"Who can it be?" exclaimed Frank in a low tone, not daring even to mention the wild hope that surged in his heart. For a minute he thought that it might be the missing chums, and that even Harry and, to a less degree, Ben, shared his thought he saw by their parted lips and tensely strained eyes.
In absolute silence they listened as the footfalls drew in toward them, but not by even the wildest stretch of the imagination could they make out more than one man"s footsteps.
Instinctively each member of the party raised his revolver as the bushes parted and from them tottered a man who was very evidently in the last stages of exhaustion. The figure staggered forward to the aeroplane as the boys and Ben lowered their revolvers, seeing that, whoever the newcomer was there was no fear of violence from him. It was Ben who recognized him first:
"Sikaso!" he cried, as the figure crumpled up in a heap, completely exhausted.
The boys rushed to the fallen man"s side as they heard the name.
They bathed the huge black"s head with water and after a few minutes he opened his eyes and recognized them with a faint smile. After he had been given some nourishment he completely recovered from his spell of weakness which be called:
"Big fool--all same woman," quite omitting to state that he had traveled almost eighty miles since the preceding midnight.
The boys sat late listening to what the black had to tell of the attack on the camp--of Professor Wiseman"s treachery and death--and of the carrying off of the boys. Then Sikaso went on to gleefully relate, while they warmly clasped his mighty hands, how he had hidden the rest of the ivory and how he had seen Muley-Ha.s.san pa.s.s on his way to the rifled hiding place.
"But Billy and Lathrop, Sikaso, tell us quick, were they with Muley-Ha.s.san?"
The black shook his head slowly.
"No see Four-Eyes--no see Red Head," he said sorrowfully.
The last ray of hope concerning the fate of the two young adventurers seemed to have been extinguished.
CHAPTER XVII
THE "ROGUE" ELEPHANT
In the meantime Billy and Lathrop, having been introduced to the chief, were making themselves very much at home in the village or cliff colony of the Flying Men. The morning after the day of their arrival a hunting expedition was organized by their new-found friend and in company with a dozen or more of the Flying Men, and the ordinary natives, who seemed to occupy the position of inferiors to their winged masters, the expedition set out.
They crossed the fields and garden patches that the boys had observed the evening before and, after traversing a few miles of swampy ground overgrown with a tough yellow gra.s.s, they plunged into a forest of mahogany and silk cotton trees.
It was while crossing the expanse of yellow gra.s.s at Billy performed a feat that caused all of them to hold him as a mighty hunter. They had been pushing their way along a narrow trail with the tops of the vegetation waving a good three feet above their heads, when there was a sudden grunt heard ahead and the noise of great rushing through the wiry gra.s.s.
"Big pig," announced the boys" friend as the others got their spears ready to cast. Billy and Lathrop in their eagerness plunged on ahead of the others--Lathrop with a small spear and his revolver--which by the way was useless, he having expended all his cartridges--and Billy with the Arab rifle. Suddenly from dead ahead of the two boys there was a savage squeal and, before either of them realized what had happened, a boar with gleaming white tusks and bristly hair rushed out of the tangle and squarely charged them.
Lathrop went down before his furious onslaught and in his fall carried Billy to the ground with him. In another moment both boys would have been badly gored, perhaps killed, had not the reporter, in the very instant that the boar with wickedly gleaming little red eyes turned to attack Lathrop with his fierce tusks, raised himself on one arm and fired. The bullet struck their a.s.sailant full in the ear and penetrated the brain. With a surprised squeal he turned and ran a few feet and then dropped dead. The rest of the hunting part came up at this moment and Billy received warm congratulations--which, as he did not understand, meant as much as most of such felicitations.
It was not long after this incident that the plunge into the cool darkness of the forest began. The men went warily--as if expecting to be attacked at any moment--and the boys, on inquiring of their guide the reason for this caution, only received the reply that elephant tracks had been seen and that as a "rogue" elephant had lately been doing great damage to the crops of the cliff-dwellers they were anxious to kill him if possible.
A rogue elephant is one that has become estranged from the rest of his kind by reason of his fierce intractability. He is in fact what in the west is described, in speaking of a horse, as "loco" or crazy. Such animals--they are generally males--are extremely dangerous to hunt and are generally given a wide berth. They are mischievous in the extreme, moreover, and do great damage, seemingly wantonly, to any crops or garden patches that they may find in their neighborhood. Usually the natives are too terrified to offer any resistance and placidly allow the animal to devastate to the bent of his will. The cliff dwellers, however, had suffered so much from the depredations of this particular animal that they were determined to drive him out of their neighborhood, and that was the real purpose of the hunting party.
"Well, it looks as if we are in for a good exciting morning of it,"
remarked Billy as they trudged along beneath trees that shot up to unknown heights with great rope-like creepers dangling from their upper branches, looking like ladders leading up into "Jack in the Beanstalk-land." Occasionally a patch of blue could be sighted through the tree-tops, but for the most part the hunters progressed along the floor of the forest under a regular roof of greenery.
There was plenty of life in this tipper story of the earth jungle.
