Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle; Or, Daring Adventures in Elephant Land

by Victor Appleton

  CHAPTER XIII

  ON AN ELEPHANT TRAIL

  "Get ready with your guns, everybody!" cried the old elephanthunter, as he prepared to leave the cabin of the Black Hawk. "TomSwift, don't forget your electric rifle. There'll be trouble soon!"

  "Bless my cartridge belt!" gasped Mr. Damon. "Why? What will happen?"

  "The natives," answered Mr. Durban. "They'll attack us sure as fate!See, already they're getting out their bows and arrows, andblowguns! They'll pierce the gas bag in a hundred places!"

  "If they do, it will be a bad thing for us," muttered Tom. "We can'thave that happen."

  He followed the old elephant hunter outside, and Mr. Anderson, NedNewton and Mr. Damon trailed after, each one with a gun, while Tomhad his electric weapon. The airship rested on its wheels on somelevel ground, just in front of a large hut, surrounded by a numberof smaller ones. All about were the natives, tall, gaunt black men,hideous in their savagery, wearing only the loin cloth, and withtheir kinky hair stuck full of sticks, bones and other odd objectsthey presented a curious sight.

  Some of them were dancing about, brandishing their weapons--clubsspears, bows, and arrows, or the long, slender blowguns, consistingmerely of a hollow reed. Women and children there were, too, alsodancing and leaping about, howling at the tops of their voices.Above the unearthly din could be heard the noise of the drums andtom-toms, while, as the adventurers drew up in front of theirairship, there came a sort of chant, and a line of natives, dressedfantastically in the skins of beasts, came filing out of the largehut.

  "The witch-doctors!" exclaimed Tom, who had read of them in Africantravel books.

  "Are they going to attack us?" cried Ned.

  "Bless my hymn book! I hope not!" came from Mr. Damon. "We wouldn'thave any chance at all in this horde of black men. I wish EradicateSampson and his mule Boomerang were here. Maybe he could talk theirlanguage, and tell them that we meant no harm."

  "If there's any talking to be done, I guess our guns will have to doit," said Tom grimly.

  "I can speak a little of their language," remarked Mr. Durban, "butwhat in the world are the beggars up to, anyhow? I supposed they'dsend a volley of arrows at us, first shot, but they don't seem to begoing to do that."

  "No, they're dancing around us," said Tom.

  "That's it!" exclaimed Mr. Anderson. "I have it! Why didn't I thinkof it before? The natives are welcoming us!"

  "Welcoming us?" repeated Ned.

  "Yes," went on the missionary seeker. "They are doing a dance in ourhonor, and they have even called out the witch-doctors to do ushomage."

  "That's right," agreed Mr. Durban, who was listening to the chantingof the natives dressed in animal skins. "They take us for spiritsfrom another land, and are making us welcome here. Listen, I'll seeif I can make out what else they are saying."

  The character of the shouts and chants changed abruptly, and thedancing increased in fervor, even the children throwing themselveswildly about. The witch-doctors ran around like so many maniacs, andit looked as much like an American Indian war dance as anythingelse.

  "I've got it!" shouted Mr. Durban, for he had to call loudly to beheard above the din. "They are asking us to make it rain. It seemsthere has been a dry spell here, and their own rain-makers andwitch-doctors haven't been able to get a drop out of the sky. Now,they take it that we have come to help them. They think we are goingto bring rain."

  "And if we don't, what will happen?" asked Tom.

  "Maybe they won't be quite so glad to see us," was the answer.

  "Well, if they don't mean war, we might as well put up our weapons,"suggested Mr. Anderson. "If they're going to be friendly, so muchthe better, and if it should happen to rain while we're here, they'dthink we brought it, and we could have almost anything we wanted.Perhaps they have a store of ivory hidden away, Mr. Durban. Some ofthese tribes do."

  "It's possible, but the chances for rain are very small. How longwill we have to stay here, Tom Swift?" asked the elephant hunteranxiously.

  "Well, perhaps I can get the motor mended in two or three days,"answered the young inventor.

