The Settler and the Savage Part 27

"I'm sorry for you," returned Hans, "for you'll see no water this night.

To-morrow we'll start early and get to the waggons by breakfast-time."

This was depressing news to Considine, for the heat of the day and exertions of the chase had, as he expressed it, almost dried him up.

There was nothing for it, however, but patience.

About sunset they came to a place where were some old deserted huts. In one of these they resolved to pa.s.s the night, though, from certain holes in the side, it was evidently used at times as an abode by beasts of prey. Having flint and steel, they made a fire, and while thus engaged were serenaded by the distant and dolorous howls of a hyena and the inharmonious jabberings of a jackal.

"Pleasant company!" observed Considine as he roasted a steak over the fire.

"Ja," replied Hans, who, being a more expert cook, was already busy with a rib.

The melancholy hoot of an owl seemed to indicate that the animal kingdom agreed with the sentiment, and the young men laughed. They were not, however, disposed to talk much. After a silent supper they lay down and slept soundly, quite oblivious of the prowlers of the night, who came, more than once, near to the door of the hut.

It was late next day when they awoke. Hans likewise missed his way, and though he afterwards discovered his mistake, they found it impossible to regain the track of their companions before sunset. All that day they were compelled to travel without tasting a drop of water, and their poor horses became so fatigued as to be scarcely equal to more than a walking pace. As Hans knew that water was not far off, he pushed on after sunset, so as to have the shorter distance to travel to it in the morning.

"It is very tantalising," he said, drawing rein when the darkness of the night rendered travelling almost impossible, "to know that our friends cannot be far off, and yet be unable to reach them."

"Hadn't we better fire a shot?" asked Considine.

"Not of much use, I fear, but there can be no harm in trying."

The shot was fired and was instantly replied to by a tremendous roar from a lion, apparently close to where they stood. No wood was near them to make a fire, nothing but tufts of gra.s.s; they therefore pushed on towards a range of dark mountains as fast as their jaded steeds would go.

"Halt a moment," said Hans in a low voice.

They stopped and listened. The approach of the lion in rear was distinctly heard.

"We cannot escape from him, Charlie," said Hans, as they again urged their horses onward, "and in the dark we cannot take aim at him. Our only chance is to reach yonder pa.s.s or glen that looms like a black cleft in the hills, and clamber up some precipice, whence we can pelt him with stones."

He spoke in quick, earnest tones. They soon entered the gorge and were greeted by the grunt of a baboon and the squalling of its young ones, which helped to increase the savage aspect of the towering cliffs on either side. They had not proceeded far when the lion gave another tremendous roar, which, echoing from cliff to cliff, gave the luckless hunters the feeling of having got into the very heart of a lion's den.

No suitable place to scramble up being found, they pushed madly on over a track of sand and bushes, expecting every instant to see the monster bound upon them. But the defile was shorter than Hans had supposed. On issuing from it they were cheered by the moon rising bright in the east, and found that their enemy had ceased to follow them at that point.

Still, though weary, and with their tongues cleaving to the roofs of their mouths, they continued their march for several hours, and lying down at last, they scarcely knew how or there, they went to sleep with a prayer for protection and deliverance on their parched lips.

The weary wanderers pa.s.sed that night in a very paradise, bathing in cool streams and slaking their thirst nearly, but never _quite_, to the full. There was always a peculiar desire to drink again, and, even then, to wish for more! Heavenly music, too, sounded in their ears, and the sweet shade of green trees sheltered them.

It was daybreak when they were roused from these delights by a hyena's howl, and awoke to find that they were speechless with thirst, their eyes inflamed, and their whole frames burning.

Saddling the horses at once, they rode forward, and in a couple of hours reached a hill near the top of which there was a projecting rock.

"Don't let me raise your hopes too high," said Hans, pointing to the rock, "but it is just possible that we may find water _there_."

"G.o.d grant it!" said Considine.

"Your horse is fresher than mine," said Hans, "and you are lighter than I am--go first. If there is water, hail me--if not, I will wait your return."

With a nod of a.s.sent the youth pushed forward, gained the rock, and found the place where water had once been, a dry hole!

