I
A TERRIBLE ADVENTURE WITH HYENAS
There are many mighty hunters, and most of them can tell of many verythrilling adventures personally undergone with wild beasts; but probablynone of them ever went through an experience equalling that which ArthurSpencer, the famous trapper, suffered in the wilds of Africa.
As the right-hand man of Carl Hagenbach, the great Hamburg dealer inwild animals, for whom Spencer trapped some of the finest and rarestbeasts ever seen in captivity, thrilling adventures were everydayoccurrences to him. The trapper's life is infinitely more exciting anddangerous than the hunter's, inasmuch as the latter hunts to kill, whilethe trapper hunts to capture, and the relative risks are not, therefore,comparable; but Spencer's adventure with the "scavenger of the wilds,"as the spotted hyena is sometimes aptly called, was something soterrible that even he could not recollect it without shuddering.
He was out with his party on an extended trapping expedition, and oneday he chanced to get separated from his followers; and, partly overcomeby the intense heat and his fatigue, he lay down and fell asleep--aboutthe most dangerous thing a solitary traveller in the interior of Africacan do. Some hours later, when the scorching sun was beginning to settledown in the west, he was aroused by the sound of laughter not far away.
For the moment he thought his followers had found him, and were amusedto find him taking his difficulties so comfortably; but hearing thelaugh repeated he realised at once that no human being ever gaveutterance to quite such a sound; in fact, his trained ear told him itwas the cry of the spotted hyena. Now thoroughly awake, he sat up andsaw a couple of the ugly brutes about fifty yards away on his left. Theywere sniffing at the air, and calling. He knew that they had scentedhim, but had not yet perceived him.
In such a position, as sure a shot and one so well armed as Spencer was,a man who knew less about wild animals and their habits would doubtlesshave sent the two brutes to earth in double quick time, and thusdestroyed himself. But Spencer very well knew from their manner thatthey were but the advance-guard of a pack. The appearance of the pack,numbering about one hundred, coincided with his thought. To tackle thewhole party was, of course, utterly out of the question; to escape byflight was equally out of the question, for hyenas are remarkably fasttravellers.
His only possible chance of escape, therefore, was to hoodwink them, ifhe could, by feigning to be dead; for it is a characteristic of thehyena to reject flesh that is not putrid. He threw himself down again,and remained motionless, hoping the beasts would think him, though dead,yet unfit for food. It was an off-chance, and he well knew it; but therewas nothing else to be done.
In a couple of seconds the advance-guard saw him, and, calling to theirfellows, rushed to him. The pack answered the cry and instantlyfollowed. Spencer felt the brutes running over him, felt their foulbreath on his neck, as they sniffed at him, snapping, snarling,laughing; but he did not move. One of them took a critical bite at hisarm; but he did not stir. They seemed nonplussed. Another tried thecondition of his leg, while many of them pulled at his clothes, as if inimpotent rage at finding him so fresh. But he did not move; in an agonyof suspense he waited motionless.
Presently, to his amazement, he was lifted up by two hyenas, which fixedtheir teeth in his ankle and his wrist, and, accompanied by the rest,his bearers set off with him swinging between them, sometimes fairlycarrying him, sometimes simply dragging him, now and again dropping himfor a moment to refix their teeth more firmly in his flesh. Believinghim to be dead, they were conveying him to their retreat, there todevour him when he was in a fit condition. He fully realised this, buthe was powerless to defend himself from such a fate.
How far they carried him Spencer could not tell, for from the pain hewas suffering from his wounds, and the dreadful strain of being carriedin such a manner, he fell into semi-consciousness from time to time; butthe distance must have been considerable, for night was over the landand the sky sparkling with stars before the beasts finally halted; andthen they dropped him in what he knew, by the horrible and overpoweringsmell peculiar to hyenas, was the cavern home of the pack. Here he laythroughout the awful night, surrounded by his captors, suffering acutelyfrom his injuries, thirst, and the vile smell of the place.
When morning broke he found that the pack had already gone out in searchof more ready food, leaving him in charge of two immense brutes, whichwatched him narrowly all through the day; for, unarmed as he was, andexhausted, he knew it would be suicide to attempt to tackle hisjanitors. He could only wait on chance. Once or twice during the day thebeasts tried him with their teeth, giving unmistakable signs of disgustat the poor progress he was making. At nightfall they tried him again,and, being apparently hungry, one of them deserted its post and wentoff, like the others, in search of food.
This gave the wretched man a glimmering of hope, for he knew that thehyena dislikes its own company, and that the remaining beast wouldcertainly desert if the pack remained away long enough. But for hourafter hour the animal stayed on duty, never going farther than the mouthof the cave. When the second morning broke, however, the hyena grew veryrestless, going out and remaining away for brief periods. But it alwaysreturned, and every time it did so Spencer naturally imagined it hadseen the pack returning, and that the worst was in store for him. But atlength, about noon, the brute went out and did not come back.
Spencer waited and waited, fearing to move lest the creature should onlybe outside, fearing to tarry lest he should miss his only chance ofescaping. After about an hour of this suspense he crept to the mouth ofthe cave. No living creature was within sight. He got upon his falteringfeet, and hurried away as fast as his weakness would permit; but hiscondition was so deplorable that he had not covered a mile when hecollapsed in a faint.
Fortune, however, favours the brave; and although he fell where he mighteasily have remained for years without being discovered, he was foundthe same day by a party of Boers, who dressed his wounds, gave him foodand drink (which he had not touched for two days), and helped him byeasy stages to the coast.
Being a man of iron constitution, he made a rapid and complete recovery,but his wrist, ankle, arms, and thigh still bear the marks of thehideous teeth which, but for his marvellous strength of will, would havetorn him, living, to shreds.