10 Gorilla Adventure (18 page)

‘That’s fine,’ Hal said, ‘except that you’re making one mistake. This is on the hospital grounds. Your arrangements will be made with Dr Burton, not with us.’

Ryan looked surprised. ‘But you located the deposit. You’re entitled to a share of the profits.’

‘Listen,’ Hal said. ‘This hospital is doing a grand job under terrible difficulties. The hospital is about to close down for lack of funds. The people need this hospital. They even come from a hundred miles away. Dr Burton is frightfully overworked. He’s doing it all alone. His doctors and nurses have been killed or have gone home. He needs money to recruit a new staff, buy supplies, instruments, new equipment - and here it all is, right in his own front yard.’

‘But your father - isn’t he the boss? Don’t you want to cable him for instructions?’

‘We know exactly what father would say. We’re animal collectors, not miners.’

The geologists shook their heads over the stubbornness of the two young men, and went in to see Dr Burton.

The freighter, African Star, had thirty-four passengers. But only twelve of them were human. The other twenty-two were listed on the ship’s manifest as follows:

‘One gorilla, male; 1 gorilla, female; 2 infant gorillas; 1 python, white; 1 elephant shrew; 1 colobus monkey; 1 kudu; 1 bush-baby; 1 chimpanzee; 1 sitatunga; 1 mamba; 1 spitting cobra; 1 boomslang; 1 black leopard; 3 vervet monkeys; 1 ostrich; 1 gaboon viper; 2 skunks.’

The viper and the skunks had been added at the last moment. The captain had objected to the skunks, even though Hal assured him that they were a very rare variety. That didn’t improve their smell.

The captain consented only after Hal sprayed them with perfume and promised to keep them sprayed during the voyage.

This was the most important wildlife shipment to leave Mombasa in many a day. Hal and Roger had decided to go along to see that the animals were properly fed and cared for. They had another reason. They were a bit homesick.

‘And we ought to be on hand in case of accidents,’ Hal said.

Roger asked, ‘What accidents?’

‘Accidents can happen,’ said Hal.

At first everything went smoothly. For five days the ship sailed over tranquil seas down the coast past Dar-es-Salaam, Durban, and Capetown.

Rounding the Cape, she ran into rough weather and began to roll. The animals in their boxes and cages on the deck amidships started to fret. They were not used to any such motion. Some became seasick. All began to use whatever voice Nature had given them. The muttering and moaning grew into a screaming chorus.

This touched the heart of the chimp, Good Samaritan. Sam was such a close friend of man that he had not been caged. He had gone about with Hal and Roger daily as they opened each container just enough to put in food. For simplicity’s sake, all locks took the same key. It was kept handy in a box nailed to the kudu’s cage.

Now Sam saw his opportunity to do a good deed. He began with the little colobus monkey he had befriended on the slope of the volcano. The poor little fellow was wailing pitifully, pulling at the bars, trying to escape from his teetering box.

The angel of mercy came to his aid. Sam got the key and unlocked the door. Out tumbled ‘The Little Bishop’. His wailing stopped. Happily he dashed about the deck, his white robe floating behind him.

Then he joyously clambered into the rigging and took a flying leap to the ladder that scaled the mast. It was as good as a tree. Here he did not mind the motion. Trees also sway in a storm.

Quite pleased with the results of his charitable deed, Helpful Harry opened another box. Out slithered the mamba. At once it reared six feet high. Ungratefully, it lunged at die chimp, who dodged just in time.

Sam was a bit disappointed. He considered this a poor way for the twisty creature to say thanks. Oh well, you couldn’t expect appreciation from everybody.

The mamba slipped on the sloping deck and skidded down the companionway to the passenger deck. Irritated by being so tossed about, it looked for someone to punish. Anyone would do.

Rounding a corner, the snake came face to face with a passenger, a lady from Pocatello, Idaho. Needless to say, this was a shock to the good lady, since snakes six feet tall are not commonly encountered on the streets of Pocatello.

The mamba made a pass at her. Its fangs dug into empty air, for madam had already collapsed in a quivering faint on the deck.

The snake contemptuously walked over her. Discovering a partly open door, it entered. It was disappointed to find no enemy.

