And, upon this, the balloon was lowered about two thousand feet.
“Now, my friends, let us be ready, come what may.”
“Ready it is!” said Dick and Joe, with one voice.
“Good!”
In a few moments the balloon was advancing along the bed of the river,
and scarcely one hundred feet above the ground. The Nile measured but
fifty fathoms in width at this point, and the natives were in great
excitement, rushing to and fro, tumultuously, in the villages that lined
the banks of the stream. At the second degree it forms a perpendicular
cascade of ten feet in height, and consequently impassable by boats.
“Here, then, is the cascade mentioned by Debono!” exclaimed the doctor.
The basin of the river spread out, dotted with numerous islands, which
Dr. Ferguson devoured with his eyes. He seemed to be seeking for a point
of reference which he had not yet found.
By this time, some blacks, having ventured in a boat just under the
balloon, Kennedy saluted them with a shot from his rifle, that made them
regain the bank at their utmost speed.
“A good journey to you,” bawled Joe, “and if I were in your place, I
wouldn’t try coming back again. I should be mightily afraid of a monster
that can hurl thunderbolts when he pleases.”
But, all at once, the doctor snatched up his spy-glass, and directed it
toward an island reposing in the middle of the river.
“Four trees!” he exclaimed; “look, down there!” Sure enough, there were
four trees standing alone at one end of it.
“It is Bengal Island! It is the very same,” repeated the doctor,
exultingly.
“And what of that?” asked Dick.
“It is there that we shall alight, if God permits.”
“But, it seems to be inhabited, doctor.”
“Joe is right; and, unless I’m mistaken, there is a group of about a
score of natives on it now.”
“We’ll make them scatter; there’ll be no great trouble in that,”
responded Ferguson.
“So be it,” chimed in the hunter.
The sun was at the zenith as the balloon approached the island.
The blacks, who were members of the Makado tribe, were howling lustily,
and one of them waved his bark hat in the air. Kennedy took aim at
him, fired, and his hat flew about him in pieces. Thereupon there was a
general scamper. The natives plunged headlong into the river, and swam
to the opposite bank. Immediately, there came a shower of balls from
both banks, along with a perfect cloud of arrows, but without doing the
balloon any damage, where it rested with its anchor snugly secured in
the fissure of a rock. Joe lost no time in sliding to the ground.
“The ladder!” cried the doctor. “Follow me, Kennedy.”
“What do you wish, sir?”
“Let us alight. I want a witness.”
“Here I am!”
“Mind your post, Joe, and keep a good lookout.”
“Never fear, doctor; I’ll answer for all that.”
“Come, Dick,” said the doctor, as he touched the ground.
So saying, he drew his companion along toward a group of rocks that rose
upon one point of the island; there, after searching for some time, he
began to rummage among the brambles, and, in so doing, scratched his
hands until they bled.
Suddenly he grasped Kennedy’s arm, exclaiming: “Look! look!”
“Letters!”
Yes; there, indeed, could be descried, with perfect precision of
outline, some letters carved on the rock. It was quite easy to make them
out:
“A. D.”
“A.D.!” repeated Dr. Ferguson. “Andrea Debono--the very signature of the
traveller who farthest ascended the current of the Nile.”
“No doubt of that, friend Samuel,” assented Kennedy.
“Are you now convinced?”
“It is the Nile! We cannot entertain a doubt on that score now,” was the
reply.
The doctor, for the last time, examined those precious initials, the
exact form and size of which he carefully noted.
“And now,” said he--“now for the balloon!”
“Quickly, then, for I see some of the natives getting ready to recross
the river.”
“That matters little to us now. Let the wind but send us northward for a
few hours, and we shall reach Gondokoro, and press the hands of some of
our countrymen.”
Ten minutes more, and the balloon was majestically ascending, while Dr.
Ferguson, in token of success, waved the English flag triumphantly from
his car.
CHAPTER NINETEENTH.
The Nile.--The Trembling Mountain.--A Remembrance of the
Country.--The Narratives of the Arabs.--The Nyam-Nyams.--Joe’s
Shrewd Cogitations.--The Balloon runs the Gantlet.--Aerostatic
Ascensions.--Madame Blanchard.
“Which way do we head?” asked Kennedy, as he saw his friend consulting
the compass.
“North-northeast.”
“The deuce! but that’s not the north?”
“No, Dick; and I’m afraid that we shall have some trouble in getting
to Gondokoro. I am sorry for it; but, at last, we have succeeded in
connecting the explorations from the east with those from the north; and
we must not complain.”
The balloon was now receding gradually from the Nile.
