CHAPTER TWELVE.
A BUFFALO RUN.
The General owned that there would be good hunting here, but he wantedto get the party well into the interior, where, taking up a centralposition, they could make excursions in any direction according to theway in which the game lay. If they stayed where they were, all theywould do would be to drive the game away, and it would grow more scarce.
The boys were as eager as the General, and looking upon the interior asa land of mystery and romance, they readily backed up the proposal to gofarther.
"Well, my boys, I hardly know what to say," replied Mr Rogers. "I wantfor you both to grow sturdy, manly, and inured to danger; but I scarcelylike running the risk of taking you where we may be constantlyencountering the lion, the rhinoceros, and the elephant andhippopotamus."
"But we shall be very careful," said Jack.
"And we are growing better marksmen every day, father," exclaimed Dick.
"Yes, my boys, I dare say you are," replied Mr Rogers. "But pleaseremember that taking aim at and shooting a timid deer is one thing;standing face to face with some fierce beast ready to take your life,quite another."
"Oh, yes, father, I know that," said Jack; "and I dare say I should behorribly frightened, but I wouldn't run away."
"It might be wiser to do so than to provoke the animal by firing," saidMr Rogers, smiling. "What do you say, Dick?"
"I say I should like to go on, father, in spite of the risk," repliedDick. "Now we have come so far, I want to see more of the wonderfulCentral African land, and I should like to shoot a lion, an elephant, arhinoceros, and a hippopotamus."
"And a giraffe, a crocodile, and a boa-constrictor," said Jack.
"And would you both like to make that bag in one day, young gentlemen?"said Mr Rogers, smiling.
"Ah, now you are laughing at us, father," said Dick. "Of course wedon't expect to shoot all those creatures, but we should like to try."
"Yes," added Jack; "that's it, Dick. We should like to try."
"Then you shall try," said Mr Rogers, quietly; "on condition, mind,that you will neither of you do anything rash, but follow out either myadvice or that of the General, whom I feel disposed to trust more andmore."
The country seemed to grow more romantic and grand the farther theytrekked on away from civilisation, and they travelled now very fewhundred yards without seeing something new and full of interest. Gamewas so abundant that there was no difficulty in keeping up a plentifulsupply. Dinny even threatened to lose the frying-pan, for, as he said,he was frying steak morning, noon, and night; but as he loved dearly tofry one particularly juicy piece always for a gentleman named Dinny,there was not much fear of his keeping his word.
But somehow Dinny did not add to the harmony of the expedition. Heproved himself again and again to be an arrant coward; and, coward-like,he tried to tyrannise over the weaker.
He was afraid of the General; and when, upon one or two occasions, hehad quarrelled with Peter or Dirk, those gentlemen had displayed so muchpugnacity that Dinny had prudently resolved to quarrel with them nomore. He, however, made up for this by pouring out his virulence uponCoffee and Chicory, the dogs having been too much for him; and the Zuluboys bore it all in silence, but evidently meant to remember Dinny'sbehaviour when the time came.
One day, soon after entering the game country, the General, who was onahead alternately scanning the horizon and the ground, while the oxenslowly lumbered on behind, suddenly stopped, and began to examine somefootprints in a marshy piece of ground which he had just told Dick toavoid.
"What is it?" said Dick, coming up.
"Look," said the General, pointing to the great footprints.
"Why, it looks as if a great cat had been here," said Dick.
"Yes; great cat; lion!" said the Zulu.
And when Mr Rogers and Jack had cantered up, and seen the spoor, assuch footprints were generally termed in South Africa, they knew thatthere would be real danger now hovering about their nightly camps.
That afternoon, as they were passing through a woody portion of thecountry, Chicory, who was well ahead, assegai in hand, eagerly lookingout for game, was heard suddenly to yell out as if in agony; and as allran to his help, he was found to be rolling on the ground, shrieking thenative word for "Snake! snake!"
Mr Rogers was the first to reach him, being mounted, and as he drewrein by the prostrate boy, he saw a long thin snake gliding away.
He was just in time, and leaning forward he took rapid aim with hisfowling-piece; and as the smoke rose, a long thin ash-coloured snake wasseen writhing, mortally wounded, upon the ground.
