John felt all the thrilling excitement of a new experience. There was
nothing romantic, it is true, in trudging along at two miles an hour
over a decent road, which led at first through the spacious estates of
colonists who had already settled in the neighbourhood of the town. But
he knew that before long the caravan would enter a wild, unsettled
region, swarming with game large and small, holding innumerable
possibilities of encounters with strange beasts and men. And though
there was nothing novel in the mere exercise of walking, it was both new
and amusing to find himself in company with African natives, marching
stolidly along under heavy loads, to a monotonous chant kept up by their
leader, who repeated the same words endlessly. Curious to know what the
man was singing, he asked Coja ben Selim, the only man of them that knew
English. The Swahili gave him a wide grin and said it was all nonsense,
and when John pressed him for the exact meaning he prevaricated and
looked uncomfortable. The song was, in fact, an impromptu one, and the
words, literally translated, meant nothing more than "Two more white
men; oh, what noses! Oh, what legs!" and if John had known he would
only have wondered what amusement the porters could have derived from
the constant repetition of such an uninspired and uninspiring refrain.
He made up his mind to learn the native tongue as soon as possible.
After they had walked for three or four miles it became suddenly dark,
but there was no pause, Mr. Gillespie having advised that they should
take advantage of the cool hours, and do a good ten miles before camping
for the night. A new moon shed a little light upon the path, which, as
the scattered cultivated districts were left behind, entered a region of
long grass and belts of forest land. Presently they heard the rushing
noise of water, and came to the brink of a deep ravine, whose bottom
they could not see for the trees and dense undergrowth with which it was
clothed. Coja ben Selim was for crossing the ravine; he said he knew of
a fine place for camping a little beyond it; but Mr. Halliday was not
inclined to risk a broken leg, and decided to camp in a glade on the
nearer bank, and to attempt the crossing by daylight. The loads were set
down, the tent was pitched, and a fire lighted; soon the men were
cooking their simple supper, chattering cheerfully; and Said Mohammed,
opening up the stores, produced some cocoa, tinned milk and biscuits,
and in a few minutes provided his employers with a simple meal. Mr.
Halliday discussed the advisability of setting a watch during the night,
but Coja said that there were no black men in the neighbourhood, and the
fires would keep off wild animals; so the two Englishmen wrapped their
blankets around them, and slept soundly till the dawn.
Mr. Gillespie had given his guests some instruction in the general
conduct of a safari, so that when Mr. Halliday put his head out of the
tent and called to the headman to take up the loads, there was a brisk
movement among the porters to the pile in which their bundles had been
stacked during the night. They laid them in a row for inspection, first
lashing to them their mats and cooking-pots. When this was done, they
squatted down to eat a few roasted grains of muhindi (maize), and while
the Swahilis struck the tent and tied up the bedding, the two Englishmen
having rapidly dressed, Said Mohammed prepared breakfast of tinned meat,
biscuits, and tea. Then, to the customary cry of "Safari!" the porters
lifted their loads, the utensils were quickly packed, and while the dawn
was still grey the little party left the camp and began the descent of
the ravine. Looking back as he came to the brink, John saw a hyena
slink out of the undergrowth and steal past the smouldering embers of
the fires, and birds like kites swoop down with rushing wings, soaring
up again with some remnant of food in their talons. He felt now that
his new strange life was beginning indeed.
[Illustration: PART OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA]
The descent was safely made, the river waded, and climbing up the
further side, the travellers found themselves entering a region of bush
and thorns and tall rank grass, in the midst of which they heard at
times a swishing sound as some animal, invisible, darted away from
before them. They had left the road leading to Fort Hall, the nearest
Government station, and struck off in a direction north by east. The
leader picked his way steadily, following the track of an animal, the
others close behind him, though after a time some of the porters, weaker
or less willing than the rest, began to lag behind. Though it was still
early morning, John found it already uncomfortably hot, and, taking off
his coat, gave it to Coja. Once or twice he removed his sun-helmet
also, but Said Mohammed, at this, came to his side, and said, very
respectfully--
"Ten thousand pardons, sir, but a word to the wise: never expose your
manly brow to the solar luminary. In a brace of shakes you will have
sunstroke."
