Jack uttered a roar, and tossed Peterkin off his shoulders, on receiving the punishment.
"Shabby fellow!" cried Peterkin, rubbing his head. "But, I say, do let me up again. I thought, just as you dropped me, that I saw a place where the gra.s.s is short. Ay, there it is, fifty yards or so ahead of us, with a palmyra tree on it. Come, let us go rest there, for I confess that I feel somewhat smothered in this long gra.s.s."
We took up our packs immediately, and carried them to the spot indicated, which we found almost free from long gra.s.s. Here we lay down to enjoy the delightful shade of the tree, and the magnificent view of the country around us. Our negroes also seemed to enjoy the shade, but they were evidently not nearly so much oppressed with the heat as we were, which was very natural. They seemed to have no perception of the beautiful in nature, however, although they appreciated fully the agreeable influences by which they were surrounded.
While I lay at the foot of that tree, pondering this subject, I observed a very strange-looking insect engaged in a very curious kind of occupation. Peterkin"s eye caught sight of it at the same instant with mine.
"Hollo! Jack, look here!" he cried in a whisper. "I declare, here"s a beast been and shoved its head into a hole, and converted its tail into a trap!"
We all three lay down as quietly as possible, and I could not but smile when I thought of the literal correctness of my friend"s quaint description of what we saw.
The insect was a species of ant-eater. It was about an inch and a quarter long, as thick as a crow-quill, and covered with black hair. It put its head into a little hole in the ground, and quivered its tail rapidly. The ants, which seemed to be filled with curiosity at this peculiar sight, went near to see what the strange thing could be; and no sooner did one come within the range of the forceps on the insect"s tail, than it was snapped up.
"Now, that is the most original trapper I ever did see or hear of,"
remarked Peterkin, with a broad grin. "I"ve seen many things in my travels, but I never expected to meet with a beast that could catch others by merely wagging its tail."
"You forget the hunters of North America," said Jack, "who entice little antelopes towards them by merely wagging a bit of rag on the end of a ramrod."
"I forget nothing of the sort," retorted Peterkin. "Wagging a ramrod is not wagging a tail. Besides, I spoke of beasts doing it; men are not beasts."
"Then I hold you self-convicted, my boy," exclaimed Jack; "for you have often called _me_ a beast."
"By no means, Jack. I am not self-convicted, but quite correct, as I can prove to the satisfaction of any one who isn"t a philosopher. You never can prove anything to a philosopher."
"Prove it, then."
"I will. Isn"t a monkey a beast?"
"Certainly."
"Isn"t a gorilla a monkey?"
"No doubt it is."
"And aren"t _you_ a gorilla?"
"I say, lads, it"s time to be going," cried Jack, with a laugh, as he rose and resumed his load.
At that moment Mak uttered an exclamation, and pointed towards a particular spot in the plain before us, where, close by a clump of trees, we saw the graceful head and neck and part of the shoulders of a giraffe. We were naturally much excited at the sight, this being the first we had fallen in with.
"You"d better go after it," said Jack to Peterkin, "and take Mak with you."
"I"d rather you"d go yourself," replied Peterkin; "for, to say truth, I"m pretty well knocked up to-day. I don"t know how it is--one day one feels made of iron, as if nothing could tire one; and the next, one feels quite weak and spiritless."
"Well, I"ll go; but I shall not take any one with me.--Take observation of the sun, Mak, and keep a straight course as you are now going until night. D"ye see yonder ridge?"
"Yes, ma.s.sa."
"Then hold on direct for that, and encamp there. I"ll not be long behind you, and hope to bring you a giraffe steak for supper."
We endeavoured to dissuade Jack from going out alone, but he said truly that his load distributed among us all was quite sufficient, without adding to it by taking away another member of the party. Thus we parted; but I felt a strange feeling of depression, a kind of foreboding of evil, which I could not shake off, despite my utmost efforts.
Peterkin, too, was unusually silent, and I could not avoid seeing that he felt more anxiety on account of Jack"s rashness than he was willing to allow. Our friend took with him one of our large-bore rifles, and a double-barrel of smaller bore slung at his back.
Shortly after parting with him, we descried an ostrich feeding in the plain before us. I had long desired to meet with a specimen of this gigantic bird in its native wilds, and Peterkin was equally anxious to get a shot at it; so we called a halt, and prepared to stalk it. We were aware that the ostrich is a very silly and very timid bird, but not being aware of the best method of hunting it, we asked Makarooroo to explain how he was in the habit of doing it.
"You mus" know," he began, "dat bird hims be a mos" ex"roroninary beast.
When hims run hims go fasterer dan--oh! it be dumpossobable for say how much fast hims go. You no can see him"s legs; dey go same as legs ob leetle bird. But hims be horrobably stupid. Suppose he see you far, far away, goin" to de wind"ard ob him, he no run "way to leeward; hims tink you wants to get round him, so off him start to git past you, and before hims pa.s.s he sometimes come close "nuff to be shooted or speared.
Me hab spear him dat way, but him"s awful differcult to git at for all dat."
