He was thankful that this dragon was only a twelve-foot monster. The fossil skeletons that had been found showed that the ancestor of this brute was twice as long. When it took a notion to stand up on its hind legs it towered twenty-four feet high, the height of a two-storey house.
But this one-storey beast was quite enough to have killed Hal if it had not been so busy fighting the snake at the same time.
Hal weakly clung to the branch and closed his eyes to let his brain clear and his nerves quiet down. Roger came running.
‘How in the world did you get up there?’
‘It was the dragon’s idea,’ Hal replied, ‘not mine.’
‘Are you hurt?’
‘Just bumped around a bit. I’ll be all right in a moment’
The men found a wild persimmon tree and refreshed themselves as they rested. Pavo, always thoughtful, brought a couple of the fruits to Hal and he was revived by their tender flesh and sweet juice. Then he clambered down and the two teams returned to their labour.
It was a more frightening battle than ever for the men because dark clouds, doubtless full of evil spirits, now hid the sun and the trees cast a deep shade. To fight these two monsters in the half-dark was more terrifying than before.
To raise their own spirits and frighten away devils the men began to shout and sing and their voices, together with the hisses of the taipan and the hisses of the dragon, made a medley of sounds more strange than any the boys had heard in the history of their many adventures.
Hal and Roger again stood first in line, so when the two animals at last broke loose they were the first ones to be attacked.
The dragon turned upon Hal with a louder-than-usual hiss of anger and threw its arms about him, digging its sharp claws into his back.
Twice as tall as Hal, it lifted him up so they were face to face.
The dragon had what looked like an evil grin on its face. It stuck out its tongue at Hal.
‘Well, if you can do that, so can I,’ said Hal and stuck out his own. But it was a pitifully small thing compared with the foot-long tongue of the Komodo dragon.
This was fun, dragon and man making faces at each other. But it was not so much fun when the beast showed its teeth. They were two inches long and came to sharp points. Hal didn’t show his. He knew he couldn’t equal his enemy either in length or sharpness of teeth.
But his own teeth were good and strong, and when the yellow tongue leaped out again he saw his chance, took the end of it in his teeth and bit it hard.
This attack took the animal completely by surprise. It relaxed its hold and let Hal fell in a heap on the ground. Then it dropped to all fours and started to move away. Hal seized the strong wire-meshed net and with the help of Pavo flung it over the escaping monster, then tied one end to a tree.
The dragon set up a hissing that could have been heard for a mile. It struggled and thrashed and bit at the wire, but the net was strong and the tree was stronger.
‘We’ve got it!’ Hal cried. Then something struck him in the back and he fell.
Chapter 16
The heart of a headhunter
In the meantime Roger had been fighting an opponent almost as heavy as he was and far better at wriggling, twisting, and squirming in its efforts to avoid being pushed into a sack. Roger had seized it by the neck just behind the head, but it was so strong that he nearly lost his hold. He called for help.
It was slow in coming. The men had no desire to grapple with this snake.
One man plucked up enough courage to come forward with a stone axe, prepared to cut the snake’s head off.
‘No, no,’ cried Roger. ‘No kill. Take alive. Put in sack.’
But this was a harder job than the man had bargained for. These whites were so unreasonable. It would have been quite easy to chop the serpent’s head off, take the body home, roast and eat it The creature was not only long but so fat that there would be enough meat for everybody in the village. What mortal reason could these crazy whites have for keeping it alive?
Then Pug came to the rescue. Pug was a boy about Roger’s own age. They had become friends, exchanging languages.
Pug didn’t like snakes any more than the others did, but he wasn’t going to stand back and see his friend killed.
While Roger held the neck Pug grabbed the tail and tried to push it into the bag. The tail was not as strong as the dragon’s tail, but strong enough to whip loose, catch Pug around the ankles, and bring him to the ground.
Pug, who had never fought a snake before, was a little surprised by this rough treatment. But he picked himself up and instantly returned to the battle. The next time the swinging tail struck him he caught it and pushed it well down into the sack.
