07 Elephant Adventure (15 page)

Another proof was the mild disposition of the animal. The albino is usually good-natured. Hal thought of the white rhinos in Murchison National Park - they were not irritable and dangerous like most rhinos. White rabbits, white mice, and the albino birds are all inclined to be friendly. Snow leopards are not feared by man. But black leopards and black jaguars are dreaded.

Any zoo that got this white elephant would be fortunate. It would certainly be the leading attraction in the zoo. Most zoos could not or would not afford it All animal hunters knew that the Japanese were now paying the highest prices for rare animals.

And yet the amount they had offered for a white elephant was not the highest ever paid. P. T. Barnum, the great showman, had paid two hundred thousand dollars

for a white elephant. It was valued so highly because it was the first ever brought to America. To the boys, the offer of fifty thousand dollars made to their father for a white elephant seemed a great fortune.

Here they stood within ten feet of this rich prize and they were helpless. Two boys alone could not take an elephant They would need every man in their safari, and even then they might fail. All they could do now was to retreat quietly so as not to alarm the beast, and come back as soon as possible with all their men.

They backed away cautiously, step by step, keeping their eyes on the big beauty.

A gruff voice behind them made them turn.

Six men clad in long white Arab burnouses and armed with pistols and sabres faced them.

‘We’d better make a run for it,’ Roger said under his breath.

‘No use,’ Hal said. They’d shoot us down. We’d better talk with them.’ He addressed the man who seemed to be their leader. ‘Do you speak English?’

He got no reply except an angry shake of the head and a storm of words in Arabic. Their faces were as Joro had described them, neither white nor black. Their skin was deeply browned by the sun of their desert homeland. Their heads were topped with twisted turbans, but their feet were bare. They did not seem to mind the light snow underfoot and they looked hardy and tough and mean.

As they talked they looked at the white elephant, then at the boys, and back at the elephant.

Hal did not need an interpreter to guess what was on their minds.

They’re probably some of the men who have been looting our camp,’ he said They know we’re after elephants. And so are they. They stole two of ours - and 111 bet they’ll do their best to keep us from getting this one.’ ‘Let’s pretend we don’t want it’ ‘Sure. We’ll just give them a polite goodbye and go on our way - if they’ll let us.’

But politeness didn’t pay off. The moment the boys began to move away they were surrounded and the muzzles of pistols were poked into their ribs. There was a ripping of cloth and their eyes were blindfolded. They were aware that their knives were being drawn from their belts. Then they were harshly jabbed in the back and made to march.

Every time they stumbled over stones or hummocks they got an angry scolding and the prick of a steel blade between the shoulders.

‘If they want us to walk fast,’ Roger complained, ‘why don’t they let us see where we’re going?’

‘I suppose they’re taking us to their camp. And they want to keep its location secret.’

There’s one good thing about it,’ Roger said. ‘Well see Bo - unless he’s already been sent away. Perhaps we can even rescue him.’

Hal did not answer. He liked his brother’s courage, but he thought Roger did not realize how serious the situation was. Two boys at the mercy of a gang of cut-throats were not likely to rescue anybody, even themselves.

It was hard going. They were already pretty well fagged out by the long crawl up the mountain-side through the moss tunnel. They were hungry. But at least they were not cold. A chill wind was blowing from die eternal snows. But there was something about staggering along with the point of a sabre in your back that kept you warm.

At first they were pushed round in a circle. That was to confuse them completely so they would not know one direction from another.

But there was one thing the blackbirders had not taken into account: the wind. Hal had noticed day after day that the prevailing wind was from west to east. Now, when they finished circling and took a fairly straight course, the wind was on their backs. Hal salted this fact away in his memory. If they ever made their escape from the robber band they should go against the wind. That would bring them back to White Lake, and from there they knew their way down past Black Lake and Green Lake to their own camp.

That could be a useful bit of knowledge if they escaped. It was a large ‘if.

After a march of possibly two hours they heard voices ahead. Then suddenly the wind left their backs and so did the sabres. The air was warm and there was a smell of fire and of cooking.

The bandages were yanked from their faces.

