When people know that their lives may depend upon maintaining a blazing
fire, they must be foolish indeed if they allow themselves to slumber at
their posts; but I confess that I had great difficulty, during my watch,
in keeping my eyes open, after the exertions of the day and the hunger
and thirst I had endured. I felt that my only chance was to get up and
walk about with my rifle in my hand. I did not, however, go far from
the fire, as the smoke drove the mosquitoes and other insects away from
its immediate vicinity; and I knew also, that at any distance from the
flames I was as likely to be seized by a savage animal as I should be
did no fire exist.
I could hear every now and then the mutterings and occasional roars of
lions, with the cries of hyaenas and jackals, and the calls of various
night-birds. Altogether the concert had a somewhat depressing effect,
accustomed though I was by this time to the noises proceeding from an
African forest.
At last the time I had agreed to watch came to an end, and I roused up
Harry, charging him to keep a bright look-out.
"Do not let yourself drop off for a moment, old fellow," I said; "as
long as any prowling animal sees you moving about around the fire he'll
not venture to make an attack; but should you slumber for a moment, it
is impossible to say what he may do."
"I do feel awfully drowsy, I own," answered Harry, rubbing his eyes and
yawning; "still I'll do my best. It is a shame that fellow Hans won't
stand watch as he ought to do. I only hope that another lion will come
roaring close up to the camp, for the sake of making him get on his
legs. He knows that neither you nor I would sleep on our posts, so he
rests in perfect security, throwing all the trouble on us."
Harry and I talked on for a little time, I hoping that he would thus be
thoroughly aroused; then I lay down on the spot he had occupied, pretty
close to the fire, with my rifle by my side ready for instant use.
It appeared to me that I had not been asleep five minutes when I heard
Harry exclaim--
"Fred, rouse Jan. Up with you, and get ready for battle."
I seized my rifle and sprang to my feet, as wide awake as ever I was in
my life, and there I saw, not six paces off, a creature with glaring
eyes; not a lion, however, but looking unusually large as it emerged
from the darkness into the light of the fire.
It crouched as if for a spring; at the same moment I heard Hans shriek
out. For an instant I glanced round, and caught an indistinct sight of
another big cat-like creature stealing towards the rear of the camp.
"You and Jan must look out after that brute, and we'll attend to this
one," I shouted.
As I spoke, the leopard, for such it was, notwithstanding our cries,--
Harry, I should have said, had begun to bawl away as loudly as I was
doing,--made a furious spring towards him; but though he was shouting
lustily, he remained as cool as a cucumber, holding his rifle ready.
We fired, and both our balls took effect, when the leopard literally
turned, with its feet uppermost, and fell right down into the centre of
the fire, where it lay struggling convulsively, utterly unable to rise.
Directly afterwards I heard the report of a pistol, and, while hastily
reloading, I saw that Hans had shot the other leopard through the head.
As we did not wish to lose the skin of the one we had shot, Harry again
firing gave it its quietus; we then seizing it by its hind legs dragged
it out of the fire, and Jan's knife soon finished the other.
We thus gained two magnificent leopards' skins: the fire had but
slightly injured the one we had killed.
"There is some use in keeping watch at night, Hans," observed Harry;
"what would have become of us if I had not been awake? Those brutes
would have been in our midst before we were able to lift a hand in our
defence. As it was, I caught sight of only one of them stealing towards
us, and had barely time to rouse up the rest of you, so that if Fred
hadn't been very quick, the brute would have been down upon us."
"All right," answered Hans, "such a thing is not likely to happen a
second time in a night, so I suppose we may now go to sleep in quiet."
"I don't suppose anything of the sort," replied Harry; "there are no end
of lions and leopards prowling about, and you would have heard them if
you hadn't snored so loudly. It will be your turn to keep watch, and I
intend to rouse you up in half an hour."
"Yah, yah," answered Hans, placing his head on the ground, and going off
to sleep again.
As I thought would probably be the case, the scent of the dead leopards
attracted packs of hyaenas and jackals, who serenaded us with their
horrible yells and howls for the remainder of the night, though the
blazing fire we kept up prevented them from approaching.
Notwithstanding Harry's threat, he did not wake up Hans, who would
probably again have composed himself for sleep, and we might have been
left to the tender mercies of the hyaenas.
In the morning we took the skins off the two leopards; and cleaned and
packed them up so as to be easily transported. As Hans claimed the skin
of the leopard he had shot, he had to carry it, while Jan carried ours.
