over a fire of green wood. When they seemed in good order, Kennedy, who
was perfectly at home in the business, packed them away in the car.
On the morrow, the hunter was to complete his supplies.
Evening surprised our travellers in the midst of this work. Their supper
consisted of pemmican, biscuit, and tea; and fatigue, after having given
them appetite, brought them sleep. Each of them strained eyes and ears
into the gloom during his watch, sometimes fancying that they heard the
voice of poor Joe; but, alas! the voice that they so longed to hear, was
far away.
“At the first streak of day, the doctor aroused Kennedy.
“I have been long and carefully considering what should be done,” said
he, “to find our companion.”
“Whatever your plan may be, doctor, it will suit me. Speak!”
“Above all things, it is important that Joe should hear from us in some
way.”
“Undoubtedly. Suppose the brave fellow should take it into his head that
we have abandoned him?”
“He! He knows us too well for that. Such a thought would never come into
his mind. But he must be informed as to where we are.”
“How can that be managed?”
“We shall get into our car and be off again through the air.”
“But, should the wind bear us away?”
“Happily, it will not. See, Dick! it is carrying us back to the lake;
and this circumstance, which would have been vexatious yesterday, is
fortunate now. Our efforts, then, will be limited to keeping ourselves
above that vast sheet of water throughout the day. Joe cannot fail
to see us, and his eyes will be constantly on the lookout in that
direction. Perhaps he will even manage to let us know the place of his
retreat.”
“If he be alone and at liberty, he certainly will.”
“And if a prisoner,” resumed the doctor, “it not being the practice of
the natives to confine their captives, he will see us, and comprehend
the object of our researches.”
“But, at last,” put in Kennedy--“for we must anticipate every
thing--should we find no trace--if he should have left no mark to follow
him by, what are we to do?”
“We shall endeavor to regain the northern part of the lake, keeping
ourselves as much in sight as possible. There we’ll wait; we’ll explore
the banks; we’ll search the water’s edge, for Joe will assuredly try to
reach the shore; and we will not leave the country without having done
every thing to find him.”
“Let us set out, then!” said the hunter.
The doctor hereupon took the exact bearings of the patch of solid land
they were about to leave, and arrived at the conclusion that it lay
on the north shore of Lake Tchad, between the village of Lari and the
village of Ingemini, both visited by Major Denham. During this time
Kennedy was completing his stock of fresh meat. Although the neighboring
marshes showed traces of the rhinoceros, the lamantine (or manatee),
and the hippopotamus, he had no opportunity to see a single specimen of
those animals.
At seven in the morning, but not without great difficulty--which to
Joe would have been nothing--the balloon’s anchor was detached from its
hold, the gas dilated, and the new Victoria rose two hundred feet into
the air. It seemed to hesitate at first, and went spinning around, like
a top; but at last a brisk current caught it, and it advanced over the
lake, and was soon borne away at a speed of twenty miles per hour.
The doctor continued to keep at a height of from two hundred to five
hundred feet. Kennedy frequently discharged his rifle; and, when
passing over islands, the aeronauts approached them even imprudently,
scrutinizing the thickets, the bushes, the underbrush--in fine, every
spot where a mass of shade or jutting rock could have afforded a retreat
to their companion. They swooped down close to the long pirogues that
navigated the lake; and the wild fishermen, terrified at the sight of
the balloon, would plunge into the water and regain their islands with
every symptom of undisguised affright.
“We can see nothing,” said Kennedy, after two hours of search.
“Let us wait a little longer, Dick, and not lose heart. We cannot be far
away from the scene of our accident.”
By eleven o’clock the balloon had gone ninety miles. It then fell in
with a new current, which, blowing almost at right angles to the other,
drove them eastward about sixty miles. It next floated over a very large
and populous island, which the doctor took to be Farram, on which the
capital of the Biddiomahs is situated. Ferguson expected at every moment
to see Joe spring up out of some thicket, flying for his life, and
calling for help. Were he free, they could pick him up without trouble;
were he a prisoner, they could rescue him by repeating the manoeuvre
they had practised to save the missionary, and he would soon be with
his friends again; but nothing was seen, not a sound was heard. The case
seemed desperate.
About half-past two o’clock, the Victoria hove in sight of Tangalia, a
village situated on the eastern shore of Lake Tchad, where it marks the
extreme point attained by Denham at the period of his exploration.
The doctor became uneasy at this persistent setting of the wind in that
direction, for he felt that he was being thrown back to the eastward,
toward the centre of Africa, and the interminable deserts of that
region.
“We must absolutely come to a halt,” said he, “and even alight. For
Joe’s sake, particularly, we ought to go back to the lake; but, to begin
with, let us endeavor to find an opposite current.”
During more than an hour he searched at different altitudes: the balloon
always came back toward the mainland. But at length, at the height of a
thousand feet, a very violent breeze swept to the northwestward.
It was out of the question that Joe should have been detained on one of
the islands of the lake; for, in such case he would certainly have found
means to make his presence there known. Perhaps he had been dragged to
the mainland. The doctor was reasoning thus to himself, when he again
came in sight of the northern shore of Lake Tchad.