"Well then, Mak, after that lucid explanation, what d"you propose that we should do?" inquired Peterkin, examining the locks of his rifle.
"Me pruppose dat you go far ober dere, Ma.s.sa Ralph go not jist so far, and me go to de wind"ard and gib him fright."
Acting upon this advice, we proceeded cautiously to the several spots indicated, and our guide set off towards an exposed place, where he intended to show himself. In a few minutes we observed the gigantic bird look up in alarm, and then we saw Makarooroo running like a deer over the plain. The ostrich instantly rushed off madly at full speed, not, as might have been expected, in a contrary direction, or towards any place of shelter, but simply, as it appeared to me, with no other end in view than that of getting to windward of his supposed enemy. I observed that he took a direction which would quickly bring him within range of my companion"s rifle, but I was so amazed at the speed with which he ran that I could think of nothing else.
Every one knows that the ostrich has nothing worthy of the name of wings--merely a small tuft of feathers at each side, with which he cannot make even an attempt to fly; but every one does not know, probably, that with his stout and long legs he can pa.s.s over the ground nearly at the ordinary speed of a locomotive engine. I proved this to my own satisfaction by taking accurate observation. On first observing the tremendous speed at which he was going, I seized my note-book, and pulling out my watch, endeavoured to count the number of steps he took in a minute. This, however, I found was totally impossible; for his legs, big though they were, went so fast that I could no more count them than I could count the spokes of a carriage-wheel. I observed, however, that there were two bushes on the plain in the direction of his flight, which he would soon have to pa.s.s. I therefore laid down my note-book and rifle, and stood with my watch in hand, ready to note the precise instants at which he should pa.s.s the first and second. By afterwards counting the number of footsteps on the ground between the bushes, and comparing the result with the time occupied in pa.s.sing between the two, I thus proposed to myself to ascertain his rate of speed.
Scarcely had I conceived this idea when the bird pa.s.sed the first bush, and I glanced at my watch; then he pa.s.sed the second, and I glanced again. Thus I noted that he took exactly ten seconds to pa.s.s from one bush to the other. While I was in the act of jotting this down I heard the report of Peterkin"s rifle, and looking up hastily, saw the tail-feathers of the ostrich knocked into the air, but the bird itself pa.s.sed on uninjured. I was deeply mortified at this failure, and all the more so that, from past experience, I had been led to believe that my friend _never_ missed his mark. Hurrying up, I exclaimed--
"Why, my dear fellow, what _can_ have come over you?"
Poor Peterkin seemed really quite distressed; he looked quite humbled at first.
"Ah!" said he, "it"s all very well for you to say, `What has come over you?" but you ought to make allowance for a man who has carried a heavy load all the forenoon. Besides, he was almost beyond range. Moreover, although I have hunted a good deal, I really have not been in the habit of firing at animal locomotives under full steam. Did you ever see such a slapping pace and such an outrageous pair of legs, Ralph?"
"Never," said I. "But come with me to yonder bushes. I"m going to make a calculation."
"What"s a calcoolashun?" inquired our guide, who came up at that moment, panting violently.
"It"s a summation, case of counting up one, two, three, etcetera--and may be multiplying, subtracting, and dividing into the bargain."
"Ho! dat"s what me been do at de missionary school."
"Exactly; but what sort of calculation Ralph means to undertake at present I know not. Perhaps he"s going to try to find out whether, if we were to run at the rate of six miles an hour till doomsday, in the wrong direction, there would be any chance of our ever sticking that ostrich"s tail again on his big body. But come along; we shall see."
On reaching the spot I could scarcely believe my eyes. Each step this bird had taken measured fourteen feet in length! I always carried a rolled-up yard-measure about with me, which I applied to the steps, so that I could make no mistake. There were exactly thirty of those gigantic paces between the two bushes. This multiplied by six gave 180 steps, or 2,520 feet in one minute, which resulted in 151,200 feet, or 50,400 yards, or very nearly thirty miles in the hour.
"No wonder I only knocked his tail off," said Peterkin.
"On the contrary," said I, "the wonder is that under the circ.u.mstances you hit the bird at all."
On further examination of the place where we had seen the ostrich before it was alarmed, we ascertained that his ordinary walking pace varied from twenty to twenty-six inches in length.
After this unsuccessful hunt we returned to our comrades, and proceeded to the rendezvous where we expected to find Jack; but as he was not there, we concluded that he must have wandered farther than he intended, so, throwing down our packs, we set about preparing the camp and a good supper against his return. Gradually the sun began to sink low on the horizon; then he dipped below it, and the short twilight of those lat.i.tudes was rapidly merging into night; but Jack did not return, and the uneasiness which we had all along felt in regard to him increased so much that we could not refrain from showing it.
"I"ll tell you what it is, Ralph," cried Peterkin, starting up suddenly: "I"m not going to sit here wasting the time when Jack may be in some desperate fix. I"ll go and hunt for him."
"Me tink you right," said our guide; "dere is ebery sort ob ting here-- beasties and mans. P"raps Ma.s.sa Jack am be kill."