‘Speaking of enemies, where’s that snake?’
Joro pointed out a nest close to the tree-trunk. ‘It lives there. Killed the bird and stole its nest.’
Joro prodded the nest with the noosing pole he had brought from camp. With a hissing sound a head popped out, then another. They seemed to be competing with each other to see which could hiss more loudly. The heads were followed by five feet of handsome and colourful body. Even with one head, the snake would have attracted attention in any zoo.
‘A boomslang!’ Hal exclaimed.
‘A what slang?’
‘Boomslang. Funny name, but it just means tree snake.’
‘Is it poisonous?’
The Africans say yes. The naturalists who have tested it in the laboratories say no.’
‘Perhaps one head is poisonous and the other isn’t,’ joked Roger. ‘Is that possible?’
‘Anything is possible in this strange world. Of course there’s a way you can find out. Let both heads bite you and see what happens.’
‘Thank you,’ Roger said. ‘After what happened yesterday, I’m steering clear of snake poison for a while.’
‘Give it another poke, Joro,’ Hal said. ‘Perhaps it will put on its special act.’
The result was a surprise even to Hal. The poke had a different effect upon the two heads. One head didn’t notice it because its eyes were fixed upon a bird. The other head was watching the men. Seeing the stick coming and feeling it, the annoyed brain telegraphed its neck muscles and the neck swelled until it looked like a toy balloon.
‘Just like the puffer fish,’ Roger said. In his underwater work he had seen this harmless-looking fish blow itself up to ten times its usual size when it wanted to frighten away its enemies. But here were two brains quite independent of each other. One was angry and the other was only interested in dinner.
The hungry head darted at the bird, caught it, and swallowed it. One could see the bulge going down the neck and into the stomach. There the food would be digested and would feed both brains.
Roger wished he had two heads. Then one could work and the other play. Or one could keep watch when they were on safari, and the other sleep. One could mind Dad and the other could do as it pleased. A pretty neat arrangement.
But it might be inconvenient at times. Suppose one wanted to go fishing and the other wanted to stay at home and read. Suppose one liked water skiing and the other preferred to climb a mountain. With such different ideas, there was a good chance that he would tear himself apart.
‘You’d think the two heads would agree since they are Siamese twins,’ he said.
‘It doesn’t work that way,’ Hal said. ‘Human twins don’t think alike. One may be jolly and lighthearted, and the other may be as sour as a pickle. One may be very clever and the other stupid. It’s the same way in snakedom. In San Diego one head of the king snake became very tame while the other head would try to attack the keeper every time he came near.’
The boomslang wormed one head deep into a nest and came out with a bird in its teeth. Its brother head seized the other end of the bird and the two began a tug-of-war. It looked as if their victim would be torn apart in the middle. But finally the bird managed to free itself and flew away, squawking loudly.
Each head seemed to blame the other for what had happened. The air from the lungs inflated the two windpipes until they became the size of footballs. The two heads faced each other, mouths open, tongues darting in and out. Each head tried to bite the other, but the angry footballs were in the way.
‘Snakes don’t have a very highly developed brain,’ Hal said. ‘It doesn’t occur to these quarrelsome heads that they can’t bite each other unless they first let the air out of their balloons. So as long as their anger lasts they are protected against each other. But watchâone of them is giving up. It’s trying to get away. Its balloon is going down because it’s no longer angry, but just frightened.’
The tough-minded head had now got its teeth into the timid head.
Hal couldn’t stand by and see this beautiful specimen mangle itself. ‘It’s time we put a stop to this. Joro, give me the pole.’
At the far end of the pole was a loop and the rope ran down the pole to Hal’s hands. If he could get the loop over the snake’s heads he could draw the rope tight and bring down the snake.
The first attempt was not too successful. The noose caught one head only. Hal tried to pull the snake from the branch but the free head bit into the bark and held on.
‘Pull harder,’ said Roger. ‘Let me try.’
