Chapter 20 Chapter Twenty

Seeing the two young colleagues go away, the hearts of the astronomers couldn't help tightening. How much fatigue and danger awaited the two brave young men in the 100-mile unfamiliar land that was about to pass through!But some Himans praised Forobel's tact and bravery to his friends, and asked them to rest assured.In addition, it is conceivable that the Makororo people are busy besieging the Skorzev peak and will not go to the northern shore of Lake Ngami to search.In short, Morcombe's instincts did not deceive him, and he believed that Colonel Everett and others were in greater danger in the fortifications than the young astronomers on the north road.

The sailors and the Bushmans took turns on duty that night, and the darkness actually favored the hostile measures of the natives below, but these "reptiles"—as the hunters called them—had not yet dared to attack the Skolzew Peak hillside.Perhaps they were waiting for reinforcements so that they could take the mountains from all directions and relieve the besieged of their means of resistance. The hunter's guess was correct. At dawn, Colonel Everett saw a significant increase in the number of Makororo. Their well-designed camp surrounded the foot of Skolzew Mountain. It was completely impossible to escape from the plain. Possibly, thanks to the fact that the surface of Ngami Lake was not under their watch, and if necessary, a retreat from the lake was always feasible if there were no accidents.

The problem, however, is not escape.These Europeans hold a scientific post, an honorable one which they have no intention of giving up.On this point a perfect rapport was restored among them, the personal strife which had formerly riled Colonel Everett and Struxes was gone, and the British and Russians were now at war. Wars thrown into battle are no longer a problem either.No insinuations were made on this issue.The two scientists are moving towards the same goal, and they both hope to obtain scientific results that are equally beneficial to both nations and complete their scientific missions.

Before the marker lights on Volgilia, two scientists were busy measuring the angles of a triangle, an operation consisting of aligning two mirrors with the last two observation points on the British route.The operation was performed without difficulty, and the results were recorded by Ballendre.After the measurement, they decided to conduct several star observations in the next few nights to obtain the exact latitude of Skolzew Peak. There was an important issue that had to be decided first, and in this case, it was natural for them to invite Morcum to give their opinion.The question is how quickly Zorn and Amory can reach the northern shore of Lake Ngami, the mountain range whose main peak will serve as the fulcrum of the final triangle.

The Bushmen estimated it would take at least five days to reach their destination.In fact, it was a journey of more than 100 miles, and Forobel's team marched on foot, and considering the difficulties that would arise in a region criss-crossed by rivers, five days was even a short time. They accept comments for up to 6 days, and on that basis formulate food "regulations". Food storage is very limited.Before they could get a chance of resupply by hunting, they gave up part of the food to Forobel's small detachment, and thus less food was brought to the fortifications.According to the normal ration, it can only meet the needs of each person for two days.These included a few pounds of biscuits, tinned meat, and dried meatloaf.Colonel Everett, in agreement with his colleagues, decided to reduce the daily ration to one-third.That way, they would be able to wait until the sixth day, when the lights they had been watching day and night appeared on the horizon.Four scientists, six sailors, and a Bushman, eleven in all, must have suffered from want of food, but they did not take the pain seriously.

"Besides, hunting is not prohibited here!" said Lord John to the Bushmen. The Bushmen shook his head suspiciously, thinking that there would hardly be any wild animals on this lonely mountain.But that's no reason to put the gun away.So it was decided, while their colleagues were busy calculating the values ​​recorded in the double notes of Barlander, His Excellency John, accompanied by Morcombe, left the wall of the fortification, and wanted to get to know Scott exactly. Erzef Mountain. The Makorolo people quietly stationed at the foot of the mountain.There seemed to be no rush to attack.Perhaps their intention was to subdue the trapped by hunger.

The stocktaking of the Skolzewberg property was quickly completed.The area occupied by the fortifications was no more than a quarter of a square mile at best.The ground is covered with thicker vegetation, and patches of gravel are mixed with it.From time to time there are clumps of dwarf brambles, including a portion of Glenn.There are also red heather and rhododendron with long flowering branches, which constitute the flora of the mountain.At the corners of the cliffs formed by the outcropping rocks on the slopes, grow clumps of thorny shrubs ten feet high, bearing clusters of white flowers as fragrant as jasmine, the origin of which is unknown to the Bushmen. name.As for the beasts, after searching for an hour, Lord John still needs to continue to find even the smallest wild animals.At this time, several small birds with dark feathers and red beaks flew out from several bushes.After the first shot, the flock was surely gone for good, and it seemed that no prey could be expected to support it.

"We can always catch fish from the lake." His Excellency John stood on the northern slope of Mount Skolzew, gazing at the beautiful and vast lake. "Fishing with bare hands, without net or pole," said the Bushman, "is like catching a bird in flight with bare hands. But let us not despair, Your Excellency knows that chance is at our service now, I Trust it will continue to serve us." "Opportunity!" retorted Lord John, "when God wants to stimulate opportunity, he is the most faithful provider of human beings I know! There is no more reliable agent, no wiser steward! Chance brought us to the Russian friend Opportunity brings them to the place we want to come, and it will gradually lead us to the goal we want to achieve!"