As for supposing that Joe had been drowned, that was not to be believed
for a moment. One horrible thought glanced across the minds of both
Kennedy and the doctor: caymans swarm in these waters! But neither one
nor the other had the courage to distinctly communicate this impression.
However, it came up to them so forcibly at last that the doctor said,
without further preface:
“Crocodiles are found only on the shores of the islands or of the lake,
and Joe will have skill enough to avoid them. Besides, they are not very
dangerous; and the Africans bathe with impunity, and quite fearless of
their attacks.”
Kennedy made no reply. He preferred keeping quiet to discussing this
terrible possibility.
The doctor made out the town of Lari about five o’clock in the evening.
The inhabitants were at work gathering in their cotton-crop in front
of their huts, constructed of woven reeds, and standing in the midst
of clean and neatly-kept enclosures. This collection of about fifty
habitations occupied a slight depression of the soil, in a valley
extending between two low mountains. The force of the wind carried the
doctor farther onward than he wanted to go; but it changed a second
time, and bore him back exactly to his starting-point, on the sort of
enclosed island where he had passed the preceding night. The anchor,
instead of catching the branches of the tree, took hold in the masses
of reeds mixed with the thick mud of the marshes, which offered
considerable resistance.
The doctor had much difficulty in restraining the balloon; but at length
the wind died away with the setting in of nightfall; and the two friends
kept watch together in an almost desperate state of mind.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOURTH.
The Hurricane.--A Forced Departure.--Loss of an Anchor.--Melancholy
Reflections.--The Resolution adopted.--The Sand-Storm.--The Buried
Caravan.--A Contrary yet Favorable Wind.--The Return southward.--Kennedy
at his Post.
At three o’clock in the morning the wind was raging. It beat down with
such violence that the Victoria could not stay near the ground without
danger. It was thrown almost flat over upon its side, and the reeds
chafed the silk so roughly that it seemed as though they would tear it.
“We must be off, Dick,” said the doctor; “we cannot remain in this
situation.”
“But, doctor, what of Joe?”
“I am not likely to abandon him. No, indeed! and should the hurricane
carry me a thousand miles to the northward, I will return! But here we
are endangering the safety of all.”
“Must we go without him?” asked the Scot, with an accent of profound
grief.
“And do you think, then,” rejoined Ferguson, “that my heart does not
bleed like your own? Am I not merely obeying an imperious necessity?”
“I am entirely at your orders,” replied the hunter; “let us start!”
But their departure was surrounded with unusual difficulty. The anchor,
which had caught very deeply, resisted all their efforts to disengage
it; while the balloon, drawing in the opposite direction, increased
its tension. Kennedy could not get it free. Besides, in his present
position, the manoeuvre had become a very perilous one, for the Victoria
threatened to break away before he should be able to get into the car
again.
The doctor, unwilling to run such a risk, made his friend get into
his place, and resigned himself to the alternative of cutting the
anchor-rope. The Victoria made one bound of three hundred feet into the
air, and took her route directly northward.
Ferguson had no other choice than to scud before the storm. He folded
his arms, and soon became absorbed in his own melancholy reflections.
After a few moments of profound silence, he turned to Kennedy, who sat
there no less taciturn.
“We have, perhaps, been tempting Providence,” said he; “it does not
belong to man to undertake such a journey!”--and a sigh of grief escaped
him as he spoke.
“It is but a few days,” replied the sportsman, “since we were
congratulating ourselves upon having escaped so many dangers! All three
of us were shaking hands!”
“Poor Joe! kindly and excellent disposition! brave and candid heart!
Dazzled for a moment by his sudden discovery of wealth, he willingly
sacrificed his treasures! And now, he is far from us; and the wind is
carrying us still farther away with resistless speed!”
“Come, doctor, admitting that he may have found refuge among the lake
tribes, can he not do as the travellers who visited them before us,
did;--like Denham, like Barth? Both of those men got back to their own
country.”
“Ah! my dear Dick! Joe doesn’t know one word of the language; he is
alone, and without resources. The travellers of whom you speak did not
attempt to go forward without sending many presents in advance of them
to the chiefs, and surrounded by an escort armed and trained for
these expeditions. Yet, they could not avoid sufferings of the worst
description! What, then, can you expect the fate of our companion to be?
It is horrible to think of, and this is one of the worst calamities that
it has ever been my lot to endure!”
“But, we’ll come back again, doctor!”
“Come back, Dick? Yes, if we have to abandon the balloon! if we
should be forced to return to Lake Tchad on foot, and put ourselves in
communication with the Sultan of Bornou! The Arabs cannot have retained
a disagreeable remembrance of the first Europeans.”
“I will follow you, doctor,” replied the hunter, with emphasis. “You
may count upon me! We would rather give up the idea of prosecuting
this journey than not return. Joe forgot himself for our sake; we will
sacrifice ourselves for his!”
This resolve revived some hope in the hearts of these two men; they felt
strong in the same inspiration. Ferguson forthwith set every thing at
work to get into a contrary current, that might bring him back again
to Lake Tchad; but this was impracticable at that moment, and even to
alight was out of the question on ground completely bare of trees, and
with such a hurricane blowing.
