That was what Farandoul was waiting for. As soon as he saw all eight of them in the process of searching the cabin he leapt out of his hiding-place, swiftly locked the cabin door, went up on deck, closed the iron hatches and sealed the boat completely. That done, he put out on to the water and took the Solitaire to the middle of the stream, where the current gently took hold of it.
Without worrying about the arrows that the warriors fired through the portholes, he leapt into the water and swam to the bank. The queens had understood his plan and had already take possession of the warrior women’s ostriches.
“Into the saddle! Let’s go—at top speed!”
As they left the edge of the river and set off across the plain, Farandoul darted one last glance behind him. He saw the Solitaire, still carried by the current, and—two or three leagues away in the direction of Makalolo—the first boats of the fleet.
Fortunately, the ostriches still had the legs to run for two or three hours. They set off rapidly, and by midday had put six or seven leagues between the fugitives and the point at which the Solitaire had been abandoned.
Farandoul and his companions took a two-hour siesta in the shade of a large tree; they got back into the saddle refreshed and rested.
Evening arrived; it was the third since their departure from Makalolo. Farandoul looked for a shelter for the night. They had rejoined one of the branches of the N’kari; they perceived an islet in mid-stream which gave every appearance of being an excellent place to camp. They urged the ostriches into the river and came ashore on the island.
“Bravo! Excellent!” said Farandoul, after a minute inspection of the little strip of land. “We’ll be at home here. Absolute tranquility, no need to light a fire to drive away wild animals, and no nasty encounters to fear. The Makalolo fleet must have caught up with the boat this morning. The warrior having seen us depart on the ostriches, the river pursuit must have been abandoned. Let’s eat calmly, sleep until dawn, and then, to the ostriches!”
The ostriches’ trot had given them a ferocious appetite; they were given the bulk of the provisions brought from the Solitaire and, everyone being thoroughly comfortable, the evening passed cheerfully.
“Oof!” said Her white Majesty Angelina, hiding a few yawns. “What a tiring day! What adventures we’ll have to recount in Paris! I can’t wait to get there.”
“We’re not there yet,” murmured Caroline, “but that’s all right. I’ll miss our realm—our position had its advantages. In Paris, we’ll have to begin all over again, trying to get jobs at the Variétés at 73 francs a month.”
“Are you stupid?” cried Angelina. “We’re rich—I’ve saved the diamonds from the crown.”
“You’ve saved the…?”
“Yes—here they are!” Angelina opened a little bag that she had taken from her bosom, and a sparkling stream ran out of it, which brought cries of admiration from the four queens.
“Go to sleep, my children,” said Farandoul. “We’re leaving at dawn. Let’s go. Good night!”
The fugitives were exhausted. Five minutes later, feeling perfectly safe, they were all sleeping with closed fists. Alas, appearances were deceptive, their sense of security false! A frightful danger was threatening the island’s inhabitants. Without knowing it, the fugitives were on the edge of a marshy region swarming with crocodiles. Dilolo and Kalunda were aware of this detail, but had not given it any thought.
The saurians’ sense of smell guided them to the islet and, arranged in a circle in the river, they watched their coveted prey with horrible gleaming eyes. There were at least 40 of them, large and small, silently accumulated. Minute by minute, they approached the bank and seemed to be plucking up courage to begin the attack. The friction of their scaly bodies and the jostling produced by the late arrivals trying to get to the front, ought to have woken the fugitives up, but the unfortunates were still asleep, exhausted by fatigue.
The ostriches, the first to awake, tried to break their shackles in order to flee—and Farandoul slept on!
The saurians advanced. The most courageous, having come ashore, slid towards the camp through the tall grass. Suddenly, a terrible noise woke the sleepers up—an ostrich had been seized by several crocodiles and the others, terrified, were trying to break free.
By the pale light of the Moon, the fugitives saw that they were surrounded by a menacing circle of gaping mouths.
“Into the trees!” Farandoul cried.
