Five Weeks In A Balloon

by Jules Verne

  Thus talking to himself and walking on rapidly, Joe came right upon a horde of natives in the very depths of the forest, but he halted in time and was not seen by them. The negroes were busy poisoning arrows with the juice of the euphorbium--a piece of work deemed a great affair among these savage tribes, and carried on with a sort of ceremonial solemnity.

  Joe, entirely motionless and even holding his breath, was keeping himself concealed in a thicket, when, happening to raise his eyes, he saw through an opening in the foliage the welcome apparition of the balloon--the Victoria herself--moving toward the lake, at a height of only about one hundred feet above him. But he could not make himself heard; he dared not, could not make his friends even see him!

  Tears came to his eyes, not of grief but of thankfulness; his master was then seeking him; his master had not left him to perish! He would have to wait for the departure of the blacks; then he could quit his hiding-place and run toward the borders of Lake Tchad!

  But by this time the Victoria was disappearing in the distant sky. Joe still determined to wait for her; she would come back again, undoubtedly. She did, indeed, return, but farther to the eastward. Joe ran, gesticulated, shouted--but all in vain! A strong breeze was sweeping the balloon away with a speed that deprived him of all hope.

  For the first time, energy and confidence abandoned the heart of the unfortunate man. He saw that he was lost. He thought his master gone beyond all prospect of return. He dared no longer think; he would no longer reflect!

  Like a crazy man, his feet bleeding, his body cut and torn, he walked on during all that day and a part of the next night. He even dragged himself along, sometimes on his knees, sometimes with his hands. He saw the moment nigh when all his strength would fail, and nothing would be left to him but to sink upon the ground and die.

  Thus working his way along, he at length found himself close to a marsh, or what he knew would soon become a marsh, for night had set in some hours before, and he fell by a sudden misstep into a thick, clinging mire. In spite of all his efforts, in spite of his desperate struggles, he felt himself sinking gradually in the swampy ooze, and in a few minutes he was buried to his waist.

  "Here, then, at last, is death!" he thought, in agony, "and what a death!"

  He now began to struggle again, like a madman; but his efforts only served to bury him deeper in the tomb that the poor doomed lad was hollowing for himself; not a log of wood or a branch to buoy him up; not a reed to which he might cling! He felt that all was over! His eyes convulsively closed!

  "Master! master!--Help!" were his last words; but his voice, despairing, unaided, half stifled already by the rising mire, died away feebly on the night.

  Chapter Thirty-Sixth.

  A Throng of People on the Horizon.--A Troop of Arabs.--The Pursuit. --It is He.--Fall from Horseback.--The Strangled Arab.--A Ball from Kennedy.--Adroit Manoeuvres.--Caught up flying.--Joe saved at last.

  From the moment when Kennedy resumed his post of observation in the front of the car, he had not ceased to watch the horizon with his utmost attention.

  After the lapse of some time he turned toward the doctor and said:

  "If I am not greatly mistaken I can see, off yonder in the distance, a throng of men or animals moving. It is impossible to make them out yet, but I observe that they are in violent motion, for they are raising a great cloud of dust."

  "May it not be another contrary breeze?" said the doctor, "another whirlwind coming to drive us back northward again?" and while speaking he stood up to examine the horizon.

  "I think not, Samuel; it is a troop of gazelles or of wild oxen."

  "Perhaps so, Dick; but yon throng is some nine or ten miles from us at least, and on my part, even with the glass, I can make nothing of it!"

  "At all events I shall not lose sight of it. There is something remarkable about it that excites my curiosity. Sometimes it looks like a body of cavalry manoeuvring. Ah! I was not mistaken. It is, indeed, a squadron of horsemen. Look--look there!"

  The doctor eyed the group with great attention, and, after a moment's pause, remarked:

  "I believe that you are right. It is a detachment of Arabs or Tibbous, and they are galloping in the same direction with us, as though in flight, but we are going faster than they, and we are rapidly gaining on them. In half an hour we shall be near enough to see them and know what they are."

  Kennedy had again lifted his glass and was attentively scrutinizing them. Meanwhile the crowd of horsemen was becoming more distinctly visible, and a few were seen to detach themselves from the main body.

  "It is some hunting manoeuvre, evidently," said Kennedy. "Those fellows seem to be in pursuit of something. I would like to know what they are about."

  "Patience, Dick! In a little while we shall overtake them, if they continue on the same route. We are going at the rate of twenty miles per hour, and no horse can keep up with that."

