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Maiwa's Revenge 2713.txt
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Maiwa's Revenge 2713.txt
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Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding; David Widger
MAIWA'S REVENGE
OR THE WAR OF THE LITTLE HAND
by H. Rider Haggard
PREFACE
It may be well to state that the incident of the "Thing that bites"
recorded in this tale is not an effort of the imagination. On the
contrary, it is "plagiarized." Mandara, a well-known chief on the east
coast of Africa, has such an article, and uses it. In the same way the
wicked conduct attributed to Wambe is not without a precedent. T'Chaka,
the Zulu Napoleon, never allowed a child of his to live. Indeed he went
further, for on discovering that his mother, Unandi, was bringing up one
of his sons in secret, like Nero he killed her, and with his own hand.
MAIWA'S REVENGE
I--GOBO STRIKES
One day--it was about a week after Allan Quatermain told me his story
of the "Three Lions," and of the moving death of Jim-Jim--he and I were
walking home together on the termination of a day's shooting. He owned
about two thousand acres of shooting round the place he had bought in
Yorkshire, over a hundred of which were wood. It was the second year of
his occupation of the estate, and already he had reared a very fair head
of pheasants, for he was an all-round sportsman, and as fond of shooting
with a shot-gun as with an eight-bore rifle. We were three guns that
day, Sir Henry Curtis, Old Quatermain, and myself; but Sir Henry was
obliged to leave in the middle of the afternoon in order to meet
his agent, and inspect an outlying farm where a new shed was wanted.
However, he was coming back to dinner, and going to bring Captain Good
with him, for Brayley Hall was not more than two miles from the Grange.
We had met with very fair sport, considering that we were only
going through outlying cover for cocks. I think that we had killed
twenty-seven, a woodcock and a leash of partridges which we secured
out of a driven covey. On our way home there lay a long narrow spinney,
which was a very favourite "lie" for woodcocks, and generally held a
pheasant or two as well.
"Well, what do you say?" said old Quatermain, "shall we beat through
this for a finish?"
I assented, and he called to the keeper who was following with a little
knot of beaters, and told him to beat the spinney.
"Very well, sir," answered the man, "but it's getting wonderful dark,
and the wind's rising a gale. It will take you all your time to hit a
woodcock if the spinney holds one."
"You show us the woodcocks, Jeffries," answered Quatermain quickly, for
he never liked being crossed in anything to do with sport, "and we will
look after shooting them."
The man turned and went rather sulkily. I heard him say to the
under-keeper, "He's pretty good, the master is, I'm not saying he isn't,
but if he kills a woodcock in this light and wind, I'm a Dutchman."
I think that Quatermain heard him too, though he said nothing. The wind
was rising every minute, and by the time the beat begun it blew big
guns. I stood at the right-hand corner of the spinney, which curved
round somewhat, and Quatermain stood at the left, about forty paces from
me. Presently an old cock pheasant came rocketing over me, looking as
though the feathers were being blown out of his tail. I missed him clean
with the first barrel, and was never more pleased with myself in my life
than when I doubled him up with the second, for the shot was not an
easy one. In the faint light I could see Quatermain nodding his head in
approval, when through the groaning of the trees I heard the shouts of
the beaters, "Cock forward, cock to the right." Then came a whole volley
of shouts, "Woodcock to the right," "Cock to the left," "Cock over."
I looked up, and presently caught sight of one of the woodcocks coming
down the wind upon me like a flash. In that dim light I could not follow
all his movements as he zigzagged through the naked tree-tops; indeed I
could see him when his wings flitted up. Now he was passing me--bang,
and a flick of the wing, I had missed him; bang again. Surely he was
down; no, there he went to my left.
"Cock to you," I shouted, stepping forward so as to get Quatermain
between me and the faint angry light of the dying day, for I wanted to
see if he would "wipe my eye." I knew him to be a wonderful shot, but I
thought that cock would puzzle him.
I saw him raise his gun ever so little and bend forward, and at that
moment out flashed two woodcocks into the open, the one I had missed to
his right, and the other to his left.
At the same time a fresh shout arose of, "Woodcock over," and looking
down the spinney I saw a third bird high up in the air, being blown
along like a brown and whirling leaf straight over Quatermain's head.
And then followed the prettiest little bit of shooting that I ever saw.
The bird to the right was flying low, not ten yards from the line of
a hedgerow, and Quatermain took him first because he would become
invisible the soonest of any. Indeed, nobody who had not his hawk's eyes
could have seen to shoot at all. But he saw the bird well enough to kill
it dead as a stone. Then turning sharply, he pulled on the second bird
at about forty-five yards, and over he went. By this time the third
woodcock was nearly over him, and flying very high, straight down the
wind, a hundred feet up or more, I should say. I saw him glance at it as
he opened his gun, threw out the right cartridge and slipped in another,
turning round as he did so. By this time the cock was nearly fifty yards
away from him, and travelling like a flash. Lifting his gun he fired
after it, and, wonderful as the shot was, killed it dead. A tearing gust
of wind caught the dead bird, and blew it away like a leaf torn from an
oak, so that it fell a hundred and thirty yards off or more.
"I say, Quatermain," I said to him when the beaters were up, "do you
often do this sort of thing?"
"Well," he answered, with a dry smile, "the last time I had to load
three shots as quickly as that was at rather larger game. It was at
elephants. I killed them all three as dead as I killed those woodcocks;
but it very nearly went the other way, I can tell you; I mean that they
very nearly killed me."
Just at that moment the keeper came up, "Did you happen to get one of
them there cocks, sir?" he said, with the air of a man who did not in
the least expect an answer in the affirmative.
"Well, yes, Jeffries," answered Quatermain; "you will find one of them
by the hedge, and another about fifty yards out by the plough there to
the left----"
The keeper had turned to go, looking a little astonished, when
Quatermain called him back.
"Stop a bit, Jeffries," he said. "You see that pollard about one hundred
and forty yards off? Well, there should be another woodcock down in a
line with it, about sixty paces out in the field."
"Well, if that bean't the very smartest bit of shooting," murmured
Jeffries, and departed.