"But there is no sun; I shan't hurt with this mist over the ground,"
John protested.
"It is human to err, sir. You cannot see the sun, but he sees you, and
lo! in a moment he smites you, and it is no go. The head, sir, is the
weaker vessel."
"Put on your hat, John," said Mr. Halliday. "We don't want to run any
risks."
By and by the mist cleared, and having reached a ridge bare of trees,
the travellers suddenly caught sight of Mount Kenya in the distance,
rearing itself from the plain by such gentle slopes that it was hard to
believe that its summit was 14,000 feet above sea-level and covered with
snow. Its peaks were swathed in cloud; indeed, only once or twice
during many months did the travellers catch a glimpse of them. Then the
view was magnificent, and for the first time in his life John felt a
longing to climb a mountain.
Every day's programme was the same. They started early. After a march
of two hours a halt was called, to allow the laggards to come up with
the party. Then the march was resumed, and continued until the sun's
heat became unendurable, and the men clamoured for a long rest. One day
at this time Mr. Halliday, selecting a glade shaded by immense trees,
bade the men set down their loads, and take a siesta. The resting-place
was not so well chosen as it had appeared to be; a stream ran close by,
and the travellers had hardly settled themselves when they were beset by
innumerable red ticks, which clung to the white men's clothing and bit
their skin savagely, sparing the natives. The Hallidays, finding their
attacks intolerable, sprang up and went on, instructing Coja to follow
them when the porters were sufficiently rested. They had not gone far
when they saw a herd of congoni, an animal of the antelope kind, dashing
across the plain, and John fingered his rifle longingly. But Mr.
Halliday would not permit him to go in chase of them.
"We shall have plenty of sport by and by," he said, "and we don't want
to heat ourselves or lose touch with the men."
He had scarcely spoken when John caught sight of another safari coming
across a ridge in the distance. Mr. Halliday thought it prudent to halt
until they were rejoined by the rest of their party, and they threw
themselves down under a baobab to wait for them. It was two hours
before they came up, and the march had just been resumed when they heard
shots, and saw a number of black men rushing towards them at full speed.
Mr. Halliday was a little alarmed, thinking that an attack was imminent;
but in a few moments Coja told him that the approaching men were plainly
porters, for they were unarmed, but they bore no loads, and he suggested
that something had frightened them.
In a few minutes the first of the runaways came up, and began to talk
excitedly to Coja, who informed Mr. Halliday that the men were indeed
porters belonging to a safari returning to Nairobi, and that a
rhinoceros had just charged them, whereupon they had flung down their
loads and bolted.
"Where is their master?" asked Mr. Halliday.
The man, who had been joined by several of his comrades, pointed back in
the direction whence he had come. No white man, however, was in sight,
and Mr. Halliday decided to hurry on and see what had become of him,
ordering the men to follow, which they were plainly reluctant to do. He
came within half-a-mile to the scene of the stampede, the loads of the
porters strewing the grass; but there was no sign either of the
rhinoceros or of the young white man who, as the scared natives said,
was the master of the safari. Coja declared that the _bwana_ must have
been gored or trampled by the rhinoceros, and suggested that they should
hurry on and get out of danger as quickly as possible; but Mr. Halliday
would not hear of leaving the spot until he had made an effort to find
the unfortunate traveller. He ordered the men to set down their loads
and remain with them while he made a search, and asked whether any of
them could follow a rhinoceros trail. One and all first denied that
they had ever seen a rhinoceros; but Mr. Halliday sternly told Coja that
they would have no supper unless they recovered their memory, and then
Coja himself reluctantly admitted that if the trail was very clear, and
if the white men would go one on each side of him with their guns, he
would try to lead them after the animal.
