CHAPTER SIX.
A SECOND VISITOR--NICK'S CLUB--A HALT--A MYSTERIOUS CRY--A NEW MODE OFIMPRISONMENT.
The noise of the gun, and the dying roar of the lion, roused the wholeparty from their slumbers; and in another minute they were standinground the fallen monster, eagerly asking for information.
"You did that well, Frank," said the surgeon, after carefully examiningthe wound; "just in the right place, and at the right moment. Half aninch either way, or ten seconds later, and there would have been a verydifferent story to tell. You'll be a mighty hunter one of these days, Iexpect. It's very few who have made their _debut_ with a shot likethis. But we must make sure that there are no more of them about. It'sstrange that I should have forgotten the likelihood of beasts comingdown at night to drink, or the risk there would be of an encounterbetween them and Lion. Get in, you old rogue," he continued, giving thedog a playful kick in the ribs, and driving him inside the cave, wherehe secured him to a large fragment of rock. "You don't know what anescape you've had. You are ready enough to fight, I don't doubt, but`cave cui incurras,' as the Latin grammar says, Master Lion; a singlesingle blow of that brute's paw would have been enough to break ahorse's back, let alone a dog's. There, stand in the entrance with yourgun, Nick, and keep a sharp look out, while we go to examine the well."
The lads took their guns, and the three making a considerable _detour_to the left, cautiously ascended the rocks, until they gained a highershelf than that in which the well was situated, and then looked over.The moon had by this time begun to set, and the steep summit of thecrags behind them intercepted its light, throwing the shelf into deepshadow. A dark mass was indistinctly visible, lying immediately on theedge of the well, partly indeed protruding over it. "That's the lionessdrinking," whispered Frank. "She has most likely followed her lord tothe water, and has only just arrived here."
"Most likely," answered the doctor in the same cautious tone, "but don'tfire. You can't see her plain enough to take a sure aim at her, and amere wound would only enrage her. Leave her to me. As soon as she hasdone drinking, she'll get up, and then we shall have a clear sight ofher."
They waited patiently for several minutes. It became evident that theanimal was not, as they had supposed, drinking, but was either asleep orrefreshing herself with the cool air, which the close proximity of thewater produced. In either case it was impossible to conjecture how longshe might retain her present attitude. "Let drop a stone upon her,Ernest," whispered the doctor. "That will put her up. I have my rifleall ready."
Warley looked round him. There was no stone near at hand, but hedetached his shot-flask from his belt and threw it with a skilful aim,striking the lioness on the flank. She instantly sprang to her feet;but just as Ernest discharged his missile there came a dense cloud overthe moon, and the figure of the animal was lost to sight. Before thecloud could quite pass away again, the lioness gave vent to a low savageroar. She had caught sight, notwithstanding the darkness, of thecarcass below, and sprang down to examine it. "I wonder how Nick willget on with her?" exclaimed Frank. "He's no great shot. I think we hadbetter go down to the rescue. Just hold my gun, Ernest, while I slipdown."
Handing his rifle to his companion, he slid down the projecting face ofthe precipice, feet first, and then called to Warley to lower his weaponafter him. Mr Lavie reached the shelf almost at the same moment, andboth pressed forward with some anxiety to see what was passing below.The spectacle they beheld would have been extremely ludicrous, if it hadnot been still more alarming.
Forgetting or disregarding Lavie's directions, Gilbert had laid asidehis gun as soon as his companions left him, and had gone to make anexamination of the lion--an animal which he had never before seen. Hewas greatly struck by the enormous size and vast strength of creature,and stood for a few moments considering whether he might not be able tocarry away some souvenir of the adventure. A lock of his shaggy mane,or one of his huge teeth, were the first mementos which suggestedthemselves to him. It would be difficult, however, to obtain one of thelast-named articles--that is without the help of certain tools whichthey had not in their possession. No, it must be a lock of thegentleman's hair, which could be easily enough to procure, and equallyeasy to preserve, though the keepsake would be somewhat cumbrous. Hepicked up the knife, which Frank had left on a slab of stone near theentrance of the cave, and proceeded to choose the place whence theringlet was to be cut. Suddenly it occurred to him that the tuft at theextremity of the tail would be extremely suitable for the purpose; orwhy, by the way, should he not retain the entire tail? Mr Lavie hadbeen telling them, only that evening, of the practice adopted by theBushmen of wearing a belt round the waist, by which the pangs of hungerwere considerably mitigated. To judge by what happened yesterday, sucha belt might be extremely serviceable, and the skin of the lion's tailwould make a famous belt. At all events there could be no harm incutting the tail off; and this he effected easily enough by the aid ofMr Lavie's hatchet. He was still engaged in examining his treasure bythe imperfect light, when a whirling noise was heard over head, and alarge object of some kind dropped within a few feet of him.
