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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hunter Quatermain’s Story, 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: Hunter Quatermain’s Story
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: April 3, 2006 [EBook #2728]
+Last Updated: September 23, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNTER QUATERMAIN’S STORY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding; David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+HUNTER QUATERMAIN’S STORY
+
+by H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+Sir Henry Curtis, as everybody acquainted with him knows, is one of the
+most hospitable men on earth. It was in the course of the enjoyment of
+his hospitality at his place in Yorkshire the other day that I heard the
+hunting story which I am now about to transcribe. Many of those who read
+it will no doubt have heard some of the strange rumours that are flying
+about to the effect that Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good,
+R.N., recently found a vast treasure of diamonds out in the heart of
+Africa, supposed to have been hidden by the Egyptians, or King Solomon,
+or some other antique people. I first saw the matter alluded to in a
+paragraph in one of the society papers the day before I started for
+Yorkshire to pay my visit to Curtis, and arrived, needless to say,
+burning with curiosity; for there is something very fascinating to the
+mind in the idea of hidden treasure. When I reached the Hall, I at once
+asked Curtis about it, and he did not deny the truth of the story; but
+on my pressing him to tell it he would not, nor would Captain Good, who
+was also staying in the house.
+
+“You would not believe me if I did,” Sir Henry said, with one of the
+hearty laughs which seem to come right out of his great lungs. “You
+must wait till Hunter Quatermain comes; he will arrive here from Africa
+to-night, and I am not going to say a word about the matter, or Good
+either, until he turns up. Quatermain was with us all through; he has
+known about the business for years and years, and if it had not been
+for him we should not have been here to-day. I am going to meet him
+presently.”
+
+I could not get a word more out of him, nor could anybody else, though
+we were all dying of curiosity, especially some of the ladies. I shall
+never forget how they looked in the drawing-room before dinner when
+Captain Good produced a great rough diamond, weighing fifty carats or
+more, and told them that he had many larger than that. If ever I saw
+curiosity and envy printed on fair faces, I saw them then.
+
+It was just at this moment that the door was opened, and Mr. Allan
+Quatermain announced, whereupon Good put the diamond into his pocket,
+and sprang at a little man who limped shyly into the room, convoyed by
+Sir Henry Curtis himself.
+
+“Here he is, Good, safe and sound,” said Sir Henry, gleefully. “Ladies
+and gentlemen, let me introduce you to one of the oldest hunters and the
+very best shot in Africa, who has killed more elephants and lions than
+any other man alive.”
+
+Everybody turned and stared politely at the curious-looking little lame
+man, and though his size was insignificant, he was quite worth staring
+at. He had short grizzled hair, which stood about an inch above his head
+like the bristles of a brush, gentle brown eyes, that seemed to notice
+everything, and a withered face, tanned to the colour of mahogany
+from exposure to the weather. He spoke, too, when he returned Good’s
+enthusiastic greeting, with a curious little accent, which made his
+speech noticeable.
+
+It so happened that I sat next to Mr. Allan Quatermain at dinner, and,
+of course, did my best to draw him; but he was not to be drawn. He
+admitted that he had recently been a long journey into the interior of
+Africa with Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and that they had found
+treasure, and then politely turned the subject and began to ask me
+questions about England, where he had never been before--that is, since
+he came to years of discretion. Of course, I did not find this very
+interesting, and so cast about for some means to bring the conversation
+round again.
+
+Now, we were dining in an oak-panelled vestibule, and on the wall
+opposite to me were fixed two gigantic elephant tusks, and under them
+a pair of buffalo horns, very rough and knotted, showing that they came
+off an old bull, and having the tip of one horn split and chipped. I
+noticed that Hunter Quatermain’s eyes kept glancing at these trophies,
+and took an occasion to ask him if he knew anything about them.
+
+“I ought to,” he answered, with a little laugh; “the elephant to which
+those tusks belonged tore one of our party right in two about eighteen
+months ago, and as for the buffalo horns, they were nearly my death, and
+were the end of a servant of mine to whom I was much attached. I
+gave them to Sir Henry when he left Natal some months ago;” and Mr.
+Quatermain sighed and turned to answer a question from the lady whom he
+had taken down to dinner, and who, needless to say, was also employed in
+trying to pump him about the diamonds.
+
+Indeed, all round the table there was a simmer of scarcely suppressed
+excitement, which, when the servants had left the room, could no longer
+be restrained.
+
+“Now, Mr. Quatermain,” said the lady next him, “we have been kept in an
+agony of suspense by Sir Henry and Captain Good, who have persistently
+refused to tell us a word of this story about the hidden treasure till
+you came, and we simply can bear it no longer; so, please, begin at
+once.”
+
+“Yes,” said everybody, “go on, please.”
+
+Hunter Quatermain glanced round the table apprehensively; he did not
+seem to appreciate finding himself the object of so much curiosity.
+
+“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said at last, with a shake of his grizzled
+head, “I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot do it. It is this
+way. At the request of Sir Henry and Captain Good I have written down a
+true and plain account of King Solomon’s Mines and how we found them,
+so you will soon be able to learn all about that wonderful adventure
+for yourselves; but until then I will say nothing about it, not from
+any wish to disappoint your curiosity, or to make myself important, but
+simply because the whole story partakes so much of the marvellous, that
+I am afraid to tell it in a piecemeal, hasty fashion, for fear I should
+be set down as one of those common fellows of whom there are so many in
+my profession, who are not ashamed to narrate things they have not seen,
+and even to tell wonderful stories about wild animals they have never
+killed. And I think that my companions in adventure, Sir Henry Curtis
+and Captain Good, will bear me out in what I say.”
+
+“Yes, Quatermain, I think you are quite right,” said Sir Henry.
+“Precisely the same considerations have forced Good and myself to hold
+our tongues. We did not wish to be bracketed with--well, with other
+famous travellers.”
+
+There was a murmur of disappointment at these announcements.
+
+“I believe you are all hoaxing us,” said the young lady next Mr.
+Quatermain, rather sharply.
+
+“Believe me,” answered the old hunter, with a quaint courtesy and a
+little bow of his grizzled head; “though I have lived all my life in the
+wilderness, and amongst savages, I have neither the heart, nor the want
+of manners, to wish to deceive one so lovely.”
+
+Whereat the young lady, who was pretty, looked appeased.
+
+“This is very dreadful,” I broke in. “We ask for bread and you give us a
+stone, Mr. Quatermain. The least that you can do is to tell us the story
+of the tusks opposite and the buffalo horns underneath. We won’t let you
+off with less.”
+
+“I am but a poor story-teller,” put in the old hunter, “but if you will
+forgive my want of skill, I shall be happy to tell you, not the story
+of the tusks, for that is part of the history of our journey to King
+Solomon’s Mines, but that of the buffalo horns beneath them, which is
+now ten years old.”
+
+“Bravo, Quatermain!” said Sir Henry. “We shall all be delighted. Fire
+away! Fill up your glass first.”
+
+The little man did as he was bid, took a sip of claret, and
+began:--“About ten years ago I was hunting up in the far interior of
+Africa, at a place called Gatgarra, not a great way from the Chobe
+River. I had with me four native servants, namely, a driver and
+voorlooper, or leader, who were natives of Matabeleland, a Hottentot
+named Hans, who had once been the slave of a Transvaal Boer, and a Zulu
+hunter, who for five years had accompanied me upon my trips, and whose
+name was Mashune. Now near Gatgarra I found a fine piece of healthy,
+park-like country, where the grass was very good, considering the time
+of year; and here I made a little camp or head-quarter settlement, from
+whence I went expeditions on all sides in search of game, especially
+elephant. My luck, however, was bad; I got but little ivory. I was
+therefore very glad when some natives brought me news that a large herd
+of elephants were feeding in a valley about thirty miles away. At first
+I thought of trekking down to the valley, waggon and all, but gave up
+the idea on hearing that it was infested with the deadly ‘tsetse’ fly,
+which is certain death to all animals, except men, donkeys, and wild
+game. So I reluctantly determined to leave the waggon in the charge of
+the Matabele leader and driver, and to start on a trip into the thorn
+country, accompanied only by the Hottentot Hans, and Mashune.
+
+“Accordingly on the following morning we started, and on the evening of
+the next day reached the spot where the elephants were reported to be.
+But here again we were met by ill luck. That the elephants had been
+there was evident enough, for their spoor was plentiful, and so were
+other traces of their presence in the shape of mimosa trees torn out
+of the ground, and placed topsy-turvy on their flat crowns, in order to
+enable the great beasts to feed on their sweet roots; but the elephants
+themselves were conspicuous by their absence. They had elected to move
+on. This being so, there was only one thing to do, and that was to move
+after them, which we did, and a pretty hunt they led us. For a fortnight
+or more we dodged about after those elephants, coming up with them on
+two occasions, and a splendid herd they were--only, however, to lose
+them again. At length we came up with them a third time, and I managed
+to shoot one bull, and then they started off again, where it was useless
+to try and follow them. After this I gave it up in disgust, and we made
+the best of our way back to the camp, not in the sweetest of tempers,
+carrying the tusks of the elephant I had shot.
+
+“It was on the afternoon of the fifth day of our tramp that we reached
+the little koppie overlooking the spot where the waggon stood, and I
+confess that I climbed it with a pleasurable sense of home-coming, for
+his waggon is the hunter’s home, as much as his house is that of the
+civilized person. I reached the top of the koppie, and looked in the
+direction where the friendly white tent of the waggon should be, but
+there was no waggon, only a black burnt plain stretching away as far as
+the eye could reach. I rubbed my eyes, looked again, and made out on the
+spot of the camp, not my waggon, but some charred beams of wood. Half
+wild with grief and anxiety, followed by Hans and Mashune, I ran at full
+speed down the slope of the koppie, and across the space of plain below
+to the spring of water, where my camp had been. I was soon there, only
+to find that my worst suspicions were confirmed.
+
+“The waggon and all its contents, including my spare guns and
+ammunition, had been destroyed by a grass fire.
+
+“Now before I started, I had left orders with the driver to burn off
+the grass round the camp, in order to guard against accidents of this
+nature, and here was the reward of my folly: a very proper illustration
+of the necessity, especially where natives are concerned, of doing a
+thing one’s self if one wants it done at all. Evidently the lazy
+rascals had not burnt round the waggon; most probably, indeed, they had
+themselves carelessly fired the tall and resinous tambouki grass near
+by; the wind had driven the flames on to the waggon tent, and there was
+quickly an end of the matter. As for the driver and leader, I know not
+what became of them: probably fearing my anger, they bolted, taking the
+oxen with them. I have never seen them from that hour to this.
+
+“I sat down on the black veldt by the spring, and gazed at the charred
+axles and disselboom of my waggon, and I can assure you, ladies and
+gentlemen, I felt inclined to weep. As for Mashune and Hans they cursed
+away vigorously, one in Zulu and the other in Dutch. Ours was a pretty
+position. We were nearly 300 miles away from Bamangwato, the capital of
+Khama’s country, which was the nearest spot where we could get any help,
+and our ammunition, spare guns, clothing, food, and everything else,
+were all totally destroyed. I had just what I stood in, which was a
+flannel shirt, a pair of ‘veldt-schoons,’ or shoes of raw hide, my
+eight-bore rifle, and a few cartridges. Hans and Mashune had also each
+a Martini rifle and some cartridges, not many. And it was with this
+equipment that we had to undertake a journey of 300 miles through a
+desolate and almost uninhabited region. I can assure you that I have
+rarely been in a worse position, and I have been in some queer ones.
+However, these things are the natural incidents of a hunter’s life, and
+the only thing to do was to make the best of them.
+
+“Accordingly, after passing a comfortless night by the remains of
+my waggon, we started next morning on our long journey towards
+civilization. Now if I were to set to work to tell you all the troubles
+and incidents of that dreadful journey I should keep you listening
+here till midnight; so I will, with your permission, pass on to the
+particular adventure of which the pair of buffalo horns opposite are the
+melancholy memento.
+
+“We had been travelling for about a month, living and getting along
+as best we could, when one evening we camped some forty miles from
+Bamangwato. By this time we were indeed in a melancholy plight,
+footsore, half starved, and utterly worn out; and, in addition, I was
+suffering from a sharp attack of fever, which half blinded me and made
+me weak as a babe. Our ammunition, too, was exhausted; I had only one
+cartridge left for my eight-bore rifle, and Hans and Mashune, who were
+armed with Martini Henrys, had three between them. It was about an hour
+from sundown when we halted and lit a fire--for luckily we had still a
+few matches. It was a charming spot to camp, I remember. Just off the
+game track we were following was a little hollow, fringed about with
+flat-crowned mimosa trees, and at the bottom of the hollow, a spring
+of clear water welled up out of the earth, and formed a pool, round the
+edges of which grew an abundance of watercresses of an exactly similar
+kind to those which were handed round the table just now. Now we had no
+food of any kind left, having that morning devoured the last remains
+of a little oribé antelope, which I had shot two days previously.
+Accordingly Hans, who was a better shot than Mashune, took two of the
+three remaining Martini cartridges, and started out to see if he could
+not kill a buck for supper. I was too weak to go myself.
+
+“Meanwhile Mashune employed himself in dragging together some dead
+boughs from the mimosa trees to make a sort of ‘skerm,’ or shelter for
+us to sleep in, about forty yards from the edge of the pool of water.
+We had been greatly troubled with lions in the course of our long tramp,
+and only on the previous night have very nearly been attacked by them,
+which made me nervous, especially in my weak state. Just as we had
+finished the skerm, or rather something which did duty for one, Mashune
+and I heard a shot apparently fired about a mile away.
+
+“‘Hark to it!’ sung out Mashune in Zulu, more, I fancy, by way of
+keeping his spirits up than for any other reason--for he was a sort of
+black Mark Tapley, and very cheerful under difficulties. ‘Hark to the
+wonderful sound with which the “Maboona” (the Boers) shook our fathers
+to the ground at the Battle of the Blood River. We are hungry now, my
+father; our stomachs are small and withered up like a dried ox’s paunch,
+but they will soon be full of good meat. Hans is a Hottentot, and an
+“umfagozan,” that is, a low fellow, but he shoots straight--ah! he
+certainly shoots straight. Be of a good heart, my father, there will
+soon be meat upon the fire, and we shall rise up men.’
+
+“And so he went on talking nonsense till I told him to stop, because he
+made my head ache with his empty words.
+
+“Shortly after we heard the shot the sun sank in his red splendour, and
+there fell upon earth and sky the great hush of the African wilderness.
+The lions were not up as yet, they would probably wait for the moon, and
+the birds and beasts were all at rest. I cannot describe the intensity
+of the quiet of the night: to me in my weak state, and fretting as I was
+over the non-return of the Hottentot Hans, it seemed almost ominous--as
+though Nature were brooding over some tragedy which was being enacted in
+her sight.
+
+“It was quiet--quiet as death, and lonely as the grave.
+
+“‘Mashune,’ I said at last, ‘where is Hans? my heart is heavy for him.’
+
+“‘Nay, my father, I know not; mayhap he is weary, and sleeps, or mayhap
+he has lost his way.’
+
+“‘Mashune, art thou a boy to talk folly to me?’ I answered. ‘Tell me,
+in all the years thou hast hunted by my side, didst thou ever know a
+Hottentot to lose his path or to sleep upon the way to camp?’
+
+“‘Nay, Macumazahn’ (that, ladies, is my native name, and means the man
+who ‘gets up by night,’ or who ‘is always awake’), ‘I know not where he
+is.’
+
+“But though we talked thus, we neither of us liked to hint at what was
+in both our minds, namely, that misfortunate had overtaken the poor
+Hottentot.
+
+“‘Mashune,’ I said at last, ‘go down to the water and bring me of those
+green herbs that grow there. I am hungered, and must eat something.’
+
+“‘Nay, my father; surely the ghosts are there; they come out of the
+water at night, and sit upon the banks to dry themselves. An Isanusi[*]
+told it me.’
+
+     [*] _Isanusi_, witch-finder.
+
+“Mashune was, I think, one of the bravest men I ever knew in the
+daytime, but he had a more than civilized dread of the supernatural.
+
+“‘Must I go myself, thou fool?’ I said, sternly.
+
+“‘Nay, Macumazahn, if thy heart yearns for strange things like a sick
+woman, I go, even if the ghosts devour me.’
+
+“And accordingly he went, and soon returned with a large bundle of
+watercresses, of which I ate greedily.
+
+“‘Art thou not hungry?’ I asked the great Zulu presently, as he sat
+eyeing me eating.
+
+“‘Never was I hungrier, my father.’
+
+“‘Then eat,’ and I pointed to the watercresses.
+
+“‘Nay, Macumazahn, I cannot eat those herbs.’
+
+“‘If thou dost not eat thou wilt starve: eat, Mashune.’
+
+“He stared at the watercresses doubtfully for a while, and at last
+seized a handful and crammed them into his mouth, crying out as he did
+so, ‘Oh, why was I born that I should live to feed on green weeds like
+an ox? Surely if my mother could have known it she would have killed me
+when I was born!’ and so he went on lamenting between each fistful of
+watercresses till all were finished, when he declared that he was full
+indeed of stuff, but it lay very cold on his stomach, ‘like snow upon
+a mountain.’ At any other time I should have laughed, for it must be
+admitted he had a ludicrous way of putting things. Zulus do not like
+green food.
+
+“Just after Mashune had finished his watercress, we heard the loud
+‘woof! woof!’ of a lion, who was evidently promenading much nearer to
+our little skerm than was pleasant. Indeed, on looking into the darkness
+and listening intently, I could hear his snoring breath, and catch the
+light of his great yellow eyes. We shouted loudly, and Mashune threw
+some sticks on the fire to frighten him, which apparently had the
+desired effect, for we saw no more of him for a while.
+
+“Just after we had had this fright from the lion, the moon rose in her
+fullest splendour, throwing a robe of silver light over all the earth.
+I have rarely seen a more beautiful moonrise. I remember that sitting in
+the skerm I could with ease read faint pencil notes in my pocket-book.
+As soon as the moon was up game began to trek down to the water just
+below us. I could, from where I sat, see all sorts of them passing
+along a little ridge that ran to our right, on their way to the drinking
+place. Indeed, one buck--a large eland--came within twenty yards of the
+skerm, and stood at gaze, staring at it suspiciously, his beautiful
+head and twisted horns standing out clearly against the sky. I had, I
+recollect, every mind to have a pull at him on the chance of providing
+ourselves with a good supply of beef; but remembering that we had but
+two cartridges left, and the extreme uncertainty of a shot by moonlight,
+I at length decided to refrain. The eland presently moved on to the
+water, and a minute or two afterwards there arose a great sound of
+splashing, followed by the quick fall of galloping hoofs.
