Nay, Peterkin, interrupted Jack; we are getting very near to the gorilla country, and you must make allowance for the enthusiasm of a naturalist.
Ah! we shall see where the naturalists enthusiasm will fly to when we actually do come face to face with the big puggy.
Well, said I, apologetically, I wont press you to go hunting again; Ill be content to follow.
Press me, my dear Ralph! exclaimed Peterkin hastily, fearing that he had hurt my feelings; why, man, I do but jest with youyou are so horridly literal. Im overjoyed to be pressed to go on the maddest wild-goose chase that ever was invented. My greatest delight would be to go gorilla-hunting down Fleet Street, if you were so disposed.But to be serious, Jack, do you think we shall be in time for the elephant-hunt to-morrow?
Ay, in capital time, if you dont knock up.
What! I knock up! Ive a good mind to knock you down for suggesting such an egregious impossibility.
Thats an impossibility anyhow, Peterkin, because Im down already, said Jack, yawning lazily and stretching out his limbs in a more comfortable and dégagé manner.
Peterkin seemed to ponder as he smoked his pipe for some time in silence.
Ralph, said he, looking up suddenly, I dont feel a bit sleepy, and yet Im tired enough.
You are smoking too much, perhaps, I suggested.
Its not that, cried Jack; he has eaten too much supper.
Base insinuation! retorted Peterkin.
Then it must be the monkey. Thats it. Roast monkey does not agree with you.
Do you know, I shouldnt wonder if you were right; and its a pity, too, for we shall have to live a good deal on such fare, I believe. However, I suppose we shall get used to it.But I say, boys, isnt it jolly to be out here living like savages? I declare it seems to me like a dream or a romance.Just look, Ralph, at the strange wild creepers that are festooned overhead, and the great tropical leaves behind us, and the clear sky above, with the moonah! the moon; yes, thats one comfortthe moon is unchanged. The same moon that smiles down upon us through a tangled mesh-work of palm-leaves and wild vines and monkeys tails, is peeping down the chimney-pots of London and Edinburgh and Dublin!
Why, Peterkin, you must have studied hard in early life to be so good a geographer.
Rather, observed Peterkin.
Yes; and look at the strange character of the tree-stems, said I, unwilling to allow the subject to drop. See those huge palmettoes likelike
Overgrown cabbages, suggested Peterkin; and he continued, Observe the quaint originality of form in the body and limbs of that bloated old spider that is crawling up your leg, Ralph!
I started involuntarily, for there is no creature of which I have a greater abhorrence than a spider.
Where is it? oh! I see, and the next moment I secured my prize and placed it with loathing, but interest, in my entomological box.
At that moment a hideous roar rang through the woods, seemingly close behind us. We all started to our feet, and seizing our rifles, which lay beside us ready loaded, cocked them and drew close together round the fire.
This wont do, lads, said Jack, after a few minutes breathless suspense, during which the only sound we could hear was the beating of our own hearts; we have allowed the fire to get too low, and weve forgotten to adopt our friend the traders advice, and make two fires.
So saying, Jack laid down his rifle, and kicking the logs with his heavy boot, sent up such a cloud of bright sparks as must certainly have scared the wild animal, whatever it was, away; for we heard no more of it that night.
Youre right, Jack, remarked Peterkin; so let us get up a blaze as fast as we can, and Ill take the first watch, not being sleepy. Come along.
In a few minutes we cut down with our axes a sufficient quantity of dry wood to keep two large fires going all night; we then kindled our second fire at a few yards distant from the first, and made our camp between them. This precaution we took in order to scare away the wild animals whose cries we heard occasionally during the night. Peterkin, having proposed to take the first watchfor we had to watch by turns all the night throughlighted his pipe and sat down before the cheerful fire with his back against the stem of a palm-tree, and his rifle lying close to his hand, to be ready in case of a surprise. There were many natives wandering about in that neighbourhood, some of whom might be ignorant of our having arrived at their village on a peaceful errand. If these should have chanced to come upon us suddenly, there was no saying what they might do in their surprise and alarm, so it behoved us to be on our guard.
Jack and I unrolled the light blankets that we carried strapped to our shoulders through the day, and laying ourselves down side by side with our feet to the fire and our heads pillowed on a soft pile of sweet-scented grass, we addressed ourselves to sleep. But sleep did not come so soon as we expected. I have often noted with some surprise and much interest the curious phases of the phenomenon of sleep. When I have gone to bed excessively fatigued and expecting to fall asleep almost at once, I have been surprised and annoyed to find that the longer I wooed the drowsy god the longer he refused to come to me; and at last, when I have given up the attempt in despair, he has suddenly laid his gentle hand upon my eyes and carried me into the land of Nod. Again, when I have been exceedingly anxious to keep awake, I have been attacked by sleep with such irresistible energy that I have been utterly unable to keep my eyelids open or my head erect, and have sat with my eyes blinking like those of an owl in the sunshine, and my head nodding like that of a Chinese mandarin.
