CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
DICK TRIES THE VEGETABLE FISH-HOOKS.
Directly breakfast was over they started--this time without Dinny, whoseemed to be very nervous for fear he should be asked to go--to get someof the honey, Coffee and Chicory each carrying a zinc pail, and theGeneral a small tub.
Long before they reached the patch of forest-trees the little bird camefluttering and twittering about them, having apparently forgiven theirpast neglect, and then went on, and flew from bush to bush, leading themstraight to the big trees, perching as before upon one close by, andthen silently watching the manoeuvres of the party.
The General was about to take the lead, but Coffee and Chicory utteredsuch a strong protest in their native tongue, that he smilingly handedhis hatchet to Coffee; while Chicory collected some tolerably dry peatygrowth, struck a light and set it on fire, causing a dense cloud ofsmoke to rise up round the tree that contained the wild honey, andstupefying and suffocating the bees that flew to and fro.
The boys grinned with delight at their task, and danced about, heapingup the smoke-producing leaves and stalks, till feeling satisfied thatthey might ascend, there was a bit of an altercation as to who shouldgo, ending in Chicory giving way to his brother as he had been ill.
Coffee then took the axe and stuck it in his loin-cloth, and a patch ofburning turf in his hand. Then nimbly climbed up to the hole, where heheld the smoking turf before him, to keep off the bees from his nakedbody, and clinging tightly with his legs, he proceeded to ply the axe sovigorously, and with such skill, that the rotten bark soon gave way, thetree being little more than a shell, and he laid bare range upon rangeof the beautiful comb.
A little more tearing away of the bark was necessary, and then Coffeedescended for a pail and a knife, dispensing now with his burning turf,and going up to return with the pail full of delicious comb.
This was turned into the General's tub, and the boy ascended again,filled his pail and descended, and once more going up filled the other.
The General then solemnly took a piece of the comb and placed it in thefork of a tree for the honey-guide, assuring those who looked on, thatit was necessary to propitiate the bird and pay it for its services--aplan of which the little thing seemed highly to approve, for it flew tothe comb at once, and began to feed.
Enough having been procured to fill the pails and tub, Chicory,evidently approving of his brother's sticky state, went up the tree inturn, and cut out three combs for present use, offering some to each ofhis masters, and then dividing the remainder between his father,brother, and self.
In fact, after removing to a little distance from the hive-tree, all satdown and had a good feast of the delicious honey, Coffee and Chicorygrinning with delight as they munched up the wax and sweet together.
"Well, of all the sticky objects I ever saw, they beat everything," saidDick, laughing. "Why, Coffee's all over honey."
"Yes, tick all over," said the boy, rubbing his finger down his chest,and then sucking it, for he had got to be pretty thickly smeared incarrying the honey down.
"Didn't the bees sting?" said Jack.
"Only tiddlum's back;" said Coffee, giving himself a writhe.
"Yes, tiddlum's back," said Chicory, applying honey to three or fourplaces upon his arms. "Don't mind."
"No, don't mind," assented Coffee; and they filled their mouths full ofhoney and wax and cried, "Good, good, good."
They had spent so long over the journey for the honey that evening wascoming on fast as they began to ride slowly back, Dick and Jack makingexcursions here and there in search of something fresh as they crossed abushy plain strewn with great masses of stone, which rendered theirprogress very slow, any attempt at a trot or canter being absolutelymadness, unless they wished to lame their steeds.
"I wish we had got father's glasses," said Jack, "we might have seensomething from this high ground."
"I have got them," said Dick, gazing through the binocular at theprospect of undulating plain, across which his father and the Zulu weremaking their way now, quite a mile in advance. "I've got them, but Ican only see some quagga right over yonder."
"I can see something close by," cried Jack, pointing at a tall, dimlyseen object that slowly passed out of a clump of bushes, and then wentslowly forward into another.
"What can you see?" said Dick.
"Giraffe!" cried Jack.
"Nonsense! Where?"
