The Swiss Family Robinson Part 42

"DEAREST PARENTS AND ERNEST:

"A brute of a hyena has killed a ram and two lambs. The dogs seized it. Franz shot it. It is dead and skinned. The pemmican isn't worth much, but we are all right. Love to all.

"FRITZ.

"WOODLANDS, 15th instant."

"A true hunter's letter!" laughed I; "but what exciting news. When does the next post come in, Ernest?"

"To-night, I hope," said he, while his mother sighed, and doubted the value of such glimpses into the scenes of danger through which her sons were pa.s.sing, declaring she would much rather wait and hear all about it when she had them safe home again.

Thus the winged letter-carriers kept us informed from day to day of the outline of adventures which were afterward more fully described.

On approaching the farm at Woodlands, the boys were startled by hearing, as they thought, human laughter, repeated again and again; while, to their astonishment, the oxen testified the great uneasiness, the dogs growled and drew close to their masters, and the ostrich fairly bolted with Jack into the rice swamp.

The laughter continued, and the beasts became unmanageable.

"Something is very far wrong!" cried Fritz. "I cannot leave the animals; but while I unharness them, do you, Franz, take the dogs, and advance cautiously to see what is the matter."

Without a moment's hesitation, Franz made his way among the bushes with his gun, closely followed by the dogs; until, through an opening in the thicket, he could see, at a distance of about forty paces, an enormous hyena, in the most wonderful state of excitement; dancing round a lamb just killed, and uttering, from time to time, the ghastly hysterical laughter which had pealed through the forest.

The beast kept running backward and forward, rising on its hind legs, and then rapidly whirling round and round, nodding its head, and going through most frantic and ludicrous antics.

Franz kept his presence of mind very well; for he watched till, calming down, the hyena began with horrid growls to tear its prey; and then, firing steadily both barrels, he broke its foreleg, and wounded it in the breast.

Meanwhile Fritz, having unyoked the oxen and secured them to trees, hurried to his brother's a.s.sistance. The dogs and the dying hyena were by this time engaged in mortal strife; but the latter, although it severely wounded both Floss and Bruno, speedily succ.u.mbed, and was dead when the boys reached the spot. They raised a shout of triumph, which guided Jack to the scene of action; and their first care was for the dogs, whose wounds they dressed before minutely examining the hyena. It was as large as a wild boar; long stiff bristles formed a mane on its neck, its color was gray marked with black, the teeth and jaws were of extraordinary strength, the thighs muscular and sinewy, the claws remarkably strong and sharp altogether. But for his wounds he would certainly have been more than a match for the dogs.

After unloading the cart at the farm, the boys returned for the carca.s.s of the tiger-wolf, as it is sometimes called, and occupied themselves in skinning it during the remainder of the day, when, after dispatching the carrier-pigeon to Rockburg, they retired to rest on their bearskin rugs, to dream of adventures past and future.

The following day they devised no less a scheme than to survey the sh.o.r.es of Wood Lake, and place marks wherever the surrounding marsh was practicable, and might be crossed either to reach the water or leave it.

Fritz in the cajack, and the boys on sh.o.r.e, carefully examined the ground together; and when they found firm footing to the water's edge, the spot was indicated by planting a tall bamboo, bearing on high a bundle of reeds and branches.

They succeeded in capturing three young black swans, after considerable resistance from the old ones. They were afterward brought to Rockburg, and detained as ornaments to Safety Bay.

Presently a beautiful heron thrust his long neck from among the reeds, to ascertain what all the noise on the lake was about. Before he could satisfy his curiosity, Fritz unhooded his eagle, and though vainly he flapped and struggled, his legs and wings were gently but firmly bound, and he had to own himself vanquished, and submit to the inspection of his delighted captors.

It was their turn to be alarmed next, for a large powerful animal came puffing, with a curious whistling sound, through the dense thicket of reeds, pa.s.sing close by and sorely discomposing them by its sudden appearance. It was out of sight immediately, before they could summon the dogs, and from their description it must have been a tapir, the color dark brown, and in form resembling a young rhinoceros, but with no horn on the nose, and the upper lip prolonged into a trunk something like that of an elephant on a smaller scale. It is a gentle creature, but when attacked becomes a fierce opponent, and can wound dogs dangerously with its powerful teeth.