The Victoria thus passed over the country of the Tibbous, crossed the
Belad el Djerid, a desert of briers that forms the border of the Soudan,
and advanced into the desert of sand streaked with the long tracks
of the many caravans that pass and repass there. The last line of
vegetation was speedily lost in the dim southern horizon, not far from
the principal oasis in this part of Africa, whose fifty wells are shaded
by magnificent trees; but it was impossible to stop. An Arab encampment,
tents of striped stuff, some camels, stretching out their viper-like
heads and necks along the sand, gave life to this solitude, but the
Victoria sped by like a shooting-star, and in this way traversed a
distance of sixty miles in three hours, without Ferguson being able to
check or guide her course.
“We cannot halt, we cannot alight!” said the doctor; “not a tree, not an
inequality of the ground! Are we then to be driven clear across Sahara?
Surely, Heaven is indeed against us!”
He was uttering these words with a sort of despairing rage, when
suddenly he saw the desert sands rising aloft in the midst of a dense
cloud of dust, and go whirling through the air, impelled by opposing
currents.
Amid this tornado, an entire caravan, disorganized, broken, and
overthrown, was disappearing beneath an avalanche of sand. The camels,
flung pell-mell together, were uttering dull and pitiful groans; cries
and howls of despair were heard issuing from that dusty and stifling
cloud, and, from time to time, a parti-colored garment cut the chaos
of the scene with its vivid hues, and the moaning and shrieking sounded
over all, a terrible accompaniment to this spectacle of destruction.
Ere long the sand had accumulated in compact masses; and there, where so
recently stretched a level plain as far as the eye could see, rose now
a ridgy line of hillocks, still moving from beneath--the vast tomb of an
entire caravan!
The doctor and Kennedy, pallid with emotion, sat transfixed by this
fearful spectacle. They could no longer manage their balloon, which went
whirling round and round in contending currents, and refused to obey
the different dilations of the gas. Caught in these eddies of the
atmosphere, it spun about with a rapidity that made their heads reel,
while the car oscillated and swung to and fro violently at the same
time. The instruments suspended under the awning clattered together as
though they would be dashed to pieces; the pipes of the spiral bent
to and fro, threatening to break at every instant; and the water-tanks
jostled and jarred with tremendous din. Although but two feet apart,
our aeronauts could not hear each other speak, but with firmly-clinched
hands they clung convulsively to the cordage, and endeavored to steady
themselves against the fury of the tempest.
Kennedy, with his hair blown wildly about his face, looked on without
speaking; but the doctor had regained all his daring in the midst of
this deadly peril, and not a sign of his emotion was betrayed in his
countenance, even when, after a last violent twirl, the Victoria stopped
suddenly in the midst of a most unlooked-for calm; the north wind had
abruptly got the upper hand, and now drove her back with equal rapidity
over the route she had traversed in the morning.
“Whither are we going now?” cried Kennedy.
“Let us leave that to Providence, my dear Dick; I was wrong in doubting
it. It knows better than we, and here we are, returning to places that
we had expected never to see again!”
The surface of the country, which had looked so flat and level when they
were coming, now seemed tossed and uneven, like the ocean-billows after
a storm; a long succession of hillocks, that had scarcely settled to
their places yet, indented the desert; the wind blew furiously, and the
balloon fairly flew through the atmosphere.
The direction taken by our aeronauts differed somewhat from that of
the morning, and thus about nine o’clock, instead of finding themselves
again near the borders of Lake Tchad, they saw the desert still
stretching away before them.
Kennedy remarked the circumstance.
“It matters little,” replied the doctor, “the important point is to
return southward; we shall come across the towns of Bornou, Wouddie, or
Kouka, and I should not hesitate to halt there.”
“If you are satisfied, I am content,” replied the Scot, “but Heaven
grant that we may not be reduced to cross the desert, as those
unfortunate Arabs had to do! What we saw was frightful!”
“It often happens, Dick; these trips across the desert are far more
perilous than those across the ocean. The desert has all the dangers of
the sea, including the risk of being swallowed up, and added thereto are
unendurable fatigues and privations.”
“I think the wind shows some symptoms of moderating; the sand-dust is
less dense; the undulations of the surface are diminishing, and the sky
is growing clearer.”
“So much the better! We must now reconnoitre attentively with our
glasses, and take care not to omit a single point.”
“I will look out for that, doctor, and not a tree shall be seen without
my informing you of it.”
And, suiting the action to the word, Kennedy took his station, spy-glass
in hand, at the forward part of the car.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIFTH.
What happened to Joe.--The Island of the Biddiomahs.--The Adoration
shown him.--The Island that sank.--The Shores of the Lake.--The Tree
of the Serpents.--The Foot-Tramp.--Terrible Suffering.--Mosquitoes and
Ants.--Hunger.--The Victoria seen.--She disappears.--The Swamp.--One
Last Despairing Cry.
What had become of Joe, while his master was thus vainly seeking for
him?
