Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven Finding Balendre

Geodetic work continued.They established two observation points one after another, connecting with the last observation point on the river side to form a new triangle.The operation went well, but astronomers must be wary of the snakes that haunt the area, the highly venomous tree cobras, which are 10-12 feet long and can be deadly. Four days after crossing the Nuosubo Rapids, on June 2nd, the observers came to a.It is a green area, but the undergrowth here will not interfere with the triangulation work.On the ground level, there are always some small hills several miles apart, perfect for setting up pillars or waypoints.This is a sunken country markedly below the general level, and is therefore fertile and damp.Here William Amory recognized thousands of Holden Dodger fig trees, the fruit of which was so beloved by the Bushmans.The plain stretches broadly among the undergrowth, exuding a fragrance from the myriad scaly roots of a colchicum-like plant.A yellow fruit two or three inches long sits on the root and fills the air with its fragrance.This is the "Juju Mamalangti" that indigenous children in southern Africa especially love to eat.Nearby a stream ran along a slight slope, and here again patches of herbal watermelon were found fringed with mint, which was so successfully transplanted in England.

Although fertile and suitable for vigorous agriculture, this extremely hot region was rarely visited by nomadic tribes.One can see no trace of the natives here, no Klarer, not even a campfire.There is, however, plenty of water here, forming in many places streams, ponds, several larger lagoons, and two or three rivers that flow rapidly to various tributaries of the Orange River. On this day, the scientists organized a temporary break to wait for the arrival of the expedition.The time limit set by Mokum was about to expire, and if he had calculated correctly, he should arrive today after wading across the lower Nosupo River.

The day passed and still not a single Bushman was seen.Did they encounter difficulties that prevented them from arriving as expected?His Excellency John Moray believed that the Nosupo River was still too rich to be waded in this season, and that Morcombe might have to continue south to find a place where it could be waded.This reason is indeed plausible.Last season's heavy rainfall is sure to cause rare swells in rivers. Astronomers wait.Yet by the end of the day, 22 June, no one from Mercomb was seen coming, and Colonel Everett appeared anxious.When supplies for the expedition began to run low, he would not be able to push further north.The continuation of this delay would have spoiled the success of the experiment.

At this time, Strux reminded everyone that he had proposed to connect the last observation point on this side of the river with the two observation points on the other side and then go with the rest of the expedition. , would not be in trouble now, if the fate of the triangulation were to be implicated by this delay, the responsibility rests with those who think it should be ... etc ... In short, the Russians ... etc. Colonel Everett, as one might expect, protested this insinuation from his colleagues, saying that the decision had been made collectively.His Excellency John Murray intervened, pleading for an immediate end to this useless debate, as it is, and all accusations will do nothing to alter the status quo.So they decided that if the Bushmen's team still couldn't return to the Europeans the next day, Forobel would lead Amory and Zorn, who volunteered themselves, to search in the southwest direction.During this period, Colonel Everett and his colleagues stayed in the camp until the three of them returned to make a decision.

So decided, the two opponents avoided seeing each other for the rest of the day.Lord John spent his time hunting in the adjacent coppice.However, he saw no ground game, and as for the birds, their edibility was not satisfactory.On the contrary, the naturalist, who was often also a hunter, had reason to be content.Two striking birds landed on his gun.One was a partridge, thirteen inches long, with very short tarsus, dark gray back, red talons and beak, and a tinge of brown to the graceful flight-feathers.The other bird was shot down by His Excellency John with a beautiful shot. This bird belongs to the raptor class and is a unique falcon in southern Africa. It has a red neck and a white tail. It is often praised by people because of its beautiful appearance. .Forobel deftly removed the feathers of the two birds, leaving their skins intact.

On June 23, they waited for several hours and still could not see the shadow of the team. The two young people decided to go on the road. At this time, a dog barking in the distance interrupted their journey.Soon, at the corner of a clump of reeds on the left side of the camp, they saw the hunter Morcum galloping on a zebra. Morcum reached the head of the procession before the Europeans. "The brave hunter has arrived!" cried His Excellency Marui cheerfully. "Really, we have given up all hope in you! I will never be comforted if I don't see you! When you are not around, it seems that even the prey Gone from me. Let me celebrate your return with a Scotch!"

In response to the warm and friendly words of the honorable Lord John, Morcombe said nothing. He stared at every European and counted them one by one, with a look of anxiety on his face. Colonel Everett noticed it immediately, and he walked up to the hunter who had just landed from his horse and asked: "Morcum, who are you looking for?" "Mr. Ballandre." "He wasn't with the expedition, wasn't he with you?" Colonel Everett asked again. "He's gone. I expected to see him in the camp. He's lost." After hearing Morcum's last words, Strux stepped forward and exclaimed:

"Nicolas Ballendre is missing! A scientist entrusted to you, an astronomer under your charge, you have not brought him back! Do you know? Hunter, you are responsible for him, you can't just say 'Monsieur Nicolas Ballendre has disappeared' will suffice!" The words of the Russian astronomer warmed the hunter's ears.You know, Morcum has no reason to be patient at any time except hunting.He replied in an angry voice: "Ah?! Mr. Russian astrologer, don't you want to weigh your words? Do you want me to take care of your friend who can't even take care of himself? You blame me, you are wrong, you hear me Is it? If Mr. Ballendre is lost, it is his own fault. Every time I see him go away from the line and bury himself in the numbers, I have to warn him and get him back. But the day before yesterday, when it was dark, he disappeared .I have searched many times but failed to find it. If you can, be more clever, since you know how to handle the astronomical telescope and put your eyes on the horizon, then try to find your friend!"

