Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/266

 for we shall be obliged to rise here to about 500 or 600 feet."

"That is a first-rate idea of yours, sir," said Joe; "the movement is neither difficult nor fatiguing; just turn a tap, and it is all done."

"We shall be more comfortable," said Kennedy, "when the balloon is higher up; the reflection from that red sand is very trying."

"What splendid trees those are!" exclaimed Joe; "though quite natural, they are magnificent. Why, a dozen of them would make a forest!"

"They are the 'baobab,'" replied Doctor Ferguson. See, one of their trunks must be almost 100 feet in circumference. It was, perhaps, at the trunk of that very tree that the unfortunate Frenchman, Maizan, was murdered in 1845, for we are just above the village of Deje la Mhora, whither he penetrated alone. He was captured by the chief of this territory, tied to the foot of the tree, and then the savage negro cut him slowly limb from limb, while he chanted a war-song. Then, making a deep incision in his victim's throat, he stopped to sharpen his knife, and literally tore the half-severed head from the body of the unfortunate Frenchman. He was only twenty-six."

"And did not France demand satisfaction for such a crime?" asked Kennedy.

"France did so, and the Said of Zanzibar did all he could to arrest the murderer, but without success."

"I hope I shall not be stopped in that way," said Joe.

"Up higher, sir, if you have any regard for me."

"And the more willingly, Joe, that Mount Duthumi is peering at us. If my calculations be correct, we shall have passed it before 7 "

"Shall we travel during the night?" asked the Scot.

"No; not unless we are obliged to do so. With precaution and careful watching we might do so in safety. But it is not enough to cross Africa, we must see it too."

"Hitherto we have not had much to complain of, sir. The country is the best cultivated and the most fertile in the world; not a desert, as the geographies would have us believe."

About half-past six the "Victoria" was opposite Mount Duthumi. It was necessary, to avoid it, to rise more than