← catalogue

Hair-Breadth Escapes: The Adventures of Three Boys in South Africa

by H. C. Adams · English · Gutenberg #33304 · 575,584 chars · public domain (US)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Hair-Breadth Escapes: The Adventures of Three Boys in South Africa
    
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: Hair-Breadth Escapes: The Adventures of Three Boys in South Africa

Author: H. C. Adams


        
Release date: July 31, 2010 [eBook #33304]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33304

Credits: Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAIR-BREADTH ESCAPES: THE ADVENTURES OF THREE BOYS IN SOUTH AFRICA ***




Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




Hair-Breadth Escapes, by Rev H.C. Adams.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________
HAIR-BREADTH ESCAPES, BY REV H.C. ADAMS.

DEDICATION.

To the Rev  G.G. Ross, D.C.L., Principal of St Andrew's College,
Grahamstown, Cape Colony.

My dear Ross,

I dedicate this Tale to you for two reasons: first, because it is, in
some sort, a souvenir of a very interesting visit to South Africa,
rendered pleasant by the kind hospitality shown us by so many in
Grahamstown, and by no one more than yourself.  Secondly and chiefly,
because it gives me the opportunity of expressing publicly to you my
sympathy in the noble work you are carrying on, under the gravest
difficulties--difficulties which (I am persuaded) many would help to
lighten, who possess the means of doing so, were they but acquainted
with them.

H.C. Adams.

Dry Sandford, _August 1876_.



CHAPTER ONE.

THE HOOGHLY--OLD JENNINGS--SHORT-HANDED--THE THREE BOYS--FRANK--NICK--
ERNEST--DR LAVIE--TENERIFFE.

It was the afternoon of a day late in the November of the year 1805.
His Majesty's ship _Hooghly_, carrying Government despatches and stores,
as well as a few civil and military officers of the East India Company's
service, was running easily before the trade wind, which it had caught
within two days' sail of Madeira--and was nearing the region of the
tropics.  The weather, which had been cold and stormy, when the
passengers left England some weeks before, had been gradually growing
bright and genial; until for the last three or four days all
recollections of fog and chill had vanished from their minds.  The sky
was one vast dome of the richest blue, unbroken by a single cloud, only
growing somewhat paler of hue as it approached the horizon line.  The
sea stretched out into the distance--to the east, an endless succession
of purple wavelets, tipped here and there with white; to the west, where
the sun was slowly sinking in all its tropical glory, one seething mass
of molten silver.

It was indeed a glorious sight, and most of our readers will be of
opinion that those who had the opportunity of beholding it, would--for
the time at least--have bestowed little attention on anything else.  But
if they had been at sea as long as Captain Wilmore, they might perhaps
have thought differently.  Captain Wilmore had been forty years a
sailor; and whether given, or not given, to admire brilliant skies and
golden sunsets in his early youth, he had at all events long ceased to
trouble himself about them.  He was at the outset of this story sitting
in his cabin--having just parted from his first lieutenant, Mr Grey--
and was receiving with a very dubious face the report of an old
quartermaster.  A fine mastiff was seated by the captain's chair,
apparently listening with much gravity to what passed.

"Well, Jennings, Mr Grey tells me you have something to report, which
he thinks ought to be brought straight to me, in order that I may
question you myself about it.  What is it?  Is it something about these
gentlemen we have on board?  Are they dissatisfied, or has Lion here
offended them?"

"No, cap'en," said the old sailor; "I wish 'twas only something o' that
sort.  That would be easy to be disposed of, that would."

"What is it, then?  Is it the men, who are grumbling--short rations, or
weak grog, or what?"

"There's more rations and stronger grog than is like to be wanted,
cap'en," said Jennings, evasively, for he was evidently anxious to
escape communicating his intelligence, whatever it might be, as long as
possible.

"What do you mean, Jennings?" exclaimed Captain Wilmore, roused by the
quartermaster's manner.  "More rations and stronger grog than the men
want?  I don't understand you."

"Well, cap'en, I'm afraid some on 'em won't eat and drink aboard this
ship no more."

"What, are any of them sick, or dead--or, by heaven, have any of them
deserted?"

"I'm afeared they has, cap'en.  You remember the Yankee trader, as sent
a boat to ask us to take some letters to Calcutta?"

"Yes, to be sure; what of him?"

"Well, I've heard since, as his crew was going about among our chaps all
the time he was aboard, offering of 'em a fist half full of guineas
apiece, if they'd sail with him, instead of you."

"The scoundrel!" shouted Captain Wilmore.  "If I'd caught him at it, I'd
have run him up to the mainyard, as sure as he's alive."

"Ay, cap'en; and I'd have lent a hand with all my heart," said the old
seaman.  "But you see he was too cunning to be caught.  He went back to
his ship, which was lying a very little way off, for there wasn't a
breath of wind, if you remember.  But he guessed the breeze would spring
up about midnight, so he doesn't hoist his boats up, but hides 'em under
his lee, until--"

"I see it all plain enough, Jennings," broke in the captain.  "How many
are gone?"

"Well, we couldn't make sure for a long time, Captain Wilmore," said
Jennings, still afraid to reveal the whole of his evil tidings.  "Some
of the hands had got drunk on the rum fetched aboard at Madeira, and
they might be lying about somewhere, you see--"

"Well, but you've found out now, I suppose?" interjected his questioner
sharply.

"I suppose we has, cap'en.  There's Will Driver, and Joel Grigg, and
Lander, and Hawkins, and Job Watson--not that _he's_ any great loss--and
Dick Timmins, and--"

"Confound you, Jennings! how many?" roared the captain, so fiercely,
that the dog sprang up, and began barking furiously.  "Don't keep on
pottering in that way, but tell me the worst at once.  How many are
gone?  Keep quiet, you brute, do you hear?  How many, I say?"

"About fifteen, cap'en," blurted out the quartermaster, shaking in his
shoes.  "Leastways there's fifteen, or it may be sixteen, as can't be
found, or--"

"Fifteen or sixteen, or some other number," shouted the skipper.  "Tell
me the exact number, you old idiot, or I'll disrate you!  Confound that
dog!  Turn him out."

"Sixteen's the exact number we can't find," returned Jennings, "but some
of 'em may be aboard, and turn up sober by-and-by."

"Small chance of that," muttered the captain.  "Well, it's no use
fretting; the question is, What's to be done?  We were short-handed
before--so you thought, didn't you, Jennings?"

"Well, cap'en, we hadn't none too many, that's sartain; and we should
have been all the better for half a dozen more."

"That comes to the same thing, doesn't it?" said the skipper, who, vexed
and embarrassed as he was, could not help being a little diverted at the
old man's invincible reluctance to speaking out.

"Well, I suppose it does, sir," he answered, "only you see--"

"I don't see anything, except that we are in a very awkward scrape,"
interposed the other.  "It will be madness to attempt to make the
passage with such a handful as we have at present.  If there came a
gale, or we fall in with a French or Spanish cruiser--" He paused,
unwilling to put his thoughts into words.

"'Twouldn't be pleasant, for sartain," observed Jennings.

"But, then, if we put back to England--for I know no hands are to be had
at Madeira, we should be quite as likely to encounter a storm, or a
Frenchman."

"A good deal more like," assented the quartermaster.

"And there would be the loss and delay, and the blame would be safe to
be laid on me," continued the captain, following out his own thoughts
rather than replying to his companion's observations.  "No, we must go
on.  But then, where are we to pick up any fresh hands?"

"We shall be off the Canaries this evening, cap'en," said Jennings.
"We've been running along at a spanking rate with this wind all night.
The peak's in sight even now."

"The Canaries are no good, Jennings.  The Dons are at war with us, you
know.  And though there are no ships of war in the harbour at Santa
Cruz, they'd fire upon us from the batteries if we attempted to hold
communication with the shore."

"They ain't always so particular, are they, sir?" asked the sailor.

"Perhaps not, Jennings.  But the Dons here have never forgiven the
attack made on them seven or eight years ago, by Nelson."

"Well, sir, they might have forgiven that, seeing as they got the best
of it I was in that, sir--b'longed to the _Foxy_ and was one of Nelson's
boat's crew, and we got nothing out of the Dons but hard knocks and no
ha'pence that time."

"That's true.  But you see Nelson has done them so much harm since, that
the damage they did him then seems very little comfort to them.  No, we
mustn't attempt anything at the Canaries."

"Very good, sir.  Then go on to the Cape Verdes.  If this wind holds, we
shall soon be there, and the Cape Verdes don't belong to the Dons."

"No; to the Portuguese.  Well, I believe that will be best.  I have
received information that the French and Spanish fleets are off Cape
Trafalgar; and our fellows are likely to have a brush with them soon, if
they haven't had it already."

"Indeed, sir!  Well, Admiral Nelson ain't likely to leave many of 'em to
follow us to the Cape.  We're pretty safe from them, anyhow."

"You're right there, I expect, Jennings," said the skipper, relaxing for
the first time into a grim smile.  "Well, then, shape the ship's course
for the Cape Verdes, and, mind you, keep the matter of those scoundrels
deserting as quiet as possible.  If some of the passengers get hold of
it, they'll be making a bother.  Now you may go, Jennings.  Stay, hand
me those letters about the boys that came on board at Plymouth.  I've
been too busy to give any thought to them till now.  But I must settle
something about them before we reach the Cape, and I may as well do so
now."

The quartermaster obeyed.  He handed his commanding officer the bundle
of papers he had indicated, and then left the cabin, willing enough to
be dismissed.  The captain, throwing himself with an air of weariness
back on his sofa, broke the seal of the first letter, muttering to
himself discontentedly the while.

"I wonder why I am to be plagued with other people's children?  Because
I have been too wise to have any of my own, I suppose!  Well, Frank is
my nephew, and blood is thicker than water, they say--and for once, and
for a wonder, say true.  I suppose I _am_ expected to look after him.
And he's a fine lad too.  I can't but own that.  But what have I to do
with old Nat Gilbert's children, I wonder?  He was my schoolfellow, and
pulled me out of a pond once, when I should have been drowned if he
hadn't I suppose _he_ thought that was reason enough for putting off his
boy upon me, as his guardian.  Humph!  I don't know about that.  Let us
see, any way, what sort of a boy this young Gilbert is.  This is from
old Dr Staines, the schoolmaster he has been with for the last four or
five years.  I wonder what he says of the boy?  At present I know
nothing whatever about him, except that he looks saucy enough for a
midshipman, and laughs all day like a hyena!

"`Gymnasium House, Hollingsley,

"`September 29th, 1805.

"`Sir,--You are, no doubt, aware that I have had under my charge, for
the last five years, Master George Gilbert, the son of the late Mr
Nathaniel Gilbert, of Evertree, a most worthy and respectable man.  I
was informed, at the time of the parent's decease, that you had been
appointed the guardian of the infant; but as Mr Nathaniel had, with his
customary circumspection, lodged a sum in the Hollingsley bank,
sufficient to cover the cost of his son's education for two years to
come, there was no need to trouble you.  You were also absent from
England, and I did not know your direction.

"`The whole of the money is not yet exhausted; but I regret to say I am
unable to retain Master George under my tuition any longer.  I must beg
you to take notice that his name is _George_, as his companions are in
the habit of calling him "Nick," giving the idea that his name, or one
of his names, is Nicodemus.  Such, however, is not the case, George
being his only Christian appellative.  Why his schoolfellows should have
adopted so singular a nomenclature I am unable to say.  The only
explanation of it, which has ever been suggested to me, is one so
extremely objectionable, that I am convinced it must be a mistake.

"`But to proceed'--(`A long-winded fellow this!' muttered the captain as
he turned the page; `who cares what the young scamp's called?')--`But to
proceed.  I cannot retain Master George any longer.  His continually
repeated acts of mischief render it impossible for me any longer to
temper the justice due to myself and family with the mercy which it is
my ordinary habit to exercise.  I will not detail to you his offences
against propriety'--(`thank goodness for that,' again interjected
Captain Wilmore, `though I dare say some of his offences would be
entertaining enough')--`I will not detail his offences--they would fill
a volume.  I will only mention what has occurred to-day.  If there is
any practice I consider more objectionable than another, it is that of
using the dangerous explosives known as fireworks.  Master Gilbert is
aware that I strictly interdict their purchase; in consequence of which
they cannot be obtained at the only shop in Hollingsley where they are
sold, by any of my scholars.  But what were my feelings--I ask you,
sir--when I ascertained that he had obtained a large number of
combustibles weeks ago, and had concealed them--actually concealed them
in a chest under Mrs Staines's bed!  The chest holds a quantity of
linen, and under this he had hidden the explosives, thinking, I
conclude, that it was seldom looked into.  Seldom looked into!  Why,
merciful heaven, Mrs Staines is often in the habit of examining even by
candlelight'--(`I say, I can't read any more of this,' exclaimed the
captain; `anyhow, I'll skip a page or two.'  He turned on a long way and
resumed.)--`When I found out this morning that he was missing, I felt no
doubt that my words had produced even a deeper effect than I had
designed.  Mrs Staines and myself both feared that in his remorse he
had been guilty of some desperate act; and we made every effort,
immediately after breakfast, to discover the place of his retreat.
Being St Michael's day, it was a whole holiday, and we were thus enabled
to devote the entire day to the quest.  It has been extremely rainy
throughout; but when we returned, two hours ago, exhausted and wet to
the skin, after a fruitless search, we found him, dry and warm, awaiting
us in the hall.  This was some relief; but judge of our feelings when we
discovered that the shameless boy had put on my camlet-cloak and
overalls--they had been missing, and I had been obliged to go without
them! he had taken Mrs Staines's large umbrella, and had waited for us,
from breakfast time, round the corner, under the confident assurance
that we should go to look for him.  Sir, it has been his amusement to
follow us about all day, gratifying his malevolent feelings with the
spectacle of our exposure to the elements, our weariness, our
ever-increasing anxiety!  You will not wonder after this, sir--'"

"There, that will do," once more exclaimed the skipper, throwing aside
the letter with a chuckle of amusement.  "I must say I don't wonder at
the doctor's refusing to keep him any more after that!  Well, his father
wanted him to be a sailor, and maybe he won't make a bad one.  Only we
must have none of his tricks on board ship.  I'll have a talk with him,
when I can spare the time.  That's settled.  And now I can see Dr Lavie
about this other lad, young Warley.  Hallo there, Matthews, tell the
doctor I am at liberty now."

In a few minutes the person named was ushered into Captain Wilmore's
presence.  The new comer was a gentlemanly and well-looking young man,
and bore a good character, so far as he was known, in the ship.  The
captain was pleased with his appearance, and felt at the moment more
than usually gracious--possibly in consequence of his recent mirth over
George Gilbert's exploits.  He spoke with unusual kindness.

"Well, doctor, what can I do for you?  You have come to speak to me
about young Ernest Warley, I think?"

"Yes, Captain Wilmore, I want to ask your advice.  His father was the
best friend I ever had.  He took me by the hand when I was left an
orphan without a sixpence, and put me to school, and took care of me.
When he was dying, he made me promise to do my best for his boy, as he
had for me.  But I'm afraid I can't do that, glad as I should be to do
it, if I could--"

"But I don't understand, doctor.  Old Warley--I knew a little of him--
was a wealthy man, partner in Vanderbyl and Warley's house, one of the
best in Cape Town.  The lad can't want for money."

"Ah, he does, though.  His elder brother has all the money.  He was the
son of the first wife, old Vanderbyl's daughter, and all the money
derived from the business went to him.  The second wife's fortune was
settled on Ernest; but it was lost, every farthing of it, in the failure
of Steinberg's bank last year."

"Won't the elder brother do anything?"

"No more than very shame may oblige him to do.  He hated his father's
second wife, and hates her son now."

"How old is the lad?"

"Past nineteen; very steady and quiet, but plenty of stuff in him.  He
wouldn't take his brother's money, if he had the chance; says he means
to work for himself.  He wanted to be a parson, and would have gone this
autumn to the University, but for the smash of the bank.  He'll do
anything now that I advise him, but I don't know what to advise."

"`Nineteen!'--too old for the navy.  `Wanted to be a parson!'--wouldn't
do for the army.  `Do anything you advise!'  Are you sure of that?  Few
young fellows now-a-days will do anything but what they themselves
like."

"Yes, he'll do anything I advise, because he knows I really care for
him.  Where he fancies he's put upon, he can be stiff-backed and defiant
enough.  I've seen that once or twice.  Ernest hasn't your nephew
Frank's temper, which is hot and hasty for the moment, but is right
again the next.  He doesn't come to in a minute, as Frank does, but he's
a good fellow for all that."

The captain's brow was overcast as he heard his nephew's name.  "Frank's
spirit wants breaking, Mr Lavie," he said in an angry tone.  "I shall
have to teach him that there's only one will allowed aboard ship, and
that's the captain's.  Frank can ride and leap and shoot to a bead they
tell me, but he can't command my ship, and he shan't.  I won't have him
asking for reasons for what I order, and if he does it again--he'll wish
he hadn't.  But this is nothing to the purpose, Mr Lavie," he added,
recovering himself.  "We were talking about young Warley.  You had
better try to get him a clerkship in a house at Cape Town.  You mean to
settle there yourself after the voyage, do you not?"

"Well, no, sir, I think not I had meant it, but my inclination now
rather is to try for a medical appointment in Calcutta.  You see it
would be uncomfortable for Ernest at the Cape with his brother--"

"I see.  Well, then, both of you had better go on to Calcutta with me.
I dare say--if I am pleased with the lad--I may be able to speak to one
of the merchants or bankers there.  What does he know? what can he do?"

"He is a tolerable classical scholar, sir, and a good arithmetician, Dr
Phelps told me--"

"That's good," interposed the captain.

"And he knows a little French, and is a fair shot with a gun, and can
ride his horse, though he can't do either like Frank--"

"Never mind Frank," broke in Captain Wilmore hastily.  "He'd behave
himself at all events, which is more than Frank does.  Well, that will
do, then.  You two go on with the _Hooghly_ to Calcutta, and then I'll
speak to you again."

Mr Lavie rose and took his leave, feeling very grateful to his
commanding officer, who was not in general a popular captain.  He was in
reality a kind-hearted man, but extremely passionate, as well as
tenacious of his authority, and apt to give offence by issuing unwelcome
orders in a peremptory manner, without vouchsafing explanations, which
would have smoothed away the irritation they occasioned.  In particular
he and his nephew, Frank Wilmore, to whom reference more than once has
been made, were continually falling out Frank was a fine high-spirited
lad of eighteen, for whom his uncle had obtained a military cadetship
from a director, to whom he had rendered a service; and the lad was now
on his way to join his regiment.  Frank had always desired to be a
soldier, and was greatly delighted when he heard of his good fortune.
But his uncle gave him no hint that it was through him it had been
obtained.  Indeed, the news had been communicated in a manner so gruff
and seemingly grudging, that Frank conceived an aversion to his uncle,
which was not removed when they came into personal contact on board the
_Hooghly_.

The three lads, however, soon fraternised, and before they had sighted
Cape Finisterre were fast friends.  Many an hour had already been
beguiled by the recital of adventures on shore, and speculation as to
the future, that lay before them.  Nor was there any point on which they
agreed more heartily than in denunciation of the skipper's tyranny, and
their resolve not to submit to it.  When Mr Lavie came on deck, after
his interview in the captain's cabin, they were all three leaning over
the bulwarks, with lion crouching at Frank's side, but all three, for a
wonder, quite silent.  Mr Lavie cast a look seaward, and saw at once
the explanation of their unusual demeanour.  The ship had been making
good way for the last hour or two, and was now near enough to the
Canaries to allow the Peak of Teneriffe to be clearly seen, like a low
triangular cloud, and the rest of the island was coming gradually into
clearer sight Mr Lavie joined the party, and set himself to watch what
is perhaps the grandest spectacle which the bosom of the broad Atlantic
has to exhibit.  At first the outline of the great mountain, twelve
thousand feet in height, presented a dull cloudy mass, formless and
indistinct.  But as the afternoon wore on, the steep cliffs scored with
lava became visible, and the serrated crests of Anaga grew slowly upon
the eye.  Then, headland after headland revealed itself, the heavy dark
grey masses separating themselves into hues of brown and red and
saffron.  Now appeared the terraced gardens which clothe the cultivated
sides, and above them the picturesque outlines of the rocks intermingled
with the foliage of the euphorbia and the myrtle, and here and there
opening into wild mountain glens which the wing of the bird alone could
traverse.  Lastly, the iron-bound coast became visible on which the surf
was breaking in foaming masses, and above the rocky shelf the long low
line of spires and houses which distinguish the town of Santa Cruz.  For
a long time the red sunset light was strong enough to make clearly
distinguishable the dazzling white frontages, the flat roofs, and
unglazed windows, standing out against the perpendicular walls of
basaltic rock.  Then a dark mist, rising upwards from the sea, like the
curtain in the ancient Greek theatre, began to hide the shipping in the
port, the quays, and the batteries, till the whole town was lost in the
darkness.  Higher it spread, obscuring the masses of oleander, and
arbutus, and poinsettia in the gardens, and the sepia tints of the rocks
above.  Then the white lava fissures were lost to the eye, and the Peak
alone stood against the darkening sky, its masses of snow bathed in the
rich rosy light of the expiring sun.  A few minutes more and that too
was swallowed up in darkness, and the spell which had enchained the four
spectators of the scene was suddenly dissolved.