+
+“‘What’s that, Mashune?’ I asked.
+
+“‘That dam lion; buck smell him,’ replied the Zulu in English, of which
+he had a very superficial knowledge.
+
+“Scarcely were the words out of his mouth before we heard a sort of
+whine over the other side of the pool, which was instantly answered by a
+loud coughing roar close to us.
+
+“‘By Jove!’ I said, ‘there are two of them. They have lost the buck; we
+must look out they don’t catch us.’ And again we made up the fire, and
+shouted, with the result that the lions moved off.
+
+“‘Mashune,’ I said, ‘do you watch till the moon gets over that tree,
+when it will be the middle of the night. Then wake me. Watch well, now,
+or the lions will be picking those worthless bones of yours before you
+are three hours older. I must rest a little, or I shall die.’
+
+“‘Koos!’ (chief), answered the Zulu. ‘Sleep, my father, sleep in peace;
+my eyes shall be open as the stars; and like the stars watch over you.’
+
+“Although I was so weak, I could not at once follow his advice. To begin
+with, my head ached with fever, and I was torn with anxiety as to the
+fate of the Hottentot Hans; and, indeed, as to our own fate, left
+with sore feet, empty stomachs, and two cartridges, to find our way to
+Bamangwato, forty miles off. Then the mere sensation of knowing that
+there are one or more hungry lions prowling round you somewhere in the
+dark is disquieting, however well one may be used to it, and, by keeping
+the attention on the stretch, tends to prevent one from sleeping. In
+addition to all these troubles, too, I was, I remember, seized with
+a dreadful longing for a pipe of tobacco, whereas, under the
+circumstances, I might as well have longed for the moon.
+
+“At last, however, I fell into an uneasy sleep as full of bad dreams as
+a prickly pear is of points, one of which, I recollect, was that I was
+setting my naked foot upon a cobra which rose upon its tail and hissed
+my name, ‘Macumazahn,’ into my ear. Indeed, the cobra hissed with such
+persistency that at last I roused myself.
+
+“‘_Macumazahn, nanzia, nanzia!_’ (there, there!) whispered Mashune’s
+voice into my drowsy ears. Raising myself, I opened my eyes, and I saw
+Mashune kneeling by my side and pointing towards the water. Following
+the line of his outstretched hand, my eyes fell upon a sight that made
+me jump, old hunter as I was even in those days. About twenty paces
+from the little skerm was a large ant-heap, and on the summit of the
+ant-heap, her four feet rather close together, so as to find standing
+space, stood the massive form of a big lioness. Her head was towards the
+skerm, and in the bright moonlight I saw her lower it and lick her paws.
+
+“Mashune thrust the Martini rifle into my hands, whispering that it was
+loaded. I lifted it and covered the lioness, but found that even in that
+light I could not make out the foresight of the Martini. As it would be
+madness to fire without doing so, for the result would probably be that
+I should wound the lioness, if, indeed, I did not miss her altogether, I
+lowered the rifle; and, hastily tearing a fragment of paper from one of
+the leaves of my pocket-book, which I had been consulting just before I
+went to sleep, I proceeded to fix it on to the front sight. But all this
+took a little time, and before the paper was satisfactorily arranged,
+Mashune again gripped me by the arm, and pointed to a dark heap under
+the shade of a small mimosa tree which grew not more than ten paces from
+the skerm.
+
+“‘Well, what is it?’ I whispered; ‘I can see nothing.’
+
+“‘It is another lion,’ he answered.
+
+“‘Nonsense! thy heart is dead with fear, thou seest double;’ and I bent
+forward over the edge of the surrounding fence, and stared at the heap.
+
+“Even as I said the words, the dark mass rose and stalked out into the
+moonlight. It was a magnificent, black-maned lion, one of the largest
+I had ever seen. When he had gone two or three steps he caught sight of
+me, halted, and stood there gazing straight towards us;--he was so close
+that I could see the firelight reflected in his wicked, greenish eyes.
+
+“‘Shoot, shoot!’ said Mashune. ‘The devil is coming--he is going to
+spring!’
+
+“I raised the rifle, and got the bit of paper on the foresight, straight
+on to a little path of white hair just where the throat is set into
+the chest and shoulders. As I did so, the lion glanced back over his
+shoulder, as, according to my experience, a lion nearly always does
+before he springs. Then he dropped his body a little, and I saw his big
+paws spread out upon the ground as he put his weight on them to gather
+purchase. In haste I pressed the trigger of the Martini, and not a
+moment too soon; for, as I did so, he was in the act of springing. The
+report of the rifle rang out sharp and clear on the intense silence of
+the night, and in another second the great brute had landed on his
+head within four feet of us, and rolling over and over towards us,
+was sending the bushes which composed our little fence flying with
+convulsive strokes of his great paws. We sprang out of the other side of
+the ‘skerm,’ and he rolled on to it and into it and then right through
+the fire. Next he raised himself and sat upon his haunches like a great
+dog, and began to roar. Heavens! how he roared! I never heard anything
+like it before or since. He kept filling his lungs with air, and then
+emitting it in the most heart-shaking volumes of sound. Suddenly, in the
+middle of one of the loudest roars, he rolled over on to his side and
+lay still, and I knew that he was dead. A lion generally dies upon his
+side.
+
+“With a sigh of relief I looked up towards his mate upon the ant-heap.
+She was standing there apparently petrified with astonishment, looking
+over her shoulder, and lashing her tail; but to our intense joy, when
+the dying beast ceased roaring, she turned, and, with one enormous
+bound, vanished into the night.
+
+“Then we advanced cautiously towards the prostrate brute, Mashune
+droning an improvised Zulu song as he went, about how Macumazahn, the
+hunter of hunters, whose eyes are open by night as well as by day, put
+his hand down the lion’s stomach when it came to devour him and
+pulled out his heart by the roots, &c., &c., by way of expressing his
+satisfaction, in his hyperbolical Zulu way, at the turn events had
+taken.
+
+“There was no need for caution; the lion was as dead as though he had
+already been stuffed with straw. The Martini bullet had entered within
+an inch of the white spot I had aimed at, and travelled right through
+him, passing out at the right buttock, near the root of the tail. The
+Martini has wonderful driving power, though the shock it gives to the
+system is, comparatively speaking, slight, owing to the smallness of the
+hole it makes. But fortunately the lion is an easy beast to kill.
+
+“I passed the rest of that night in a profound slumber, my head reposing
+upon the deceased lion’s flank, a position that had, I thought, a
+beautiful touch of irony about it, though the smell of his singed hair
+was disagreeable. When I woke again the faint primrose lights of dawn
+were flushing in the eastern sky. For a moment I could not understand
+the chill sense of anxiety that lay like a lump of ice at my heart, till
+the feel and smell of the skin of the dead lion beneath my head recalled
+the circumstances in which we were placed. I rose, and eagerly looked
+round to see if I could discover any signs of Hans, who, if he had
+escaped accident, would surely return to us at dawn, but there were
+none. Then hope grew faint, and I felt that it was not well with the
+poor fellow. Setting Mashune to build up the fire I hastily removed the
+hide from the flank of the lion, which was indeed a splendid beast,
+and cutting off some lumps of flesh, we toasted and ate them greedily.
+Lions’ flesh, strange as it may seem, is very good eating, and tastes
+more like veal than anything else.
+
+“By the time we had finished our much-needed meal the sun was getting
+up, and after a drink of water and a wash at the pool, we started to
+try and find Hans, leaving the dead lion to the tender mercies of the
+hyænas. Both Mashune and myself were, by constant practice, pretty
+good hands at tracking, and we had not much difficulty in following
+the Hottentot’s spoor, faint as it was. We had gone on in this way for
+half-an-hour or so, and were, perhaps, a mile or more from the site
+of our camping-place, when we discovered the spoor of a solitary bull
+buffalo mixed up with the spoor of Hans, and were able, from various
+indications, to make out that he had been tracking the buffalo. At
+length we reached a little glade in which there grew a stunted old
+mimosa thorn, with a peculiar and overhanging formation of root, under
+which a porcupine, or an ant-bear, or some such animal, had hollowed
+out a wide-lipped hole. About ten or fifteen paces from this thorn-tree
+there was a thick patch of bush.
+
+“‘See, Macumazahn! see!’ said Mashune, excitedly, as we drew near the
+thorn; ‘the buffalo has charged him. Look, here he stood to fire at him;
+see how firmly he planted his feet upon the earth; there is the mark of
+his crooked toe (Hans had one bent toe). Look! here the bull came like
+a boulder down the hill, his hoofs turning up the earth like a hoe. Hans
+had hit him: he bled as he came; there are the blood spots. It is all
+written down there, my father--there upon the earth.’
+
+“‘Yes,’ I said; ‘yes; but _where is Hans?_’
+
+“Even as I said it Mashune clutched my arm, and pointed to the stunted
+thorn just by us. Even now, gentlemen, it makes me feel sick when I
+think of what I saw.
+
+“For fixed in a stout fork of the tree some eight feet from the ground
+was Hans himself, or rather his dead body, evidently tossed there by the
+furious buffalo. One leg was twisted round the fork, probably in a dying
+convulsion. In the side, just beneath the ribs, was a great hole, from
+which the entrails protruded. But this was not all. The other leg hung
+down to within five feet of the ground. The skin and most of the flesh
+were gone from it. For a moment we stood aghast, and gazed at this
+horrifying sight. Then I understood what had happened. The buffalo, with
+that devilish cruelty which distinguishes the animal, had, after his
+enemy was dead, stood underneath his body, and licked the flesh off
+the pendant leg with his file-like tongue. I had heard of such a thing
+before, but had always treated the stories as hunters’ yarns; but I had
+no doubt about it now. Poor Hans’ skeleton foot and ankle were an ample
+proof.
+
+“We stood aghast under the tree, and stared and stared at this awful
+sight, when suddenly our cogitations were interrupted in a painful
+manner. The thick bush about fifteen paces off burst asunder with a
+crashing sound, and uttering a series of ferocious pig-like grunts, the
+bull buffalo himself came charging out straight at us. Even as he came
+I saw the blood mark on his side where poor Hans’ bullet had struck him,
+and also, as is often the case with particularly savage buffaloes, that
+his flanks had recently been terribly torn in an encounter with a lion.
+
+“On he came, his head well up (a buffalo does not generally lower his
+head till he does so to strike); those great black horns--as I look at
+them before me, gentlemen, I seem to see them come charging at me as I
+did ten years ago, silhouetted against the green bush behind;--on, on!”
+
+“With a shout Mashune bolted off sideways towards the bush. I had
+instinctively lifted my eight-bore, which I had in my hand. It would
+have been useless to fire at the buffalo’s head, for the dense horns
+must have turned the bullet; but as Mashune bolted, the bull slewed a
+little, with the momentary idea of following him, and as this gave me
+a ghost of a chance, I let drive my only cartridge at his shoulder. The
+bullet struck the shoulder-blade and smashed it up, and then travelled
+on under the skin into his flank; but it did not stop him, though for a
+second he staggered.
+
+“Throwing myself on to the ground with the energy of despair, I rolled
+under the shelter of the projecting root of the thorn, crushing myself
+as far into the mouth of the ant-bear hole as I could. In a single
+instant the buffalo was after me. Kneeling down on his uninjured
+knee--for one leg, that of which I had broken the shoulder, was swinging
+helplessly to and fro--he set to work to try and hook me out of the hole
+with his crooked horn. At first he struck at me furiously, and it was
+one of the blows against the base of the tree which splintered the tip
+of the horn in the way that you see. Then he grew more cunning,
+and pushed his head as far under the root as possible, made long
+semicircular sweeps at me, grunting furiously, and blowing saliva and
+hot steamy breath all over me. I was just out of reach of the horn,
+though every stroke, by widening the hole and making more room for his
+head, brought it closer to me, but every now and again I received heavy
+blows in the ribs from his muzzle. Feeling that I was being knocked
+silly, I made an effort and seizing his rough tongue, which was hanging
+from his jaws, I twisted it with all my force. The great brute bellowed
+with pain and fury, and jerked himself backwards so strongly, that he
+dragged me some inches further from the mouth of the hole, and again
+made a sweep at me, catching me this time round the shoulder-joint in
+the hook of his horn.
+
+“I felt that it was all up now, and began to holloa.
+
+“‘He has got me!’ I shouted in mortal terror. ‘_Gwasa, Mashune, gwasa!_’
+[‘Stab, Mashune, stab!’).
+
+“One hoist of the great head, and out of the hole I came like a
+periwinkle out of his shell. But even as I did so, I caught sight of
+Mashune’s stalwart form advancing with his ‘bangwan,’ or broad stabbing
+assegai, raised above his head. In another quarter of a second I had
+fallen from the horn, and heard the blow of the spear, followed by
+the indescribable sound of steel shearing its way through flesh. I had
+fallen on my back, and, looking up, I saw that the gallant Mashune had
+driven the assegai a foot or more into the carcass of the buffalo, and
+was turning to fly.
+
+“Alas! it was too late. Bellowing madly, and spouting blood from mouth
+and nostrils, the devilish brute was on him, and had thrown him up like
+a feather, and then gored him twice as he lay. I struggled up with some
+wild idea of affording help, but before I had gone a step the buffalo
+gave one long sighing bellow, and rolled over dead by the side of his
+victim.
+
+“Mashune was still living, but a single glance at him told me that his
+hour had come. The buffalo’s horn had driven a great hole in his right
+lung, and inflicted other injuries.
+
+“I knelt down beside him in the uttermost distress, and took his hand.
+
+“‘Is he dead, Macumazahn?’ he whispered. ‘My eyes are blind; I cannot
+see.’
+
+“‘Yes, he is dead.’
+
+“‘Did the black devil hurt thee, Macumazahn?’
+
+“‘No, my poor fellow, I am not much hurt.’
+
+“‘Ow! I am glad.’
+
+“Then came a long silence, broken only by the sound of the air whistling
+through the hole in his lung as he breathed.
+
+“‘Macumazahn, art thou there? I cannot feel thee.’
+
+“‘I am here, Mashune.’
+
+“‘I die, Macumazahn--the world flies round and round. I go--I go out
+into the dark! Surely, my father, at times in days to come--thou wilt
+think of Mashune who stood by thy side--when thou killest elephants, as
+we used--as we used----’
+
+“They were his last words, his brave spirit passed with him. I dragged
+his body to the hole under the tree, and pushed it in, placing his broad
+assegai by him, according to the custom of his people, that he might not
+go defenceless on his long journey; and then, ladies--I am not ashamed
+to confess--I stood alone there before it, and wept like a woman.”
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg’s Hunter Quatermain’s Story, by H. Rider Haggard
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hunter Quatermain's Story, 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: Hunter Quatermain's Story
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: April 3, 2006 [EBook #2728]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNTER QUATERMAIN'S STORY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding; David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+HUNTER QUATERMAIN'S STORY
+
+by H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+Sir Henry Curtis, as everybody acquainted with him knows, is one of the
+most hospitable men on earth. It was in the course of the enjoyment of
+his hospitality at his place in Yorkshire the other day that I heard the
+hunting story which I am now about to transcribe. Many of those who read
+it will no doubt have heard some of the strange rumours that are flying
+about to the effect that Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good,
+R.N., recently found a vast treasure of diamonds out in the heart of
+Africa, supposed to have been hidden by the Egyptians, or King Solomon,
+or some other antique people. I first saw the matter alluded to in a
+paragraph in one of the society papers the day before I started for
+Yorkshire to pay my visit to Curtis, and arrived, needless to say,
+burning with curiosity; for there is something very fascinating to the
+mind in the idea of hidden treasure. When I reached the Hall, I at once
+asked Curtis about it, and he did not deny the truth of the story; but
+on my pressing him to tell it he would not, nor would Captain Good, who
+was also staying in the house.
+
+"You would not believe me if I did," Sir Henry said, with one of the
+hearty laughs which seem to come right out of his great lungs. "You
+must wait till Hunter Quatermain comes; he will arrive here from Africa
+to-night, and I am not going to say a word about the matter, or Good
+either, until he turns up. Quatermain was with us all through; he has
+known about the business for years and years, and if it had not been
+for him we should not have been here to-day. I am going to meet him
+presently."
+
+I could not get a word more out of him, nor could anybody else, though
+we were all dying of curiosity, especially some of the ladies. I shall
+never forget how they looked in the drawing-room before dinner when
+Captain Good produced a great rough diamond, weighing fifty carats or
+more, and told them that he had many larger than that. If ever I saw
+curiosity and envy printed on fair faces, I saw them then.
+
+It was just at this moment that the door was opened, and Mr. Allan
+Quatermain announced, whereupon Good put the diamond into his pocket,
+and sprang at a little man who limped shyly into the room, convoyed by
+Sir Henry Curtis himself.
+
+"Here he is, Good, safe and sound," said Sir Henry, gleefully. "Ladies
+and gentlemen, let me introduce you to one of the oldest hunters and the
+very best shot in Africa, who has killed more elephants and lions than
+any other man alive."
+
+Everybody turned and stared politely at the curious-looking little lame
+man, and though his size was insignificant, he was quite worth staring
+at. He had short grizzled hair, which stood about an inch above his head
+like the bristles of a brush, gentle brown eyes, that seemed to notice
+everything, and a withered face, tanned to the colour of mahogany
+from exposure to the weather. He spoke, too, when he returned Good's
+enthusiastic greeting, with a curious little accent, which made his
+speech noticeable.
+
+It so happened that I sat next to Mr. Allan Quatermain at dinner, and,
+of course, did my best to draw him; but he was not to be drawn. He
+admitted that he had recently been a long journey into the interior of
+Africa with Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and that they had found
+treasure, and then politely turned the subject and began to ask me
+questions about England, where he had never been before--that is, since
+he came to years of discretion. Of course, I did not find this very
+interesting, and so cast about for some means to bring the conversation
+round again.
+
+Now, we were dining in an oak-panelled vestibule, and on the wall
+opposite to me were fixed two gigantic elephant tusks, and under them
+a pair of buffalo horns, very rough and knotted, showing that they came
+off an old bull, and having the tip of one horn split and chipped. I
+noticed that Hunter Quatermain's eyes kept glancing at these trophies,
+and took an occasion to ask him if he knew anything about them.
+
+"I ought to," he answered, with a little laugh; "the elephant to which
+those tusks belonged tore one of our party right in two about eighteen
+months ago, and as for the buffalo horns, they were nearly my death, and
+were the end of a servant of mine to whom I was much attached. I
+gave them to Sir Henry when he left Natal some months ago;" and Mr.
+Quatermain sighed and turned to answer a question from the lady whom he
+had taken down to dinner, and who, needless to say, was also employed in
+trying to pump him about the diamonds.
+
+Indeed, all round the table there was a simmer of scarcely suppressed
+excitement, which, when the servants had left the room, could no longer
+be restrained.