That was not easy to do, the trees being spare and very slender. Only the little Niam-Niam, as agile as a monkey, found refuge in the branches of a ronier—a sort of palm tree whose crown spread out like a bouquet. Farandoul, revolver in hand, faced up to the besiegers; he had already lodged a few bullets in the maws of the nearest saurians. The crocodiles had seized all the ostriches and were fighting over the poor birds. Those with the smallest shares had run to the bodies of their brothers that had been struck by Farandoul’s bullets and were devouring them fraternally.
This massacre gave the fugitives a few moments’ respite. Farandoul helped each of the queens to establish herself in a tree, and turned back to the attackers. A terrible battle ensued. Farandoul, with a spear in one hand and a revolver in the other, met the saurians’ attack. A large circle formed around him. Whenever an imprudent crocodile advanced, a bullet in the eye or a spear-thrust in the jaw drove it back into the circle, where it was immediately finished off.
“What about the diamonds from the crown?” Caroline suddenly shouted from her tree. “Have you got them, Angelina?”
Angelina, installed facing her in the branches of a palm tree, let out a cry and almost let herself slide down to the ground. “I don’t have them anymore!” she cried.
The crocodiles, encouraged by the silence, had reappeared and were trying to reach the suspended bait by jumping up.
When the dawn light woke Farandoul up, an amusing spectacle met his eyes: 17 crocodiles hanging on fishing-lines, caught by the hooks, struggling in vain to get free. As two or three baited lines were still suspended without crocodiles on the end, Farandoul supposed, with good reason, that all the crocodiles had been taken. The islet was no longer blockaded.
The four queens descended from their trees and came to admire the miraculous catch. The five of them, by pulling on the cords succeeded in hoisting some of the saurians into the tree—to serve as an example, as Her white Majesty Angelina observed. The others were swiftly finished off with spear-thrusts, and the fugitives prepared to resume their flight.
It was necessary to flee on foot, as the poor ostriches had perished—and the well-mounted warrior women would soon be on their trail. Would they not catch up very rapidly? Farandoul was worried. What should they do? The river route seemed to him to be the safest, now that the warrior women, knowing that the fugitives had no boat, must be pursuing them solely on land. But how could they go downstream? Apart from taking a long time to construct, a raft would encounter insurmountable difficulties in the middle of the hippopotamus herds and crocodiles infesting the river.
Farandoul suddenly slapped his forehead on seeing, amid the luggage, a packet of light and slender leather goatskins, brought on leaving the Solitaire in anticipation of having to cross the river.
He explained his idea to the queens, who set about inflating the goatskins while he left the islet, equipped with some pieces of strong rope, and slid into the beds of tall reeds along the river-bank. Well-armed and with a watchful eye, he advanced prudently and silently. His search was not in vain; in the midst of a marsh formed by the overflow of the river he perceived a hippopotamus herd wallowing delightedly in the mud.
Farandoul approached slowly, keeping to the side opposed to the wind. He had slung his carbine over his shoulder and was now brandishing a sort of lasso. Profiting from his former sojourn among the gauchos of the River Plate, he had learned to use their terrible lasso with considerable skill. A hippopotamus, the stoutest of the herd, suffered the consequences; it had raised its muzzle to breathe in del
ightedly when, all of a sudden, the lasso settled around its enormous head. Before it had recovered from its surprise, a second lasso had seized it by the hind leg, and both lassoes had been wound around a tree. When it tried to move, the two ropes, drawn in opposite directions, held it immobile. The other hippopotamuses had taken flight.
Farandoul moved around the monster and grabbed it by another leg; within five minutes, five solid ropes, doubled and tripled, had rendered it incapable of defending itself. The imbecilic animal had, in any case, been almost strangled by the first lasso, and was only standing upright because its legs were splayed.
Certain of his conquest, Farandoul went rapidly back to the islet. The goatskins were ready; the rest of the provisions were hastily bundled together and they set about crossing the river.
The four queens knew how to swim, but the goatskins served to facilitate the crossing. Each of the fugitives swam with one than and held on to a floating skin with the other, watching the water closely for fear of crocodiles. With Farandoul taking the lead and the Niam-Niam making up the rear-guard, they arrived on the shore without incident. The hippopotamus was still there. Swiftly, they attached the goatskins around the bewildered animal by means of solid cords that passed under its belly and formed a sort of network on its hide. On top of the floats they fixed a small platform made of reeds, consolidated with a few long branches severed by hatchet-blows.
