Part 23 (1/2)
What happened to Joe-The Island of the Biddiomahs-The Adoration shown him-The Island that sank-The Shores of the Lake-The Tree of the Serpents-The Foot-Traer-The Victoria seen-She disappears-The Swa Cry
What had beco for hi into the lake, his firstto the surface was to raise his eyes and look upward He saw the Victoria already risen far above the water, still rapidly ascending and growing sht in a rapid current and disappeared to the northward His master-both his friends were saved!
”How lucky it was,” thought he, ”that I had that idea to throw myself out into the lake! Mr Kennedy would soon have jumped at it, and he would not have hesitated to do as I did, for nothing's ive himself up to save two others That's an to think of himself He was in the middle of a vast lake, surrounded by tribes unknown to hireater reason why he should get out of the scrape by depending only on hiave himself no farther concern about it
Before the attack by the birds of prey, which, according to him, had behaved like real condors, he had noticed an island on the horizon, and detere and skill in the art of swi relieved hi The idea of a stretch of five or sixas he was in the open lake, he thought only of striking out straight ahead and manfully
In about an hour and a half the distance between hireatly diht, at first fleeting and then tenacious, arose in his mind He knew that the shores of the lake were frequented by huge alligators, and ell aware of the voracity of those monsters
Now, noin this world quite natural, the worthy felloas no little disturbed by this reflection He feared greatly lest white flesh like his ht be particularly acceptable to the dreaded brutes, and advanced only with extreme precaution, his eyes on the alert on both sides and all around hith, he was not reen trees, when a puff of air strongly inated with a musky odor reached him
”There!” said he to himself, ”just what I expected The crocodile isn't far off!”
With this he dived swiftly, but not sufficiently so to avoid co into contact with an enormous body, the scaly surface of which scratched hiht hiain to the top of the water, took breath and dived once uish, which all his philosophy could not overcoht, all the while, that he heard behind hie jaws ready to snap hi out under the water as noiselessly as possible when he felt himself seized by the arave one last thought to his y of despair, feeling hi, but not toward the bottom of the lake, as is the habit of the crocodile when about to devour its prey, but toward the surface
So soon as he could get breath and look around him, he saw that he was between two natives as black as ebony, who held hie cries
”Ha!” said Joe, ”blacks instead of crocodiles! Well, I prefer it as it is; but how in thein such places?”
Joe was not aware that the inhabitants of the islands of Lake Tchad, like e with impunity into sheets of water infested with crocodiles and cay their heads about them The amphibious denizens of this lake enjoy the well-deserved reputation of being quite inoffensive
But had not Joe escaped one peril only to fall into another? That was a question which he left events to decide; and, since he could not do otherwise, he allowed hi any alarht he, ”these chaps saw the Victoria ski the waters of the lake, like a monster of the air They were the distant witnesses of my tumble, and they can't fail to have some respect for a man that fell from the sky! Let thee of hiscrowd of both sexes, and all ages and sizes, but not of all colors In fine, he was surrounded by a tribe of Biddiomahs as black as jet Nor had he to blush for the scantiness of his costuhest style of that country
But before he had time to for the agitation of which he instantly becae, although the adventure of Kazah did come back rather vividly to histo ht he, ”soood as another when a ain tiain, I'll take advantage of my new position to treatup into the sky!”
While Joe's thoughts were running thus, the throng pressed around him They prostrated themselves before hily familiar; but at the same time they had the consideration to offer hi of sourthe best of every thing, took one of the heartiest luncheons he ever ate in his life, and gave his new adorers an exalted idea of how the Gods tuck away their food upon grand occasions
When evening came, the sorcerers of the island took him respectfully by the hand, and conducted him to a sort of house surrounded with talis it, Joe cast an uneasy look at the heaps of human bones that lay scattered around this sanctuary But he had still more time to think about them when he found hi and through a part of the night, he heard festive chantings, the reverberations of a kind of drum, and a clatter of old iron, which were very sweet, no doubt, to African ears Then there were howling choruses, accos of natives who circled round and round the sacred hut with contortions and gri orchestra, through the mud and reeds of which his cabin was built; and perhaps under other circue ceremonies; but his reeable reflections Even looking at the bright side of things, he found it both stupid and sad to be left alone in thethese wild tribes Few travellers who had penetrated to these regions had ever again seen their native land Moreover, could he trust to the worshi+p of which he saw hiood reason to believe in the vanity of hureatness; and he asked hio to the length of eating the object adored!
But, notwithstanding this rather perplexing prospect, after soloohts, and Joe fell into a profound slumber, which would have lasted no doubt until sunrise, had not a very unexpected sensation of da this daained so rapidly that it had soon mounted to Joe's waist
”What can this be?” said he; ”a flood! a water-spout! or a new torture invented by these blacks? Faith, though, I' to wait here till it's up to h the frail ith a jog of his powerful shoulder, and found himself-where?-in the open lake! Island there was none It had sunk during the night In its place, the watery immensity of Lake Tchad!