  "Then we'll have to stay here in the meanwhile," decided Mr. Durban."Well, we'll make the best of it. Ha, here comes the native king todo us honor," and, as he spoke there came toward the airship averitable giant of a black man, wearing a leopard skin as a royalgarment, while on his head was a much battered derby hat, probablypurchased at a fabulous price from some trader. The king, if such hecould be called, was accompanied by a number of attendants andwitch-doctors. In front walked a small man, who, as it developed,was an interpreter. The little cavalcade advanced close to theairship, and came to a halt. The king made a low bow, either to thecraft or to the elephant hunters drawn up in front of it. Hisattendants followed his example, and then the interpreter began tospeak.

  Mr. Durban listened intently, made a brief answer to the little man,and then the elephant hunter's face lighted up.

  "It's all right," he said to Tom and the others. "The king takes usfor wonderful spirits from another land. He welcomes us, says we canhave whatever we want, and he begs us to make it rain. I have saidwe will do our best, and I have asked that some food be sent us.That's always the first thing to do. We'll be allowed to stay herein peace until Tom can mend the ship, and then we'll hit the airtrail again."

  The talk between Mr. Durban and the interpreter continued for somelittle time longer. Then the king went back to his hut, refusing, asMr. Durban said, an invitation to come aboard and see how a modernairship was constructed. The natives, too, seemed anxious to givethe craft a wide berth.

  The excitement had quieted down now, and, in a short time a crowd ofnative women came toward the airship, bearing, in baskets on theirheads, food of various kinds. There were bananas, some wild fruits,yams, big gourds of goats' milk, some boiled and stewed flesh ofyoung goats, nicely cooked, and other things, the nature of whichcould only be guessed at.

  "Shall we eat this stuff, or stick to Mr. Damon's cooking?" askedTom.

  "Oh, you'll find this very good," explained Mr. Durban. "I've eatennative cookery before. Some of it is excellent and as this appearsto be very good, Mr. Damon can have a vacation while we are here."

  The old elephant hunter proved the correctness of his statement bybeginning to eat, and soon all the travelers were partaking of thefood left by the native women. They placed it down on the ground ata discreet distance from the airship, and hurriedly withdrew. But ifthe women and men were afraid, the children were not, and they weresoon swarming about the ship, timidly touching the sides with theirlittle black fingers, but not venturing on board.

  Tom, with Ned and Mr. Damon to help him, began work on the motorright after dinner. He found the break to be worse than he hadsupposed, and knew that it would take at least four days to repairit.

  Meanwhile the airship continued to be a source of wonder to thenatives. They were always about it, save at night, but theiradmiration was a respectful one. The king was anxious for therain-making incantations to begin, but Mr. Durban put him off.

  "I don't want to deceive these simple natives," he said, "and forour own safety we can't pretend to make rain, and fail. As soon aswe have a chance we'll slip away from here."

  But an unexpected happening made a change in their plans. It was onthe afternoon of their third day in the native village, and Tom andhis assistants were working hard at the motor. Suddenly there seemedto be great excitement in the vicinity of the king's hut. A nativehad rushed into the village from the jungle, evidently with somenews, for presently the whole place was in a turmoil.

  Once more the king and his attendants filed out toward the airship.Once more the interpreter talked to Mr. Durban, who listenedeagerly.

  "By Jove! here's our chance!" he cried to Tom, when the little manhad finished.

  "What is it?" asked the young inventor.

  "A runner has just come in with news that a large herd of wildelephants is headed this way. The king is afraid the big beasts willtramp
le down all their crops, as often occurs, and he begs us to goout and drive the animals away. It's just what we want. Come on,Tom, and all of you. The airship will be safe here, for the nativesthink that to meddle with it would mean death or enchantment forthen. We'll get on our first elephant trail!"

  The old hunter went into the cabin for his big game gun, while Tomhastened to get out his electric rifle. Now he would have a chanceto try it on the powerful beasts which he had come to Africa tohunt.

  Amid the excited and joyous shouts of the natives, the hunters filedout of the village, led by the dusky messenger who had brought thenews of the elephants. And, as Tom and the others advanced, theycould hear a distant trumpeting, and a crashing in the jungle thattold of the near presence of the great animals.