It had been six weeks since the three explorers had left England; nearly a month since they had bid Lord Davidson farewell in Alexandria; after passing through Nairobi, where Josh had sent his final telegram to Burton – Setting out. Wish us luck -, for nineteen days they had been traveling on horseback through the plains of the African savannah, into the uncharted heart of Tanganyika. The hot sun beat down on them during the day, while the cold winds nipped at them during the night. Their only distraction was the many unfamiliar herds of animals they'd pass, as they followed a steady course to the south. Some included smaller animals like Thomson's gazelles and impalas, while others included much bigger animals such as gemsbok, sable antelopes, and even cape buffalo, which strangely reminded Josh of the herds of cattle and bison back home in Colorado. However, they were disappointed that they didn't see more famous and recognizable African animals like giraffes or elephants.
It was early evening over the savannah. Josh, Denzel, and Chen had pitched their tent and were sitting around the fire, their wild game of African rabbits, coated in chutney, roasting on spits. Denzel, cringing in disgust, took a bite out of the ear.
"Hmm, not exactly foie gras, but it sure beats the hell out of corned beef. My compliments to the chef!" Josh smiled. He was by no means a cook, but this was one recipe he knew better than anyone alive back in Northbrok. Then, feeling a familiar sensation of something hard in his mouth, he turned away and spat a couple of buckshot pellets onto the grass. Chen raised an eyebrow.
"Do you crazy Americans always eat buckshot for dinner?"
Josh snorted his food, "No, it's just that when I'm hungry, I could eat the carcass of a dead buffalo. Couldn't be bothered to clear them out by hand anyway; spitting them out like pits works fine with me."
"Nineteen days and still no sign of this Pride Lands place," said Denzel, changing the subject, "I'm beginning to wonder if we're looking for a myth or the real thing…"
"We'll find it," said Josh confidently, "I've been keeping track of our course since we left Nairobi. We've done seventy-five miles already, moving in a straight line all the way. Another week of smooth riding and we should hopefully be there."
"And how exactly will we know that we've arrived at that place if we ever do find it?" asked Chen, "Every inch of this place is all the same to me. A great stone palace, no matter how big, would be like looking for a needle in a haystack out here."
"Not necessarily," said Denzel. "The Great Sphinx of Giza was buried from the neck down for thousands of years before someone eventually decided to dig up the rest of it."
"But at least they had a big stone head poking out of the sand to point out the site and a much smaller search area. This place is like an ocean. Even the Great Wall standing in plain view would be near impossible to spot out here unless you were standing within 10 miles of it. Nothing short of a mountain would be visible for hundreds of miles."
"Maybe we could ask some of the local natives about it if we ever come across any out here," said Josh.
"If we can find any tribes at all," pointed out Denzel, "Tribes rarely tend to live close to each other's villages due to turf disputes. Besides, during the dry season, they are often forced to move on, to find water for their goats. We might not see a single village for hundreds of miles."
Josh sighed as he looked at the sun, a fading orange ball sinking on the western horizon. He consulted his pocket watch and stifled a yawn, "Seven p.m. Time to hit the sack if we're going to make an early start tomorrow."
Half an hour later, just when the last ray of daylight disappeared and the starry night sky fell over the darkened savannah, the lantern in the tent went out. Inside, the three explorers had set up their hammocks, a safe sleeping spot from the many African night crawlers and snakes which swarmed the place after dark. Josh lay dozing off alone in his hammock, unable to sleep from all the heat and stuffiness of this place, which he still hadn't gotten used to.
Suddenly, just as he was about to drift off, he was caught by surprise by Chen, who threw open the tent drapes, "Mr. Cody? Wake up, Mr. Cody!"
Josh stirred in his hammock, hastily pulling back his hat, which he had placed over his face to use as a nightcap. "What…What is it, Chen?"
"We've got trouble! There's something out there…!"
Getting the message, Josh leaped from the hammock, slapping his suspenders over his broad shoulders, doing his trousers up, and grabbed his rifle from off the ground. Slinging the firearm over his shoulder, he and Chen joined Denzel outside, who was holding a lantern into the darkness.
