CHAPTER NINETEEN.
TELLS OF MISFORTUNES THAT BEFELL OUR WANDERERS; OF FAMILIAR TOYS UNDERNEW ASPECTS, ETCETERA.
When Harold Seadrift and Disco Lillihammer were stopped in theirjourney, as related in a former chapter, by the sudden illness of thebold seaman, an event was impending over them which effectuallyoverturned their plans. This was the sudden descent of a band of armednatives who had been recently driven from their homes by a slavingparty. The slavers had taken them by surprise during the night, settheir huts on fire, captured their women and children, and slaughteredall the men, excepting those who sought and found safety in flight. Itwas those who had thus escaped that chanced to come upon the camp of ourtravellers one evening about sunset.
Disco was recovering from his attack of fever at the time, though stillweak. Harold was sitting by his couch of leaves in the hut which hadbeen erected for him on the first day of the illness. Jumbo was cuttingup a piece of flesh for supper, and Antonio was putting the kettle onthe fire. The rest of the party were away in the woods hunting.
No guard was kept; consequently the savages came down on them like athunderbolt, and found them quite unprepared to resist even ifresistance had been of any use.
At first their captors, bitterly infuriated by their recent losses,proposed to kill their prisoners, without delay, by means of the mostexcruciating tortures that they could invent, but from some unknowncause, changed their minds; coupled Harold and Disco together by meansof two slave-sticks; tied Antonio and Jumbo with ropes, and drove themaway.
So suddenly was the thing done, and so effectually, that Disco was farfrom the camp before he could realise that what had occurred was a fact,and not one of the wild feverish dreams that had beset him during hisillness.
The natives would not listen to the earnest explanation of Antonio thatHarold and Disco were Englishmen, and haters of slavery. They scowledas they replied that the same had been said by the slavers who hadattacked their village; from which remark it would seem that Yoosoof wasnot quite the originator of that device to throw the natives off theirguard. The Portuguese of Tette on the Zambesi had also thought of andacted on it!
Fortunately it was, as we have said, near sunset when the capture wasmade, and before it became quite dark the band encamped, else must poorDisco have succumbed to weakness and fatigue. The very desperation ofhis circumstances, however, seemed to revive his strength, for nextmorning he resumed his journey with some hope of being able to hold out.The continued protestations and assurances of Antonio, also, had theeffect of inducing their captors to remove the heavy slave-sticks fromthe necks of Harold and Disco, though they did not unbind their wrists.Thus were they led further into the country, they knew not whither, forseveral days and nights, and at last reached a large village where theywere all thrust into a hut, and left to their meditations, while theircaptors went to palaver with the chief man of the place.
This chief proved to be a further-sighted man than the men of the tribewho had captured the Englishmen. His name was Yambo. He had heard ofDr Livingstone, and had met with men of other tribes who had seen andconversed with the great traveller. Thus, being of a thoughtful andinquiring disposition, he had come to understand enough of the goodwhite man's sentiments to guard him from being imposed on by pretendedChristians.
Yambo's name signified "how are you?" and was probably bestowed on himbecause of a strongly benevolent tendency to greet friend and strangeralike with a hearty "how d'ee do?" sort of expression of face and toneof voice.
He was a tall grave man, with a commanding firm look, and, withal, adash of child-like humour and simplicity. On hearing his visitors'remarks about their captives, he at once paid them a visit and a fewleading questions put to Harold through Antonio convinced him that theprisoners were true men. He therefore returned to his black visitors,told them that he had perfect confidence in the good faith of the whitemen, and said that he meant to take charge of them. He then entertainedhis black brothers hospitably, gave them a few presents, and sent themon their way. This done he returned to his guests and told them thatthey were free, that their captors were gone, and that they might gowhere they pleased, but that it would gratify him much if they wouldconsent to spend some time hunting with him in the neighbourhood of hisvillage.
"Now," said Disco, after Yambo left them, "this is wot I call the mostuncommon fix that ever wos got into by man since Adam an' Eve beganhousekeepin' in the garden of Eden."
