A new day burst gorgeously into life. A brilliant sun shone down upon
the leafy canopy of green that roofed the great forest; but far beneath
all was dark and gloomy still. A sleek, black warrior moved silently
along a jungle trail. On his back he carried a small, oval shield, his
bow and his quiver filled with arrows. Bracelets of iron and of copper
encircled his arms. Through the septum of his nose, which had been
pierced to receive it, was a cylindrical piece of wood, six or eight
inches in length; from the lobes of his ears depended heavy ornaments;
necklaces encircled his ebon throat and there were many metal bands
and anklets upon his legs; his hair was plastered thick with mud into
which he had stuck several gaudy feathers. His teeth were filed to
sharp points. In one hand he bore a light hunting spear.
He was Zopinga, a Mugalla of the Bagalla tribe that was all-powerful in
Ugalla, the dismal forest country they claimed as theirs. Thus early in
the morning Zopinga was making the round of the snares he had set the
previous day.
In the crotch of a mighty jungle giant, two boys, chilled, miserable,
awoke from a fitful slumber. All night they had huddled close together
for such warmth as they might lend each other; but they had been very
cold. They had slept little. The mysterious voices of the jungle night,
the consciousness of the nearby presence of creatures they could not
see had driven sleep from their eyes until, finally, overcome by utter
exhaustion, they had sunk into an unconsciousness that could scarcely
be called sleep, and even from this, the cold and discomfort aroused
them, shortly after daybreak.
"Golly," said Dick, "I sure am cold!"
"You haven't got anything on me," replied Doc.
"It must be great in the jungle at night," said Dick, with a sickly
grin.
"It wasn't so bad," insisted Doc, bravely.
"So bad as what?" asked Dick.
"I'll bet you none of the other boys ever stayed out in a tree all
night, with lions and panthers and tigers prowling all around in the
jungle below. Just wait till we get home and tell them. Gee, I'll bet
they'll be sore to think they weren't along."
"There aren't any tigers in Africa," corrected Dick, "and anyone who
wants to stay out in the jungle all night can have my place. I wish I
were home in my own bed--that's what I wish."
"Cry-baby!"
"I am not. I just have some sense, that's all. It's cold here and I'm
hungry."
"So am I," admitted Doc. "Let's build a fire and get warm and cook
breakfast."
"How you going to build a fire and what you going to cook for
breakfast? You going to say 'Abacadabra, allo presto, change cars!'
and then pick a gas range out of my ear? And if you could, what would
you cook on it? Ham and eggs and waffles? That wouldn't do, because we
haven't any of the maple syrup you are always talking about and cook
forgot the marmalade."
"You think you're funny!" snapped Doc. "But I'll show you--I'll build a
fire all right."
"Where are your matches?"
"I don't need any matches."
"How you going to build a fire without matches?"
"That's easy. All you got to do is rub two sticks together."
Dick was interested. "That's right," he said. "Come on, let's go down
and get a fire started. Golly, but wouldn't it be great to be warm
again?"
"I wouldn't care if I got on fire," said Doc, "only I'm so cold I don't
think I'd burn."
"We could melt--that's better than staying frozen."
"Do you suppose it's safe to go down?" inquired Doc. "Do you suppose
that old lion has gone home?"
"We could stay close to a tree and one of us could watch all the time,"
suggested Dick.
"All right, here goes! Gee, but I'm stiff. Whew! My joints need oiling."
Once at the bottom of the tree Doc collected a little pile of twigs
and taking two of the larger ones he commenced rubbing them together
vigorously, while Dick watched and listened, ready to sound the alarm
at the first sign of danger.
Doc rubbed and rubbed and rubbed.
"What's the matter with your old fire?" demanded Dick.
"I don't know," said Doc. "All the books I've ever read about savages
and desert islands and people like that, tell how they build their
fires by rubbing two sticks together."
"Maybe you aren't rubbing fast enough," suggested Dick.
