Jet planes -- Juvenile fiction; Mystery and detective stories; War stories; World War, 1939-1945 -- Juvenile fiction
“Whew! Cold!” he exclaimed as he plunged his feet into the water. But on
they went. Tumbling down a steep slope the stream formed many pools,
some fairly large. As he waded through one of these up to his knees,
Jack exclaimed:
“There are fish in this pool! I feel them tickling my toes!”
“Great!” Stew was an ardent, though usually an unlucky, fisherman. “Got
a line?”
“I sure have!” Jack pulled a hook and line from his pocket. “I took it
from the rubber raft. They all carry them now, just in case.”
“And you brought one along, just in case,” Stew laughed. “Wait till
we’re out in the clear and we’ll hook our dinner.”
Just then Jack paused to listen. From up stream there came the sound of
splashing water, then of rocks rolling down, and after that a hoarse
grunt.
“Wild pigs!” Stew whispered.
“Probably doing a little fishing on their own,” Jack suggested.
“Boy! Wouldn’t a young porker taste good roasted over the coals! And
here they don’t take ration points!” Stew laughed.
“But they do take shots,” Jack protested. “And shots are out. We’re not
going to bring those natives down on us, not before we’ve had a good
look at them.”
“Boy! Oh boy! Are we in a pickle!” Stew exclaimed. “If some old boar
comes down this stream looking for trouble he’ll force us into a fight.
If we shoot and miss, he’ll tear us up.”
“Tell you what!” Jack decided after a moment’s thought. “We’ll keep
going as long as we can. Then we’ll work our way back up the bank into
the bush and let that drove of porkers pass.”
“As long as we can” was only another ten yards, for suddenly the old
guardian of the drove caught their scent and came charging down upon
them.
By a mighty struggle they forced their way back into the brush just
before the ugly beast with chop-chopping jaws and gleaming tusks came
charging past.
The lesser fry, about a half dozen of them, had just stampeded past,
when the old boar turned and came charging back upstream. This time he
made no mistake. His beady eyes were upon Stew.
As he lowered his ugly head preparing for a charge, Stew drew his
automatic, but Jack, swinging a knife that was a cross between a sheath
knife and a machete, struck the angry beast a cutting blow across his
ugly snout.
With a loud squeal and an angry grunt, the mad creature came on. Jack
let him have it again, neatly carving out a curled ivory tusk.
Before he could swing again the pig reared, gnashed its teeth, then
tumbled back into the stream, to go rushing away.
“Boy! But that was close!” Stew exclaimed, when after a short wait they
resumed their journey upstream.
At the top of the brush canopy, to their surprise they came upon a tiny
lake. All rimmed round with gray rocks, it was blue as the sky above,
and in its clear water many tropical fish were moving.
“Boy! Any rich man in America would give a fortune to have this in his
back yard!” Jack exclaimed.
“Yeah, sure,” Stew agreed. “But a fish is a fish and I’m having some
broiled for supper.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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