"Will it give us something to eat?" asked the Bushman. "It will certainly feed us, Morcombe friend," replied Lord John, "it is doing it, and it will only do its duty!" Your Excellency's words must be reassuring.But the Bushman considered Chance to be a servant who demanded some duty from his master, so he decided to help Chance in need. On February 25, neither the besiegers nor the besieged had any change in their situation towards each other.The Makororo stayed in their barracks, and the cattle and sheep stayed closest to the peak of Skolzew, where groundwater seepage maintained the pastures.The stolen four-wheeled vehicle was pulled into the barracks, and the women and children gathered in the tribe were busy with their daily work.From time to time a leader, as can be seen from his rich fur coat, climbed the slopes, trying to find the path that would lead most completely to the top.But a bullet from the rifle quickly brought him back to level ground.The Makroro answered the gunfire with their war cry, shot a few arrows that could not hurt anyone, swung their spears, and all was quiet again.

On February 26, those natives made a more important attempt, in which more than 50 people climbed the mountain from three directions.The whole garrison stood at the foot of the fortification wall, and the European weapons, which reloaded and fired so quickly, did some kind of havoc among the ranks of the Makroro. Five or six looters were killed, and the rest Back off.But even if the besieged were able to shoot quickly, they were outnumbered.If hundreds of Marco Roro pounced on them at the same time, it would be very difficult to resist them from all directions.His Excellency John proposed to protect the front of the fortifications, where the machine guns which constituted the main armament of the steamer were placed.This is a great form of defense.The whole difficulty lies in how to move the heavy machinery up from under the extremely difficult rocks that are distributed vertically layer by layer.Yet the crew of the Queen and Tsar were so dexterous, agile, and even daring, that on the twenty-sixth they loaded their formidable machine-gun into one of the embrasures of the battlemented wall.Its 25 barrels are distributed in a fan shape, and its firepower can cover the entire front of the fortifications.Indigenous peoples will soon learn the power of this deadly missile, and 25 years later civilized peoples will incorporate this weapon into their combat equipment.