When he had dashed headlong into the lake, his first movement on
coming to the surface was to raise his eyes and look upward. He saw the
Victoria already risen far above the water, still rapidly ascending and
growing smaller and smaller. It was soon caught in a rapid current and
disappeared to the northward. His master--both his friends were saved!
“How lucky it was,” thought he, “that I had that idea to throw myself
out into the lake! Mr. Kennedy would soon have jumped at it, and he
would not have hesitated to do as I did, for nothing’s more natural than
for one man to give himself up to save two others. That’s mathematics!”
Satisfied on this point, Joe began to think of himself. He was in the
middle of a vast lake, surrounded by tribes unknown to him, and probably
ferocious. All the greater reason why he should get out of the scrape
by depending only on himself. And so he gave himself no farther concern
about it.
Before the attack by the birds of prey, which, according to him, had
behaved like real condors, he had noticed an island on the horizon, and
determining to reach it, if possible, he put forth all his knowledge and
skill in the art of swimming, after having relieved himself of the most
troublesome part of his clothing. The idea of a stretch of five or six
miles by no means disconcerted him; and therefore, so long as he was
in the open lake, he thought only of striking out straight ahead and
manfully.
In about an hour and a half the distance between him and the island had
greatly diminished.
But as he approached the land, a thought, at first fleeting and then
tenacious, arose in his mind. He knew that the shores of the lake were
frequented by huge alligators, and was well aware of the voracity of
those monsters.
Now, no matter how much he was inclined to find every thing in this
world quite natural, the worthy fellow was no little disturbed by
this reflection. He feared greatly lest white flesh like his might be
particularly acceptable to the dreaded brutes, and advanced only with
extreme precaution, his eyes on the alert on both sides and all around
him. At length, he was not more than one hundred yards from a bank,
covered with green trees, when a puff of air strongly impregnated with a
musky odor reached him.
“There!” said he to himself, “just what I expected. The crocodile isn’t
far off!”
With this he dived swiftly, but not sufficiently so to avoid coming into
contact with an enormous body, the scaly surface of which scratched him
as he passed. He thought himself lost and swam with desperate energy.
Then he rose again to the top of the water, took breath and dived once
more. Thus passed a few minutes of unspeakable anguish, which all his
philosophy could not overcome, for he thought, all the while, that
he heard behind him the sound of those huge jaws ready to snap him up
forever. In this state of mind he was striking out under the water as
noiselessly as possible when he felt himself seized by the arm and then
by the waist.
Poor Joe! he gave one last thought to his master; and began to struggle
with all the energy of despair, feeling himself the while drawn along,
but not toward the bottom of the lake, as is the habit of the crocodile
when about to devour its prey, but toward the surface.
So soon as he could get breath and look around him, he saw that he was
between two natives as black as ebony, who held him, with a firm gripe,
and uttered strange cries.
“Ha!” said Joe, “blacks instead of crocodiles! Well, I prefer it as it
is; but how in the mischief dare these fellows go in bathing in such
places?”
Joe was not aware that the inhabitants of the islands of Lake Tchad,
like many other negro tribes, plunge with impunity into sheets of water
infested with crocodiles and caymans, and without troubling their heads
about them. The amphibious denizens of this lake enjoy the well-deserved
reputation of being quite inoffensive.
But had not Joe escaped one peril only to fall into another? That was
a question which he left events to decide; and, since he could not
do otherwise, he allowed himself to be conducted to the shore without
manifesting any alarm.
“Evidently,” thought he, “these chaps saw the Victoria skimming the
waters of the lake, like a monster of the air. They were the distant
witnesses of my tumble, and they can’t fail to have some respect for a
man that fell from the sky! Let them have their own way, then.”
Joe was at this stage of his meditations, when he was landed amid a
yelling crowd of both sexes, and all ages and sizes, but not of all
colors. In fine, he was surrounded by a tribe of Biddiomahs as black as
jet. Nor had he to blush for the scantiness of his costume, for he saw
that he was in “undress” in the highest style of that country.
But before he had time to form an exact idea of the situation, there was
no mistaking the agitation of which he instantly became the object, and
this soon enabled him to pluck up courage, although the adventure of
Kazah did come back rather vividly to his memory.
“I foresee that they are going to make a god of me again,” thought he,
“some son of the moon most likely. Well, one trade’s as good as another
when a man has no choice. The main thing is to gain time. Should the
Victoria pass this way again, I’ll take advantage of my new position
to treat my worshippers here to a miracle when I go sailing up into the
sky!”
While Joe’s thoughts were running thus, the throng pressed around him.
They prostrated themselves before him; they howled; they felt him;
they became even annoyingly familiar; but at the same time they had the
consideration to offer him a superb banquet consisting of sour milk
and rice pounded in honey. The worthy fellow, making the best of every
thing, took one of the heartiest luncheons he ever ate in his life, and
gave his new adorers an exalted idea of how the gods tuck away their
food upon grand occasions.
When evening came, the sorcerers of the island took him respectfully
by the hand, and conducted him to a sort of house surrounded with
talismans; but, as he was entering it, Joe cast an uneasy look at the
heaps of human bones that lay scattered around this sanctuary. But he
had still more time to think about them when he found himself at last
shut up in the cabin.