  Kennedy again raised his glass, and a few minutes later he exclaimed:

  "They are Arabs, galloping at the top of their speed; I can make them out distinctly. They are about fifty in number. I can see their bournouses puffed out by the wind. It is some cavalry exercise that they are going through. Their chief is a hundred paces ahead of them and they are rushing after him at headlong speed."

  "Whoever they may be, Dick, they are not to be feared, and then, if necessary, we can go higher."

  "Wait, doctor--wait a little!"

  "It's curious," said Kennedy again, after a brief pause, "but there's something going on that I can't exactly explain. By the efforts they make, and the irregularity of their line, I should fancy that those Arabs are pursuing some one, instead of following."

  "Are you certain of that, Dick?"

  "Oh! yes, it's clear enough now. I am right! It is a pursuit--a hunt--but a man-hunt! That is not their chief riding ahead of them, but a fugitive."

  "A fugitive!" exclaimed the doctor, growing more and more interested.

  "Yes!"

  "Don't lose sight of him, and let us wait!"

  Three or four miles more were quickly gained upon these horsemen, who nevertheless were dashing onward with incredible speed.

  "Doctor! doctor!" shouted Kennedy in an agitated voice.

  "What is the matter, Dick?"

  "Is it an illusion? Can it be possible?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Wait!" and so saying, the Scot wiped the sights of his spy-glass carefully, and looked through it again intently.

  "Well?" questioned the doctor.

  "It is he, doctor!"

  "He!" exclaimed Ferguson with emotion.

  "It is he! no other!" and it was needless to pronounce the name.

  "Yes! it is he! on horseback, and only a hundred paces in advance of his enemies! He is pursued!"

  "It is Joe--Joe himself!" cried the doctor, turning pale.

  "He cannot see us in his flight!"

  "He will see us, though!" said the doctor, lowering the flame of his blow-pipe.

  "But how?"

  "In five minutes we shall be within fifty feet of the ground, and in fifteen we shall be right over him!"

  "We must let him know it by firing a gun!"

  "No! he can't turn back to come this way. He's headed off!"

  "What shall we do, then?"

  "We must wait."

  "Wait?--and these Arabs!"

  "We shall overtake them. We'll pass them. We are not more than two miles from them, and provided that Joe's horse holds out!"

  "Great God!" exclaimed Kennedy, suddenly.

  "What is the matter?"

  Kennedy had uttered a cry of despair as he saw Joe fling himself to the ground. His horse, evidently exhausted, had just fallen headlong.

  "He sees us!" cried the doctor, "and he motions to us, as he gets upon his feet!"

  "But the Arabs will overtake him! What is he waiting for? Ah! the brave lad! Huzza!" shouted the sportsman, who could no longer restrain his feelings.

  Joe, who had imme
diately sprung up after his fall, just as one of the swiftest horsemen rushed upon him, bounded like a panther, avoided his assailant by leaping to one side, jumped up behind him on the crupper, seized the Arab by the throat, and, strangling him with his sinewy hands and fingers of steel, flung him on the sand, and continued his headlong flight.

  A tremendous howl was heard from the Arabs, but, completely engrossed by the pursuit, they had not taken notice of the balloon, which was now but five hundred paces behind them, and only about thirty feet from the ground. On their part, they were not twenty lengths of their horses from the fugitive.

  One of them was very perceptibly gaining on Joe, and was about to pierce him with his lance, when Kennedy, with fixed eye and steady hand, stopped him short with a ball, that hurled him to the earth.

  Joe did not even turn his head at the report. Some of the horsemen reined in their barbs, and fell on their faces in the dust as they caught sight of the Victoria; the rest continued their pursuit.

  "But what is Joe about?" said Kennedy; "he don't stop!"

  "He's doing better than that, Dick! I understand him! He's keeping on in the same direction as the balloon. He relies upon our intelligence. Ah! the noble fellow! We'll carry him off in the very teeth of those Arab rascals! We are not more than two hundred paces from him!"

  "What are we to do?" asked Kennedy.

  "Lay aside your rifle,Dick."

  And the Scot obeyed the request at once.

  "Do you think that you can hold one hundred and fifty pounds of ballast in your arms?"

  "Ay, more than that!"

  "No! That will be enough!"

  And the doctor proceeded to pile up bags of sand in Kennedy's arms.