The botanist grabbed the massive New Yorker by the shoulder, "They're still out there?" Denzel nodded.
"What's the matter?" asked Josh.
"Hyenas," said Denzel, "They've been circling the camp for the past ten minutes." Sure enough, looking through the light of the lantern, Josh saw it: a pair of luminous yellow eyes were watching them from the darkness, just outside the camp boundaries. They couldn't see the animal, but the maniacal laughter was unmistakable to the Negro zoologist. In the background, they could see dozens of other pairs, indicating there was a whole pack out there, surrounding them, about to attack.
Josh drew in his breath, "All right, no sudden moves, you two. Everybody stick close together and stay close to the fire. That'll keep 'em away." Like every man who had seen wild animals in action before, Josh knew that fire was the greatest natural fear of all animals, the weapon that had served mankind against the danger of lurking predators since the dawn of early civilization. Sure enough, as they huddled close to the campfire, feeding it all the spare firewood they had to make it bigger, they saw the murderous pack had stopped advancing, staying just outside the safety line of the firelight.
"Are they spotted hyenas or striped?" Chen asked Denzel.
"Spotted," said Denzel, studying the outline of the menacing forms moving about against the moonlight, "They're scavengers mostly, but deadly all the same. They eat everything, bones and all, even the teeth… Nasty critters, I tell ya!" As they kept looking, they realized these unwelcome guests, although keeping their distance, were not pushing off, instead holding their ground, waiting for another opportunity to strike. Through the firelight, they could now see the gleaming teeth of the beast, dripping with saliva, like wolves going for three fat goats. And why shouldn't they be? Dinner was on the table, sitting just out of their reach.
"What do we do?" asked Chen worryingly. "We can't keep this fire going until daybreak."
"Get some torches and stick them into the ground," said Josh. "Form a circle around the camp. That'll keep them at bay."
Nodding their heads, Chen and Denzel tore some rags from their spare clothing and wrapped them around some sticks they had found, fashioning some makeshift torches.
"You figure this will really work?"
"Course, I've done it a few times on previous occasions. Once back home to keep the wolves and coyotes away from the cattle during a drive, and another time in Brazil to keep out jaguars." But even as the torches lit up and they planted them in a circle around the camp, the hyenas still showed no sign of backing off. "Well, well… mangey fleabags are awfully brave, aren't they?"
"Not unless you were a lion," said Denzel, "Then they'd probably be off like a shot."
"Shame there aren't any lions around, huh?" said Josh dryly, "No matter, we'll just have to stick to our own devices."
Denzel and Chen looked at Josh with admiration; originally, they had thought their friend's philosophy to be a little exaggerated, yet now he had just proven that fighting nature's ruthlessness with ruthlessness was often unnecessary. Unfortunately, it still didn't satisfy the hunger of the hyenas still lurking out there.
Suddenly, a new chilling sound pierced the air; the whining sound of three terrified horses being mauled. Amid their confusion with the hyenas, they had completely forgotten about their horses, which they had foolishly left tied to a tree a little way away from the camp beside a waterhole, and completely unprotected. The growling sounds of the hyenas told them that the bloodthirsty scavengers had found plenty of fresh meat to devour. Horrified, Josh turned to his companions.
"Each of you grab a torch and follow me! Hurry!" Picking up a flaming torch from the fire and his rifle in his other hand, Josh led his party to the rescue.
It didn't take them long to spot the flailing horse, a brown Cleveland Bay mare, still tied to a tree by her reins, being viciously mauled by the murderous scavengers. Despite her furious kicking and thrashing about, several of the hyenas had managed to cling onto the mare's back, shredding her flesh using teeth and claws, going for her neck. The other two horses, which had managed to pull free in their panic, were fleeing for their lives with the rest of the hungry pack in hot pursuit.
Only about ten seconds to losing their only means of transport, Josh jabbed his flaming torch into the hip of the hyena gripping the mare by the neck, about to snap her spine. The agonizing pain of the flame sent the hyena on the run howling, abandoning its would-be prey. Chen and Denzel, also armed with torches, covered Josh's back, trying to keep the hungry beasts at bay. But the fight was still far from over because the rest of the bloodthirsty scavengers were not about to give up their meal that easily.
