CHAPTER XVII
THE "ROGUE" ELEPHANT
In the meantime Billy and Lathrop, having been introduced to thechief, were making themselves very much at home in the village orcliff colony of the Flying Men. The morning after the day of theirarrival a hunting expedition was organized by their new-found friendand in company with a dozen or more of the Flying Men, and theordinary natives, who seemed to occupy the position of inferiors totheir winged masters, the expedition set out.
They crossed the fields and garden patches that the boys hadobserved the evening before and, after traversing a few miles ofswampy ground overgrown with a tough yellow grass, they plunged intoa forest of mahogany and silk cotton trees.
It was while crossing the expanse of yellow grass at Billy performeda feat that caused all of them to hold him as a mighty hunter. Theyhad been pushing their way along a narrow trail with the tops of thevegetation waving a good three feet above their heads, when therewas a sudden grunt heard ahead and the noise of great rushingthrough the wiry grass.
"Big pig," announced the boys' friend as the others got their spearsready to cast. Billy and Lathrop in their eagerness plunged onahead of the others--Lathrop with a small spear and hisrevolver--which by the way was useless, he having expended all hiscartridges--and Billy with the Arab rifle. Suddenly from dead aheadof the two boys there was a savage squeal and, before either of themrealized what had happened, a boar with gleaming white tusks andbristly hair rushed out of the tangle and squarely charged them.
Lathrop went down before his furious onslaught and in his fallcarried Billy to the ground with him. In another moment both boyswould have been badly gored, perhaps killed, had not the reporter,in the very instant that the boar with wickedly gleaming little redeyes turned to attack Lathrop with his fierce tusks, raised himselfon one arm and fired. The bullet struck their assailant full in theear and penetrated the brain. With a surprised squeal he turned andran a few feet and then dropped dead. The rest of the hunting partcame up at this moment and Billy received warm congratulations--which,as he did not understand, meant as much as most of such felicitations.
It was not long after this incident that the plunge into the cooldarkness of the forest began. The men went warily--as if expectingto be attacked at any moment--and the boys, on inquiring of theirguide the reason for this caution, only received the reply thatelephant tracks had been seen and that as a "rogue" elephant hadlately been doing great damage to the crops of the cliff-dwellersthey were anxious to kill him if possible.
A rogue elephant is one that has become estranged from the rest ofhis kind by reason of his fierce intractability. He is in fact whatin the west is described, in speaking of a horse, as "loco" orcrazy. Such animals--they are generally males--are extremelydangerous to hunt and are generally given a wide berth. They aremischievous in the extreme, moreover, and do great damage, seeminglywantonly, to any crops or garden patches that they may find in theirneighborhood. Usually the natives are too terrified to offer anyresistance and placidly allow the animal to devastate to the bent ofhis will. The cliff dwellers, however, had suffered so much fromthe depredations of this particular animal that they were determinedto drive him out of their neighborhood, and that was the realpurpose of the hunting party.
"Well, it looks as if we are in for a good exciting morning of it,"remarked Billy as they trudged along beneath trees that shot up tounknown heights with great rope-like creepers dangling from theirupper branches, looking like ladders leading up into "Jack in theBeanstalk-land." Occasionally a patch of blue could be sightedthrough the tree-tops, but for the most part the hunters progressedalong the floor of the forest under a regular roof of greenery.There was plenty of life in this tipper story of the earth jungle.Troops of monkeys with chattering and gesticulations swung frombough to bough and looked in wonder on the invaders of their realmand then, taking imaginary fright, galloped off through thetree-tops in panic, only to stop a little distance further on andthrow down fruit or bits of stick at the men below them. Gorgeousbirds, too, flitted about like jewels seen in a setting of greenvelvet, while underfoot there was no lack of life either. Strangeinsects, shaped like sticks or leaves or even bits of moss,attracted the attention of the alert boys although they passed overhundreds of such nature mimics unnoticed, owing to the perfection oftheir mimicry.
At last the leader of the party called a halt and they sat down toeat some of the cassava and manioc cakes they had brought with them.The meal was washed down with a sour drink--something likebuttermilk--contained in a huge earthen jar that one of the inferiortribe carried. They were in the midst of it when one of the hunterssprang to his feet with a guttural exclamation.
"Arjah!" he exclaimed and, though the boys did not understand histongue, his attitude of alert attention signified that he said"Listen" as clearly as if he had used the word.
In an instant all of the party were on their feet and listeningkeenly. After a few seconds of strained attention the boys becameaware of a sort of dull pounding sound which seemed to come fromsome distance. It sounded almost like the regular beat of a largedrum. The air seemed to vibrate with it.
He leader of the party spoke a few words rapidly to the others andthey all joined in a responsive shout which seemed to be one ofassent to some proposition that had been made by him.
"He say elephant dance," said Umbashi; "him very dangerous whendance. He ask them they willing to go on. They all say yes."
Lathrop looked alarmed.
"Say, Billy," he whispered as they moved forward, "I don't mind alittle danger, but going up against an elephant with a few tinspears looks to me like being little above the limit."
"Cheer up," replied the irrepressible reporter, "we've got to go onnow. It would never do for us to show the white feather at thisstage of the game. The tribe would regard us as miserable cowardsand perhaps even put us to death."
