"Come on! we"ve got to get out of here quick as quick as we can,"
exclaimed Billy as they hastened towards the fresh air.
"Why, what is it, Billy?" asked Lathrop.
"I don"t know; but I think that those are lion cubs--they look like the ones I"ve seen in the Bronx Zoo," was the young reporter"s reply, "and if they are, this is no place for us. Come on--the storm is letting up. Let"s get out quick before the old ones get back."
The storm, with the suddenness with which these furious tropical disturbances arise and vanish, had indeed gone and the sun was shining down once more on the drenched jungle, which glittered with diamond like spangles as the rays struck the dripping fronds and branches. But the boys had no eyes for the scene about them, beautiful as it was, for as they emerged from the cave a low growl greeted them.
Crouched on the ground--her tail lashing the earth like a cat"s when it is about to spring--was a huge tawny lioness--her cruel green eyes fixed full upon them.
CHAPTER XV
THE FLYING MEN
For a breath the boys stood petrified and then Billy hastily slipped a cartridge into the rifle he had taken from the dead slave-trader.
But even as he did so the lioness curved her lithe body, as if her backbone had been a steel spring, and launched her great form through the air.
That minute would have been Billy"s last--for in his excitement he pulled the trigger before he had brought the rifle to his shoulder and the bullet whistled harmlessly into the air--but for a strange thing that now occurred.
While the tawny brute was in mid-spring, her cruel claws outspread to maul the unhappy reporter, a great spear whizzed straight at her and buried itself in her heart just behind the left shoulder. With a howl of pain the brute fell short in her spring and, before she could make another attack, Billy had reloaded and sent a bullet crashing between her eyes. As the lioness rolled over dead, the tall form of a. savage sprung out of the jungle and stood for a second gazing at the boys, as much astonished, it seemed, at them as they were at him.
Billy, seeing that the best plan was to be pacific, threw down his rifle and cried:
"Seesenab," (peace); the word be recollected hearing the big Krooman use the day that he attempted to take his unlucky photographs.
"Seesenah--white boys," replied the other, the latter words in fair English and in a deep guttural tone, coming forward with the head of his other spear held downward in token of peace. "From where come the white boys--what do they in our land?" was his next question.
"We are lost," explained Billy, "and we are also, blamed hungry," he added, in a burst of confidence.
The savage smiled and rubbed his stomach.
"That"s the idea," cried the irrepressible reporter. "Heap--empty-- savee?"
The man leant over the dead lioness and, using his spear-point as a skinning knife, rapidly stripped her of her hide. Then, swinging the pelt over his shoulder he motioned to the boys to follow him.
"I don"t know where the d.i.c.kens he means to take us," confided Billy to Lathrop as they obediently trailed along behind, "but so long as we get something to eat I"m so hungry that I don"t care if we get eaten the next minute."
"That"s just the way I feel," agreed Lathrop, "and anyhow he seems to be a pretty decent sort. He saved your life, that"s one thing sure."
"I guess I"ll never make a mighty hunter," said Billy dolefully, "there was a chance to make real Bwana Tumbo shot and I missed it."
The savage stalked along in front of them for some distance till they suddenly emerged on a small clearing by a river bank, in which a rough native camp had been pitched. The tents of gra.s.s occupied by the hunters being of a peculiar conical shape, like the pointed caps that used to be labeled "Dunce."
Much excitement was created by the arrival of the two boys and their companion, and the hunters crowded round the chums while their guide explained with a wealth of gesture the incident of the killing of the lioness, and also the fact that the boys were very hungry.
Several of the men instantly filled wooden bowls with something from a pot that simmered over the fires and the bowls were thrust before the two ravenous boys. As there were no forks of course the boys used their fingers. But this did not interfere with their appet.i.te and after they had put away two bowls apiece the savages" opinion of them evidently rose considerably. Among the West African natives a big eater is esteemed as a mighty man. Lathrop was considerably embarra.s.sed, however, while he satisfied his hunger by the attention the hunters bestowed on his red hair. Several of them came up behind him and rubbed their hands in it as if they imagined it possessed some sort of medicinal value. Had any one at home dared to take such liberties with the boy"s rubicund locks there would have been a fight right away, but Lathrop felt that the best policy to a.s.sume in the present situation was silence, and as the old ship captain said to his mate, "dem little of that."