The tapir can swim and dive with perfect ease, and abounds in the densely wooded swamps and rivers of tropical America.

Fritz in his cajack followed for a time the direction in which the tapir proceeded, but saw no more of it.

Meanwhile the other two boys returned to the farm by the rice fields, and there fell in with a flock of cranes, five or six of which they caught alive, among them two demoiselles or Numidian cranes. These birds they shot at with arrows arranged in a skillful and original way, with loops of cord dipped in birdlime attached to them, so that it often happened that the bird aimed at was entangled and brought down uninjured.

The young hunters seemed to have lived very comfortably on peccary ham, ca.s.sava bread and fruit, and plenty of baked potatoes and milk.

One trial of the pemmican was sufficient, and it was handed over to the dogs. Fritz, however, determined again to attempt the manufacture, knowing its value when properly prepared.

After collecting a supply of rice and cotton, they took their way to Prospect Hill; "and," said Fritz, as he afterward vividly described the dreadful scene there enacted, "when we entered the pine wood, we found it in possession of troops of monkeys, who resolved to make our pa.s.sage through it as disagreeable as possible, for they howled and chattered at us like demons, pelting us as hard as they could with pine cones.

"They became so unbearable, that at last we fired a few shot right and left among them; several bit the dust, the rest fled, and we continued our way in peace to Prospect Hill, but only to discover the havoc the wretches had made there.

"Would you believe it, father? The pleasant cottage had been overrun and ruined by apes just as Woodland last summer! The most dreadful dirt and disorder met our eyes wherever we turned, and we had hard work to make the place fit for human habitation; and even then we preferred the tent. I felt quite at loss how to guard the farm for the future; but seeing a bottle of the poisonous gum of the euphorbia in the tool chest, I devised a plan for the destruction of the apes which succeeded beyond my expectations.

"I mixed poison with milk, bruised millet, and anything I thought the monkeys would eat, and put it in cocoanut sh.e.l.ls, which I hung about in the trees, high enough to be out of reach of our own animals. The evening was calm and lovely; the sea murmured in the distance, and the rising moon shed a beauty over the landscape which we seemed never before to have so admired and enjoyed. The summer night closed around us in all its solemn stillness, and our deepest feelings were touched; when suddenly the spell was broken by an outburst of the most hideous and discordant noises. As by one consent, every beast of the forest seemed to arise from its den, and utter its wild nocturnal cry. Snorting, snarling, and shrieking filled the wood beneath us.

"From the hills echoed the mournful howl of the jackals, answered by Fangs in the yard, who was backed up by the barking and yelping of his friends Floss and Bruno. Far away beyond the rocky fastnesses of the Gap, sounded unearthly, hollow snortings and neighings, reminding one of the strange cry of the hippopotamus; above these, occasional deep majestic roaring made our hearts quail with the conviction that we heard the voices of lions and elephants.

"Overawed and silent, we retired to rest, hoping to forget in sleep the terrors of the midnight forest, but ere long the most fearful cries in the adjoining woods gave notice that the apes were beginning to suffer from the poisoned repast prepared for them.

"As our dogs could not remain silent amid the uproar and din, we had not a wink of sleep until the morning. It was late, therefore, when we rose, and looked on the awful spectacle presented by the mult.i.tude of dead monkeys and baboons thickly strewn under the trees round the farm. I shall not tell you how many there were. I can only say, I wished I had not found the poison, and we made all haste to clear away the dead bodies, and the dangerous food, burying some deep in the earth, and, carrying the rest to the sh.o.r.e, we pitched them over the rocks into the sea. That day we traveled on to the Gap."

