Blown to Bits; or, The Lonely Man of Rakata by R. M. Ballantyne
CHAPTER XXI.
IN WHICH THE PROFESSOR DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF.
Leaving this village immediately after the slaying of the tiger, theparty continued to journey almost by forced marches, for not only wasNigel Roy very anxious to keep tryst with his father, and to settle thequestion of Kathleen's identity by bringing father and daughtertogether, but Van der Kemp himself, strange to say, was filled withintense and unaccountable anxiety to get back to his island home.
"I don't know how it is," he said to Nigel as they walked side by sidethrough the forest, followed by Moses and the professor, who had becomevery friendly on the strength of a certain amount of vacant curiositydisplayed by the former in regard to scientific matters--"I don't knowhow it is, but I feel an unusually strong desire to get back to my cave.I have often been absent from home for long periods at a time, but havenever before experienced these strange longings. I say strange, becausethere is no such thing as an effect without a cause."
"May not the cause be presentiment?" suggested Nigel, who, knowing whata tremendous possibility for the hermit lay in the future, felt a littleinclined to be superstitious. It did not occur to him just then that anequally, if not more, tremendous possibility lay in the future forhimself--touching his recent discovery or suspicion!
"I do not believe in presentiments," returned the hermit. "They areprobably the result of indigestion or a disordered intellect, fromneither of which complaints do I suffer--at least not consciously!"
"But you have never before left home in such peculiar circumstances,"said Nigel. "Have you not told me that this is the first time for abouttwo hundred years that Krakatoa has broken out in active eruption?"
"True, but that cannot be to me the cause of longings or anxieties, forI have seen many a long-dormant crater become active without anyimportant result either to me or to any one else."
"Stop, stop!" cried Professor Verkimier in a hoarse whisper at thatmoment; "look! look at zee monkeys!"
Monkeys are very abundant in Sumatra, but the nest of them which thetravellers discovered at that time, and which had called forth theprofessor's admiration, was enough--as Moses said--to make a "renoceruslaugh." The trees around absolutely swarmed with monkeys; those of aslender form and with very long tails being most numerous. They wereengaged in some sort of game, swinging by arms, legs, and tails frombranches, holding on to or chasing each other, and taking the mostastonishing leaps in circumstances where a slip would have no doubtresulted in broken limbs or in death.
"Stand still! Oh! _do_ stand still--like you vas petrivied," said theprofessor in a low voice of entreaty.
Being quite willing to humour him, the whole party stood immovable, likestatues, and thus avoided attracting the attention of the monkeys, whocontinued their game. It seemed to be a sort of "follow my leader," forone big strong fellow led off with a bound from one branch to anotherwhich evidently tried the nerves of his more timid and less agilecompanions. They all succeeded, however, from the largest even to thesmallest--which last was a very tiny creature with a pink face, a sadexpression, and a corkscrew tail.
For a time they bounded actively among the branches, now high now low,till suddenly the big leader took a tremendous leap, as if for theexpress purpose of baffling or testing his companions. It was immenselyamusing to see the degrees of trepidation with which the othersfollowed. The last two seemed quite unable to make up their minds tothe leap, until the others seemed about to disappear, when one of themtook heart and bounded wildly across. Thus little pink-face with thecorkscrew tail was left alone! Twice did that little monkey make adesperate resolution to jump, and twice did its little heart fail as itmeasured the distance between the branches and glanced at the abyssbelow. Its companions seemed to entertain a feeling of pity for it.Numbers of them came back, as if to watch the jump and encourage thelittle one. A third time it made an abortive effort to spring, andlooked round pitifully, whereupon Moses gave vent to an uncontrollablesnort of suppressed laughter.
"Vat you mean by zat?" growled the professor angrily.
The growl and snort together revealed the intruders, and all themonkeys, except pink-face, crowding the trees above the spot where theystood, gazed down upon them with expressions in which unparalleledindignation and inconceivable surprise struggled for the mastery.
Then, with a wild shriek, the whole troop fled into the forest.
This was too much for poor, half-petrified pink-face with the twistedtail. Seeing that its comrades were gone in earnest, it becamedesperate, flung itself frantically into the air with an agonisingsqueak, missed its mark, went crashing through the slender branches andfell to the ground.
Fortunately these branches broke its fall so that it arose unhurt,bounded into a bush, still squeaking with alarm, and made after itsfriends.
"Why did you not shoot it, professor?" asked Nigel, laughing as much atVerkimier's grave expression as at the little monkey's behaviour.