They stood in a great cave lighted by spluttering torches and warmed by open wood fires. Stalactites hung like crystal chandeliers from the ceiling, the walls were covered with rich draperies and the ground was carpeted with the yellow-and-black skins of leopards. Men in long white robes took their ease on the black-and-gold skins, using leopards heads as arm-rests. The aromatic smell of mint rose from the glasses of tea with which they refreshed themselves.

‘A scene right out of The Arabian Nights’ Hal remarked.

‘Or the palace of Monte Cristo,’ Roger added.

‘I am glad you like it’

The voice was so deep that it seemed to have come from the rock walls of the cavern itself. The boys turned sharply to see who had spoken.

They faced a huge man taller than Hal and as thick through as two Hals. He was not dressed in the sort of white burnous worn by the other men. Instead, his long robe was a rainbow of rich colours and was made of the finest silk that softly reflected the light of the torches. A breast plate fashioned in gold and silver and set with gleaming jewels covered his chest. Instead of a turban he wore a head-dress fashioned from the mane of a lion. A snow leopard had died to provide his splendid belt, and in the belt were thrust a large ornamental pistol and a scimitar in a scabbard of cloth-of-gold. His feet were encased in finely embroidered slippers twice ordinary size and the boys were reminded of the huge boot-prints left near their camp when Bo and the elephants were stolen.

There could be no doubt about it-this was the chief of the blackbirders, the one whom the Watussi called the Thunder-man.

But just now there was no thundercloud in the face of the Thunder-man. He smiled, and his teeth looked even whiter than they were in contrast with the deep copper colour of his face. He bowed.

‘It is kind of you to visit our humble quarters,’ he said. ‘You must be in need of refreshment. Please follow me.’

Hal burned with the things he wanted to say, things that were not too pleasant, but this did not seem to be the time to say them.

The Thunder-man held aside a brocaded curtain and they passed into a smaller cavern even more sumptuously adorned. Thick cushions lay on the leopard-skin carpet. The robber chief flung himself down among them, and Hal and Roger, weary from their long ordeal, were glad to do the same. An attendant came in with a tray bearing three glasses of hot mint tea and some cakes.

‘I trust you will like our tea,’ said the big man. ‘I am sorry we have no coffee. I came to like it during my travels in Western countries. But when I am at home I prefer the old ways.’

‘And this is your home?’

‘No, no,’ laughed the Thunder-man. This is just a camp. I am sheik over some fifty thousand people on the shore of the Persian Gulf. The oil from our lands makes your automobiles run and enriches us. But I am not content to be a stay-at-home sheik. I have a taste for adventure - so, for a part of the year, I leave a palace to live in a cave, and I appoint others to enforce the law among my people while I have the pleasure of breaking the law here.’

‘So you admit you are breaking the law?’

‘Of course. Why should I try to hide from you what you already know very well? We have made many visits to your camp. The village of your Watussi friends his provided us with many handsome slaves. Where we send them, they are warmly received and bring a good price.’

‘You took the chiefs son,’ Hal said. ‘Has he been sent away?’

‘No, he is still with us. Would you like to see him?’

Without waiting for an answer he clapped his hands and when an attendant entered he gave an order in Arabic,

A moment later the curtains parted and there was Bo. He exclaimed with pleasure when he saw the boys and ran forward to take their hands.

‘How good that you have come! I knew you would come for me. I knew it’

‘It isn’t quite that way,’ Hal said regretfully. ‘We are prisoners. I’m afraid we wont be of much help to you.’

The pleasure faded from Bo’s face. ‘I am sorry - for you,’ he said. ‘This sheik who gives you smiles and tea and cakes and cushions - he has murder in his heart. I warn you. Do not trust him.’ A roar of laughter from the sheik interrupted Bo. This boy -1 like him. He has spirit No one else dares to speak before me in this way. He is a chiefs son - and he speaks like a chief.’

His face darkened and a savage fury came into his eyes. He went on:

‘But I will teach him better manners. He has had some lessons already. Turn about, boy, let us see your back.’

Bo did not move.

