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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1918-h.zip b/1918-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..681b694 --- /dev/null +++ b/1918-h.zip diff --git a/1918-h/1918-h.htm b/1918-h/1918-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f3710b --- /dev/null +++ b/1918-h/1918-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1155 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Long Odds, by H. Rider Haggard +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.transnote {font-size: 85%; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Long Odds, by H. Rider Haggard + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Long Odds + +Author: H. Rider Haggard + +Release Date: February 12, 2010 [EBook #1918] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LONG ODDS *** + + + + +Produced by Christopher Hatka. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +A NOTE ON THE TEXT +<BR><BR> +This Project Gutenberg edition is based on the text of the story as +reprinted in the collection, "Allan's Wife and other tales." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +LONG ODDS +</H1> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +H. Rider Haggard +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P> +The story which is narrated in the following pages came to me from the +lips of my old friend Allan Quatermain, or Hunter Quatermain, as we used +to call him in South Africa. He told it to me one evening when I was +stopping with him at the place he bought in Yorkshire. Shortly after +that, the death of his only son so unsettled him that he immediately +left England, accompanied by two companions, his old fellow-voyagers, +Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and has now utterly vanished into the +dark heart of Africa. He is persuaded that a white people, of which he +has heard rumours all his life, exists somewhere on the highlands in the +vast, still unexplored interior, and his great ambition is to find them +before he dies. This is the wild quest upon which he and his companions +have departed, and from which I shrewdly suspect they never will return. +One letter only have I received from the old gentleman, dated from a +mission station high up the Tana, a river on the east coast, about three +hundred miles north of Zanzibar. In it he says that they have gone +through many hardships and adventures, but are alive and well, and have +found traces which go far towards making him hope that the results of +their wild quest may be a "magnificent and unexampled discovery." I +greatly fear, however, that all he has discovered is death; for this +letter came a long while ago, and nobody has heard a single word of the +party since. They have totally vanished. +</P> + +<P> +It was on the last evening of my stay at his house that he told the +ensuing story to me and Captain Good, who was dining with him. He had +eaten his dinner and drunk two or three glasses of old port, just to +help Good and myself to the end of the second bottle. It was an unusual +thing for him to do, for he was a most abstemious man, having conceived, +as he used to say, a great horror of drink from observing its effects +upon the class of colonists—hunters, transport riders and +others—amongst whom he had passed so many years of his life. +Consequently the good wine took more effect on him than it would have +done on most men, sending a little flush into his wrinkled cheeks, and +making him talk more freely than usual. +</P> + +<P> +Dear old man! I can see him now, as he went limping up and down the +vestibule, with his grey hair sticking up in scrubbing-brush fashion, +his shrivelled yellow face, and his large dark eyes, that were as keen +as any hawk's, and yet soft as a buck's. The whole room was hung with +trophies of his numerous hunting expeditions, and he had some story +about every one of them, if only he could be got to tell it. Generally +he would not, for he was not very fond of narrating his own adventures, +but to-night the port wine made him more communicative. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, you brute!" he said, stopping beneath an unusually large skull of a +lion, which was fixed just over the mantelpiece, beneath a long row of +guns, its jaws distended to their utmost width. "Ah, you brute! you +have given me a lot of trouble for the last dozen years, and will, I +suppose to my dying day." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell us the yarn, Quatermain," said Good. "You have often promised to +tell me, and you never have." +</P> + +<P> +"You had better not ask me to," he answered, "for it is a longish one." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," I said, "the evening is young, and there is some more +port." +</P> + +<P> +Thus adjured, he filled his pipe from a jar of coarse-cut Boer tobacco +that was always standing on the mantelpiece, and still walking up and +down the room, began— +</P> + +<P> +"It was, I think, in the March of '69 that I was up in Sikukuni's +country. It was just after old Sequati's time, and Sikukuni had got +into power—I forget how. Anyway, I was there. I had heard that the +Bapedi people had brought down an enormous quantity of ivory from the +interior, and so I started with a waggon-load of goods, and came +straight away from Middelburg to try and trade some of it. It was a +risky thing to go into the country so early, on account of the fever; +but I knew that there were one or two others after that lot of ivory, so +I determined to have a try for it, and take my chance of fever. I had +become so tough from continual knocking about that I did not set it down +at much. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I got on all right for a while. It is a wonderfully beautiful +piece of bush veldt, with great ranges of mountains running through it, +and round granite koppies starting up here and there, looking out like +sentinels over the rolling waste of bush. But it is very hot—hot as a +stew-pan—and when I was there that March, which, of course, is autumn +in this part of Africa, the whole place reeked of fever. Every morning, +as I trekked along down by the Oliphant River, I used to creep from the +waggon at dawn and look out. But there was no river to be seen—only a +long line of billows of what looked like the finest cotton wool tossed +up lightly with a pitchfork. It was the fever mist. Out from among the +scrub, too, came little spirals of vapour, as though there were hundreds +of tiny fires alight in it—reek rising from thousands of tons of +rotting vegetation. It was a beautiful place, but the beauty was the +beauty of death; and all those lines and blots of vapour wrote one great +word across the surface of the country, and that word was 'fever.' +</P> + +<P> +"It was a dreadful year of illness that. I came, I remember, to one +little kraal of Knobnoses, and went up to it to see if I could get some +'maas', or curdled butter-milk, and a few mealies. As I drew near I was +struck with the silence of the place. No children began to chatter, and +no dogs barked. Nor could I see any native sheep or cattle. The place, +though it had evidently been inhabited of late, was as still as the bush +round it, and some guinea-fowl got up out of the prickly pear bushes +right at the kraal gate. I remember that I hesitated a little before +going in, there was such an air of desolation about the spot. Nature +never looks desolate when man has not yet laid his hand upon her breast; +she is only lonely. But when man has been, and has passed away, then +she looks desolate. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I passed into the kraal, and went up to the principal hut. In +front of the hut was something with an old sheep-skin kaross thrown over +it. I stooped down and drew off the rug, and then shrank back amazed, +for under it was the body of a young woman recently dead. For a moment +I thought of turning back, but my curiosity overcame me; so going past +the dead woman, I went down on my hands and knees and crept into the +hut. It was so dark that I could not see anything, though I could smell +a great deal, so I lit a match. It was a 'tandstickor' match, and burnt +slowly and dimly, and as the light gradually increased I made out what I +took to be a family of people, men, women, and children, fast asleep. +Presently it burnt up brightly, and I saw that they too, five of them +altogether, were quite dead. One was a baby. I dropped the match in a +hurry, and was making my way from the hut as quick as I could go, when I +caught sight of two bright eyes staring out of a corner. Thinking it +was a wild cat, or some such animal, I redoubled my haste, when suddenly +a voice near the eyes began first to mutter, and then to send up a +succession of awful yells. +</P> + +<P> +"Hastily I lit another match, and perceived that the eyes belonged to an +old woman, wrapped up in a greasy leather garment. Taking her by the +arm, I dragged her out, for she could not, or would not, come by +herself, and the stench was overpowering me. Such a sight as she was—a +bag of bones, covered over with black, shrivelled parchment. The only +white thing about her was her wool, and she seemed to be pretty well +dead except for her eyes and her voice. She thought that I was a devil +come to take her, and that is why she yelled so. Well, I got her down +to the waggon, and gave her a 'tot' of Cape smoke, and then, as soon as +it was ready, poured about a pint of beef-tea down her throat, made from +the flesh of a blue vilderbeeste I had killed the day before, and after +that she brightened up wonderfully. She could talk Zulu—indeed, it +turned out that she had run away from Zululand in T'Chaka's time—and +she told me that all the people whom I had seen had died of fever. When +they had died the other inhabitants of the kraal had taken the cattle +and gone away, leaving the poor old woman, who was helpless from age and +infirmity, to perish of starvation or disease, as the case might be. +She had been sitting there for three days among the bodies when I found +her. I took her on to the next kraal, and gave the headman a blanket to +look after her, promising him another if I found her well when I came +back. I remember that he was much astonished at my parting with two +blankets for the sake of such a worthless old creature. 'Why did I not +leave her in the bush?' he asked. Those people carry the doctrine of +the survival of the fittest to its extreme, you see. +</P> + +<P> +"It was the night after I had got rid of the old woman that I made my +first acquaintance with my friend yonder," and he nodded towards the +skull that seemed to be grinning down at us in the shadow of the wide +mantelshelf. "I had trekked from dawn till eleven o'clock—a long +trek—but I wanted to get on, and had turned the oxen out to graze, +sending the voorlooper to look after them, my intention being to inspan +again about six o'clock, and trek with the moon till ten. Then I got +into the waggon and had a good sleep till half-past two or so in the +afternoon, when I rose and cooked some meat, and had my dinner, washing +it down with a pannikin of black coffee—for it was difficult to get +preserved milk in those days. Just as I had finished, and the driver, a +man called Tom, was washing up the things, in comes the young scoundrel +of a voorlooper driving one ox before him. +</P> + +<P> +"'Where are the other oxen?' I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'Koos!' he said, 'Koos! the other oxen have gone away. I turned my +back for a minute, and when I looked round again they were all gone +except Kaptein, here, who was rubbing his back against a tree.' +</P> + +<P> +"'You mean that you have been asleep, and let them stray, you villain. +I will rub your back against a stick,' I answered, feeling very angry, +for it was not a pleasant prospect to be stuck up in that fever trap for +a week or so while we were hunting for the oxen. 