On this our first night in the African bush, at least our first night on a hunting expeditionwe had been many nights in the woods on our journey to that spoton this night, I say, Jack and I could by no means get to sleep for a very long time after we lay down, but continued to gaze up through the leafy screen overhead at the stars, which seemed to wink at us, I almost fancied, jocosely. We did not speak to each other, but purposely kept silence. After a time, however, Jack groaned, and said softly
Ralph, are you asleep?
No, said I, yawning.
Im quite sure that Peterkin is, added Jack, raising his head and looking across the fire at the half-recumbent form of our companion.
Is he? said Peterkin in a low tone. Just about as sound as a weasel!
Jack, said I.
Well?
I cant sleep a wink. Ye-a-ow! isnt it odd?
No more can I. Do you know, Ralph, Ive been counting the red berries in that tree above me for half an hour, in the hope that the monotony of the thing would send me off; but I was interrupted by a small monkey who has been sitting up among the branches and making faces at me for full twenty minutes. There it is yet, I believe. Do you see it?
No; where?
Almost above your head.
I gazed upward intently for a few minutes, until I thought I saw the monkey, but it was very indistinct. Gradually, however, it became more defined; then to my surprise it turned out to be the head of an elephant! I was not only amazed but startled at this.
Get your rifle, Jack! said I, in a low whisper.
Jack made some sort of reply, but his voice sounded hollow and indistinct. Then I looked up again, and saw that it was the head of a hippopotamus, not that of an elephant, which was looking down at me. Curiously enough, I felt little or no surprise at this, and when in the course of a few minutes I observed a pair of horns growing out of the creatures eyes and a bushy tail standing erect on the apex of its head, I ceased to be astonished at the sight altogether, and regarded it as quite natural and commonplace. The object afterwards assumed the appearance of a lion with a crocodiles bail, and a serpent with a monkeys head, and lastly of a gorilla, without producing in me any other feeling than that of profound indifference. Gradually the whole scene vanished, and I became totally oblivious.
Jack made some sort of reply, but his voice sounded hollow and indistinct. Then I looked up again, and saw that it was the head of a hippopotamus, not that of an elephant, which was looking down at me. Curiously enough, I felt little or no surprise at this, and when in the course of a few minutes I observed a pair of horns growing out of the creatures eyes and a bushy tail standing erect on the apex of its head, I ceased to be astonished at the sight altogether, and regarded it as quite natural and commonplace. The object afterwards assumed the appearance of a lion with a crocodiles bail, and a serpent with a monkeys head, and lastly of a gorilla, without producing in me any other feeling than that of profound indifference. Gradually the whole scene vanished, and I became totally oblivious.
This state of happy unconsciousness had scarcely lastedit seemed to metwo minutes, when I was awakened by Peterkin laying his hand on my shoulder and saying
Now then, Ralph, its time to rouse up.
O Peterkin, said I, in a tone of remonstrance, how could you be so unkind as to waken me when I had just got to sleep? Shabby fellow!
Just got to sleep, say you? Youve been snoring like an apoplectic alderman for exactly two hours.
You dont say so! I exclaimed, getting into a sitting posture.
Indeed you have. Im sorry to rouse you, but times up, and Im sleepy; so rub your eyes, man, and try to look a little less like an astonished owl if you can. I have just replenished both the fires, so you can lean your back against that palm-tree and take it easy for three-quarters of an hour or so. After that youll have to heap on more wood.
I looked at Jack, who was now lying quite unconscious, breathing with the slow, deep regularity of profound slumber, and with his mouth wide open.
What a chance for some waggish baboon to drop a nut or a berry in! said Peterkin, winking at me with one eye as he lay down in the spot from which I had just risen.
He was very sleepy, poor fellow, and could hardly smile at his own absurd fancy. He was asleep almost instantly. In fact, I do not believe that he again opened the eye with which he had winked at me, but that he merely shut the other and began to slumber forthwith.
I now began to feel quite interested in my responsible position as guardian of the camp. I examined my rifle to see that it was in order and capped; then leaning against the palm-tree, which was, as it were, my sentry-box, I stood erect and rubbed my hands and took off my cap, so that the pleasant night air might play about my temples, and more effectually banish drowsiness.