For a few minutes he stood gazing languidly on the plain beyond the ridge. Despair had almost taken possession of his breast, when his eye suddenly brightened. He observed objects moving far away on the plain.

With bated breath he stooped and shaded his eyes with his hand. Yes, there could be no doubt about it--a party of hors.e.m.e.n and bullock-waggons! He tried to cheer, but his dry throat refused to act.

Turning quickly, he began to descend the hillside, and chanced to cough as he went along. Instantly he was surrounded by almost a hundred baboons, some of gigantic size, which came fearlessly towards him. They grunted, grinned, and sprang from stone to stone, protruding their mouths and drawing back the skin of their foreheads, threatening an instant attack. Considine's gun was loaded, but he had lived long enough in those regions to be fully aware of the danger of wounding one of these creatures in such circ.u.mstances. Had he done so he would probably have been torn to pieces in five minutes. He therefore kept them off with the muzzle of his gun as he continued the descent. Some of them came so near as to touch his hat while pa.s.sing projecting rocks.

At last he reached the plain, where the baboons stopped and appeared to hold a noisy council as to whether they should make a great a.s.sault or not. He turned and levelled his gun.

"Come," thought he at that moment, "don't do it, Charlie. You have escaped. Be thankful, and leave the poor brutes alone."

Obeying the orders of his conscience, he re-shouldered his gun and returned to his friend, whom he found reclining under a low bush, and informed him of what he had seen. The young Dutchman jumped up at once, and, mounting, rode round a spur of the hill and out upon the plain. In an hour they had overtaken their comrades, but great was their dismay on finding that they had long ago consumed every drop of water, and that they were suffering from thirst quite as much as themselves.

"Never mind," said Lucas Van Dyk; "let me comfort you with the a.s.surance that we shall certainly reach water in a few hours."

The hunter was right. Some hours before sunset the oxen and horses quickened their pace of their own accord--sure sign that they had scented water from afar. Shortly after, they came in sight of a stream.

The excitement of all increased as they pushed forward. They broke into a wild run on nearing the stream; and then followed a scene which is almost indescribable. The oxen were cast loose, the riders leaped to the ground, and the whole party, men, oxen, and horses, ran in a promiscuous heap into the water.

"Wow, man, Jerry, hae a care; ee'll be squizzen atween the beasts," said Sandy Black, as the active Jerry pa.s.sed him in the race.

The Scot's warning was not without reason, for next moment Jerry was up to the knees in the stream between two oxen, who, closing on each other, almost burst him. Easing off, they let him drop on hands and knees, and he remained in that position drinking thankfully. The whole place was quickly stirred up into a muddy compound like pea-soup, but neither man nor beast was particular. They struggled forward and fell on their knees--not inappropriately--to drink. One man was pushed down by an ox, but seemed pleased with the refreshing coolness of his position, and remained where he was drinking. Another in his haste tumbled over the edge of the bank and rolled down, preceded by an impatient horse, which had tripped over him. Both gathered themselves up, somehow, with their lips in the water,--and drank! Young Rivers, happening to gain the stream at a point where oxen and horses were wedged together tightly, tried to force in between them, but, failing in this, he stooped to crawl in below them. At that moment Slinger the "Tottie" gave a yell in Dutch, and said that a horse was trampling on him; whom Dikkop consoled by saying that _he_ was fast in the mud--and so he was, but not too fast to prevent drinking. Meanwhile the Dutchmen and the knowing ones of the party restrained themselves, and sought for better positions where the water was clearer. There they, likewise, bent their tall heads and suggested--though they did not sing--the couplet:

"Oh that a Dutchman's draught might be As deep as the ro-o-olling Zuyder-Zee!"

The limit of drinking was capacity. Each man and beast drank as much as he, or it, could hold, and then unwillingly left the stream, covered with mud and dripping wet! Oh, it was a delicious refreshment, which some thought fully repaid them for the toil and suffering they had previously undergone. The aspect of the whole band may be described in the language of Sandy Black, who, beholding his friends after the fray, remarked that they were all "dirty and drookit."

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

TREATS OF MATTERS TOO NUMEROUS AND STIRRING TO BE BRIEFLY REFERRED TO.

