"Us also, O chief!"
The canoes came rushing in. Already some of the crews had landed near the fire; but others were coming down-stream, hugging the banks for safety, or, maybe, having a last look for the Englishmen.
"It is Muata!" cried Venning, in a joyous whisper. "Muata and his jackal. What luck!"
"S-sh!"
A canoe went by some distance out, after it another, and as they swept into the darkness, a third announced its presence, coming more slowly and closer in. While it was nearly opposite the hiding the howl of the jackal rose from out the bush, wringing a startled exclamation from the two boys by its suddenness.
"What devil"s noise is that?" sang out a voice they recognized as that of the Belgian officer.
A sharp order was given, the paddles ceased, and the canoe, looming long and black on the water, drifted towards the Okapi.
"I have heard that cry before," said a rasping voice. "Be ready with your weapons. Allah the merciful may yet deliver those we seek."
"What would they be doing here insh.o.r.e?" asked the Belgian.
"They would be here because it is here they would not expect us to search. I think I see something gleam."
In the water by the sh.o.r.e there was a faint splash, and again the jackal whined.
Mr. Hume pressed his hand on Compton"s shoulder, forcing him into the well; and he did the same by Venning.
"Surely," said the Belgian, "it is something. Shall we call in the other canoes, and guard the place till daylight?"
"I will have them now," said Ha.s.san, with fury.
"They will not look on another sun;" and he gave the order to his men to kill when they closed in. "It is they who let free the thief of the forest--the dog Muata."
"You lie, O woman stealer; Muata freed himself;" and out of the water, out of the blackness, came the voice, without warning, "Muata is here, by your side, man-thief."
The Arab fired, and the flash from his discharged rifle flamed into the water, into which he peered with features convulsed.
"Kill him!" he yelled.
"Muata!" cried the paddlers. "Haw! To the sh.o.r.e, to the sh.o.r.e, or we perish! The water-wolf, he!"
"Yavuma!" cried the voice from the water; and the canoe heeled over as the chief rose under the sharp bow. "Yavuma!"--he wrenched a paddle from one of the men and hurled it at the Arab. The crank craft rolled as some of the excited men in the stem tried to use their spears. "Yavuma!"--this time with a triumphant whoop, and the canoe turned over!
With a couple of powerful strokes the swimmer had his hand on the Okapi.
"O great one," he cried, "Muata is come to work and to watch--to be your shield and your spear."
Mr. Hume reached out a strong hand and pulled the chief on board.
Muata gave a low cry, and with a frightened whimper the jackal shot out from the bank and lighted on the deck. Then the Okapi slid out silently into the river.
"By Jenkins!" gasped Venning.
"It beats all," laughed Compton. "Well done, Muata."
As the capsized crew struggled to the sh.o.r.e they yelled abuse and threats, but their power for mischief had gone with the loss of their weapons. Some of them went off down the bank shouting for the canoes that had gone on, and others made their way to the fire; but Mr. Hume and Muata took a spell at the levers, heedless of the noise made, and under their powerful arms the boat was soon far out in the waste of waters--safe, at any rate, for that night.
CHAPTER VIII
THE BULLS AND THE WILD DOGS
After an hour or so Muata was sent forward as look-out, and with his jackal by his side, apparently aiding him in his task, he showed such eyes for the night that they kept on safely till the morning, when the sail was hoisted, and by breakfast-time they judged they had covered about forty miles--quite enough for safety. They ran the Okapi in among the islands which still stretched away as far as they could see, and made fast, to eat and to sleep. The noon heat woke them. They sat up under the awning and talked of the great drive, of Muata"s escape, and of his wonderful luck in finding them--though he made out that there was nothing strange about it, since from the woods he had seen the preparations for the hunt, and had, too, made out the Okapi in the dusk. For the rest, his jackal had scented out the white man"s lair, and all he, the chief, had to do was to upset the canoe of the Arab.
"That was no great work for Muata--the otter, the water-wolf," he said.
"And how did the chief escape?"
"Before the shouting arose that Muata was gone, he found a calabash of fat for the cooking, by the door of a hut. Some fat he rubbed on the soles of his feet to kill the scent. Then he sent the jackal into the woods and crawled into a hut, being stiff from the binding.
In the hut he remained, rubbing the fat into the joints, till the people came back to the feast."
"The feast was made by us, so that while the people ate we could loosen your bonds."
"Wow! Never yet have I known any to give such thought to a stranger."
"It is our way to stand by those who stand by us."
"It is a great word that;" and the chief turned the thought over in his mind. "Ow aye! They came again to the feast, and Muata went out into the woods in peace."
"And was that all?"
"There was a man gathering fruit in the morning as I pa.s.sed through a garden, and his knife I took."
"And what did the man do?"
"He took a message to my father, the chief," said Muata, enigmatically. "The chief"s son has been like a hunted dog. His stomach hungers for red meat. His spirit thirsts for the hunt. Wow!
O hunter, set your shining boat for the sh.o.r.e, and let us follow the trail. There be buffalo in the lands beyond the hills which line the river."
"That"s a splendid idea!" cried Venning. "I"m beginning to get mouldy. A trip ash.o.r.e would be ripping, now that we have distanced our pursuers."
"I second that motion," said Compton, with a longing glance sh.o.r.ewards. "Do you know, sir, that we have not shot a thing since we entered the Congo?"
"I have no objection," said the hunter. "And we must have a good supply of biltong before we enter the forest; but we cannot afford to take risks. Just examine the sh.o.r.e for a creek, and at dusk we will run across."
The boys pa.s.sed the afternoon searching the south bank for signs of a creek, and in the evening the Okapi shaped her course across to a likely spot they had marked out. But though they found a creek, it was not one that commended itself as a hiding to Mr. Hume, and it was not till after a wearisome hunt for hours in the dark that they found a channel leading through the hills which he agreed to follow up; and then, when they had entered about a mile, Muata, with his jackal, was landed to "feel" around for native paths or villages.
Muata, after a long absence, reported all safe as far as he could judge, and they tied up. In the morning they found themselves in the thick of the woods, and pushed on down a dark and sluggish stream strewn with fallen timber, till they came to a pool in a gorge. Here they resolved to leave their boat.
They took the Okapi to pieces, stowed them away in a dry cavern in the krantz, covered them with the tarpaulins, and pushed on down through the gorge on foot, emerging beyond the hills which bordered the Congo into a rolling country, park-like in appearance. They studied the land well before they continued, first for signs of native villages, and next for game. Smoke rose far away to the right, but nearer, the country seemed deserted, and as plenty of game appeared in sight, they determined to camp on the slopes of the hill. So they looked about for a good pitch, and made choice of a sunny spot at the foot of a rocky cliff, not far from the stream they had followed, and well screened from view by a thicket of bush in the front. They stowed away their blankets in a small cave at the base of the cliff, and then started off for the first hunt, the boys in a fine state of excitement. They struck into a game-path leading through thick scrub, and five minutes from the start there was a sullen snort, a tremendous crashing in the woods, as if, at least, a herd of elephant were stampeding. Mr. Hume dashed down the game- path, and before the boys could see what manner of beast it was, he had fired and bowled it over with a bullet behind the ear.
"A bit of luck," he said, as they reached him.
"What is it?" asked Venning, glancing around with bright eyes.