THE RESCUE
A dreadful stillness fell upon the dim assemblage, and the thousand
green eyes turned together slowly upon Mary and her comrades. But the
eyes of the Leopard were more dreadful than all. Grinning savagely, with
his head stretched out towards them and his ears flat back, he glared at
them for some minutes as if about to spring.
Suddenly he uttered a yelling laugh that echoed a hundred times among
the distant pillars of the cave.
'They are not spies,' he whined mockingly. 'The fat Bear and the thin
Horse have come to enter my army; and so they shall to-morrow at
breakfast-time. But I have been a fool, and for a penance I will eat
that ill-flavoured Rabbit--_now!_'
'First catch your Rabbit,' said that animal, and, nimbly dodging the
heavy paws that slapped at him, he vanished through the entrance.
[Illustration: Kicked savagely at all who tried to seize her.]
The Leopard was in a foaming rage.
'Seize the spies,' he howled. 'Away with them to the high camp.'
[Illustration: She was hurried after the others.]
At that moment the awfulness of her mistake dawned upon Mary, and she
set up a loud 'Boo-hoo!' and, still weeping, struggled and kicked
savagely at all who tried to seize her--jumped in the air, and kicked
with all four legs at once. But in the end she was firmly clutched, and,
with a strong beast holding each leg and three more pushing behind, she
was hurried after the others. The big Bear had gone quietly, for fear of
damage to the little black bear whom he carried tight in his arms.
Then, to the melancholy accompaniment of Mary's wailing--and she gave an
awful yell whenever they pushed her on to her nose--surrounded by a
glowering throng of wolves and hyaenas and hippopotamuses, they were
hustled upwards in the deepening dusk by steep ravines and precipice
paths, until, through a narrow pass, they entered a wide grassy plain,
walled on three sides by encircling spurs, and on the fourth by the
steep snow-slope of the mountain summit itself.
From the snow-slope a stream sprang, and twisted through the plain until
it slid, deep, transparent, ice-green, down beside the entrance path.
After the prisoners poured the whole of the Black Mountain Army, who,
having set a guard at the entrance, all lay down to sleep, covering the
plain closely with their dark forms.
Baby Jane was usually a hungry child, and liked sometimes to fall asleep
thinking of breakfast, but now she did not like the idea at all. It was
horrid to think that she was now, as it were, a little sausage waiting
on the pantry shelf; indeed, the idea was so uncomfortable that she
could not sleep, but nestled close to the Bear and watched the stars
come out from behind the faintly glowing snow peak.
But what had happened to the Rabbit? If only he could come and take a
message to her army! He would not leave her of his own accord, but
would wait about near her.
At that moment she felt a curious heaving of the ground beneath her
back; it was like a tiny earthquake. What could it be? She moved away
from that spot, and with her hand felt the earth rise in a little mound
higher and higher. Then the mound divided, there was a sound of a
sneeze, and the Rabbit's head emerged. He brushed the earth off his ears
and whiskers, and then remarked, complacently:
'If you know a rabbit who thinks he can burrow, fetch him along, and
I'll teach him what proper burrowing's like. Down I went just outside
the entrance, and up I come here!'
Baby Jane was so overcome with delight that she hugged the Rabbit's head
in her arms and nearly smothered him with kisses. Then she quietly
wakened the Bear and Mary, and the whole party held a whispered council
of war.
After sitting with a puckered forehead for some minutes, Mary sagely
suggested:
'Of course, all we've got to do is to burrow back after the Rabbit.'
The Rabbit sniggered behind his paw:
'I'd like to see you burrowing about in a hedgerow, you beauty. Fancy a
warren of cab-horses!'
'You mustn't all be silly,' said Baby Jane. 'You won't laugh when you
find yourself being laid for breakfast to-morrow morning. Run, Rabbit,
as hard as you can, and tell my army to march here faster than ever an
army marched before.'
But even at this desperate moment that wild Rabbit must play his pranks,
and, instead of at once departing down his hole, he went loping off into
the darkness among the sleeping beasts.
'I must wish my little Leopard good-night,' he explained over his
shoulder as he went.
In a few minutes they heard a shrill voice at some distance singing:
'Bye, Baby Bunting.
Didums go a-hunting?
Didums chase a rabbit?
Didums try to grab it?