Strux was so angry that he couldn't speak a word.If His Excellency John hadn't come to comfort him, the irritable hunter might have continued like this.Fortunately for the Russian scientist, his quarrel with the Bushmen had ceased, but with an unfounded insinuation, he suddenly turned to the unprepared Colonel Everett: "Anyway," said the Brokova astronomer stiffly, "I don't want to leave my unfortunate friend in the desert. All I have to do is try to find him. Mr. Murray was thus found missing, and I think Colonel Everett would not hesitate to abort the geodetic experiment and go to the rescue of his countrymen. But I don't see why people do less with a Russian scientist than with a British scientists did."

Colonel Everett could no longer maintain his usual composure when questioned thus: "Monsieur Mathieu Strux," he said, folding his arms across his chest, and looking straight into his eyes, "are you determined to insult me ​​for no reason? You call us Englishmen What do you think? Have we a right to doubt our feelings on a humanitarian matter? What made you think we wouldn't go to the aid of this clumsy calculator?" "Sir..." the Russian shot back at the adjective from Nicolas Ballendre. "Yes, clumsy," replied Colonel Everett, articulating every syllable of the modifier, "and to your indiscretion just now, I would add that if our experiments were Failed, the responsibility rests with the Russians, not the British!"

"Colonel," cried Strux, his eyes shining brightly, "what you say..." "My words are carefully chosen, sir. It is settled that we will suspend all work from now on until your calculator is found. Are you ready to go?" "I was ready even before you said a word to me," replied Strux sharply. Having said that, the two opponents each went to their own cars, because the expedition team had just arrived. His Excellency Marui, who was accompanying Colonel Everett, couldn't help saying, "Fortunately, that idiot didn't disappear with the double measurement records." "That's what I thought too," replied the colonel simply. Two Englishmen question Morcombe.The hunters said that Nicolas Ballendre had been missing for two days and was last seen walking at the edge of the group 12 miles from camp.As soon as he found that Ballendre had disappeared, he went to look for it, so he was late.Not being found, he wondered if the calculator was with his companions.However, there was still no sign of Balendre, and Morcum suggested looking for it in the Greenlands of the Northeast, adding that there would not be an hour's delay in finding Mr. Nicolas Ballendre alive. Really need to find it quickly.The Russian scholar has been wandering for two days in a wild beast.He's been living in the digital world, ignorant of the real world, and he's not one to get out of trouble on his own.In a place where anyone else would find food, he would surely starve to death.The important thing is to rescue him as soon as possible. At one o'clock, Colonel Everett, Strux, His Excellency Murray, and the two young astronomers left camp led by Morcombe.All were on fast horses, and even Strux, clinging comically to his horse's back, complained between his teeth to this Barendre who had made him suffer so much.His companions—serious men who thought they ought to be serious—did not want to see these cheerful gestures of Blokova's astronomer on horseback.His mount is a short-tempered, talking animal. Before leaving, Morcombe asked Forobel to provide him with his dog.The dog was keen, clever, well-behaved, and good at searching, and he was very fond of Morcumb.The dog sniffed one of Barlandre's hats, and, encouraged by a special whistle from its master, rushed northeast.They followed immediately, and soon disappeared on the edge of a dense coppice. All day Colonel Everett and his companions ran up and down with the dogs.The clever animal knows very well what people want it to do, but it still fails to detect the lost scientist, and there is no path that can be followed with confidence.It tried hard to sniff out the strange smell in the land, but ran forward for a while, and then came back immediately, without finding anything. The scientists went out of their way to show their presence in this desolate place: they shouted and fired their guns, hoping that Barendre would hear him, whether he was absent-minded or engrossed.A five-mile radius around the camp was thus searched, and the search had to be stopped when night came, and the search resumed early the next morning. At night, the Europeans camped out under a clump of trees, and Morcombe took care to keep a log fire burning.There was a roar of wild beasts, and the presence of wild beasts made them even more worried about Balander.The unfortunate man, tired and hungry, frozen from the cold night, was fully exposed to the attack of the hyenas that swarmed the country.Can you still hope to save him?This is what everyone is concerned about.The poor man's colleagues discussed for hours on end, making plans, and contriving ways and means to get him down.Strux was moved by the dedication shown by the British in this situation.They decided that Russian scientists should be called whether they were dead or alive, and the geodetic experiment was therefore delayed indefinitely. After a night as long as centuries, day came.The horses were quickly ready, and they continued to search further afield.The dog leads the way, and the man follows. When heading northeast, Colonel Everett and others passed a very wet area, where the current increased and they could easily wade through, but they had to avoid the crocodiles in the water.It was the first time Sir John saw this