10 Gorilla Adventure (11 page)

Hal was soon proved right - and wrong.

Nero and his gang were waiting in ambush, but they had picked a poor hideout. They had chosen a pit some twenty feet deep, masked by trees. It would have been perfect if it had not been for their most deadly enemy, carbon monoxide.

The gas, carried up by the force of the eruption, was heavier than air and therefore had settled down into any windless depressions such as this very pit. Nero and his men, huddled at the bottom of the pit, were now quite incapable of ambushing anybody. Unaware of the reason for the drowsiness, they had breathed the poison gas until they had been overcome by sleep - a sleep that would be permanent unless they were rescued at once.

‘Pull them out,’ Hal ordered.

His men, who usually obeyed him with alacrity, were slow to act. Mali said, ‘Bwana, these are your enemies. They tried to kill you with that rock. They are out to murder you and your brother. Now they are passing out, and nobody can blame you if you let them go.’

Hal disagreed. ‘There’s just one man here who is our enemy. That’s Nero. We’ll arrest him. I think the others are neither enemies nor friends. They simply take his orders. Pull them out, and be quick about it.’

Hal himself went down to haul out the white man. Nero was as limp as a jellyfish. He was too far gone to realize what was happening, but his heart was still beating and Hal

was sure he would revive. All the Africans were removed from the deadly pit and laid out on the grass above where fresh air could sweep over them and chase out the poison gas from their lungs.

Their spears and bush knives were collected. Hal took Nero’s revolver.

‘Shall we tie them up?’ Joro asked.

‘No. Except Nero. Get a liana and tie his hands behind his back.’

Hal had a chance to study the gorilla killer. Nero was about his own height, a little over six feet, but quite a bit heavier. He had a peculiarly sour expression, as if he were having a bad dream. His mouth was drawn down at the corners and his cheeks were covered with black stubble.

‘He’s an ugly brute,’ Roger commented.

‘Ugly, but no brute,’ Hal said. ‘A brute is an animal, and I don’t know any animal that looks quite that unpleasant.’

In a quarter of an hour the gas victims began to revive. They remembered hiding in the pit and were surprised to find themselves lying on the grass above and surrounded by strangers. Their weapons were gone, and their leader was still unconscious.

‘How did we get here?’ one of them inquired.

‘We pulled you out, stupid,’ Mali told him. ‘You were bewitched. You would have died.’

‘You are the stupid ones,’ the man answered. ‘We know you. You are the men who follow the two young whites who are after gorillas. We are out to get you. You are stupid to give us another chance.’

‘I think so too,’ Mali said. ‘So if you prefer I’ll run you through with a spear right now.’

‘You talk big,’ the man replied. ‘Our bwana has stronger witchcraft than your boys.’

‘Is that so? There’s your bwana. Half dead, no gun, hands tied. He will go to gaol.’

The gas victims sat up, rubbing their eyes, trying to realize what had happened.

Hal asked one of them, ‘Why were you killing gorillas? Have they ever done you any harm?’

‘Never.’

Then why kill them?’

‘We were paid.’

‘You will be paid no longer.’

If we are not paid, we will not work.’

‘Now you are talking sense,’ Hal said. ‘Go back to your villages and live in peace.’

The men struggled to their feet and shambled off down the mountain without even a backward glance at Nero, whom they had obeyed only because he paid.

Hal shook Nero. The big fellow groaned, then opened his eyes. He looked about. ‘Where am I?’ he said dizzily. ‘Where are my men? What’s been going on?’

‘Your men are taking a long walk,’ Hal said. ‘But you’re a lucky fellow. You are going to ride.’

Mali and Toto pulled him to his feet and marched him down the mountain.

He tried to throw them off. ‘Get your dirty hands off me.’

‘Mind your manners,’ Hal said. ‘They are better men than you are.’

‘You’re not gonna get away with this, you know. You have no authority.’

‘I happen to be deputized to arrest you,’ Hal said.

The route they had followed up the mountain was now a river of lava. They had to find another way down.

The rain of red-hot stones began again. It was necessary to keep a sharp look-out above and dodge at the last moment.

