CHAPTER XXIV
A FIGHT WITH CROCODILES
In the afternoon after the fight with the Tubus, Challis was reclining on a moss-covered rock near the cave—he could not endure the atmosphere of that close-packed habitation.
He was thinking things over, wondering whether, after his first victory, he dared lead his men towards the fort to encounter the main body of the enemy under their redoubtable leader Goruba.
Suddenly he was aware of some excitement among the crowd of natives just beyond the mouth of the cave. Could the Tubus be returning to the attack?
He sprang up, intending to reassure himself on this point. But at this moment John came running towards him, his broad face contorted by a grin.
"What is it, John?" Challis asked.
To his surprise John burst into loud laughter, slapping his thighs, bending his body, now and then pointing towards the swamp and doubling with laughter again.
"Come, come, what is the joke?" asked Challis.
"Oh, my! Oh, dear! Oh my lawks!" spluttered the Hausa. "Ober dar, sah, ober dar."
"Well? Stop laughing, and tell me about it."
John controlled himself with difficulty.
"Ober dar, sah, two bad fellas!" A guffaw. "Tubus, sah. Up a tree, sah."
"There's nothing very funny about that."
"No funny? Oh my lawks! Up a tree, sah—no come down. Boys frow spears, sah. Berry funny, all same."
"This won't do," thought Challis. "I suppose the Tubus got away, and the men are trying to spear them instead of taking them prisoners. But it's strange. There was plenty of time for them to escape altogether when I called the men off. Why didn't they run away?" he asked.
"No can do, sah," replied John, laughing again. "Crocodiles wait for dinner."
"Goodness!" Challis ejaculated. "Are there crocodiles in the swamp?"
"Oh yes, sah! fousand hundred," answered John. "Sah come and see. Him laugh all same."
He preceded Challis towards the swamp, to which the whole population of the cave were now flocking like children running to see a Punch and Judy show.
Challis hurried on. Arriving at the edge of the swamp he saw, about two hundred yards away, two Tubus crouched in the branches of a low bushy tree, not five feet above the surface.
A number of the spearmen had gone forward as far as they dared on the spongy ground, and were gleefully hurling their spears at the negroes. The range was too long, however; the weapons fell short, and splashed into the water.
And then Challis saw that for some distance around the tree the swamp was almost like a lake. The water was evidently several feet deep. And the terrified Tubus, clinging to the branches of the tree, were gazing with horror at the snouts of half a dozen crocodiles which formed a half circle projecting a few inches above the surface.
Challis was almost as much horrified as the Tubus themselves. He knew the cunning and treacherous nature of the hideous beasts. He knew that usually they came upon their prey by stealth. It was a surprise to him to find that they were bold enough to attack men openly.
It was clear that the hapless negroes were hopelessly imprisoned. In the tree they were safe, but they could not descend and attempt to swim away without the certainty of falling victims. And the cave dwellers crowding at the edge of the swamp laughed with delight at their enemies' plight and, yelled with disappointment when the weapons of the spearmen fell short.
"Stop that!" cried Challis to John. "Tell them I am very angry with them for wasting their spears."
John shouted to the men, who shamefacedly drew back. They felt no shame at trying to kill a helpless enemy, but dreaded the wrath of the white medicine man.
"I must save the wretches," thought Challis. He meant to break the power of the Tubus if he could, for the sake of all the natives of the district; but he could not stand by and see two helpless men swallowed by these slimy monsters.
It was clear that they could not save themselves. The hungry crocodile is pertinacious; he will not leave his expected prey. Some time or other the men would fall off the tree from sheer terror or weakness into the very jaws of the reptiles.
Challis gazed across the swamp. The people, seeing that he did not share their merriment, fell silent, and watched him curiously.
The swamp was covered in patches with aquaceous plants; there was no other tree except that in which the negroes had taken refuge. It would be useless to fire at the reptiles. Only the tips of their snouts were visible; Challis could not be sure of hitting a vulnerable part. He tried a shot, but, as he expected, it had no other effect than to startle the crocodiles for a moment; the next, when the sound had died away, their snouts bobbed up again.
On the hillside behind the cave there grew a few small trees.
"John," said Challis suddenly, "take some men up the hill, cut down a dozen strong young trees, strip off the leaves, and bring the trunks here as quickly as you can, with plenty of creepers."
John started off with a band of men. The rest, excited at the prospect of seeing more big medicine, chattered noisily.
When the men returned, Challis set them to lash the saplings together with the creepers to form a raft. In half an hour it was completed. At his order they carried it to the verge of the yielding ground. The crowd, having an inkling of his purpose, shouted with delight. The white man, they thought, was going to bring back the Tubus to be slaughtered.
It was difficult to launch the raft from the soft boggy ground. The men shrank from entering the water. John explained that crocodiles had been known to snap up a man from the midst of a large party. To reassure them, Challis ordered some of the spearmen to stand by, and watch for the beasts while their comrades hauled the raft into the water.
When it was at last afloat, he wanted four men to paddle it. But when John selected four strong fellows and told them what they were to do, they yelled with fright, and fled back among the crowd.