“One last look,” said the doctor, “at this impassable latitude, beyond
which the most intrepid travellers could not make their way. There are
those intractable tribes, of whom Petherick, Arnaud, Miuni, and the
young traveller Lejean, to whom we are indebted for the best work on the
Upper Nile, have spoken.”
“Thus, then,” added Kennedy, inquiringly, “our discoveries agree with
the speculations of science.”
“Absolutely so. The sources of the White Nile, of the Bahr-el-Abiad,
are immersed in a lake as large as a sea; it is there that it takes its
rise. Poesy, undoubtedly, loses something thereby. People were fond of
ascribing a celestial origin to this king of rivers. The ancients gave
it the name of an ocean, and were not far from believing that it flowed
directly from the sun; but we must come down from these flights from
time to time, and accept what science teaches us. There will not always
be scientific men, perhaps; but there always will be poets.”
“We can still see cataracts,” said Joe.
“Those are the cataracts of Makedo, in the third degree of latitude.
Nothing could be more accurate. Oh, if we could only have followed the
course of the Nile for a few hours!”
“And down yonder, below us, I see the top of a mountain,” said the
hunter.
“That is Mount Longwek, the Trembling Mountain of the Arabs. This whole
country was visited by Debono, who went through it under the name of
Latif-Effendi. The tribes living near the Nile are hostile to each
other, and are continually waging a war of extermination. You may form
some idea, then, of the difficulties he had to encounter.”
The wind was carrying the balloon toward the northwest, and, in order to
avoid Mount Longwek, it was necessary to seek a more slanting current.
“My friends,” said the doctor, “here is where OUR passage of the African
Continent really commences; up to this time we have been following the
traces of our predecessors. Henceforth we are to launch ourselves upon
the unknown. We shall not lack the courage, shall we?”
“Never!” said Dick and Joe together, almost in a shout.
“Onward, then, and may we have the help of Heaven!”
At ten o’clock at night, after passing over ravines, forests, and
scattered villages, the aeronauts reached the side of the Trembling
Mountain, along whose gentle slopes they went quietly gliding. In that
memorable day, the 23d of April, they had, in fifteen hours, impelled
by a rapid breeze, traversed a distance of more than three hundred and
fifteen miles.
But this latter part of the journey had left them in dull spirits, and
complete silence reigned in the car. Was Dr. Ferguson absorbed in the
thought of his discoveries? Were his two companions thinking of their
trip through those unknown regions? There were, no doubt, mingled
with these reflections, the keenest reminiscences of home and distant
friends. Joe alone continued to manifest the same careless philosophy,
finding it QUITE NATURAL that home should not be there, from the moment
that he left it; but he respected the silent mood of his friends, the
doctor and Kennedy.
About ten the balloon anchored on the side of the Trembling Mountain,
so called, because, in Arab tradition, it is said to tremble the instant
that a Mussulman sets foot upon it. The travellers then partook of a
substantial meal, and all quietly passed the night as usual, keeping the
regular watches.
On awaking the next morning, they all had pleasanter feelings. The
weather was fine, and the wind was blowing from the right quarter; so
that a good breakfast, seasoned with Joe’s merry pranks, put them in
high good-humor.
The region they were now crossing is very extensive. It borders on the
Mountains of the Moon on one side, and those of Darfur on the other--a
space about as broad as Europe.
“We are, no doubt, crossing what is supposed to be the kingdom of Usoga.
Geographers have pretended that there existed, in the centre of Africa,
a vast depression, an immense central lake. We shall see whether there
is any truth in that idea,” said the doctor.
“But how did they come to think so?” asked Kennedy.
“From the recitals of the Arabs. Those fellows are great narrators--too
much so, probably. Some travellers, who had got as far as Kazeh, or
the great lakes, saw slaves that had been brought from this region;
interrogated them concerning it, and, from their different narratives,
made up a jumble of notions, and deduced systems from them. Down at the
bottom of it all there is some appearance of truth; and you see that
they were right about the sources of the Nile.”
“Nothing could be more correct,” said Kennedy. “It was by the aid of
these documents that some attempts at maps were made, and so I am going
to try to follow our route by one of them, rectifying it when need be.”
“Is all this region inhabited?” asked Joe.
“Undoubtedly; and disagreeably inhabited, too.”
“I thought so.”
“These scattered tribes come, one and all, under the title of
Nyam-Nyams, and this compound word is only a sort of nickname. It
imitates the sound of chewing.”
“That’s it! Excellent!” said Joe, champing his teeth as though he were
eating; “Nyam-Nyam.”
“My good Joe, if you were the immediate object of this chewing, you
wouldn’t find it so excellent.”
“Why, what’s the reason, sir?”
“These tribes are considered man-eaters.”
“Is that really the case?”