"I'm not quite sure," replied Harold, with a rueful look, "that it isabsolutely the _worst_ fix, but it is bad enough. The worst of it isthat this Yambo has let these rascals off with all our fire-arms andcamp-equipage, so that we are absolutely helpless--might as well beprisoners, for we can't quit this village in such circumstances."
"Wot's wuss than that to my mind, sir, is, that here we are at sea, inthe heart of Afriky, without chart, quadrant, compass, or rudder, an' nomore idea of our whereabouts than one o' them spider monkeys that grinsamong the trees. Hows'ever, we're in luck to fall into the hands of afriendly chief, so, like these same monkeys, we must grin an' bear it;only I can't help feelin' a bit cast down at the loss of our messmates.I fear there's no chance of their findin' us."
"Not the least chance in the world, I should say," returned Harold."They could not guess in which direction we had gone, and unless theyhad hit on the right road at first, every step they took afterwardswould only widen the distance between us."
"It's lucky I was beginnin' to mend before we was catched," said Disco,feeling the muscles of his legs; "true, I ain't much to boast of yet butI'm improvin'."
"That is more than I can say for myself," returned Harold, with a sigh,as he passed his hand across his forehead; "I feel as if this last pushthrough the woods in the hot sun, and the weight of that terribleslave-stick had been almost too much for me."
Disco looked earnestly and anxiously into the face of his friend.
"Wot," asked he, "does you feel?"
"I can scarcely tell," replied Harold, with a faint smile. "Oh, Isuppose I'm a little knocked up, that's all. A night's rest will put meall right."
"So I thought myself, but I wos wrong," said Disco. "Let's hear wotyour feelin's is, sir; I'm as good as any doctor now, I am, in regard tosymptoms."
"Well, I feel a sort of all-overishness, a kind of lassitude andsleepiness, with a slight headache, and a dull pain which appears to becreeping up my spine."
"You're in for it sir," said Disco. "It's lucky you have always carriedthe physic in your pockets, 'cause you'll need it, an' it's lucky, too,that I am here and well enough to return tit for tat and nurse you,'cause you'll have that 'ere pain in your spine creep up your back andround your ribs till it lays hold of yer shoulders, where it'll stick asif it had made up its mind to stay there for ever an' a day. Arter thatyou'll get cold an' shivering like ice--oh! doesn't I know it well--an'then hot as fire, with heavy head, an' swimming eyes, an' twisted sight,an' confusion of--"
"Hold! hold!" cried Harold, laughing, "if you go on in that way I shallhave more than my fair share of it! Pray stop, and leave me a little tofind out for myself."
"Well, sir, take a purge, and turn in at once, that's my advice. I'lldose you with quinine to-morrow mornin', first thing," said Disco,rising and proceeding forthwith to arrange a couch in a corner of thehut, which Yambo had assigned them.
Harold knew well enough that his follower was right. He took his advicewithout delay, and next morning found himself little better than achild, both physically and mentally, for the disease not only prostratedhis great strength--as it had that of his equally robust companion--but,at a certain stage, induced delirium, during which he talked the mostineffable nonsense that his tongue could pronounce, or his brainconceive.
Poor Disco, who, of course, had been unable to appreciate the extent ofhis own delirious condition, began to fear that his leader's mind wasgone for ever, and Jumbo was so depressed by the unutterably solemnexpression of the mariner's once jovial countenance, th
at he did notonce show his teeth for a whole week, save when engaged with meals.
As for Antonio, his nature not being very sympathetic, and his healthbeing good, he rather enjoyed the quiet life and good living whichcharacterised the native village, and secretly hoped that Harold mightremain on the sick-list for a considerable time to come.
How long this state of affairs lasted we cannot tell, for both Haroldand Disco lost the correct record of time during their respectiveillnesses.