But there was a place for it to hide. The absent passenger, member of a fireman’s band, had left his tuba standing against the wall.

It was a double bass, largest of all brass instruments, ideal retreat for a badly disturbed snake. Gratefully, it wound its way down into the dark interior.

In the meantime Sam the chimp had opened a dozen more doors. The black leopard turned white. Biting everything it found, it crunched a tap and let out a cascade of water that fell into a pail of detergent. Suds frothed all over the deck and over the big cat. The slippery animal skidded from one bulwark to the other at every roll of the ship.

The three vervet monkeys, wildly delighted to be free, scampered up the rigging, leaped from boom to boom, and got themselves liberally pasted by the fresh white paint the crew had been applying to the ship for arrival at her home port.

Then the monkeys took a notion to explore below. They tumbled into the coal hole and came up black with coal dust which they liberally applied to the freshly painted funnels, rails, and bulkheads until the ship looked like a zebra in its coat of black stripes on white.

Colliding with the supercargo, they gave his white tropicals a thorough dusting and his bare arms a few good bites as he tried in vain to capture them and restore them to their box.

He gave up, and went to beat on the door of the cabin occupied by the animal collectors. These two carefree gentlemen were having a pleasant siesta after spending much of the night on watch over their uneasy charges.

‘Come alive,’ he yelled. ‘Your beasts are tearing up the ship. Wake up, you blokes.’

Hal, recognizing the voice of the supercargo, replied sleepily, ‘Can’t you watch them while we get a bit of sleep? The animals are cargo, aren’t they? And aren’t you in charge of cargo?’

The supercargo fairly screamed. ‘I tell you, they’re all over the ship.’

More convincing than the excitement of the officer was what Hal saw when he opened his eyes. The spitting cobra was looking in the window. It seemed ready to spit, and Hal was directly in its line of fire.

Hal’s immediate thought was of the passengers. This creature, on the loose, could blind and even kill. The best thing that could be done was to get it to spit, and spit now, so its venom would be exhausted before it endangered anyone else.

But even he didn’t particularly care to be its victim. There was a mirror at the end of the cabin facing the window. Thinking fast, he leaped out of his bunk into a corner by the door.

Now the snake could not see him - but could see his reflection in the mirror. Hal grabbed a flashlight and played it on his face. The brightly lit image in the mirror was all the cobra needed.

It let loose its load of venom, which travelled like a bullet over the ten feet between the window and the provocative eyes. The glass streamed with the white poison.

Hal moved to catch the snake, but it had already gone. But now it was almost as harmless as a garter snake.

The boys plunged out on deck and caught whatever they could lay their hands on. But they couldn’t be everywhere at once. The whole ship was in an uproar - passengers screaming, alarm bells ringing, animals squawking, chattering, whistling, shrieking.

The tuba player, returning to his cabin, thought to add to the alarm by blowing a blast on his instrument. He gave it all his lung-power, but there was no sound. Instead, the blazing eyes and darting tongue of a disturbed mamba appeared over the tuba’s rim. The musician left the tuba to the snake and dived out on deck.

The ostrich, with its peculiar ability to roar like a lion and kick like a mule, was engaging in battle with the supercargo. The man naturally considered himself able to conquer any bird, even the eight-foot giant. He would just jump on it and flatten it to the deck.

But when he tried this manoeuvre it didn’t work. The three-hundred-pound bird just didn’t flatten. Instead, the hundred-and-sixty-pound supercargo found himself riding ostrich-back clutching feathers to keep from falling.

Passing the canvas swimming pool, the bird veered sharply and over went the unlucky rider with his hands full of feathers. Into the pool he fell, and came up to see the ostrich dart its head in through a cabin window, pluck a safety razor from a passenger in mid-shave and swallow it - then dash on with its beak dripping great gobs of shaving cream.

The skunks scampered into the lounge where several passengers had taken refuge. The steward succeeded in catching them both by the tail; whereupon they let loose their barrage of scent, quite different from the perfume that had graced their fur, and choking passengers fled to the deck.

The python, Snow White, emerged when her door was opened, but quickly tired of the wild commotion. Very sensibly she retired into a cabin and, seeing a bed, slipped into it, snuggling up gratefully against the lady who already occupied it. She, with her eyes screwed shut, was too paralysed to realize that her blankets were being shared by another lady more distinguished than herself.

