Leonie of the Jungle

by Joan Conquest

  CHAPTER XXX

  "A mighty hunter, and his prey was man!"--_Pope_.

  It was the second evening and they were nearing the ruined temple.

  Walking silently and in single file along a faintly discernible trackis an eerie proceeding if you are not used to the Sunderbunds.

  True, in this jungle there are no serpent-like creepers festooned fromtree to tree to impede your progress, or luxuriant and rank vegetationto hide snakes and other poisonous reptiles; neither is there a canopyof thick dark leaves above to obliterate the light of day, or the starsat night.

  But the space between the crowding sundri trees which predominate, ispacked with an undergrowth of light shrubs through which you have toforce and tear your way if you lose the track; and you trip and twistyour ankle at every step on the abominable sundri breathers whichthrust themselves through the soil at every inch, and vary in thicknessfrom a stick of vermicelli to a good stout bough.

  "Look," will whisper your _shikari_ as he sinks silently to the ground;and look you do with all your eye-power, and yet fail to see thespotted deer gazing at you, motionless from sheer fright, only a fewyards away in the undergrowth, so at one is the animal's colouring withthe dappled shadows on the leaves.

  What depths of humiliation you plumb when the deer flees to safetythrough the trees and your _shikari_ sighs.

  Leonie as a gun had proved a dire, undiluted failure.

  As a companion no one could beat her. Nothing tired her, nothingdismayed her. The terrific heat, the untoward hours and meals, thesting of mosquito, and the rip of the thorn left her unmoved.

  She and Edna Talbot had gleefully climbed the ladder up to one of thetwo _suapattah_ huts, which are a kind of shelter of leaves built forthe sundri wood collector upon high platforms near the water, and inwhich they had passed their first vermin-stricken night. They hadclimbed cheerfully down the next morning without a word of complaintabout the hours of torture they had endured as they sat at the hut doorin the light of the moon, whiling away the time until the jungle cocksshould crow by watching various shapes come down to the creek to drink.

  But the first time a deer, hypnotised by fear or curiosity, had stoodstock-still before her, simply asking for death, Leonie put her gundown and shook her head.

  "I can't," she said sturdily. "I simply _could not_ kill except inself-defence."

  And although young Dean sighed lugubriously over his lady'sdefalcation, Jan Cuxson adored her utterly for her womanliness, andtranslated the remark the head _shikari_ made as he handed back to themem-sahib the rifle he had examined.

  "He says he knows that in time of need you would be brave, and wouldhave no fear even of a man-eater, but he says that you _must_ carryyour rifle because you can never tell in the jungle what may beawaiting you round the next corner."

  As none of the party knew that the temple stood well hidden but quiteclose to the edge of one of the smallest creeks, open only to thenarrowest native craft, they had no idea they were being taken there bya most circuitous route; and the _shikari_ who did know thought thatthe silent guide was doing it purposely in order to give the sahibs anopportunity to add yet more to the ever-increasing bag ofodds-and-ends, also to his backsheesch later on.

  They were all longing to get to the ruins; more than desirous for theirevening meal; aching to remove their boots, and the dust, and otherevidence of a hard day's tramp.

  "We are almost there, mem-sahib," said the very fine old _shikari_ who,by the way, is a real personage, as he noticed a certain lack ofelasticity in Leonie's movements. "Let us hasten, because at the fallof the shadows, all that is evil will come down to the waters, andbehold! as this jungle is cut across and yet across with water-ways,the evil ones may even cross the sahibs' path."

  "How much farther is it?"

  "Another half-mile of this path, sahib, then through a glade withouttrees, then another mile and we find the outer wall of the temple."

  The perfect English came from a small knot of natives difficult todistinguish in the shadows.

  Leonie swung round and stared, and turning to Jan Cuxson put her handon his arm.

  "Funny, isn't it?" she said softly. "But do you know I am sure I haveheard that voice before, and all this"--and she waved a handvaguely--"seems so very, very familiar."

  The head-man halted them once more at the edge of the clearing.

  Strange bare spots these clearings which occur now and again in theSunderbunds, looking for all the world as though they _had_ beencleared by man some time or another for building purposes. Well, whoknows if that doughty adventurer, Khan Jehan, did not prospectthereabouts centuries back.

  "We will now place the mem-sahibs in the centre of a widening circle,"said the _shikari_ patiently, showing no sign of the detestation inwhich he held all sports-women, and the amount of trouble and anxietytheir presence always entailed in a _shikar_, however insignificant.

  To lose a sahib would be bad enough, but to see a mem-sahib seized andcarried off before your very eyes, well, by the power of all the gods,that would mean ruin if not death; for, being a very wise old man,however good the news, he always prepared for the worst.

  "I dislike these clearings at the setting of the sun, O defender of thepoor!" he explained to the major, who kept his wife close and wasbeginning to wish he had not brought her, even if she were far and awaythe better shot of the two. "The trouble is upon one without even thewarning of a cracking twig. Neither have I any love for the temple,for behold! one, even a great _guru_ up to within a few moons of thisday, lived there in worship, making sacrifice to the Black One. Yet ishe not there to welcome us. Maybe he has fallen victim to the _bhoot_of the great cat whom he once fed."

  Luckily for their peace of mind the sahib log only understood a quarterof a man's lament, and did not trouble their heads about ghosts.

  "Aye, verily am I bewitched to allow of such tarrying, likewise to letsuch fear enter my head," he muttered to himself, and as a cloak to hismisgivings sharply ordered ten men to proceed to the centre of theclearing in a semi-circle, and there await further orders.

  They did as they were ordered, and were standing motionless whensuddenly without a sound a great striped body leapt straight from theshadows of the surrounding trees upon a boy who had out-distanced hiscompanions.

  The instant double report of Jan Cuxson's rifle deadened the lad'shorrible screaming and the growling of the wounded beast as it crouchedflat, almost hidden behind the human body in the undergrowth, with taillashing, and great claws tearing the boy's shoulder, as the rest of theterrified coolies ran shouting back to the party.

  "Fire, sahib," commanded the _shikari_.

  "Can't," tersely replied Major Talbot. "I shall kill the boy if I do;the brute's making a shield of his body. I'll creep round to the flankand----"

  "Fire, sahib," urged the native. "Better to kill the lad as he isbadly wounded," then added, "Tesch," as Talbot shook his head. "Stayhere, sahib, to protect the mem-sahibs, I will creep to----"

  "_God_!"

  The word simultaneously escaped the three men as they and Edna Talbotraised their rifles.

  Leonie was walking across the space, neither hastening nor hesitating,towards the tiger which crouched, growling softly, with its tailsweeping the ground.

  Did she hypnotise the brute, or did her supreme courage build aninvisible barrier between the two?

  Who knows!

  Anyway she calmly approached within five yards, raised her rifle, tookdeliberate aim, and fired just as, with a hoarse-coughing roar, thetiger sprang.

  There was the dull thud of a bullet, a snarl, and the animal fell backacross the boy's body, twitching convulsively.

  Without one moment's hesitation, while the rest of the party stoodhelpless owing to her position, Leonie, letting fall her rifle anddrawing her revolver, walked right up to the writhing brute and firedstraight into the terrible mouth.

  With one supreme effort the tiger reared itself on its hind legs, gavea choking, strangled
cough ending in a spurt of blood and froth whichdrenched Leonie, and fell back dead; and the entire native staff,shouting in wonder and joy, tore across the clearing and prostratedthemselves, in grateful layers around the girl's heavily booted feet.