Meanwhile Colonel Everest and his colleagues at the camp werewaiting in a very natural state of impatience for the result of the fight at the foot of the mountain.
If the hunters succeeded,the illuminated signal ought to be visible on the top of the mountain next night,so the uneasiness in which the savants passed the whole of that day may well be imagined.Their instruments were all prepared and directed towards the top of the mountain,so as to take in the very feeblest gleam of light.But would that gleam of light be visible?
Neither Colonel Everest nor Matthew Strux enjoyed a moment’s repose.Nicolas Palander alone,always absentminded,forgot in his calculations the danger to which his colleagues were exposed.But he is not to be accused of egotism.It might be said of him what was said of the mathematician Bouvard,‘he will cease to calculate only when he ceases to live.So,perhaps,Nicolas Palander will cease to live only because he ceases to calculate.
It must be admitted,however,that amidst their anxiety the two savants,both English and Russian,thought as much of completing their operations as of the dangers run by heir friends.They would have braved those dangers themselves,mindful as they were that they belonged to science militant,but the result preoccupied them both.Any physical obstacle,if insurmountable,might put a definite stop to their labours or at least retard them.So the two astronomers’anxiety throughout this long day may be easily understood.
At last it grew dark.Colonel Everest and Matthew Strux took it in turn for half-an-hour to watch at the eye-piece of the telescope.In the midst of the darkness neither uttered a word,and they relieved each other with chronome-trical punctuality,each eager to be the one to observe the signal so impatiently expected.
Hours lapsed.It was past midnight,and as yet nothing had been seen.
At last,at a quarter to three,Colonel Everest raised his head and said quietly:
‘The signal!’
Chance had favoured him—to the great disgust of his Russian coneague,who insisted on confirming the appearance of the light for himself;he controlled himself,and said not a word.
The next day,2nd July,camp was raised at dawn.Colonel Everest wanted to rejoin his companions as soon as possible,anxious to ascertain whether this mountain conquest had not been too dearly bought.The waggons set out under the guidance of the vorloper,and by noon all the members of the scientific commission were re-united;not one of them was missing.The various incidents of the fight with the lions were described and the victors warmly congratulated.
During the morning Sir John Murray,Michel Zorn,and William Emery had measured from the top of the mountain the angular distance of a new station some miles of the meridian,so that their operations could be continued without delay.The astronomers,who had also taken the altitude of certain stars,calculated the longitude of the peak,whence Nicolas Palander deduced that a second length of the meridian arc,equivalent to a degree,had been obtained by the latest trigonometrical measurements;this gave a result of two degrees deduced from the base for a series of fifteen triangles.
Their labours were continued without respite.They were very satisfactorily executed,and it might well be hoped that no physical obstacle would interfere to prevent their completion.For five weeks the sky had favoured observation and the somewhat undulating country lent itself to the forming of vantage points.There was no want of food;the hunters,headed by Sir John,kept the expedition well supplied.The Englishman no longer counted the number and variety of antelopes or buffaloes which fell to his rifle.Everything was going on well;the general health was good;as yet there was no scarcity of water;and,to the great delight of their companions,even the disputes between Colonel Everest and Matthew Strux were fewer.They were all equally zealous,and they might already reasonably expect the ultimate success of the enterprise,when a local difficulty interrupted the observations and revived national rivalry.
It was 11th August.Since the previous evening,the caravan had been traversing a wooded country,where forests and copses alternated for miles.That morning the waggons had halted under an assemblage of lofty trees,which seemed to reach beyond the horizon.Nothing could be more imposing than these masses of green,which formed a curtain a hunt dred feet above their heads.No description can do justice to the beauty of the trees of an African forest.Here were intermingled the most diversified species—the gounda,the mosokoso,and the moukomdou,woods in great demand for naval architecture:ebony trees,whose bark covers a black substance;the bauhinia,with its iron fibres;the buchneras,with their orange-coloured flowers;the magnificent wodeblatts,with their white trunks,and crowned with a crimson foliage,producing an indescribable effect;the gaiacs in thousands,some fifteen feet in circumference.From out of the depths of this forest came a sound of murmuring,which recalled the noise of the surf beating on a sandy shore.It was the wind,which,passing through these mighty branches,drew its last breath on the edge of the giant forest.
In reply to a question of Colonel Everest’s the hunter replied,‘It’s the Ravouma forest.’
‘What’s its width from east to west?’
‘Forty-five miles.’
‘And its depth from south to north?’
‘About ten miles.’
‘And how are we to get through this mass of trees?’
‘We can’t get through it,’replied Mokoum;‘there’s no practicable path.We must go round it,either east or west.