+
+"Now, Mr. Quatermain," said the lady next him, "we have been kept in an
+agony of suspense by Sir Henry and Captain Good, who have persistently
+refused to tell us a word of this story about the hidden treasure till
+you came, and we simply can bear it no longer; so, please, begin at
+once."
+
+"Yes," said everybody, "go on, please."
+
+Hunter Quatermain glanced round the table apprehensively; he did not
+seem to appreciate finding himself the object of so much curiosity.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," he said at last, with a shake of his grizzled
+head, "I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot do it. It is this
+way. At the request of Sir Henry and Captain Good I have written down a
+true and plain account of King Solomon's Mines and how we found them,
+so you will soon be able to learn all about that wonderful adventure
+for yourselves; but until then I will say nothing about it, not from
+any wish to disappoint your curiosity, or to make myself important, but
+simply because the whole story partakes so much of the marvellous, that
+I am afraid to tell it in a piecemeal, hasty fashion, for fear I should
+be set down as one of those common fellows of whom there are so many in
+my profession, who are not ashamed to narrate things they have not seen,
+and even to tell wonderful stories about wild animals they have never
+killed. And I think that my companions in adventure, Sir Henry Curtis
+and Captain Good, will bear me out in what I say."
+
+"Yes, Quatermain, I think you are quite right," said Sir Henry.
+"Precisely the same considerations have forced Good and myself to hold
+our tongues. We did not wish to be bracketed with--well, with other
+famous travellers."
+
+There was a murmur of disappointment at these announcements.
+
+"I believe you are all hoaxing us," said the young lady next Mr.
+Quatermain, rather sharply.
+
+"Believe me," answered the old hunter, with a quaint courtesy and a
+little bow of his grizzled head; "though I have lived all my life in the
+wilderness, and amongst savages, I have neither the heart, nor the want
+of manners, to wish to deceive one so lovely."
+
+Whereat the young lady, who was pretty, looked appeased.
+
+"This is very dreadful," I broke in. "We ask for bread and you give us a
+stone, Mr. Quatermain. The least that you can do is to tell us the story
+of the tusks opposite and the buffalo horns underneath. We won't let you
+off with less."
+
+"I am but a poor story-teller," put in the old hunter, "but if you will
+forgive my want of skill, I shall be happy to tell you, not the story
+of the tusks, for that is part of the history of our journey to King
+Solomon's Mines, but that of the buffalo horns beneath them, which is
+now ten years old."
+
+"Bravo, Quatermain!" said Sir Henry. "We shall all be delighted. Fire
+away! Fill up your glass first."
+
+The little man did as he was bid, took a sip of claret, and
+began:--"About ten years ago I was hunting up in the far interior of
+Africa, at a place called Gatgarra, not a great way from the Chobe
+River. I had with me four native servants, namely, a driver and
+voorlooper, or leader, who were natives of Matabeleland, a Hottentot
+named Hans, who had once been the slave of a Transvaal Boer, and a Zulu
+hunter, who for five years had accompanied me upon my trips, and whose
+name was Mashune. Now near Gatgarra I found a fine piece of healthy,
+park-like country, where the grass was very good, considering the time
+of year; and here I made a little camp or head-quarter settlement, from
+whence I went expeditions on all sides in search of game, especially
+elephant. My luck, however, was bad; I got but little ivory. I was
+therefore very glad when some natives brought me news that a large herd
+of elephants were feeding in a valley about thirty miles away. At first
+I thought of trekking down to the valley, waggon and all, but gave up
+the idea on hearing that it was infested with the deadly 'tsetse' fly,
+which is certain death to all animals, except men, donkeys, and wild
+game. So I reluctantly determined to leave the waggon in the charge of
+the Matabele leader and driver, and to start on a trip into the thorn
+country, accompanied only by the Hottentot Hans, and Mashune.
+
+"Accordingly on the following morning we started, and on the evening of
+the next day reached the spot where the elephants were reported to be.
+But here again we were met by ill luck. That the elephants had been
+there was evident enough, for their spoor was plentiful, and so were
+other traces of their presence in the shape of mimosa trees torn out
+of the ground, and placed topsy-turvy on their flat crowns, in order to
+enable the great beasts to feed on their sweet roots; but the elephants
+themselves were conspicuous by their absence. They had elected to move
+on. This being so, there was only one thing to do, and that was to move
+after them, which we did, and a pretty hunt they led us. For a fortnight
+or more we dodged about after those elephants, coming up with them on
+two occasions, and a splendid herd they were--only, however, to lose
+them again. At length we came up with them a third time, and I managed
+to shoot one bull, and then they started off again, where it was useless
+to try and follow them. After this I gave it up in disgust, and we made
+the best of our way back to the camp, not in the sweetest of tempers,
+carrying the tusks of the elephant I had shot.
+
+"It was on the afternoon of the fifth day of our tramp that we reached
+the little koppie overlooking the spot where the waggon stood, and I
+confess that I climbed it with a pleasurable sense of home-coming, for
+his waggon is the hunter's home, as much as his house is that of the
+civilized person. I reached the top of the koppie, and looked in the
+direction where the friendly white tent of the waggon should be, but
+there was no waggon, only a black burnt plain stretching away as far as
+the eye could reach. I rubbed my eyes, looked again, and made out on the
+spot of the camp, not my waggon, but some charred beams of wood. Half
+wild with grief and anxiety, followed by Hans and Mashune, I ran at full
+speed down the slope of the koppie, and across the space of plain below
+to the spring of water, where my camp had been. I was soon there, only
+to find that my worst suspicions were confirmed.
+
+"The waggon and all its contents, including my spare guns and
+ammunition, had been destroyed by a grass fire.
+
+"Now before I started, I had left orders with the driver to burn off
+the grass round the camp, in order to guard against accidents of this
+nature, and here was the reward of my folly: a very proper illustration
+of the necessity, especially where natives are concerned, of doing a
+thing one's self if one wants it done at all. Evidently the lazy
+rascals had not burnt round the waggon; most probably, indeed, they had
+themselves carelessly fired the tall and resinous tambouki grass near
+by; the wind had driven the flames on to the waggon tent, and there was
+quickly an end of the matter. As for the driver and leader, I know not
+what became of them: probably fearing my anger, they bolted, taking the
+oxen with them. I have never seen them from that hour to this.
+
+"I sat down on the black veldt by the spring, and gazed at the charred
+axles and disselboom of my waggon, and I can assure you, ladies and
+gentlemen, I felt inclined to weep. As for Mashune and Hans they cursed
+away vigorously, one in Zulu and the other in Dutch. Ours was a pretty
+position. We were nearly 300 miles away from Bamangwato, the capital of
+Khama's country, which was the nearest spot where we could get any help,
+and our ammunition, spare guns, clothing, food, and everything else,
+were all totally destroyed. I had just what I stood in, which was a
+flannel shirt, a pair of 'veldt-schoons,' or shoes of raw hide, my
+eight-bore rifle, and a few cartridges. Hans and Mashune had also each
+a Martini rifle and some cartridges, not many. And it was with this
+equipment that we had to undertake a journey of 300 miles through a
+desolate and almost uninhabited region. I can assure you that I have
+rarely been in a worse position, and I have been in some queer ones.
+However, these things are the natural incidents of a hunter's life, and
+the only thing to do was to make the best of them.
+
+"Accordingly, after passing a comfortless night by the remains of
+my waggon, we started next morning on our long journey towards
+civilization. Now if I were to set to work to tell you all the troubles
+and incidents of that dreadful journey I should keep you listening
+here till midnight; so I will, with your permission, pass on to the
+particular adventure of which the pair of buffalo horns opposite are the
+melancholy memento.
+
+"We had been travelling for about a month, living and getting along
+as best we could, when one evening we camped some forty miles from
+Bamangwato. By this time we were indeed in a melancholy plight,
+footsore, half starved, and utterly worn out; and, in addition, I was
+suffering from a sharp attack of fever, which half blinded me and made
+me weak as a babe. Our ammunition, too, was exhausted; I had only one
+cartridge left for my eight-bore rifle, and Hans and Mashune, who were
+armed with Martini Henrys, had three between them. It was about an hour
+from sundown when we halted and lit a fire--for luckily we had still a
+few matches. It was a charming spot to camp, I remember. Just off the
+game track we were following was a little hollow, fringed about with
+flat-crowned mimosa trees, and at the bottom of the hollow, a spring
+of clear water welled up out of the earth, and formed a pool, round the
+edges of which grew an abundance of watercresses of an exactly similar
+kind to those which were handed round the table just now. Now we had no
+food of any kind left, having that morning devoured the last remains
+of a little orib� antelope, which I had shot two days previously.
+Accordingly Hans, who was a better shot than Mashune, took two of the
+three remaining Martini cartridges, and started out to see if he could
+not kill a buck for supper. I was too weak to go myself.
+
+"Meanwhile Mashune employed himself in dragging together some dead
+boughs from the mimosa trees to make a sort of 'skerm,' or shelter for
+us to sleep in, about forty yards from the edge of the pool of water.
+We had been greatly troubled with lions in the course of our long tramp,
+and only on the previous night have very nearly been attacked by them,
+which made me nervous, especially in my weak state. Just as we had
+finished the skerm, or rather something which did duty for one, Mashune
+and I heard a shot apparently fired about a mile away.
+
+"'Hark to it!' sung out Mashune in Zulu, more, I fancy, by way of
+keeping his spirits up than for any other reason--for he was a sort of
+black Mark Tapley, and very cheerful under difficulties. 'Hark to the
+wonderful sound with which the "Maboona" (the Boers) shook our fathers
+to the ground at the Battle of the Blood River. We are hungry now, my
+father; our stomachs are small and withered up like a dried ox's paunch,
+but they will soon be full of good meat. Hans is a Hottentot, and an
+"umfagozan," that is, a low fellow, but he shoots straight--ah! he
+certainly shoots straight. Be of a good heart, my father, there will
+soon be meat upon the fire, and we shall rise up men.'
+
+"And so he went on talking nonsense till I told him to stop, because he
+made my head ache with his empty words.
+
+"Shortly after we heard the shot the sun sank in his red splendour, and
+there fell upon earth and sky the great hush of the African wilderness.
+The lions were not up as yet, they would probably wait for the moon, and
+the birds and beasts were all at rest. I cannot describe the intensity
+of the quiet of the night: to me in my weak state, and fretting as I was
+over the non-return of the Hottentot Hans, it seemed almost ominous--as
+though Nature were brooding over some tragedy which was being enacted in
+her sight.
+
+"It was quiet--quiet as death, and lonely as the grave.
+
+"'Mashune,' I said at last, 'where is Hans? my heart is heavy for him.'
+
+"'Nay, my father, I know not; mayhap he is weary, and sleeps, or mayhap
+he has lost his way.'
+
+"'Mashune, art thou a boy to talk folly to me?' I answered. 'Tell me,
+in all the years thou hast hunted by my side, didst thou ever know a
+Hottentot to lose his path or to sleep upon the way to camp?'
+
+"'Nay, Macumazahn' (that, ladies, is my native name, and means the man
+who 'gets up by night,' or who 'is always awake'), 'I know not where he
+is.'
+
+"But though we talked thus, we neither of us liked to hint at what was
+in both our minds, namely, that misfortunate had overtaken the poor
+Hottentot.
+
+"'Mashune,' I said at last, 'go down to the water and bring me of those
+green herbs that grow there. I am hungered, and must eat something.'
+
+"'Nay, my father; surely the ghosts are there; they come out of the
+water at night, and sit upon the banks to dry themselves. An Isanusi[*]
+told it me.'
+
+     [*] _Isanusi_, witch-finder.
+
+"Mashune was, I think, one of the bravest men I ever knew in the
+daytime, but he had a more than civilized dread of the supernatural.
+
+"'Must I go myself, thou fool?' I said, sternly.
+
+"'Nay, Macumazahn, if thy heart yearns for strange things like a sick
+woman, I go, even if the ghosts devour me.'
+
+"And accordingly he went, and soon returned with a large bundle of
+watercresses, of which I ate greedily.
+
+"'Art thou not hungry?' I asked the great Zulu presently, as he sat
+eyeing me eating.
+
+"'Never was I hungrier, my father.'
+
+"'Then eat,' and I pointed to the watercresses.
+
+"'Nay, Macumazahn, I cannot eat those herbs.'
+
+"'If thou dost not eat thou wilt starve: eat, Mashune.'
+
+"He stared at the watercresses doubtfully for a while, and at last
+seized a handful and crammed them into his mouth, crying out as he did
+so, 'Oh, why was I born that I should live to feed on green weeds like
+an ox? Surely if my mother could have known it she would have killed me
+when I was born!' and so he went on lamenting between each fistful of
+watercresses till all were finished, when he declared that he was full
+indeed of stuff, but it lay very cold on his stomach, 'like snow upon
+a mountain.' At any other time I should have laughed, for it must be
+admitted he had a ludicrous way of putting things. Zulus do not like
+green food.
+
+"Just after Mashune had finished his watercress, we heard the loud
+'woof! woof!' of a lion, who was evidently promenading much nearer to
+our little skerm than was pleasant. Indeed, on looking into the darkness
+and listening intently, I could hear his snoring breath, and catch the
+light of his great yellow eyes. We shouted loudly, and Mashune threw
+some sticks on the fire to frighten him, which apparently had the
+desired effect, for we saw no more of him for a while.
+
+"Just after we had had this fright from the lion, the moon rose in her
+fullest splendour, throwing a robe of silver light over all the earth.
+I have rarely seen a more beautiful moonrise. I remember that sitting in
+the skerm I could with ease read faint pencil notes in my pocket-book.
+As soon as the moon was up game began to trek down to the water just
+below us. I could, from where I sat, see all sorts of them passing
+along a little ridge that ran to our right, on their way to the drinking
+place. Indeed, one buck--a large eland--came within twenty yards of the
+skerm, and stood at gaze, staring at it suspiciously, his beautiful
+head and twisted horns standing out clearly against the sky. I had, I
+recollect, every mind to have a pull at him on the chance of providing
+ourselves with a good supply of beef; but remembering that we had but
+two cartridges left, and the extreme uncertainty of a shot by moonlight,
+I at length decided to refrain. The eland presently moved on to the
+water, and a minute or two afterwards there arose a great sound of
+splashing, followed by the quick fall of galloping hoofs.
+
+"'What's that, Mashune?' I asked.
+
+"'That dam lion; buck smell him,' replied the Zulu in English, of which
+he had a very superficial knowledge.
+
+"Scarcely were the words out of his mouth before we heard a sort of
+whine over the other side of the pool, which was instantly answered by a
+loud coughing roar close to us.
+
+"'By Jove!' I said, 'there are two of them. They have lost the buck; we
+must look out they don't catch us.' And again we made up the fire, and
+shouted, with the result that the lions moved off.
+
+"'Mashune,' I said, 'do you watch till the moon gets over that tree,
+when it will be the middle of the night. Then wake me. Watch well, now,
+or the lions will be picking those worthless bones of yours before you
+are three hours older. I must rest a little, or I shall die.'
+
+"'Koos!' (chief), answered the Zulu. 'Sleep, my father, sleep in peace;
+my eyes shall be open as the stars; and like the stars watch over you.'
+
+"Although I was so weak, I could not at once follow his advice. To begin
+with, my head ached with fever, and I was torn with anxiety as to the
+fate of the Hottentot Hans; and, indeed, as to our own fate, left
+with sore feet, empty stomachs, and two cartridges, to find our way to
+Bamangwato, forty miles off. Then the mere sensation of knowing that
+there are one or more hungry lions prowling round you somewhere in the
+dark is disquieting, however well one may be used to it, and, by keeping
+the attention on the stretch, tends to prevent one from sleeping. In
+addition to all these troubles, too, I was, I remember, seized with
+a dreadful longing for a pipe of tobacco, whereas, under the
+circumstances, I might as well have longed for the moon.
+
+"At last, however, I fell into an uneasy sleep as full of bad dreams as
+a prickly pear is of points, one of which, I recollect, was that I was
+setting my naked foot upon a cobra which rose upon its tail and hissed
+my name, 'Macumazahn,' into my ear. Indeed, the cobra hissed with such
+persistency that at last I roused myself.
+
+"'_Macumazahn, nanzia, nanzia!_' (there, there!) whispered Mashune's
+voice into my drowsy ears. Raising myself, I opened my eyes, and I saw
+Mashune kneeling by my side and pointing towards the water. Following
+the line of his outstretched hand, my eyes fell upon a sight that made
+me jump, old hunter as I was even in those days. About twenty paces
+from the little skerm was a large ant-heap, and on the summit of the
+ant-heap, her four feet rather close together, so as to find standing
+space, stood the massive form of a big lioness. Her head was towards the
+skerm, and in the bright moonlight I saw her lower it and lick her paws.
+
+"Mashune thrust the Martini rifle into my hands, whispering that it was
+loaded. I lifted it and covered the lioness, but found that even in that
+light I could not make out the foresight of the Martini. As it would be
+madness to fire without doing so, for the result would probably be that
+I should wound the lioness, if, indeed, I did not miss her altogether, I
+lowered the rifle; and, hastily tearing a fragment of paper from one of
+the leaves of my pocket-book, which I had been consulting just before I
+went to sleep, I proceeded to fix it on to the front sight. But all this
+took a little time, and before the paper was satisfactorily arranged,
+Mashune again gripped me by the arm, and pointed to a dark heap under
+the shade of a small mimosa tree which grew not more than ten paces from
+the skerm.
+
+"'Well, what is it?' I whispered; 'I can see nothing.'
+
+"'It is another lion,' he answered.
+
+"'Nonsense! thy heart is dead with fear, thou seest double;' and I bent
+forward over the edge of the surrounding fence, and stared at the heap.
+
+"Even as I said the words, the dark mass rose and stalked out into the
+moonlight. It was a magnificent, black-maned lion, one of the largest
+I had ever seen. When he had gone two or three steps he caught sight of
+me, halted, and stood there gazing straight towards us;--he was so close
+that I could see the firelight reflected in his wicked, greenish eyes.
+
+"'Shoot, shoot!' said Mashune. 'The devil is coming--he is going to
+spring!'
