msusa by the scruff of the neck and insist
upon his becoming our guide to the river."
"Can we not?" cut in Lethbridge, dryly. "I am by no means so sure of
that. But an idea has just occurred to me. Mildmay will have been on
the look-out for some sign of us, at least from breakfast-time to-day,
and, if I know anything of him, he is still looking out, and will
continue to do so until darkness sets in--perhaps even later. Now, my
idea is this--and I am sorry that it did not occur to me earlier in the
day. Here are we, four lost men, in a fine open space, with ample room
to light four fires at a considerable distance apart. The evening is
fine; there is no wind; and the smoke from those fires would rise to a
considerable height into the air. Now, if Mildmay should happen to
notice four distinct columns of smoke rising above the tree-tops--"
"Of course," interrupted von Schalckenberg, "he would at once connect
them with us, and would come in the _Flying Fish_ to investigate. It
shall be done at once."
And, turning away, he forthwith entered into energetic conversation with
'Msusa, which ultimately resulted in that savage giving certain
instructions to his friends, who, after a tremendous amount of palaver,
interspersed with frequent references from 'Msusa to the professor, at
length set to work to gather four large piles of branches, dry leaves,
and other combustibles, which they proceeded to arrange on spots
indicated by von Schalckenberg. As soon as the piles were of sufficient
size to yield a good dense body of smoke they were simultaneously
ignited by the four white men--by the simple agency of an ordinary
match, to the intense astonishment and admiration of the blacks--and
then the quartette sat down patiently to await events, while 'Msusa and
his friends, incited thereto by the professor, continued to pile upon
the fires further quantities of grass, green branches, and other things
calculated to produce the maximum quantity of smoke. The result was
that in a few minutes four distinct columns of brownish-grey smoke were
going up straight into the sky, some hundreds of feet above the tops of
the highest trees, and finally spreading out and mingling into one great
cloud that would be distinctly visible, in that atmosphere, anywhere
within a distance of twenty miles.
Lethbridge leaned back on his elbow and contemplated the four tall smoke
columns with an expression of very considerable satisfaction.
"That ought to prove effective; and I am prepared to bet that it will,
within the next quarter of an hour," he remarked. "But what was all the
talk about, Professor? You seemed to have some difficulty in persuading
those fellows to build the fires, I thought."
"Yes," admitted von Schalckenberg, "I had. The fact is that, for some
reason which I do not understand, 'Msusa is very anxious that we should
remain in the village all night; and, since he has already discovered
that force will not avail with us, he is now trying guile. He
understands perfectly well some of the things I say to him; but when I
told him that we wanted a guide to lead us to the river, he professed to
be unable to understand me clearly, and replied by gabbling what I
believe to be simply a lot of gibberish, ending up with the statement
that we shall be able to have a guide to-morrow. The fact is that I
rather suspect him of entertaining a desire to possess himself of our
rifles, and believe him to be capable to going to considerable lengths
to get them; hence his extreme anxiety to keep us here all night.
Therefore, when I found that there was no hope of persuading him to let
us have a guide to-night, I informed him that we were four very great
and powerful witch-doctors, as he must already have seen; and that, if
he wished us to remain in the village all night to-night, it would be
necessary to light four large fires--one for each of us--to propitiate
the evil spirits, so that they should not enter the village during the
night and destroy any of the inmates."
"Well," exclaimed Lethbridge, "I shall be very greatly surprised--and
disappointed, too--if they do not in a very few minutes see an `evil
spirit' that will considerably astonish them, and--Ah, hurrah! there she
is! Good old Mildmay! I felt certain that he would be on the
look-out."
And, so saying, he sprang to his feet and waved his handkerchief
energetically in the direction of the great conical shape that, gleaming
and flashing like burnished silver in the rays of the setting sun, at
that moment hove in sight over the tree-tops on the north-western margin
of the enclosure. Three white-clad figures were standing in the bows of
the superstructure, examining the open space through binoculars; and as
Lethbridge waved his handkerchief they waved in return, while one--the
smallest--was seen to run excitedly aft and dart into the pilot-house.
The savages also saw the portentous apparition, and fled, howling with
abject terror, to the shelter of their huts; while the _Flying Fish_,
sweeping gracefully round, came to earth within a few feet of the spot
where the four white men stood awaiting her arrival. A minute later
'Msusa, watching the four white men from beneath a pile of skins heaped
up just within the doorway of his hut, saw them walk in under the huge,
mysterious thing that had just descended from the clouds, and
inexplicably disappear.
Great were the rejoicings of those left on board the _Flying Fish_ at
the safe return of the truants; and equally great, perhaps, was the joy
of the truants at finding themselves re-united to their companions, and
once more amid the familiar surroundings of their luxurious travelling
home. The first brief greetings over, the returned wanderers retired
below and indulged in the luxury of a bath, after which they dressed for
dinner; and it was while the party were gathered round the dinner-table,
an hour or two later, that Sir Reginald related the adventures of
himself and his companions during the preceding twenty-four hours.