Up to that period they had remembered the days of the week, inconsequence of their habit of refraining from going out to hunt onSundays, except when a dearth of meat in the larder rendered hunting anecessity. Upon these Sundays Harold's conscience sometimes reproachedhim for having set out on his journey into Africa without a Bible. Hewhispered, to himself at first, and afterwards suggested to Disco, theexcuse that his Bible had been lost in the wreck of his father's vessel,and that, perhaps, there were no Bibles to be purchased in Zanzibar, buthis conscience was a troublesome one, and refused to tolerate such badreasoning, reminding him, reproachfully, that he had made no effortwhatever to obtain a Bible at Zanzibar.
As time had passed, and some of the horrors of the slave-trade had beenbrought under his notice, many of the words of Scripture leaped to hisremembrance, and the regret that he had not carried a copy with himincreased. That touch of thoughtlessness, so natural to the young andhealthy--to whom life has so far been only a garden of roses--wasutterly routed by the stern and dreadful realities which had beenrecently enacted around him, and just in proportion as he was impressedwith the lies, tyranny, cruelty, and falsehood of man, so did histhoughtful regard for the truth and the love of God increase, especiallythose truths that were most directly opposed to the traffic in humanflesh, such as--"love your enemies," "seek peace with all men," "bekindly affectioned one to another," "whatsoever ye would that men shoulddo unto you, do ye even so to them." An absolute infidel, he thought,could not fail to perceive that a most blessed change would come overthe face of Africa if such principles prevailed among its inhabitants,even in an extremely moderate degree.
But to return, the unfortunate travellers were now "at sea" altogetherin regard to the Sabbath as well as the day of the month. Indeed theirminds were not very clear as to the month itself!
"Hows'ever," said Disco, when this subject afterwards came to bediscussed, "it don't matter much. Wot is it that the Scriptur'says,--`Six days shalt thou labour an' do all that thou hast to do, butthe seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt dono work.' I wos used always to stick at that pint w'en my poor motherwas a-teachin' of me. Never got past it. But it's enough for presentuse anyhow, for the orders is, work six days an' don't work the seventh.Werry good, we'll begin to-day an' call it Monday; we'll work for sixdays, an' w'en the seventh day comes we'll call it Sunday. If it ain'tthe right day, _we_ can't help it; moreover, wot's the odds? It's the_seventh_ day, so that to us it'll be the Sabbath."
But we anticipate. Harold was still--at the beginning of thisdigression--in the delirium of fever, though there were symptoms ofimprovement about him.
One afternoon one of these symptoms was strongly manifested in a long,profound slumber. While he slept Disco sat on a low stool beside him,busily engaged with a clasp-knife on some species of manufacture, thenature of which was not apparent at a glance.
His admirer, Jumbo, was seated on a stool opposite, gazing at himopen-mouthed, with a countenance that reflected every passing feeling ofhis dusky bosom.
Both men were so deeply absorbed in their occupation--Disco in hismanufacture, and Jumbo in staring at Disco--that they failed for aconsiderable time to observe that Harold had wakened suddenly, thoughquietly, and was gazing at them with a look of lazy, easy-goingsurprise.
The mariner kept up a running commentary on his work, addressed to Jumboindeed, but in a quiet interjectional manner that seemed to imply thathe was merely soliloquising, and did not want or expect a reply.
"It's the most 'stror'nary notion, Jumbo, between you and me and thepost, that I ever did see. Now, then, this here bullet-head wants apair o' eyes an' a nose on it; the mouth'll do, but it's the mouth as ismost troublesome, for you niggers have got such wappin' muzzles--it'squite a caution, as the Yankees say,"--(a pause)--"on the whole,however, the nose is very difficult to manage on a flat surface, 'causew'y?--if I leaves it quite flat, it don't look like a nose, an' if Icarves it out ever so little, it's too prominent for a nigger nose.There, ain't that a good head, Jumbo?"
Thus directly appealed to, Jumbo nodded his own head violently, andshowed his magnificent teeth from ear to ear, gums included.
Disco laid down the flat piece of board which he had carved into theform of a human head, and took up another piece, which was rudelyblocked out into the form of a human leg--both leg and head being aslarge as life.