+
+"I raised the rifle, and got the bit of paper on the foresight, straight
+on to a little path of white hair just where the throat is set into
+the chest and shoulders. As I did so, the lion glanced back over his
+shoulder, as, according to my experience, a lion nearly always does
+before he springs. Then he dropped his body a little, and I saw his big
+paws spread out upon the ground as he put his weight on them to gather
+purchase. In haste I pressed the trigger of the Martini, and not a
+moment too soon; for, as I did so, he was in the act of springing. The
+report of the rifle rang out sharp and clear on the intense silence of
+the night, and in another second the great brute had landed on his
+head within four feet of us, and rolling over and over towards us,
+was sending the bushes which composed our little fence flying with
+convulsive strokes of his great paws. We sprang out of the other side of
+the 'skerm,' and he rolled on to it and into it and then right through
+the fire. Next he raised himself and sat upon his haunches like a great
+dog, and began to roar. Heavens! how he roared! I never heard anything
+like it before or since. He kept filling his lungs with air, and then
+emitting it in the most heart-shaking volumes of sound. Suddenly, in the
+middle of one of the loudest roars, he rolled over on to his side and
+lay still, and I knew that he was dead. A lion generally dies upon his
+side.
+
+"With a sigh of relief I looked up towards his mate upon the ant-heap.
+She was standing there apparently petrified with astonishment, looking
+over her shoulder, and lashing her tail; but to our intense joy, when
+the dying beast ceased roaring, she turned, and, with one enormous
+bound, vanished into the night.
+
+"Then we advanced cautiously towards the prostrate brute, Mashune
+droning an improvised Zulu song as he went, about how Macumazahn, the
+hunter of hunters, whose eyes are open by night as well as by day, put
+his hand down the lion's stomach when it came to devour him and
+pulled out his heart by the roots, &c., &c., by way of expressing his
+satisfaction, in his hyperbolical Zulu way, at the turn events had
+taken.
+
+"There was no need for caution; the lion was as dead as though he had
+already been stuffed with straw. The Martini bullet had entered within
+an inch of the white spot I had aimed at, and travelled right through
+him, passing out at the right buttock, near the root of the tail. The
+Martini has wonderful driving power, though the shock it gives to the
+system is, comparatively speaking, slight, owing to the smallness of the
+hole it makes. But fortunately the lion is an easy beast to kill.
+
+"I passed the rest of that night in a profound slumber, my head reposing
+upon the deceased lion's flank, a position that had, I thought, a
+beautiful touch of irony about it, though the smell of his singed hair
+was disagreeable. When I woke again the faint primrose lights of dawn
+were flushing in the eastern sky. For a moment I could not understand
+the chill sense of anxiety that lay like a lump of ice at my heart, till
+the feel and smell of the skin of the dead lion beneath my head recalled
+the circumstances in which we were placed. I rose, and eagerly looked
+round to see if I could discover any signs of Hans, who, if he had
+escaped accident, would surely return to us at dawn, but there were
+none. Then hope grew faint, and I felt that it was not well with the
+poor fellow. Setting Mashune to build up the fire I hastily removed the
+hide from the flank of the lion, which was indeed a splendid beast,
+and cutting off some lumps of flesh, we toasted and ate them greedily.
+Lions' flesh, strange as it may seem, is very good eating, and tastes
+more like veal than anything else.
+
+"By the time we had finished our much-needed meal the sun was getting
+up, and after a drink of water and a wash at the pool, we started to
+try and find Hans, leaving the dead lion to the tender mercies of the
+hy�nas. Both Mashune and myself were, by constant practice, pretty
+good hands at tracking, and we had not much difficulty in following
+the Hottentot's spoor, faint as it was. We had gone on in this way for
+half-an-hour or so, and were, perhaps, a mile or more from the site
+of our camping-place, when we discovered the spoor of a solitary bull
+buffalo mixed up with the spoor of Hans, and were able, from various
+indications, to make out that he had been tracking the buffalo. At
+length we reached a little glade in which there grew a stunted old
+mimosa thorn, with a peculiar and overhanging formation of root, under
+which a porcupine, or an ant-bear, or some such animal, had hollowed
+out a wide-lipped hole. About ten or fifteen paces from this thorn-tree
+there was a thick patch of bush.
+
+"'See, Macumazahn! see!' said Mashune, excitedly, as we drew near the
+thorn; 'the buffalo has charged him. Look, here he stood to fire at him;
+see how firmly he planted his feet upon the earth; there is the mark of
+his crooked toe (Hans had one bent toe). Look! here the bull came like
+a boulder down the hill, his hoofs turning up the earth like a hoe. Hans
+had hit him: he bled as he came; there are the blood spots. It is all
+written down there, my father--there upon the earth.'
+
+"'Yes,' I said; 'yes; but _where is Hans?_'
+
+"Even as I said it Mashune clutched my arm, and pointed to the stunted
+thorn just by us. Even now, gentlemen, it makes me feel sick when I
+think of what I saw.
+
+"For fixed in a stout fork of the tree some eight feet from the ground
+was Hans himself, or rather his dead body, evidently tossed there by the
+furious buffalo. One leg was twisted round the fork, probably in a dying
+convulsion. In the side, just beneath the ribs, was a great hole, from
+which the entrails protruded. But this was not all. The other leg hung
+down to within five feet of the ground. The skin and most of the flesh
+were gone from it. For a moment we stood aghast, and gazed at this
+horrifying sight. Then I understood what had happened. The buffalo, with
+that devilish cruelty which distinguishes the animal, had, after his
+enemy was dead, stood underneath his body, and licked the flesh off
+the pendant leg with his file-like tongue. I had heard of such a thing
+before, but had always treated the stories as hunters' yarns; but I had
+no doubt about it now. Poor Hans' skeleton foot and ankle were an ample
+proof.
+
+"We stood aghast under the tree, and stared and stared at this awful
+sight, when suddenly our cogitations were interrupted in a painful
+manner. The thick bush about fifteen paces off burst asunder with a
+crashing sound, and uttering a series of ferocious pig-like grunts, the
+bull buffalo himself came charging out straight at us. Even as he came
+I saw the blood mark on his side where poor Hans' bullet had struck him,
+and also, as is often the case with particularly savage buffaloes, that
+his flanks had recently been terribly torn in an encounter with a lion.
+
+"On he came, his head well up (a buffalo does not generally lower his
+head till he does so to strike); those great black horns--as I look at
+them before me, gentlemen, I seem to see them come charging at me as I
+did ten years ago, silhouetted against the green bush behind;--on, on!"
+
+"With a shout Mashune bolted off sideways towards the bush. I had
+instinctively lifted my eight-bore, which I had in my hand. It would
+have been useless to fire at the buffalo's head, for the dense horns
+must have turned the bullet; but as Mashune bolted, the bull slewed a
+little, with the momentary idea of following him, and as this gave me
+a ghost of a chance, I let drive my only cartridge at his shoulder. The
+bullet struck the shoulder-blade and smashed it up, and then travelled
+on under the skin into his flank; but it did not stop him, though for a
+second he staggered.
+
+"Throwing myself on to the ground with the energy of despair, I rolled
+under the shelter of the projecting root of the thorn, crushing myself
+as far into the mouth of the ant-bear hole as I could. In a single
+instant the buffalo was after me. Kneeling down on his uninjured
+knee--for one leg, that of which I had broken the shoulder, was swinging
+helplessly to and fro--he set to work to try and hook me out of the hole
+with his crooked horn. At first he struck at me furiously, and it was
+one of the blows against the base of the tree which splintered the tip
+of the horn in the way that you see. Then he grew more cunning,
+and pushed his head as far under the root as possible, made long
+semicircular sweeps at me, grunting furiously, and blowing saliva and
+hot steamy breath all over me. I was just out of reach of the horn,
+though every stroke, by widening the hole and making more room for his
+head, brought it closer to me, but every now and again I received heavy
+blows in the ribs from his muzzle. Feeling that I was being knocked
+silly, I made an effort and seizing his rough tongue, which was hanging
+from his jaws, I twisted it with all my force. The great brute bellowed
+with pain and fury, and jerked himself backwards so strongly, that he
+dragged me some inches further from the mouth of the hole, and again
+made a sweep at me, catching me this time round the shoulder-joint in
+the hook of his horn.
+
+"I felt that it was all up now, and began to holloa.
+
+"'He has got me!' I shouted in mortal terror. '_Gwasa, Mashune, gwasa!_'
+('Stab, Mashune, stab!').
+
+"One hoist of the great head, and out of the hole I came like a
+periwinkle out of his shell. But even as I did so, I caught sight of
+Mashune's stalwart form advancing with his 'bangwan,' or broad stabbing
+assegai, raised above his head. In another quarter of a second I had
+fallen from the horn, and heard the blow of the spear, followed by
+the indescribable sound of steel shearing its way through flesh. I had
+fallen on my back, and, looking up, I saw that the gallant Mashune had
+driven the assegai a foot or more into the carcass of the buffalo, and
+was turning to fly.
+
+"Alas! it was too late. Bellowing madly, and spouting blood from mouth
+and nostrils, the devilish brute was on him, and had thrown him up like
+a feather, and then gored him twice as he lay. I struggled up with some
+wild idea of affording help, but before I had gone a step the buffalo
+gave one long sighing bellow, and rolled over dead by the side of his
+victim.
+
+"Mashune was still living, but a single glance at him told me that his
+hour had come. The buffalo's horn had driven a great hole in his right
+lung, and inflicted other injuries.
+
+"I knelt down beside him in the uttermost distress, and took his hand.
+
+"'Is he dead, Macumazahn?' he whispered. 'My eyes are blind; I cannot
+see.'
+
+"'Yes, he is dead.'
+
+"'Did the black devil hurt thee, Macumazahn?'
+
+"'No, my poor fellow, I am not much hurt.'
+
+"'Ow! I am glad.'
+
+"Then came a long silence, broken only by the sound of the air whistling
+through the hole in his lung as he breathed.
+
+"'Macumazahn, art thou there? I cannot feel thee.'
+
+"'I am here, Mashune.'
+
+"'I die, Macumazahn--the world flies round and round. I go--I go out
+into the dark! Surely, my father, at times in days to come--thou wilt
+think of Mashune who stood by thy side--when thou killest elephants, as
+we used--as we used----'
+
+"They were his last words, his brave spirit passed with him. I dragged
+his body to the hole under the tree, and pushed it in, placing his broad
+assegai by him, according to the custom of his people, that he might not
+go defenceless on his long journey; and then, ladies--I am not ashamed
+to confess--I stood alone there before it, and wept like a woman."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Hunter Quatermain's Story, by H. Rider Haggard
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+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      Hunter Quatermain's Story, by H. Rider Haggard
+    </title>
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+
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hunter Quatermain's Story, 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: Hunter Quatermain's Story
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: April 3, 2006 [EBook #2728]
+Last Updated: September 23, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNTER QUATERMAIN'S STORY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding; David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      HUNTER QUATERMAIN&rsquo;S STORY
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      by H. Rider Haggard
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Henry Curtis, as everybody acquainted with him knows, is one of the
+      most hospitable men on earth. It was in the course of the enjoyment of his
+      hospitality at his place in Yorkshire the other day that I heard the
+      hunting story which I am now about to transcribe. Many of those who read
+      it will no doubt have heard some of the strange rumours that are flying
+      about to the effect that Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good,
+      R.N., recently found a vast treasure of diamonds out in the heart of
+      Africa, supposed to have been hidden by the Egyptians, or King Solomon, or
+      some other antique people. I first saw the matter alluded to in a
+      paragraph in one of the society papers the day before I started for
+      Yorkshire to pay my visit to Curtis, and arrived, needless to say, burning
+      with curiosity; for there is something very fascinating to the mind in the
+      idea of hidden treasure. When I reached the Hall, I at once asked Curtis
+      about it, and he did not deny the truth of the story; but on my pressing
+      him to tell it he would not, nor would Captain Good, who was also staying
+      in the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would not believe me if I did,&rdquo; Sir Henry said, with one of the
+      hearty laughs which seem to come right out of his great lungs. &ldquo;You must
+      wait till Hunter Quatermain comes; he will arrive here from Africa
+      to-night, and I am not going to say a word about the matter, or Good
+      either, until he turns up. Quatermain was with us all through; he has
+      known about the business for years and years, and if it had not been for
+      him we should not have been here to-day. I am going to meet him
+      presently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I could not get a word more out of him, nor could anybody else, though we
+      were all dying of curiosity, especially some of the ladies. I shall never
+      forget how they looked in the drawing-room before dinner when Captain Good
+      produced a great rough diamond, weighing fifty carats or more, and told
+      them that he had many larger than that. If ever I saw curiosity and envy
+      printed on fair faces, I saw them then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was just at this moment that the door was opened, and Mr. Allan
+      Quatermain announced, whereupon Good put the diamond into his pocket, and
+      sprang at a little man who limped shyly into the room, convoyed by Sir
+      Henry Curtis himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here he is, Good, safe and sound,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, gleefully. &ldquo;Ladies and
+      gentlemen, let me introduce you to one of the oldest hunters and the very
+      best shot in Africa, who has killed more elephants and lions than any
+      other man alive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody turned and stared politely at the curious-looking little lame
+      man, and though his size was insignificant, he was quite worth staring at.
+      He had short grizzled hair, which stood about an inch above his head like
+      the bristles of a brush, gentle brown eyes, that seemed to notice
+      everything, and a withered face, tanned to the colour of mahogany from
+      exposure to the weather. He spoke, too, when he returned Good&rsquo;s
+      enthusiastic greeting, with a curious little accent, which made his speech
+      noticeable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It so happened that I sat next to Mr. Allan Quatermain at dinner, and, of
+      course, did my best to draw him; but he was not to be drawn. He admitted
+      that he had recently been a long journey into the interior of Africa with
+      Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and that they had found treasure, and
+      then politely turned the subject and began to ask me questions about
+      England, where he had never been before&mdash;that is, since he came to
+      years of discretion. Of course, I did not find this very interesting, and
+      so cast about for some means to bring the conversation round again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, we were dining in an oak-panelled vestibule, and on the wall opposite
+      to me were fixed two gigantic elephant tusks, and under them a pair of
+      buffalo horns, very rough and knotted, showing that they came off an old
+      bull, and having the tip of one horn split and chipped. I noticed that
+      Hunter Quatermain&rsquo;s eyes kept glancing at these trophies, and took an
+      occasion to ask him if he knew anything about them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ought to,&rdquo; he answered, with a little laugh; &ldquo;the elephant to which
+      those tusks belonged tore one of our party right in two about eighteen
+      months ago, and as for the buffalo horns, they were nearly my death, and
+      were the end of a servant of mine to whom I was much attached. I gave them
+      to Sir Henry when he left Natal some months ago;&rdquo; and Mr. Quatermain
+      sighed and turned to answer a question from the lady whom he had taken
+      down to dinner, and who, needless to say, was also employed in trying to
+      pump him about the diamonds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Indeed, all round the table there was a simmer of scarcely suppressed
+      excitement, which, when the servants had left the room, could no longer be
+      restrained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Mr. Quatermain,&rdquo; said the lady next him, &ldquo;we have been kept in an
+      agony of suspense by Sir Henry and Captain Good, who have persistently
+      refused to tell us a word of this story about the hidden treasure till you
+      came, and we simply can bear it no longer; so, please, begin at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said everybody, &ldquo;go on, please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hunter Quatermain glanced round the table apprehensively; he did not seem
+      to appreciate finding himself the object of so much curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ladies and gentlemen,&rdquo; he said at last, with a shake of his grizzled
+      head, &ldquo;I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot do it. It is this
+      way. At the request of Sir Henry and Captain Good I have written down a
+      true and plain account of King Solomon&rsquo;s Mines and how we found them, so
+      you will soon be able to learn all about that wonderful adventure for
+      yourselves; but until then I will say nothing about it, not from any wish
+      to disappoint your curiosity, or to make myself important, but simply
+      because the whole story partakes so much of the marvellous, that I am
+      afraid to tell it in a piecemeal, hasty fashion, for fear I should be set
+      down as one of those common fellows of whom there are so many in my
+      profession, who are not ashamed to narrate things they have not seen, and
+      even to tell wonderful stories about wild animals they have never killed.
+      And I think that my companions in adventure, Sir Henry Curtis and Captain
+      Good, will bear me out in what I say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Quatermain, I think you are quite right,&rdquo; said Sir Henry. &ldquo;Precisely
+      the same considerations have forced Good and myself to hold our tongues.
+      We did not wish to be bracketed with&mdash;well, with other famous
+      travellers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a murmur of disappointment at these announcements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe you are all hoaxing us,&rdquo; said the young lady next Mr.
+      Quatermain, rather sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Believe me,&rdquo; answered the old hunter, with a quaint courtesy and a little
+      bow of his grizzled head; &ldquo;though I have lived all my life in the
+      wilderness, and amongst savages, I have neither the heart, nor the want of
+      manners, to wish to deceive one so lovely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereat the young lady, who was pretty, looked appeased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is very dreadful,&rdquo; I broke in. &ldquo;We ask for bread and you give us a
+      stone, Mr. Quatermain. The least that you can do is to tell us the story
+      of the tusks opposite and the buffalo horns underneath. We won&rsquo;t let you
+      off with less.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am but a poor story-teller,&rdquo; put in the old hunter, &ldquo;but if you will
+      forgive my want of skill, I shall be happy to tell you, not the story of
+      the tusks, for that is part of the history of our journey to King
+      Solomon&rsquo;s Mines, but that of the buffalo horns beneath them, which is now
+      ten years old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bravo, Quatermain!&rdquo; said Sir Henry. &ldquo;We shall all be delighted. Fire
+      away! Fill up your glass first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little man did as he was bid, took a sip of claret, and began:&mdash;&ldquo;About
+      ten years ago I was hunting up in the far interior of Africa, at a place
+      called Gatgarra, not a great way from the Chobe River. I had with me four
+      native servants, namely, a driver and voorlooper, or leader, who were
+      natives of Matabeleland, a Hottentot named Hans, who had once been the
+      slave of a Transvaal Boer, and a Zulu hunter, who for five years had
+      accompanied me upon my trips, and whose name was Mashune. Now near
+      Gatgarra I found a fine piece of healthy, park-like country, where the
+      grass was very good, considering the time of year; and here I made a
+      little camp or head-quarter settlement, from whence I went expeditions on
+      all sides in search of game, especially elephant. My luck, however, was
+      bad; I got but little ivory. I was therefore very glad when some natives
+      brought me news that a large herd of elephants were feeding in a valley
+      about thirty miles away. At first I thought of trekking down to the
+      valley, waggon and all, but gave up the idea on hearing that it was
+      infested with the deadly &lsquo;tsetse&rsquo; fly, which is certain death to all
+      animals, except men, donkeys, and wild game. So I reluctantly determined
+      to leave the waggon in the charge of the Matabele leader and driver, and
+      to start on a trip into the thorn country, accompanied only by the
+      Hottentot Hans, and Mashune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accordingly on the following morning we started, and on the evening of
+      the next day reached the spot where the elephants were reported to be. But
+      here again we were met by ill luck. That the elephants had been there was
+      evident enough, for their spoor was plentiful, and so were other traces of
+      their presence in the shape of mimosa trees torn out of the ground, and
+      placed topsy-turvy on their flat crowns, in order to enable the great
+      beasts to feed on their sweet roots; but the elephants themselves were
+      conspicuous by their absence. They had elected to move on. This being so,
+      there was only one thing to do, and that was to move after them, which we
+      did, and a pretty hunt they led us. For a fortnight or more we dodged
+      about after those elephants, coming up with them on two occasions, and a
+      splendid herd they were&mdash;only, however, to lose them again. At length
+      we came up with them a third time, and I managed to shoot one bull, and
+      then they started off again, where it was useless to try and follow them.
+      After this I gave it up in disgust, and we made the best of our way back
+      to the camp, not in the sweetest of tempers, carrying the tusks of the
+      elephant I had shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was on the afternoon of the fifth day of our tramp that we reached the
+      little koppie overlooking the spot where the waggon stood, and I confess
+      that I climbed it with a pleasurable sense of home-coming, for his waggon
+      is the hunter&rsquo;s home, as much as his house is that of the civilized
+      person. I reached the top of the koppie, and looked in the direction where
+      the friendly white tent of the waggon should be, but there was no waggon,
+      only a black burnt plain stretching away as far as the eye could reach. I
+      rubbed my eyes, looked again, and made out on the spot of the camp, not my
+      waggon, but some charred beams of wood. Half wild with grief and anxiety,
+      followed by Hans and Mashune, I ran at full speed down the slope of the
+      koppie, and across the space of plain below to the spring of water, where
+      my camp had been. I was soon there, only to find that my worst suspicions
+      were confirmed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The waggon and all its contents, including my spare guns and ammunition,
+      had been destroyed by a grass fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now before I started, I had left orders with the driver to burn off the
+      grass round the camp, in order to guard against accidents of this nature,
+      and here was the reward of my folly: a very proper illustration of the
+      necessity, especially where natives are concerned, of doing a thing one&rsquo;s
+      self if one wants it done at all. Evidently the lazy rascals had not burnt
+      round the waggon; most probably, indeed, they had themselves carelessly
+      fired the tall and resinous tambouki grass near by; the wind had driven
+      the flames on to the waggon tent, and there was quickly an end of the
+      matter. As for the driver and leader, I know not what became of them:
+      probably fearing my anger, they bolted, taking the oxen with them. I have
+      never seen them from that hour to this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sat down on the black veldt by the spring, and gazed at the charred
+      axles and disselboom of my waggon, and I can assure you, ladies and
+      gentlemen, I felt inclined to weep. As for Mashune and Hans they cursed
+      away vigorously, one in Zulu and the other in Dutch. Ours was a pretty
+      position. We were nearly 300 miles away from Bamangwato, the capital of
+      Khama&rsquo;s country, which was the nearest spot where we could get any help,
+      and our ammunition, spare guns, clothing, food, and everything else, were
+      all totally destroyed. I had just what I stood in, which was a flannel
+      shirt, a pair of &lsquo;veldt-schoons,&rsquo; or shoes of raw hide, my eight-bore
+      rifle, and a few cartridges. Hans and Mashune had also each a Martini
+      rifle and some cartridges, not many. And it was with this equipment that
+      we had to undertake a journey of 300 miles through a desolate and almost
+      uninhabited region. I can assure you that I have rarely been in a worse
+      position, and I have been in some queer ones. However, these things are
+      the natural incidents of a hunter&rsquo;s life, and the only thing to do was to
+      make the best of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accordingly, after passing a comfortless night by the remains of my
+      waggon, we started next morning on our long journey towards civilization.
+      Now if I were to set to work to tell you all the troubles and incidents of
+      that dreadful journey I should keep you listening here till midnight; so I
+      will, with your permission, pass on to the particular adventure of which
+      the pair of buffalo horns opposite are the melancholy memento.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We had been travelling for about a month, living and getting along as
+      best we could, when one evening we camped some forty miles from
+      Bamangwato. By this time we were indeed in a melancholy plight, footsore,
+      half starved, and utterly worn out; and, in addition, I was suffering from
+      a sharp attack of fever, which half blinded me and made me weak as a babe.
+      Our ammunition, too, was exhausted; I had only one cartridge left for my
+      eight-bore rifle, and Hans and Mashune, who were armed with Martini
+      Henrys, had three between them. It was about an hour from sundown when we
+      halted and lit a fire&mdash;for luckily we had still a few matches. It was
+      a charming spot to camp, I remember. Just off the game track we were
+      following was a little hollow, fringed about with flat-crowned mimosa
+      trees, and at the bottom of the hollow, a spring of clear water welled up
+      out of the earth, and formed a pool, round the edges of which grew an
+      abundance of watercresses of an exactly similar kind to those which were
+      handed round the table just now. Now we had no food of any kind left,
+      having that morning devoured the last remains of a little oribé antelope,
+      which I had shot two days previously. Accordingly Hans, who was a better
+      shot than Mashune, took two of the three remaining Martini cartridges, and
+      started out to see if he could not kill a buck for supper. I was too weak
+      to go myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Meanwhile Mashune employed himself in dragging together some dead boughs
+      from the mimosa trees to make a sort of &lsquo;skerm,&rsquo; or shelter for us to
+      sleep in, about forty yards from the edge of the pool of water. We had
+      been greatly troubled with lions in the course of our long tramp, and only
+      on the previous night have very nearly been attacked by them, which made
+      me nervous, especially in my weak state. Just as we had finished the
+      skerm, or rather something which did duty for one, Mashune and I heard a
+      shot apparently fired about a mile away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Hark to it!&rsquo; sung out Mashune in Zulu, more, I fancy, by way of keeping
+      his spirits up than for any other reason&mdash;for he was a sort of black
+      Mark Tapley, and very cheerful under difficulties. &lsquo;Hark to the wonderful
+      sound with which the &ldquo;Maboona&rdquo; (the Boers) shook our fathers to the ground
+      at the Battle of the Blood River. We are hungry now, my father; our
+      stomachs are small and withered up like a dried ox&rsquo;s paunch, but they will
+      soon be full of good meat. Hans is a Hottentot, and an &ldquo;umfagozan,&rdquo; that
+      is, a low fellow, but he shoots straight&mdash;ah! he certainly shoots
+      straight. Be of a good heart, my father, there will soon be meat upon the
+      fire, and we shall rise up men.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so he went on talking nonsense till I told him to stop, because he
+      made my head ache with his empty words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shortly after we heard the shot the sun sank in his red splendour, and
+      there fell upon earth and sky the great hush of the African wilderness.
+      The lions were not up as yet, they would probably wait for the moon, and
+      the birds and beasts were all at rest. I cannot describe the intensity of
+      the quiet of the night: to me in my weak state, and fretting as I was over
+      the non-return of the Hottentot Hans, it seemed almost ominous&mdash;as
+      though Nature were brooding over some tragedy which was being enacted in
+      her sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was quiet&mdash;quiet as death, and lonely as the grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Mashune,&rsquo; I said at last, &lsquo;where is Hans? my heart is heavy for him.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nay, my father, I know not; mayhap he is weary, and sleeps, or mayhap he
+      has lost his way.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Mashune, art thou a boy to talk folly to me?&rsquo; I answered. &lsquo;Tell me, in
+      all the years thou hast hunted by my side, didst thou ever know a
+      Hottentot to lose his path or to sleep upon the way to camp?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nay, Macumazahn&rsquo; (that, ladies, is my native name, and means the man who
+      &lsquo;gets up by night,&rsquo; or who &lsquo;is always awake&rsquo;), &lsquo;I know not where he is.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But though we talked thus, we neither of us liked to hint at what was in
+      both our minds, namely, that misfortunate had overtaken the poor
+      Hottentot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Mashune,&rsquo; I said at last, &lsquo;go down to the water and bring me of those
+      green herbs that grow there. I am hungered, and must eat something.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nay, my father; surely the ghosts are there; they come out of the water
+      at night, and sit upon the banks to dry themselves. An Isanusi[*] told it
+      me.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] <i>Isanusi</i>, witch-finder.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mashune was, I think, one of the bravest men I ever knew in the daytime,
+      but he had a more than civilized dread of the supernatural.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Must I go myself, thou fool?&rsquo; I said, sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nay, Macumazahn, if thy heart yearns for strange things like a sick
+      woman, I go, even if the ghosts devour me.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And accordingly he went, and soon returned with a large bundle of
+      watercresses, of which I ate greedily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Art thou not hungry?&rsquo; I asked the great Zulu presently, as he sat eyeing
+      me eating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Never was I hungrier, my father.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Then eat,&rsquo; and I pointed to the watercresses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nay, Macumazahn, I cannot eat those herbs.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;If thou dost not eat thou wilt starve: eat, Mashune.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He stared at the watercresses doubtfully for a while, and at last seized
+      a handful and crammed them into his mouth, crying out as he did so, &lsquo;Oh,
+      why was I born that I should live to feed on green weeds like an ox?
+      Surely if my mother could have known it she would have killed me when I
+      was born!&rsquo; and so he went on lamenting between each fistful of
+      watercresses till all were finished, when he declared that he was full
+      indeed of stuff, but it lay very cold on his stomach, &lsquo;like snow upon a
+      mountain.&rsquo; At any other time I should have laughed, for it must be
+      admitted he had a ludicrous way of putting things. Zulus do not like green
+      food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just after Mashune had finished his watercress, we heard the loud &lsquo;woof!
+      woof!&rsquo; of a lion, who was evidently promenading much nearer to our little
+      skerm than was pleasant. Indeed, on looking into the darkness and
+      listening intently, I could hear his snoring breath, and catch the light
+      of his great yellow eyes. We shouted loudly, and Mashune threw some sticks
+      on the fire to frighten him, which apparently had the desired effect, for
+      we saw no more of him for a while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just after we had had this fright from the lion, the moon rose in her
+      fullest splendour, throwing a robe of silver light over all the earth. I
+      have rarely seen a more beautiful moonrise. I remember that sitting in the
+      skerm I could with ease read faint pencil notes in my pocket-book. As soon
+      as the moon was up game began to trek down to the water just below us. I
+      could, from where I sat, see all sorts of them passing along a little
+      ridge that ran to our right, on their way to the drinking place. Indeed,
+      one buck&mdash;a large eland&mdash;came within twenty yards of the skerm,
+      and stood at gaze, staring at it suspiciously, his beautiful head and
+      twisted horns standing out clearly against the sky. I had, I recollect,
+      every mind to have a pull at him on the chance of providing ourselves with
+      a good supply of beef; but remembering that we had but two cartridges
+      left, and the extreme uncertainty of a shot by moonlight, I at length
+      decided to refrain. The eland presently moved on to the water, and a
+      minute or two afterwards there arose a great sound of splashing, followed
+      by the quick fall of galloping hoofs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;What&rsquo;s that, Mashune?&rsquo; I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That dam lion; buck smell him,&rsquo; replied the Zulu in English, of which he
+      had a very superficial knowledge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Scarcely were the words out of his mouth before we heard a sort of whine
+      over the other side of the pool, which was instantly answered by a loud
+      coughing roar close to us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;By Jove!&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;there are two of them. They have lost the buck; we
+      must look out they don&rsquo;t catch us.&rsquo; And again we made up the fire, and
+      shouted, with the result that the lions moved off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Mashune,&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;do you watch till the moon gets over that tree, when
+      it will be the middle of the night. Then wake me. Watch well, now, or the
+      lions will be picking those worthless bones of yours before you are three
+      hours older. I must rest a little, or I shall die.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Koos!&rsquo; (chief), answered the Zulu. &lsquo;Sleep, my father, sleep in peace; my
+      eyes shall be open as the stars; and like the stars watch over you.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Although I was so weak, I could not at once follow his advice. To begin
+      with, my head ached with fever, and I was torn with anxiety as to the fate
+      of the Hottentot Hans; and, indeed, as to our own fate, left with sore
+      feet, empty stomachs, and two cartridges, to find our way to Bamangwato,
+      forty miles off. Then the mere sensation of knowing that there are one or
+      more hungry lions prowling round you somewhere in the dark is disquieting,
+      however well one may be used to it, and, by keeping the attention on the
+      stretch, tends to prevent one from sleeping. In addition to all these
+      troubles, too, I was, I remember, seized with a dreadful longing for a
+      pipe of tobacco, whereas, under the circumstances, I might as well have
+      longed for the moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At last, however, I fell into an uneasy sleep as full of bad dreams as a
+      prickly pear is of points, one of which, I recollect, was that I was
+      setting my naked foot upon a cobra which rose upon its tail and hissed my
+      name, &lsquo;Macumazahn,&rsquo; into my ear. Indeed, the cobra hissed with such
+      persistency that at last I roused myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;<i>Macumazahn, nanzia, nanzia!</i>&rsquo; (there, there!) whispered Mashune&rsquo;s
+      voice into my drowsy ears. Raising myself, I opened my eyes, and I saw
+      Mashune kneeling by my side and pointing towards the water. Following the
+      line of his outstretched hand, my eyes fell upon a sight that made me
+      jump, old hunter as I was even in those days. About twenty paces from the
+      little skerm was a large ant-heap, and on the summit of the ant-heap, her
+      four feet rather close together, so as to find standing space, stood the
+      massive form of a big lioness. Her head was towards the skerm, and in the
+      bright moonlight I saw her lower it and lick her paws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mashune thrust the Martini rifle into my hands, whispering that it was
+      loaded. I lifted it and covered the lioness, but found that even in that
+      light I could not make out the foresight of the Martini. As it would be
+      madness to fire without doing so, for the result would probably be that I
+      should wound the lioness, if, indeed, I did not miss her altogether, I
+      lowered the rifle; and, hastily tearing a fragment of paper from one of
+      the leaves of my pocket-book, which I had been consulting just before I
+      went to sleep, I proceeded to fix it on to the front sight. But all this
+      took a little time, and before the paper was satisfactorily arranged,
+      Mashune again gripped me by the arm, and pointed to a dark heap under the
+      shade of a small mimosa tree which grew not more than ten paces from the
+      skerm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Well, what is it?&rsquo; I whispered; &lsquo;I can see nothing.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;It is another lion,&rsquo; he answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nonsense! thy heart is dead with fear, thou seest double;&rsquo; and I bent
+      forward over the edge of the surrounding fence, and stared at the heap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even as I said the words, the dark mass rose and stalked out into the
+      moonlight. It was a magnificent, black-maned lion, one of the largest I
+      had ever seen. When he had gone two or three steps he caught sight of me,
+      halted, and stood there gazing straight towards us;&mdash;he was so close
+      that I could see the firelight reflected in his wicked, greenish eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Shoot, shoot!&rsquo; said Mashune. &lsquo;The devil is coming&mdash;he is going to
+      spring!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I raised the rifle, and got the bit of paper on the foresight, straight
+      on to a little path of white hair just where the throat is set into the
+      chest and shoulders. As I did so, the lion glanced back over his shoulder,
+      as, according to my experience, a lion nearly always does before he
+      springs. Then he dropped his body a little, and I saw his big paws spread
+      out upon the ground as he put his weight on them to gather purchase. In
+      haste I pressed the trigger of the Martini, and not a moment too soon;
+      for, as I did so, he was in the act of springing. The report of the rifle
+      rang out sharp and clear on the intense silence of the night, and in
+      another second the great brute had landed on his head within four feet of
+      us, and rolling over and over towards us, was sending the bushes which
+      composed our little fence flying with convulsive strokes of his great
+      paws. We sprang out of the other side of the &lsquo;skerm,&rsquo; and he rolled on to
+      it and into it and then right through the fire. Next he raised himself and
+      sat upon his haunches like a great dog, and began to roar. Heavens! how he
+      roared! I never heard anything like it before or since. He kept filling
+      his lungs with air, and then emitting it in the most heart-shaking volumes
+      of sound. Suddenly, in the middle of one of the loudest roars, he rolled
+      over on to his side and lay still, and I knew that he was dead. A lion
+      generally dies upon his side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With a sigh of relief I looked up towards his mate upon the ant-heap. She
+      was standing there apparently petrified with astonishment, looking over
+      her shoulder, and lashing her tail; but to our intense joy, when the dying
+      beast ceased roaring, she turned, and, with one enormous bound, vanished
+      into the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we advanced cautiously towards the prostrate brute, Mashune droning
+      an improvised Zulu song as he went, about how Macumazahn, the hunter of
+      hunters, whose eyes are open by night as well as by day, put his hand down
+      the lion&rsquo;s stomach when it came to devour him and pulled out his heart by
+      the roots, &amp;c., &amp;c., by way of expressing his satisfaction, in his
+      hyperbolical Zulu way, at the turn events had taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was no need for caution; the lion was as dead as though he had
+      already been stuffed with straw. The Martini bullet had entered within an
+      inch of the white spot I had aimed at, and travelled right through him,
+      passing out at the right buttock, near the root of the tail. The Martini
+      has wonderful driving power, though the shock it gives to the system is,
+      comparatively speaking, slight, owing to the smallness of the hole it
+      makes. But fortunately the lion is an easy beast to kill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I passed the rest of that night in a profound slumber, my head reposing
+      upon the deceased lion&rsquo;s flank, a position that had, I thought, a
+      beautiful touch of irony about it, though the smell of his singed hair was
+      disagreeable. When I woke again the faint primrose lights of dawn were
+      flushing in the eastern sky. For a moment I could not understand the chill
+      sense of anxiety that lay like a lump of ice at my heart, till the feel
+      and smell of the skin of the dead lion beneath my head recalled the
+      circumstances in which we were placed. I rose, and eagerly looked round to
+      see if I could discover any signs of Hans, who, if he had escaped
+      accident, would surely return to us at dawn, but there were none. Then
+      hope grew faint, and I felt that it was not well with the poor fellow.
