Cinq semaines en ballon. English

by Jules Verne

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SECOND.

  The Capital of Bornou.--The Islands of the Biddiomahs.--TheCondors.--The Doctor's Anxieties.--His Precautions.--An Attackin Mid-air.--The Balloon Covering torn.--The Fall.--SublimeSelf-Sacrifice.--The Northern Coast of the Lake.

  Since its arrival at Lake Tchad, the balloon had struck a current thatedged it farther to the westward. A few clouds tempered the heat of theday, and, besides, a little air could be felt over this vast expanse ofwater; but about one o'clock, the Victoria, having slanted across thispart of the lake, again advanced over the land for a space of seven oreight miles.

  The doctor, who was somewhat vexed at first at this turn of his course,no longer thought of complaining when he caught sight of the city ofKouka, the capital of Bornou. He saw it for a moment, encircled byits walls of white clay, and a few rudely-constructed mosquesrising clumsily above that conglomeration of houses that look likeplaying-dice, which form most Arab towns. In the court-yards ofthe private dwellings, and on the public squares, grew palms andcaoutchouc-trees topped with a dome of foliage more than one hundredfeet in breadth. Joe called attention to the fact that these immenseparasols were in proper accordance with the intense heat of the sun, andmade thereon some pious reflections which it were needless to repeat.

  Kouka really consists of two distinct towns, separated by the "Dendal,"a large boulevard three hundred yards wide, at that hour crowded withhorsemen and foot passengers. On one side, the rich quarter standssquarely with its airy and lofty houses, laid out in regular order; onthe other, is huddled together the poor quarter, a miserable collectionof low hovels of a conical shape, in which a poverty-stricken multitudevegetate rather than live, since Kouka is neither a trading nor acommercial city.

  Kennedy thought it looked something like Edinburgh, were that cityextended on a plain, with its two distinct boroughs.

  But our travellers had scarcely the time to catch even this glimpse ofit, for, with the fickleness that characterizes the air-currents of thisregion, a contrary wind suddenly swept them some forty miles over thesurface of Lake Tchad.

  Then then were regaled with a new spectacle. They could count thenumerous islets of the lake, inhabited by the Biddiomahs, a race ofbloodthirsty and formidable pirates, who are as greatly feared whenneighbors as are the Touaregs of Sahara.

  These estimable people were in readiness to receive the Victoria bravelywith stones and arrows, but the balloon quickly passed their islands,fluttering over them, from one to the other with butterfly motion, likea gigantic beetle.

  At this moment, Joe, who was scanning the horizon, said to Kennedy:

  "There, sir, as you are always thinking of good sport, yonder is justthe thing for you!"

  "What is it, Joe?"

  "This time, the doctor will not disapprove of your shooting."

  "But what is it?"

  "Don't you see that flock of big birds making for us?"

  "Birds?" exclaimed the doctor, snatching his spyglass.

  "I see them," replied Kennedy; "there are at least a dozen of them."

  "Fourteen, exactly!" said Joe.

  "Heaven grant that they may be of a kind sufficiently noxious for thedoctor to let me peg away at them!"

  "I should not object, but I would much rather see those birds at adistance from us!"

  "Why, are you afraid of those fowls?"

  "They are condors, and of the largest size. Should they attack us--"

  "Well, if they do, we'll defend ourselves. We have a whole arsenal atour disposal. I don't think those birds are so very formidable."

  "Who can tell?" was the doctor's only remark.

  Ten minutes later, the flock had come within gunshot, and were makingthe air ring with their hoarse cries. They came right toward theVictoria, more irritated than frightened by her presence.

  "How they scream! What a noise!" said Joe.

  "Perhaps they don't like to see anybody poaching in their country up inthe air, or daring to fly like themselves!"

  "Well, now, to tell the truth, when I take a good look at them, they arean ugly, ferocious set, and I should think them dangerous enough if theywere armed with Purdy-Moore rifles," admitted Kennedy.

  "They have no need of such weapons," said Ferguson, looking very grave.

  The condors flew around them in wide circles, their flight growinggradually closer and closer to the balloon. They swept through theair in rapid, fantastic curves, occasionally precipitating themselvesheadlong with the speed of a bullet, and then breaking their line ofprojection by an abrupt and daring angle.

  The doctor, much disquieted, resolved to ascend so as to escape thisdangerous proximity. He therefore dilated the hydrogen in his balloon,and it rapidly rose.

  But the condors mounted with him, apparently determined not to partcompany.

  "They seem to mean mischief!" said the hunter, cocking his rifle.

  And, in fact, they were swooping nearer, and more than one came withinfifty feet of them, as if defying the fire-arms.