  "Hold yourself in readiness in the back part of the car, and be prepared to throw out that ballast at a single effort. But, for your life, don't do so until I give the word!"

  "Be easy on that point."

  "Otherwise, we should miss Joe, and he would be lost."

  "Count upon me!"

  The Victoria at that moment almost commanded the troop of horsemen who were still desperately urging their steeds at Joe's heels. The doctor, standing in the front of the car, held the ladder clear, ready to throw it at any moment. Meanwhile, Joe had still maintained the distance between himself and his pursuers--say about fifty feet. The Victoria was now ahead of the party.

  "Attention!" exclaimed the doctor to Kennedy.

  "I'm ready!"

  "Joe, look out for yourself!" shouted the doctor in his sonorous, ringing voice, as he flung out the ladder, the lowest ratlines of which tossed up the dust of the road.

  As the doctor shouted, Joe had turned his head, but without checking his horse. The ladder dropped close to him, and at the instant he grasped it the doctor again shouted to Kennedy:

  "Throw ballast!"

  "It's done!"

  And the Victoria, lightened by a weight greater than Joe's, shot up one hundred and fifty feet into the air.

  Joe clung with all his strength to the ladder during the wide oscillations that it had to describe, and then making an indescribable gesture to the Arabs, and climbing with the agility of a monkey, he sprang up to his companions, who received him with open arms.

  The Arabs uttered a scream of astonishment and rage. The fugitive had been snatched from them on the wing, and the Victoria was rapidly speeding far beyond their reach.

  "Master! Kennedy!" ejaculated Joe, and overwhelmed, at last, with fatigue and emotion, the poor fellow fainted away, while Kennedy, almost beside himself, kept exclaiming:

  "Saved--saved!"

  "Saved indeed!" murmured the doctor, who had recovered all his phlegmatic coolness.

  Joe was almost naked. His bleeding arms, his body covered with cuts and bruises, told what his sufferings had been. The doctor quietly dressed his wounds, and laid him comfortably under the awning.

  Joe soon returned to consciousness, and asked for a glass of brandy, which the doctor did not see fit to refuse, as the faithful fellow had to be indulged.

  After he had swallowed the stimulant, Joe grasped the hands of his two friends and announced that he was ready to relate what had happened to him.

  But they would not allow him to talk at that time, and he sank back into a profound sleep, of which he seemed to have the greatest possible need.

  The Victoria was then taking an oblique line to the westward. Driven by a tempestuous wind, it again approached the borders of the thorny desert, which the travellers descried over the tops of palm-trees, bent and broken by the storm; and, after having made a run of two hundred miles since rescuing Joe, it passed the tenth degree of east longitude about nightfall.

  Chapter Thirty-Seventh.

  The Western Route.--Joe wakes up.--His Obstinacy.--End of Joe's Narrative.--Tagelei.--Kennedy's Anxieties.--The Route to the North.--A Night near Aghades.

  During the night the wind lulled as though reposing after the boisterousness of the day, and the Victoria remained quietly at the top of the tall sycamore. The doctor and Kennedy kept watch by turns, and Joe availed himself of the chance to sleep most sturdily for twenty-four hours at a stretch.

  "That's the remedy he needs," said Dr. Ferguson. "Nature will take charge of his care."

  With the dawn the wind sprang up again in quite strong, and moreover capricious gusts. It shifted abruptly from south to north, but finally the Victoria was carried away by it toward the west.

  The doctor, map in hand, recognized the kingdom of Damerghou, an undulating region of great fertility, in which the huts that compose the villages are constructed of long reeds interwoven with branches of the asclepia. The grain-mills were seen raised in the cultivated fields, upon small scaffoldings or platforms, to keep them out of the reach of the mice and the huge ants of that country.

  They soon passed the town of Zinder, recognized by its spacious place of execution, in the centre of which stands the "tree of death." At its foot the executioner stands waiting, and whoever passes beneath its shadow is immediately hung!

  Upon consulting his compass, Kennedy could not refrain from saying:

  "Look! we are again moving northward."

  "No matter; if it only takes us to Timbuctoo, we shall not complain. Never was a finer voyage accomplished under better circumstances!"

  "Nor in better health," said Joe, at that instant thrusting his jolly countenance from between the curtains of the awning.

  "There he is! there's our gallant friend--our preserver!" exclaimed Kennedy, cordially.--"How goes it, Joe?"

