War In The Reeds.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 205, 31 August 1933, Page 23

War In The Reeds.

(By C. T. STONEHAM.)

[ SHOUT STORY.]

Between two long walls of hills was a corridor-like valley grown with a sort of gigantic gra«s. The stems of the fivefoot growth were widely separated—to the rodents who abounded on the borders of this place, a very forest. The earth which supported this monstrous herbage was iron hard and black, seamed with cracks, for at certain seasons all this valley was under water, and such in-nnda-tions remove from the soil its cohesive properties, so that where the fierce sun strikes there is no elasticity to soften the rending shock. The thirsty earth gaped, and ants and beetles had much ado to negotiate these chasms. Through the grass-forest, treading her way with unhurried care, came a large red cat. She wae about the size of a jackal, she had sharp cars decorated with black tassels, and large moon-like eyes in which the pupils had contracted to narrow slits as protection against the glare, fciho was a caracal, or African lynx, engaged in an early hunting foray. Rooi had her lair in the rocks at the base of one of the valley walls; she had four fluffy kittens to care for, and since her mate had mysteriously disappeared a week ago she was finding her duties onerous. The task of providing for the growing kittens obliged her to scour hill and veld by night and day; birds, rodents, and the smaller antelopes were her prey; she was a tireless and efficient hunter. Eooi's object in crossing the sun-baked pori was to reach a marshy pool in its midst; a place where a fresh spring bubbled, up among beds of green rushes, fertilising an acre of the grateful earth in the midst of desolation.

Although the cat was directed by a serious purpose, her behaviour was disarmingly casual; she loafed along in a preoccupied manner, turning aside to rub cheeks and back against certain grass stems, sniffing the myriad earth scents ■with apparent enjoyment. But she was alert to every sight and sound in that dangerous wilderness; the whir of a passing wasp above the grass tops, the thin scraping of a mamba trailing his scaly length over the dry ground, were duly recorded and catalogued by those sensitive black-tasselled ears; the acrid smell of an ants' nest was distinguished amid the sour exudations of baked mud, and Rooi turned aside cautiously from deadly snake and irritating insect. On the edge of the swamp some freak of subterranean force had flung up a number of quartz rocks, amongst which a hardy red-thorn had established itself. A cluster of briers bore this lone tree company on the slight elevation above the marsh, their roots thrust out to tap the sweet water, while their fronds climbed above the level of the surrounding reeds. This was the sanctuary of several pairs of sand grouse, and in the past Rooi had visited their refuge with profitable results. It was. her intention to lie up among the rocks until the first breath of evening should bring the wild creatures to drink; duikers, hares and sand grouse would emerge from their daytime concealment, and the lynx would be comfortably ensconced awaiting their arrival. As the sun was still high she was in no particular hurry to reach her ambush. In the swamp, under the solitary thorn tree, a reedbuck ewe had just given birth to a tiny fawn. The situation chosen by the mother for the production of her offspring was not as dangerous as might at first be supposed. The pool in the pori was not often visited by the larger carnivora, and they that came to drink of the clear water would pass more than fifty yards from the thorn tree, up-wind from it. In the little recess among the rocks the reedbuck fawn would not be visible; no beast in arriving or departing from water would perform the useless labour of climbing over the rocky ridge when so many easier paths presented themselves; the prevailing breeze, slight enough in that torrid spot, was favourable to concealment. The ewe was confident she had chosen well; she licked her fawn all over, nosed it into obscurity between the reed-masked boulders, and prepared to depart up to the grassy veld to feed, leaving her offspring to the care of Mother Nature for awhile, as is the habit of antelopes. And then fate played her an unkind trick.

A striped hyena, mooching about the pool, started a hare and pursued it. The hare, by no means as speedy as its European cousins, ran for the shelter of the rocks, where it might elude its more clumsy pursuer, but it had broken cover too late; within a few yards of the reedibuck's hiding-place it was overtaken and killed.

