CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

A FOREST ADVENTURE.

"Natives, and savages at that," remarked Lethbridge, taking in the situation in an instant. "Now, you fellows," he continued, "our game is to show a bold front, and to get well into the open straight away, so that none of our black friends yonder can slip round, under cover of the forest, and take us at close quarters in the rear. Those chaps may be perfectly harmless and peaceable, but I confess they don't look it, and it is a wise thing to be prepared for the worst. And now, Professor, here is an opportunity for you to come out strong; you are acquainted with no end of these African lingos, are you not? Better lose no time in conveying to their intelligences the fact that we are friends, and that if they are prepared to supply us with food, drink, and a shakedown for the night, and to pilot us to the river to-morrow, we will graciously refrain from annihilating them. But you will have to do it quick, old chap, for it looks remarkably as though they were about to make an uncommonly ugly demonstration against us."

It did, indeed. For, even while Lethbridge had been speaking, the blacks had gathered, to the extent of some three or four hundred, each armed with shield and spears, supplemented in many cases by heavy clubs with big knotted heads thickly studded with formidable spikes, and were now arranging themselves in a kind of crescent formation, as though to attack and surround the four white men.

Von Schalckenberg walked up to and seized a small leafy branch projecting low down from the trunk of a tree close at hand, and wrenched it off. Then, raising this above his head, he boldly advanced toward the threatening phalanx that was already moving forward.

"We must stick close to him," exclaimed Lethbridge, who by tacit consent had a.s.sumed the direction of affairs in this crisis; "we must not allow him to be cut off from us, or we shall never see him again."

The German boldly advanced, waving aloft his symbol of peace, and shouting, in as many of the African dialects as he could call to mind, that they were friends. His a.s.surances, however, if understood, appeared to be quite unconvincing--to put it mildly--the att.i.tude of the natives growing momentarily more hostile and menacing, as though the mere sight of a white man stirred their worst pa.s.sions to their lowest depths.

"Halt!" cried Lethbridge, in a low, tense voice. "Those fellows are about to make a rush. Form up in line, and, the moment they start to run, open fire upon them, _and keep it up_. If we let them get within striking distance of us, we are done for!"

Whether or not the sudden halt of the quartette conveyed to the native mind the mistaken impression that the white men were afraid, or whether it was that Lethbridge's intuition had rightly interpreted an already fixed determination, it is impossible to say, but the fact remains that as the four whites halted in line, a gigantic savage sprang to the front and, waving his shield and spears above his head, shouted a few words to the others as he started to run toward the little band.

"I will take the leader; the rest of you fire into the brown," cried Lethbridge, levelling his rifle. As the words left his lips the _click, click_ of the rifle-hammers sounded, and the leading savage and three others stumbled and fell p.r.o.ne to the earth, their shields and spears flying from their nerveless hands, and ere they were fairly down, four others rolled over and lay motionless, followed by another and yet another four, until, within the brief s.p.a.ce of some twenty seconds, no fewer than forty black warriors lay prostrate, either dead, or badly wounded. And this had happened merely because those four terrible white men had pointed at them with their long, straight, shining sticks!

There had been no fire, no smoke, no noise; the white men had simply _pointed_ at them, and lo, forty of their best men were down! The native mind is quick in its appreciation of the hard logic of facts; and by the time that those forty warriors were prostrate, it had a.s.similated the conviction that the inhabitants of that village had rashly embarked upon a distinctly unhealthy enterprise when they undertook the seductive pastime of attempting to ma.s.sacre that apparently insignificant little band of white men. And at this point in the drama the whole shouting, yelling crowd suddenly became silent, pulled up short, and, as four more of their number dropped, flung themselves on their faces to the earth, grovelling and howling loudly for mercy. And only just in the nick of time, too, so far as the white men were concerned, for had the courage of the savages lasted long enough to carry them a further fifty yards, they would have arrived within striking distance, and a most distinguished scientist, in the person of Professor Heinrich von Schalckenberg, would have been "wiped out," and his three friends with him.