“Not a doubt of it! It has also been asserted that these natives had
tails, like mere quadrupeds; but it was soon discovered that these
appendages belonged to the skins of animals that they wore for
clothing.”
“More’s the pity! a tail’s a nice thing to chase away mosquitoes.”
“That may be, Joe; but we must consign the story to the domain of fable,
like the dogs’ heads which the traveller, Brun-Rollet, attributed to
other tribes.”
“Dogs’ heads, eh? Quite convenient for barking, and even for
man-eating!”
“But one thing that has been, unfortunately, proven true, is, the
ferocity of these tribes, who are really very fond of human flesh, and
devour it with avidity.”
“I only hope that they won’t take such a particular fancy to mine!” said
Joe, with comic solemnity.
“See that!” said Kennedy.
“Yes, indeed, sir; if I have to be eaten, in a moment of famine, I want
it to be for your benefit and my master’s; but the idea of feeding those
black fellows--gracious! I’d die of shame!”
“Well, then, Joe,” said Kennedy, “that’s understood; we count upon you
in case of need!”
“At your service, gentlemen!”
“Joe talks in this way so as to make us take good care of him, and
fatten him up.”
“Maybe so!” said Joe. “Every man for himself.”
In the afternoon, the sky became covered with a warm mist, that oozed
from the soil; the brownish vapor scarcely allowed the beholder to
distinguish objects, and so, fearing collision with some unexpected
mountain-peak, the doctor, about five o’clock, gave the signal to halt.
The night passed without accident, but in such profound obscurity, that
it was necessary to use redoubled vigilance.
The monsoon blew with extreme violence during all the next morning. The
wind buried itself in the lower cavities of the balloon and shook the
appendage by which the dilating-pipes entered the main apparatus. They
had, at last, to be tied up with cords, Joe acquitting himself very
skilfully in performing that operation.
He had occasion to observe, at the same time, that the orifice of the
balloon still remained hermetically sealed.
“That is a matter of double importance for us,” said the doctor; “in the
first place, we avoid the escape of precious gas, and then, again, we
do not leave behind us an inflammable train, which we should at last
inevitably set fire to, and so be consumed.”
“That would be a disagreeable travelling incident!” said Joe.
“Should we be hurled to the ground?” asked Kennedy.
“Hurled! No, not quite that. The gas would burn quietly, and we should
descend little by little. A similar accident happened to a French
aeronaut, Madame Blanchard. She ignited her balloon while sending off
fireworks, but she did not fall, and she would not have been killed,
probably, had not her car dashed against a chimney and precipitated her
to the ground.”
“Let us hope that nothing of the kind may happen to us,” said the
hunter. “Up to this time our trip has not seemed to me very dangerous,
and I can see nothing to prevent us reaching our destination.”
“Nor can I either, my dear Dick; accidents are generally caused by the
imprudence of the aeronauts, or the defective construction of their
apparatus. However, in thousands of aerial ascensions, there have not
been twenty fatal accidents. Usually, the danger is in the moment of
leaving the ground, or of alighting, and therefore at those junctures we
should never omit the utmost precaution.”
“It’s breakfast-time,” said Joe; “we’ll have to put up with preserved
meat and coffee until Mr. Kennedy has had another chance to get us a
good slice of venison.”
CHAPTER TWENTIETH.
The Celestial Bottle.--The Fig-Palms.--The Mammoth Trees.--The Tree of
War.--The Winged Team.--Two Native Tribes in Battle.--A Massacre.--An
Intervention from above.
The wind had become violent and irregular; the balloon was running
the gantlet through the air. Tossed at one moment toward the north, at
another toward the south, it could not find one steady current.
“We are moving very swiftly without advancing much,” said Kennedy,
remarking the frequent oscillations of the needle of the compass.
“The balloon is rushing at the rate of at least thirty miles an hour.
Lean over, and see how the country is gliding away beneath us!” said the
doctor.
“See! that forest looks as though it were precipitating itself upon us!”
“The forest has become a clearing!” added the other.
“And the clearing a village!” continued Joe, a moment or two later.
“Look at the faces of those astonished darkys!”
“Oh! it’s natural enough that they should be astonished,” said the
doctor. “The French peasants, when they first saw a balloon, fired
at it, thinking that it was an aerial monster. A Soudan negro may be
excused, then, for opening his eyes VERY wide!”
“Faith!” said Joe, as the Victoria skimmed closely along the ground,
at scarcely the elevation of one hundred feet, and immediately over a
village, “I’ll throw them an empty bottle, with your leave, doctor, and
if it reaches them safe and sound, they’ll worship it; if it breaks,
they’ll make talismans of the pieces.”
