THE "ROGUE" ELEPHANT
In the meantime Billy and Lathrop, having been introduced to the
chief, were making themselves very much at home in the village or
cliff colony of the Flying Men. The morning after the day of their
arrival a hunting expedition was organized by their new-found friend
and in company with a dozen or more of the Flying Men, and the
ordinary natives, who seemed to occupy the position of inferiors to
their winged masters, the expedition set out.
They crossed the fields and garden patches that the boys had
observed the evening before and, after traversing a few miles of
swampy ground overgrown with a tough yellow grass, they plunged into
a forest of mahogany and silk cotton trees.
It was while crossing the expanse of yellow grass at Billy performed
a feat that caused all of them to hold him as a mighty hunter. They
had been pushing their way along a narrow trail with the tops of the
vegetation waving a good three feet above their heads, when there
was a sudden grunt heard ahead and the noise of great rushing
through the wiry grass.
"Big pig," announced the boys' friend as the others got their spears
ready to cast. Billy and Lathrop in their eagerness plunged on
ahead of the others--Lathrop with a small spear and his
revolver--which by the way was useless, he having expended all his
cartridges--and Billy with the Arab rifle. Suddenly from dead ahead
of the two boys there was a savage squeal and, before either of them
realized what had happened, a boar with gleaming white tusks and
bristly hair rushed out of the tangle and squarely charged them.
Lathrop went down before his furious onslaught and in his fall
carried Billy to the ground with him. In another moment both boys
would have been badly gored, perhaps killed, had not the reporter,
in the very instant that the boar with wickedly gleaming little red
eyes turned to attack Lathrop with his fierce tusks, raised himself
on one arm and fired. The bullet struck their assailant full in the
ear and penetrated the brain. With a surprised squeal he turned and
ran a few feet and then dropped dead. The rest of the hunting part
came up at this moment and Billy received warm congratulations--which,
as he did not understand, meant as much as most of such felicitations.
It was not long after this incident that the plunge into the cool
darkness of the forest began. The men went warily--as if expecting
to be attacked at any moment--and the boys, on inquiring of their
guide the reason for this caution, only received the reply that
elephant tracks had been seen and that as a "rogue" elephant had
lately been doing great damage to the crops of the cliff-dwellers
they were anxious to kill him if possible.
A rogue elephant is one that has become estranged from the rest of
his kind by reason of his fierce intractability. He is in fact what
in the west is described, in speaking of a horse, as "loco" or
crazy. Such animals--they are generally males--are extremely
dangerous to hunt and are generally given a wide berth. They are
mischievous in the extreme, moreover, and do great damage, seemingly
wantonly, to any crops or garden patches that they may find in their
neighborhood. Usually the natives are too terrified to offer any
resistance and placidly allow the animal to devastate to the bent of
his will. The cliff dwellers, however, had suffered so much from
the depredations of this particular animal that they were determined
to drive him out of their neighborhood, and that was the real
purpose of the hunting party.
"Well, it looks as if we are in for a good exciting morning of it,"
remarked Billy as they trudged along beneath trees that shot up to
unknown heights with great rope-like creepers dangling from their
upper branches, looking like ladders leading up into "Jack in the
Beanstalk-land." Occasionally a patch of blue could be sighted
through the tree-tops, but for the most part the hunters progressed
along the floor of the forest under a regular roof of greenery.
There was plenty of life in this tipper story of the earth jungle.
Troops of monkeys with chattering and gesticulations swung from
bough to bough and looked in wonder on the invaders of their realm
and then, taking imaginary fright, galloped off through the
tree-tops in panic, only to stop a little distance further on and
throw down fruit or bits of stick at the men below them. Gorgeous
birds, too, flitted about like jewels seen in a setting of green
velvet, while underfoot there was no lack of life either. Strange
insects, shaped like sticks or leaves or even bits of moss,
attracted the attention of the alert boys although they passed over
hundreds of such nature mimics unnoticed, owing to the perfection of
their mimicry.
At last the leader of the party called a halt and they sat down to
eat some of the cassava and manioc cakes they had brought with them.
The meal was washed down with a sour drink--something like
buttermilk--contained in a huge earthen jar that one of the inferior
tribe carried. They were in the midst of it when one of the hunters
sprang to his feet with a guttural exclamation.
"Arjah!" he exclaimed and, though the boys did not understand his
tongue, his attitude of alert attention signified that he said
"Listen" as clearly as if he had used the word.
In an instant all of the party were on their feet and listening
keenly. After a few seconds of strained attention the boys became
aware of a sort of dull pounding sound which seemed to come from
some distance. It sounded almost like the regular beat of a large
drum. The air seemed to vibrate with it.
He leader of the party spoke a few words rapidly to the others and
they all joined in a responsive shout which seemed to be one of
assent to some proposition that had been made by him.
"He say elephant dance," said Umbashi; "him very dangerous when
dance. He ask them they willing to go on. They all say yes."
Lathrop looked alarmed.
"Say, Billy," he whispered as they moved forward, "I don't mind a
little danger, but going up against an elephant with a few tin
spears looks to me like being little above the limit."