"Ah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Sir Reginald, "that was 'touch and go' with us, and no mistake! Now, Professor, if you can make them understand you, just ask them what the d.i.c.kens they mean by attacking white men in that gratuitous and light-hearted fashion; and then explain to them that we have no desire at all to do them the slightest harm if they will but behave civilly to us."

The professor raised his hand and called, in half a dozen different dialects, for silence, whereupon one of the savages presently rose to his feet and delivered himself of a few remarks, in the tones of a highly injured individual. And then followed quite a lengthy dialogue between him and the professor, at the conclusion of which the latter, turning to his friends, explained--

"This fellow, who calls himself 'Msusa, and his tribe the Luewi, informs me--so far as I can comprehend him--that they attacked us because, some time ago--I cannot make out how long--some people, wearing long beards, like ourselves, came here and stole a large number of their young men; and the Luewi, when they saw us, mistook us for those same thieves come back upon another man-stealing expedition, which they promptly determined to nip in the bud."

"Quite right of them, too," agreed Sir Reginald. "But you had better explain to them, Professor, that it is unwise of them to jump to conclusions with such lightning-like rapidity as they have just exhibited, and also that white men are by no means all of them slave-dealers--which, I take it, is what those other fellows are. And, by the way, did you mention that we are tired and hungry, and wish to be guided to the river?"

"Not yet," answered the professor. "Our friend 'Msusa was so busy explaining and apologising for the attack upon us that I have not yet had the chance. But I will, though, at once."

And then ensued another long palaver between von Schalckenberg and the savage, its excessive length being due, as the former explained, to the difficulty experienced by the princ.i.p.als in understanding each other.

At length, however, 'Msusa turned to his friends and explained the situation to them, with the result that the four white men were ultimately invited to enter the village, partake of refreshments, and remain there for the night, upon the understanding that a guide to the river would be furnished to them the next morning.

"All right," agreed Sir Reginald. "We will go to their village and sample their hospitality. But as to remaining with them for the night, I must confess I do not at all like the idea. Our friends aboard the _Flying Fish_ will already have suffered several hours of cruel anxiety on our account, and I am unwilling to prolong that anxiety a moment longer than is necessary. Why will they not let us have a guide forthwith? Surely the river cannot be so very far away!"

Von Schalckenberg tried 'Msusa again, but without success.

"The fellow speaks such a barbarous dialect that I find it almost impossible to understand him," explained the professor; "but he informs me that, for some reason or other, it is out of the question for us to go forward to-day."

"Hm!" commented Sir Reginald. "Do you think, Professor, that these people are to be trusted; or is there some deep scheme to get us into their power behind this reluctance to help us to go forward this evening?"

"I don't know," answered the professor. "'Msusa speaks fairly enough, but one can never tell. Treachery, so far from being a crime, almost amounts to a virtue, under certain circ.u.mstances, with all these African savages; and I must confess that I have noticed one or two little things that, to me, seemed to bear rather a sinister significance. But what can we do? We cannot take 'Msusa by the scruff of the neck and insist upon his becoming our guide to the river."

"Can we not?" cut in Lethbridge, dryly. "I am by no means so sure of that. But an idea has just occurred to me. Mildmay will have been on the look-out for some sign of us, at least from breakfast-time to-day, and, if I know anything of him, he is still looking out, and will continue to do so until darkness sets in--perhaps even later. Now, my idea is this--and I am sorry that it did not occur to me earlier in the day. Here are we, four lost men, in a fine open s.p.a.ce, with ample room to light four fires at a considerable distance apart. The evening is fine; there is no wind; and the smoke from those fires would rise to a considerable height into the air. Now, if Mildmay should happen to notice four distinct columns of smoke rising above the tree-tops--"

"Of course," interrupted von Schalckenberg, "he would at once connect them with us, and would come in the _Flying Fish_ to investigate. It shall be done at once."

