Leaving this village immediately after the slaying of the tiger, the
party continued to journey almost by forced marches, for not only was
Nigel Roy very anxious to keep tryst with his father, and to settle the
question of Kathleen's identity by bringing father and daughter
together, but Van der Kemp himself, strange to say, was filled with
intense and unaccountable anxiety to get back to his island-home.
"I don't know how it is," he said to Nigel as they walked side by side
through the forest, followed by Moses and the professor, who had become
very friendly on the strength of a certain amount of vacant curiosity
displayed by the former in regard to scientific matters--"I don't know
how it is, but I feel an unusually strong desire to get back to my cave.
I have often been absent from home for long periods at a time, but have
never before experienced these strange longings. I say strange, because
there is no such thing as an effect without a cause."
"May not the cause be presentiment?" suggested Nigel, who, knowing what
a tremendous possibility for the hermit lay in the future, felt a little
inclined to be superstitious. It did not occur to him just then that an
equally, if not more, tremendous possibility lay in the future for
himself--touching his recent discovery or suspicion!
"I do not believe in presentiments," returned the hermit. "They are
probably the result of indigestion or a disordered intellect, from
neither of which complaints do I suffer--at least not consciously!"
"But you have never before left home in such peculiar circumstances,"
said Nigel. "Have you not told me that this is the first time for about
two hundred years that Krakatoa has broken out in active eruption?"
"True, but that cannot be to me the cause of longings or anxieties, for
I have seen many a long-dormant crater become active without any
important result either to me or to any one else."
"Stop, stop!" cried Professor Verkimier in a hoarse whisper at that
moment; "look! look at zee monkeys!"
Monkeys are very abundant in Sumatra, but the nest of them which the
travellers discovered at that time, and which had called forth the
professor's admiration, was enough--as Moses said--to make a "renocerus
laugh." The trees around absolutely swarmed with monkeys; those of a
slender form and with very long tails being most numerous. They were
engaged in some sort of game, swinging by arms, legs, and tails from
branches, holding on to or chasing each other, and taking the most
astonishing leaps in circumstances where a slip would have no doubt
resulted in broken limbs or in death.
"Stand still! Oh! _do_ stand still--like you vas petrivied," said the
professor in a low voice of entreaty.
Being quite willing to humour him, the whole party stood immovable, like
statues, and thus avoided attracting the attention of the monkeys, who
continued their game. It seemed to be a sort of "follow my leader," for
one big strong fellow led off with a bound from one branch to another
which evidently tried the nerves of his more timid and less agile
companions. They all succeeded, however, from the largest even to the
smallest--which last was a very tiny creature with a pink face, a sad
expression, and a corkscrew tail.
For a time they bounded actively among the branches, now high, now low,
till suddenly the big leader took a tremendous leap, as if for the
express purpose of baffling or testing his companions. It was immensely
amusing to see the degrees of trepidation with which the others
followed. The last two seemed quite unable to make up their minds to
the leap, until the others seemed about to disappear, when one of them
took heart and bounded wildly across. Thus little pink-face with the
corkscrew tail was left alone! Twice did that little monkey make a
desperate resolution to jump, and twice did its little heart fail as it
measured the distance between the branches and glanced at the abyss
below. Its companions seemed to entertain a feeling of pity for it.
Numbers of them came back, as if to watch the jump and encourage the
little one. A third time it made an abortive effort to spring, and
looked round pitifully, whereupon Moses gave vent to an uncontrollable
snort of suppressed laughter.
"Vat you mean by zat?" growled the professor angrily.
The growl and snort together revealed the intruders, and all the
monkeys, except pink-face, crowding the trees above the spot where they
stood, gazed down upon them with expressions in which unparalleled
indignation and inconceivable surprise struggled for the mastery.
Then, with a wild shriek, the whole troop fled into the forest.
This was too much for poor, half-petrified pink-face with the twisted
tail. Seeing that its comrades were gone in earnest, it became
desperate, flung itself frantically into the air with an agonising
squeak, missed its mark, went crashing through the slender branches and
fell to the ground.
Fortunately these branches broke its fall so that it arose unhurt,
bounded into a bush, still squeaking with alarm, and made after its
friends.
"Why did you not shoot it, professor?" asked Nigel, laughing as much at
Verkimier's grave expression as at the little monkey's behaviour.
"Vy did I not shot it?" echoed the professor. "I vould as soon shot a
baby. Zee pluck of zat leetle creature is admirable. It vould be a
horrible shame to take his life. No! I do love to see ploock vezer in
man or beast! He could not shoomp zat. He _knew_ he could not shoomp
it, but he _tried_ to shoomp it. He vould not be beat, an' I vould not
kill him--zough I vant 'im very mooch for a specimen."
