Chapter 25. "Made Of India-Rubber"

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_ CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. "MADE OF INDIA-RUBBER"

The "something else" the cousins looked across was one of the pigmies-- evidently a chief of higher rank than the little leader they had last seen, though he seemed to be less in size.

He was rich in bangles, for he had four upon each arm and wrist and a wider ribbon of gold about his forehead, in which band were stuck two ostrich feathers, a black and a white. But, as Mark afterwards said laughingly, that was almost all he wore, except a bow and arrows and a spear.

"Well, who are you?" began Mark. "And what--why, Dean, it's our little chap!"

"It can't be," said Dean, whose back was towards the increasing light.

"But it is," cried Mark. "Look here;" and he laid his hand tenderly about the pigmy's shoulder, where the black skin was somewhat puckered up, showing that a great scar was forming. "Why, little one, you can't say we didn't make a good job of mending you up."

"But it can't be," said Dean, staring doubtingly at their little visitor. "But I don't know--he is very thin."

The little fellow raised himself up slightly as he knelt upon the great chest, and looked first at one and then at the other with a calm air of satisfaction as if he found it pleasant to be scanned and praised, but making very little sign besides as he turned from one to the other in obedience to a touch, and ended by changing his bow from his right to his left hand, where it lay in company with his spear, and then placing three fingers upon Mark's wrist.

"Oh, come, I say," cried the latter, "I am all right; I don't want my pulse felt. How's yours?" and the boy played the part of a doctor for a few moments, but blunderingly felt for the pulse in the wrong wrist. "Well, you seem uncommonly fit, little chap. Are you growing quite strong again? Tell us how you got here."

The visitor could not respond to the question, nor comprehend it in the least, but he looked gravely at Mark again and once more laid three fingers upon his arm.--"Oh, I wish he would talk," cried Mark.

"You don't even grunt," said Dean.

"Pigs do grunt in our country," said Mark. "But I say, Pig--Pigmy, what a little dandy you have grown! Ostrich feathers--gold," continued the boy, touching the bangles, "where do you get them?"

The little fellow took his spear in his right hand again and used it to point out of the waggon in the direction where the lads had seen the towering masses of stone on the previous night.

"Oh, come," said Dean, "he understands that."

"Yes; so do we, and I want to get off to see what sort of a place this is. But we mustn't be rude to the visitor who brought us so much venison. I wonder where father is."

"And the doctor," added Dean, peering out of the waggon. "Oh, there they are, going up to the top of the kopje. Hi, Mak! Come here!"

The black was standing half way between the waggon and the top of the kopje, shading his eyes from the newly risen sun, as he stood scanning the veldt in different directions, but began to descend directly with his customary deliberation as if he had nothing whatever to do with the preparations for the morning start.

"I say, Dean, we must have breakfast before we go, this morning. We can't send company away--and such a grandee as this--without a feed."

A few minutes later, as the boys sat silently gazing at their little visitor, noting that in spite of being thin and rather hollow of cheek his eyes were bright and there was no sign of weakness in his movements, while his skin, in spite of its swarthiness, looked healthy and clean, Mak strode up to the open end of the waggon and looked in; and his eyes opened wider as he displayed his beautifully white teeth in a pleasant smile.

"What do you think of this?" cried Mark, as he checked himself in laying his hand upon the scar of the pigmy's wounded shoulder and placed it upon his right.

And now for the first time the little fellow displayed animation, for he snatched the hand away quickly and placed it upon the scar.

"Oh, very well," said Mark. "I was afraid of hurting you. Well, Mak, aren't you surprised?"

The black shook his head, and then quietly nodded it.

"Come," he said. "Pig come."

"Thank you," said Mark, laughing; "but we knew that. Well, we will chance whether the boss likes it or not; tell Dan we shall want some breakfast before we start."

"Yes, mps," said the black, nodding his head. "Coff. Plenty eat;" and he went away.

"Well, jump down, little one," said Mark. "Come on, Dean; there's a splendid chance here for a dip, so let's go and have one. Pig here won't mind."

