Blind Lion of the Congo

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER V

  THE CONGO

  The boys were now due to receive another surprise. When their taxi drewup they jumped out, fully expecting to see a wonderful store like thoseof New York. Instead they found themselves before a dingy little shopwhose aspect gave them distinct disappointment.

  "No," laughed Mr. Wallace as he dismissed the taxi, "it's all right!Doesn't look up to much but it sends out good stuff."

  This was the gunshop and they found it very different inside. Mr.Wallace had no time to waste in having special guns made, so the clerksmeasured the boys' shoulders and arms and that was all there was to it,for the guns would be slightly altered and sent on board.

  Now the party went to the Boma Trading Company's store. Here they foundthat the chop-boxes had all gone on board their ship. Mr. Wallaceordered three Borroughs and Wellcome medicine cases, specially made upfor the West Coast. He also procured two hypodermic syringes and asmall quantity of Pasteur serums.

  "We'll probably never need them," he explained, as they left the store,"but in case our men strike a snake a quick hypodermic is the only thingto save them. Then we have poisoned arrows to consider also. If wehappened to get into the pigmy country--which I hope we won't--it'lltake a powerful anti-tetanic serum to kill their poisons."

  After a lunch they returned to the Boma Company. The lists which Mr.Wallace had given the clerks had been filled and now each of them wasmeasured for the clothes and personal equipment. This consumed an hour,after which they took another taxi and went to a camera supply house.

  The boys went into extravagant delight over the small and compactmoving-picture outfit. Burt promptly took charge of this, or ratherpromised to take charge, for when the whole outfit had been sealed up itwould be sent down to the steamer like the other supplies.

  "Tell you what," he cried, "we'll get some great little old pictures!You let an elephant chase you, Uncle George, while I get a good viewand Critch shoots him!"

  "Don't want much, do you?" laughed his uncle. "Nothing like that formine. I'd sooner have an elephant after me, at that, than a big buffalo.That's the most dangerous animal we'll find in Africa."

  "How 'bout rhinoceros?" challenged Critch.

  "All poppycock," snorted the explorer. "A rhino can't see ten feet away.He goes by smell. He'll usually run away unless he's wounded. But abuffalo doesn't wait to be wounded. You rouse him up out of acomfortable feeding place and he'll go for you. Takes more than onebullet to kill him unless you're lucky."

  The boys now stocked up with fresh linen for the voyage while Mr.Wallace looked up his own guns, which he usually stored in London. Theystopped at the Carleton over Sunday and Monday. As Burt's father hadsales offices in London they secured a large touring car without costand spent the two days riding about the historic city. There werevarious minor details of their outfits to be attended to on Monday andon Tuesday noon they went aboard the _Benguela_, when she arrived fromLiverpool.

  She proved to be a large cargo and passenger boat and was verycomfortably fitted up. They had seen nothing of John Quincy AdamsWashington but Mr. Wallace smilingly assured them that he would show upin time. Sure enough, when they went up the gangplank the big negro waswaiting with his all-embracing grin.

  "Good mornin', sar, good mornin'!" he cried, taking charge of their handbaggage and assuming a lordly attitude over the stewards. "Veryhauspicious day, sar! John t'ink we 'ave very fine trip, sar!"

  And a fine trip they had. There were a dozen other passengers on board.Most of these were clerks or traders going out to positions at SierraLeone or the Gold Coast, with one or two Frenchmen and officials of theCongo State. When they crossed the Equator there were the usualceremonies and horseplay among the sailors, and the boys thoroughlyenjoyed themselves. By the time they left the Gold Coast behind andheaded for Banana Point Burt felt better than he had ever been in hislife and his uncle assured him that he need not worry about the fever.

  Finally the long reddish cliffs and grassy up-lands of the Congo coastdrew into sight late on the fifteenth afternoon. The _Benguela_ took ablack pilot aboard and proceeded straight up to the port of Banana. Mr.Wallace and the boys at once disembarked and interviewed the customsofficials and took a launch up to the capital, Boma. The steamer wouldfollow them after discharging some cargo.

