The Vee-Boers: A Tale of Adventure in Southern Africa

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER TWENTY.

  THE KARL-KOP.

  So was it; the water, once more gone underground, sank into the sand,just as above. Even worse than above, as regarded navigation, for anexploring party sent forward, returned to report the channel dry to adistance of at least ten miles, twice as far as before.

  This made still more intelligible the great congregation of crocodiles.They were the denizens of nigh twenty miles of the stream's length,driven, by a long-continued drought, into such close companionship.Crowded together, as frogs in a pond, they had devoured every fish,every living thing dammed up along with them in the sheet of stagnantwater, and were famishing. Hence their hostility and fearlessness ofman, due as much to hunger, as to any natural ferocity.

  But the Vee-Boers thought no more about them now. Enough was there tooccupy their minds in this second obstruction that had arisen, and whichvexed them more than the first, their leader far more--to him a verychagrin--as he reflected on his want of forethought. He should not havebeen satisfied with such a short, careless reconnaissance, but examinedthe omaramba to the farthest end, wherever that might be. Resolved toact with more prudence in this second exploration, he had taken chargeof it himself, nor turned back, till assured of the stream's re-issueand onward flow without any other interruption.

  This assurance had been obtained by discovering that the sandy tractthey were traversing was but a belt of some ten or twelve leagues inbreadth, beyond which the nature of the country was different, thesurface-soil being firm and clayey. Rivers running over a bed of claydo not go underground, and there was no fear of a third obstruction, atleast of that special kind. These facts were not all ascertained in afew hours, nor yet in a single day. Two, and part of a third, werespent in the exploration.

  While it was in progress, those left behind had remained inactive, asthere was nothing for them to do. Should there be no more stream, therecould be no further navigation, and again taking the rafts to pieceswould be so much labour lost. In this uncertainty, even their ladingwas left undisturbed; only such chattels carried on shore as were neededfor a camp of temporary occupation. Nor did any of the people, white orcoloured, elect to sleep on land, having by this time discovered the bea better place. Upon it they were less exposed to the torture ofmosquitoes, to avoid which, the rafts were each night drawn out to somedistance from the beach, and there brought to anchor. So shoal was itall round, they had no difficulty in communicating with the shorewhenever desirable.

  It was an interval of great anxiety, full of doubts and apprehensions.Not all dulness, however, as the monotony of their life was now and thenvaried by episodes of a curious kind--scenes and incidents of nature,such as may be witnessed only in her wild, untrodden domain. One whichoccurred on the evening after their arrival was of this character--indeed, so strange as to test the reader's credulity. Yet is it herechronicled as a fact, on the authority of trustworthy witnesses, theadventurers themselves.

  It had got to be near sunset; the people all on shore, and seated at thenacht-maal, when a swishing and crackling among the trees close by,admonished them of some large quadruped making its way towards thewater. It might be buffalo, rhinoceros, or hippopotamus; but, judgingfrom the volume of sound, more likely an elephant. And an elephant itwas, as was soon seen; one of the largest size, and a Karl-kop, in otherwords, a tuskless bull. Alone was he, which proclaimed him an outcastfrom elephantine society--an Ishmaelite in his own land.

  All this indicated danger, as they watching him well knew. For thesolitary male elephant is vicious beyond conception, being absolutelyinsane, or _musty_ as it is termed in India.

  He was approaching the water, presumably to quench his thirst, and in afew more strides stood upon its edge, not fifty yards from the spotwhere the people were sitting, luckily behind some bushes that screenedthem from his sight. They were not all seated now, however, as severalof the young Boers had sprung upon their feet, and were hastening to gethold of their guns. Some already had them in hand, but delayed openingfire, a word from baas Rynwald restraining them. A caution it was inview of the risk to be run. For, should they fail to kill the bull atonce, and only wound and infuriate him, then would they all be at hismercy. Besides, he was only a Karl-kop, an aged one, and not worthpowder and ball. These admonitions were spoken in a whisper, nor wasthere any noise made otherwise, lest the elephant should hear and strikeoff in retreat, or, what was just as likely, charge into their midst.But the caution was acted upon, and not a shot fired; instead, silencepreserved by one and all, so profound that the rustling of a leaf mighthave been heard from afar. There was not a breath of air stirring atthe time, and the water was still and smooth as a mirror.

  By this the old bull had entered it, and they now saw that somethingbesides thirst had brought him thither. He drank, too, till satisfied,his first performance. After which, wading a stride or two farther in,he proceeded to give himself a shower-bath, drawing the water into histrunk, and blowing it out again upwards, so that it fell over his backin spray as from a whale-spout. For some five minutes had he been thussprinkling himself, when he was seen all at once to start, pluck hisproboscis out of the water, and, uttering a cry as of rage and pain,wheel back towards the beach.

  What the cause of this unexpected demonstration was, the spectatorscould not tell. Amid the eddies he had raised, with floating froth andbubbles, nothing was observable to explain it. And the Karl-kop himselfseemed equally ignorant of it, for, on reaching dry land, he faced roundagain, and stood regarding the spot he had so abruptly abandoned with apuzzled, mystified air.

  Only for a few seconds stood he thus, when his little eyes began tosparkle with a peculiar intelligence, his ears giving indication of thesame by a satisfied flap or two, as much as to say, "Now I know what didit." Then, as if determined to have his bath out, he strode back intothe water, till nearly knee-deep, and once more plunged his proboscisunderneath. But his design was all different, as the spectators weresoon made aware by seeing a ripple on the surface of the water, a movingfurrow as from the dorsal fin of a shark, but which they knew to becaused by a crocodile. And a crocodile it was; one of small size, notover six or seven feet in length. But surely the same that had made asnap at the elephant's trunk, inflicting a wound which, though slight,was enough to account for that angry scream, with the actionaccompanying.

  Many tales have been told of the sagacity of elephants, and manyinstances recorded, truthful too. But, perhaps, never one affordingbetter proof of it, and certainly none stranger, than that the Vee-Boerswere witnesses of there and then. Standing still, with trunk partlysubmerged, the great pachyderm kept the long, flexible feeler inconstant, but gentle oscillation, playing its tip horizontally from sideto side, as an angler his fly, or mock-minnow.

  The bait took almost instantly. Scarce a minute had elapsed, ere thecrocodile, drawing close up, under the surface, cautiously, made asecond attempt to seize it. This time to get seized itself, and jerkedout of the water, as if it had been but a sprat. Then the elephantagain facing shoreward, strode out, still holding it in his trunk withoctopus-like clasp, more than one lap of the gristly tube being aroundit. High in air was the reptile raised, to be hoisted yet higher, assoon as the Karl-kop set foot on land.

  For it was tossed up into a tree, and fell in a fork between twobranches, elastic boughs, that, closing upon it, held it as in a vice,despite all its writhings and wrigglings!

  The spectators affirm that the elephant flung it into that particularcrotch, with a foreknowledge of the result, though I myself rather thinkthat the deposition was a thing of chance.

  From that high eminence the ugly creature never came down, though abullet, afterwards sent into it in mercy, brought its struggles to anend.

  But before this, the Karl-kop had been permitted so depart in peace,without a shot fired at him, young Boers and all now desirous that heshould go unscathed. Recalling the scare which the crocodiles had giventhem, they looked upon him in the light of an ally and ave
nger. So thatwithout seeing, or having any suspicion of the danger so near him, hewent away back upon the same spoor, to continue his lonely life andwanderings.