The Good Samaritan, having completed his good deed, thought it was time to have a little fun himself.

He made for the bridge, tumbled into the wheelhouse, and so startled the helmsman that he fled, shouting for the captain.

The chimp took the wheel. He had often watched what went on in this high spot. He knew just what to do He first blew a lusty blast on the whistle. Then he seized a handle and signalled the engineer - full speed ahead, full speed reverse, and every point between, until the sweating men in the engine room were convinced that the helmsman of the African Star had gone stark, staring mad

Only the great Gog kept his head. He went about with Hal and Roger seizing animals and restoring them to their cages.

When Roger attempted to extract the mamba from the tuba, the snake struck out at his chest - but before it could get there a great arm barred its way and the fangs went deep into the flesh of the ape.

Roger at once cut the wound and put his mouth to the arm to suck out the poison. Then Hal promptly injected the life-saving serum.

Hal said, ‘When you consider that apes have a deadly fear of snakes, that was a brave thing your hairy friend did. And to think that a week ago he would very cheerfully have killed you himself. It just shows - something.’

It was good to be home. Good to see their mother and father. Good to look across the broad acres of the Hunt wild-animal farm, alive with animals from all over the world, awaiting transfer to zoos, circuses, and scientific institutions.

‘And some of the finest are the ones you have just brought home,’ John Hunt said. ‘I asked you to get a big male gorilla. But I never expected one seven feet tall. I asked for a python, any python, and you get one in a million, a pure-white blue-eyed beauty. And a two-headed boomslang that is a scientific marvel. And that beautiful colobus, and the six-foot-tall mamba. And not just a leopard, but the rare black leopard. And all the things I didn’t ask for. I’m proud of you both—because you have the right idea: to do more than you are asked to do.’

‘Seems to me,’ Hal said, ‘you’ve been doing the same thing. That sign over your gate.’

When they left home, the sign had read:

JOHN HUNT WILDLIFE

Now it read:

JOHN HUNT AND SONS WILDLIFE

‘You didn’t need to do that,’ Hal said.

‘Only fair,’ said his father, and dismissed the subject.

He set down the bush-baby and the elephant shrew, which he had been holding in his lap, and took up the two skunks. He admired their great bushy tails.

‘Like bird-of-paradise plumes,’ he said.

Whether or not the skunks understood the compliment, they understood the man. He had ‘a way with animals’ - a magic that he had passed on to his sons. Skunks are charming pets, if they will just hold their fire. These felt safe with the animal man, therefore he was safe from them.

‘Well, boys, perhaps you’ll stay home now and take a good rest.’

The boys’ faces fell a foot. Rest is about the last thing a boy wants.

‘I have another project,’ John Hunt said. ‘But someone else can handle it.’

‘What’s the project?’ Roger asked breathlessly.

‘Don’t tell them, John,’ said Mrs Hunt. ‘It’s too dangerous. I’d worry all the time.’

‘No harm in telling them,’ John said. ‘They’re members of the firm. They’ll have to know sooner or later.’

Hal grew impatient. ‘Get on with it, Dad. What’ve you got up your sleeve?’

‘I have oceanography up my sleeve. I’m sure you know what that is.’

‘Exploring beneath the sea,’ Hal said.

‘Right. And you know how important it is. Practically all of the world’s land surface has been explored. But less than five per cent of the ocean bottom. We know more about the back side of the moon, two hundred and forty thousand miles away, than about the waters at our front door. Of course we should learn about the moon - but as our astronaut, Scott Carpenter, has said, ‘Deep sea research will pay off in richer rewards much sooner.’

‘He should know,’ Hal said. ‘He’s the only one who has been both up and down.’

‘Yes. After his space flight, he lived thirty days in a home beneath the sea. That’s where the treasures are - treasures we need, now that the land can’t produce enough meat, milk, fish, vegetables, all sorts of food, oil, gas, gold, silver, aluminium, manganese, and the thousand other things necessary to keep life going on this planet. They are all down there, at the bottom of the sea. This year, another home has been built for undersea explorers.’