by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER XXXII.
A HELPLESS BEAST.
"What was to be done?" continued Hans. "How was I to avoid both enemies?If I leaped down, the wildebeest would kill me to a certainty. He wasstill there, with his fierce eye bent upon me continually. If I remainedwhere I was, I would soon be covered with the swarming hideous insects,and eaten up like an old rag.
HANS BESIEGED BY A WILDEBEEST.]
Already I felt their terrible teeth. Those that had first crawled to myfeet I had endeavoured to brush off; but some had got upon my ankles,and were biting me through my thick woollen socks! My clothes would beno protection.
I had mounted to the highest part of the cone, and was standing uponits apex. It was so sharp I could scarcely balance myself, but thepainful stings of the insects caused me to dance upon it like amountebank.
But what signified those that had already stung my ankle, to the numbersthat were likely soon to pierce me with their venomous darts? Alreadythese were swarming up the last terrace. They would soon cover the apexof the cone upon which I was standing. They would crawl up my limbs inmyriads--they would----
I could reflect no longer on what they would do. I preferred taking mychance with the wildebeest. I would leap down. Perhaps some luckyaccident might aid me. I would battle with the gnoo, using my gun.Perhaps I might succeed in escaping to some other hill. Perhaps----
I was actually on the spring to leap down, when a new thought came intomy mind; and I wondered I had been so silly as not to think of itbefore. What was to hinder me from keeping off the termites? They had nowings--the soldiers have none--nor the workers neither, for that matter.They could not fly upon me. They could only crawl up the cone. With myjacket I could brush them back. Certainly I could--why did I not thinkof it before?
I was not long in taking off my jacket. I laid aside my useless gun,dropping it upon one of the lower terraces. I caught the jacket by thecollar; and, using it as a duster, I cleared the sides of the cone in afew moments, having sent thousands of the termites tumbling headlongbelow.
Pshaw! how simply the thing was done! why had I not done it before? Itcost scarcely an effort to brush the myriads away, and a slight effortwould keep them off as long as I pleased.
The only annoyance I felt now was from the few that had got under mytrousers, and that still continued to bite me; but these I would get ridof in time.
Well--I remained on the apex, now bending down to beat back the soldiersthat still swarmed upward, and then occupying myself in trying to getrid of the few that crawled upon me. I felt no longer any uneasiness onthe score of the insects--though I was not a bit better off as regardedthe bull, who still kept guard below. I fancied, however, that he nowshowed symptoms of weariness, and would soon raise the siege; and thisprospect made me feel more cheerful.
A sudden change came over me. A new thrill of terror awaited me.
While jumping about upon the top of the cone, my footing suddenly gaveway--the baked clay broke with a dead crash, and I sank through theroof. My feet shot down into the hollow dome--till I thought I must havecrushed the great queen in her chamber--and I stood buried to the neck.
I was surprised, and a little terrified, not by the shock I hadexperienced in the sudden descent. That was natural enough, and a fewmoments would have restored my equanimity; but it was something elsethat frightened me. It was something that moved under my feet as they'touched bottom,'--something that moved and heaved under them, and thenpassed quickly away, letting me still farther down!
What could it be? Was it the great swarm of living ants that I pressedupon? I did not think it was. It did not feel like them. It seemed tobe something bulky and strong, for it held up my whole weight for amoment or two, before it slipped from under me.
Whatever it was, it frightened me very considerably; and I did not leavemy feet in its company for five seconds time. No: the hottest furnacewould scarce have scorched them during the time they remained inside thedark dome. In five seconds they were on the walls again--on the brokenedges, where I had mounted up, and where I now stood quite speechlesswith surprise!
What next? I could keep the ants off no longer. I gazed down the darkcavity; they were swarming up that way in thick crowds. I could brushthem down no more.
My eyes at this moment chanced to wander to the bull. He was standing atthree or four paces distance from the base of the hill. He was standingsideways with his head turned to it, and regarding it with a wild look.His attitude was entirely changed, and so, I thought, was the expressionof his eye. He looked as if he had just run off to his new position, andwas ready to make a second start. He looked as if something had alsoterrified him!