"Vy did I not shot it?" echoed the professor. "I vould as soon shot ababy. Zee pluck of zat leetle creature is admirable. It vould be ahorrible shame to take his life. No! I do love to see ploock vezer inman or beast! He could not shoomp zat. He _knew_ he could not shoomp it,but he _tried_ to shoomp it. He vould not be beat, an' I vould not killhim--zough I vant 'im very mooch for a specimen."
It seemed as if the professor was to be specially rewarded for hisgenerous self-denial on this occasion, for while he was yet speaking, asoft "hush!" from Van der Kemp caused the whole party to halt in deadsilence and look at the hermit inquiringly.
"You are in luck, professor," he murmured, in a soft, low voice--verydifferent from that hissing whisper which so many people seem to imagineis an inaudible utterance. "I see a splendid Argus pheasant over theremaking himself agreeable to his wife!"
"Vare? oh! vare?" exclaimed the enthusiast with blazing eyes, foralthough he had already seen and procured specimens of this mostbeautiful creature, he had not yet seen it engage in the strangelove-dance--if we may so call it--which is peculiar to the bird.
"You'll never get near enough to see it if you hiss like a serpent,"said the hermit. "Get out your binoculars, follow me, and hold yourtongue, all of you--that will be the safest plan. Tread lightly."
It was a sight to behold the professor crouching almost double in orderto render himself less conspicuous, with his hat pushed back, and theblue glasses giving him the appearance of a great-eyed seal. He carriedhis butterfly-net in one hand, and the unfailing rifle in the other.
Fortunately the hermit's sharp and practised eye had enabled him todistinguish the birds in the distance before their advance had alarmedthem, so that they were able to reach a mound topped with low bushesover which they could easily watch the birds.
"Zat is very koorious an' most interesting," murmured the professorafter a short silence.
He was right. There were two Argus pheasants, a male and female--themale alone being decorated superbly. The Argus belongs to the samefamily as the peacock, but is not so gaudy in colouring, and therefore,perhaps, somewhat more pleasing. Its tail is formed chiefly by anenormous elongation of the two tail quills, and of the secondary wingfeathers, no two of which are exactly the same, and the closer they areexamined the greater is seen to be the extreme beauty of their markings,and the rich varied harmony of their colouring.
When a male Argus wishes to show off his magnificence to his spouse--orwhen she asks him to show it off, we know not which--he makes a circlein the forest some ten or twelve feet in diameter, which he clears ofevery leaf, twig, and branch. On the margin of this circus there isinvariably a projecting branch, or overarching root a few feet above theground, on which the female takes her place to watch the exhibition.This consists of the male strutting about, pluming his feathers, andgenerally displaying his gorgeous beauty.
"Vat ineffable vanity!" exclaimed the professor, after gazing for sometime in silence.
His own folly in thus speaking was instantly proved by the two birdsbringing the exhibition to an abrupt cl
Not long after seeing this they came to a small but deep and rapidriver, which for a time checked their progress, for there was no ford,and the porters who carried Verkimier's packages seemed to know nothingabout a bridge, either natural or artificial. After wandering for anhour or so along its banks, however, they found a giant tree which hadfallen across the stream and formed a natural bridge.
On the other side of the stream the ground was more rugged and theforest so dense that they had to walk in a sort of twilight--only aglimpse of blue sky being visible here and there through the tree-tops.In some places, however, there occurred bright little openings whichswarmed with species of metallic tiger-beetles and sand-bees, and wheresulphur, swallow-tailed, and other butterflies sported their brief lifeaway over the damp ground by the water's edge.
The native forest path which they followed was little better than atunnel cut through a grove of low rattan-palms, the delicate butexceedingly tough tendrils of which hung down in all directions. Thesewere fringed with sharp hooks which caught their clothing and tore it,or held on unrelentingly, so that the only way of escape was to stepquietly back and unhook themselves. This of itself would have renderedtheir progress slow as well as painful, but other things tended toincrease the delay. At one place they came to a tree about seven feet indiameter which lay across the path and had to be scrambled over, andthis was done with great difficulty. At another, a giganticmud-bath--the wallowing hole of a herd of elephants--obstructed theway, and a yell from one of the porters told that in attempting to crossit he had fallen in up to the waist. A comrade in trying to pull him outalso fell in and sank up to the armpits. But they got over it--asresolute men always do--somehow!