"Cheer up," replied the irrepressible reporter, "we've got to go on
now. It would never do for us to show the white feather at this
stage of the game. The tribe would regard us as miserable cowards
and perhaps even put us to death."
So with faces that one at least of them had some difficulty to
render' expressive of calm repose the two American boys marched
along with the others. As they advanced the drumming grew louder
and they could feel the earth shake as the ponderous beast that
caused it went through his strange exercise.
The leader worked round till the party was advancing against the
wind, as elephants have a keen scent, and had they traveled along
down the wind he would have been sure to have taken alarm and dashed
off only to return and do more damage later on. In this way the
party was enabled to work up to within a few yards of the great
beast without his having any warning of their approach. It was a
strange sight they beheld as they stood on the edge of the little
clearing where the great beast was going through his dance. With
his trunk curled high above his great head the big pachyderm was
solemnly twirling round and round in a sort of slow waltz and every
time he brought a foot down it was with a crash that shook the
forest about him. He was a ferocious looking brute, with a wicked
gleam in his small eye that boded ill for anyone who should happen
to get in his path. One of his tusks was broken off short,
doubtless in some fight with another of his kind, and his body was
plowed with scars and cuts--the relics of former battles.
Altogether he was as wicked and menacing a looking brute as the boys
had ever seen.
Suddenly he sighted the attacking party. The dance instantly
stopped and he stood stock-still for an instant gazing at them while
they promptly made for the trees and clambered up them by means of
the lanyards of creepers that swung down from the tops.
Billy and Lathrop, however, were too much astonished by the sudden
turn events had taken to follow the example of the savages and so
stood gazing awestricken at the elephant while he gazed at them in
apparent amazement at two boys having the temerity to face him in
his native forest.
The situation was not to last long, however. Their guide, with the
rest of the party, had hastily clambered into the trees and now he
called to the boys loudly:
"Climb! climb!"
But the churns were too late.
As they turned to obey his instructions the great brute charged with
a furious trumpet.
His first onslaught the boys avoided by slipping behind a tree, more
from instinct than anything else. The impetus of the maddened
animal's charge carried him by the tree and before he could stop
himself and turn his ponderous body for a fresh attack he had gone
some yards beyond the boys.
Bellowing with fury the huge creature made ready for a fresh charge,
but by this time Billy and Lathrop had seized the creepers and were
both several feet above the ground. In his haste, however, Billy's
luckless rifle twisted between his legs and almost caused a
disaster. For a second he hung helpless, trying to kick the weapon
free. But it hung by its leather shoulder band and he was unable to
do so instantly.
The boy, with a despairing cry, gazed at the onrushing elephant and
could almost feel himself being seized by its mighty trunk and
dashed to death, when a pair of strong, black arms seized him and
dragged him up to a place of safety. The man who had taken this
risk was their friend Umbashi, and as Billy thanked him he felt a
feeling of real respect for this half naked savage who had risked
his life to save another's.
After two or three more charges the animal seemed to get tired of
this method of attack and stood beneath the tree shaking with rage,
very much like a bull that has driven a boy to refuge in an
apple-tree. It was evident that it was time to either kill the
brute or drive him off unless the party desired to spend an
unlimited time in the trees.
"The fire-weapon," shouted Billy's friend, "use the fire-weapon."
Billy raised the long Arab weapon and fired. The bullet struck the
elephant on the right ear with no more effect than to further anger
him.
"Aim between the eyes," cried the savage.
Billy felt for a fresh cartridge and made a discovery.
In scrambling up the tree he had ripped off the skin bag and his
store of Arab cartridges, none too many, lay on the ground at the
foot of the tree. When this intelligence was communicated to the
tribesmen clinging in the other trees they held a shouted
consultation the result of which was that, to the boys' amazement,
one of them deliberately dropped to the ground and attracting the
elephant's attention began to run him in circles. Now as the man
could run fast and from time to time another took his place and the
elephant had to use a lot of effort in turning corners, it soon
became evident that the big pachyderm was tiring of the exercise.
It was evidently the intention of the natives to run him out and
then spear him to death--but an unexpected happening put an end to
this method of elephant hunting. One of the men who was worrying
the great animal, much after the manner of a bull-fighter, suddenly
caught his foot on a root and fell headlong. A shout went up as the
others realized that he was doomed to almost certain death. Billy
and Lathrop averted their eyes. It was terrible to have to sit
there powerless and watch the sacrifice.
But even as they listened with sickened ears for the death-cry of
the unfortunate victim and whilst the elephant's trumpet of triumph
was still resounding, one of the flying men dropped, knife in hand,
from his tree on to the monster's back.
He landed right behind the great creature's ears and as the animal
threw back his trunk to whisk him off and annihilate him be plunged
his weapon through the soft folds of skin at the base of the huge
skull clear down into the brain.
It was a mortal wound.
As the elephant stopped short in his charge and began to stagger in
his death throes the Flying Man slipped to the ground and picked up
his comrade, who had swooned from terror.
Ten minutes later the great rogue elephant was beyond all further
mischief and the boys joined as heartily as any of the others in
congratulating the brave man whose unparalleled feat of heroism had
saved his comrade's life.
The man's name was Aga, and the boys had reason later on to remember
him for another deed which affected them even more nearly than the
slaying of the elephant.