Off to the Wilds: Being the Adventures of Two Brothers

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

  GOOD PRACTICE FOR GUNNERS.

  The day had hardly broken before Coffee and Chicory were shouting at theopening of the waggon for Boss Dick and Boss Jack to "come and 'kin alion."

  They wanted but little rousing up, and after a good souse in the purecool spring, that ran bubbling over and amongst some rocks withdelicious-looking broad-fronded ferns drooping gracefully over, theywent and rubbed their horses' muzzles, patted their arched necks, andgave each a taste of sugar--for which Shoes and Stockings regularlylooked now, and would follow their masters like dogs to obtain--theyshouldered their rifles, and followed the General to the place where thelion lay.

  Rested and refreshed, everything around looked lovely, for they were atthe head of a very fertile valley, where flowers bloomed in profusion,and the springs that rose in the sides of the mountains sent downmoisture enough to keep miles of the country round of a perpetual green.

  "Plenty game here," said Chicory, pointing to a bare, muddy spot by awater-hole.

  The General turned aside, and stooped down to look at the hundreds offootprints in the soft mud.

  "Koodoo," he said, "eland, buffalo, bok, wildebeeste, quagga, zebra,lion," and he pointed out in turn the spoor, or footprints, of thevarious beasts he named. "Yes, plenty of game here."

  As they went on, the boys noticed the abundance of the pretty littlewhidah bird, a lovely little creature, about the size of a lark, butwith a tail of such enormous length that in a breeze the power of thewind upon the tail drives the bird to take flight into shelter, so thatit shall not be blown away. Pigeons in abundance flew over their heads,and parrots of such gaudy colours that Dick felt obliged to shoot threeor four as specimens, to skin and add to their collection.

  But the lion pretty well filled the thoughts of all, and Jack wasintensely eager to see the monster that he took to himself the credit ofhaving shot.

  As they drew near the place where the adventure of the previous nighthad taken place, the verdure began to give place to brown, parched-upsedgy grass, and the boys could not help noticing how much it seemed toharmonise with the skin of the beast of prey they had slain.

  As they drew nearer there was no difficulty in finding the spot, for aparty of great, dusky, bare-necked vultures were sitting about, gazinghungrily at the dead beast, but afraid to approach on account of thesticks and branches stuck about to imitate a trap.

  They were so near now that they could make out the shape of the lionamongst the dry grass, when, apparently always upon his guard, theGeneral suddenly presented the point of his assegai. Coffee and Chicorysaid nothing, but they did the same; and Dick and Jack, fully under theimpression that the lion had come back to life, cocked their rifles andstood ready to fire.

  Just then there was a low muttering growl, a moving of the long grass asif something was passing through, and a smooth-coated lion bounded intosight, gazing at them menacingly, and lashing its sides with its tail.

  Wisely or no, the boys' rifles were at their shoulders on the instant,and they fired together as Coffee and Chicory threw their spears.

  There was a tremendous roar, a bound, a crash, and then silence, brokenonly by the clicking of the mechanism of the rifles, as the boys rapidlyreloaded them with heavy ball.

  As the smoke cleared away the General beckoned Dick and Jack to hisside, and they advanced cautiously through the grass, which they pushedaside with the assegai and the muzzles of the rifles, till they saw, ashort distance off, the handle of an assegai sticking up.

  "There him is," shouted Coffee; "my assegai!" And he seemed ready torun forward and get it, but was checked by a sign from his father.

  The young hunters raised their rifles to their shoulders, ready to fireagain, at the sight of the lion; but the staff of the assegai did noteven quiver; and, gaining confidence, the General went closer and partedthe grass, for his young companions to fire.

  The next moment he had sprung forward, and shouted and waved his spearabove his head; for there, upon its side, lay the lion, quite dead, thesecond within twenty-four hours.

  "That was your shot, Dick," said Jack.

  "No, no: yours," said Dick.

  "No; I felt as if I didn't hit it far enough forward," cried Jack. "Butwe'll soon see."

  "Ah, yah, yah! Inyami, Inyami!" shouted Coffee and Chicory; and theybegan to kick and bang the dead lion with their kiris, till their fatherstopped them, and bade one of them go and fetch Peter or Dinny to comeand help to skin.

  As it proved, there was a bullet right in the centre of the secondlion's forehead, and another in the shoulder, which ball Jack claimed,so that Dick had, as he really deserved, the honour of shooting themonster, and he gazed with no little pride at its tremendousproportions.

  But big as it was, it was a lioness, and slighter in build than thetawny monster killed upon the previous evening, to which they nowturned, looking in awe at its huge claw-armed paws, and legs one mass ofmuscle. There was something almost stupendous in the power that seemedto be condensed in its short thick neck, and broad deep shoulders, for,being one of the maneless kind every muscle of the neck, throat, andshoulders could be plainly seen.

