King Solomon's Mines
reputation as a marvellous shot was established, at any rate among the
Kafirs. Really he was a bad one, but whenever he missed we overlooked
it for the sake of that giraffe.
Having set some of the “boys” to cut off the best of the giraffe’s
meat, we went to work to build a “scherm” near one of the pools and
about a hundred yards to its right. This is done by cutting a quantity
of thorn bushes and piling them in the shape of a circular hedge. Then
the space enclosed is smoothed, and dry tambouki grass, if obtainable,
is made into a bed in the centre, and a fire or fires lighted.
By the time the “scherm” was finished the moon peeped up, and our
dinners of giraffe steaks and roasted marrow-bones were ready. How we
enjoyed those marrow-bones, though it was rather a job to crack them! I
know of no greater luxury than giraffe marrow, unless it is elephant’s
heart, and we had that on the morrow. We ate our simple meal by the
light of the moon, pausing at times to thank Good for his wonderful
shot; then we began to smoke and yarn, and a curious picture we must
have made squatting there round the fire. I, with my short grizzled
hair sticking up straight, and Sir Henry with his yellow locks, which
were getting rather long, were rather a contrast, especially as I am
thin, and short, and dark, weighing only nine stone and a half, and Sir
Henry is tall, and broad, and fair, and weighs fifteen. But perhaps the
most curious-looking of the three, taking all the circumstances of the
case into consideration, was Captain John Good, R.N. There he sat upon
a leather bag, looking just as though he had come in from a comfortable
day’s shooting in a civilised country, absolutely clean, tidy, and well
dressed. He wore a shooting suit of brown tweed, with a hat to match,
and neat gaiters. As usual, he was beautifully shaved, his eye-glass
and his false teeth appeared to be in perfect order, and altogether he
looked the neatest man I ever had to do with in the wilderness. He even
sported a collar, of which he had a supply, made of white gutta-percha.
“You see, they weigh so little,” he said to me innocently, when I
expressed my astonishment at the fact; “and I always like to turn out
like a gentleman.” Ah! if he could have foreseen the future and the
raiment prepared for him.
Well, there we three sat yarning away in the beautiful moonlight, and
watching the Kafirs a few yards off sucking their intoxicating “daccha”
from a pipe of which the mouthpiece was made of the horn of an eland,
till one by one they rolled themselves up in their blankets and went to
sleep by the fire, that is, all except Umbopa, who was a little apart,
his chin resting on his hand, and thinking deeply. I noticed that he
never mixed much with the other Kafirs.
Presently, from the depths of the bush behind us, came a loud “_woof_,
_woof_!” “That’s a lion,” said I, and we all started up to listen.
Hardly had we done so, when from the pool, about a hundred yards off,
we heard the strident trumpeting of an elephant. “_Unkungunklovo_!
_Indlovu_!” “Elephant! Elephant!” whispered the Kafirs, and a few
minutes afterwards we saw a succession of vast shadowy forms moving
slowly from the direction of the water towards the bush.
Up jumped Good, burning for slaughter, and thinking, perhaps, that it
was as easy to kill elephant as he had found it to shoot giraffe, but I
caught him by the arm and pulled him down.
“It’s no good,” I whispered, “let them go.”
“It seems that we are in a paradise of game. I vote we stop here a day
or two, and have a go at them,” said Sir Henry, presently.
I was rather surprised, for hitherto Sir Henry had always been for
pushing forward as fast as possible, more especially since we
ascertained at Inyati that about two years ago an Englishman of the
name of Neville _had_ sold his wagon there, and gone on up country. But
I suppose his hunter instincts got the better of him for a while.
Good jumped at the idea, for he was longing to have a shot at those
elephants; and so, to speak the truth, did I, for it went against my
conscience to let such a herd as that escape without a pull at them.
“All right, my hearties,” said I. “I think we want a little recreation.
And now let’s turn in, for we ought to be off by dawn, and then perhaps
we may catch them feeding before they move on.”
The others agreed, and we proceeded to make our preparations. Good took
off his clothes, shook them, put his eye-glass and his false teeth into
his trousers pocket, and folding each article neatly, placed it out of
the dew under a corner of his mackintosh sheet. Sir Henry and I
contented ourselves with rougher arrangements, and soon were curled up
in our blankets, and dropping off into the dreamless sleep that rewards
the traveller.
Going, going, go—What was that?
Suddenly, from the direction of the water came sounds of violent
scuffling, and next instant there broke upon our ears a succession of
the most awful roars. There was no mistaking their origin; only a lion
could make such a noise as that. We all jumped up and looked towards
the water, in the direction of which we saw a confused mass, yellow and
black in colour, staggering and struggling towards us. We seized our
rifles, and slipping on our veldtschoons, that is shoes made of
untanned hide, ran out of the scherm. By this time the mass had fallen,
and was rolling over and over on the ground, and when we reached the
spot it struggled no longer, but lay quite still.