After that we went home, and in due course Sir Henry Curtis and Captain
Good arrived for dinner, the latter arrayed in the tightest and most
ornamental dress-suit I ever saw. I remember that the waistcoat was
adorned with five pink coral buttons.
It was a very pleasant dinner. Old Quatermain was in an excellent
humour; induced, I think, by the recollection of his triumph over the
doubting Jeffries. Good, too, was full of anecdotes. He told us a most
miraculous story of how he once went shooting ibex in Kashmir. These
ibex, according to Good, he stalked early and late for four entire days.
At last on the morning of the fifth day he succeeded in getting within
range of the flock, which consisted of a magnificent old ram with horns
so long that I am afraid to mention their measure, and five or six
females. Good crawled upon his stomach, painfully taking shelter behind
rocks, till he was within two hundred yards; then he drew a fine bead
upon the old ram. At this moment, however, a diversion occurred. Some
wandering native of the hills appeared upon a distant mountain top. The
females turned, and rushing over a rock vanished from Good's ken. But
the old ram took a bolder course. In front of him stretched a mighty
crevasse at least thirty feet in width. He went at it with a bound.
Whilst he was in mid-air Good fired, and killed him dead. The ram turned
a complete somersault in space, and fell in such fashion that his horns
hooked themselves upon a big projection of the opposite cliffs. There he
hung, till Good, after a long and painful détour, gracefully dropped a
lasso over him and fished him up.
This moving tale of wild adventure was received with undeserved
incredulity.
"Well," said Good, "if you fellows won't believe my story when I tell
it--a perfectly true story mind--perhaps one of you will give us a
better; I'm not particular if it is true or not." And he lapsed into a
dignified silence.
"Now, Quatermain," I said, "don't let Good beat you, let us hear how you
killed those elephants you were talking about this evening just after
you shot the woodcocks."
"Well," said Quatermain, dryly, and with something like a twinkle in
his brown eyes, "it is very hard fortune for a man to have to follow on
Good's 'spoor.' Indeed if it were not for that running giraffe which, as
you will remember, Curtis, we saw Good bowl over with a Martini rifle
at three hundred yards, I should almost have said that this was an
impossible tale."
Here Good looked up with an air of indignant innocence.
"However," he went on, rising and lighting his pipe, "if you fellows
like, I will spin you a yarn. I was telling one of you the other night
about those three lions and how the lioness finished my unfortunate
'voorlooper,' Jim-Jim, the boy whom we buried in the bread-bag.
"Well, after this little experience I thought that I would settle down a
bit, so I entered upon a venture with a man who, being of a speculative
mind, had conceived the idea of running a store at Pretoria upon
strictly cash principles. The arrangement was that I should find
the capital and he the experience. Our partnership was not of a long
duration. The Boers refused to pay cash, and at the end of four months
my partner had the capital and I had the experience. After this I came
to the conclusion that store-keeping was not in my line, and having
four hundred pounds left, I sent my boy Harry to a school in Natal, and
buying an outfit with what remained of the money, started upon a big
trip.
"This time I determined to go further afield than I had ever been
before; so I took a passage for a few pounds in a trading brig that
ran between Durban and Delagoa Bay. From Delagoa Bay I marched inland
accompanied by twenty porters, with the idea of striking up north,
towards the Limpopo, and keeping parallel to the coast, but at a
distance of about one hundred and fifty miles from it. For the first
twenty days of our journey we suffered a good deal from fever, that is,
my men did, for I think that I am fever proof. Also I was hard put to
it to keep the camp in meat, for although the country proved to be very
sparsely populated, there was but little game about. Indeed, during all
that time I hardly killed anything larger than a waterbuck, and, as you
know, waterbuck's flesh is not very appetising food. On the twentieth
day, however, we came to the banks of a largish river, the Gonooroo it
was called. This I crossed, and then struck inland towards a great range
of mountains, the blue crests of which we could see lying on the distant
heavens like a shadow, a continuation, as I believe, of the Drakensberg
range that skirts the coast of Natal. From this main range a great spur
shoots out some fifty miles or so towards the coast, ending abruptly in
one tremendous peak. This spur I discovered separated the territories of
two chiefs named Nala and Wambe, Wambe's territory being to the north,
and Nala's to the south. Nala ruled a tribe of bastard Zulus called
the Butiana, and Wambe a much larger tribe, called the Matuku, which
presents marked Bantu characteristics. For instance, they have doors and
verandahs to their huts, work skins perfectly, and wear a waistcloth and
not a moocha. At this time the Butiana were more or less subject to
the Matuku, having been surprised by them some twenty years before
and mercilessly slaughtered down. The tribe was now recovering itself,
however, and as you may imagine, it did not love the Matuku.
"Well, I heard as I went along that elephants were very plentiful in the
dense forests which lie upon the slopes and at the foot of the mountains
that border Wambe's territory. Also I heard a very ill report of that
worthy himself, who lived in a kraal upon the side of the mountain,
which was so strongly fortified as to be practically impregnable. It was
said that he was the most cruel chief in this part of Africa, and that
he had murdered in cold blood an entire party of English gentlemen, who,
some seven years before, had gone into his country to hunt elephants.
They took an old friend of mine with them as guide, John Every by name,
and often had I mourned over his untimely death. All the same, Wambe
or no Wambe, I determined to hunt elephants in his country. I never was
afraid of natives, and I was not going to show the white feather now. I
am a bit of a fatalist, as you fellows know, so I came to the conclusion
that if it was fated that Wambe should send me to join my old friend
John Every, I should have to go, and there was an end of it. Meanwhile,
I meant to hunt elephants with a peaceful heart.
"On the third day from the date of our sighting the great peak, we found
ourselves beneath its shadow. Still following the course of the river
which wound through the forests at the base of the peak, we entered the
territory of the redoubtable Wambe. This, however, was not accomplished
without a certain difference of opinion between my bearers and myself,
for when we reached the spot where Wambe's boundary was supposed to run,
the bearers sat down and emphatically refused to go a step further. I
sat down too, and argued with them, putting my fatalistic views before
them as well as I was able. But I could not persuade them to look at
the matter in the same light. 'At present,' they said, 'their skins were
whole; if they went into Wambe's country without his leave they would
soon be like a water-eaten leaf. It was very well for me to say that
this would be Fate. Fate no doubt might be walking about in Wambe's
country, but while they stopped outside they would not meet him.'
"'Well,' I said to Gobo, my head man, 'and what do you mean to do?'
"'We mean to go back to the coast, Macumazahn,' he answered insolently.
"'Do you?' I replied, for my bile was stirred. 'At any rate, Mr. Gobo,
you and one or two others will never get there; see here, my friend,'
and I took a repeating rifle and sat myself comfortably down, resting my
back against a tree--'I have just breakfasted, and I had as soon spend
the day here as anywhere else. Now if you or any of those men walk one
step back from here, and towards the coast, I shall fire at you; and you
know that I don't miss.'
"The man fingered the spear he was carrying--luckily all my guns were
stacked against the tree--and then turned as though to walk away, the
others keeping their eyes fixed upon him all the while. I rose and
covered him with the rifle, and though he kept up a brave appearance of
unconcern, I saw that he was glancing nervously at me all the time. When
he had gone about twenty yards I spoke very quietly--
"'Now, Gobo,' I said, 'come back, or I shall fire.'
"Of course this was taking a very high hand; I had no real right to kill
Gobo or anybody else because they objected to run the risk of death by
entering the territory of a hostile chief. But I felt that if I wished
to keep up any authority it was absolutely necessary that I should push
matters to the last extremity short of actually shooting him. So I sat
there, looking fierce as a lion, and keeping the sight of my rifle in
a dead line for Gobo's ribs. Then Gobo, feeling that the situation was
getting strained, gave in.
"'Don't shoot, Boss,' he shouted, throwing up his hand, 'I will come
with you.'
"'I thought you would,' I answered quietly; 'you see Fate walks about
outside Wambe's country as well as in it.'
"After that I had no more trouble, for Gobo was the ringleader, and when
he collapsed the others collapsed also. Harmony being thus restored, we
crossed the line, and on the following morning I began shooting in good
earnest."
II--A MORNING'S SPORT
"Moving some five or six miles round the base of the great peak of
which I have spoken, we came the same day to one of the fairest bits of
African country that I have seen outside of Kukuanaland. At this spot
the mountain spur that runs out at right angles to the great range,
which stretches its cloud-clad length north and south as far as the eye
can reach, sweeps inwards with a vast and splendid curve. This curve
measures some five-and-thirty miles from point to point, and across
its moon-like segment the river flashed, a silver line of light. On the
further side of the river is a measureless sea of swelling ground, a
natural park covered with great patches of bush--some of them being many
square miles in extent. These are separated one from another by glades
of grass land, broken here and there with clumps of timber trees; and in
some instances by curious isolated koppies, and even by single crags of
granite that start up into the air as though they were monuments carved
by man, and not tombstones set by nature over the grave of ages gone. On
the west this beautiful plain is bordered by the lonely mountain, from
the edge of which it rolls down toward the fever coast; but how far it
runs to the north I cannot say--eight days' journey, according to the
natives, when it is lost in an untravelled morass.
"On the hither side of the river the scenery is different. Along the
edge of its banks, where the land is flat, are green patches of swamp.
Then comes a wide belt of beautiful grass land covered thickly with
game, and sloping up very gently to the borders of the forest, which,
beginning at about a thousand feet above the level of the plain, clothes
the mountain-side almost to its crest. In this forest grow great trees,
most of them of the yellow-wood species. Some of these trees are so
lofty, that a bird in their top branches would be out of range of an
ordinary shot gun. Another peculiar thing about them is, that they are
for the most part covered with a dense growth of the Orchilla moss; and
from this moss the natives manufacture a most excellent deep purple dye,
with which they stain tanned hides and also cloth, when they happen
to get any of the latter. I do not think that I ever saw anything more
remarkable than the appearance of one of these mighty trees festooned
from top to bottom with trailing wreaths of this sad-hued moss, in which
the wind whispers gently as it stirs them. At a distance it looks like
the gray locks of a Titan crowned with bright green leaves, and here and
there starred with the rich bloom of orchids.
"The night of that day on which I had my little difference of opinion
with Gobo, we camped by the edge of this great forest, and on the
following morning at daylight I started out shooting. As we were short
of meat I determined to kill a buffalo, of which there were plenty
about, before looking for traces of elephants. Not more than half a mile
from camp we came across a trail broad as a cart-road, evidently made by
a great herd of buffaloes which had passed up at dawn from their feeding
ground in the marshes, to spend the day in the cool air of the uplands.
This trail I followed boldly; for such wind as there was blew straight
down the mountain-side, that is, from the direction in which the
buffaloes had gone, to me. About a mile further on the forest began to
be dense, and the nature of the trail showed me that I must be close to
my game. Another two hundred yards and the bush was so thick that, had
it not been for the trail, we could scarcely have passed through it.
As it was, Gobo, who carried my eight-bore rifle (for I had the
.570-express in my hand), and the other two men whom I had taken with
me, showed the very strongest dislike to going any further, pointing
out that there was 'no room to run away.' I told them that they need
not come unless they liked, but that I was certainly going on; and then,
growing ashamed, they came.
"Another fifty yards, and the trail opened into a little glade. I knelt
down and peeped and peered, but no buffalo could I see. Evidently the
herd had broken up here--I knew that from the spoor--and penetrated the
opposite bush in little troops. I crossed the glade, and choosing one
line of spoor, followed it for some sixty yards, when it became clear
to me that I was surrounded by buffaloes; and yet so dense was the
cover that I could not see any. A few yards to my left I could hear one
rubbing its horns against a tree, while from my right came an occasional
low and throaty grunt which told me that I was uncomfortably near an
old bull. I crept on towards him with my heart in my mouth, as gently as
though I were walking upon eggs for a bet, lifting every little bit of
wood in my path, and placing it behind me lest it should crack and warn
the game. After me in single file came my three retainers, and I don't
know which of them looked the most frightened. Presently Gobo touched my
leg; I glanced round, and saw him pointing slantwise towards the left.