+      Setting Mashune to build up the fire I hastily removed the hide from the
+      flank of the lion, which was indeed a splendid beast, and cutting off some
+      lumps of flesh, we toasted and ate them greedily. Lions&rsquo; flesh, strange as
+      it may seem, is very good eating, and tastes more like veal than anything
+      else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the time we had finished our much-needed meal the sun was getting up,
+      and after a drink of water and a wash at the pool, we started to try and
+      find Hans, leaving the dead lion to the tender mercies of the hyænas. Both
+      Mashune and myself were, by constant practice, pretty good hands at
+      tracking, and we had not much difficulty in following the Hottentot&rsquo;s
+      spoor, faint as it was. We had gone on in this way for half-an-hour or so,
+      and were, perhaps, a mile or more from the site of our camping-place, when
+      we discovered the spoor of a solitary bull buffalo mixed up with the spoor
+      of Hans, and were able, from various indications, to make out that he had
+      been tracking the buffalo. At length we reached a little glade in which
+      there grew a stunted old mimosa thorn, with a peculiar and overhanging
+      formation of root, under which a porcupine, or an ant-bear, or some such
+      animal, had hollowed out a wide-lipped hole. About ten or fifteen paces
+      from this thorn-tree there was a thick patch of bush.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;See, Macumazahn! see!&rsquo; said Mashune, excitedly, as we drew near the
+      thorn; &lsquo;the buffalo has charged him. Look, here he stood to fire at him;
+      see how firmly he planted his feet upon the earth; there is the mark of
+      his crooked toe (Hans had one bent toe). Look! here the bull came like a
+      boulder down the hill, his hoofs turning up the earth like a hoe. Hans had
+      hit him: he bled as he came; there are the blood spots. It is all written
+      down there, my father&mdash;there upon the earth.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; I said; &lsquo;yes; but <i>where is Hans?</i>&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even as I said it Mashune clutched my arm, and pointed to the stunted
+      thorn just by us. Even now, gentlemen, it makes me feel sick when I think
+      of what I saw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For fixed in a stout fork of the tree some eight feet from the ground was
+      Hans himself, or rather his dead body, evidently tossed there by the
+      furious buffalo. One leg was twisted round the fork, probably in a dying
+      convulsion. In the side, just beneath the ribs, was a great hole, from
+      which the entrails protruded. But this was not all. The other leg hung
+      down to within five feet of the ground. The skin and most of the flesh
+      were gone from it. For a moment we stood aghast, and gazed at this
+      horrifying sight. Then I understood what had happened. The buffalo, with
+      that devilish cruelty which distinguishes the animal, had, after his enemy
+      was dead, stood underneath his body, and licked the flesh off the pendant
+      leg with his file-like tongue. I had heard of such a thing before, but had
+      always treated the stories as hunters&rsquo; yarns; but I had no doubt about it
+      now. Poor Hans&rsquo; skeleton foot and ankle were an ample proof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We stood aghast under the tree, and stared and stared at this awful
+      sight, when suddenly our cogitations were interrupted in a painful manner.
+      The thick bush about fifteen paces off burst asunder with a crashing
+      sound, and uttering a series of ferocious pig-like grunts, the bull
+      buffalo himself came charging out straight at us. Even as he came I saw
+      the blood mark on his side where poor Hans&rsquo; bullet had struck him, and
+      also, as is often the case with particularly savage buffaloes, that his
+      flanks had recently been terribly torn in an encounter with a lion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On he came, his head well up (a buffalo does not generally lower his head
+      till he does so to strike); those great black horns&mdash;as I look at
+      them before me, gentlemen, I seem to see them come charging at me as I did
+      ten years ago, silhouetted against the green bush behind;&mdash;on, on!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With a shout Mashune bolted off sideways towards the bush. I had
+      instinctively lifted my eight-bore, which I had in my hand. It would have
+      been useless to fire at the buffalo&rsquo;s head, for the dense horns must have
+      turned the bullet; but as Mashune bolted, the bull slewed a little, with
+      the momentary idea of following him, and as this gave me a ghost of a
+      chance, I let drive my only cartridge at his shoulder. The bullet struck
+      the shoulder-blade and smashed it up, and then travelled on under the skin
+      into his flank; but it did not stop him, though for a second he staggered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Throwing myself on to the ground with the energy of despair, I rolled
+      under the shelter of the projecting root of the thorn, crushing myself as
+      far into the mouth of the ant-bear hole as I could. In a single instant
+      the buffalo was after me. Kneeling down on his uninjured knee&mdash;for
+      one leg, that of which I had broken the shoulder, was swinging helplessly
+      to and fro&mdash;he set to work to try and hook me out of the hole with
+      his crooked horn. At first he struck at me furiously, and it was one of
+      the blows against the base of the tree which splintered the tip of the
+      horn in the way that you see. Then he grew more cunning, and pushed his
+      head as far under the root as possible, made long semicircular sweeps at
+      me, grunting furiously, and blowing saliva and hot steamy breath all over
+      me. I was just out of reach of the horn, though every stroke, by widening
+      the hole and making more room for his head, brought it closer to me, but
+      every now and again I received heavy blows in the ribs from his muzzle.
+      Feeling that I was being knocked silly, I made an effort and seizing his
+      rough tongue, which was hanging from his jaws, I twisted it with all my
+      force. The great brute bellowed with pain and fury, and jerked himself
+      backwards so strongly, that he dragged me some inches further from the
+      mouth of the hole, and again made a sweep at me, catching me this time
+      round the shoulder-joint in the hook of his horn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I felt that it was all up now, and began to holloa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;He has got me!&rsquo; I shouted in mortal terror. &lsquo;<i>Gwasa, Mashune, gwasa!</i>&rsquo; 
+      (&lsquo;Stab, Mashune, stab!&rsquo;).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One hoist of the great head, and out of the hole I came like a periwinkle
+      out of his shell. But even as I did so, I caught sight of Mashune&rsquo;s
+      stalwart form advancing with his &lsquo;bangwan,&rsquo; or broad stabbing assegai,
+      raised above his head. In another quarter of a second I had fallen from
+      the horn, and heard the blow of the spear, followed by the indescribable
+      sound of steel shearing its way through flesh. I had fallen on my back,
+      and, looking up, I saw that the gallant Mashune had driven the assegai a
+      foot or more into the carcass of the buffalo, and was turning to fly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! it was too late. Bellowing madly, and spouting blood from mouth and
+      nostrils, the devilish brute was on him, and had thrown him up like a
+      feather, and then gored him twice as he lay. I struggled up with some wild
+      idea of affording help, but before I had gone a step the buffalo gave one
+      long sighing bellow, and rolled over dead by the side of his victim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mashune was still living, but a single glance at him told me that his
+      hour had come. The buffalo&rsquo;s horn had driven a great hole in his right
+      lung, and inflicted other injuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knelt down beside him in the uttermost distress, and took his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Is he dead, Macumazahn?&rsquo; he whispered. &lsquo;My eyes are blind; I cannot
+      see.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Yes, he is dead.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Did the black devil hurt thee, Macumazahn?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;No, my poor fellow, I am not much hurt.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Ow! I am glad.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then came a long silence, broken only by the sound of the air whistling
+      through the hole in his lung as he breathed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Macumazahn, art thou there? I cannot feel thee.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I am here, Mashune.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I die, Macumazahn&mdash;the world flies round and round. I go&mdash;I go
+      out into the dark! Surely, my father, at times in days to come&mdash;thou
+      wilt think of Mashune who stood by thy side&mdash;when thou killest
+      elephants, as we used&mdash;as we used&mdash;&mdash;&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They were his last words, his brave spirit passed with him. I dragged his
+      body to the hole under the tree, and pushed it in, placing his broad
+      assegai by him, according to the custom of his people, that he might not
+      go defenceless on his long journey; and then, ladies&mdash;I am not
+      ashamed to confess&mdash;I stood alone there before it, and wept like a
+      woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg&rsquo;s Hunter Quatermain&rsquo;s Story, by H. Rider Haggard
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/2728.txt b/2728.txt
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/2728.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1057 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hunter Quatermain's Story, 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: Hunter Quatermain's Story
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: April 3, 2006 [EBook #2728]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNTER QUATERMAIN'S STORY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding
+
+
+
+
+
+HUNTER QUATERMAIN'S STORY
+
+by H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+Sir Henry Curtis, as everybody acquainted with him knows, is one of the
+most hospitable men on earth. It was in the course of the enjoyment of
+his hospitality at his place in Yorkshire the other day that I heard the
+hunting story which I am now about to transcribe. Many of those who read
+it will no doubt have heard some of the strange rumours that are flying
+about to the effect that Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good,
+R.N., recently found a vast treasure of diamonds out in the heart of
+Africa, supposed to have been hidden by the Egyptians, or King Solomon,
+or some other antique people. I first saw the matter alluded to in a
+paragraph in one of the society papers the day before I started for
+Yorkshire to pay my visit to Curtis, and arrived, needless to say,
+burning with curiosity; for there is something very fascinating to the
+mind in the idea of hidden treasure. When I reached the Hall, I at once
+asked Curtis about it, and he did not deny the truth of the story; but
+on my pressing him to tell it he would not, nor would Captain Good, who
+was also staying in the house.
+
+"You would not believe me if I did," Sir Henry said, with one of the
+hearty laughs which seem to come right out of his great lungs. "You
+must wait till Hunter Quatermain comes; he will arrive here from Africa
+to-night, and I am not going to say a word about the matter, or Good
+either, until he turns up. Quatermain was with us all through; he has
+known about the business for years and years, and if it had not been
+for him we should not have been here to-day. I am going to meet him
+presently."
+
+I could not get a word more out of him, nor could anybody else, though
+we were all dying of curiosity, especially some of the ladies. I shall
+never forget how they looked in the drawing-room before dinner when
+Captain Good produced a great rough diamond, weighing fifty carats or
+more, and told them that he had many larger than that. If ever I saw
+curiosity and envy printed on fair faces, I saw them then.
+
+It was just at this moment that the door was opened, and Mr. Allan
+Quatermain announced, whereupon Good put the diamond into his pocket,
+and sprang at a little man who limped shyly into the room, convoyed by
+Sir Henry Curtis himself.
+
+"Here he is, Good, safe and sound," said Sir Henry, gleefully. "Ladies
+and gentlemen, let me introduce you to one of the oldest hunters and the
+very best shot in Africa, who has killed more elephants and lions than
+any other man alive."
+
+Everybody turned and stared politely at the curious-looking little lame
+man, and though his size was insignificant, he was quite worth staring
+at. He had short grizzled hair, which stood about an inch above his head
+like the bristles of a brush, gentle brown eyes, that seemed to notice
+everything, and a withered face, tanned to the colour of mahogany
+from exposure to the weather. He spoke, too, when he returned Good's
+enthusiastic greeting, with a curious little accent, which made his
+speech noticeable.
+
+It so happened that I sat next to Mr. Allan Quatermain at dinner, and,
+of course, did my best to draw him; but he was not to be drawn. He
+admitted that he had recently been a long journey into the interior of
+Africa with Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and that they had found
+treasure, and then politely turned the subject and began to ask me
+questions about England, where he had never been before--that is, since
+he came to years of discretion. Of course, I did not find this very
+interesting, and so cast about for some means to bring the conversation
+round again.
+
+Now, we were dining in an oak-panelled vestibule, and on the wall
+opposite to me were fixed two gigantic elephant tusks, and under them
+a pair of buffalo horns, very rough and knotted, showing that they came
+off an old bull, and having the tip of one horn split and chipped. I
+noticed that Hunter Quatermain's eyes kept glancing at these trophies,
+and took an occasion to ask him if he knew anything about them.
+
+"I ought to," he answered, with a little laugh; "the elephant to which
+those tusks belonged tore one of our party right in two about eighteen
+months ago, and as for the buffalo horns, they were nearly my death, and
+were the end of a servant of mine to whom I was much attached. I
+gave them to Sir Henry when he left Natal some months ago;" and Mr.
+Quatermain sighed and turned to answer a question from the lady whom he
+had taken down to dinner, and who, needless to say, was also employed in
+trying to pump him about the diamonds.
+
+Indeed, all round the table there was a simmer of scarcely suppressed
+excitement, which, when the servants had left the room, could no longer
+be restrained.
+
+"Now, Mr. Quatermain," said the lady next him, "we have been kept in an
+agony of suspense by Sir Henry and Captain Good, who have persistently
+refused to tell us a word of this story about the hidden treasure till
+you came, and we simply can bear it no longer; so, please, begin at
+once."
+
+"Yes," said everybody, "go on, please."
+
+Hunter Quatermain glanced round the table apprehensively; he did not
+seem to appreciate finding himself the object of so much curiosity.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," he said at last, with a shake of his grizzled
+head, "I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot do it. It is this
+way. At the request of Sir Henry and Captain Good I have written down a
+true and plain account of King Solomon's Mines and how we found them,
+so you will soon be able to learn all about that wonderful adventure
+for yourselves; but until then I will say nothing about it, not from
+any wish to disappoint your curiosity, or to make myself important, but
+simply because the whole story partakes so much of the marvellous, that
+I am afraid to tell it in a piecemeal, hasty fashion, for fear I should
+be set down as one of those common fellows of whom there are so many in
+my profession, who are not ashamed to narrate things they have not seen,
+and even to tell wonderful stories about wild animals they have never
+killed. And I think that my companions in adventure, Sir Henry Curtis
+and Captain Good, will bear me out in what I say."
+
+"Yes, Quatermain, I think you are quite right," said Sir Henry.
+"Precisely the same considerations have forced Good and myself to hold
+our tongues. We did not wish to be bracketed with--well, with other
+famous travellers."
+
+There was a murmur of disappointment at these announcements.
+
+"I believe you are all hoaxing us," said the young lady next Mr.
+Quatermain, rather sharply.
+
+"Believe me," answered the old hunter, with a quaint courtesy and a
+little bow of his grizzled head; "though I have lived all my life in the
+wilderness, and amongst savages, I have neither the heart, nor the want
+of manners, to wish to deceive one so lovely."
+
+Whereat the young lady, who was pretty, looked appeased.
+
+"This is very dreadful," I broke in. "We ask for bread and you give us a
+stone, Mr. Quatermain. The least that you can do is to tell us the story
+of the tusks opposite and the buffalo horns underneath. We won't let you
+off with less."
+
+"I am but a poor story-teller," put in the old hunter, "but if you will
+forgive my want of skill, I shall be happy to tell you, not the story
+of the tusks, for that is part of the history of our journey to King
+Solomon's Mines, but that of the buffalo horns beneath them, which is
+now ten years old."
+
+"Bravo, Quatermain!" said Sir Henry. "We shall all be delighted. Fire
+away! Fill up your glass first."
+
+The little man did as he was bid, took a sip of claret, and
+began:--"About ten years ago I was hunting up in the far interior of
+Africa, at a place called Gatgarra, not a great way from the Chobe
+River. I had with me four native servants, namely, a driver and
+voorlooper, or leader, who were natives of Matabeleland, a Hottentot
+named Hans, who had once been the slave of a Transvaal Boer, and a Zulu
+hunter, who for five years had accompanied me upon my trips, and whose
+name was Mashune. Now near Gatgarra I found a fine piece of healthy,
+park-like country, where the grass was very good, considering the time
+of year; and here I made a little camp or head-quarter settlement, from
+whence I went expeditions on all sides in search of game, especially
+elephant. My luck, however, was bad; I got but little ivory. I was
+therefore very glad when some natives brought me news that a large herd
+of elephants were feeding in a valley about thirty miles away. At first
+I thought of trekking down to the valley, waggon and all, but gave up
+the idea on hearing that it was infested with the deadly 'tsetse' fly,
+which is certain death to all animals, except men, donkeys, and wild
+game. So I reluctantly determined to leave the waggon in the charge of
+the Matabele leader and driver, and to start on a trip into the thorn
+country, accompanied only by the Hottentot Hans, and Mashune.
+
+"Accordingly on the following morning we started, and on the evening of
+the next day reached the spot where the elephants were reported to be.
+But here again we were met by ill luck. That the elephants had been
+there was evident enough, for their spoor was plentiful, and so were
+other traces of their presence in the shape of mimosa trees torn out
+of the ground, and placed topsy-turvy on their flat crowns, in order to
+enable the great beasts to feed on their sweet roots; but the elephants
+themselves were conspicuous by their absence. They had elected to move
+on. This being so, there was only one thing to do, and that was to move
+after them, which we did, and a pretty hunt they led us. For a fortnight
+or more we dodged about after those elephants, coming up with them on
+two occasions, and a splendid herd they were--only, however, to lose
+them again. At length we came up with them a third time, and I managed
+to shoot one bull, and then they started off again, where it was useless
+to try and follow them. After this I gave it up in disgust, and we made
+the best of our way back to the camp, not in the sweetest of tempers,
+carrying the tusks of the elephant I had shot.
+
+"It was on the afternoon of the fifth day of our tramp that we reached
+the little koppie overlooking the spot where the waggon stood, and I
+confess that I climbed it with a pleasurable sense of home-coming, for
+his waggon is the hunter's home, as much as his house is that of the
+civilized person. I reached the top of the koppie, and looked in the
+direction where the friendly white tent of the waggon should be, but
+there was no waggon, only a black burnt plain stretching away as far as
+the eye could reach. I rubbed my eyes, looked again, and made out on the
+spot of the camp, not my waggon, but some charred beams of wood. Half
+wild with grief and anxiety, followed by Hans and Mashune, I ran at full
+speed down the slope of the koppie, and across the space of plain below
+to the spring of water, where my camp had been. I was soon there, only
+to find that my worst suspicions were confirmed.
+
+"The waggon and all its contents, including my spare guns and
+ammunition, had been destroyed by a grass fire.
+
+"Now before I started, I had left orders with the driver to burn off
+the grass round the camp, in order to guard against accidents of this
+nature, and here was the reward of my folly: a very proper illustration
+of the necessity, especially where natives are concerned, of doing a
+thing one's self if one wants it done at all. Evidently the lazy
+rascals had not burnt round the waggon; most probably, indeed, they had
+themselves carelessly fired the tall and resinous tambouki grass near
+by; the wind had driven the flames on to the waggon tent, and there was
+quickly an end of the matter. As for the driver and leader, I know not
+what became of them: probably fearing my anger, they bolted, taking the
+oxen with them. I have never seen them from that hour to this.
+
+"I sat down on the black veldt by the spring, and gazed at the charred
+axles and disselboom of my waggon, and I can assure you, ladies and
+gentlemen, I felt inclined to weep. As for Mashune and Hans they cursed
+away vigorously, one in Zulu and the other in Dutch. Ours was a pretty
+position. We were nearly 300 miles away from Bamangwato, the capital of
+Khama's country, which was the nearest spot where we could get any help,
+and our ammunition, spare guns, clothing, food, and everything else,
+were all totally destroyed. I had just what I stood in, which was a
+flannel shirt, a pair of 'veldt-schoons,' or shoes of raw hide, my
+eight-bore rifle, and a few cartridges. Hans and Mashune had also each
+a Martini rifle and some cartridges, not many. And it was with this
+equipment that we had to undertake a journey of 300 miles through a
+desolate and almost uninhabited region. I can assure you that I have
+rarely been in a worse position, and I have been in some queer ones.
+However, these things are the natural incidents of a hunter's life, and
+the only thing to do was to make the best of them.
+
+"Accordingly, after passing a comfortless night by the remains of
+my waggon, we started next morning on our long journey towards
+civilization. Now if I were to set to work to tell you all the troubles
+and incidents of that dreadful journey I should keep you listening
+here till midnight; so I will, with your permission, pass on to the
+particular adventure of which the pair of buffalo horns opposite are the
+melancholy memento.
