Settlers and Scouts Part 2

"It is human to err, sir. You cannot see the sun, but he sees you, and lo! in a moment he smites you, and it is no go. The head, sir, is the weaker vessel."

"Put on your hat, John," said Mr. Halliday. "We don't want to run any risks."

By and by the mist cleared, and having reached a ridge bare of trees, the travellers suddenly caught sight of Mount Kenya in the distance, rearing itself from the plain by such gentle slopes that it was hard to believe that its summit was 14,000 feet above sea-level and covered with snow. Its peaks were swathed in cloud; indeed, only once or twice during many months did the travellers catch a glimpse of them. Then the view was magnificent, and for the first time in his life John felt a longing to climb a mountain.

Every day's programme was the same. They started early. After a march of two hours a halt was called, to allow the laggards to come up with the party. Then the march was resumed, and continued until the sun's heat became unendurable, and the men clamoured for a long rest. One day at this time Mr. Halliday, selecting a glade shaded by immense trees, bade the men set down their loads, and take a siesta. The resting-place was not so well chosen as it had appeared to be; a stream ran close by, and the travellers had hardly settled themselves when they were beset by innumerable red ticks, which clung to the white men's clothing and bit their skin savagely, sparing the natives. The Hallidays, finding their attacks intolerable, sprang up and went on, instructing Coja to follow them when the porters were sufficiently rested. They had not gone far when they saw a herd of congoni, an animal of the antelope kind, dashing across the plain, and John fingered his rifle longingly. But Mr.

Halliday would not permit him to go in chase of them.

"We shall have plenty of sport by and by," he said, "and we don't want to heat ourselves or lose touch with the men."

He had scarcely spoken when John caught sight of another safari coming across a ridge in the distance. Mr. Halliday thought it prudent to halt until they were rejoined by the rest of their party, and they threw themselves down under a baobab to wait for them. It was two hours before they came up, and the march had just been resumed when they heard shots, and saw a number of black men rushing towards them at full speed.

Mr. Halliday was a little alarmed, thinking that an attack was imminent; but in a few moments Coja told him that the approaching men were plainly porters, for they were unarmed, but they bore no loads, and he suggested that something had frightened them.

In a few minutes the first of the runaways came up, and began to talk excitedly to Coja, who informed Mr. Halliday that the men were indeed porters belonging to a safari returning to Nairobi, and that a rhinoceros had just charged them, whereupon they had flung down their loads and bolted.

"Where is their master?" asked Mr. Halliday.

The man, who had been joined by several of his comrades, pointed back in the direction whence he had come. No white man, however, was in sight, and Mr. Halliday decided to hurry on and see what had become of him, ordering the men to follow, which they were plainly reluctant to do. He came within half-a-mile to the scene of the stampede, the loads of the porters strewing the gra.s.s; but there was no sign either of the rhinoceros or of the young white man who, as the scared natives said, was the master of the safari. Coja declared that the _bwana_ must have been gored or trampled by the rhinoceros, and suggested that they should hurry on and get out of danger as quickly as possible; but Mr. Halliday would not hear of leaving the spot until he had made an effort to find the unfortunate traveller. He ordered the men to set down their loads and remain with them while he made a search, and asked whether any of them could follow a rhinoceros trail. One and all first denied that they had ever seen a rhinoceros; but Mr. Halliday sternly told Coja that they would have no supper unless they recovered their memory, and then Coja himself reluctantly admitted that if the trail was very clear, and if the white men would go one on each side of him with their guns, he would try to lead them after the animal.

As a matter of fact, the trail was easily found, the ground being soft and the gra.s.s heavily trampled. It led them into a dense ma.s.s of bush.

Mr. Halliday, holding his rifle ready for the least sign of danger, plunged into the jungle with John and Coja, the latter soon declaring that he saw, together with the great hoof-marks of the animal, forming paths on both sides of a ridge of gra.s.s, the smaller and fainter tracks made by a white man's boots.

"Him killed dead, sure 'nuff," said Coja solemnly. "No good look no more."

"We'll make sure of it. Go on," said Mr. Halliday, and the three continued to follow the trail.

"What's that?" cried John suddenly, a few minutes later.

"White man call; him no dead yet," said Coja.

"Hallo!" shouted Mr. Halliday, and a faint "Hallo!" came in answer.

Coja turned a little to the right, in the direction of the sound. Mr.

Halliday called again, and again the answer came, louder, but still curiously m.u.f.fled. Led by the sound, they now left the trail of the rhinoceros, and had proceeded but a few steps farther when Coja suddenly came to a halt, and bursting into laughter, cried, "Him down there!"

"Where?" said Mr. Halliday in amazement, looking about him. And then he saw, in the midst of the gra.s.s, a deep hole, and at the bottom, nine or ten feet below the surface, a young white man sitting cross-legged.

"Hallo!" he said, looking up with a smile. "I thought it was my brother, though it wasn't like his shout. Can you help me out? I'm afraid I've sprained my ankle."

