"There is the monkey bigger than man, and he, too, must give way to the silent hunter."
"What! Is the gorilla afraid of the python?"
"Between the ape and the serpent there is always war. See where you place your foot then, for you travel the monkey-path, and we go hand and foot like monkeys. Look well where you place your hand, for a straight branch may be the body of the silent hunter."
Venning went on with renewed caution, studying the branches above and below, for, lover as he was of all manner of live things, he had the common repugnance to the serpent-kind. But the trees were innocent of guile, and presently some other object claimed his absorbed attention, no less than an old man gorilla, who thrust his black head above a tree-top a little way off, and violently shook the branches. At the noise every one stopped and peered out.
"Look!" he shouted.
"By Jove, a gorilla!" cried Compton, from the rear.
The great head was thrust forward, with its low black forehead and blacker muzzle; then they saw the whites of the eyelids as the fierce creature swiftly raised and lowered its brows; then the gleam of the great tusks as the mouth opened to emit a tremendous roar.
The branches cracked under its grip as it shook them again before disappearing. Mr. Hume unslung his rifle and planted himself firmly, for, from the sound, it seemed as if the great ape were coming straight for them. But the noise of its progress ceased, and, after a long wait, the march was resumed. They kept a very keen outlook, and at times stopped to listen, but apparently the gorilla had vanished. Yet many were the startled looks whenever the least sound broke on their ears, for the face of the great ape, suddenly thrust into view, was a terrifying object.
"Halloa!" said Venning, pulling up, "the path seems to end here.
See, the branch is broken off; and there is no swing-bridge. Yet the track did go straight on, for you can see the old marks across there."
"Wow!" said Muata, as his dark eyes swiftly took in the details.
"If I climbed up that branch, I think I could get into the other tree, and you could then use the rope."
"What is it now?" asked Mr. Hume.
"They have cut the track," said the chief; "and it is as I thought, they have gone down from this tree to the ground, maybe to climb up further on."
"Why?"
"Maybe a man has fallen to the ground here--who can say; or the stinging ants have made a home. That tree beyond is taboo to the little people, and we also will go down here."
"What"s the good?" said Venning, beginning to climb up.
"No, no," said Mr. Hume. "We must leave this to the chief;" and he turned to descend.
Venning, however, was standing well placed for a swing, and he let himself go, reaching out with his left hand for another hold, and gaining the other side easily. Compton, of course, followed, and the two stood examining the tree for sign of the path. The track certainly had gone through that tree, but there were no signs of recent pa.s.sage, and moss had grown over the branches. They called down that they were going on, and, pa.s.sing across several trees, found themselves once more cut off from the next tree, on which the well-beaten track once again ran on.
"Here"s the place," they shouted, to guide the others; then looked about to see how they were to cross.
"We"ll have to shin down," said Compton, "for there"s no crossing here."
Venning sat down astride a branch with his back to the trunk.
"May as well rest awhile till they come up."
"That"s a queer-looking branch underneath," said Compton, following suit, and dropping a piece of bark on a bough that had attracted his attention. "It"s covered all over with little squares of velvet moss. See!"
"Suppose we lower our guns by the rope, then we can swarm down easily," replied Venning, who had seen too many branches to be interested; and pa.s.sing the rope round the two rifles, he lowered them to the ground, letting the rope follow.
"I believe it"s moving, or else I"ve got fever or something."
"What"s moving?"
"That;" and Compton pointed down.
"By Jenkins!" muttered Venning; and the two knitted their brows as they peered down into the shadows, for the branch certainly was moving, and moving away as if it meant to part company with the trunk. Their glances ran along the branch outwards, and then their eyes suddenly dilated, and their bodies stiffened.
So they stood like images, their hands clasping a branch, their heads thrust forward, and their eyes staring. On the same level with their heads and about twelve feet off was the head of that moving "branch," square-nosed, wedge-shaped, with the line of the jaws running right round to the broad part under the eyes, and a black- forked tongue flickering through an opening beneath the nostrils, It was the fixed stare of the lidless eyes, and the rigid position of the grim head poised in mid air on a neck that began like the muscular wrist of an athlete, thickening to where it was anch.o.r.ed on a branch three feet away to the size of an athlete"s leg. And while the head, with the three feet of neck remained rigid, the body was gliding out and up, finding an anchorage in the forks of the tree on a level with the head, in readiness for the attack.
With an effort they drew their eyes away from that cold glance that held them almost paralyzed and glanced down. Beyond, the light branches shook as the huge coils pa.s.sed over them. Such coils! As they moved into the sunlight they saw the glitter of the scales and the ridges of the muscles, and the movement was like the movement of several serpents instead of one.
Venning looked again at the motionless head. "When it has gathered its length behind and above its head," he said slowly, "it will strike."
"And you dropped the guns!"
"No one can stare a snake out--no one," said Venning; and his eyes were fixed.
"How far can it strike?"
"It has no lids to its eyes. It just looks and looks. Compton!"
Compton took Venning by the arm and shook him. "Come on," he cried.
"What are we standing here for?"
But as he spoke his eyes went up involuntarily, and his pupils expanded.
"It"s coming closer," he whispered.
"And its eyes are brighter." Venning shut his eyes, and gripped his companion.
They swayed, and just managed to save themselves from a headlong fall by grasping a branch. The shock restored them, and the next minute they had swung themselves up on to the branch, and from that to the next. It was done in an instant, but when they cast a breathless look down, they saw the unwinking eyes looking up at them from the very spot they had just left. The snake had a double coil round the branch that had supported them, while the huge body bridged the distance to the branches from which the blow had been delivered just a moment too late. As they looked, the hinder part of the body fell with a thud against the tree-trunk, and began to ripple up.
"Back," said Compton, "to the next tree."
They darted to the vine-bridge, swung over, then stopped to see if the snake would follow.
"The monkey-rope would never bear its weight," said Venning.
"Can you hear it? By Jove, I feel all of a jump. I felt as if I had to stand there and watch it come right up."
"Ugh!" said Compton. "It was awful. Get ready to run. I see it--over there--just opposite; it"s going up--no, down. I say, it will chase us from underneath. Come on!"
Venning went a little lower, the better to see the ground.
"Hi! underneath, Mr. Hume! Muata! Hi! Coo-ee!"
"Halloa! What is it?"
"A snake! He"s going down the next tree to this. Look out!"
"All right; but you will find it safer down here."