CHAPTER XXII.. Hunting Hippos and Crocodiles--the Ladies Missing

HUNTING HIPPOS AND CROCODILES--THE LADIES MISSING AGAIN--CONJECTURES AS TO THEIR FATE.

The elephant turned and came up the hill again, and as he did so I dismounted and waited for his coming. I let him advance to within less than twenty yards, when I planted a steel-pointed bullet right in the center of his forehead, and laid him low. He fell directly forward, and then his huge body settled toward the base of the hill and rolled partly over.

I remained where I was, with my rifle ready, until my friends came up in response to the waving of my handkerchief. Mirogo and Kalil had watched the performance throughout, and although they were on foot they reached the hill in advance of Harry and Jack, who were on horseback.

My prize was a large one, but, unfortunately, one of his tusks had been partly broken off, probably in an encounter with another elephant. We saved both the tusks, and his feet were cut off and taken home for cooking-purposes. It did not seem to me that the flesh of this elephant would be very tender eating, and I did not try to save any part of it. The Kafirs, however, took a goodly supply, and the rest went to the lions, jackals, and hyenas.

We rode home slowly, and on the way discussed the possibilities of any more elephants being in the neighborhood. The presence of this rogue elephant was indicative of the absence of others, as the rogues are generally far away from the herds. We concluded that we would not go in pursuit of elephants, but turn our attention to the hippopotami, for whose benefit the boat had been constructed.

After breakfast the next morning we went to the river, armed and equipped for hunting hippos. I remained on shore, as I had done at our last hunt, but with this difference: I did not sit down at the edge of the river and go to sleep where the crocodiles could have an easy chance at me, but kept along the bank of the stream, watching my friends in the boat, and for chances to assist them.

Below the spot where I came so near becoming the prey of the crocodiles, the river widened considerably, but was quite shallow. Harry and Jack, with two of the men and a supply of hippopotamus-spears, drifted silently upon the water, with their weapons in readiness. A large hippo came along, and his curiosity was excited by the strange object on the surface of the water. He paddled himself alongside, and when in a good position Harry darted a harpoon into his back. Of course the creature sank at once.

The boat was quickly paddled to the shore, the rope of hippopotamus-hide being paid out as it came along. Then the end of the rope was tossed to where I stood accompanied by a dozen Kafirs. I seized it instantly and passed it over to the men.

They hauled away like good fellows, keeping a steady pull on the rope, which gradually shortened, showing that the animal was being dragged along the bottom. By and by they brought him up so that he raised his head above the water and made a dash at us. I was ready for him, and with two or three well-planted bullets made an end of his onset. Then a rope was passed around the body of the beast, and he was hauled on shore for dissection.

We did not wait to dissect him then, however, but went on farther down the stream, well knowing that it was no use hunting any more in that immediate locality for that day at least. We went down fully half a mile, the boat drifting slowly with the current, or getting, now and then, a stroke or two from one of the paddles, which were handled very skilfully and silently. In due time another hippo was secured in the same way as the first, and brought to land. He was smaller than the other, and was despatched with a lance, and without the necessity of shooting. Consequently less disturbance was made, and we did not have to go so far to secure our next beast. We saw a good many crocodiles, but did not waste ammunition on them; they are of no earthly use to anybody--at least not to any white man. The natives eat their flesh, and would be very greatly pleased if we would slaughter a crocodile or two every day for their benefit.

And this reminds me that one day, just before sunset, I killed a crocodile on the river-bank, at least a hundred feet away from the water. He had gone up there in pursuit of some small animal, as crocodiles frequently do. I had a good chance at him, and killed him with an explosive bullet; he was dead as the proverbial door-nail, and when I reached camp I told the negroes about it, and suggested that they could go in the morning and bring away whatever they liked.

"No crocodile there to-morrow morning," said Mirogo.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Other crocodiles pull him into river," was the reply; "he no be there in morning."

Sure enough, when they went there next morning there was not a vestige of the saurian to be seen; his friends had come in the night and carried him away. Whether they were moved by affection to do so I am unable to say; certainly the crocodile is not credited with affectionate feelings--at least, not for any race other than his own. Crocodiles appear to live peacefully enough together, and they also get along with the hippos without any apparent trouble; but I fancy that many a young hippo finds a resting-place in the stomach of its scaly neighbors.

We got back to camp a little past noon, with good appetites for the luncheon which the cook had provided. After lunch we went in pursuit of giraffes, elands, or anything else that might come in our way; and somehow that way led us in the direction of the camp of our female friends. Nobody suggested riding in that direction, but the impulse seemed to be universal.

We found the ladies at home, and received a cordial welcome. They had quite recovered from the excitement of their night in a tree-top in company with lions, and seemed quite willing to take the hunting-field again at any time. Mrs. Roberts said that, whatever they did, they would not go in exactly that same locality again; but I told her it was not at all likely that those lions would be found there. "Lions range about a good deal," I said, "and the beasts which kept you in that tree-top may be dozens of miles away from there by this time. However, I don't think that is a particularly good hunting-ground, as there is not generally much other game where lions abound."