The General caught the boy by the shoulder, and proceeded to divide hisjet-black hair, examining his scalp carefully, but without finding anytrace of a wound; though Chicory declared that he was killed, and thatthe snake had seized him by the head as he was going under a tree.
He had felt it, and when he threw himself forward to avoid it, thecreature writhed and twisted about his neck, till in his horror herolled over and over, partly crushing the reptile, which was making itsescape when Mr Rogers's gun put an end to its power of doing mischief.
The General having satisfied himself that his boy was not hurt, sent himforward with a cuff on the ear, before giving his master a grateful lookfor destroying a virulently poisonous serpent--one, he assured them,whose regular practice was to hang suspended by the tail from some lowbranch, and in this position to strike at any living creature thatpassed beneath.
"He would have been dead now," said the General, "if the snake's teethhad gone through his hair."
It was with no little satisfaction then, after this adventure, that thehunting-party passed through the woody region they were then in, andcame into the open, for during the last few hours everybody's eyes hadbeen diligently directed at the overhanging branches of the trees, Dinnybeing so observant that he two or three times tripped over prostrateboughs, and went down upon his nose.
As they passed out into the open they were in a rough plain, covered asfar as they could see with coarse herbage; and hardly had the waggonemerged before Mr Rogers, who was using his glass, drew the General'sattention to some dark objects upon a slope some distance ahead.
The Zulu glanced at the dark shapes for a few moments, and then criedeagerly,--
"Buffalo!"
"Come along, Dick," shouted Jack.
"Stop, stop!" exclaimed their father. "What are you going to do?"
"Shoot a buffalo, father."
"If we can," added Dick.
"But you must be careful. These buffalo are pretty fierce creatures,and dangerous at times."
"Yes, very dangerous," assented the Zulu. "Boss Jack--Boss Dick shootone, and the boys drive one to him."
The General undertaking to do his best to keep his sons out of danger,Mr Rogers consented to let them go; and soon afterwards, having madehis plans, the General started off with his boys, pointing out a coursefor Jack and Dick to take upon their cobs, advising them both to fire atthe same buffalo as it galloped past them, and then to keep hidden tillthe herd had gone by.
This they undertook to do; and away they cantered in one direction, theGeneral and his boys going in another, so as to get ahead of the herd,and then show themselves, and that, they expected, would drive themtowards the young hunters.
All turned out exactly as anticipated. Dick and Jack sat like statues,in a low hollow, with rifles cocked, and cartridges handy for a secondshot, waiting for the coming of the herd; and at last, just as they hadgiven up all expectation of seeing them, there was a low rushing soundin the distance as of wind--then a roar, ever increasing, until it waslike thunder; and then down came the vast herd of heavy animals,surprising the boys at first by their number, so that they had nearlyall gone by before either of the brothers thought of firing.
Dick was the first to rouse himself from his surprise.
"Now then, Jack," he cried, as their horses stood motionless, watchingthe passing drove; "fire at that slate-co
loured bull. Now then, takeaim together--fire!"
The two rifle-shots pealed almost like one, and, to the delight of theboys, they saw the young bull they had shot stagger forward on to itsknees, and then roll over upon its side.
"Hurray! First buffalo!" cried Jack; and together the boys cantered outinto the plain, when, to their intense astonishment, instead of the herdcontinuing its flight, about a dozen bulls stopped short, stared atthem, pawed the ground, stuck up their tails, wheeled round, uttered afierce roar, and charged.
Even if the boys had felt disposed to meet their enemies with a couplemore shots, the cobs would not have stood still. They were well-broken,and trusty; day by day they had seemed to gain confidence in theirriders, and they would stand perfectly still if their bridles were drawnover their heads and allowed to trail upon the ground; while if Jack orDick liked to make a rifle-rest of their backs, they were perfectlycontent, and stood as rigidly as if carved out of stone.
