The General owned that there would be good hunting here, but he wanted
to get the party well into the interior, where, taking up a central
position, they could make excursions in any direction according to the
way in which the game lay. If they stayed where they were, all they
would do would be to drive the game away, and it would grow more scarce.
The boys were as eager as the General, and looking upon the interior as
a land of mystery and romance, they readily backed up the proposal to go
farther.
"Well, my boys, I hardly know what to say," replied Mr Rogers. "I want
for you both to grow sturdy, manly, and inured to danger; but I scarcely
like running the risk of taking you where we may be constantly
encountering the lion, the rhinoceros, and the elephant and
hippopotamus."
"But we shall be very careful," said Jack.
"And we are growing better marksmen every day, father," exclaimed Dick.
"Yes, my boys, I dare say you are," replied Mr Rogers. "But please
remember that taking aim at and shooting a timid deer is one thing;
standing face to face with some fierce beast ready to take your life,
quite another."
"Oh, yes, father, I know that," said Jack; "and I dare say I should be
horribly frightened, but I wouldn't run away."
"It might be wiser to do so than to provoke the animal by firing," said
Mr Rogers, smiling. "What do you say, Dick?"
"I say I should like to go on, father, in spite of the risk," replied
Dick. "Now we have come so far, I want to see more of the wonderful
Central African land, and I should like to shoot a lion, an elephant, a
rhinoceros, and a hippopotamus."
"And a giraffe, a crocodile, and a boa-constrictor," said Jack.
"And would you both like to make that bag in one day, young gentlemen?"
said Mr Rogers, smiling.
"Ah, now you are laughing at us, father," said Dick. "Of course we
don't expect to shoot all those creatures, but we should like to try."
"Yes," added Jack; "that's it, Dick. We should like to try."
"Then you shall try," said Mr Rogers, quietly; "on condition, mind,
that you will neither of you do anything rash, but follow out either my
advice or that of the General, whom I feel disposed to trust more and
more."
The country seemed to grow more romantic and grand the farther they
trekked on away from civilisation, and they travelled now very few
hundred yards without seeing something new and full of interest. Game
was so abundant that there was no difficulty in keeping up a plentiful
supply. Dinny even threatened to lose the frying-pan, for, as he said,
he was frying steak morning, noon, and night; but as he loved dearly to
fry one particularly juicy piece always for a gentleman named Dinny,
there was not much fear of his keeping his word.
But somehow Dinny did not add to the harmony of the expedition. He
proved himself again and again to be an arrant coward; and, coward-like,
he tried to tyrannise over the weaker.
He was afraid of the General; and when, upon one or two occasions, he
had quarrelled with Peter or Dirk, those gentlemen had displayed so much
pugnacity that Dinny had prudently resolved to quarrel with them no
more. He, however, made up for this by pouring out his virulence upon
Coffee and Chicory, the dogs having been too much for him; and the Zulu
boys bore it all in silence, but evidently meant to remember Dinny's
behaviour when the time came.
One day, soon after entering the game country, the General, who was on
ahead alternately scanning the horizon and the ground, while the oxen
slowly lumbered on behind, suddenly stopped, and began to examine some
footprints in a marshy piece of ground which he had just told Dick to
avoid.
"What is it?" said Dick, coming up.
"Look," said the General, pointing to the great footprints.
"Why, it looks as if a great cat had been here," said Dick.
"Yes; great cat; lion!" said the Zulu.
And when Mr Rogers and Jack had cantered up, and seen the spoor, as
such footprints were generally termed in South Africa, they knew that
there would be real danger now hovering about their nightly camps.
That afternoon, as they were passing through a woody portion of the
country, Chicory, who was well ahead, assegai in hand, eagerly looking
out for game, was heard suddenly to yell out as if in agony; and as all
ran to his help, he was found to be rolling on the ground, shrieking the
native word for "Snake! snake!"
Mr Rogers was the first to reach him, being mounted, and as he drew
rein by the prostrate boy, he saw a long thin snake gliding away.
He was just in time, and leaning forward he took rapid aim with his
fowling-piece; and as the smoke rose, a long thin ash-coloured snake was
seen writhing, mortally wounded, upon the ground.