It was arranged that two or three days later, whenever they should send us word, we would join them in a hunt of some kind, meantime keeping a sharp eye out for whatever might put in an appearance. They said they were going on a little excursion on their own account the next day, but did not say where it was.

We remained at their camp a half-hour or so, and then rode away. We were not fortunate enough to find anything that afternoon, or, at any rate, anything we could capture, and so our entire day's sport was limited to the hippopotami.

The next day we followed up the hippopotamus-hunt with very good success. Jack's boat was admirably well adapted for its purposes, and proved to be a very comfortable craft. We did our hunting leisurely, and as the process was the same as on the previous day, I will not waste time in describing it. We were pretty tired when night came, and after a hearty supper slept very soundly.

We slept so soundly, in fact, that we did not hear the growling and roaring of some lions outside the camp until the manager came and waked us. We were up in a moment, in the hope of getting a shot at the brutes; but after hanging around for half an hour or so without getting a sight of them--although we could hear them distinctly--we gave it up and went back to bed. Before doing so, however, we fired two or three shots in the air, or at places on the ground where we fancied we saw anything moving, thus intimating to the prowlers that it would be well for them to keep at a respectable distance.

We were seated at breakfast the next morning, and making good headway with our damper and stewed hippopotamus, when we were interrupted by our manager. He came to announce that the after-rider from the ladies' camp had just come with the news that they were missing again.

"Missing again!" said Jack, as he sprang to his feet; "I hope it isn't lions this time."

"I hope so, too," said Harry, as he imitated Jack's movements, and in his precipitation dropped a cupful of coffee, which went splashing over the table.

"I'll bet it isn't lions," said I; "but it's something equally serious. Let's finish our breakfast and be off." Then I turned to the manager and told him to have our horses saddled at once.

"There's no need of all three of us going," said Jack; "Frank and I will be sufficient, and you"--addressing Harry--"had better stay here and watch camp."

"I was just going to propose the same thing," said Harry--"that Frank and I would go and help the ladies out of their trouble, if they can be found. There are only two of them, and two of us ought to be quite sufficient for recovering them, if they are in a predicament such as they were in the other day."

They argued the point with a good deal of vehemence, each insisting that the other should remain at camp, and that I should accompany the one of them who went to the rescue. It was plain as day, the whole situation: they were jealous of each other, but not of me!

Finally, just as we were concluding breakfast, the subject was referred to me for arbitration, and I was placed in an awkward predicament. I got out of it, though, by suggesting that I would be the one to remain at camp, and that Harry and Jack should start at once on the expedition.

"I agree with you," I said, "that two are sufficient for the purpose; and as I know you would prefer the expedition to loitering about the camp all day, and perhaps longer, you had better go."

The result of my turning the tables on them in this manner was that they both agreed that I ought to accompany them, which I did; and in a very few minutes after breakfast we were off across-country to the camp of the ladies. There we learned that they had started away about the middle of the forenoon in a southwesterly direction, accompanied by the fore-looper, who carried their rifles and extra ammunition. They told the manager that they would take a turn off to the southwest, and expected to be back by nightfall. They had not returned; neither had the fore-looper, nor any of the horses.

"They have their horses with them," I remarked, "and therefore cannot be in such a terrible predicament as they were the other day. On the other hand, having their horses and the fore-looper, it would appear that something serious has happened, since none of them have come in."

"Yes," said Jack, "it's no trivial matter, whatever it is. Perhaps they've been captured by a band of hostile natives; didn't you say there was one living in that direction?"

"Yes," I answered, with a good deal of alarm in my voice; "there's a petty chief, or king, as he calls himself, off in that direction, who is not at all friendly to white men. If they go into his country to hunt he either orders them out at once, or makes them pay very dearly for the privilege. I don't think his boundaries are within twenty-five or thirty miles of here, but there's no telling how far the ladies would ride; and, on the other hand, the king may have sent out a marauding-expedition that took them in."

"In case we find them--" said Jack, and then he paused.

"In case we find them," echoed Harry, "we'll go straight to his kraal and compel him to give up the captives. Isn't that so, Frank?"

"Yes," I replied, "in a general way that's so."

"What do you mean by 'a general way'?"

"Well, I mean this: bear in mind we are three white men, well armed, and capable of doing a good deal of fighting; but three of us, with all our weapons, might be over-matched on reaching his kraal, as we would be liable to be beset by two or three hundred natives, armed with spears, knob-kerries, and other native weapons. The odds in numbers would be terribly against us; and though we made every bullet tell, they would still have a large majority on their side after our ammunition was exhausted. It may be a case where diplomacy will be much more to our advantage than to pitch in and fight at once."