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it."
"Indeed!" said Joe, "do you think of doing that, Mr. Kennedy?"
"Why, certainly I do! Just see what a fine hide it is!"
"But Dr. Ferguson will never allow us to take such an extra weight!"
"You're right, Joe. Still it is a pity to have to leave such a noble
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animal."
"The whole of it? Oh, we won't do that, sir; we'll take all the good eatable
parts of it, and, if you'll let me, I'll cut him up just as well as the
chairman of the honorable corporation of butchers of the city of London
could do."
Five Weeks in a Balloon
CHAPTER FOURTEENTH.
47
"As you please, my boy! But you know that in my hunter's way I can just as
easily skin and cut up a piece of game as kill it."
"I'm sure of that, Mr. Kennedy. Well, then, you can build a fireplace with a
few stones; there's plenty of dry deadwood, and I can make the hot coals tell
in a few minutes."
"Oh! that won't take long," said Kennedy, going to work on the fireplace,
where he had a brisk flame crackling and sparkling in a minute or two.
Joe had cut some of the nicest steaks and the best parts of the tenderloin
from the carcass of the antelope, and these were quickly transformed to the
most savory of broils.
"There, those will tickle the doctor!" said Kennedy.
"Do you know what I was thinking about?" said Joe.
"Why, about the steaks you're broiling, to be sure!" replied Dick.
"Not the least in the world. I was thinking what a figure we'd cut if we
couldn't find the balloon again."
"By George, what an idea! Why, do you think the doctor would desert us?"
"No; but suppose his anchor were to slip!"
"Impossible! and, besides, the doctor would find no difficulty in coming
down again with his balloon; he handles it at his ease."
"But suppose the wind were to sweep it off, so that he couldn't come back
toward us?"
"Come, come, Joe! a truce to your suppositions; they're any thing but
pleasant."
"Ah! sir, every thing that happens in this world is natural, of course; but,
then, any thing may happen, and we ought to look out beforehand."
At this moment the report of a gun rang out upon the air.
"What's that?" exclaimed Joe.
"It's my rifle, I know the ring of her!" said Kennedy.
"A signal!"
"Yes; danger for us!"
"For him, too, perhaps."
"Let's be off!"
And the hunters, having gathered up the product of their expedition, rapidly
made their way back along the path that they had marked by breaking boughs
and bushes when they came. The density of the underbrush prevented their
seeing the balloon, although they could not be far from it.
Five Weeks in a Balloon
CHAPTER FOURTEENTH.
48
A second shot was heard.
"We must hurry!" said Joe.
"There! a third report!"
"Why, it sounds to me as if he was defending himself against something."
"Let us make haste!"
They now began to run at the top of their speed. When they reached the
outskirts of the forest, they, at first glance, saw the balloon in its place
and the doctor in the car.
"What's the matter?" shouted Kennedy.
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"Good God!" suddenly exclaimed Joe.
"What do you see?"
"Down there! look! a crowd of blacks surrounding the balloon!"
And, in fact, there, two miles from where they were, they saw some thirty
wild natives close together, yelling, gesticulating, and cutting all kinds of
antics at the foot of the sycamore. Some, climbing into the tree itself,
were making their way to the topmost branches. The danger seemed pressing.
"My master is lost!" cried Joe.
"Come! a little more coolness, Joe, and let us see how we stand. We hold the
lives of four of those villains in our hands. Forward, then!"
They had made a mile with headlong speed, when another report was heard from
the car. The shot had, evidently, told upon a huge black demon, who had been
hoisting himself up by the anchorrope. A lifeless body fell from bough to
bough, and hung about twenty feet from the ground, its arms and legs swaying
to and fro in the air.
"Ha!" said Joe, halting, "what does that fellow hold by?"
"No matter what!" said Kennedy; "let us run! let us run!"
"Ah! Mr. Kennedy," said Joe, again, in a roar of laughter, "by his tail! by
his tail! it's an ape! They're all apes!"
"Well, they're worse than men!" said Kennedy, as he dashed into the midst of
the howling crowd.
It was, indeed, a troop of very formidable baboons of the dogfaced species.
These creatures are brutal, ferocious, and horrible to look upon, with their
doglike muzzles and savage expression. However, a few shots scattered them, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]