"Now this limb, Jumbo," continued Disco, slowly, as he whittled awaywith the clasp-knife vigorously, "is much more troublesome than I wouldhave expected; for you niggers have got such abominably ill-shaped legsbelow the knee. There's such an unnat'ral bend for'ard o' theshin-bone, an' such a rediklous sticking out o' the heel astarn, d'eesee, that a feller with white man notions has to make a study of it, ifhe sets up for a artist; in course, if he _don't_ set up for a artistany sort o' shape'll do, for it don't affect the jumpin'. Ha! therethey go," he exclaimed, with a humorous smile at a hearty shout oflaughter which was heard just outside the hut, "enjoyin' the old 'un;but it's nothin' to wot the noo 'un'll be w'en it's finished."
At this exhibition of amusement on the countenance of his friend, Jumbothrew back his head and again showed not only his teeth and gums but theentire inside of his mouth, and chuckled softly from the region of hisbreast-bone.
"I'm dreaming, of course," thought Harold, and shut his eyes.
Poor fellow! he was very weak, and the mere act of shutting his eyesinduced a half-slumber. He awoke again in a few minutes, and re-openinghis eyes, beheld the two men still sitting, and occupied as before.
"It is a wonderfully pertinacious dream," thought Harold. "I'll try todissipate it."
Thinking thus, he called out aloud,--"I say, Disco!"
"Hallo! that's uncommon like the old tones," exclaimed the seaman,dropping his knife and the leg of wood as he looked anxiously at hisfriend.
"What old tones?" asked Harold.
"The tones of your voice," said Disco.
"Have they changed so much of late?" inquired Harold in surprise.
"Have they? I should think they have, just. W'y, you haven't spokelike that, sir, for--but, surely--are you better, or is this on'yanother dodge o' yer madness?" asked Disco with a troubled look.
"Ah! I suppose I've been delirious, have I?" said Harold with a faintsmile.
To this Disco replied that he had not only been delirious, but starkstaring mad, and expressed a very earnest hope that, now he had got hissenses hauled taut again, he'd belay them an' make all fast for, if hedidn't, it was his, Disco's opinion, that another breeze o' the samekind would blow 'em all to ribbons.
"Moreover," continued Disco, firmly, "you're not to talk. I once nurseda messmate through a fever, an' I remember that the doctor wos werrypartikler w'en he began to come round, in orderin' him to hold histongue an' keep quiet."
"You are right Disco. I will keep quiet, but you must first tell mewhat you are about, for it has roused my curiosity, and I can't resttill I know."
"Well, sir, I'll tell you, but don't go for to make no obsarvations onit. Just keep your mouth shut an' yer ears open, an' I'll do all thejawin'. Well, you must know, soon after you wos took bad, I felt as ifI'd like some sort o' okipation w'en sittin' here watchin' of you--Jumboan' me's bin takin' the watch time about, for Antony isn't able to holda boy, much less _you_ w'en you gits obstropolous--Well, sir, I had tooka sort o' fancy for Yambo's youngest boy, for he's a fine, brave littleshaver, he is, an' I thought I'd make him some sort o' toy, an' itstruck me that the thing as 'ud please him m
ost 'ud be a jumpin'-jack,so I set to an' made him one about a futt high.
"You never see such a face o' joy as that youngster put on, sir, w'en Itook it to him an' pulled the string. He give a little squeak ofdelight he did, tuk it in his hands, an' ran home to show it to hismother. Well, sir, wot d'ee think, the poor boy come back soon after,blubberin' an' sobbin', as nat'ral as if he'd bin an English boy, an'says he to Tony, says he, `Father's bin an' took it away from me!' Iwos surprised at this, an' went right off to see about it, an' w'en Icome to Yambo's hut wot does I see but the chief pullin' the string o'the jumpin'-jack, an' grinnin' an' sniggerin' like a blue-faced baboonin a passion--his wife likewise standin' by holdin' her sides wi'laughin'. Well, sir, the moment I goes in, up gits the chief an' shoutsfor Tony, an' tells him to tell me that I must make him a jumpin'-jack!In course I says I'd do it with all the pleasure in life; and he saysthat I must make it full size, as big as hisself! I opened my eyes atthis, but he said he must have a thing that was fit for a man--a chief--so there was nothin' for it but to set to work. An' it worn't difficultto manage neither, for they supplied me with slabs o' timber an inchthick an' I soon blocked out the body an' limbs with a hatchet an'polished 'em off with my knife, and then put 'em together. W'en the bigjack wos all right Yambo took it away, for he'd watched me all the timeI wos at it, an' fixed it up to the branch of a tree an' set to work.