crocodile.These are huge reptiles, some of which are 25-30 feet long.It is very difficult to escape the attack of these ravenous scary animals on the river or lake.Morcomb didn't want to waste time wrestling with the lizards, so he walked around and stopped Lord Moray who was about to shoot.Seeing this giant appear in the tall grass, the horse broke into a gallop, and soon lost its pursuit.In the large ponds formed by the overflow of those rivers, dozens of crocodiles can be seen, with their heads sticking out and resting on the water, devouring their prey like dogs, or catching their prey with their well-developed jaws. Without much hope, the search party went on, sometimes into thick, hard-to-search undergrowth, sometimes on level ground, among the criss-crossing river networks, and they surveyed the ground for the least valuable traces. , here is a section of a broken branch as tall as a man, there is a clump of freshly trodden grass, and farther away there is an unrecognizable mark half-erased.Nothing could point the seekers to poor Balendre's whereabouts. At this point, they had traveled more than ten miles north of the camp, and the hunter suggested returning to the southwest to search again.At this time, the dog suddenly became restless.It yelled and wagged its tail frantically. After running a few steps away, it put its nose on the soil, and the dry grass on the roadside was blown away by its breath.It returned to its original place, as if attracted by a strange smell. "Colonel," cried Morcombe, "our dog's smelled something. Ha! Clever chap, he's got wild--sorry, track of the scientist we're after. Let it go! Let it go! " "Yes," said His Excellency John, taking up his hunter friend, "he's on his way, listen, he's grunting, as if talking to himself, and as if trying to judge. If the dog can bring We found a place where Nicolas Ballendre spent the night, and I rewarded it with £50." Strux did not fight back the way people were talking about his compatriot, the most important thing now was to find him.Everyone is ready to run where the dog is going - once he finds his way. This doesn't take much time.The dog gave a loud bark, jumped under a bush and disappeared into the depths of the wood. Horses could not pass through the intricate woods, so Everett and others had to look for the distant barking of dogs to go around the woods.Some kind of hope motivates people.There is no doubt that the dog has followed the trail of the lost scientist, and if he has not mistaken his path, he should be able to reach his goal directly. The only question faced is: is Nicolas Ballendre dead or alive? It's 11 am.Haven't heard the dog bark for about 20 minutes, either because the dog has walked too far or because it's disoriented!Morcombe and His Excellency John, who were walking ahead, were very anxious, and they didn't know where to lead the others. For this pair, the barking of dogs came from about half a mile to the south-west, but from beyond the woods.The horse was immediately driven to gallop there. The search team soon reached a swampy area where they could clearly hear the dog barking but could not see it.Sheets of reeds 12-15 feet high densely covered the ground. They got down from their horses to the ground, tied them to a tree, and burrowed into the reeds following the barking of the dogs. Soon they passed through this tight, extremely difficult to walk net.A vast space covered with water and aquatic plants unfolds before the eyes.At the lowest point on the ground, a lagoon half a mile long and wide spreads a pale blue water. The dog stopped on the muddy shore, barking frantically. "There he is, there!" cried Morcum. Indeed, 300 paces away, on a peninsula-like protrusion, sat a wooden pier, motionless.Nicolas Ballandre sat there, unable to see or hear anything, with a pencil in his hand and a notebook on his lap, perhaps calculating! His friends almost screamed.Twenty paces behind him, a group of crocodiles poked their heads out of the water and watched him.Yet he knew nothing about it.These voracious animals come closer and can drag him away in the blink of an eye. "Quick!" whispered Morcum. "I don't know what these crocodiles will wait for before they pounce on him." "Maybe waiting for him to rot." Lord Marui couldn't help answering, making people think that these crocodiles never like fresh meat. Lord Morcum and Murray ordered the others to wait where they were, and the two of them circled the lagoon in an attempt to reach Balendre from a narrow area. Before the two of them walked 200 steps, the crocodiles behind Barendre had already left the deep water and began to climb onto the land, heading straight for their prey. Scientists still don't know anything. They keep their eyes on the small book and write numbers with their hands. "Keep your eyes on and keep calm, or he's doomed!" Morcombe whispered beside His Excellency John. Both of them knelt on the ground and shot at the crocodile crawling in the front respectively.With two shots, the spines of two giants were shattered, and they fell into the water, while the others quickly disappeared under the surface of the lake. At last the sound of the guns caused Ballandre to raise his head, and he recognized his companions, and ran towards them, still shaking a little book: "I found it! I found it!" "What have you found, Mr. Ballendre?" Sir John asked him. "James Wollaston's log table has a decimal error in the 103rd!" Yes, the venerable man, he found the error!He found a log error!He was entitled to the £100 promised by James Wollaston!This is how renowned astronomer Rubao from the Helsinki Observatory spent four lonely days!