Troops of monkeys with chattering and gesticulations swung from bough to bough and looked in wonder on the invaders of their realm and then, taking imaginary fright, galloped off through the tree-tops in panic, only to stop a little distance further on and throw down fruit or bits of stick at the men below them. Gorgeous birds, too, flitted about like jewels seen in a setting of green velvet, while underfoot there was no lack of life either. Strange insects, shaped like sticks or leaves or even bits of moss, attracted the attention of the alert boys although they pa.s.sed over hundreds of such nature mimics unnoticed, owing to the perfection of their mimicry.
At last the leader of the party called a halt and they sat down to eat some of the ca.s.sava and manioc cakes they had brought with them.
The meal was washed down with a sour drink--something like b.u.t.termilk--contained in a huge earthen jar that one of the inferior tribe carried. They were in the midst of it when one of the hunters sprang to his feet with a guttural exclamation.
"Arjah!" he exclaimed and, though the boys did not understand his tongue, his att.i.tude of alert attention signified that he said "Listen" as clearly as if he had used the word.
In an instant all of the party were on their feet and listening keenly. After a few seconds of strained attention the boys became aware of a sort of dull pounding sound which seemed to come from some distance. It sounded almost like the regular beat of a large drum. The air seemed to vibrate with it.
He leader of the party spoke a few words rapidly to the others and they all joined in a responsive shout which seemed to be one of a.s.sent to some proposition that had been made by him.
"He say elephant dance," said Umbashi; "him very dangerous when dance. He ask them they willing to go on. They all say yes."
Lathrop looked alarmed.
"Say, Billy," he whispered as they moved forward, "I don"t mind a little danger, but going up against an elephant with a few tin spears looks to me like being little above the limit."
"Cheer up," replied the irrepressible reporter, "we"ve got to go on now. It would never do for us to show the white feather at this stage of the game. The tribe would regard us as miserable cowards and perhaps even put us to death."
So with faces that one at least of them had some difficulty to render" expressive of calm repose the two American boys marched along with the others. As they advanced the drumming grew louder and they could feel the earth shake as the ponderous beast that caused it went through his strange exercise.
The leader worked round till the party was advancing against the wind, as elephants have a keen scent, and had they traveled along down the wind he would have been sure to have taken alarm and dashed off only to return and do more damage later on. In this way the party was enabled to work up to within a few yards of the great beast without his having any warning of their approach. It was a strange sight they beheld as they stood on the edge of the little clearing where the great beast was going through his dance. With his trunk curled high above his great head the big pachyderm was solemnly twirling round and round in a sort of slow waltz and every time he brought a foot down it was with a crash that shook the forest about him. He was a ferocious looking brute, with a wicked gleam in his small eye that boded ill for anyone who should happen to get in his path. One of his tusks was broken off short, doubtless in some fight with another of his kind, and his body was plowed with scars and cuts--the relics of former battles.
Altogether he was as wicked and menacing a looking brute as the boys had ever seen.
Suddenly he sighted the attacking party. The dance instantly stopped and he stood stock-still for an instant gazing at them while they promptly made for the trees and clambered up them by means of the lanyards of creepers that swung down from the tops.
Billy and Lathrop, however, were too much astonished by the sudden turn events had taken to follow the example of the savages and so stood gazing awestricken at the elephant while he gazed at them in apparent amazement at two boys having the temerity to face him in his native forest.
The situation was not to last long, however. Their guide, with the rest of the party, had hastily clambered into the trees and now he called to the boys loudly:
"Climb! climb!"
But the churns were too late.
As they turned to obey his instructions the great brute charged with a furious trumpet.
His first onslaught the boys avoided by slipping behind a tree, more from instinct than anything else. The impetus of the maddened animal"s charge carried him by the tree and before he could stop himself and turn his ponderous body for a fresh attack he had gone some yards beyond the boys.
Bellowing with fury the huge creature made ready for a fresh charge, but by this time Billy and Lathrop had seized the creepers and were both several feet above the ground. In his haste, however, Billy"s luckless rifle twisted between his legs and almost caused a disaster. For a second he hung helpless, trying to kick the weapon free. But it hung by its leather shoulder band and he was unable to do so instantly.
The boy, with a despairing cry, gazed at the onrushing elephant and could almost feel himself being seized by its mighty trunk and dashed to death, when a pair of strong, black arms seized him and dragged him up to a place of safety. The man who had taken this risk was their friend Umbashi, and as Billy thanked him he felt a feeling of real respect for this half naked savage who had risked his life to save another"s.
After two or three more charges the animal seemed to get tired of this method of attack and stood beneath the tree shaking with rage, very much like a bull that has driven a boy to refuge in an apple-tree. It was evident that it was time to either kill the brute or drive him off unless the party desired to spend an unlimited time in the trees.
"The fire-weapon," shouted Billy"s friend, "use the fire-weapon."
Billy raised the long Arab weapon and fired. The bullet struck the elephant on the right ear with no more effect than to further anger him.
"Aim between the eyes," cried the savage.
Billy felt for a fresh cartridge and made a discovery.