During the evening and through a part of the night, he heard festive
chantings, the reverberations of a kind of drum, and a clatter of old
iron, which were very sweet, no doubt, to African ears. Then there were
howling choruses, accompanied by endless dances by gangs of natives who
circled round and round the sacred hut with contortions and grimaces.
Joe could catch the sound of this deafening orchestra, through the
mud and reeds of which his cabin was built; and perhaps under other
circumstances he might have been amused by these strange ceremonies;
but his mind was soon disturbed by quite different and less agreeable
reflections. Even looking at the bright side of things, he found it both
stupid and sad to be left alone in the midst of this savage country
and among these wild tribes. Few travellers who had penetrated to these
regions had ever again seen their native land. Moreover, could he trust
to the worship of which he saw himself the object? He had good reason to
believe in the vanity of human greatness; and he asked himself whether,
in this country, adoration did not sometimes go to the length of eating
the object adored!
But, notwithstanding this rather perplexing prospect, after some hours
of meditation, fatigue got the better of his gloomy thoughts, and Joe
fell into a profound slumber, which would have lasted no doubt until
sunrise, had not a very unexpected sensation of dampness awakened the
sleeper. Ere long this dampness became water, and that water gained so
rapidly that it had soon mounted to Joe’s waist.
“What can this be?” said he; “a flood! a water-spout! or a new torture
invented by these blacks? Faith, though, I’m not going to wait here till
it’s up to my neck!”
And, so saying, he burst through the frail wall with a jog of his
powerful shoulder, and found himself--where?--in the open lake! Island
there was none. It had sunk during the night. In its place, the watery
immensity of Lake Tchad!
“A poor country for the land-owners!” said Joe, once more vigorously
resorting to his skill in the art of natation.
One of those phenomena, which are by no means unusual on Lake Tchad, had
liberated our brave Joe. More than one island, that previously seemed
to have the solidity of rock, has been submerged in this way; and the
people living along the shores of the mainland have had to pick up the
unfortunate survivors of these terrible catastrophes.
Joe knew nothing about this peculiarity of the region, but he was none
the less ready to profit by it. He caught sight of a boat drifting
about, without occupants, and was soon aboard of it. He found it to be
but the trunk of a tree rudely hollowed out; but there were a couple of
paddles in it, and Joe, availing himself of a rapid current, allowed his
craft to float along.
“But let us see where we are,” he said. “The polar-star there, that does
its work honorably in pointing out the direction due north to everybody
else, will, most likely, do me that service.”
He discovered, with satisfaction, that the current was taking him toward
the northern shore of the lake, and he allowed himself to glide with
it. About two o’clock in the morning he disembarked upon a promontory
covered with prickly reeds, that proved very provoking and inconvenient
even to a philosopher like him; but a tree grew there expressly to offer
him a bed among its branches, and Joe climbed up into it for greater
security, and there, without sleeping much, however, awaited the dawn of
day.
When morning had come with that suddenness which is peculiar to the
equatorial regions, Joe cast a glance at the tree which had sheltered
him during the last few hours, and beheld a sight that chilled the
marrow in his bones. The branches of the tree were literally covered
with snakes and chameleons! The foliage actually was hidden beneath
their coils, so that the beholder might have fancied that he saw before
him a new kind of tree that bore reptiles for its leaves and fruit. And
all this horrible living mass writhed and twisted in the first rays of
the morning sun! Joe experienced a keen sensation or terror mingled with
disgust, as he looked at it, and he leaped precipitately from the tree
amid the hissings of these new and unwelcome bedfellows.
“Now, there’s something that I would never have believed!” said he.
He was not aware that Dr. Vogel’s last letters had made known this
singular feature of the shores of Lake Tchad, where reptiles are more
numerous than in any other part of the world. But after what he had just
seen, Joe determined to be more circumspect for the future; and, taking
his bearings by the sun, he set off afoot toward the northeast,
avoiding with the utmost care cabins, huts, hovels, and dens of every
description, that might serve in any manner as a shelter for human
beings.
How often his gaze was turned upward to the sky! He hoped to catch a
glimpse, each time, of the Victoria; and, although he looked vainly
during all that long, fatiguing day of sore foot-travel, his confident
reliance on his master remained undiminished. Great energy of character
was needed to enable him thus to sustain the situation with philosophy.
Hunger conspired with fatigue to crush him, for a man’s system is not
greatly restored and fortified by a diet of roots, the pith of plants,
such as the Mele, or the fruit of the doum palm-tree; and yet, according
to his own calculations, Joe was enabled to push on about twenty miles
to the westward.
His body bore in scores of places the marks of the thorns with which the
lake-reeds, the acacias, the mimosas, and other wild shrubbery through
which he had to force his way, are thickly studded; and his torn and
bleeding feet rendered walking both painful and difficult. But at length
he managed to react against all these sufferings; and when evening came
again, he resolved to pass the night on the shores of Lake Tchad.