"It just went into that clump of bushes there. Come on."
"No," said Dick, "father's making signals for us to go to him."
"But it's such a pity to miss a chance," cried Jack, unslinging hisrifle.
"Yes," said Dick, "so it is, but I shouldn't like father to think we didnot attend to his signals. Mark the clump. There, we shall know it bythese stones on this high ground; and--yes, Jack, you're right. Thatmust be a giraffe."
They stood watching the tall neck passing amongst the bushes, but it wasgetting very dark now, and they hurried on, so as to overtake thehoney-bearers, reaching camp afterwards quite safely, where, over theirlate dinner, the coming of the giraffes was discussed.
"I'd have breakfast at daybreak, boys, if I were you," said Mr Rogers,"and be off directly after."
"But you'll come too, father?" said Jack.
"No, my boys, I thought you would like to have a hunt by yourselves,"said Mr Rogers; when, seeing how disappointed the lads looked, heconsented to come.
The General stopped to keep the camp, and Coffee and Chicory seemedterribly disappointed at not being of the party; but upon receivingpermission to take the dogs for a run, and a hunt all to themselves,they brightened up, and saw their masters go off without a murmur.
It was a ride of some hours' duration to get to the high ground wherethe giraffe had been seen, the fact of there being one, Mr Rogers said,showing that there was a little herd somewhere close by, and so itproved, for after cautiously approaching the place, riding with thegreatest care, so as to avoid the great masses of stone hidden amongstthe grass, three tall heads were seen peering about in a patch of treesquite half a mile away.
A quiet approach was contrived, the hunters making, their way round tothe far side of the clump of bushes, where some higher trees shelteredtheir approach--very barely though, for the giraffe's long necks enabledthem to peer over bushes and saplings of no mean height.
But for this shelter the little herd would have been off at once, andthey could have followed them at little better than a walk, on accountof the rough stones and masses of rock.
Practice had made them skilful at stalking, and keeping pretty closetogether, they gradually approached the patch of tall growth, when, inobedience to a signal from Mr Rogers, they separated, Dick and Jackgoing in opposite directions, and Mr Rogers waiting for a few momentsto let the boys get a start, and then entering the bush himself.
So well had the arrangement been timed, that father and sons mettogether just upon the other side, staring the one at the other.
"Why, where are the giraffes?" cried Jack.
"Yes, where are they?" said Dick, looking at his father, as if hethought he had taken them away. "Haven't you seen them?"
"Not I," said Mr Rogers, laughing. "Why, boys, we must be sharper thanthis another time."
"But when did they go?" cried Dick.
"I cannot tell," replied his father, "unless it was when we were out ofsight. They must have suspected danger, and gone off at full speed."
"What's to be done now then?" said Jack.
"Get up to the top of the nearest hill, and look round with the glass,"suggested Dick; and this was so evidently the best plan, that theystarted for an eminence about a mile away.
Here they had not been a moment, and Mr Rogers had not had time to getout the glass, before Jack cried,--
"There they go: I see them: scudding along through those bushes in thehollow there."
Stalking having proved unsuccessful the last time, they almost gave itup on this occasion, save that they trotted down
the side of the hillaway from the giraffes, and then cantered on so as to reach the samepoint as that for which the giraffes seemed to be making a long sweep ofopen plain, where they could put their horses to full speed.
This time the giraffes were in sight as they rounded the corner of thehill, and shouting to the boys to each pick out one, Mr Rogers pushedhis horse forward, and selecting the tallest of the herd, galloped on tocut it off from the rest of the herd.
This needed little care, for the tall ungainly beast realised directlythat it was being pursued, and separating from the herd, went off at aclumsy gallop, its neck outstretched, and its tail whisking about as itkept looking back at its pursuer.
Jack picked out another, which made for the denser part, where the treeswere thick, and in his excitement he gave his cob the rein, and awaythey went at racing pace.