When everything was ready, Farandoul cut a further two or three poles, as long as oars, and signaled to the ladies. “Let’s go,” he said. “Get aboard.”
The hippopotamus, astonished to feel itself being mounted, gave indications of fury and tried to break its bonds. Farandoul took one of his fishing-lines, fixed the hook firmly across the beast’s muzzle; then, throwing the cord to the little Niam-Niam, he vaulted on to the back of the enormous beast, whose own family members would not have recognized it with its girdle of goatskins and its cargo. After making completely sure of the solidity of the ropes, Farandoul told the four queens to take their swords in their hands.
“Now,” he said, “watch out for jolts. Hold on tight, and all cut the lassos together. One, two, three!”
The five lassos were cut simultaneously. The hippopotamus shook itself briefly, stood up straight, and then headed for the river.
“We have a good boat!” said Farandoul. “It’s a just matter of steering it well.” Seizing the line attached to the hook from Niam-Niam’s hands, he made the hippopotamus feel its pressure. The animal leapt forward 20 feet and bounded into the river. Its intention was to dive in order to get rid of the burden that was inconveniencing it, but—to its great astonishment—the goatskins kept it on the surface. It struggled a little, but Farandoul’s hook tickled it again and it soon gave up the fight. It swam into the middle of the stream, and went rapidly downriver.
The joyful fugitives shook one another’s hands. The little Niam-Niam surrendered himself to the elegant contortions of a dance characteristic of his native land.
“Here’s a hippopotamus that’s worth more than my poor Solitaire,” said Farandoul. “It can easily carry us 20 or 25 leagues per day; it’s only a matter of making it as habitable and as comfortable as possible. Assume, Mesdames, that we have 400 or 500 leagues to cover aboard it! That makes 15 or 20 days of traveling, so we need to find a way of providing ourselves with all possible comforts.”
The rest of the morning was employed by the four queens in making a tent with a few bedclothes saved from the Solitaire disaster. At noon, when the Sun’s burning rays fell vertically upon the river, the ladies, peacefully installed in their tent, were able to defy their ardor. The young Niam-Niam had his allotted place aft, on the neck of the hippopotamus; Farandoul maintained himself at the stern, a paddle in his hand, ready for anything.
The hippopotamus was no longer resisting. From time to time, as if by way of a final protest, it lifted its head and breathed out noisily.
Some ten leagues having been covered, Farandoul thought that it would be appropriate to have a short rest, and they looked for a tranquil spot at which to disembark.
Numerous islands speckled the course of the N’Kari. The hippopotamus was guided to the middle of this little archipelago and halted by an abrupt tug on the cord attached to its muzzle. The same cord, fulfilling the function of an anchor, served to tether it to the bank, but Niam-Niam remained aboard for extra safety.
It was necessary for the fugitives to feed their vessel. A bed of reeds furnished the necessary pasture. Farandoul harvested the field and gathered the reeds into 15 bundles, of which the two thickest provided the boat with its dinner. The rest, forming a floating food-store, was attached to the stern.
When the passengers took their places again on the refreshed hippopotamus, Farandoul found a means of further accelerating the animal’s speed. On to its back he threw a mat five or six meters long, provided with a yard-arm, and hoisted a little sail. A light breeze had risen on the river; soon the hippopotamus was being assisted by a tail-wind, to the great stupefaction of a herd of such animals encountered as they left the islands.
The queens had made a meal on shore of the remainder of the provisions. It would be necessary for a hunt to provide dinner. A flock of wild ducks having been encountered, Kalunda’s arrows brought several of them down, which were hung from the mast. That furnished some distraction to the beautiful fugitives, who had nothing to occupy them while the hippopotamus was making headway. Farandoul noticed, however, that one of the white queens seemed worried; it was the brunette Caroline, ordinarily the more expansive of the two.
On being questioned, Caroline dissolved in tears.