There he had to endure the bites of myriads of insects--gnats,
mosquitoes, ants half an inch long, literally covered the ground; and,
in less than two hours, Joe had not a rag remaining of the garments that
had covered him, the insects having devoured them! It was a terrible
night, that did not yield our exhausted traveller an hour of sleep.
During all this time the wild-boars and native buffaloes, reenforced
by the ajoub--a very dangerous species of lamantine--carried on their
ferocious revels in the bushes and under the waters of the lake, filling
the night with a hideous concert. Joe dared scarcely breathe. Even his
courage and coolness had hard work to bear up against so terrible a
situation.
At length, day came again, and Joe sprang to his feet precipitately; but
judge of the loathing he felt when he saw what species of creature
had shared his couch--a toad!--but a toad five inches in length, a
monstrous, repulsive specimen of vermin that sat there staring at him
with huge round eyes. Joe felt his stomach revolt at the sight, and,
regaining a little strength from the intensity of his repugnance, he
rushed at the top of his speed and plunged into the lake. This sudden
bath somewhat allayed the pangs of the itching that tortured his whole
body; and, chewing a few leaves, he set forth resolutely, again feeling
an obstinate resolution in the act, for which he could hardly account
even to his own mind. He no longer seemed to have entire control of his
own acts, and, nevertheless, he felt within him a strength superior to
despair.
However, he began now to suffer terribly from hunger. His stomach, less
resigned than he was, rebelled, and he was obliged to fasten a tendril
of wild-vine tightly about his waist. Fortunately, he could quench his
thirst at any moment, and, in recalling the sufferings he had undergone
in the desert, he experienced comparative relief in his exemption from
that other distressing want.
“What can have become of the Victoria?” he wondered. “The wind blows
from the north, and she should be carried back by it toward the lake.
No doubt the doctor has gone to work to right her balance, but yesterday
would have given him time enough for that, so that may be to-day--but I
must act just as if I was never to see him again. After all, if I only
get to one of the large towns on the lake, I’ll find myself no worse off
than the travellers my master used to talk about. Why shouldn’t I work
my way out of the scrape as well as they did? Some of them got back home
again. Come, then! the deuce! Cheer up, my boy!”
Thus talking to himself and walking on rapidly, Joe came right upon a
horde of natives in the very depths of the forest, but he halted in time
and was not seen by them. The negroes were busy poisoning arrows with
the juice of the euphorbium--a piece of work deemed a great affair among
these savage tribes, and carried on with a sort of ceremonial solemnity.
Joe, entirely motionless and even holding his breath, was keeping
himself concealed in a thicket, when, happening to raise his eyes, he
saw through an opening in the foliage the welcome apparition of the
balloon--the Victoria herself--moving toward the lake, at a height of
only about one hundred feet above him. But he could not make himself
heard; he dared not, could not make his friends even see him!
Tears came to his eyes, not of grief but of thankfulness; his master was
then seeking him; his master had not left him to perish! He would
have to wait for the departure of the blacks; then he could quit his
hiding-place and run toward the borders of Lake Tchad!
But by this time the Victoria was disappearing in the distant sky.
Joe still determined to wait for her; she would come back again,
undoubtedly. She did, indeed, return, but farther to the eastward.
Joe ran, gesticulated, shouted--but all in vain! A strong breeze was
sweeping the balloon away with a speed that deprived him of all hope.
For the first time, energy and confidence abandoned the heart of the
unfortunate man. He saw that he was lost. He thought his master gone
beyond all prospect of return. He dared no longer think; he would no
longer reflect!
Like a crazy man, his feet bleeding, his body cut and torn, he walked
on during all that day and a part of the next night. He even dragged
himself along, sometimes on his knees, sometimes with his hands. He saw
the moment nigh when all his strength would fail, and nothing would be
left to him but to sink upon the ground and die.
Thus working his way along, he at length found himself close to a marsh,
or what he knew would soon become a marsh, for night had set in some
hours before, and he fell by a sudden misstep into a thick, clinging
mire. In spite of all his efforts, in spite of his desperate struggles,
he felt himself sinking gradually in the swampy ooze, and in a few
minutes he was buried to his waist.
“Here, then, at last, is death!” he thought, in agony, “and what a
death!”
He now began to struggle again, like a madman; but his efforts only
served to bury him deeper in the tomb that the poor doomed lad was
hollowing for himself; not a log of wood or a branch to buoy him up;
not a reed to which he might cling! He felt that all was over! His eyes
convulsively closed!
“Master! master!--Help!” were his last words; but his voice, despairing,
unaided, half stifled already by the rising mire, died away feebly on
the night.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIXTH.
A Throng of People on the Horizon.--A Troop of Arabs.--The Pursuit.--It
is He.--Fall from Horseback.--The Strangled Arab.--A Ball from
Kennedy.--Adroit Manoeuvres.--Caught up flying.--Joe saved at last.
From the moment when Kennedy resumed his post of observation in the
front of the car, he had not ceased to watch the horizon with his utmost
attention.
