Across India; Or, Live Boys in the Far East, Oliver Optic [read along books TXT] 📗

company were astonished, and looked for an explanation.

"I never counted the crocodiles in this river; but I should guess there were at least a million of them, and they steal your game as fast as you bring it down," said Sir Modava.

The ladies were interested; and another bird was shot, to enable them to see the operation of the saurians. The python was about ten feet long, and he must have been a meal for one of them. The cranes, herons, and storks were numerous; but the party decided to kill no more of them, for they held still, as though they were all ready to be shot; and there was no sport in such game.

The boat continued on its course for half an hour longer, and then came up to a sort of stockade, extending out into the water, and near it were a couple of bamboo huts. This wild region is sparsely peopled with Hindus, who are obliged to keep guard over themselves and their families all the time, and are occasionally the victims of the ferocious monsters of the jungle and of the water.

"What is that stockade for?" asked the commander, as soon as the steamer was moored to the shore.

"The Hindus are a cleanly people, as required by their religion," replied Captain O'Flaherty in the hearing of all the party. "That stockade contains a big trough for washing their scanty clothing. It reaches into the water, so that they can fill their washtub without going out of it."

"I don't see why?" asked Mrs. Woolridge.

"If they went to the border of the stream to dip up water the crocodiles would pick them up as fast as they did so," added the captain; and all the ladies shuddered, and wanted to get out of such a horrible place.

"But the hunters are to land here; and they will find all the heavy game they can dispose of, for there have been no hunters here yet this season to scare them off. You will find the biggest tigers of India here, gentlemen."

The hunters went on shore, and as they passed down the gangway they saw a couple of the crocodiles in the water. Louis put a bullet into the eye of one, and Mr. Woolridge served the other in the same way; but all of them thought saurians were mean game. Near the huts they found two men, and Sir Modava had a talk with them, which no one else could understand; but he employed them to guide the party and show them their traps.

"The wife of one of these men was devoured by a crocodile a year ago, and the daughter of the other, a child of six, had been borne off by a tiger," he explained, as they proceeded after the two men.

They soon came to the traps. The tigers were exceedingly numerous on all the islands formed by the cut-offs, and swam without difficulty from one to another. The first trap they saw was a broad trench, the bottom and sides armed with stakes of the hardest wood, sharpened to a wicked point. A roaring sound attracted the visitors to another of the same kind, in which a monstrous tiger was floundering about, trying to escape the points that pierced him. He was suffering fearfully; and Captain Ringgold shot him at once, though the Hindus were delighted by his torture.

Another kind of trap was more ingenious. It was on the plan of the twitch-up snare, common in New England. A young tree, very strong and flexible, is bent down till the upper end touches the ground. To this extremity is attached a stout cord, and fastened to a stake in the ground. A slip-noose is so arranged that the tiger thrusts his head through it in order to reach the meat with which the cord holding the tree is baited. As the animal pulls the cord he casts off the line holding the tree in its bent position. The slip-noose is tightened around his neck, the tree flies up into the air, carrying the tiger with it. Everything about the trap is made very strong, and there the savage marauder hangs till he chokes to death.

Captain Ringgold brought down another--Page 349

The party moved on, and they had not gone ten rods before a cobra elevated his head. Felix claimed the right to fire first, and he killed him with one ball. A large python was Scott's first prize; and, after a long walk, they came to a nest of tigers, as it seemed, for there were not less than five of them drinking at a brook. It appeared to be the only place in the vicinity where fresh water could be obtained. The first of the tigers was killed by Louis with a single shot, for he put the ball through the eye of the beast.

Captain Ringgold brought down another with three shots from his repeating rifle. Felix did not care for tigers; he was looking for snakes, and they came to the brook to drink. In a couple of hours he had half a dozen of his favorite game. He declared that he was following the blessed example of St. Patrick, and if he did not die too soon he would rid the world of all the snakes in it.

The five tigers lay dead by the brook; and, taking the advice of the coolies, the hunters returned into a thicket, where Felix killed another python. The party could see the brook. A pair of timid deer came next to drink; but they fled at the approach of what seemed to be a family of leopards, for two of them were evidently cubs. They were all shot; but the repeated reports of the rifles had probably scared off others, and no more beasts of any kind came.

"These men say you have killed more tigers and leopards than any party of hunters who ever came here," said Sir Modava, who carried a rifle, but had not fired it once; and Lord Tremlyn's weapon had not been discharged; for both preferred to leave the game for their friends.

