CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
LOOK BEFORE YOU STEP: 'WARE SNAKES.
Coffee was gathering strength every day, and the wounds in his healthyyoung flesh healing rapidly. So much better was he that there was nooccasion to study him any longer on the question of danger in moving, sothe well-fed oxen were in-spanned, and a few more treks brought theparty to one of the tributaries of the Limpopo, whose main stream theyhoped to reach on the following day.
The country here was much less regular, and the work for the oxen grewmore difficult, but they found capital quarters, with plenty of goodgrass, strong thorn bush for a kraal; and as the place promised sport,and plenty of natural history specimens amongst the rocks and rifts intowhich the land was broken, Mr Rogers determined to rest here for a dayor two.
So a kraal was formed, the cattle sent to graze; the boys mounted Shoesand Stockings, and starting to get something in the way of game, werepretty successful, bringing in a plump young bok; and as evening came onand they were resting, Dinny suddenly made his appearance with a longstout stick and a line.
"I've been looking," he said, "and there's some moighty foine waterclose by here, and a bit of salmon wouldn't be amiss."
"There are no salmon here, Dinny," said Dick.
"Then there are some good big fish, anyhow," said Dinny; and he went offsome fifty or sixty yards to where the narrow little stream ran at thebottom of rather a steep declivity.
"Mind you don't have any of the gintlemen throwing stones at you,Dinny," shouted Dick.
"Ah, you'd better be careful," said Mr Rogers, smiling; "Those rockslook a likely place for baboons."
"Whist, schah!" exclaimed Dinny contemptuously; "as if I'd be afraid ofa monkey;" and he soon disappeared from sight.
The soft coolness of the evening was creeping on, the occupants of thelittle camp were restfully listening to the _crop_, _crop_! of thecattle, and Mr Rogers was about to give orders for them to be driveninto the kraal, when the peace of the camp was broken by a loud cry fromtowards the little river.
"Murther! help! masther dear. Help, or it's dead I'll be!" yelled thefamiliar voice of Dinny.
Guns always lay handy, and they were seized, and all ran towards whereDinny was yelling for help, a sharp look out being kept for baboons.
"I dare say they've attacked him," said Mr Rogers. "They are veryvicious, and tremendously strong. Why, where is he? Dinny! Dinny!"
"Hee-ar! Help!" cried Dinny. And running in the direction of thesound, they came upon Dinny's boot-soles, and were just in time to savehim from gliding into the little river, head first, the tuft of grass towhich he was clinging having given way.
"An' did ye see the murthering baste?" cried Dinny, who looked whitethrough his sunburning.
"No, I saw nothing," cried Mr Rogers.
"Ah, but he's down there in the muddy water. Shure I'd caught one greatugly fat fish like an overgrown son of an eel; there he lies where hewriggled himself," said Dinny, pointing to a fine silurus lying in aniche of the rock. "And I'd hooked another, when a great baste of athing wid the wickedest oi ye ever see, and a smile as wide as the mouthof the Shannon, came up and looked at me. `Oh, murther!' I says; andhe stared at me, and showed me what a fine open countenance he had; andjust then the big fish I'd hooked made a dash, and gave such a tug thatI slipped as I lay head downwards, bechuckst thim two bits o' bushes,and I couldn't get meself back agin."
"Why, there's the fish on the line still," cried Jack, seizing the roughrod, and trying to land the captive of Dinny's hook.
"Ah, and ye'll take care, Masther Dick, for I belave it's that greatbaste has swallowed the fish, and ye'll be pulling him to land."
Dinny was not right; and full of excitement, Jack was trying hard toland the fish, when there was a rush and a swirl in the water, and asthey caught sight of the head and jaws of a good-sized crocodile theline was snapped, and the little party stood gazing at the muddy stream.
"Shure an' that's him," said Dinny. "Did ye ever see such a baste?"
"A warning not to bathe," said Mr Rogers; and after watchfully waitingto see if the reptile would give them an opportunity for a shot, theywalked back to the camp, Dinny carrying his fish, and bemoaning the lossof the other and his tackle.
"How big should you think that was, father?" said Dick.
"About twelve feet long, to judge from the size of his head," said MrRogers. "You must be careful, boys, and mind that the cattle arewatched when they go down to drink. The crocodiles are mostobjectionable beasts, and I suppose the Limpopo and its tributariesswarm with them."
They seemed now to have got into quite a reptilian paradise. Low downby the river the land was swampy, hot, and steamy to a degree; and hereamidst the long rank reeds, canes, and herbage the crocodiles revelled,while water-lizards of great size made their tracks along the banks.Higher up out of the ravine where the river ran, the land was rocky andfull of nooks and corners, which the sun seemed literally to bake. Herecame flies innumerable, buzzing and stinging viciously when their abodewas invaded, and over and about the sun-parched rocks the various kindsof lizards swarmed, and preyed upon the flies and beetles.