He leaped down, and the little fellow followed him at once, Dean coming last.

"I say," said Mark merrily, "that's better, young fellow. You can get along now without being carried in a basket. But I can't understand how you managed to get right so soon."

"'Tis his nature to," said Dean drily; and as the boys chatted from one to another across him, throwing, so to speak, verbal balls from one to the other, their little visitor seemed to be listening intently and with a grave look of satisfaction upon his countenance, as he walked with them down to the stream which Mark had selected overnight for his bathe.

"Now I wonder whether he will do as we do," said Mark, as he quickly made ready and plunged in.

"No," said Dean, sending the water flying as he plunged in after his cousin. "Look at him!" For the pigmy gravely seated himself upon a little block of granite, laid his bow and spear across his knees, and sat watching the wet gambols of the lads, till, quite refreshed, they both sprang out, had a run over the sand in the hot sunshine, and then returned to dress.

"Don't you ever bathe?" said Mark, rather breathlessly, as he hurried on his flannels.

"Not he," said Dean. "If he could speak to us he would say, I never wash; there's no need."

"Why, boys," cried the doctor, who had descended from the kopje and approached with Sir James, unobserved, "is this another of the pigmies?"

"Look again, sir," said Dean. "He's got your stamp upon him."

"What!" cried the doctor, bending down over the seated visitor. "Impossible! Look here, Sir James; it is; and his wound has closed up again as if he were made of india-rubber. Splendid! Why, he has followed us right across this veldt."

"I shouldn't wonder," said Mark, "if he has followed us all the way. Oh, no, he could not have done that. He must have come across from this side of the forest. We are going to give him some breakfast, father, before he goes back. Is that right?"

"Of course, my boy," said Sir James, walking up and gently patting the pigmy on the shoulder. "Well, I like this, doctor. It shows the little fellow's grateful; but I should like to see him smile."

"He did just now, father."

"No, not quite, uncle," said Dean; "only very nearly."

Dan was not long getting the morning meal ready, and Mark took upon himself to supply the visitor's wants. But the pigmy now showed that he had notions of his own, for he walked straight away and dropped down by the side of Mak, whose breakfast he shared along with the men.

"I like that, Mr Mark, sir," said Dan. "The little chap looks quite a gentleman in his way; and he acted as such too, didn't he, Buck?"

"Ay," growled the big driver. "There arn't much of him, but he makes the most of it; don't he, Bob?"

"Yes," said Bob, laughing. "Peter Dance and me have been talking him over. We should like to take him home with us. They would give anything we liked to ask for him in London, to put in a circus or a show."

"Indeed!" said Mark, with a snort. "Thank you! But you had better not let your master hear you talk like that, Bob. He'd begin making your ears warm by telling you what the slave trade was. This little fellow's a visitor, and my cousin and I want you men to treat him well. No nonsense, sir. He has only come to stay till we start, and then he is going back to the forest."

But nothing seemed farther from the pigmy's thoughts, for when a fresh start was made, with the distant kopjes and piles of stone now hidden by the heated haze, the little chief shouldered his spear, crossed to the Illaka's side, and marching beside him, two steps to his one, kept abreast.

"I do like that, Mr Mark, sir," said Dan. "Look at old Brown going along yonder with his foreloping. Why, it would take three of that little chap to make one of he, and I don't know how many of him to weigh down Buck Denham in a pair of scales. But is the little one coming along with us?"

"I suppose so," said Mark: "eh, Dean?" he continued, and signing to him to follow he dropped back a few paces and continued to his cousin, "I have only just thought of it; he is coming with us to show where they find the gold."

"Why, of course!" cried Dean. "I might have thought of that."

"Yes, but you didn't. Here, let's go and tell father and the doctor. Come on! And then I'll give you your chance. You tell them just as if it had occurred to you."

"No, thank you," said Dean quietly. "I don't like borrowed plumes." _

Read next: Chapter 26. Finding An Antiquity

Read previous: Chapter 24. "Don't Shoot, Father!"

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