CHAPTER XIV
THE OVERHEAD PATH
"We were stopped by ants," said Mr. Hume, in explanation.
"By ants!"
"No less. I missed you not long after we had started, and passed theword on to the others to turn back. And in the mean time an army ofmarching ants had cut the line of communications.
"Couldn't you sweep them aside, or jump over?"
"I did not venture to try, my boy. I did try climbing across fromtree to tree, but their skirmishers were everywhere. As for jumpingacross, I took the chiefs word for it, that the feat was impossible.Once that kind of ant gets a grip, he does not let go, except withthe morsel he has fastened on to. And there were millions!"
"I can hardly imagine you were stopped by ants," said Compton.
"The ground before us was alive as far as we could see, and red. Itwas like standing on the bank of a river, and the myriads went onthrough the day until dusk. I have seen swarms of locusts on themarch in the voetganger stage, and a large swarm will cover a lengthof three miles, but never would I have believed so many livingthings could gather together."
Compton laughed again. "Held up by an army of ants! I can't get theidea."
Mr. Hume rolled back his sleeves, and there were red marks fromwrist to shoulder.
"And that was done only by the scouts on the tree I attempted toclimb. Muata says they have put whole villages to flight."
"Eweh," said the chief, "and even the elephant will turn from theirpath, else would they get into his ears, his trunk, and to the softparts between his legs, biting each a little piece of skin. Theyfear nothing. Death to them is nothing. I have seen them stop a fireby the numbers of dead they heaped upon it in their march."
"So we had to wait, and it was not a pleasant time for me. But,thank goodness, you are safe--aye, and safe, thanks to your ownpluck."
"Dick did it all," said Venning. "I seemed to get dizzy all atonce."
"I am not surprised," said Mr. Hume, looking grave; "and I think weought to go back. The air is too heavy."
"After a good sleep I shall feel better," said Venning.
"It would be too bad to turn back."
"It would be too bad if you fell ill."
"What do you say, Muata?"
Muata lifted his hand. "Those who would cross the forest must be ofthe forest. Who are the people of the forest? Not those who live inthe plains. Even the river-people are afraid to go far in. What arethe creatures of the forest? They are those born among the trees,and those who dwell in the open seldom enter into the darkness andthe quiet of the wood."
"Yet," said Compton, "there are people of the forest, and animalsalso, and they live." "For them are the trees."
"But when they go about they must travel under the trees."
"That is your word," said the chief. "But it must be so."
"Muata is right," said Mr. Hume. "We have only entered the fringe,and already we are different people. The lungs cry for pure air."
"Yet there is a way," said Muata; and his eyes fell upon the tawnyhide of the tree-lion. "How, chief?"
"On top of the trees, not under!" cried Venning, who had seen thatthe chief was working up to some point.
Muata spread out his fingers gravely. "Even so," he said. "There arepaths on the tree-tops known to the little people, and made by them.Maybe they will let us travel also by them."
The others stared at the chief in amazement; and even Venning, inspite of his intelligent anticipation, was too surprised to speak.
"There you can look upon the sky; there the wind blows fresh."
They looked up at the roof of branches, and then around into thesombre aisles.
"And where are the little people?" Muata smiled. "Who knows? Theycome like shadows, and like shadows they go. Even now they may benear watching to see if we are friends or enemies."
"You would not tell us an idle tale, chief. Let us hear what is inyour mind."
"Stay here, my friends, while I seek the little men. Maybe, if Ifind them, they will put us on our way; but if I fail, then my wordis that you go back to the river, lest the sickness of the woodscome upon you."
"We will wait; but I have seen no signs of the little men. They maybe far and difficult to find."
"They have watched us all the way," said Muata, calmly; "and it wasin my heart that they had fallen upon the young chiefs in thenight."
"Glad we didn't know," said Compton, thoughtfully.
Muata went off on his self-appointed task, and the white men felt,as they saw him disappear, how impossible it was for them to copewith the mystery of the forest. They were even more helpless thancastaways at sea without a compass; for at sea in the day there isthe clear sweep to the horizon miles away, while in the forest allthey could be certain of was a little circle with a radius of lessthan fifty yards. Beyond that was the unknown, because unseen--avague blur of trees that might be sheltering wild animals or savagemen. And what made their helplessness the more felt, was theknowledge that Muata knew so much, and that others--the mysteriouspigmies--knew still more. If there had been open glades, stretchesof greensward, rippling brooks, or even a hard clean carpet such asis found under a pine forest, they would have been undismayed; butthis gloomy, shrouded fastness, without glimpse of sunbeams, wasbecoming a nightmare.
