Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics by Oliver Optic (best romantic novels to read .TXT) 📗

at liberty to use the seats when they were not required by any of the "Big Four." No order to this effect had been given; but the men, under the influence of the discipline on board of the ship, had involuntarily adopted the system.

"Slow her down, Wales," said Scott, after he had observed the situation of the saurian.

The wheelman rang the jingle-bell, and the boat soon came down to half-speed. The five hunters, including Achang, had their rifles ready for use, though they still retained their seats. The reptile was not asleep; and he appeared to have some notions of his own, for he was not disposed to wait for the coming of the boat. He settled down in the dark water so that he could not be seen, but the surface was disturbed by his movements.

"Port the helm, Wales," said the captain quietly. "He is going across the river."

Presently he came to the surface again, and was swimming towards the opposite shore. He kept his head and a small portion of his back next to it above the surface of the water, as the young hunters had seen in Sumatra before.[31]

"Full speed; give her a spurt, Wales," said the captain.

The wheelman rang the speed-bell, and then spoke through the tube to the engineer. The boat suddenly darted ahead under this instruction, and was soon abreast of the reptile, who was not at first disposed to change his tactics. He evidently realized that he was pursued, and it seemed to make him angry.

"The rascal has put his helm to port," said Wales.

"Look out there, in the waist!" shouted Scott to the seamen, a couple of whom were seated on the rail, with their legs dangling over the side of the boat. "Never sit in that way, men, unless you want to be carried to the hospital with a leg bitten off."

"Will they bite, Captain?" asked Clinch.

"Bite? They are regular man-eaters on these rivers."

"I used to go in swimming with the alligators on the Alabama River; but they all kept their distance," added the seaman.

The two men drew in their legs and moved inboard. Alligators, which are generally considered harmless in the rivers of the Southern States, will bite at anything hanging in the water. As Wales had suggested, the crocodile had changed his course, and was now headed directly for the Blanchita. He seemed to have concluded that there was no safety for him in flight, and he had decided to fight.[32]

"Your first shot, Louis," said Scott, who had not even taken up his rifle, as if he thought there would be no chance for him after the millionaire had fired.

Louis waited a minute or more till he could distinctly see the eye of the crocodile, and then he fired. As has so often been said before, he had been thoroughly trained in a shooting-gallery, and was a dead shot, as he had often proved during the voyage. The bullet had evidently gone to his brain, for the reptile floundered about for an instant, and then moved no more. As Felix put it, he was "very dead," though the word hardly admits of an intensifier.

"What are you going to do with him now?" asked the Milesian.

"I don't think we want anything more of him; but, like a poison snake, he is a nuisance that ought to be abated," replied the captain. "I dare say the rajah will be much obliged to us for making the number of them even one less."

"How long is he?" Achang inquired, as he returned his rifle to its resting-place.

"About ten feet," replied Louis.

"More than that," the captain thought. "I should say twelve feet."

"Then he is worth eighteen shillings to you," added the native.

"What is he good for, Achang?" asked Morris.

"He is good for nothing," replied the Bornean. "The crocodile here eats men and women. Some are[33] killed every year, and the government pays one and sixpence apiece for the heads."

"That looks like a war of extermination upon them," said Morris.

"I don't know what that is; but they want to kill them all off," replied Achang, who had improved his language so that his tutor seldom had to correct it.

"That is the same thing. They pay by the foot for crocodiles here."

"The bigger they are, the more dangerous," suggested Louis. "Let us haul him alongside, and see how long he is."

The boat had stopped her screw before Louis fired; and the captain directed Wales to lay her alongside the saurian, which was done in a few minutes. Ropes were passed under his head and tail; and with a couple of purchases made fast to the horizontal rods over the rail, close to the stanchions, the carcass was hoisted partly out of the water. The measure was taken with a line first, to which Lane, who was a carpenter's assistant, applied his rule, which gave twelve feet and two inches as the length of the crocodile.

"That makes him worth eighteen shillings," said Achang.

"About four dollars and a half," added Morris. "We could make something hunting crocodiles. If we could kill ten of them like that fellow it would give us forty-five dollars."

Louis and Scott laughed heartily at this calculation,[34] and thought the idea was derogatory to the character of true sport, though they did not object to turning their victims of this kind into money.

"Must we carry the carcass of this beast down to Kuching in order to get the reward, Achang?" asked Morris.

"The head will be enough; and they can tell how long he is by the size of it."

"How shall we saw the head off? Can you do it, Lane?"

"I can do that," interposed the Bornean, as he went to a bundle of implements he had procured in the town and from the natives.

He drew from it a very heavy sword, from which he took off the covering of dry leaves, and applied his thumb to the edge of the weapon. Then he picked out a straw from some packing, and dropped it off in pieces, as one tries his razor on a hair. It appeared to be as sharp as the shaving-tool, and he was satisfied. All hands watched his movements with deep interest. He secured a position with one foot on the side of the boat, and the other on the back of the crocodile. With two or three blows of his sword, he severed the head from the body, and a seaman secured it with a boathook.

