The Gorilla Hunters by R. M. Ballantyne (classic book list .TXT) 📕
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- Author: R. M. Ballantyne
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“True,” answered Jack. “The delay is not so brief, however, but that we may plan some method of getting the poor girl out of this scrape.—What say you, Mak?”
“If you no can tink ’pon someting, I gib up all hope,” replied our guide sorrowfully.
“Come, Mak, cheer up,” cried Peterkin. “If the worst comes to the worst, you can, at any rate, fight for your bride.”
“Fight!” exclaimed the negro, displaying his white teeth like a mastiff, rolling his eyes and clinching his fists convulsively. Then in a calmer tone he continued, “Ay, me can fight. Me could kill all de guards an’ take Okandaga by de hand, an’ run troo de bushes for eber. But guards no die widout hollerin’ an’ yellerin’ like de gorilla; an’ nigger mans can run fasterer dan womans. No, no, dat am dumpossobable.”
“Nothing’s ‘dumpossobable’ to brave hearts and stout arms,” replied Jack. “There are only four guards put over her, I believe. Well, there are just four of us—not that we require to be equal, by any means. Peterkin and I could settle them easily; but we require to be equal in numbers, in order to do it quietly. I have a plan in my head, but there’s one hitch in it that I cannot unravel.”
“And what may that be?” If asked.
“Why, I don’t see how, after getting clear off with Okandaga, we are to avoid being pursued on suspicion and captured.”
“Dere is one cave,” remarked the guide, “not far off to here. P’raps we be safe if we git into ’im. But I ’fraid it not do, cause him be peepiled by fiends an’ dead man’s spirits.”
“That’s a grave objection,” said Peterkin, laughing.
“Yes, an’ de tribe neber go near dere; dey is most drefful terrorfied to be cotched dere.”
“Then, that will just do,” cried Jack, with animation. “The very thing. And now I’ll tell you what my plan is. To-morrow morning early we will tell the king that we wish to be off at once—that we have put off too much time already, and wish to make no further delay. Then we’ll pack up and start. At night we will encamp in a quiet, out-of-the-way part of the woods, and slip back to the village in the dark a short time before midnight. The whole village will at that time be assembled, probably, at the spot where the execution is to take place; so we can rush in, overpower the guard, free Okandaga, and make our escape to the cave, where they will never think of looking for us.”
Peterkin shook his head. “There are two difficulties in your plan, Jack. First, what if the natives are not assembled on the place of execution, and we find it impossible to make our entrance into or exit from the village quietly?”
“I propose,” replied Jack, “that we shall undress ourselves, rub ourselves entirely over with charcoal and grease, so that they shall not recognise us, and dash in and carry the girl off by a coup de main. In which case it will, of course, be neck or nothing, and a tremendous race to the cave, where, if they follow us, we will keep them at bay with our rifles.”
“Umph! dashing, no doubt, but risky,” said Peterkin—“extremely risky. Yet it’s worth trying. Well, my second difficulty is—what if they don’t stick to their promise after we quit, and kill the poor thing before midnight?”
“We must take our chance of that. But I shall put the king on his honour before leaving, and say that I will make particular inquiry into the way in which the trial has been conducted on my return.”
“Put the king on his honour!” observed Peterkin. “I’m afraid that you’ll put his majesty on an extremely unstable foundation. However, I see nothing better that can be done.”
“Have you any more difficulties?”
“Yes,” said I. “There is one other. What do you propose to do with the men who are to be supplied us by the king during these extremely delicate and difficult manoeuvres?”
The countenances of my comrades fell at this question.
“I never thought of them,” said Jack.
“Nor I,” said Peterkin.
Makarooroo groaned.
“Well,” said I, “if you will allow me to suggest, I would recommend that we should, towards the close of the day, send them on ahead of us, and bid them encamp at a certain place, saying that we shall spend the night in hunting, and return to them in the morning.”
“The very thing,” said Jack. “Now, comrades, to rest. I will occupy myself until I fall asleep in maturing my plans and thinking out the details. Do you the same, and if anything should occur to you let us consult over it in the morning.”
We were all glad to agree to this, being wearied more perhaps by excitement than want of rest; so bidding each other good-night, we lay down side by side to meditate, and for my part to dream of the difficult and dangerous work that awaited us on the morrow.
We arose on the following morning with the dawn of day, and began to make preparation for our departure.
To our satisfaction we found the king quite willing that we should go; so embarking our goods in one of the native canoes, we ordered our negroes to embark, and commenced our journey amid the firing of guns and the good wishes of the natives. I must confess that I felt some probings of conscience at the thought of the double part we were compelled to play; but the recollection of the horrid fate that awaited the poor negro girl put to flight such feelings, and induced a longing for the time of action to arrive.