Yet it would never do to become a prey to depression, for there isno danger so fatal to the explorer as low spirits, the forerunner ofsickness.
By common consent they fought against a strong fit of the blues. Mr.Hume and Compton held a consultation over Venning, examined him,doctored him, and put him through the ordeal of a Turkish bathroughly made with the aid of the oil-sheets. After that he wasrolled up in blankets and left to slumber. Compton was next treatedin the same way, and then Mr. Hume busied himself with his note-book.
When the boys woke up in the afternoon, much refreshed, Muata hadreturned.
"Fall in, lads."
"Has he found them?" and the boys were up and glancing round for thepigmies.
"Yes; we are to go 'upstairs' at once."
"But where are they?"
"The little people have gone on," said Muata. "They will spy out onthe man-eaters."
"You really did find them?"
"Ow aye; they know Muata. They and I have been on the path before,else they would have fallen on the young chiefs in the night--forthey saw. The killing of the fierce ones much rejoiced them. Itopened their lips about the upper way."
"We are ready," said Compton, "for the upper way--for the trapezeand the aerial flight."
Muata struck off into the woods, and the rest crowded on him,glancing up at every tree for signs of the new track.
"Behold the road," said the chief, showing his white teeth in a raresmile, as he caught in his hand a trailing vine that swung clearfrom the neighbouring growth, and reached up forty feet or so to athick branch.
"Are we to swarm up that?"
Muata nodded.
"And what will you do with the jackal?"
The chief turned a look of disgust at his bloated ally. "He willfollow underneath;" and reaching up, tie went hand over hand, usinghis toes very much like fingers to help. Then he lowered a ropewhich he had coiled round his waist; and Mr. Hume, putting the loopunder his arm, trusted his weight to the swaying vine. Venning andCompton followed, with the help of the rope, but the river-mandeclined. He preferred to travel on the firm ground with the jackal.From the branch the four passed to the fork of the tree and held on.
"I don't see any path," said Venning.
"Nothing in the shape of a foot-bridge that I can see; and it wouldnot be quite safe to fall, would it?" replied Compton, as he glanceddown.
Muata went on up into the topmost branches, and, when they followedhim, they found a small platform of saplings lashed to the branchesby vines, and from this vantage they looked out over a wonderful seaof leaves, reaching unbroken as far as eye could reach, with billowsand hollows, patches of light and shade, and splashes of colourwhere red flowers g
leamed. And it was good to see the domed sky, thewhite clouds racing low, with shadows moving swiftly over that seaof leaves; to see the flight of birds, and to hear the voices ofliving things.
The tree on which they stood was very tall, but there were others astall, standing up like rocks out of the sea; and when they grewaccustomed to the strange surroundings, they saw something peculiarin the shape of these tree islands. They were cleft through thecentre, leaving a narrow passage, quite distinct to any one standingin line--as they were, for instance--with the domed head of a talltree about three hundred yards away.
"That is our way," said Muata.
"But where is the foothold?"
Muata pointed to notches cut in a lateral branch, and walked to theend of it, steadying himself by holding to a guiding branch above;then passed over the slight intervening distance between the lastnotch and the next tree by swinging on a vine tendril, otherwise a"monkey-rope."
The others followed very gingerly, for the feat was like walking ona yard-arm, but each in turn reached the farther tree. After alittle, as they went on, now walking, now swinging, they all wereable to pick up the singular track by the notches, by the lay of thelateral branches, and by the absence of projecting twigs along thecourse. These had all been cut back, leaving a sort of tunnel, noteasily discernible, however, because of its undulating character toaccommodate itself to the varying height of the trees. They verysoon found two obstacles in the way of easy progress, due to thesmall size of the engineers who had designed this extraordinaryroad. In the first place, the notches on the branches were toosmall; and in the next, the tunnel was too low for their height, sothat they had to stoop; while it was also evident that the overlandswing-bridges between the trees were too frail for their weight.They quickly, therefore, resorted to their Ghoorka knives and to therope. Venning, being the lightest, crossed over first by the monkeyvine-bridge, when he made the rope fast to his end. It was thensecured at the other, enabling the heavy weights, Mr. Hume and thechief, to pass next, Compton bringing up the rear with the roperound his waist, to guard against a fall in case of accident.Naturally, their progress was at first very slow, though not so muchslower than it would have been had they to force a way through theundergrowth below; and the river-man found his work cut out to keeppace underneath when at times he encountered dense thickets.