"I never, no I never, did," continued Disco, slapping his right thigh,while Jumbo grinned in sympathy, "see sitch a big baby as Yambo becamew'en he got that monstrous jumpin'-jack into action--with his courtiersall round him, their faces blazin' with surprise, or conwulsed wi'laughter. The chief hisself was too hard at work to laugh much. Hecould only glare an' grin, for, big an' strong though he is, the jackwos so awful heavy that it took all his weight an' muscle haulin' on therope which okipied the place o' the string that we're used to.
"`Haul away, my hearty,' thought I, w'en I seed him heavin', blowin',an' swettin' at the jack's halyards, `you'll not break that rope in ahurry.'
"But I was wrong, sir, for, although the halyards held on all right, Ihad not calkilated on such wiolent action at the joints. All of asudden off comes a leg at the knee. It was goin' the up'ard kick at thetime, an' went up like a rocket, slap through a troop o' monkeys thatwas lookin' on aloft, which it scattered like foam in a gale. Yambodidn't seem to care a pinch o' snuff. His blood was up. The sweat wasrunnin' off him like rain. `Hi!' cries he, givin' another most awfultug. But it wasn't high that time, for the other leg came off at thehip-jint on the down kick, an' went straight into the buzzum of a blackwarrior an' floored him wuss than he ever wos floored since he took tofightin'. Yambo didn't care for that either. He gave another haul withall his might, which proved too much for jack without his legs, for itthrew his arms out with such force that they jammed hard an' fast, as ifthe poor critter was howlin' for mercy!
"Yambo looked awful blank at this. Then he turned sharp round andlooked at me for all the world as if he meant to say `wot d'ee mean bythat? eh!'
"`He shouldn't ought to lick into him like that,' says I to Tony, `thefigure ain't made to be druv by a six-horse power steam-engine! Buttell him I'll fix it up with jints that'll stand pullin' by an elephant,and I'll make him another jack to the full as big as that one an' twiceas strong.'
"This," added Disco in conclusion, taking up the head on which he hadbeen engaged, "is the noo jack. The old un's outside working away atthis moment like a win'-mill. Listen; don't 'ee hear 'em?"
Harold listened and found no difficulty in hearing them, for peals oflaughter and shrieks of delight burst forth every few minutes,apparently from a vast crowd outside the hut.
"I do believe," said Disco, rising and going towards the door of the hut"that you can see 'em from where you lay."
He drew aside the skin doorway as he spoke, and there, sure enough, wasthe gigantic jumping-jack hanging from the limb of a tree, clearlydefined against the sky, and galvanically kicking about its vast limbs,with Yambo pulling fiercely at the tail, and the entire tribe looking onsteeped in ecstasy and admiration.
It may easily be believed that the sight of this, coupled with Disco'snarrative, was almost too much for Harold's nerves, and for some time heexhibited, to Disco's horror, a tendency to repeat some antics whichwould have been much more appropriate to the jumping-jack, but, after awarm drink administered by his faithful though rough nurse, he becamecomposed, and finally dropped into a pleasant sleep, which was notbroken till late the following morning.
Refreshed in body, happy in mind, and thankful in spirit he rose to feelthat the illness against which he had fought for many days wasconquered, and that, although still very weak, he had fairly turned thecorner, and had begun to regain some of his wonted health and vigour.