"I say, Billy," whispered Lathrop suddenly, as, after eating the stew, they watched the hunters piling their belongings into their canoes, "you don"t suppose they mean to fatten us up to eat us, do you?"
"Well, we can"t starve even if that is the reason," replied the practical Billy, "but so far they seem friendly enough. They have not even taken my rifle away."
"That looks encouraging, certainly," replied Lathrop; "if only we knew where Frank and Harry and good old Ben were we might find this all very interesting, as it is though--"
"We"ve got to make the best of it," chimed in Billy, "come on. See old job-lots is signing to us to come down and get in a canoe."
"Whatever they mean to do with us they seem determined to make us comfortable," remarked Billy, as the boys took their seats in a canoe in which skins had been piled to make an easy seat.
For most of that afternoon they paddled steadily up the brown river, the savages singing from time to time an unending sort of chant, that sounded like nothing so much as a continuous repet.i.tion of:
"I-told-you-so. I-told-you-so. I--told-YOU-SO."
"Hum," commented Billy, "if anyone had told me so I"d have stayed in New York."
At length after what seemed endless hours of paddling and chanting the river took an abrupt turn and the boys found themselves at the foot of a steep cliff that towered up, it seemed, for six hundred feet at least. It was formed of black basalt and was crowned with a fringe of contrasting vegetation, but the most remarkable thing about it was that its surface was literally honeycombed with small holes from which, as the canoe cortege drew up, innumerable heads were poked.
An astonishing thing, however, about the men who scrutinized the lads from their lofty watch-towers, was that they were several degrees lighter in complexion than the boatmen and almost as white as the boys in fact. Their features, too, were different. As the boys looked in wonderment at this extraordinary dwelling-place and its equally strange inhabitants, Billy gave an excited shout:
"Great jumping horn-toads, look at that!"
One of the light-colored men had emerged from his, hole and with as little concern as if he were taking a walk had suddenly launched himself into s.p.a.ce. But instead of falling to the ground or into the river, as the boys had fully expected to see him do, he floated gracefully to the opposite bank of the river with as little effort as a settling bird.
"Good land of hot-cakes, Lathrop, do you realize where we are?"
almost shrieked the excited Billy.
"In the village of the Flying Men," stammered Lathrop, as, one after another, the inhabitants of the rock holes dropped from their aeries and floated groundwards. As the boys watched they saw distinctly that each man, from his wrist to his side, was possessed of a sort of leathery fiber like that of bat"s swing, and that as their arms were of unusual length this fiber supported them in their downward flights like a parachute.
"I"ll never call any one a liar again as long as I live," choked out Billy, as one after another these strange beings gathered in a chattering group on the river bank.
"But they can"t fly upward," exclaimed Lathrop, pointing eagerly to where some of the gliders, having swum the river, were nimbly clambering up a gra.s.s rope-ladder to their homes.
"Oh, gee! if I only had a camera," groaned Billy.
"It will be no use telling anyone about this even if we do get out of here, they"ll say that we have had a rarebit dream."
"That"s so," a.s.sented Lathrop, "and honestly, Billy, are you sure we are awake?"
"Sure," replied the reporter giving himself a vicious pinch, and exclaiming "Ouch!"
But there was no time to talk further. Their guide now came up to them and jumping into their canoe paddled them to where the end of the rope-ladder dangled in the stream. He pointed upward for them to ascend. But Billy"s curiosity would not let him mount before he had asked a question.
"Who are these people?" he asked in, for him, an awed tone.
"Very old-time people," rejoined their guide. "We hunt for them, work for them. They the same as fetish.""