”A poor country for the land-owners!” said Joe, onceto his skill in the art of natation
One of those phenomena, which are by no means unusual on Lake Tchad, had liberated our brave Joe More than one island, that previously seeed in this way; and the people living along the shores of the mainland have had to pick up the unfortunate survivors of these terrible catastrophes
Joe knew nothing about this peculiarity of the region, but he was none the less ready to profit by it He caught sight of a boat drifting about, without occupants, and was soon aboard of it He found it to be but the trunk of a tree rudely hollowed out; but there were a couple of paddles in it, and Joe, availing hi
”But let us see where we are,” he said ”The polar-star there, that does its work honorably in pointing out the direction due north to everybody else, will, most likely, do me that service”
He discovered, with satisfaction, that the current was taking him toward the northern shore of the lake, and he allowed hi he disembarked upon a promontory covered with prickly reeds, that proved very provoking and inconvenient even to a philosopher like hi its branches, and Joe clireater security, and there, without sleepinghad come with that suddenness which is peculiar to the equatorial regions, Joe cast a glance at the tree which had sheltered hiht that chilled the marrow in his bones The branches of the tree were literally covered with snakes and chae actually was hidden beneath their coils, so that the beholder ht have fancied that he saw before him a new kind of tree that bore reptiles for its leaves and fruit And all this horrible livingsun! Joe experienced a keen sensation or terror ust, as he looked at it, and he leaped precipitately fros of these new and unwelco that I would never have believed!” said he
He was not aware that Dr Vogel's last letters had ular feature of the shores of Lake Tchad, where reptiles are more numerous than in any other part of the world But after what he had just seen, Joe deter his bearings by the sun, he set off afoot toward the northeast, avoiding with the utmost care cabins, huts, hovels, and dens of every description, that s
How often his gaze was turned upward to the sky! He hoped to catch a glih he looked vainly during all that long, fatiguing day of sore foot-travel, his confident reliance on his y of character was needed to enable hier conspired with fatigue to crush hireatly restored and fortified by a diet of roots, the pith of plants, such as the Mele, or the fruit of the dou to his own calculations, Joe was enabled to push on about twenty miles to the ard
His body bore in scores of places the marks of the thorns hich the lake-reeds, the acacias, the h which he had to force his way, are thickly studded; and his torn and bleeding feet rendered walking both painful and difficult But at length he s; and when evening caht on the shores of Lake Tchad
There he had to endure the bites of , literally covered the ground; and, in less than two hours, Joe had not a rag rear devoured theht, that did not yield our exhausted traveller an hour of sleep During all this time the wild-boars and native buffaloes, reenforced by the ajoub-a very dangerous species of lamantine-carried on their ferocious revels in the bushes and under the waters of the lake, filling the night with a hideous concert Joe dared scarcely breathe Even his courage and coolness had hard work to bear up against so terrible a situation
At length, day cae of the loathing he felt when he sahat species of creature had shared his couch-a toad!-but a toad five inches in length, aat hiht, and, regaining a little strength fronance, he rushed at the top of his speed and plunged into the lake This sudden bath so that tortured his whole body; and, chewing a few leaves, he set forth resolutely, again feeling an obstinate resolution in the act, for which he could hardly account even to his own er seemed to have entire control of his own acts, and, nevertheless, he felt within hian now to suffer terribly froned than he was, rebelled, and he was obliged to fasten a tendril of wild-vine tightly about his waist Fortunately, he could quench his thirst at any one in the desert, he experienced co want
”What can have become of the Victoria?” he wondered ”The wind blows from the north, and she should be carried back by it toward the lake No doubt the doctor has gone to work to right her balance, but yesterday would have given hih for that, so that may be to-day-but I ain After all, if I only get to one of the large towns on the lake, I'll find myself no worse off than the travellers my master used to talk about Why shouldn't I work my way out of the scrape as well as they did? Soain Co to hiht upon a horde of natives in the very depths of the forest, but he halted in ti arroith the juice of the euphorbiue tribes, and carried on with a sort of ceremonial sole his breath, was keeping hi to raise his eyes, he saw through an opening in the foliage the welco toward the lake, at a height of only about one hundred feet above him But he could not make himself heard; he dared not, could not make his friends even see hirief but of thankfulness; hishim; his master had not left him to perish!+ He would have to wait for the departure of the blacks; then he could quit his hiding-place and run toward the borders of Lake Tchad!
But by this ti in the distant sky Joe still deterain, undoubtedly She did, indeed, return, but farther to the eastward Joe ran, gesticulated, shouted-but all in vain! A strong breeze eeping the balloon aith a speed that deprived hiy and confidence abandoned the heart of the unfortunate one beyond all prospect of return He dared no longer think; he would no longer reflect!
Like a crazy , his body cut and torn, he walked on during all that day and a part of the next night He even dragged hi, sometimes on his knees, soh when all his strength would fail, and nothing would be left to hi his way along, he at length found himself close to a ht had set in some hours before, and he fell by a suddenmire In spite of all his efforts, in spite of his desperate struggles, he felt hiradually in the swampy ooze, and in a few minutes he was buried to his waist
”Here, then, at last, is death!” he thought, in agony, ”and what a death!”
He now began to struggle again, like a madman; but his efforts only served to bury hi for hi of wood or a branch to buoy hi! He felt that all was over! His eyes convulsively closed!
”Master! , unaided, half stifled already by the rising ht
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIXTH