CHAPTER XI
CAUGHT IN A LIVING ROPE
"Quick! Peg out the mules!" cried San Pedro, after one look at theonrushing horses. "Drive the stakes well down! Tie them fast andthen get behind those rocks! Lively!"
He cried his orders to the natives in Spanish, at the same timemotioning to Tom and Ned.
"Get off your mules!" he went on. "Peg them out. Peg out the others,and then run for it!"
"Run for it?" repeated Tom, "Do you think I'm going to leave myoutfit in the midst of that stampede?" and he waved his hand towardthe thundering, galloping wild horses which were coming nearer everymoment. "Get out the electric rifles, and we'll turn that stampede.I'm not going to run."
"Bless my saddle!" cried Mr. Damon. "This is awful! There must be athousand of them."
"Nearer two!" cried Ned, who was struggling to loosen the strapsthat bound his electric rifle to the side of his mule. Already thepack animals as well as those ridden by the members of the giant-huntingparty were showing signs of excitement. They seemed to want to jointhe stampeding horses.
"Peg our animals out! Peg them out! Make them so they can't join theothers!" yelled San Pedro. "It's our only chance!"
"I believe he's right!" cried Mr. Damon. "Tom, if we wait untilthose maddened brutes are up to us they'll fairly sweep ours alongwith them, and there's no telling where we'll end up. I think we'dbetter follow his advice and tie our mules as strongly as we can.Then we can go over there by the rocks, and fire at the wild horses.We may be able to turn them aside."
"Guess that's right," agreed the young inventor after a moment'sthought. "Come on, Ned. Peg out!"
"Peg out! Peg out!" yelled the natives, and then began a livelyscene. Pegging stakes were in readiness, and, attached to the bridleof each mule was a strong, rawhide rope for tying to the stake. Thepegs were driven deeply into the ground and in a trice the animalswere made fast to them, though they snorted, and tried to pull awayas they heard the neighing of the stampeding animals and saw themcoming on with an irresistible rush.
"Hurry!" begged San Pedro, and hurry Tom, Ned and the others did.Animal after animal was made fast--that is all but one and that boreon its back two rather large but light boxes--the contents of thecase which Tom had rescued from the fire in the hold.
"What are you going to do with that mule?" asked Ned, as he saw Tom beginto lead the animal away, the others having been pegged out.
"I'm going to take him over to the rocks with me. I'm not going totake any chances on this mule getting away with those things in theboxes. Give me a hand here, and then we'll see what the electricrifles will do against those horses."
But the one mule which Tom had elected to take with him seemed toresent being separated from his companions. Bracing his feet wellapart, the animal stubbornly refused to move.
"Come on!" yelled Tom, pulling on the leading rope.
"Bless my porous plaster!" cried Mr. Damon. "You'd better hurry,Tom! Those wild horses are almost on us!"
"I'm trying to hurry!" replied the young inventor, "but this mulewon't come. Ned, get behind and shove, will you?"
"Not much! I don't want to be kicked."
"Beat him! Strike him! Wait until I get a club!" yelled San Pedro."Come, Antonia, Selka, Balaka!" he cried, to several of the nativeswho had already started for the sheltering rocks a short distanceaway. "Beat the mule for Senor Swift!"
Ned joined Tom at the leading rope, and the two lads tried to pullthe animal along. Mr. Damon rushed over to lend his aid, and SanPedro, catching up a long stick, was about to bring it down on themule's back. Meanwhile the stampeding animals were rushing nearer.
"Hold on dere, Massa Tom!" suddenly called Eradicate. "Yo'-all doneflustered dat mule, dat's what yo' done. Yo'-all am too much excited'bout him. Be calm! Be calm!"
"Calm! With that bunch of wild animals bearing down on us?" shoutedTom. "Let's see you be calm, Rad. Come on here, you obstinatebrute!" he cried, straining on the rope.
"Let me do it, Massa Tom. Let me do it," suggested the colored manhurrying to the balky beast.
Then, as gently as if he was talking to a nervous child, and totallyoblivious to the danger of the approaching horses, Eradicate went upto the mule's head, rubbed its ears until they pointed naturallyonce more, murmured something to it, and then, taking the rope fromNed and Tom, Eradicate led the mule along toward the rocks as easilyas if there had never been any question about going there.
"For the love of tripe! How did you do it?" asked Tom.
"Bless my peck of oats!" gasped Mr. Damon. "It's a good thing we hadRad along!"
"All mules am alike," said the colored man with a grin. "An dishyeah one ain't much different from mah Boomerang. I guess he's asorter cousin."
"Come on!" yelled San Pedro. "No time to lose. Make for the rocks!"
Tom, Ned and Mr. Damon sprinted then, and there was need to, for theforemost of the galloping horses was not a hundred feet away. Thencame Eradicate, leading the mule that had at last consented tohurry. The natives, with San Pedro, were already at the rocks,waiting for the white hunters with the deadly electric rifles.
"If they stampede our mules we'll be in a pickle!" murmured Ned.
"I guess those ropes will hold unless they bite them through,"remarked Tom.
"Yes, they sure hold," cried San Pedro, and indeed one had to shoutnow to be heard above the thundering of the horses. Now the tetheredmules were lost to sight in the multitude of the other steeds allabout them.
