CHAPTER X
WAR CANOES
Ray Carter a captive!
This terrible news stunned the two boys for an instant, then spurredthem to furious action. Their canoe drove forward. Soon the Mahatma'sboat was left far behind.
Now they felt that not a moment must be lost. To think of Dan's lovelysister in the grip of those savage and brutal men, made them wild withthe resolve to fight for her freedom.
It was bad enough to know that Dick's father was held for ransom, butRay was in ten times as much danger. She was so sweet and pretty inher gay, jaunty way, that the mere thought of her coming to harmaroused them to madness.
They urged the boatmen to greater speed.
"Faster! Faster!" shouted Dan. "I've got to get my sister out ofthere!"
Gone was all his jolly manner. His round face was no longer ruddy butlooked pale and strained, and his eyes showed the light of desperateresolve.
"Faster! Faster!" commanded Dick Oakwood, and his jaw set in a hard,fighting line as he stared straight ahead down the tropical river.
Raal echoed the cry for speed and more speed and the paddlers drovedeeper into the sluggish water, while foam curled before the canoes.
Mutaba caught the excitement and his men were stirred to fighting rage.Their war chant rang out as they bent to the paddles and the alarmingsounds startled the parrots and monkeys in the overhanging trees.
"This will never do," said Dick. "We don't know how far the sounds maycarry."
"That's right. We don't want to warn those cut-throats that we are onour way," Dan urged.
As if his thoughts had been read, a voice of command travelled over thesurface of the water and penetrated the uproar with its calm accent.
"Quiet, my children! Make speed, but no more noise."
"The Mahatma," gasped Dan.
"Did you hear him?" Dick questioned. "Did you hear English words?"
"Of course. At least I seemed to hear them."
"But the black Kungoras obeyed. And so did the Taharans. And theGorols, too! Yet none of those people understood English."
"That's a fact. How do you account for that?"
"The Mahatma sent an order that each man understood in his ownlanguage. It was not in words, however. He just sent his thoughts tous all. We _imagined_ we heard the words, but what happened was thatwe got the idea by some sixth sense."
"That's magic! The real thing!" Dan exclaimed.
"Not magic. It's what I told you about; a kind of mental radio."
"Well, if the Mahatma can send his thoughts like that, he must be awise old bird, after all!" Dan exclaimed. "Say, I was wrong to kid himso much and call him Old Whiskers."
"That's what I think."
"I hope he isn't sore at me."
"Not likely. He probably does not consider it worth while to beinsulted by a fresh youngster like you."
"Jiminy, I hope you're right, Dick. We certainly need the Mahatma'shelp if we are going to get Ray out of there."
"We do that. It will take all his scheming and all our fighting speedto set her free."
Dan's face was very grave. He was so excited and nervous about hissister that he almost broke down.
"Do you think I'd better go back to his boat and apologize?" he askedhumbly. "Say, I'd feel like a dog if anything happened to Ray."
"You can apologize later," counselled Dick. "What we have to do now ispaddle for dear life and as soon as we reach the camp to put up thebest fight there is in us."
Both Dick and Dan seized a paddle and added their efforts to those ofthe boatmen.
It was hot work.
The humid air of the jungle weighed upon them like a blanket of steam.Their bodies were dripping and it was hard to breathe.
Most of the time they were in the shade of the huge trees, but once ina while the canoe darted into a patch of sunshine and then the rays ofthe afternoon sun beat down upon them fiercely.
The Taharans minded the humidity and so did the Gorols, while Dick andDan were terribly fagged, but the black men did not seem to notice it.Their ebony-like bodies were wet with perspiration, but they seemedcheerful and eager. Only the command of the Mahatma kept them frombreaking into song.
The boys looked into the jungle on both sides and saw that it wasdensely tangled with hanging vines. Here and there a clump of bamboomade a barrier that only a hatchet could cut through; elsewhere theforest was overgrown with small trees forcing their way to thesunlight, and among them could be seen the stealthy shapes of wildbeasts.
"Hope we don't run into leopards or lions," said Dan. "It's going tobe tough to fight the tribesmen, and we don't want to be clawed by wildanimals before the scrap begins."
"That's a chance we have to take."
"You said it! Hey!----Look at that! Duck for your life!"
From a near-by branch, a long sinuous object like a giant creeper,suddenly swung toward them. It showed a murderous head, with wide openjaws and a tongue that darted angrily.
"Great snakes!" shouted Dan, striking at it with his paddle.
But the canoe had darted past the danger before the scaly monster couldattack and Dan breathed more easily.
"Look there in the shadows," said Dick. "Elephants, as I'm alive!"
"And whoppers!" cried Dan. "Say, I never saw them that big before.Not even in a circus!"
"They are dangerous to fool with," Dick remarked. "I would hate to bein front of that old bull if he started to charge."