+
+"We had been travelling for about a month, living and getting along
+as best we could, when one evening we camped some forty miles from
+Bamangwato. By this time we were indeed in a melancholy plight,
+footsore, half starved, and utterly worn out; and, in addition, I was
+suffering from a sharp attack of fever, which half blinded me and made
+me weak as a babe. Our ammunition, too, was exhausted; I had only one
+cartridge left for my eight-bore rifle, and Hans and Mashune, who were
+armed with Martini Henrys, had three between them. It was about an hour
+from sundown when we halted and lit a fire--for luckily we had still a
+few matches. It was a charming spot to camp, I remember. Just off the
+game track we were following was a little hollow, fringed about with
+flat-crowned mimosa trees, and at the bottom of the hollow, a spring
+of clear water welled up out of the earth, and formed a pool, round the
+edges of which grew an abundance of watercresses of an exactly similar
+kind to those which were handed round the table just now. Now we had no
+food of any kind left, having that morning devoured the last remains
+of a little oribe antelope, which I had shot two days previously.
+Accordingly Hans, who was a better shot than Mashune, took two of the
+three remaining Martini cartridges, and started out to see if he could
+not kill a buck for supper. I was too weak to go myself.
+
+"Meanwhile Mashune employed himself in dragging together some dead
+boughs from the mimosa trees to make a sort of 'skerm,' or shelter for
+us to sleep in, about forty yards from the edge of the pool of water.
+We had been greatly troubled with lions in the course of our long tramp,
+and only on the previous night have very nearly been attacked by them,
+which made me nervous, especially in my weak state. Just as we had
+finished the skerm, or rather something which did duty for one, Mashune
+and I heard a shot apparently fired about a mile away.
+
+"'Hark to it!' sung out Mashune in Zulu, more, I fancy, by way of
+keeping his spirits up than for any other reason--for he was a sort of
+black Mark Tapley, and very cheerful under difficulties. 'Hark to the
+wonderful sound with which the "Maboona" (the Boers) shook our fathers
+to the ground at the Battle of the Blood River. We are hungry now, my
+father; our stomachs are small and withered up like a dried ox's paunch,
+but they will soon be full of good meat. Hans is a Hottentot, and an
+"umfagozan," that is, a low fellow, but he shoots straight--ah! he
+certainly shoots straight. Be of a good heart, my father, there will
+soon be meat upon the fire, and we shall rise up men.'
+
+"And so he went on talking nonsense till I told him to stop, because he
+made my head ache with his empty words.
+
+"Shortly after we heard the shot the sun sank in his red splendour, and
+there fell upon earth and sky the great hush of the African wilderness.
+The lions were not up as yet, they would probably wait for the moon, and
+the birds and beasts were all at rest. I cannot describe the intensity
+of the quiet of the night: to me in my weak state, and fretting as I was
+over the non-return of the Hottentot Hans, it seemed almost ominous--as
+though Nature were brooding over some tragedy which was being enacted in
+her sight.
+
+"It was quiet--quiet as death, and lonely as the grave.
+
+"'Mashune,' I said at last, 'where is Hans? my heart is heavy for him.'
+
+"'Nay, my father, I know not; mayhap he is weary, and sleeps, or mayhap
+he has lost his way.'
+
+"'Mashune, art thou a boy to talk folly to me?' I answered. 'Tell me,
+in all the years thou hast hunted by my side, didst thou ever know a
+Hottentot to lose his path or to sleep upon the way to camp?'
+
+"'Nay, Macumazahn' (that, ladies, is my native name, and means the man
+who 'gets up by night,' or who 'is always awake'), 'I know not where he
+is.'
+
+"But though we talked thus, we neither of us liked to hint at what was
+in both our minds, namely, that misfortunate had overtaken the poor
+Hottentot.
+
+"'Mashune,' I said at last, 'go down to the water and bring me of those
+green herbs that grow there. I am hungered, and must eat something.'
+
+"'Nay, my father; surely the ghosts are there; they come out of the
+water at night, and sit upon the banks to dry themselves. An Isanusi[*]
+told it me.'
+
+     [*] _Isanusi_, witch-finder.
+
+"Mashune was, I think, one of the bravest men I ever knew in the
+daytime, but he had a more than civilized dread of the supernatural.
+
+"'Must I go myself, thou fool?' I said, sternly.
+
+"'Nay, Macumazahn, if thy heart yearns for strange things like a sick
+woman, I go, even if the ghosts devour me.'
+
+"And accordingly he went, and soon returned with a large bundle of
+watercresses, of which I ate greedily.
+
+"'Art thou not hungry?' I asked the great Zulu presently, as he sat
+eyeing me eating.
+
+"'Never was I hungrier, my father.'
+
+"'Then eat,' and I pointed to the watercresses.
+
+"'Nay, Macumazahn, I cannot eat those herbs.'
+
+"'If thou dost not eat thou wilt starve: eat, Mashune.'
+
+"He stared at the watercresses doubtfully for a while, and at last
+seized a handful and crammed them into his mouth, crying out as he did
+so, 'Oh, why was I born that I should live to feed on green weeds like
+an ox? Surely if my mother could have known it she would have killed me
+when I was born!' and so he went on lamenting between each fistful of
+watercresses till all were finished, when he declared that he was full
+indeed of stuff, but it lay very cold on his stomach, 'like snow upon
+a mountain.' At any other time I should have laughed, for it must be
+admitted he had a ludicrous way of putting things. Zulus do not like
+green food.
+
+"Just after Mashune had finished his watercress, we heard the loud
+'woof! woof!' of a lion, who was evidently promenading much nearer to
+our little skerm than was pleasant. Indeed, on looking into the darkness
+and listening intently, I could hear his snoring breath, and catch the
+light of his great yellow eyes. We shouted loudly, and Mashune threw
+some sticks on the fire to frighten him, which apparently had the
+desired effect, for we saw no more of him for a while.
+
+"Just after we had had this fright from the lion, the moon rose in her
+fullest splendour, throwing a robe of silver light over all the earth.
+I have rarely seen a more beautiful moonrise. I remember that sitting in
+the skerm I could with ease read faint pencil notes in my pocket-book.
+As soon as the moon was up game began to trek down to the water just
+below us. I could, from where I sat, see all sorts of them passing
+along a little ridge that ran to our right, on their way to the drinking
+place. Indeed, one buck--a large eland--came within twenty yards of the
+skerm, and stood at gaze, staring at it suspiciously, his beautiful
+head and twisted horns standing out clearly against the sky. I had, I
+recollect, every mind to have a pull at him on the chance of providing
+ourselves with a good supply of beef; but remembering that we had but
+two cartridges left, and the extreme uncertainty of a shot by moonlight,
+I at length decided to refrain. The eland presently moved on to the
+water, and a minute or two afterwards there arose a great sound of
+splashing, followed by the quick fall of galloping hoofs.
+
+"'What's that, Mashune?' I asked.
+
+"'That dam lion; buck smell him,' replied the Zulu in English, of which
+he had a very superficial knowledge.
+
+"Scarcely were the words out of his mouth before we heard a sort of
+whine over the other side of the pool, which was instantly answered by a
+loud coughing roar close to us.
+
+"'By Jove!' I said, 'there are two of them. They have lost the buck; we
+must look out they don't catch us.' And again we made up the fire, and
+shouted, with the result that the lions moved off.
+
+"'Mashune,' I said, 'do you watch till the moon gets over that tree,
+when it will be the middle of the night. Then wake me. Watch well, now,
+or the lions will be picking those worthless bones of yours before you
+are three hours older. I must rest a little, or I shall die.'
+
+"'Koos!' (chief), answered the Zulu. 'Sleep, my father, sleep in peace;
+my eyes shall be open as the stars; and like the stars watch over you.'
+
+"Although I was so weak, I could not at once follow his advice. To begin
+with, my head ached with fever, and I was torn with anxiety as to the
+fate of the Hottentot Hans; and, indeed, as to our own fate, left
+with sore feet, empty stomachs, and two cartridges, to find our way to
+Bamangwato, forty miles off. Then the mere sensation of knowing that
+there are one or more hungry lions prowling round you somewhere in the
+dark is disquieting, however well one may be used to it, and, by keeping
+the attention on the stretch, tends to prevent one from sleeping. In
+addition to all these troubles, too, I was, I remember, seized with
+a dreadful longing for a pipe of tobacco, whereas, under the
+circumstances, I might as well have longed for the moon.
+
+"At last, however, I fell into an uneasy sleep as full of bad dreams as
+a prickly pear is of points, one of which, I recollect, was that I was
+setting my naked foot upon a cobra which rose upon its tail and hissed
+my name, 'Macumazahn,' into my ear. Indeed, the cobra hissed with such
+persistency that at last I roused myself.
+
+"'_Macumazahn, nanzia, nanzia!_' (there, there!) whispered Mashune's
+voice into my drowsy ears. Raising myself, I opened my eyes, and I saw
+Mashune kneeling by my side and pointing towards the water. Following
+the line of his outstretched hand, my eyes fell upon a sight that made
+me jump, old hunter as I was even in those days. About twenty paces
+from the little skerm was a large ant-heap, and on the summit of the
+ant-heap, her four feet rather close together, so as to find standing
+space, stood the massive form of a big lioness. Her head was towards the
+skerm, and in the bright moonlight I saw her lower it and lick her paws.
+
+"Mashune thrust the Martini rifle into my hands, whispering that it was
+loaded. I lifted it and covered the lioness, but found that even in that
+light I could not make out the foresight of the Martini. As it would be
+madness to fire without doing so, for the result would probably be that
+I should wound the lioness, if, indeed, I did not miss her altogether, I
+lowered the rifle; and, hastily tearing a fragment of paper from one of
+the leaves of my pocket-book, which I had been consulting just before I
+went to sleep, I proceeded to fix it on to the front sight. But all this
+took a little time, and before the paper was satisfactorily arranged,
+Mashune again gripped me by the arm, and pointed to a dark heap under
+the shade of a small mimosa tree which grew not more than ten paces from
+the skerm.
+
+"'Well, what is it?' I whispered; 'I can see nothing.'
+
+"'It is another lion,' he answered.
+
+"'Nonsense! thy heart is dead with fear, thou seest double;' and I bent
+forward over the edge of the surrounding fence, and stared at the heap.
+
+"Even as I said the words, the dark mass rose and stalked out into the
+moonlight. It was a magnificent, black-maned lion, one of the largest
+I had ever seen. When he had gone two or three steps he caught sight of
+me, halted, and stood there gazing straight towards us;--he was so close
+that I could see the firelight reflected in his wicked, greenish eyes.
+
+"'Shoot, shoot!' said Mashune. 'The devil is coming--he is going to
+spring!'
+
+"I raised the rifle, and got the bit of paper on the foresight, straight
+on to a little path of white hair just where the throat is set into
+the chest and shoulders. As I did so, the lion glanced back over his
+shoulder, as, according to my experience, a lion nearly always does
+before he springs. Then he dropped his body a little, and I saw his big
+paws spread out upon the ground as he put his weight on them to gather
+purchase. In haste I pressed the trigger of the Martini, and not a
+moment too soon; for, as I did so, he was in the act of springing. The
+report of the rifle rang out sharp and clear on the intense silence of
+the night, and in another second the great brute had landed on his
+head within four feet of us, and rolling over and over towards us,
+was sending the bushes which composed our little fence flying with
+convulsive strokes of his great paws. We sprang out of the other side of
+the 'skerm,' and he rolled on to it and into it and then right through
+the fire. Next he raised himself and sat upon his haunches like a great
+dog, and began to roar. Heavens! how he roared! I never heard anything
+like it before or since. He kept filling his lungs with air, and then
+emitting it in the most heart-shaking volumes of sound. Suddenly, in the
+middle of one of the loudest roars, he rolled over on to his side and
+lay still, and I knew that he was dead. A lion generally dies upon his
+side.
+
+"With a sigh of relief I looked up towards his mate upon the ant-heap.
+She was standing there apparently petrified with astonishment, looking
+over her shoulder, and lashing her tail; but to our intense joy, when
+the dying beast ceased roaring, she turned, and, with one enormous
+bound, vanished into the night.
+
+"Then we advanced cautiously towards the prostrate brute, Mashune
+droning an improvised Zulu song as he went, about how Macumazahn, the
+hunter of hunters, whose eyes are open by night as well as by day, put
+his hand down the lion's stomach when it came to devour him and
+pulled out his heart by the roots, &c., &c., by way of expressing his
+satisfaction, in his hyperbolical Zulu way, at the turn events had
+taken.
+
+"There was no need for caution; the lion was as dead as though he had
+already been stuffed with straw. The Martini bullet had entered within
+an inch of the white spot I had aimed at, and travelled right through
+him, passing out at the right buttock, near the root of the tail. The
+Martini has wonderful driving power, though the shock it gives to the
+system is, comparatively speaking, slight, owing to the smallness of the
+hole it makes. But fortunately the lion is an easy beast to kill.
+
+"I passed the rest of that night in a profound slumber, my head reposing
+upon the deceased lion's flank, a position that had, I thought, a
+beautiful touch of irony about it, though the smell of his singed hair
+was disagreeable. When I woke again the faint primrose lights of dawn
+were flushing in the eastern sky. For a moment I could not understand
+the chill sense of anxiety that lay like a lump of ice at my heart, till
+the feel and smell of the skin of the dead lion beneath my head recalled
+the circumstances in which we were placed. I rose, and eagerly looked
+round to see if I could discover any signs of Hans, who, if he had
+escaped accident, would surely return to us at dawn, but there were
+none. Then hope grew faint, and I felt that it was not well with the
+poor fellow. Setting Mashune to build up the fire I hastily removed the
+hide from the flank of the lion, which was indeed a splendid beast,
+and cutting off some lumps of flesh, we toasted and ate them greedily.
+Lions' flesh, strange as it may seem, is very good eating, and tastes
+more like veal than anything else.
+
+"By the time we had finished our much-needed meal the sun was getting
+up, and after a drink of water and a wash at the pool, we started to
+try and find Hans, leaving the dead lion to the tender mercies of the
+hyaenas. Both Mashune and myself were, by constant practice, pretty
+good hands at tracking, and we had not much difficulty in following
+the Hottentot's spoor, faint as it was. We had gone on in this way for
+half-an-hour or so, and were, perhaps, a mile or more from the site
+of our camping-place, when we discovered the spoor of a solitary bull
+buffalo mixed up with the spoor of Hans, and were able, from various
+indications, to make out that he had been tracking the buffalo. At
+length we reached a little glade in which there grew a stunted old
+mimosa thorn, with a peculiar and overhanging formation of root, under
+which a porcupine, or an ant-bear, or some such animal, had hollowed
+out a wide-lipped hole. About ten or fifteen paces from this thorn-tree
+there was a thick patch of bush.
+
+"'See, Macumazahn! see!' said Mashune, excitedly, as we drew near the
+thorn; 'the buffalo has charged him. Look, here he stood to fire at him;
+see how firmly he planted his feet upon the earth; there is the mark of
+his crooked toe (Hans had one bent toe). Look! here the bull came like
+a boulder down the hill, his hoofs turning up the earth like a hoe. Hans
+had hit him: he bled as he came; there are the blood spots. It is all
+written down there, my father--there upon the earth.'
+
+"'Yes,' I said; 'yes; but _where is Hans?_'
+
+"Even as I said it Mashune clutched my arm, and pointed to the stunted
+thorn just by us. Even now, gentlemen, it makes me feel sick when I
+think of what I saw.
+
+"For fixed in a stout fork of the tree some eight feet from the ground
+was Hans himself, or rather his dead body, evidently tossed there by the
+furious buffalo. One leg was twisted round the fork, probably in a dying
+convulsion. In the side, just beneath the ribs, was a great hole, from
+which the entrails protruded. But this was not all. The other leg hung
+down to within five feet of the ground. The skin and most of the flesh
+were gone from it. For a moment we stood aghast, and gazed at this
+horrifying sight. Then I understood what had happened. The buffalo, with
+that devilish cruelty which distinguishes the animal, had, after his
+enemy was dead, stood underneath his body, and licked the flesh off
+the pendant leg with his file-like tongue. I had heard of such a thing
+before, but had always treated the stories as hunters' yarns; but I had
+no doubt about it now. Poor Hans' skeleton foot and ankle were an ample
+proof.
+
+"We stood aghast under the tree, and stared and stared at this awful
+sight, when suddenly our cogitations were interrupted in a painful
+manner. The thick bush about fifteen paces off burst asunder with a
+crashing sound, and uttering a series of ferocious pig-like grunts, the
+bull buffalo himself came charging out straight at us. Even as he came
+I saw the blood mark on his side where poor Hans' bullet had struck him,
+and also, as is often the case with particularly savage buffaloes, that
+his flanks had recently been terribly torn in an encounter with a lion.
+
+"On he came, his head well up (a buffalo does not generally lower his
+head till he does so to strike); those great black horns--as I look at
+them before me, gentlemen, I seem to see them come charging at me as I
+did ten years ago, silhouetted against the green bush behind;--on, on!"
+
+"With a shout Mashune bolted off sideways towards the bush. I had
+instinctively lifted my eight-bore, which I had in my hand. It would
+have been useless to fire at the buffalo's head, for the dense horns
+must have turned the bullet; but as Mashune bolted, the bull slewed a
+little, with the momentary idea of following him, and as this gave me
+a ghost of a chance, I let drive my only cartridge at his shoulder. The
+bullet struck the shoulder-blade and smashed it up, and then travelled
+on under the skin into his flank; but it did not stop him, though for a
+second he staggered.
+
+"Throwing myself on to the ground with the energy of despair, I rolled
+under the shelter of the projecting root of the thorn, crushing myself
+as far into the mouth of the ant-bear hole as I could. In a single
+instant the buffalo was after me. Kneeling down on his uninjured
+knee--for one leg, that of which I had broken the shoulder, was swinging
+helplessly to and fro--he set to work to try and hook me out of the hole
+with his crooked horn. At first he struck at me furiously, and it was
+one of the blows against the base of the tree which splintered the tip
+of the horn in the way that you see. Then he grew more cunning,
+and pushed his head as far under the root as possible, made long
+semicircular sweeps at me, grunting furiously, and blowing saliva and
+hot steamy breath all over me. I was just out of reach of the horn,
+though every stroke, by widening the hole and making more room for his
+head, brought it closer to me, but every now and again I received heavy
+blows in the ribs from his muzzle. Feeling that I was being knocked
+silly, I made an effort and seizing his rough tongue, which was hanging
+from his jaws, I twisted it with all my force. The great brute bellowed
+with pain and fury, and jerked himself backwards so strongly, that he
+dragged me some inches further from the mouth of the hole, and again
+made a sweep at me, catching me this time round the shoulder-joint in
+the hook of his horn.
