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As during their expeditions they were generally accompanied by half a dozen peasants, who acted as beaters, Leigh had come to understand the patois, and to some extent to speak it; and he often paid visits to the houses of the principal tenants of the estate, who not only welcomed him as the brother of their mistress, but soon came to like him for himself, and were amused by his high spirits, his readiness to be pleased with everything, and his talk to them of the little known country across the water.
The beaters soon after appeared over the brow of the hill, and relieved us for the present from further apprehension of that charge which was to seal our fate, for the monarch of the Indian jungle had changed his location. We beat some more jungles, in the hope of finding other game, but only succeeded in bagging a deer.
I had an excellent Madras servant named Thomas, who was behind me in the howdah, and he lost no time in descending from the elephant and in pouring water over the unfortunate coolie, from a jar which I handed from beneath the seat. In a few moments the man showed signs of life, and the beaters began to collect around the spot.
There were no animals in this jungle, probably they had been frightened by the great noise of the beaters when shouting in the recent drive; at any rate, the beat was barren, and having waited fruitlessly until I could see the men approaching within a few yards of my position, I ordered the elephant to turn round, with the intention of proceeding another quarter of a mile in advance, and thus continuing to beat the jungle in sections until it should be thoroughly driven out.
The beaters were rather long at their work, and I had fallen into a reverie, from which I was aroused by three roars of a tiger just behind me, and the roars were not charging roars, but of a character which meant, in tiger language, that people had better look out. Now the tiger was below me, and I was as absolutely safe as a man at home in his armchair, and yet I felt my heart throb quickly.
"I say, Quatermain," I said to him when the beaters were up, "do you often do this sort of thing?" "Well," he answered, with a dry smile, "the last time I had to load three shots as quickly as that was at rather larger game. It was at elephants.
In that way you'll drive them in." "Yes, sir," answered Tad and Ned very solemnly. "And go slow. Just take a step at a time, or some of the birds may get by you." "A 'possum isn't a bird," corrected Stacy. "You'll think it is after you've hunted one for an hour or two. Now git going, you beaters. Imagine you're beating the bush for lions. That will keep you from going to sleep on the job."
"I couldn't get him back now if I was to try a million years!" "What we goin' to do about it?" Sam asked. Penrod rose and dusted his knees. "We got to get along without any tied-up calf that's certain! But I got to take those fortygraphs SOME way or other!" "Me an' Verman aw ready begin 'at beatin'," Herman suggested. "You tole us we the beaters."
Later, I gathered there had been a great quantity of birds, but the commercial friends had not been very successful in their destruction. In fact, Mr. Dodd had only secured two brace, besides one of the beaters in the shoulder, and a dog. Antony sat by me. "Dangerous work, shooting," he said, smiling, as he looked at the menu. "What is your average list of killed in a pheasant battue?"
They too yelled at us and yelled to their fellows: "Halt! You are caught! Hands up! Give yourselves up!" And: "There they go! Both of them! Come on! Here they are!" Off we went again, slanting back across the approaching line of dogs and beaters, now closer together as they drew on towards the nets, and already appallingly close to us. Again we crossed the whole line, now much shorter.
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