  "Oh! why, naturally enough, Mr. Kennedy, very naturally! I never felt better in my life! Nothing sets a man up like a little pleasure-trip with a bath in Lake Tchad to start on--eh, doctor?"

  "Brave fellow!" said Ferguson, pressing Joe's hand, "what terrible anxiety you caused us!"

  "Humph! and you, sir? Do you think that I felt easy in my mind about you, gentlemen? You gave me a fine fright, let me tell you!"

  "We shall never agree in the world, Joe, if you take things in that style."

  "I see that his tumble hasn't changed him a bit," added Kennedy.

  "Your devotion and self-forgetfulness were sublime, my brave lad, and they saved us, for the Victoria was falling into the lake, and, once there, nobody could have extricated her."

  "But, if my devotion, as you are pleased to call my summerset, saved you, did it not save me too, for here we are, all three of us, in first-rate health? Consequently we have nothing to squabble about in the whole affair."

  "Oh! we can never come to a settlement with that youth," said the sportsman.

  "The best way to settle it," replied Joe, "is to say nothing more about the matter. What's done is done. Good or bad, we can't take it back."

  "You obstinate fellow!" said the doctor, laughing; "you can't refuse, though, to tell us your adventures, at all events."

  "Not if you think it worth while. But, in the first place, I'm going to cook this fat goose to a turn, for I see that Mr. Kennedy has not wasted his t
ime."

  "All right, Joe!"

  "Well, let us see then how this African game will sit on a European stomach!"

  The goose was soon roasted by the flame of the blow-pipe, and not long afterward was comfortably stowed away. Joe took his own good share, like a man who had eaten nothing for several days. After the tea and the punch, he acquainted his friends with his recent adventures. He spoke with some emotion, even while looking at things with his usual philosophy. The doctor could not refrain from frequently pressing his hand when he saw his worthy servant more considerate of his master's safety than of his own, and, in relation to the sinking of the island of the Biddiomahs, he explained to him the frequency of this phenomenon upon Lake Tchad.

  At length Joe, continuing his recital, arrived at the point where, sinking in the swamp, he had uttered a last cry of despair.

  "I thought I was gone," said he, "and as you came right into my mind, I made a hard fight for it. How, I couldn't tell you--but I'd made up my mind that I wouldn't go under without knowing why. Just then, I saw--two or three feet from me--what do you think? the end of a rope that had been fresh cut; so I took leave to make another jerk, and, by hook or by crook, I got to the rope. When I pulled, it didn't give; so I pulled again and hauled away and there I was on dry ground! At the end of the rope, I found an anchor! Ah, master, I've a right to call that the anchor of safety, anyhow, if you have no objection. I knew it again! It was the anchor of the Victoria! You had grounded there! So I followed the direction of the rope and that gave me your direction, and, after trying hard a few times more, I got out of the swamp. I had got my strength back with my spunk, and I walked on part of the night away from the lake, until I got to the edge of a very big wood. There I saw a fenced-in place, where some horses were grazing, without thinking of any harm. Now, there are times when everybody knows how to ride a horse, are there not, doctor? So I didn't spend much time thinking about it, but jumped right on the back of one of those innocent animals and away we went galloping north as fast as our legs could carry us. I needn't tell you about the towns that I didn't see nor the villages that I took good care to go around. No! I crossed the ploughed fields; I leaped the hedges; I scrambled over the fences; I dug my heels into my nag; I thrashed him; I fairly lifted the poor fellow off his feet! At last I got to the end of the tilled land. Good! There was the desert. 'That suits me!' said I, 'for I can see better ahead of me and farther too.' I was hoping all the time to see the balloon tacking about and waiting for me. But not a bit of it; and so, in about three hours, I go plump, like a fool, into a camp of Arabs! Whew! what a hunt that was! You see, Mr. Kennedy, a hunter don't know what a real hunt is until he's been hunted himself! Still I advise him not to try it if he can keep out of it! My horse was so tired, he was ready to drop off his legs; they were close on me; I threw myself to the ground; then I jumped up again behind an Arab! I didn't mean the fellow any harm, and I hope he has no grudge against me for choking him, but I saw you--and you know the rest. The Victoria came on at my heels, and you caught me up flying, as a circus-rider does a ring. Wasn't I right in counting on you? Now, doctor, you see how simple all that was! Nothing more natural in the world! I'm ready to begin over again, if it would be of any service to you. And besides, master, as I said a while ago, it's not worth mentioning."