The tail picked the bag up and whipped it around in the air like a flag, scattering so much dust that the men could hardly see what was going on. Still they didn’t come to help. If these two boys wanted to make fools of themselves it was no concern of theirs.
Pug took another hold higher up where the body was thicker - and stronger. Inch by inch, the snake went into the sack. Finally the brown boy, panting and puffing from his exertions, had everything in but the neck and head. Together the two boys tried to finish the job.
But the snake was not done with its tricks. With a violent twist of its whole body it wrenched its head loose.
It struck out at Roger, but never got to him. Pug, seeing his friend was about to be bitten, slapped his own hand over the snake’s mouth. The taipan sank its fangs into his hand.
Roger tried to pull it away. Most snakes will strike and let go, but not the taipan. It clings, pouring more and more of its poison into the flesh.
The man with the axe came again and Roger felt like telling him to go ahead and put an end to this vicious devil. But he made one more try, and succeeded. The head came away from the wound, the fangs still dripping poison. Roger rammed the head into the sack with the jaws pointing down, closed the sack and lashed it tight.
The bag started to run away, humping itself along the ground straight towards the men. They yelled, and scattered in all directions. But it was very dark inside the bag, and nothing so quickly quiets a snake as darkness. In a few. moments the bag lay on the ground as if dead.
But it was not dead. The most dangerous snake in New Guinea had been captured - alive.
Roger anxiously looked at the fang marks on Pug’s hand.
‘It’s nothing,’ said Pug. ‘Look - your brother.’
Hal lay, face down, apparently unconscious. From his back something stood straight up, about three feet tall. Bird feathers at the upper end waved in the wind. It was an arrow, and the arrowhead must be deep in Hal’s back.
Pavo was trying to get it out. Because the arrowhead was barbed, pulling it out would tear the flesh. But it was better to do this now while Hal was unconscious rather than wait until he came to and would feel the pain.
Out came the arrowhead and a fountain of blood followed it. The blood must be stopped at once. Pavo looked to Roger for help. Roger looked in Hal’s medicine kit for bandages. There were none. Where could he get some cloth? He was not wearing a shirt and the men wore nothing but grass. Grass would not do.
Then a man stepped out from behind the others ready to sacrifice his dearest possession - one of the legs of Hal’s trousers. It had been his pride and joy, but now he stripped it off and gave it to Roger who promptly strapped it tightly around Hal and tied it fast with a length of rope.
Hal dizzily came back to life. Roger was now thinking about Pug. Only Hal would know what to do about the snake-bite.
Roger prodded his brother. “Wake up, wake up you sleepyhead. Come out of it. The snake has bitten Pug.’
‘Don’t bother him,’ Pug said. ‘I feel all right.’
But he didn’t look right. His face had gone from a healthy brown to a sickly grey. He spoke thickly, and he staggered as if drunk.
Roger shook Hal unmercifully. It was no way to treat a wounded brother, but if something wasn�
��t done for Pug at once he would die. Roger had heard just enough about the taipan to know that its venom was four times as strong as that of the tiger snake, New Guinea’s second most dangerous reptile.
Hal slowly revived. He mumbled dreamily, ‘What… what… what’s that? Bitten. Who got bitten?’
‘Pug. Quick. Get up and get going. Which antitoxin do we use?’
‘It’s… marked A. And get out the syringe. Did you put on a tourniquet?’
‘Yes. I tied a rope around his arm.’
‘Loosen it every few minutes - then tie it again. Fill the syringe.’
He struggled up to a sitting position. He was so dizzy that he almost collapsed. He took the syringe and emptied the contents into the boy’s arm just above the tourniquet.
Pug felt very weak and faint. He was nauseated. He wanted to vomit. Hal noticed that his eyelids drooped. The pupils of his eyes dilated to great size. But the larger they became the more trouble he had in seeing.