CHAPTER TWO.

THE CAPE VERDES--DIONYSIUS'S EAR--UNWELCOME NEWS--FRENCH LEAVE--THE
SKIPPER'S WRATH--A SCRAPE.

Three or four days had passed, the weather appearing each day more
delicious than the last.  The _Hooghly_ sped smoothly and rapidly before
the wind, and at daybreak on the fifth morning notice was given that the
Cape Verde Islands were in sight.  The sky, however, grew thick and
misty as they neared land; and it was late in the forenoon before they
had approached near enough to obtain a clear view of it.

"I wonder why they call these islands _Verdes_?" observed Gilbert, as
the vessel ran along the coast of one of the largest of the group, which
was low and sandy and apparently barren; "there doesn't seem to be much
_green_ about them, that I can see."

"No, certainly," said Warley; "a green patch here and there is all there
is to be seen, so far as the sea-coast is concerned But the interior
seems a mass of mountains.  There may be plenty of verdure among them,
for all we know."

"No," said Mr Lavie, who was standing near them.  "Their name has
nothing to do with forests or grass-fields.  There is a mass of weed on
the other side of the group, extending for a long distance over the sea,
which is something like a green meadow to look at--that's the meaning of
the name.  There are very few woods on any of the islands, and this one
in particular produces hardly anything but salt."

"They belong to the Portuguese, don't they?" asked Frank.

"Yes; the Portuguese discovered them three centuries and a half ago, and
have had possession of them ever since.  Portuguese is the only language
spoken there, but there are very few whites there, nevertheless."

"Why, there must be a lot of inhabitants," remarked Ernest, his eye
resting on the villages with which the shores were studded.

"Yes, from forty to fifty thousand, I believe.  But they are almost all
of them half-breeds between the negroes and the Portuguese."

"Well, I suppose there's some fun to be had there, isn't there?"
inquired Frank.

"And something to be seen?" added Warley.

"And first-chop grub?" wound up Gilbert.  "There's plenty to see at
Porto Prayo," returned Mr Lavie.  "The town, Ribeira Grande they call
it, is curious, and there are some fine mountain passes and grand views
in the interior.  As for grub, Master Nick" (for this sobriquet had
already become young Gilbert's usual appellative), "there are pretty
well all the fruits that took your fancy so much at Madeira--figs,
guavas, bananas, oranges, melons, grapes, pine-apples, and mangos--and
there's plenty of turtle too, though I'm not sure you'll find it made
into soup.  But as to fun, Frank, it depends on what you call fun, I
expect--"

"Let us go ashore," interrupted Nick, "and we shall be safe to find out
lots of fun for ourselves.  It would be jolly fun, in itself, to be
walking on hard ground again, instead of these everlasting planks.  I
suppose, as these islands belong to the Portuguese, and we've no quarrel
with them, the skipper will go ashore, and allow the passengers to do so
too?"

"He'll go ashore, no doubt," said a voice close at hand; "but he won't
let you go, I'll answer for that."

The boys turned quickly round, and were not particularly pleased to see
the first lieutenant, Mr Grey, who had come aft, to give some orders,
and had overheard the last part of their conversation.  Mr Grey was no
favourite of theirs.  He was not downright uncivil to the boys, but he
was fond of snubbing them whenever an occasion offered itself.  It was
generally believed also that a good deal of the captain's harshness was
due to the first lieutenant's suggestions.

"You'd better leave the captain to answer for himself," remarked Frank,
his cheek flushing with anger.  "I don't see how you can know what he
means to do."

"Perhaps you mayn't see it, and yet I may," returned Mr Grey calmly.

"Why shouldn't he let us go ashore, as he did at Madeira?" asked Warley.
"Nothing went wrong there."

"I beg your pardon," replied the lieutenant; "things did go wrong there,
and he was very much displeased."

"Displeased," repeated Warley, "displeased with us?  What do you mean,
Mr Grey?"

"I mean that you are not to go ashore," returned the other curtly, and
walking forward as he spoke.

Ernest's cheek grew almost as crimson as Frank's had done.  The apparent
insinuation that he had misconducted himself while on his parole of good
behaviour, was one of the things he could least endure.  Mr Lavie laid
his hand on the boy's arm.

"Hush, Ernest!" he said, checking an angry exclamation to which he was
about to give vent.  "Most likely Mr Grey is not serious.  Anyway, if
the captain does forbid your going ashore, you may be assured he has
good reasons--"

"What reasons can he have?" interposed Gilbert; "we are no more likely
to get into trouble here than at Madeira, and who has a right to say we
did anything wrong there?"

"The first lieutenant _didn't_ say so," observed the surgeon.  "I think
there is some mistake.  I'll make inquiries about the matter before we
enter the harbour."

He moved away, and the boys resolved to retreat to their den, where they
might hold an indignation meeting without molestation.  This den, to
which its occupants had given the classical name of "Dionysius's ear,"
or more briefly, "Dionysius," was an empty space on the lower deck,
about six foot square, where various stores had been stowed away.  By
some oversight of the men a dozen chests or so had been left ashore, and
a vacant place in a corner was reserved for them.  When, however, they
were brought aboard, they could not conveniently be lowered, and were
secured on deck.  Master Nick, in the course of his restless wandering,
had lighted on this void space, and it occurred to him that it would
make a snug place of retreat, when he wished to be alone, as he not
unfrequently did, in order to escape the consequences of some piece of
mischief.  When his friendship with his companions had been sufficiently
cemented, he had communicated the secret to them, and Frank at once
appreciated its value.  Advantage had been already taken of it on one or
two occasions, to evade an unwelcome summons from the skipper, or smoke
a pipe at interdicted hours.

To be sure it was not a very desirable retiring room, and most persons
would have considered a Russian or Neapolitan dungeon greatly preferable
to it.  As the reader has heard, it was about six foot square.  It was
lighted by a dead light in the deck above, which had fortunately been
inserted just in that spot.  Whatever air there was, came through the
barrels, or along the ship's sides.  But it is needless to say it was at
all times suffocatingly close, and nothing but a boy or a salamander
could have long continued to breathe such an atmosphere.  Entrance was
obtained by pulling aside a small keg; the removal of which allowed just
enough room for any one to work his way in, like an earthworm, on his
stomach.  Then the keg was drawn by the rope attached to it into its
place again, and firmly secured to a staple in the ship's side.
Whatever might be its other defects, it was certainly almost impossible
of detection.

Arrived here, our three heroes lay down at their leisure on some sacks
with which they had garnished their domicile, and proceeded to discuss
the matter in hand, lowering their voices as much as possible, as they
had discovered that conversation might be heard through the barrels by
any one on the other side, which fact, indeed, was the explanation of
the name bestowed on their retreat.  They were not at first agreed as to
the steps to be adopted.  Nick was for going ashore under any
circumstances--the difficulty of accomplishing his purpose, and the fact
of his having been forbidden to essay it, being, in his eyes, only
additional incentives.  Frank was not disposed to make the attempt, if
his uncle really had interdicted it; but he professed himself certain
that no such order had been given by anybody but the first lieutenant,
and he was not, he said, going to be under his orders.  Warley for once
was inclined to go beyond Frank, and declared that though he would obey
the captain's order if any reasonable ground for it was assigned, he
would not be debarred from what he considered his right as a passenger,
by any man's mere caprice.  He added, however, that he thought it would
be better to hear what Lavie had found out, before coming to any
resolution.

"Well, it is time we should see the doctor, if we mean to do so,"
remarked Frank, after an hour or so had passed in conversation.  "We
must be entering Porto Prayo by this time, or be near it at all events;
and he must have had lots of time to find out everything."

"Very good; one of us had better see Mr Lavie at once," said Ernest.
"I'll go, if you like, and come back to `Dionysius' here, as soon as I
have anything to tell."

He departed accordingly, and returned in about half an hour, looking
very cool, but very much annoyed.

"Hallo, Ernest, what's up now?" exclaimed Nick, as he caught sight of
his face.  "What does the doctor say?"

"I haven't seen the doctor," answered Warley.  "One of the crew has been
taken dangerously ill, and the doctor has been with him ever since he
left us."

"What have you learned, then?" asked Frank.  "Are we in the harbour?"

"We're in the harbour, and the skipper's gone ashore.  I saw his boat
half-way to the beach.  Captain Renton, Mr May, and Mr De Koech have
gone with him.  They are the only passengers who wanted to go."

"Well, but I suppose there are some shore boats that would take
passengers to and fro."

"The captain has given orders that no shore boat is to be allowed
alongside.  He won't even allow the fresh provisions, or the water, to
be brought aboard by any but the ship's boats.  I saw the largest cutter
with the empty water-casks in her, lying ready to go ashore presently."

"Who told you this?" inquired Wilmore, half incredulous.

"Old Jennings, the quartermaster.  He has charge of the boat.  He said
the captain's resolved we shan't leave the ship."

"It's an infamous shame," said Frank.  "I declare I've half a mind to
swim ashore.  It can't be very far."

"No," said Nick, "but it wouldn't be pleasant to land soaking wet, to
say nothing of the chance of ground sharks.  Even Lion had better not
try that dodge.  But I'll tell you what--if the boat is lying off the
ship's side, with a lot of ankers in her, why shouldn't we creep in
among them, and go ashore unbeknown to the first lieutenant?"

"We should be seen getting aboard," said Frank.

"No, we shouldn't.  The men are at dinner just now, and we can slip in
when the backs of the fellows on deck are turned."

"I forgot that," said Frank; "but we should be certain to be seen when
we landed."

"Ay, no doubt.  But that will be too late, won't it?  Once ashore, I
guess they must be pretty nimble to catch us; and besides, old Jennings
is too good-natured to do anything against us, which he isn't obliged to
do."

"Well, that's true, certainly," returned Wilmore.  "What do you say,
Warley?  Are you game to make the trial?"

"Yes, I am," returned Ernest.  "I think it is regular tyranny to oblige
us to stay in the ship, when there is no reason for it, except the
captain's caprice.  But if we mean to try this, we must make haste."

The three lads hurried on deck; and a glance showed them they were just
in time.  There were only two or three men to be seen, and they were at
the other end of the ship.  They skimmed nimbly down the ladder, and
found no difficulty in concealing themselves at the bow end of the boat,
which was completely hidden from sight by the empty casks.  They had not
been in their hiding-place very long, before the old quartermaster and
his men were heard coming down the side.  The shore was soon reached,
and the keel had no sooner grated on the sand, than the boys sprang out
and ran up the beach, saluting old Jennings with a parting cheer as they
went.

"Well, I never," muttered the old man.  "The cap'en 'ull be in a nice
taking when he hears of this!  And there ain't no chance but what he
_will_ hear of it.  We've Andy Duncan in the boat, and he carries
everything to the first lieutenant, as sure as it happens.  Well, I
ain't bound to peach, anyhow--that's one comfort!"

Meanwhile the captain had gone on shore, his temper not improved by the
report of the doctor which had been brought to him as he was leaving the
vessel, that another of his best hands was rendered useless--for several
weeks to come at all events--by a bad attack of fever, which might very
possibly spread through the ship.  He returned on board after nightfall,
still more provoked and vexed.  He had met with the greatest difficulty
in his attempts to fill the places of his missing men.  There were, as
the reader has been told, very few whites on the island, and none of
them were sailors.  The blacks were very unwilling to engage, except
upon exorbitant terms, and hardly one of those with whom he spoke
appeared good for anything.  He had at one time all but given up the
matter in despair.  But late in the afternoon he was accosted by a
dark-complexioned man, lean and sinewy as a bloodhound, who informed him
that the vessel in which he traded between the South African ports and
the West Indian Islands, had been driven on the Cape Verdes and totally
wrecked.  But the crew had escaped, he said, and were willing to engage
with Captain Wilmore for the voyage to Calcutta.

The captain hesitated.  He had little doubt that the lost vessel had
been a slaver, and he had an instinctive abhorrence of all engaged in
that horrible traffic.  Still there seemed no other hope of successfully
prosecuting the voyage, and after all it would be a companionship of
only a few months.  He resolved to make one effort more to obtain less
questionable help, and if that should fail, to accept the offer.
Desiring the stranger to bring his men to the quay in an hour's time, he
once more entered the town, and made inquiries at all the houses to
which sailors were likely to resort.  His success was no better than it
had been before, and he was obliged to close with the proposal of the
foreign captain.  He liked the looks of the crew even less than those of
their captain.  There were eighteen of them, however, and all strong
serviceable fellows, if they chose to work.  He must hope for the best;
but even the best did not appear very promising; and if the Yankee
captain, who had been the prime cause of the mischief, had been
delivered into his hands at that moment, it is to be feared he would
have met with small mercy.

In this frame of mind he regained the _Hooghly_, and shortly after his
arrival was informed by the first lieutenant of the escapade of the
three boys, with the gratuitous addition that he had himself delivered
them the captain's message--that no one was to be permitted to leave the
ship, except those who had gone ashore with the captain.

The skipper's wrath fairly boiled over.  He vowed he would straightway
give his nephew a smart taste of the cat-o'-nine-tails, and put the
other two into irons, to teach them obedience.  The boatswain
accordingly was summoned, and the delinquents ordered into custody, but
after a delay of half an hour, during which the captain's wrath seemed
to be every moment growing hotter, it was announced that the boys could
not be found, and the boat's crew sent ashore with the water-casks
positively declared that they did not return with them.  As no other
boats but theirs and the captain's had held any communication with the
land, it appeared certain that the young gentlemen were still on shore,
intending probably to return by a shore boat later in the evening.

"Do they?" exclaimed Captain Wilmore fiercely, when this likelihood was
suggested to him by Mr Grey.  "They'll find themselves mistaken, then.
Up with the anchor, Crossman, and hoist the mainsail.  Before their boat
has left the quay, we shall be twenty miles from land.  Not a word, Mr
Lavie.  A month or two's stay in these islands will be a lesson they'll
keep by them all their lives."

No one ventured to remonstrate.  The anchor was lifted, the great sails
were set, and in half an hour they were moving southward at a pace which
soon left the lights of Porto Prayo a mere speck in the distance.

But the boys had not been left behind, though no one but themselves and
old Jennings was aware of the fact.  He had kept the boat from putting
off on her return to the ship, on one pretext or another, as long as he
could venture to do so, in the hope that the lads would make their
appearance.  But he was aware that Andy Duncan's eye was upon him, and
could not venture to delay longer.  It happened, however, that soon
after his return, Mr Lavie had found it necessary to send on shore to
the hospital for some ice, of which they had none on board, and old
Jennings had volunteered to go.  He took the smallest boat and no one
with him but his nephew, Joe Cobbes, who was completely under his
orders.  He landed at a different place from that at which the boat had
been moored in the morning, and sent his nephew with the message to the
hospital.  He then made search after the boys, whom he soon discovered
at the regular landing-place, waiting anxiously for some means of
regaining the _Hooghly_.

"Hallo, Jennings," exclaimed Frank, as he caught sight of the old man's
figure through the fast gathering darkness; "that's all right, then.  I
was afraid we were going to stay ashore all night?"

"I hope it is all right, sir," answered Jennings, "but if the captain
finds out that you've been breaking his orders--"

"I don't believe he has given any order--" interrupted Frank.  "And it
would be monstrous if he had," exclaimed Ernest in the same breath.

"I don't know what you believe, Mr Frank, but it's sartain he has
ordered that no one shall leave the ship; and I don't know as it's so
unreasonable, Mr Warley, after the desertion of the hands at Madeira."

"We never heard of their deserting," cried Warley.

"I dare say not, sir.  It was kep' snug.  But that's why the cap'en
would allow no boats to go ashore, except what couldn't be helped.  You
see, sir, if more of the men were to make off, there mightn't be enough
left to work the ship, and if there came a gale--"

"Yes, yes; I understand that," again broke in Frank, "but we didn't know
anything about their deserting."

"Well, sir, it was giv' out this morning as that was the reason, and
every one, I thought, knew it.  But anyways, sir, you'd best come and
get aboard my boat, and keep out of the skipper's way.  He'll be sure to
find out about your doings.  Andy 'ull tell the first lieutenant, and
he'll tell the skipper--"

"I am sure I don't care if he does," exclaimed Warley.

"Ah, you don't know him, sir.  He's not a man as it's wise to defy.
Wait a bit; let him cool down and he's as pleasant a man as any one.
But when he's put up, old Nick himself can't match him.  I don't mind a
gale of wind off the Cape, or boarding a Frenchman, or a tussle with a
pirate, but I durstn't face the cap'en, when he's in one of his takings.
Come along, and get into the boat."

The lads obeyed, somewhat subdued by Jennings' representations, which
were evidently given in good faith.  They allowed the old man to cover
them with a tarpaulin, which he had brought for the purpose, and in
accordance with his directions lay perfectly still.

Presently Cobbes returned with the ice, and the boat was rowed back to
the ship.  It was pitch dark before she came alongside, and her approach
was hardly noticed.  Jennings made for the gangway, and having
ascertained that Captain Wilmore was still on shore, sent his nephew
with the ice to the doctor's cabin.  He then suffered the boat to float
noiselessly to the stern, where he had purposely left one of the cabin
windows open; through this the boys contrived, with his help, to
scramble.

"You'd better hide somewhere in the hold, Mr Frank," he whispered, as
young Wilmore, who was the last, prepared to follow his companions.

"No, on the lower deck, Jennings; we've a hiding-place there, no one
will find out.  When you think it's safe for us to show ourselves, come
down, and whistle a bar or two of one of your tunes, and I'll creep out
to you.  But I hope we shan't be kept very long, or we shall run a risk
of being starved, though we have got some grub in our pockets.  Good
night, Jennings, and thank you.  You're a good fellow, any way, whatever
the captain may be."

"Good night, Mr Frank; mind you keep close till I come to let you out.
I won't keep you waiting no longer than I can help, you may be sure of
that."

Wilmore followed his friends; and the three boys, creeping cautiously
along in the darkness, gained the lower deck unperceived, and were soon
safely ensconced in "Dionysius."  Tired out with their day's work, they
all three fell sound asleep.



CHAPTER THREE.

STRANGE TIDINGS--PIRATES ON BOARD--A REVEL--A NARROW ESCAPE--DEATH OF
JENNINGS.

The boys were awakened next morning by the pitching and tossing of the
ship.  A storm had come on during the night, which increased in violence
as the morning advanced.  It was well for the _Hooghly_ that the fresh
hands had been taken on board, or she would have become wholly
unmanageable.  Frank and his friends, in their place of retreat, could
hear the shouts and cries on deck, the rolling of the barrels which had
broken loose from their fastenings, and the washing of the heavy seas
which poured over the gunwales.  They made their breakfasts on some of
the fruit and sausages with which they had filled their pockets on the
previous evening, and waited anxiously for old Jennings' arrival.  It
was late in the afternoon before he came, and when he did appear, he
would not hear of their venturing to show themselves for the present.

"The cap'en wasn't altogether in a pleasant state of mind yesterday," he
remarked, "but he's in a wuss to-day.  He's found out that the most part
of his crew ain't worth a tobacco stopper.  I must say the Yankee made a
good pick of it.  He got away pretty nigh every smart hand we had
aboard.  These new chaps is the best we has now."

"New chaps?" asked Frank.  "Has my uncle got any fresh hands?"

"Picked up nineteen new 'uns at Port Prayo," replied Jennings.  "Stout
nimble fellows they are, no doubt.  But I don't greatly conceit them
neither.  They keep together, and hardly speak to any one aboard, except
Andy Duncan and Joel White and Bob O'Hara and that lot.  They're no good
either, to my mind.  Well, young gents, you must stay here till the gale
breaks, as I guess it will to-morrow, or the next day, and then the
skipper will be in good-humour again.  I've brought you a heap of
biscuits and some fruit and a keg of water.  But I mustn't be coming
down here often, or we shall be found out I've tied the dog up in the
fo'castle, or he'd be sniffing about after Mr Frank here, and most
likely find him out."

"Very well, Tom," said Frank, "then we'll wait here.  But it's terribly
dull work.  Nothing to do but to sleep and smoke."

"I think the skipper would let us off, if he knew what we'd gone through
during the last twenty-four hours," observed Nick, yawning.  "Well, I
suppose one must grin and bear it."  So saying, he rolled himself into
his corner and endeavoured to lose the recollection of his
_desagrements_ in sleep.

The evening wore on heavily enough.  It was past midnight before the
gale began to lull, and the lads at length fell sound asleep.  But they
were roused soon afterwards by a loud commotion on deck.  Voices were
heard shouting and cursing; one or two shots were fired, and Frank
fancied he could once or twice distinguish the clash of cutlasses.  But
presently the tumult died away, and the ship apparently resumed her
customary discipline.  Daylight came at last, glimmering faintly through
the crevices of their prison, and the boys lay every minute expecting
the advent of the old quartermaster.  But the morning passed, and the
afternoon began to slip away, and still there was no sign of Jennings's
approach.  The matter was more than once debated whether they should
issue from their hiding-place, which was now becoming intolerable to
them, altogether disregarding his advice; or at any rate send out one of
the party to reconnoitre.  But Ernest urged strongly the wisdom of
keeping to their original resolution, and Frank after awhile sided with
him.  It was agreed, however, that if Jennings did not appear on the
following morning, Warley should betake himself to the doctor's cabin
and ask his advice.