The hyena picked up his. prey by the neck and turned to seek the security of the reeds wherein to make his meal, but suddenly a faint, familiar odour reached his keen nostrils; lie stood staring over the dangling body of his kill at the brown rocks so near to him. It seemed almost that he smiled as the breeze wared an unmistakable signal in his direction. Stepping lightly on the tips of his toes, he moved sideways until he could see between the two boulders. The reedbuck ewe faced him, her eyes large with fear and a kind of despairing courage; and without being able to see that which she protected the hyena knew the whole story. A meal of succulent antelope fawn attracted him more than hare, which would but blunt his voracious appetite. The Greek philosophers might adopt for their guidance the axiom: "Never too much!" but the hyenas' watchword would indubitably be: "Never enough!" In a strictly business-like manner Fisi set about the capture of the fawn, he retired a few paces and placed the hare upon a patch of sand where it would be under his eye but out of the way; then he advanced to do battle with the desperate mother. The ewe had only her bare head and her hoofs as weapons, and a more courageous animal than the hyena would have paid little respect to her fighting abilities, but Fisi was only bold in theft, never in attack. He had no wish to incur punishment when by the exercise of a little skill and patience he could achieve his object without penalty. His plan was to bait the ewe until, goaded and excited past discretion, she would charge out at him, when he would elude her, dodge in behind, and make off with the fawn. It would not be the first time he had put such strategy into practice, and he was quite confident of its suitability. He went up close to the ewe, snarled, and jumped at her front legs. It was at this stage of development that Rooi left the cover of the reeds, crossed a strip of open ground, and ascended the rocky ridge where she proposed to lie perdue until the game began its evening activities. TJpon poking her head cautiously round a stone on the top of the little eminence, the first thing she noticed was a striped hyena standing within ten paces of her. Rooi froze in her tracks. She was not much afraid of this smaller variety of scavenger, but all- hyenas are powerful, ravenous beast?-, doubtless more than willfrit + ' attack lynxes if opportunity \vcr<> .in , their favour, and this one by ite attitude was' in. a vicious mood. Rooi I

stared down at it with pale, baleful eyes in which was no hint of fear, only cold, calculating enmity. Then the true meaning of the affair became plain to her; the hyena was not threatening her, it was likely he was unaware of her existence; he was about to attack a creature in a cleft of the rocks below, a creature concealed from Eooi toy the overhanging of the bank. ' ~ The hyena's lips withdrew from his shining fangs, he snarled harshly, and began to dance in and out in a demonstration of savage spite. Eooi saw a brown head and graceful legs come into view, striking at the attacker.- She recognised their owner immediately; a reedbuck ewe was at bay between the big rocks below. Either it was hurt and could not flee, or it was protecting fawn. In the first instance the situation would hold possibilities for an enterprising lynx, for a wounded reedbuck was not beyond the capability of the small cat to overcome; in the second instance there would bo no profit, for Eooi was not strong enough to steal her fawn from the war-like mother. Whatever the position, it was to the lynx's advantage to keep quiet and watch the outcome of the contest. Whichever of the protagonists conquered, she might hope to benefit; the hyena driven off, the ewe remained; the ewe defeated, there would be a superfluity of meat, some portion of which might fall to the onlooker's share.

And then Eooi noticed the hare, lying on the bare sand where the hyena had placed it. Her interest shifted from the light to the contemplation of this tempting morsel, well within her power to lift and carry. Her mind was made up in an instant; the profitable procedure