And, turning away, he forthwith entered into energetic conversation with 'Msusa, which ultimately resulted in that savage giving certain instructions to his friends, who, after a tremendous amount of palaver, interspersed with frequent references from 'Msusa to the professor, at length set to work to gather four large piles of branches, dry leaves, and other combustibles, which they proceeded to arrange on spots indicated by von Schalckenberg. As soon as the piles were of sufficient size to yield a good dense body of smoke they were simultaneously ignited by the four white men--by the simple agency of an ordinary match, to the intense astonishment and admiration of the blacks--and then the quartette sat down patiently to await events, while 'Msusa and his friends, incited thereto by the professor, continued to pile upon the fires further quant.i.ties of gra.s.s, green branches, and other things calculated to produce the maximum quant.i.ty of smoke. The result was that in a few minutes four distinct columns of brownish-grey smoke were going up straight into the sky, some hundreds of feet above the tops of the highest trees, and finally spreading out and mingling into one great cloud that would be distinctly visible, in that atmosphere, anywhere within a distance of twenty miles.

Lethbridge leaned back on his elbow and contemplated the four tall smoke columns with an expression of very considerable satisfaction.

"That ought to prove effective; and I am prepared to bet that it will, within the next quarter of an hour," he remarked. "But what was all the talk about, Professor? You seemed to have some difficulty in persuading those fellows to build the fires, I thought."

"Yes," admitted von Schalckenberg, "I had. The fact is that, for some reason which I do not understand, 'Msusa is very anxious that we should remain in the village all night; and, since he has already discovered that force will not avail with us, he is now trying guile. He understands perfectly well some of the things I say to him; but when I told him that we wanted a guide to lead us to the river, he professed to be unable to understand me clearly, and replied by gabbling what I believe to be simply a lot of gibberish, ending up with the statement that we shall be able to have a guide to-morrow. The fact is that I rather suspect him of entertaining a desire to possess himself of our rifles, and believe him to be capable to going to considerable lengths to get them; hence his extreme anxiety to keep us here all night.

Therefore, when I found that there was no hope of persuading him to let us have a guide to-night, I informed him that we were four very great and powerful witch-doctors, as he must already have seen; and that, if he wished us to remain in the village all night to-night, it would be necessary to light four large fires--one for each of us--to propitiate the evil spirits, so that they should not enter the village during the night and destroy any of the inmates."

"Well," exclaimed Lethbridge, "I shall be very greatly surprised--and disappointed, too--if they do not in a very few minutes see an 'evil spirit' that will considerably astonish them, and--Ah, hurrah! there she is! Good old Mildmay! I felt certain that he would be on the look-out."

And, so saying, he sprang to his feet and waved his handkerchief energetically in the direction of the great conical shape that, gleaming and flashing like burnished silver in the rays of the setting sun, at that moment hove in sight over the tree-tops on the north-western margin of the enclosure. Three white-clad figures were standing in the bows of the superstructure, examining the open s.p.a.ce through binoculars; and as Lethbridge waved his handkerchief they waved in return, while one--the smallest--was seen to run excitedly aft and dart into the pilot-house.

The savages also saw the portentous apparition, and fled, howling with abject terror, to the shelter of their huts; while the _Flying Fish_, sweeping gracefully round, came to earth within a few feet of the spot where the four white men stood awaiting her arrival. A minute later 'Msusa, watching the four white men from beneath a pile of skins heaped up just within the doorway of his hut, saw them walk in under the huge, mysterious thing that had just descended from the clouds, and inexplicably disappear.

Great were the rejoicings of those left on board the _Flying Fish_ at the safe return of the truants; and equally great, perhaps, was the joy of the truants at finding themselves re-united to their companions, and once more amid the familiar surroundings of their luxurious travelling home. The first brief greetings over, the returned wanderers retired below and indulged in the luxury of a bath, after which they dressed for dinner; and it was while the party were gathered round the dinner-table, an hour or two later, that Sir Reginald related the adventures of himself and his companions during the preceding twenty-four hours.