But Jack did not gain much upon the giraffe he had chosen, for almostbefore he had seen the colour of its spots at all closely, his horse,participating in its master's eagerness, went at full speed under along, low branch, and came out on the other side of the wood, butwithout Jack, who was swept violently out of his saddle by the lowbough, which swung violently to and fro for a few moments, and thendeposited Jack softly in a sitting posture upon the ground. The boyrose to rub his chest very softly, and then feeling to see whether hewas all right, he went on in chase of his horse, which he overtookstanding very patiently just outside the patch of forest, lookingwonderingly at him, as if asking why he had left its back.
"What a nuisance!" grumbled Jack; "and I daresay they've both shotgiraffes by this time. How unlucky, to be sure!"
He lifted the reins from his horse's feet, and thrusting them over itshead, mounted again, but not comfortably, for Jack felt very sore acrossthe chest where the bough had struck him.
From this post of vantage he could see his father in the distance stillin chase of the giraffe; but though he looked in various directions,there was no Dick.
"Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoop!"
Jack started to look in the direction from whence the sound had come,but he could see nothing. He, however, responded to the call, and itwas repeated, evidently from a patch of wood half a mile distant.
As he cantered towards it, the signal rang out again.
"Dick's brought down his giraffe very quickly," said Jack."Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoop!"
"Here! Hoi! Jack!" came now from pretty close to him--but in a densepart of the patch of trees; and riding up, there was Dick, with hishorse standing perfectly still and looking at him.
"Come along," cried Jack. "Where's your giraffe?"
"I don't know. Where's yours?"
"Miles away. I galloped under a tree, and was pulled off my horse, sucha bang."
"We came right into these thorns," said Dick, "and have been here eversince."
"What! can't you get out?"
"Get out? No. It's horrible. I'm caught all over, and poor old Shoesjust the same. Directly I try to make him stir, he begins to kick, andwhen he kicks it's awful. They're like fish-hooks, and I'm torn topieces."
Jack began to laugh.
"Ah, yes, you may laugh," said his brother; "but you wouldn't like it."
"No," laughed Jack, "but you do look such a jolly old guy stuck upthere, I can't help laughing."
"But do try and help me out."
"How?" said Jack.
"Oh, I don't know. Stand still, Shoes, do! Oh, I say, don't kickagain, pray don't! Good old horse then."
Shoes whinnied as his master patted and talked to him, but the thornspricked him so at even this light movement, that the poor animal stampedangrily, and snorted as he pawed the ground.
In spite of his intense desire to laugh, Jack saw that matters werereally serious for his brother; and leaping off, he threw down his reinsat his horse's feet, whipped out his great hunting-knife, and proceededto cut and hack away the thorns by which his brother and his horse weresurrounded.
They were indeed like fish-hooks, and so sharp and strong, that once inamongst them no one could have escaped without having clothes and skinploughed and torn in a terrible way.
Shoes stood perfectly still now. He snorted at times and twitched theskin of his withers, turning his great eyes appealingly to Jack, whoplied his heavy sheath-knife so effectively that at last the mass ofthorns was sufficiently hacked away to allow horse and rider to move.
Fortunately for Dick, he was a clever horseman. Had he ridden like somepeople, who hang a leg on each side of a horse and call that riding, hemust have been thrown. For at the first touch to start him, Shoes wasso eager to get out of the thorny torture to which he had beensubjected, that he made a tremendous bound, and alighted clear,trembling and sweating profusely.
"Oh, I say, Jack, I am scratched," grumbled Dick, giving himself softrubs all over. "Don't laugh. It does hurt so."
"But I feel as if I can't help it," cried Jack, who burst into a freshroar.
"I don't think I should have laughed at poor old Dinny, if I had knownhow it hurts. Those thorns are nearly as sharp as needles."
"Well, there, I won't laugh any more; but you weren't tossed up on thethorns by a rhinoceros. Come along. Let's go after father;" and theyset off, but very gently, for Dick's face was screwed into a freshgrimace at every motion of the horse, while the poor beast itself wasmarked with little tiny beads of blood all over its satin skin.