'Off you go, and you +too, Tom, and mind you don't come back till you have found them. They +have trekked back along the Middelburg Road, and are a dozen miles off +by now, I'll be bound. Now, no words; go both of you.' +</P> + +<P> +"Tom, the driver, swore, and caught the lad a hearty kick, which he +richly deserved, and then, having tied old Kaptein up to the disselboom +with a reim, they took their assegais and sticks, and started. I would +have gone too, only I knew that somebody must look after the waggon, and +I did not like to leave either of the boys with it at night. I was in a +very bad temper, indeed, although I was pretty well used to these sort +of occurrences, and soothed myself by taking a rifle and going to kill +something. For a couple of hours I poked about without seeing anything +that I could get a shot at, but at last, just as I was again within +seventy yards of the waggon, I put up an old Impala ram from behind a +mimosa thorn. He ran straight for the waggon, and it was not till he +was passing within a few feet of it that I could get a decent shot at +him. Then I pulled, and caught him half-way down the spine. Over he +went, dead as a door-nail, and a pretty shot it was, though I ought not +to say it. This little incident put me into rather a better humour, +especially as the buck had rolled right against the after-part of the +waggon, so I had only to gut him, fix a reim round his legs, and haul +him up. By the time I had done this the sun was down, and the full moon +was up, and a beautiful moon it was. And then there came that wonderful +hush which sometimes falls over the African bush in the early hours of +the night. No beast was moving, and no bird called. Not a breath of +air stirred the quiet trees, and the shadows did not even quiver, they +only grew. It was very oppressive and very lonely, for there was not a +sign of the cattle or the boys. I was quite thankful for the society of +old Kaptein, who was lying down contentedly against the disselboom, +chewing the cud with a good conscience. +</P> + +<P> +"Presently, however, Kaptein began to get restless. First he snorted, +then he got up and snorted again. I could not make it out, so like a +fool I got down off the waggon-box to have a look round, thinking it +might be the lost oxen coming. +</P> + +<P> +"Next instant I regretted it, for all of a sudden I heard a roar and saw +something yellow flash past me and light on poor Kaptein. Then came a +bellow of agony from the ox, and a crunch as the lion put his teeth +through the poor brute's neck, and I began to understand what had +happened. My rifle was in the waggon, and my first thought being to get +hold of it, I turned and made a bolt for the box. I got my foot up on +the wheel and flung my body forward on to the waggon, and there I +stopped as if I were frozen, and no wonder, for as I was about to spring +up I heard the lion behind me, and next second I felt the brute, ay, as +plainly as I can feel this table. I felt him, I say, sniffing at my +left leg that was hanging down. +</P> + +<P> +"My word! I did feel queer; I don't think that I ever felt so queer +before. I dared not move for the life of me, and the odd thing was that +I seemed to lose power over my leg, which developed an insane sort of +inclination to kick out of its own mere motion—just as hysterical +people want to laugh when they ought to be particularly solemn. Well, +the lion sniffed and sniffed, beginning at my ankle and slowly nosing +away up to my thigh. I thought that he was going to get hold then, but +he did not. He only growled softly, and went back to the ox. Shifting +my head a little I got a full view of him. He was about the biggest +lion I ever saw, and I have seen a great many, and he had a most +tremendous black mane. What his teeth were like you can see—look +there, pretty big ones, ain't they? Altogether he was a magnificent +animal, and as I lay sprawling on the fore-tongue of the waggon, it +occurred to me that he would look uncommonly well in a cage. He stood +there by the carcass of poor Kaptein, and deliberately disembowelled him +as neatly as a butcher could have done. All this while I dared not +move, for he kept lifting his head and keeping an eye on me as he licked +his bloody chops. When he had cleaned Kaptein out he opened his mouth +and roared, and I am not exaggerating when I say that the sound shook +the waggon. Instantly there came back an answering roar. +</P> + +<P> +"'Heavens!' I thought, 'there is his mate.' +</P> + +<P> +"Hardly was the thought out of my head when I caught sight in the +moonlight of the lioness bounding along through the long grass, and +after her a couple of cubs about the size of mastiffs. She stopped +within a few feet of my head, and stood, waved her tail, and fixed me +with her glowing yellow eyes; but just as I thought that it was all over +she turned and began to feed on Kaptein, and so did the cubs. There +were the four of them within eight feet of me, growling and quarrelling, +rending and tearing, and crunching poor Kaptein's bones; and there I lay +shaking with terror, and the cold perspiration pouring out of me, +feeling like another Daniel come to judgment in a new sense of the +phrase. Presently the cubs had eaten their fill, and began to get +restless. One went round to the back of the waggon and pulled at the +Impala buck that hung there, and the other came round my way and +commenced the sniffing game at my leg. Indeed, he did more than that, +for, my trouser being hitched up a little, he began to lick the bare +skin with his rough tongue. The more he licked the more he liked it, to +judge from his increased vigour and the loud purring noise he made. +Then I knew that the end had come, for in another second his file-like +tongue would have rasped through the skin of my leg—which was luckily +pretty tough—and have drawn the blood, and then there would be no +chance for me. So I just lay there and thought of my sins, and prayed +to the Almighty, and reflected that after all life was a very enjoyable +thing. +</P> + +<P> +"Then of a sudden I heard a crashing of bushes and the shouting and +whistling of men, and there were the two boys coming back with the +cattle, which they had found trekking along all together. The lions +lifted their heads and listened, then bounded off without a sound—and I +fainted. +</P> + +<P> +"The lions came back no more that night, and by the next morning my +nerves had got pretty straight again; but I was full of wrath when I +thought of all that I had gone through at the hands, or rather noses, of +those four brutes, and of the fate of my after-ox Kaptein. He was a +splendid ox, and I was very fond of him. So wroth was I that like a +fool I determined to attack the whole family of them. It was worthy of +a greenhorn out on his first hunting trip; but I did it nevertheless. +Accordingly after breakfast, having rubbed some oil upon my leg, which +was very sore from the cub's tongue, I took the driver, Tom, who did not +half like the business, and having armed myself with an ordinary double +No. 12 smoothbore, the first breechloader I ever had, I started. I took +the smoothbore because it shot a bullet very well; and my experience has +been that a round ball from a smoothbore is quite as effective against a +lion as an express bullet. The lion is soft, and not a difficult animal +to finish if you hit him anywhere in the body. A buck takes far more +killing. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I started, and the first thing I set to work to do was to try to +discover whereabouts the brutes lay up for the day. About three hundred +yards from the waggon was the crest of a rise covered with single mimosa +trees, dotted about in a park-like fashion, and beyond this lay a +stretch of open plain running down to a dry pan, or water-hole, which +covered about an acre of ground, and was densely clothed with reeds, now +in the sere and yellow leaf. From the further edge of this pan the +ground sloped up again to a great cleft, or nullah, which had been cut +out by the action of the water, and was pretty thickly sprinkled with +bush, amongst which grew some large trees, I forget of what sort. +</P> + +<P> +"It at once struck me that the dry pan would be a likely place to find +my friends in, as there is nothing a lion is fonder of than lying up in +reeds, through which he can see things without being seen himself. +Accordingly thither I went and prospected. Before I had got half-way +round the pan I found the remains of a blue vilderbeeste that had +evidently been killed within the last three or four days and partially +devoured by lions; and from other indications about I was soon assured +that if the family were not in the pan that day they spent a good deal +of their spare time there. But if there, the question was how to get +them out; for it was clearly impossible to think of going in after them +unless one was quite determined to commit suicide. Now there was a +strong wind blowing from the direction of the waggon, across the reedy +pan towards the bush-clad kloof or donga, and this first gave me the +idea of firing the reeds, which, as I think I told you, were pretty dry. +Accordingly Tom took some matches and began starting little fires to +the left, and I did the same to the right. But the reeds were still +green at the bottom, and we should never have got them well alight had +it not been for the wind, which grew stronger and stronger as the sun +climbed higher, and forced the fire into them. At last, after +half-an-hour's trouble, the flames got a hold, and began to spread out +like a fan, whereupon I went round to the further side of the pan to +wait for the lions, standing well out in the open, as we stood at the +copse to-day where you shot the woodcock. It was a rather risky thing +to do, but I used to be so sure of my shooting in those days that I did +not so much mind the risk. Scarcely had I got round when I heard the +reeds parting before the onward rush of some animal. 'Now for it,' said +I. On it came. I could see that it was yellow, and prepared for +action, when instead of a lion out bounded a beautiful reit bok which +had been lying in the shelter of the pan. It must, by the way, have +been a reit bok of a peculiarly confiding nature to lay itself down with +the lion, like the lamb of prophesy, but I suppose the reeds were thick, +and that it kept a long way off. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I let the reit bok go, and it went like the wind, and kept my +eyes fixed upon the reeds. The fire was burning like a furnace now; the +flames crackling and roaring as they bit into the reeds, sending spouts +of fire twenty feet and more into the air, and making the hot air dance +above in a way that was perfectly dazzling. But the reeds were still +half green, and created an enormous quantity of smoke, which came +rolling towards me like a curtain, lying very low on account of the +wind. Presently, above the crackling of the fire, I heard a startled +roar, then another and another. So the lions were at home. +</P> + +<P> +"I was beginning to get excited now, for, as you fellows know, there is +nothing in experience to warm up your nerves like a lion at close +quarters, unless it is a wounded buffalo; and I became still more so +when I made out through the smoke that the lions were all moving about +on the extreme edge of the reeds. Occasionally they would pop their +heads out like rabbits from a burrow, and then, catching sight of me +standing about fifty yards away, draw them back again. I knew that it +must be getting pretty warm behind them, and that they could not keep +the game up for long; and I was not mistaken, for suddenly all four of +them broke cover together, the old black-maned lion leading by a few +yards. I never saw a more splendid sight in all my hunting experience +than those four lions bounding across the veldt, overshadowed by the +dense pall of smoke and backed by the fiery furnace of the burning +reeds. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckoned that they would pass, on their way to the bushy kloof, +within about five and twenty yards of me, so, taking a long breath, I +got my gun well on to the lion's shoulder—the black-maned one—so as to +allow for an inch or two of motion, and catch him through the heart. I +was on, dead on, and my finger was just beginning to tighten on the +trigger, when suddenly I went blind—a bit of reed-ash had drifted into +my right eye. I danced and rubbed, and succeeded in clearing it more or +less just in time to see the tail of the last lion vanishing round the +bushes up the kloof. +</P> + +<P> +"If ever a man was mad I was that man. It was too bad; and such a shot +in the open! However, I was not going to be beaten, so I just turned +and marched for the kloof. Tom, the driver, begged and implored me not +to go, but though as a general rule I never pretend to be very brave +(which I am not), I was determined that I would either kill those lions +or they should kill me. So I told Tom that he need not come unless he +liked, but I was going; and being a plucky fellow, a Swazi by birth, he +shrugged his shoulders, muttered that I was mad or bewitched, and +followed doggedly in my tracks. +</P> + +<P> +"We soon reached the kloof, which was about three hundred yards in +length and but sparsely wooded, and then the real fun began. There +might be a lion behind every bush—there certainly were four lions +somewhere; the delicate question was, where. I peeped and poked and +looked in every possible direction, with my heart in my mouth, and was +at last rewarded by catching a glimpse of something yellow moving behind +a bush. At the same moment, from another bush opposite me out burst one +of the cubs and galloped back towards the burnt pan. I whipped round +and let drive a snap shot that tipped him head over heels, breaking his +back within two inches of the root of the tail, and there he lay +helpless but glaring. Tom afterwards killed him with his assegai. I +opened the breech of the gun and hurriedly pulled out the old case, +which, to judge from what ensued, must, I suppose, have burst and left a +portion of its fabric sticking to the barrel. At any rate, when I tried +to, get in the new cartridge it would only enter half-way; and—would +you believe it?