Part 3 (1/2)
Half-an-hour after they had parted with Oliver Browne, they met a white man whom at the first glance they knew to be his brother, so striking was the resemblance. He was attended by four porters, each carrying a large portion of some newly-killed animal. Mr. Halliday halted as they came up, saying--
”You're Mr. Joe Browne?”
”That I am, but----” He paused, looking puzzled.
”You don't know me,” said Mr. Halliday, ”so you needn't rack your memory. We've just met your brother. He was after a rhinoceros and tumbled into a game-pit.”
”Clumsy a.s.s!” cried Mr. Browne, in the manner of an affectionate brother. ”No bones broke, I hope?”
Mr. Halliday rea.s.sured him on that point, and the two stood for a few minutes exchanging notes. The South African said that he had been much attracted by what he had seen of the country, and if Mr. Halliday became a settler, he would in all probability have him for a neighbour.
”But it won't be yet,” he added. ”We must settle up our affairs at the Cape first. Three or four months, perhaps; you'll have grown your first crops by then. Don't shoot all the game before I come.”
”You have left us some, I hope,” said John, eyeing the porters' burdens.
”Oh, that's a couple of water-buck for the pot. You'll find bigger game than that. Hippo meat's uncommonly good, but don't try elephant's foot; it's a fraud. Don't believe any one who tells you to the contrary.
Good-bye; pleased to have met you; bar rhinoceros or game-pits we'll meet again.”
CHAPTER THE FOURTH--White Man's Magic
When John found opportunity to put pen to paper, he wrote, as he said, ”loads” to a school chum about the incidents of the next few days, every one furnis.h.i.+ng a new excitement. Mr. Halliday was so anxious to accomplish the aim of his journey that he pushed on resolutely each day, striking camp at earliest dawn, marching with intervals until ten, resting until three or four, and then going on again until nightfall.
The ground was varied, now a stretch of gra.s.s land, now a belt of forest; here a rapidly flowing stream rus.h.i.+ng between high banks covered with dense vegetation, there a tract of hard volcanic soil so rugged and hot under the sun's rays that walking was painful. It was only during the intervals for rest that John was able to indulge his sporting tastes, and at the same time do service to the commissariat. He caught some fine fish in the rivers, and wished there had been time to follow up the hippopotamus tracks he discovered on the banks. He brought down several water-buck and red congoni with his .303 rifle, and one day was vastly excited to see a black-maned lion with his lioness cross from one patch of reeds to another. The sight of other game in wonderful variety--zebras, leopards, antelopes--became so common that after a time it ceased to be impressive, and opportunities for shooting them came but rarely, the country they frequented being flat and open, and their scent being so keen that it was almost impossible to come within range.
One incident that gave a little excitement was the crossing of the Thika river. The water was so deep and the current so swift that to ford it was impossible, and after vainly searching for a shallow part, Mr.
Halliday confessed himself at a loss to know how to proceed. John suggested that they should fell a tree and throw it across the river as a bridge, but this would be a somewhat lengthy operation; and Said Mohammed said it would take less time to construct a raft. This was accordingly done, by las.h.i.+ng together three dead logs found on the bank; but Mr. Halliday asked how it was to be prevented from being swept away by the stream. Coja showed himself to be a man of resource. Taking a rope between his teeth, he plunged into the river, first looking warily round to make sure that no crocodiles were in the neighbourhood, and swam across, the force of the current giving his course an inclination of sixty degrees. Having reached the other side, he fastened the rope to a tree, and by aid of this line the raft was ferried over, conveying now the loads and now the men. One of the Wakamba slipped off when he was in midstream, and instantly howled that a crocodile was after him; but Coja called him a liar, sprang after him, and catching him by the hair, towed him safely to the farther bank.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”One of the Wakamba slipped off when he was in midstream.”]
Hitherto the party had met no natives; but Coja now informed his master that the people of these parts were very bad, and advised that they should go slowly, so that no stragglers should be left to be set on and robbed--if not maltreated or killed. Mr. Halliday was somewhat troubled at the thought of unfriendly natives between his prospective estate and the outposts of civilization; but consoled himself with the reflection that the area of settlements was rapidly enlarging, and the country in the settled parts being brought thoroughly under control.
