Off to the Wilds Part 41

"That's right, my young son of a dark night," cried Dinny. "Well, now then, look here. Ye know that grate big pig wid the horn on his nose came and upset me fire, and run away wid me wardrobe?"

Chicory shook his head.

"Well then, wid me clane shirt. D'ye undherstand now?"

"Yes, yes," said Chicory, laughing. "Don't know big pig."

"Yes, yes, you do, my young piece of black velvet; the big rise nosserus."

"Yes, rhinoceros, big beast, big horn. Oorrr! houk! houk! houk!"

This was supposed to resemble the noise made by the great animal; and Chicory ill.u.s.trated his cry by going down on hands and knees in a clumsy gallop, which ended with a toss of the head in the air.

"Yes; that's him," said Dinny. "Well, I want ye to find the way to where he lives by his futmarks, and then come and tell me, and I'll go and shute him."

Chicory nodded his head, and they went back to the waggon, where Dinny presented himself to his master all at once with a request for a gun.

"A gun, Dinny? And what do you want with a gun?"

"Shure, sor, everybody else learns how to shute, and I thought I'd like to be able to shute a line or a hippo--what's his name, or any other of the savage bastes if they came near the waggon while ye were away."

"Well, Dinny, I have no objection, if you promise to be careful."

"But I want one o' them that shutes big bullets, sor, and not the little pishtol things that only shutes small shot, sor."

"You shall have a good rifle, Dinny," said his master. "d.i.c.k, get the Snider--the short Snider--out of the waggon, and give him twenty cartridges."

This was done, and the rifle placed in Dinny's hands.

"You must be very careful how you shoot with it, Dinny," said Mr Rogers.

"Shure and I will, sor."

"But be particularly careful not to fire in the direction where any one is coming. Remember a Snider is dangerous at a mile."

"Is it now?" said Dinny. "But shure, sor, I want a gun, and I don't care for your Sniders at all. What's a Snider to do wid me? It's a gun I want."

"To kill wild beasts, Dinny?"

"That same, sor."

"Well, then, take that Snider-rifle; it will kill at a tremendous distance."

"What, that little bid of a thing, sor?"

"To be sure, man. Now take care, and you'll have to keep it clean and free from rust as well."

"Thanky, sor, and I will, and it will have too much to do for it to get rusty."

"Well, Dinny, I trust you, mind, so be careful with your weapon."

"Shure, sor, and I will," said Dinny; and taking the Snider very carefully in his hands, he asked Jack to give him "a bit of showing how to trim thim," and this Jack did till he was perfect, when Dinny went off with the rifle, muttering to himself.

"Think o' that now!" he kept on saying, "that bit of a thing shooting a baste at a mile!"

Nothing more was said by Dinny, who had made his plans, and he kept his own secret of what he intended to do. On the following afternoon Chicory came to him in high glee, to claim the roast meat and cake promised, and he announced that he had found where the rhinoceros lived.

"How did you find him out?" said Dinny doubtingly.

"Track. Follow spoor," said Chicory proudly.

"Oh, ye followed his spoor, did ye?" said Dinny. "Very well thin, it's going to be a bright moonlight night, so ye can follow his spoor, and tak' me wid ye."

Chicory nodded eagerly, and in the course of the evening he came and beckoned to Dinny, who took the Snider, and put the cartridges in his pocket.

"Where are you going, Dinny?" said his master.

"Shure, jist for a bit o' pleasure, sor," he replied.

"Well, look out for the lions," said d.i.c.k maliciously.

"Shure I niver thought o' the lines," muttered Dinny, "and they goo out a-walking av a night. I'd better shtay at home. Bother!" he cried angrily. "Shure the young masther did it to frecken me, and it'll take a braver boy than him to do it anyhow."

So Dinny marched off, and following Chicory, the boy led him at once over a rugged mountainous hill, and then into a part of the forest that was particularly dark, save where the moon, pretty well at its full, threw long paths of light between the trees.

Enjoining silence, the boy went cautiously forward, threading his way through the dark forest, till he halted beside a fallen monarch of the woods, a huge tree of such enormous proportions, that its gnarled trunk and branches completely stopped further progress; for it formed a stout barrier breast high, over which a man could fire at anything crossing the moonlit glade beyond.

The shape of the tree was such that a branch like a second trunk ran almost parallel to the main trunk, arching over the head of whoever used the old tree for a breastwork, and forming an additional protection should the occupant of the breastwork be attacked by any large animal.

"Stop there, you see noseros," whispered Chicory.

"But shure ye wouldn't have a man shtand there by himself, and all in the dark? Faix, there's some wild baste or another shlaying me now."

"See noseros then shoot," whispered Chicory. "I stay here."

The boy caught hold of a branch and swung himself up into a tree, where he perched himself and waited.

"Faix, he's just like a little monkey, and not fit for the shociety of Christians," muttered Dinny as he took his place by the great barrier, and, resting his rifle upon the trunk, waited.

Dinny felt in anything but a courageous mood, but as he had come so far upon his mission, he strung himself up to go on with it, and watched the open s.p.a.ce before him, lit up by the moon which shone full upon his face.

"Maybe he's only playing wid me, the black little haythen," thought Dinny, "and there's no big pig to be seen here at all. But he shan't see that I'm a bit freckened annyhow, for I'll shtand my ground till he comes down and says we'd better go."

So Dinny stood watching there till he began to feel drowsy, and this made him lean against the great trunk, his head began to nod, and twice over he was pretty well asleep.

"Shure, an' I'll catch cowld if I do that," he said to himself, as he gave himself a bit of a shake. "I don't see what's the good o' waiting here, and--murther! look at that now."

Dinny felt as if cold water was being poured over him as, all at once, he saw the great proportions of a rhinoceros standing out quite black against the bright moonlight, the animal being as motionless as if carved from the rock that lay in great ma.s.ses around.