But there are bounds even to the confidence of a horse. When the littlesteeds saw the fierce looks of the buffaloes, heard their angrybellowings, and found that with waving tails, menacing horns, and hoofsthat seemed to thunder as they tore up the ground, the bulls were comingnearer and nearer, and evidently with the full intent of burying thosesharp horns in their chests, Shoes and Stockings snorted violently,turned round so suddenly that had not Jack and Dick been excellenthorsemen they would have been thrown, and tore away over the plain.
This was a reverse of circumstances; and naturally feeling startled atsuch a change, their boys gave their horses their heads, sat well down,and kept giving furtive glances behind to see if the bulls were gainingupon them.
At the end of a few moments, though, it occurred to Dick that theirspeed was greater than that of the buffaloes, and consequently that theywould have no difficulty, failing accidents, in galloping away. Then hebegan to think of his rifle and ammunition, but felt that under thecircumstances fire-arms were useless.
Last of all he began to feel very much ashamed of his position, in beinghunted like this.
The same feeling seemed to have affected Jack, who looked at his brotheras they raced on side by side.
The consequence was that all of a sudden they both sat up more erect intheir saddles, and took a pull at the reins, bringing Shoes andStockings by degrees into a hand gallop, instead of the _ventre a terre_progress they were making before.
"This won't do," cried Dick, as he glanced back to find that the bullswere still lumbering on behind them, snorting savagely, and shakingtheir horn-armed fronts.
"No," said Jack, "we are taking them right down on the waggon, andthey'll charge straight over the camp."
"Yes; let's turn off to the left," shouted Dick; and as if by oneimpulse they wheeled round to the left, and galloped on over the plain."I tell you what," he cried, as a happy idea struck him; "let's wheelround to the right now."
"What for?" shouted back his brother.
"So as to ride round and round the waggon in a circle. Father willbring one or two of them down."
For answer Jack wheeled to the right, and if the manoeuvre had been keptup it would have answered; but, as it happened, Mr Rogers had gone awayfrom the waggon in search of some beautifully plumaged birds which hadsettled in the trees above the camp, and then gone on to a grove a mileor so away.
The General and his boys were of course far away out on the plain, wherethey had been driving the buffalo, and therefore Dinny was the principalman in camp.
He was busy with the frying-pan frizzling himself a venison steak, when,hearing the thunder of hoofs, he dropped the pan in the wood ashes, andstood staring with horror.
"What'll I do now?" he cried.
Then a bright idea seized him, and pulling his knife from his belt, hedashed at the place where his enemies the dogs were tied up by stoutthongs to the waggon-wheels, and divided them one by one.
"There, ye bastes," he cried, "be off and get tossed." And as the dogsrushed off, delighted with their freedom, Dinny chose what he thoughtwas the safest place in the camp, namely, the space between the fourwheels beneath the waggon, and there lay down and wished himself backsafely in his mother's cabin.
The dogs had been for some moments past tearing at their thongs to getaway, so that no sooner were they freed than, barking and bayingfiercely, they raced down after the buffaloes, and Dinny never did abetter act in his life. Certainly it was prompted by cowardice; but ithad its good fruits, for it was the saving of poor Dick's life.
The boys had galloped on as had been suggested, gradually inclining tothe right, so that they drew the little herd of bulls into followingthem in a circle; and in this way they had nearly gone round the waggonat about a couple of hundred yards' distance, wondering why their fatherdid not shoot, when, all at once, just as the baying of the dogs reachedtheir ears, Dick turned a piteous look at his brother.
"I'm--I'm not strong, yet, Jack," he faltered. "Ride on fast."
To Jack's horror he saw his brother's eyes close, and that he fellforward upon his horse's neck; the next moment he had glided as it wereout of his saddle, and fallen--his horse, from its good training,stopping short by his side.
The buffaloes were only about thirty yards behind, and as Jack reinedin, and turned to help his brother, the bulls lowered, their horns, andin another moment or two they would have been trampled and gored,perhaps killed; but just as the great shaggy animals were upon them, thedogs made their attack, Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus each seizing a bullby the lip, while Rough'un kept up a furious barking as he tore at thevarious animals' heels.
The effect was magical upon the buffaloes, which tossed their headsfuriously in the air, and dislodging their assailants, turned and rushedoff, with the dogs now biting their heels or leaping viciously at theirflanks, all attack now being changed to flight.