Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/276

 sycamore. Some of them having climbed into the tree were advancing to the highest branches. The danger appeared imminent.

"My master is lost!" cried Joe.

"Let us get on, Joe; coolness and a sharp eye. We hold the lives of four men in our hands. Go ahead."

They had covered a mile with great speed when another shot from the car sent a great fellow, who had been climbing up the rope of the grapnel, tumbling from branch to branch a corpse; he remained suspended twenty feet from the ground, his arms and legs swinging in the air.

"Now, I wonder how the devil he manages that," said Joe.

"Never mind," cried Kennedy, "let us get on."

"Ha! Mr. Kennedy," cried Joe, with a peal of laughter, "it is by his tail—by his tail. He is an ape; they are only apes, all of them!"

"That is better than being men just now," replied Kennedy, as he charged into the midst of the howling band.

It was a troop of apes, and very formidable ones. Ferocious and brutal, they were horrible to behold. However, some further shots easily persuaded them, and this grimacing horde departed, leaving many dead upon the ground.

In a moment Kennedy ascended the ladder, Joe pulled himself into the sycamore, and detached the grapnel; the ladder was close to him, and he entered the balloon without difficulty. Some minutes afterwards the "Victoria rose in the air and departed towards the west.

"There was an attack!" said Joe. "We began to think you were besieged by the natives."

"They were only apes, fortunately," replied the doctor.

"At a distance the difference is not striking, my dear Samuel."

"Not even when you are close," said Joe.

"However that may be," replied Ferguson, "the apes' attack might have had serious consequences. If the grapnel had given way under their repeated assaults who knows whither the wind might have carried me."

"What did I tell you, Mr. Kennedy?" said Joe.

"Quite right, Joe; but, correct as you are, nevertheless, will you prepare some of those steaks of which the sight alone has given me an appetite."