The General caught the boy by the shoulder, and proceeded to divide his
jet-black hair, examining his scalp carefully, but without finding any
trace of a wound; though Chicory declared that he was killed, and that
the snake had seized him by the head as he was going under a tree.
He had felt it, and when he threw himself forward to avoid it, the
creature writhed and twisted about his neck, till in his horror he
rolled over and over, partly crushing the reptile, which was making its
escape when Mr Rogers's gun put an end to its power of doing mischief.
The General having satisfied himself that his boy was not hurt, sent him
forward with a cuff on the ear, before giving his master a grateful look
for destroying a virulently poisonous serpent--one, he assured them,
whose regular practice was to hang suspended by the tail from some low
branch, and in this position to strike at any living creature that
passed beneath.
"He would have been dead now," said the General, "if the snake's teeth
had gone through his hair."
It was with no little satisfaction then, after this adventure, that the
hunting-party passed through the woody region they were then in, and
came into the open, for during the last few hours everybody's eyes had
been diligently directed at the overhanging branches of the trees, Dinny
being so observant that he two or three times tripped over prostrate
boughs, and went down upon his nose.
As they passed out into the open they were in a rough plain, covered as
far as they could see with coarse herbage; and hardly had the waggon
emerged before Mr Rogers, who was using his glass, drew the General's
attention to some dark objects upon a slope some distance ahead.
The Zulu glanced at the dark shapes for a few moments, and then cried
eagerly,--
"Buffalo!"
"Come along, Dick," shouted Jack.
"Stop, stop!" exclaimed their father. "What are you going to do?"
"Shoot a buffalo, father."
"If we can," added Dick.
"But you must be careful. These buffalo are pretty fierce creatures,
and dangerous at times."
"Yes, very dangerous," assented the Zulu. "Boss Jack--Boss Dick shoot
one, and the boys drive one to him."
The General undertaking to do his best to keep his sons out of danger,
Mr Rogers consented to let them go; and soon afterwards, having made
his plans, the General started off with his boys, pointing out a course
for Jack and Dick to take upon their cobs, advising them both to fire at
the same buffalo as it galloped past them, and then to keep hidden till
the herd had gone by.
This they undertook to do; and away they cantered in one direction, the
General and his boys going in another, so as to get ahead of the herd,
and then show themselves, and that, they expected, would drive them
towards the young hunters.
All turned out exactly as anticipated. Dick and Jack sat like statues,
in a low hollow, with rifles cocked, and cartridges handy for a second
shot, waiting for the coming of the herd; and at last, just as they had
given up all expectation of seeing them, there was a low rushing sound
in the distance as of wind--then a roar, ever increasing, until it was
like thunder; and then down came the vast herd of heavy animals,
surprising the boys at first by their number, so that they had nearly
all gone by before either of the brothers thought of firing.
Dick was the first to rouse himself from his surprise.
"Now then, Jack," he cried, as their horses stood motionless, watching
the passing drove; "fire at that slate-coloured bull. Now then, take
aim together--fire!"
The two rifle-shots pealed almost like one, and, to the delight of the
boys, they saw the young bull they had shot stagger forward on to its
knees, and then roll over upon its side.
"Hurray! First buffalo!" cried Jack; and together the boys cantered out
into the plain, when, to their intense astonishment, instead of the herd
continuing its flight, about a dozen bulls stopped short, stared at
them, pawed the ground, stuck up their tails, wheeled round, uttered a
fierce roar, and charged.
Even if the boys had felt disposed to meet their enemies with a couple
more shots, the cobs would not have stood still. They were well-broken,
and trusty; day by day they had seemed to gain confidence in their
riders, and they would stand perfectly still if their bridles were drawn
over their heads and allowed to trail upon the ground; while if Jack or
Dick liked to make a rifle-rest of their backs, they were perfectly
content, and stood as rigidly as if carved out of stone.
But there are bounds even to the confidence of a horse. When the little
steeds saw the fierce looks of the buffaloes, heard their angry
bellowings, and found that with waving tails, menacing horns, and hoofs
that seemed to thunder as they tore up the ground, the bulls were coming
nearer and nearer, and evidently with the full intent of burying those
sharp horns in their chests, Shoes and Stockings snorted violently,
turned round so suddenly that had not Jack and Dick been excellent
horsemen they would have been thrown, and tore away over the plain.