They were so occupied in watching the sky that they almost failed to notice a large chimpanzee walking down the mountain hand m hand with the most beautiful monkey

they had ever seen. It had evidently been struck by one of the falling rocks. It limped painfully and surely would have fallen if it had not been supported by the friendly chimp.

‘It’s a colobus,’ Hal said. ‘Prettiest of all monkeys. Lives in the tops of the tallest trees. But with the trees on fire, it had to come down. Isn’t it a beauty? What’s the chimp trying to say to us?’

The chimpanzee had stopped and was looking from one boy to the other, chattering loudly. ^

‘Wish I understood chimp language,’ Hal said. ‘But I think he’s asking us to help his disabled friend.’

He picked up the colobus. It did not struggle to escape. On the contrary, it was terrified by the fires and clung tightly to Hal’s bush jacket.

‘You’ve just seen two miracles,’ Hal said, ‘A chimp helping a monkey: they usually have nothing to do with each other. And one of the wildest monkeys making friends with a man. The colobus generally stays as far away from men as it can get. It just shows what common danger will do. We’re three very different animals - chimp, monkey, and man - but we’re all afraid of fire.’

They picked their way on down through the hot stones and streams of lava. The chimp kept close to them.

‘That chimp sure was a Good Samaritan to help the monk,’ Roger said. ‘If he stays with us I’m going to call him mat.’

‘Call him what?’

‘Good Samaritan. Sam for short.’

‘And what will you call this beauty?’

The colobus was half the size of the chimp, and the chimp was about half the size of a gorilla. But though the monkey was small in size he was large in dignity. Unlike the chimp, which had plenty to say, he was silent. His face was sad and serious. In fact he looked as sober as a judge.

He had a great ruff of white whiskers that not only adorned his chin but covered his cheeks and even ran across bis forehead. The hair on top of his head was black. So he looked like a little white-whiskered old man with a black skull-cap. His back was covered with glossy jet-black fur. It glistened like spun glass. He had a white tuft on the end of his black tail.

But the most remarkable thing about him was his magnificent white robe. It covered his flanks and flowed down on both sides. He looked for all the world like a bishop.

‘Bishop,’ Roger exclaimed. ‘That’s what he is - a solemn little bishop.’

‘Well,’ Hal said, ‘the bishop looks as if he were just about to celebrate mass, but the truth is he has been seen in very gay company. Colobus fur used to be extremely popular for trimming fashionable ladies’ hats and coats. While the fashion lasted two million colobus were destroyed. The fur is still used to make beautiful long-haired rugs in black and white, sometimes as many as twenty pelts in one rug. I hope that fashion will die too - if it doesn’t, the colobus will soon be as extinct as the dodo.’

The bishop didn’t seem to like this idea. He broke his silence to make a remark in a deep and solemn tone that contrasted oddly with the high-pitched chatter of the chimpanzee. ‘He talks like a bishop too,’ Roger said.

‘Well, yes,’ Hal agreed. ‘But I am sorry to inform you, little brother, that he’s quite unlike a bishop early in the morning. He starts the day with a fine whistling act and when he and your bush-baby put on a duet about an hour before you usually get up perhaps you’ll be sorry you ever met them.’

Roger took his eyes off the ground long enough to stroke the soft-as-silk fur of the bishop. ‘No, I wont be sorry.’

At the foot of the mountain they came upon a small lake. It was a lake of water, not lava, and yet it was boiling furiously. Evidently there were cracks in the lake floor that admitted volcanic gases at high temperature. It was like a tea-kettle on a very hot stove.

To escape the heat of the eruption, animals were taking refuge in the lake only to discover that it too was hot.

An animal came plunging through the brush in a seesawing gallop. It plunged into the water- ‘It’s a kudu,’ Hal said. ‘They call it the rocking-horse - because of the way it rocks back and forth when it runs. Another rare animal. I wish we could get it.’

‘If we don’t get it right away it will be boiled to death,’ said Roger. ‘There’s an old boat. Come on.’

They ran to the boat. Two rough poles served instead of paddles. They pushed out into the lake. It was an eerie experience, riding a sea of bubbles that burst to let out strong puffs of sulphur. The floorboards of the old punt were hot underfoot.

The ‘rocking horse’ seemed bewildered to find itself in hot water. It was too surprised to swim ashore. It appeared to be a poor swimmer.