We then started off for the _vlei_. It would be too late in the
morning, we calculated, by the time we could reach it, to shoot any
animals; and we should have to wait till the evening, when they would be
likely to come down to drink at the pool. We should not, therefore,
have hastened our footsteps, had we not been anxious to obtain a fresh
supply of water; for the small stock Hans and Jan had brought was
exhausted, and we were now almost as thirsty as we had been on the
previous day.
Hans walked on ahead without speaking; but as he was never very
talkative, we were not surprised at this. At last he turned round, and
told Jan that he must carry his leopard-skin.
We thought this too much of a good thing. Jan appealed to us.
"Certainly not," answered Harry. "You claimed all the skin as your
property. You are bound to carry it, or leave it behind if you like,
but Jan shall not be compelled to carry it."
Hans turned round and walked on sullenly, but presently I saw him drop
his burden, and then present his rifle at Harry. Fearing that Hans was
about to murder my friend, I dashed forward and struck up the weapon,
which the next instant went off, the bullet almost grazing Harry's hat.
"We must overpower the man," I said, making a sign to Jan, and we all
three threw ourselves upon him, and prevented him drawing his knife,
when he would, I suspect, have run amuck among us, as the Malays
frequently do when exasperated.
How to treat the madman--for such he appeared to be--it was difficult to
say. He was immensely strong, and we had to exert ourselves to keep him
down. Jan proposed to kill him, and was drawing his knife for the
purpose when we interfered.
"We shall have to do it, I fear, if we cannot bind his hands behind
him," said Harry.
"No, no; we must deprive him of his rifle and ammunition, and he will
thus be compelled to follow us."
"If he wanders away into the desert, his fate will be certain," observed
Harry.
"He has brought it upon himself," I remarked; "here, Jan, take my
rifle-strap; slip it round his arms and draw it tight,--be quick about
it. Now, Harry, get another strap round his legs."
All this time Hans was struggling violently, without uttering a word.
Having succeeded in doing as I proposed, we had him completely in our
power. He grinned fearfully and foamed at the mouth; indeed, he almost
seized poor Jan's bare arm in his teeth, and had not Harry given him a
severe blow he would have succeeded.
"Now let's try to get him on his feet, and we will then slacken the
strap sufficiently to enable him to walk, though not to allow him to run
away," I said.
Hans was very unwilling at first to move, but at length we got him to
walk along, though he appeared like a man in a dream,--not knowing what
he was doing. Jan assured us that he could find the way to the
water-hole, and we therefore proceeded in the direction he pointed out.
It was a question, however, whether we should remain to shoot there, or,
having supplied our bottles, return with our unfortunate companion to
the camp. As he seemed strong enough to carry the leopard-skin, we
replaced it on his shoulders. Every now and then he would attempt to
run; but the strap round his legs quickly brought him up. Our progress
was of course very slow, until at length the _vlei_ was reached. We
passed on our way several trees of considerable size overturned by
elephants; many of them being ten inches in diameter, it must have
required great strength to uproot them. Others were broken short off, a
little distance from the ground, by the elephants. This showed us that
the country was frequented by the animals, and that if we had patience
we might be able to shoot a number. While lying in ambush, however, it
would be necessary to remain perfectly silent, as they would be alarmed
by the slightest noise.
At length the water-hole came in sight, and eagerly hurrying forward we
quenched our thirst and refilled our bottles. Hans did not refuse to
drink, and appeared somewhat better afterwards; but there was a roll in
his eye which made us unwilling to set him at liberty. Not to alarm the
elephants, we retired to a distance and lighted a fire, where we cooked
the venison we had brought with us, which, although somewhat high, was
still eatable; we then lay down to rest under the shade of a
wide-spreading tree, making Hans sit by us.
Harry and I, wishing to obtain some sleep, told Jan to watch our
prisoner; and as he had had more rest than we had the previous night, we
hoped he would keep awake.
At length I opened my eyes, and, on looking round, what was my dismay to
see Jan fast asleep, and to find that Hans was not there. I aroused
Harry. We had placed our prisoner's rifle and knife close to us, and
they were safe. He could not be far off; so calling Jan--who looked
very much surprised at finding what had happened--we started off, hoping
to discover the poor wretch. The feeling of anger with which we had
before regarded him was now changed into compassion. Should he have had
any evil intentions, could he have got his arms free, he might have
brained us as we slept. However, it seemed doubtful whether he had been
able to get more than his legs at liberty. The strap which secured his
elbows was nowhere to be seen. We traced his spoor, but this
disappeared along an elephant track--for even Jan failed to discover the
marks of his footsteps. The night was approaching, and we lost all hope
of discovering him. We therefore took up our position in the thicket we
had selected, close to the path the elephants pursued when going down to
the pool. We here fully expected to shoot two or three animals. We
then proposed returning next morning to the camp, in order to bring two
or three of the men with us to make further search for Hans.
We had not long taken up our position, when we caught sight of the huge
forms of several elephants coming through the forest, along the path
which we had discovered. We saw them sweeping their trunks backwards
and forwards over the ground, evidently suspecting something wrong.
Thirst impelled them forward, however. They approached close to where
we lay hidden, and I was just about to fire at the leader, who had
magnificent tusks--Harry having agreed to take the next in order--when a
loud shout rent the air, and a figure started up directly in front of
the animal. It was Hans. His arms were still bound, but he kept
leaping about, utterly fearless of the elephants before him. I
hesitated for a moment, when the thought struck me,--should I kill the
elephant, I might save the life of the unhappy being who seemed to be
courting his fate. I pulled the trigger. I could hear the ball strike,
but what was my horror to see the animal rush forward, and the next
moment trample Hans Scarff beneath his feet. A single shriek escaped
the miserable man, and then all was silent. Excited as I was, I did not
notice that Harry fired at the second elephant at the same moment. His
bullet must have entered the animal's brain, for it sank a helpless mass
on the ground. The rest of the herd, alarmed by the fate of their
leaders, turned round, and with loud trumpeting rushed away into the
forest.
The first elephant, in the meantime, lifted up the body of his victim,
whom he dashed violently to the ground; and then, staggering a few
paces, came down with a crash and lay motionless.
We hurried out of our ambush to render assistance to Hans; but he was
dead, every bone in his body being broken; even his features could not
be recognised. We could not blame ourselves for the occurrence, though
grieved at his sad fate.
We now purposed returning to our last camp, where we had left our fire
burning. Jan begged leave to cut off some pieces of the elephant's
flesh to cook for supper. This he did forthwith, in a more rapid way
than we could have accomplished the task.
Covering up the body of Hans with some thick bushes, we left it where it
lay, in order to prevent the hyaenas and jackals from getting at it, and
returned to our fire.
We had not long been seated round it, talking over the events of the
day, when Jan, starting up, declared that he saw the light of a fire in
the distance.
Harry and I looked in the same direction. There was no doubt about the
matter.
"Who can they be?" exclaimed Harry.
"Perhaps they are natives," I answered. "If so, we must be careful how
we approach them."
"I think it is more likely that they are our friends coming to search
for us," said Harry. "They will be surprised at our not appearing
yesterday, and may have pushed forward a party who, if on horseback,
would soon be up with us."
I at length agreed that such was probably the case, and we accordingly
settled at once to go towards the fire. We should probably, even at a
distance, be able to discover whether or not it was made by our friends.
Jan was of our opinion.
Having hastily finished our meal, we made our way in the direction we
proposed. On getting near the fire, Jan offered to go forward and to
bring word while we lay hid, so that we might retreat if necessary
before we were discovered.
When I was in the forests of Africa, I always remembered that while I
was stalking an animal, a lion or leopard might be stalking me; and we
therefore, while we waited for the return of Jan, kept our eyes about
us, and our ears open to detect the slightest sound.
We had longer to wait than we expected. At length we heard a rustling
of leaves near us, and Jan's voice exclaiming--
"Dey de Capt'n's party, and Toko, and two, three, Makololoes; dey all
got horses!"
This was good news. As we went along he told me that he had not
informed them that we were near, as he wished to give us the pleasure of
announcing ourselves.
In a few minutes we were in the midst of our friends, and our appearance
afforded my uncle great relief. They had come across our camp, and
found the bodies of the lions, and had some misapprehensions that after
all we might have been carried off by others.
He was, of course, much shocked at the fate of Hans, though, he
observed, that it was better he should have died thus, than have
committed murder or some other mischief, as from his uncertain temper it
was very likely he would have done.
The Makololoes, on hearing that we had killed two elephants, were eager
to go at once and obtain some of the flesh; but my uncle persuaded them
to remain until the next morning, promising that they should then have
an abundance of meat.
Although expeditions on foot have their advantages, Harry and I came to
the conclusion, when we again found ourselves mounted, that we should
prefer in future going out on horseback. My uncle told us that he
expected the waggons would camp where we then were, so that we might
load them with the tusks and skins we might obtain.
Directly breakfast was over we rode to the scene of our encounter with
the two elephants, neither of which had been disturbed. The tusks were
soon removed, and the Makololoes cut away enough flesh for a whole army.
A grave was then dug, and the body of poor Hans buried. This done, we
followed the spoor of the elephants, intending to kill them while
feeding in the day-time, and afterwards attack them as they came down to
drink.