The biggest elephant in the herd seemed the size of a freight car as hecalmly reached into the tree tops and pulled down the tender foliage.His trunk stretched high above his head as he felt for the tendershoots.
"A regular boarding house reach!" laughed Dan, forgetting his suspensefor a moment. "Say that bozo would never have to say, 'Please pass thebutter.' He could grab it from the other end of the table."
One of the Taharans gave a cry of astonishment at seeing the hugecreature so near by, and at the noise the elephant faced about, wavinghis enormous ears and looking at the intruders with an expression ofanger in his little, intelligent eyes.
"I feel safer out here!" Dan observed. "What use would a bow and arrowbe against that tough hide?"
"You're right. Even my old fashioned Arab gun would hardly send abullet through it."
"How do you suppose the Stone-Age men ever hunted mastodons?" askedDan. "Those woolly mastodons with long curving tusks were lots biggerthan the elephant."
"I guess it was the mastodon that did the hunting in those days," Dickanswered. "The cave-men were not the hunters but the hunted, if youask me."
"And that goes for the sabre-toothed tiger, too."
"I bet it was a toss-up whether the human race would conquer theanimals or be eaten by them in the Stone-Age," said Dick. "Maybethat's why the people of today get scared and have panics so easily.It may be a hang-over from the fear that haunted our ancestors."
"I can't say I'm exactly scared----" Dan Carter began, but before hecould finish his sentence a shout from a boatman startled him and heanswered with a yell of terror.
The canoe was passing close to a shallow spot and suddenly a pair ofjaws snapped open right alongside. They were so wide that it looked asthough they could crash through the canoe with one bite, and thevicious rows of teeth could easily slice through a man's body.
Dan thought he was facing a horrible death in that instant and in facthe had never had a narrower escape. As he yelled, he threw himselfflat, but the black guide, Mutaba showed no sign of fear.
Mutaba had hunted crocodiles before and knew what to do. His black armshot out like lightning with a heavy stick in his fist. It wassharpened at both ends and as Mutaba thrust it upright between themonster's rows of teeth and the jaws snapped to close, the upper andlower jaw were stuck on the points of the stake.
Mutaba grinned as he jerked away his hand and the canoe darted past,just in the nick of time, for the enraged monster thrashed about withhis tail, churning the
muddy water to foam.
The man-eater was trapped.
The harder he struggled, the more firmly he impaled his open jaws uponthe sharp stick, and all his thrashing about was futile, for thefollowing boats sped by close to the opposite bank.
"Those black fellows are smart!" gasped Dan. "Jehosephat, I thought Iwas a goner, sure!"
"The natives are pretty well pleased!" said Dick. "Listen to themlaugh and jeer at the unlucky beast."
"Don't waste any pity on crocodiles! This one was ready to make alunch out of me."
"I am not sorry for him. And it's no wonder the natives hate thoseman-eaters that lurk in the shallows to snap off an arm."
"I've read that they are particularly fond of black children," saidDan, "so there's one croc' at least that won't eat any babies."
"Hush! Listen!" said Dick.
Close to his ear came the even voice of the Mahatma as before:
"Quiet, my children. We are near the journey's end."
Dick and Dan stared at each other. It was uncanny. They were surethis time that they had not actually _heard_ the Mahatma's voice, butthat their minds had received the message in some occult way.
Shadows were slanting from the west. The river was wider now and thesurface was sluggish with hardly a ripple.
From the depths of the forest echoed the weird call of a bird with ahuman note that sounded like lunatic laughter. Otherwise all was stilland the shadows of the jungle seemed to grow blacker and moremysterious at every moment.
"It's spooky," whispered Dan. "Like passing a haunted house atmidnight."
"Cheer up," said Dick. "It's going to be worse when we have to cut apath through it."
"Just the same, I'd go through worse than this to save your father andmy sister."
"I don't suppose my Dad worries as much as we do. Being a scientist,he is seeing so many new plants, animals and birds, that he has no timeto get scared. But Ray, poor girl, she must be terrified. If only wecan get to her before it is too late!"
"The Mahatma said we would save her."
"But you didn't believe a word he said. You were always kidding him."
"I believe in him now," said Dan. "Boy, _how_ I believe in him!"
"I would like him better if he would let us have some of his warriors,"said Dick. "He's doing us a good turn by lending the canoes andshowing us how to reach the Muta-Gunga camp but what worries me is thatthe Taharans and Gorols are not used to this country and won't knowmuch about fighting in the jungle."
"That's so, they will be at a disadvantage in a battle with thesejungle savages who know every inch of the ground," said Danthoughtfully. "They're brave enough but it would help if they had afew of the natives of the section to show them the way around."
"Never mind, we will take a chance," said Dick. "We're going to winout! And come through with flying colors!"
Tahara Among African Tribes Page 10
