"Ah! Peterkin. You there?"
"Ay; and may I not reply, with some surprise, _you here_?"
"Truly you may,--but what could I do? The men ran away from me, whether
I would or no; and you are aware I could not make myself understood, not
being able to--But where is Jack?"
I asked this abruptly, because it occurred to me at that moment that he
and Peterkin should have been together.
"Where is Jack?" echoed Peterkin; "I may ask that of you, for I am
ignorant on the point. He and I got separated in endeavouring to escape
from the scrimmage caused by your valiant attack. You seem to have
scattered the whole force to the winds. Oh, here he is, and Mak along
with him."
Jack and our guide came running into the camp at that moment.
"Well, Ralph, what of Okandaga?"
"Ah! what of her indeed?" said Peterkin. "I forgot her. You don't moan
to say she was not in the camp?"
"Indeed she was," said I, "and so were Mbango, and his wife Njamie, and
one or two others whom I did not know; but my men went at them with such
ferocity that they fled along with our enemies."
"Fled!" cried Jack.
"Ay; and I fear much that it will fare ill with them if they are
overtaken, for the men were wild with excitement and passion."
"Come, this must be looked to," cried Jack, seizing his rifle and
tightening his belt; "we must follow, for if they escape our hands they
will certainly be retaken by their former captors."
We followed our comrade, without further remark, in the direction of the
fugitives; but although we ran fast and long, we failed to come up with
them. For two hours did we dash through bush and brake, jungle and
morass, led by Makarooroo, and lighted by the pale beams of the moon.
Then we came to a halt, and sat down to consult.
"Dem be gone," said our wretched guide, whose cup of happiness was thus
dashed from his hand just as he was about to raise it to his lips.
"Now, don't look so dismal, Mak," cried Peterkin, slapping the man on
the shoulder. "You may depend upon it, we will hunt her up somehow or
other. Only let us keep stout hearts, and we can do anything."
"Very easily said, Master Peterkin," observed Jack; "but what course do
you propose we should follow just now?"
"Collect our scattered men; go back to the village; have a palaver with
King Jambai and his chiefs; get up a pursuit, and run the foxes to
earth."
"And suppose," said Jack, "that you don't know in which direction they
have fled, how can we pursue them?"
"It is very easy to suppose all manner of difficulties," retorted
Peterkin. "If you have a better plan, out with it."
"I have no better plan, but I have a slight addition to make to yours,
which is, that when we collect a few of our men, I shall send them out
to every point of the compass, to make tracks like the spokes of a
wheel, of which the village shall be the centre; and by that means we
shall be pretty certain to get information ere long as to the
whereabouts of our fugitives. So now let us be up and doing; time is
precious to-night."
In accordance with this plan, we rapidly retraced our steps to the dell,
which had been appointed as our place of rendezvous. Here we found the
greater part of our men assembled; and so well-timed had Jack's
movements been, that not one of them all had been able to overtake or
slay a single enemy. Thus, by able generalship, had Jack gained a
complete and bloodless victory.
Having detached and sent off our scouts--who, besides being picked men,
travelled without any other encumbrance than their arms--we resumed our
journey homeward, and reached the village not long after sunrise, to the
immense surprise of Jambai, who could scarcely believe that we had
routed the enemy so completely, and whose scepticism was further
increased by the total, and to him unaccountable, absence of prisoners,
or of any other trophies of our success in the fight. But Jack made a
public speech, of such an elaborate, deeply mysterious, and totally
incomprehensible character, that even Makarooroo, who translated,
listened and spoke with the deepest reverence and wonder; and when he
had concluded, there was evidently a firm impression on the minds of the
natives that this victory was--by some means or in some way or other
quite inexplicable but highly satisfactory--the greatest they had ever
achieved.
The king at once agreed to Jack's proposal that a grand pursuit should
take place, to commence the instant news should be brought in by the
scouts. But the news, when it did come, had the effect of totally
altering our plans.
The first scout who returned told us that he had fallen in with a large
body of the enemy encamped on the margin of a small pond. Creeping like
a snake through the grass, he succeeded in getting near enough to
overhear the conversation, from which he gathered two important pieces
of information--namely, that they meant to return to their own lands in
a north-easterly direction, and that their prisoners had escaped by
means of a canoe which they found on the banks of the river that flowed
past King Jambai's village.