By the time they had covered the three hundred yards and reached thenext platform, they were finding their "tree-legs."
They stopped a while to take their bearings, looking out on the sameunbroken expanse of tree-tops, tossed up into all manner ofinequalities, and then recommenced their acrobatic, performance,making for the next "station." With a few slips, a few scratches,and bruised shins, they kept on until they had covered about a mile,when the growing dusk warned them to form camp.
"We'd better go down below," said Mr. Hume.
"Not I," said Venning. "I had enough of down below last night; I'mgoing to sleep on deck, sir."
"Ditto," said Compton, emphatically; "and I don't see why we allshould not camp out aloft. We could easily widen the platform, rigup the waterproof sheets as a tent, and haul up some mould to make afireplace."
The idea was acted upon vigorously, the platform widened andstrengthened, the roof pitched, the mould hauled up in a bag madeout of one of the leopard skins, and the fire lit upon a foundationso made. They roosted high and secure, but they could not claim inthe morning that they had passed a pleasant night, for the bed washard, the space cramped, and each one dreamt he was falling off atremendously high perch. Moreover, sound travelled more freely upabove, and, in place of the brooding silence of the under-world,there were many strange noises up aloft, the most menacing being anoccasional booming roar, which they recognized as the cry of thegorilla.
The morning was wet as usual, and heavy clouds trailed over theforest like a leaden mist on the sea. They crouched under the tent,listening to the drip, drip, drip, and filling their water-bottlesfrom the tricklings. About ten the clouds lifted, and then the sundrove his arrows through until, almost in a twinkling, the great wetblanket rolled itself up and vanished swiftly into the horizon,leaving behind the sparkling of myriad raindrops on the leaves. Thenfor an hour the forest steamed, as the sun licked the drops off theroof and chased the moisture along the boughs. When the way wasdried for them, they went on, going barefooted this time, for thebetter grip to be obtained.
Other creatures had waited for the drying of the leaves besidethemselves, and whenever they passed the white-grey branches of awild fig tree, they were treated to a scolding from green parrots onthe feed, and heard frequently the clapping report of the wood-pigeons as they brought their wings together, and the harsh cry ofthe toucans. Oh yes, there was life and there was death.
Venning, going on ahead, saw below him in the fork of a tree theface of a monkey, with the eyes closed as if in sleep. He stopped tolook, stooping his head, and his eyes caught a slight movement. Thenhe saw that the sleeping monkey was cradled in the coils of a pythonresting in the forks of the tree, its head raised a little, and itstail gripping a branch. The head of the monkey rested peacefully onone of the black and yellow coils, for death had come upon itswiftly.
"What do you look at?" asked Muata, bending forward.
"Shall I shoot?
"So," muttered the chief. "It is the silent hunter. Let him be; lethim be, and pass on. No other looks at man as he looks. It is hiskill; pass on."
They passed on, leaving the "silent hunter" with the monkey, thatlooked as if he slept, and silent and motionless he remained as eachone paused to glance down, his dull, unwinking yellow eyes showinglike coloured glass in the lifted head.
"Look well," said Muata, warningly; "where there is one, there willbe another near. The silent ones hunt in couples."
"Would they attack men?"
"Ask the 'little' people."
"But they are no bigger than monkeys."
"There is the monkey bigger than man, and he, too, must give way tothe silent hunter."
"What! Is the gorilla afraid of the python?"
"Between the ape and the serpent there is always war. See where youplace your foot then, for you travel the monkey-path, and we go handand foot like monkeys. Look well where you place your hand, for astraight branch may be the body of the silent hunter."
Venning went on with renewed caution, studying the branches aboveand below, for, lover as he was of all manner of live things, he hadthe common repugnance to the serpent-kind. But the trees wereinnocent of guile, and presently some other object claimed hisabsorbed attention, no less than an old man gorilla, who thrust hisblack head above a tree-top a little way off, and violently shookthe branches. At the noise every one stopped and peered out.
"Look!" he shouted.
"By Jove, a gorilla!" cried Compton, from the rear.