As a matter of fact, the trail was easily found, the ground being soft
and the grass heavily trampled. It led them into a dense mass of bush.
Mr. Halliday, holding his rifle ready for the least sign of danger,
plunged into the jungle with John and Coja, the latter soon declaring
that he saw, together with the great hoof-marks of the animal, forming
paths on both sides of a ridge of grass, the smaller and fainter tracks
made by a white man's boots.
"Him killed dead, sure 'nuff," said Coja solemnly. "No good look no
more."
"We'll make sure of it. Go on," said Mr. Halliday, and the three
continued to follow the trail.
"What's that?" cried John suddenly, a few minutes later.
"White man call; him no dead yet," said Coja.
"Hallo!" shouted Mr. Halliday, and a faint "Hallo!" came in answer.
Coja turned a little to the right, in the direction of the sound. Mr.
Halliday called again, and again the answer came, louder, but still
curiously muffled. Led by the sound, they now left the trail of the
rhinoceros, and had proceeded but a few steps farther when Coja suddenly
came to a halt, and bursting into laughter, cried, "Him down there!"
"Where?" said Mr. Halliday in amazement, looking about him. And then he
saw, in the midst of the grass, a deep hole, and at the bottom, nine or
ten feet below the surface, a young white man sitting cross-legged.
"Hallo!" he said, looking up with a smile. "I thought it was my
brother, though it wasn't like his shout. Can you help me out? I'm
afraid I've sprained my ankle."
"Of course we can," said Mr. Halliday, "but I'd like to know what on
earth you are doing there."
"Thanking my stars I'm not skewered," said the other. "Let down your
rifle, will you? Perhaps I can manage to scramble out; but don't let me
drag you down."
Mr. Halliday lowered his rifle, holding it by the barrel, having first
taken the precaution of emptying the breech; and the prisoner took it by
the stock, and tried to clamber up the side of the hole. But he winced
as his right foot touched the earth, and after a few moments said--
"I'm afraid I can't manage it. My ankle has got a twist. If you'll
shout for my men I'll get one of them to make a sling of rope and haul
me out."
"We needn't wait for that," said John. "I'll jump down and give you a
lift."
"Look out, then. There's a pointed stake in the ground here which I
only escaped by a hair's breadth. Jump to the left. It's uncommon good
of you."
John leapt down, and making a pick-a-back, got the stranger to mount and
then to stand erect on one foot. His head was now just below the level
of the pit.
"I'm afraid we're not much for'arder," he said, with a smile.
"Can't you get your elbows on the edge and hoist yourself up?" suggested
John.
"Can't reach. You'd better let me down."
"I'll tell you what," said John: "cut a notch in the wall for your foot.
Then you can hoist yourself up by the rifle until you are high enough to
get your elbows on; then it'll be easy. The earth is pretty soft."
Sitting with his legs over John's shoulders, the stranger soon cut a
notch with his knife; and in a few minutes he was hauled to the surface.
"I'm much obliged to you. I might have stayed there till I starved for
all my men would have troubled."
"How did you manage to fall in?" asked Mr. Halliday.
"A rhinoceros charged us as we were crossing the foot of the kopje
yonder. He sprang out from behind a small mountain of an ant-hill. My
men instantly flung down their loads and bolted--idiots! and as we're
rather short of meat I thought I'd try to get within shot of the beast.
I was following him up when the earth gave way under me, and I found
myself in this old game-pit, and don't know how I managed to escape the
skewer sticking up at the bottom, as long as my arm. I say, you haven't
happened to see anything of my brother, I suppose?"
"We met nobody but your men," said Mr. Halliday. "Has your brother lost
himself?"
"Old Joe lost! Not a bit of it," cried the young man. "He'll turn up
all right. He left me a couple of hours ago to shoot something for
to-night's pot, and I thought you might have come across him. I'm
rather a nuisance, I'm afraid; I can't put my left foot to the ground,
and our last donkey died four days ago, so that I can't ride. We've had
uncommon bad luck with our donkeys. As a rule they're hardy in this
climate, we were told; but every one of the six we started with has
died. Really, I am a nuisance, keeping you here."