After the lapse of some time he turned toward the doctor and said:
“If I am not greatly mistaken I can see, off yonder in the distance, a
throng of men or animals moving. It is impossible to make them out yet,
but I observe that they are in violent motion, for they are raising a
great cloud of dust.”
“May it not be another contrary breeze?” said the doctor, “another
whirlwind coming to drive us back northward again?” and while speaking
he stood up to examine the horizon.
“I think not, Samuel; it is a troop of gazelles or of wild oxen.”
“Perhaps so, Dick; but yon throng is some nine or ten miles from us at
least, and on my part, even with the glass, I can make nothing of it!”
“At all events I shall not lose sight of it. There is something
remarkable about it that excites my curiosity. Sometimes it looks like
a body of cavalry manoeuvring. Ah! I was not mistaken. It is, indeed, a
squadron of horsemen. Look--look there!”
The doctor eyed the group with great attention, and, after a moment’s
pause, remarked:
“I believe that you are right. It is a detachment of Arabs or Tibbous,
and they are galloping in the same direction with us, as though in
flight, but we are going faster than they, and we are rapidly gaining on
them. In half an hour we shall be near enough to see them and know what
they are.”
Kennedy had again lifted his glass and was attentively scrutinizing
them. Meanwhile the crowd of horsemen was becoming more distinctly
visible, and a few were seen to detach themselves from the main body.
“It is some hunting manoeuvre, evidently,” said Kennedy. “Those fellows
seem to be in pursuit of something. I would like to know what they are
about.”
“Patience, Dick! In a little while we shall overtake them, if they
continue on the same route. We are going at the rate of twenty miles per
hour, and no horse can keep up with that.”
Kennedy again raised his glass, and a few minutes later he exclaimed:
“They are Arabs, galloping at the top of their speed; I can make
them out distinctly. They are about fifty in number. I can see their
bournouses puffed out by the wind. It is some cavalry exercise that they
are going through. Their chief is a hundred paces ahead of them and they
are rushing after him at headlong speed.”
“Whoever they may be, Dick, they are not to be feared, and then, if
necessary, we can go higher.”
“Wait, doctor--wait a little!”
“It’s curious,” said Kennedy again, after a brief pause, “but there’s
something going on that I can’t exactly explain. By the efforts they
make, and the irregularity of their line, I should fancy that those
Arabs are pursuing some one, instead of following.”
“Are you certain of that, Dick?”
“Oh! yes, it’s clear enough now. I am right! It is a pursuit--a
hunt--but a man-hunt! That is not their chief riding ahead of them, but
a fugitive.”
“A fugitive!” exclaimed the doctor, growing more and more interested.
“Yes!”
“Don’t lose sight of him, and let us wait!”
Three or four miles more were quickly gained upon these horsemen, who
nevertheless were dashing onward with incredible speed.
“Doctor! doctor!” shouted Kennedy in an agitated voice.
“What is the matter, Dick?”
“Is it an illusion? Can it be possible?”
“What do you mean?”
“Wait!” and so saying, the Scot wiped the sights of his spy-glass
carefully, and looked through it again intently.
“Well?” questioned the doctor.
“It is he, doctor!”
“He!” exclaimed Ferguson with emotion.
“It is he! no other!” and it was needless to pronounce the name.
“Yes! it is he! on horseback, and only a hundred paces in advance of his
enemies! He is pursued!”
“It is Joe--Joe himself!” cried the doctor, turning pale.
“He cannot see us in his flight!”
“He will see us, though!” said the doctor, lowering the flame of his
blow-pipe.
“But how?”
“In five minutes we shall be within fifty feet of the ground, and in
fifteen we shall be right over him!”
“We must let him know it by firing a gun!”
“No! he can’t turn back to come this way. He’s headed off!”
“What shall we do, then?”
“We must wait.”
“Wait?--and these Arabs!”
“We shall overtake them. We’ll pass them. We are not more than two miles
from them, and provided that Joe’s horse holds out!”
“Great God!” exclaimed Kennedy, suddenly.
“What is the matter?”
Kennedy had uttered a cry of despair as he saw Joe fling himself to the
ground. His horse, evidently exhausted, had just fallen headlong.
“He sees us!” cried the doctor, “and he motions to us, as he gets upon
his feet!”
“But the Arabs will overtake him! What is he waiting for? Ah! the brave
lad! Huzza!” shouted the sportsman, who could no longer restrain his
feelings.
Joe, who had immediately sprung up after his fall, just as one of the
swiftest horsemen rushed upon him, bounded like a panther, avoided his
assailant by leaping to one side, jumped up behind him on the crupper,
seized the Arab by the throat, and, strangling him with his sinewy hands
and fingers of steel, flung him on the sand, and continued his headlong
flight.
A tremendous howl was heard from the Arabs, but, completely engrossed by
the pursuit, they had not taken notice of the balloon, which was now
but five hundred paces behind them, and only about thirty feet from the
ground. On their part, they were not twenty lengths of their horses from
the fugitive.
One of them was very perceptibly gaining on Joe, and was about to
pierce him with his lance, when Kennedy, with fixed eye and steady hand,
stopped him short with a ball, that hurled him to the earth.
Joe did not even turn his head at the report. Some of the horsemen
reined in their barbs, and fell on their faces in the dust as they
caught sight of the Victoria; the rest continued their pursuit.
“But what is Joe about?” said Kennedy; “he don’t stop!”
“He’s doing better than that, Dick! I understand him! He’s keeping on in
the same direction as the balloon. He relies upon our intelligence. Ah!
the noble fellow! We’ll carry him off in the very teeth of those Arab
rascals! We are not more than two hundred paces from him!”
“What are we to do?” asked Kennedy.
“Lay aside your rifle, Dick.”
And the Scot obeyed the request at once.
“Do you think that you can hold one hundred and fifty pounds of ballast
in your arms?”
“Ay, more than that!”
“No! That will be enough!”
And the doctor proceeded to pile up bags of sand in Kennedy’s arms.
“Hold yourself in readiness in the back part of the car, and be prepared
to throw out that ballast at a single effort. But, for your life, don’t
do so until I give the word!”
“Be easy on that point.”
“Otherwise, we should miss Joe, and he would be lost.”
“Count upon me!”
The Victoria at that moment almost commanded the troop of horsemen who
were still desperately urging their steeds at Joe’s heels. The doctor,
standing in the front of the car, held the ladder clear, ready to throw
it at any moment. Meanwhile, Joe had still maintained the distance
between himself and his pursuers--say about fifty feet. The Victoria was
now ahead of the party.
“Attention!” exclaimed the doctor to Kennedy.
“I’m ready!”
“Joe, look out for yourself!” shouted the doctor in his sonorous,
ringing voice, as he flung out the ladder, the lowest ratlines of which
tossed up the dust of the road.
As the doctor shouted, Joe had turned his head, but without checking his
horse. The ladder dropped close to him, and at the instant he grasped it
the doctor again shouted to Kennedy:
“Throw ballast!”
“It’s done!”
And the Victoria, lightened by a weight greater than Joe’s, shot up one
hundred and fifty feet into the air.
Joe clung with all his strength to the ladder during the wide
oscillations that it had to describe, and then making an indescribable
gesture to the Arabs, and climbing with the agility of a monkey, he
sprang up to his companions, who received him with open arms.
The Arabs uttered a scream of astonishment and rage. The fugitive
had been snatched from them on the wing, and the Victoria was rapidly
speeding far beyond their reach.
“Master! Kennedy!” ejaculated Joe, and overwhelmed, at last, with
fatigue and emotion, the poor fellow fainted away, while Kennedy, almost
beside himself, kept exclaiming:
“Saved--saved!”
“Saved indeed!” murmured the doctor, who had recovered all his
phlegmatic coolness.
Joe was almost naked. His bleeding arms, his body covered with cuts and
bruises, told what his sufferings had been. The doctor quietly dressed
his wounds, and laid him comfortably under the awning.
Joe soon returned to consciousness, and asked for a glass of brandy,
which the doctor did not see fit to refuse, as the faithful fellow had
to be indulged.
After he had swallowed the stimulant, Joe grasped the hands of his two
friends and announced that he was ready to relate what had happened to
him.
But they would not allow him to talk at that time, and he sank back into
a profound sleep, of which he seemed to have the greatest possible need.
The Victoria was then taking an oblique line to the westward. Driven
by a tempestuous wind, it again approached the borders of the thorny
desert, which the travellers descried over the tops of palm-trees, bent
and broken by the storm; and, after having made a run of two hundred
miles since rescuing Joe, it passed the tenth degree of east longitude
about nightfall.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVENTH.
The Western Route.--Joe wakes up.--His Obstinacy.--End of Joe’s
Narrative.--Tagelei.--Kennedy’s Anxieties.--The Route to the North.--A
Night near Aghades.
During the night the wind lulled as though reposing after the
boisterousness of the day, and the Victoria remained quietly at the top
of the tall sycamore. The doctor and Kennedy kept watch by turns, and
Joe availed himself of the chance to sleep most sturdily for twenty-four
hours at a stretch.
“That’s the remedy he needs,” said Dr. Ferguson. “Nature will take
charge of his care.”
With the dawn the wind sprang up again in quite strong, and moreover
capricious gusts. It shifted abruptly from south to north, but finally
the Victoria was carried away by it toward the west.
The doctor, map in hand, recognized the kingdom of Damerghou, an
undulating region of great fertility, in which the huts that compose the
villages are constructed of long reeds interwoven with branches of the
asclepia. The grain-mills were seen raised in the cultivated fields,
upon small scaffoldings or platforms, to keep them out of the reach of
the mice and the huge ants of that country.
They soon passed the town of Zinder, recognized by its spacious place
of execution, in the centre of which stands the “tree of death.” At
its foot the executioner stands waiting, and whoever passes beneath its
shadow is immediately hung!
Upon consulting his compass, Kennedy could not refrain from saying:
“Look! we are again moving northward.”
“No matter; if it only takes us to Timbuctoo, we shall not complain.
Never was a finer voyage accomplished under better circumstances!”
“Nor in better health,” said Joe, at that instant thrusting his jolly
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