Soon after this the explorers pa.s.sed beyond the level country, and their sufferings were for the time relieved. The region through which they then pa.s.sed was varied--hilly, wooded, and beautiful, and, to crown all, water was plentiful. Large game was also abundant, and one day the footprints of elephants were discovered.

To some of the party that day was one of deepest interest and excitement.

Charlie Considine, who was, as we have said, an adept with the pencil, longed to sit down and sketch the lordly elephant in his native haunts.

Andrew Rivers and Jerry Goldboy wanted to shoot him, so did George Rennie and the Mullers and Lucas Van Dyk. More moderate souls, like Sandy Black, said they would be satisfied merely to _see_ him, while Slinger and Dikkop, with their brethren, declared that they wanted to _eat_ him.

At last they came in sight of him! It was a little after mid-day. They were traversing at the time a jungle so dense that it would have been impa.s.sable but for a Kafir-path which had been kept open by wild animals. The hunters had already seen herds of quaggas, and buffaloes, and some of the larger sorts of antelopes, also one rhinoceros, but not yet elephants. Now, to their joy, the giant tracks of these monsters were discovered. Near the river, in swampy places, it was evident that some of them had been rolling luxuriously in the ooze and mud. But it was in the forests and jungles that they had left the most striking marks of their habits and mighty power, for there th.o.r.n.y brakes of the most impenetrable character had been trodden flat by them, and trees had been overturned. In traversing such places the great bull-elephant always marches in the van, bursting through everything by sheer force and weight, breaking off huge limbs of the larger trees with his proboscis when these obstruct his path, and overturning the smaller ones bodily, while the females and younger members of the family follow in his wake.

A little further on they came to a piece of open ground where the elephants had torn up a number of mimosa-trees and inverted them so that they might the more easily browse on the juicy roots. It was evident from appearances that the animals had used their tusks as crowbars, inserting them under the roots to loosen their hold of the earth, and it was equally clear that, like other and higher creatures, they sometimes attempted what was beyond their strength, for some of the larger trees had resisted their utmost efforts.

As these signs multiplied the hunters proceeded with increased vigilance and caution, each exhibiting the peculiarity of his character, more or less, by his look and actions. The Mullers, Van Dyk, Rennie, Hans, and other experienced men, rode along, calmly watchful, yet not so much absorbed as to prevent a humorous glance and a smile at the conduct of their less experienced comrades. Considine and Rivers showed that their spirits were deeply stirred, by the flash of their ever-roving eyes, the tight compression of their lips, the flush on their brows, and the position of readiness in which they carried their guns--elephant-guns, by the way, lent them by their Dutch friends for the occasion. Sandy Black rode with a cool, sober, sedate air, looking interested and attentive, but with that peculiar twinkle of the eyes and slightly sarcastic droop at the corners of the mouth which is often characteristic of the sceptical Scotsman. On the other hand, Jerry Goldboy went along blazing with excitement, while every now and then he uttered a suppressed exclamation, and clapped the blunderbuss to his shoulder when anything moved, or seemed to move, in the jungle.

Jerry had flatly refused to exchange his artillery for any other weapon, and having learned that small shot was useless against elephants, he had charged it with five or six large pebbles--such as David might have used in the slaying of Goliath. Mixed with these was a sprinkling of large nails, and one or two odd b.u.t.tons. He was a source of constant and justifiable alarm to his friends, who usually compelled him either to ride in front, with the blunderbuss pointing forward, or in the rear, with its muzzle pointing backward.

"There go your friends at last, Jerry," said Van Dyk, curling his black moustache, with a smile, as the party emerged from a woody defile into a wide valley.

"What? where? eh! in which direction? point 'em out quick!" cried Jerry, c.o.c.king the blunderbuss violently and wheeling his steed round with such force that his haunch hit Sandy Black's leg pretty severely.

"Hoot, ye loupin' eedyit!" growled the Scot, somewhat nettled.

Jerry subdued himself with a violent effort, while the experienced hunters pointed out the elephants, and consulted as to the best plan of procedure.

There were fifty at least of the magnificent animals scattered in groups over the bottom and sides of a valley about three miles in extent; some were browsing on the succulent spekboom, of which they are very fond.