So with faces that one at least of them had some difficulty torender' expressive of calm repose the two American boys marchedalong with the others. As they advanced the drumming grew louderand they could feel the earth shake as the ponderous beast thatcaused it went through his strange exercise.
The leader worked round till the party was advancing against thewind, as elephants have a keen scent, and had they traveled alongdown the wind he would have been sure to have taken alarm and dashedoff only to return and do more damage later on. In this way theparty was enabled to work up to within a few yards of the greatbeast without his having any warning of their approach. It was astrange sight they beheld as they stood on the edge of the littleclearing where the great beast was going through his dance. Withhis trunk curled high above his great head the big pachyderm wassolemnly twirling round and round in a sort of slow waltz and everytime he brought a foot down it was with a crash that shook theforest about him. He was a ferocious looking brute, with a wickedgleam in his small eye that boded ill for anyone who should happento get in his path. One of his tusks was broken off short,doubtless in some fight with another of his kind, and his body wasplowed with scars and cuts--the relics of former battles.Altogether he was as wicked and menacing a looking brute as the boyshad ever seen.
Suddenly he sighted the attacking party. The dance instantlystopped and he stood stock-still for an instant gazing at them whilethey promptly made for the trees and clambered up them by means ofthe lanyards of creepers that swung down from the tops.
Billy and Lathrop, however, were too much astonished by the suddenturn events had taken to follow the example of the savages and sostood gazing awestricken at the elephant while he gazed at them inapparent amazement at two boys having the temerity to face him inhis native forest.
The situation was not to last long, however. Their guide, with therest of the party, had hastily clambered into the trees and now hecalled to the boys loudly:
"Climb! climb!"
But the churns were too late.
As they turned to obey his instructions the great brute charged witha furious tru
mpet.
His first onslaught the boys avoided by slipping behind a tree, morefrom instinct than anything else. The impetus of the maddenedanimal's charge carried him by the tree and before he could stophimself and turn his ponderous body for a fresh attack he had gonesome yards beyond the boys.
Bellowing with fury the huge creature made ready for a fresh charge,but by this time Billy and Lathrop had seized the creepers and wereboth several feet above the ground. In his haste, however, Billy'sluckless rifle twisted between his legs and almost caused adisaster. For a second he hung helpless, trying to kick the weaponfree. But it hung by its leather shoulder band and he was unable todo so instantly.
The boy, with a despairing cry, gazed at the onrushing elephant andcould almost feel himself being seized by its mighty trunk anddashed to death, when a pair of strong, black arms seized him anddragged him up to a place of safety. The man who had taken thisrisk was their friend Umbashi, and as Billy thanked him he felt afeeling of real respect for this half naked savage who had riskedhis life to save another's.
After two or three more charges the animal seemed to get tired ofthis method of attack and stood beneath the tree shaking with rage,very much like a bull that has driven a boy to refuge in anapple-tree. It was evident that it was time to either kill thebrute or drive him off unless the party desired to spend anunlimited time in the trees.
"The fire-weapon," shouted Billy's friend, "use the fire-weapon."
Billy raised the long Arab weapon and fired. The bullet struck theelephant on the right ear with no more effect than to further angerhim.
"Aim between the eyes," cried the savage.
Billy felt for a fresh cartridge and made a discovery.
In scrambling up the tree he had ripped off the skin bag and hisstore of Arab cartridges, none too many, lay on the ground at thefoot of the tree. When this intelligence was communicated to thetribesmen clinging in the other trees they held a shoutedconsultation the result of which was that, to the boys' amazement,one of them deliberately dropped to the ground and attracting theelephant's attention began to run him in circles. Now as the mancould run fast and from time to time another took his place and theelephant had to use a lot of effort in turning corners, it soonbecame evident that the big pachyderm was tiring of the exercise.
It was evidently the intention of the natives to run him out andthen spear him to death--but an unexpected happening put an end tothis method of elephant hunting. One of the men who was worryingthe great animal, much after the manner of a bull-fighter, suddenlycaught his foot on a root and fell headlong. A shout went up as theothers realized that he was doomed to almost certain death. Billyand Lathrop averted their eyes. It was terrible to have to sitthere powerless and watch the sacrifice.
But even as they listened with sickened ears for the death-cry ofthe unfortunate victim and whilst the elephant's trumpet of triumphwas still resounding, one of the flying men dropped, knife in hand,from his tree on to the monster's back.
He landed right behind the great creature's ears and as the animalthrew back his trunk to whisk him off and annihilate him be plungedhis weapon through the soft folds of skin at the base of the hugeskull clear down into the brain.
It was a mortal wound.
As the elephant stopped short in his charge and began to stagger inhis death throes the Flying Man slipped to the ground and picked uphis comrade, who had swooned from terror.
Ten minutes later the great rogue elephant was beyond all furthermischief and the boys joined as heartily as any of the others incongratulating the brave man whose unparalleled feat of heroism hadsaved his comrade's life.
The man's name was Aga, and the boys had reason later on to rememberhim for another deed which affected them even more nearly than theslaying of the elephant.
Boy Aviators in Africa; Or, an Aerial Ivory Trail Page 17