Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 154 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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6 But then he knew that that was no sharper than a common table-knife, in fact not quite so sharp. So he resolved to have it ground the first opportun- ty. “*.*"~d how do you get them so sharp?’’ he asked Abou Hassan, while the others, with their swords, were cutting out the long white tusks of the ele- phant. ‘‘ Have you any grind-stones?”’ ‘* We sharpen them first on a wet stone,”’ answer- edthe Arab. ‘It takes a week to sharpen a good sword, for the steel is very hard, and one must do it ~ me Afterward we keep it strapped, three or four times a day.”’ oem was recalled from his talk by Bullard, who cried: **Come, Jack, come. The rest of those elephants are getting away. Let's go after them.” Then Jack turned and saw that it was true. The rest of the elephants were over a mile off, now, up the river, on their Li § to a forest at some distance. The horses were still fresh; Abou Hassan thought they could catch up; so away they went, leaving the dead elephant behind them. The race was full of excitement, for the elephants had a long start, and were making for the cover at good speed. Manuel’s horse was the swiftest of the — and the way was down a gentle slope, so that e went at a tremendous rate of speed, leading the crowd by several lengths, and gaining. Young Selim was second, Tom and Jack neck and neck for the third place, and Abou Hassan, with his two other brothers, was the last. They came up with the herd, hand over hand, as the elephants were going up & moen bank at the other side of the river, having crossed between two of the river pools when the hunters Game down the other slope. Over the bank was a small belt of open country and then some young forest. When the elephants had scrambled to the top of the bank the boys were down to the other side of the river. And now the chase grew very close. Down the first bank clattered the horsemen, across the dry bed of the river, and up the bank on the op- posite side, which they topped while the herd was yet in the midst of the open. Here Curtis, by a iberal use of his spurs, managed to shoot to the front, for Jack was an accomplished rider by this time. He had had practice fposgh to make him one. Tom followed him, and they both came up on the right of the herd, nearly together, at the very edge of the forest. here was no more fight in the elephants. They were in full flight. Jack Curtis threw up his rifle as he galloped by within ten feet of the bull he and Manuel had hit be- fore. He had loaded his rifle with an explosive copper shell, aimed behind the shoulder and fired. Crack! went the gun, and the bullet went thump into the elephant, which stopped, staggered, fell on its knees, struggled up again, and fina y stumbled slowly off after the rest. Jack stuck to his game, and put ina fresh cartridge. As he did so, Hamet, the oldest of Abou Hassan’s brothers, came tearing by, and leaped off his horse behind the bull. Flash! went his sword, as the Arab made a furious cut, and the elephant was brought to a standstill at once. But the rifle-shell had already done his busi- ness, although the immense strength of the beast had enabled him to get up and stagger on, As they looked the bull shook all over, and fell crashin down, dead; and Jack had again triumphed, in kill- ing the first elephant of the pariy, outside of the Arabs. He looked round and avery exciting scene was taking place. Bullard was firing into the other bull; and every time he put in a shot the elephant turne on him and charged. Tom put spurs to his horse and panned away, till the elephant got tired and gave up thechase. The instant it did so, Tom turn- ed back, galloped alongside, and put in another bullet, behind the shoulder, which brought another charge, for Tom’s bullets were too sm to an elephant, and he had not a je of using shells, which Curtis had found so useful. But Bullard stuck to his game like a leech, firing away at short range till the poor creature stopped at last, exhaus from loss of blood. Meanwhile, the rest were not idle by any means. Manuel Garcia was the coolest of the three boys, al- though he was not such a good shot as the Western- er. He watched his chance, galloped up info the herd, and sent asteel-pointed bullet into one of the female elephants heads, between the eye and ear, in the temple. It was an experiment, to see if he could kill an African elephant with a head shot, and it suc- ceeded. The game went down all ina heap, and Manuel had triumphed, too. But the Arabs had done best of all. A flying herd, well scared, was the very thing for them. Abou Hassan had stopped three elephants, and.each of his brothers one apiece, before they got into the forest, where the swordmen could not get at them, Then the party pulled up, very well satisfied. Ten of the herd had been bagged altogether, including the first bull killed by the sword hunters; and now Abou Hassan and bis brothers rode back, and finished off the elephants they had before only stopped, for the deep sword-cuts had crippled them so completely, that they could not stir a foot from where they were left. But a second cut soon bled them to death. And now came the question what should be done with all these huge carcasses? If they were left aloné they would putrefy before the next day, and the country would be unbearable. When Manuel asked Abou Hassan the question, the Arab smiled. : “Cut