"Zis is horrible!" exclaimed the professor, panting from his exertions,and making a wild plunge with his insect-net at some living creature."Hah! zee brute! I have 'im."
The man of science was flat on his stomach as he spoke, with armoutstretched and the net pressed close to the ground, while a smile oftriumph beamed through the mud and scratches on his face.
"What have you got?" asked Nigel, doing his best to restrain a laugh.
"A splendid _Ornit'optera_ a day-flying moss'," said Verkimier as hecautiously rose, "vich mimics zee _Trepsichrois mulciber_. Ant zis verymorning I caught von _Leptocircus virescens_, vich derives protectionfrom mimicking zee habits ant appearance of a dragon-fly."
"What rubbish dat purfesser do talk!" remarked Moses in an undertone tothe hermit as they moved on again.
"Not such rubbish as it sounds to you, Moses. These are the scientificnames of the creatures, and you know as well as he does that manycreatures think they find it advantageous to pretend to be what theyare not. Man himself is not quite free from this characteristic. Indeed,you have a little of it yourself," said the hermit with one of histwinkling glances. "When you are almost terrified of your wits don't youpretend that there's nothing the matter with you?"
"Nebber, massa, nebber!" answered the negro with remonstrative gravity."When I's nigh out ob my wits, so's my innards feels like nuffin' butwarmish water, I gits whitey-grey in de chops, so I's told, an' blue inde lips, an' I _pretends_ nuffin'--I don't care _who_ sees it!"
The track for some distance beyond this point became worse and worse.Then the nature of the ground changed somewhat--became more hilly, andthe path, if such it could be styled, more rugged in some places, moreswampy in others, while, to add to their discomfort, rain began to fall,and night set in dark and dismal without any sign of the village ofwhich they were in search. By that time the porters who carriedVerkimier's boxes seemed so tired that the hermit thought it advisableto encamp, but the ground was so wet and the leeches were so numerousthat they begged him to go on, assuring him that the village could notbe far distant. In another half-hour the darkness became intense, sothat a man could scarcely see his fellow even when within two paces ofhim. Ominous mutterings and rumblings like distant thunder also wereheard, which appeared to indicate an approaching storm. In thesecircumstances encamping became unavoidable, and the order was given tomake a huge fire to scare away the tigers, which were known to benumerous, and the elephants whose fresh tracks had been crossed andfollowed during the greater part of the day. The track of a rhinocerosand a tapir had also been seen, but no danger was to be anticipated fromthose creatures.
"Shall we have a stormy night, think you?" asked Nigel, as he assistedin striking a light.
"It may be so," replied the hermit, flinging down one after another ofhis wet matches, which failed to kindle. "What we hear may be distantthunder, but I doubt it. The sounds seem to me more like the mutteringsof a volcano. Some new crater may have burst forth in the Sumatranranges. This thick darkness inclines me to think so--especially afterthe new activity of volcanic action we have seen so recently atKrakatoa. Let me try your matches, Nigel, perhaps they haveescaped--mine are useless."
But Nigel's matches were as wet as those of the hermit. So were those ofthe professor. Luckily Moses carried the old-fashioned flint and steel,with which, and a small piece of tinder, a spark was at last kindled,but as they were about to apply it to a handful of dry bamboo scrapings,an extra spirt of rain extinguished it. For an hour and more they madeineffectual attempts to strike a light. Even the cessation of the rainwas of no avail.
"Vat must ve do _now_?" asked the professor in tones that suggested awo-begone countenance, though there was no light by which to distinguishit.
"Grin and bear it," said Nigel, in a voice suggestive of a slightexpansion of the mouth--though no one could see it.
"Dere's nuffin' else left to do," said Moses, in a tone which betrayedsuch a very wide expansion that Nigel laughed outright.
"Hah! you may laugh, my yoong frond, hot if zee tigers find us out orzee elephants trample on us, your laughter vill be turned to veeping.Vat is zat? Is not zat vonderful?"
The question and exclamation were prompted by the sudden appearance offaint mysterious lights among the bushes. That the professor viewed themas unfriendly lights was clear from the click of his rifle-locks whichfollowed.
"It is only phosphoric light," explained Van der Kemp. "I have oftenseen it thus in electric states of the atmosphere. It will probablyincrease--meanwhile we must seat ourselves on our boxes and do the bestwe can till daylight. Are you there, boys?"
