Harry Milvaine; Or, The Wanderings of a Wayward Boy

by Gordon Stables

again.

  And your great "good-natured" crocodile is very playful now, and goesaway swishing through the water to tell all the other crocodiles howvery happy he feels, because he has a little boy in his stomach.

  They came, at length, to a range of rugged hills which it took them awhole day to get across. They encamped at night in a dreary glen, andhad to keep a great fire burning until the sun rose over the mountains,for this glen seemed to be the home _par excellence_ of the lions.These monsters, many of which they saw, were the largest they had yetfallen in with.

  They were evidently filled with resentment at the daring invasion oftheir territory, and made not only night hideous with their threateningand growling, but sleep quite impossible.

  Harry was glad enough to continue the journey next day as early aspossible, but they had not got far before a terrible thunderstorm madeall pedal progression quite impossible for the time being. It was wellthey were pretty high up among the hills, for with the thunder andlightning came a wind of hurricane force; they could hear the greattrees smashing in the forest beneath them, and noticed scores of wildbeasts seeking sheltered corners in which to hide till the violence ofthe storm should abate.

  Another night in this mountain forest; another night among the wildbeasts.

  Next day was bright and fine, but not for hours after did the sunappear, owing to the mists that were rising all over the land.

  On the evening of that same day they came to the margin of what appearedat first to be a broad rolling river. There were a few native canoes onit.

  One immensely large dug-out was soon observed coming towards them, so itwas evident they were already seen. In the stern sheets, when it camenear enough, Harry could descry a single figure sitting under the broadcanopy of an umbrella.

  No one else in the boat, and the figure astern not moving a muscle!

  "How is it done?" said Harry to himself. "It is a mystery. Can thesesavages have invented electricity as a motor power?"

  Nearer and nearer came the boat, but the mystery was as far from beingexplained as ever.

  The individual who sat in the boat was a portly negro, very black, verycomely and jolly-looking. He was dressed from the shoulders to theknees in a loose blue robe of cotton cloth. This appeared to be simplyrolled round the loins and then carried over the shoulder. On his headhe wore a skin hat with the hairy side out and a long tail hanging downbehind it. Round his neck was a string of lions' tusks, in his earsimmense copper rings, in one hand a broad-bladed spear, and in the othera long shield of hide studded with copper nails.

  The umbrella was a fixture behind him.

  While Harry and his companions were still gazing at this singular beingwith a good deal of curiosity, not unmixed with apprehension, the prowof the boat touched land, and immediately the motor power was explained.This was, after all, only a big hulking negro who had been wadingbehind and pushing with his head. He had not come here unguarded,however. For dozens of armed canoes now made an appearance, and took upa position in two rows, one at each side of what was undoubtedly theroyal barge.

  The king stepped boldly on shore, and nodded and smiled to Harry in themost friendly way.

  "Good morning," said Harry, nodding and smiling in turn; "fine day,isn't it?"

  Of course the king could not reply, but leaning on his spear he walkedthree times round Harry and his companions, then three times round Harryalone. It was pretty evident he had never seen a white man before.

  Then he touched Harry's clothes, and felt all along them as one smoothesa dog. Then he said:

  "Lobo! Lobo!" [Strange, or wonderful.]

  He next proceeded to an examination of Harry's face. He wetted the endof his blue robe in the lake and tried to rub the bloom off Harry'scheeks.

  "I don't paint," Harry said, quietly.

  "Lobo!" said the king again.

  Harry's buttons now fixed the king's attention.

  He pulled the jacket towards him and tried to cut one off with the endof his spear.

  Then Harry smacked his fingers for him, and the king started back with afierce look in his eye.

  "Lobo! Lobo!" he cried, excitedly.

  "Keep your fingers to yourself, then," said Harry.

  But thinking he had gone too far, he immediately cut two buttons off andpresented them to this queer king.

  His majesty was all smiles again in a moment. He intimated his pleasureand gratitude in a neat little speech that Harry could make neither headnor tail of, but was glad to find that little Raggy could translate iteven more freely than Somali Jack.