One snarling hyena sprang at Denzel, only for the latter to slam the tip of his boot under the beast's chin and send it flying. Another went for Chen, only for the crafty Chinaman to clap both hands over the hyena's ears as it came at him, busting its eardrums in. Soon, the remaining hyenas, having gotten the message and followed their brethren suit, their fear winning over their hunger.
With the mare safely out of the line of fire, Josh furiously turned his rifle on the enemy. Several of them tried to strike back against these alien creatures stealing their dinner, only for one of them to be shot dead, leaving the rest of them to scatter, disappearing into the night.
Putting his rifle away, Josh took a few heavy, exhausted breaths as Chen and Denzel stared back at him in amazement. "See?" he said to them. "Only kill as a last resort."
"Is the horse all right?" Denzel asked.
With the danger passed, Josh and his companions turned their attention back to the fallen mare. Although still alive, the horse was in pretty bad shape, the hyenas having done a pretty good job on her. Josh felt his heart sink with pity at the sight of the injured animal.
"Poor Marigold," he said. "Those mongrels really did a number on you, didn't they, girl?" If they couldn't put her right, he knew, the only humane thing to do would be to put her out of her misery, rather than leave her to suffer a long, lingering death out here in the middle of nowhere, until those brutish hyenas returned to finish the job.
Sadness and disappointment prevailed in camp as the three men restlessly worked through the night on the wounded Marigold. Although still alive and conscious, the mare had taken quite a beating, viciously mauled all over by her attackers, her brown fur stained bright red from her blood running from her ghastly wounds.
Besides a good number of ugly scratches and bites, the real damage was with her right foreleg. One of the hyenas has bitten clean through the muscle, shredding several ligaments in the process. Fortunately, Chen had unpacked the medicine chest and was working on the horse, with Josh doing his best to keep the restless and suffering animal still, while Denzel, torch in hand, kept a sharp lookout for any more hyenas that might reappear at any moment for another run.
"Whoa, whoa, easy there, darlin'!" Josh cried, firmly clutching the fretting Marigold by her reins, praying his beautiful horse wouldn't lose it and kick him, while Chen stitched up her deepest wounds, applying sulfur and alcohol to clean out any parasites the hyenas might have given her through their bites. "Damn it, Chen, you're killing her! How much longer?"
"Just about done," muttered Chen patiently, cleaning out the final wound on Marigold's backside with a surgeon's precision, not looking the least concerned at the prospect of the horse kicking him in the guts for putting her through all this pain. "All right, that should do it."
"How is she?"
"The good news is that there are no broken bones, at least none that I can see. She's got some torn ligaments in her right foreleg, which we've already bandaged up, along with some marginal neck and back injuries, but luckily, only flesh wounds. She won't be pretty anymore, but she'll be fine – as long as she avoids physical exertion for the next two weeks."
"Two weeks?" retorted Denzel incredulously, "Are you saying we're going to be landed with a horse that we won't be able to ride for two damn weeks? Can't you do something?"
"I've patched her up so she can walk unaided," said Chen firmly, "But she won't be able to handle the weight of a rider or baggage until her legs have healed – it will be just too painful for her. What's more, if we try and force her along, most likely we'll end up leaving her permanently lame, at which point we'll either have to put her down or leave her…"
Denzel wanted to point out that putting her out of her misery might be the only humane option at this point, given that out here, hundreds of miles from civilization, dragging along a crippled and hopeless animal would be too much of a burden, maybe even a danger to them all, but Josh stepped in.
"No, I refuse to put a bullet between this horse's eyes, not as long as she can still walk," he said. "We'll just have to take her along as she is until she's better. Also, we should try to find the other horses in the morning. Let's hope they've fared better than her."
"And in the meantime, maybe you care to explain how we are going to carry our equipment from here on?" Denzel asked, gesturing at their tent, filled with enough baggage to weigh down three strapping horses, let alone one injured horse and three exhausted human beings already pushed to their limits as it was. Josh couldn't reply at this; it seemed their troubles had only just begun.