So saying, he flung out a bottle, which, of course, was broken into a
thousand fragments, while the negroes scampered into their round huts,
uttering shrill cries.
A little farther on, Kennedy called out: “Look at that strange tree! The
upper part is of one kind and the lower part of another!”
“Well!” said Joe, “here’s a country where the trees grow on top of each
other.”
“It’s simply the trunk of a fig-tree,” replied the doctor, “on which
there is a little vegetating earth. Some fine day, the wind left the
seed of a palm on it, and the seed has taken root and grown as though it
were on the plain ground.”
“A fine new style of gardening,” said Joe, “and I’ll import the idea
to England. It would be just the thing in the London parks; without
counting that it would be another way to increase the number of
fruit-trees. We could have gardens up in the air; and the small
house-owners would like that!”
At this moment, they had to raise the balloon so as to pass over a
forest of trees that were more than three hundred feet in height--a kind
of ancient banyan.
“What magnificent trees!” exclaimed Kennedy. “I never saw any thing so
fine as the appearance of these venerable forests. Look, doctor!”
“The height of these banyans is really remarkable, my dear Dick; and
yet, they would be nothing astonishing in the New World.”
“Why, are there still loftier trees in existence?”
“Undoubtedly; among the ‘mammoth trees’ of California, there is a cedar
four hundred and eighty feet in height. It would overtop the Houses
of Parliament, and even the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The trunk at the
surface of the ground was one hundred and twenty feet in circumference,
and the concentric layers of the wood disclosed an age of more than four
thousand years.”
“But then, sir, there was nothing wonderful in it! When one has lived
four thousand years, one ought to be pretty tall!” was Joe’s remark.
Meanwhile, during the doctor’s recital and Joe’s response, the forest
had given place to a large collection of huts surrounding an open space.
In the middle of this grew a solitary tree, and Joe exclaimed, as he
caught sight of it:
“Well! if that tree has produced such flowers as those, for the last
four thousand years, I have to offer it my compliments, anyhow,” and he
pointed to a gigantic sycamore, whose whole trunk was covered with human
bones. The flowers of which Joe spoke were heads freshly severed from
the bodies, and suspended by daggers thrust into the bark of the tree.
“The war-tree of these cannibals!” said the doctor; “the Indians merely
carry off the scalp, but these negroes take the whole head.”
“A mere matter of fashion!” said Joe. But, already, the village and the
bleeding heads were disappearing on the horizon. Another place offered
a still more revolting spectacle--half-devoured corpses; skeletons
mouldering to dust; human limbs scattered here and there, and left to
feed the jackals and hyenas.
“No doubt, these are the bodies of criminals; according to the custom
in Abyssinia, these people have left them a prey to the wild beasts, who
kill them with their terrible teeth and claws, and then devour them at
their leisure.
“Not a whit more cruel than hanging!” said the Scot; “filthier, that’s
all!”
“In the southern regions of Africa, they content themselves,” resumed
the doctor, “with shutting up the criminal in his own hut with his
cattle, and sometimes with his family. They then set fire to the hut,
and the whole party are burned together. I call that cruel; but, like
friend Kennedy, I think that the gallows is quite as cruel, quite as
barbarous.”
Joe, by the aid of his keen sight, which he did not fail to use
continually, noticed some flocks of birds of prey flitting about the
horizon.
“They are eagles!” exclaimed Kennedy, after reconnoitring them through
the glass, “magnificent birds, whose flight is as rapid as ours.”
“Heaven preserve us from their attacks!” said the doctor, “they are more
to be feared by us than wild beasts or savage tribes.”
“Bah!” said the hunter, “we can drive them off with a few rifle-shots.”
“Nevertheless, I would prefer, dear Dick, not having to rely upon your
skill, this time, for the silk of our balloon could not resist their
sharp beaks; fortunately, the huge birds will, I believe, be more
frightened than attracted by our machine.”
“Yes! but a new idea, and I have dozens of them,” said Joe; “if we could
only manage to capture a team of live eagles, we could hitch them to the
balloon, and they’d haul us through the air!”
“The thing has been seriously proposed,” replied the doctor, “but I
think it hardly practicable with creatures naturally so restive.”
“Oh! we’d tame them,” said Joe. “Instead of driving them with bits, we’d
do it with eye-blinkers that would cover their eyes. Half blinded in
that way, they’d go to the right or to the left, as we desired; when
blinded completely, they would stop.”
“Allow me, Joe, to prefer a favorable wind to your team of eagles. It
costs less for fodder, and is more reliable.”
“Well, you may have your choice, master, but I stick to my idea.”
It now was noon. The Victoria had been going at a more moderate speed
for some time; the country merely passed below it; it no longer flew.