"It was shocking bad luck that you should have lost that okapi, after
all," remarked Mildmay, with the sympathy of a true sportsman, as Sir
Reginald brought his narrative to a close. "However," he continued, "it
is something to have learned that we are in the okapi region; and
perhaps you will be more successful next time--that is, unless Sir
Reginald is anxious to get away from here."
Sir Reginald strenuously disavowed any such anxiety, asserting that, on
the contrary, he was quite willing to remain where he was for any
reasonable length of time, and to take turn and turn about on alternate
nights to watch at the drinking-place until they had succeeded in
securing a specimen of so interesting and rare an animal. Then he
inquired in what manner the occupants of the _Flying Fish_ had passed
the day.
"Well," answered Mildmay, speaking for himself and the ladies, "it was
not until breakfast-time that we began to feel in the least degree
anxious about you; and, even then, our anxiety--or rather, mine--was not
very acute, for, as I explained to the ladies, you might have had
exceptionally good sport, and be anxious to save the skins before
leaving to return to the ship. But when eleven o'clock arrived with no
news of you, I felt convinced that something had gone wrong, and then we
all felt ourselves to be in a dilemma. For there were only two courses
open to us: first, to stay where we were and await your return; or,
secondly, to go in search of you. By adopting the first alternative, we
should be on the spot where you would naturally expect to find us if
your detention should happen to be merely of an ordinary nature; or if,
having happened to encounter a body of hostile savages, you should be
holding them at bay while retiring upon the ship. And I may tell you
that it was the recognition of some such possibility as this which made
me feel very reluctant to leave the spot where we were. On the other
hand, however, there was an equal possibility that you might be beset,
or otherwise needing our help, at some spot several miles away. I
therefore compromised matters as best I could by simply raising the ship
some three hundred feet in the air, and keeping a bright look-out in
every direction all day. And when I saw those four columns of smoke
rise up from among the trees, it didn't take me above two seconds to
make up my mind that you had lighted the fires and that I should find
you alongside them."
The following morning witnessed the departure of the _Flying Fish_ from
the open space in which was situated 'Msusa's village; and profound was
the relief of that savage and his friends as, from the obscurity of the
interior of their huts, they watched the enormous shining mass, and,
by-and-by, saw it quietly rise into the air as of its own volition, and
go gently driving out of sight over the tree-tops. Half an hour later,
having located the other open space, in which had been witnessed the
attack upon the gorilla by the leopard, the ship quietly descended into
it; and the hunters, refreshed by a sound night's sleep, sallied forth
and secured the skins of both animals, which proved to be quite
uninjured by the depredations of other animals, none of which seemed to
have approached them. Then the _Flying Fish_ again rose into the air
and wended her way back to her original berth; and it was while she was
thus passing from one spot to the other that the mystery was solved of
the difficulty which the four lost men had experienced in their
endeavours to find the river and thus make their way back to the ship.
For, in order to satisfy themselves upon this point, the travellers rose
to a height of five thousand feet into the air, from which altitude they
not only got a sight of the drinking-place at which their adventure may
be said to have begun, but were also enabled to trace the course of the
river itself. And they thus discovered that about a mile to the
eastward of the drinking-place the river made an S-like bend, some
eighteen miles across; also that, instead of wandering steadily south--
as they believed they had been, while in pursuit of the wounded okapi--
they must have gradually trended away toward the east, until they had
gone some miles beyond the double bend in the river; hence their failure
to find the stream again.
That same night, as keen as ever to get an okapi, the four hunters again
sallied out for their previous ambush, determined to make the utmost of
the waxing moon that nightly rode the sky; and, upon arriving at the
drinking-place, found--to von Schalckenberg's intense disgust--that the
carcase of the red buffalo had been so mauled and torn as to render the
hide utterly useless. But they had compensation a little later, for
during that night they secured no fewer than five handsome leopards that
had evidently come down to feast upon the flesh. Nor was this all.
Before the night was over, the professor had the satisfaction of
shooting a very fine and handsome black-and-white monkey of a hitherto
unknown species; while Lethbridge was made happy by the addition to his
"bag" of a magnificent white rhinoceros--a creature so rare that many
distinguished naturalists had pronounced it extinct. But, to their keen
disappointment, no okapi made its appearance at the drinking-place that
night. Yet they persevered, lying out night after night, and resting
during the day; and at length, on the ninth night after their adventure
in pursuit of the original animal, their patience was splendidly
rewarded, a pair of okapi making their appearance at the drinking-pool,
very late, after all the other animals had come and gone again. There
was an exciting and tantalising ten minutes while these animals stood in
the full light of the moon and drank, one of them being immediately
behind the other, so that it was impossible to shoot both. Then the
male, having drunk his fill before his mate had quite finished, wheeled
and moved a yard or two. As he did so, the hammers of Lethbridge's and
the professor's rifles clicked simultaneously, and a great cheer rang
out from the ambushed party as the two animals dropped and lay
motionless. Then the four men rose to their feet, and--regardless of
the possibility that they might thus be scaring away other desirable
specimens--scrambled over the boulders and other obstacles until they
stood beside their prey. Then, having admired, to their hearts'
content, the singular creatures as they lay, the eager hunters drew
their knives, and proceeded to take the skins forthwith, determined to
leave nothing to chance and the morning.