When the natives were not taking action on Skolzew, astronomers calculated the heights of the stars every night.Clear skies and dry air are good for observation.They concluded that the longitude of Skolzew Peak was 19°37′18″.265. This value was accurate to the thousandth of a second, and it was impossible to achieve a more precise degree. This result convinced them that the distance from the northern extremity There is less than 1/2 latitude of meridian left, so the triangle they are going to branch off with its vertex at Mount Vaugili will end the network of triangles. From the evening of February 26th to the dawn of the 27th, the Makorolo people did not re-launch the attack. The 27th was a long day for the Guards.If the situation is favorable for Forlobel and others who set off 5 days ago, they may reach Mount Volgilia today.Therefore, the horizon must be watched extremely carefully on this night, where the lights of marker lights may appear.Colonel Everett and Strux had appeared there.Colonel Everett and Strux had aimed their instruments at the mountain and framed it in the objective lens.In the dark of night, it is very difficult to find a target without a reference point, and the defense above simplifies this finding.If a light appears on a Volgirian peak, it is immediately visible and its angle is determined immediately. On this day Lord John searched in vain among the bushes and tall grass, and he did not find a single edible or almost edible animal.The birds in the nest were disturbed, and had gone to seek safer shelter in the woods on the shore.The honorable hunter is annoyed because he doesn't hunt for fun, he works "for himself", in case if this latin hole can be applied to an Englishman, Sir John is born with a robust appetite, 1/3 ration He couldn't get enough to eat, the hunger really made him miserable.His colleagues were able to tolerate this moderation more easily, either because their stomachs were less eager than His Excellency John's, or, following Ballendre's example, were able to substitute a quadratic equation or two for the traditional steak.As for the Bushmen and the sailors, they were as hungry as your lord John.The meager food reserves have bottomed out, and there is another day when all the food will be eaten up. If Forobel and others are delayed in their march, the guards in the fortifications will quickly fall into desperation. From the night of the 27th to the daytime of the 28th, they observed the darkness, silence and purity, which is especially beneficial to astronomers, but the horizon has been lost in the thick darkness, there is no light to show, and nothing appears in the objective lens. However, the maximum time limit given to Zorn and Amory has hardly expired, and they can only muster up their patience and wait. On February 28, Skorzev's guards ate the last piece of meat and biscuits.But the hope of these brave scientists is not diminished, and they will not leave here until the work is done, even if they live on grass. The night of February 28 and the day of March 1 still yielded nothing. On one or two occasions, observers thought they had spotted the light of a marker light, but upon inspection, the light was nothing more than a star on the horizon shrouded in fog. . On March 1, they did not eat all day.Most likely due to getting used to severe food shortages for several days, Everett and others tolerated this absolute lack of food more easily than expected. However, God did not come to their help, and what was left for them the next day was also cruel. torment. God probably did not satisfy them that day either.There wasn't a wild animal to entice His Excellency John to shoot, but the guards had no right to be picky, so they managed to eat something to restore their vitality. Lord John and Morcum, starving and bewildered, wandered the summit of Skolzew.A stubborn hunger makes their stomachs ache. Must they eat the grass under their feet?Like Colonel Everett said. "If we had the stomachs of herbivores!" thought poor Lord John, "how much food we would get out of this meadow! No animals, no birds!" While talking to himself, His Excellency John cast his eyes on the vast lake under his feet. The crew of the Queen and Tsar tried in vain to catch a few fish, and as for the small birds flitting about in the still water, they could not get near them at all. At this time, Lord John and his friend, not feeling very tired, stopped and lay down on the grass under a mound 5-6 feet high.A deep sleepiness—or rather a numbness—invaded their brains.Under this pressure, their eyelids involuntarily closed.Gradually, they slip into a state of real torpor, and the emptiness they feel is destroying them.In addition, the numbness can temporarily suspend their severe pain, and they let it go. How long this numbness lasted neither the Bushmen nor His Excellency could say.But an hour later, Lord John was awakened by bouts of itching that made him very uncomfortable. He shook his body and tried to fall asleep again, but the itching continued to bother him, and finally, impatiently, he opened his mouth. squinted. Swarms of termites crawled on his clothes, and his face and hands were also covered.The insect intrusion caused him to rise with a jerk, as if a spring had been stretched on his body, and the sudden movement woke the Bushmen lying beside him.What surprised His Excellency John today was that instead of driving these insects away, Morcombe grabbed a handful and stuffed them into his mouth and began to chew greedily. "Ah! Eat! Morcombe!" cried Lord John.This gluttony made him feel sick. "Eat! Eat! Be like me!" replied the hunter, eating without stopping. "Eat, this is Bushmen's rice! . . . " Morcum had just spoken the indigenous names of these insects.Bushmans happily eat these ants, which come in both black and white varieties, and they consider termites to be of the highest quality.From a food point of view, the only disadvantage of this insect is that it must be eaten in large quantities.Africans customarily eat the ants mixed with acacia gum to obtain a nutritious food.But there is no acacia gum on Skolzew, and Morkum is content with "boiled" rice. Although His Excellency John was a little disgusted, seeing that Morcomb was eating very satisfyingly, he felt even more hungry, so he decided to imitate Morcomb.Thousands of ants crawled out of their huge holes under the mound where the two had just slept.Lord John took a handful and put it to his mouth, really, it didn't offend him at all, he tasted a delicious sour taste, and his stomach throbbing gradually subsided. But Morcum did not forget his fellow sufferers, and he ran to the fortifications, bringing with him the whole guard.The sailors did not hesitate to pounce on this marvelous food, the Colonel, Strux, and Ballendre perhaps hesitated, but the example of His Excellency John made them determined, poor scientist half torn to death by starvation We can at least satisfy our hunger by devouring a large number of termites. An accident brought stronger food to Colonel Everett and his friends.In order to stockpile these insects, Morcum wanted to destroy the anthill from one side.It is, as has been said, a conical mound surrounded by still smaller conical mounds surrounding it.The hunter struck the mound many times with his axe, when a peculiar sound attracted his attention, as if a grunting sound came from an ant's nest.The Bushman stopped what he was doing and listened, while his friends watched him in silence.The hunters struck a few more axes, and they heard a more distinct grunt. The Bushman rubbed his hands together without saying a word, his eyes gleaming with drool.He resumed hacking the mound with the axe, trying to make a hole about a foot wide.The ants fled in all directions, but the hunters left them alone and let the sailors stuff them into their pockets. Suddenly, a strange animal appeared at the mouth of the cave, a quadruped with long lips, a small mouth, an extensible tongue, straight ears, short limbs and a long, pointed tail.Long gray and reddish fur covers its flat body, and its legs are armed with huge claws. Morcum gave the strange creature one hard blow on the lip, and it died. "Our roast, gentlemen," said the Bushman. "It's kept itself waiting, but it won't spoil its taste. Quick, light the fire, and take a cleaning rod for a stick. We'll have supper, It's like we've never had dinner!" The Bushmen didn't say much.He quickly skinned the animal, which was an aardvark, a species of giant anteater that the Dutch call "ground pigs."Apart from their commonness in southern Africa, there is no more formidable enemy in an ant-hill.This anteater can destroy swarms of insects, and when it can't get into their narrow passages, it sticks its extensible, slimy tongue in and fishes out the buttered ants. The roast was done quickly, maybe a few sticks were missing, but the hungry people couldn't wait!The wild game is half-eaten, and its flesh is firm and wholesome, slightly impregnated with formic acid, but it is agreed to be very tasty.What a timely dinner!It has injected new courage and hope into the hearts of strong Europeans with new strength. Indeed, they needed to keep hope in their hearts, because that night, there was still no light on the dark Volgilia mountains.