Suddenly, shouts and whistlings were heard by our aeronauts, and,
leaning over the edge of the car, they saw on the open plain below them
an exciting spectacle.
Two hostile tribes were fighting furiously, and the air was dotted with
volleys of arrows. The combatants were so intent upon their murderous
work that they did not notice the arrival of the balloon; there were
about three hundred mingled confusedly in the deadly struggle: most of
them, red with the blood of the wounded, in which they fairly wallowed,
were horrible to behold.
As they at last caught sight of the balloon, there was a momentary
pause; but their yells redoubled, and some arrows were shot at the
Victoria, one of them coming close enough for Joe to catch it with his
hand.
“Let us rise out of range,” exclaimed the doctor; “there must be no
rashness! We are forbidden any risk.”
Meanwhile, the massacre continued on both sides, with battle-axes and
war-clubs; as quickly as one of the combatants fell, a hostile warrior
ran up to cut off his head, while the women, mingling in the fray,
gathered up these bloody trophies, and piled them together at either
extremity of the battle-field. Often, too, they even fought for these
hideous spoils.
“What a frightful scene!” said Kennedy, with profound disgust.
“They’re ugly acquaintances!” added Joe; “but then, if they had uniforms
they’d be just like the fighters of all the rest of the world!”
“I have a keen hankering to take a hand in at that fight,” said the
hunter, brandishing his rifle.
“No! no!” objected the doctor, vehemently; “no, let us not meddle with
what don’t concern us. Do you know which is right or which is wrong,
that you would assume the part of the Almighty? Let us, rather, hurry
away from this revolting spectacle. Could the great captains of the
world float thus above the scenes of their exploits, they would at last,
perhaps, conceive a disgust for blood and conquest.”
The chieftain of one of the contending parties was remarkable for his
athletic proportions, his great height, and herculean strength. With
one hand he plunged his spear into the compact ranks of his enemies, and
with the other mowed large spaces in them with his battle-axe. Suddenly
he flung away his war-club, red with blood, rushed upon a wounded
warrior, and, chopping off his arm at a single stroke, carried the
dissevered member to his mouth, and bit it again and again.
“Ah!” ejaculated Kennedy, “the horrible brute! I can hold back no
longer,” and, as he spoke, the huge savage, struck full in the forehead
with a rifle-ball, fell headlong to the ground.
Upon this sudden mishap of their leader, his warriors seemed struck dumb
with amazement; his supernatural death awed them, while it reanimated
the courage and ardor of their adversaries, and, in a twinkling, the
field was abandoned by half the combatants.
“Come, let us look higher up for a current to bear us away. I am sick of
this spectacle,” said the doctor.
But they could not get away so rapidly as to avoid the sight of the
victorious tribe rushing upon the dead and the wounded, scrambling and
disputing for the still warm and reeking flesh, and eagerly devouring
it.
“Faugh!” uttered Joe, “it’s sickening.”
The balloon rose as it expanded; the howlings of the brutal horde, in
the delirium of their orgy, pursued them for a few minutes; but, at
length, borne away toward the south, they were carried out of sight and
hearing of this horrible spectacle of cannibalism.
The surface of the country was now greatly varied, with numerous streams
of water, bearing toward the east. The latter, undoubtedly, ran into
those affluents of Lake Nu, or of the River of the Gazelles, concerning
which M. Guillaume Lejean has given such curious details.
At nightfall, the balloon cast anchor in twenty-seven degrees east
longitude, and four degrees twenty minutes north latitude, after a day’s
trip of one hundred and fifty miles.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST.
Strange Sounds.--A Night Attack.--Kennedy and Joe in the Tree.--Two
Shots.--“Help! help!”--Reply in French.--The Morning.--The
Missionary.--The Plan of Rescue.
The night came on very dark. The doctor had not been able to reconnoitre
the country. He had made fast to a very tall tree, from which he could
distinguish only a confused mass through the gloom.
As usual, he took the nine-o’clock watch, and at midnight Dick relieved
him.
“Keep a sharp lookout, Dick!” was the doctor’s good-night injunction.
“Is there any thing new on the carpet?”
“No; but I thought that I heard vague sounds below us, and, as I don’t
exactly know where the wind has carried us to, even an excess of caution
would do no harm.”
“You’ve probably heard the cries of wild beasts.”
“No! the sounds seemed to me something altogether different from that;
at all events, on the least alarm don’t fail to waken us.”
“I’ll do so, doctor; rest easy.”
After listening attentively for a moment or two longer, the doctor,
hearing nothing more, threw himself on his blankets and went asleep.
The sky was covered with dense clouds, but not a breath of air was
stirring; and the balloon, kept in its place by only a single anchor,
experienced not the slightest oscillation.
Kennedy, leaning his elbow on the edge of the car, so as to keep an eye
on the cylinder, which was actively at work, gazed out upon the calm
obscurity; he eagerly scanned the horizon, and, as often happens to
minds that are uneasy or possessed with preconceived notions, he fancied
that he sometimes detected vague gleams of light in the distance.
At one moment he even thought that he saw them only two hundred paces
away, quite distinctly, but it was a mere flash that was gone as quickly
as it came, and he noticed nothing more. It was, no doubt, one of those
luminous illusions that sometimes impress the eye in the midst of very
profound darkness.
Kennedy was getting over his nervousness and falling into his wandering
meditations again, when a sharp whistle pierced his ear.
Was that the cry of an animal or of a night-bird, or did it come from
human lips?
Kennedy, perfectly comprehending the gravity of the situation, was on
the point of waking his companions, but he reflected that, in any case,
men or animals, the creatures that he had heard must be out of reach.
So he merely saw that his weapons were all right, and then, with his
night-glass, again plunged his gaze into space.
It was not long before he thought he could perceive below him vague
forms that seemed to be gliding toward the tree, and then, by the aid of
a ray of moonlight that shot like an electric flash between two masses
of cloud, he distinctly made out a group of human figures moving in the
shadow.
The adventure with the dog-faced baboons returned to his memory, and he
placed his hand on the doctor’s shoulder.
The latter was awake in a moment.
“Silence!” said Dick. “Let us speak below our breath.”
“Has any thing happened?”
“Yes, let us waken Joe.”
The instant that Joe was aroused, Kennedy told him what he had seen.
“Those confounded monkeys again!” said Joe.
“Possibly, but we must be on our guard.”
“Joe and I,” said Kennedy, “will climb down the tree by the ladder.”
“And, in the meanwhile,” added the doctor, “I will take my measures so
that we can ascend rapidly at a moment’s warning.”
“Agreed!”
“Let us go down, then!” said Joe.
“Don’t use your weapons, excepting at the last extremity! It would be a
useless risk to make the natives aware of our presence in such a place
as this.”
Dick and Joe replied with signs of assent, and then letting themselves
slide noiselessly toward the tree, took their position in a fork among
the strong branches where the anchor had caught.
For some moments they listened minutely and motionlessly among the
foliage, and ere long Joe seized Kenedy’s hand as he heard a sort of
rubbing sound against the bark of the tree.
“Don’t you hear that?” he whispered.
“Yes, and it’s coming nearer.”
“Suppose it should be a serpent? That hissing or whistling that you
heard before--”
“No! there was something human in it.”
“I’d prefer the savages, for I have a horror of those snakes.”
“The noise is increasing,” said Kennedy, again, after a lapse of a few
moments.
“Yes! something’s coming up toward us--climbing.”
“Keep watch on this side, and I’ll take care of the other.”
“Very good!”
There they were, isolated at the top of one of the larger branches
shooting out in the midst of one of those miniature forests called
baobab-trees. The darkness, heightened by the density of the foliage,
was profound; however, Joe, leaning over to Kennedy’s ear and pointing
down the tree, whispered:
“The blacks! They’re climbing toward us.”
The two friends could even catch the sound of a few words uttered in the
lowest possible tones.
Joe gently brought his rifle to his shoulder as he spoke.
“Wait!” said Kennedy.
Some of the natives had really climbed the baobab, and now they were
seen rising on all sides, winding along the boughs like reptiles, and
advancing slowly but surely, all the time plainly enough discernible,
not merely to the eye but to the nostrils, by the horrible odors of the
rancid grease with which they bedaub their bodies.
Ere long, two heads appeared to the gaze of Kennedy and Joe, on a level
with the very branch to which they were clinging.
“Attention!” said Kennedy. “Fire!”
The double concussion resounded like a thunderbolt and died away into
cries of rage and pain, and in a moment the whole horde had disappeared.
But, in the midst of these yells and howls, a strange, unexpected--nay
what seemed an impossible--cry had been heard! A human voice had,
distinctly, called aloud in the French language--
“Help! help!”
Kennedy and Joe, dumb with amazement, had regained the car immediately.
“Did you hear that?” the doctor asked them.
“Undoubtedly, that supernatural cry, ‘A moi! a moi!’ comes from a
Frenchman in the hands of these barbarians!”
“A traveller.”
“A missionary, perhaps.”
“Poor wretch!” said Kennedy, “they’re assassinating him--making a martyr
of him!”
The doctor then spoke, and it was impossible for him to conceal his
emotions.