It seemed as if the professor was to be specially rewarded for his
self-denial on this occasion, for while he was yet speaking, a soft
"hush!" from Van der Kemp caused the whole party to halt in dead silence
and look at the hermit inquiringly.
"You are in luck, professor," he murmured, in a soft, low voice--very
different from that hissing whisper which so many people seem to imagine
is an inaudible utterance. "I see a splendid Argus pheasant over there
making himself agreeable to his wife!"
"Vare? oh! vare?" exclaimed the enthusiast with blazing eyes, for
although he had already seen and procured specimens of this most
beautiful creature, he had not yet seen it engage in the strange
love-dance--if we may so call it--which is peculiar to the bird.
"You'll never get near enough to see it if you hiss like a serpent,"
said the hermit. "Get out your binoculars, follow me, and hold your
tongue, all of you--that will be the safest plan. Tread lightly."
It was a sight to behold the professor crouching almost double in order
to render himself less conspicuous, with his hat pushed back, and the
blue glasses giving him the appearance of a great-eyed seal. He carried
his butterfly-net in one hand, and the unfailing rifle in the other.
Fortunately the hermit's sharp and practised eye had enabled him to
distinguish the birds in the distance before their advance had alarmed
them, so that they were able to reach a mound topped with low bushes
over which they could easily watch the birds.
"Zat is very koorious an' most interesting," murmured the professor
after a short silence.
He was right. There were two Argus pheasants, a male and female--the
male alone being decorated superbly. The Argus belongs to the same
family as the peacock, but is not so gaudy in colouring, and therefore,
perhaps, somewhat more pleasing. Its tail is formed chiefly by an
enormous elongation of the two tail quills, and of the secondary wing
feathers, no two of which are exactly the same, and the closer they are
examined the greater is seen to be the extreme beauty of their markings,
and the rich varied harmony of their colouring.
When a male Argus wishes to show off his magnificence to his spouse--or
when she asks him to show it off we know not which--he makes a circle in
the forest some ten or twelve feet in diameter, which he clears of every
leaf, twig, and branch. On the margin of this circus there is
invariably a projecting branch, or overarching root a few feet above the
ground, on which the female takes her place to watch the exhibition.
This consists of the male strutting about, pluming his feathers, and
generally displaying his gorgeous beauty.
"Vat ineffable vanity!" exclaimed the professor, after gazing for some
time in silence.
His own folly in thus speaking was instantly proved by the two birds
bringing the exhibition to an abrupt close and hastily taking wing.
Not long after seeing this they came to a small but deep and rapid
river, which for a time checked their progress, for there was no ford,
and the porters who carried Verkimier's packages seemed to know nothing
about a bridge, either natural or artificial. After wandering for an
hour or so along its banks, however, they found a giant tree which had
fallen across the stream, and formed a natural bridge.
On the other side of the stream the ground was more rugged and the
forest so dense that they had to walk in a sort of twilight--only a
glimpse of blue sky being visible here and there through the tree-tops.
In some places, however, there occurred bright little openings which
swarmed with species of metallic tiger-beetles and sand-bees, and where
sulphur, swallow-tailed, and other butterflies sported their brief life
away over the damp ground by the water's edge.
The native forest path which they followed was little better than a
tunnel cut through a grove of low rattan-palms, the delicate but
exceedingly tough tendrils of which hung down in all directions. These
were fringed with sharp hooks which caught their clothing and tore it,
or held on unrelentingly, so that the only way of escape was to step
quietly back and unhook themselves. This of itself would have rendered
their progress slow as well as painful, but other things tended to
increase the delay. At one place they came to a tree about seven feet
in diameter which lay across the path and had to be scrambled over, and
this was done with great difficulty. At another, a gigantic mud-bath--
the wallowing hole of a herd of elephants--obstructed the way, and a
yell from one of the porters told that in attempting to cross it he had
fallen in up to the waist. A comrade in trying to pull him out also
fell in and sank up to the armpits. But they got over it--as resolute
men always do--somehow!
"Zis is horrible!" exclaimed the professor, panting from his exertions,
and making a wild plunge with his insect-net at some living creature.
"Hah! zee brute! I have 'im."
The man of science was flat on his stomach as he spoke, with arm
outstretched and the net pressed close to the ground, while a smile of
triumph beamed through the mud and scratches on his face.
"What have you got?" asked Nigel, doing his best to restrain a laugh.
"A splendid _Ornit'optera_ a day-flying moss," said Verkimier as he
cautiously rose, "vich mimics zee _Trepsichrois mulciber_. Ant zis very
morning I caught von _Leptocircus virescens_, vich derives protection
from mimicking zee habits ant appearance of a dragon-fly."
"What rubbish dat purfesser do talk!" remarked Moses in an undertone to
the hermit as they moved on again.
"Not such rubbish as it sounds to you, Moses. These are the scientific
names of the creatures, and you know as well as he does that many
creatures think they find it advantageous to pretend to be what they are
not. Man himself is not quite free from this characteristic. Indeed,
you have a little of it yourself," said the hermit with one of his
twinkling glances. "When you are almost terrified out of your wits
don't you pretend that there's nothing the matter with you?"
"Nebber, massa, nebber!" answered the negro with remonstrative gravity.
"When I's nigh out ob my wits, so's my innards feels like nuffin' but
warmish water, I gits whitey-grey in de chops, so I's told, an' blue in
de lips, an' I _pretends_ nuffin'--I don't care _who_ sees it!"
The track for some distance beyond this point became worse and worse.
Then the nature of the ground changed somewhat--became more hilly, and
the path, if such it could be styled, more rugged in some places, more
swampy in others, while, to add to their discomfort, rain began to fall,
and night set in dark and dismal without any sign of the village of
which they were in search. By that time the porters who carried
Verkimier's boxes seemed so tired that the hermit thought it advisable
to encamp, but the ground was so wet and the leeches were so numerous
that they begged him to go on, assuring him that the village could not
be far distant. In another half-hour the darkness became intense, so
that a man could scarcely see his fellow, even when within two paces of
him. Ominous mutterings and rumblings like distant thunder also were
heard, which appeared to indicate an approaching storm. In these
circumstances encamping became unavoidable, and the order was given to
make a huge fire to scare away the tigers, which were known to be
numerous, and the elephants whose fresh tracks had been crossed and
followed during the greater part of the day. The track of a rhinoceros
and a tapir had also been seen, but no danger was to be anticipated from
those creatures.
"Shall we have a stormy night, think you?" asked Nigel, as he assisted
in striking a light.
"It may be so," replied the hermit, flinging down one after another of
his wet matches, which failed to kindle. "What we hear may be distant
thunder, but I doubt it. The sounds seem to me more like the mutterings
of a volcano. Some new crater may have burst forth in the Sumatran
ranges. This thick darkness inclines me to think so--especially after
the new activity of volcanic action we have seen so recently at
Krakatoa. Let me try your matches, Nigel, perhaps they have escaped--
mine are useless."
But Nigel's matches were as wet as those of the hermit. So were those
of the professor. Luckily Moses carried the old-fashioned flint and
steel, with which, and a small piece of tinder, spark was at last
kindled, but as they were about to apply it to a handful of dry bamboo
scrapings, an extra spurt of rain extinguished it. For an hour and more
they made ineffectual attempts to strike a light. Even the cessation of
the rain was of no avail.
"Vat must ve do _now_?" asked the professor in tones that suggested a
woe-begone countenance, though there was no light by which to
distinguish.
"Grin and bear it," said Nigel, in a voice suggestive of a slight
expansion of the mouth--though no one could see it.
"Dere's nuffin' else left to do," said Moses, in a tone which betrayed
such a very wide expansion that Nigel laughed outright.
"Hah! you may laugh, my yoong frond, bot if zee tigers find us out or
zee elephants trample on us, your laughter vill be turned to veeping.
Vat is zat? Is not zat vonderful?"
The question and exclamation were prompted by the sudden appearance of
faint mysterious lights among the bushes. That the professor viewed
them as unfriendly lights was clear from the click of his rifle-locks
which followed.
"It is only phosphoric light," explained Van der Kemp. "I have often
seen it thus in electric states of the atmosphere. It will probably
increase--meanwhile we must seat ourselves on our boxes and do the best
we can till daylight. Are you there, boys?"
This question, addressed to the bearers in their native tongue, was not
answered, and it was found, on a _feeling_ examination, that, in spite
of leeches, tigers, elephants, and the whole animal creation, the
exhausted porters had flung themselves on the wet ground and gone to
sleep while their leaders were discussing the situation.
Dismal though the condition of the party was, the appearances in the
forest soon changed the professor's woe into eager delight, for the
phosphorescence became more and more pronounced, until every tree-stem
blinked with a palish green light, and it trickled like moonlight over
the ground, bringing out thick dumpy mushrooms like domes of light.