"Nonsense," said Mr. Halliday. "Coja, shout for some of our men."
"No come, master," said Coja. "Berry much 'fraid."
"If he goes and calls our headman a coward I think it will answer," said
the stranger. "Headmen are very jealous of each other."
Coja entered into the spirit of the suggestion, and ran back over the
tracks. In a few minutes the sounds of angry altercation came through
the bush, and Coja reappeared, in company with a white-clad Somali, each
man abusing the other at the top of his voice. Mr. Halliday silenced
them sternly, and ordered them to construct a litter, promising a few
cents to the man who did the larger share of the work. They set to work
at once, weaving strands of creeping plants and stalks of grass with
amazing rapidity. In less than twenty minutes a sheet of matting was
finished and firmly bound to two rifles, and on this extemporized litter
the stranger was carried between the headmen back to the open ground.
On the way he explained that his name was Oliver Browne, "commonly
called Poll," and that he came from Cape Colony. With his elder brother
he had been shooting and prospecting in North Kenya and Gallaland, and
they had thoughts of settling in British East Africa, which seemed to
offer better prospects than they could see in South Africa.
"I suppose you're on the same job," he concluded.
"Well, we're going to have a look round," replied Mr. Halliday
cautiously. "We're on a flying visit, you see."
"And I'm a nuisance, hindering you like this. Here are my wretched men;
I shall be all right now; and I can't thank you enough. We may meet
again, if we decide to come north. Good-bye. And I say, if you meet
that brother of mine, please tell him to hurry up, for if another
rhinoceros takes a fancy to charge us, and I can't bring him down, I
shall be a mangled corpse in no time."
"Hadn't we better stay with you till your brother turns up?" said John.
"Not at all. The plain is pretty open here, and a rhinoceros could not
take us unawares. I shall go on slowly, and camp when I come to a
suitable place, and my men will rig up a boma in no time. Good-bye
again."
The matting had been transferred to two of the Brownes' rifles, and the
men of each party having collected and shouldered their loads, they set
off in opposite directions, the two headmen hurling abuse at each other
as long as they remained in sight. Coja was particularly indignant
because his rival had received the reward for completing the greater
portion of the litter; but after a little Mr. Halliday consoled him by
saying, casually, that his portion had been the more closely knit, so
that he should receive a reward also.
"Dat oder fella no good, what I say," remarked Coja.
Half-an-hour after they had parted with Oliver Browne, they met a white
man whom at the first glance they knew to be his brother, so striking
was the resemblance. He was attended by four porters, each carrying a
large portion of some newly-killed animal. Mr. Halliday halted as they
came up, saying--
"You're Mr. Joe Browne?"
"That I am, but----" He paused, looking puzzled.
"You don't know me," said Mr. Halliday, "so you needn't rack your
memory. We've just met your brother. He was after a rhinoceros and
tumbled into a game-pit."
"Clumsy ass!" cried Mr. Browne, in the manner of an affectionate
brother. "No bones broke, I hope?"
Mr. Halliday reassured him on that point, and the two stood for a few
minutes exchanging notes. The South African said that he had been much
attracted by what he had seen of the country, and if Mr. Halliday became
a settler, he would in all probability have him for a neighbour.
"But it won't be yet," he added. "We must settle up our affairs at the
Cape first. Three or four months, perhaps; you'll have grown your first
crops by then. Don't shoot all the game before I come."
"You have left us some, I hope," said John, eyeing the porters' burdens.
"Oh, that's a couple of water-buck for the pot. You'll find bigger game
than that. Hippo meat's uncommonly good, but don't try elephant's foot;
it's a fraud. Don't believe any one who tells you to the contrary.
Good-bye; pleased to have met you; bar rhinoceros or game-pits we'll
meet again."