  The next morning Mr. Wallace put on his ribbon of Commander of theLegion of Honor. The boys were amazed at the respect which this gainedfor all of them when they sought an audience with the governor general.After explaining to him the object of their trip and the length of timethey would be gone, Mr. Wallace arranged to have all the necessarypapers made out and to charter one of the State steamers to take theiroutfit up the river.

  "I can give you only a small one," said the governor general."Unfortunately, there are few at my disposal just now. Stay! You mightarrange with Captain Montenay. He chartered _La Belgique_ two dayssince for a similar trip, but surely he'll have plenty of room tospare."

  "Montenay?" repeated Mr. Wallace. "Isn't he the Scotch explorer?"

  "Yes!" smiled the governor. "Come to think of it I believe he is at thepalace now." Clapping his hands, he dispatched a gendarme. "If you canarrange matters with him I will see that your baggage is passed directlyto _La Belgique_ through the customs. You have no liquor, I presume?"

  "Half a dozen pint flasks of brandy," replied the explorer and thegovernor nodded. It is one of the strictest laws of the Congo that noliquors shall be brought into the country, save in small personalamounts. A moment later the gendarme returned with a small, khaki-cladman. He was very sallow of complexion, had dark hair and eyes, andcarried his left arm awkwardly. When the governor introduced him to thethree Americans his thin face lit up with a quick smile and he grippedMr. Wallace's hand impulsively.

  "So you're Wallace!" he cried, looking deep into the other's eyes. "Man,I've been wantin' to meet ye for ten years! I ran across your trail inChina and got within fifty miles o' ye when the Cape to Cairo wassurveyin'. Man, I'm pleased to meet ye!"

  "I'm mighty glad to meet you, too," smiled Mr. Wallace. "I've heard alot about you, Montenay!"

  Mr. Wallace then introduced the boys and suggested that they have a talkin another room of the palace. Thanking the governor for his assistanceand kindness they followed the gendarme to another room.

  "Now, Captain," said Mr. Wallace, "we're going up the Aruwimi afterivory. We can't get a large boat here and the Governor suggested thatyou could take us up on the _Belgique_."

  "O' course I can!" exclaimed the small but famous Scotchman. "An' that'sprecisely where I'm bound for too. How'd ye guess it?"

  "Good!" cried Mr. Wallace. "When do you start up?"

  "I was meanin' to go in the mornin'," answered the other, rubbing hisstubbly chin reflectively. "We'll get your stuff out o' the _Benguela_to-morrow or ma name ain't McAllister Montenay!"

  "We'll split expenses on the _Belgique_, of course," declared theAmerican. "It's mighty good of--"

  "None o' that now, none o' that," interrupted Captain Montenay hastily."Why, man, I'd give a hundred pound for the benefeet o' your company upthe stream! Ivory, you say?"

  "Partly." Mr. Wallace answered the keen questioning look with a nod."I'm going up past the Avatiko country to the Makua and down the riverunder the French flag. I've chartered a tramp to be waiting at Loanga byNovember. Get the idea?"

  "Aye!" Montenay threw back his head in a noiseless laugh. "Man, ye're nofool! I brought down ten tusks two year gone. When I got down to StanleyPool the Afrique Concessions jumped me an' laid claim to the lot. Therank thieves! They had witnesses to swear that I got the ivory in theirland an' before I knew where I was they fined me twenty pound--_an'_ theivory! By cripes, they won't monkey twice with McAllister Montenaythough! Well, let's be movin'. It'll be vera tiresome gettin' theseblacks to work."

  As they passed a water cooler on their way out the captain paused. Theboys saw him take a bottle from his pocket and pour out a palmful ofwhite powder into a cigarette paper. This he ro
lled up and threw intohis mouth, tossing a glass of water after it.

  "Quinine," he explained, although he called it "queeneen."