Something evidently had; for, in another moment, he uttered a sharprout, galloped several paces farther out, wheeled again, halted, andstood gazing as before!
What could it mean? Was it the breaking through of the roof and mysudden descent that had frightened him?
At first I thought so, but I observed that he did not look upward to thetop. His gaze seemed bent on some object near the base of thehill--though from where I stood I could see nothing there to frightenhim.
I had not time to reflect what it could be, before the bull uttered afresh snort; and, raising its tail high into the air, struck off at fullgallop over the plain!
Rejoiced at seeing this, I thought no more of what had relieved me ofhis company. It must have been my curious fall, I concluded; but nomatter now that the brute was gone. So seizing hold of my gun, Iprepared to descend from the elevated position of which I was thoroughlytired.
Just as I had got half down the side, I chanced to look below; and therewas the object that terrified the old bull. No wonder. It might haveterrified anything,--the odd-looking creature that it was. From out ahole in the clay wall protruded a long naked cylindrical snout, mountedby a pair of ears nearly as long as itself, that stood erect like thehorns of a steinbuck, and gave to the animal that bore them a wild andvicious look. It would have badly frightened me, had I not known what itwas; but I recognised it at once as one of the most inoffensivecreatures in the world--the 'aard-vark.'
His appearance accounted for the retreat of the bull, and also explainedwhy the ants had been crawling about on my first reaching their hill.
Without saying a word, or making the slightest noise, I clubbed my gun;and, bending downward, struck the protruded snout a blow with the butt.It was a most wicked blow; and, considering the service the creature hadjust done me in frightening off the wildebeest, a most ungratefulreturn. But I was not master of my feelings at the moment. I did notreflect--only that I liked aard-vark flesh--and the blow was given.
Poor fellow! It did the job for him. With scarce a kick he dropped deadin the opening he had scraped with his own claws.
Well--my day's adventures were not yet ended. They seemed as though theywere never to end. I had got the aard-vark over my shoulders, and wasabout heading homeward, when, to my astonishment, I observed that thebull-gnoo--not the one that had besieged me, but his lateantagonist--was still out upon the plain where I had last seen him! Iobserved, moreover, that he was still in a sort of half-lying,half-kneeling attitude, with his head close to the ground!
His odd movements seemed stranger than anything else. I fancied he hadbeen badly hurt by the other, and was not able to get away.
At first I was cautious about going near him--remembering my late narrowescape--and I thought of giving him a wide berth, and leaving him alone.Even though wounded, he might be strong enough to charge upon me; and myempty gun, as I had already proved, would be but a poor weapon withwhich to defend myself.
I hesitated about going near him; but curiosity grew strong within me,as I watched his queer manoeuvres; until at length I walked up within adozen yards of where he was kneeling.
Fancy my surprise on discovering the cause of his oblique movements. Nohurt had he received of any kind--not even a scratch; but for all that,he was as completely crippled as if he had lost his best pair of legs.
In
a very singular manner was he rendered thus helpless. In his strugglewith the other bull, one of his fore-legs had, somehow or other, gotpassed over his horn; and there it stuck--not only depriving him of theuse of the limb itself, but holding his head so close to the ground thathe was quite unable to stir from the spot!
At first I designed helping him out of his difficulty, and letting himgo. On second thoughts, I remembered the story of the husband-man andthe frozen snake, which quite changed my intention.
I next thought of killing him for venison; but having no bullet, I didnot like to beat him to death with my gun. Besides the aard-vark was myload to camp, and I knew that the jackals would eat the bull up beforewe could go back for him. I thought it probable he would be safer leftas he was--as these ravenous brutes, seeing him alive, might not soreadily approach him.
So I left him with his "head under his arm," in hopes that we may findhim there to-morrow."
So ended Hans's narrative of his day's adventures.