“There can be no doubt of it,” he said; “some unfortunate Frenchman has
fallen into the hands of these savages. We must not leave this place
without doing all in our power to save him. When he heard the sound
of our guns, he recognized an unhoped-for assistance, a providential
interposition. We shall not disappoint his last hope. Are such your
views?”
“They are, doctor, and we are ready to obey you.”
“Let us, then, lay our heads together to devise some plan, and in the
morning we’ll try to rescue him.”
“But how shall we drive off those abominable blacks?” asked Kennedy.
“It’s quite clear to me, from the way in which they made off, that they
are unacquainted with fire-arms. We must, therefore, profit by their
fears; but we shall await daylight before acting, and then we can form
our plans of rescue according to circumstances.”
“The poor captive cannot be far off,” said Joe, “because--”
“Help! help!” repeated the voice, but much more feebly this time.
“The savage wretches!” exclaimed Joe, trembling with indignation.
“Suppose they should kill him to-night!”
“Do you hear, doctor,” resumed Kennedy, seizing the doctor’s hand.
“Suppose they should kill him to-night!”
“It is not at all likely, my friends. These savage tribes kill their
captives in broad daylight; they must have the sunshine.”
“Now, if I were to take advantage of the darkness to slip down to the
poor fellow?” said Kennedy.
“And I’ll go with you,” said Joe, warmly.
“Pause, my friends--pause! The suggestion does honor to your hearts
and to your courage; but you would expose us all to great peril, and do
still greater harm to the unfortunate man whom you wish to aid.”
“Why so?” asked Kennedy. “These savages are frightened and dispersed:
they will not return.”
“Dick, I implore you, heed what I say. I am acting for the common good;
and if by any accident you should be taken by surprise, all would be
lost.”
“But, think of that poor wretch, hoping for aid, waiting there, praying,
calling aloud. Is no one to go to his assistance? He must think that his
senses deceived him; that he heard nothing!”
“We can reassure him, on that score,” said Dr. Ferguson--and, standing
erect, making a speaking-trumpet of his hands, he shouted at the top of
his voice, in French: “Whoever you are, be of good cheer! Three friends
are watching over you.”
A terrific howl from the savages responded to these words--no doubt
drowning the prisoner’s reply.
“They are murdering him! they are murdering him!” exclaimed Kennedy.
“Our interference will have served no other purpose than to hasten the
hour of his doom. We must act!”
“But how, Dick? What do you expect to do in the midst of this darkness?”
“Oh, if it was only daylight!” sighed Joe.
“Well, and suppose it were daylight?” said the doctor, in a singular
tone.
“Nothing more simple, doctor,” said Kennedy. “I’d go down and scatter
all these savage villains with powder and ball!”
“And you, Joe, what would you do?”
“I, master? why, I’d act more prudently, maybe, by telling the prisoner
to make his escape in a certain direction that we’d agree upon.”
“And how would you get him to know that?”
“By means of this arrow that I caught flying the other day. I’d tie a
note to it, or I’d just call out to him in a loud voice what you want
him to do, because these black fellows don’t understand the language
that you’d speak in!”
“Your plans are impracticable, my dear friends. The greatest difficulty
would be for this poor fellow to escape at all--even admitting that he
should manage to elude the vigilance of his captors. As for you, my
dear Dick, with determined daring, and profiting by their alarm at our
fire-arms, your project might possibly succeed; but, were it to fail,
you would be lost, and we should have two persons to save instead
of one. No! we must put ALL the chances on OUR side, and go to work
differently.”
“But let us act at once!” said the hunter.
“Perhaps we may,” said the doctor, throwing considerable stress upon the
words.
“Why, doctor, can you light up such darkness as this?”
“Who knows, Joe?”
“Ah! if you can do that, you’re the greatest learned man in the world!”
The doctor kept silent for a few moments; he was thinking. His two
companions looked at him with much emotion, for they were greatly
excited by the strangeness of the situation. Ferguson at last resumed:
“Here is my plan: We have two hundred pounds of ballast left, since
the bags we brought with us are still untouched. I’ll suppose that this
prisoner, who is evidently exhausted by suffering, weighs as much as one
of us; there will still remain sixty pounds of ballast to throw out, in
case we should want to ascend suddenly.”
“How do you expect to manage the balloon?” asked Kennedy.
“This is the idea, Dick: you will admit that if I can get to the
prisoner, and throw out a quantity of ballast, equal to his weight, I
shall have in nowise altered the equilibrium of the balloon. But, then,
if I want to get a rapid ascension, so as to escape these savages,
I must employ means more energetic than the cylinder. Well, then, in
throwing out this overplus of ballast at a given moment, I am certain to
rise with great rapidity.”
“That’s plain enough.”
