Chapter 15 The Biggest Danger Yet After such a terrifying experience, none of us could quite relax.
The only way to be sure we were safe was to scour the island for further dangers.
I got the boys and we went out to explore once again.
We would be gone for weeks.
I explained to them as I planned for us to cross the island and discover all of the dangers it might hold.
Until we knew we could never rest easy and there might be worse than our fierce snake out there, we packed and got ready to travel.
One day, during our travels, I took Franz with me to test his hunting skills while the other boys rested.
As we walked through a marsh, he came upon what he thought was a pig.
He shot at it, and when we got to it, we found it was not.
It was a capybara with bristles and yellow hair.
We took it with us back to our camp, and Franz showed off his trophy.
Everyone else returned with their own treasures.
There were birds for dinner and Fritz had returned with some strange apples that we first let Nips try.
Nips seemed to like them, so we gave them a bite.
They were cinnamon apples, and a real treat.
We had found no serpents and were beginning to feel more at ease.
We all slept well.
The next day we came upon some wild boar which we caught and killed and made into hams that we smoked over some days.
Later we continued our search for serpents at Prospect Hill.
Only to find apes had been there, too.
The place was a mess.
We could not deal with it then, as we had to keep up our search.
We carried on until we got to the end of the coast and stopped there.
We pitched a tent again, and the next day the boys and I set out to explore this new land.
As we walked, Nips suddenly ran off yelping.
We looked to see what had upset him and thought we saw horsemen coming toward us.
As they got closer, we saw that they were ostriches.
As they passed, we discovered a nest full of their eggs.
Each was as big as a baby's head, so we could only carry two away.
We tied them in a handkerchief on a stick and carried them like a basket.
From there, we made our way to the nearby waterhole and looked at the tracks.
There were all kinds of animal marks there, but no serpent.
As we headed back to camp, we heard the dogs bark and saw Ernest running toward us at full speed.
Bother! he cried.
Bears!
There are bears chasing me!
As the massive animals came out of the clearing, they chased at us on their back legs, rearing up to fight.
We shot as quickly as we could, and one fell to the ground.
We hit the second just as it was rising up to strike Fritz.
Thank heavens, I shouted.
This was our biggest danger yet.
We didn't find any serpents, but these bears would be just as deadly.
We've done well today.
And with that, we set about getting ourselves some bearskin rugs.
These we took back on our animals to camp.
The next day we set out for the spot where the bears had attacked and cut meat off the bears we had killed for our dinner that night.
We smoked the rest of the meat on the spot to save for a later day.
While we were there, we found plants that I knew were pepper.
We soaked and dried them and made ourselves both black and white pepper.
During this time, I let Jack, Fritz, and Franz go out on their own adventure.
Ernest and I stayed back to finish our work.
The boys each took to their animals and were off like a shot.
I wanted them to be brave and to learn how to take care of themselves.
While they were gone, Ernest and I found that the bear's cave was lined with a kind of stone that could be seen through when split into thin pieces.
I knew then that I could make window panes of it.
My wife would be thrilled with this discovery.
As night came, we heard the sound of hooves coming.
We knew our party of adventurers would be coming back.
We saw them jump from their saddles, and the boys all came rushing up to the camp.
They were excited, and Fritz's bag looked lumpy and strange.
Hooray for the chase, Father, said Jack.
We've had such a good time.
Yes, said Franz, we found an antelope and rabbits and we even found a cuckoo that showed us where to find honey.
Well done, I told them happily.
Most importantly, you are all back safe.
Now tell me the whole story.
And that is what they did.