The first piece of information decided the king to assemble his
followers, and go off in pursuit of them at once; the second piece of
news determined us to obtain a canoe and follow Mbango and his
companions to the sea-coast, whither, from all that we heard, we
concluded they must certainly have gone. As this, however, was a
journey of many weeks, we had to take the matter into serious
consideration.
"It is quite evident," said Jack, as we sat over our supper on the night
after receiving the above news--"it is quite evident that they mean to
go to the coast, for Mbango had often expressed to Mak a wish to go
there; and the mere fact of their having been seen to escape and take
down stream, is in itself pretty strong evidence that they did not mean
to return to their now desolated village, seeing that the country behind
them is swarming with enemies; and of course they cannot know that we
have conquered the main body of these rascals. I therefore propose that
we should procure a canoe and follow them: first, because we must at all
hazards get hold of poor Okandaga, and relieve the anxiety of our
faithful guide Makarooroo; and second, because it is just as well to go
in that direction as in any other, in order to meet with wild animals,
and see the wonders of this land."
"But what if King Jambai takes it into his black woolly head to decline
to let us go?" said Peterkin.
"In that case we must take French leave of him."
"In which case," said I, in some alarm, "all my specimens of natural
history will be lost."
Jack received this remark with a shake of his head and a look of great
perplexity; and Peterkin said, "Ah, Ralph, I fear there's no help for
it. You must make up your mind to say good-bye to your mummies--big
puggies and all."
"But you do not know," said I energetically, "that Jambai will detain us
against our will."
"Certainly not," replied Jack; "and for your sake I hope that he will
not. At any rate I will go to see him about this point after supper.
It's of no use presenting a petition either to king, lord, or common
while his stomach is empty. But there is another thing that perplexes
me: that poor sick child, Njamie's son, must not be left behind. The
poor distracted mother has no doubt given him up for lost. It will be
like getting him back from the grave."
"True," said I; "we must take him with us. Yet I fear he is too ill to
travel, and we cannot await his recovery."
"He is not so ill as he seemed," observed Peterkin. "I went to see him
only half an hour ago, and the little chap was quite hearty, and glad to
see me. The fact is, he has been ill-used and ill-fed. The rest and
good treatment he has received have, even in the short time he has been
here, quite revived him."
"Good," said Jack; "then he shall go with us. I'll engage to take him
on my back when he knocks up on the march--for we have a march before
us, as I shall presently explain--and when we get into a canoe he will
be able to rest."
"But what march do you refer to?" I asked.
"Simply this. Mak, with whom I have had a good deal of conversation on
the subject, tells me that the river makes a considerable bend below
this village, and that by taking a short cut of a day's journey or so
over land we can save time, and will reach a small hamlet where canoes
are to be had. The way, to be sure, is through rather a wild country;
but that to us is an advantage, as we shall be the more likely to meet
with game. I find, also, that the king has determined to follow the
same route with his warriors in pursuit of the enemy, so that thus far
we may travel together. At the hamlet we will diverge to the
north-east, while we, if all goes well, embarking in our canoe, will
proceed toward the west coast, where, if we do not overtake them on the
way, we shall be certain to find them on our arrival. Okandaga has
often longed to go to the mission station there, and as she knows it is
in vain to urge Mbango to return to his destroyed village, she will
doubtless advise him to go to the coast."
"What you say seems highly probable," said I; "and I think the best
thing you can do is to go to the king at once and talk him over."
"Trust Jack for that," added Peterkin, who was at that moment deeply
engaged with what he called the drumstick of a roast monkey. "Jack
would talk over any creature with life, so persuasive is his eloquence.
I say, Ralph," he added, holding the half-picked drumstick at arm's
length, and regarding it with a critical gaze, "I wonder, now, how the
drumstick of an ostrich would taste. Good, I have no doubt, though
rather large for one man's dinner."
"It would be almost equal to gorilla ham, I should fancy," said Jack, as
he left the hut on his errand to the king.
"O you cannibal, to think of such a thing!" cried Peterkin, throwing the
bone of his drumstick after our retreating comrade.--"But 'tis always
thus," he added, with a sigh: "man preys upon man, monkey upon monkey.