Accordingly they once more lay down to sleep, and were again awoke in
the middle of the night, but this time by a voice calling to them in a
subdued tone through the barrels.

Wilmore, who was the lightest sleeper, started up.  "Who is that?" he
asked.

"It is I--Tom Jennings," was the answer.  "Don't speak again, but push
out the barrel that stops the way into your crib there.  I'll manage to
crawl in, I dare say, though I am a bit lame."

Wilmore saw there was something wrong.  He complied literally with Tom's
request, and pushed the keg out in silence.  Presently he heard the old
man making his way, stopping every now and then as if in pain.  At last
there came the whisper again: "Pull the barrel back into its place, I've
got a lantern under my coat which I'll bring out when you've made all
fast."

Frank again obeyed his directions, having first enjoined silence on his
two companions, who were by this time wide awake.  Then Jennings drew
out his lantern, and lighted it by the help of a flint and steel.  As
the light fell on his face and figure, the boys could hardly suppress a
cry of alarm.  His cheeks were as white as ashes, and in several places
streaked with clotted blood.  His leg too was rudely bandaged from the
knee to the ankle, and it was only by a painful effort that he could
draw it after him.

"What's the matter, Tom?" exclaimed Frank.  "How have you hurt your leg
in that manner?"

"Hush!  Mr Frank.  We mustn't speak above a whisper.  There's pirates
on board.  They've got possession of the ship."

"Pirates!" repeated Wilmore.  "What, have we been attacked, and my
uncle--"

"He's safe, Mr Frank--at least I hope so.  Look here.  You remember
them foreign chaps as he brought aboard at Porto Prayo?  It was all a
lie they told the cap'en, about their ship having been lost.  They were
part of a crew of pirates--that's my belief, any way--as had heard
Captain Wilmore was short-handed, and wanted to get possession of his
ship.  They was no sooner aboard than they made friends with some of the
worst of our hands--Andy and White and O'Hara and the rest on 'em--and I
make no doubt persuaded them to join 'em.  About ten o'clock last night,
when the men were nearly all in their berths, worn out with their work
during the gale, these foreigners crept up on deck, cut down and pitched
overboard half a dozen of our chaps as were on deck, and then clapped
down the hatches."

"That was what we heard, then," remarked Gilbert.  "Were you on deck,
Tom?"

"Yes, sir, I was, and got these two cuts over the head and leg.  By good
luck I fell close to the companion-ladder and was able at once to crawl
to my berth, or I should have been pitched overboard.  Well, as soon as
it was daylight, the captain and the officers laid their heads together
to contrive some means of regaining the ship; but, before they could
settle anything, a vessel came in sight, and the fellows on deck hove to
and let her come up--"

"The pirate ship, I suppose, hey?" cried Frank.

"Yes, sir, no other.  She'd followed us beyond a doubt from Porto Prayo,
and would have come up before, if it hadn't been for the gale.  There
wasn't nothing to be done, of course.  The pirates threatened the
captain, if he didn't surrender at once, that they'd fire down the
hatchways and afterwards pitch every mother's son overboard.  And they'd
have done it too."

"Not a doubt," assented Frank.  "So my uncle surrendered?"

"Yes, sir, he did, but he didn't like it.  I must say, from what I've
heard of these fellows, I judged that they'd have thrown us all in to
the sea without mercy.  But it seems White and O'Hara and the rest
wouldn't allow that, and insisted on it that every one, who chose it,
should be allowed to leave the ship.  I did 'em injustice, I must say."

"What did they go in?" inquired Wilmore, a good deal surprised.

"In the two biggest of the ship's boats, sir.  You see we've been driven
a long way south by that gale, and are not more than a few hundred miles
from Ascension.  They'll make for that, and with this wind they've a
good chance of getting there in three or four days."

"Are all the officers and passengers gone?" asked Warley.

"Well, no, sir.  Mr Lavie ain't gone.  The men stopped him as he was
stepping into the boat, and declared he shouldn't leave the ship.  But
all the rest is gone--no one's left except those who've joined the
mutineers, unless it's poor old Lion, who's still tied up in the
fo'castle."

"Why, _you_ haven't joined them, Jennings, to be sure?"

"I! no, sir; but with my leg I couldn't have gone aboard the boats; and
to be sure, I hadn't the chance, for I fainted dead off as soon as I'd
reached my berth, and didn't come to till after they was gone.  And
there's my nevvy too--he wouldn't go, but chose to stay behind and nurse
me.  I hadn't the heart to scold the lad for it."

"Scold him!  I should think not," observed Warley.

"Well, sir, it may get him into trouble if he's caught aboard this ship,
and I expect he'll get into troubles with these pirates too.  But
there's no use fretting about what can't be helped.  I'm thinking about
you young gents.  You see if I'd been in my right senses when they went
away, I should have told the cap'en about you, and he'd have taken you
away with him.  But I wasn't sensible like, and no one else then knew as
you was aboard."

"No one knew it _then_?" repeated Warley.  "No one knows it now, I
suppose."

"Yes, sir, Mr Lavie knows it, and Joe too; I told them an hour ago, and
we had a long talk about it.  The doctor's resolved he won't stay in the
ship, and I suppose you don't want to stay neither?"

"We stay, Tom!" replied Frank.  "No, I should think not indeed, if we
can help it.  But how are we to get away?"

"This way, sir.  These pirates have been choosing their officers to-day,
and they've made O'Hara captain.  They say he's the only man who's up to
navigating the ship.  Anyhow, they've made him captain, and one of the
foreign chaps, first mate.  They're to have a great supper to-morrow
night in honour of 'em, and most of the crew--pretty nigh all I should
say--will be drunk.  Well, then, we claps a lot of things, that Mr
Lavie has got together, aboard one of the boats--there are enough of us
to lower her easy enough--and long before daylight you'll be out of
sight."

"_You'll_ be out of sight.  Don't you mean to go yourself, Jennings?"
asked Frank.

"My leg won't let me, Mr Frank.  I couldn't get down the ship's side;
and besides, I ain't in no danger.  My old messmates won't let me be
hurt, nor Joe Cobbes neither.  I'd best stay here till my leg's right.
Mr Lavie says it wants nothing but rest, and a little washing now and
then.  No, sir; Joe and I would rather stay on board here and take the
first opportunity of leaving the ship that offers.  Mr Lavie and you
all 'ull bear witness how it happened."

"That we will, Tom," said Warley.  "Well, then, if I understand you,
we've nothing to do but to remain quiet until to-morrow night, and you
and Mr Lavie will make all the preparations?"

"Yes, sir, that's right.  Stay quietly here till you've notice that
everything's ready."

"But I don't like you having all the risk and trouble, Tom," said
Wilmore.

"You'd do as much for me, sir, and more too, I dare say, if you had the
chance.  Besides, I am anxious you should get away safe, because you're
my witnesses that I and Joe had no hand in this.  I shall get well all
the sooner, when you're gone."

"All right, Jennings," said Warley.  "And now I suppose you want to get
out of this again?"

"Yes, sir; you must help me.  Getting out will be worse than getting in,
I am afraid."

The lantern was extinguished, the keg removed, and with much pain and
difficulty the old man was helped out.  The next twenty-four hours were
passed in the utmost anxiety by the three lads, who would hardly allow
themselves even to whisper to one another, for fear of being overheard
by the pirates.  All the morning they could hear the preparations for
the feast going on.  Some casks in the lower deck, which, as they knew,
contained some unusually fine wine, were broken open, and the bottles
carried on deck.  Planks also were handed up to make tables and benches.
From the conversation of the men employed in the work, they learned
that the feast was to take place in the forecastle, none of the cabins
being large enough to hold the entire party.  Once they caught a mention
of Mr Lavie's name, and learned that he had been all night in
attendance on Amos Wood, the sailor who had been attacked by fever at
Porto Prayo, and that the man had died that morning, and been thrown
overboard.  The doctor, it was said, had now turned in for a long sleep.
The boys guessed that his day would be differently employed.  About six
o'clock in the evening, everything seemed to be in readiness.  The tramp
of feet above was heard as the men took their places at table, and was
followed by the rattling of plates and knives and forks, and the oaths
and noisy laughter of the revellers.  These grew more vociferous as the
evening passed on, and after an hour or two the uproar was heightened by
the crash of glass, and the frequent outbreak of quarrels among the
guests, which were with difficulty suppressed by their more sober
comrades.  Then benches were overturned, and the noise of bodies falling
on the deck was heard, as man after man became stupidly intoxicated.
The uproar gradually died out, until nothing was audible, but drunken
snores, or the unsteady steps of some few of the sailors, who were
supposed to be keeping watch.

It was about two hours after midnight when the expected summons came.
Frank crept out first, followed by Nick and Ernest.  They found Mr
Lavie and Joe Cobbes waiting for them.

"Everything is ready, Ernest," whispered the doctor.  "We've put as many
provisions and arms into the jolly-boat as we can safely carry; but you
had better take a brace of pistols apiece.  There are some one or two of
the men who are the worse for drink, but still sober enough to know what
they are doing, and we may have a tussle.  Put on these caps and
jackets, and come as quick as you can.  The jolly-boat is on the
starboard side, near the stern.  She's not in the water yet, but
everything is ready for lowering her.  Quiet's the word."

The boys obeyed.  They crept cautiously on deck, pulling the caps over
their foreheads, and imitating as well as they could the movements of
drunken men.  They soon reached the jolly-boat, where old Jennings was
waiting for them.  The helm had been lashed, but every ten minutes or so
one of the watch came aft to see that all was right.  Jennings had
unfastened the lashings and taken the rudder, telling the first man who
came up that he would see to it for the rest of the watch.  The man
willingly enough accepted his services, and this skilful manoeuvre saved
them for the time from further interruption.

"Lower quickly, Mr Lavie," he whispered in the doctor's ear.  "Andy
Duncan has had liquor enough to make half a dozen men drunk, but he
knows what he's doing for all that.  He's keeping an eye on the ship,
and may be down upon us any minute."

He was obeyed promptly and in silence.  The boat was lowered without
attracting notice.  Warley was the first to slip down the rope, and was
safely followed by Nick.  Frank was just climbing over the bulwark when
a man staggered up, and accused them with a volley of drunken oaths of
intending to desert.

"No, no, Andy," said Jennings quickly, "no one means to desert.  There's
a man overboard, and we're lowering a boat to pick him up.  Make haste,
my lad," he continued, addressing Wilmore, "or he'll be too far astern
for us to help him."

Frank promptly took the cue, and vanished over the side.  For a moment
Duncan was staggered by the old quartermaster's readiness, but the next
he caught a momentary glimpse of Frank's features.

"Hallo, that's young Wilmore, that's the captain's nevvy, as you said
had been left behind," he shouted.  "There's some devilry here!  Help,
my lads, there!"  He drew a pistol as he spoke, and fired at Mr Lavie's
head, who was attempting to seize him.

His nerves were unsteady from drink, and the bullet missed its mark; but
it struck Joe Cobbes on the temple, who fell on the instant stone dead.
Some of the men, startled by the pistol shot, came reeling up from the
forecastle.

The doctor struck Andy a heavy blow with the butt end of his pistol, and
the man dropped insensible on the deck.  He then turned to Jennings.
"You must go with us now, Tom," he said, "or they will certainly murder
you.  Go, I tell you, or I'll stay behind myself."

The old man made a great effort and rolled himself over the bulwarks,
reaching the boat by the help of the rope, and the hands of the boys
below, though he fainted from pain and exhaustion immediately
afterwards.

Mr Lavie fired at the nearest man, who dropped with a broken leg.  The
others hung back alarmed and stupefied.  Lavie skimmed down the rope,
and disengaged her before they had recovered their senses.  Just at this
moment there was a heavy splash close beside them.

"Hallo!" cried Ernest, "one of the fellows has fallen overboard.  We
must take him in.  We can't leave him to drown."

"It isn't any of the crew," said Frank.  "It's old Lion.  I can see his
head above water.  He has broken his fastenings and followed us.  Haul
him aboard, Nick."

The dog was soon got in, and Lavie and Warley, seizing the oars, rowed
away from the ship.  An attempt was made to lower a boat, and one or two
shots were fired.  But the crew were in no condition for work of any
kind, and in a few minutes the _Hooghly_ was lost sight of in the
darkness.  Lavie and Wilmore, who understood the management of a boat,
hoisted the sail and took the rudder.

Meanwhile, Warley and Gilbert were endeavouring to restore the old
quartermaster from his swoon.  They threw water in his face, and poured
some brandy from a flask down his throat, but for a long time without
any result.  At last the boat was in proper trim, and Mr Lavie set at
liberty to attend to his patient.  Alarmed at the low state of the
pulse, and the failure of the efforts to restore consciousness, he
lighted his lantern, and then discovered that the bottom of the boat was
deluged with blood.  The bandages had been loosened in the struggle to
get on board, and the wound had broken out afresh.  The surgeon saw that
there was now little hope of saving the old man's life.  He succeeded,
however, in stanching the flow of blood, and again bound up the wound,
directing that Jennings should be laid in as comfortable a position as
possible on a heap of jackets in the bow.

This had not been long effected, when morning appeared.  Those who have
witnessed daybreak in the tropics, will be aware how strange and
brilliant a contrast it presents to that of northern climates.  The day
does not slowly gather in the East, changing by imperceptible degrees
from the depth of gloom to the fulness of light, but springs as it were
with a single effort into brilliant splendour--an image of the great
Creator's power when He created the earth and skies--not toiling through
long ages of successive processes and formations, as some would have us
believe, but starting at one bound from shapeless chaos into life and
harmony.

The doctor cast an anxious look at the horizon, and was relieved to find
that the _Hooghly_ was nowhere visible.  "Well out of that," he
muttered.  "If we could only bring poor Jennings round, I shouldn't so
much regret what has happened.  But I am afraid that can't be."  He
again felt the old man's pulse, and found that he was now conscious
again, though very feeble.

"Is that Mr Lavie?" he said, opening his eyes.  "I'm glad to see you've
come off safe, sir.  I hope the young gentlemen are safe too."

"All three of them, Jennings, thank you," was the answer; "not one of
them has so much as a scratch on him."

"That's hearty, sir.  I am afraid poor Joe--it's all over with him,
isn't it?"

"I am afraid so, Tom.  But he didn't suffer.  The ball struck him right
on the temple, and he was gone in a moment."

"Yes, sir, and he was killed doing his duty.  Perhaps if he'd remained
among them villains, he'd have been led astray by them.  It's best as it
is, sir.  I only hope you may all get safe to land."

"And you too, Tom," added Frank, who with his two companions had joined
them unperceived.

"No, Mr Frank, I shall never see land--never see the sun set again, I
expect.  But I don't know that I'm sorry for that I'm an old man, sir,
and my nevvy was the last of my family, and I couldn't have lived very
long any way."

"No," said Mr Lavie, "and you too have met your death in the discharge
of your duty.  When my time comes, I hope I may be able to say the
same."

"Ah, doctor, it's little good any on us can do in this world.  It's well
that there's some one better able to bear the load of our sins than we
are!  But I want to say a word or two, sir, while I can.  I advised you,
you'll remember, to run straight for the nearest point of the coast,
which I judge is about eight hundred miles off.  But I didn't know then
where them pirates meant to take the _Hooghly_ to.  Their officers only
let it out last night over their drink.  They were to make the mouth of
the Congo river, where they've one of their settlements, or whatever
they call them.  Now, that happens to be just the point you'd be running
for, and they'd be pretty sure to overhaul you before you reached it.
You'd better now try to reach the Cape, sir.  It is a long way off--a
good fortnight's sail, I dare say, even with this wind.  But there's
food and water enough to last more than that time; and besides, you may
fall in with an Indiaman."

"We'll take your advice, you may be sure, Jennings."

"I'm glad to hear that, sir.  It makes my mind more easy.  Make for the
coast, Dr Lavie, but don't try for it north of Cape Frio--that's my
advice, sir; and I know these latitudes pretty well by this time."

"We'll take care, Jennings," said Warley.  "And now, isn't there
anything we can do for you?"

"You can say a prayer or two with me, Mr Ernest," replied the old man
feebly.  "You can't do anything else, that I knows of."

Warley complied, and all kneeling down, he repeated the Lord's Prayer,
and one or two simple petitions for pardon and support, in which old
Jennings feebly joined.  Before the sun had risen high in the heavens
his spirit had passed away.  His body was then reverently committed to
the deep, and the survivors, in silence and sorrow, sailed away from the
spot.



CHAPTER FOUR.

A FOG--WRECKED--A CONSULTATION--SURVEY OF THE SHORE--A STRANGE
SPECTACLE--THE FIRST NIGHT ON SHORE.

It was early morning.  Lavie and Warley were sitting at the helm
conversing anxiously, but in subdued tones, unwilling to break the
slumbers of their two companions, who were lying asleep at their feet,
with Lion curled up beside them.  It was now sixteen days since they had
left the ship; and so far as they could ascertain, Table Bay was still
seven or eight hundred miles distant.  They had been unfortunate in
their weather.  For the first few days indeed the wind had been
favourable, and they had made rapid progress.  But on the fifth morning
there had come a change.  The wind lulled, and for eight and forty hours
there fell a dead calm.  This was followed by a succession of light
baffling breezes, during the prevalence of which they could hardly make
any way.  On the twelfth day the wind was again fair; but their
provisions, and especially their supply of water, had now run so low,
that there was little hope of its holding out, even if no further
_contretemps_ should occur.  Under these circumstances, they had thought
it better to steer for the nearest point of the African coast.  They
were now too far to the southward to run any great risk of falling in
with the pirates, and at whatever point they might make the land, there
would be a reasonable prospect of obtaining fresh supplies.  The course
of the boat had accordingly been altered, and for the last three days
they had been sailing due east.

According to the doctor's calculations they were not more than sixty or
seventy miles from shore, when the sun set on the previous evening; and
as they had been running steadily before the wind all night, he fully
expected to catch sight of it as soon as the morning dawned.  But the
sky was thick and cloudy, and there was a mist over the sea, rendering
objects at the distance of a few hundred yards quite undistinguishable.

"We cannot be far from shore," said the doctor.  "My observations, I
dare say, are not very accurate; but I think I cannot be more than
twenty or thirty miles wrong, and according to me we ought to have
sighted land, or rather have been near enough to sight it, three or four
hours ago."

"I think I can hear the noise of breakers," said Warley, "I have fancied
so for the last ten minutes.  But there is such a fog, that it is
impossible to make out anything."

"You are right," said Mr Lavie, setting himself to listen.  "That is
the beating of surf; we must be close to the shore, but it will be
dangerous to approach until we can see it more clearly.  We must go
about."

Ernest obeyed; but the alarm had been taken too late.  Almost at the
same moment that he turned the rudder, the boat struck upon a reef,
though not with any great force.  Lavie sprang out and succeeded in
pushing her off into deep water again, but the blow had damaged her
bottom, and the water began to come in.

"Bale her out," shouted Lavie to Frank and Nick as he sprang on board
again.  "I can see the land now.  It's not a quarter of a mile off, and
she'll keep afloat for that distance.  Take the other oar, Ernest; while
they bale we must row for that point yonder."

The fog had partially cleared away, and a low sandy shore became here
and there visible, running out into a long projecting spit on their left
hand.  This was the spot which Lavie had resolved to make for.  It was
not more than two or three hundred yards distant, and there was no
appearance of surf near it.  They rowed with all their strength, the
other two baling with their hats, in lieu of any more suitable vessels.
But the water continued to gain on them, nevertheless, though slowly,
and they had approached within thirty yards of the beach, when she
struck a second time on a sunk rock, and began to fill rapidly.  They
all simultaneously leaped out into four-foot water, and by their united
strength contrived to drag the boat on until her keel rested on the
sand.  Lavie then seized the longest rope, and running up the low,
shelving shore, secured the end to a huge mass of drift-wood which lay
just above high-water mark.  Fortunately the tide was now upon the turn,
so that in three-quarters of an hour or so she would be left high and
dry on the beach.

The first impulse of all four was to fall on their knees and return
thanks for their deliverance, even the thoughtless Nick being, for the
time, deeply impressed by his narrow escape from death.  Then they
looked about them.  The fog had now almost disappeared, and a long
monotonous line of sand hills presented itself in the foreground.
Behind this appeared a dreary stretch of sand, unenlivened by tree,
grass, or shrub, for two or three miles at least, when it terminated in
a range of hills, covered apparently with scrub.  Immediately beyond the
narrow strip of beach lay a lagoon, extending inland for about a mile.
This was evidently connected with the sea at high-water; for a great
many fish had been left stranded in the mud, where they were obliged to
remain, until the return of the tide again set them at liberty.
Presently a low growl from Lion startled them, and they noticed an
animal creeping up round a neighbouring sand hill, which on nearer
approach they perceived to be a hyena.  It was followed by several
others of the same kind, which forthwith began devouring the stranded
fish, while the latter flapped their tails in vain attempts to escape
from the approach of their enemy.  Availing themselves of the hint thus
offered them, the boys, who had not yet breakfasted, pulled off their
shoes and stockings, and followed by Lion, waded into the mud.  The
hyenas skulked off as they approached, and they soon possessed
themselves of several large eels and barbel Mr Lavie, whose appetite
also reminded him that he had eaten nothing that morning, gathered a
heap of dry weed and drift-wood, and drawing out his burning-glass, soon
set them ablaze.  Frank undertook to clean and broil the fish, which was
soon afterwards served up, and pronounced excellent.