‘No, we must not pull any harder. See that webbing just where the two necks join? That’s the tenderest part of the snake. Every time the two heads try to move in different directions, there’s a strain on that webbing. That’s the reason most two-headed snakes don’t live long. When the two brains get different ideas about where they want to go, there’s a severe strain on that point. I’ve got to get the noose over both heads.’
Now both of the serpent’s brains had one ideaâto escape. Hal removed the loop and the snake slithered away along the branch. Hal pursued it, placed the loop before it, and both heads went through it before they realized what was happening. The noose was drawn tight.
Now that there was no danger of pulling the body apart, both boys laid hold of the pole and a good strong tug brought down the snake.
They returned to camp, the pole over Hal’s shoulder with the snake dangling from the tight-loop and tying itself into knots, its two neck-pouches stretched to their greatest size.
It was placed in a cage on a catching car. It was thrashing about in a fury of excitement. Each head tried a different way of escape and there was serious danger that the prize would be ripped down the middle.
‘I’ll put a stop to that,’ Hal said.
From a roll of adhesive tape he tore off a length of two or three feet. He opened the cage just far enough to admit his hand. A lunge of a head, and the hand was bitten. Now Hal would learn for himself whether or not a boomslang was poisonous.
He didn’t stop to find out. He gripped the snake just below its balloons and quickly bound the tape around the body where the two necks joined. Then he withdraw his hand and closed the cage.
‘Now it can’t tear itself in two.’
‘But why did you use elastic tape?’
‘So it can still swallow birds, rats, mice, or whatever we feed it. But the elastic won’t stretch enough to allow any strain on the webbing.’
Roger looked at Hal’s bleeding hand. ‘It’s nothing,’ Hal said.
But just to make sure, Roger insisted upon washing the hand, applying antiseptic, and a bandage.
‘Listen,’ Hal said. ‘What’s all that screaming?’
‘Seems to be coming from our room,’ Roger said.
They ran to the cabin. They flung open the door just in time to see Andre’ Tieg give Sam the chimp a vicious kick in the stomach. The whole menagerie was going wild. The chimp, the colobus, the bush-baby, the elephant shrew, the large gorilla, and the two small ones all were screaming, roaring, whistling, or beating the floor. Even Snow White, the python, was hissing with a sound like escaping steam.
‘What are you doing here?’ Hal demanded.
Tieg turned to face him. He drew himself up. His yellow moustache flared and his glass eye glared.
‘Mind how you speak to me,’ he said. ‘Someone had t6 look after the animals while you were fooling away your time catching snakes.’
They don’t sound as if they like the way you were taking care of them. Why did you kick that chimp?’
‘That’s the only way to deal with animals. Punish them when they don’t behave.’
‘How did he misbehave?’
‘The colobus bit me. When I tried to slap him down, the chimp got in my way.’
Hal remembered how they had named the chimp the Good Samaritan, Sam for short, because he had rescued the colobus on the slopes of the volcano. Here again the good-hearted Samaritan had p
rotected the monkey.
But the chimp was in no gentle mood now. Still screaming, he suddenly attacked Tieg from the rear and Hal had to pull him off. He got no thanks from Tieg.
‘Let me deal with him,’ Tieg demanded. Til teach him what’s what.’
‘Be careful. He might teach you.’
‘That shrimp? Don’t be ridiculous. I could twist him around my little finger.’
‘Do you want to try?’
‘Any time.’
‘How about right now?’
‘You’re inviting trouble,’ Tieg warned him. ‘Your precious chimp is going to get killed.’
‘Well take a chance on that. Come outside.’
Sam, still screaming, did his best to lay hold of his enemy but Hal kept him out of reach. ‘You’ll get your innings pretty soon, little fellow,’ he said.
Chapter 22
Tieg tumbles
The hooting and screaming of the angry chimp could have been heard a mile away. Hie men had come to see what was the matter. They were waiting as Hal and the others came out of the cabin.
‘Gather round, boys,’ Tieg said. ‘You’re going to see some fun.’ He was happy to have an audience.