The great head was thrust forward, with its low black forehead andblacker muzzle; then they saw the whites of the eyelids as thefierce creature swiftly raised and lowered its brows; then the gleamof the great tusks as the mouth opened to emit a tremendous roar.The branches cracked under its grip as it shook them again beforedisappearing. Mr. Hume unslung his rifle and planted himself firmly,for, from the sound, it seemed as if the great ape were comingstraight for them. But the noise of its progress ceased, and, aftera long wait, the march was resumed. They kept a very keen outlook,and at times stopped to listen, but apparently the gorilla hadvanished. Yet many were the startled looks whenever the least soundbroke on their ears, for the face of the great ape, suddenly thrustinto view, was a terrifying object.
"Halloa!" said Venning, pulling up, "the path seems to end here.See, the branch is broken off; and there is no swing-bridge. Yet thetrack did go straight on, for you can see the old marks acrossthere."
"Wow!" said Muata, as his dark eyes swiftly took in the details.
"If I climbed up that branch, I think I could get into the othertree, and you could then use the rope."
"What is it now?" asked Mr. Hume.
br /> "They have cut the track," said the chief; "and it is as I thought,they have gone down from this tree to the ground, maybe to climb upfurther on."
"Why?"
"Maybe a man has fallen to the ground here--who can say; or thestinging ants have made a home. That tree beyond is taboo to thelittle people, and we also will go down here."
"What's the good?" said Venning, beginning to climb up.
"No, no," said Mr. Hume. "We must leave this to the chief;" and heturned to descend.
Venning, however, was standing well placed for a swing, and he lethimself go, reaching out with his left hand for another hold, andgaining the other side easily. Compton, of course, followed, and thetwo stood examining the tree for sign of the path. The trackcertainly had gone through that tree, but there were no signs ofrecent passage, and moss had grown over the branches. They calleddown that they were going on, and, passing across several trees,found themselves once more cut off from the next tree, on which thewell-beaten track once again ran on.
"Here's the place," they shouted, to guide the others; then lookedabout to see how they were to cross.
"We'll have to shin down," said Compton, "for there's no crossinghere."
Venning sat down astride a branch with his back to the trunk.
"May as well rest awhile till they come up."
"That's a queer-looking branch underneath," said Compton, followingsuit, and dropping a piece of bark on a bough that had attracted hisattention. "It's covered all over with little squares of velvetmoss. See!"
"Suppose we lower our guns by the rope, then we can swarm downeasily," replied Venning, who had seen too many branches to beinterested; and passing the rope round the two rifles, he loweredthem to the ground, letting the rope follow.
"I believe it's moving, or else I've got fever or something."
"What's moving?"
"That;" and Compton pointed down.
"By Jenkins!" muttered Venning; and the two knitted their brows asthey peered down into the shadows, for the branch certainly wasmoving, and moving away as if it meant to part company with thetrunk. Their glances ran along the branch outwards, and then theireyes suddenly dilated, and their bodies stiffened.
So they stood like images, their hands clasping a branch, theirheads thrust forward, and their eyes staring. On the same level withtheir heads and about twelve feet off was the head of that moving"branch," square-nosed, wedge-shaped, with the line of the jawsrunning right round to the broad part under the eyes, and a black-forked tongue flickering through an opening beneath the nostrils, Itwas the fixed stare of the lidless eyes, and the rigid position ofthe grim head poised in mid air on a neck that began like themuscular wrist of an athlete, thickening to where it was anchored ona branch three feet away to the size of an athlete's leg. And whilethe head, with the three feet of neck remained rigid, the body wasgliding out and up, finding an anchorage in the forks of the tree ona level with the head, in readiness for the attack.
With an effort they drew their eyes away from that cold glance thatheld them almost paralyzed and glanced down. Beyond, the lightbranches shook as the huge coils passed over them. Such coils! Asthey moved into the sunlight they saw the glitter of the scales andthe ridges of the muscles, and the movement was like the movement ofseveral serpents instead of one.
Venning looked again at the motionless head. "When it has gatheredits length behind and above its head," he said slowly, "it willstrike."
"And you dropped the guns!"
"No one can stare a snake out--no one," said Venning; and his eyeswere fixed.
"How far can it strike?"
"It has no lids to its eyes. It just looks and looks. Compton!"
Compton took Venning by the arm and shook him. "Come on," he cried."What are we standing here for?"
But as he spoke his eyes went up involuntarily, and his pupilsexpanded.
"It's coming closer," he whispered.
"And its eyes are brighter." Venning shut his eyes, and gripped hiscompanion.
