A YOUNG MARINER'S PERIL.
By RUFUS HALL.
Day after day the poisonous malarial vapors from thickets and jungles,combined with the heat of an equatorial clime, told even upon some ofthe hardy sailors and marines who had been sent from the sloop of war_Trenton_ to protect a party of engineers away up in the Gaboon countryof Lower Guinea, near the mountains, in Western Africa.
In a tent where the marines were encamped, they had put little JackWinton, the lieutenant's nephew, a boy of fourteen, ill with a fever;and, one morning, as he lay there, with burning cheeks and parchedlips, a vision of big red cherries, smooth and round, kept rising infancy before his wistful eyes. His delirious mutterings were of thesecherries, and his hands now and then crossed and recrossed his pillow,as if he thought the fruit must be there.
Then it was that Will Worth, a marine private of sixteen, hearinghim, made up his mind to hunt for what he knew the invalid coveted--acherrylike fruit, to be found among the glens and ravines of themountains--and to bring some, as a pleasant surprise, to the sufferer.Without mentioning his purpose to any one, he left the camp, being atpresent off duty, and sped on his way.
Mr. Dale, a youthful ensign, noticing how hurriedly he plunged into theupland thicket ahead, suspected that he meant to desert. His lieutenanthad already found fault with him for one soldier's desertion, andhe did not relish the idea of another reprimand of this sort. He,therefore, resolved to follow the lad, watch him, and, if he went far,order him back to the camp.
Entering the thicket, he moved rapidly on. The foliage and the brushbecame denser as he proceeded. He heard the tapping and humming ofbees in the hollows of trees. In and out of the great bell-shapedflowers around him they flew, spitefully buzzing at the big green gnatsin their way. Hundreds of large white lilies, enormous tulips, andwild roses brightened the shrubbery. High above hovered the scarletcardinal-bird, sounding its shrill "fife." Below, the hook-nosedfalcon boldly confronted the youth, as if inclined to dispute hisprogress.
At last he caught sight of Worth down in the jungle, on the oppositeside of a deep ravine, which he had evidently reached by a roundaboutdirection through brambles and vines leading past the front of thechasm. Down where he was could be seen gleaming in profusion the smallred globes of the cherrylike fruit he had come to gather for his sicklittle comrade.
The ravine was evidently hundreds of feet in depth, the bottom hiddenby the black shadows from the jungle on both sides.
A few yards below Worth the chasm, which was about eighteen feetwide, was crossed by a tree-trunk--a mere sapling, eight inchesthick--probably all that remained of a former bridge.
The trunk was smooth, except within five feet of the end nearest theboy, where there was a clipped branch. This end was in a sort of longhollow, overhung by tough roots.
The ensign cautiously descended on his side of the ravine and watchedWorth until he had filled a haversack at his side with the "cherries"and was about to ascend, when he called out sharply:
"That fruit will make you a poor meal, my boy, if you mean to desert!"
The startled lad looked across the gorge, saw the ensign, and answered,much hurt by the officer's suspicion:
"I had no intention of deserting, sir. I came here after the fruit forJack Winton."
"Now, upon my word," said the ensign, who was a good fellow at heart,"I believe you, Worth, and am sorry I made the mistake of suspectingyou. Those 'cherries' are just the things for little Jack."
Worth was going to respond, when behind and above him he fanciedhe heard a low, guttural voice. Turning and looking up, he saw twohumanlike but fierce eyes shining amid a thick, dark screen ofinterlacing vines.
"Who's there--a 'Pongwe?" he inquired, thinking one of the natives ofthe Mpongwe tribe had been watching him pick the fruit.
There was no reply to his question. But the leafy bower rustled, andnow from out the dark screen there rose an awful roar, that was echoedto the chasm's very depths.
From among the concealing vines stepped forth a hideous monster, whichthe boy at first thought was a chimpanzee, but which, from its blackcolor and ferocious aspect, he concluded must be a gorilla.
Nearly erect it stood, beating its breast with its hands.
Being a greedy lover of fruit, it glared in a fierce, remonstrative wayat the lad's full haversack, as if enraged at his having come to pluckthe "cherries" it wanted entirely for its own use.
The animal, about five feet high, was covered with black hair, had verybroad shoulders and enormous hands, while its stomach bulged as ifnearly filled to bursting with the "cherries" it had been eating, thered stain of which was all about its mouth.
The diabolical face, with its great flat nose and projecting open jaws,the latter disclosing two enormous hooked lower teeth and a row ofsmaller ones above as sharp as a saw, was thrust slightly downward,showing the encircling edges of the hair on its head so distinctlydefined as to give it the grotesque appearance of wearing a sort of bigfurry cap.
It was plain that the brute meant to attack the boy. In fact, itsuddenly raised one of its big paws and, with a rush, came crashingtoward him through the shrubbery.
Unfortunately he had left his musket, thinking it would be in his way,near the edge of the ravine above. But his bayonet was by his sidein its sheath. He drew the steel, and, flourishing it before him,retreated toward the tree-trunk that extended across the chasm.