  "Why, Jack, we should be like rats in the jaws of a cat if he took holdof us," said Dick.

  "More need to practise our shooting. Dicky, I shall always aim at theireyes."

  "I want to get back and tell father," said Dick. "Oh, look! here hecomes."

  In effect, Mr Rogers, who had heard the firing, was coming on at a fastrun, in dread lest anything should be wrong; but a smile of satisfactionappeared upon his face as he came up, and heard Dick's joyful cry,"Father, I've shot a lion."

  The skinning of the dangerous monsters was a tough job; but in theZulu's skilful hands it seemed comparatively easy, for he knew exactlywhere to divide the muscles to make the limbs give way, and how tothrust the point of his knife through various membranes; so that bybreakfast-time, with the help of Peter, both trophies were removed, andborne to the camp in triumph.

  The place being so lovely, and game being evidently abundant, Mr Rogersdecided to stay where they were for a day or two, especially as the workof making a kraal of thorns every night became an arduous task and therewas nothing to be gained by hurrying through the wonderful countrywithout stopping to examine its beauties.

  Then, too, the abundance of rich fine grass growing near the rivuletsthat came down from the mountains was invaluable for the oxen, which hadbegun to look a trifle thinner; and as the good patient beasts worked sowillingly and well, it was a pleasure to see them knee-deep in grass,placidly munching away at the rich herbage, and in company with thehorses.

  So holiday for the animals was proclaimed; Dinny, Peter, and Dirk wereordered to keep a watchful eye upon the grazing cattle, and Mr Rogersproposed a short walking, shooting, and natural-history-collectingexpedition.

  Of course it was all nonsense, but Dick vowed that Rough'un went andtold what was to be; for the dog, who had been looking at his masterswith bright, intelligent eyes, suddenly jumped upon all fours and barkedtwice, after which he trotted off to where Pompey, Caesar, and Crassuswere tied to the wheels of the waggon, put his nose to each, and barked;and in the place of a patient attack upon tormenting flies and fleas,the dogs leaped up, strained at their thongs, and barked and bayedfuriously.

  "Let them loose, boys," said Mr Rogers, to Coffee and Chicory, who ranto perform his orders, but found it hard work; for the dogs leaped atthem, twisted the thongs between and round their legs, and upset themtwice; while as soon as they were at liberty they seemed to havemutually agreed that this was one of the dog-days, and that it was theirduty to go right off mad.

  Their antics were wonderful. First they rushed off as hard as theycould tear, as if going straight back home to Mr Rogers' farm; the nextminute they were back, as if they had forgotten to kill Rough'un first,for they charged down upon him, rolling him over and over, biting,worrying, and tumbling upon him in the exuberance of their delight;while Rough'un retaliate
d by biting again, and getting such a good gripwith his teeth on Pompey's tail that this sturdy fellow dragged him foryards before Rough'un let go.

  Altogether, for a few minutes there seemed to be what Dick called adog-storm, after which they all crouched down, with open mouths,starting eyes, and quivering tongue, staring at the preparations goingon, and ready to be off.

  "Good old dogs! Old Pomp! old Caesar! What old Cras! Hi, Rough'un!"cried Jack, caressing all the dogs in turn, and patting their heads,with the effect of making them seize and pretend to worry him, seizinghis legs, jumping up, and showing their delight in a dozen ways.

  Then the ammunition had to be obtained, satchels stored with provisions,Coffee and Chicory carrying a supply for their own and their father'suse; and when the grim-looking old warrior held up a warning finger atthem and said they were not to eat the provisions, they brought a smileto his lips by running off together and pretending to devour thecontents of the bag.

  At last all was ready, and after a few words of warning to Dinny and theothers to be watchful, the little party started, Mr Rogers referring toa small compass he carried in his pocket, and taking the bearings of thetwo mountains, so as to be sure of their return.

  For though the General was with them there was always the possibility ofbeing separated; and missing the way back in the great African wilds maymean missing one's life.

  There was plenty to see. Flowers grew in abundance in the rich moistplaces; fleshy plants abounded in the sterile rocky parts; and in everyshady niche the ferns were glorious. The trees alone were enough tosatisfy any one with a love of beauty. Great candelabra-shapedeuphorbias, with wondrous thorns and lovely scarlet blossoms; hugeforest-trees that seemed to have lost their own individuality in thewreathing clusters of creeping flowering plants they bore. Everythingwas beautiful; and as they walked on in the glowing sunshine, theyseemed to have come to one of the most glorious spots of earth.

