Part 26 (1/2)

Ceasing froe, he adopted yet a third expedient Rearing his huge bulk into the air he brought down his forefeet with all the tre trunk of the tree just belohere the branches sprang, perhaps twelve or thirteen feet above the ground

The shock was so heavy that for a ht the tree would be uprooted or snapped in two Thank Heaven! it held, but the vibration was such that Hans and I were nearly shaken out of the upper branches, like autuone had not the ers, gripped me by the collar

Thrice did Jana repeat this ht I saw toI heard soround not far from the bole Fortunately Jana never noted these sy, he stood for a while swaying his trunk and lost in gentle thought

”Hans,” I whispered, ”load the rifle quick! I can get hio off, Baas,” groaned Hans ”The water got to it in the river”

”No,” I answered, ”and it is all your fault forme shoot at him when I could take no aim”

”It would have been just the same, Baas, for the rifle went under water also e fell from the camel, and the cap would have been damp, and perhaps the powder too Also the shot made Jana stop for a ed to sit there with an ee, or even my pistol, I was sure that I could have blinded or crippled this satanic pachyder quite close to the trunk of the tree he reared his so that these and his body were supported on the broad bole Then he elongated his trunk and with it began to break off boughs which greeen us and him

”I don't think he can reach us,” I said doubtfully to Hans, ”that is, unless he brings a stone to stand on”

”Oh! Baas, pray be silent,” answered Hans, ”or he will understand and fetch one”

Although the idea seeht it well to take the hint, for who kne much this experienced beast did or did not understand? Then, as we could go no higher, riggled as far as we dared along our boughs and waited

Presently Jana, having finished his clearing operations, began to lengthen his trunk to its full measure Literally, it see Out it ca within a few inches of us, just short of my foot and Han's head, or rather felt hat One final stretch and he reached the hat, which he removed with a flourish and thrust into the red cavern of his mouth As it appeared no more I suppose he ate it

This loss of his hathorrible curses at Jana he drew his butcher's knife and ated itself Evidently Jana had got a better hold with his hind legs this tiled himself a few inches up the tree At any rate I saw toa second acquaintance with that snapping tip The end of the trunk was lying alongup, up, up

”He'll get us,” Ibut leaned forward a little, holding on with his left hand Next instant in the light of the rising sun I saw a knife flash, saw also that the point of it had been driven through the lower lip of Jana's trunk, pinning it to the bough like a butterfly to a board

My word! what a commotion ensued! Up the trunk caling ently as possible, for it was clear that the knife point hurt him, but could not do so because Hans still held the handle and had driven the blade deep into the wood Lastly he dragged hio, that so the skin andthe knife erect in the bough

Over he went backwards, a most imperial cropper Then he picked himself up, thrust the tip of his trunk into his er, and finally, roaring in defeated rage, fled into the river, which he waded, and back upon his tracks towards his own ho curses and demands that he should restore his hat to hiht that I thoughttail

”Now, Baas,” chuckled Hans, ”the old devil has got a sore nose as well as a sore eye by which to re before he has ti stick to knock us out of this tree”

So ent, in double-quick time I can assure you, or at any rate as fast as eneral condition would allow Fortunately we had now no doubt as to our direction, since standing up through theon its forest-clad crest, we could clearly see the strange, tumulus-shaped hill which the White Kendah called the Holy Mount, the Home of the Child It appeared to be about twenty ood deal farther, for e had walked for several hours it seemed almost as distant as ever

In truth that was a dreadful trudge Not only was I exhausted with all the terrors I had passed and our long ht, but the wound where Jana had pinched out a portion of rown stiff and intolerably sore, so that every step gave ony Moreover, it was no use giving in, foodless as ere, for Mart had carried the provisions, and with the chance of Jana returning to look us up So I stuck to it and said nothing

For the first ten miles the country seemed uninhabited; doubtless it was too near the borders of the Black Kendah to be popular as a place of residence After thisherds of cattle and a few cauards were hidden away in the long grass Then we came to some fields of mealies that were, I noticed, quite untouched by the hailstorm, which, it would seem, had confined its attentions to the land of the Black Kendah Of these we ate thankfully enough A little farther on we perceived huts perched on an inaccessible place in a kloof Also their inhabitants perceived us, for they ran away as though in a great fright

Still we did not try to approach the huts, not knowing hoe should be received After my sojourn in Simba Town I had become possessed of a love of life in the open

For another two hours I li on Hans' shoulder--up an endless, uncultivated rise clothed with euphorbias and fern-like cycads At length we reached its top and found ourselves within a rifle shot of a fenced native village I suppose that its inhabitants had been warned of our co by runners from the huts I have mentioned At any rate the moment we appeared the men, to the nuate ar us round and behave in a very threatening h ht in colour, soro characteristics of the Black Kendah from e had escaped, to such an extent indeed that this blood was clearly predominant in them Still, it was also clear that they were deadly foes of this people, for when I shouted out to them that ere the friends of Hart and those orshi+pped the Child, they yelled back that ere liars No friends of the Child, they said, came from the country of the Black Kendah, orshi+pped the devil Jana I tried to explain that least of allus for hours, but they would not listen

”You are spies of Simba's, the sh), they yelled, adding: ”We will kill you, white-faced goat We will kill you, little yellow monkey, for none who are not enemies come here from the land of the Black Kendah”