Read Online 06 African Adventure by Willard Price - Free Book Online Page B

the flesh and did not relax their hold, even when their entire bodies except the head had been torn away.
    The tingling of his own arm reminded Hal of the line of heads that closed his wound beneath the bandage, and he could sympathize a little, not too much, with the cavorting colonel. He pulled out his knife and ran the back of it over Bigg’s body, scraping off the heads.
    Bigg was not grateful. ‘Took you long enough to get to it,’ he grumbled. His voice was hoarse from much squawking. He pulled on his clothes. He was still shivering and shaking. Hal turned to the cook.
    ‘Got any coffee?’
    ‘Plenty,’ said the cook cheerfully. He had not been bitten, since the ants had kept well away from his fire, so he had been able to attend to his duties as usual. He filled the canteen with strong, hot coffee and passed it to Hal, who poured some of it down Bigg’s throat. Hal kept the canteen strapped over his shoulder, in case anyone else needed some of the same medicine.
    As Bigg began to feel better, he seemed to expand and grow until he was once more the great White Hunter. He surveyed the camp like a general inspecting his army.
    ‘This would never have happened,’ he said, ‘if I had been running this safari. All this trouble could easily have been prevented.’ ‘How?’
    ‘With ant-poison. Surely you have some.’ 1 believe there are some boxes of it in the supply wagon,’ said Hal. ‘It’s good for ordinary ants. I don’t think it would have stopped the soldiers.’
    ‘You don’t think? That’s what’s wrong with you young fellows, you don’t think. This camp is still in danger, you know. Those ants are going round us just now, but they may change their evil little minds at any moment and come straight through the camp. But don’t you worryI’ll fix them.’
    He went to the van that held the supplies, rummaged about among boxes and packets, and emerged with a tin of ant-poison.
    He just wants to show how clever he is, thought Hal. Well, let him have his fun.
    Bigg stepped over the burning bunches of grass, twigs, and sticks with which the men had ringed the camp, and began to sift ant-poison on the hurrying ants, taking good care to keep his feet well away from the line of march.
     
    The ant army came on in a column about a foot wide, the soldiers marching so close together that they touched. They did not seem to mind the poison that sifted down upon them like a miniature snow-storm.
    Bigg followed the column back to where it emerged from the forest, sifting as he went. He walked on into the woods until he could no longer see the ants because of the thick underbrush.
    Then, well satisfied with himself, he returned to camp. The ants, however, kept marching by. For an hour they kept coming. Then the last of them passed and the protecting fires were allowed to die out.
    Bigg, his self-conceit completely restored, beamed upon Hal.
    ‘Well, my boy, it’s a good thing I thought of the ant poison, isn’t it? You see how well it worked. Next time you’ll know what to do.’
    Hal was about to point out that the poison had not worried the ants in the least But what was the use of arguing? He would never convince Colonel Bigg. So he smiled and said nothing.

Chapter 9
The poisoned baboon
    A loud clatter of voices came from the woods - shouts, barks, what sounded like the wail of a suffering infant, and high-pitched screams like the voices of women in distress.
    Hal stopped to listen. The sounds were almost human, but he knew they came from the large troop of baboons that inhabited the forest. What was bothering them?
    He pulled out his father’s order-sheets. Baboons - yes, a travelling circus wanted two of them.
    Perhaps if he wandered down to the woods and took a look at the troop, he could think out the best way to capture two baboons. Besides, he was curious to find out what was the cause of all this disturbance.
    He walked slowly down to the edge of the forest, following the poison trail laid by