Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 16, 2025
But the Okapi slipped on, and had a very good lead when Hassan and his slave- hunters set up a terrific outcry on finding that once more they had been tricked. They made right across in a long beat for the north bank, then working the screw in turns, with the great lamp at the bows to scare off the hippos, they made good progress till sunrise.
Mr. Hume made a dart for his rifle. The Okapi rocked and heaved, was lifted at the bows to fall back with a splash. "Hippo," gasped Venning, making a drive with his weapon through the mosquito curtains. "Got him! no! missed!" "What's that you've got there, Venning?" "Sort of harpoon." "By gum!" said Mr. Hume, taking the weapon, "I'm glad you missed the beggar.
"Suppose it is meant for us?" Mr. Hume went forward with his Express, and relieved Venning at the helm. "We'll creep nearer in this time, but be ready to make a dash if it proves to be one of Hassan's watch-parties." This time the Okapi hugged the shore, and stopped when it came opposite the light. Out of the darkness came a low laugh.
If it had not been for those signs, they would not have recognized the place, for they had expected to find a clearing, and, instead, there was already a thicket of young shoots, which had sprouted from the buried saplings. Cutting away this growth, they soon removed the soft mould and the covering of branches. Then they cut a way down to the river, and ran the Okapi out into the water.
For a couple of hours the boys worked the levers, and at the end they came upon a thicket of reeds, along which the Okapi skirted, while the chief and his mother kept a keen outlook. Twice they plunged into the reeds on a false trail; and then, as they lay off scanning the oily water for trace of a current, the woman held up her hand. "It is Hassan," said the chief.
Hume and Compton went away off to make sure about the Okapi; for, as they said, they were in no mind to lose the boat, after all their exertions, just because they were a little tired.
There was one small island to pass, and if the canoe kept on the north side, it would have to come right into the hiding- place; if it kept to the south, it would reappear at the end of the passage by which the Okapi had entered. In either case, the danger of discovery seemed certain. The three pairs of eyes from behind the tall grass were glued to the man's face.
It inhabits regions that are either unknown, or most difficult to penetrate. As a species in point, consider the okapi. Only the boldest and most persistent explorers ever have set foot in its tangled and miasmatic haunts. It may be twenty years before a living specimen can be brought out.
In the shade of the awning the boys slept the dreamless sleep of the healthy, and he let them sleep on till the sun stood almost above the mast, sending down a blaze that scorched. Then he beached the Okapi on the shelving shore of a sand-spit, without vegetation of any kind to give shelter to mosquitoes, and awoke them.
And finally even the professor himself at length very reluctantly came to the conclusion that the okapi was irretrievably lost, and that to seek further for it would but be a useless expenditure of time and energy.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking