CRITCH'S RHINO
"Are we going to have a hunt?" asked Burt as they left the hill and
plunged forward into the jungle again at the head of the caravan.
"Not to-day," laughed Mr. Wallace. "We won't get out of this till night,
will we?"
"Hardly," replied Montenay. "Once we get out o' this thick jungle and up
to those plains we'll have clear sailin'. I'm no meanin' that we'll find
no jungle there, mind, for we will. But by night we'll be in more decent
veldt-country I'm thinkin'."
They camped at sunset in a grassy space clear of trees. As Captain Mac
had predicted, the low and malarial jungle was left behind them and they
were now getting into the higher lands. These were scattered with
patches of dense forest and jungle, but there were also great plains or
veldts covered with game and animal life.
"Now we'll make those gun-boys earn their pay," said Mr. Wallace the
next morning.
"We'll shoot half a dozen antelope every day to give the bearers meat."
"We'll be shootin' more than that," grimly added Captain Mac as he held
up his hand for silence. "Hear that?"
All listened. It seemed to Burt and Critch that in the distance sounded
a faint mutter of far-away thunder, and they looked at the older men
expectantly.
"Lion," laughed Mr. Wallace shortly. "If we only had ponies we'd land
him to-day!"
The advisability of taking horses along had been discussed but the
explorer had vetoed it finally. "It would only be an experiment," he had
declared. "In other parts of the country it might work but not in the
Congo. We have too many jungles to wade through and a horse would be
stung to death in a day or two."
Three or four of the Bantu hunters were sent ahead, and toward noon, as
they approached a little rise, one of these came running back. He said
something to Captain Mac, who translated.
"Get your guns! They've located a herd of wildebeest an' hartebeest just
ahead."
The boys excitedly took their second-weight guns from the bearers. The
heavy guns were not needed for the antelope. They all moved forward,
while the porters halted in charge of John, and after a half hour
reached the crest of the rise, wading through the deep grass and bush.
Here the Bantus made a gesture of caution and carefully parted the grass
ahead of them.
The boys gave a little gasp of surprise. Before them was a plain
scattered with high ant hills and trees. Grazing without thought of
danger were hundreds of antelope-like animals, some with long curving
horns and others with straight spiral ones. As Burt watched them he
found himself trembling with feverish excitement.
"Keep cool, lad!" whispered Captain Mac with a slight smile. "See that
group to the right? Take the bull hartebeest. Ready, Wallace?"
Mr. Wallace and Critch had selected their animals and the former nodded.
Montenay gave the word and all fired together. Burt saw his bull give
one tremendous leap and fall. Critch, who had fired at a small bull, had
poorer luck, for his animal bounded off with the others of the herd and
was gone in an instant. Both Montenay and Mr. Wallace had dropped
hartebeest bucks, and the bearers were jubilant as all ran down the
hill.
"Now, Critch," said Mr. Wallace, "it's up to you! You boys stay here
with the blacks and we'll go back and bring on the porters and the salt.
Keep the heads of that hartebeest of Burt's and mine. We don't want to
fill our empty chop-boxes too fast."
As the tin-lined chop-boxes were emptied they were to be used for
packing heads and skins of game and were thus doubly useful. The Bantus
took out their knives and while Burt transmitted in French the orders of
his chum they set to work. Mr. Wallace and Montenay returned to meet and
bring up the caravan, whose advance was necessarily slow.
The skilled blacks first removed the two heads and skinned them
carefully. Then they laid aside the skulls for boiling and cut up the
three bodies to serve as rations for the porters while the boys stood
looking around them. Although the great herds had bounded off at the
volley, they had only gone a mile or two away and in the thin clear air
seemed half that distance. Burt stood with his eyes glued to his glasses
for a few moments, then saw a jackal a hundred yards to the right,
slinking through the grass. As jackals are invariably destroyed wherever
seen he called Critch and took a gun from the pile dropped by the
bearers. Luckily for him he grabbed up one of the heavy Winchesters in
his haste.