‘The poison attacks the nervous system,’ Hal said, ‘and coagulates the blood. Lie down, Pug, and stay still for a while - then we’ll get you home.’
Pug lay down. ‘I’m all right,’ he insisted, but his voice sounded as if his tongue were an inch thick.
After a few minutes he struggled to his feet. But he swayed like a tree in a strong wind. He would have fallen if Roger had not supported him.
‘How will we get him to the village?’ Roger wanted to know.
‘I’ll carry him,’ Pavo said.
But what about the dragon? How would they get it to the village and on board ship?
Hal figured that four ropes would do it. He called the man who was carrying the rope. With his hunting knife he cut off four pieces, each about twenty feet long.
Now came the dangerous business of fastening the ropes to the angry beast while avoiding the two deadly ends of the animal, the teeth and the tail.
Hal slipped the end of a rope under the edge of the net and (led it around the dragon’s shoulder. The giant tried in vain to get Hal’s hands in its jaws, but it could hardly swing its head because of the net.
Next came the other shoulder. By this time the pain in Hal’s back was so intense that he felt like giving up altogether. He fought to keep himself from fainting.
Now came the most dangerous operation - tying two ropes to the tail just where it joined the body and keeping
out of the way of that deadly weapon.
When all was done, Hal put two men at the end of each rope. Eight men ought to be able to control one giant.
‘Hold tight,’ he said. ‘I’m going to take off the net.’
He removed the heavy net with difficulty, folded it, then wondered who was going to carry it. The eight men would have their hands full controlling the dragon. Pavo would carry Pug. Hal and Roger would carry the sackful of snake, a heavy load in itself.
There was no one left to carry the net.
‘I know who can do it,’ said Roger. ‘The dragon,’
The idea did not please the dragon. He had never carried anybody or anything on his back. ‘But you can learn,’ Roger said. The beast was in its usual position with all of its four feet on the ground. It hissed and grunted and twisted as the boys put the net on its back and strapped it down.
‘There, there, Draggy, you’ll soon get used to it.’
They set off homeward. The four ropes did a fair job of holding the monster on course. He never gave up trying to get away and sometimes dragged the men after him at a lively pace.
Pavo, carrying Pug, began to sweat. The boy was almost as heavy as he was. And there was a lot of dragon back behind the net that was going to waste. He eased the boy down on to the monster’s back. The powerful animal didn’t seem to notice the added weight. Pug was too sick to enjoy his ride and too weak to hold on. Pavo must walk beside him and support him. But it was a lot easier than carrying him.
So the strange procession entered the village. The people gathered to gaze with wonder at the monster.
The parents of Pug wanted to take him home at once, but Hal said, ‘Let me keep him on the ship for a while. When he is well I will bring him back to you.’
Captain Ted came ashore in the dinghy. He looked at the dragon with horror. ‘You don’t mean I have to carry that on my schooner! Why, it must weigh a couple of tons. How am I going to get it aboard? It will bust the crane.’
The eight men still holding the ropes swam the beast out to the ship. Luckily the monster did not mind the water -in fact the Komodo dragon can swim very well.
Crocodiles came to look and seemed to recognize a cousin. At least they made no move to attack the swimming dragon.
Captain Ted ferried the serpent to the ship in the dinghy. There it was hoisted aboard and turned loose in a cage. Ted’s fear that the weighty dragon would break the crane was not realized. But when he got it aboard he was puzzled to know what to do with it.
‘Put it in with the crocodile,’ Hal said. ‘They are too much alike to bother each other.’
So in it went with the big croc. Instead of attacking each other, the two seemed to make friends at once.
Pug was placed in a comfortable bunk and Hal, taking the place of a doctor, needed all the skill he had to keep the boy alive, feed him properly, and give him the medical care that would put him back on his feet.
The trouser-leg that had stopped the loss of blood was unwound from Hal’s back and the wound was sterilized and properly bandaged.
When Pug was able to speak, it was not himself that he was worried about but Hal. ‘How you feel?’