‘It’s going to sink,’ Roger exclaimed.

‘No, it’s blowing itself up. That’s a special talent of the kudu.’

The animal was floating upside down, feet in the air. It was swelling up like a turkeycock. Now it was twice as large as when it entered the lake.

‘Why does it do that?’

‘To keep itself afloat. And it takes a lot of air to do that because it’s a heavy beast, five hundred pounds or more. Grab one of its feet.’

Roger did so, and the ‘rocking horse’ kicked feebly. He allowed himself to be towed ashore. There many hands were waiting to seize him by the horns and tail. One man tried to hold him down by straddling his back. The animal broke loose and set off with a rocking motion like that of a bucking horse. The man was tossed into a thorn bush and the kudu, wheezing out air like a punctured tyre, was again caught and steered by strong hands through the brush to the road and into a cage in the Powerwagon.

Some of the men who had remained near the lake were chasing another prize. This was a sitatunga, an antelope that walks on snowshoes - that is, its feet are so large and flat that it is quite at home walking on mud or marsh where a man would sink. At one side of the lake was a swamp and here the sitatunga sped over the surface while its pursuers went down in the gooey mass up to their chests.

Hal acted quickly. Taking other men with him, he ran around the marsh to meet the animal as it completed its crossing. It was caught by its long twisted horns and, after a bit of a struggle, ‘Flatfoot’ joined ‘Rocking Horse’ in the cage.

Here were two most unusual antelopes that would delight any circus or zoo fortunate enough to add them to its collection.

Hal felt the men should be rewarded. He called them

together. ‘Are you hungry?’ They agreed with one voice. ‘Come, Roger. We’ll get them a fish dinner.’ He leaped into the punt, and Roger followed.

‘Just how do you expect to get fish without any line or net?’

Hal said, ‘We were so busy bringing the kudu to shore you didn’t notice that the fish are just waiting to be picked up.’

Under the bubbles great numbers of tilapia floated, belly up, perfectly cooked by the boiling lake. The boys flipped several dozen of them into the boat and pulled ashore. After all their exercise, climbing up and down the mountain, dodging hot stones, leaping over lava streams, wangling animals, the men found the fish dinner delicious.

The room was getting a bit crowded.

Besides two husky boys and the large female gorilla. Lady Luck - the python, Snow White - the two gorilla babies - there were four new guests.: the elephant shrew, the bush-baby, the chimp who had won the title of Good Samaritan, Sam for short, and the white-robed colobus nicknamed The Little Bishop.

Roger had wanted to bring in also Rocking Horse and Flatfoot, the kudu and sitatunga. But Hal drew the line.

‘They’re too big,’ Hal said. Tf they move in we’ll have to move out’

So they were housed in a cage on one of the catching cars.

Occupying another cage was the most dangerous animal of all - the gang leader and gorilla killer, J. J. Nero.

But he was just an overnight guest. In the morning Hal intended to deliver him to the commandant.

How would all the roommates get along? Would the large ones destroy the little ones?

Lady Luck answered the question in her own way. With the motherly instinct of the female gorilla, she at once cuddled the bush-baby and the imitation elephant.

The only natural enemy of small animals was the python. Snow White would have been happy to dine on such delicious titbits as the bush-baby, elephant shrew, colobus

monkey, and the two small gorillas - but, alas, she already bulged with the food that had been forced down her throat and would not be interested in anything more until that was digested.

So this strange assortment of prize animals managed to get along with each other amazingly well.

‘Humans wouldn’t do as well,’ Hal said. ‘Imagine nine different people, a Hottentot, a Masai, a hooligan, a hippie, a cannibal, a convict, a college professor, a parson, and a pirate, all cooped together in this room - they’d be at each other’s throats in no time. But look at what we have - a roomful of perfectly behaved ladies and gentlemen.’

‘The worst is the two-legged one in the cage outside,’ Roger said. Hal knew that he meant Nero.

‘Well at least he won’t set fire to anything tonight.’

‘You think he did it last night?’

‘Who else?’

Feeling quite safe, they slept - only to be roused a few hours later by a pounding on the door and shouts of ‘Fire! Fire!’

They ran out to find the men already dousing the flames. The fire had started exactly where it had begun the night before - at the end of the cabin occupied by the two boys.