By the time they had finished their meal, all the water had run out of
the boat, and the sand was sufficiently dry to enable them to convey
their stores on shore.  Having completed this, and covered them with
tarpaulin to prevent damage from the broiling sun, their next task was
to turn her over and examine her bottom.  It took the united strength of
the four to accomplish this; but it had no sooner been done, than it
became evident that it would be useless to bestow further trouble upon
her.  The first concussion had merely loosened her timbers, but the
second had broken a large hole in the bottom; which it was beyond their
powers of carpentry to repair, even had they possessed all the necessary
tools.

"Thank God she didn't strike on that sharp rock the first time,"
exclaimed Lavie, as he saw the fracture; "we should not be standing
here, if she had."

"Why, we can all swim, Mr Lavie, and it was not more than a quarter of
a mile from land," observed Gilbert, surprised.

The doctor made no reply, but he pointed out to sea where the black fins
of more than one shark were visible above the surface.

Nick shuddered and turned pale, and all present again offered an inward
thanksgiving.

"Well," resumed Frank, after a few moments' silence, "what is to be
done, then?  I suppose it is pretty certain that she will never float
again."

"Well, not certain, Frank," suggested Warley.  "There may be some
fishermen--settlers, or natives--living about here, and they of course
would have boats, and would therefore be able to repair ours.  The best
thing will be to make search in all directions, and see if we can
discover anywhere a fisherman's hut."

"I am afraid there's not much chance of that, Ernest," said Wilmore.
"If there were any fishermen about here, we should see their boats, or
any way their nets, not to say their cottages; for they would be
tolerably sure to live somewhere near the beach."

"The boats might be out to sea, and the nets on board them," suggested
Gilbert, "and the huts may be anywhere--hidden behind those hillocks of
sand, perhaps."

"So they may, Nick," observed Mr Lavie, "though I fear there is no very
great chance of it.  It is worth trying for, at all events.  Look here,
one of us had better go along the shore to the right, and another to the
left, until they get to the end of the bay.  From thence they will, in
all likelihood, be able to see a long way along the coast, and if no
villages or single dwellings are visible, it will be of no use making
further search for them.  It will take several hours to reach the end to
the left there, and that to the right is probably about as far off; but
it is still so hidden by the fog that, at this distance, it can't be
made out."

"And what are the other two to do?" asked Frank.

"They had better stay here and make preparations for supper and passing
the night," said Mr Lavie.  "It is still tolerably early, but whoever
goes out to explore won't be back till late in the afternoon, and will
be too tired, I guess, to be willing to set out on a fresh expedition
then.  Besides, the night falls so rapidly in these latitudes that it
wouldn't be safe.  Now, I have some skill in hut making, and I think you
had better leave that part of the job to me."

"By all means, Charles," said Warley; "and Frank here showed himself
such a capital cook this morning, that I suppose he'll want to undertake
that office again.  Well, I'm quite ready.  I should like to take the
left side of the bay, Nick, if you've no objection."

"It's all the same to me," said Nick; "anything for a quiet life--and it
seems quiet enough out there anyway.  Well, then, I suppose we had
better be off at once, as I don't want to have to walk very fast.  I
should like to have Lion, but I suppose he wouldn't follow me."

"No, he's safe to stay with Frank, but you two had better take your guns
with you," said Mr Lavie.  "I don't suppose you are likely to meet any
wild animals on these sand flats--nothing worse than a hyena, at any
rate."

"Thank you kindly, Mr Lavie, I don't particularly want to meet even a
hyena," said Nick.

"Pooh, Nick, he wouldn't attack you, if he did meet you.  But you may
want our help for some reason or other, which we can't foresee, and we
shall be sure to hear you, if you fire.  Here, Nick, you shall have my
rifle for the nonce.  It is an old favourite of mine, and has seen many
a day's sport.  And here's Captain Renton's rifle for you, Ernest.  By
good luck he had asked me to take care of it, so it was safe in my cabin
the day we got away.  I've never seen it perform; but if it is only one
half as good an article as he declares, you'll have no cause to complain
of it."

"How was it that the captain didn't take it with him?" asked Gilbert.

"Because they wouldn't let him," said the surgeon.  "He asked to be
allowed to fetch it, and looked as savage as he dared to look, when they
swore they'd allow no firearms to be taken."

"I don't wonder at their not permitting it," observed Wilmore.

"Nor I, Frank.  The wonder to me has always been that they let the
officers and passengers go at all.  But it seems that such of our men as
agreed to join these Congo pirates would not do so, except on the
express condition that the lives of all on board were to be spared; and
the pirates daren't cross them.  But we mustn't dawdle here talking.
There's plenty to be done by all of us, and more than we can do, too."

Warley and Nick accordingly set off in opposite directions, and Lavie
and Frank began their work.  They first took an axe from their stores,
and choosing from among the drift-wood three of the longest spars,
resolved to fix two of them in the ground, and lash the third to their
upper ends.  They selected for this purpose a hollow between two high
sand hills, about a hundred yards above high-water mark.  Then they were
to cut six more poles, and lay them on either side against the ridge
piece, burying the other ends in the sand.  Over this frame-work the
tarpaulin was to be stretched, and kept in its place by laying some
heavy pieces of wood on the lower ends.  Thus a small tent would be
formed, at the bottom of which the boat's sail was to be spread, forming
a convenient place on which to lay their stores, and make up their beds.

Plainly it would occupy a considerable time to complete these
arrangements, but they had not advanced half-way, when Nick came
hurrying back in a state of the greatest excitement, declaring that he
had seen, at a short distance, the roofs of what was evidently a town of
considerable size; and on a flat piece of ground adjoining it, a number
of men--soldiers they seemed to be--in red and white uniforms, drawn out
in long lines, as if on parade.

"A large town, Nick! soldiers in uniform!" repeated Wilmore in great
astonishment.  "You must be dreaming."

"I assure you I am not," replied Gilbert, whose demeanour showed that he
was thoroughly in earnest.  "I could see, quite distinctly above the
fog, the towers of a church, apparently, and a long row of battlements,
evidently part of a line of fortifications; and, through openings in the
mist, the red caps and jackets of the soldiers were as plain as anything
I ever beheld in my life."

"But it can't be, doctor, can it?" asked Frank.  "I am sure I should be
glad enough to think we were near any inhabited spot, let alone a large
city.  But you're pretty certain of our whereabouts, ain't you?"

"Yes; I don't think I can be mistaken very much, and I must be out of
all reckoning wrong, if this is true.  There is no town, that I know of,
on this coast, between the Portuguese settlements, which are something
like eight hundred miles to the north of where I suppose we now are, and
Cape Town, which is almost as far to the south."

"Well, just come and look for yourself, doctor," said Nick.  "It won't
take you long.  The place is not above two or three miles off at the
outside."

"Of course I will go--we'll all go, Nick--Lion and all I am sure I hope
with all my heart that you may be right.  It will save us a very long
and dangerous journey if you are."

He caught up a fowling-piece which had belonged to his friend the
purser, and handed Frank the fourth gun, an ordinary seaman's carbine.
"Now then, Nick, lead the way."

Gilbert complied, and the whole party stepped out briskly, their
curiosity, as well as their interest, being strongly awakened.  They
toiled through the heavy sand, which was only varied by heaps of
drift-wood flung up by the sea, and the rotten carcasses of mud fish,
which had been carried too far inland by the tide to be able to recover
their native element.  The stench, under the burning sun, was almost
insupportable, and the three adventurers were greatly relieved, when,
after a walk of three-quarters of an hour, the desert of sand was
passed, and they ascended a rocky plateau, where some crags, twelve or
fifteen feet in height, afforded at least some shelter from the rapidly
increasing heat.  "We are getting near the place now," observed Nick, as
they reached the last of a long chain of rocks, and came upon a wide and
apparently level plain, but so much enveloped in mist as to be very
imperfectly discerned.

"There it is, I declare," exclaimed Frank, who was the first of the
party to turn the corner of the limestone shelf.  "There it all is--
houses, fortifications, and soldiers, just as Nick said!"

There, indeed, it was.  At the distance, as it seemed, of scarcely more
than three hundred feet, were seen distinctly the battlemented walls of
a city of great size and strength.  There were the gateways, the
flanking towers, and the embrasures; while behind them rose domes and
cupolas, and the sharp-peaked roofs of numberless houses, intermingled
with lofty trees.  Under the walls ran a broad river, the waters of
which rippled brightly in the sunshine, and upon its banks long lines of
infantry were drawn up, or what appeared to be infantry, all standing
silent and motionless as so many statues.

The two boys gazed in the utmost bewilderment at this spectacle, while
Lion bounded forward, evidently meditating a plunge into the cool and
sparkling waters.  The astonishment of the party was in no way
diminished, when the doctor, raising his gun to his shoulder, fired
directly at the nearest platoon of soldiers, one of whom was seen to
fall.  The next moment the whole of his companions rose with loud
screams into the air, and dispersed themselves in all directions.
Almost at the same moment the walls and battlements of the fortress and
ridges of roof behind them wavered and shook, and finally vanished from
the scene, as the smoke of a wood fire is lost in the surrounding
atmosphere.  In their place appeared a low serrated ridge of rock, on
which a few stunted shrubs were growing, while in front and behind alike
extended the interminable waste of sand.

"Here is your soldier, Nick," said the doctor, as he picked up the
carcass of a large flamingo, which his shot had brought down.  "Here's
his red cap and jacket--his beak and wings, that is to say--and here are
his white facings--his neck and chest.  You are not the first by a good
many that has made that mistake!"

"This is what is called a mirage, then?" said Frank.  "I've often heard
of it, and longed to see it; and it is a more extraordinary delusion
than I could have supposed possible.  Why that low line of rock there,
and those dwarf shrubs looked as if they were at least sixty feet high.
How in the world do you account for it, Mr Lavie?  Why even Lion was
taken in!"

"I am afraid I cannot give you an explanation, which you will understand
very clearly, Frank.  It is caused by the inequality of the temperature
in the lower strata of the air; which again is the result of the
reflected heat of the sun's rays on the barren, sandy plain.  While the
strata are unequally heated, these curious reflections, which are like
those seen in broken mirrors, continue to deceive the eye.  Objects
appear to be raised high into the air, which in reality are to be found
on the surface of the earth, often too they are immensely magnified, as
indeed you saw just now; a single stone will seem the size of a house,
and an insignificant shrub look as big as a forest tree.  But when the
sun gains sufficient power to raise all the strata to a uniform heat,
the mirage melts away."

"But your shot seemed to disperse it just now."

"So it did.  But my shot only disturbed the strata; and if the mirage
had not been nearly on the point of vanishing, from the increasing solar
heat, I doubt whether the same effect would have followed.  But it is
time for us to go back to our hut and finish our work.  Nick, I suppose
you will join us?  We may see pretty plainly for ourselves that there
are no fishermen's huts in this quarter."

Nick assented, and the three, after a short rest under the shade of the
rocks, returned to the spot whence they had set out, and resumed their
work.  By two o'clock the two uprights were fixed in the sand, and in
two hours afterwards the tent was complete.  All the stores were then
carefully conveyed inside, the keg of gunpowder being buried in the sand
to prevent the possibility of accident.  Then the two lads set about
preparations for supper, which was to consist, like that of the morning,
of fish broiled on the embers.

"And a very good supper too," observed Nick; "I don't think I ever ate a
finer fish than this cod here."

"It's first-rate, there's no doubt of that," returned Frank; "but I must
own I should like something besides.  I suppose your flamingo there
wouldn't be very good eating?"

"I expect not," replied Lavie.  "The flamingo is too gross a feeder to
make very good food itself.  One might eat it, I dare say, if there was
nothing else to be had.  I have eaten lion steaks once in my life, but I
have no ambition to repeat the experiment.  No, I don't propose to make
any further use of my flamingo than to cut off one of his beautiful red
wings to make a fan of, and hand the rest of the bird over to Lion.
What a splendid-looking bird he was; it really seems almost a shame to
kill him!"

They all gathered round to admire him.  The colours in which nature had
dressed him, showed that he was one of her favourite children.  The long
thin legs--they were two feet and some inches in length--were of the
most delicate shade of pink, and shaped with wonderful grace.  The short
thigh, chest, and neck were covered with down, the softest and whitest
that can be imagined.  But the great beauty of the creature lay in its
wings, in which the brilliant scarlet and pure white hues were
intermingled with wonderful delicacy and grace, both colours being
bordered and thrown out by the deep black of the under feathers.

"I wish I could stuff that specimen," said the doctor, as he
contemplated the dead bird.  "It would be the making of a collection.
It can't stand less than four foot four, or perhaps four foot six high.
However, I'm afraid it's rather out of place to be thinking of
collections.  It will be a good job," he muttered to himself, "if we are
not put into a collection ourselves by some Hottentot or Damara chief
But it won't do to hint that to the boys."

He seated himself on one of the casks in the shelter of the tent, and
appeared to be watching the preparations for supper, lost, in reality,
in a reverie of mingled pain and pleasure.  He was roused at last by the
information that Warley was returning; and presently the youth himself
appeared on the scene, throwing down, to Frank's great satisfaction, a
brace of wild ducks which he had been fortunate enough to shoot.  His
report, however, was not encouraging.  He had reached the extremity of
the bay, and had ascended an eminence, perhaps two or three hundred feet
high; but nothing was to be discerned from it but long wastes of mingled
rock and sand, varied here and there by thickets of euphorbia, or
monotonous scrub.  In the distance indeed were lofty mountains; but it
was impossible to say, in that transparent atmosphere, how distant they
might be.  As regards the more immediate object of his expedition--the
discovery of some trace of man--it had been an entire failure.

While Warley was delivering his report to the doctor, the other two were
busied in plucking and roasting the ducks.  Presently it was announced
that all was ready, and the four sat down to their repast with an
appetite sharpened by a long day of exertion.  It was no sooner over
than fatigue began to assert itself in place of hunger.  It was agreed
that the fire should be kept up all night, and that each should watch
for two hours by it.  It was now nearly nine o'clock, and the last watch
would thus bring them to five in the morning, when it would be desirable
that all four should be awakened to the heavy day's work, which (as none
of them doubted) lay before them.



CHAPTER FIVE.

PLANS--THE BOYS SET OUT--A DISAPPOINTMENT--THE FIRST BOK--WATER!
WATER!--A MIDNIGHT VISITOR.

The whole party slept soundly, and by six o'clock were sitting under
their tent over the remains of their breakfast.  Frank and Nick were on
the point of issuing forth to collect some more fish for the mid-day
meal, when the doctor called to them to stop.

"It is time," he said, "that we hold a consultation, and come to some
resolution respecting our future movements.  Sit down here in the shade,
and we'll talk the matter over."

The boys obeyed, and took their places; Lion, as usual, seating himself
at Frank's side, and occasionally bestowing a broad lick of affection on
his face and hands.

"I have made a fresh examination of the boat this morning," began Lavie,
"and am quite satisfied that it is impossible for us to repair her.  She
is an old boat, and wouldn't anyway have lasted much longer, and now she
is so much hurt, that no one but a regular boat-builder could make her
float again.  It is impossible therefore to carry out our original
intention of going on to Cape Town by sea.  Well, then, we must hit on
some other plan."

"Wouldn't it be the simplest way to travel along the line of coast the
whole way?" suggested Ernest.  "As far as I remember my geography, there
are no bays running far inland, or very wide rivers to interfere with
us."

"You're right, Ernest," rejoined Lavie.  "There are nothing but small
bays all the way, and until we reached the mouth of the Gariep, there
would be no rivers to interfere with us."

"And when we did reach the Gariep, said Frank, we should be pretty safe
to fall in with some settlers or, any way, natives, who, `for a
consideration,' would help us through the rest of our journey.  I think
Ernest's advice very good."

"I should think it so also, Frank," said the surgeon, "if I didn't
happen to know something of the line of country proposed.  I have never
been along it myself, but I have met people who know it well.  It is one
long sandy waste the entire way--no trees, no grass, scarcely even a
rock; and if there are any water-springs, they are so few and scanty,
that it is almost the same thing as if there were none at all.  There
would be no food to be obtained, no shade from the sun, and no
resting-place at night, as it would be impossible to carry our tent with
us.  And, to wind up, we should certainly not meet with a human being
from the beginning of our journey to its end."

"Well, that is pretty nearly enough, I think," observed Nick, "I have no
fancy to be broiled like a fish on a gridiron, or have a leg of nothing
and no turnips for dinner, like the clown in a pantomime.  Let us hear
what you propose."

"I advise that we should travel towards the east, until we come to the
banks of one of the rivers which run southward into the Gariep.  I know
there are several at no very great distance from the coast: we can
follow any one of these to its junction with the great river.  When we
have once got there, I have no doubt what Frank suggested is true
enough.  We shall come to the farmhouse of a Dutch boor, or a Hottentot
village, or fall in with a hunting party, and so find the means of
reaching Cape Town."

"That sounds feasible," said Frank.  "We shall be sure of water, at all
events, by going that way, and water's the first thing to be thought
of."

"And there'll be plenty of game, most likely," added Lavie, "and, any
way, fish."

"And shade from the heat of the sun, and resting-places at night," said
Warley.

"But how about the wild beasts and the snakes?" struck in Nick.
"Wouldn't it be better to make a canoe, or a raft, and sail down the
river itself?"

"That is not a bad idea, Nick," said Frank.  "What do you say to that,
Charles?"

"That it would be a very good idea on some rivers, but not on these,"
answered Lavie.  "Nick has never seen one of these South African rivers,
or he'd never suggest it.  At times, the channels here are reduced to
mere threads, along which no boat that was ever made could pass; at
others, they are swollen to raging torrents, which would shatter them to
fragments.  A boat journey to the Gariep is out of the question."

"Very well, then, we must make the journey along the banks," said
Warley.  "Of course we must follow your advice, Charles.  You know a
good deal about the country between this and Table Bay, while we know
absolutely nothing.  I suppose you would recommend that we should set
off, as soon as possible, for the nearest river that runs southward?"

"Yes," said Lavie, "there is no kind of object in delaying here.  There
is neither food nor shelter to be had here, neither shade nor water; and
the stench from the mud and the dead fish is very far from fragrant.  I
counsel that we move off with as little delay as possible."

"Hear, hear," said Frank; "I am quite of the same mind.  Well, then,
Charles, the next thing is, what are we to take with us?  The boat would
have held as much as we were likely to want; but our backs and pouches
are different things."

"Quite so, Frank--that was the next thing I was going to speak about.
We must, of course, leave by far the greater part of our cargo behind.
In fact, we must cumber ourselves with as little baggage as possible.
But some things will be absolutely necessary.  There are the guns and
powder-flasks and bullets.  We cannot do without them."

"That is voted, _nem. con._," said Warley; "and there is the flint and
steel and tinder-box.  The doctor's burning-glass will be no good when
the sun doesn't shine."

"And we shall want the gridiron, and the knife and spoon and cup, and
the iron pot for cooking and holding water," struck in Nick.

"Each of us ought to carry a change of linen," said Mr Lavie, "and a
second pair of shoes; but no more, I think.  I suppose one brush and
comb must serve all four."

"I hope you'll take your lancets, Charles, and some physic, in case of
any of us being taken ill," suggested Warley.

"I am not likely to forget that, Ernest," returned the surgeon.  "Very
well, then, that will be all.  We had better each provide ourselves with
the articles agreed on, make a hearty meal off some of the salt meat and
biscuit, and then set off at once, leaving everything else in the boat,
for the benefit of any one who may be thrown up, like ourselves, on
these barren flats."

No one urging farther objection, this programme was forthwith carried
out.  Belts and knapsacks were adjusted, the various articles required
for the general use were divided between the four, a hasty meal was
eaten, and then each man took his gun, and the party bade farewell to
the old boat and low sandy shore, and set forth on their travels.

They soon surmounted the rocky shelf which they had visited on the
previous day, and, passing through an opening in the barren hills,
entered a valley, which seemed even more dreary than the scene they had
just quitted.  On either side were rocks of a dull grey colour, broken
into all kinds of fantastic shapes, and full of holes and winding
caverns, which suggested the possible neighbourhood of venomous snakes.
Nick, in particular, cast many a suspicious glance at these orifices;
which seemed to his imagination the lurking-places, whence at any moment
the hideous head of a cobra or python might rear itself, preparatory to
a deadly spring on its victim.  He was greatly relieved when, after an
hour or two of walking, the valley gradually opened into a wide plain,
and patches of vegetation began to show themselves.  The euphorbia was
the first to appear, with its tall stiff bunches of foliage, each of
which bore a curious resemblance to a chandelier with its cluster of
candles.  Then the kameel-doorn, the dwarf acacia, and the wild
pomegranate began to vary the landscape with their contrast of colours;
and presently there appeared the aloe and the mimosa, the bright yellow
of the last-named reminding Ernest of the gorse and broom among which
his walks had so often lain.

But though there was a great improvement in respect of the scenery, its
most important accessory, water, was nowhere to be found.  Lavie looked
anxiously on all sides for some indication of the vicinity of the river;
which, if his information was correct, lay only a few miles eastward of
the spot where they had landed.  They could hardly have mistaken the
way, for no other opening in the rocks had been visible in any
direction, except that which they had pursued; and the gradual downward
slope of the glen could hardly end in anything but water.  But they had
now been travelling since mid-day, only sitting down to rest for a few
minutes, at intervals of two hours or so; and now the sunset was near at
hand.  He was greatly rejoiced when, on turning the corner of a dense
clump of euphorbias, they came in sight of what was evidently the course
of the river, though the dense bushes on either side hid the stream from
view.