Yet I had hoped better things of Jack. I had believed him to be at
least a refined species of gorilla. I say, Ralph, what makes you look
so lugubrious?"
"The difficulties, I suppose, that beset our path," said I sadly; for,
to say truth, I did not feel in a jesting humour just then. I was
forced, however, in spite of myself, to laugh at the expression of
mingled disgust and surprise that overspread the mobile countenance of
my friend on hearing my reply.
"`The difficulties,'" echoed he, "`that beset our path!' Really, Ralph,
life will become insupportable to me if you and Jack go on in this
fashion. A man of nerve and sanguine temperament might stand it, but to
one like me, of a naturally timid and leaning nature, with the addition
of low spirits, it is really crushing--quite crushing."
I laughed, and replied that he must just submit to be crushed, as it was
impossible for Jack and me to change our dispositions to suit his
convenience; whereupon he sighed, lighted his pipe, and began to smoke
vehemently.
In the course of little more than an hour Jack returned, accompanied by
Makarooroo, and from the satisfied expression of their faces I judged
that they had been successful.
"Ah! I see; it's all right," said Peterkin, raising himself on one
elbow as they entered the hut and seated themselves beside the fire.
"Old Jambai has been `talked over.'"
"Right; but he needed a deal of talk--he was horribly obstinate," said
Jack.
"Ho, yis; ho! ho! horribubly obsterlate," added Makarooroo in
corroboration, rubbing his hands and holding his nose slyly over the
bowl of Peterkin's pipe, in order to enjoy, as it were, a second-hand
whiff.
"Here, there's a bit for yourself, old boy. Sit down and enjoy yourself
while Jack tells us all about his interview with royalty," said
Peterkin, handing a lump of tobacco to our guide, whose eyes glistened
and white teeth gleamed as he received the much-prized gift.
Jack now explained to us that he had found the king in a happy state of
satiety, smoking in his very curious and uneasy-looking easy-chair; that
he had at first begged and entreated him (Jack) to stay and take command
of his warriors, and had followed up his entreaties with a hint that it
was just possible he might adopt stronger measures if entreaty failed.
To this Jack replied in a long speech, in which he pointed out the
impossibility of our complying with the king's request under present
circumstances, and the absolute necessity of our returning at some
period or other to our native land to tell our people of the wonders we
had seen in the great country of King Jambai. Observing that his
arguments did not make much impression on the king, he brought up his
reserve force to the attack, and offered all the remainder of our goods
as a free gift to his majesty, stipulating only that he (the king)
should, in consideration thereof, carefully send our boxes of specimens
down to the coast, where the messengers, on arriving, should be
handsomely paid if everything should arrive safely and in good order.
These liberal offers had a visible influence on the sable monarch, whose
pipe indicated the state of his mind pretty clearly--thin wreaths of
smoke issuing therefrom when he did not sympathise with Jack's
reasoning, and thick voluminous clouds revolving about his woolly head,
and involving him, as it were, in a veil of gauze, when he became
pleasantly impressed. When Jack made mention of the valuable gifts
above referred to, his head and shoulders were indistinctly visible amid
the white cloudlets; and when he further offered to supply him with a
few hundreds of the magical paper balls that had so effectually defeated
his enemies the day before, the upper part of his person was obliterated
altogether in smoke.
This last offer of Jack's we deemed a great stroke of politic wisdom,
for thereby he secured that the pending war should be marked by the
shedding of less blood than is normal in such cases. He endeavoured
further to secure this end by assuring the king that the balls would be
useless for the purpose for which they were made if any other substance
should be put into the gun along with them, and that they would only
accomplish the great end of putting the enemy to flight if fired at them
in one tremendous volley at a time when the foe had no idea of the
presence of an enemy.
All things being thus amicably arranged, we retired to rest, and slept
soundly until daybreak, when we were awakened by the busy sounds of
preparation in the village for the intended pursuit.
We, too, made active arrangements for a start, and soon after were
trooping over the plains and through the jungle in the rear of King
Jambai's army, laden with such things as we required for our journey to
the coast, and Jack, besides his proportion of our food, bedding,
cooking utensils, etcetera, carrying Njamie's little sick boy on his
broad shoulders.