—this was the moment that the lioness, attracted no +doubt by the outcry of her cub, chose to put in an appearance. There +she stood, twenty paces or so from me, lashing her tail and looking just +as wicked as it is possible to conceive. Slowly I stepped backwards, +trying to push in the new case, and as I did so she moved on in little +runs, dropping down after each run. The danger was imminent, and the +case would not go in. At the moment I oddly enough thought of the +cartridge maker, whose name I will not mention, and earnestly hoped that +if the lion got <I>me</I> some condign punishment would overtake <I>him.</I> It +would not go in, so I tried to pull it out. It would not come out +either, and my gun was useless if I could not shut it to use the other +barrel. I might as well have had no gun. +</P> + +<P> +"Meanwhile I was walking backward, keeping my eye on the lioness, who +was creeping forward on her belly without a sound, but lashing her tail +and keeping her eye on me; and in it I saw that she was coming in a few +seconds more. I dashed my wrist and the palm of my hand against the +brass rim of the cartridge till the blood poured from them—look, there +are the scars of it to this day!" +</P> + +<P> +Here Quatermain held up his right hand to the light and showed us four +or five white cicatrices just where the wrist is set into the hand. +</P> + +<P> +"But it was not of the slightest use," he went on, "the cartridge would +not move. I only hope that no other man will ever be put in such an +awful position. The lioness gathered herself together, and I gave +myself up for lost, when suddenly Tom shouted out from somewhere in my +rear— +</P> + +<P> +"'You are walking on to the wounded cub; turn to the right.' +</P> + +<P> +"I had the sense, dazed as I was, to take the hint, and slewing round at +right-angles, but still keeping my eyes on the lioness, I continued my +backward walk. +</P> + +<P> +"To my intense relief, with a low growl she straightened herself, +turned, and bounded further up the kloof. +</P> + +<P> +"'Come on, Macumazahn,' said Tom, 'let's get back to the waggon.' +</P> + +<P> +"'All right, Tom,' I answered. 'I will when I have killed those three +other lions,' for by this time I was bent on shooting them as I never +remember being bent on anything before or since. 'You can go if you +like, or you can get up a tree.' +</P> + +<P> +"He considered the position a little, and then he very wisely got up a +tree. I wish that I had done the same. +</P> + +<P> +"Meanwhile I had found my knife, which had an extractor in it, and +succeeded after some difficulty in pulling out the cartridge which had +so nearly been the cause of my death, and removing the obstruction in +the barrel. It was very little thicker than a postage-stamp; certainly +not thicker than a piece of writing-paper. This done, I loaded the gun, +bound a handkerchief round my wrist and hand to staunch the flowing of +the blood, and started on again. +</P> + +<P> +"I had noticed that the lioness went into a thick green bush, or rather +cluster of bushes, growing near the water, about fifty yards higher up, +for there was a little stream running down the kloof, and I walked +towards this bush. When I got there, however, I could see nothing, so I +took up a big stone and threw it into the bushes. I believe that it hit +the other cub, for out it came with a rush, giving me a broadside shot, +of which I promptly availed myself, knocking it over dead. Out, too, +came the lioness like a flash of light, but quick as she went I managed +to put the other bullet into her ribs, so that she rolled right over +three times like a shot rabbit. I instantly got two more cartridges +into the gun, and as I did so the lioness rose again and came crawling +towards me on her fore-paws, roaring and groaning, and with such an +expression of diabolical fury on her countenance as I have not often +seen. I shot her again through the chest, and she fell over on to her +side quite dead. +</P> + +<P> +"That was the first and last time that I ever killed a brace of lions +right and left, and, what is more, I never heard of anybody else doing +it. Naturally I was considerably pleased with myself, and having again +loaded up, I went on to look for the black-maned beauty who had killed +Kaptein. Slowly, and with the greatest care, I proceeded up the kloof, +searching every bush and tuft of grass as I went. It was wonderfully +exciting, work, for I never was sure from one moment to another but that +he would be on me. I took comfort, however, from the reflection that a +lion rarely attacks a man—rarely, I say; sometimes he does, as you will +see—unless he is cornered or wounded. I must have been nearly an hour +hunting after that lion. Once I thought I saw something move in a clump +of tambouki grass, but I could not be sure, and when I trod out the +grass I could not find him. +</P> + +<P> +"At last I worked up to the head of the kloof, which made a cul-de-sac. +It was formed of a wall of rock about fifty feet high. Down this rock +trickled a little waterfall, and in front of it, some seventy feet from +its face, rose a great piled-up mass of boulders, in the crevices and on +the top of which grew ferns, grasses, and stunted bushes. This mass was +about twenty-five feet high. The sides of the kloof here were also very +steep. Well, I came to the top of the nullah and looked all round. No +signs of the lion. Evidently I had either overlooked him further down +or he had escaped right away. It was very vexatious; but still three +lions were not a bad bag for one gun before dinner, and I was fain to be +content. Accordingly I departed back again, making my way round the +isolated pillar of boulders, beginning to feel, as I did so, that I was +pretty well done up with excitement and fatigue, and should be more so +before I had skinned those three lions. When I had got, as nearly as I +could judge, about eighteen yards past the pillar or mass of boulders, I +turned to have another look round. I have a pretty sharp eye, but I +could see nothing at all. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, on a sudden, I saw something sufficiently alarming. On the top +of the mass of boulders, opposite to me, standing out clear against the +rock beyond, was the huge black-maned lion. He had been crouching +there, and now arose as though by magic. There he stood lashing his +tail, just like a living reproduction of the animal on the gateway of +Northumberland House that I have seen in a picture. But he did not +stand long. Before I could fire—before I could do more than get the +gun to my shoulder—he sprang straight up and out from the rock, and +driven by the impetus of that one mighty bound came hurtling through the +air towards me. +</P> + +<P> +"Heavens! how grand he looked, and how awful! High into the air he +flew, describing a great arch. Just as he touched the highest point of +his spring I fired. I did not dare to wait, for I saw that he would +clear the whole space and land right upon me. Without a sight, almost +without aim, I fired, as one would fire a snap shot at a snipe. The +bullet told, for I distinctly heard its thud above the rushing sound +caused by the passage of the lion through the air. Next second I was +swept to the ground (luckily I fell into a low, creeper-clad bush, which +broke the shock), and the lion was on the top of me, and the next those +great white teeth of his had met in my thigh—I heard them grate against +the bone. I yelled out in agony, for I did not feel in the least +benumbed and happy, like Dr. Livingstone—whom, by the way, I knew very +well—and gave myself up for dead. But suddenly, at that moment, the +lion's grip on my thigh loosened, and he stood over me, swaying to and +fro, his huge mouth, from which the blood was gushing, wide opened. +Then he roared, and the sound shook the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +"To and fro he swung, and then the great head dropped on me, knocking +all the breath from my body, and he was dead. My bullet had entered in +the centre of his chest and passed out on the right side of the spine +about half way down the back. +</P> + +<P> +"The pain of my wound kept me from fainting, and as soon as I got my +breath I managed to drag myself from under him. Thank heavens, his +great teeth had not crushed my thigh-bone; but I was losing a great deal +of blood, and had it not been for the timely arrival of Tom, with whose +aid I loosed the handkerchief from my wrist and tied it round my leg, +twisting it tight with a stick, I think that I should have bled to +death. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it was a just reward for my folly in trying to tackle a family of +lions single-handed. The odds were too long. I have been lame ever +since, and shall be to my dying day; in the month of March the wound +always troubles me a great deal, and every three years it breaks out +raw. +</P> + +<P> +"I need scarcely add that I never traded the lot of ivory at Sikukuni's. +Another man got it—a German—and made five hundred pounds out of it +after paying expenses. I spent the next month on the broad of my back, +and was a cripple for six months after that. And now I've told you the +yarn, so I will have a drop of Hollands and go to bed. Good-night to +you all, good-night!" +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Long Odds, by H. Rider Haggard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LONG ODDS *** + +***** This file should be named 1918-h.htm or 1918-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/1918/ + +Produced by Christopher Hatka. 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Rider Haggard + +Release Date: February 12, 2010 [EBook #1918] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LONG ODDS *** + + + + +Produced by Christopher Hatka. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +A NOTE ON THE TEXT + +This Project Gutenberg edition is based on the text of the story as +reprinted in the collection, "Allan's Wife and other tales." + + + + + +LONG ODDS + +by + +H. Rider Haggard + + + + +The story which is narrated in the following pages came to me from the +lips of my old friend Allan Quatermain, or Hunter Quatermain, as we used +to call him in South Africa. He told it to me one evening when I was +stopping with him at the place he bought in Yorkshire. Shortly after +that, the death of his only son so unsettled him that he immediately +left England, accompanied by two companions, his old fellow-voyagers, +Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and has now utterly vanished into the +dark heart of Africa. He is persuaded that a white people, of which he +has heard rumours all his life, exists somewhere on the highlands in the +vast, still unexplored interior, and his great ambition is to find them +before he dies. This is the wild quest upon which he and his companions +have departed, and from which I shrewdly suspect they never will return. +One letter only have I received from the old gentleman, dated from a +mission station high up the Tana, a river on the east coast, about three +hundred miles north of Zanzibar. In it he says that they have gone +through many hardships and adventures, but are alive and well, and have +found traces which go far towards making him hope that the results of +their wild quest may be a "magnificent and unexampled discovery." I +greatly fear, however, that all he has discovered is death; for this +letter came a long while ago, and nobody has heard a single word of the +party since. They have totally vanished. + +It was on the last evening of my stay at his house that he told the +ensuing story to me and Captain Good, who was dining with him. He had +eaten his dinner and drunk two or three glasses of old port, just to +help Good and myself to the end of the second bottle. It was an unusual +thing for him to do, for he was a most abstemious man, having conceived, +as he used to say, a great horror of drink from observing its effects +upon the class of colonists--hunters, transport riders and +others--amongst whom he had passed so many years of his life. +Consequently the good wine took more effect on him than it would have +done on most men, sending a little flush into his wrinkled cheeks, and +making him talk more freely than usual. + +Dear old man! I can see him now, as he went limping up and down the +vestibule, with his grey hair sticking up in scrubbing-brush fashion, +his shrivelled yellow face, and his large dark eyes, that were as keen +as any hawk's, and yet soft as a buck's. The whole room was hung with +trophies of his numerous hunting expeditions, and he had some story +about every one of them, if only he could be got to tell it. Generally +he would not, for he was not very fond of narrating his own adventures, +but to-night the port wine made him more communicative. + +"Ah, you brute!" he said, stopping beneath an unusually large skull of a +lion, which was fixed just over the mantelpiece, beneath a long row of +guns, its jaws distended to their utmost width. "Ah, you brute! you +have given me a lot of trouble for the last dozen years, and will, I +suppose to my dying day." + +"Tell us the yarn, Quatermain," said Good. "You have often promised to +tell me, and you never have." + +"You had better not ask me to," he answered, "for it is a longish one." + +"All right," I said, "the evening is young, and there is some more +port." + +Thus adjured, he filled his pipe from a jar of coarse-cut Boer tobacco +that was always standing on the mantelpiece, and still walking up and +down the room, began-- + +"It was, I think, in the March of '69 that I was up in Sikukuni's +country. It was just after old Sequati's time, and Sikukuni had got +into power--I forget how. Anyway, I was there. I had heard that the +Bapedi people had brought down an enormous quantity of ivory from the +interior, and so I started with a waggon-load of goods, and came +straight away from Middelburg to try and trade some of it. It was a +risky thing to go into the country so early, on account of the fever; +but I knew that there were one or two others after that lot of ivory, so +I determined to have a try for it, and take my chance of fever. I had +become so tough from continual knocking about that I did not set it down +at much. + +"Well, I got on all right for a while. It is a wonderfully beautiful +piece of bush veldt, with great ranges of mountains running through it, +and round granite koppies starting up here and there, looking out like +sentinels over the rolling waste of bush. But it is very hot--hot as a +stew-pan--and when I was there that March, which, of course, is autumn +in this part of Africa, the whole place reeked of fever. Every morning, +as I trekked along down by the Oliphant River, I used to creep from the +waggon at dawn and look out. But there was no river to be seen--only a +long line of billows of what looked like the finest cotton wool tossed +up lightly with a pitchfork. It was the fever mist. Out from among the +scrub, too, came little spirals of vapour, as though there were hundreds +of tiny fires alight in it--reek rising from thousands of tons of +rotting vegetation. It was a beautiful place, but the beauty was the +beauty of death; and all those lines and blots of vapour wrote one great +word across the surface of the country, and that word was 'fever.' + +"It was a dreadful year of illness that. I came, I remember, to one +little kraal of Knobnoses, and went up to it to see if I could get some +'maas', or curdled butter-milk, and a few mealies. As I drew near I was +struck with the silence of the place. No children began to chatter, and +no dogs barked. Nor could I see any native sheep or cattle. The place, +though it had evidently been inhabited of late, was as still as the bush +round it, and some guinea-fowl got up out of the prickly pear bushes +right at the kraal gate. I remember that I hesitated a little before +going in, there was such an air of desolation about the spot. Nature +never looks desolate when man has not yet laid his hand upon her breast; +she is only lonely. But when man has been, and has passed away, then +she looks desolate. + +"Well, I passed into the kraal, and went up to the principal hut. In +front of the hut was something with an old sheep-skin kaross thrown over +it. I stooped down and drew off the rug, and then shrank back amazed, +for under it was the body of a young woman recently dead. For a moment +I thought of turning back, but my curiosity overcame me; so going past +the dead woman, I went down on my hands and knees and crept into the +hut. It was so dark that I could not see anything, though I could smell +a great deal, so I lit a match. It was a 'tandstickor' match, and burnt +slowly and dimly, and as the light gradually increased I made out what I +took to be a family of people, men, women, and children, fast asleep. +Presently it burnt up brightly, and I saw that they too, five of them +altogether, were quite dead. One was a baby. I dropped the match in a +hurry, and was making my way from the hut as quick as I could go, when I +caught sight of two bright eyes staring out of a corner. Thinking it +was a wild cat, or some such animal, I redoubled my haste, when suddenly +a voice near the eyes began first to mutter, and then to send up a +succession of awful yells. + +"Hastily I lit another match, and perceived that the eyes belonged to an +old woman, wrapped up in a greasy leather garment. Taking her by the +arm, I dragged her out, for she could not, or would not, come by +herself, and the stench was overpowering me. Such a sight as she was--a +bag of bones, covered over with black, shrivelled parchment. The only +white thing about her was her wool, and she seemed to be pretty well +dead except for her eyes and her voice. She thought that I was a devil +come to take her, and that is why she yelled so. Well, I got her down +to the waggon, and gave her a 'tot' of Cape smoke, and then, as soon as +it was ready, poured about a pint of beef-tea down her throat, made from +the flesh of a blue vilderbeeste I had killed the day before, and after +that she brightened up wonderfully. She could talk Zulu--indeed, it +turned out that she had run away from Zululand in T'Chaka's time--and +she told me that all the people whom I had seen had died of fever. When +they had died the other inhabitants of the kraal had taken the cattle +and gone away, leaving the poor old woman, who was helpless from age and +infirmity, to perish of starvation or disease, as the case might be. +She had been sitting there for three days among the bodies when I found +her. I took her on to the next kraal, and gave the headman a blanket to +look after her, promising him another if I found her well when I came +back. I remember that he was much astonished at my parting with two +blankets for the sake of such a worthless old creature. 'Why did I not +leave her in the bush?' he asked. Those people carry the doctrine of +the survival of the fittest to its extreme, you see. + +"It was the night after I had got rid of the old woman that I made my +first acquaintance with my friend yonder," and he nodded towards the +skull that seemed to be grinning down at us in the shadow of the wide +mantelshelf. "I had trekked from dawn till eleven o'clock--a long +trek--but I wanted to get on, and had turned the oxen out to graze, +sending the voorlooper to look after them, my intention being to inspan +again about six o'clock, and trek with the moon till ten. Then I got +into the waggon and had a good sleep till half-past two or so in the +afternoon, when I rose and cooked some meat, and had my dinner, washing +it down with a pannikin of black coffee--for it was difficult to get +preserved milk in those days. Just as I had finished, and the driver, a +man called Tom, was washing up the things, in comes the young scoundrel +of a voorlooper driving one ox before him. + +"'Where are the other oxen?' I asked. + +"'Koos!' he said, 'Koos! the other oxen have gone away. I turned my +back for a minute, and when I looked round again they were all gone +except Kaptein, here, who was rubbing his back against a tree.' + +"'You mean that you have been asleep, and let them stray, you villain. +I will rub your back against a stick,' I answered, feeling very angry, +for it was not a pleasant prospect to be stuck up in that fever trap for +a week or so while we were hunting for the oxen. 'Off you go, and you +too, Tom, and mind you don't come back till you have found them. They +have trekked back along the Middelburg Road, and are a dozen miles off +by now, I'll be bound. Now, no words; go both of you.' + +"Tom, the driver, swore, and caught the lad a hearty kick, which he +richly deserved, and then, having tied old Kaptein up to the disselboom +with a reim, they took their assegais and sticks, and started. I would +have gone too, only I knew that somebody must look after the waggon, and +I did not like to leave either of the boys with it at night. I was in a +very bad temper, indeed, although I was pretty well used to these sort +of occurrences, and soothed myself by taking a rifle and going to kill +something. For a couple of hours I poked about without seeing anything +that I could get a shot at, but at last, just as I was again within +seventy yards of the waggon, I put up an old Impala ram from behind a +mimosa thorn. He ran straight for the waggon, and it was not till he +was passing within a few feet of it that I could get a decent shot at +him. Then I pulled, and caught him half-way down the spine. Over he +went, dead as a door-nail, and a pretty shot it was, though I ought not +to say it. This little incident put me into rather a better humour, +especially as the buck had rolled right against the after-part of the +waggon, so I had only to gut him, fix a reim round his legs, and haul +him up. By the time I had done this the sun was down, and the full moon +was up, and a beautiful moon it was. And then there came that wonderful +hush which sometimes falls over the African bush in the early hours of +the night. No beast was moving, and no bird called. Not a breath of +air stirred the quiet trees, and the shadows did not even quiver, they +only grew. It was very oppressive and very lonely, for there was not a +sign of the cattle or the boys. I was quite thankful for the society of +old Kaptein, who was lying down contentedly against the disselboom, +chewing the cud with a good conscience. + +"Presently, however, Kaptein began to get restless. First he snorted, +then he got up and snorted again. I could not make it out, so like a +fool I got down off the waggon-box to have a look round, thinking it +might be the lost oxen coming. + +"Next instant I regretted it, for all of a sudden I heard a roar and saw +something yellow flash past me and light on poor Kaptein. Then came a +bellow of agony from the ox, and a crunch as the lion put his teeth +through the poor brute's neck, and I began to understand what had +happened. My rifle was in the waggon, and my first thought being to get +hold of it, I turned and made a bolt for the box. I got my foot up on +the wheel and flung my body forward on to the waggon, and there I +stopped as if I were frozen, and no wonder, for as I was about to spring +up I heard the lion behind me, and next second I felt the brute, ay, as +plainly as I can feel this table. I felt him, I say, sniffing at my +left leg that was hanging down. + +"My word! I did feel queer; I don't think that I ever felt so queer +before. I dared not move for the life of me, and the odd thing was that +I seemed to lose power over my leg, which developed an insane sort of +inclination to kick out of its own mere motion--just as hysterical +people want to laugh when they ought to be particularly solemn. Well, +the lion sniffed and sniffed, beginning at my ankle and slowly nosing +away up to my thigh. I thought that he was going to get hold then, but +he did not. He only growled softly, and went back to the ox. Shifting +my head a little I got a full view of him. He was about the biggest +lion I ever saw, and I have seen a great many, and he had a most +tremendous black mane. What his teeth were like you can see--look +there, pretty big ones, ain't they? Altogether he was a magnificent +animal, and as I lay sprawling on the fore-tongue of the waggon, it +occurred to me that he would look uncommonly well in a cage. He stood +there by the carcass of poor Kaptein, and deliberately disembowelled him +as neatly as a butcher could have done. All this while I dared not +move, for he kept lifting his head and keeping an eye on me as he licked +his bloody chops. When he had cleaned Kaptein out he opened his mouth +and roared, and I am not exaggerating when I say that the sound shook +the waggon. Instantly there came back an answering roar. + +"'Heavens!' I thought, 'there is his mate.' + +"Hardly was the thought out of my head when I caught sight in the +moonlight of the lioness bounding along through the long grass, and +after her a couple of cubs about the size of mastiffs. She stopped +within a few feet of my head, and stood, waved her tail, and fixed me +with her glowing yellow eyes; but just as I thought that it was all over +she turned and began to feed on Kaptein, and so did the cubs. There +were the four of them within eight feet of me, growling and quarrelling, +rending and tearing, and crunching poor Kaptein's bones; and there I lay +shaking with terror, and the cold perspiration pouring out of me, +feeling like another Daniel come to judgment in a new sense of the +phrase. Presently the cubs had eaten their fill, and began to get +restless. One went round to the back of the waggon and pulled at the +Impala buck that hung there, and the other came round my way and +commenced the sniffing game at my leg. Indeed, he did more than that, +for, my trouser being hitched up a little, he began to lick the bare +skin with his rough tongue. The more he licked the more he liked it, to +judge from his increased vigour and the loud purring noise he made. +Then I knew that the end had come, for in another second his file-like +tongue would have rasped through the skin of my leg--which was luckily +pretty tough--and have drawn the blood, and then there would be no +chance for me. So I just lay there and thought of my sins, and prayed +to the Almighty, and reflected that after all life was a very enjoyable +thing. + +"Then of a sudden I heard a crashing of bushes and the shouting and +whistling of men, and there were the two boys coming back with the +cattle, which they had found trekking along all together. The lions +lifted their heads and listened, then bounded off without a sound--and I +fainted. + +"The lions came back no more that night, and by the next morning my +nerves had got pretty straight again; but I was full of wrath when I +thought of all that I had gone through at the hands, or rather noses, of +those four brutes, and of the fate of my after-ox Kaptein. He was a +splendid ox, and I was very fond of him. So wroth was I that like a +fool I determined to attack the whole family of them. It was worthy of +a greenhorn out on his first hunting trip; but I did it nevertheless. +Accordingly after breakfast, having rubbed some oil upon my leg, which +was very sore from the cub's tongue, I took the driver, Tom, who did not +half like the business, and having armed myself with an ordinary double +No. 12 smoothbore, the first breechloader I ever had, I started. I took +the smoothbore because it shot a bullet very well; and my experience has +been that a round ball from a smoothbore is quite as effective against a +lion as an express bullet. The lion is soft, and not a difficult animal +to finish if you hit him anywhere in the body. A buck takes far more +killing. + +"Well, I started, and the first thing I set to work to do was to try to +discover whereabouts the brutes lay up for the day. About three hundred +yards from the waggon was the crest of a rise covered with single mimosa +trees, dotted about in a park-like fashion, and beyond this lay a +stretch of open plain running down to a dry pan, or water-hole, which +covered about an acre of ground, and was densely clothed with reeds, now +in the sere and yellow leaf. From the further edge of this pan the +ground sloped up again to a great cleft, or nullah, which had been cut +out by the action of the water, and was pretty thickly sprinkled with +bush, amongst which grew some large trees, I forget of what sort. + +"It at once struck me that the dry pan would be a likely place to find +my friends in, as there is nothing a lion is fonder of than lying up in +reeds, through which he can see things without being seen himself. +Accordingly thither I went and prospected. Before I had got half-way +round the pan I found the remains of a blue vilderbeeste that had +evidently been killed within the last three or four days and partially +devoured by lions; and from other indications about I was soon assured +that if the family were not in the pan that day they spent a good deal +of their spare time there. But if there, the question was how to get +them out; for it was clearly impossible to think of going in after them +unless one was quite determined to commit suicide. Now there was a +strong wind blowing from the direction of the waggon, across the reedy +pan towards the bush-clad kloof or donga, and this first gave me the +idea of firing the reeds, which, as I think I told you, were pretty dry. +Accordingly Tom took some matches and began starting little fires to +the left, and I did the same to the right. But the reeds were still +green at the bottom, and we should never have got them well alight had +it not been for the wind, which grew stronger and stronger as the sun +climbed higher, and forced the fire into them. At last, after +half-an-hour's trouble, the flames got a hold, and began to spread out +like a fan, whereupon I went round to the further side of the pan to +wait for the lions, standing well out in the open, as we stood at the +copse to-day where you shot the woodcock. It was a rather risky thing +to do, but I used to be so sure of my shooting in those days that I did +not so much mind the risk. Scarcely had I got round when I heard the +reeds parting before the onward rush of some animal. 'Now for it,' said +I. On it came. I could see that it was yellow, and prepared for +action, when instead of a lion out bounded a beautiful reit bok which +had been lying in the shelter of the pan. It must, by the way, have +been a reit bok of a peculiarly confiding nature to lay itself down with +the lion, like the lamb of prophesy, but I suppose the reeds were thick, +and that it kept a long way off. + +"Well, I let the reit bok go, and it went like the wind, and kept my +eyes fixed upon the reeds. The fire was burning like a furnace now; the +flames crackling and roaring as they bit into the reeds, sending spouts +of fire twenty feet and more into the air, and making the hot air dance +above in a way that was perfectly dazzling. But the reeds were still +half green, and created an enormous quantity of smoke, which came +rolling towards me like a curtain, lying very low on account of the +wind. Presently, above the crackling of the fire, I heard a startled +roar, then another and another. So the lions were at home. + +"I was beginning to get excited now, for, as you fellows know, there is +nothing in experience to warm up your nerves like a lion at close +quarters, unless it is a wounded buffalo; and I became still more so +when I made out through the smoke that the lions were all moving about +on the extreme edge of the reeds. Occasionally they would pop their +heads out like rabbits from a burrow, and then, catching sight of me +standing about fifty yards away, draw them back again. I knew that it +must be getting pretty warm behind them, and that they could not keep +the game up for long; and I was not mistaken, for suddenly all four of +them broke cover together, the old black-maned lion leading by a few +yards. I never saw a more splendid sight in all my hunting experience +than those four lions bounding across the veldt, overshadowed by the +dense pall of smoke and backed by the fiery furnace of the burning +reeds. + +"I reckoned that they would pass, on their way to the bushy kloof, +within about five and twenty yards of me, so, taking a long breath, I +got my gun well on to the lion's shoulder--the black-maned one--so as to +allow for an inch or two of motion, and catch him through the heart. I +was on, dead on, and my finger was just beginning to tighten on the +trigger, when suddenly I went blind--a bit of reed-ash had drifted into +my right eye. I danced and rubbed, and succeeded in clearing it more or +less just in time to see the tail of the last lion vanishing round the +bushes up the kloof. + +"If ever a man was mad I was that man. It was too bad; and such a shot +in the open! However, I was not going to be beaten, so I just turned +and marched for the kloof. Tom, the driver, begged and implored me not +to go, but though as a general rule I never pretend to be very brave +(which I am not), I was determined that I would either kill those lions +or they should kill me. So I told Tom that he need not come unless he +liked, but I was going; and being a plucky fellow, a Swazi by birth, he +shrugged his shoulders, muttered that I was mad or bewitched, and +followed doggedly in my tracks. + +"We soon reached the kloof, which was about three hundred yards in +length and but sparsely wooded, and then the real fun began. There +might be a lion behind every bush--there certainly were four lions +somewhere; the delicate question was, where. I peeped and poked and +looked in every possible direction, with my heart in my mouth, and was +at last rewarded by catching a glimpse of something yellow moving behind +a bush. At the same moment, from another bush opposite me out burst one +of the cubs and galloped back towards the burnt pan. I whipped round +and let drive a snap shot that tipped him head over heels, breaking his +back within two inches of the root of the tail, and there he lay +helpless but glaring. Tom afterwards killed him with his assegai. I +opened the breech of the gun and hurriedly pulled out the old case, +which, to judge from what ensued, must, I suppose, have burst and left a +portion of its fabric sticking to the barrel. At any rate, when I tried +to, get in the new cartridge it would only enter half-way; and--would +you believe it?--this was the moment that the lioness, attracted no +doubt by the outcry of her cub, chose to put in an appearance. There +she stood, twenty paces or so from me, lashing her tail and looking just +as wicked as it is possible to conceive. Slowly I stepped backwards, +trying to push in the new case, and as I did so she moved on in little +runs, dropping down after each run. The danger was imminent, and the +case would not go in. At the moment I oddly enough thought of the +cartridge maker, whose name I will not mention, and earnestly hoped that +if the lion got _me_ some condign punishment would overtake _him._ It +would not go in, so I tried to pull it out. It would not come out +either, and my gun was useless if I could not shut it to use the other +barrel. I might as well have had no gun. + +"Meanwhile I was walking backward, keeping my eye on the lioness, who +was creeping forward on her belly without a sound, but lashing her tail +and keeping her eye on me; and in it I saw that she was coming in a few +seconds more. I dashed my wrist and the palm of my hand against the +brass rim of the cartridge till the blood poured from them--look, there +are the scars of it to this day!" + +Here Quatermain held up his right hand to the light and showed us four +or five white cicatrices just where the wrist is set into the hand. + +"But it was not of the slightest use," he went on, "the cartridge would +not move. I only hope that no other man will ever be put in such an +awful position. The lioness gathered herself together, and I gave +myself up for lost, when suddenly Tom shouted out from somewhere in my +rear-- + +"'You are walking on to the wounded cub; turn to the right.' + +"I had the sense, dazed as I was, to take the hint, and slewing round at +right-angles, but still keeping my eyes on the lioness, I continued my +backward walk. + +"To my intense relief, with a low growl she straightened herself, +turned, and bounded further up the kloof. + +"'Come on, Macumazahn,' said Tom, 'let's get back to the waggon.' + +"'All right, Tom,' I answered. 'I will when I have killed those three +other lions,' for by this time I was bent on shooting them as I never +remember being bent on anything before or since. 'You can go if you +like, or you can get up a tree.' + +"He considered the position a little, and then he very wisely got up a +tree. I wish that I had done the same. + +"Meanwhile I had found my knife, which had an extractor in it, and +succeeded after some difficulty in pulling out the cartridge which had +so nearly been the cause of my death, and removing the obstruction in +the barrel. It was very little thicker than a postage-stamp; certainly +not thicker than a piece of writing-paper. This done, I loaded the gun, +bound a handkerchief round my wrist and hand to staunch the flowing of +the blood, and started on again. + +"I had noticed that the lioness went into a thick green bush, or rather +cluster of bushes, growing near the water, about fifty yards higher up, +for there was a little stream running down the kloof, and I walked +towards this bush. When I got there, however, I could see nothing, so I +took up a big stone and threw it into the bushes. I believe that it hit +the other cub, for out it came with a rush, giving me a broadside shot, +of which I promptly availed myself, knocking it over dead. Out, too, +came the lioness like a flash of light, but quick as she went I managed +to put the other bullet into her ribs, so that she rolled right over +three times like a shot rabbit. I instantly got two more cartridges +into the gun, and as I did so the lioness rose again and came crawling +towards me on her fore-paws, roaring and groaning, and with such an +expression of diabolical fury on her countenance as I have not often +seen. I shot her again through the chest, and she fell over on to her +side quite dead. + +"That was the first and last time that I ever killed a brace of lions +right and left, and, what is more, I never heard of anybody else doing +it. Naturally I was considerably pleased with myself, and having again +loaded up, I went on to look for the black-maned beauty who had killed +Kaptein. Slowly, and with the greatest care, I proceeded up the kloof, +searching every bush and tuft of grass as I went. It was wonderfully +exciting, work, for I never was sure from one moment to another but that +he would be on me. I took comfort, however, from the reflection that a +lion rarely attacks a man--rarely, I say; sometimes he does, as you will +see--unless he is cornered or wounded. I must have been nearly an hour +hunting after that lion. Once I thought I saw something move in a clump +of tambouki grass, but I could not be sure, and when I trod out the +grass I could not find him. + +"At last I worked up to the head of the kloof, which made a cul-de-sac. +It was formed of a wall of rock about fifty feet high. Down this rock +trickled a little waterfall, and in front of it, some seventy feet from +its face, rose a great piled-up mass of boulders, in the crevices and on +the top of which grew ferns, grasses, and stunted bushes. This mass was +about twenty-five feet high. The sides of the kloof here were also very +steep. Well, I came to the top of the nullah and looked all round. No +signs of the lion. Evidently I had either overlooked him further down +or he had escaped right away. It was very vexatious; but still three +lions were not a bad bag for one gun before dinner, and I was fain to be +content. Accordingly I departed back again, making my way round the +isolated pillar of boulders, beginning to feel, as I did so, that I was +pretty well done up with excitement and fatigue, and should be more so +before I had skinned those three lions. When I had got, as nearly as I +could judge, about eighteen yards past the pillar or mass of boulders, I +turned to have another look round. I have a pretty sharp eye, but I +could see nothing at all. + +"Then, on a sudden, I saw something sufficiently alarming. On the top +of the mass of boulders, opposite to me, standing out clear against the +rock beyond, was the huge black-maned lion. He had been crouching +there, and now arose as though by magic. There he stood lashing his +tail, just like a living reproduction of the animal on the gateway of +Northumberland House that I have seen in a picture. But he did not +stand long. Before I could fire--before I could do more than get the +gun to my shoulder--he sprang straight up and out from the rock, and +driven by the impetus of that one mighty bound came hurtling through the +air towards me. + +"Heavens! how grand he looked, and how awful! High into the air he +flew, describing a great arch. Just as he touched the highest point of +his spring I fired. I did not dare to wait, for I saw that he would +clear the whole space and land right upon me. Without a sight, almost +without aim, I fired, as one would fire a snap shot at a snipe. The +bullet told, for I distinctly heard its thud above the rushing sound +caused by the passage of the lion through the air. Next second I was +swept to the ground (luckily I fell into a low, creeper-clad bush, which +broke the shock), and the lion was on the top of me, and the next those +great white teeth of his had met in my thigh--I heard them grate against +the bone. I yelled out in agony, for I did not feel in the least +benumbed and happy, like Dr. Livingstone--whom, by the way, I knew very +well--and gave myself up for dead. But suddenly, at that moment, the +lion's grip on my thigh loosened, and he stood over me, swaying to and +fro, his huge mouth, from which the blood was gushing, wide opened. +Then he roared, and the sound shook the rocks. + +"To and fro he swung, and then the great head dropped on me, knocking +all the breath from my body, and he was dead. My bullet had entered in +the centre of his chest and passed out on the right side of the spine +about half way down the back. + +"The pain of my wound kept me from fainting, and as soon as I got my +breath I managed to drag myself from under him. Thank heavens, his +great teeth had not crushed my thigh-bone; but I was losing a great deal +of blood, and had it not been for the timely arrival of Tom, with whose +aid I loosed the handkerchief from my wrist and tied it round my leg, +twisting it tight with a stick, I think that I should have bled to +death. + +"Well, it was a just reward for my folly in trying to tackle a family of +lions single-handed. The odds were too long. I have been lame ever +since, and shall be to my dying day; in the month of March the wound +always troubles me a great deal, and every three years it breaks out +raw. + +"I need scarcely add that I never traded the lot of ivory at Sikukuni's. +Another man got it--a German--and made five hundred pounds out of it +after paying expenses. I spent the next month on the broad of my back, +and was a cripple for six months after that. And now I've told you the +yarn, so I will have a drop of Hollands and go to bed. Good-night to +you all, good-night!" + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Long Odds, by H. Rider Haggard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LONG ODDS *** + +***** This file should be named 1918.txt or 1918.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/1918/ + +Produced by Christopher Hatka. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Christopher Hapka, Sunnyvale, California. + + + + + +A NOTE ON THE TEXT + +This Project Gutenberg edition is based on the text of the story as +reprinted in the collection, "Allan's Wife and other tales." + + + + + +LONG ODDS + + + + +The story which is narrated in the following pages came to me from the +lips of my old friend Allan Quatermain, or Hunter Quatermain, as we used +to call him in South Africa. He told it to me one evening when I was +stopping with him at the place he bought in Yorkshire. Shortly after +that, the death of his only son so unsettled him that he immediately +left England, accompanied by two companions, his old fellow-voyagers, +Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and has now utterly vanished into the +dark heart of Africa. He is persuaded that a white people, of which he +has heard rumours all his life, exists somewhere on the highlands in the +vast, still unexplored interior, and his great ambition is to find them +before he dies. This is the wild quest upon which he and his companions +have departed, and from which I shrewdly suspect they never will return. + One letter only have I received from the old gentleman, dated from a +mission station high up the Tana, a river on the east coast, about three +hundred miles north of Zanzibar. In it he says that they have gone +through many hardships and adventures, but are alive and well, and have +found traces which go far towards making him hope that the results of +their wild quest may be a "magnificent and unexampled discovery." I +greatly fear, however, that all he has discovered is death; for this +letter came a long while ago, and nobody has heard a single word of the +party since. They have totally vanished. + +It was on the last evening of my stay at his house that he told the +ensuing story to me and Captain Good, who was dining with him. He had +eaten his dinner and drunk two or three glasses of old port, just to +help Good and myself to the end of the second bottle. It was an unusual +thing for him to do, for he was a most abstemious man, having conceived, +as he used to say, a great horror of drink from observing its effects +upon the class of colonists--hunters, transport riders and +others--amongst whom he had passed so many years of his life. +Consequently the good wine took more effect on him than it would have +done on most men, sending a little flush into his wrinkled cheeks, and +making him talk more freely than usual. + +Dear old man! I can see him now, as he went limping up and down the +vestibule, with his grey hair sticking up in scrubbing-brush fashion, +his shrivelled yellow face, and his large dark eyes, that were as keen +as any hawk's, and yet soft as a buck's. The whole room was hung with +trophies of his numerous hunting expeditions, and he had some story +about every one of them, if only he could be got to tell it. Generally +he would not, for he was not very fond of narrating his own adventures, +but to-night the port wine made him more communicative. + +"Ah, you brute!" he said, stopping beneath an unusually large skull of a +lion, which was fixed just over the mantelpiece, beneath a long row of +guns, its jaws distended to their utmost width. "Ah, you brute! you +have given me a lot of trouble for the last dozen years, and will, I +suppose to my dying day." + +"Tell us the yarn, Quatermain," said Good. "You have often promised to +tell me, and you never have." + +"You had better not ask me to," he answered, "for it is a longish one." + +"All right," I said, "the evening is young, and there is some more +port." + +Thus adjured, he filled his pipe from a jar of coarse-cut Boer tobacco +that was always standing on the mantelpiece, and still walking up and +down the room, began-- + +"It was, I think, in the March of '69 that I was up in Sikukuni's +country. It was just after old Sequati's time, and Sikukuni had got +into power--I forget how. Anyway, I was there. I had heard that the +Bapedi people had brought down an enormous quantity of ivory from the +interior, and so I started with a waggon-load of goods, and came +straight away from Middelburg to try and trade some of it. It was a +risky thing to go into the country so early, on account of the fever; +but I knew that there were one or two others after that lot of ivory, so +I determined to have a try for it, and take my chance of fever. I had +become so tough from continual knocking about that I did not set it down +at much. + +"Well, I got on all right for a while. It is a wonderfully beautiful +piece of bush veldt, with great ranges of mountains running through it, +and round granite koppies starting up here and there, looking out like +sentinels over the rolling waste of bush. But it is very hot--hot as a +stew-pan--and when I was there that March, which, of course, is autumn +in this part of Africa, the whole place reeked of fever. Every morning, +as I trekked along down by the Oliphant River, I used to creep from the +waggon at dawn and look out. But there was no river to be seen--only a +long line of billows of what looked like the finest cotton wool tossed +up lightly with a pitchfork. It was the fever mist. Out from among the +scrub, too, came little spirals of vapour, as though there were hundreds +of tiny fires alight in it--reek rising from thousands of tons of +rotting vegetation. It was a beautiful place, but the beauty was the +beauty of death; and all those lines and blots of vapour wrote one great +word across the surface of the country, and that word was 'fever.' + +"It was a dreadful year of illness that. I came, I remember, to one +little kraal of Knobnoses, and went up to it to see if I could get some +'maas', or curdled butter-milk, and a few mealies. As I drew near I was +struck with the silence of the place. No children began to chatter, and +no dogs barked. Nor could I see any native sheep or cattle. The place, +though it had evidently been inhabited of late, was as still as the bush +round it, and some guinea-fowl got up out of the prickly pear bushes +right at the kraal gate. I remember that I hesitated a little before +going in, there was such an air of desolation about the spot. Nature +never looks desolate when man has not yet laid his hand upon her breast; +she is only lonely. But when man has been, and has passed away, then +she looks desolate. + +"Well, I passed into the kraal, and went up to the principal hut. In +front of the hut was something with an old sheep-skin kaross thrown over +it. I stooped down and drew off the rug, and then shrank back amazed, +for under it was the body of a young woman recently dead. For a moment +I thought of turning back, but my curiosity overcame me; so going past +the dead woman, I went down on my hands and knees and crept into the +hut. It was so dark that I could not see anything, though I could smell +a great deal, so I lit a match. It was a 'tandstickor' match, and burnt +slowly and dimly, and as the light gradually increased I made out what I +took to be a family of people, men, women, and children, fast asleep. +Presently it burnt up brightly, and I saw that they too, five of them +altogether, were quite dead. One was a baby. I dropped the match in a +hurry, and was making my way from the hut as quick as I could go, when I +caught sight of two bright eyes staring out of a corner. Thinking it +was a wild cat, or some such animal, I redoubled my haste, when suddenly +a voice near the eyes began first to mutter, and then to send up a +succession of awful yells. + +"Hastily I lit another match, and perceived that the eyes belonged to an +old woman, wrapped up in a greasy leather garment. Taking her by the +arm, I dragged her out, for she could not, or would not, come by +herself, and the stench was overpowering me. Such a sight as she was--a +bag of bones, covered over with black, shrivelled parchment. The only +white thing about her was her wool, and she seemed to be pretty well +dead except for her eyes and her voice. She thought that I was a devil +come to take her, and that is why she yelled so. Well, I got her down +to the waggon, and gave her a 'tot' of Cape smoke, and then, as soon as +it was ready, poured about a pint of beef-tea down her throat, made from +the flesh of a blue vilderbeeste I had killed the day before, and after +that she brightened up wonderfully. She could talk Zulu--indeed, it +turned out that she had run away from Zululand in T'Chaka's time--and +she told me that all the people whom I had seen had died of fever. When +they had died the other inhabitants of the kraal had taken the cattle +and gone away, leaving the poor old woman, who was helpless from age and +infirmity, to perish of starvation or disease, as the case might be. +She had been sitting there for three days among the bodies when I found +her. I took her on to the next kraal, and gave the headman a blanket to +look after her, promising him another if I found her well when I came +back. I remember that he was much astonished at my parting with two +blankets for the sake of such a worthless old creature. 