I have more than once referred to our goods. Perhaps it may be as well to explain that, when we first landed on the African coast, we made inquiries of those who were best acquainted with the nature and requirements of the country we were about to explore, as to what goods we ought to purchase of the traders, in order to be in a position to pay our way as we went along; for we could not, of course, expect the savages to feed us and lodge us and help us on our way for nothing. After mature consideration, we provided ourselves with a supply of such things as were most necessary and suitable—such as tobacco, powder, and shot, and ball, a few trade-guns, several pieces of brightly-coloured cloth, packages of beads (some white enamelled, others of coloured glass), coffee and tea, knives, scissors, rings, and a variety of other knick-knacks. These, with a little brandy to be used medicinally, our blankets and camp cooking utensils, formed a heavy load for ten men; but, of course, as we advanced, the load was lightened by the consumption of our provisions and the giving away of goods. The additions which I made, however, in the shape of stuffed specimens, began in the course of time to more than counterbalance this advantage.
Being resolved to impress the natives with a respect for our physical powers, we made a point of each carrying a pretty heavy load on our journeys—excepting, of course, when we went out a-hunting. But to return.
Our crew worked willingly and well, so that ere night closed in upon us we were a considerable distance away from the village. As the sun set we landed, and ordering our men to advance in the canoe to a certain bend in the river, and there encamp and await our return, we landed and went off into the woods as if to search for game.
“Now, Makarooroo, quick march, and don’t draw rein till we reach the cave,” said Jack when we were out of sight of the canoe.
Our guide obeyed in silence, and for the next two hours we travelled through the woods at a sort of half trot that must have carried us over the ground at the rate of five miles in hour. The pace was indeed tremendous, and I now reaped the benefit of those long pedestrian excursions which for years past I had been taking, with scientific ends in view, over the fields and hills of my native land. Jack and Peterkin seemed both to be made of iron, and incapable of suffering from fatigue. But I have no doubt that the exciting and hazardous nature of the expedition on which we had embarked had much to do with our powers of endurance.
After running and doubling, gliding and leaping through the dense woods, as I have said, for two hours, we arrived at a broken, rocky piece of ground, over which we passed, and eventually came upon a thick jungle that concealed a vast cliff almost entirely from view. The cracking of the bushes as we approached showed that we had disturbed the slumbers of more than one of the wild beasts that inhabited the spot. Here Makarooroo paused, and although it was intensely dark I could observe that he was trembling violently.
“Come, Mak,” said I in a whisper, “surely you, who have received a Christian education, do not really believe that devils inhabit this spot?”
“Me don know, massa. Eber since me was be a pikaniny me ’fraid—horrobably ’fraid ob dat cave.”
“Come, come,” said Jack impatiently; “we have no time for fears of any kind this night. Think of Okandaga, Mak, and be a man.”
This was sufficient. The guide pushed boldly forward, and led us to the mouth of a large cavern, at which he halted and pointed to the gloomy interior.
“You have the matches, Peterkin; quick, strike a light. It is getting late,” said Jack.
In another moment a light was struck, and with it we kindled three goodly-sized torches with which we had provided ourselves. Holding these high over our heads, we entered the cavern—Jack first, Peterkin second, I next, and the terrified negro in rear.
We had scarcely entered, and were peering upwards at the black vault overhead, when an indescribable rushing sound filled the air of the cavern, and caused the flame of our torches to flicker with such violence that we could not see any object distinctly. We all came to a sudden pause, and I confess that at that moment a feeling of superstitious dread chilled the blood in my veins. Before we could discover the cause of this strange effect, several large black objects passed through the air near our heads with a peculiar muffled noise. Next instant the three torches were extinguished.
Unable to command himself any longer, the negro uttered a cry of terror and turned to fly; but Jack, whose wits seemed always prepared for any emergency, had foreseen the probability of this, and springing quickly after him, threw his arms round his neck and effectually prevented his running away.
The noise caused by the scuffle seemed to arouse the fury of all the evil spirits of the place, for a perfect hurricane of whirring sounds raged around us for a few seconds.
“It’s only bats,” cried Jack.—“Look alive, Peterkin; another light.”
In a few seconds the torches were rekindled, and we advanced into the cavern; and Mak, after recovering from his fright and learning the cause thereof, became much bolder. The cave was about a hundred yards deep by about fifty wide; but we could not ascertain its height, for the light of our torches failed to penetrate the deep gloom overhead. It was divided into two natural chambers, the outer being large, the inner small—a mere recess, in fact. In this latter we planted our torches, and proceeded with our hasty preparations. Peterkin was ready first. We endeavoured to make ourselves as like to the natives in all respects as possible; and when I looked at my companions, I was obliged to confess that, except in the full blaze of the torch-light, I could not discern any point of difference between them and our guide.
“Now then,
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