The Thunder-man gave a sharp order in Arabic. An attendant seized Bo and spun him about so that his back could be seen. The skin was striped with swollen ridges, some of them still bleeding. The Thunder-man was smiling. Roger said hotly:

‘Why don’t you pick on someone your own size, you big bully? I suppose you’ll keep this up until you kill him.’

‘Kill him? Certainly not, my friend. I kill nothing that is worth good money. He will make a fine slave - but his spirit must be broken first Just the way you would break in a horse.’ Is it necessary to be so brutal about it?’ Hal said. ‘Brutal? How can you say that? We are really very gentle. Let me show you what we use.’

He took down from the wall an innocent-looking strip of leather.

‘Feel it’ he said. ‘See how soft it is. In our country we have a name for it - in English it would be ‘soft persuasion”.’

‘You know better than that,’ Hal said. This is one of the cruellest weapons man ever made. In South Africa it is called a sjambok. It’s made of rhino hide and it is softened with lion fat It is not made soft so that it will not hurt - is is made soft so that it will hurt. It is so pliable that every inch of it sinks into the flesh. It is used as a whip and it will cut like a knife. Any man who would order a boy to be whipped with this thing deserves to feel it on his own back.’

The Thunder-man’s eyes flashed, but he stilt smiled.

‘I’m afraid you do not set a good example for your young friend. You are as impertinent as he is. Impertinence must be punished.’ He threw the whip to an attendant who pushed Bo out between the curtains. ‘Perhaps twenty more lashes on his back will make all of you a little more respectful. It will be done just outside the curtains so that we will all have the pleasure of hearing him howl.’

At the first stroke of the whip Roger leaped up. Hal pulled him down again.

‘We’re only making things worse for Bo,’ he said, lie low. Our chance will come.’

The sheik was plainly disappointed when the twenty lashes brought no howl out of Bo, nor any other sound great or small. Hal and Roger gritted their teeth and felt every blow as if it had been on their own backs. When it was all over the sheik said:

‘So much for him. Now for you. Perhaps you wonder why you have been brought here.’

‘Do you expect to make slaves of us?’ Hal inquired.

‘I’m afraid no one would buy you. My friends are very particular. They don’t like the smell of white people. White slaves are hard to teach. They are always trying to escape. And your government might give us trouble. No, I fear the easy life of a slave in a millionaire’s mansion is not for you. You can’t expect to be so lucky.’

Then why do you hold us?’

‘I have no objection to telling you why. Today you found a white elephant. My men saw you. They know that you are after animals and there is no animal in all Africa, nor in all the world, half so valuable as a white elephant You and your men would have tried to take that elephant We bad to stop you.’

‘Why should you want a white elephant? You cant turn it into a slave.’

True. But In a certain land of the Far East I can sell that animal for the price of ten Cadillacs. We must hold you until we have captured and sold that elephant’

‘And what do you suppose our men will be doing in the meantime? They will search for us, and find this place. They are many and you are few. You will lose your lives and your elephant too. Is an elephant worth all that risk? After all, an elephant is only an elephant’

The Thunder-man smiled his mean smile.

‘You can’t pull the wool over my eyes, young man. I have been in Burma and Siam - some call it Thailand but I prefer Siam. I have made a little study of this matter of white elephants. Let me tell you what I saw in the court of Siam.

‘A white elephant was housed in a magnificent pavilion. It was robed in elegant silks trimmed with scarlet silver, white, and gold. On its tusks were bands of solid gold. Over its head was the royal umbrella.

‘A hundred nobles waited upon it Some cooled it with fans of ostrich plumes, some brushed the flies away, some fed it rare fruits from vessels of gold.

‘When it was taken to the river to bathe a canopy of cloth-of-gold was carried over it by eight men. Musicians marched before it playing instruments. When it came from the river a mandarin washed its feet in a silver basin and annointed them with sweet perfumes.’

‘But why all this fuss over a mere animal?’

‘To them it is not a mere animal. It is a Buddha, a god, and the common people worship it When it dies the ceremonies are the same as those for a king or queen. The body lies in state for several days. Then it is cremated on a funeral pyre made of the finest sandal, sassafras, and other precious woods, and costing thousands of dollars. The ashes are collected, put in costly urns, and buried in the royal cemetery.