'Why did I not +leave her in the bush?' he asked. Those people carry the doctrine of +the survival of the fittest to its extreme, you see. + +"It was the night after I had got rid of the old woman that I made my +first acquaintance with my friend yonder," and he nodded towards the +skull that seemed to be grinning down at us in the shadow of the wide +mantelshelf. "I had trekked from dawn till eleven o'clock--a long +trek--but I wanted to get on, and had turned the oxen out to graze, +sending the voorlooper to look after them, my intention being to inspan +again about six o'clock, and trek with the moon till ten. Then I got +into the waggon and had a good sleep till half-past two or so in the +afternoon, when I rose and cooked some meat, and had my dinner, washing +it down with a pannikin of black coffee--for it was difficult to get +preserved milk in those days. Just as I had finished, and the driver, a +man called Tom, was washing up the things, in comes the young scoundrel +of a voorlooper driving one ox before him. + +"'Where are the other oxen?' I asked. + +"'Koos!' he said, 'Koos! the other oxen have gone away. I turned my +back for a minute, and when I looked round again they were all gone +except Kaptein, here, who was rubbing his back against a tree.' + +"'You mean that you have been asleep, and let them stray, you villain. +I will rub your back against a stick,' I answered, feeling very angry, +for it was not a pleasant prospect to be stuck up in that fever trap for +a week or so while we were hunting for the oxen. 'Off you go, and you +too, Tom, and mind you don't come back till you have found them. They +have trekked back along the Middelburg Road, and are a dozen miles off +by now, I'll be bound. Now, no words; go both of you.' + +"Tom, the driver, swore, and caught the lad a hearty kick, which he +richly deserved, and then, having tied old Kaptein up to the disselboom +with a reim, they took their assegais and sticks, and started. I would +have gone too, only I knew that somebody must look after the waggon, and +I did not like to leave either of the boys with it at night. I was in a +very bad temper, indeed, although I was pretty well used to these sort +of occurrences, and soothed myself by taking a rifle and going to kill +something. For a couple of hours I poked about without seeing anything +that I could get a shot at, but at last, just as I was again within +seventy yards of the waggon, I put up an old Impala ram from behind a +mimosa thorn. He ran straight for the waggon, and it was not till he +was passing within a few feet of it that I could get a decent shot at +him. Then I pulled, and caught him half-way down the spine. Over he +went, dead as a door-nail, and a pretty shot it was, though I ought not +to say it. This little incident put me into rather a better humour, +especially as the buck had rolled right against the after-part of the +waggon, so I had only to gut him, fix a reim round his legs, and haul +him up. By the time I had done this the sun was down, and the full moon +was up, and a beautiful moon it was. And then there came that wonderful +hush which sometimes falls over the African bush in the early hours of +the night. No beast was moving, and no bird called. Not a breath of +air stirred the quiet trees, and the shadows did not even quiver, they +only grew. It was very oppressive and very lonely, for there was not a +sign of the cattle or the boys. I was quite thankful for the society of +old Kaptein, who was lying down contentedly against the disselboom, +chewing the cud with a good conscience. + +"Presently, however, Kaptein began to get restless. First he snorted, +then he got up and snorted again. I could not make it out, so like a +fool I got down off the waggon-box to have a look round, thinking it +might be the lost oxen coming. + +"Next instant I regretted it, for all of a sudden I heard a roar and saw +something yellow flash past me and light on poor Kaptein. Then came a +bellow of agony from the ox, and a crunch as the lion put his teeth +through the poor brute's neck, and I began to understand what had +happened. My rifle was in the waggon, and my first thought being to get +hold of it, I turned and made a bolt for the box. I got my foot up on +the wheel and flung my body forward on to the waggon, and there I +stopped as if I were frozen, and no wonder, for as I was about to spring +up I heard the lion behind me, and next second I felt the brute, ay, as +plainly as I can feel this table. I felt him, I say, sniffing at my +left leg that was hanging down. + +"My word! I did feel queer; I don't think that I ever felt so queer +before. I dared not move for the life of me, and the odd thing was that +I seemed to lose power over my leg, which developed an insane sort of +inclination to kick out of its own mere motion--just as hysterical +people want to laugh when they ought to be particularly solemn. Well, +the lion sniffed and sniffed, beginning at my ankle and slowly nosing +away up to my thigh. I thought that he was going to get hold then, but +he did not. He only growled softly, and went back to the ox. Shifting +my head a little I got a full view of him. He was about the biggest +lion I ever saw, and I have seen a great many, and he had a most +tremendous black mane. What his teeth were like you can see--look +there, pretty big ones, ain't they? Altogether he was a magnificent +animal, and as I lay sprawling on the fore-tongue of the waggon, it +occurred to me that he would look uncommonly well in a cage. He stood +there by the carcass of poor Kaptein, and deliberately disembowelled him +as neatly as a butcher could have done. All this while I dared not +move, for he kept lifting his head and keeping an eye on me as he licked +his bloody chops. When he had cleaned Kaptein out he opened his mouth +and roared, and I am not exaggerating when I say that the sound shook +the waggon. Instantly there came back an answering roar. + +"'Heavens!' I thought, 'there is his mate.' + +"Hardly was the thought out of my head when I caught sight in the +moonlight of the lioness bounding along through the long grass, and +after her a couple of cubs about the size of mastiffs. She stopped +within a few feet of my head, and stood, waved her tail, and fixed me +with her glowing yellow eyes; but just as I thought that it was all over +she turned and began to feed on Kaptein, and so did the cubs. There +were the four of them within eight feet of me, growling and quarrelling, +rending and tearing, and crunching poor Kaptein's bones; and there I lay +shaking with terror, and the cold perspiration pouring out of me, +feeling like another Daniel come to judgment in a new sense of the +phrase. Presently the cubs had eaten their fill, and began to get +restless. One went round to the back of the waggon and pulled at the +Impala buck that hung there, and the other came round my way and +commenced the sniffing game at my leg. Indeed, he did more than that, +for, my trouser being hitched up a little, he began to lick the bare +skin with his rough tongue. The more he licked the more he liked it, to +judge from his increased vigour and the loud purring noise he made. +Then I knew that the end had come, for in another second his file-like +tongue would have rasped through the skin of my leg--which was luckily +pretty tough--and have drawn the blood, and then there would be no +chance for me. So I just lay there and thought of my sins, and prayed +to the Almighty, and reflected that after all life was a very enjoyable +thing. + +"Then of a sudden I heard a crashing of bushes and the shouting and +whistling of men, and there were the two boys coming back with the +cattle, which they had found trekking along all together. The lions +lifted their heads and listened, then bounded off without a sound--and I +fainted. + +"The lions came back no more that night, and by the next morning my +nerves had got pretty straight again; but I was full of wrath when I +thought of all that I had gone through at the hands, or rather noses, of +those four brutes, and of the fate of my after-ox Kaptein. He was a +splendid ox, and I was very fond of him. So wroth was I that like a +fool I determined to attack the whole family of them. It was worthy of +a greenhorn out on his first hunting trip; but I did it nevertheless. +Accordingly after breakfast, having rubbed some oil upon my leg, which +was very sore from the cub's tongue, I took the driver, Tom, who did not +half like the business, and having armed myself with an ordinary double +No. 12 smoothbore, the first breechloader I ever had, I started. I took +the smoothbore because it shot a bullet very well; and my experience has +been that a round ball from a smoothbore is quite as effective against a +lion as an express bullet. The lion is soft, and not a difficult animal +to finish if you hit him anywhere in the body. A buck takes far more +killing. + +"Well, I started, and the first thing I set to work to do was to try to +discover whereabouts the brutes lay up for the day. About three hundred +yards from the waggon was the crest of a rise covered with single mimosa +trees, dotted about in a park-like fashion, and beyond this lay a +stretch of open plain running down to a dry pan, or water-hole, which +covered about an acre of ground, and was densely clothed with reeds, now +in the sere and yellow leaf. From the further edge of this pan the +ground sloped up again to a great cleft, or nullah, which had been cut +out by the action of the water, and was pretty thickly sprinkled with +bush, amongst which grew some large trees, I forget of what sort. + +"It at once struck me that the dry pan would be a likely place to find +my friends in, as there is nothing a lion is fonder of than lying up in +reeds, through which he can see things without being seen himself. +Accordingly thither I went and prospected. Before I had got half-way +round the pan I found the remains of a blue vilderbeeste that had +evidently been killed within the last three or four days and partially +devoured by lions; and from other indications about I was soon assured +that if the family were not in the pan that day they spent a good deal +of their spare time there. But if there, the question was how to get +them out; for it was clearly impossible to think of going in after them +unless one was quite determined to commit suicide. Now there was a +strong wind blowing from the direction of the waggon, across the reedy +pan towards the bush-clad kloof or donga, and this first gave me the +idea of firing the reeds, which, as I think I told you, were pretty dry. + Accordingly Tom took some matches and began starting little fires to +the left, and I did the same to the right. But the reeds were still +green at the bottom, and we should never have got them well alight had +it not been for the wind, which grew stronger and stronger as the sun +climbed higher, and forced the fire into them. At last, after +half-an-hour's trouble, the flames got a hold, and began to spread out +like a fan, whereupon I went round to the further side of the pan to +wait for the lions, standing well out in the open, as we stood at the +copse to-day where you shot the woodcock. It was a rather risky thing +to do, but I used to be so sure of my shooting in those days that I did +not so much mind the risk. Scarcely had I got round when I heard the +reeds parting before the onward rush of some animal. 