Cinq semaines en ballon. English

by Jules Verne

  CHAPTER FOURTEENTH.

  The Forest of Gum-Trees.--The Blue Antelope.--The Rallying-Signal.--AnUnexpected Attack.--The Kanyeme.--A Night in the Open Air.--TheMabunguru.--Jihoue-la-Mkoa.--A Supply of Water.--Arrival at Kazeh.

  The country, dry and parched as it was, consisting of a clayey soil thatcracked open with the heat, seemed, indeed, a desert: here and therewere a few traces of caravans; the bones of men and animals, that hadbeen half-gnawed away, mouldering together in the same dust.

  After half an hour's walking, Dick and Joe plunged into a forest ofgum-trees, their eyes alert on all sides, and their fingers on thetrigger. There was no foreseeing what they might encounter. Withoutbeing a rifleman, Joe could handle fire-arms with no trifling dexterity.

  "A walk does one good, Mr. Kennedy, but this isn't the easiest ground inthe world," he said, kicking aside some fragments of quartz with whichthe soil was bestrewn.

  Kennedy motioned to his companion to be silent and to halt. The presentcase compelled them to dispense with hunting-dogs, and, no matter whatJoe's agility might be, he could not be expected to have the scent of asetter or a greyhound.

  A herd of a dozen antelopes were quenching their thirst in the bed ofa torrent where some pools of water had lodged. The graceful creatures,snuffing danger in the breeze, seemed to be disturbed and uneasy. Theirbeautiful heads could be seen between every draught, raised in the airwith quick and sudden motion as they sniffed the wind in the directionof our two hunters, with their flexible nostrils.

  Kennedy stole around behind some clumps of shrubbery, while Joe remainedmotionless where he was. The former, at length, got within gunshot andfired.

  The herd disappeared in the twinkling of an eye; one male antelopeonly, that was hit just behind the shoulder-joint, fell headlong to theground, and Kennedy leaped toward his booty.

  It was a blauwbok, a superb animal of a pale-bluish color shading uponthe gray, but with the belly and the inside of the legs as white as thedriven snow.

  "A splendid shot!" exclaimed the hunter. "It's a very rare species ofthe antelope, and I hope to be able to prepare his skin in such a way asto keep it."

  "Indeed!" said Joe, "do you think of doing that, Mr. Kennedy?"

  "Why, certainly I do! Just see what a fine hide it is!"

  "But Dr. Ferguson will never allow us to take such an extra weight!"

  "You're right, Joe. Still it is a pity to have to leave such a nobleanimal."

  "The whole of it? Oh, we won't do that, sir; we'll take all the goodeatable parts of it, and, if you'll let me, I'll cut him up just as wellas the chairman of the honorable corporation of butchers of the city ofLondon could do."

  "As you please, my boy! But you know that in my hunter's way I can justas easily skin and cut up a piece of game as kill it."

  "I'm sure of that, Mr. Kennedy. Well, then, you can build a fireplacewith a few stones; there's plenty of dry dead-wood, and I can make thehot coals tell in a few minutes."

  "Oh! that won't take long," said Kennedy, going to work on thefireplace, where he had a brisk flame crackling and sparkling in aminute or two.

  Joe had cut some of the nicest steaks and the best parts of thetenderloin from the carcass of the antelope, and these were quicklytransformed to the most savory of broils.

  "There, those will tickle the doctor!" said Kennedy.

  "Do you know what I was thinking about?" said Joe.

  "Why, about the steaks you're broiling, to be sure!" replied Dick.

  "Not the least in the world. I was thinking what a figure we'd cut if wecouldn't find the balloon again."

  "By George, what an idea! Why, do you think the doctor would desert us?"

  "No; but suppose his anchor were to slip!"

  "Impossible! and, besides, the doctor would find no difficulty in comingdown again with his balloon; he handles it at his ease."

  "But suppose the wind were to sweep it off, so that he couldn't comeback toward us?"

  "Come, come, Joe! a truce to your suppositions; they're any thing butpleasant."

  "Ah! sir, every thing that happens in this world is natural, of course;but, then, any thing may happen, and we ought to look out beforehand."

  At this moment the report of a gun rang out upon the air.

  "What's that?" exclaimed Joe.

  "It's my rifle, I know the ring of her!" said Kennedy.

  "A signal!"

  "Yes; danger for us!"

  "For him, too, perhaps."

  "Let's be off!"

  And the hunters, having gathered up the product of their expedition,rapidly made their way back along the path that they had marked bybreaking boughs and bushes when they came. The density of the underbrushprevented their seeing the balloon, although they could not be far fromit.

  A second shot was heard.

