CHAPTER XVIII
ATTACKED BY LIONS
Challis had already decided not to make for the village at which Royce had obtained supplies. It lay far on the other side of the fort, and Mogra did not know it. Mogra had suggested that they should go to his own village, which was only a day's march eastward of the fort, and to this Challis had agreed.
On horseback they made better progress than on foot, and soon after midday came in sight of the village. At the first glimpse of it Mogra uttered a wail—there were signs that here, too, the Tubus had been at their desolating work. And in truth, when the horsemen rode into the wide street, their passage was through ruins. Not a house was standing; neither human being nor brute beast was to be seen.
"What has become of all the people?" said Challis. "Surely they can't all have been carried away as slaves?"
"No, sah—old men no good, old women no good," said John. "All gone dead."
"But there are no dead bodies—no remains of any kind," said Challis with a shudder.
John confessed that he, too, was puzzled at this remarkable fact. Turning to Mogra, he demanded, with a sort of remonstrant anger, where all the young man's people were. And then Mogra told a little story.
"In the days of our fathers," he said, "long, long ago, the bad men came to this village even as they have done these few days past, and it is told that my people learnt beforehand of their coming, and went a day's journey to the east, and there took refuge in a cave. I have never been there, nor my father, nor any of the people of his age; but the cave is known to certain of the old men of the village, and it may be that they have led our people there."
John translated this in his own queer way.
"It sounds very romantic," remarked Challis musingly.
"Berry big lie, sah!" said John decisively.
"Come, now, you mustn't call Mogra a liar! Ask him if he can lead us there."
"Him say savvy way little bit, den him go lost," said John, after questioning the man.
"Well, let him try the little bit; there's no harm in that. If he comes to a check, we must trust to luck."
Mogra showed no hesitation at the start; but, after riding for a couple of hours, he declared that he could guide them no farther.
"Does he know what sort of country is round about the cave?" asked Challis.
It was bare and rocky, said Mogra, with hardly any vegetation; but he remembered having heard that one particularly large tree stood in front of the cave.
"We will cast about for that, then," said Challis. "Let us take different directions."
"No, no, no!" said John energetically. "Go all same one way."
"Very well, if you are afraid of our losing one another, we will all go together."
They rode on, searching the country over a wide area; but the afternoon was wearing to evening, and they had still lighted on no trace of the cave. Challis began to think they had better give it up and make for another village before night enveloped them.
The horses were growing tired, and showed signs of uneasiness which Challis was puzzled to account for. The explanation came with startling suddenness. On rounding a rocky eminence they saw, only a hundred yards away, two lions lying side by side.
The trembling horses reared, backed, then turned tail and fled in terror. Mogra was thrown almost at once, and neither Challis nor John could check their horses for a considerable distance. When at last they regained control over them, they returned, afraid that Mogra might have been pursued by the beasts and by this time be torn in pieces.
They were relieved in a few minutes to see him running towards them at the speed of a hunted deer. There was no sign of the lions; Challis conjectured that they were digesting a heavy meal. Mogra was shaking with fright, but unhurt except for a bruise or two. His horse had disappeared.
As they stood discussing what to do next, John caught sight of a number of men in the distance. Two or three at the head of the party appeared to be carrying something among them.
"Him say belong him," said John, after a word from Mogra.
"Tell him to call them," Challis commanded. The men turned at Mogra's shout; but they evidently did not recognise him in the distance, and no doubt supposed the horsemen to be Tubus, for they hurried on with every sign of distress.
"Yoi-aloo! Yoi-aloo!" bawled John. "White man! White man! ... Berry silly chaps, sah!"
"Let us ride towards them," said Challis. "Stay! Let Mogra run ahead."
They remained stationary, while Mogra hastened to his friends, who soon came to a halt. Mogra ran back. He explained that they were carrying to the cave the son of their chief, who had been mauled by one of the lions. One of their fellows had already been eaten. They were willing that the white man should accompany them to the cave.
The party reached it just before dark. Challis was surprised to find that its entrance was fully exposed—a large hole in the side of a rocky hill. He concluded that its security lay in its being situated in a desolate region that was unlikely to tempt any raiding party.
An attempt had been made to render it more defensible by blocking up the entrance with trees felled on the hillside. The large tree of which Mogra had spoken, the configuration of the ground, and a few scattered cactus plants screened it from view from a distance.
