Part 8 (1/2)

CENTRAL AFRICA.

”We shall never get round,” said Mark, ”just see what a way we have come, and we are not half up one side of the sea yet.”

”I wonder how far it is back to the quarry,” said Bevis. ”These sedges are so tiresome.”

”We shall never get round,” said Mark, ”and I am getting hungry, and Pan is tired of the rushes too.”

Pan, with his red tongue lolling out at one side of his mouth, looked up, showed his white tusks and wagged his tail at the mention of his name. He had ceased to quest about for some time; he had been walking just at their heels in the path they made.

”We _must_ go on,” said Bevis, ”we _can't_ go back; it is not proper.

Travellers like us never go back. I wish there were no more sedges.

Come on.”

He marched on again. But now they had once confessed to each other that they were tired, this spurt soon died away, and they stopped again.

”It is as hot as Central Africa,” said Mark, fanning himself with his hat.

”I am not sure that we are not in Central Africa,” said Bevis. ”There are hundreds of miles of reeds in Africa, and as we have crossed the Nile very likely that's where we are.”

”It's just like it,” said Mark, ”I am sure it's Africa.”

”Then there ought to be lions in the reeds,” said Bevis, ”or elephants.

Keep your spear ready.”

They went on again a little way.

”I want to sit down,” said Mark.

”So do I,” said Bevis; ”in Africa, people generally rest in the middle of the day for fear of sunstrokes.”

”So they do; then we ought to rest.”

”We can't sit down here,” said Bevis; ”it is so wet, and it does not smell very nice: we might have the fever, you know, if we stopped still long.”

”Let's go to the hedge,” said Mark, pointing to the hedge which surrounded the sh.o.r.e and was a great way on their left hand. ”Perhaps there is a prairie there. And I am so thirsty, and there is no water we can drink; give me an apple.”

”But we must not go back,” said Bevis; ”I can't have that; it would never do to let the expedition fail.”

”No,” said Mark. ”But let us sit down first.”

Bevis did not quite like to leave the sedges, but he could not gainsay the heat, and he was weary, so they left the rough path and went towards the hedge, pus.h.i.+ng through the sedges and rushes. It was some distance, and as they came nearer and the ground very gradually rose and became drier, there was a thick growth of coa.r.s.e gra.s.s between the other plants, and presently a dense ma.s.s of reed-gra.s.s taller than their shoulders. This was now in bloom, and the pollen covered their sleeves as they forced a way through it. The closer they got to the hedge the thicker the gra.s.ses became, and there were now stoles of willow, and tall umbelliferous plants called ”gix,” which gave out an unpleasant scent as they rubbed against or pushed them down and stepped on them.

It was hard work to get through, and when at last they reached the hedge they were almost done up.

Now there was a new difficulty, the hedge had grown so close and thick it was impossible to creep through it. They were obliged to follow it, searching for a gap. They could not see a yard in front, so that they could not tell how far they might have to go. The dust-like pollen flying from the shaken gra.s.ses and the flowering plants got inside their nostrils and on the roofs of their mouths and in their throats, causing an unbearable thirst and tickling. The flies, gathering in crowds, teased them, and would not be driven away. Now and then something seemed to sting their necks, and, striking the place with the flat hand, a stoatfly dropped, too bloated with blood, like a larger gnat, to attempt to escape the blow.

Pus.h.i.+ng through the plants they stumbled into a hollow which they did not see on account of the vegetation till they stepped over the edge and fell in it. Mark struck his knee against a stone, and limped; Bevis scratched his hands and wrist with a bramble. The hollow was a little wet at the bottom, not water, but soft, sticky mud, which clung to their feet like gum; but they scrambled out of it quickly, not really hurt, but out of breath and angry. They were obliged to sit down, crus.h.i.+ng down the gra.s.ses, to rest a minute.

”Let's go back to the path in the sedges,” said Mark.