"Hurrah! my lads," shouted the doctor; "now for a good drink, and a cool
bath too, if the water is only deep enough."

He broke into a run as he spoke, and was joined by the other three, who
forgot their weariness and anxiety in the excitement of the moment Lion
bounded along at Frank's side, as eager apparently as his master.  They
were the first to reach the fringe of shrubs, into which they plunged
with headlong haste.  But the next moment there came a loud cry of
disappointment; the others hurried up, but only to catch sight of Frank
and Lion standing over a dry bed of sand, which had evidently once been
the channel of the river.  There was now not the slightest trace of
water to be seen.  The sand was not even moist.  Lavie now felt
extremely anxious.  There were rivers he knew lying to the eastward, and
that at no very great distance, twenty or thirty miles at the outside,
and probably they were not so far off as even twenty miles: and if so,
the strength of the whole party might hold out until the nearest was
attained.  But then the lads were not used to roughing it in the desert;
and they might miss the track and become too exhausted to travel
further.  He had fully reckoned on finding water at the spot which they
had now reached, or he would have brought a supply with him from the
water-cask in the boat, which had still contained several gallons.  But
it was too late now to think of returning that night to the seashore,
and besides, such a step would naturally alarm and depress his
companions.  The best chance would be to proceed on their way as long as
daylight lasted, and take the chance of falling in with some of the
springs or pools, which are scattered about, though at rare intervals,
in this inhospitable land.

"Well, that's a nuisance," he exclaimed aloud, as he gazed into the
blank faces, and marked the dry parched lips of the boys.  "That's a
nuisance, but it can't be helped.  Better luck next time.  We had better
step out as fast as we can while daylight lasts.  We are safe to come to
water, sooner or later, even in this country."

"All right, Charles," said Frank; "the sooner we reach it the better.
We must step out, best pace."

The other two made no remark, but they also quickened their walk.
Emerging from the bushes, Mr Lavie pursued his route due eastward,
though the path he followed did not seem very likely to fulfil his
hopes.  It lay along a bare hillside, over which huge boulders of rock
were scattered; while the vegetation growing more and more scarce every
mile of the way, at last ended in a waste as barren as that which they
had traversed at the outset of their journey.  It was, indeed, very much
the same character of scenery as before, only that they were no longer
shut in by a hollow defile in the hill.  On either sides there rose high
shelves of stone pierced by what seemed to be caverns running far
inward.  Between these masses of rock, long vistas of bare stony plains
presented themselves, seeming to the belated travellers the very picture
of desolation.

The sun was now fast setting; there remained scarcely an hour of
daylight, and for all they could see, Lavie and his party would have to
continue their journey by starlight, or bivouac on the sand.  Suddenly
at this moment, Lion, who had been tramping along for the last hour or
two, as much depressed apparently as any of the party, stood still,
sniffed the air for a moment or two, and then sprang forward with a
joyous bark, turning round, when he had proceeded a few yards, as if
inviting Frank to follow him.

"Don't call him back, Frank," said Mr Lavie as Wilmore shouted after
him.  "His instinct is much keener than ours.  Either there is some
animal near at hand, which you may shoot for supper; or, as I earnestly
hope may be the case, he scents water.  Cock your gun, and go after
him."

"I am afraid there is but little chance of his finding water here," said
Ernest, as Wilmore hastened forward.  "There is nothing to be seen
anywhere but hard crag-stone and dry sand.  But he may put up some game
among the rocks there which he is scrambling up.  Ha! and so he has," he
added the moment after, as a steinbok came bounding down the cliff.
"Now, then, to test Captain Renton's rifle."

He drew the trigger as he spoke, and the animal dropped on its knees,
but rose the next minute and was making off, when a shot from Lavie
again brought it down.  They ran up and found that the steinbok was
already dead.  Ernest's bullet had struck it in the side, and inflicted
what would probably have proved a mortal wound, though it would, for the
time, have succeeded in effecting its escape.  But Lavie had aimed
directly at the heart, and his shot having gone true, death was
instantaneous.

"Hurrah!" shouted Frank, at this moment, waving his cap on the shelf of
rock above.  "Three cheers for old Lion.  It is all right now."

"All right as regards the meat, Frank," said Nick, "but how about the
drink?  A fellow in this wicked world requires to drink as well as to
eat--at all events, I do."

"Meat," repeated Frank, peering over the edge of the precipice, which
might perhaps be a dozen feet in height.  "Have you got any meat?  Did
you kill anything when you fired just now?"

"To be sure we did, Frank," said Warley.  "We're not given to miss in
our part of the world.  We've brought down as nice a young steinbok as
you'd wish to eat.  If you'd only find us some water to match, we should
be quite set up."

"Water! why, that is just what we _have_ found.  Here has old Lion
lighted on a well of water, the most delicious that any fellow ever
drank of."

"Water! what, up there?  You don't say so.  Hurrah! here goes."  Laying
down their guns, the three thirsty travellers speedily climbed the stony
heights, and stood by their companion's side, when their eyes were
gratified by a very strange as well as a very welcome spectacle.

In the very middle of the plateau of rock surmounting the precipitous
ascent appeared a circular hole, some three or four feet in diameter,
and so deep, that its bottom could not be discerned.  The cavity was
evidently natural; nor indeed did either the Hottentots or the Bushmen--
the only tribes by whom the spot was ever visited--possess either the
tools or the patience necessary for so laborious a work.  It was
doubtless what is sometimes called, though most erroneously, a freak of
nature--one of those beneficent provisions, more than one of which we
shall have to notice in the course of this story, by which the
providence of God supplies the wants of His creatures in the desolate
wastes; without which help they must inevitably perish.  The hole had
retained the rain, with which it had been filled a week or two
previously, and the water being sheltered by the surrounding rocks from
the burning rays of the sun, was sweet, clear, and deliciously cool to
the taste.  The cup was passed round and round again, before the thirsty
travellers were satisfied, and even then they were half disposed to envy
Lion's simpler mode of satisfying his drought, viz., by plunging head
over ears into the well, and imbibing at every pore the refreshing
moisture.

At length thirst was satisfied, and gave way to hunger.  Descending from
the rocky platform, they set themselves to prepare their supper.  Nick
collected the grey leafless shrubs, which grew in abundance among the
rocks; and which, though anything but picturesque in appearance, made
capital firewood.  Frank cut up the carcass, broiling some parts of it
on the gridiron, and boiling as much more as the pot would hold.  It was
dark long before their preparations were completed, and they had to eat
their dinner by the light of their fire, assisted by the stars, for the
moon had not yet risen.  But the road to the mouth is very easy to find,
especially when men are hungry.  They all four soon finished a most
excellent meal.  Then the fragments of the repast were handed over to
Lion--Frank declared he ought to have been called to the chair, and his
health drunk with all the honours--and arrangements were made for the
night.  Some of the shrubs which Nick had collected, and which had not
been used for the fire, made very comfortable beds.  These were spread
inside one of the largest caverns, though not before Nick had carefully
examined its recesses by the help of a blazing log, to make sure that
they contained no venomous reptiles.  Lion stretched himself out to
sleep at the entrance of the cave; and it was considered that his
instinct might be trusted to warn them against the approach of danger,
without additional precautions.  In a few minutes they were all sound
asleep.

They might have slept for perhaps three hours, when Frank, whose
slumbers were unusually light, was roused by a low growl close to him.
Looking round, he saw Lion standing in the entrance of the cave over the
remains of the steinbok, only a part of which had been eaten.  Frank
remembered that the carcass had been left at some little distance from
their sleeping-place; and the dog, therefore, must have dragged it to
its present place.  Something unusual must have occurred to make him do
this; and besides, the attitude of the animal, his hair bristling, his
chest advanced, his muscles stretched to their full tension, and the
fierce glare in his eye showed plainly enough that he beheld some
formidable enemy.

"A hyena has scented the carcass, I have no doubt," thought Frank, "but
I can hardly afford to throw away a shot upon him.  He must be driven
away, though, or we shall get no rest."

He stepped noiselessly up to the entrance, but recoiled instantly at the
sight he beheld, and it was with difficulty that he stifled a cry of
alarm.  At a distance of about four yards, the outline of its
magnificent figure clearly revealed in the bright moonlight, a lion of
the largest size was crouching, evidently preparing itself to spring!
Frank had never seen one of these animals, except in captivity.  About a
twelvemonth before, during his stay in London, Captain Wilmore had taken
him to Exeter 'Change, where one or two lions were exhibited.  But these
were small of their kind, and enfeebled by age and long captivity.  They
bore no more resemblance to the glorious and terrible creature with
which Frank was now confronted, than the trickling stream which glides
lazily over the ledge of the rocks bears to the foaming cataract,
swollen by snows and rains.

He perceived in a moment what had taken place.  The lion had come to the
water to drink; and the dog, scenting the approach of some beast of
prey, had possessed itself of the remains of the steinbok, which would
otherwise fall a prey to the marauder.  The lion in its turn had
discovered the vicinity of food, and had leaped down from the rock to
seize it.  All this passed through Frank's mind in a moment.  It could
hardly be called thinking, but was rather like a sudden revelation.  He
felt, too, the necessity of killing the monster without a moment's loss
of time, or all their lives would be imperilled.  He stooped
noiselessly, and picked up the nearest gun, which chanced by good
fortune to be Captain Renton's rifle.  Frank was a steady shot, as the
reader has already been told; but he had never fired at a mark like
this.  He recalled, on the instant, what he had heard Mr Lavie say that
the only spots in a wild animal's body in which a bullet could be lodged
with the certainty of causing instant death, were the ear, the eye, and
immediately behind the shoulder, where there was a direct passage to the
heart.  It was impossible to aim at either ear or shoulder in the
present instance, as the animal was standing directly facing him.  The
eye, therefore, which flashed large and yellow upon him in the broad
glare of the moonlight--the eye must be his mark.  He raised the rifle
and brought it down to the level of his eye, drawing trigger the moment
he had done so.  It was well for him that his aim was true, and his hand
steady.  As the barrel dropped to its place, the metal flashed in the
moonbeam, and its glitter seemed to rouse the creature from its
momentary torpor.  It rose into the air at the very moment at which the
bullet struck it, and if the latter had not been aimed with the most
perfect accuracy, there would have been an end of the mastiff, and
probably of his master also.  But the shot passed directly through the
eyeball, and lodged in the brain, causing instantaneous death.  The
muscular power communicated to the limbs failed even before the leap was
accomplished.  A furious roar burst from the king of the forest as he
felt the wound, but it died off abruptly, and the vast carcass fell, a
lifeless mass, within two feet of the entrance of the cavern.



CHAPTER SIX.

A SECOND VISITOR--NICK'S CLUB--A HALT--A MYSTERIOUS CRY--A NEW MODE OF
IMPRISONMENT.

The noise of the gun, and the dying roar of the lion, roused the whole
party from their slumbers; and in another minute they were standing
round the fallen monster, eagerly asking for information.

"You did that well, Frank," said the surgeon, after carefully examining
the wound; "just in the right place, and at the right moment.  Half an
inch either way, or ten seconds later, and there would have been a very
different story to tell.  You'll be a mighty hunter one of these days, I
expect.  It's very few who have made their _debut_ with a shot like
this.  But we must make sure that there are no more of them about.  It's
strange that I should have forgotten the likelihood of beasts coming
down at night to drink, or the risk there would be of an encounter
between them and Lion.  Get in, you old rogue," he continued, giving the
dog a playful kick in the ribs, and driving him inside the cave, where
he secured him to a large fragment of rock.  "You don't know what an
escape you've had.  You are ready enough to fight, I don't doubt, but
`cave cui incurras,' as the Latin grammar says, Master Lion; a single
single blow of that brute's paw would have been enough to break a
horse's back, let alone a dog's.  There, stand in the entrance with your
gun, Nick, and keep a sharp look out, while we go to examine the well."

The lads took their guns, and the three making a considerable _detour_
to the left, cautiously ascended the rocks, until they gained a higher
shelf than that in which the well was situated, and then looked over.
The moon had by this time begun to set, and the steep summit of the
crags behind them intercepted its light, throwing the shelf into deep
shadow.  A dark mass was indistinctly visible, lying immediately on the
edge of the well, partly indeed protruding over it.  "That's the lioness
drinking," whispered Frank.  "She has most likely followed her lord to
the water, and has only just arrived here."

"Most likely," answered the doctor in the same cautious tone, "but don't
fire.  You can't see her plain enough to take a sure aim at her, and a
mere wound would only enrage her.  Leave her to me.  As soon as she has
done drinking, she'll get up, and then we shall have a clear sight of
her."

They waited patiently for several minutes.  It became evident that the
animal was not, as they had supposed, drinking, but was either asleep or
refreshing herself with the cool air, which the close proximity of the
water produced.  In either case it was impossible to conjecture how long
she might retain her present attitude.  "Let drop a stone upon her,
Ernest," whispered the doctor.  "That will put her up.  I have my rifle
all ready."

Warley looked round him.  There was no stone near at hand, but he
detached his shot-flask from his belt and threw it with a skilful aim,
striking the lioness on the flank.  She instantly sprang to her feet;
but just as Ernest discharged his missile there came a dense cloud over
the moon, and the figure of the animal was lost to sight.  Before the
cloud could quite pass away again, the lioness gave vent to a low savage
roar.  She had caught sight, notwithstanding the darkness, of the
carcass below, and sprang down to examine it.  "I wonder how Nick will
get on with her?" exclaimed Frank.  "He's no great shot.  I think we had
better go down to the rescue.  Just hold my gun, Ernest, while I slip
down."

Handing his rifle to his companion, he slid down the projecting face of
the precipice, feet first, and then called to Warley to lower his weapon
after him.  Mr Lavie reached the shelf almost at the same moment, and
both pressed forward with some anxiety to see what was passing below.
The spectacle they beheld would have been extremely ludicrous, if it had
not been still more alarming.

Forgetting or disregarding Lavie's directions, Gilbert had laid aside
his gun as soon as his companions left him, and had gone to make an
examination of the lion--an animal which he had never before seen.  He
was greatly struck by the enormous size and vast strength of creature,
and stood for a few moments considering whether he might not be able to
carry away some souvenir of the adventure.  A lock of his shaggy mane,
or one of his huge teeth, were the first mementos which suggested
themselves to him.  It would be difficult, however, to obtain one of the
last-named articles--that is without the help of certain tools which
they had not in their possession.  No, it must be a lock of the
gentleman's hair, which could be easily enough to procure, and equally
easy to preserve, though the keepsake would be somewhat cumbrous.  He
picked up the knife, which Frank had left on a slab of stone near the
entrance of the cave, and proceeded to choose the place whence the
ringlet was to be cut.  Suddenly it occurred to him that the tuft at the
extremity of the tail would be extremely suitable for the purpose; or
why, by the way, should he not retain the entire tail?  Mr Lavie had
been telling them, only that evening, of the practice adopted by the
Bushmen of wearing a belt round the waist, by which the pangs of hunger
were considerably mitigated.  To judge by what happened yesterday, such
a belt might be extremely serviceable, and the skin of the lion's tail
would make a famous belt.  At all events there could be no harm in
cutting the tail off; and this he effected easily enough by the aid of
Mr Lavie's hatchet.  He was still engaged in examining his treasure by
the imperfect light, when a whirling noise was heard over head, and a
large object of some kind dropped within a few feet of him.

A good deal startled, Nick let fall the hatchet and grasping the upper
end of the tail with both hands, whirled it, like a flail round his
head.  At the same moment the moon again broke out, and he perceived
that his new companion was a large lioness, whose fierce growls were
evidently the preliminary to a still fiercer assault.  Nick gave himself
up for dead; and if the attention of the animal had in the first
instance been directed to him, there would indeed have been but small
hope of escape for him.  But the lioness had scented the dead body, and
she proceeded to examine it all over, sniffing the tainted air, and
uttering every now and then a low howl, like a mourning cry.  Nick would
have retreated to the cover of the cavern, but a feeling of fascination
held him to the spot; and he continued to swing the tail right and left,
apparently hardly conscious of what he was doing.  Presently, the mood
of the lioness seemed to change, and the notion to occur to her of
taking vengeance for the ruthless slaughter of her mate.  She glared
fiercely at Nick, and gave vent to a low roar.  She would, in fact, have
instantly sprung upon him, but that the whirl of the tail immediately in
front of her nose, dazed and bewildered her for the moment, and kept her
at bay.  This could not, however, have lasted, and Nick's career would
soon have been run, if rescue had not been at hand.  But at this moment
the crack of the doctor's rifle was heard, and the brute, shot through
the heart, rolled over in the death struggle.

"Bravo, Nick," exclaimed Lavie, as he leaped down from the rock.
"Hercules himself never wielded his club more valiantly, than you did
the lion's tail.  I was sorry to keep you so long in suspense, but the
beast persistently kept her back towards me, till just the moment when I
fired.  If I had only wounded her, she would have sprung on you all the
same."

"All right, doctor," said Nick; "you couldn't do more than bring me off
with a whole skin.  And it's more than I deserve, too, for I didn't obey
orders."

"Well, now I suppose we may go back to bed?" suggested Frank.  "It's not
much past midnight, and I feel as if I wanted plenty more sleep before
morning.  I don't fancy we shall have many more visitors to-night."

"No," said the doctor, "we may sleep soundly now.  Animals don't often
go near a fountain where they have seen lions drinking.  Indeed, the
shots which have been fired would probably be enough to keep them away.
Let us turn in again, by all means."

His prognostications were fulfilled.  There was no further disturbance
that night, and when the travellers awoke on the following morning, they
were in high health and spirits.

"Do you intend to take the same track which we were following up
yesterday, Charles?" asked Warley, as they sat at breakfast, "or have
you altered your mind about it?"

"I see no reason for changing it," replied the surgeon.  "I am sure the
river, which Vangelt told me of, cannot be above fifteen miles off at
the outside, and when we are once there, it is all, comparatively
speaking, plain sailing.  I don't know how far this kind of country may
last, but I feel sure it cannot be for any great distance.
Notwithstanding yesterday's experience, I don't advise our taking water
with us, or anything but a few slices of meat I am persuaded that we
shall not suffer a second time, as we did yesterday; and carrying water
always hampers travellers terribly."

All readily gave their assent to his suggestions, and before six o'clock
the travellers were again in motion.  They journeyed on for several
miles, the bare rocks and sand still continuing the main features of the
landscape: but about twelve o'clock their eyes were relieved by the
appearance of wooded slopes in the distance.  Presently they came to a
small pool, surrounded by a grove of oomahaamas and acacias, among the
branches of which they noticed a quantity of grey-crested parrots, which
kept up an incessant screaming, from the moment the travellers came in
sight to that of their departure.

"Here's a good place for a halt," suggested Ernest.  "This shade is most
refreshing, and the water seems clear and cool."

"I am quite of your mind, Ernest," said Nick, flinging himself at full
length on the grass at the edge of the pool.  "Exhausted nature can't go
further without a respite.  Now, if any one would be so good as to shoot
two or three of those parrots, that are actually crying out to be shot,
they would make a famous--What are you up to now, man?" he added
sharply, as he felt a sudden blow on his shin.  "You would do well to
take care what you are doing."

"_You_ would do well to take care," retorted Warley.  "Do you see what
was crawling up your leg?"  He held up, as he spoke, a dead snake about
eighteen inches long, with a curious-looking horn on either side of its
head.  "If I hadn't hit him on the neck the moment I saw him, he'd have
bitten your hand to a certainty.  He was making straight for it."

"A snake!" cried Nick, starting up in horror.  "So there is, I declare.
The nasty brute!  I don't know whether it is venomous or not, but I'm
much obliged, even if it isn't.  They are not nice things up a fellow's
leg!"

"Hand him over here," said Charles Lavie.  "Oh ay, I know this fellow.
He is called the cerastes, and is venomous, I believe, though not one of
the worst kinds of poisonous snakes.  You are well out of it, Nick, I
can tell you, and must look more carefully about you in this country
before you sit down in a place like this.  Some of the reptiles are so
nearly the colour of the ground, or the trees, that even an old stager
may be taken in."

"Are there any large pythons in these parts?" asked Warley.  "I've heard
two quite different accounts.  One says that they are never found so far
south as this; the other, that they are to be met with thirty or forty
feet long, and as thick round as a stout man.  What is the truth of the
matter?"

"Well, the truth is something between the two, I believe, as is
generally the case," said the surgeon.  "They are certainly not common
in Southern Africa, since people who have lived here all their lives
have never seen one.  But now and then they are to be met with.  I know
persons who have seen serpents' skins thirty feet long in the possession
of natives; and one case I heard of, in which a skin was exhibited fully
ten feet longer than that."

"Are they difficult to kill?" asked Frank.

"Not if you bide your time," said Lavie.  "If you come upon them when
they are hungry, they--the larger ones, that is--are more than a match
for even the strongest men: and unless they are approached unawares, and
wounded, so as to destroy their muscular power, a struggle with them
would be most dangerous.  But after they have gorged their prey, they
are killed as easily as so many sheep--more easily in fact, for they are
quite torpid."

"What are the worst snakes found in these parts?" inquired Gilbert.
"The cobra and the puff adder, I should say," returned the surgeon.
"The first will spring at you as if it was discharged out of some
engine, and with such force, that if it fails to strike its mark it will
overshoot the spot by several feet.  The natives call it the
hair-serpent, and are in great terror of it.  If no sufficient remedy is
applied, its bite will cause death in less than an hour."

"_Is_ there any sufficient remedy?" rejoined Nick.  "I thought there was
no cure."

"It's not so bad as that, Nick.  There are remedies for most bites--the
cobra's for instance.  There is a root which the mangoust always eats,
when it feels itself bitten by a cobra, and which is, so far as is
known, a complete cure.  Eau de luce and sweet milk are generally given
in this country for a snake's bite, and the natives have beans and
serpent stones, which, it is said, effect a cure.  But the best thing to
do--what I should have done in your case, Nick, if you had been bitten--
is, first to fasten a ligature as tight as possible above the wounded
part, and then cauterise or cut away the injured flesh.  Snakes' bites
are nasty things in these hot countries, and one can't be too careful.
But come, it is time we move on again.  We ought to reach the river
banks early in the afternoon."

They recommenced their march accordingly, and had proceeded half a mile
or so further, when Frank suddenly called upon them to stop.

"What can that noise be?" he said.  "I have heard it two or three times
in the course of the last few minutes.  It doesn't sound like the cry of
a bird, or beast either.  And yet I suppose it must be."

"I didn't hear anything," said Gilbert.  "Nor I," added Warley.  "But my
hearing is not nearly as good as Frank's.  I've often noticed that."

"Let us stop and listen," suggested Charles.

They all stood still, intently listening.  Presently a faint sound was
wafted to them, apparently from a great distance--from the edge of the
sandy desert, they fancied, which was still visible beyond the wooded
tracts.

"No," said Charles, when the sound had been twice repeated, "that is not
the cry of any animal, with which I am acquainted.  It sounds more like
a human voice than anything else.  If it was at all likely that there
was any other party of travellers in these parts, I should think they
were hailing us.  But nothing can be more improbable than that."

"Still it is possible," urged Warley, "and they may be in want of our
help.  Ought we not to go and find out the truth?"

"I think you are right, Ernest," said Frank.

"Well, I don't know," urged Gilbert, nervously.  "I've heard all sorts
of stories of voices being heard in the deserts, enticing people to
their destruction, and it may be some ruse of the savages about here,
who want to get us into their hands, to possess themselves of our guns.
What do you say, doctor?"

"Why, as for the voices, Nick, I've heard the stories you speak of,
which have been told chiefly by persons who had lost their way and were
nearly dead from cold and hunger.  Under such circumstances, when
people's nerves and senses begin to fail them, they fancy all sorts of
strange things.  No doubt, too, there are all sorts of acoustic
deceptions in these wild regions, as there are optical delusions; but I
don't think we four--all of us in sound health--are likely to be so
deceived--"

"But how about the savages, doctor?" interposed Nick, anxiously.

"Well, if these were the backwoods of America, and we had the Red
Indians to deal with, there would be a good deal in your suggestion.
But neither the Hottentots nor the Bushmen are given to stratagems of
this kind.  However, we'll move warily, and if any treachery is
designed, we shall be pretty sure to baffle it."

They turned off in the direction whence the cry had come, keeping to the
open ground, and giving a wide berth to any clump of trees or underwood
which might harbour an enemy.  Every now and then they paused to listen
for the sound, which was regularly repeated, at intervals apparently of
two or three minutes, and grew more distinct as they advanced.  It was
now certain that the cry was human, and sounded like that of a
full-grown man.

"We are getting a good deal nearer," observed Warley, as they passed the
last patch of trees, and entered once more the sandy wilderness.  "I
should say we must be almost close, only I don't see any place where the
person who is crying out in this manner can be hidden."

"It comes from that heap of stones there," exclaimed Frank, "that heap
to the left, I mean--about two hundred yards further on."

"I see the stones, Frank, plain enough," said Mr Lavie, "but a man
couldn't be hidden among them.  You call it a heap of stones, but there
is no heap.  There is not so much as one lying upon another."

"Nevertheless the cry comes from there," said Warley; "I heard it the
last time quite plainly.  Let us go up and see."

They cautiously approached the spot in question, where there were about
thirty or forty moderate-sized stones scattered on the plain.  As they
advanced the mysterious call was again heard.

"I see who it is that's making it," shouted Wilmore.  "It's a fellow
whose head is just above ground.  I took his head for a black stone,
with a lot of moss growing on it.  But now I can see that it is a head,
though the features are turned away from us."

They hurried up, and found that Frank was right.  The stones were lying
round what seemed to have been a dry well.  In this a man had been
buried up to his neck, the chin being just above the level of the
ground.  It did not appear that he was conscious of their approach; for
at the interval of every two or three minutes he continued to give vent
to the shrill monotonous cry, which had attracted their attention.

"What in the world can this mean!" exclaimed Nick.  "The fellow can't
have tumbled into the well, and the stones have fallen in after him, I
suppose?"

"Is it some penance, do you think, that he is undergoing?" suggested
Warley.

"Or a punishment for a crime he has committed?" said Wilmore.

"It may be a punishment for some offence," said Mr Lavie, "though I
never heard of the Hottentots punishing their people in that way, and
the man is plainly a Hottentot.  As for anything else, of course it is
quite impossible that he can have got jammed up in this way by accident;
and the Hottentots know nothing of penances.  Such a thing has never
been heard of among them.  But the first thing is to get the poor fellow
out and give him something to restore him; for he is half dead with
thirst and exposure to the sun, and does not seem conscious of what is
passing."

They fell to with a will, and had soon so far released the captive, that
he was able to draw his breath freely and swallow a little brandy, which
Mr Lavie poured on his tongue.  He then opened his eyes for a moment,
gazing with the utmost bewilderment and wonder on the dress and
appearance of the figures round him; and then closed them again with a
low groan.

"They meant this--the beggars that holed him in after this fashion,"
observed Frank.  "The stones are fitted round him as carefully as though
they had been building a wall.  And, look! the poor wretch's arms are
fastened by a thong to his sides.  What brutes!  Hand us the knife,
Nick, and I'll cut them.  How tough they are!"

It needed a strong hand and a sharp blade to sever the stout thongs,
which on subsequent examination were found to consist of rhinoceros
hide.  But when his arms were at length free, the man made no effort to
use them.  It was evident that they were so benumbed by the forced
restraint in which they had so long been kept, that he had lost all
power over them.  They were obliged to continue to remove the stones,
until his feet were completely released, before he could be extricated
from the hole; and when this was effected, it was only by the joint
strength of the four Englishmen, the Hottentot himself being unable to
render any assistance.

He was now carried to the shade of the nearest trees; Nick ran back to
their recent resting-place, and returned with the iron pot full of
water, while Warley and Wilmore, under the surgeon's direction, chafed
his limbs.  By the time of Gilbert's return their efforts had been
successful.  The sufferer once more opened his eyes, and making signs
that the water should be handed to him, drank a long and refreshing
draught.  "He'll do now," observed Nick, as he witnessed this feat.
"There's no more fear for his health after that.  But I should like to
know who he is, and how he came there.  I say, blacky, what may your
name happen to be, and how did you come to be boxed up after that
fashion, like a chimney-sweep stuck in a narrow flue?"

To the astonishment of the whole party, Nick's question was answered.

"Omatoko my name.  Tank Englishman much for pull him out.  Omatoko soon
die, if they not come.  Bushmen bury Omatoko one, two day ago.  Good
men, give Omatoko food, or he die now."



CHAPTER SEVEN.

A GOOD ACTION REWARDED--A RAID ON THE PARROTS--OMATOKO'S STORY--PROPOSED
CHANGE OF ROUTE--BIVOUAC FOR THE NIGHT.

Nick started back at the unexpected reply.  "Who'd have thought that?"
he exclaimed.  "I should just as soon have expected to have heard Lion
talk English."

"Well, it wasn't very good English," remarked Warley, "but it was as
much to the purpose as if he had been Lindley Murray himself.  I suppose
the first thing is to comply with his request.  I have got a biscuit in
my pocket, which I brought away from the boat I dare say he can eat
that."

"Not a doubt of it," said Nick; "and I guess he'll soon dispose of this
slice of steinbok too.  The worst of it is, that I had meant it for my
own supper.  But one can't let the poor wretch starve."

"We'll all contribute something," said the doctor, "and make him out a
sufficient supper, I have no doubt.  He mustn't eat very much at a time.
But the first thing is to carry him to some sheltered place, where we
can make him up a comfortable bed.  He must have a long rest before he
will be good for anything."

"Carry him, hey!" cried Nick doubtfully, as he contemplated the
prostrate figure of the Hottentot; who, for one of his race, was
unusually tall and large of frame.  "How are we to do that, I wonder?
He weighs twelve stone, I'll go bail for it, if he weighs an ounce, and
we don't happen to have a horse and cart convenient."

"We can manage it easily enough," was the answer; "our guns and these
thongs will make a very tolerable stretcher.  Draw the charges first,
though.  It wouldn't be safe to carry the guns loaded."

Ernest complied, and then the doctor set about the construction of his
litter.  He first fastened a rifle and a gun together, reversing the
direction of the barrels, so as to form a kind of staff out of them,
about six feet long, with the stocks at the two ends.  The other rifle
and gun were then secured after the same manner, and thus the poles of
the stretcher were formed.  They were then tied together, about two feet
apart from one another, by half a dozen thongs.  The machine was now
placed on the ground, and the Hottentot laid on the thongs.  Then the
stocks at one end were raised, and laid on the doctor's shoulders, who
bent on one knee and stooped as near to the ground as he could.  The
other two ends were next placed in like fashion on the shoulders of
Ernest who had put himself into the like attitude.  Frank and Nick now
took their stations in the middle of the litter, each placing one
shoulder under the pole.  Then Lavie gave the word and they all rose
together.

"Capitally managed!" exclaimed the doctor approvingly.  "Now step all
together, and we'll have him under the shelter of the trees in less than
a quarter of an hour."

They moved off, walking quickly and steadily, and in less than the time
named by Lavie, approached the friendly cover of the thicket.  As they
came near, a steinbok which had been feeding apparently under a tree,
bounded out of the covert, passing within twenty yards of them.

"Alas! alas!" exclaimed Nick, "there goes our supper that should have
been!  That is the worst of doing a good action!  One is sure to be
punished for it!"

"Well, Nick, I don't know about that," said Warley.  "If we hadn't gone
to look after the Hottentot, I don't think we should have seen anything
of the steinbok.  He wouldn't have come anywhere near us, I expect."

"No, you may be sure of that," observed the doctor, as they lowered
their burden to the ground, and laid him on some soft grass under the
shade of a large mimosa.  "And what is more, I doubt whether our good
action will not be rewarded in this instance.  Look here, the steinbok
was feeding on this melon, when we startled him.  See the marks of his
teeth, and here are the stalks of one or two others which he has eaten.
I noticed these melons as I went by, but I was afraid to meddle with
them, as I had never seen any exactly like them, and some melons in this
country are more or less poisonous.  But the steinbok wouldn't have
eaten them if they hadn't been wholesome food, and so we may venture on
them too.  I have no doubt we shall find them very refreshing."

Frank and Nick accordingly began pulling them up, while the surgeon
applied himself to the restoration of his patient, who was still lying
in a half-conscious state.  But the cool air and soft bed, together with
the restoratives, which from time to time were applied, presently
brought him round, and he was able to eat as much food as was judged
good for him.  After partaking of this and another draught of cold
water, he fell into a sound sleep, which seemed likely to last for
several hours.

"It is still early in the afternoon," remarked the doctor, as they sat
down to their dinner of steinbok and melons, the latter of which proved
most delicious; "it is still quite early, and I don't suppose we can
have gone more than a dozen miles since breakfast.  Nevertheless, I
think we must remain here.  This poor fellow isn't well enough to be
left yet, though he may be to-morrow morning."

"No, we can't leave the poor wretch," said Warley, "particularly after
what he told us about the Bushmen.  They may be lurking about somewhere
in the neighbourhood, and may pounce upon him again, and he wouldn't be
able to escape them in his present weak state."

"Eh, what!" exclaimed Gilbert, jumping up in great alarm at this
suggestion.  "The Bushmen lurking about!  The bloodthirsty savages!
They'll be seizing us and burying us up to the chin perhaps, and then
making a cockshy of our heads!  Are the guns loaded again, Frank?"

"Long ago, Nick," was the answer.  "Ernest loaded them, while you and I
were gathering melons.  I saw him doing it, and I don't think the
Bushmen are very likely to trouble us.  They have a most wholesome
terror of European weapons, and more particularly of firearms, if all
that I have heard is true.  I think we had better try if we can't kill
one or two of these grey parrots, as you yourself, if I don't mistake,
were suggesting, just before the snake showed itself."

"I have no objection, Frank," returned Nick, somewhat reassured.  "To be
sure these Bushmen can't very well be as bad as the snakes; and if one
makes up one's mind not to trouble one's self about the one, one need
not trouble one's self about the other."

"All right, Nick," said Wilmore.  "Now then, about these parrots.
They're very shy chaps, and will keep out of shot, if they can; and we
mustn't throw away powder by firing, unless with a pretty safe prospect
of bringing one down.  I think I'll creep round, and hide behind that
big trunk yonder.  Then you shy a stone up into the tree in which they
are sitting, and they'll most probably fly out into the open, and give
me a good shot."

Wilmore and Gilbert conducted their joint manoeuvres with so much skill,
that before supper-time, half a dozen good-sized parrots had been
bagged, and their flesh when boiled was pronounced by all to be
excellent.  After supper the doctor informed the party that Omatoko, as
he called himself, had now quite recovered his senses, and had held a
long conversation with him; the particulars of which he was ready to
communicate, if they wished to hear it.  "Hear it? to be sure we do,"
said Nick.  "I've been longing to learn all about it, and if I had had
any idea that he would have been able to talk, I shouldn't have gone out
parrot shooting."

"You wouldn't have understood what he said," observed Lavie.  "He told
his story in Dutch.  His knowledge of English was very small when he
came to try it.  He says he belonged to a tribe that formerly lived a
good way to the south of this--not far from the mouth of the Gariep, I
fancy, from his description.  There were a good many farms belonging to
Dutch owners in the neighbourhood; but Omatoko's was a powerful tribe,
and they seem for a good many years to have lived unmolested by their
European neighbours.  But about fourteen or fifteen years ago, some
Englishmen--traders probably sent by some commercial house--landed near
their village, and offered them more liberal terms for their skins and
ivory than the Dutch had allowed.  Finding the trade profitable, the
English returned in the following year, and by-and-by ran up a few huts,
where they carried on what promised to be a very lucrative business.  It
was from them that Omatoko picked up the few words of English which he
knows, and he appears to have contracted a great liking for them."

"Of course he did," said Frank, "old England against the world!"

"With all my heart, Frank," rejoined the doctor, "only the English are
not always remarkable for making themselves popular.  Well, the trade
went on increasing, until it roused the jealousy of the Dutch.  They
didn't fancy not being able to buy hides and tusks at the old prices,
and besides, were jealous of the English attempting to settle in the
country."

"Ay, to be sure," said Warley, "the time you speak of must have been a
year or two before the conquest of the colony by our troops."

"Just so, Ernest, and for some years previously to that there had been a
feeling of uneasiness in the colony, that the English were meditating
some attempt upon them.  That is one of the things that induces me to
believe the Hottentot's story.  Well, the Dutch in the fourth year after
the appearance of the strangers, got together what they call a commando
in these parts--"

"I know what that is," interposed Wilmore.  "I heard my uncle talking
about it with some of the passengers.  They get all the Dutchmen in the
neighbourhood together, as well as some troops from the government, and
make a raid on some unlucky Hottentot village--kill all the men, make
slaves of the women and children, seize the cattle and goods of the
natives, and burn the houses."

"That's what you call a clean sweep," observed Nick.

"Yes, no doubt.  But it's shockingly cruel and wicked," exclaimed
Warley.  "I should think you must be overstating the matter, Frank."

"I am afraid he is not," said Lavie.  "That is very much what they were
wont to do at commandos, as I had good grounds for knowing while I was
living at Cape Town.  They had a great deal of provocation, no doubt.
The boors' cattle was continually being stolen, and could very seldom be
recovered.  And it was next to impossible to prove the theft against any
tribe in particular--"

"But that would not justify them in burning and shooting right and left,
without any inquiry," rejoined Warley.  "I could not have believed that
any Christian people--"

"Well, Ernest, I am inclined to go a long way with you on this subject,
though I differ somewhat," said the doctor, "but we have no time to
discuss it now.  Well, the Dutch commando attacked Omatoko's village by
night and burnt it, as Frank says, to the ground.  Probably all the
other results of which he spoke would have ensued, if the English had
not heard the firing, and come up to the rescue."

"I hope they peppered the Dutchmen properly," cried Nick.

"Well, they seem to have made a good fight of it; but the Dutchmen were
ten to one, and the Hottentots very little good.  The upshot was that a
large part of the tribe escaped, and the rest, together with the
survivors of the English, surrendered themselves at discretion.  Omatoko
was one of those made prisoners, and he was for eight years in the
service of a boor.  He was pretty well treated; for the colony was all
that time in the hands of the English, and they wouldn't allow any
cruelties to be exercised against the slaves.  But two years ago the
Cape was given back to the Dutch, and they began the old system again as
soon as they were in possession.  Omatoko and one or two others made
their escape some twelve months ago; and he went back to his tribe, who
are living, he says, at no great distance from this.  The Dutch, he
declares, have been trying to seize or kill him ever since--"

"Whew!" exclaimed Nick.  "What, did those Dutch beggars bury him in the
well after that fashion, then?  Well, I always thought the Dutch to be
brutes, but I never could have believed--"

"Stop that, Nick," interposed Frank.  "Have you forgotten that the
Hottentot himself told us that it was the Bushmen who buried him?"

"Oh, ay, to be sure, I had forgotten that," said Gilbert.  "Go on,
doctor.  Did the Dutch send a commando after him?"

"Omatoko says that the Dutch had given up their system of commandos for
several years, and could not easily organise them again, but they
employed the Bushmen to seize any of the fugitives, and paid a large
price for every one brought in."

"But if that is true, what made the Bushmen bury Omatoko in that way,
instead of carrying him to the Dutch to claim the reward?" asked Warley.
"I must say, Charles, that sounds very suspicious."

"So it did to me, Ernest," said Charles; "but the Hottentot answered me,
readily enough, that the Dutch would have paid the same sum for a
runaway's head, as they would if he had been brought to them alive.  He
declared that the Bushmen hated him, for having repeatedly escaped them,
and for having several times requited their outrages in kind.  He said
they meant to have left him in the well, to die of cold and hunger;
after which they would have cut off his head and carried it to the
nearest Dutch village."

"Well, that might be true, I suppose," said Wilmore.

"Yes, I think so.  The story hung well together.  I could detect no flaw
in it."

"Did you ask him whether he would act as our guide to Cape Town?"
inquired Ernest.

"Yes, and he said he would; but we could not go the way I had proposed,
along the course of the Great Fish or Koanquip rivers.  He knew them
both perfectly, so he affirmed; but neither route would be safe.  We
must go still further eastward--into the Kalahari in fact--he told me."

"What is the Kalahari?" asked Frank.

"A vast sea of sand," said Lavie, "extending for more than four hundred
miles, from the borders of Namaqua-land to the country of the Bechuanas.
There is not, so far as I know, a single river, lake, or even fountain,
to be found in the whole region."

"What on earth are we to go there for?" cried Gilbert.  "We should soon
die of hunger or thirst, or heat!"

"Well no, not that," said the surgeon.  "A great part of the sand is
covered with dense scrub, which affords something like shade, and though
there is neither river nor pool, yet if you dig down a few feet you will
generally find a supply of water.  Life may be sustained there; indeed,
tribes of Bushmen and Bechuanas are to be found in most parts of it.
But I should think it was the most miserable dwelling-place to be found
on the face of the earth."

"Well, then, why are we to go there?" repeated Nick, irritably.

"Omatoko says it will not be safe, for the present at all events, to
journey southward.  It seems that the Dutch are expecting a new attempt
of our countrymen to seize the colony, and their fear and anger are so
greatly roused, that they would certainly imprison, and probably kill,
any Englishman who at the present juncture fell into their hands.  I
really think he is likely to be right in what he says.  When I left
England two months ago, there was a good deal of talk about taking
possession of the Cape Colony again."

"But granting that we must not venture south, why need we bury ourselves
in a sandy desert?" persisted Gilbert.  "Omatoko proposes to take us
some distance into Kalahari, because his tribe is at present living
there.  When they were driven by the Dutch from their own homes, they
retired some few miles into the desert and built a new village, where
they have been living ever since.  He promises us a friendly welcome
from his tribe, and advises us to remain with them until we can learn
what is the precise state of things between the English and Dutch.  If
no attack is made by our government, the hostile feeling will gradually
subside, and we may safely pursue our way as at first proposed.  If an
attack _is_ made, and the colony again taken possession of by the
British arms, we can travel to Cape Town, though it would be wise to
follow a different route.  That is the substance of what Omatoko
advises."