I lifted my head a little and peeped over a mass of creepers; beyond the
creepers was a dense bush of sharp-pointed aloes, of that kind of which
the leaves project laterally, and on the other side of the aloes, not
fifteen paces from us, I made out the horns, neck, and the ridge of the
back of a tremendous old bull. I took my eight-bore, and getting on
to my knee prepared to shoot him through the neck, taking my chance of
cutting his spine. I had already covered him as well as the aloe leaves
would allow, when he gave a kind of sigh and lay down.
"I looked round in dismay. What was to be done now? I could not see
to shoot him lying down, even if my bullet would have pierced the
intervening aloes--which was doubtful--and if I stood up he would either
run away or charge me. I reflected, and came to the conclusion that the
only thing to do was to lie down also; for I did not fancy wandering
after other buffaloes in that dense bush. If a buffalo lies down, it
is clear that he must get up again some time, so it was only a case of
patience--'fighting the fight of sit down,' as the Zulus say.
"Accordingly I sat down and lighted a pipe, thinking that the smell of
it might reach the buffalo and make him get up. But the wind was the
wrong way, and it did not; so when it was done I lit another. Afterwards
I had cause to regret that pipe.
"Well, we squatted like this for between half and three quarters of an
hour, till at length I began to grow heartily sick of the performance.
It was about as dull a business as the last hour of a comic opera.
I could hear buffaloes snorting and moving all round, and see the
red-beaked tic birds flying up off their backs, making a kind of hiss
as they did so, something like that of the English missel-thrush, but I
could not see a single buffalo. As for my old bull, I think he must have
slept the sleep of the just, for he never even stirred.
"Just as I was making up my mind that something must be done to save the
situation, my attention was attracted by a curious grinding noise.
At first I thought that it must be a buffalo chewing the cud, but was
obliged to abandon the idea because the noise was too loud. I shifted
myself round and stared through the cracks in the bush, in the direction
whence the sound seemed to come, and once I thought that I saw something
gray moving about fifty yards off, but could not make certain. Although
the grinding noise still continued I could see nothing more, so I gave
up thinking about it, and once again turned my attention to the buffalo.
Presently, however, something happened. Suddenly from about forty yards
away there came a tremendous snorting sound, more like that made by
an engine getting a heavy train under weigh than anything else in the
world.
"'By Jove,' I thought, turning round in the direction from which the
grinding sound had come, 'that must be a rhinoceros, and he has got our
wind.' For, as you fellows know, there is no mistaking the sound made by
a rhinoceros when he gets wind of you.
"Another second, and I heard a most tremendous crashing noise. Before I
could think what to do, before I could even get up, the bush behind me
seemed to burst asunder, and there appeared not eight yards from us,
the great horn and wicked twinkling eye of a charging rhinoceros. He
had winded us or my pipe, I do not know which, and, after the fashion
of these brutes, had charged up the scent. I could not rise, I could
not even get the gun up, I had no time. All that I was able to do was
to roll over as far out of the monster's path as the bush would allow.
Another second and he was over me, his great bulk towering above me
like a mountain, and, upon my word, I could not get his smell out of my
nostrils for a week. Circumstances impressed it on my memory, at least I
suppose so. His hot breath blew upon my face, one of his front feet just
missed my head, and his hind one actually trod upon the loose part of
my trousers and pinched a little bit of my skin. I saw him pass over me
lying as I was upon my back, and next second I saw something else. My
men were a little behind me, and therefore straight in the path of the
rhinoceros. One of them flung himself backwards into the bush, and thus
avoided him. The second with a wild yell sprung to his feet, and bounded
like an india-rubber ball right into the aloe bush, landing well among
the spikes. But the third, it was my friend Gobo, could not by any means
get away. He managed to gain his feet, and that was all. The rhinoceros
was charging with his head low; his horn passed between Gobo's legs,
and feeling something on his nose, he jerked it up. Away went Gobo, high
into the air. He turned a complete somersault at the apex of the curve,
and as he did so, I caught sight of his face. It was gray with terror,
and his mouth was wide open. Down he came, right on to the great brute's
back, and that broke his fall. Luckily for him the rhinoceros never
turned, but crashed straight through the aloe bush, only missing the man
who had jumped into it by about a yard.
"Then followed a complication. The sleeping buffalo on the further side
of the bush, hearing the noise, sprang to his feet, and for a second,
not knowing what to do, stood still. At that instant the huge rhinoceros
blundered right on to him, and getting his horn beneath his stomach gave
him such a fearful dig that the buffalo was turned over on to his back,
while his assailant went a most amazing cropper over his carcase. In
another moment, however, the rhinoceros was up, and wheeling round
to the left, crashed through the bush down-hill and towards the open
country.
"Instantly the whole place became alive with alarming sounds. In every
direction troops of snorting buffaloes charged through the forest, wild
with fright, while the injured bull on the further side of the bush
began to bellow like a mad thing. I lay quite still for a moment,
devoutly praying that none of the flying buffaloes would come my way.
Then when the danger lessened I got on to my feet, shook myself, and
looked round. One of my boys, he who had thrown himself backward into
the bush, was already half way up a tree--if heaven had been at the top
of it he could not have climbed quicker. Gobo was lying close to me,
groaning vigorously, but, as I suspected, quite unhurt; while from the
aloe bush into which No. 3 had bounded like a tennis ball, issued a
succession of the most piercing yells.
"I looked, and saw that this unfortunate fellow was in a very tight
place. A great spike of aloe had run through the back of his skin
waist-belt, though without piercing his flesh, in such a fashion that it
was impossible for him to move, while within six feet of him the injured
buffalo bull, thinking, no doubt, that he was the aggressor, bellowed
and ramped to get at him, tearing the thick aloes with his great horns.
That no time was to be lost, if I wished to save the man's life, was
very clear. So seizing my eight-bore, which was fortunately uninjured, I
took a pace to the left, for the rhinoceros had enlarged the hole in the
bush, and aimed at the point of the buffalo's shoulder, since on account
of my position I could not get a fair side shot for the heart. As I did
so I saw that the rhinoceros had given the bull a tremendous wound
in the stomach, and that the shock of the encounter had put his left
hind-leg out of joint at the hip. I fired, and the bullet striking the
shoulder broke it, and knocked the buffalo down. I knew that he could
not get up any more, because he was now injured fore and aft, so
notwithstanding his terrific bellows I scrambled round to where he was.