This question, addressed to the bearers in their native tongue, was notanswered, and it was found, on a _feeling_ examination, that, in spiteof leeches, tigers, elephants, and the whole animal creation, theexhausted porters had flung themselves on the wet ground and gone tosleep while their leaders were discussing the situation.
Dismal though the condition of the party was, the appearances in theforest soon changed the professor's woe into eager delight, for thephosphorescence became more and more pronounced, until every tree-stemblinked with a palish green light, and it trickled like moonlight overthe ground, bringing out thick dumpy mushrooms like domes of light.Glowing caterpillars and centipedes crawled about, leaving a trail oflight behind them, and fireflies darting to and fro peopled the air andgave additional animation to the scene.
In the midst of the darkness, thus made singularly visible, the whitetravellers sat dozing and nodding on their luggage, while the cries ofmetallic-toned horned frogs and other nocturnal sounds peculiar to thatweird forest formed their appropriate lullaby.
But Moses neither dozed nor nodded. With a pertinacity peculiarly hisown he continued to play a running accompaniment to the lullaby with hisflint and steel, until his perseverance was rewarded with a spark whichcaught on a dry portion of the tinder and continued to burn. By thattime the phosphoric lights had faded, and his spark was the only onewhich gleamed through intense darkness.
How he cherished that spark! He wrapped it in swaddling clothes of drybamboo scrapings with as much care as if it had been the essence of hislife. He blew upon it tenderly as though to fan its delicate brow withthe soft zephyrs of a father's affection. Again he blew more vigorously,and his enormous
When daylight came at last, they found that the village for which theyhad been searching was only two miles beyond the spot where they hadencamped.
Here, being thoroughly exhausted, it was resolved that they should spendthat day and night, and, we need scarcely add, they spent a considerableportion of both in sleep--at least such parts of both as were notdevoted to food. And here the professor distinguished himself in a waythat raised him greatly in the estimation of his companions and causedthe natives of the place to regard him as something of a demi-god. Ofcourse we do not vouch for the truth of the details of the incident, forno one save himself was there to see, and although we entertained theutmost regard for himself, we were not sufficiently acquainted with hismoral character to answer for his strict truthfulness. As to the mainevent, there was no denying that. The thing happened thus:--
Towards the afternoon of that same day the travellers began to wake up,stretch themselves, and think about supper. In the course ofconversation it transpired that a tiger had been prowling about thevillage for some days, and had hitherto successfully eluded all attemptsto trap or spear it. They had tethered a goat several times near a smallpond and watched the spot from safe positions among the trees, withspears, bows and arrows, and blow-pipes ready, but when they watched,the tiger did not come, and when they failed to watch, the tiger didcome and carried off the goat. Thus they had been baffled.
"Mine frond," said the professor to the hermit on hearing this. "I villshot zat tiger! I am resolved. Vill you ask zee chief to show me zeeplace ant zen tell his people, on pain of def, not to go near it allnight, for if zey do I vill certainly shot zem--by accident of course!"
The hermit did as he was bid, but advised his sanguine friend againstexposing himself recklessly. The chief willingly fell in with hiswishes.
"Won't you tell us what you intend to do, professor?" asked Nigel, "andlet us help you."
"No, I vill do it all by mineself--or die! I vill vant a shofel or aspade of some sort."
The chief provided the required implement, conducted his visitor alittle before sunset to the spot, just outside the village, and left himthere armed with his rifle, a revolver, and a long knife or kriss,besides the spade.
When alone, the bold man put off his glasses, made a careful inspectionof the ground, came to a conclusion--founded on scientific data nodoubt--as to the probable spot whence the tiger would issue from thejungle when about to seize the goat, and, just opposite that spot, onthe face of a slope about ten yards from the goat, he dug a hole deepenough to contain his own person. The soil was sandy easy to dig, andquite dry. It was growing dusk when the professor crept into thisrifle-pit, drew his weapons and the spade in after him, and closed themouth of the pit with moist earth, leaving only a very small eye-holethrough which he could see the goat standing innocently by the brink ofthe pool.
"Now," said he, as he lay resting on his elbows with the rifle laidready to hand and the revolver beside it; "now, I know not vezer you cansmell or not, but I have buried mineself in eart', vich is anon-conductor of smell. Ve shall see!"
It soon became very dark, for there was no moon, yet not so dark butthat the form of the goat could be seen distinctly reflected in thepond. Naturally the professor's mind reverted to the occasion when Nigelhad watched in the branches of a tree for another tiger. The conditionswere different, and so, he thought, was the man!