In order to accomplish this more thoroughly I walked round both fires and readjusted the logs, sending up showers of sparks as I did so. Then I went to the edge of the circle of light, in the centre of which our camp lay, and peered into the gloom of the dark forest.
There was something inexpressibly delightful yet solemn in my feelings as I gazed into that profound obscurity where the great tree-stems and the wild gigantic foliage nearest to me appeared ghost-like and indistinct, and the deep solitudes of which were peopled, not only with the strange fantastic forms of my excited fancy, but, as I knew full well, with real wild creatures, both huge and small, such as my imagination at that time had not fully conceived. I felt awed, almost oppressed, with the deep silence around, and, I must confess, looked somewhat nervously over my shoulder as I returned to the fire and sat down to keep watch at my post.
Chapter Three.
Wherein I mount guard, and how I did it, etcetera
Now it so happened that the battle which I had to fight with myself after taking my post was precisely the converse of that which I fought during the earlier part of that night. Then, it was a battle with wakefulness; now, it was a struggle with sleep; and of the two fights the latter was the more severe by far.
I began by laying down my rifle close by my side, leaning back in a sitting posture against the palm-tree, and resigning myself to the contemplation of the fire, which burned merrily before me, while I pondered with myself how I should best employ my thoughts during the three long hours of my watch. But I had not dwelt on that subject more than three minutes, when I was rudely startled by my own head falling suddenly and heavily forward on my chest. I immediately roused myself. Ah! Ralph, Ralph, said I to myself in a whisper, this wont do, lad. To sleep at your post! shame on you! Had you been a sentinel in time of war that nod would have cost you your life, supposing you to have been caught in the act.
Soliloquising thus, I arose and shook myself. Then I slapped my chest several times and pulled my nose and sat down again. Only a few minutes elapsed before the same thing occurred to me again, so I leaped up, and mended the fires, and walked to and fro, until I felt thoroughly awake, but in order to make sure that it should not occur again, I walked to the edge of the circle of light and gazed for some time into the dark forest, as I had done before. While standing thus I felt my knees give way, as if they had been suddenly paralysed, and I awoke just in time to prevent myself falling to the ground. I must confess I was much amazed at this, for although I had often read of soldiers falling asleep standing at their posts, I had never believed the thing possible.
I now became rather anxious, for, thought I, if I go to sleep and the fires die down, who knows but wild beasts may come upon us and kill us before we can seize our arms. For a moment or two I meditated awaking Jack and begging him to keep me company, but when I reflected that his watch was to come immediately after mine, I had not the heart to do it. No! said I (and I said it aloud for the purpose of preventing drowsiness)no; I will fight this battle alone! I will repeat some stanzas from my favourite authors. Yes, I will try to remember a portion of A Midsummer-Nights Dream. It will be somewhat appropriate to my present circumstances.
Big with this resolve, I sat down with my face to the fire and my back to the palm-tree, andfell sound asleep instantly!
How long I lay in this condition I know not, but I was suddenly awakened by a yell so appalling that my heart leaped as if into my throat, and my nerves thrilled with horror. For one instant I was paralysed; then my blood seemed to rebound on its course. I sprang up and attempted to seize my rifle.
The reader may judge of my state of mind when I observed that it was gone! I leaped towards the fire, and grasping a lighted brand, turned round and glared into the woods in the direction whence the yell came.
It was grey dawn, and I could see things pretty distinctly; but the only living object that met my gaze was Peterkin, who stood with my rifle in his hand laughing heartily!
I immediately turned to look at Jack, who was sitting up in the spot where he had passed the night, with a sleepy smile on his countenance.
Why, whats the meaning of this? I inquired.
The meaning of it? cried Peterkin, as he advanced and restored the rifle to its place. A pretty fellow you are to mount guard! we might have been all murdered in our sleep by niggers or eaten alive by gorillas, for all that you would have done to save us.
But, Peterkin, said I gravely, you ought not to have startled me so; you gave me a terrible fright. People have been driven mad before now, I assure you, by practical jokes.
My dear fellow, cried Peterkin, with much earnestness, I know that as well as you. But, in the first place, you were guilty of so heinous a crime that I determined to punish you, and at the same time to do it in a way that would impress it forcibly on your memory; and in the second place, I would not have done it at all had I not known that your nerves are as strong as those of a dray-horse. You ought to be taking shame to yourself on account of your fault rather than objecting to your punishment.