There he lay glaring furiously and tearing up the soil with his horns.
Stepping up to within two yards of him I aimed at the vertebra of his
neck and fired. The bullet struck true, and with a thud he dropped his
head upon the ground, groaned, and died.
"This little matter having been attended to with the assistance of
Gobo, who had now found his feet, I went on to extricate our unfortunate
companion from the aloe bush. This we found a thorny task, but at last
he was dragged forth uninjured, though in a very pious and prayerful
frame of mind. His 'spirit had certainly looked that way,' he said,
or he would now have been dead. As I never like to interfere with true
piety, I did not venture to suggest that his spirit had deigned to make
use of my eight-bore in his interest.
"Having despatched this boy back to the camp to tell the bearers to come
and cut the buffalo up, I bethought me that I owed that rhinoceros a
grudge which I should love to repay. So without saying a word of what
was in my mind to Gobo, who was now more than ever convinced that Fate
walked about loose in Wambe's country, I just followed on the brute's
spoor. He had crashed through the bush till he reached the little glade.
Then moderating his pace somewhat, he had followed the glade down its
entire length, and once more turned to the right through the forest,
shaping his course for the open land that lies between the edge of the
bush and the river. Having followed him for a mile or so further, I
found myself quite on the open. I took out my glasses and searched
the plain. About a mile ahead was something brown--as I thought, the
rhinoceros. I advanced another quarter of a mile, and looked once
more--it was not the rhinoceros, but a big ant-heap. This was puzzling,
but I did not like to give it up, because I knew from his spoor that he
must be somewhere ahead. But as the wind was blowing straight from me
towards the line that he had followed, and as a rhinoceros can smell you
for about a mile, it would not, I felt, be safe to follow his trail
any further; so I made a détour of a mile and more, till I was nearly
opposite the ant-heap, and then once more searched the plain. It was no
good, I could see nothing of him, and was about to give it up and start
after some oryx I saw on the skyline, when suddenly at a distance of
about three hundred yards from the ant-heap, and on its further side, I
saw my rhino stand up in a patch of grass.
"'Heavens!' I thought to myself, 'he's off again;' but no, after
standing staring for a minute or two he once more lay down.
"Now I found myself in a quandary. As you know, a rhinoceros is a very
short-sighted brute, indeed his sight is as bad as his scent is good.
Of this fact he is perfectly aware, but he always makes the most of his
natural gifts. For instance, when he lies down he invariably does so
with his head down wind. Thus, if any enemy crosses his wind he will
still be able to escape, or attack him; and if, on the other hand, the
danger approaches up wind he will at least have a chance of seeing it.
Otherwise, by walking delicately, one might actually kick him up like a
partridge, if only the advance was made up wind.
"Well, the point was, how on earth should I get within shot of this
rhinoceros? After much deliberation I determined to try a side approach,
thinking that in this way I might get a shoulder shot. Accordingly we
started in a crouching attitude, I first, Gobo holding on to my coat
tails, and the other boy on to Gobo's moocha. I always adopt this plan
when stalking big game, for if you follow any other system the bearers
will get out of line. We arrived within three hundred yards safely
enough, and then the real difficulties began. The grass had been
so closely eaten off by game that there was scarcely any cover.
Consequently it was necessary to go on to our hands and knees, which
in my case involved laying down the eight-bore at every step and then
lifting it up again. However, I wriggled along somehow, and if it had
not been for Gobo and his friend no doubt everything would have gone
well. But as you have, I dare say, observed, a native out stalking is
always of that mind which is supposed to actuate an ostrich--so long as
his head is hidden he seems to think that nothing else can be seen. So
it was in this instance, Gobo and the other boy crept along on their
hands and toes with their heads well down, but, though unfortunately
I did not notice it till too late, bearing the fundamental portions of
their frames high in the air. Now all animals are quite as suspicious of
this end of mankind as they are of his face, and of that fact I soon had
a proof. Just when we had got within about two hundred yards, and I was
congratulating myself that I had not had this long crawl with the sun
beating on the back of my neck like a furnace for nothing, I heard the
hissing note of the rhinoceros birds, and up flew four or five of them
from the brute's back, where they had been comfortably employed in
catching tics. Now this performance on the part of the birds is to a
rhinoceros what the word 'cave' is to a schoolboy--it puts him on the
qui vive at once. Before the birds were well in the air I saw the
grass stir.
"'Down you go,' I whispered to the boys, and as I did so the rhinoceros
got up and glared suspiciously around. But he could see nothing, indeed
if we had been standing up I doubt if he would have seen us at that
distance; so he merely gave two or three sniffs and then lay down, his
head still down wind, the birds once more settling on his back.
"But it was clear to me that he was sleeping with one eye open, being
generally in a suspicious and unchristian frame of mind, and that it
was useless to proceed further on this stalk, so we quietly withdrew
to consider the position and study the ground. The results were not
satisfactory. There was absolutely no cover about except the ant-heap,
which was some three hundred yards from the rhinoceros upon his up-wind
side. I knew that if I tried to stalk him in front I should fail, and so
I should if I attempted to do so from the further side--he or the birds
would see me; so I came to a conclusion: I would go to the ant-heap,
which would give him my wind, and instead of stalking him I would let
him stalk me. It was a bold step, and one which I should never advise a
hunter to take, but somehow I felt as though rhino and I must play the
hand out.
"I explained my intentions to the men, who both held up their arms in
horror. Their fears for my safety were a little mitigated, however, when
I told them that I did not expect them to come with me.
"Gobo breathed a prayer that I might not meet Fate walking about, and
the other one sincerely trusted that my spirit might look my way when
the rhinoceros charged, and then they both departed to a place of
safety.
"Taking my eight-bore, and half-a-dozen spare cartridges in my pocket,
I made a détour, and reaching the ant-heap in safety lay down. For a
moment the wind had dropped, but presently a gentle puff of air passed
over me, and blew on towards the rhinoceros. By the way, I wonder what
it is that smells so strong about a man? Is it his body or his breath?
