CHAPTER XIX
LOST IN THE JUNGLE
Ralph, upon flying from the infuriated elephant, had followed the defilebefore described, rushing up its tortuous windings with little heedbeyond that of his own safety. If he thought at all, he believed thatthe others were following him at no great distance; attracted, as he hadbeen, by the rough stones lying in the bed of the stream; where, afterthe rains, it tumbled headlong down the pass, a mountain torrent ofdouble its present width. The loose boulders, and jagged fragments ofrock, would, he considered, cut the pads in the elephant's feet anddeter the animal's pursuit. In this he was mistaken, but the idea guidedhis flight at the time.
He did not pause for reflection; it was instinct more than deliberationwhich impelled his flight. On he ran; his active, well-trained younglimbs covering the ground rapidly; leaping from rock to boulder,springing over pool and marshy hollow, and instinctively takingadvantage of every soft grassy slope.
All at once his heedless progress was arrested by summary disaster. Hestepped upon something soft, which turned beneath his foot instead ofproving to be a rounded hard stone. A fearful screech was heard,curdling the very marrow in his bones, and bringing his heart to hismouth as he fell, measuring his length prone upon the sward. Anunearthly spitting and growling assailed him, which, as he quickly cameto himself after the shock of his fall, he first thought emanated froman enraged cat; but the next moment, was, he perceived, the token ofsomething far worse.
He had tumbled over two young tiger cubs, and their dam was hurrying upto their rescue, from the pool where she had been drinking.
He saw the rich colour of her soft fur; he marked the beautiful darkwaving lines crossing the yellow body; the graceful power of her stronglimbs was impressed upon his mind in the moment's view which he had ofher, lifting her head from the water at the cry of her offspring, andbounding back to their lair.
Then she crouched for her spring upon him, the sun lighting up hersplendid eyes, contracted as they were from the intentness with whichthey glared at him, her tail lashing itself to and fro, as she warilycrept two steps nearer, with fell purpose apparent in her every curve.
That pause for her spring saved him. How he took his aim he never knew;he could not have done it had he stayed to consider, it was an accuracyborn of desperation. He seized his gun, as he rose to his feet, pointedit, fired, and saw her drop. The shot had entered the creature's neck,near the shoulders, and pierced directly to its heart. She rolled overwith a faint struggle, and was still for evermore.
Oblivious of the death of their dam, the two cubs, replete with food,were already curling themselves around to resume their disturbed sleep.
Ralph could not believe in his own deliverance. He dropped his arms, andstood for a moment dumbfounded, expecting to see that agile sinuous massof beautiful peril move again.
He gazed at it in silent, fixed horror, till, gradually realising thathe was saved from it as by a miracle, he drew a long breath.
At the very same moment he became aware of two brilliant points oftopaz-hued light fixed upon him from the jungle.
They were the eyes of the male tiger, stealthily advancing upon him fromanother side.
It was too much for the boy. Terror seized upon him, and he fledprecipitately in the reverse direction; tearing his way through creeperand jungle-grass, breaking through bush and bramble, panting, gaspingand sick with fear, till, perceiving a gnarled tree easy to climb, heflung down his gun and swung himself upwards, from branch to branch,till he could seat himself upon a point of safety.
The tiger leapt, and leapt short of his prey. With a roar of baffledrage it bounded up to the tree where the boy sat with blanched cheeksand horror-distended eyes, and, rearing itself upon its hind legs,stretched a strong paw upwards in endeavour to reach its enemy and pullhim from his refuge. Up went Ralph's legs with an instinctive spasm. Hecrouched closer to the branch where he sat, and clung faster to theboughs and cord-like creepers around him.
The tiger, with ferocious growls, snuffed at the gun, prowled round thetree, and cast baleful glances upwards to the place where the boy wasplainly visible; but it made no attempt to climb the trunk, which Ralphfeared it would do. He did not know enough about the habits or power ofthese creatures to be sure what it would attempt; and was alternatelydivided between this dread and that of being no longer able to maintainhis hold, but of falling headlong from his perch into the grasp of thosecruel fangs and terrible paws.