A good deal startled, Nick let fall the hatchet and grasping the upperend of the tail with both hands, whirled it, like a flail round hishead. At the same moment the moon again broke out, and he perceivedthat his new companion was a large lioness, whose fierce growls wereevidently the preliminary to a still fiercer assault. Nick gave himselfup for dead; and if the attention of the animal had in the firstinstance been directed to him, there would indeed have been but smallhope of escape for him. But the lioness had scented the dead body, andshe proceeded to examine it all over, sniffing the tainted air, anduttering every now and then a low howl, like a mourning cry. Nick wouldhave retreated to the cover of the cavern, but a feeling of fascinationheld him to the spot; and he continued to swing the tail right and left,apparently hardly conscious of what he was doing. Presently, the moodof the lioness seemed to change, and the notion to occur to her oftaking vengeance for the ruthless slaughter of her mate. She glaredfiercely at Nick, and gave vent to a low roar. She would, in fact, haveinstantly sprung upon him, but that the whirl of the tail immediately infront of her nose, dazed and bewildered her for the moment, and kept herat bay. This could not, however, have lasted, and Nick's career wouldsoon have been run, if rescue had not been at hand. But at this momentthe crack of the doctor's rifle was heard, and the brute, shot throughthe heart, rolled over in the death struggle.
"Bravo, Nick," exclaimed Lavie, as he leaped down from the rock."Hercules himself never wielded his club more valiantly, than you didthe lion's tail. I was sorry to keep you so long in suspense, but thebeast persistently kept her back towards me, till just the moment when Ifired. If I had only wounded her, she would have sprung on you all thesame."
"All right, doctor," said Nick; "you couldn't do more than bring me offwith a whole skin. And it's more than I deserve, too, for I didn't obeyorders."
"Well, now I suppose we may go back to bed?" suggested Frank. "It's notmuch past midnight, and I feel as if I wanted plenty more sleep beforemorning. I don't fancy we shall have many more visitors to-night."
"No," said the doctor, "we may sleep soundly now. Animals don't oftengo near a fountain where they have seen lions drinking. Indeed, theshots which have been fired would probably be enough to keep them away.Let us turn in again, by all means."
His prognostications were fulfilled. There was no further disturbancethat night, and when the travellers awoke on the following morning, theywere in high health and spirits.
"Do you intend to take the same track which we were following upyesterday, Charles?" asked Warley, as they sat at breakfast, "or haveyou altered your mind about it?"
"I see no reason for changing it," replied the surgeon. "I am sure theriver, which Vangelt told me of, cannot be above fifteen miles off atthe outside, and when we are once there, it is all, comparativelyspeaking, plain sailing. I don't know how far
this kind of country maylast, but I feel sure it cannot be for any great distance.Notwithstanding yesterday's experience, I don't advise our taking waterwith us, or anything but a few slices of meat I am persuaded that weshall not suffer a second time, as we did yesterday; and carrying wateralways hampers travellers terribly."
All readily gave their assent to his suggestions, and before six o'clockthe travellers were again in motion. They journeyed on for severalmiles, the bare rocks and sand still continuing the main features of thelandscape: but about twelve o'clock their eyes were relieved by theappearance of wooded slopes in the distance. Presently they came to asmall pool, surrounded by a grove of oomahaamas and acacias, among thebranches of which they noticed a quantity of grey-crested parrots, whichkept up an incessant screaming, from the moment the travellers came insight to that of their departure.
"Here's a good place for a halt," suggested Ernest. "This shade is mostrefreshing, and the water seems clear and cool."
"I am quite of your mind, Ernest," said Nick, flinging himself at fulllength on the grass at the edge of the pool. "Exhausted nature can't gofurther without a respite. Now, if any one would be so good as to shoottwo or three of those parrots, that are actually crying out to be shot,they would make a famous--What are you up to now, man?" he addedsharply, as he felt a sudden blow on his shin. "You would do well totake care what you are doing."
"_You_ would do well to take care," retorted Warley. "Do you see whatwas crawling up your leg?" He held up, as he spoke, a dead snake abouteighteen inches long, with a curious-looking horn on either side of itshead. "If I hadn't hit him on the neck the moment I saw him, he'd havebitten your hand to a certainty. He was making straight for it."
