Part 1: The Journey to Africa
Chapter 6
"The Baboon Chase"
The very next morning, Jane awoke from a very humid sleep that she had to endure during yet another night in the jungles of Africa. By the time she had awakened, her father and Clayton were already up and eager to get started with yet another trek into the jungles. Clayton, knowingly wanting to fulfill his personal ambitions and goals, tapped his foot down impatiently as they waited for Jane to finishing dressing so that they could get going.
"Where is that daughter of yours, Professor?" Clayton asked impatiently. "She does not need to take this long to pretty herself for a trek into the jungles. We are looking for gorilla nests, not attending a tea party."
"I'm pretty sure Jane will be along," said Archimedes. "But just take it easy on her, Clayton. This is her first time in the jungles after all."
"It's also yours too, professor," grunted Clayton. "In a long time at least."
Just then, Jane emerged from her tent wearing her favorite yellow dress and her hair was in its elegant bun with a pith helmet on top . In one of her gloved hands, was a matching yellow parasol and in the other gloved hand was her sketchbook. Jane thought that today would be the day she would start sketching African wildlife and today was the day to do so. Clayton's mouth dropped in disgustwhile Archimedes was happy to see his daughter looking so lovely.
"I'm sorry if I took too long," apologized Jane. "This was the only clean outfit I had left, so it had to take me a little time to get dressed."
"Why, don't apologize Jane," said Archimedes. "You have decided to put on your best clothes for the gorillas. That was very nice of you to do so. Doesn't she look nice, Clayton?"
Clayton was not looking forward to having Jane keep up with him in a full skirted dress, but he had to answer Archimedes question, so he tried to force a smile.
"Yes, she does look lovely," he said. "But I don't know if you will be able to keep up with us Miss Porter. Women don't wear fancy dresses into the jungles you know."
Once again, Jane chose to ignore the comment and the three of them started off once again into the jungles looking for any signs of the gorillas. For a while, it seemed like they were going to strike out again, but today was going to be different for all three of them to say the least. During one of Clayton's rambles and rants, he heard something in the bushes and fired his rifle at it.
"Clayton!" panted Archimedes. "Oh, what is it, Clayton? Are we danger?"
"I thought I saw something," replied Clayton in a low voice.
"Is it a hippopotamus amphibious?" asked Archimedes excitedly. "Or a rhinoceros-."
Suddenly, Clayton heard something again and raised his rifle.
"Professor, Don't move!" he called and Archimedes stopped moving.
"Oh, All Right," whispered Archimedes. Meanwhile, Jane who had drifted off during one of Clayton's rambles was trying to get through the bamboo forest to catch up with them.
"Daddy?" Jane called as she struggled to get through the bamboo and high brush. It wasn't easy with her best yellow dress and the petticoat she wore underneath it was making it difficult.
"Daddy, what's all the hullabaloo about?" she asked before being flung back by the bamboo. She tried again and this time was more successful.
"Ow," she groaned and moving her pith helmet out of her face, she hurried walked over to her father in excitement.
"What is it, daddy?" she whispered.
"Mr. Clayton asked me not to move," whispered Archimedes. "He saw something."
Realizing that this was another one of Clayton's jumps, Jane sighed and stormed over to Clayton while trying to look proper at the same time. Unfortunately, Archimedes ended up falling over and was no longer moving.
"Uh, Mr. Clayton, sorry, excuse me," she said. "But, my father came on this expedition to study gorillas and I think your shooting might be scaring them off."
"You hired me to protect you, Miss Porter," replied Clayton. "And protect you I shall."
"And you're doing a marvelous job of it," said Jane, tapping the end of her parasol on Clayton's rifle. "But we only have a short time before the ship returns and-."
But suddenly, Archimedes got excited when he saw what they had been searching for since they arrived in the jungles.
"Oh, Oh, Jane!" gasped Archimedes. "Don't you realize what you're standing in? A gorilla's nest."
Jane gasped with excitement and got down on her knees with her father, finally getting to what they had been searching for since they arrived.
"At last!" gasped Clayton. "Our first sign in days."
He then looked up towards the sky and thought to himself.
"Do you think the beasts could be nearby?" he asked to himself.
"Well, they could be," replied Archimedes. "There's the evidence, you know."
Just then, Jane saw an even more bigger surprise for them.
"Daddy, look!" she gasped. "Over there and there!"
"Yes, yes, more nests!" he cried. "I see them!"
"Just as you predicted," cried Jane.
"Family Groups!" they said.
"Oh, Jane I love you!" said Archimedes and they embraced as Clayton laughed at what Archimedes had just said.
"Family Groups?" he asked in surprise. "Well, excuse me, but these are wild creatures who would soon tear your head off than look at you."
Jane was determined however to set the record straight.
"Well, on the contrary, Mr. Clayton," she explained. "Daddy's theories are that these are social creatures-."
But, she was interrupted yet again by Clayton who felt a leave fall on his shoulders and grabbed his rifle and fired at the disturbance that was nowhere to be seen.
"Mr. Clayton, please," whispered Jane. "What if it's a gorilla?"
"It's no Gorilla," he said to himself as Jane and Archimedes looked around worriedly. But, at that moment, Clayton decided to leave.
"Perhaps we should press on?" he suggested and so they did.
