Part 13 (1/2)
The surface of the country was now greatly varied, with nu toward the east The latter, undoubtedly, ran into those affluents of Lake Nu, or of the River of the Gazelles, concerning which M Guillauhtfall, the balloon cast anchor in twenty-seven degrees east longitude, and four degrees twenty minutes north latitude, after a day's trip of one hundred and fifty ht Attack-Kennedy and Joe in the Tree-Two Shots-”Help! help!”-Reply in French-The Morning-The Missionary-The Plan of Rescue
The night came on very dark The doctor had not been able to reconnoitre the country He had uish only a confused loom
As usual, he took the nine-o'clock watch, and at ht dick relieved hiood-night injunction
”Is there any thing new on the carpet?”
”No; but I thought that I heard vague sounds below us, and, as I don't exactly knohere the wind has carried us to, even an excess of caution would do no harm”
”You've probably heard the cries of wild beasts”
”No! the sounds seeether different from that; at all events, on the least alarm don't fail to waken us”
”I'll do so, doctor; rest easy”
After listening attentively for amore, threw himself on his blankets and went asleep
The sky was covered with dense clouds, but not a breath of air was stirring; and the balloon, kept in its place by only a single anchor, experienced not the slightest oscillation
Kennedy, leaning his elbow on the edge of the car, so as to keep an eye on the cylinder, which was actively at work, gazed out upon the calerly scanned the horizon, and, as often happens to minds that are uneasy or possessed with preconceived notions, he fancied that he soht in the distance
At one ht that he saw them only two hundred paces away, quite distinctly, but it was a one as quickly as it ca more It was, no doubt, one of those luminous illusions that sometimes impress the eye in theover his nervousness and falling into his wandering ain, when a sharp whistle pierced his ear
Was that the cry of an aniht-bird, or did it co the gravity of the situation, was on the point of waking his companions, but he reflected that, in any case, men or animals, the creatures that he had heard must be out of reach So he ht, and then, with his night-glass, again plunged his gaze into space
It was not long before he thought he could perceive below hi toward the tree, and then, by the aid of a ray of ht that shot like an electric flash between two ures -faced baboons returned to his memory, and he placed his hand on the doctor's shoulder
The latter ake in a moment
”Silence!” said dick ”Let us speak below our breath”
”Has any thing happened?”
”Yes, let us waken Joe”
The instant that Joe was aroused, Kennedy told hiain!” said Joe
”Possibly, but we uard”
”Joe and I,” said Kennedy, ”will climb down the tree by the ladder”
”And, in the meanwhile,” added the doctor, ”I will take my ”
”Agreed!”
”Let us go down, then!” said Joe
”Don't use your weapons, excepting at the last extremity! It would be a useless risk to make the natives aware of our presence in such a place as this”
dick and Joe replied with signs of assent, and then letting themselves slide noiselessly toward the tree, took their position in a fork aht
For so the foliage, and ere long Joe seized Kenedy's hand as he heard a sort of rubbing sound against the bark of the tree
”Don't you hear that?” he whispered
”Yes, and it's co nearer”
”Suppose it should be a serpent? That hissing or whistling that you heard before-”
”No! there was soes, for I have a horror of those snakes”
”The noise is increasing,” said Kennedy, again, after a lapse of a few ”
”Keep watch on this side, and I'll take care of the other”
”Very good!”
There they were, isolated at the top of one of the larger branches shooting out in the midst of one of those htened by the density of the foliage, was profound; however, Joe, leaning over to Kennedy's ear and pointing down the tree, whispered: ”The blacks! They're cli toward us”
The two friends could even catch the sound of a feords uttered in the lowest possible tones
Joe gently brought his rifle to his shoulder as he spoke
”Wait!” said Kennedy
Some of the natives had really cli on all sides, winding along the boughs like reptiles, and advancing slowly but surely, all the tih discernible, not merely to the eye but to the nostrils, by the horrible odors of the rancid grease hich they bedaub their bodies
Ere long, two heads appeared to the gaze of Kennedy and Joe, on a level with the very branch to which they were clinging
”Attention!” said Kennedy ”Fire!”