“Now, now,” said Farandoul. “What does this feebleness signify, Majesty? You can see that everything’s going well. The country we’re passing through is tranquil and magnificent, the sky is blue, your installation aboard is tolerable, what more do you need? The ostrich-riding warriors following us are well behind, and it’s scarcely probable that they’ll catch up with us, if they’re even still chasing us, so everything’s fine! Perhaps you’re regretting your crown?”
“No,” said Caroline, “it’s my aunt I’m worried about.”
“What aunt?”
“Oh yes, I’d forgotten. Can you imagine that last year, content with my situation, I thought of inviting here to come here—so I wrote to her, giving her full directions as to the route to follow, and I waited for her…but events took their course. The terrible idea that Angelina and I were destined to be eaten worried me so much that I forgot my aunt. I’ve only just thought about her. What a misfortune if she arrives in Makalolo!”
“Is that all?” cried Farandoul, relieved. “Bah! Calm down. Your aunt hasn’t left—or, if she has left, I’m certain that she’ll also succeed in finding a minor position for herself in Makalolo. She’ll go into the army, and she’ll bless you!”
Caroline, soothed by these fine words, recovered her serenity. The rest of the day went by very pleasantly. The hippopotamus allowed itself to go downstream with no further anxiety. From time to time, Farandoul threw a bundle of reeds five or six meters ahead of it, which the animal reached in two seconds and devoured as it went forward. Niam-Niam even noticed, towards dusk, that it was going to sleep. They sought out a mooring for the night, and stopped without interrupting the hippopotamus’s slumber.
The country traversed by the N’kari seemed to be completely uninhabited since they had left Makalolo, so Farandoul, no longer fearful of encountering humans, did not hesitate to light fires to protect their camp from attack by animals.
The camp, installed on a little near-islet sheltered by large trees, soon presented a charming sight to the eye. Large fires protected it on the landward side, hammocks for the ladies had been suspended from branches, and the solidly anchored hippopotamus-boat was asleep in the mud close to the bank. The night was beautiful and calm, lulled by the roars of a few lions roaming around their dens.
Refloating the heavy animal the next morning was a difficult busine
ss; it had completely forgotten its adventures of the previous day and rolled its fearful eyes while watching its passengers make their final preparations for departure. Niam-Niam used an effective means of refreshing its memory, and an abrupt jerk on the cord quickly recalled it to reality. The hippopotamus sighed; its memory suddenly returned, and it took to the open water without further resistance.
A beautiful day and a magnificent voyage! The banks of the N’kari became increasingly picturesque, tall wooded crags being reflected in the water with extraordinary clarity, while a few chains of rather steep hills rose up hazily in the distance.
The hippopotamus, favored by a pleasant breeze, sailed majestically down the middle of the river. The boat looked quite handsome with its chaplet of goatskins and its white sail; on the animal’s back, the queens surrendered to the charm of that facile navigation, without worrying about past dangers.
The morning was enlivened by disputes with the crocodiles, those saurians permitting themselves to give chase to the hippopotamus and even going so far as to swim underwater in order to snap their jaws at its hobbled legs. The voyagers armed themselves with bows and revolvers and used the most imprudent as targets. The arrows were not lost; all those that the crocodiles did not carry away as souvenirs, embedded in an eye, returned to the surface and were quickly fished out with the aid of a gaffe.
The distraction provided for the fugitives by the crocodiles did not prevent Farandoul from noticing with a certain annoyance that the N’kari’s course had too many bends in this region. On another occasion he would have admired the charms of the increasingly varied landscape without anxiety, but in the circumstances, the continual zigzag meandering of the river irritated him considerably. During the time that the boat lost in following these contours, the ostrich-riding warrior women must be gaining ground, and might perhaps get ahead of the hippopotamus in order to dispute its passage. Another object of anxiety occurred to Farandoul that afternoon. The ducks taken in flight had been consumed, and there was nothing on hand for dinner. The banks of the river, so rich in game further upstream, now seemed to be abandoned to the large animals—lions and rhinoceroses—that were often to be glimpsed on the plain.
The Adventures of Saturnin Farandoul Page 30