"Of course we can," said Mr. Halliday, "but I'd like to know what on earth you are doing there."

"Thanking my stars I'm not skewered," said the other. "Let down your rifle, will you? Perhaps I can manage to scramble out; but don't let me drag you down."

Mr. Halliday lowered his rifle, holding it by the barrel, having first taken the precaution of emptying the breech; and the prisoner took it by the stock, and tried to clamber up the side of the hole. But he winced as his right foot touched the earth, and after a few moments said--

"I'm afraid I can't manage it. My ankle has got a twist. If you'll shout for my men I'll get one of them to make a sling of rope and haul me out."

"We needn't wait for that," said John. "I'll jump down and give you a lift."

"Look out, then. There's a pointed stake in the ground here which I only escaped by a hair's breadth. Jump to the left. It's uncommon good of you."

John leapt down, and making a pick-a-back, got the stranger to mount and then to stand erect on one foot. His head was now just below the level of the pit.

"I'm afraid we're not much for'arder," he said, with a smile.

"Can't you get your elbows on the edge and hoist yourself up?" suggested John.

"Can't reach. You'd better let me down."

"I'll tell you what," said John: "cut a notch in the wall for your foot.

Then you can hoist yourself up by the rifle until you are high enough to get your elbows on; then it'll be easy. The earth is pretty soft."

Sitting with his legs over John's shoulders, the stranger soon cut a notch with his knife; and in a few minutes he was hauled to the surface.

"I'm much obliged to you. I might have stayed there till I starved for all my men would have troubled."

"How did you manage to fall in?" asked Mr. Halliday.

"A rhinoceros charged us as we were crossing the foot of the kopje yonder. He sprang out from behind a small mountain of an ant-hill. My men instantly flung down their loads and bolted--idiots! and as we're rather short of meat I thought I'd try to get within shot of the beast.

I was following him up when the earth gave way under me, and I found myself in this old game-pit, and don't know how I managed to escape the skewer sticking up at the bottom, as long as my arm. I say, you haven't happened to see anything of my brother, I suppose?"

"We met n.o.body but your men," said Mr. Halliday. "Has your brother lost himself?"

"Old Joe lost! Not a bit of it," cried the young man. "He'll turn up all right. He left me a couple of hours ago to shoot something for to-night's pot, and I thought you might have come across him. I'm rather a nuisance, I'm afraid; I can't put my left foot to the ground, and our last donkey died four days ago, so that I can't ride. We've had uncommon bad luck with our donkeys. As a rule they're hardy in this climate, we were told; but every one of the six we started with has died. Really, I am a nuisance, keeping you here."

"Nonsense," said Mr. Halliday. "Coja, shout for some of our men."

"No come, master," said Coja. "Berry much 'fraid."

"If he goes and calls our headman a coward I think it will answer," said the stranger. "Headmen are very jealous of each other."

Coja entered into the spirit of the suggestion, and ran back over the tracks. In a few minutes the sounds of angry altercation came through the bush, and Coja reappeared, in company with a white-clad Somali, each man abusing the other at the top of his voice. Mr. Halliday silenced them sternly, and ordered them to construct a litter, promising a few cents to the man who did the larger share of the work. They set to work at once, weaving strands of creeping plants and stalks of gra.s.s with amazing rapidity. In less than twenty minutes a sheet of matting was finished and firmly bound to two rifles, and on this extemporized litter the stranger was carried between the headmen back to the open ground.

On the way he explained that his name was Oliver Browne, "commonly called Poll," and that he came from Cape Colony. With his elder brother he had been shooting and prospecting in North Kenya and Gallaland, and they had thoughts of settling in British East Africa, which seemed to offer better prospects than they could see in South Africa.

"I suppose you're on the same job," he concluded.

"Well, we're going to have a look round," replied Mr. Halliday cautiously. "We're on a flying visit, you see."

"And I'm a nuisance, hindering you like this. Here are my wretched men; I shall be all right now; and I can't thank you enough. We may meet again, if we decide to come north. Good-bye. And I say, if you meet that brother of mine, please tell him to hurry up, for if another rhinoceros takes a fancy to charge us, and I can't bring him down, I shall be a mangled corpse in no time."

"Hadn't we better stay with you till your brother turns up?" said John.

"Not at all. The plain is pretty open here, and a rhinoceros could not take us unawares. I shall go on slowly, and camp when I come to a suitable place, and my men will rig up a boma in no time. Good-bye again."

The matting had been transferred to two of the Brownes' rifles, and the men of each party having collected and shouldered their loads, they set off in opposite directions, the two headmen hurling abuse at each other as long as they remained in sight. Coja was particularly indignant because his rival had received the reward for completing the greater portion of the litter; but after a little Mr. Halliday consoled him by saying, casually, that his portion had been the more closely knit, so that he should receive a reward also.

"Dat oder fella no good, what I say," remarked Coja.