Chapter X: The Royal Hunt

Next day occurred the royal hunt. Garram and Kon found the camp already astir on their return with the meat. Without stopping for sleep they joined the followers and the villagers who had built the camp and were now going to act as beaters. For four hours they walked due south, and then turning spread into a thin line to the west. Keeping their position as well as they could by the sound of their neighbors’ shouts and rattling of sticks against tree trunks, they began to beat up the game to the northeast.

For some time there was little to be seen. Here and there small hares, which are always perquisites of beaters, were chased and yelled at, and occasionally killed or caught by mongrel dogs. Then the bigger game, content to be driven a short distance but now getting anxious, tried to break back to their feeding grounds. A band of baboons, barking furiously, used the thick branches of tall trees lining a stream as cover and got safely away. A wild boar charged and overturned a beater without doing him much damage, and a sow and four half-grown pigs followed his lead to safety. Oribi and duiker, small buck not three feet high, took cover in the grass till nearly trodden on, then dashed forward and hid again, and kept repeating the process. Guinea fowl and other game birds sounded warning calls and ran and flew in front of the line of beaters.

Gradually the heat of the day increased; gradually the concentration of game in front of the beaters grew more dense. From time to time mounted followers of the court would ride along the line of beaters, urging forward part of the line, restraining those who were getting too far to the front, so that the cordon should leave no gaps for escaping game.

Garram, to whom the horse was an unknown animal, was thrilled by the ease with which the courtiers swung their mounts as they followed at an easy canter along the tortuous game tracks. The boy’s mouth opened wide in admiration as he watched a feeble-looking courtier, whom previously he had rather despised, sit his plunging pony unaware of the movement. Orders delivered, the rider touched his horse’s flanks with the shovel-like stirrups which served as spurs, shot stooping beneath a low branch, and collecting the animal, flipped neatly across the narrow stream. Garram let out a wild war-whoop in applause.

The beaters had now come out into the open plain where the royal party waited. Garram, followed by Kon, wriggled forward for a better view. Worming their way up the water course, they searched for a spot where they could hide from the keepers and be safe from the riders. A giant kuka tree, ten feet across and hollow as a drum, seemed just made for the purpose. By climbing up where the branches separated, it was possible, after making sure the place was free of snakes, to drop down inside. Numerous knot holes made excellent windows for watching the fun, and it was like being in a loopholed tower.

They had scarcely got into position, Kon licking Garram’s ear as he was lowered to the ground, when part of the hunt came directly towards them. It was the Emir on a glossy black stallion, but how different he looked from last night!

Now he was dressed as if for full court ceremonial, from his voluminous turban to his high, decorated boots, brilliantly colored robes, and trousers incrusted with embroidery. All these, it seemed to Garram, must make free use of bow and spear impossible. Slowly the chief of the Fulani walked his horse toward some cover on Garram’s left. From time to time he rose in his stirrups for a better view. Then, almost at the foot of the kuka tree, a magnificent boar broke cover, swinging to the right, and the horse and rider broke into full gallop in pursuit. From a glimpse of the long tushes as the animal broke, Garram was able to mark it down as an old boar, liable to put up a stiff fight. Then all he could see was its swift wallowing run as it streaked off into the distance. He and Kon almost howled with disappointment.

When at last the horse and rider caught up, the boar, with a swift turn almost directly beneath the horse’s hoofs, jinked and swung back on his tracks. This gave the quarry a fresh start, and there was hard riding before the lost ground was made up. Whenever they all but closed on the bristling beast, another swift turn put the hunters again at a disadvantage.

First one stirrup, then the other scraped ground as the well-schooled pony flung himself to right and left, following with sharp turns the wild hog. Gradually the zigzag course brought the chase nearer to the watchers in the tree trunk, and Garram viewed with startled eyes the turns and swings which seemed to leave the rider steady as a rock but little by little decreased the boar’s lead. The flash of the Emir’s black eyes above his beaky nose was now clearly seen, and the thunder of the hoofs, the grunting of the hunted beast seemed scarcely a yard from the tree.

Then, in the middle of a swift turn, the rider rose in his stirrups to loose an arrow from the longbow. It pierced the galloping quarters of the quarry.

Brought to bay, without pausing, the boar swung around and charged. A quick slash at the forefeet of the pony, not three yards away--with those gleaming tushes. Then the same tushes, red by then, would be able to tear and tear against the soft, defenceless body pinned by the fallen horse.

But the vengeful teeth never drove home.

Slender spear in hand the Emir leaned far out of the saddle to take the shock when the spear should meet the charging boar. In that fraction of a second he stiffened his arm, gripping with knees as if to crush the ribs of his mount. Saddle and girths burst with the shock. The black stallion was forced back on his haunches and, with dilated nostrils and staring eyes, over on his flank.

But the slender spear head, backed by its steel shaft had met the shoulder of the boar, passed through, and down to the heart.

As the dust cleared, man, horse, and boar were seen stretched on the hoof-torn ground, motionless, almost touching. Horse and man rose and shook themselves, but the boar lay dead. Courtiers galloped up, full of solicitude and praise. The Emir glanced carefully over the black stallion to assure himself that he was uninjured, then mounted bareback and cantered off.

Much more Garram saw that day. Including such bad shooting from horseback as made him grateful for the protection of his tree. Nothing after that equaled the impression made upon him by the Emir and his glossy black stallion. Between those two was an understanding, a combination such as the hunter and Kon had worked out together.

* * * * *

The next evening, on their journey back to Yelwa, the courtiers and councilors received from the Emir gifts of robes of honor, musk scented, in celebration of the hunting party. But on that robe given to the Waziri was a special musk. Garram had searched long for the certain bush cat from which it came. To the human nose it smelled much as the others did; it would take a dog to tell the difference.

KON AS DETECTIVE