Didums want a rabbit-skin
To wrap his baby tootsies in?'
Then there came a fierce growl and a rush, and the Rabbit shot past
them, into his hole, like a flash of lightning.
Long hours of waiting followed. In thought Baby Jane saw the Rabbit
racing furiously mile after mile across the dark desert, growing tired
and panting till his heart was nearly bursting; but galloping, galloping
on. Now his little muscles gave out utterly, and yet he went galloping
on--with his soul. At last, with eyes growing dim, he saw a palm slender
and black against the starlit sky, and round it wide dark shadows--the
sleeping regiments of Baby Jane's army.
Then, it might be, he gathered his last shred of strength for that last
mile, and came galloping desperately in among the startled beasts, to
fall head over heels as if he were shot dead.
Then Baby Jane fancied she heard Sammy and the colonels calling out
their troops in proper style, and a moment later there was a dull,
steady sound, as of the sea on a distant shore or of five thousand
galloping beasts. In her imagination this sound came steadily on. What!
_Was_ it imagination? She had been fancying so long she could hardly
tell. For a long minute she strained her ears eagerly. Then a faint
night air came up from the plain, and suddenly the sound grew real and
distinct. _It was no fancy._ Her army was coming!
The others had heard it too, and they huddled together, hoping that none
of the Black Mountain band would wake and hear it. No one stirred.
'The sound has stopped!' whispered Mary.
'They have reached the foot of the mountain, and are climbing,'
whispered the Bear.
With her heart thumping in her chest, Baby Jane listened without
breathing. The silence was as dead as if the two armies upon the
mountain were boulders of its own rock. Minute after minute went by....
A deafening roar rang out. The sound of bodies hurled to the ground. A
rushing sound--and the Lion came flying out of the darkness. He seized
Baby Jane in his mouth, and, turning sharp round, raced for the pass.
But now the whole Black Mountain army was awake, roaring, yelling,
screaming, trumpeting, and the Lion found a close rank of them barring
his way. With poor Baby Jane over his shoulder, he flung himself against
them. He went hurtling through, and the dark pass was open before him;
but, alas, even as he reached it he stumbled on to his knees. A hundred
great paws and talons had struck at him as he went through, and he was
broken somewhere.
But instantly he got up again, and pushing Baby Jane behind him in the
narrow path, with a cliff on one side and a deep stream on the other, he
faced the Black Mountain army alone. He had far outstripped his own
regiments, and the Bear and Mary had been lost in the scrimmage.
In twos and threes the horrid beasts of the enemy flung themselves upon
him. To Baby Jane, crouching behind him, every fight was alike, and she
could not count them. There was a silence, a threefold snarl, and a
scrambling rush; and then the Lion rose high and struck as many blows as
there were assailants. At each blow the rock shook on which they stood,
and the walls of the ravine rang with the deafening crash. Each damaged
beast was swept into the deep stream and carried away. But out of many
hundred assailants one now and then would get in a blow, and the Lion
himself was damaged and broken in many places.
Suddenly, above the sound of fighting, Baby Jane heard the wicked yell
of the Leopard. At once the lesser assailants all drew off, and,
peeping round the Lion, she saw the lord of the Black Mountain Band
slouching across the now open space towards him. The Lion watched him
steadily, but he kept his head sideways as if he did not know there was
anything before him. In this way he came within a few yards of the Lion,
and there paused to lick his shoulder. But then, with frightful
suddenness, he turned and launched himself at his foe. The Leopard was
fresh, and the Lion was tired and damaged; but the Leopard had nothing
but his muscles and his horrid rage, the Lion had a great heart. For a
few moments they grappled; then the Lion managed to shake himself free,
caught the huge Leopard behind the neck, and, with a mighty effort,
slung him forward high into the air. You might have counted four slowly
before you heard him crash to the ground. Baby Jane did not hear that
horrible sound--she pushed her fingers into her ears, and shut her eyes
so that she might not see what happened when he fell.
Then the monotonous fights began again, and the Lion, in spite of his
courage, was growing feeble. In a little while they would both be seized
and eaten. The sky overhead was now growing a pearly grey, the first
sign of a day they might never see, and their hearts were growing
chilly, when suddenly from the cliffs overhead a clattering hail of
cocoa-nuts rattled upon the skulls of the astonished foe, and a loud
hurroo filled their two hearts with comfort--Patsey's artillery had come
into action!