"Come on, Critch! Get over to that ant hill an' we'll bag him."
Not far from the jackal was one of the tall hills made by the white
ants. As these are hard as rock and often eight or ten feet high they
make excellent shelter for hunters. Critch caught up a gun and ran after
Burt hastily.
When they reached the ant hill they located the jackal in a patch of
brush below them. Only his head was visible, but the two boys aimed and
fired together and he dropped.
"Bet I got him in the eye!" cried Critch as they ran toward the spot.
"Got a dandy bead on him."
"Hello! What's that?" Burt stopped suddenly and pointed to a patch of
trees a hundred yards farther on. Above the stunted growth they saw a
number of little birds flying erratically about.
"Look at that--golly!" whispered Critch. "What's that big black thing--"
"Elephant!" returned Burt fumbling at his gun.
"Elephant nothing! Look at the birds--ain't any birds on elephants--it's
a rhino! Come on!"
An indistinct shape showed through the bush as they made their way
forward but they could not make out what it was and hesitated to fire.
They knew that the rhinoceros is guarded by numbers of tick birds and
concluded from the birds flying above the bushes that this was a rhino.
They got to within eighty yards before alarming the beast. Then came a
crashing and swishing of the bush and out stalked a big rhino, sniffing
the wind and advancing slowly toward them.
"Get behind that ant hill!" exclaimed Critch. Separating, they took up
positions beside two of the conical mounds. "Got your big gun? Go to
it!"
Lifting his rifle, Burt fired. He had aimed at the shoulder of the great
beast but to his dismay the shot seemed to have absolutely no effect.
Instead of dropping, the rhino threw up its tail and ears, gave a
little squeal and started for Burt.
Burt fired again at fifty yards. His bullet struck the rhino in the head
and glanced off, serving only to increase the rage of the brute. He
broke into a lumbering gallop and Burt yelled to Critch to fire.
The latter obeyed but in his haste missed entirely with his first bullet
and with his second only tore the rhino's left ear slightly. Burt raised
his own gun and aimed at the eye. Again his shots had no effect, for he
missed the delicate mark afforded by the eye and both bullets glanced
from the armor.
"Duck!" yelled Critch, dancing up and down. "He can't see! Duck!"
Burt ducked, for the rhino was within ten yards and thundering straight
at him. Dropping his gun he sprang behind the ant hill and around it.
But the animal had seemingly anticipated this or had turned its charge
at Critch, for Burt almost leaped on the tossing horn of the beast.
With one wild spring backward he ploughed headfirst into the grass. He
heard both barrels of Critch's heavy gun. As he wriggled up he saw the
rhino, not ten feet away, stop short as the terrific charge struck him
behind the shoulder. For an instant he wavered, then sank to the ground
dead.
A wild burst of yells sounded behind as Burt arose. The Bantus had
observed the affair and when they saw the rhino fall, ran forward with
high glee, while just over the crest of the rise appeared the caravan.
Burt walked over to his chum with somewhat shaky steps and held out his
hand without a word, for something kept him from speaking.
"Oh, shucks!" said Critch huskily. "You dog-goned idiot! You pretty near
scared me to death. Didn't you hear me yell?"
"Didn't hear nothin'," Burt smiled weakly. "I was wishing I was back
home and had never seen Africa. If you hadn't shot he'd got me--"
"Come out of it!" replied Critch. "He couldn't see you and was coming
for me. Ain't he a big fellow?" As they walked over and stood beside the
great black body that lay stretched in the grass with the Bantus around
it, Mr. Wallace and Captain Mac ran up.
"What's this mean?" roared the former as he saw the body. "Haven't you
two got sense enough to--"
"Leave 'em alone!" shouted Captain Mac delightedly. "They've killed him!