would be to steal the hare and make off with it while the hyena was occupied with the reedbuck. Carefully she withdrew to the bottom of the ridge and commenced to circle with the wind, so as to come upon the hare by the most expeditious and secret way. She slipped through the rushes, noiseless as a snake, her sensitive nose guiding her direction to the dead meat, her tasselled ears showing occasionally as she took a quick peep at the enemy to make sure she was still undiscovered. The hyena's designs upon the reedbuck fawn were not at once bearing fruit; lie found the ewe unusually intelligent and surprisingly determined. He had thought by feinting at her feet and flanks to drive her to a state of nervous exasperation in which she would follow him into the open, forgetful of the cause of the combat in her anxiety to terminate it, but the antelope was too cunning, she refused to leave the shelter of the rocks, allowing the hyena to take the initiative. She stood head down, presenting her smooth poll to the snarling carnivore, watchful and undaunted. When Fisi jumped in to snap at her legs she reared and lunged out at him with hard, nimble hoofs, behind whose stroke was muscular force sufficient to damage him seriously. But he was far too agile to be caught;, his twistings and leapings were a marvel of anticipation and precision, and at every onset his snapping jaws inflicted a gash upon the ewe's legs or neck. It seemed the fight could only end one way; sooner or later tooth would outmatch hoof; the hyena would score a lucky bite which would sever an artery or sinew, and the antelope's resistance would become weaker, until in the end she would be obliged to flee or share the fate of her young one. She recognised the inequality of the contest; in her distress she sounded a curious bleat, and the fawn, crouching motionless in the scanty cover, trembled at the utterance of his dam's despair. Rooi reached the last patch of rushes within six feet of the hare and crouched, awaiting the propitious moment to carry out her plan. That moment seemed to have arrived when Fisi began one of his capering assaults on the buck; Rooi left the rushes in two lithe bounds, snatched up the hare and turned to retreat. But the theft had not passed unnoticed; the hyena, jumping away from the ewe's counter-stroke, half turned, and from the corner of his eye caught a glimpse of a cat-like beast, half his size, purloining his property. That he, the prince of stealers, should be stolen from was intolerable. He had no fear of so small a creature; he whirled and charged the lynx immediately. Burdened with the hare, Rooi had no chance to escape; she squirmed sideways, avoided the snap of big jaws which might have broken her back, but was rolled over by the impact of the hyena's shoulder. Quick and supple, she regained her feet as Fisi turned upon her. Her fierce nature was roused to fury by the frustration of her design and buffet she had received; she sprang straight at the hyena's head, fixed her teeth in the side of his neck and got to work with all four paws. At the same time Fisi closed his jaws upon fur; he bit viciously, at the lynx's chest, and only Rooi's loose skin, which bunched up in the hyena's mouth saved her from disablement. The hyena's strength was the greater, but the speed and ferocity of the cat more than evened the chances; Rooi had the will to fight, a courage which only death could subdue. Fisi thought that his head was being torn off in small pieces; his eyes were endangered, and the threat to his sight turned him into a madly desperate creature, oblivious to every consideration but that of escaping from the clutch of the rending terror he had so recklessly challenged. He went blundering across the sand, striving to shake off the lynx's hold, and, failing, jammed his foe against the ground, and tried to scrape her off with "ia |imws. Had he succeeded and been able to get in <c:e f:iir bite with his powerful jaws, which were now muffled in skiii and fur, it is probable, that

the fight would have ended at once, but the lynx was not lightly to be dislodged; she held fast, raking and kiekingT sinking her teeth ever deeper towards the arteries in her opponents neck. Fisi abandoned his scraping efforts and rushed blindly forward, having some vague notion of bumping the cat's body against rock or tree. His direction was straight into the cleft between the big boulders where the ewe, relieved for a moment from the exigencies of battle, was licking her fawn and breathing comfort to him. At the renewed call of danger she turned to her defence, danced forward and brought her hoofs slashing down upon both enemies impartially. The lynx received a glancing blow on the head, which dazed her, but did not oblige her to relinquish her hold; the hyena was struck on the point of the shoulder, the bone of which was numbed by the shock. He collapsed and rolled over sideways. Rooi gripped the ground with her claws and tried to hold him down, and an instant later the ewe's hoofs descended again, full on his unprotected stomach. The unfortunate beast was galvanised into terrific activity by the blow; he rolled over and over, pulling Rooi with him, so that the next of the ewe's onslaughts registered a hit 011 the lynx's flank, which knocked all the wind out of her. She lost her grip 011 her enemy, and, being sure that this misfortune would be the prelude to worse, scrambled clear of those snapping jaws and crouched, snarling defiance, a yard away. Fisi gained his feet in time to dodge the next prancing attack of the excited reedbuck; he ran a few steps' and turned growling, to face the danger. But his eyes were blinded by blood, his neck and stomach were lacerated, and the impact of those hard little hoofs had knocked most of the fight out of him. He saw the antelope rearing above him again, and his courage wae not e<jual

to the issue; suddenly lie departed at a shambling gallop into the rushes. The ewe gazed after him for a moment* then she turned, dropped her head and snorted at the lynx, lxooi replied with a snarl of frightening wickedness, but the ewe was not to be intimidated by so small an enemy; she pranced forward, full of destructive energy. Rooi burst out in a paroxysm of spitting and snarling; then, at the last moment, .she decided tliere was no profit for lier in a continuance of this warfare; she shot away from the ewe's attack, a red spitfire with black cars laid back in a diabolical expression. But as she entered the cover of the rushes she paused an instant to snatch up the have which was needed by her family in the rock-den under the cliffs. The ewe went back to her fawn, whom presently she led 011 tottery legs away to the veld and a place of greater safety. Through the reeds. Fisi, the hyena, trotted, snuffling and sore, and as darkness fell he found a leopard busily feeding from the carcas of a warthog. Fisi glanced round and saw that there were no trees in which the killer could hide his leavings; then he sat down patiently to wait.