It was a great hunt, and the Americans were correspondingly proud of their success. Louis and Felix had been trained in a shooting-gallery, and neither of them missed his aim; but the shooting had all been at short range. With the help of two coolies, all the game was carried to the steamer, where it was exhibited to the rest of the company. The tigers were all skinned by the coolies and the crew of the steamer, as were the leopards; but after Mrs. Blossom and the others had seen the snakes, they were fed out to the crocodiles. The coolies were abundantly rewarded, and seemed to worship their visitors. They presented to them four mango fish, golden-yellow in color, and exquisite in flavor.

The steamer cast off her fasts, and headed for Calcutta; but it was late, and the fish presented, which abound in the markets of the city, were the burden of a fine supper they ate on the way.

CHAPTER XXXVI THE PARTING FESTIVITIES ON THE HOOGLY

While the hunters were so successfully bagging the big game of the jungle, Captain O'Flaherty had taken the party who had remained on board the steamer on an excursion through some of the waterways of the Sunderbunds, so that they were not wearied by waiting for those more actively employed. The united party had thoroughly enjoyed the day, even into the evening. The skins of the tigers and leopards were sent to an expert, to be prepared for future preservation when the time should admit.

At the hotel the wonderful success of the hunters was the theme of the other guests; but the place was regarded as a dangerous one, though that would not deter Englishmen from visiting it if it were not so difficult of access, for a government steam-yacht was not available for many parties. The next morning the tourists were taken to the Botanical Garden, a short distance above the city, which is said to be the finest as well as the most spacious in the world.

It was not an affair of greenhouses, like most of such places they had seen; for they were superfluous in the Torrid Zone, and all the plants grew in the open air. The ladies and most of the gentlemen were greatly interested in the plants and flowers, and the whole forenoon was agreeably passed in viewing them. Uncle Moses insisted that the baobab and the Indian banyan were literally the "biggest things" there; for the trunk of the former was ten feet in diameter, while the latter covered half a square mile of ground. The latter had been considerably damaged by a cyclone.

At the end of a week in Calcutta, every day of which had been occupied to the pleasure and instruction of the tourists, Captain Ringgold insisted that they must remain no longer. It was the middle of March, and the hot weather was coming on, and the company must return to the Guardian-Mother on the following morning. It was not an unpleasant announcement, as they had all become greatly attached to the steamer, for they had always been exceedingly happy on board of her.

"It is time for me to settle up our accounts, Lord Tremlyn," said the commander, as they were seated on the veranda after the intended departure had been announced.

"That time has not come, Captain Ringgold; and it never will come," replied his lordship very decidedly. "I thought we had disposed of that question once for all at Bombay. You and your party have been our guests from the moment we landed. Sir Modava and I have done our best, in the time allotted to us, to make you acquainted with India, and to make the time pass pleasantly with you. As far as we had influence, we have used it to promote the objects of your visit."

"You have done a hundred times more than we had any right to expect, and certainly we should not have asked for what you have given us; but it seems to be no more than right that we should pay our own expenses, and we shall be just as grateful to you for the vast service you have rendered us."

"What we have done does not extinguish a tithe of our obligations to you and your ship's company. Any money allusion grieves me, and the very thought of being paid almost breaks the heart of Sir Modava. I beg you not to allude to the matter again. Now, my dear Captain Ringgold," continued his lordship, taking what looked like a picture-frame from a table near him, "I ask the privilege of presenting to you this testimonial of the gratitude of the three cabin survivors of the wreck of the Travancore, which I will ask you to hang up in the cabin of the Guardian-Mother."

The commander took the frame, in which was a printed testimonial, containing a full account of the rescue of the survivors of the wreck, with a concluding paragraph, expressive of the obligations of the principal persons rescued, to the captain and his ship's company for their noble and successful exertions in saving them and all the people on board. It had the autographs of Lord Tremlyn, Sir Modava, and Dr. Ferrolan at the foot of the printed statement. It was on parchment, printed in plain, clear type, and the frame was as elegant as money could buy.

"I accept this as the property of the ship, and to me personally nothing could be more valued," replied the commander, extending his thanks at considerable length; but he said nothing more about payment, though he could not help thinking that their elegant and bountiful hospitality had cost the viscount and the Indian gentleman several thousand pounds.

"But we do not separate just yet; and I have another favor to ask of you, Captain Ringgold, which is that you will give us a passage to Colombo," added Lord Tremlyn.

"For myself and my party, we shall all be delighted to have you remain with us indefinitely," replied the commander, taking his lordship's hand. "I extend to you, Sir Modava, and Dr. Ferrolan a cordial invitation to complete with us our voyage around the world; and we will endeavor to be as hospitable to you in the United States as you have been to us in India."

"Nothing would afford me so great a pleasure," replied Lord Tremlyn; "but it would be quite impossible for me to accept the invitation, for I must return to England, and report upon my