I have never been able to make out, but I saw it stated the other day,
that in the duck decoys the man who is working the ducks holds a little
piece of burning turf before his mouth, and that if he does this they
cannot smell him, which looks as though it were the breath. Well,
whatever it was about me that attracted his attention, the rhinoceros
soon smelt me, for within half a minute after the puff of wind had
passed me he was on his legs, and turning round to get his head up wind.
There he stood for a few seconds and sniffed, and then he began to move,
first of all at a trot, then, as the scent grew stronger, at a furious
gallop. On he came, snorting like a runaway engine, with his tail stuck
straight up in the air; if he had seen me lie down there he could not
have made a better line. It was rather nervous work, I can tell you,
lying there waiting for his onslaught, for he looked like a mountain of
flesh. I determined, however, not to fire till I could plainly see his
eye, for I think that rule always gives one the right distance for big
game; so I rested my rifle on the ant-heap and waited for him, kneeling.
At last, when he was about forty yards away, I saw that the time had
come, and aiming straight for the middle of the chest I pulled.
"Thud went the heavy bullet, and with a tremendous snort over rolled
the rhinoceros beneath its shock, just like a shot rabbit. But if I had
thought that he was done for I was mistaken, for in another second he
was up again, and coming at me as hard as ever, only with his head held
low. I waited till he was within ten yards, in the hope that he would
expose his chest, but he would do nothing of the sort; so I just had to
fire at his head with the left barrel, and take my chance. Well, as
luck would have it, of course the animal put its horn in the way of the
bullet, which cut clean through it about three inches above the root and
then glanced off into space.
"After that things got rather serious. My gun was empty and the
rhinoceros was rapidly arriving, so rapidly indeed that I came to the
conclusion that I had better make way for him. Accordingly I jumped
to my feet and ran to the right as hard as I could go. As I did so he
arrived full tilt, knocked my friendly ant-heap flat, and for the
third time that day went a most magnificent cropper. This gave me a few
seconds' start, and I ran down wind--my word, I did run! Unfortunately,
however, my modest retreat was observed, and the rhinoceros, as soon as
he had found his legs again, set to work to run after me. Now no man on
earth can run so fast as an irritated rhinoceros can gallop, and I knew
that he must soon catch me up. But having some slight experience of
this sort of thing, luckily for myself, I kept my head, and as I fled
I managed to open my rifle, get the old cartridges out, and put in two
fresh ones. To do this I was obliged to steady my pace a little, and by
the time that I had snapped the rifle to I heard the beast snorting and
thundering away within a few paces of my back. I stopped, and as I did
so rapidly cocked the rifle and slued round upon my heel. By this time
the brute was within six or seven yards of me, but luckily his head was
up. I lifted the rifle and fired at him. It was a snap shot, but the
bullet struck him in the chest within three inches of the first, and
found its way into his lungs. It did not stop him, however, so all I
could do was to bound to one side, which I did with surprising activity,
and as he brushed past me to fire the other barrel into his side. That
did for him. The ball passed in behind the shoulder and right through
his heart. He fell over on to his side, gave one more awful squeal--a
dozen pigs could not have made such a noise--and promptly died, keeping
his wicked eyes wide open all the time.
"As for me, I blew my nose, and going up to the rhinoceros sat on his
head, and reflected that I had done a capital morning's shooting."
III--THE FIRST ROUND
"After this, as it was now midday, and I had killed enough meat, we
marched back triumphantly to camp, where I proceeded to concoct a stew
of buffalo beef and compressed vegetables. When this was ready we ate
the stew, and then I took a nap. About four o'clock, however, Gobo
woke me up, and told me that the head man of one of Wambe's kraals had
arrived to see me. I ordered him to be brought up, and presently he
came, a little, wizened, talkative old man, with a waistcloth round his
middle, and a greasy, frayed kaross made of the skins of rock rabbits
over his shoulders.
"I told him to sit down, and then abused him roundly. 'What did he
mean,' I asked, 'by disturbing me in this rude way? How did he dare to
cause a person of my quality and evident importance to be awakened in
order to interview his entirely contemptible self?'
"I spoke thus because I knew that it would produce an impression on him.
Nobody, except a really great man, he would argue, would dare to speak
to him in that fashion. Most savages are desperate bullies at heart, and
look on insolence as a sign of power.
"The old man instantly collapsed. He was utterly overcome, he said;
his heart was split in two, and well realized the extent of his
misbehaviour. But the occasion was very urgent. He heard that a mighty
hunter was in the neighbourhood, a beautiful white man, how beautiful
he could not have imagined had he not seen (this to me!), and he came to
beg his assistance. The truth was, that three bull elephants such as no
man ever saw had for years been the terror of their kraal, which was
but a small place--a cattle kraal of the great chief Wambe's, where they
lived to keep the cattle. And now of late these elephants had done them
much damage; but last night they had destroyed a whole patch of mealie
land, and he feared that if they came back they would all starve next
season for want of food. Would the mighty white man then be pleased to
come and kill the elephants? It would be easy for him to do--oh, most
easy! It was only necessary that he should hide himself in a tree, for
there was a full moon, and then when the elephants appeared he would
speak to them with the gun, and they would fall down dead, and there
would be an end of their troubling.
"Of course I hummed and hawed, and made a great favour of consenting to
his proposal, though really I was delighted to have such a chance. One
of the conditions that I made was that a messenger should at once be
despatched to Wambe, whose kraal was two days' journey from where I was,
telling him that I proposed to come and pay my respects to him in a few
days, and to ask his formal permission to shoot in his country. Also
I intimated that I was prepared to present him with 'hongo,' that is,
blackmail, and that I hoped to do a little trade with him in ivory, of
which I heard he had a great quantity.
"This message the old gentleman promised to despatch at once, though
there was something about his manner which showed me that he was
doubtful as to how it would be received. After that we struck our camp
and moved on to the kraal, which we reached about an hour before sunset.
This kraal was a collection of huts surrounded by a slight thorn-fence,
perhaps there were ten of them in all. It was situated in a kloof of the
mountain down which a rivulet flowed. The kloof was densely wooded, but
for some distance above the kraal it was free from bush, and here on the
rich deep ground brought down by the rivulet were the cultivated lands,
in extent somewhere about twenty or twenty-five acres. On the kraal side
of these lands stood a single hut, that served for a mealie store, which
at the moment was used as a dwelling-place by an old woman, the first
wife of our friend the head man.