  For from somewhere near these regions Raggy had originally come. So hetold Harry; he also said, "I 'spect I has a mudder livin' hereaboutssome-wheres."

  "Would you know her, Raggy, if you saw her?"

  "I not know her from any oder black lady," replied Raggy, grandly;"'sides," he added, "dis chile Raggy hab no wish to renew de'quaintance."

  The warriors in the king's canoes sat as motionless as if they had beenmade out of wood, and then tarred over and glued to their seats. Theylooked friendly, but it was quite evident they would take their cue fromhis majesty, and were just as ready to drown Harry in the lake as togive him a welcome.

  "Peace at any price is the best policy in this case," said Harry. "Eh,Raggy, what say you?"

  "Suppose massa want to fight, den Raggy fight; suppose we fight, deygobble us all up plenty quick; suppose we not fight, den dey make muchof us and give us curry and chicken."

  "All right, Raggy, we'll go in for the curried chicken. Tell this sableking that we have come a long long way to see him, and to give him somepresents, and that we then want to pass through his country and go onour way in peace."

  All this Raggy duly translated, and Harry strongly suspected that headded a little bit of his own to it. But this is a liberty thatinterpreters very often take.

  The king was laughing. The king was pleased. He pointed to the boatand led the way towards it and without a moment's hesitation Harrystepped on board, and in another minute they were all away out in theopen lake.

  Book 3--CHAPTER SEVEN.

  AMAZONS--THE LAKE OF THE HUNDRED ISLES--THE FEAST OF FLOWERS.

  When the king's barge left the shore, shoved slowly along by the head ofthe big hulking negro, Harry, of course, had not the faintest notionwhence he was being taken.

  Perhaps he was just a trifle reckless. He was so at most times, but inthis case I imagine he was in the right. For the worst thing one can doon meeting strange savages is to show mistrust or fear of them. If youmistrust them, they at once suspect you, and the consequences maysometimes be anything but pleasant.

  It was not long before our hero found out that it was indeed a lake, andnot a broad river, on which he was embarked, and that it was studdedwith about a hundred islands, over all of which this black host oftheirs was evidently the potentate.

  He landed on one of the largest of them, and on a kind of rude pierwhere nearly a hundred armed amazons were drawn up to receive their lordand his guests.

  Harry afterwards found out that he kept ten amazons for every island,but they all lived near the royal residence, and were his especialbody-guard. Fierce-looking, stalwart hussies they were, with knives intheir girdles, spears in their hands, and leather-covered shields, thatwere nearly as big and wide as barn doors.

  Over these shields they grinned and glared in a way that was reallyhideous. They rolled their eyes round and round incessantly, as if theyhad been moved like clock-work. Perhaps, thought Harry, they go in foreye-drill in this queer country. The reason of this optical movement,he was afterwards told, was to prove to the king that danger could cometo him from no direction without their seeing it.

  These amazons were dressed in sacks of cocoa-cloth, and wore tippets ofskins not unlike those of your dandy coachmen in Hyde Park. From theirlegs and arms, behind and below, feathers stuck out, and as head-dressestheir own hair was done up into an immense dome, which stood straight upand was adorned with the f
eathers of the red ibis.

  All this Harry took in at a glance as he walked on behind the king,through an avenue of most splendid trees, towards his palace.

  I must dismiss the palace with a single sentence. It was not unlike ahaycock of immense size, with a door in the side, or like the half of acocoanut turned upside down. It was in an enclosure, in the very middleof the island, and near it were the huts of the king's amazons, thewhole being defended by a strong palisade of roughly hewn wood.

  The huts of his other warriors--and every one appeared to be a warriorin this island--were outside the fort and different in shape andappearance. They were, if anything, more elaborately built, and hadverandahs supporting their roofs, which only proved that his majesty wasa man of simple tastes, and preferred looking after the well-being ofhis subjects rather than his own.

  One of the largest tents in the enclosure was set aside for Harry andhis