"Mine yoong frond," he said mentally, "is brav', oondoubtedly, but hisnerves have not been braced by experience like mine. It is vell, forzere is more dancher here zan in a tree. It matters not. I am resolf toshot zat tigre--or die!"
In this resolute and heroic frame of mind he commenced his vigil.
It is curious to note how frequently the calculations of men failthem--even those of scientific men! The tiger came indeed to the spot,but he came in precisely the opposite direction from that which thewatcher expected, so that while Verkimier was staring over the goat'shead at an opening in the jungle beyond the pond, the tiger wasadvancing stealthily and slowly through the bushes exactly behind thehole in which he lay.
Suddenly the professor became aware of _something_! He saw nothingconsciously, he heard nothing, but there stole over him, somehow, thefeeling of a dread presence!
Was he asleep? Was it nightmare? No, it was night-tiger! He knew it,somehow; he _felt_ it--but he could not see it.
To face death is easy enough--according to some people--but to facenothing at all is at all times trying. Verkimier felt it to be so atthat moment. But he was a true hero and conquered himself.
"Come now," he said mentally, "don't be an ass! Don't lose your shanceby voomanly fears. Keep kviet."
Another moment and there was a very slight sound right over his head. Heglanced upwards--as far as the little hole would permit--and there, nota foot from him, was a tawny yellow throat! with a tremendous paw movingslowly forward--so slowly that it might have suggested the imperceptiblemovement of the hour-hand of a watch, or of a glacier. There was indeedmotion, but it was not perceptible.
The professor's perceptions were quick. He did not require to think. Heknew that to use the rifle at such close quarters was absolutelyimpossible. He knew that the slightest motion would betray him. He couldsee that as yet he was undiscovered, for the animal's nose was straightfor the goat, and he concluded that either his having buried himself wasa safeguard against being smelt, or that the tiger had a cold in itshead. He thought for one moment of bursting up with a yell that wouldscare the monster out of his seven senses--if he had seven--butdismissed the thought as cowardly, for it would be sacrificing successto safety. He knew not what to do, and the cold perspiration consequentupon indecision at a supreme moment broke out all over him. Suddenly hethought of the revolver!
Like lightning he seized it, pointed it straight up and fired. Thebullet--a large army revolver one--entered the throat of the animal,pierced the root of the tongue, crashed through the palate obliquely,and entered the brain. The tiger threw one indescribable somersault andfell--fell so promptly that it blocked the mouth of the pit, all thecovering earth of which had been blown away by the shot, and Verkimiercould feel the hairy side of the creature, and hear the beating of itsheart as it gasped its life away. But in his cramped position he couldnot push it aside. Well aware of the tenacity of life in tigers, hethought that if the creature revived it would certainly grasp him evenin its dying agonies, for the weight of its body and its struggles werealready crushing in the upper part of the hole.
To put an end to its sufferings and his own danger, he pointed therevolver at its side and again fired. The crash in the confined hole wastremendous--so awful that the professor thought the weapon must haveburst. The struggles of the, tiger became more violent than ever, andits weight more oppressive as the earth crumbled away. Again the coldperspiration broke out all over the man, and he became unconscious.
It must not be supposed that the professor's friends were unwatchful.Although they had promised not to disturb him in his operations, theyhad held themselves in readiness with rifle, revolver, and spear, andthe instant the first shot was heard, they ran down to the scene ofaction. Before reaching it the second shot quickened their pace as theyran down to the pond--a number of natives yelling and waving torches attheir heels.
"Here he is," cried Moses, who was first on the scene, "dead as mutton!"
"What! the professor?" cried Nigel in alarm.
"No; de tiger."
"I dun know, massa," said Moses, looking round him vacantly.
"Search well, men, and be quick, he may have been injured," cried Vander Kemp, seizing a torch and setting the example.
"Let me out!" came at that moment from what appeared to be the bowels ofthe earth, causing every one to stand aghast gazing in wonder around andon each other.
"Zounds! vy don't you let me _out_?" shouted the voice again.
There was an indication of a tendency to flight on the part of thenatives, but Nigel's asking "Where _are_ you?" had the effect ofinducing them to delay for the answer.
"Here--oonder zee tigre! Kveek, I am suffocat!"
Instantly Van der Kemp seized the animal by the 'tail, and, Avith aforce worthy of Hercules, heaved it aside as if it had been a dead cat,revealing the man of science underneath--alive and well, butdishevelled, scratched, and soiled--also, as deaf as a door-post!