Glowing caterpillars and centipedes crawled about, leaving a trail of
light behind them, and fireflies, darting to and fro, peopled the air
and gave additional animation to the scene.
In the midst of the darkness, thus made singularly visible, the white
travellers sat dozing and nodding on their luggage, while the cries of
metallic-toned horned frogs and other nocturnal sounds peculiar to that
weird forest formed their appropriate lullaby.
But Moses neither dozed nor nodded. With a pertinacity peculiarly his
own he continued to play a running accompaniment to the lullaby with his
flint and steel, until his perseverance was rewarded with a spark which
caught on a dry portion of the tinder and continued to burn. By that
time the phosphoric lights had faded, and his spark was the only one
which gleamed through intense darkness.
How he cherished that spark! He wrapped it in swaddling clothes of dry
bamboo scrapings with as much care as if it had been the essence of his
life. He blew upon it tenderly as though to fan its delicate brow with
the soft zephyrs of a father's affection. Again he blew more
vigorously, and his enormous pouting lips came dimly into view. Another
blow and his flat nose and fat cheeks emerged from darkness. Still
another--with growing confidence--and his huge eyes were revealed
glowing with hope. At last the handful of combustible burst into a
flame, and was thrust into a prepared nest of twigs. This,
communicating with a heap of logs, kindled a sudden blaze which
scattered darkness out of being, and converted thirty yards of the
primeval forest into a chamber of glorious light, round which the human
beings crowded with joy enhanced by the unexpectedness of the event, and
before which the wild things of the wilderness fled away.
When daylight came at last, they found that the village for which they
had been searching was only two miles beyond the spot where they had
encamped.
Here, being thoroughly exhausted, it was resolved that they should spend
that day and night, and, we need scarcely add, they spent a considerable
portion of both in sleep--at least such parts of both as were not
devoted to food. And here the professor distinguished himself in a way
that raised him greatly in the estimation of his companions and caused
the natives of the place to regard him as something of a demi-god. Of
course we do not vouch for the truth of the details of the incident, for
no one save himself was there to see, and although we entertained the
utmost regard for himself, we were not sufficiently acquainted with his
moral character to answer for his strict truthfulness. As to the main
event, there was no denying that. The thing happened thus:--
Towards the afternoon of that same day the travellers began to wake up,
stretch themselves, and think about supper. In the course of
conversation it transpired that a tiger had been prowling about the
village for some days, and had hitherto successfully eluded all attempts
to trap or spear it. They had tethered a goat several times near a
small pond and watched the spot from safe positions among the trees,
with spears, bows and arrows, and blow-pipes ready, but when they
watched, the tiger did not come, and when they failed to watch, the
tiger did come and carried off the goat. Thus they had been baffled.
"Mine frond," said the professor to the hermit on hearing this. "I vill
shot zat tiger! I am resolved. Vill you ask zee chief to show me zee
place ant zen tell his people, on pain of def, not to go near it all
night, for if zey do I vill certainly shot zem--by accident of course!"
The hermit did as he was bid, but advised his sanguine friend against
exposing himself recklessly. The chief willingly fell in with his
wishes.
"Won't you tell us what you intend to do, professor?" asked Nigel, "and
let us help you."
"No, I vill do it all by mineself--or die! I vill vant a shofel or a
spade of some sort."
The chief provided the required implement, conducted his visitor a
little before sunset to the spot, just outside the village, and left him
there armed with his rifle, a revolver, and a long knife or kriss,
besides the spade.
When alone, the bold man put off his glasses, made a careful inspection
of the ground, came to a conclusion--founded on scientific data no
doubt--as to the probable spot whence the tiger would issue from the
jungle when about to seize the goat, and, just opposite that spot, on
the face of a slope about ten yards from the goat, he dug a hole deep
enough to contain his own person. The soil was sandy easy to dig, and
quite dry. It was growing dusk when the professor crept into this
rifle-pit, drew his weapons and the spade in after him, and closed the
mouth of the pit with moist earth, leaving only a very small eye-hole
through which he could see the goat standing innocently by the brink of
the pool.
"Now," said he, as he lay resting on his elbows with the rifle laid
ready to hand and the revolver beside it; "now, I know not vezer you can
smell or not, but I have buried mineself in eart', vich is a
non-conductor of smell. Ve shall see!"
It soon became very dark, for there was no moon, yet not so dark but
that the form of the goat could be seen distinctly reflected in the
pond. Naturally the professor's mind reverted to the occasion when
Nigel had watched in the branches of a tree for another tiger. The
conditions were different, and so, he thought, was the man!