“Yes; but there is one drawback: it consists in the fact that, in order
to descend after that, I should have to part with a quantity of gas
proportionate to the surplus ballast that I had thrown out. Now, the
gas is precious; but we must not haggle over it when the life of a
fellow-creature is at stake.”
“You are right, sir; we must do every thing in our power to save him.”
“Let us work, then, and get these bags all arranged on the rim of the
car, so that they may be thrown overboard at one movement.”
“But this darkness?”
“It hides our preparations, and will be dispersed only when they are
finished. Take care to have all our weapons close at hand. Perhaps we
may have to fire; so we have one shot in the rifle; four for the two
muskets; twelve in the two revolvers; or seventeen in all, which might
be fired in a quarter of a minute. But perhaps we shall not have to
resort to all this noisy work. Are you ready?”
“We’re ready,” responded Joe.
The sacks were placed as requested, and the arms were put in good order.
“Very good!” said the doctor. “Have an eye to every thing. Joe will see
to throwing out the ballast, and Dick will carry off the prisoner; but
let nothing be done until I give the word. Joe will first detach the
anchor, and then quickly make his way back to the car.”
Joe let himself slide down by the rope; and, in a few moments,
reappeared at his post; while the balloon, thus liberated, hung almost
motionless in the air.
In the mean time the doctor assured himself of the presence of a
sufficient quantity of gas in the mixing-tank to feed the cylinder, if
necessary, without there being any need of resorting for some time
to the Buntzen battery. He then took out the two perfectly-isolated
conducting-wires, which served for the decomposition of the water, and,
searching in his travelling-sack, brought forth two pieces of charcoal,
cut down to a sharp point, and fixed one at the end of each wire.
His two friends looked on, without knowing what he was about, but they
kept perfectly silent. When the doctor had finished, he stood up erect
in the car, and, taking the two pieces of charcoal, one in each hand,
drew their points nearly together.
In a twinkling, an intense and dazzling light was produced, with an
insupportable glow between the two pointed ends of charcoal, and a huge
jet of electric radiance literally broke the darkness of the night.
“Oh!” ejaculated the astonished friends.
“Not a word!” cautioned the doctor.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND.
The Jet of Light.--The Missionary.--The Rescue in a Ray of
Electricity.--A Lazarist Priest.--But little Hope.--The Doctor’s
Care.--A Life of Self-Denial.--Passing a Volcano.
Dr. Ferguson darted his powerful electric jet toward various points of
space, and caused it to rest on a spot from which shouts of terror were
heard. His companions fixed their gaze eagerly on the place.
The baobab, over which the balloon was hanging almost motionless, stood
in the centre of a clearing, where, between fields of Indian-corn and
sugar-cane, were seen some fifty low, conical huts, around which swarmed
a numerous tribe.
A hundred feet below the balloon stood a large post, or stake, and at
its foot lay a human being--a young man of thirty years or more, with
long black hair, half naked, wasted and wan, bleeding, covered with
wounds, his head bowed over upon his breast, as Christ’s was, when He
hung upon the cross.
The hair, cut shorter on the top of his skull, still indicated the place
of a half-effaced tonsure.
“A missionary! a priest!” exclaimed Joe.
“Poor, unfortunate man!” said Kennedy.
“We must save him, Dick!” responded the doctor; “we must save him!”
The crowd of blacks, when they saw the balloon over their heads, like
a huge comet with a train of dazzling light, were seized with a terror
that may be readily imagined. Upon hearing their cries, the prisoner
raised his head. His eyes gleamed with sudden hope, and, without too
thoroughly comprehending what was taking place, he stretched out his
hands to his unexpected deliverers.
“He is alive!” exclaimed Ferguson. “God be praised! The savages have got
a fine scare, and we shall save him! Are you ready, friends?”
“Ready, doctor, at the word.”
“Joe, shut off the cylinder!”
The doctor’s order was executed. An almost imperceptible breath of air
impelled the balloon directly over the prisoner, at the same time that
it gently lowered with the contraction of the gas. For about ten minutes
it remained floating in the midst of luminous waves, for Ferguson
continued to flash right down upon the throng his glowing sheaf of rays,
which, here and there, marked out swift and vivid sheets of light.
The tribe, under the influence of an indescribable terror, disappeared
little by little in the huts, and there was complete solitude around
the stake. The doctor had, therefore, been right in counting upon the
fantastic appearance of the balloon throwing out rays, as vivid as the
sun’s, through this intense gloom.
The car was approaching the ground; but a few of the savages, more
audacious than the rest, guessing that their victim was about to escape
from their clutches, came back with loud yells, and Kennedy seized his
rifle. The doctor, however, besought him not to fire.
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