The country beyond the Thika river proved to be more difficult than any that had hitherto been traversed. Bare rocky hills, cut by deep and dangerous ravines, alternated with stretches of long coa.r.s.e gra.s.s and dense th.o.r.n.y scrub, impenetrable save by low tunnels made by roaming hippopotami. As they burrowed painfully through these tunnels, they were oppressed by the suffocating heat, their clothes were torn by the thorns, and their skin irritated by the mult.i.tudinous insects. It was like wandering through a complex maze, the hippo paths twisting this way and that in apparently aimless fas.h.i.+on, though Coja said they were a clear sign of the neighbourhood of water. After a whole day spent in this fatiguing march the party came abruptly upon a broad river, flowing with swift but almost noiseless current between banks clad with n.o.ble palms and every species of tropical vegetation, amid which countless throngs of monkeys desported themselves, and birds of many colours darted this way and that like fragments of a rainbow. Mr. Halliday pitched his camp for the night above the river, and for the first time the porters surrounded it with a boma--a close fence of thorn bushes, which they constructed with wonderful celerity. For the first time, too, a watch was kept, the porters being told off to take turns at sentry-go. It occurred to Mr. Halliday, waking in the middle of the night, to see whether the sentry was alert at his post, and he was not greatly surprised to find him fast asleep. He shook him up and rated him very soundly, his reprimand being, perhaps, the more impressive because delivered in a tongue which the man did not understand. Mr.
Halliday slept no more that night, coming to the conclusion that if it was necessary to keep watch, the porters were not to be entrusted with the task.
It was next day that the party first encountered the native inhabitants.
They came upon a luxuriant plantation of manioc, and shortly afterwards saw a number of fierce-looking men, armed with spears, lurking in the long gra.s.s. Mr. Halliday ordered Coja to go forward and explain that he was a friend, bent on a peaceful errand, and that he would give good prices for any food the people cared to bring him. One of the natives ran back to the village, and soon returned with the chief, who presented a singular appearance in a ragged and stained khaki jacket, and a dilapidated sun-helmet with an ostrich feather stuck in it at a rakish angle. It turned out that this was not his usual attire, but had been hastily donned in honour of the white man.
”He seems a very respectable old guy,” said Mr. Halliday to John as the chief came up with a broad smile. With Coja's aid as interpreter, Mr.
Halliday repeated what had already been said to the men, and as an earnest of what was to come, presented the chief with a number of coloured beads, feeling somewhat doubtful whether such trifles were worth the acceptance of one who, as his dress showed, had already had some intercourse with Europeans. But the chief showed unmistakable pleasure, and immediately sent two of his young men to bring wild honey and gourds of milk for the wasungu. Presently a number of women came, bearing loads of water-melons and other vegetables, which were very welcome after the dry fare of the past few days, the vendors being thoroughly satisfied with a handful of red beads or a short strip of cloth.
Mr. Halliday had directed the course of his march, under Coja's guidance, according to instructions and a rough map given him by his friend Gilmour. The district recommended to him as an excellent site for his farm lay on high ground to the east of Mount Kenya, and Mr.
Gilmour had marked the exact spot by erecting a post, the top of which was carved to the shape of a man's head. When Mr. Halliday expressed a doubt whether the post would still be found after the lapse of several years, his friend rea.s.sured him on the point, declaring that the natives would not touch it, and unless it had been thrown down by a sportive rhinoceros, or ”collected” as an object of interest by some wandering European sportsman, it would remain precisely as he had left it. Mr.
Halliday, judging by his sketch-map that he must have nearly reached his destination, got Coja to ask the natives whether they knew of this post, and was disappointed with their negative answer. There was nothing for it but to continue the march. Accordingly he took leave of the friendly natives, after purchasing considerable quant.i.ties of food, and set off.
There was every indication that his goal could not be far distant. The country was open, the soil a rich red loam, covered with rank rough pasturage and wild clover, with occasional clumps of woodland. The air was so cool, except at mid-day, that it was hard to believe they were within a degree or two of the Equator; but by testing the boiling-point of water John discovered that the height was five thousand feet above sea-level, and the temperate climate was explained.
Two days after leaving the native village Mr. Halliday decided to pitch his camp, and taking that for a centre, to explore the surrounding country.