"It appears that this lady, having had some difference of opinion with
her husband about the extent of authority allowed to a younger and more
amiable wife, had refused to dwell in the kraal any more, and, by way
of marking her displeasure, had taken up her abode among the mealies. As
the issue will show, she was, it happened, cutting off her nose to spite
her face.
"Close by this hut grew a large baobab tree. A glance at the mealie
grounds showed me that the old head man had not exaggerated the mischief
done by the elephants to his crops, which were now getting ripe. Nearly
half of the entire patch was destroyed. The great brutes had eaten all
they could, and the rest they had trampled down. I went up to their
spoor and started back in amazement--never had I seen such a spoor
before. It was simply enormous, more especially that of one old bull,
that carried, so said the natives, but a single tusk. One might have
used any of the footprints for a hip-bath.
"Having taken stock of the position, my next step was to make
arrangements for the fray. The three bulls, according to the natives,
had been spoored into the dense patch of bush above the kloof. Now it
seemed to me very probable that they would return to-night to feed on
the remainder of the ripening mealies. If so, there was a bright moon,
and it struck me that by the exercise of a little ingenuity I might bag
one or more of them without exposing myself to any risk, which, having
the highest respect for the aggressive powers of bull elephants, was a
great consideration to me.
"This then was my plan. To the right of the huts as you look up the
kloof, and commanding the mealie lands, stands the baobab tree that I
have mentioned. Into that baobab tree I made up my mind to go. Then
if the elephants appeared I should get a shot at them. I announced my
intentions to the head man of the kraal, who was delighted. 'Now,'
he said, 'his people might sleep in peace, for while the mighty white
hunter sat aloft like a spirit watching over the welfare of his kraal
what was there to fear?'
"I told him that he was an ungrateful brute to think of sleeping in
peace while, perched like a wounded vulture on a tree, I watched for his
welfare in wakeful sorrow; and once more he collapsed, and owned that my
words were 'sharp but just.'
"However, as I have said, confidence was completely restored; and that
evening everybody in the kraal, including the superannuated victim of
jealousy in the little hut where the mealie cobs were stored, went to
bed with a sense of sweet security from elephants and all other animals
that prowl by night.
"For my part, I pitched my camp below the kraal; and then, having
procured a beam of wood from the head man--rather a rotten one, by the
way--I set it across two boughs that ran out laterally from the baobab
tree, at a height of about twenty-five feet from the ground, in such
fashion that I and another man could sit upon it with our legs hanging
down, and rest our backs against the bole of the tree. This done I went
back to the camp and ate my supper. About nine o'clock, half-an-hour
before the moon-rise, I summoned Gobo, who, thinking that he had seen
about enough of the delights of big game hunting for that day, did not
altogether relish the job; and, despite his remonstrances, gave him my
eight-bore to carry, I having the .570-express. Then we set out for
the tree. It was very dark, but we found it without difficulty, though
climbing it was a more complicated matter. However, at last we got up
and sat down, like two little boys on a form that is too high for
them, and waited. I did not dare to smoke, because I remembered the
rhinoceros, and feared that the elephants might wind the tobacco if they
should come my way, and this made the business more wearisome, so I fell
to thinking and wondering at the completeness of the silence.
"At last the moon came up, and with it a moaning wind, at the breath of
which the silence began to whisper mysteriously. Lonely enough in the
newborn light looked the wide expanse of mountain, plain, and forest,
more like some vision of a dream, some reflection from a fair world of
peace beyond our ken, than the mere face of garish earth made soft with
sleep. Indeed, had it not been for the fact that I was beginning to find
the log on which I sat very hard, I should have grown quite sentimental
over the beautiful sight; but I will defy anybody to become sentimental
when seated in the damp, on a very rough beam of wood, and half-way up
a tree. So I merely made a mental note that it was a particularly lovely
night, and turned my attention to the prospect of elephants. But no
elephants came, and after waiting for another hour or so, I think that
what between weariness and disgust, I must have dropped into a gentle
doze. Presently I awoke with a start. Gobo, who was perched close to me,
but as far off as the beam would allow--for neither white man nor black
like the aroma which each vows is the peculiar and disagreeable property
of the other--was faintly, very faintly clicking his forefinger against
his thumb. I knew by this signal, a very favourite one among native
hunters and gun-bearers, that he must have seen or heard something. I
looked at his face, and saw that he was staring excitedly towards the
dim edge of the bush beyond the deep green line of mealies. I stared
too, and listened. Presently I heard a soft large sound as though a
giant were gently stretching out his hands and pressing back the ears
of standing corn. Then came a pause, and then, out into the open
majestically stalked the largest elephant I ever saw or ever shall see.
Heavens! what a monster he was; and how the moonlight gleamed upon his
one splendid tusk--for the other was missing--as he stood among the
mealies gently moving his enormous ears to and fro, and testing the
wind with his trunk. While I was still marvelling at his girth, and
speculating upon the weight of that huge tusk, which I swore should be
my tusk before very long, out stepped a second bull and stood beside
him. He was not quite so tall, but he seemed to me to be almost
thicker-set than the first; and even in that light I could see that both
his tusks were perfect. Another pause, and the third emerged. He was
shorter than either of the others, but higher in the shoulder than No.
2; and when I tell you, as I afterwards learnt from actual measurement,
that the smallest of these mighty bulls measured twelve feet one and a
half inches at the shoulder, it will give you some idea of their size.
The three formed into line and stood still for a minute, the one-tusked
bull gently caressing the elephant on the left with his trunk.
"Then they began to feed, walking forward and slightly to the right as
they gathered great bunches of the sweet mealies and thrust them into
their mouths. All this time they were more than a hundred and twenty
yards away from me (this I knew, because I had paced the distances from
the tree to various points), much too far to allow of my attempting
a shot at them in that uncertain light. They fed in a semicircle,
gradually drawing round towards the hut near my tree, in which the corn
was stored and the old woman slept.