"A snake!" cried Nick, starting up in horror. "So there is, I declare.The nasty brute! I don't know whether it is venomous or not, but I'mmuch obliged, even if it isn't. They are not nice things up a fellow'sleg!"
"Hand him over here," said Charles Lavie. "Oh ay, I know this fellow.He is called the cerastes, and is venomous, I believe, though not one ofthe worst kinds of poisonous snakes. You are well out of it, Nick, Ican tell you, and must look more carefully about you in this countrybefore you sit down in a place like this. Some of the reptiles are sonearly the colour of the ground, or the trees, that even an old stagermay be taken in."
"Are there any large pythons in these parts?" asked Warley. "I've heardtwo quite different accounts. One says that they are never found so farsouth as this; the other, that they are to be met with thirty or fortyfeet long, and as thick round as a stout man. What is the truth of thematter?"
"Well, the truth is something between the two, I believe, as isgenerally the case," said the surgeon. "They are certainly not commonin Southern Africa, since people who have lived here all their liveshave never seen one. But now and then they are to be met with. I knowpersons who have seen serpents' skins thirty feet long in the possessionof natives; and one case I heard of, in which a skin was exhibited fullyten feet longer than that."
"Are they difficult to kill?" asked Frank.
"Not if you bide your time," said Lavie. "If you come upon them whenthey are hungry, they--the larger ones, that is--are more than a matchfor even the strongest men: and unless they are approached unawares, andwounded, so as to destroy their muscular power, a struggle with themwould be most dangerous. But after they have gorged their prey, theyare killed as easily as so many sheep--more easily in fact, for they arequite torpid."
"What are the worst snakes found in these parts?" inquired Gilbert."The cobra and the puff adder, I should say," returned the surgeon."The first will spring at you as if it was discharged out of someengine, and with such force, that if it fails to strike its mark it willovershoot the spot by several feet. The natives call it thehair-serpent, and are in great terror of it. If no sufficient remedy isapplied, its bite will cause death in less than an hour."
"_Is_ there any sufficient remedy?" rejoined Nick. "I thought there wasno cure."
"It's not so bad as that, Nick. There are remedies for most bites--thecobra's for instance. There is a root which the mangoust always eats,when it feels itself bitten by a cobra, and which is, so far as isknown, a complete cure. Eau de luce and sweet milk are generally givenin this country for a snake's bite, and the natives have beans andserpent stones, which, it is said, effect a cure. But the best thing todo--what I should have done in your case, Nick, if you had been bitten--is, first to fasten a ligature as tight as possible above the woundedpart, and then cauterise or cut away the injured flesh. Snakes' bitesare nasty things in these hot countries, and one can't be too careful.But come, it is time we move on again. We ought to reach the riverbanks early in the afternoon."
They recommenced their march accordingly, and had proceeded half a mileor so further, when Frank suddenly called upon them to stop.
"What can that noise be?" he said. "I have heard it two or three timesin the course of the last few minutes. It doesn't sound like the cry ofa bird, or beast either. And yet I suppose it must be."
"I didn't hear anything," said Gilbert. "Nor I," added Warley. "But myhearing is not nearly as good as Frank's. I've often noticed that."
"Let us stop and listen," suggested Charles.
They all stood still, intently listening. Presently a faint sound waswafted to them, apparently from a great distance--from the edge of thesandy desert, they fancied, which was still visible beyond the woodedtracts.
"No," said Charles, when the sound had been twice repeated, "that is notthe cry of any animal, with which I am acquainted. It sounds more likea human voice than anything else. If it was at all likely that therewas any other party of travellers in these parts, I should think theywere hailing us. But nothing can be more improbable than that."
"Still it is possible," urged Warley, "and they may be in want of ourhelp. Ought we not to go and find out the truth?"
"I think you are right, Ernest," said Frank.
"Well, I don't know," urged Gilbert, nervously. "I've heard all sortsof stories of voices being heard in the deserts, enticing people totheir destruction, and it may be some ruse of the savages about here,who want to get us into their hands, to possess themselves of our guns.What do you say, doctor?"
"Why, as for the voices, Nick, I've heard the stories you speak of,which have been told chiefly by persons who had lost their way and werenearly dead from cold and hunger. Under such circumstances, whenpeople's nerves and senses begin to fail them, they fancy all sorts ofstrange things. No doubt, too, there are all sorts of acousticdeceptions in these wild regions, as there are optical delusions; but Idon't think we four--all of us in sound health--are likely to be sodeceived--"
"But how about the savages, doctor?" interposed Nick, anxiously.
