Johann David Wyss: Swiss Family Robinson

They were ready to start when I observed Jack quietly slip a basket, containing several pigeons, under the packages in the cart.

“Oh, oh!” thought I. “The little fellow has his doubts about that pemmican, and thinks a tough old pigeon would be preferable.”

The weather was exquisite. And, with exhortations to prudence and caution from both me and their mother, the three lads started in the very highest spirits. Storm and Grumble, as usual, drew the cart, and were ridden by Fritz and Franz; while Hurricane carried Jack swiftly across the bridge in advance of them; followed by Fawn and Bruno, barking at his heels.

The sugar mill occupied us for several days. On the evening of the first day, as we sat resting in the porch at Rocksburg, we naturally talked of the absentees, wondering and guessing what they might be about.

Ernest looked rather mysterious, and hinted that he might have news of them next morning.

Just then a bird alighted on the dovecote, and entered. I could not see, in the failing light, whether it was one of our own pigeons or an intruder. Ernest started up, and said he would see that all was right.

In a few minutes he returned with a scrap of paper in his hand.

“News, father! The very latest news by pigeon post, mother!”

“Well done, boys! What a capital idea!” said I, and taking the note I read:

“A true hunter’s letter!” laughed I. “But what exciting news. When does the next post come in, Ernest?”

“Tonight, I hope,” said he, while his mother sighed, and doubted the value of such glimpses into the scenes of danger through which her sons were passing, declaring she would much rather wait and hear all about it when she had them safe home again.

Thus the winged letter carriers kept us informed from day to day of the outline of adventures which were afterward more fully described.

On approaching the farm at Woodllands, the boys were startled by hearing, as they thought, human laughter, repeated again and again; while, to their astonishment, the oxen testified the great uneasiness, the dogs growled and drew close to their masters, and the ostrich fairly bolted with Jack into the rice swamp.

The laughter continued, and the beasts became unmanageable.

“Something is very far wrong!” cried Fritz. “I cannot leave the animals; but while I unharness them, do you, Franz, take the dogs, and advance cautiously to see what is the matter.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Franz made his way among the bushes with his gun, closely followed by the dogs; until, through an opening in the thicket, he could see, at a distance of about forty paces, an enormous hyena, in the most wonderful state of excitement. He was dancing round a lamb just killed, and uttering, from time to time, the ghastly hysterical laughter which had pealed through the forest.

The beast kept running backward and forward, rising on its hind legs, and then rapidly whirling round and round, nodding its head, and going through most frantic and ludicrous antics.

Franz kept his presence of mind very well, for he watched till, calming down, the hyena began with horrid growls to tear its prey. Then, firing steadily both barrels, he broke its foreleg and wounded it in the breast.

Meanwhile Fritz, having unyoked the oxen and secured them to trees, hurried to his brother’s assistance. The dogs and the dying hyena were by this time engaged in mortal strife. But the latter, although it severely wounded both Fawn and Bruno, speedily succumbed, and was dead when the boys reached the spot.

They raised a shout of triumph, which guided Jack to the scene of action. Their first care was for the dogs, whose wounds they dressed before minutely examining the hyena. It was as large as a wild boar. Long stiff bristles formed a mane on its neck, its color was gray marked with black, the teeth and jaws were of extraordinary strength, the thighs muscular and sinewy, the claws remarkably strong and sharp altogether. But for his wounds he would certainly have been more than a match for the dogs.

After unloading the cart at the farm, the boys returned for the carcass of the tiger wolf, as it is sometimes called, and occupied themselves in skinning it during the remainder of the day. Then, after dispatching the carrier pigeon to Rockburg, they retired to rest.

The following day they devised no less a scheme than to survey the shores of Wood Lake, and place marks wherever the surrounding marsh was practicable, and might be crossed either to reach the water or to leave it.

Fritz in the kayak, and the boys on shore, carefully examined the ground together. When they found firm footing to the water’s edge, the spot was indicated by planting a tall bamboo, bearing on high a bundle of reeds and branches.

They succeeded in capturing three young black swans, after considerable resistance from the old ones. They were afterward brought to Rockburg and detained as ornaments to Safety Bay.

The young hunters seemed to have lived very comfortably on peccary ham, cassava bread and fruit, and plenty of baked potatoes and milk.

One trial of the pemmican was sufficient, and it was handed over to the dogs. Fritz, however, determined again to attempt the manufacture, knowing its value when properly prepared.

After collecting a supply of rice and cotton, they took their way to Prospect Hill; “and,” said Fritz, as he afterward vividly described the dreadful scene there enacted, “when we entered the pine wood, we found it in possession of troops of monkeys, who resolved to make o*\öÀ‘p*]!Pgh it as dis*\Åeable as possible, for they howled and chattered at us like demons, pelting us as hard as they could with pine cones.

“They became so unbearable that at last we fired a few shot right and left among them. Several bit the dust, the rest fled, and we continued our way in peace to Prospect Hill, but only to discover the havoc the wretches had made there.

“Would you believe it, father? The pleasant cottage had been overrun and ruined by apes just as Woodlands last summer! The most dreadful dirt and disorder met our eyes wherever we turned, and we had hard work to make the place fit for human habitation. Even then we preferred the tent. I felt quite at a loss how to guard the farm for the future; but seeing a bottle of the poisonous gum of the euphorbia in the tool chest, I devised a plan for the destruction of the apes which succeeded beyond my expectations.

“I mixed poison with milk, bruised millet, and anything I thought the monkeys would eat, and put it in coconut shells, which I hung about in the trees, high enough to be out of reach of our own animals. The evening was calm and lovely; the sea murmured in the distance, and the rising moon shed a beauty over the landscape which we seemed never before to have so admired and enjoyed. The summer night closed around us in all its solemn stillness, and our deepest feelings were touched. Then suddenly the spell was broken by an outburst of the most hideous and discordant noises. As by one consent, every beast of the forest seemed to arise from its den and utter its wild nocturnal cry. Snorting, snarling, and shrieking filled the wood beneath us.

“From the hills echoed the mournful howl of the jackals, answered by Fangs in the yard, who was backed up by the barking and yelping of his friends Fawn and Bruno. Far away beyond the rocky fastnesses of the Gap, sounded unearthly, hollow snortings and neighings, reminding one of the strange cry of the hippopotamus. Above these, occasional deep majestic roaring made our hearts quail with the conviction that we heard the voices of lions and elephants.

“Overawed and silent, we retired to rest, hoping to forget in sleep the terrors of the midnight forest, but ere long the most fearful cries in the adjoining woods gave notice that the apes were beginning to suffer from the poisoned repast prepared for them.

“As our dogs could not remain silent amid the uproar and din, we had not a wink of sleep until the morning. It was late, therefore, when we rose and looked on the awful spectacle presented by the multitude of dead monkeys and baboons thickly strewn under the trees round the farm. I shall not tell you how many there were. I can only say I wished I had not found the poison, and we made all haste to clear away the dead bodies and the dangerous food, burying some deep in the earth and, carrying the rest to the shore, we pitched them over the rocks into the sea. That day we traveled on to the Gap.”

The same evening that the boys reached the rocky pass, a messenger pigeon arrived at Rockburg, bearing a note which concluded in the following words:

“The barricade at the Gap broken down. Everything laid waste as far as the sugar brake, where the hut is knocked to pieces, and the fields trampled over by huge footmarks. Come to us, father—we are safe, but feel we are no match for this unknown danger.”