They were very beautiful, these flies and beetles, and lizards--theformer with their brilliant colours and gauzy wings, the latter in theirjewelled and polished armour, often of the most brilliant metallictints, and always glistening in the sun.
Hundreds of the brightly armoured beetles were captured, and transferredto the boxes kept for the purpose; but it was dangerous work, forpoisonous snakes lurked amongst these sun-baked rocks, twisted in sleepyknots, and so like in hue to the stones amongst which they lay that afoot might at any moment be inadvertently placed upon them.
Jack had an adventure of this kind the very day after their arrival.
There had been some talk of going, as the General proposed, after one orother of the herds of antelope feeding upon a plain a couple of milesdistant; but Mr Rogers said the larder was well filled, and his idea ofa pleasant hunting trip was not one where mere butchery was the rule,but where a sufficiency was killed for their daily use.
"By all means, let us destroy such noxious animals as we come across,"he said; "and I am keen sportsman enough to want to shoot some of thelarge game; but let us be naturalists, boys, and not simply slayers ofall we see."
The result was that they spent that day collecting insects and smallreptiles, Chicory accompanying them to carry a large open-mouthed bottleof spirits with stopper and sling, and the glass protected by a stoutnetwork of soft copper wire.
Into this spirit-bottle little vipers, scorpions, spiders, and similarcreatures, were dropped, Chicory holding the stopper, and throwing backhis head and grinning with delight as some wriggling little poisonouscreature was popped in. In fact, Chicory was an indefatigable hunter ofgreat things and small, taking readily to natural history pursuits; buthe had his drawbacks, one of which was a belief that the little snakesand tiny lizards dropped into the spirits of wine were to make some kindof soup; and he had to be stopped just in time to prevent his wellamalgamating the contents of the great flask by giving it a good shakeup.
"Dere's one, Boss Dick. Dere's nother one, Boss Jack," he kept onsaying, his quick restless eyes discovering the various objects longbefore his English companions.
They were up in one of the superheated rifts among the rocks, with thesun pouring down so powerfully that the whole party were very languidand disposed to seek the first shelter, when an incident that might havehad a fatal termination came upon them like a shot.
Jack was in advance, and about to climb up to a shelf of rock in pursuitof some brilliant little lizards that were darting in and out of thecrevices when Chicory shouted out,--
"Boss Jack! mind snake!"
It was too late. There was a great dust-coloured puff-adder lying inhis way, with its thick clumsy body nestled in amongst the hot stones;and even as the Zulu boy's warning was uttered, Jack's boot pressedheavily upon the lower part of the dangerous reptile's bo
dy.
Sluggish and dull before, this assault brought the reptile into a stateof activity that was almost wonderful, and before Jack could realise hisperil the short thick viper had struck twice at his leg. Before,however, it could strike again, its head lay upon the stones, cut off bya blow from Chicory's long-bladed assegai, and the body of the dangerousbeast was writhing amongst and rattling the stones.
"Chicory 'fraid he broke a bottle," said the boy, who had dropped it inhis excitement.
But the flask and its natural history contents formed a very minorconsideration just then.
"Are you hurt, my boy?" cried Mr Rogers quickly. "Sit down there.Here, Dick, the spirit-flask. Now then, draw up your trouser-leg."
Jack obeyed, and Mr Rogers immediately stripped down the lad's roughworsted stocking, taking out his penknife and preparing to make the tinypunctures bleed freely, and to suck the fatal poison from the wounds.
"Does it pain you much?" said Mr Rogers excitedly; and his handstrembled for a moment, but only to grow strong directly.
"No," said Jack stoically.
"Don't be afraid, my boy; be a man. Now where was it?"
"I won't be afraid," replied Jack. "I won't mind the knife, father."
"Quick! Show me. Where was the wound?" exclaimed Mr Rogers.
"I don't know. It bit at me twice," replied Jack; "somewhere below theknee."
"These creatures' teeth are like needles," said Mr Rogers. "Look,Dick; can you see? two tiny punctures together?"
"Would it bleed, father?" said Dick.
"Most likely not."
"I don't see the wound, father."
"Nor I, my boy; but my head swims, and I feel giddy. It is as if therewas a mist before my eyes. Oh, my boy! my boy!"
"Snake never bite um at all," cried Chicory sturdily. "All swellum andlook blue by dis time. Only bite leggum trousers."