But though every minute seemed to be an hour, the time was not reallyvery long before the creature gave up its pursuit, and made off withhead drooping and a long stealthy stride of its supple limbs.
Ralph could not at first believe himself to be safe. He thought that thetiger might return; he thought that it was watching him from some secretlair; he was not certain that his shot had proved fatal to the femaletiger; and the more he thought about it, the less probable did heconsider it that she was dead. He glanced this way and that, expectingto see a gleam of golden colour creeping among the undergrowth of deepgreen scrub; he strained his ears to hear soft footsteps crash among thebrushwood, or low-muttered growls uttered beneath him.
He was cramped and stiff from his attitude and the rigidity of his hold;he grew very cold as the sun went down; he was hungry and very, verythirsty; his lips were parched, his mouth fevered,--yet he dared notdescend the tree.
After a long time, he ventured to change his position to one of greaterease. He shifted his place to a mighty branch, upon which he mightrecline at full length, or sit with his back against the bole. Then hebegan to wonder what had become of his companions. He could see none ofthem, nor hear a sound which could proceed from human lips.
Where were they? What were they doing? Why did they not come to seekhim? Had any of them been trampled under foot by that mad elephant, ordevoured by the tigers? Surely some dreadful thing must have befallenthem, or they would have come to his assistance.
Mr. Gilchrist--Wills--Osborn--why did none of them come?
By degrees his thoughts concentrated themselves upon his gun. It mustnot be there in the long grass, dark and wet with heavy dew. He must godown and take it up, but dreaded the descent. Still, his gun must notbecome rusted and useless, or what would become of him. Slowly,silently, he crept down, swinging himself from bough to bough, pausingand listening every moment for the tiger's low growl. Now he thoughtthat he heard it; then he believed that it was but his imagination.Under one idea, he hung poised in air; under the other, he ventured alittle farther. All at once a treacherous branch, to which he hadtrusted his weight, gave way beneath him; and, with a sudden jerk, hefell crashing down to the ground.
His fall was broken by the thick tangle of the undergrowth, so that hefractured no bones, but he was terribly shaken, cut and scratched, andone foot sprained.
For a few moments he lay stunned; then pulled himself together, reachedout for the gun, and having possessed himself of it, tried to mount thetree again. But he could not succeed. His arms felt as if they had beenall but pulled out of their sockets; blood trickled into his eyes from adeep scratch on his brow, and blinded him.
But he dared not remain upon the ground, so he moved on a little to seeka tree which might be easier to climb. The moon had risen in radiantbeauty, and there was plenty of light, but no tree suitable to hispurpose grew about that spot, and he moved deeper into the jungle, as hethought that now here, now there, he had found one.
He did discover one at last, made his painful ascent of it, and, when hethought that he had mounted sufficiently high, he found a tolerably easyseat, and determined to await the dawn there.
He was extremely tired, but was afraid to sleep lest some snake ornoxious insect should coil around him or sting him. He had enough to doto ward off the attacks of myriads of creatures as it was. Mosquitoeshummed gaily over their feast upon him; huge beetles flopped in hisface, smaller ones ran up his trousers and sleeves, and tried topenetrate down his back.
Ants got into his boots, and slimy things
crawled over his hands andendeavoured to fix themselves on his face or neck, or cling to his hair.Would the tardy day never begin to break?
What was that red glow upon the sky to the eastward? It was not like thedawn, it was not in the right place,--but what could it be? It was likethe reflection, upon the sky, of a mighty fire,--but where was the fire?He could see none.
Ralph was not aware how far he had run up the defile, or noticed thedirection which he had taken in escaping from the tiger. In reality hehad skirted round the farther base of the hill upon which thepolice-station was situated, and was wandering in the jungle at itsbase.
The tardy sun rose at last; much of the terror of the night was sweptaway under its beneficent influence. Ralph pulled himself together,determined to walk off his stiffness and soreness; shouldered his gun,and set off--down quite a new gulley, under the idea that he wasreturning down the same through which he had come on the previousafternoon; and limped resolutely forward, away from his friends, awayfrom the station, away from all help and succour.
He walked for a long time before he found that he was not going rightly,for the defile came to an end. Its close was completed by a wide shallowpool, fringed with bamboo canes, and upon which many water-fowl weredisporting themselves, while more were preening their plumage upon itsbanks.
The sight made him feel how hungry he was, and he argued to himself thatthe sound of his gun would betray his whereabouts to his friends, whowould answer the signal by another to let him know in which direction toturn. He fired, therefore, upon the covey nearest to him, and two plumpbirds fell.
Forgetting his fatigue and his lame foot in the excitement, he splashedthrough the muddy shallows and pools, picked up his game, and brought itback to _terra firma_.
"Well," said he to himself, "there is nothing to be gained by ramblingfarther away. I may as well stay here and cook my breakfast, for I don'tknow which way to go, and it is as likely that I should go wrongly as inthe right way. If they don't hear my gun, they will perhaps see thesmoke of a fire, which will guide them."
He therefore gathered some dry fuel in a heap, and, having the goodfortune to discover some cutchwood trees, collected the witheredbranches lying scattered around, and soon had a splendid fire. Theflames emitted from the cutchwood were, however, too fierce for hiscookery, so he piled on some greener wood, and sat down to pluck hisbirds, while the blaze was dying down to a nice glowing bed of redashes.
We say "pluck his birds," but Ralph was no gourmand; nor was he cook toa first-class gentleman's club. Plucking was too lengthy an operationfor him; he cut the skin of his game down the back, and pulled it off,inside out, like a stocking from a foot, having first chopped off theheads and legs.
This operation was completed before his fire was ready; so he took aplunge into a clear pool, reclothed himself, and then broiled hisbreakfast, having split his birds open like spatch-cocks.
"They are not bad," thought he, as he devoured them, tearing their limbsapart by help of fingers and knife, like a young ogre. "They are notbad, though they would have been more savoury if I had had some pepperand salt, with a dab of butter. How Agnes would have jeered at me asman-cook. I wonder what the dear old girl is doing now. She littlethinks where I am. Lost in a Burmese jungle! What a pretty kettle offish it is. I know no more than the man in the moon which way to go, orwhat to do. Well, no predicament is so bad that it can't be mended. If Iwalk straight on, I must come somewhere, sooner or later. Those fellowsdon't mean to join me here, that's plain. So Ralph Denham, Esq.,marching orders are yours. Forward!"
He knew that he must regain the main stream of the Salween River, up theeastern bank of which his party had come; but where was the Salween? Hemust climb one of these mountain-spurs,--one sufficiently lofty tocommand a bird's-eye view of the country, so that he could take itsbearings. He therefore set himself to the ascent of the most lofty hillwhich he could perceive.
The ascent was, however, no joke. His foot was very painful. He haddipped his handkerchief in water, and bound it tightly round the ankle,but the heat rapidly dried it, nor could he constantly find means ofrewetting it to keep it cool.
The jungle grew thicker and thicker, more and more impenetrable, withevery step. He had to cut his way with his knife through the tangle ofcreepers, linked and bound together in impenetrable masses, and hisknife soon became wholly inadequate to the task.
To proceed straight forward was utterly impossible, for the thickness ofthe interlacing stems quite baffled his strength. He found an easierplace to the right, and essayed that; but after a few steps he waspulled up again. He discovered a slighter barrier to the left, again tobe baffled wholly.
After hours of work, he had advanced but a dozen yards, and made up hismind that to penetrate such a jungle as this, with no better appliancesthan he possessed, and with no help, was a completely hopeless task.
He sat down to rest, and consider what would be his next best plan.