The Wide World Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 130, January, 1909Various
History
The Wide World Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 130, January, 1909
Various
Adventure stories -- Periodicals; English periodicals; History, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals; Voyages and travels -- Periodicals
I rode fast all through the night, my horse showing splendid spirit
and pluck, and at sunrise halted on the banks of a river. Leaving my
hard-ridden beast to cool a little first, I then watered him and,
cutting some guinea-corn stalks from a patch near by, gave him a good
feed, munching some myself at the same time and quenching my thirst at
the river. Then, after about two hours’ rest, I proceeded, but at a
lesser speed.
I rode all that day and well into the night, finally resting by the
pool where I had cooled my heated brow on the way to Kontogora. After
some hours’ halt I pushed on again, obtaining food at farmhouses
on the way, and next evening, utterly weary, arrived at the Niger
opposite Boussa. My journey was over; I was safe at last! Arriving at
my quarters in the Niger Company’s compound, I flung myself down on my
camp bed just as I was and slept for sixteen hours.
The faithful Mama turned up four days later. He went to Yauri, a
friendly State, coming down river by canoe. For his services I
presented him with the Emir of Kontogora’s horse.
During all the years that have gone by since my secret trip to
Kontogora and my subsequent escape I have never regretted having run
the double risk of disobeying orders on the one hand and risking my
life on the other. I had been instructed to get news and I got it--not
the idle tales of paid spies, but a record of sights seen and things
heard with my own eyes and ears.
[Illustration]
_A Voyage on an Ice-Floe._
BY DR. WILFRED T. GRENFELL, C.M.G.
Dr. Grenfell may be described as the “Good Angel of Labrador,”
having for years devoted himself to ministering to the hardy
toilers who live in that grim land of snow, ice, and fog. In
this enthralling story he describes how, while on an errand of
mercy, he and his dog-team got adrift in the open sea on a tiny
cake of ice; how he killed three of the dogs to provide himself
with warm clothing; how he made a flagstaff out of their bones;
and how he was finally rescued when hope was well-nigh dead.
It was Easter Sunday, but still winter with us, and everything was
covered with snow and ice. Immediately after morning service word
came from our hospital to say that messengers with a large team of
dogs had come from sixty miles to the southward to get a doctor for a
very urgent case--that of a young man on whom we had operated about a
fortnight before for an acute bone disease in the thigh.
[Illustration: THE AUTHOR, DR. WILFRED T. GRENFELL, C.M.G.
_From a Photo. by De Youngs, New York._]
There was obviously no time to be lost, so, having packed up the
necessary instruments, dressings, and drugs, and fitted out the sleigh
with my best dogs, I left at once, the messengers following me with
their own team.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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