Hal let Sam go. The chimp and the man who had kicked him faced each other.
They did not look well matched. The contrast between them made Tieg laugh. He stood well over six feet. Sam’s head was on a level with his belt. The man weighed about two hundred and fifty pounds, the ape, ninety-five.
‘Tieg will murder him,’ worried Roger.
Hal didn’t worry. He knew that most of the chimp’s weight was concentrated in his arms and chest. Even as Sam stood erect, his great hairy arms reached nearly to the ground.
Tieg swung his heavily booted right foot. This time the chimp didn’t wait for it. He dived over it and his hard skull came ploughing into Tieg’s midriff with the force of a pile-driver. Tieg grunted, and because one foot was still in the air, he lost his balance and fell over backwards.
The chimp danced about him, screaming with rage, face distorted, eyes savage, fingernails making a sound like electric sparking as they ripped across the coarse hairs on his arms, the typical gesture of a furious chimpanzee. But he allowed Tieg to get up before he struck again.
Tieg’s foot swung again but Sam was too fast for him. The chimp leaped straight up six feet in the air and landed his foot on Tieg’s jaw. He was down in time to seize the man’s swinging foot and tumble him again to the ground. Half-way up, Tieg felt the animal’s long canine teeth sink into his leg. At title same time the powerful hands seized his proud moustache and tore half of it out by the roots.
Tieg, again on the ground, felt something hard and cold under his hand. It was an iron bar from a cage door. He leaped to his feet and brought the bar down with full force on the chimp’s head - or where the head had been. The bar struck the ground. The chimp seized it with his huge hands, tore it away from Tieg, and bent it so that the muscles of his upper arms swelled to great balls. He twisted the bar into a ring and threw it away.
Then Sam began to undress Tieg. He ripped his shirt into rags and tore at his shorts with his two hands while his feet pounded the big fellow’s sides. He seemed to fight as well upside-down as right side up.
He got Tieg down again and rolled him around like a log. Tieg wound up on his stomach with the ape jumping up and down on his back.
‘Call off this devil,’ Tieg pleaded.
Hal spoke quietly to the chimp. At the sound of his voice the animal stopped his frenzied dance, came to Hal, and took his hand. He looked up at Hal questioningly as if to say, ‘Was it all right?’
‘It was all right,’ Hal said. ‘He won’t bother you again.’
Roger was surprised. ‘What a quick change,’ he said. ‘He’s as gentle as a lamb now.’
Tieg was sitting up, examining his leg where the great canines had made bloody holes. Sam let go Hal’s hand and stooped beside the injured leg. He showed every sign of distress and sympathy. He was again the Good Samaritan.
Several times he had carefully observed Hal washing a
wound. Now he could make use of what he had learned. He looked around for a rag. His eyes lit on Tieg’s torn shirt. He ripped off a piece, ran to the lake, came back with the cloth dripping wet and gently bathed the bloody leg. Then he allowed Hal to sterilize the wound and apply a bandage.
‘A very forgiving ape,’ Roger said.
‘It’s not unusual,’ said Hal. ‘Chimps are like that. A full-grown chimp is subject to violent fits of temper. But they forget their tantrums just as suddenly and their usual sunny nature comes through.’
Roger picked up the iron ring. He got blue in the face trying to straighten it out. ‘I never would have believed a chimp could be so strong.’
‘Ever hear of Noell’s boxing chimp?’ Roger shook his head. ‘A showman named Noell,’ Hal went on, ‘took an exhibition called Noell’s Ark all over America playing at fairs and carnivals. The big feature of the show was a boxing match. His chimpanzee named Joe would box and wrestle all comers and Noell offered five dollars to anyone who could get the chimp down and keep one of his shoulders on the floor for one second. Famous boxers and wrestlers tried it but in four hundred tries not one man succeeded. Noell never had to pay out the five bucks. Which reminds me of another show featuring a six-year-old male chimp called Peter. He was as smart as he was strong. He could go through fifty-six acts in correct order without one word from his trainer. He walked out on the stage, bowed to the audience, took off his cap, sat down and ate a meal with knife and fork, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, powdered his face, gave the waiter a tip, went through a lot of other tricks, and wound up riding a bicycle furiously around the stage while drinking a glass of water and waving a flag. Then he dismounted, bowed to the audience, clapped his hands, and walked out.’
