CHAPTER XIX
A HEAVY LOSS
"Bless my battle axe, but this is awful!" cried Mr. Damon.
"War is always a fearful thing," spoke Mr. Nestor. "But this is not asbad as if the natives fought with modern weapons. See! most of themare fighting with clubs, and their fists. They don't seem to hurt eachother very much."
"That's so," agreed Mr. Damon. The two gentlemen were in the maincabin, looking down on the fight below them, while Tom, with Ned tohelp him change the reels of films, as they became filled withpictures, attended to the camera. Koku was steering the craft, as hehad readily learned how to manage it.
"Are those Englishmen taking pictures yet?" asked Tom, too busy to turnhis head, and look for himself.
"Yes, they're still at," replied Ned. "But they seem to be havingtrouble with their machine," he added as he saw one of the men leavethe apparatus, and run hurriedly back to where they had made atemporary camp.
"I guess it's an old-fashioned kind," commented Tom. "Say, this isgetting fierce!" he cried, as the natives got in closer contact witheach other. It was now a hand-to-hand battle.
"I should say so!" yelled Ned. "It's a wonder those Englishmen aren'tafraid to be down on the same level with the black fighters."
"Oh, a white person is considered almost sacred by the natives here, sothe missionaries told me," said Tom. "A black man would never think ofraising his hand to one, and the Englishmen probably know this. They'resafe enough. In fact I'm thinking of soon going down myself, andgetting some views from the ground."
"Bless my gizzard, Tom!" cried Mr. Damon. "Don't do it!"
"Yes, I think I will. Why, it's safe enough. Besides, if they attack uswe have the electric rifles. Ned, you tell Koku to get the guns out, tohave in readiness, and then you put the ship down. I'll take a chance."
"Jove! You've been doing nothing but take chances since we came on thistrip!" exclaimed Ned, admiringly. "All right! Here we go," and he wentto relieve Koku at the wheel, while the giant, grinning cheerfully atthe prospect of taking part in the fight himself, got out the rifles,including his own.
Meanwhile the native battle went on fiercely. Many on both sides fell,and not a few ran away, when they got the chance, their companionsyelling at them, evidently trying to shame them into coming back.
As the airship landed, Mr. Damon, Mr. Nestor, Ned and Koku stood readywith the deadly electric rifles, in case an attack should be made onthem. But the fighting natives paid no more attention to our friendsthan they did to the two Englishmen. The latter moved their clumsycamera from place to place, in order to get various views of thefighting.
"This is the best yet!" cried Tom, as, after a lull in the fight, whenthe two opposing armies had drawn a little apart, they came togetheragain more desperately than before. "I hope the pictures are beingrecorded all right. I have to go at this thing pretty much in the dark.Say, look at the beggars fight!" he finished.
But a battle, even between uncivilized blacks, cannot go on for verylong at a time. Many had fallen, some being quite severely injured itseemed, being carried off by their friends. Then, with a sudden rush,the side which, as our friends learned later, had been robbed of theircattle, made a fierce attack, overwhelming their enemies, andcompelling them to retreat. Across the open plain the vanquished armyfled, with the others after them. Tom, meanwhile, taking pictures asfast as he could.
"This ends it!" he remarked to Ned, when the warriors were too far awayto make any more good views. "Now we can take a rest."
"The Englishmen gave up some time ago," said his chum, motioning to thetwo men who were taking their machine off the tripod.
"Guess their films gave out," spoke Tom. "Well, you see it didn't doany harm to come down, and I got some better views here."
"Here they come back!" exclaimed Ned, as a horde of the black fellowsemerged from the jungle, and came on over the plain.
"Hear 'em sing!" commented Tom, as the sound of a rude chant came totheir ears. "They must be the winners all right."
"I guess so," agreed Ned. "But what about staying here now? Maybe theywon't be so friendly to us when they haven't any fighting to occupytheir minds."
"Don't worry," advised Tom. "They won't bother us."
And the blacks did not. They were caring for their wounded, who had notalready been taken from the field, and they paid no attention to ourfriends, save to look curiously at the airship.
"Bless my newspaper!" cried Mr. Damon, with an air of relief. "I'mglad that's over, and we didn't have to use the electric rifles, afterall."
"Here come the Englishmen to pay us a visit," spoke Ned a little later,as they sat about the cabin of the Flyer. The two rival picture mensoon climbed on deck.
"Beg pardon," said the taller of the two, addressing our hero, "butcould you lend us a roll of film? Ours are all used up, and we want toget some more pictures before going back to our main camp."
"I'm sorry," replied Tom, "but I use a special size, and it fits nocamera but my own."
"Ah! might we see your camera?" asked the other Englishman. "That is,see how it works?"
"I don't like to be disobliging," was Tom's answer, "but it is not yetpatented and--well--" he hesitated.
"Oh, I see!" sneered the taller visitor. "You're afraid we might stealsome of your ideas. Hum! Come on Montgomery," and, swinging on hisheels, with a military air, he hurried away, followed by his companion.
"They don't like that, but I can't help it," remarked Tom to hisfriends a little later. "I can't afford to take any chances."
"No, you did just right," said Mr. Nestor. "Those men may be all right,but from the fact that they are in the picture taking business I'd besuspicious of them."
"Well, what's next on the programme?" asked Ned as Tom put his cameraaway.
"Oh, I think we'll stay here over night," was our hero's reply. "It'sa nice location, and the gas machine needs cleaning. We can do it here,and maybe I can get some more pictures."
They were busy the rest of the day on the gas generator, but the mainbody of natives did not come back, and the Englishmen seemed to havedisappeared.
Everyone slept soundly that night. So soundly, in fact, that the sunwas very high when Koku was the first to awaken, His head feltstrangely dizzy, and he wondered at a queer smell in the room he had tohimself.
"Nobody up yet," he exclaimed in surprise, as he staggered into themain cabin. There, too, was the strange, sweetish, sickly smell. "Mr.Tom, where you be? Time to get up!" the giant called to his master, ashe went in, and gently shook the young inventor by the shoulder.
"Eh? What's that? What's the matter?" began Tom, and then he suddenlysat up. "Oh, my head!" he exclaimed, putting his hands to his achingtemples.
"And that queer smell!" added Ned, who was also awake now.
"Bless my talcum powder!" cried Mr. Damon. "I have a splittingheadache."
"Hum! Chloroform, if I'm any judge!" called Mr. Nestor from his berth.
"Chloroform!" cried Tom, staggering to his feet. "I wonder." He did notfinish his sentence, but made his way to the room where his camera waskept. "It's gone!" he cried. "We have been chloroformed in the night,and some one has taken my Wizard Camera."
Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera; Or, Thrilling Adventures While Taking Moving Pictures Page 19