'Now for it,' said +I. On it came. I could see that it was yellow, and prepared for +action, when instead of a lion out bounded a beautiful reit bok which +had been lying in the shelter of the pan. It must, by the way, have +been a reit bok of a peculiarly confiding nature to lay itself down with +the lion, like the lamb of prophesy, but I suppose the reeds were thick, +and that it kept a long way off. + +"Well, I let the reit bok go, and it went like the wind, and kept my +eyes fixed upon the reeds. The fire was burning like a furnace now; the +flames crackling and roaring as they bit into the reeds, sending spouts +of fire twenty feet and more into the air, and making the hot air dance +above in a way that was perfectly dazzling. But the reeds were still +half green, and created an enormous quantity of smoke, which came +rolling towards me like a curtain, lying very low on account of the +wind. Presently, above the crackling of the fire, I heard a startled +roar, then another and another. So the lions were at home. + +"I was beginning to get excited now, for, as you fellows know, there is +nothing in experience to warm up your nerves like a lion at close +quarters, unless it is a wounded buffalo; and I became still more so +when I made out through the smoke that the lions were all moving about +on the extreme edge of the reeds. Occasionally they would pop their +heads out like rabbits from a burrow, and then, catching sight of me +standing about fifty yards away, draw them back again. I knew that it +must be getting pretty warm behind them, and that they could not keep +the game up for long; and I was not mistaken, for suddenly all four of +them broke cover together, the old black-maned lion leading by a few +yards. I never saw a more splendid sight in all my hunting experience +than those four lions bounding across the veldt, overshadowed by the +dense pall of smoke and backed by the fiery furnace of the burning +reeds. + +"I reckoned that they would pass, on their way to the bushy kloof, +within about five and twenty yards of me, so, taking a long breath, I +got my gun well on to the lion's shoulder--the black-maned one--so as to +allow for an inch or two of motion, and catch him through the heart. I +was on, dead on, and my finger was just beginning to tighten on the +trigger, when suddenly I went blind--a bit of reed-ash had drifted into +my right eye. I danced and rubbed, and succeeded in clearing it more or +less just in time to see the tail of the last lion vanishing round the +bushes up the kloof. + +"If ever a man was mad I was that man. It was too bad; and such a shot +in the open! However, I was not going to be beaten, so I just turned +and marched for the kloof. Tom, the driver, begged and implored me not +to go, but though as a general rule I never pretend to be very brave +(which I am not), I was determined that I would either kill those lions +or they should kill me. So I told Tom that he need not come unless he +liked, but I was going; and being a plucky fellow, a Swazi by birth, he +shrugged his shoulders, muttered that I was mad or bewitched, and +followed doggedly in my tracks. + +"We soon reached the kloof, which was about three hundred yards in +length and but sparsely wooded, and then the real fun began. There +might be a lion behind every bush--there certainly were four lions +somewhere; the delicate question was, where. I peeped and poked and +looked in every possible direction, with my heart in my mouth, and was +at last rewarded by catching a glimpse of something yellow moving behind +a bush. At the same moment, from another bush opposite me out burst one +of the cubs and galloped back towards the burnt pan. I whipped round +and let drive a snap shot that tipped him head over heels, breaking his +back within two inches of the root of the tail, and there he lay +helpless but glaring. Tom afterwards killed him with his assegai. I +opened the breech of the gun and hurriedly pulled out the old case, +which, to judge from what ensued, must, I suppose, have burst and left a +portion of its fabric sticking to the barrel. At any rate, when I tried +to, get in the new cartridge it would only enter half-way; and--would +you believe it?--this was the moment that the lioness, attracted no +doubt by the outcry of her cub, chose to put in an appearance. There +she stood, twenty paces or so from me, lashing her tail and looking just +as wicked as it is possible to conceive. Slowly I stepped backwards, +trying to push in the new case, and as I did so she moved on in little +runs, dropping down after each run. The danger was imminent, and the +case would not go in. At the moment I oddly enough thought of the +cartridge maker, whose name I will not mention, and earnestly hoped that +if the lion got _me_ some condign punishment would overtake _him._ It +would not go in, so I tried to pull it out. It would not come out +either, and my gun was useless if I could not shut it to use the other +barrel. I might as well have had no gun. + +"Meanwhile I was walking backward, keeping my eye on the lioness, who +was creeping forward on her belly without a sound, but lashing her tail +and keeping her eye on me; and in it I saw that she was coming in a few +seconds more. I dashed my wrist and the palm of my hand against the +brass rim of the cartridge till the blood poured from them--look, there +are the scars of it to this day!" + +Here Quatermain held up his right hand to the light and showed us four +or five white cicatrices just where the wrist is set into the hand. + +"But it was not of the slightest use," he went on, "the cartridge would +not move. I only hope that no other man will ever be put in such an +awful position. The lioness gathered herself together, and I gave +myself up for lost, when suddenly Tom shouted out from somewhere in my +rear-- + +"'You are walking on to the wounded cub; turn to the right.' + +"I had the sense, dazed as I was, to take the hint, and slewing round at +right-angles, but still keeping my eyes on the lioness, I continued my +backward walk. + +"To my intense relief, with a low growl she straightened herself, +turned, and bounded further up the kloof. + +"'Come on, Macumazahn,' said Tom, 'let's get back to the waggon.' + +"'All right, Tom,' I answered. 'I will when I have killed those three +other lions,' for by this time I was bent on shooting them as I never +remember being bent on anything before or since. 'You can go if you +like, or you can get up a tree.' + +"He considered the position a little, and then he very wisely got up a +tree. I wish that I had done the same. + +"Meanwhile I had found my knife, which had an extractor in it, and +succeeded after some difficulty in pulling out the cartridge which had +so nearly been the cause of my death, and removing the obstruction in +the barrel. It was very little thicker than a postage-stamp; certainly +not thicker than a piece of writing-paper. This done, I loaded the gun, +bound a handkerchief round my wrist and hand to staunch the flowing of +the blood, and started on again. + +"I had noticed that the lioness went into a thick green bush, or rather +cluster of bushes, growing near the water, about fifty yards higher up, +for there was a little stream running down the kloof, and I walked +towards this bush. When I got there, however, I could see nothing, so I +took up a big stone and threw it into the bushes. I believe that it hit +the other cub, for out it came with a rush, giving me a broadside shot, +of which I promptly availed myself, knocking it over dead. Out, too, +came the lioness like a flash of light, but quick as she went I managed +to put the other bullet into her ribs, so that she rolled right over +three times like a shot rabbit. I instantly got two more cartridges +into the gun, and as I did so the lioness rose again and came crawling +towards me on her fore-paws, roaring and groaning, and with such an +expression of diabolical fury on her countenance as I have not often +seen. I shot her again through the chest, and she fell over on to her +side quite dead. + +"That was the first and last time that I ever killed a brace of lions +right and left, and, what is more, I never heard of anybody else doing +it. Naturally I was considerably pleased with myself, and having again +loaded up, I went on to look for the black-maned beauty who had killed +Kaptein. Slowly, and with the greatest care, I proceeded up the kloof, +searching every bush and tuft of grass as I went. It was wonderfully +exciting, work, for I never was sure from one moment to another but that +he would be on me. I took comfort, however, from the reflection that a +lion rarely attacks a man--rarely, I say; sometimes he does, as you will +see--unless he is cornered or wounded. I must have been nearly an hour +hunting after that lion. Once I thought I saw something move in a clump +of tambouki grass, but I could not be sure, and when I trod out the +grass I could not find him. + +"At last I worked up to the head of the kloof, which made a cul-de-sac. +It was formed of a wall of rock about fifty feet high. Down this rock +trickled a little waterfall, and in front of it, some seventy feet from +its face, rose a great piled-up mass of boulders, in the crevices and on +the top of which grew ferns, grasses, and stunted bushes. This mass was +about twenty-five feet high. The sides of the kloof here were also very +steep. Well, I came to the top of the nullah and looked all round. No +signs of the lion. Evidently I had either overlooked him further down +or he had escaped right away. It was very vexatious; but still three +lions were not a bad bag for one gun before dinner, and I was fain to be +content. Accordingly I departed back again, making my way round the +isolated pillar of boulders, beginning to feel, as I did so, that I was +pretty well done up with excitement and fatigue, and should be more so +before I had skinned those three lions. When I had got, as nearly as I +could judge, about eighteen yards past the pillar or mass of boulders, I +turned to have another look round. I have a pretty sharp eye, but I +could see nothing at all. + +"Then, on a sudden, I saw something sufficiently alarming. On the top +of the mass of boulders, opposite to me, standing out clear against the +rock beyond, was the huge black-maned lion. He had been crouching +there, and now arose as though by magic. There he stood lashing his +tail, just like a living reproduction of the animal on the gateway of +Northumberland House that I have seen in a picture. But he did not +stand long. Before I could fire--before I could do more than get the +gun to my shoulder--he sprang straight up and out from the rock, and +driven by the impetus of that one mighty bound came hurtling through the +air towards me. + +"Heavens! how grand he looked, and how awful! High into the air he +flew, describing a great arch. Just as he touched the highest point of +his spring I fired. I did not dare to wait, for I saw that he would +clear the whole space and land right upon me. Without a sight, almost +without aim, I fired, as one would fire a snap shot at a snipe. The +bullet told, for I distinctly heard its thud above the rushing sound +caused by the passage of the lion through the air. Next second I was +swept to the ground (luckily I fell into a low, creeper-clad bush, which +broke the shock), and the lion was on the top of me, and the next those +great white teeth of his had met in my thigh--I heard them grate against +the bone. I yelled out in agony, for I did not feel in the least +benumbed and happy, like Dr. Livingstone--whom, by the way, I knew very +well--and gave myself up for dead. But suddenly, at that moment, the +lion's grip on my thigh loosened, and he stood over me, swaying to and +fro, his huge mouth, from which the blood was gushing, wide opened. +Then he roared, and the sound shook the rocks. + +"To and fro he swung, and then the great head dropped on me, knocking +all the breath from my body, and he was dead. My bullet had entered in +the centre of his chest and passed out on the right side of the spine +about half way down the back. + +"The pain of my wound kept me from fainting, and as soon as I got my +breath I managed to drag myself from under him. Thank heavens, his +great teeth had not crushed my thigh-bone; but I was losing a great deal +of blood, and had it not been for the timely arrival of Tom, with whose +aid I loosed the handkerchief from my wrist and tied it round my leg, +twisting it tight with a stick, I think that I should have bled to +death. + +"Well, it was a just reward for my folly in trying to tackle a family of +lions single-handed. The odds were too long. I have been lame ever +since, and shall be to my dying day; in the month of March the wound +always troubles me a great deal, and every three years it breaks out +raw. + +"I need scarcely add that I never traded the lot of ivory at Sikukuni's. + Another man got it--a German--and made five hundred pounds out of it +after paying expenses. I spent the next month on the broad of my back, +and was a cripple for six months after that. And now I've told you the +yarn, so I will have a drop of Hollands and go to bed. Good-night to +you all, good-night!" + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Long Odds, by H. Rider Haggard + diff --git a/old/lodds10.zip b/old/lodds10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..604ed91 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lodds10.zip |