Jack burst into a roar of laughter, and a strange reaction took place,for Chicory was undoubtedly right: the loose trouser-leg had caught thevirulent little reptile's fangs, and averted the danger.
For there was no gainsaying the matter. Jack felt nothing the matterwith him, when, if he had been injured, he would have been under theinfluence of the terribly rapid poison by then, whereas he was ready tojump up and laugh at the mistake.
He did not laugh much, however, for his father's serious looks checkedhim. And soon after, when they were alone, Mr Rogers said something tohis son about thankfulness for his escape which brought the tears intothe boy's eyes. The next minute, though, father and son joined hands,and no more was said.
It was another warning to be careful, and of the many dangers by whichthey were surrounded, and the boys promised to temper their daring withmore discretion for the future.
They afterwards called that the reptile day, for the number of scalycreatures they saw was prodigious.
"But I want to see one of those tremendously great boa-constrictors,"said Dick, "one of the monsters you read of in books."
"As big round as the mast of a man-of-war, and as long, eh?" said hisfather.
"Yes," said Dick.
"Then I'm afraid, my boy, that you will be disappointed, for from my ownexperience I think those creatures exist only in the imaginations ofwriters. I dare say they may grow to thirty feet long, but you may takea boa of eighteen or twenty feet as a monster, and as big as you arelikely to see. That was a very large serpent you shot in the valleythere."
"Oh," said Dick; "I don't call that a long one."
"This is just the sort of place to find a large one, I should say,"continued Mr Rogers. "Hot, dry, stony places for basking, and dense,hot, steamy nooks down by the little river and lagoons where it would belikely to lie in wait for its prey."
But though they looked well about, they saw nothing, and the heat havingnow become intense, they found a clump of trees close by a tricklingstreamlet that ran along from the rocks to the river, and sat down torest and eat their lunch.
They felt too drowsy and tired with their morning's walking to care todo much in the afternoon, and they were quietly looking over theircaptures after shifting their places twice to get out of the sun as theshadow swept on, when Dick suddenly caught his father's arm, and pointedtowards the rocks.
"What's that shining over there?" he said quickly.
Chicory had been asleep the moment before, but Dick's movement andquestion roused him on the instant, and he glanced in the directionindicated.
"Big snake," he said decisively. "Chicory go and kill um."
The boy ran towards the rocks, and, picking up their guns, the restfollowed--to see that it was a large serpent from whose scales the sunhad gleamed. They could not even guess at its length it was so knottedup in folds; but its body was nearly as big round as that of Chicory,who seemed in nowise afraid of the great reptile, but picked up a massof rock larger than his head, balanced it on one hand, and advancedtowards the sleeping serpent, which had chosen one of the hottestportions of the rock for its siesta.
"_Yap_! _yap_! _yap_!" shouted Chicory; and the creature moved slowly,its whole body seeming to be in motion.
This was not enough for Chicory, who drew his kiri out of his waistband,and threw it heavily at the reptile.
This seemed to rouse it into action, and after a more rapid gliding ofone coil over the other, the creature's evil-looking head rose up,hissing menacingly at its disturber, who raised the piece of rock withboth hands above his head, and dashed it down upon the serpent's crest,crushing it to the ground, after which the boy nimbly leaped away, toavoid the writhing of its body and the fierce whipping of the creature'stail.
"Well done, Chicory, my brave boy," cried Mr Rogers, patting the Zululad upon the shoulder.
"Yes, Chicory very brave boy," said the lad, smiling complacently, andquite innocent of his words sounding conceited. "Chicory kill all bigsnake for boss. Boss boys very kind to Coffee, and father love 'em."
This was a long speech for Chicory, who nodded and smiled, and ended bywaiting his opportunity, and then seizing the boa's tail and runningaway with it to stretch the creature out. But it was too heavy, and itswrithings continued even after the boys had fired a charge of small shotat close quarters through the reptile's head.
They wanted to measure it, but that was impossible from its writhings.Mr Rogers, however, made an approximate calculation, and then said,quietly,--
"I should say it was as near as can be nineteen feet long, and unusuallylarge in girth."
"Oh, father," cried Jack; "it must be thirty-nine feet long."
"Ah, Jack, my boy," replied his father, laughing, "that's oldtravellers' measurement--and they always allowed six feet to the yard--that is, twenty-four inches to the foot; and that's why ourang-outangs,and whales, and serpents were always so large."
But they had not yet arrived at the end of their reptile adventures.
They waited for some time to see if the boa would cease its writhings;but the muscular contractions still continuing, and the darktortoiseshell-like markings of brown and yellow and black glistening inthe sun quite two hours after the creature might reasonably have beensaid to be killed, they gave it up and went further afield.
