Abe Pike was one of those men who would walk ten miles to set a trap
without a murmur, while he thought himself badly used if he were called
upon to hoe a row in the mealie field. So when, for the third time
within one week, a calf was killed by a tiger, and our attempts to
shoot, poison, or trap the thief had failed, I rode over to Uncle Abe's
to secure his aid.
"I can't do it," he said, when I had stated my business.
"Too busy?"
"No; 'taint that, sonny, 'taint that--tho' there's a powerful heap o'
work to do on that shed."
"I'll put in a couple of days and help you finish it right off, as soon
as the tiger is laid by the heels."
"Thank ye kindly; but I've got to finish that there shed offun my own
bat. It's a job that wants doin' keerfly."
"Well, Uncle, I'll plough up your old land by the hoek, and put in two
muids of corn. How will that do?"
"'Twont do, my lad; that land's full o' charlock."
"Then, Uncle, the day you show me the dead body of that tiger, the red
heifer with the white patch on the hump is yours."
He heaved a sigh, and knocked the bowl of his pipe on his thumb, but he
did not accept the offer, though I knew he admired that heifer.
"Why, Uncle, what is the matter? You're not ill?"
"'Tain't that, either--not 'xactly--tho' there's such a thing as illness
o' the mind."
"I'm very sorry," as I unhitched the bridle and prepared to mount, "for
I'll have to go to Long Sam, and from the hairs I've seen I shouldn't be
surprised if this is a black tiger."
This was the last shot--Abe Pike had not yet trapped a black tiger, and
Long Sam was his rival in bush lore.
"That settles it," he said, with a groan.
"Come along then," I said, with a smile at my success in breaking
through his obstinacy.
Abe rose up and laid his gnarled hand on the mane of the horse. "'Tis
the same one," he muttered, "the same one, sure."
"Why, of course; you know the old horse, Black Dick."
"Black Nick," he said slowly, and, drawing his hand across his forehead;
"my boy, you'll never trap that animile; he's a witch tiger."
"A witch tiger?"
"That's so: he's given a lodging to some ole Kaffir. Abe Pike ain't
going arter any black tigers, not he."
"What are you driving at now, you old buffer?"
"Buffer, is it; well--well--buffer--oh, yes, of course; an' me that has
passed through sich a three weeks as ud have scared many another into
his grave."
I felt remorse at the thought that for three weeks I had not called on
the lonely old man, and concluded that he was paying me out for this
neglect.
"I am very sorry," I said eagerly, "I have not been over; but the truth
is the work has been very heavy. It must have been very lonely."
"I've had kempany."
"Oh, I see; and perhaps they've engaged your services?"
"That's it. On 'count o' 'em that's been callin' here I can't go
catching any black tigers."
"I should like to know who it is has set you against doing a service for
a neighbour?"
"There's kempany an' kempany. This yer kempany ud turn your hair
white."
"Ah!" I said, sniffing a story.
"Yes, 'twould that. There were some baboons away over by the big kloof.
A family party--ole man, wives, middle-aged, an' pickaninnies. They
came there for the Kaffir plum crop, an' were mighty lively, not to say
noisy, three weeks ago, when they began to drop. I yeared 'em dropping
off."
"Off the trees?"
"No; offun this mortal spear. As they dropped off in the dark, the
others howled an' whooped like mad. It was a tiger that did the
droppin'."
"A tiger?"
"You hold on to him. At last the ole man were left alone, an' he had a
mighty anxious time looking all around at onct, while he hunted for
grubs for fear the enemy 'ud spring on him. He used to come over yonder
in the lands for kempany. I've sot here on the door-step an' he sot
over there, glaring at me from his little grey eyes. Arter a time we
got to know each other, an' I found out he went to sleep on the roof
alongside the chimney."
"He was the company?"
"One on 'em. An' seein' him about reminded me o' the Kaffir plums, so
one mornin' I took up the can an' went away off to the big kloof where
the plums are red an' juicy. Well--my boy--that ole man baboon, he up
an' come along with me, an' when he found I were goin' to the kloof he
jabbered most like a human. I could see he were excited--anybody could
a seen that--an' I sot down on a rock to argy the point with him. He
wouldn't argy, but he started back for the house. Well, you know me,
when Abe Pike sots out to do a thing he does it, an' arter I had smoked
two pipes, I resoomed my way, jest as unconcarned as you are, for all
the plain meanin' o' the baboon that I should go away home. When he saw
that I were sot on it he came along at a canter, with his hind-quarters
slewed round an' the hair all standing up on his neck. He looked ugly,
but 'xcept he lifted his eyebrows very quick, he said nothin', and went
along very quiet, with the same anxious look on his face I had noticed
prev'ous. As I went into the kloof he swung into the trees, an' kept
along overhead. When we came to the thick o' the wood, he going along
all the time scarcely moving a leaf, he made a soft noise, an' looking
up I saw him bobbing his head up an' down to make you giddy. I know by
that he saw somethin', an' I jes' slipped behind a tree to take stock.
I yeerd a yawn, an' what d'ye think I see thro' the leaves stretched out
on a rock, not twenty foot away?"