This was a reverse of circumstances; and naturally feeling startled at
such a change, their boys gave their horses their heads, sat well down,
and kept giving furtive glances behind to see if the bulls were gaining
upon them.
At the end of a few moments, though, it occurred to Dick that their
speed was greater than that of the buffaloes, and consequently that they
would have no difficulty, failing accidents, in galloping away. Then he
began to think of his rifle and ammunition, but felt that under the
circumstances fire-arms were useless.
Last of all he began to feel very much ashamed of his position, in being
hunted like this.
The same feeling seemed to have affected Jack, who looked at his brother
as they raced on side by side.
The consequence was that all of a sudden they both sat up more erect in
their saddles, and took a pull at the reins, bringing Shoes and
Stockings by degrees into a hand gallop, instead of the _ventre a terre_
progress they were making before.
"This won't do," cried Dick, as he glanced back to find that the bulls
were still lumbering on behind them, snorting savagely, and shaking
their horn-armed fronts.
"No," said Jack, "we are taking them right down on the waggon, and
they'll charge straight over the camp."
"Yes; let's turn off to the left," shouted Dick; and as if by one
impulse they wheeled round to the left, and galloped on over the plain.
"I tell you what," he cried, as a happy idea struck him; "let's wheel
round to the right now."
"What for?" shouted back his brother.
"So as to ride round and round the waggon in a circle. Father will
bring one or two of them down."
For answer Jack wheeled to the right, and if the manoeuvre had been kept
up it would have answered; but, as it happened, Mr Rogers had gone away
from the waggon in search of some beautifully plumaged birds which had
settled in the trees above the camp, and then gone on to a grove a mile
or so away.
The General and his boys were of course far away out on the plain, where
they had been driving the buffalo, and therefore Dinny was the principal
man in camp.
He was busy with the frying-pan frizzling himself a venison steak, when,
hearing the thunder of hoofs, he dropped the pan in the wood ashes, and
stood staring with horror.
"What'll I do now?" he cried.
Then a bright idea seized him, and pulling his knife from his belt, he
dashed at the place where his enemies the dogs were tied up by stout
thongs to the waggon-wheels, and divided them one by one.
"There, ye bastes," he cried, "be off and get tossed." And as the dogs
rushed off, delighted with their freedom, Dinny chose what he thought
was the safest place in the camp, namely, the space between the four
wheels beneath the waggon, and there lay down and wished himself back
safely in his mother's cabin.
The dogs had been for some moments past tearing at their thongs to get
away, so that no sooner were they freed than, barking and baying
fiercely, they raced down after the buffaloes, and Dinny never did a
better act in his life. Certainly it was prompted by cowardice; but it
had its good fruits, for it was the saving of poor Dick's life.
The boys had galloped on as had been suggested, gradually inclining to
the right, so that they drew the little herd of bulls into following
them in a circle; and in this way they had nearly gone round the waggon
at about a couple of hundred yards' distance, wondering why their father
did not shoot, when, all at once, just as the baying of the dogs reached
their ears, Dick turned a piteous look at his brother.
"I'm--I'm not strong, yet, Jack," he faltered. "Ride on fast."
To Jack's horror he saw his brother's eyes close, and that he fell
forward upon his horse's neck; the next moment he had glided as it were
out of his saddle, and fallen--his horse, from its good training,
stopping short by his side.
The buffaloes were only about thirty yards behind, and as Jack reined
in, and turned to help his brother, the bulls lowered, their horns, and
in another moment or two they would have been trampled and gored,
perhaps killed; but just as the great shaggy animals were upon them, the
dogs made their attack, Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus each seizing a bull
by the lip, while Rough'un kept up a furious barking as he tore at the
various animals' heels.
The effect was magical upon the buffaloes, which tossed their heads
furiously in the air, and dislodging their assailants, turned and rushed
off, with the dogs now biting their heels or leaping viciously at their
flanks, all attack now being changed to flight.