[Illustration: Patsey's artillery ...]
But wolves and rhinoceroses are not to be driven off with cocoa-nuts,
and again the foe pressed forward. Again, in spite, of the friendly
shouts and heavy fire of the field-monkeys overhead, Baby Jane's heart
sank within her. Would it not be better to fall into the river, where
you might swim, than into the inside of a rhinoceros, where you
certainly could not? As she gazed at the stream it struck her that it
had a strange, dark, streaky look. Then she gave a great start, for an
eye had slowly risen above the water and solemnly winked at her. It was
Miss Crocodile leading her regiment stealthily up the stream.
[Illustration: ... had come into action.]
The eye disappeared, and the next that was seen of Miss Crocodile was at
a point where the river ran through the densest masses of the enemy.
There, all in a line, as if worked by one machine, a hundred crocodile
heads rose above the bank, seized, each of them, the nearest leg, and
disappeared with their prey under the water. This manoeuvre was
repeated three times with beautiful precision before the dazed Black
Mountaineers had the sense to rush from the river bank. At last the
Lion, now broken in every breakable place, had rest, for Baby Jane was
safe.
But only safe for the time being, for the enemy were still in great
force and desperate with rage. Indeed, even now they were gathering at
the foot of the great snow-slope for a last charge upon the Lion and the
crocodiles. But none of them had looked up at the crowning ridge of that
slope. There they would have seen a long dark line standing out against
the paling sky--it was the entire brigade of lions and bears, under
Sammy! They had missed the path that led into the plain, and now, having
reached the very crest of the mountain, at last saw the foe beneath
them. The Black Mountaineers were at that very instant preparing to
charge the devoted band in the entrance of the pass. Not a second was to
be lost.
'Sit!' shouted Sammy. 'Prepare to coast! Go!' And with that word the
whole brigade went sliding down the snow-slope in a dense line.
'Sh--sh--sh--sh!' (But I cannot 'shish' loud enough to represent three
thousand beasts coming down a snow-mountain on their tails!)
Gathering speed as they went until they were whistling downwards through
the air like a living hailstorm, they struck the Black Mountain army
from behind with an awful bump, and sent them flying headlong on their
noses. Before those wretched creatures could regain their feet a
true-hearted beast was sitting on the head of each. The battle was over.
There was no longer a Black Mountain army!
[Illustration: They struck the Black Mountain army from behind.]
At the moment of victory, from the middle of the field, as if by magic,
up poured the regiment of rabbits, led by their gallant colonel. (He had
been waiting at his hole until that moment arrived.) They wheeled
smartly into line.
'Charge!' cried the Colonel, and with a hurricane of squeaks they swept
across the field. Unluckily they met a baby leopard in their course,
but with great presence of mind they turned about and charged the other
way.
[Illustration: They met a baby leopard in their course.]
This was a fortunate change of plan, for in a far corner they found Mary
and the Bear tussling with a gnu and a stork, each couple gripping the
other by the wrists (so to speak) and claiming them as prisoners.
At a safe distance the Rabbit halted his regiment, and squeaked in a
loud voice:
'In the Queen's name, I arrest you all--for brawling. Come with me!'
The unreasonableness of this announcement for a moment stunned the four
fighters; then the impertinence of it struck them even more strongly,
and they _did_ come with him--that is to say, he and his regiment ran
for dear life, and they ran after him.
Thus, followed by the four frantic beasts, he rushed into the middle of
Baby Jane's army, squeaking triumphantly, 'Victory! Victory! Two
comrades rescued! Two prisoners taken!' Luckily the cheers of the army
drowned the heated explanations of Mary and the Bear.
[Illustration: Mary and the Stork.]
And now Baby Jane, no longer a black bear, but a pretty little girl
again, stood with one arm round the neck of the broken Lion, and all her
loving beasts around her, like a queen before her conquering army. And
the morning sun, looking through the pass, gilded her locks, and made a
crown of them, and, for her Majesty to walk upon, laid a golden carpet
across the cool, shaded grass.
Down the golden carpet she came, her people flocking after her, through
the pass, and out into the open morning upon the mountain side, where
the sun made everything beautiful and comfortable.