The leaders of the expedition were greatly embarrassed when they heard the bushman’s replies.Plainly they could not erect any signalpylons in this forest,which grew on a dead level.As to going round it,which would mean going twenty to five-and-twenty miles to one side of the meridian,this would enormously increase the labour,and perhaps mean that another dozen auxiliary triangles would have to be added to the trigonometrical series.
Thus a real difficulty,a natural obstacle,had arisen at last.The question this raised was very difficult to answer.As soon as the camp had been erected under the shade of some magnificent trees,about half-a-mile from the forest,a council of the astronomers was called.
The idea of carrying on the triangulation through this immense body of timber was put aside at once:obviously no operations could be performed in such circumstances.But was the obstacle to be turned to the left or to the right,the diversion being about equal on either side,as the meridian cut the forest as nearly as possible into two equal parts?
So long at the members of the Anglo-Russian Commission decided that this impassable barrier should be turned,it mattered but little whether it was to the east or the west.But on this question a violent dispute arose between Colonel Everest and Matthew Strux.The two rivals,who had controlled themselves for some time,now felt all their animosity revive:it now passed from a dormant to an active stage,and finished by degenerating into a personal quarrel.
Their colleagues tried vainly to interpose.The Englishman preferred the right,a direction which would bring the expedition nearer the route followed by David Livingstone on his first journey to the Zambezi falls;that was at least a reason for such a course,as this region,being better known and more frequented,might offer certain advantages.As for the Russian,he insisted on the left,but evidently only out of opposition to the Colonel’s opinion.If the Colonel had given his voice for turning left,he would have held out for the right.
The quarrel was carried very far,and the moment seemed not far distant when there would be a complete break between the members of the commission.
None of the others could do anything;so they forsook the conference,and left their two leaders to dispute by themselves.So great was their obstinacy that everything was to be feared from it—even that,from this point,the task thus interrupted would be continued as two independent series of oblique triangles.
The whole day passed without bringing any settlement between the opposite opinions.
The next day,12th August,Sir John,foreseeing no probability of agreement,asked the bushman to come and beat the adjoining thickets.During that time the two leaders might perhaps come to terms.
Mokoum,who was always ready,whistled to the dog Top,and the two hunters,as they beat the thickets along the edge of the wood,found themselves some miles from the camp.
The conversation naturally fell on the incident which had stopped their operations.
‘I fancy,’said the bushman,‘we’re going to camp for some time on the edge of the Ravouma forest.Neither of our two leaders will give way to the other.Your honour must forgive me the comparison,but one pulls to the right and the other to the left,like two oxen who have never been harnessed together before,and so the waggon comes to a stop.’
‘It’s very unfortunate,’agreed Sir John Murray,‘and I very much fear it will lead to a complete break.But for the interests of science,this rivalry of the two astronomers would matter little to me,my good Mokoum.The game of Africa gives me plenty of occupation,and till they agree I shall go about the country rifle in hand.’
‘But this time do you think they’ll ever come to terms?I don’t feel that they ever will;and as I say,our halt here may be prolonged.’
‘I fear so,Mokoum,’replied Sir John;‘our leaders are disputing over a very trivial matter,which cannot be settled scientifically.They are both right and both wrong.Colonel Everest has explicitly declared that he’ll never give way;Matthew Strux has sworn he will hold out;and these two savants,who no doubt would be amenable to scientific reasons,will never consent to yield in what is a mere question of amour propre.It is much to be regretted for the sake of our work that this forest should be intersected by the meridian.’
‘Devil take the forest,’replied the bushman,‘when operations like these are concerned.But what an idea these savants have of measuring the length and breadth of the globe!Are they any better when they’ve calculated it in feet and inches?For my part,I prefer to stay ignorant of all these things.I prefer believing in the immensity of the world I live in,and I feel it’s making it smaller when one knows its exact size!No,Sir John,if I lived a hundred years,I should never see the use of your operations.’
Sir John could not help smiling.This had more than once been discussed between the hunter and himself,and this ignorant child of nature,this free wanderer through the woods and over the plains,this bold hunter of wild beasts,could never understand the scientific interest of a triangulation.Sometimes Sir John had pressed him,but the bushman had replied with arguments drawn from a fount of true natural philosophy,which he advanced with a sort of savage eloquence,whose charm the Englishman,a hunter as well as a savant,could well appreciate.
While discussing this,Sir John and Mokoum shot some small game,rock rabbits,giorures,a new sort of rodent,described by Ogilby under the name of graphycerus elegans,a few plovers,and several brown,yellow and red partridges.But Sir John did most of this execution.The bushman shot but little.The rivalry between the astronomers,which must necessarily compromise the success of the expedition,preoccupied him,and the existence of the forest certainly worried him more than it did Sir John.The variety of game they met with attracted his attention but little,a serious sign in such a hunter.
