Off to the Wilds Part 27

"Quick! Show me. Where was the wound?" exclaimed Mr Rogers.

"I don't know. It bit at me twice," replied Jack; "somewhere below the knee."

"These creatures' teeth are like needles," said Mr Rogers. "Look, d.i.c.k; can you see? two tiny punctures together?"

"Would it bleed, father?" said d.i.c.k.

"Most likely not."

"I don't see the wound, father."

"Nor I, my boy; but my head swims, and I feel giddy. It is as if there was a mist before my eyes. Oh, my boy! my boy!"

"Snake never bite um at all," cried Chicory st.u.r.dily. "All swellum and look blue by dis time. Only bite leggum trousers."

Jack burst into a roar of laughter, and a strange reaction took place, for Chicory was undoubtedly right: the loose trouser-leg had caught the virulent little reptile's fangs, and averted the danger.

For there was no gainsaying the matter. Jack felt nothing the matter with him, when, if he had been injured, he would have been under the influence of the terribly rapid poison by then, whereas he was ready to jump up and laugh at the mistake.

He did not laugh much, however, for his father's serious looks checked him. And soon after, when they were alone, Mr Rogers said something to his son about thankfulness for his escape which brought the tears into the boy's eyes. The next minute, though, father and son joined hands, and no more was said.

It was another warning to be careful, and of the many dangers by which they were surrounded, and the boys promised to temper their daring with more discretion for the future.

They afterwards called that the reptile day, for the number of scaly creatures they saw was prodigious.

"But I want to see one of those tremendously great boa-constrictors,"

said d.i.c.k, "one of the monsters you read of in books."

"As big round as the mast of a man-of-war, and as long, eh?" said his father.

"Yes," said d.i.c.k.

"Then I'm afraid, my boy, that you will be disappointed, for from my own experience I think those creatures exist only in the imaginations of writers. I dare say they may grow to thirty feet long, but you may take a boa of eighteen or twenty feet as a monster, and as big as you are likely to see. That was a very large serpent you shot in the valley there."

"Oh," said d.i.c.k; "I don't call that a long one."

"This is just the sort of place to find a large one, I should say,"

continued Mr Rogers. "Hot, dry, stony places for basking, and dense, hot, steamy nooks down by the little river and lagoons where it would be likely to lie in wait for its prey."

But though they looked well about, they saw nothing, and the heat having now become intense, they found a clump of trees close by a trickling streamlet that ran along from the rocks to the river, and sat down to rest and eat their lunch.

They felt too drowsy and tired with their morning's walking to care to do much in the afternoon, and they were quietly looking over their captures after shifting their places twice to get out of the sun as the shadow swept on, when d.i.c.k suddenly caught his father's arm, and pointed towards the rocks.

"What's that shining over there?" he said quickly.

Chicory had been asleep the moment before, but d.i.c.k's movement and question roused him on the instant, and he glanced in the direction indicated.

"Big snake," he said decisively. "Chicory go and kill um."

The boy ran towards the rocks, and, picking up their guns, the rest followed--to see that it was a large serpent from whose scales the sun had gleamed. They could not even guess at its length it was so knotted up in folds; but its body was nearly as big round as that of Chicory, who seemed in nowise afraid of the great reptile, but picked up a ma.s.s of rock larger than his head, balanced it on one hand, and advanced towards the sleeping serpent, which had chosen one of the hottest portions of the rock for its siesta.

"_Yap_! _yap_! _yap_!" shouted Chicory; and the creature moved slowly, its whole body seeming to be in motion.

This was not enough for Chicory, who drew his kiri out of his waistband, and threw it heavily at the reptile.

This seemed to rouse it into action, and after a more rapid gliding of one coil over the other, the creature's evil-looking head rose up, hissing menacingly at its disturber, who raised the piece of rock with both hands above his head, and dashed it down upon the serpent's crest, crushing it to the ground, after which the boy nimbly leaped away, to avoid the writhing of its body and the fierce whipping of the creature's tail.

"Well done, Chicory, my brave boy," cried Mr Rogers, patting the Zulu lad upon the shoulder.

"Yes, Chicory very brave boy," said the lad, smiling complacently, and quite innocent of his words sounding conceited. "Chicory kill all big snake for boss. Boss boys very kind to Coffee, and father love 'em."

This was a long speech for Chicory, who nodded and smiled, and ended by waiting his opportunity, and then seizing the boa's tail and running away with it to stretch the creature out. But it was too heavy, and its writhings continued even after the boys had fired a charge of small shot at close quarters through the reptile's head.

They wanted to measure it, but that was impossible from its writhings.

Mr Rogers, however, made an approximate calculation, and then said, quietly,--

"I should say it was as near as can be nineteen feet long, and unusually large in girth."

"Oh, father," cried Jack; "it must be thirty-nine feet long."

"Ah, Jack, my boy," replied his father, laughing, "that's old travellers' measurement--and they always allowed six feet to the yard-- that is, twenty-four inches to the foot; and that's why ourang-outangs, and whales, and serpents were always so large."

But they had not yet arrived at the end of their reptile adventures.

They waited for some time to see if the boa would cease its writhings; but the muscular contractions still continuing, and the dark tortoisesh.e.l.l-like markings of brown and yellow and black glistening in the sun quite two hours after the creature might reasonably have been said to be killed, they gave it up and went further afield.

"Suppose we leave this series of red-hot rocks, boys, and go down towards the water. From the appearance of the country over yonder I fancy that the stream widens out into a lake."

"How do you know, father?" asked d.i.c.k.

"From the character of the trees and other growth. Don't you see how much more leafy and luxuriant it looks. Keep your eyes well opened and your pieces ready. I dare say we may meet with a rare bird or two, perhaps some kind of water-buck--ready for the camp to-morrow!"

As Mr Rogers had predicted, a couple of miles walking brought them to what in parts was quite a marsh full of canes and reeds; but every here and there were beautiful pools of breeze-rippled water, spread with lovely lilies and other water-plants, while the edges were fringed with willow-like wands and waving sedges.

So beautiful was the scene where the little river widened, and wound through the low ground, that as they wandered about amongst the firmer ground they forbore to shoot, but paused from time to time to watch the lovely plumage of the various ducks and cranes that made the lagoons their home.

Not a shot then had been fired, and as they wandered in and out they found plenty to take their attention. Every here and there Chicory found for them some nest in amongst the reeds--the nursery of duck or crane. But the most interesting thing that they saw in the shape of nests was that of a kind of sociable grossbeak, a flock of which had built a town in a large tree, quite a hundred nests being together in common; while in another tree, whose branches drooped over the water, there were suspended dozens of a curiously woven bottle-shaped nest, with its entrance below, to keep the young birds from the attack of snakes.

"What's that noise?" said Jack, suddenly, as he was on about a quarter of a mile ahead with his brother, Mr Rogers being busily transferring some water-beetles to Chicory's spirit-bottle, which escaped breaking after all from the toughness of the wire.

"I don't know," replied d.i.c.k. "It sounds like some animal. And there's a scuffling noise as well.

"It's just like a cow moaning, a very long way off. I wonder what it is?"

"I don't think it's a long way off. It seems to me to be pretty close."

They moved about among the reeds and bushes, but could see nothing.