"It was shocking bad luck that you should have lost that okapi, after all," remarked Mildmay, with the sympathy of a true sportsman, as Sir Reginald brought his narrative to a close. "However," he continued, "it is something to have learned that we are in the okapi region; and perhaps you will be more successful next time--that is, unless Sir Reginald is anxious to get away from here."

Sir Reginald strenuously disavowed any such anxiety, a.s.serting that, on the contrary, he was quite willing to remain where he was for any reasonable length of time, and to take turn and turn about on alternate nights to watch at the drinking-place until they had succeeded in securing a specimen of so interesting and rare an animal. Then he inquired in what manner the occupants of the _Flying Fish_ had pa.s.sed the day.

"Well," answered Mildmay, speaking for himself and the ladies, "it was not until breakfast-time that we began to feel in the least degree anxious about you; and, even then, our anxiety--or rather, mine--was not very acute, for, as I explained to the ladies, you might have had exceptionally good sport, and be anxious to save the skins before leaving to return to the ship. But when eleven o'clock arrived with no news of you, I felt convinced that something had gone wrong, and then we all felt ourselves to be in a dilemma. For there were only two courses open to us: first, to stay where we were and await your return; or, secondly, to go in search of you. By adopting the first alternative, we should be on the spot where you would naturally expect to find us if your detention should happen to be merely of an ordinary nature; or if, having happened to encounter a body of hostile savages, you should be holding them at bay while retiring upon the ship. And I may tell you that it was the recognition of some such possibility as this which made me feel very reluctant to leave the spot where we were. On the other hand, however, there was an equal possibility that you might be beset, or otherwise needing our help, at some spot several miles away. I therefore compromised matters as best I could by simply raising the ship some three hundred feet in the air, and keeping a bright look-out in every direction all day. And when I saw those four columns of smoke rise up from among the trees, it didn't take me above two seconds to make up my mind that you had lighted the fires and that I should find you alongside them."

The following morning witnessed the departure of the _Flying Fish_ from the open s.p.a.ce in which was situated 'Msusa's village; and profound was the relief of that savage and his friends as, from the obscurity of the interior of their huts, they watched the enormous shining ma.s.s, and, by-and-by, saw it quietly rise into the air as of its own volition, and go gently driving out of sight over the tree-tops. Half an hour later, having located the other open s.p.a.ce, in which had been witnessed the attack upon the gorilla by the leopard, the ship quietly descended into it; and the hunters, refreshed by a sound night's sleep, sallied forth and secured the skins of both animals, which proved to be quite uninjured by the depredations of other animals, none of which seemed to have approached them. Then the _Flying Fish_ again rose into the air and wended her way back to her original berth; and it was while she was thus pa.s.sing from one spot to the other that the mystery was solved of the difficulty which the four lost men had experienced in their endeavours to find the river and thus make their way back to the ship.

For, in order to satisfy themselves upon this point, the travellers rose to a height of five thousand feet into the air, from which alt.i.tude they not only got a sight of the drinking-place at which their adventure may be said to have begun, but were also enabled to trace the course of the river itself. And they thus discovered that about a mile to the eastward of the drinking-place the river made an S-like bend, some eighteen miles across; also that, instead of wandering steadily south-- as they believed they had been, while in pursuit of the wounded okapi-- they must have gradually trended away toward the east, until they had gone some miles beyond the double bend in the river; hence their failure to find the stream again.

That same night, as keen as ever to get an okapi, the four hunters again sallied out for their previous ambush, determined to make the utmost of the waxing moon that nightly rode the sky; and, upon arriving at the drinking-place, found--to von Schalckenberg's intense disgust--that the carcase of the red buffalo had been so mauled and torn as to render the hide utterly useless. But they had compensation a little later, for during that night they secured no fewer than five handsome leopards that had evidently come down to feast upon the flesh. Nor was this all.