"I'm rubbing as fast as I can. Maybe you think this is fun. Well, it
isn't. It's hard work." He kept on rubbing and rubbing for several
minutes. Finally he stopped, exhausted.
"What you stopping for?" demanded Dick.
"The old sticks won't burn," replied Doc, disgustedly, "and anyway I've
rubbed so fast that I've got warm."
Satisfied that there was something wrong with their fire-making, they
decided to warm themselves by exercise, knowing that a good, brisk run
would set the blood to tingling in their veins; but then the question
arose as to the direction in which they should run, as well as a place
where they might find room in which to run. The tangled undergrowth
grew close around them. Nothing could run in that. They had no idea
where the trail was. There was nothing left, therefore, but the trees,
and so they clambered back to the lower branches and with stiff fingers
and numb joints started once more in the direction they thought would
lead them to the railway.
As they moved forward, they commenced to feel the reviving influence
of renewed warmth and life. But as they forgot the cold, they became
more conscious of their hunger and now thirst was adding to their
discomfort. They heard the sounds of the smaller life of the jungle,
and occasionally caught fleeting glimpses of beautifully colored birds.
A small monkey came and ran along above their heads and his chattering
attracted others, until soon there were many monkeys around them. They
did not seem very much afraid of the boys, nor were they unfriendly.
They were merely curious. And they were always eating; a fact which
drove the boys nearly crazy with hunger.
They watched carefully to discover what the monkeys ate, for they knew
that what the monkeys ate with safety, they might eat; but when they
discovered that the bill-of-fare appeared to consist quite largely of
caterpillars they changed their minds. After a while they saw one of
the monkeys gather fruit from a tree and eat it with great relish and
they lost no time in clambering up into the branches of that same tree
and searching for more of the fruit. It did not taste very good, but it
was food and stopped the gnawing pangs of hunger, and its juices helped
to satisfy their thirst.
When they had eaten they continued their search for the railway and
found it easier to travel through the trees though they were, as yet,
far from perfect at it. The food had given them renewed hope and they
were quite sure now that they would soon reach the twin bands of steel
that would mean rescue, for even if their train had left, there would
be other trains along, which would surely stop at sight of two white
boys. They might not have felt so much confidence had they dreamed that
they were travelling deeper and deeper into the forest, directly away
from the railway.
Dick, who was in the lead, suddenly voiced an exclamation of
satisfaction and relief.
"Here's the old trail!" he cried. "Now we can make some time."
"Gee, but it's good to get your old feet on the ground again," said
Doc as the two boys stood again on solid footing. "Come on! Now let's
beat it."
With brisk steps they set off along the game trail that ran in the same
general direction they had been travelling, positive now that they were
on the right road. Doc, his spirits rising to the occasion, broke into
a gay whistle.
Ahead of them Zopinga came to an abrupt halt. For an instant he stood,
listening intently, then he dropped to his hands and knees and placed
his ear against the ground and remained there for a moment, motionless.
When he arose, he still remained in a listening attitude, straining
every faculty to interpret the sounds that were approaching him along
the trail. Just before the boys came into sight the savage warrior
stepped into the green wall of the jungle trail. The leaves and
branches dropped back, forming an impenetrable screen behind which
Zopinga waited.
The boys came confidently on, while Zopinga adjusted his shield upon
his left forearm and took a new grip upon his light hunting spear.
The warrior did not see the boys until they were almost opposite him
but when he did, the grasp of his spear hand released and a look of
relief and satisfaction overspread his black and evil countenance, for
he saw that he had nothing to fear from two unarmed white boys. He
waited until a turn in the trail took them from his view, then he
stepped out into the trail and followed them.
[Illustration: The warrior did not see the boys until they were almost
opposite him.]
Zopinga was greatly elated. What matter now that his snares had failed
to entrap a single victim? Had they all been filled, the reward would
not have equalled this windfall that had come to him without the
slightest effort upon his part. The victims of his snares he would
have had to carry home; but this new quarry walked upon their own legs
and, most accommodatingly, were headed directly for the village of the
Bagalla.