"This went on for between an hour and an hour and a half, till, what
between excitement and hope, that maketh the heart sick, I grew so
weary that I was actually contemplating a descent from the tree and a
moonlight stalk. Such an act in ground so open would have been that of a
stark staring lunatic, and that I should even have been contemplating it
will show you the condition of my mind. But everything comes to him who
knows how to wait, and sometimes too to him who doesn't, and so at last
those elephants, or rather one of them, came to me.
"After they had fed their fill, which was a very large one, the noble
three stood once more in line some seventy yards to the left of the hut,
and on the edge of the cultivated lands, or in all about eighty-five
yards from where I was perched. Then at last the one with a single tusk
made a peculiar rattling noise in his trunk, just as though he were
blowing his nose, and without more ado began to walk deliberately toward
the hut where the old woman slept. I made my rifle ready and glanced up
at the moon, only to discover that a new complication was looming in the
immediate future. I have said that a wind rose with the moon. Well, the
wind brought rain-clouds along its track. Several light ones had already
lessened the light for a little while, though without obscuring it, and
now two more were coming up rapidly, both of them very black and dense.
The first cloud was small and long, and the one behind big and broad. I
remember noticing that the pair of them bore a most comical resemblance
to a dray drawn by a very long raw-boned horse. As luck would have it,
just as the elephant arrived within twenty-five yards or so of me, the
head of the horse-cloud floated over the face of the moon, rendering
it impossible for me to fire. In the faint twilight which remained,
however, I could just make out the gray mass of the great brute still
advancing towards the hut. Then the light went altogether and I had to
trust to my ears. I heard him fumbling with his trunk, apparently at the
roof of the hut; next came a sound as of straw being drawn out, and then
for a little while there was complete silence.
"The cloud began to pass; I could see the outline of the elephant; he
was standing with his head quite over the top of the hut. But I could
not see his trunk, and no wonder, for it was inside the hut. He had
thrust it through the roof, and, attracted no doubt by the smell of the
mealies, was groping about with it inside. It was growing light now, and
I got my rifle ready, when suddenly there was a most awful yell, and
I saw the trunk reappear, and in its mighty fold the old woman who
had been sleeping in the hut. Out she came through the hole like a
periwinkle on the point of a pin, still wrapped up in her blanket,
and with her skinny arms and legs stretched to the four points of the
compass, and as she did so, gave that most alarming screech. I really
don't know who was the most frightened, she, or I, or the elephant. At
any rate the last was considerably startled; he had been fishing
for mealies--the old woman was a mere accident, and one that greatly
discomposed his nerves. He gave a sort of trumpet, and threw her away
from him right into the crown of a low mimosa tree, where she stuck
shrieking like a metropolitan engine. The old bull lifted his tail, and
flapping his great ears prepared for flight. I put up my eight-bore, and
aiming hastily at the point of his shoulder (for he was broadside on), I
fired. The report rang out like thunder, making a thousand echoes in
the quiet hills. I saw him go down all of a heap as though he were stone
dead. Then, alas! whether it was the kick of the heavy rifle, or the
excited bump of that idiot Gobo, or both together, or merely an unhappy
coincidence, I do not know, but the rotten beam broke and I went down
too, landing flat at the foot of the tree upon a certain humble portion
of the human frame. The shock was so severe that I felt as though all
my teeth were flying through the roof of my mouth, but although I sat
slightly stunned for a few seconds, luckily for me I fell light, and was
not in any way injured.
"Meanwhile the elephant began to scream with fear and fury, and,
attracted by his cries, the other two charged up. I felt for my rifle;
it was not there. Then I remembered that I had rested it on a fork of
the bough in order to fire, and doubtless there it remained. My position
was now very unpleasant. I did not dare to try and climb the tree again,
which, shaken as I was, would have been a task of some difficulty,
because the elephants would certainly see me, and Gobo, who had clung to
a bough, was still aloft with the other rifle. I could not run because
there was no shelter near. Under these circumstances I did the only
thing feasible, clambered round the trunk as softly as possible, and
keeping one eye on the elephants, whispered to Gobo to bring down the
rifle, and awaited the development of the situation. I knew that if
the elephants did not see me--which, luckily, they were too enraged to
do--they would not smell me, for I was up-wind. Gobo, however, either
did not, or, preferring the safety of the tree, would not hear me. He
said the former, but I believed the latter, for I knew that he was not
enough of a sportsman to really enjoy shooting elephants by moonlight in
the open. So there I was behind my tree, dismayed, unarmed, but highly
interested, for I was witnessing a remarkable performance.
"When the two other bulls arrived the wounded elephant on the ground
ceased to scream, but began to make a low moaning noise, and to gently
touch the wound near his shoulder, from which the blood was literally
spouting. The other two seemed to understand; at any rate, they did
this. Kneeling down on either side, they placed their trunks and tusks
underneath him, and, aided by his own efforts, with one great lift got
him on to his feet. Then leaning against him on either side to support
him, they marched off at a walk in the direction of the village.[*] It
was a pitiful sight, and even then it made me feel a brute.
[*] The Editor would have been inclined to think that in
relating this incident Mr. Quatermain was making himself
interesting at the expense of the exact truth, did it not
happen that a similar incident has come within his
knowledge.--Editor.
"Presently, from a walk, as the wounded elephant gathered himself
together a little, they broke into a trot, and after that I could follow
them no longer with my eyes, for the second black cloud came up over the
moon and put her out, as an extinguisher puts out a dip. I say with my
eyes, but my ears gave me a very fair notion of what was going on. When
the cloud came up the three terrified animals were heading directly for
the kraal, probably because the way was open and the path easy. I fancy
that they grew confused in the darkness, for when they came to the kraal
fence they did not turn aside, but crashed straight through it. Then
there were 'times,' as the Irish servant-girl says in the American book.
Having taken the fence, they thought that they might as well take the
kraal also, so they just ran over it. One hive-shaped hut was turned
quite over on to its top, and when I arrived upon the scene the people
who had been sleeping there were bumbling about inside like bees
disturbed at night, while two more were crushed flat, and a third had
all its side torn out. Oddly enough, however, nobody was hurt, though
several people had a narrow escape of being trodden to death.