"Yes, we should keep heading west," suggested Archimedes. "Following the Gamdril of the Nile."
"Excellent professor," said Clayton. "I could have used your expertise on my last safari."
However, unbeknownst to the two men, Jane was already behind walking slowly, looking scared for a moment at the thought of the mysterious creature that Clayton was trying to kill. Stepping out of the gorillas nest, she nervously walked behind them and was just about to catch up when a mango fell on her head and a baby baboon came out of the trees to eat it. Jane was admired by how cute the baby was.
"Oh, are you what the fuss is about?" she asked to herself.
"Daddy!" she called in a hushed tone. "Daddy, quick!" But, Archimedes and Clayton were already far ahead and thus were unable to hear Jane.
"Wait, wait, hold still!" she said to the baby baboon and got out her sketchbook. "You may not be a gorilla but you are one sweet little-."
The baby baboon disappeared for a moment and emerged a few moments later on Jane's shoulder.
"Hmm, there you go. What do you think?" she asked the baby baboon who admired himself so much that he took the sketchbook from Jane's hands like a pickpocket in London and a shocked and disgusted Jane followed the baby towards a clearing.
"Well, this is absolutely peachy!" she said to herself as she got a part of her dress removed from a tree and picked up the sketches that lay on the ground. "Come to study gorillas and get my sketch book pinched by a baboon!"
She then spotted the baby baboon tearing out even more pages from her sketchbook until he came to the sketch of himself that Jane just created. He was admiring himself when Jane stormed over towards him.
"Give me that!" she demanded and the baboon, having just admired himself in a sketch, of course refused.
"Oh, come on now enough of this," said Jane. "I want this back on the count of three. One…Two…"
She then decided to create a distraction.
"Oh, look bananas!" she said excitedly and as the baby baboon looked, Jane snatched the drawing away from him.
"I can't believe you fell for that one!" she laughed and the baboon did not take this lightly and started crying.
"No, no, don't give me those crocodile tears," she said playfully. "What would your parents have to say?"
Those were very poor choice words for Jane upon seeing what was behind her. For just then, a loud hiss was heard from right behind her and a large male baboon and about 20 other baboons hissed at her. Now Jane, was scared for her life and tried to apologize naively to the lead baboon.
"See," she said nervously to the baby baboon. "I told you they would be cross. Go easy on him, children will be children-."
But, before she could finish her sentence, she tripped over a fallen tree and looked up in horror to see the baboons leaping down towards her. Jane quickly got to her feet and ran as fast as her new boots could carry her. As she ran, she knew at that moment that no matter how fast she ran from the bloodthirsty baboons, she was going to die at any moment and when she came to a gorge, she knew that this was the end. Hiking up her dress, she ran towards the cliff and as she did, she could see her entire 19 years of life flash right before her eyes.
"Goodbye, Daddy!" she thought to herself. "I'll say hello to mother for you!"
She closed her eyes took the leap, preparing herself for death, but suddenly, she opened her eyes and saw that she was flying through the jungle.
"Oh, I'm flying," she said to herself. "What on Earth am I?"
She then looked up and gasping and screaming in horror, she saw a muscular man in a loincloth holding her by the skirt of her dress with a look of lust deep in his face. She then looked down and saw a baboon chewing on her brand new boot. Taking her parasol, she kept whacking the baboon until it got off of her leg taking the boot and one of her purple stockings with it. The wild man took Jane and flung her into the air and onto a tree with Jane in the man's arms.
"Put me down!" she cried. "Put me down!" But, the baboons were approaching and Jane thought otherwise.
"No, Pick me up! Pick me up!" she cried again and the wild man grabbed Jane and was carefully tree surfing to avoid the baboons while keeping Jane with him at the same time although he had to toss her when they came to a spindle of vines.
"Oh, no!" cried Jane as they came across the spindle and continued to hang on for dear life. Just then, the baboons were coming towards them and Jane got on the wild man's back and opened up her parasol and using it like a shield, managed to knock the baboons off of the vines and just when it seemed like all of them were gone, one baboon grabbed Jane's parasol and tried to bite down on her head.
"Unhand me!" she demanded and the creature refused to let go until Jane's parasol got caught on a vine and she lost the grip of the wild man.
Now, Jane knew that this was the end as the entire swarm began to crawl over her and make her fall onto the ground below. Preparing herself for death yet again, Jane gave out one final scream but the wild man grabbed her bare leg and was swinging her yet again through the trees. However, the baby baboon and several members of his family failed to take notice of a tree stump that was in their way.
"Uh-Oh!" the baby baboon cried and he and the majority of his family flung themselves against the tree with Jane's parasol in tow.
Meanwhile, Jane and the wild man were still be chased and upon seeing even more baboons coming their way, the wild man took Jane into a tree and continued to tree surf long enough until the tree broke and they fell off with the baboons. During the fall, Jane's hair in its nice elegant bun came undone and her pith helmet was lost to her forever. The wild man then grabbed another vine to stop their fall and was starting to get friction burns, but they stopped and got onto the edge of a large tree. But finally, they had to get off again when a piece of the tree collapsed on them and reacting quickly managed to find another safe part of the tree as the part that collapsed fell down below as the baboons continued their search for Jane not realizing she was now safe.
It was over, but Jane would soon come to know her rescuer all in good time…