  They had not proceeded far beside one of the little rivers that camebubbling down from the mountain they were approaching before Rough'unbegan to bark.

  _Click_, _click_, went Dick's rifle.

  "Look, father, look! a crocodile!" cried Jack. "I wanted to see acrocodile."

  There was a rush, a splash, and a scurry, and Rough'un came out of thewater, looking about him and staring up at his masters, as if askingwhat they had done with the reptile he had chased.

  "It was not a crocodile, Jack, but a large water-lizard," said MrRogers.

  "Plenty of crocodiles soon," said the General, "big as three of me."

  He marked off a space of about twenty feet upon the ground, to show thelength the reptiles of which he spoke, and then roughly marked out theirshape.

  "Not here," he said; "over there." And he pointed to the north.

  "Here's another," cried Dick.

  And this time it was Pompey and Caesar who had hunted out a reptile,which hissed, and snapped, and fought vigorously for a few moments whendriven to bay, but its defiance was short lived.

  While the engagement went on, the reptile looked dragon-like in aspect,with its ruffled and inflated throat, serrated back, and writhing tail;but in a very short time the dogs had obtained the mastery, and thecreature was examined, proving to be a kind of iguana, nearly six feetin length, a great deal of which, however, was the attenuated tail.

  The cracks and rifts in the hot bare stones as they climbed higherseemed to swarm with lizards of all kinds, ready to dart into theirholes upon the approach of the dogs, while several times over the twoZulu boys came running back, beckoning to Dick and Jack to go and seesome snake basking, twisted in a knot in some sunny spot.

  Upon one of these occasions Jack was so struck by the peculiar swollen,short appearance of the little serpent that he ran back and hailed hisfather, who came up just as Coffee and Chicory were assuring Dick thatif he did what he had proposed to do, namely, taken up the short, thickserpent, he would never have gone hunting any more.

  In fact as soon as Jack had gone the serpent moved slightly, and wishinghis father to see it, and eager to stop its escape, Dick had attemptedto pick it up, when Coffee and Chicory threw themselves upon him, and ashort struggle ensued, which made Dick very angry, and he was verynearly coming to blows.

  "The boys are quite right," said Mr Rogers sharply. "Dick, you oughtto have known better. Don't you know what that thick, short serpentis?"

  "No, father," said Dick, in an injured tone.

  "Then you ought to know, my boy, for I have described it to you whentalking about the reptiles of this part of the world. What do you sayit is, Jack?"

  "I don't know, father; I'm not sure," replied Jack, glancing at Dick,and feeling that it would hurt him to profess to greater knowledge thanhis brother.

  "Nonsense! I'm sure you do know," said Mr Rogers impatiently.

  "Is it the puff-adder, father?" said Dick hesitatingly.

  "Of course it is, and you ought to have known the deadly pest. No, no,don't waste a charge upon it, and it may alarm any game. Let one of theboys kill it."

  That was soon done, for Chicory made a sign to his brother, who touchedthe puff-adder's tail and began to irritate it, making it turn andstrike viciously at the blade of his assegai.

  That was what Chicory wanted.

  The next moment his blade whished through the air, and the puff-adder'shead lay upon the ground.

  "You cannot be too careful, boys," said Mr Rogers, picking up the flatspade-shaped head, and opening the jaws with the point of his knife.

  "Look, boys," he continued, as he made the jaws gape, and then raised upa couple of keen transparent fangs that lay back upon the roof of thecreature's mouth. "Do you see? There are the hollow fangs throughwhich a drop of deadly poison is injected in the blood and causes death.Don't let's destroy life unnecessarily; but if we want food, or comeacross any poisonous or dangerous beast, I think it is sentimentality torefrain from ridding the world of such a pest."

  Dick felt very ignorant, and wished he had known better; but he couldnot help being pleased at his brother's manner; and the incident wasforgotten the next moment in one of those natural history adventures ofwhich they had all read, but had little expected to share in theirlives.

  As they had climbed higher they had found the mountain more rugged, andbroken up into deep crevices and defiles, all of which were full ofinteresting objects--flowers, plants, and foliage--such as they hadnever before seen; while in the sheltered and often intense heat,beetles and butterflies seemed to have found these rifts a perfectparadise.

  Dick had gone on first, and turning a corner he had found quite a ruggedshelf running alone the steep side of a ravine, the bottom of which wascarpeted with flowers that grew amongst the stones.

  It was a very interesting spot, but as it seemed to lead right away intothe heart of the mountain he was about to turn back and rejoin hisparty, when he caught sight of a gracefully-shaped large-eared gazelleabout fifty yards away, gazing apparently in another direction.

