Cinq semaines en ballon. English
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVENTH.
The Western Route.--Joe wakes up.--His Obstinacy.--End of Joe'sNarrative.--Tagelei.--Kennedy's Anxieties.--The Route to the North.--ANight near Aghades.
During the night the wind lulled as though reposing after theboisterousness of the day, and the Victoria remained quietly at the topof the tall sycamore. The doctor and Kennedy kept watch by turns, andJoe availed himself of the chance to sleep most sturdily for twenty-fourhours at a stretch.
"That's the remedy he needs," said Dr. Ferguson. "Nature will takecharge of his care."
With the dawn the wind sprang up again in quite strong, and moreovercapricious gusts. It shifted abruptly from south to north, but finallythe Victoria was carried away by it toward the west.
The doctor, map in hand, recognized the kingdom of Damerghou, anundulating region of great fertility, in which the huts that compose thevillages are constructed of long reeds interwoven with branches of theasclepia. The grain-mills were seen raised in the cultivated fields,upon small scaffoldings or platforms, to keep them out of the reach ofthe mice and the huge ants of that country.
They soon passed the town of Zinder, recognized by its spacious placeof execution, in the centre of which stands the "tree of death." Atits foot the executioner stands waiting, and whoever passes beneath itsshadow 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 jollycountenance from between the curtains of the awning.
"There he is! there's our gallant friend--our preserver!" exclaimedKennedy, cordially.--"How goes it, Joe?"
"Oh! why, naturally enough, Mr. Kennedy, very naturally! I never feltbetter in my life! Nothing sets a man up like a little pleasure-tripwith a bath in Lake Tchad to start on--eh, doctor?"
"Brave fellow!" said Ferguson, pressing Joe's hand, "what terribleanxiety you caused us!"
"Humph! and you, sir? Do you think that I felt easy in my mind aboutyou, gentlemen? You gave me a fine fright, let me tell you!"
"We shall never agree in the world, Joe, if you take things in thatstyle."
"I see that his tumble hasn't changed him a bit," added Kennedy.
"Your devotion and self-forgetfulness were sublime, my brave lad, andthey saved us, for the Victoria was falling into the lake, and, oncethere, nobody could have extricated her."
"But, if my devotion, as you are pleased to call my summerset, savedyou, did it not save me too, for here we are, all three of us, infirst-rate health? Consequently we have nothing to squabble about in thewhole affair."
"Oh! we can never come to a settlement with that youth," said thesportsman.
"The best way to settle it," replied Joe, "is to say nothing more aboutthe 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 tocook this fat goose to a turn, for I see that Mr. Kennedy has not wastedhis time."
"All right, Joe!"
"Well, let us see then how this African game will sit on a Europeanstomach!"
The goose was soon roasted by the flame of the blow-pipe, and not longafterward was comfortably stowed away. Joe took his own good share,like a man who had eaten nothing for several days. After the tea and thepunch, he acquainted his friends with his recent adventures. Hespoke with some emotion, even while looking at things with his usualphilosophy. The doctor could not refrain from frequently pressing hishand when he saw his worthy servant more considerate of his master'ssafety than of his own, and, in relation to the sinking of the islandof the Biddiomahs, he explained to him the frequency of this phenomenonupon 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, Imade a hard fight for it. How, I couldn't tell you--but I'd made up mymind that I wouldn't go under without knowing why. Just then, I saw--twoor three feet from me--what do you think? the end of a rope that hadbeen fresh cut; so I took leave to make another jerk, and, by hook orby crook, I got to the rope. When I pulled, it didn't give; so I pulledagain and hauled away and there I was on dry ground! At the end ofthe rope, I found an anchor! Ah, master, I've a right to call that theanchor of safety, anyhow, if you have no objection. I knew it again! Itwas the anchor of the Victoria! You had grounded there! So I followedthe direction of the rope and that gave me your direction, and, aftertrying hard a few times more, I got out of the swamp. I had got mystrength back with my spunk, and I walked on part of the night awayfrom the lake, until I got to the edge of a very big wood. There I saw afenced-in place, where some horses were grazing, without thinking of anyharm. Now, there are times when everybody knows how to ride a horse, arethere not, doctor? So I didn't spend much time thinking about it, butjumped right on the back of one of those innocent animals and away wewent galloping north as fast as our legs could carry us. I needn't tellyou about the towns that I didn't see nor the villages that I tookgood care to go around. No! I crossed the ploughed fields; I leapedthe hedges; I scrambled over the fences; I dug my heels into my nag; Ithrashed him; I fairly lifted the poor fellow off his feet! At last Igot to the end of the tilled land. Good! There was the desert. 'Thatsuits me!' said I, 'for I can see better ahead of me and farther too.' Iwas hoping all the time to see the balloon tacking about and waiting forme. But not a bit of it; and so, in about three hours, I go plump, likea 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 huntedhimself! Still I advise him not to try it if he can keep out of it! Myhorse was so tired, he was ready to drop off his legs; they were closeon me; I threw myself to the ground; then I jumped up again behind anArab! I didn't mean the fellow any harm, and I hope he has no grudgeagainst 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, asa 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 theworld! I'm ready to begin over again, if it would be of any serviceto you. And besides, master, as I said a while ago, it's not worthmentioning."