"Well, if these were the backwoods of America, and we had the RedIndians to deal with, there would be a good deal in your suggestion.But neither the Hottentots nor the Bushmen are given to stratagems ofthis kind. However, we'll move warily, and if any treachery isdesigned, we shall be pretty sure to baffle it."
They turned off in the direction whence the cry had come, keeping to theopen ground, and giving a wide berth to any clump of trees or underwoodwhich might harbour an enemy. Every now and then they paused to listenfor the sound, which was regularly repeated, at intervals apparently oftwo or three minutes, and grew more distinct as they advanced. It wasnow certain that the cry was human, and sounded like that of afull-grown man.
"We are getting a good deal nearer," observed Warley, as they passed thelast patch of trees, and entered once more the sandy wilderness. "Ishould say we must be almost close, only I don't see any place where theperson who is crying out in this manner can be hidden."
"It comes from that heap of stones there," exclaimed Frank, "that heapto the left, I mean--about two hundred yards further on."
"I see the stones, Frank, plain enough," said Mr Lavie, "but a mancouldn't be hidden among them. You call it a heap of stones, but thereis no heap. There
is not so much as one lying upon another."
"Nevertheless the cry comes from there," said Warley; "I heard it thelast time quite plainly. Let us go up and see."
They cautiously approached the spot in question, where there were aboutthirty or forty moderate-sized stones scattered on the plain. As theyadvanced the mysterious call was again heard.
"I see who it is that's making it," shouted Wilmore. "It's a fellowwhose head is just above ground. I took his head for a black stone,with a lot of moss growing on it. But now I can see that it is a head,though the features are turned away from us."
They hurried up, and found that Frank was right. The stones were lyinground what seemed to have been a dry well. In this a man had beenburied up to his neck, the chin being just above the level of theground. It did not appear that he was conscious of their approach; forat the interval of every two or three minutes he continued to give ventto the shrill monotonous cry, which had attracted their attention.
"What in the world can this mean!" exclaimed Nick. "The fellow can'thave tumbled into the well, and the stones have fallen in after him, Isuppose?"
"Is it some penance, do you think, that he is undergoing?" suggestedWarley.
"Or a punishment for a crime he has committed?" said Wilmore.
"It may be a punishment for some offence," said Mr Lavie, "though Inever heard of the Hottentots punishing their people in that way, andthe man is plainly a Hottentot. As for anything else, of course it isquite impossible that he can have got jammed up in this way by accident;and the Hottentots know nothing of penances. Such a thing has neverbeen heard of among them. But the first thing is to get the poor fellowout and give him something to restore him; for he is half dead withthirst and exposure to the sun, and does not seem conscious of what ispassing."
They fell to with a will, and had soon so far released the captive, thathe was able to draw his breath freely and swallow a little brandy, whichMr Lavie poured on his tongue. He then opened his eyes for a moment,gazing with the utmost bewilderment and wonder on the dress andappearance of the figures round him; and then closed them again with alow groan.
"They meant this--the beggars that holed him in after this fashion,"observed Frank. "The stones are fitted round him as carefully as thoughthey had been building a wall. And, look! the poor wretch's arms arefastened by a thong to his sides. What brutes! Hand us the knife,Nick, and I'll cut them. How tough they are!"
It needed a strong hand and a sharp blade to sever the stout thongs,which on subsequent examination were found to consist of rhinoceroshide. But when his arms were at length free, the man made no effort touse them. It was evident that they were so benumbed by the forcedrestraint in which they had so long been kept, that he had lost allpower over them. They were obliged to continue to remove the stones,until his feet were completely released, before he could be extricatedfrom the hole; and when this was effected, it was only by the jointstrength of the four Englishmen, the Hottentot himself being unable torender any assistance.
He was now carried to the shade of the nearest trees; Nick ran back totheir recent resting-place, and returned with the iron pot full ofwater, while Warley and Wilmore, under the surgeon's direction, chafedhis limbs. By the time of Gilbert's return their efforts had beensuccessful. The sufferer once more opened his eyes, and making signsthat the water should be handed to him, drank a long and refreshingdraught. "He'll do now," observed Nick, as he witnessed this feat."There's no more fear for his health after that. But I should like toknow who he is, and how he came there. I say, blacky, what may yourname happen to be, and how did you come to be boxed up after thatfashion, like a chimney-sweep stuck in a narrow flue?"
To the astonishment of the whole party, Nick's question was answered.
"Omatoko my name. Tank Englishman much for pull him out. Omatoko soondie, if they not come. Bushmen bury Omatoko one, two day ago. Goodmen, give Omatoko food, or he die now."