The entrance was dark, but the interior of the cave was faintly illuminated by torches. When the party entered, the horses being tethered to the tree, the strangers were at first ignored in the general excitement and lamentation over the injuries of the chief's son.
His was the third case in two days. Examining his wounds, the chief, a bearded man of about sixty years, wrung his hands with grief, and the women howled in concert.
It was some time before Challis got an opportunity of explaining through John the object of his visit, of which Mogra had already given his version. On hearing his story, the chief refused to assist him.
"What the white man asks is too hard a thing," he said. "How can I, with only eighty men of fighting age, expect to accomplish anything against a multitude of Tubus? They have guns, we have none; they have horses, we have none. It is too hard a thing."
John expostulated, pleaded, at last threatened; and Challis, perceiving that his well-meant efforts only annoyed the old man and made him more obdurate, decided not to press the matter for the moment. It was something gained that the chief consented to shelter the strangers for the night. For safety's sake they brought the horses in.
During the hours of darkness the lions could be heard roaring in the neighbourhood of the cave. At moments they seemed to be almost at the entrance, and the negroes shivered with terror lest the beasts should break in. They could not light a fire—usually, though not always, effectual in scaring away lions—for fear the glare should betray the position of the cave to the Tubus. It seemed that they had escaped human foes only to fall a prey to foes still more formidable.
Challis passed a very uncomfortable night. The atmosphere of the cave was nauseating. The villagers, more than two hundred in number, had brought many of their cattle with them, and the place, large as it was, was overcrowded.
The foul air, the roaring of the lions outside, the lowing of the cattle within, and his own worried thoughts, combined to banish sleep; and at the first sign of dawn Challis was glad to escape into the fresh air. He took his rifle, and left the cave, to think matters over in the cool freshness of the morning.
It was a pity that, having found Mogra's tribe, he could not avail himself of the eighty fighting men of whom the chief had spoken. Yet he could not think of any argument, any inducement, that was likely to prevail over the old man's reluctance. Apparently, he must travel further in search of help.
Walking along, lost in thought, he came upon a watercourse worn by a small stream in the rocky surface of the hillside. He was on the point of turning back, for walking was aimless except as an aid to thought. But suddenly his eye was caught by a slight movement behind a rock on the far side of the nullah, at this point about eight yards broad and six feet deep.
The object which had attracted his notice was a moving patch of dusky brown. It had disappeared, but a moment later again rose into view. And then Challis was galvanised from meditation into a state of mind keenly practical, for the brownish patch resolved itself into the shaggy head of a lion.
In another moment he perceived a lioness, standing behind and slightly lower than her mate. Both were watching him.
For perhaps five seconds surprise held him spellbound. He stood with fascinated eyes fixed on the lions; they, at first somewhat sleepy looking, were becoming more and more alert, growling with a deep rumble. Then, following the instinct of a sportsman, he raised his rifle, and, aiming at the forehead of the animal he had seen first, he fired.
There was an angry roar; the lion sprang over the low rock, and dashed straight at Challis across the nullah.
Tingling with high-strung excitement, Challis fired again, apparently without effect, and felt that his last moment was come.
But the lion's spring was a few inches short. Just as Challis was nervously fitting a new cartridge, the beast struck the bank of the nullah within two feet of where he was standing, and fell back into the stream.
Challis seized the opportunity which he could hardly have hoped for. Aiming behind the lion's shoulder, he fired again, and the beast rolled over, clawing the air.
The lioness, meanwhile, sullenly growling, had risen from behind the boulder and was slowly retreating. Challis was almost too flurried to take good aim; but he chanced a shot, again directing it behind the shoulder. He could hardly believe his eyes when the animal dropped without a sound.
"That's something in return for a poor night's lodging," he said to himself as he walked back to the cave.
The first shot had drawn his own men and a number of the villagers to the entrance, and they had witnessed the fall of the dread beasts. Loud shouts acclaimed the white man's prowess. It seemed that the people could not do enough to show their gratitude.
And the chief had now completely changed his mind. Impressed by the slaying of the lions, he was willing to give the help he had formerly refused.
"It is wonderful," he said, spreading his hands. "The white man has slain with his marvellous gun the beasts that slew my people and wounded my son. Shall I not do something in return? Never have I seen such a marvellous deed!"
Challis thanked him. Later on, when he went back and examined the dead lions, he did not think it necessary to inform the chief that the lioness had been killed by what was really a miss. He had aimed behind the shoulder, but he found that the shot had entered at the ear and pierced the brain.