"And you are inclined to trust him, Charles?" said Warley,
interrogatively.

"I am in two minds about it," replied Charles.  "Part of what he says I
know to be true, and everything is consistent with truth.  Still his
anxiety to get back to his own tribe is suspicious.  He has let fall,
unconsciously, some hints of his burning desire to be avenged forthwith
on the enemies who had so nearly put him to a cruel death; and if he
were to conduct us to Cape Town, he would have to put off the
gratification of his revenge for many months at the least; and perhaps
before his return, the tribe he longs to punish will have moved hundreds
of miles away."

"And what do you advise that we should do?"

"I am inclined to follow his suggestions.  If his tale is true, we
should be running into the face of the most imminent peril by following
the route I had marked out.  And even if it is false, we shall probably
not be delayed very long at the Hottentot village.  His measures will be
taken, I doubt not, promptly enough, and then he will be at liberty to
attend to our affairs."

"You think, in fact, that he really means friendly by us, though he may
care more for his revenge than our convenience."

"Just so, Ernest.  His gratitude is, I believe, quite sincere."

"Then I agree with you that we had better do as you advise.  What do you
two say?"

"I am of your opinion," said Wilmore.

"And I don't see what else is to be done," added Gilbert.

"That's agreed, then," said Lavie.  "And now, there is another thing.
He says it won't be safe for us to sleep under these trees, even though
we light a fire, and keep it up all night.  It seems that the
neighbourhood abounds with beast of prey.  Indeed, if Omatoko is to be
believed there would be a considerable risk of our being devoured by a
lion or tiger--"

"Tiger!" repeated Warley.  "There are no tigers in this country surely."

"Not the animal strictly called the tiger," returned the surgeon; "that
is not found in South Africa at all, or indeed anywhere, I believe,
except in Bengal.  The beast they name the tiger here, is the leopard;
but he is quite fierce and savage enough.  I should observe that the
leopard is not the only animal miscalled in this country.  They talk of
the wild horse, the camel, and the wolf, as abounding here.  But none of
these are to be found.  What they mean are properly the zebra, the
giraffe, and the hyena.  But to go on, Omatoko says we must either keep
watch, all of us, with our guns all night--"

"I say, bother that," broke in Nick; "a fellow can't do without sleep."

"Or else," resumed Charles; "we must climb into trees and sleep there."

"Well, we can do that," said Frank; "that is, we four can.  But how
about this Hottentot?  He is in no case to climb a tree, I judge, much
less to stick in one all night."

"And how about Lion?" added Gilbert.  "He is a worse climber still, I
expect."

"Omatoko advised us to cut down a lot of young pines that are growing in
a thicket close by, and lay them across two of the lower branches of the
largest tree we can find.  There are several acacias of immense size
about here.  A sort of floor will thus be formed, where we can all sleep
safely.  The branches would probably be not more than six feet from the
ground, so that both the Hottentot and Lion might easily be handed up."

"But these leopards can climb, can't they?" suggested Frank.  "We should
be safe from lions or rhinoceroses no doubt, but not from leopards, or
bears either, if there are any about here."

"I don't think any bears are to be found hereabouts.  No doubt panthers
and leopards can climb trees, but remember, they could only get at us by
walking along the bough on the end of which our platform rests, or by
dropping down from a higher limb.  Lion would be sure to rouse us before
they could accomplish either feat, and they would be easy victims to our
rifles."

"That's true," said Wilmore.  "Well, then, do you three fall to work on
the job, while I roast some parrots for to-morrow's breakfast."

They began the task accordingly.  The doctor took his axe; and in half
an hour had cut down a great number of stout firs about twenty feet
long, and thicker round than his arm.  These were brought up by Warley
and laid across two of the lower branches of one of the giants of the
forest, forming a tolerably flat stage some nine feet square.  No
fastening was required for the firs, their own weight and the shape of
the branches, which bent slightly upwards at the ends, rendering them
quite secure.  Next, armfuls of dry grass and moss were handed up to
form beds for the party; and then came the more difficult task of
hoisting Omatoko to his place.  This engaged the united strength of the
doctor, Warley, and Wilmore below, while Nick, standing on the platform,
received him from their hands.  But the strength of the Hottentot was in
some measure restored, and he was able to render some help himself,
which greatly facilitated the job.  As soon as Omatoko had been
consigned to his bed, Lion was in like manner passed up; but he was by
no means so conformable as his predecessor had been, and if anybody but
Frank had had charge of his head and shoulders, they might have found
their undertaking an unpleasant one.

However, in process of time he was got up, and secured by a thong to one
of the poles in the centre of the platform.  The guns came next, and
lastly their owners.  It was quite dark before their arrangements were
completed, and before ten minutes had elapsed, the whole of the party
were fast asleep.



CHAPTER EIGHT.

DANGEROUS NEIGHBOURS--FREE AND EASY VISITORS--PROPOSED DEPARTURE--
JOURNEY RESUMED--AN AFRICAN STORM--A NECK AND NECK STRUGGLE.

The sun was high in the heavens before any of the party were roused from
their slumbers.  Then the doctor was the first to wake up, and his
thoughts were at once turned to his patient.  He was pleased to find him
in a most satisfactory condition.  His skin was cool, and his pulse,
though still low, was steadily recovering its tone.  As for Frank and
Ernest--they had no sooner opened their eyes, than they hurried off to
the pool, which lay two or three hundred yards off, to enjoy a
refreshing bath.  They were followed shortly afterwards by Lavie and
Omatoko, the latter having contrived to descend from his bedchamber by
the help of the doctor's arm, and to walk, though very slowly, as far as
the waterside.

Having completed their ablutions, the lads set about preparing the
breakfast; which, it was agreed, was to be eaten under the shade of the
acacias.

"I think Omatoko must be mistaken about the wild animals," observed
Frank.  "I slept as sound as a top, and so did Lion; and if there had
been any of his namesakes about, or tigers either, he would have been
pretty sure to give us notice."

"You forget how tired we were, Frank; Lion as well as ourselves," said
the doctor.  "Unless they made a very great uproar we should probably
not hear them."

"What does Omatoko say?" suggested Warley.  "Does he think there were
wild beasts about?"

The Hottentot nodded.  "One, two lion," he said, pointing to some
footprints in the short grass round the pool.  "One, two lion; many
tigers; one rhinoceros."

"Is that the spoor of a lion?" asked Warley with much interest, as he
stooped down and examined the footprints.  "How can you tell it from
that of a large tiger?"

"You may always know the spoor of a lion by the marks of the toe-nails,"
said Lavie; "they turn in, whereas those of other feline animals
project.  Yes, that is a lion's spoor, sure enough, and those broad deep
prints are as plainly those of a rhinoceros, and a pretty large one too.
And there are plenty of others besides, which I am not sure of.
Omatoko was certainly right.  It was quite as well that we did not
bivouac by this pool."

Breakfast was now announced, and the party gathered round the eatables,
when it was for the first time noticed that Nick was not present.

"I suppose he is still asleep," said the surgeon.  "I called to him to
come and help me to get Omatoko down, but I got nothing but an
intelligible growl at first, and then a sleepy assurance that he would
be sure to be in time for breakfast."

"No, he is not the fellow to miss that," remarked Frank.  "He must be
very sleepy indeed, before he'll go without his victuals.  Depend upon
it he will be here in a minute or two."

Half an hour however passed away, and the meal was quite completed, and
still no Nick made his appearance.

"Go, and look after him, Frank," said the doctor, "while I consult with
Omatoko as to what ought to be done next.  We can't afford to lose time,
if it should be thought better for us to move."

Wilmore took up his gun accordingly, and walked off towards the tree
where they had slept.  The dense foliage almost entirely concealed the
staging from sight: but as he drew nearer he was sensible of loud
chattering and gibbering sounds, intermixed occasionally with shrill
screams, which seemed to come from a great number of throats.  Wondering
what this could mean, he made his approach as noiselessly as possible,
and climbing up to the top of one of the roots, which projected a foot
or two upwards, he peered cautiously over the edge of the platform.  A
most extraordinary sight greeted him, and it was with the greatest
difficulty that he restrained himself from bursting into a loud laugh.

Nick was seated in the middle of the stage, bareheaded and without
shoes, and was gazing upward with a look of mingled alarm and annoyance,
which seemed to the spectator of the scene irresistibly ludicrous.  On
the boughs immediately over his head, as far up as Frank could descry, a
great number of baboons were to be seen, leaping from one resting-place
to another, with hideous grimaces, and keeping up incessant and most
discordant screams.  The grotesqueness of their appearance was much
increased by their having taken possession of such of Nick's property as
they had been able to lay their paws on.  One wore the blue cloth cap,
with the leather peak and white edging, which was a souvenir of Dr
Staines's establishment.  Two more had possessed themselves, each of one
of his shoes, which he had laid aside when he went to sleep; and were
turning them over with an air of grave curiosity, as if to discover what
their use might be.  Another party had seized the knapsack, which had
been pulled from under Nick's head before he was fully awake.  The
contents had been divided between several old baboons, who had turned
the various articles to all sort of strange uses.  One was scratching
his ear with Gilbert's pipe; another had thrust its head into a
stocking, and appeared to have some difficulty in getting it out again;
a third was enveloped from head to foot in a cotton shirt, his head
showing itself just above the collar; while a fourth was examining the
contents of the flask, which it had contrived partially to open, and was
making hideous faces over the taste of the gunpowder, of which it had
swallowed a good spoonful.  Nick had fortunately awoke in time to
prevent the baboons from seizing his knife or gun.  He now held the
latter with a strong grip in both hands, and seemed disposed to
discharge its contents at one of his assailants, if he could only make
up his mind which to single out for attack.

"Don't fire, Nick," exclaimed Wilmore, as he noticed Gilbert's
demeanour.  "You'd enrage them greatly, if you were to wound or kill any
of them.  They have been known to tear a fellow to pieces, who shot one
of their number.  They're terribly fierce and strong, if they are
provoked."

"What am I to do, then?" returned Gilbert.  "They've not only carried
off my knapsack and pipe, but my hat and shoes too; and I can't venture
to walk a step in these parts without them."

"The best way will be to scare them away," suggested Wilmore, "if we
could think of any way of doing it."

"I'll tell you," cried Nick, catching a sudden inspiration.  "Do you
climb up into the tree on the other side.  The leaves are so thick that
these brutes won't see you, and the branches are easy enough to climb.
When you're well up over their heads, let fly with your gun.  I'll do
the same the moment afterwards, and between the two reports they'll be
so scared, I expect, that they'll cut for it straightway."

"Very well," said Frank, laughing, "I've no objection.  We can but try,
any way."  He carefully uncocked his gun, and began mounting the
branches as quietly as possible, while Nick distracted the attention of
the monkeys, by shaking his fist at them, and pelting them with
fragments of bark.  Presently there came the double explosion, which
fully answered his expectations.  Uttering a Babel of discordant
screams, they dropped their recently acquired treasures, and made off at
the top of their speed, bounding from tree to tree till they were lost
in the distance.  Nick set himself to collect the various articles thus
restored, and had nearly repossessed himself of all of them, when Frank
descended from his elevation and joined him on the platform.

"You get into scrapes, Nick, more than most," he said, "but you've a
wonderful knack of getting out of them again, that's certain.  Well,
come along, if you've got everything.  The doctor is anxious to start,
if this Hottentot chap will let us, and you've still your breakfast to
get."

"The Hottentot let us start this morning!" repeated Gilbert.  "Not if
he's to go with us himself, to be sure!  To look at him last night, he
wouldn't be fit to walk again this side of Christmas.  Perhaps he
expects us to carry him, as we did yesterday--do you really think that,
Frank?" continued Gilbert, stopping short, and eyeing his companion with
an expression of much dismay.

"No, I don't," returned Wilmore, again bursting into a laugh; "and if he
did expect it, he'd find his expectations deceive him considerably.
That's what _I_ expect, at all events."

"Well, here we are," said Nick, a minute or two afterwards, as they
reached the post.  "Well, doctor, I'm sorry to be late, but Frank will
tell you that I have been in the hands of the swell mob, and have only
just contrived to escape them."

The doctor looked puzzled, but he had no time for explanations.  "Eat
your breakfast, Gilbert," he said, "while we settle what is to be done
to-day.  I suppose we are all agreed that it won't do for us to stop
here longer than we can help.  Now Omatoko is not able to travel very
far, but he could walk a few miles if he went very slowly and had a rest
every now and then.  He thinks so himself, and wishes to start at once."

"We could give him an arm by turns, if that was all; but the question
is, Charles, could we reach any good halting-place?" suggested Warley.

"That's just it, Ernest," returned Charles.  "Omatoko says that about
four or five miles from this there is a place where we could stay two or
three days, if necessary, and find plenty of food and water.  It is a
ruined kraal--destroyed by the Dutch, he says, many years ago, but some
of the cottages are still in sufficient repair to shelter us."

"Why shouldn't we stay here?" asked Nick, with his mouth full of parrot.
"This is a jolly place enough--fresh water, lots of melons and parrots,
and they're both of them capital eating.  And a comfortable
sleeping-place.  If we must make a halt anywhere, why not here?  It's a
capital place, I think, except for the baboons," he muttered in a lower
tone, as the recollection of his recent adventure suddenly occurred to
him.

"Why shouldn't we stay here?" repeated Lavie.  "Well, I'll tell you,
Gilbert.  It isn't so much the wild beasts--though a place which every
night is full of lions, rhinoceroses, and leopards doesn't exactly suit
anybody but a professed hunter--but there is the fear of the Bushmen
returning to cut off Omatoko's head, whom they will expect to find dead.
And if they find him alive, it is most probable that they will do both
him and us some deadly mischief.  And they may be looked for to-day, or
to-morrow, certainly.  Besides--"

"There's no need to say any more, I am sure," broke in Gilbert.  "I
didn't think of the Bushmen.  Let us be off at once, I say.  I'd rather
carry the Hottentot on my shoulders than stay here to be murdered,
probably, by those savages!"

"Well, I own I think the return of the Bushmen quite enough by itself,"
said the surgeon; "but I ought to add that Omatoko thinks the weather is
going to change, and there is likely before long to be a violent storm.
None of you have had much experience of what an African storm is like.
But I have had quite as much as I desire, and do not wish to encounter
it, without a roof of some kind over my head!  Well, then, if we are all
ready, let us set out at once."

The grove and pool were soon left behind.  Omatoko stepped out
valiantly, sometimes leaning on Lavie's or Warley's shoulder, and
sitting down to rest, whenever a thicket of trees afforded a sufficient
close screen to hide the party from sight.  They noticed that before
leaving any of these coverts, he anxiously scrutinised the horizon
towards the north, and once or twice requested the boys to climb the
highest tree they could find, and report whether anything was visible in
the distance.

His strength and confidence alike seemed to improve as the day advanced.
About twelve o'clock they made what was to be their long halt, in a
patch of scrub which sprung apparently out of the barren sand, though
there was neither spring nor pond anywhere to be seen, nor even any
appearance of moisture.  They had progressed about four miles in
something less than five hours, and were now, Omatoko told them, hardly
a mile from their destination.  He pointed it out indeed in the
distance--a rocky eminence, with a patch of trees and grass lying close
to it.  But the party had not been seated for ten minutes, and were
still engaged in devouring the melons they had brought with them, when
their guide again rose and advised their immediately resuming their
journey.

"What, go on at once?" exclaimed Gilbert.  "Why, what is that for?  I am
just beginning to get cool--that is, as cool as ever I expect to be
again.  If we have only a mile to go, we had surely better walk it in
the cool of the evening than under this broiling sun."

"Must not wait," said Omatoko.  "Storm come soon--not able go at all."

"The storm!  Do you see any signs of one, doctor?  I don't."

"Yes, I see signs; but I own I should not have thought it would break
out for some hours.  But the changes of the atmosphere are wonderfully
rapid in this country, and I have no doubt the Hottentot is right.  Will
it be on us in another hour, Omatoko?"

"Perhaps half an hour, perhaps three-quarters," was the answer.

"Half an hour!  We must be off this minute, and move as fast as we can.
Here, Frank, Ernest--hoist Omatoko on to my shoulders; I can carry him
for a quarter of a mile, any way, and that will be ten minutes saved."

"And I'll take him as far as I can, when you've done with him," added
Warley, "and so, I doubt not, will the others.  Lift him up.  There,
that's right.  Now step out as fast as we can."

By the time that the doctor's "quarter of a mile," as it was called--
though it was in reality nearly twice that distance--was completed, the
signs of the approaching hurricane began to gather so fast, that even
the most unobservant must have perceived them.  The clouds came rapidly
up, and gradually hid the rich blue of the sky.  The light breeze which
had stirred the foliage of the few trees which rose above the level of
the scrub, gradually died away, and a dead, ominous calm succeeded.
Warley, to whose back the sick man had now been transferred, hurried on
with all the speed he could command, and rapid way was made.  Every
minute they expected the rain to burst forth.  The black clouds which
hid the horizon, every other minute seemed to be split open, and forked
flashes of fire issued from them.  Presently there came a furious rush
of wind, almost icy cold--the immediate precursor of the outburst.

"We close by now," exclaimed Omatoko, as he was transferred from
Ernest's shoulders to those of Frank.  "Not hundred yards off.  Turn
round tall rock by pool there.  Kraal little further on."

They all ran as fast as their exhausted limbs would allow.  The corner
was attained, and there, sure enough, some forty or fifty yards further,
were the ruins of a number of mud cottages thatched with reed.  They
were, for the most part, mere ruins.  The walls had been broken down,
the thatch scattered to the four winds.  Some one or two, which had
stood in the background, immediately under the shelter of a limestone
precipice, had retained their walls, and some portions of the thatch
unhurt.  But one hut only, which stood in a corner under a sloping
shelf, presented the spectacle of a roof still firm and whole.  Frank
hurried along the narrow defile leading to this cottage, putting out all
strength to reach it.  He was only a few yards from it, when the tempest
at last broke forth in all its fury.  The wind swept down with a force,
which on the open plain no man or horse would have been able to stand
against.  The hail, or rather the large lumps of ice into which the rain
was frozen, rattled against the rocks like cannon balls against the
walls of a besieged fortress, and the sky grew so dark, that it was with
difficulty that the travellers could discern each other's features.  But
they had reached the friendly shelter of the cottage, and that was
everything.  For two hours the fury of the elements beggared all
description.  The rain, which after a quarter of an hour or so had
succeeded the hail, seemed to descend in one great sheet of water,
converting the path along which they had travelled not half an hour
before, into a foaming torrent, bearing trees and stones before it.  One
flash of lightning succeeded another so rapidly that the light inside
the cottage was almost continuous.  Lavie looked several times anxiously
at the thatch overhead, which could not have resisted the deluge
incessantly poured upon it, if it had not been for the shelving rocks
which nearly formed a second roof above it.  As it was, not a drop
penetrated, and when the raging of the wind and the deluge of rain at
last subsided, not one of the party had sustained any injury.

The Hottentot had been laid on a heap of reeds which blocked up one
corner of the hut, having been driven in there apparently at one time or
another by the wind.  He had been at first somewhat exhausted by the
speed at which he had been carried for the last half mile or so, but he
seemed quite restored before the storm had ceased.  He now directed the
boys to go out and gather some wild medlars, which he had noticed
growing on a tree at no great distance from the rocky defile where they
had turned aside from the main path, declaring them to be excellent
eating.  He also requested them to bring him a straight branch, about
three feet long, from a particular tree which he described, and a dozen
stout reeds from the edge of the pool.  Out of these he intended, he
said, to make a bow and arrows, by means of which he would soon provide
the party with all the food they would require.

"Three feet long?" repeated Gilbert.  "You mean six, I suppose."

"No, he doesn't," said the doctor, who had overheard the request.  "The
bows of all these tribes are not more than three feet in length.  I have
seen several of them.  It is wonderful to see with what force and
accuracy they discharge their arrows, considering the material of which
they are made.  I had better go with you, I think.  I know exactly the
tree and the size of the bough required."

Lavie, Wilmore, and Gilbert accordingly set out, leaving Warley to
attend to Omatoko, and make the hut as comfortable as he could for a two
days' halt there.  Lion also remained behind.  As soon as his companions
were gone Ernest set about his task.

"There are no chairs or tables to be had in these parts," he thought.
"We must sit on the ground when we do sit, and take our meals off the
ground, when we take them.  All that can be done is to strew the floor
with rushes and grass, which will do also for beds at night I suppose
everything outside is soaking wet, and won't be dry enough for our
purpose until it has had a good baking sun upon it for several hours.
But the stuff we found in here was quite dry, and perhaps there may be
some like it in the other huts.  If not, I shall have to cut some from
the edge of the pool, I suppose, and lay it out to dry."