Hurray!" The exuberant Scotchman seized Burt and whirled him around in a
wild dance as the excited porters came up. Burt gave the honor to Critch
and when he told of his narrow escape Mr. Wallace at once directed camp
to be formed.
"Now see here," he ordered as the skinners collected around the body,
"I've had enough of this business. After this you take Burt with you,
Montenay, and I'll take Critch. Those young villains are crazy enough to
do anything if we leave 'em alone. Understand, boys? If you chase off by
yourselves you get sent back home."
Seeing that Mr. Wallace was thoroughly aroused and in earnest, the boys
hastily promised that his orders would be obeyed in future. Then they
examined the carcass of the rhinoceros carefully. Burt's first shot
would have killed the beast in time but it was the two from Critch's
rifle at close quarters that had proved fatal almost instantly. By that
evening the Bantus had removed the skin from the rhino and were ready
to pare it down for transportation.
"That'll take a couple of days anyway," said Mr. Wallace that night as
they sat around the fire. "I think we might as well establish a camp
here for a week, Montenay. We are right in the game country and I can
get hold of all the specimens I want to send home while we are here, and
get them safely off. Then we can strike on after ivory and see what
we'll find."
"Suits me," returned Captain Mac. "Ye've done vera well, lads! The horn
o' yon beast is eighteen inches."
"I'd kind o' like to keep the head, uncle," said Burt. "Critch an' I had
a hard time gettin' him. We don't want the skin but we could set up the
head back home an'--"
"Sure!" returned Mr. Wallace heartily. "We'll keep the skin without
paring it down, then. We can trade it to the natives for almost anything
we ask. Aren't there some villages near here, Captain?"
Montenay called up the head Bantu and put some questions to him. They
learned that there was a village several miles off where ivory might be
found, and the Bantu was ordered to send a man over in the morning to
bring back whatever ivory the natives might have to trade.
The next day Critch and Burt superintended the preparation of the rhino
head and the skins of a number of various antelope varieties which Mr.
Wallace and the captain shot. On the day following the Bantu messenger
returned with a score of blacks who bore two small fifty-pound tusks.
These they gladly traded for the rhino skin, which they would use for
shields, and for some tobacco, beads, and sweaters of blazing red.
On that same day Burt evened up trophies with his chum. In the afternoon
Mr. Wallace and Critch went off together when the trading had been
finished. Barely had they left when a Bantu ran in with the news that
there was a herd of buffalo near the stream which ran a few hundred
yards past the camp. Captain Mac immediately called Burt and the
gun-bearers and on they went with all haste.
After half an hour's walking they located the buffalo at the edge of the
creek bed in a thick jungle swamp. Holding their guns in readiness the
explorer and Burt advanced slowly. They could see two or three bulls
watching them, the rest of the herd being hidden. Not until the hunters
were within a hundred yards did the buffaloes move. Their massive white
in-curving horns shone against the black bodies, and their wicked little
eyes were fixed sullenly on the men.
Suddenly the nearest bull shook his head and began advancing. At this
the gun-bearers scattered despite Montenay's shouted threats, and sought
the shelter of ant hills. Captain Mac and Burt held their heavy guns and
the former told Burt to take the first shot.
By good luck the boy's bullet struck the buffalo in the eye and
penetrated the brain. Before Montenay could lift his weapon the others
had turned and vanished.
"Well," laughed the explorer, "that's better than I expected. I was
lookin' for a charge from 'em. Fine old bull too!"
The buffalo was a splendid trophy and the men at once began skinning
him. That evening Mr. Wallace determined to finish the buffalo hide and
then send back the specimens they had collected.
"I've got enough to stock the club for years," he laughed. "No use
being a hog--hello, that's funny!"
"What's the matter?" asked Montenay from across the fire.
"Why--why--yes, sir, it's gone!" Mr. Wallace arose, searching his
pockets. Then his face hardened. "John, call up those boys who were with
me this morning! My compass has disappeared."