"My noble, gallant Joe!" said the doctor, with great feeling. "Heart ofgold! we were not astray in trusting to your intelligence and skill."
"Poh! doctor, one has only just to follow things along as they happen,and he can always work his way out of a scrape! The safest plan, yousee, is to take matters as they come."
While Joe was telling his experience, the balloon had rapidly passedover a long reach of country, and Kennedy soon pointed out on thehorizon a collection of structures that looked like a town. The doctorglanced at his map and recognized the place as the large village ofTagelei, in the Damerghou country.
"Here," said he, "we come upon Dr. Barth's route. It was at this placethat he parted from his companions, Richardson and Overweg; the firstwas to follow the Zinder route, and the second that of Maradi; and youmay remember that, of these three travellers, Barth was the only one whoever returned to Europe."
"Then," said Kennedy, following out on the map the direction of theVictoria, "we are going due north."
"Due north, Dick."
"And don't that give you a little uneasiness?"
"Why should it?"
"Because that line leads to Tripoli, and over the Great Desert."
"Oh, we shall not go so far as that, my friend--at least, I hope not."
"But where do you expect to halt?"
"Come, Dick, don't you feel some curiosity to see Timbuctoo?"
"Timbuctoo?"
&
nbsp; "Certainly," said Joe; "nobody nowadays can think of making the trip toAfrica without going to see Timbuctoo."
"You will be only the fifth or sixth European who has ever set eyes onthat mysterious city."
"Ho, then, for Timbuctoo!"
"Well, then, let us try to get as far as between the seventeenth andeighteenth degrees of north latitude, and there we will seek a favorablewind to carry us westward."
"Good!" said the hunter. "But have we still far to go to the northward?"
"One hundred and fifty miles at least."
"In that case," said Kennedy, "I'll turn in and sleep a bit."
"Sleep, sir; sleep!" urged Joe. "And you, doctor, do the same yourself:you must have need of rest, for I made you keep watch a little out oftime."
The sportsman stretched himself under the awning; but Ferguson, who wasnot easily conquered by fatigue, remained at his post.
In about three hours the Victoria was crossing with extreme rapidityan expanse of stony country, with ranges of lofty, naked mountains ofgranitic formation at the base. A few isolated peaks attained the heightof even four thousand feet. Giraffes, antelopes, and ostriches were seenrunning and bounding with marvellous agility in the midst of forests ofacacias, mimosas, souahs, and date-trees. After the barrenness of thedesert, vegetation was now resuming its empire. This was the country ofthe Kailouas, who veil their faces with a bandage of cotton, like theirdangerous neighbors, the Touaregs.
At ten o'clock in the evening, after a splendid trip of two hundred andfifty miles, the Victoria halted over an important town. The moonlightrevealed glimpses of one district half in ruins; and some pinnacles ofmosques and minarets shot up here and there, glistening in the silveryrays. The doctor took a stellar observation, and discovered that he wasin the latitude of Aghades.
This city, once the seat of an immense trade, was already falling intoruin when Dr. Barth visited it.
The Victoria, not being seen in the obscurity of night, descended abouttwo miles above Aghades, in a field of millet. The night was calm, andbegan to break into dawn about three o'clock A.M.; while a light windcoaxed the balloon westward, and even a little toward the south.
Dr. Ferguson hastened to avail himself of such good fortune, and rapidlyascending resumed his aerial journey amid a long wake of golden morningsunshine.