  "We must hurry!" said Joe.

  "There! a third report!"

  "Why, it sounds to me as if he was defending himself against something."

  "Let us make haste!"

  They now began to run at the top of their speed. When they reached theoutskirts of the forest, they, at first glance, saw the balloon in itsplace and the doctor in the car.

  "What's the matter?" shouted Kennedy.

  "Good God!" suddenly exclaimed Joe.

  "What do you see?"

  "Down there! look! a crowd of blacks surrounding the balloon!"

  And, in fact, there, two miles from where they were, they saw somethirty wild natives close together, yelling, gesticulating, and cuttingall kinds of antics at the foot of the sycamore. Some, climbing into thetree itself, were making their way to the topmost branches. The dangerseemed pressing.

  "My master is lost!" cried Joe.

  "Come! a little more coolness, Joe, and let us see how we stand. We holdthe lives of four of those villains in our hands. Forward, then!"

  They had made a mile with headlong speed, when another report was heardfrom the car. The shot had, evidently, told upon a huge black demon, whohad been hoisting himself up by the anchor-rope. A lifeless body fellfrom bough to bough, and hung about twenty feet from the ground, itsarms and legs swaying to and fro in the air.

  "Ha!" said Joe, halting, "what does that fellow hold by?"

  "No matter what!" said Kennedy; "let us run! let us run!"

  "Ah! Mr. Kennedy," said Joe, again, in a roar of laughter, "by his tail!by his tail! it's an ape! They're all apes!"

  "Well, they're worse than men!" said Kennedy, as he dashed into themidst of the howling crowd.

  It was, indeed, a troop of very formidable baboons of the dog-facedspecies. These creatures are brutal, ferocious, and horrible to lookupon, with their dog-like muzzles and savage expression. However, a fewshots scattered them, and the chattering horde scampered off, leavingseveral of their number on the ground.

  In a moment Kennedy was on the ladder, and Joe, clambering up thebranches, detached the anchor; the car then dipped to where he was, andhe got into it without difficulty. A few minutes later, the Victoriaslowly ascended and soared away to the eastward, wafted by a moderatewind.

  "That was an attack for you!" said Joe.

  "We thought you were surrounded by natives."

  "Well, fortunately, they were only apes," said the doctor.

  "At a distance there's no great difference," remarked Kennedy.

  "Nor close at hand, either," added Joe.

  "Well, however that may be," resumed Ferguson, "this attack of apesmight have had the most serious consequences. Had the anchor yielded totheir repeated efforts, who knows whither the wind would have carriedme?"

  "What did I tell you, Mr. Kennedy?"

  "You were right, Joe; but, even right as you may have been, you were,at that moment, preparing some antelope-steaks, the very sight of whichgave me a monstrous appetite."

  "I believe you!" said the doctor; "the flesh of the antelope isexquisite."

  "You may judge of that yourself, now, sir, for supper's ready."

  "Upon my word as a sportsman, th
ose venison-steaks have a gamy flavorthat's not to be sneezed at, I tell you."

  "Good!" said Joe, with his mouth full, "I could live on antelope allthe days of my life; and all the better with a glass of grog to wash itdown."

  So saying, the good fellow went to work to prepare a jorum of thatfragrant beverage, and all hands tasted it with satisfaction.

  "Every thing has gone well thus far," said he.

  "Very well indeed!" assented Kennedy.

  "Come, now, Mr. Kennedy, are you sorry that you came with us?"

  "I'd like to see anybody prevent my coming!"

  It was now four o'clock in the afternoon. The Victoria had struck a morerapid current. The face of the country was gradually rising, and, erelong, the barometer indicated a height of fifteen hundred feet above thelevel of the sea. The doctor was, therefore, obliged to keep his balloonup by a quite considerable dilation of gas, and the cylinder was hard atwork all the time.

  Toward seven o'clock, the balloon was sailing over the basin of Kanyeme.The doctor immediately recognized that immense clearing, ten miles inextent, with its villages buried in the midst of baobab and calabashtrees. It is the residence of one of the sultans of the Ugogo country,where civilization is, perhaps, the least backward. The natives thereare less addicted to selling members of their own families, but still,men and animals all live together in round huts, without frames, thatlook like haystacks.

  Beyond Kanyeme the soil becomes arid and stony, but in an hour'sjourney, in a fertile dip of the soil, vegetation had resumed all itsvigor at some distance from Mdaburu. The wind fell with the close of theday, and the atmosphere seemed to sleep. The doctor vainly sought for acurrent of air at different heights, and, at last, seeing this calmof all nature, he resolved to pass the night afloat, and, for greatersafety, rose to the height of one thousand feet, where the balloonremained motionless. The night was magnificent, the heavens glitteringwith stars, and profoundly silent in the upper air.