out the tusks,” he said. “The meat will find eaters before night.” Ard Abou Hassan was correct. ty ‘ >» they had hardly seen ¢ ee The Sword Hunters. before noon there came straggling in fromm all round the country, hundreds of people, Arabs, Gallas, Abyssinians and others, most of them half-starved, who flocked round the carcasses like ants, They were all nearly naked, and carried short spears, with very broad heads, shaped like a laurel leaf; and sharp as razors. They flocked to the huge carcasses, howling like wolves, coming in crowds from their distant villages, hid awayin the moun- tains and woods. These pee had probably been watching our hunters all the time, and expecting their first full meal for months, for an elephant’s hide is too thick to be pierced by their puny bows and arrows. They dashed at the dead beasts, and in a very few minutes were cutting away the meat in great slabs, fighting and screaming among each other, covered with blood from head to foot. They actually jumped inside of the carcasses and rooted out the entrails like wolves, presenting a sight dis- gusting enough to the white hunters. “Those are not your people, are they?’ remarked Manuel to Abou Hassan. The Arab smiled disdainfully. ‘** No,” he said. ‘‘Those are the miserable moun- tain tribes, that crawl on foot, and have no swords. My people are the kings of the land. You shall see them some day. These are but the dogs of Base.”’ CHAPTER VIIL.: THE LIONS. Durrinea the rest of the day the hunters remained in ae rey t and reposed their tired horses, Their people brought in the tusks of the elephant, and such choice pieces of the meat as Abou Hassan assured them were good. way in which the hun ry savages scattered, when the stately Hamrau swordsmen sperogened the | carcass to eut out what they need The Arabs jaid no more attention to them than if they had een hyenas, and the negroes waited around re- . spectfully till the brave hunters were served. Only one man tried to be impudent, It was a very large, powerful negro, at work at the big bull. He kept on cutting when seemingly trusting to the latter being a bo protection, Selim came near where the bi was hacking away at one of the tusks, which had been left half cut out. The young Hamrau ordered him away as if he had been his servant, and the big fellow laughed in a sneering manner, and told him to ‘make him go if he could.” Manuel Garcia was coming up, gun in hand, to look at the tusks, which he had offered to buy of the Hamrans, Selim had his sword on his shoulder, and Manuel heard him say, quietly: “Go, dog of a Galla, or I will leave you there in two pieces.” The Lig negro started up, spear in hand, shouting angrily: ° ‘Try it then, little fellow, and see what will hap- pen to you.” Young Selim said not another word, but he fan to the negro. As he came, the big man sent his spear at him, and turned to run. But Selim, with wonderful dexverity, rried the flying weapon with his sword, bounded after his enemy, and overtook him in two or three steps. He made but one blow with his razo:-like sword, and cut the negro right in half at the waist, so that the unhappy creature never spoke again. Then the boy calmly stooped and wi sword, and shook his hand at the frighten beyond as much as to say: * Look out I don’t serve you the same way.”’ Manuel was shocked, but he could not help admir- ing the boldness and skill of the boy, and the Arabs took off the tusks of the elephant in silence, undis- turbéd by any of the other crowd. By sunset, all that remained of the ten elephants was their bones; and crowds of men, women and children weve trooping off to the , with huge loads of meat on their shoulders. While our travelers were resting in camp, they learned a good deal about the game from the Ham- raus. Abou Hassau told them there were om lg rhinoceroses, and plenty of giraffes and antelopes, a little further up river; and promised to show rey a lake, where they should have all the sport ey wanted. Accordingly, during the day, they got their guns in order, and made ready for their trip; and, as soon as the sun rose next morning they were on their way to the lake. They made an easy journey of some fifteen miles through a country that grew greener at every step, and at sunset they went into camp at the borders of a beautiful lake surrounded by hills. Their camp was in a ve = geek little wood, and the country was sprink! over with copses of low, scrubby thorns, in the midst of real green : the first hey had seen since lea Eu- rope, for everything in the country was burned up by the sun. They could see that Abou Hassan was a Herds of antelopes were feeding about in full view like cattle, and the long necks of a number of raffes were visible, here and there. inoceroses were scattered about, in pairs, and a few had calves with them. Manuel took a telescope, and climbed up a tree, while the rest were pitching camp. He watched the en with great interest, and counted four different inds of rhinoceros in sight. Two of them were white and very large. They were shaped just like huge pigs, but as tall as a horse. One kind had a single horn on its snout, the other had two, the front one being about four feetlong. The two other kinds were black, and differed in the same way, having one horn or two. The rhinoceroses seemed to be stupid, lazy beasts, hn- 4own a good deal; but suddenly one of them to grow craz7. It was a two-noraed black crowd It was amusing to see the | Perey Selim came near, | for | ellow his | you?” - a —_—_—_————_—_—_—S—s“SX“!