"Suppose we leave this series of red-hot rocks, boys, and go downtowards the water. From the appearance of the country over yonder Ifancy that the stream widens out into a lake."
"How do you know, father?" asked Dick.
"From the character of the trees and other growth. Don't you see howmuch more leafy and luxuriant it looks. Keep your eyes well opened andyour pieces ready. I dare say we may meet with a rare bird or two,perhaps some kind of water-buck--ready for the camp to-morrow!"
As Mr Rogers had predicted, a couple of miles walking brought them towhat in parts was quite a marsh full of canes and reeds; but every hereand there were beautiful pools of breeze-rippled water, spread withlovely lilies and other water-plants, while the edges were fringed withwillow-like wands and waving sedges.
So beautiful was the
scene where the little river widened, and woundthrough the low ground, that as they wandered about amongst the firmerground they forbore to shoot, but paused from time to time to watch thelovely plumage of the various ducks and cranes that made the lagoonstheir home.
Not a shot then had been fired, and as they wandered in and out theyfound plenty to take their attention. Every here and there Chicoryfound for them some nest in amongst the reeds--the nursery of duck orcrane. But the most interesting thing that they saw in the shape ofnests was that of a kind of sociable grossbeak, a flock of which hadbuilt a town in a large tree, quite a hundred nests being together incommon; while in another tree, whose branches drooped over the water,there were suspended dozens of a curiously woven bottle-shaped nest,with its entrance below, to keep the young birds from the attack ofsnakes.
"What's that noise?" said Jack, suddenly, as he was on about a quarterof a mile ahead with his brother, Mr Rogers being busily transferringsome water-beetles to Chicory's spirit-bottle, which escaped breakingafter all from the toughness of the wire.
"I don't know," replied Dick. "It sounds like some animal. And there'sa scuffling noise as well.
"It's just like a cow moaning, a very long way off. I wonder what itis?"
"I don't think it's a long way off. It seems to me to be pretty close."
They moved about among the reeds and bushes, but could see nothing.
"I know what it is," said Jack, laughing. "It's some kind of big frogor toad: they live in such marshy places as this, and they croak andmake noises that seem to be ever so far-off, when they are close by."
"Oh! Look, Jack! Oh, poor thing!" cried his brother.
"Where? Where?"
"Over yonder, across the water."
Jack caught sight of the objects that had taken his brother's attention,and for a few moments the boys seemed passive spectators of the horriblescene.
Across the lagoon, and some fifty yards away, a beautiful antelope, withgracefully curved spiral horns, had apparently come out of the bushes todrink, at a point of land running a little way into the lake, when ithad been seized by a hideous-looking crocodile. The monster'steeth-armed jaws had closed upon the unfortunate antelope's muzzle, anda furious struggle was going on, during which, as it uttered its piteousfeeble lowing noise, something between the cry of a calf and a sheep,the crocodile, whose tail was in the water on the side of the pointfarthest from where the spectators stood, was striving to drag its preyinto the lagoon.
The antelope made a brave struggle, but the tremendous grip of thereptile and its enormous weight, rendered the efforts of the poor beastvain: and as the boys gazed across, they saw the poor brute dragged downupon its knees and chest, and the crocodile shuffling slowly back intothe water, an inch at a time.
"Oh, the poor, poor beast!" cried Dick piteously. "Oh, Jack, howdreadful!"
"Poor old crocodile!" said Jack coolly, for he had now recoveredhimself. "If he's going to eat all that buck for his dinner he'llsuffer from indigestion. I say, Dick, let's give him a couple ofpills."
As he spoke, Jack sank upon one knee in the reeds so as to rest hisrifle well, and catching at his brother's idea, Dick followed suit.
"Take a good, steady aim, Dick, right behind his eye, so as not to hitthe antelope: and when I say fire, pull trigger as softly as you can.Take it coolly. Ready?"
"Yes."
"Fire!"
It was none too soon, for the antelope was being dragged along, growingmore helpless and its struggles more faint moment by moment, while thebody of the crocodile was disappearing backwards down the slope of thepoint of land.
But that loathsome-looking head was still visible, dragging thehelpless, striving antelope, whose piteous rolling eyes could be plainlyseen by the boys.
The next instant, though, they had concentrated their gaze on thegleaming orb of the crocodile, thrown all their power of nerve into thataim, and, so as not to disturb their rifle-sights by the slightestmovement, softly drew trigger.
The reports of the rifles were almost simultaneous, and for a fewmoments the boys could see nothing for smoke: but as the tiny cloud ofvapour lifted, they looked eagerly across.
There was nothing to be seen.