"A black fellow?"
"Yes; a black feller, with four legs an' a tail, an' a red mouth all
agape, wide enough to take in my head, hat an' all."
"A black tiger?"
"Yes; an' me with only a tin can. I jes' sank down inter my boots. All
o' a sudden his jaws come to with a snap. Then he riz his head and
stired straight fer me, his eyes gitting flamier as he looked, an' his
tail all on the jerk. He moved his round head about, then shot out his
neck an' growled in his stummik as he peered under the leaves. Just
then that baboon let out a `baugh--baugh--bok-hem,' an' dropped down
beyond the tiger. There were a roar, a leap, a scramble, an' Abe Pike
were shooting on his tracks for the open veld. He didn't stop running
till he got home--he didn't--not me."
"And the baboon? He wasn't killed, was he?"
"You wait--jes' you wait. Before you get the end o' the journey you've
got to pass the half-way house. This is a solitary place--this
mansion--and beyond the ole Gaika-Bolo I have no visitors--an' he only
when he's doctorin' the Kaffirs down these parts. So that night, when
there were a tap at the door, I were skeered a little from the shake I
got when I saw that black critter staring at me with them wicked eyes of
hisn. `Come in!' I sed, an' the tap came agin, soft an' gentle, like
as if a child or a woman were standin' there--timid--tho' it's many a
year since a female brushed the door-post with her dress--a many years,
my lad."
"Yes, Uncle; who was it?"
"`Come in!' I sed, laying hold o' a piece of wood. `Jes' pull the
string,' I sed. Believe me, the string were pulled--the upper half o'
the door swung open, an' he stepped in."
"Who?"
"The old man baboon! He pulled the string, the door swung open, an' he
hopped in."
"Good gracious, Uncle!"
"Yer s'prised. Well, jes' think how it took me--an' on top o' what I
saw that day. I jes' sot there an' looked, an' when he turned an' shut
that door, an' moved the wooden button to secure it, I were fairly
paralysed. `Ho-hoo,' he sed, an' blinked his eyes. He jes' sed
`ho-hoo' in a friendly way, an' planked hisself down before the fire,
with the black palms o' his hands to the coals, his head turned over his
shoulder, an' his little grey eyes takin' stock o' everythin' in the
room."
"He must have escaped from captivity."
"That's the first thought that struck me when I steadied my brain pan.
Thinks I, he b'longed to some man, an' I looked at his waist for signs
of the chain, but there were no sign. I noticed he looked empty, an',
remembering how he'd saved me by leading the tiger off another way, I
got out a mealie cob. He snatched it quick, raised his eyebrows at me,
then begun to eat as ef he'd been hungry for a week. There we sot--he
one side, eating, me t'other, smoking. All o' a sudden he quit eating:
then he stood up on his hind legs an' looked outer the winder. `Wot's
up now?' sezs I to myself. There he stood looking outer that window;
then he gave a jump into the rafters, crowding hisself under the slope.
It gave me a sort o' creepy crawl to see him do that, an' I took down
the ole gun. Bymby I yeard a sniff under the crack of the door as if a
dog were taking a smell. Then there were a space o' stillness that was
terrible trying. I stood there looking at the door, 'xpecting to see it
fly open, when I chanced to give a glance at the winder, and my blood
froze."
"What did you see?"
"What did I see? A pair o' green eyes fixed on me. Then the gleam o'
white teeth an' a sort o' dim outline o' a big round head. I let out a
yell, an' fired. If you look you'll see where the winder's smashed."
"The tiger had tracked the baboon?"
"Very like 'twas jes' that."
"And then?"
"Then I jes' jumped inter the pantry an shut myself in till daybreak."
"Yes, Uncle Abe; and what happened then?"
"I jes' opened the door gently, an' looked out."
"Well?"
"Well! The door were open. I yeerd the cracking o' the fire an' the
humming o' the kettle."
"Someone had called?"
"Perhaps so; perhaps not. 'Tany rate the fire were lit. And when I
looked out the front door there were the old man baboon plucking the
feathers from the grey hen."
"Humph!"
"Yes. An' when he done plucking he popped the old fowl inter the pot."
"Ha! I suppose the tiger was lying dead?"
"Who--the tiger? Not he. The darned critter pulled the plug outer the
water barrel, then turned the barrel over an' let all the water out.
Arter that he pulled the roof offun my shed."
"I don't see the baboon around."
"He ain't around. Arter breakfast he went. When I come to think o' it,
he took the road to your place, an' it's my b'lief, sonny, he's on the
spoor o' the same tiger."
"And you won't come over, then?"
"I'm waitin' for that ole man baboon to come back. If he comes back an'
finds me gone I reckon he'd be disappointed. I tell yer I'd be mighty
keerful how you treat that tiger."
"Everything happened as you have related, Uncle Abe?"
"That's so, sonny."
"How did the baboon light the fire?"
"He jes' used the bellers, I 'xpect, used the beller, an' puffed the
embers. Tell me how yer get on. Sorry I can't go; but I dasn't. So
long!"