Now we saw what it was. On the grass there lay a sable antelope
bull—the most beautiful of all the African antelopes—quite dead, and
transfixed by its great curved horns was a magnificent black-maned
lion, also dead. Evidently what had happened was this: The sable
antelope had come down to drink at the pool where the lion—no doubt the
same which we had heard—was lying in wait. While the antelope drank,
the lion had sprung upon him, only to be received upon the sharp curved
horns and transfixed. Once before I saw a similar thing happen. Then
the lion, unable to free himself, had torn and bitten at the back and
neck of the bull, which, maddened with fear and pain, had rushed on
until it dropped dead.
As soon as we had examined the beasts sufficiently we called the
Kafirs, and between us managed to drag their carcases up to the scherm.
After that we went in and lay down, to wake no more till dawn.
With the first light we were up and making ready for the fray. We took
with us the three eight-bore rifles, a good supply of ammunition, and
our large water-bottles, filled with weak cold tea, which I have always
found the best stuff to shoot on. After swallowing a little breakfast
we started, Umbopa, Khiva, and Ventvögel accompanying us. The other
Kafirs we left with instructions to skin the lion and the sable
antelope, and to cut up the latter.
We had no difficulty in finding the broad elephant trail, which
Ventvögel, after examination, pronounced to have been made by between
twenty and thirty elephants, most of them full-grown bulls. But the
herd had moved on some way during the night, and it was nine o’clock,
and already very hot, before, by the broken trees, bruised leaves and
bark, and smoking droppings, we knew that we could not be far from
them.
Presently we caught sight of the herd, which numbered, as Ventvögel had
said, between twenty and thirty, standing in a hollow, having finished
their morning meal, and flapping their great ears. It was a splendid
sight, for they were only about two hundred yards from us. Taking a
handful of dry grass, I threw it into the air to see how the wind was;
for if once they winded us I knew they would be off before we could get
a shot. Finding that, if anything, it blew from the elephants to us, we
crept on stealthily, and thanks to the cover managed to get within
forty yards or so of the great brutes. Just in front of us, and
broadside on, stood three splendid bulls, one of them with enormous
tusks. I whispered to the others that I would take the middle one; Sir
Henry covering the elephant to the left, and Good the bull with the big
tusks.
“Now,” I whispered.
Boom! boom! boom! went the three heavy rifles, and down came Sir
Henry’s elephant dead as a hammer, shot right through the heart. Mine
fell on to its knees and I thought that he was going to die, but in
another moment he was up and off, tearing along straight past me. As he
went I gave him the second barrel in the ribs, and this brought him
down in good earnest. Hastily slipping in two fresh cartridges I ran
close up to him, and a ball through the brain put an end to the poor
brute’s struggles. Then I turned to see how Good had fared with the big
bull, which I had heard screaming with rage and pain as I gave mine its
quietus. On reaching the captain I found him in a great state of
excitement. It appeared that on receiving the bullet the bull had
turned and come straight for his assailant, who had barely time to get
out of his way, and then charged on blindly past him, in the direction
of our encampment. Meanwhile the herd had crashed off in wild alarm in
the other direction.
For awhile we debated whether to go after the wounded bull or to follow
the herd, and finally deciding for the latter alternative, departed,
thinking that we had seen the last of those big tusks. I have often
wished since that we had. It was easy work to follow the elephants, for
they had left a trail like a carriage road behind them, crushing down
the thick bush in their furious flight as though it were tambouki
grass.
But to come up with them was another matter, and we had struggled on
under the broiling sun for over two hours before we found them. With
the exception of one bull, they were standing together, and I could
see, from their unquiet way and the manner in which they kept lifting
their trunks to test the air, that they were on the look-out for
mischief. The solitary bull stood fifty yards or so to this side of the
herd, over which he was evidently keeping sentry, and about sixty yards
from us. Thinking that he would see or wind us, and that it would
probably start them off again if we tried to get nearer, especially as
the ground was rather open, we all aimed at this bull, and at my
whispered word, we fired. The three shots took effect, and down he went
dead. Again the herd started, but unfortunately for them about a
hundred yards further on was a nullah, or dried-out water track, with
steep banks, a place very much resembling the one where the Prince
Imperial was killed in Zululand. Into this the elephants plunged, and
when we reached the edge we found them struggling in wild confusion to
get up the other bank, filling the air with their screams, and
trumpeting as they pushed one another aside in their selfish panic,
just like so many human beings. Now was our opportunity, and firing
away as quickly as we could load, we killed five of the poor beasts,
and no doubt should have bagged the whole herd, had they not suddenly
given up their attempts to climb the bank and rushed headlong down the
nullah. We were too tired to follow them, and perhaps also a little
sick of slaughter, eight elephants being a pretty good bag for one day.
So after we were rested a little, and the Kafirs had cut out the hearts
of two of the dead elephants for supper, we started homewards, very
well pleased with our day’s work, having made up our minds to send the
bearers on the morrow to chop away the tusks.
Shortly after we re-passed the spot where Good had wounded the
patriarchal bull we came across a herd of eland, but did not shoot at
them, as we had plenty of meat. They trotted past us, and then stopped
behind a little patch of bush about a hundred yards away, wheeling
round to look at us. As Good was anxious to get a near view of them,