Before the night was over, the professor had the satisfaction of shooting a very fine and handsome black-and-white monkey of a hitherto unknown species; while Lethbridge was made happy by the addition to his "bag" of a magnificent white rhinoceros--a creature so rare that many distinguished naturalists had p.r.o.nounced it extinct. But, to their keen disappointment, no okapi made its appearance at the drinking-place that night. Yet they persevered, lying out night after night, and resting during the day; and at length, on the ninth night after their adventure in pursuit of the original animal, their patience was splendidly rewarded, a pair of okapi making their appearance at the drinking-pool, very late, after all the other animals had come and gone again. There was an exciting and tantalising ten minutes while these animals stood in the full light of the moon and drank, one of them being immediately behind the other, so that it was impossible to shoot both. Then the male, having drunk his fill before his mate had quite finished, wheeled and moved a yard or two. As he did so, the hammers of Lethbridge's and the professor's rifles clicked simultaneously, and a great cheer rang out from the ambushed party as the two animals dropped and lay motionless. Then the four men rose to their feet, and--regardless of the possibility that they might thus be scaring away other desirable specimens--scrambled over the boulders and other obstacles until they stood beside their prey. Then, having admired, to their hearts'

content, the singular creatures as they lay, the eager hunters drew their knives, and proceeded to take the skins forthwith, determined to leave nothing to chance and the morning.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

AMONG THE RUINS OF ANCIENT OPHIR.

The next few days were devoted by the men of the party to the arduous and somewhat unpleasant task of completing the preparation for packing the skins which they had taken; and then, after a rather late breakfast on a certain morning, the _Flying Fish_ again rose into the air, and, winging her way leisurely a hundred feet or so above the tops of the forest trees, headed to the southward and eastward. The morning of the second day saw them clear of the forest and sweeping over a fine open country, spa.r.s.ely dotted here and there with detached clumps of bush, and over which roamed immense herds of buck and antelope, troops of zebra, giraffe, and other animals, a few elephants, and ostriches innumerable. But they saw nothing tempting enough to delay them; and so they went drifting quietly along day after day--coming to earth only at night, in order that they might miss nothing of the mult.i.tudinous interesting sights that the country had to offer them--until at length, one day, at noon, Mildmay announced that, according to his reckoning, they were exactly fifty miles from the site of ancient Ophir.

And, indeed, there was no reason to doubt this statement. On the contrary, the voyagers had, some hours earlier, imagined that they recognised certain spots which had been rather more distinctly impressed than others upon their memories during their former visit. For example, as the _Flying Fish_ went driving gently along over the somewhat rugged, well-wooded country, with its numerous streams winding hither and thither, like silver threads, they sighted a native village some distance ahead of them; and Sir Reginald remarked to Lethbridge, who was standing beside him, examining the scene at large through his binoculars--

"Surely, Lethbridge, that is the identical village from which we first noticed the curious system of voice-telegraphy in vogue among the people hereabout, and by means of which they sent forward the news of our arrival, on the occasion of our last visit."

"Looks not at all unlike it," answered Lethbridge, with his binoculars still at his eyes. "Anyway, we shall soon see," he added; "for somebody has spotted us already, and there comes the entire population of the place, turning out to look at us. And--yes--there goes a mounted man, as hard as his nag can lay legs to the ground, doubtless to shout his message. I will watch him."

The ex-colonel relapsed into silence for a few minutes; then he resumed--

"Yes, Elphinstone, you are quite right; that mounted fellow has just pulled up, and raised his hands to his mouth. Now, listen, Lady Olivia.

Do you hear anything?"

Yes, Lady Olivia heard, with singular distinctness, the sound of a high-pitched voice shouting certain words, which, of course, she could not understand, but every syllable of which was so slowly and clearly articulated that she could easily have written them down.

"And there is the man who is uttering them," remarked Lethbridge--"that little dot on the hill some two miles away. I doubt if you can make him out with the naked eye. It is as much as I can manage, although I know exactly where to look for him. Can you see him, Ida? Or you, Mlle.