"Well, we must do it ourselves," said Challis.
"All same, sah," said John.
But Challis noticed that he looked very uneasy. Only the desire to "show off" before the people prevailed over his fear.
The two got upon the raft, and standing well in the centre, poled out with saplings across the thick weedy water. Challis felt somewhat anxious himself when he realised how frail and crazy was this rapidly made raft. And they had only gone about fifty yards from the shore when he got some notion of the nature of the adventure on which he had embarked.
Almost without a ripple on the surface a snout emerged from the water a few yards ahead of them. In another moment a second and yet a third appeared. Then more came on each side and behind. The swamp seemed to be swarming with the reptiles.
Challis tried another shot. The snouts instantly disappeared, emerging again, however, after a few seconds, at a little greater distance. Whether Challis had killed one he did not know.
He was taking aim for a third shot when the raft, neglected by John, intent on watching his master, lurched against a half submerged bank of weed. Challis staggered, and in catching at John to steady himself, dropped his rifle, which struck the side of the raft and fell into the water with a big splash.
"Never mind," said Challis, trying cheerfully to hide his annoyance. "They can't get to us on the raft."
Coming into deeper water, they used the saplings as paddles. The crocodiles kept at a greater distance, but they followed the raft, swimming slowly and quite noiselessly after it as it crept towards the tree.
Challis felt the presence of this escort not a little disconcerting. He was not scared, but uncomfortable. He thought of driving off the reptiles by shouting; it was quite an effort to find his voice. When he shouted and splashed with his paddle there was a momentary scattering and disappearance of the snouts; but as soon as he left off, they came up behind and around the raft again.
He was heartily glad when at last they reached the tree.
"Tell the Tubus to come down," he said to John.
The Hausa jabbered to the men in the tree; they neither moved nor answered. He shouted to them again, still without effect.
"Plenty silly chaps," he said scornfully.
"Perhaps they think we shall kill them," said Challis. "Tell them we have come to save them."
It required a great deal of eloquence on John's part before the negroes were convinced that the white man wished to save, not to take their lives. Even then they hesitated from fear of the crocodiles. To encourage them John beat the water noisily with his paddle, all the time abusing them as "silly chaps."
At last they lowered themselves cautiously from the branches and stood clinging to each other in the centre of the raft. The crocodiles hovering round seemed to be conscious that their prey was escaping them, or, as Challis thought, felt that their dinner was assured, for they made a sudden dash at the raft. Some of them got their snouts over the edge, and while Challis and John belaboured them with their paddles, the Tubus fell on their knees and crouched howling.
The crocodiles sank into the water, and Challis and his man began to paddle shoreward with all their energy. But soon the reptiles, finding that they were none the worse for their battering, the blows of the paddles being but flicks on their tough hides, returned to the attack.
This time the danger was more serious. The slight raft rocked about and dipped at the rear as Challis and John smote desperately with their poles at the crocodiles, some of which had pushed their snouts and forelegs over the edge. The Tubus, who might have maintained the balance by going to the other end, cowered and howled in the middle.
Challis and his man had to withdraw from the edge in order to avoid being capsized, and the reptiles scrambled farther on. John's pole snapped on the back of the foremost, but he thrust the splintered end into the monster's eye. At the same moment Challis plunged his pole down the throat of another. The two strokes were almost too effective. The crocodiles slid back into the water, and Challis had only just time to spring forward and prevent the raft from overturning.
There was a brief breathing space. The monsters had disappeared. But the raft was stationary, and the poles were gone. It was impossible to propel it farther except by paddling with their hands. They were beginning to do this, Challis on one side, John on the other, when both started back simultaneously as the hideous snouts once more rose above the surface.
The scene had been watched with growing excitement by the crowd on shore. Realising the peril of the situation, some of the men began to hurl spears at the reptiles, which were again closing in behind the raft. This was more dangerous to the men than to the crocodiles. One of the spears fell on the raft. Challis snatched it up, telling John to order the men to cease throwing.
Three more of the monsters were now scrambling up, and under their pressure the raft moved towards the shore. Challis jabbed his spear at their eyes and gaping mouths. He disposed of them one after another. But his victory brought catastrophe. The third flopped off so suddenly that before Challis could step forward the raft tipped up, and all four men were thrown into the water.
The Tubus yelled, John shouted, the people on shore shrieked. Challis felt that all was over. Against these reptiles in their own element he could do nothing. He could only swim for it.
"Splash with your legs!" he cried to John, who, like the Tubus, was already striking out vigorously for land, now only fifty yards away.
The spearmen, aghast at the plight of their white chief, forgot their fears and dashed into the shallower water to save him, the crowd behind them yelling frantically. The tremendous splash, the din and clamour scared even the monsters. They sheered off and sank beneath the surface.
In a few moments Challis, slimy with weeds and green with ooze, was dragged up by his jubilant followers. John and the Tubus scrambled on shore unassisted. The crowd made a dash for the latter, but Challis sternly called them off, ordering John to look after them as prisoners of war. And then they all marched back to the cave, the people shouting and laughing with joy, though Challis felt by no means like a conqueror.