He had once heard a hunter say that the gorilla, unlike the commonmonkey, is not a very skilful climber. Neither would it, he thought,attempt, for the same reason, to follow him should he creep out on thehorizontal sapling.
But just as he got close to the tree the ferocious brute, uttering aterrible roar, aimed a blow at him with its uplifted paw.
He held up his bayonet.
It was dashed from his grasp, but not before the point had inflicted awound in the monster's arm. So great was the strength of this hairy armthat that single blow must have lacerated the boy's side had not thebig paw fallen upon his cartridge-box.
The force of the stroke whirled him over upon his back, knocking himinto the hollow in which rested the end of the tree-trunk. He quicklypushed himself under the tough roots overhanging the hollow.
The gorilla, bending over, looked at its wounded arm, lapped it,and pressed it against its breast, all the time growling as if withblended pain and wrath. Then, using both its left paw and its teeth,it commenced to tear away the protecting roots above the lad, with theprobable intention of dealing him a finishing blow.
Its strength was so enormous that the earth broke and flew in alldirections as the animal shook, pulled, and bit at the roots. Worth,knowing that these would soon give way, expected to be finally torn todeath by the infuriated beast.
Meanwhile, the young ensign on the other side of the ravine hadbeen watching for a chance to shoot at the gorilla with the longdouble-barreled pistol he had with him, which he had drawn from hisbelt.
But the boy and his assailant were, from the first, so close to eachother that he did not dare to fire, lest the bullet should strike hiscomrade.
He now ran his gaze along the sapling that bridged the chasm. Theslender tree was covered with a green, slippery slime. He doubted if hewould be able to creep over it, but he saw no other way of attemptingto get within close enough range of the fierce beast to shoot itwithout risk of hitting Worth. Therefore, replacing his pistol in hisbelt, he started, crawling along on his hands and knees.
It was a daring venture. The horizontal tree was probably more than twohundred feet above the bottom of the chasm. If he lost his balance,certain death awaited him; he would be precipitated into the blackdepths so far below.
On he went. As he proceeded, the narrow trunk shook with his weight.When he had reached its center, it bent, oscillated, and one of hisknees slid off the slippery surface.
He felt himself going over. His distended eyes were turned downwardtoward the dark, yawning gulf beneath, into which he expected to fallheadlong.
Bu
t the thought now occurred to him of throwing himself flat upon hisbreast along the sapling and of hugging it with his arms.
He did so, and the action saved him. Cautiously he then regained hisformer position and crept on. At length he reached the clipped branch,within five feet of the end of the tree. The gorilla had nearly tornaway all the roots that protected Worth. It seemed about to raise itsleft paw to deal him a fatal blow. The young officer knew he had notime to lose.
He clutched the stumped branch with his left hand, drew his pistol,and, aiming as well as his position would admit of, he fired. Thebullet inflicted a flesh-wound in the monster's side. With a roar thatshook the air to the chasm's very depths, the brute turned, saw itsassailant, and threw itself toward him, resting its big stomach onthe sapling. Up went its mighty left paw, and down it came slantinglytoward the officer's head.
Worth uttered a cry of dismay. He expected to see the ensign killed anddashed from the tree's trunk into the black pit of the ravine, hundredsof feet below.
It was a critical moment.
Had Dale drawn his head back, the great paw would still have reachedhim, have struck his neck, and sent him to his doom.
But instead of attempting in his present cramped position any backwardmovement, he threw his head and shoulders forward.
Thus the big paw clove, with a whirring sound, the empty air above him,and, placing the muzzle of his pistol between the monster's eyes, hefired.
The brute, as the bullet passed through its brain, slid away from thetree, then clawed wildly at the air with both hands, uttered one loud,humanlike scream, and went whirling down into the black abyss of theravine.
The ensign crept to land and helped Worth from the hollow. The boy hadbeen badly, though not seriously, injured by the force of the gorilla'sblow upon his cartridge-box, which had thus been jammed, as if withthe stroke of a sledge-hammer, against his body. As with his rescuer'sassistance he limped back toward the camp, now and then carefullyadjusting his broken haversack so that the "cherries" in it might notdrop out, he warmly thanked his companion for saving his life.
"Don't mention it," was the answer. "I am glad enough to have been ableto do something for you toward making up for my mistake of suspectingthat you meant to desert."
It was a joyful surprise to little Jack Winton when Worth brought the"cherries" to him. They were of great benefit to the fever-strickenlad, whose health began to improve the moment he had partaken of them.
The ensign had made light of his rescue of Worth, and had advised himnot to mention so "trifling a matter," as he termed it, to his comrades.
The boy, fearing that the knowledge of it would tend to unduly excitethe invalid, said nothing about it until Jack was fully recoveredfrom his illness, when he gave him an account of the whole affair.The little fellow made it known to his uncle, the lieutenant; andDale's promotion, not long after, was, perhaps, partly due to thiscircumstance.
Worth, who had never dreamed of being favored for the slight servicehe had rendered his sick comrade, now attracted the notice of hiscommander. The latter, perceiving his unvarying good conduct, soon madehim a corporal, from which position he eventually won his way to ahigher rank.
Motor Matt's Mystery; or, Foiling a Secret Plot Page 19