‘A little weak in the knees. But it could have been worse.’
‘Worse, yes. The man who shot you wanted it to be worse. He wanted to kill you.’
‘I can’t imagine who it could have been,’ Hal said. ‘One of our own men?’
‘Nobody in our village would do that to you.’
‘Well, then - perhaps it was a man from some other village. You remember that head that was brought in. Perhaps some other member of his tribe, perhaps his brother, wanted to take revenge.’
‘Wrong guess,’ said Roger. ‘Why should he want to kill you? It wasn’t you who took that head. No, it was somebody who had a grudge against you.’
‘But who could that be? Have 1 done anything to get anybody mad?’
‘You got that witch doctor mad. And you got all the people of the village mad at him so he had to leave the village and go over the mountain.’
‘I think you are both wrong,’ Pug said. ‘I saw something.
‘What did you see?’
‘It was very dark. But I think I saw a man with a bow. And I think he no look like witch doctor. I think he wears clothes, like you. But it was very dark. I am not sure.’
Hal laughed. ‘Captain Ted wears clothes. But I’m sure he didn’t do it. There’s nobody else around here who dresses this way. I think you made a mistake, and no wonder. That snake poison was enough to put strange ideas into your head. Now lie back and try to get to sleep.’
‘Before you go to sleep,’ Roger said. ‘I want to thank you for just one thing.’
‘What’s that?’
‘For saving my life. It was a pretty big thing you did. Stopping that snake just as it was about to puncture me.’
‘Forget it,’ Pug said. He turned over and closed his eyes.
The boys sat on deck thinking over what they had just passed through.
‘You know,’ Hal said, ‘I think that these people that white folks would call savages are about as fine as anybody on God’s earth. No village could have been more kind to strangers. And how those men turned in and helped us today even though they were quaking with fear of the devils in that snake and the dragon! That man who brought the axe. To save you and Pug, he was willing to cut off the snake’s head though that would release the evil spirits that he believed would kill him. And Pavo taking care of me when I got that mysterious arrow in my back. And the man with half a pair of trousers who was so proud of t
he only piece of real clothing he had ever had in his life, yet he gave it up for me. And, most of all, Pug, who thinks so much of you that he was willing to die for you. Sure, they are headhunters, but for every head they take I suppose we take ten thousand in our wars. I take off, my hat to the headhunters.’
But after Hal got into his bunk that night, his mind went back to the mystery of the arrow that had come flying out of the dark with intent to kill.
Who was behind that bow? Certainly it was no man of this friendly village, nor could it be the exiled witch doctor, nor a relative of the warrior who had lost his head.
Whoever it was might succeed next time.
Hal tried to think what he could do to protect Roger and himself. But his wound hurt, and he was too tired to think straight. He drifted into a troubled sleep.
Chapter 17
Bat for breakfast
Pavo came early the next morning, bringing something good to eat. At least he thought it was good to eat. Hal usually got the breakfast for Ted, Roger and himself. Pavo knew that this morning Hal would be in no condition to get breakfast, so he had one of his wives prepare something very special, and now he swam out to the ship towing the delicious meal on a banana leaf.
Hal was suffering from his arrow wound and must lie still. Pug, thanks to the antivenin, had almost recovered from the poisonous bite of the taipan. He was hungry. His eyes lit up with pleasure when he saw the food Pavo had brought.
Roger too had been hungry, but when he saw the breakfast he lost his appetite.
The meal that Pavo presented with such pleasure was a large broiled bat garnished with fried beetles. Captain Ted, when he saw it, exclaimed, ‘Mother of Moses!’
Pavo fortunately did not understand such talk and took it to mean that the captain was delighted.
‘I think I’ll skip breakfast,’ Roger said.
‘No you won’t,’ said Hal. ‘You would hurt Pavo’s feelings. It was very kind of him to do this for us. After all, what’s the matter with bat? We’ve eaten grasshoppers in India, python in Africa, raw fish in Japan, living oysters in America, so why not bat?’
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