"Come on, Ned!" yelled Tom, as he sighted his rifle. "Pump it intothem! We must turn them, or they may come over this way, and if theydo it will be all up with us."
"Shoot to kill?" asked Ned, as he drew back the firing lever of hiselectric rifle.
"No, only a stunning charge. Those horses are valuable, and there'sno use killing them. All we want to do is to turn them aside."
"That's right," agreed Mr. Damon, forgetting in the excitement ofthe moment to bless himself or anything. "We'll only stun them."
The rifles were quickly adjusted to send out a comparatively weakcharge of electricity, and then they were trained on the dense massof horses, while the three marksmen began working the firing levers.
At first, though horse after horse fell to the ground, stunned,there was no appreciable effect on the thousands in the drove. Thepoor mules were hidden from sight, though by reason of divisions inthe living stream of animals it could still be told where they weretethered, and where the horses separated to go past them.Fortunately the ropes and pegs held.
"Fire faster!" cried Tom. "Shoot across the front of them, and tryto turn them to one side."
From the rocks, behind which the natives and our friends crouched,there came a steady stream of electric fire. Horse after horse wentdown, stunned but not badly hurt, and in a few hours the beastswould feel no ill effects. The firing was redoubled, and then therecame a break in the steady stream of horseflesh.
Some hesitated and sought to turn back. Others, behind, pressed themon, and then, as if in fear at the unknown and unseen power that waslaying low animal after animal, the great body, of horses, suddenlyturned at right angles to their course and broke away. There werenow two bodies of the wild runaways, those that had passed thetethered mules, and those that had swung off. The stampede had beenbroken.
"That's the stuff!" cried Tom, jumping up from behind the rocks, andswinging his hat. "We've turned them."
"And just in time, too," added Ned, as he joined his chum. Then allthe others leaped up, and the sight of the human beings completedthe scare. The stampeding animals swung off more than before, sothat they were nearly doubling back on their own trail. The othersthundered off, and the ground was strewn with unconscious thoughunharmed animals.
"One mule gone!" cried San Pedro, hastily counting the stilltethered animals which were wildly tugging at their ropes.
"Never mind," spoke Tom, "it's the one with some of that damagedbartering stuff I intended for trading. We can afford to lose that.Rad, is your an
imal all right?"
"He suah am, Massa Tom. Dish yeah mule am almost as sensible asBoomerang, ain't yo'?" and Eradicate patted the big animal he wasleading.
"I'll send a man down the trail, and maybe he can pick up themissing one," said San Pedro, and while the other natives werequieting the restless mules, one tall black man hastened in the wakeof the retreating horses.
He came back in an hour with the missing animal, that had broken itstether rope and then, after running along with the wild horses hadevidently dropped out of the drove. Aside from the loss of a smallbox, there had been no damage done, and the cavalcade was soon underway once more, leaving the motionless horses to recover from theeffects of the electricity.
"Bless my saddle pad!" cried Mr. Damon. "I don't think I want to gothrough anything like that again."
"Neither do I," agreed Tom. "We are well out of it."
"How much you take for one of them rifles?" asked San Pedroadmiringly.
"Not for sale," answered Tom with a laugh.
They camped in a fertile valley that night, and had a much-neededrest. As yet Tom had made no inquiries as to the location of giantland from any of the natives of the villages or towns through whichthey passed. He knew as soon as he did begin asking questions, hisown men would hear of it, and they might be frightened if they knewthey were in an expedition the object of which was to capture someof the tall men.
"We'll just go along for a few days more," said Tom, to Ned, "andthen, when I do spring my surprise, they'll be so far from home thatthey won't dare turn back. In a few days I'll begin makinginquiries."
They traveled on for three days more, ever heading north, and comingmore into the warmer climate. The vegetation began to take on a moretropical look, and finally they reached a region infested with manywild beasts and monkeys, and with patches of dense jungle on eitherside of the narrow trail. Fruits, tropical flowers and birdsabounded.
"I think we're getting there," remarked Tom, on the evening of thethird day after his talk with Ned. "San Pedro says there's quite avillage about half a day's march ahead, and I may learn somethingthere. I'll know by to-morrow whether we are on the right trail ornot."
The natives were getting supper, and Eradicate was busy with a mealfor the three white hunters. Mr. Damon had strolled down to the bankof a little stream, and was looking at some small animals like foxesthat had come for their evening drink. They seemed quite fearless.
Suddenly something long, round and thick seemed to drop down out ofa tree close to the odd gentleman. So swift and noiseless was itthat Mr. Damon never noticed it. Then, like a flash something wentaround him, and he let out a scream of terror.
San Pedro, who was nearest to him, saw and heard. The next instantthe black muleteer came rushing toward the camp, crying:
"He is caught in a rope! Mr. Damon is caught in a rope!"
"A rope!" repeated Ned, not understanding.
"Yes, a rope in a tree. Come quickly!"
Tom caught up one of the electric rifles and rushed forward. Nosooner had he set eyes on his friend, who was writhing about in thefolds of what looked like a big ship cable, then the young inventorcried:
"A rope! Yes, a living rope! That's a big boa constrictor that hasMr. Damon! Get a gun, Ned, and follow me! We must save him before heis crushed to death!"
And the two lads rushed forward while the living rope drew its foldstighter and tighter about the unfortunate man.