  He could have shot it easily, but it seemed so quiet and tame that hedid not raise his piece, though if it had attempted to run, the thoughtof the delicious roast it would make would undoubtedly have made himbring it down.

  Besides he wanted all the practice he could get with his rifle, and ashot at a running antelope or gazelle was not to be missed.

  Half wondering why it did not feed, he remained watching it, supposingthat it had heard some of the party lower down; when all at once thesun's rays seemed to glance off something glistening and bright, andstraining forward to get a better view, Dick became aware of the factthat a large serpent was twining fold after fold one over another, andas, half petrified, he watched the reptile, he suddenly saw a monstrousneck and head reared up in front of the gazelle.

  The creature seemed to be all glistening umber brown and dusky yellow,and its surface shone like burnished tortoiseshell in the glowing sun,while to the boy's eyes it seemed, from the height to which the swayinghead was raised, that the body, half
hidden from him by the herbage,must be monstrous.

  And all the time, fascinated as it were, or more probably paralysed byfear, the gazelle stood perfectly still, watching the undulations of theserpent's neck, and calmly awaiting its end.

  Dick was so interested that he forgot that he held a rifle and shot-gunin his hand. He knew that the serpent was, as it were, playing with itsprey before seizing it, feeling probably, if it thought at all, quitecertain of the trembling creature whenever it felt disposed to strike,and preparing itself for its banquet by writhing its body into a moreconvenient place.

  It was a horrible sight, and Dick waited to see the serpent seize thegazelle, wrap round it and crush its quivering body out of shape, andthen slowly swallow it, till it formed a knot somewhere in the longtapering form, and go to sleep till it was hungry again.

  "Ugh, you beast!" ejaculated Dick; and the sound of his own voice seemedto break the fascination of interest by which he had been held.

  The next instant he was pitying the gazelle, and as he saw the serpentdraw back its head he laid the barrel of his piece against a block ofstone, waited until the quivering head was still and the jaws began todistend, and then his trembling hand grew firm, and he drew the trigger.

  The puff of smoke obscured everything for the moment, and he could notstart forward or he would have gone over the precipice, so he had towait till the vapour had passed away, when, to his great disgust, hecould see nothing.

  The gazelle and serpent were both gone; so he began to load again,wishing he could take better aim, when he heard a shout, and Chicorycame running up, followed by Coffee.

  "Boss Dick shoot um? Boss Dick shoot noder lion?" cried Chicory.

  "No," said Dick; "it was a miss this time."

  "No," cried Coffee; "I see um. Look, boss, look!"

  Mr Rogers and Jack came hurrying up just then, and looking in thedirection pointed out, there was the serpent, writhing and twining inthe most horrible manner down in a narrow rift, out of which it nowglided in a blind purposeless way, writhing, whipping the herbage withits tail, and tying itself in what seemed to be impossible knots.

  "Coffee and Chick go and kill um," said the latter, letting himself downthe face of the precipice, followed by his brother; and, apparentlyquite without dread of the monster, they scrambled down over the roughstones till they came to the serpent, when, watching his opportunity,Coffee seized its tail and tried to drag it, but the creature seemed towhip him off, and Coffee uttered a yell as he was driven staggeringback.

  "Go down, Dick, and try and give the monster another shot," said MrRogers. "No, stop; I dare say the boys will finish it."

  For just then, evidently enraged at the treatment his brother hadreceived, Chicory drove his assegai through the serpent, and then againand again, the creature's struggles being blind of purpose, for its headhad been shattered by Dick's shot; while fiercely leaping up, Coffeeraised his own assegai, and holding it chopper fashion, he waited histime till the serpent's head was handy, when he hewed it off.

  The writhings now grew faint; and the General coming up, and descendingwith Mr Rogers and his sons and the dogs, which kept making rushes atthe waving form and not biting it, the serpent was dragged out fulllength and measured, Mr Rogers making seven fair paces by its side, andsetting it down at about eighteen feet in length.

  "A nice monster to meet, Master Dick," he said. "I congratulate youupon your success."

  "Have it skinned, father," exclaimed Jack eagerly. "It would be such acapital thing to have, stuffed and coiled up, at home."

  Mr Rogers glanced at the great faintly-writhing monster, with itstortoiseshell markings, and shook his head.

  "No, my boy," he said; "I must confess to too great a dislike to theserpent race to care to carry about their skins. Besides, if we aregoing on like this, killing a lion a day, we shall have only room forthe skins of our big game. Let's leave the creature here."

  They climbed up out of the ravine, and after a couple of hours' morewalking, full of interest if not of incident, they went slowly back,glad to get in the shade of the trees beneath which the waggon washalted, and finding everything right.