We had not ridden far when Toko, who was ahead, came back with the
intelligence that he had discovered four or five in an open glade,
plucking off the branches and leaves of their favourite trees; and that
by keeping along through the wood we might come upon them without much
risk of being discovered. Almost a minute afterwards we came in sight
of the animals, when we at once dismounted to watch them and arrange our
plan of proceeding. While some Makololoes held our horses, my uncle,
Harry, and I crept along not far from the edge of the forest, so as to
get in front of the elephants we saw feeding, while Mr Welbourn, Toko,
and one of his followers made a wider circuit, with the intention of
taking them on the other side should they move in that direction. We
hurried on, eager to get in front of the animals before they should move
away. They now offered unusually good marks to our rifles. My fear was
that their sharp eyes might detect us before we could get near enough to
fire. My uncle advised each of us to select a tree up which we could
climb, or whose trunk was of sufficient thickness to afford us
protection should the elephants, discovering us, make a charge.
As the forest was tolerably thick, they could not move as rapidly as in
the open ground. We hoped, therefore, to have time to escape should our
bullets fail to kill them at the first shot. There were three
magnificent fellows feeding close together, and several others beyond
them. The latter had fallen to the share of Mr Welbourn and his party,
and we agreed to devote our attention to the three nearest. We
proceeded with the greatest care, in Indian file. The slightest sound,
even at a distance, caused by a stumble or the breaking of a twig, would
attract the attention of our expected prey.
We at length could see their trunks lifted above their heads to reach
the higher branches, the rest of their bodies being invisible, and of
course they could not see us.
Having taken up our positions, one in front of each elephant, we crept
forward, bending down as low as we could so as to escape detection as
long as possible. At the same time we looked out for trees to serve as
places of refuge. Activity and presence of mind are necessary when a
person is hunting wild beasts, but especially when elephant shooting.
I lost sight of my uncle, who was on my left, but I could just see
Harry, who was on the opposite side, his head appearing above the grass
and shrubs. I had made up my mind not to fire until I heard the report
of my uncle's rifle. At last I could see the huge ears of an elephant,
just in front of me, flapping up and down.
I knew that the moment would soon arrive when I must fire or be
discovered by the elephant. I crept on a few paces further, then rose
on my knees. At the moment that I heard the crack of my uncle's rifle,
I lifted my own weapon and fired, aiming full at the creature's broad
chest as high up as I could, so as to clear the head. Before the
smoke--which was kept from rising by the branches--had cleared away, a
loud trumpeting was heard. The moment it began Harry fired, but I could
not see the result. I sprang to my feet, so as to escape behind a tree
I had marked, fully expecting to have the elephant I had shot charge
furiously at me; but it did not, and though I retreated some paces I
could still see its head. It seemed to be looking about to discover the
enemy who had wounded it. No long time passed before it caught sight of
me, and then on it came. I could also hear a loud crashing among the
boughs to the right, produced, I had no doubt, by the elephant at which
Harry had aimed. On reaching the tree I instantly began to reload,
hoping to have time to give the elephant another shot as he passed me;
for, though he had seen me for a moment, I knew that he would go
straight on without looking behind the tree. But, even before he had
got up to the spot, down he fell on his knees, crushing several young
trees. At the same moment I heard Harry cry out, and leaving my own
prize I dashed forward to his assistance. I was just in time to see the
elephant, with his trunk uplifted, close to Harry, who had not had time
to reload or take shelter behind a tree. I fired, aiming behind the ear
of the elephant, when down it came, as mine had done, prostrate on the
ground. If my uncle had been equally successful, we should have made a
grand haul. Without stopping to finish off our elephants, we hurried in
the direction we supposed him to be, reloading as we went. We uttered a
loud shout to attract his attention. It was replied to by a tremendous
roar; and, instead of an elephant, what was our surprise to see an
enormous lion lashing its tail and looking up at the branches of a tree,
among which we discovered my uncle; and he must have had a narrow
escape, for he was only just beyond reach of the brute, who might, it
seemed to us, by making a desperate spring, have struck him down. We
had now to look out for ourselves, for should the lion discover us,
unless we could kill him at once, he might tear us to pieces.
Fortunately another tree of considerable girth, and in the position we
desired, was close at hand. We retreated behind it. As the lion turned
his head and we thought might be looking for us, we both fired. To our
great delight we rolled him over where he stood.
"Bravo! Well done!" cried my uncle, descending the tree. "We'll now go
after my elephant."
Leading the way, without exchanging further words, he dashed out of the
forest.