Mali came to say that three monkeys had just been taken. ‘Shall we keep them?’
Hal and Roger went to see them. ‘Vervets,’ Hal said. The wiry little creatures were chasing each other gaily around the cage.
‘One thing I don’t understand,’ Roger said. ‘The gorilla and the chimp - you call them apes. You call these monkeys. What’s the difference between a monkey and an ape?’
‘Difference in the way they’re put together,’ Hal said. ‘The ape’s brain is more complex.’
‘You mean he’s smarter?’
‘Right.’
‘But these monkeys look just as smart to me. They’re even livelier than Sam and Lady Luck.’
‘Well, suppose we test them,’ Hal suggested. ‘Mali, bring me some empty bottles - and a bag of peanuts.’
He selected three bottles with small necks and poured some peanuts into each. He set them inside the cage.
At once each vervet scrambled down and plunged a hand into a bottle. It clutched a handful of the nuts. But then it could not withdraw the hand. And it was not willing to drop the nuts so that the hand could be drawn out.
It was too much of a puzzle for the monkeys to solve. Chattering helplessly, they looked quite ridiculous dangling bottles from their closed hands.
‘Now let’s try the chimp.’ Sam was presented with a bottle with a neck large enough so that he could get his hand in, but, once full of nuts, it could not be withdrawn. When he failed to remove his fist he did not chatter and dance about, waving his bottle. He sat still and did some serious thinking.
Having considered the matter, he let go of the nuts and took out his hand. Then he tipped the jar upside down, poured out the nuts, and proceeded to eat them.
That’s what a few more convolutions in the brain will
do,’ Hal said. ‘Now the gorilla. We’ll give her a slightly harder test.’
Lady Luck, looking in between the bars, studied the three monkeys still struggling to get their full fists out of the bottles. She was a sympathetic soul. She had already mothered the two baby gorillas. She wanted to help these simple-minded vervets but must reason out a way to do
it.
Finally she climbed into the supply truck and came out with a banana. She inserted it between the bars and laid it on the floor of the cage.
The monkeys stopped their chattering and prancing and looked at the fruit. To their taste, a banana was much more to be desired than nuts. Their fists relaxed, the nuts fell out, they pulled out their hands and made a dive for the banana.
‘Good old Lady Luck,’ Roger exclaimed. ‘She really figured it out, didn’t she?’
‘That’s it,’ Hal said. ‘Figuring it out - that’s the main difference between monkey and ape. Don’t get the idea that the monkey isn’t smart. But when it comes to real thinking, the ape’s brain is just a bigger and better computer.’
Chapter 23
Diamonds
There was a commotion at the edge of the forest. Then Joro and some of the men came out with two prisoners.
They were white men. They carried guns. They were brought face to face with Hal and Roger.
‘I think they were after gorillas,’ Joro said.
The unwilling visitors were very angry. ‘Take your hands off,’ one of them demanded. ‘Let us speak to the boss of this outfit’
The boss stands before you,’ Joro said.
The man looked scornfully at Hal. ‘What, this boy?’
If Hal was offended he did not show it. ‘Let go of them,’ he said.
The blacks released their prisoners but stood ready to seize them again if they should try to escape.
Hal looked at their guns. ‘Do you have a hunting licence?’
‘What business is it of yours?’
‘I’m a sort of deputy sheriff for this area. Let me see your licence. You are hunting, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, we’re hunting. But we’re not hunting animals?
‘What else is there to hunt?’
‘Diamonds.’
‘Diamonds! Do you hunt diamonds with guns?’
‘The guns are just for protection. Now, young man, who the devil are you?’
‘My name is Hunt - Hal Hunt. This is my brother, Roger.’
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