The same evening that the boys reached the rocky pa.s.s, a messenger pigeon arrived at Rockburg, bearing a note which concluded in the following words:

"The barricade at the Gap broken down. Everything laid waste as far as the sugar-brake, where the hut is knocked to pieces, and the fields trampled over by huge footmarks. Come to us, father--we are safe, but feel we are no match for this unknown danger."

I lost not an instant, but saddled Swift, late as it was, in order to ride to the a.s.sistance of our boys, desiring Ernest to prepare the small cart, and follow me with his mother at daybreak, bringing everything we should require for camping out for some days.

The bright moonlight favored my journey, and my arrival at the Gap surprised and delighted the boys, who did not expect me till the next day. Early on the following morning I inspected the footprints and ravages of the great unknown. The cane brake had, without doubt, been visited by an elephant. That great animal alone could have left such traces and committed such fearful ravages. Thick posts in the barricade were snapped across like reeds; the trees in the vicinity, where we planned to build a cool summer-house, were stripped of leaves and branches to a great height, but the worst mischief was done among the young sugar-cane plants, which were all either devoured or trampled down and destroyed.

It seemed to me that not one elephant, but a troop must have invaded our grounds. The tracks were very numerous, and the footprints of various sizes; but, to my satisfaction, I saw that they could be traced not only from the Gap, but back to it in evidently equal numbers.

We did not, therefore, suppose that the mighty animals remained hidden in the woods of our territory; but concluded that, after this freebooting incursion, they had withdrawn to their native wilds, where, by greatly increasing the strength of our ramparts, we hoped henceforth to oblige them to remain.

In what manner to effect this we laid many plans, during the night of my arrival, when, sitting by an enormous watch-fire, I chatted with my boys, and heard details of their numerous adventures, so interesting for them to relate, and for me to hear, that every one was more disposed to act sentinel than retire to sleep.

The mother and Ernest arrived next day, and she rejoiced to find all well, making light of trodden fields and trampled sugar-canes, since her sons were sound in life and limb.

A systematic scheme of defense was now elaborated, and the erection of the barricade occupied us for at least a month, as it was to be a firm and durable building, proof against all invasion. As our little tent was unsuited to a long residence of this sort, I adopted Fritz's idea of a Kamschatchan dwelling, and, to his great delight, forthwith carried it out.

Instead of planting four posts, on which to place a platform, we chose four trees of equal size, which, in a very suitable place, grew exactly in a square, twelve or fourteen feet apart. Between these, at about twenty feet from the ground, we laid a flooring of beams and bamboo, smoothly and strongly planked. From this rose, on all four sides, walls of cane; the frame of the roof was covered so effectually by large pieces of bark that no rain could penetrate.

The staircase to this tree-cottage was simply a board plank with bars nailed across it for steps. The flooring projected like a balcony in front of the entrance door, and underneath, on the ground, we fitted up sheds for cattle and fowls.

Various ornaments in Chinese or j.a.panese style were added to the roof and eaves, and a most convenient, cool, and picturesque cottage, overhung and adorned by the graceful foliage of the trees, was the result of our ingenuity.

I was pleased to find that the various birds taken by the boys during this excursion seemed likely to thrive; they were the first inmates of the new sheds, and even the black swans and cranes soon became tame and sociable.

Constantly roaming through the woods, the children often made new discoveries.

Fritz brought one day, after an excursion to the opposite side of the stream beyond the Gap, a cl.u.s.ter of bananas, and also of cacao beans, from which chocolate is made.

The banana, although valuable and nourishing food for the natives of the tropical countries where it grows, is not generally liked by Europeans, and probably this variety was even inferior to many others, for we found the fruit much like rotten pears, and almost uneatable.

The cacao seeds tasted exceedingly bitter, and it seemed wonderful that by preparation they should produce anything so delicious as chocolate.

My wife, who now fancied no manufacture beyond my skill, begged for plants, seeds, or cuttings to propagate in her nursery garden, already fancying herself in the enjoyment of chocolate for breakfast, and I promised to make a cacao plantation near home.

"Let me have bananas also," said she, "for we may acquire a taste for that celebrated fruit, and, at all events, I am sure I can make it into an excellent preserve."