_—1" — fellow, feeding quietly. Manuel saw a large ante- lope, with horns shaped just like corkscrews, pass near this stupid-lo king beast. What he did, Man- uel could not see, but the rhinoceros took offense at him, and made a vicious charge at the antelope, which ran away, bounding over a low bush like a bird. When the rhinoceros found the antelope was gone, the beast seemed to think the bush had insult- ed him, for he rushed at it furiously, rooted it up with his long horn, and sent it flying in the air, when he caught it again, and did not rest till he had pounded it to bits. Manuel laughed heartily and asked Abou Hassan to explain the scene when he was in camp that night. w The rhinoceros is a fool,’’ replied the Arab. ‘*‘ He is subject to fits of fury about nothing at all, and is Set f angerous to hunt, for he can run nearly as fast as a horse, and goes on three legs as well as four. We always have to cut him on both sides be- fore we can get him safe.” The travelers made their camp secure that night, for Abou Hassan told them there were i any lions about, that would steal their horses. So they made a stiff fence of thorn bushes, and lighted big’ fires, behind which they were secure, for the lion will not face fire as a general rule, at least not in that part of Africa. As we have seen, the lions of Algeria are ver different beasts. They seem to fear nothing. at night the travelers could hear the roar of lions all round them, and several of the beasts came close to the fence. Tom Bullard wanted to go out and have a shot, but the Arabs persuaded him not to go, Oviy white brother will only get killed for noth- ing,’ said Abou Hassan, ‘‘God made the night for the lion and the day for man. Leave the lion his kingdom. In the morning we will show you how we kill them.”’ So Tom was forced to remain quiet, and the lions had it all their own way outside. One of them pull- ed down some animal at the water side, for the Sos heard a great splashing and roaring, and afterward all the beasts began to growl and fight over the car- cass, whatever it was, till it grew light, just before sunrise, Then Abou Hassan said that it was a good time to go out, for the carcass would keep the lions by the water, and sure enough it turned out as he said, The moon had not yet gone down, and the light in the east was increasing eve moment, when the boys rode out of camp to find the lions. There they were, five altogether, three lions, a lioness, and a half-grown cub, finishing their meal on the carcass of a young giraffe, which they had dragged up from the water's edge. The Hamraus galloped out to get between them and the cover, and then the lions didn’t seem to know what to do, for they are cowardly beasts in day- light. They growled and grumbled a good deal, but that didn’t scare the Hamraus, They stood firm till the sun rose, and then the fight began in real earn- est. Tom Bullard had profited by his experience of the day before, and had a supply of rifle shells, as well as bullets, for Jack’s success had told him what ter- rible nines they were, bursting inside and tearing the most ferocious creature to pieces. But he was too proud of his shooting to use those on anything short of an elephant, and he was the first to try a shot at the lions, while they still stood undecided. Turning his horse round to take a good aim, he leveled his rifle at the head of the lioness, and fired. Theganimal was looking at Abou Hassan at the time, and offered a fair temple shot. * Plug” uttered a shout of triumph, for the lion- ess dropped, and Abou Hassan cried out: “ Well done, white brother!”’ The moment the shot was fired the three lions and the cub turned, and charged Manuel Garcia, who was on the opposite side from the Hamraus, bound- ing forward in a cloud of dust. Manuel and Jack fired together, and were answered by loud roars. The next moment Manuel’s horse was knocked down by one of the lions, Manuel himself leaping off as it fell, a trick in which he had become expert among the gauchos of South America. The young Spaniard had a double-barreled breech- loader, and with the desperation natural to his dan- gerous position, he right into the lion’s head as he thought, almost touching it with the muzzle o his gun. He heard a terrible roar through the smoke, and the next moment was sent flying to one side, like a kitten. He heard shouts and yells as he fell over, and two shots, and then the four Hamraus d past where he lay, as hard as they could tear. Manuel tried to get up, but he found his side so he could hardly move, and he felt very faint. He look- ed up, expecting to see the lion coming at him, but there it lay, stone dead, over his dead horse, and the others were gone. Then J came Bullard end Cur- tis, in at anxiety, to see if he was badly hurt. “Oh! Wiseman,” cried Tom almost crying, “are ou most dead, old fellow? Don't die, Wiseman! i killed the lion, Kin as he hit tee that lick with his paw that sent you kiting. here did he hit ‘‘ Here, on my side, I believe,” said Manuel, faint- bi oat ere are the rest?”’ ‘* Out there, catching Jesse!’ said Bullard, vin- dictively. “Oh, Wiseman, if you could only sit u and see them Arabs at ‘em. There, that’s it, old fellow; lean on me. Now look!” Manuel looked, and almost forgot his pain in the excitement, There were the four Hamrau Arabs, not a hundred yards off, fighting the two old lions, the fiercest of all. The horsemen seemed to be quite devoid of fear, for they swooped down at the licns. fur speed, <€om .S O)O}O) (E (E@)