All hands applauded when the deed was done, as the Bornean washed his keen blade. The operation excited the admiration of all the lookers-on, it was so quickly and skilfully done. Louis wished to examine the weapon, and it was handed to him. It[35] was heavy enough to require a strong arm to handle it; and it was sharp enough for a giant's razor, if giants ever shave, for most of them are pictured with full beards.

"I suppose this is a native's sword," said Louis, as he passed it to the captain.

"Dyak parong latok; parong same thing, not so long," Achang explained.

"I suppose that is what the Dyaks used when they went head-hunting," said Felix.

"No head-hunting now; used to use it, the Hill Dyaks. Used in battle too; split head open with it, or cut head off."

"What other weapons did the fighting men use?" asked Louis.

"They carried a shield, and used a spear with the parong latok; no other weapons. Two kinds of Dyaks, the Sea and the Hill."

While the native was talking, the seamen, by order of the captain, had hoisted the head of the saurian into the sampan towing astern, placing it on a piece of tarpaulin. The carcass was cast loose, and probably was soon devoured by others of its own kind.

"We might find some eggs in the crocodile," said Achang, as the body floated past the boat.

"We don't want the eggs," replied the captain, turning up his nose.

"Good to eat, Captain. My naturalist used to eat them. Very nice, like turtles' eggs, which Englishmen always put in the soup."[36]

"None in my soup!" exclaimed Scott, with a wry face, to express his disgust.

"I suppose they would be all right if we only got used to them," suggested Louis.

"As the man's horse did when he fed him on shavings," sneered Scott.

"I did not take very kindly to turtles' eggs when we were in the West Indies; but I got used to them, and then liked them," added Louis. "In Africa the natives eat boa-constrictors, and think they are a choice morsel. Some of our Indians eat clay, and I suppose they like it."

"Something up in the trees yonder, Captain," said Wales, as the boat approached some higher ground, which was not overflown with water, as most of the shore below had been.

"Monkeys," added Achang, not at all excited.

"I don't think I care to shoot monkeys unless it is for the purpose of examining them," said Louis. "They are too small game, and they are harmless creatures."

"Strange monkeys in here," continued Achang. "Not these," he added when he had obtained a sight of one of them. "These no good."

All eyes were directed to the tree; and at least a dozen common monkeys were there, such as they had seen in the museums at home. The steamer continued on her course, and a couple of miles farther on the forest was inundated. Some of the trees appeared to be inhabited.[37]

"Plenty of elephant monkeys in here," said Achang.

"Elephant monkeys!" exclaimed Louis. "I never heard of any such animals. Are they called so because they are so large?"

"No, sir," said Achang; "because they have such long noses."

"There are a dozen monkeys in that tree, and they look very queer," said Louis, as he elevated his double-barrelled fowling-piece, loaded with large shot, and fired.

One of them dropped, and another when he discharged the second barrel. The boat was run in the direction of the tree till it grounded in the mud. The captain proposed to go for them in the sampan, when Clingman volunteered to wade to the tree for the game, and soon returned with the two victims of the millionaire's unerring aim. They were placed in the waist, and all were curious to see them. The rest of the tribe scampered away over the tops of the trees, crying, "honk, honk, kehonk!"

"They are proboscis monkeys, and old males at that; for they have very long noses, which is the reason for the name, and why Achang calls them elephant monkeys," said Louis, as he turned the creatures over. "The noses of these two reach down below the chin. They stand about three feet high, but are rather lank, like the tall pigs."

While the party were examining them, the captain gave the order to back the boat, and then to go[38] ahead. She was moored for the night soon after. The next morning, by the advice of Achang, the Blanchita was headed down the river, for the native declared that they would find no different game on the banks of the Sarawak.[39]

CHAPTER V A HUNDRED AND EIGHT FEET OF CROCODILE

The party were stirring as soon as it was daylight; for in the tropics the early hours are the pleasantest, and they had fallen into the habit of early rising in India. The trees were alive with monkeys of several kinds, though the proboscis tribe seemed to be in the majority. Felix came out of the cabin with his gun in his hand, and began to regard the denizens of the tree-tops with interest.

"What are you going to do, Flix?" asked Louis, who was sitting on the rail, busily cutting out a notch in the end of a long piece of board.

"Don't you see there is plenty of game here, my darling?" demanded Felix, pointing up into the trees.

"Game!" exclaimed Louis contemptuously. "Monkeys!"

"Didn't you shoot a couple of them yesterday afternoon, Louis?"

"I did; but I wanted them in order to study the creature. Now every fellow knows what a proboscis monkey is, as he did not before except by name. I got my books out, and read him up with the animal before me. I am glad I did; for the picture of him[40] I had seen was nothing like him in his nasal appendage, which gives him his name."

"What is the reason of that?"

"The portrait was taken from a young one, before his nose had attained its full growth. But I don't believe in shooting monkeys for the fun of it. Our party are not inclined to eat them."

"I'd as soon eat a cat as a monkey," added Felix.

"Then, don't shoot those long-nosed fellows, for we have all the specimens of them we need," said Louis.

"What are you going to do with them, my darling? You can't keep them much longer, and you will have to throw them overboard, for they won't smell sweet by to-morrow."

"Achang learned something about taxidermy from the naturalist he travelled with, and he has promised to skin and mount one of them for me."

"But what's that you are making, Louis?" asked Felix, who had been