They swayed, and just managed to save themselves from a headlongfall by grasping a branch. The shock restored them, and the nextminute they had swung themselves up on to the branch, and from thatto the next. It was done in an instant, but when they cast abreathless look down, they saw the unwinking eyes looking up atthem from the very spot they had just left. The snake had a doublecoil round the branch that had supported them, while the huge bodybridged the distance to the branches from which the blow had beendelivered just a moment too late. As they looked, the hinder partof the body fell with a thud against the tree-trunk, and began toripple up.
"Back," said Compton, "to the next tree."
They darted to the vine-bridge, swung over, then stopped to see ifthe snake would follow.
"The monkey-rope would never bear its weight," said Venning.
"Can you hear it? By Jove, I feel all of a jump. I felt as if I hadto stand there and watch it come right up."
"Ugh!" said Compton. "It was awful. Get ready to run. I see it--overthere--just opposite; it's going up--no, down. I say, it will chaseus from underneath. Come on!"
Venning went a little lower, the better to see the ground.
"Hi! underneath, Mr. Hume! Muata! Hi! Coo-ee!"
"Halloa! What is it?"
"A snake! He's going down the next tree to this. Look out!"
"All right; but you will find it safer down here."
They were of that same opinion, and were down with a run, that tooksome of the bark off their shins, as well as off the trees.
"And where are your guns?"
"Dropped them," said Compton.
"I see. Dropped them first, and discovered your danger after."
"Rub it in, sir. We ought to have followed you; and we have had afine fright. It's big enough to scare any one."
All the time, they had their eyes turned up on the watch for theslightest movement, but the tree was as quiet as if it had notharboured anything more dangerous than a caterpillar.
"Where's Muata and the other boy, sir?"
"Gone after a red bush-pig. I think I hear them breaking back."
They heard the hunting cry of the jackal, then a sound of crashing,and an animal, brick-red--a strange hue for the sombre shadows ofthe forest--darted into view, and seeing them, halted with snoutlowered, and the bristling neck curving up grandly to the highshoulders. A moment it stood there facing them, defiant, its littleeyes gleaming, its tusks showing white, and the foam dripping fromits jaws. A moment, and then it sank to the ground, and was hiddenunder a writhing mound of coils. Swift as an arrow the python hadswooped at the prey, fastened on the neck with its jaws, and thenoverwhelmed it by the avalanche of its enormous length. Therefollowed a sickening crunch of bones, and next a wild cry from thejackal, repeated by Muata and the river-man.
Mr. Hume advanced with his Express ready, but Muata, running round,begged him not to fire.
"It is the father of the wood-spirits. He took the red pig insteadof one of us."
"Not for the want of trying," said Venning. "He nearly had us both,Muata."
"But he took the pig," said Muata. "It is his hunt, and it meanswell for us that he took the pig."
"It certainly does; but how are we to get our guns, if we don'tshoot him?"
Muata placed his weapon on the ground and advanced. The python hadcompleted its work so far. Two vast coils were round the crushedbody of the boar; the head rested on the upmost coil, with the eyesfixed on the intruders, and the rest of the body reached away intothe shadows.
Muata advanced with the palms of his hands open, and his eyesdowncast, as if he were in the presence of some great chief. Yet heshowed no fear, never faltered, but walked up to the guns, pickedthem up within a foot of the spot where the length of the serpenthad formed a loop, and returned. The lidless eyes watched, but not acoil moved.
"It is well," said Muata, gravely, as he returned the rifles. "Hemeans well by us."
"You would not have said that if you had been up the tree
with us,and with him," grumbled Compton.
"The tree is taboo. I said it."
"Do you mean that he lives here? I should think he would starve."
"That would be your word, young great one. But, see, look at myfather there. He is big, very big, very heavy, very old. He does notcare to move far. Yet he is wise. So he has chosen his hunt; and hehas chosen well."
"I cannot see it. The little people give him a wide berth, and a pigmight come along once a year."
"Such is your wisdom, little great one. But, see, in the trees abovethere is a roadway, and on the ground below there are other pathsfor the things of the forest who neither fly nor climb. These treeslie in the way of such a road. On the ground, if you had looked youwould have seen the spoor of the red pig and other things of theforest."
"By Jove, yes!" and the boys stared at the unfamiliar spoor ofanimals. "But why do they use this particular part of the forest?"
"That we shall see, for our way lies now along this ground-path. Thelittle people have done their tracking. The man-eaters are near."