  Dick and Joe stretched themselves on their peaceful couch, and were soonsound asleep, the doctor keeping the first watch. At twelve o'clock thelatter was relieved by Kennedy.

  "Should the slightest accident happen, waken me," said Ferguson, "and,above all things, don't lose sight of the barometer. To us it is thecompass!"

  The night was cold. There were twenty-seven degrees of differencebetween its temperature and that of the daytime. With nightfall hadbegun the nocturnal concert of animals driven from their hiding-placesby hunger and thirst. The frogs struck in their guttural soprano,redoubled by the yelping of the jackals, while the imposing bass of theAfrican lion sustained the accords of this living orchestra.

  Upon resuming his post, in the morning, the doctor consulted hiscompass, and found that the wind had changed during the night. Theballoon had been bearing about thirty miles to the northwest during thelast two hours. It was then passing over Mabunguru, a stony country,strewn with blocks of syenite of a fine polish, and knobbed with hugebowlders and angular ridges of rock; conic masses, like the rocks ofKarnak, studded the soil like so many Druidic dolmens; the bones ofbuffaloes and elephants whitened it here and there; but few trees couldbe seen, excepting in the east, where there were dense woods, amongwhich a few villages lay half concealed.

  Toward seven o'clock they saw a huge round rock nearly two miles inextent, like an immense tortoise.

  "We are on the right track," said Dr. Ferguson. "There's Jihoue-la-Mkoa,where we must halt for a few minutes. I am going to renew the supply ofwater necessary for my cylinder, and so let us try to anchor somewhere."

  "There are very few trees," replied the hunter.

  "Never mind, let us try. Joe, throw out the anchors!"

  The balloon, gradually losing its ascensional force, approached theground; the anchors ran along until, at last, one of them caught in thefissure of a rock, and the balloon remained motionless.

  It must not be supposed that the doctor could entirely extinguish hiscylinder, during these halts. The equilibrium of the balloon had beencalculated at the level of the sea; and, as the country was continuallyascending, and had reached an elevation of from six to seven hundredfeet, the balloon would have had a tendency to go lower than the surfaceof the soil itself. It was, therefore, necessary to sustain it by acertain dilation of the gas. But, in case the doctor, in the absenceof all wind, had let the car rest upon the ground, the balloon, thusrelieved of a considerable weight, would have kept up of itself, withoutthe aid of the cylinder.

  The maps indicated extensive ponds on the western slope of theJihoue-la-Mkoa. Joe went thither alone with a cask that would hold aboutten gallons. He found the place pointed out to him, without difficulty,near to a deserted village; got his stock of water, and returned in lessthan three-quarters of an hour. He had seen nothing particular exceptingsome immense elephant-pits. In fact, he came very near falling into oneof them, at the bottom of which lay a half-eaten carcass.

  He brought back with him a sort of clover which the apes eat withavidity. The doctor recognized the fruit of the "mbenbu"-tree whichgrows in profusion, on the western part of Jihoue-la-Mkoa. Fergusonwaited for Joe with a certain feeling of impatience, for even a shorthalt in this inhospitable region always inspires a degree of fear.

  The water was got aboard without trouble, as the car was nearly restingon the ground. Joe then found it easy to loosen the anchor and leapedlightly to his place beside the doctor. The latter then replenished theflame in the cylinder, and the balloon majestically soared into the air.

  It was then about one hundred miles from Kazeh, an importantestablishment in the interior of Africa, where, thanks to asouth-southeasterly current, the travellers might hope to arrive on thatsame day. They were moving at the rate of fourteen miles per hour, andthe guidance of the balloon was becoming difficult, as they dared notrise very high without extreme dilation of the gas, the country itselfbeing at an average height of three thousand feet. Hence, the doctorpreferred not to force the dilation, and so adroitly followed thesinuosities of a pretty sharply-inclined plane, and swept very closeto the villages of Thembo and Tura-Wels. The latter forms part ofthe Unyamwezy, a magnificent country, where the trees attain enormousdimensions; among them the cactus, which grows to gigantic size.

  About two o'clock, in magnificent weather, but under a fiery sun thatdevoured the least breath of air, the balloon was floating over the townof Kazeh, situated about three hundred and fifty miles from the coast.

  "We left Zanzibar at nine o'clock in the morning," said the doctor,consulting his notes, "and, after two days' passage, we have, includingour deviations, travelled nearly five hundred geographical miles.Captains Burton and Speke took four months and a half to make the samedistance!"