  "Pretty big dose, wasn't it?" asked Mr. Wallace.

  "'Bout fifty grain," replied the other calmly, to the intenseastonishment of the boys. "Fever gets me bad down here on the coast. Bycripes, ye're a lucky beggar!" he continued as they came in sight ofJohn standing guard over their valises. "That's your man Washington?I've heard o' him. They say he's a magneeficent cook."

  "Better than that," laughed Mr. Wallace. "He'll take charge of yourblacks and get real work out of 'em. Do you mean what you said aboutgoing up the Aruwimi?"

  "Aye." Montenay nodded. "We'll talk that over later. Ye'll be wantin'yer mosquito nets, so better bring the stuff down to the _Belgique_.We'll sleep on board her to-night."

  As they had stayed at the hotel the night before, the boys had not beentroubled much by the insects. They were much more worried by thequantities of quinine that Mr. Wallace insisted on their taking. WhenBurt had protested at taking ten grains all at once his uncle hadlaughed.

  "Nonsense! I'm running this trip! Why, it's nothing unusual for men totake seventy and eighty grains out here. So put it down and shut up orI'll send you back home!"

  They found the _Belgique_ to be a small but comfortable little steamermanned by a crew of a dozen blacks and a Swiss pilot. The _Benguela_came up the river that afternoon and the smaller steamer was placedalongside her. By special arrangement with the customs people the boxesbelonging to Mr. Wallace were slung right out to the deck of _LaBelgique_. Here John was in charge of the blacks and under hisheavy-handed rule the cases were rapidly stowed away.

  Mr. Wallace and the boys got out all their personal equipment at once.The heat was intense and the boys naturally suffered from it greatly atfirst, although the two older men did not seem to mind it in the least.By the next afternoon their loading was completed and the _Belgique_headed upstream without further delay.

  Their five days' trip got the boys inured to the heat somewhat. Theynever tired of watching the tropical forest on either bank of the riverand the strange craft that plied around them. Although there were manyother steamers and State launches as well as trading companies' boats,there was no lack of dugouts and big thirty-foot canoes laden withmerchandise from the trading posts. The two explorers lay back in theircanvas chairs and recounted their experiences in strange lands, whilethe boys listened eagerly as they watched their new surroundings.

  The water-maker, as John called it, was installed the first day out. Theboys found their cook to be all that Mr. Wallace had stated and more,while Captain Montenay was so delighted that he laughingly offered Johnexorbitant wages to desert the American, but in vain. The _Belgique_made stops for wood only and after four days they arrived at themile-wide mouth of the Aruwimi River.

  On the fifth day they arrived at Yambuya, just below the great cataractswhich stopped further navigation. Here the two experienced explorersunloaded the chop-boxes, tents and other supplies and proceeded to makearrangements for hiring bearers. This was accomplished through the localchief with the aid of the government representative, who was an Italian.Indeed, the boys found that not only were Belgians and French employedall through the country, but men of every nationality, from "remittancemen" of England to Swiss and Cubans.

  After a two days' delay at Yambuya the caravan was formed. It consistedof one hundred Bantu porters under the directions of a head-chief whospoke French fairly well, as do many of the natives. Besides the portersthere were tent boys, skinners, gun-bearers and cooks to the number ofthirty. Captain Montenay spoke Bantu to some extent and all the orderswere given by him direct while the river trip was continued.

  The expedition started from the other side of the cataracts in fiveimmense dugout canoes paddled by the porters. For the white men had beenprovided a small antiquated launch with which the canoes were easilyable to keep up.

  "Well," said Mr. Wallace as they puffed away from the shore, "the realtrip's begun, boys! We'll arrive at Makupa to-morrow and then up to theMakua!"

  "Makupa?" exclaimed Captain Montenay. "Why, that's only a hundred andfifty miles up! Well, we can talk it over later. John, fill a canvastub. I feel the need o' havin' a bath."

  And Captain McAllister Montenay's bath was the first indication that theboys received of the Blind Lion.