In fact,an idea,very vague at first,had occurred to the bushman;by degrees it became more decided in his mind.Sir John could hear him talking to himself,asking himself questions,and answering them.He could see him with his gun over his arm,heedless of the game which rose up before him,and as much absorbed in thought as Nicolas Palander himself when he detected the mistake in the logarithmic tables.But Sir John respected this silence,and did not attempt to recall his companion from his preoccupation.
Two or three times during the day Mokoum came up to Sir John and said:‘So your honour thinks Colonel Everest and Matthew Strux will never agree?’
To which Sir John’s invariable answer was that it seemed very unlikely,and that a split between the English and the Russians was to be feared.
Once more,towards evening,a few miles from camp,Mokoum asked the same question and received the same reply.But this time he added:‘Well,you may feel easier,perhaps,if I tell you I’ve found out how to let both our savants have their own way.”
‘Indeed,my worthy hunter?’Sir John was greatly surprised.
‘Yes,I say it again,Sir John.Before this time tomorrow neither Colonel Everest nor Matthew Strux will have anything to quarrel about—if the wind is in our favour.’
‘What do you mean,Mokoum?’
‘I mean what I say,Sir John.’
‘Then do it by all means,Mokoum.You will deserve the thanks of scientific Europe,and your name shall be inscribed in the annals of science!’
‘Too great an honour for me,Sir John,’replied the bushman;then,no doubt considering his project,he said no more.
Sir John respected his silence,and asked for no explanation;but in truth he could not imagine how the bushman meant to bring the two hotheads to one way of thinking.
The hunters returned to camp about five in the evening.The question remained just where it was—indeed,perhaps the dispute had become even more embittered.The repeated interposition of William Emery and Michel Zorn had led to no result.The men had descended to personalities,and it was to be feared that the quarrel in its then state would lead to a challenge from one or the other.The future of the triangulation was to some extent compromised,unless each of the savants continued the work on his own account;but then an immediate separation would take place,and this prospect distressed the two young men,so accustomed to each other’s society,and so intimately connected by mutual sympathy.
Sir John understood their feelings,and guessed the reason of their sadness.Perhaps he could have reassured them by repeating what the bushman had said.But though he had great confidence in him,he would not give his young friends hopes which might after all only be vain,and he decided to wait till the next day for the hunter to carry out his promises.
During the evening the latter made no change in his normal occupations.He arranged the camp guard as usual,and took every precaution to ensure the security of the caravan.
Sir John began to think the hunter had forgotten his promise.Before retiring for the night he thought he would try to get the Colonel to respect the Russian astronomer,but he found him immovable,standing on his rights,and adding that,if Matthew Strux would not give way,the English and the Russians would separate,for,he said,‘there were some things he could not put up with,even from a colleague.’
Thereupon Sir John Murray,very uneasy in his mind,went to bed,and,tired as he was by his day’s shooting,he was not long in falling asleep.
About eleven he was suddenly awakened.There was an unusual stir among the natives,who were moving about the camp in all direction.
Sir John was soon up,and found all his companions on foot.
The forest was on fire.
What a sight!In the darkness of the night,against the black background of the sky,the sheet of flame seemed to reach the zenith.In an instant the fire had spread several miles.
Sir John looked at Mokoum,who was standing motionless close to him,but the bushman never met his eyes.Sir John understood everything.The fire would open a path for the savants through this age-old forest.
The wind,blowing from the south,assisted the bushman’s design.The air,as if escaping from a ventilator,fanned the flames and carried sparks and burning ashes far among the thickets,which became fresh centres of conflagration.The area of the fire spread wider and wider,and the heat became intense,even at the camp.The sky reflected this gigantic conflagration,and the blood-red clouds seemed to catch fire,as if the flames had reached the very firmament,while showers of sparks studded the black vault of heaven amidst whirlwinds of smoke.
Then howls and yells of animals were heard on all sides.Shadows were passing,frightened herds were flying in all directions,along with great dark spectres,whose formidable roars betrayed their presence among the fugitives.The same irrepressible terror drove hyaenas,buffaloes,lions,and elephants to the last limits of the dark horizon.
The conflagration lasted all night,all next day,and the following night as well.And when the sun rose on the morning of 14th August a vast extent of ground cleared by the fire was now practicable for several miles.The road to the meridian had been opened out,and the future of the operations had been saved by the audacious act of Mokoum the hunter.