He took Lavie's hatchet, and went into the nearest hut, the roof of
which had been broken in in one or two places, but was still tolerably
sound.  He saw, as he stepped through the doorway, that he had not been
mistaken about the reeds.  A large heap had been lodged in one corner by
the wind, and seemed to be quite dry.  He stepped forward, and laying
down his hatchet, gathered up a large armful.  In so doing, he trod upon
what appeared to be the end of a log: but his foot had no sooner touched
it, than it was drawn away from under him, and a sharp hiss warned him
that he had disturbed some enemy.  At the same instant he felt a strong
pressure round his legs and waist, and perceived that he was enveloped
in the coils of a large serpent, which was rapidly winding itself round
his chest.  A moment afterwards, the flat diamond-shaped head came in
sight, the eyes glaring fiercely at him, and the slaver dropping from
the open jaws.  Ernest's arms were happily free, and he availed himself
of the circumstance with the cool promptitude of his character.  He
glanced for a moment at the hatchet lying on the ground a few feet off;
but he felt that it would be impossible for him to stoop to pick it up.
It must be a struggle of muscle against muscle.  Thrusting out his right
hand, he grasped the snake by the neck, at the same time shouting aloud
for help.  The creature no sooner felt its antagonist's grasp, than it
turned its head, endeavouring to bite.  Finding itself unable to seize
Ernest's hand, it drew in its folds, aiming at his face.  The lad in an
instant found that his muscular power was not nearly equal to that of
his enemy.  He seized hold of his right wrist with his other hand,
throwing the whole power of his frame into the effort, but in vain.
Slowly, inch by inch, his sinews were compelled to yield.  Inch by inch
the horrid fangs came nearer and nearer to his face.  With the strength
of despair he contrived to keep the reptile at bay for a few minutes
longer; but his powers were fast failing him, and he expected every
moment to feel the sharp teeth lacerating his flesh.  Suddenly a shock
seemed to be communicated to the monster's frame.  The terrible grip of
the folds relaxed, and the threatening head drooped lax and powerless.
Ernest cast his eyes downwards, and perceived that the mastiff had
seized the tail in his strong jaws, and had almost bitten it in two.
The muscular force of the serpent was paralysed by the wound, and Ernest
had no difficulty in disengaging himself from the folds, and flinging
them--a helpless and writhing mass--on the ground.  Then, catching up
the hatchet, he struck off the head, just as Omatoko hobbled up, leaning
on a stick, from the adjoining hut.

"Very big snake," was his comment, "bad poison too.  Lucky him no bite
white boy, or him dead for certain.  Lucky, too, big dog near at hand.
Never see bigger snake than that.  Him seventeen--eighteen foot long!
Big dog just come in time, and that all!"

Meanwhile Warley, who had partially recovered his senses, after bathing
his face and hands in the fresh water, was returning heartfelt thanks to
Heaven for his narrow and wonderful deliverance from the most dreadful
death which the imagination of man can picture.



CHAPTER NINE.

MEASURING THE ENEMY--POISONED ARROWS--SUBSTITUTES FOR WATER--OSTRICHES--
A SAD CASUALTY--A NEW MODE OF DEERSTALKING--OMATOKO TRIUMPHANT.

Warley was still resting, half sitting, half kneeling, on a large stone
by the side of the pool, when the sound of voices was heard, and Lavie
came up, accompanied by the two boys.  They were all evidently in high
spirits.  The doctor carried over his shoulder the carcass of a goat,
which was large and heavy enough to give him plenty of trouble; and
Wilmore and Nick each led a young kid by an extempore halter of rushes.
The pockets of all three were distended by a goodly heap of wild
medlars, which, in accordance with Omatoko's suggestion, they had
gathered, and which they had found extremely refreshing.

"Hallo, Omatoko!" shouted Gilbert as they approached the pool.  "Just
come here and take charge of this chap, will you?  You are more used to
this kind of thing than I am.  He has done nothing but attempt to bolt
the whole way home.  I suppose we must eat up the old lady first,
otherwise I should suggest that this fellow should be roasted for
supper, if only to make sure that he won't run away again."

The Hottentot came out from the hut as he spoke.  "One, two, three
goat," he said, "dat good, plenty food, all time we stay here."

"Ay, ay," said Nick, "they say it is an ill wind that blows no one good;
and the hurricane we had an hour or two ago, is, I suppose, a case in
point.  Any way, it was obliging enough to blow down a big tree, which
fell upon the goat there, and finished her outright.  She's a trifle old
and tough, I expect; but she'll make first-rate mulligatawney soup
nevertheless; and there will be her two kids, as tender as spring lamb,
into the bargain.  It makes one's mouth water to think of them.  And,
then, there's those medlars--but, hallo!  I say, Ernest, what is the
matter?  Why, you look as pale and weak as if you were just recovering
from a typhus fever.  What's befallen you?"

"I have had a very narrow escape from a most terrible death, Nick,"
returned Warley, gravely, "and my nerves haven't got over it."

"Hallo! what?" again exclaimed Gilbert.  "Escape from death, do you say?
Why, what has happened?"

"Just go in there--into that hut to the right, and you'll see," was the
answer.

Lavie and Wilmore had by this time learned the main outline of what had
occurred, from the Hottentot, and they all went into the cottage to
examine the remains of the great snake.

"A proper brute, that," observed Gilbert, as they stood by the side of
the reptile, which had by this time ceased to wriggle.  "That is the
biggest snake I ever came across.  There's his head gone, and a bit of
his tail; but I don't think what remains can be less than twenty feet.
Lion, old fellow," he continued, caressing the dog while Frank patted
his head, "you did that well, and shall have a first-chop supper."

"We can ascertain its length exactly," said Lavie; "I have got a yard
measure here; and here too is the remainder of the tail.  Stretch the
body straight out, Frank, and I'll soon tell you the measurement."

The serpent was accordingly measured, and was found to be some inches
more than nineteen feet long.

"What kind of snake is it?" asked Frank, when this point had been
determined.

"A python, or boa-constrictor, no doubt," answered the surgeon; "they
give them other names in these parts, but that is the creature.  No
other description of serpents that I ever heard of attempts to crush up
its prey by muscular pressure."

"But serpents which do that are seldom or never venomous, are they?"
inquired Wilmore.

"I believe not," answered Lavie, "but that point has been disputed.
Omatoko calls the reptile an `ondara,' and insists upon it that its bite
is not only poisonous, but causes certain death.  It may be so.  It is
evident that it would have bitten Ernest if it could; and serpents that
are devoid of venom do not often bite.  Well, I suppose now that we have
done measuring the snake, we may throw him away.  The Hottentots, I
believe, eat their flesh.  But I conclude none of us have any great
inclination to make our dinner off him."

"No, thank you, sir," said Frank, "not for me."

"Nor for me either, doctor," cried Nick.  "I think I'd rather go without
food for a week.  Here, Ernest, old fellow--you had better go and lie
down a bit.  You look as if you were having it out with the python
still."

Warley was too unwell to rejoin the party all that day and the next.
The shock he had undergone was a very severe one; and would in all
likelihood have prostrated any one of his companions for a far longer
period.  He lay under the shade of the trees on the soft grass the whole
day, neither speaking himself nor heeding the remarks of others.  Always
inclined to be serious and thoughtful, this incident had had the effect
of turning his mind to subjects for which his light-hearted companions
had little relish, and which Lavie himself could hardly follow.  Even
when he resumed the old round of occupations, as he did in the course of
the third day, Frank and Nick noticed a change in him, which they could
not understand.

Meanwhile Omatoko's bow and arrows proceeded rapidly, and were completed
on the morning of the third day.  Their construction was a great puzzle
to the English lads.  The bow was a little less than three feet long,
and perhaps three-quarters of an inch thick--neatly enough shaped, and
rounded off, but looking little better than a child's toy.  Omatoko had
strung it with some sinew from the carcass of the goat.  He had looped
this over the upper end of the bow, and rolled it round the other in
such a fashion that by merely twisting the string like a tourniquet, it
might be strung to any degree of tension.  The arrows too were wholly
different from any they had ever seen.  The strong reeds brought from
the edge of the water had been cut off in lengths of about two feet.  At
one end the notch was inserted; to the other a movable head, made of
bone, was attached, which stuck fast enough to the shaft during its
flight through the air, but which became detached from it as soon as it
was fixed in the body of any animal.  These bone-heads, Omatoko told
them, were always dipped in some poison, which caused even a slight
puncture made by them to be fatal.  The entrails of the kaa, or poison
grub, were considered the most efficient for this purpose; but this was
not to be met with at all times or in all places, and the juice of the
euphorbia or the venom of serpents was sometimes substituted.  In the
present instance he meant to steep the bone-heads in the poison of the
ondara, which he had carefully preserved.  Omatoko assured them that
when they set out for his village (as they probably would on the
following day), they would soon have an opportunity of testing the
efficiency of his weapons, and laughingly challenged them to a trial of
skill between his bow and arrows and their guns.

On the following morning accordingly they resumed their route.  Each of
them carried some of the flesh of the kids, a dozen medlars, and a
melon.  It was found that the strength of the Hottentot was now so far
restored that he could keep up with the usual pace at which the others
walked, and only required a rest of half an hour or so, every two or
three miles.  They accomplished about a dozen miles that day; and at
nightfall had reached a wide stony plain, covered here and there with
patches of grass, but entirely destitute of shrub or tree.  Omatoko
pointed out a place where a deep projecting slab of rock, resting on two
enormous stones, and bearing a rude resemblance to a giant's
chimney-piece, afforded as convenient a shelter for the night as might
be desired.  It would effectually protect the party from rain and wind,
nor was there the least fear of wild animals, as none were ever known to
come within two or three miles of the spot, there being neither
pasturage nor water.

"No water," repeated Frank, "that's rather a doubtful advantage, isn't
it?  What are we to drink, I wonder?"

The Hottentot only grinned in reply; and disengaging the knife which
always hung at Nick's girdle, began grubbing in the ground among the
stones.  In a few minutes he dug up several round, or rather spherical
roots, two or three feet in circumference.  These he cut open with the
knife, displaying the inside, which had a white appearance, and was soft
and pulpy.  The boys had no sooner applied this to their lips than they
broke out into exclamations of delight.  "That's your sort," exclaimed
Nick; "it's like a delicious melon, only it's twice as refreshing."

"Omatoko, you're a trump," cried Frank.  "You'd make a fortune, if you
could only sell these in Covent Garden market.  Nobody that could get
them would ever drink water again."

"What are they called, Charles," asked Warley.  "Are they to be met with
elsewhere in South Africa, or only here?"

"The root is called the `markwhae,' I believe," answered the doctor,
"and it is to be found in almost every neighbourhood where there is a
want of water.  It is another of those wonderful provisions of Divine
Wisdom for the wants of its creatures, with which this land abounds.  In
some parts, such of the wild animals as are herbivorous, are continually
digging up and devouring these roots.  Vangelt told me that he once came
upon a tribe of Hottentots which subsisted entirely without water, the
succulent plants supplying even the cattle with sufficient liquid."

"Well, that is very wonderful," said Frank.  "I declare I feel more
refreshed by that one root, than if I had drunk a pailful of water.  Are
there any more of these roots on the way to your village, Omatoko?"

"Omatoko's village, one, two days away.  No roots, plenty water,"
returned the Hottentot.  "Well, that will do as well, I suppose.  But
this is a thing worth knowing, if one should find one's self in a place
where there is no water."

The next day at sunrise they resumed their way, and made their mid-day
halt on the skirts of a dense growth of mingled aloes and underwood,
which was scarcely anywhere more than five feet in height.  Here they
sat down by the side of a spring, which gushed forth from a limestone
rock into a small natural basin, whence it spread itself in all
directions, sustaining a rich emerald carpet for a few feet round, but
soon disappearing in the sand.

"Plenty of visitors here at night," remarked Warley, gazing curiously
round him on the numerous footmarks of all shapes and sizes, with which
the borders of the spring were indented.  "It must be a curious sight to
witness such an _omnium gatherum_.  Only I suppose the more timid
animals make sure that the lions and leopards are well out of the way,
before they venture here themselves."

"Of what creature is that the spoor?" asked Frank, pointing to a broad,
deep mark, much larger than the rest.  "That is the track of some beast
which I do not recognise."

"It is not the track of a beast," said the surgeon.  "Unless I am
mistaken, that is the spoor of the ostrich--is it not, Omatoko?"

"Ya, ostrich--plenty 'bout here.  See yonder."  He pointed as he spoke
to a distant part of the bush, where the heads of a troop of ostriches
might be seen as they stalked easily along, browsing as they went.

"Eh, ostriches!  You don't mean it," exclaimed Frank, starting up in
great excitement.  "I never saw an ostrich.  I want to see one beyond
anything!  Couldn't we shoot one, Charles?  Are they quite out of shot?"

"Much too far to make it worth while trying," said Lavie.  "But we might
bring one or two down by a stratagem, perhaps.  If you four spread
yourselves in all directions to the right yonder, and drive them this
way, I could hide behind the rock there and bring one down as they went
past.  Couldn't that be managed, Omatoko?"

"One, two, three, four drive ostrich this way.  Omatoko kill one, two--
with bow and arrow.  Omatoko no miss."

"What, do you think your bow and arrow better than Charles's rifle?"
exclaimed Nick; "well, that is coming it strong, anyhow."

"I tell you what," said Warley, "this will be a famous opportunity for
you to have the match out for which you were so anxious the other day.
You and Charles shall both hide behind the rock there, and Frank, Nick,
and myself will fetch a compass and drive the ostriches past you.  Then
we shall see which will take the longest and truest shot.  What do you
say, Charles?"

"I have no objection, I am sure," said Lavie, laughing; "only I hope the
trial won't go against me.  It would be most ignominious to be beaten by
a bow and arrows.  I should never hear the last of it, I expect!"

"Don't be afraid, Charles, there's no fear of that," returned Warley,
reciprocating the laugh.  "Well, now let us be off.  If you'll take the
right side, Nick, and you, Frank, the left, I'll take the middle, and
we'll come upon them all together.  Lion had better stay here."

The three lads set out accordingly, creeping noiselessly through the
cover of the scrub, at a distance too far for even the quick-eared
ostriches to perceive them, until they had all attained their appointed
places.  Then they advanced on the birds, shouting and hallooing, and
waving sticks over their heads.

The ostriches instantly took to flight after their fashion, skimming
along with expanded wings, and covering twelve or fourteen feet at every
stride.  They passed the rock behind which the two marksmen were
concealed, at a speed which would have far outstripped the swiftest
racehorse at Newmarket.  But as they darted by, there came the crack of
the doctor's rifle, and at the same moment Omatoko's arrow leaped from
his bow.  Both missiles hit their mark, but with a different result.
Charles's bullet struck the bird he aimed at just under the wing; the
shot was mortal, and the ostrich staggering forward a few paces fell
dead to the ground Omatoko's arrow pierced his quarry through the neck,
and the barbed point remained in the wound, rendering death equally
certain, but not so speedy.  Perceiving that the ostrich did not fall,
Lion sprang after it, heedless of the doctor's order to him to return,
and a sharp chase began.  The ostrich would speedily have distanced its
pursuer, if it had not been for the pain and exhaustion of the wound it
had received, and the effect of the poison, which had now begun to work.
The dog soon began to gain ground, and presently came up with the
fugitive; which turned to bay at last in the agony of its rage and fear.
Lion had never been trained for the chase of the ostrich, which can
only be approached with safety from behind.  As he came bounding up, the
bird kicked at him, throwing its leg forward as a man does, and with
such tremendous force that the mastiff fell to the ground on the
instant, bleeding and stunned, if not dead.  Then the wounded bird
staggered away into the scrub, its strength and courage giving way more
and more every moment.

The boys had no time to congratulate their friend on his victory, or
even to examine the fallen ostrich.  Their thoughts were wholly occupied
with the disaster which had befallen Lion.

"Lion, Lion, dear old boy, how could you be so foolish?" exclaimed
Frank, as he picked up the bleeding and insensible body of his
favourite.  "I am afraid he's killed.  That kick would have finished a
horse, let alone a dog.  What fearful strength those creatures must
have!  Oh, Lion, Lion, my poor old fellow!  I'd rather have broken my
leg any day than lost you."

"Let me take a look at him," said Lavie, who had now come up.  "All
depends on where the ostrich's foot struck him.  No, I don't think he's
killed, Frank," he added presently, after feeling the animal all over.
"There are a couple of ribs broken, and a large bruise in the side, but
that seems to be the extent of the casualty.  I'll set the ribs, and he
must keep quiet for some days, and then I expect he'll be right again."

"Oh, I am so glad," said Wilmore.  "Yes, you're right, Charles," he
continued, as the dog opened its eyes again and attempted to get up, but
fell back on the grass with a low moan of pain.  "Never mind, Lion,
we'll nurse you through it, old chap, won't we?"

"Relieve each other in alternate watches, change bandages, and apply
fresh lotion every three hours," suggested Nick.  "But with all possible
respect for Lion, how are we to do that?  Where are the bandages, and
where the lotion?  Nay, where is the hospital bed to which the patient
is to be consigned?"

"Omatoko must put up a hut, and we must stay here until Lion can go with
us," said Wilmore gruffly.  "If we could wait three days for a pagan
Hottentot, we may wait as many, surely, for a Christian dog!"

"I don't think you'll get Omatoko to stay here for all the dogs that
ever were whelped," said Nick.  "He's in too much of a hurry to put salt
on the tails of those Bushmen."

"He must stay, and he shall!" returned Wilmore angrily; "I won't have
the dog thrown over.  We are four, and he is only one.  Stay he shall, I
say."

"Gently, Frank," said the doctor.  "I'm against throwing Lion over as
much as you are, but I don't see how we can stay here.  The dog won't be
fit to walk--no, not a hundred yards--for this fortnight, and it would
probably kill him, if he attempted it."

"What's to be done, then?" rejoined Frank shortly.

"Do as we did with Omatoko.  Make a litter and carry him to the
Hottentot kraal.  It is not more than seven or eight miles, and we can
relieve one another.  Luckily he is not such a weight as Omatoko.  I
suppose that will satisfy you, won't it?"

"Yes, of course, Charles," said Wilmore.  "It is very kind of you.  I am
afraid I was rather cross, wasn't I? but you see--"

"All right, old fellow, I know you're fond of Lion; so we all are,
though perhaps not _so_ fond.  Do you go and cut some of the osiers
there, Omatoko will soon make them into a basket, large enough to hold
the dog, and we'll carry it on a pole slung across our shoulders.
Meanwhile I'll dress the old fellow's wounds."

Omatoko proved to be as skilful a basket-maker as Lavie had predicted;
and the party were making preparations for a start, when the Hottentot,
who had just returned from the osier bed with a last supply of twigs,
announced that there was a herd of noble koodoos about half a mile off,
feeding on a patch of sweet grass.  They were rare in that part of the
country, and the best of eating.  "Suppose we kill two, three, four of
them; my people like them much.  They come fetch them."

"Two, three, or four," exclaimed Frank--"who is going to do that?  Why,
these koodoos, if I have been told rightly, are the shyest of all the
boks, and won't let any one come near them.  We might possibly get one
shot, but certainly not more."

"Me do it," said the Hottentot; "no want help; white boy only sit
still."

There seemed no reason for refusing his request, and the boys, laying
aside the various articles with which they had loaded themselves,
watched his proceedings with a good deal of interest.  He first took the
knife, and going to the spot where the body of the ostrich was lying,
passed it round the creature's throat and under the wings, severing
these parts from the rest of the carcass.  He then slit open the long
neck from top to bottom, removed the bones and flesh, and introduced in
their place a strong stick, over which he neatly sewed up the skin
again.  He then cleared away in like manner the blood and the fat from
the back and wings, and sewed another pad of skin under them.  These
preparations took a considerable time; but Omatoko assured the
lookers-on that there was little fear of the koodoos leaving their
present pasture for several hours to come at the least, unless they
should be molested.

The Hottentot had now nearly done his work; his last act was to gather
up in his hand some light-tinted earth, which was nearly of the same
colour as an ostrich's legs, and dipping it in water, besmeared his own
supporters with it.  Then taking his bow and arrows in one hand, and the
back and neck of the slain bird in the other, he crept down into the
bush.  Presently the boys saw the figure of an ostrich appear above the
shrubs and stalk leisurely along, pecking at the herbage right and left,
as it advanced.

"That can't be Omatoko, to be sure," cried Frank in amazement; "that's a
real ostrich!  Where can he be hiding?"

"He is waiting for the others," said Warley.  "See yonder, the whole
flock are returning.  Omatoko will no doubt slip in among them.  We
shall distinguish him, if we watch narrowly."

It seemed as if Ernest was right.  The ostriches came straggling back
through the bush, and the one they had noticed first lingered about till
they had overtaken him, when he accompanied them as they strayed on
towards the koodoos.

"Do you see Omatoko?" asked Nick, as the ostriches and boks became
mingled together.

"No, I don't," said Frank, "He can't have come out yet.  He is biding
his time, I expect."

At this moment there came a faint sound like the distant twanging of a
bow, and one of the boks was seen to fall.  The herd started and looked
suspiciously round them; and the ostriches seemed to share their
uneasiness.  But there was no enemy in sight, and after a few minutes of
anxious hesitation, they recommenced browsing.  A second twang was
succeeded by a second fall, and the boks again tossed their heads and
snuffed the air, prepared for immediate flight.  They still lingered,
however, until the overthrow of a third of their number effectually
roused them.  They bounded off at their utmost speed, but not before a
fourth shaft had laid one of the fugitives low.  Then the lads, full of
astonishment and admiration, came racing up, and Omatoko, throwing off
his disguise, exclaimed exultingly--

"Two, three, four; Omatoko said `four.'  White boy believe Omatoko now!"

"He has you there, Frank," said Nick, laughing; "but I must own I could
not have believed it possible, if I had not seen it."

"Live and learn," said Lavie.  "I had

Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/33304