  "By George, I'm itching to let them have it!" exclaimed Kennedy.

  "No, Dick; not now! Don't exasperate them needlessly. That would only beexciting them to attack us!"

  "But I could soon settle those fellows!"

  "You may think so, Dick. But you are wrong!"

  "Why, we have a bullet for each of them!"

  "And suppose that they were to attack the upper part of the balloon,what would you do? How would you get at them? Just imagine yourself inthe presence of a troop of lions on the plain, or a school of sharksin the open ocean! For travellers in the air, this situation is just asdangerous."

  "Are you speaking seriously, doctor?"

  "Very seriously, Dick."

  "Let us wait, then!"

  "Wait! Hold yourself in readiness in case of an attack, but do not firewithout my orders."

  The birds then collected at a short distance, yet to near that theirnaked necks, entirely bare of feathers, could be plainly seen, as theystretched them out with the effort of their cries, while their gristlycrests, garnished with a comb and gills of deep violet, stood erect withrage. They were of the very largest size, their bodies being morethan three feet in length, and the lower surface of their white wingsglittering in the sunlight. They might well have been considered wingedsharks, so striking was their resemblance to those ferocious rangers ofthe deep.

  "They are following us!" said the doctor, as he saw them ascending withhim, "and, mount as we may, they can fly still higher!"

  "Well, what are we to do?" asked Kennedy.

  The doctor made no answer.

  "Listen, Samuel!" said the sportsman. "There are fourteen of thosebirds; we have seventeen shots at our disposal if we discharge all ourweapons. Have we not the means, then, to destroy them or disperse them?I will give a good account of some of them!"

  "I have no doubt of your skill, Dick; I look upon all as dead that maycome within range of your rifle, but I repeat that, if they attack theupper part of the balloon, you could not get a sight at them. They wouldtear the silk covering that sustains us, and we are three thousand feetup in the air!"

  At this moment, one of the ferocious birds darted right at the balloon,with outstretched beak and claws, ready to rend it with either or both.

  "Fire! fire at once!" cried the doctor.

  He had scarcely ceased, ere the huge creature, stricken dead, droppedheadlong, turning over and over in space as he fell.

  Kennedy had already grasped one of the two-barrelled fowling-pieces andJoe was taking aim with another.

  Frightened by the report, the condors drew back for a moment, but theyalmost instantly returned to the charge with extreme fury. Kennedysevered the head of one from its body with his first shot, and Joe brokethe wing of another.

  "Only eleven left," said he.

  Thereupon the birds changed their tactics, and by common consent soaredabove the balloon. Kennedy glanced at Ferguson. The latter, in spiteof his imperturbability, grew pale. Then ensued a moment of terrifyi
ngsilence. In the next they heard a harsh tearing noise, as of somethingrending the silk, and the car seemed to sink from beneath the feet ofour three aeronauts.

  "We are lost!" exclaimed Ferguson, glancing at the barometer, which wasnow swiftly rising.

  "Over with the ballast!" he shouted, "over with it!"

  And in a few seconds the last lumps of quartz had disappeared.

  "We are still falling! Empty the water-tanks! Do you hear me, Joe? Weare pitching into the lake!"

  Joe obeyed. The doctor leaned over and looked out. The lake seemed tocome up toward him like a rising tide. Every object around grew rapidlyin size while they were looking at it. The car was not two hundred feetfrom the surface of Lake Tchad.

  "The provisions! the provisions!" cried the doctor.

  And the box containing them was launched into space.

  Their descent became less rapid, but the luckless aeronauts were stillfalling, and into the lake.

  "Throw out something--something more!" cried the doctor.

  "There is nothing more to throw!" was Kennedy's despairing response.

  "Yes, there is!" called Joe, and with a wave of the hand he disappearedlike a flash, over the edge of the car.

  "Joe! Joe!" exclaimed the doctor, horror-stricken.

  The Victoria thus relieved resumed her ascending motion, mounteda thousand feet into the air, and the wind, burying itself in thedisinflated covering, bore them away toward the northern part of thelake.

  "Lost!" exclaimed the sportsman, with a gesture of despair.

  "Lost to save us!" responded Ferguson.

  And these men, intrepid as they were, felt the large tears streamingdown their cheeks. They leaned over with the vain hope of seeing sometrace of their heroic companion, but they were already far away fromhim.

  "What course shall we pursue?" asked Kennedy.

  "Alight as soon as possible, Dick, and then wait."

  After a sweep of some sixty miles the Victoria halted on a desert shore,on the north of the lake. The anchors caught in a low tree and thesportsman fastened it securely. Night came, but neither Ferguson norKennedy could find one moment's sleep.