"Mine yoong frond," he said mentally, "is brav', oondoubtedly, but his
nerves have not been braced by experience like mine. It is vell, for
zere is more dancher here zan in a tree. It matters not. I am resolf
to shot zat tigre--or die!"
In this resolute and heroic frame of mind he commenced his vigil.
It is curious to note how frequently the calculations of men fail them--
even those of scientific men! The tiger came indeed to the spot, but he
came in precisely the opposite direction from that which the watcher
expected, so that while Verkimier was staring over the goat's head at an
opening in the jungle beyond the pond, the tiger was advancing
stealthily and slowly through the bushes exactly behind the hole in
which he lay.
Suddenly the professor became aware of _something_! He saw nothing
consciously, he heard nothing, but there stole over him, somehow, the
feeling of a dread presence!
Was he asleep? Was it nightmare? No, it was night-tiger! He knew it,
somehow; he _felt_ it--but he could not see it.
To face death is easy enough--according to some people--but to face
nothing at all is at all times trying. Verkimier felt it to be so at
that moment. But he was a true hero and conquered himself.
"Come now," he said mentally, "don't be an ass! Don't lose your shance
by voomanly fears. Keep kviet."
Another moment and there was a very slight sound right over his head.
He glanced upwards--as far as the little hole would permit--and there,
not a foot from him, was a tawny yellow throat! with a tremendous paw
moving slowly forward--so slowly that it might have suggested the
imperceptible movement of the hour-hand of a watch, or of a glacier.
There was indeed motion, but it was not perceptible.
The professor's perceptions were quick. He did not require to think.
He knew that to use the rifle at such close quarters was absolutely
impossible. He knew that the slightest motion would betray him. He
could see that as yet he was undiscovered, for the animal's nose was
straight for the goat, and he concluded that either his having buried
himself was a safeguard against being smelt, or that the tiger had a
cold in its head. He thought for one moment of bursting up with a yell
that would scare the monster out of his seven senses--if he had seven--
but dismissed the thought as cowardly, for it would be sacrificing
success to safety. He knew not what to do, and the cold perspiration
consequent upon indecision at a supreme moment broke out all over him.
Suddenly he thought of the revolver!
Like lightning he seized it, pointed it straight up and fired. The
bullet--a large army revolver one--entered the throat of the animal,
pierced the root of the tongue, crashed through the palate obliquely,
and entered the brain. The tiger threw one indescribable somersault and
fell--fell so promptly that it blocked the mouth of the pit, all the
covering earth of which had been blown away by the shot, and Verkimier
could feel the hairy side of the creature, and hear the beating of its
heart as it gasped its life away. But in his cramped position he could
not push it aside. Well aware of the tenacity of life in tigers, he
thought that if the creature revived it would certainly grasp him even
in its dying agonies, for the weight of its body and its struggles were
already crushing in the upper part of the hole.
To put an end to its sufferings and his own danger, he pointed the
revolver at its side and again fired. The crash in the confined hole
was tremendous--so awful that the professor thought the weapon must have
burst. The struggles of the tiger became more violent than ever, and
its weight more oppressive as the earth crumbled away. Again the cold
perspiration broke out all over the man, and he became unconscious.
It must not be supposed that the professor's friends were unwatchful.
Although they had promised not to disturb him in his operations, they
had held themselves in readiness with rifle, revolver, and spear, and
the instant the first shot was heard, they ran down to the scene of
action. Before reaching it the second shot quickened their pace as they
ran down to the pond--a number of natives yelling and waving torches at
their heels.
"Here he is," cried Moses, who was first on the scene, "dead as mutton!"
"What! the professor?" cried Nigel in alarm.
"No; de tiger."
"Where's Verkimier?" asked the hermit as he came up.
"I dun know, massa," said Moses, looking round him vacantly.
"Search well, men, and be quick, he may have been injured," cried Van
der Kemp, seizing a torch and setting the example.
"Let me out!" came at that moment from what appeared to be the bowels of
the earth, causing every one to stand aghast gazing in wonder around and
on each other.
"Zounds! vy don't you let me _out_?" shouted the voice again.
There was an indication of a tendency to flight on the part of the
natives, but Nigel's asking "Where _are_ you?" had the effect of
inducing them to delay for the answer.
"Here--oonder zee tigre! Kweek, I am suffocat!"
Instantly Van der Kemp seized the animal by the tail, and, with a force
worthy of Hercules, heaved it aside as if it had been a dead cat,
revealing the man of science underneath--alive and well, but
dishevelled, scratched, and soiled--also, as deaf as a door-post.