+
+"I felt that it was all up now, and began to holloa.
+
+"'He has got me!' I shouted in mortal terror. '_Gwasa, Mashune, gwasa!_'
+('Stab, Mashune, stab!').
+
+"One hoist of the great head, and out of the hole I came like a
+periwinkle out of his shell. But even as I did so, I caught sight of
+Mashune's stalwart form advancing with his 'bangwan,' or broad stabbing
+assegai, raised above his head. In another quarter of a second I had
+fallen from the horn, and heard the blow of the spear, followed by
+the indescribable sound of steel shearing its way through flesh. I had
+fallen on my back, and, looking up, I saw that the gallant Mashune had
+driven the assegai a foot or more into the carcass of the buffalo, and
+was turning to fly.
+
+"Alas! it was too late. Bellowing madly, and spouting blood from mouth
+and nostrils, the devilish brute was on him, and had thrown him up like
+a feather, and then gored him twice as he lay. I struggled up with some
+wild idea of affording help, but before I had gone a step the buffalo
+gave one long sighing bellow, and rolled over dead by the side of his
+victim.
+
+"Mashune was still living, but a single glance at him told me that his
+hour had come. The buffalo's horn had driven a great hole in his right
+lung, and inflicted other injuries.
+
+"I knelt down beside him in the uttermost distress, and took his hand.
+
+"'Is he dead, Macumazahn?' he whispered. 'My eyes are blind; I cannot
+see.'
+
+"'Yes, he is dead.'
+
+"'Did the black devil hurt thee, Macumazahn?'
+
+"'No, my poor fellow, I am not much hurt.'
+
+"'Ow! I am glad.'
+
+"Then came a long silence, broken only by the sound of the air whistling
+through the hole in his lung as he breathed.
+
+"'Macumazahn, art thou there? I cannot feel thee.'
+
+"'I am here, Mashune.'
+
+"'I die, Macumazahn--the world flies round and round. I go--I go out
+into the dark! Surely, my father, at times in days to come--thou wilt
+think of Mashune who stood by thy side--when thou killest elephants, as
+we used--as we used----'
+
+"They were his last words, his brave spirit passed with him. I dragged
+his body to the hole under the tree, and pushed it in, placing his broad
+assegai by him, according to the custom of his people, that he might not
+go defenceless on his long journey; and then, ladies--I am not ashamed
+to confess--I stood alone there before it, and wept like a woman."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Hunter Quatermain's Story, by H. Rider Haggard
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #2728 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2728)
diff --git a/old/2728-h.htm.2021-01-27 b/old/2728-h.htm.2021-01-27
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Hunter Quatermain's Story, by H. Rider Haggard
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
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+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hunter Quatermain's Story, 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: Hunter Quatermain's Story
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: April 3, 2006 [EBook #2728]
+Last Updated: September 23, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNTER QUATERMAIN'S STORY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding; David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      HUNTER QUATERMAIN&rsquo;S STORY
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      by H. Rider Haggard
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Henry Curtis, as everybody acquainted with him knows, is one of the
+      most hospitable men on earth. It was in the course of the enjoyment of his
+      hospitality at his place in Yorkshire the other day that I heard the
+      hunting story which I am now about to transcribe. Many of those who read
+      it will no doubt have heard some of the strange rumours that are flying
+      about to the effect that Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good,
+      R.N., recently found a vast treasure of diamonds out in the heart of
+      Africa, supposed to have been hidden by the Egyptians, or King Solomon, or
+      some other antique people. I first saw the matter alluded to in a
+      paragraph in one of the society papers the day before I started for
+      Yorkshire to pay my visit to Curtis, and arrived, needless to say, burning
+      with curiosity; for there is something very fascinating to the mind in the
+      idea of hidden treasure. When I reached the Hall, I at once asked Curtis
+      about it, and he did not deny the truth of the story; but on my pressing
+      him to tell it he would not, nor would Captain Good, who was also staying
+      in the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would not believe me if I did,&rdquo; Sir Henry said, with one of the
+      hearty laughs which seem to come right out of his great lungs. &ldquo;You must
+      wait till Hunter Quatermain comes; he will arrive here from Africa
+      to-night, and I am not going to say a word about the matter, or Good
+      either, until he turns up. Quatermain was with us all through; he has
+      known about the business for years and years, and if it had not been for
+      him we should not have been here to-day. I am going to meet him
+      presently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I could not get a word more out of him, nor could anybody else, though we
+      were all dying of curiosity, especially some of the ladies. I shall never
+      forget how they looked in the drawing-room before dinner when Captain Good
+      produced a great rough diamond, weighing fifty carats or more, and told
+      them that he had many larger than that. If ever I saw curiosity and envy
+      printed on fair faces, I saw them then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was just at this moment that the door was opened, and Mr. Allan
+      Quatermain announced, whereupon Good put the diamond into his pocket, and
+      sprang at a little man who limped shyly into the room, convoyed by Sir
+      Henry Curtis himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here he is, Good, safe and sound,&rdquo; said Sir Henry, gleefully. &ldquo;Ladies and
+      gentlemen, let me introduce you to one of the oldest hunters and the very
+      best shot in Africa, who has killed more elephants and lions than any
+      other man alive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody turned and stared politely at the curious-looking little lame
+      man, and though his size was insignificant, he was quite worth staring at.
+      He had short grizzled hair, which stood about an inch above his head like
+      the bristles of a brush, gentle brown eyes, that seemed to notice
+      everything, and a withered face, tanned to the colour of mahogany from
+      exposure to the weather. He spoke, too, when he returned Good&rsquo;s
+      enthusiastic greeting, with a curious little accent, which made his speech
+      noticeable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It so happened that I sat next to Mr. Allan Quatermain at dinner, and, of
+      course, did my best to draw him; but he was not to be drawn. He admitted
+      that he had recently been a long journey into the interior of Africa with
+      Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and that they had found treasure, and
+      then politely turned the subject and began to ask me questions about
+      England, where he had never been before&mdash;that is, since he came to
+      years of discretion. Of course, I did not find this very interesting, and
+      so cast about for some means to bring the conversation round again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, we were dining in an oak-panelled vestibule, and on the wall opposite
+      to me were fixed two gigantic elephant tusks, and under them a pair of
+      buffalo horns, very rough and knotted, showing that they came off an old
+      bull, and having the tip of one horn split and chipped. I noticed that
+      Hunter Quatermain&rsquo;s eyes kept glancing at these trophies, and took an
+      occasion to ask him if he knew anything about them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ought to,&rdquo; he answered, with a little laugh; &ldquo;the elephant to which
+      those tusks belonged tore one of our party right in two about eighteen
+      months ago, and as for the buffalo horns, they were nearly my death, and
+      were the end of a servant of mine to whom I was much attached. I gave them
+      to Sir Henry when he left Natal some months ago;&rdquo; and Mr. Quatermain
+      sighed and turned to answer a question from the lady whom he had taken
+      down to dinner, and who, needless to say, was also employed in trying to
+      pump him about the diamonds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Indeed, all round the table there was a simmer of scarcely suppressed
+      excitement, which, when the servants had left the room, could no longer be
+      restrained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Mr. Quatermain,&rdquo; said the lady next him, &ldquo;we have been kept in an
+      agony of suspense by Sir Henry and Captain Good, who have persistently
+      refused to tell us a word of this story about the hidden treasure till you
+      came, and we simply can bear it no longer; so, please, begin at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said everybody, &ldquo;go on, please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hunter Quatermain glanced round the table apprehensively; he did not seem
+      to appreciate finding himself the object of so much curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ladies and gentlemen,&rdquo; he said at last, with a shake of his grizzled
+      head, &ldquo;I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot do it. It is this
+      way. At the request of Sir Henry and Captain Good I have written down a
+      true and plain account of King Solomon&rsquo;s Mines and how we found them, so
+      you will soon be able to learn all about that wonderful adventure for
+      yourselves; but until then I will say nothing about it, not from any wish
+      to disappoint your curiosity, or to make myself important, but simply
+      because the whole story partakes so much of the marvellous, that I am
+      afraid to tell it in a piecemeal, hasty fashion, for fear I should be set
+      down as one of those common fellows of whom there are so many in my
+      profession, who are not ashamed to narrate things they have not seen, and
+      even to tell wonderful stories about wild animals they have never killed.
+      And I think that my companions in adventure, Sir Henry Curtis and Captain
+      Good, will bear me out in what I say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Quatermain, I think you are quite right,&rdquo; said Sir Henry. &ldquo;Precisely
+      the same considerations have forced Good and myself to hold our tongues.
+      We did not wish to be bracketed with&mdash;well, with other famous
+      travellers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a murmur of disappointment at these announcements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe you are all hoaxing us,&rdquo; said the young lady next Mr.
+      Quatermain, rather sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Believe me,&rdquo; answered the old hunter, with a quaint courtesy and a little
+      bow of his grizzled head; &ldquo;though I have lived all my life in the
+      wilderness, and amongst savages, I have neither the heart, nor the want of
+      manners, to wish to deceive one so lovely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereat the young lady, who was pretty, looked appeased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is very dreadful,&rdquo; I broke in. &ldquo;We ask for bread and you give us a
+      stone, Mr. Quatermain. The least that you can do is to tell us the story
+      of the tusks opposite and the buffalo horns underneath. We won&rsquo;t let you
+      off with less.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am but a poor story-teller,&rdquo; put in the old hunter, &ldquo;but if you will
+      forgive my want of skill, I shall be happy to tell you, not the story of
+      the tusks, for that is part of the history of our journey to King
+      Solomon&rsquo;s Mines, but that of the buffalo horns beneath them, which is now
+      ten years old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bravo, Quatermain!&rdquo; said Sir Henry. &ldquo;We shall all be delighted. Fire
+      away! Fill up your glass first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little man did as he was bid, took a sip of claret, and began:&mdash;&ldquo;About
+      ten years ago I was hunting up in the far interior of Africa, at a place
+      called Gatgarra, not a great way from the Chobe River. I had with me four
+      native servants, namely, a driver and voorlooper, or leader, who were
+      natives of Matabeleland, a Hottentot named Hans, who had once been the
+      slave of a Transvaal Boer, and a Zulu hunter, who for five years had
+      accompanied me upon my trips, and whose name was Mashune. Now near
+      Gatgarra I found a fine piece of healthy, park-like country, where the
+      grass was very good, considering the time of year; and here I made a
+      little camp or head-quarter settlement, from whence I went expeditions on
+      all sides in search of game, especially elephant. My luck, however, was
+      bad; I got but little ivory. I was therefore very glad when some natives
+      brought me news that a large herd of elephants were feeding in a valley
+      about thirty miles away. At first I thought of trekking down to the
+      valley, waggon and all, but gave up the idea on hearing that it was
+      infested with the deadly &lsquo;tsetse&rsquo; fly, which is certain death to all
+      animals, except men, donkeys, and wild game. So I reluctantly determined
+      to leave the waggon in the charge of the Matabele leader and driver, and
+      to start on a trip into the thorn country, accompanied only by the
+      Hottentot Hans, and Mashune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accordingly on the following morning we started, and on the evening of
+      the next day reached the spot where the elephants were reported to be. But
+      here again we were met by ill luck. That the elephants had been there was
+      evident enough, for their spoor was plentiful, and so were other traces of
+      their presence in the shape of mimosa trees torn out of the ground, and
+      placed topsy-turvy on their flat crowns, in order to enable the great
+      beasts to feed on their sweet roots; but the elephants themselves were
+      conspicuous by their absence. They had elected to move on. This being so,
+      there was only one thing to do, and that was to move after them, which we
+      did, and a pretty hunt they led us. For a fortnight or more we dodged
+      about after those elephants, coming up with them on two occasions, and a
+      splendid herd they were&mdash;only, however, to lose them again. At length
+      we came up with them a third time, and I managed to shoot one bull, and
+      then they started off again, where it was useless to try and follow them.
+      After this I gave it up in disgust, and we made the best of our way back
+      to the camp, not in the sweetest of tempers, carrying the tusks of the
+      elephant I had shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was on the afternoon of the fifth day of our tramp that we reached the
+      little koppie overlooking the spot where the waggon stood, and I confess
+      that I climbed it with a pleasurable sense of home-coming, for his waggon
+      is the hunter&rsquo;s home, as much as his house is that of the civilized
+      person. I reached the top of the koppie, and looked in the direction where
+      the friendly white tent of the waggon should be, but there was no waggon,
+      only a black burnt plain stretching away as far as the eye could reach. I
+      rubbed my eyes, looked again, and made out on the spot of the camp, not my
+      waggon, but some charred beams of wood. Half wild with grief and anxiety,
+      followed by Hans and Mashune, I ran at full speed down the slope of the
+      koppie, and across the space of plain below to the spring of water, where
+      my camp had been. I was soon there, only to find that my worst suspicions
+      were confirmed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The waggon and all its contents, including my spare guns and ammunition,
+      had been destroyed by a grass fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now before I started, I had left orders with the driver to burn off the
+      grass round the camp, in order to guard against accidents of this nature,
+      and here was the reward of my folly: a very proper illustration of the
+      necessity, especially where natives are concerned, of doing a thing one&rsquo;s
+      self if one wants it done at all. Evidently the lazy rascals had not burnt
+      round the waggon; most probably, indeed, they had themselves carelessly
+      fired the tall and resinous tambouki grass near by; the wind had driven
+      the flames on to the waggon tent, and there was quickly an end of the
+      matter. As for the driver and leader, I know not what became of them:
+      probably fearing my anger, they bolted, taking the oxen with them. I have
+      never seen them from that hour to this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sat down on the black veldt by the spring, and gazed at the charred
+      axles and disselboom of my waggon, and I can assure you, ladies and
+      gentlemen, I felt inclined to weep. As for Mashune and Hans they cursed
+      away vigorously, one in Zulu and the other in Dutch. Ours was a pretty
+      position. We were nearly 300 miles away from Bamangwato, the capital of
+      Khama&rsquo;s country, which was the nearest spot where we could get any help,
+      and our ammunition, spare guns, clothing, food, and everything else, were
+      all totally destroyed. I had just what I stood in, which was a flannel
+      shirt, a pair of &lsquo;veldt-schoons,&rsquo; or shoes of raw hide, my eight-bore
+      rifle, and a few cartridges. Hans and Mashune had also each a Martini
+      rifle and some cartridges, not many. And it was with this equipment that
+      we had to undertake a journey of 300 miles through a desolate and almost
+      uninhabited region. I can assure you that I have rarely been in a worse
+      position, and I have been in some queer ones. However, these things are
+      the natural incidents of a hunter&rsquo;s life, and the only thing to do was to
+      make the best of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accordingly, after passing a comfortless night by the remains of my
+      waggon, we started next morning on our long journey towards civilization.
+      Now if I were to set to work to tell you all the troubles and incidents of
+      that dreadful journey I should keep you listening here till midnight; so I
+      will, with your permission, pass on to the particular adventure of which
+      the pair of buffalo horns opposite are the melancholy memento.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We had been travelling for about a month, living and getting along as
+      best we could, when one evening we camped some forty miles from
+      Bamangwato. By this time we were indeed in a melancholy plight, footsore,
+      half starved, and utterly worn out; and, in addition, I was suffering from
+      a sharp attack of fever, which half blinded me and made me weak as a babe.
+      Our ammunition, too, was exhausted; I had only one cartridge left for my
+      eight-bore rifle, and Hans and Mashune, who were armed with Martini
+      Henrys, had three between them. It was about an hour from sundown when we
+      halted and lit a fire&mdash;for luckily we had still a few matches. It was
+      a charming spot to camp, I remember. Just off the game track we were
+      following was a little hollow, fringed about with flat-crowned mimosa
+      trees, and at the bottom of the hollow, a spring of clear water welled up
+      out of the earth, and formed a pool, round the edges of which grew an
+      abundance of watercresses of an exactly similar kind to those which were
+      handed round the table just now. Now we had no food of any kind left,
+      having that morning devoured the last remains of a little oribé antelope,
+      which I had shot two days previously. Accordingly Hans, who was a better
+      shot than Mashune, took two of the three remaining Martini cartridges, and
+      started out to see if he could not kill a buck for supper. I was too weak
+      to go myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Meanwhile Mashune employed himself in dragging together some dead boughs
+      from the mimosa trees to make a sort of &lsquo;skerm,&rsquo; or shelter for us to
+      sleep in, about forty yards from the edge of the pool of water. We had
+      been greatly troubled with lions in the course of our long tramp, and only
+      on the previous night have very nearly been attacked by them, which made
+      me nervous, especially in my weak state. Just as we had finished the
+      skerm, or rather something which did duty for one, Mashune and I heard a
+      shot apparently fired about a mile away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Hark to it!&rsquo; sung out Mashune in Zulu, more, I fancy, by way of keeping
+      his spirits up than for any other reason&mdash;for he was a sort of black
+      Mark Tapley, and very cheerful under difficulties. &lsquo;Hark to the wonderful
+      sound with which the &ldquo;Maboona&rdquo; (the Boers) shook our fathers to the ground
+      at the Battle of the Blood River. We are hungry now, my father; our
+      stomachs are small and withered up like a dried ox&rsquo;s paunch, but they will
+      soon be full of good meat. Hans is a Hottentot, and an &ldquo;umfagozan,&rdquo; that
+      is, a low fellow, but he shoots straight&mdash;ah! he certainly shoots
+      straight. Be of a good heart, my father, there will soon be meat upon the
+      fire, and we shall rise up men.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so he went on talking nonsense till I told him to stop, because he
+      made my head ache with his empty words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shortly after we heard the shot the sun sank in his red splendour, and
+      there fell upon earth and sky the great hush of the African wilderness.
+      The lions were not up as yet, they would probably wait for the moon, and
+      the birds and beasts were all at rest. I cannot describe the intensity of
+      the quiet of the night: to me in my weak state, and fretting as I was over
+      the non-return of the Hottentot Hans, it seemed almost ominous&mdash;as
+      though Nature were brooding over some tragedy which was being enacted in
+      her sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was quiet&mdash;quiet as death, and lonely as the grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Mashune,&rsquo; I said at last, &lsquo;where is Hans? my heart is heavy for him.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nay, my father, I know not; mayhap he is weary, and sleeps, or mayhap he
+      has lost his way.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Mashune, art thou a boy to talk folly to me?&rsquo; I answered. &lsquo;Tell me, in
+      all the years thou hast hunted by my side, didst thou ever know a
+      Hottentot to lose his path or to sleep upon the way to camp?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nay, Macumazahn&rsquo; (that, ladies, is my native name, and means the man who
+      &lsquo;gets up by night,&rsquo; or who &lsquo;is always awake&rsquo;), &lsquo;I know not where he is.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But though we talked thus, we neither of us liked to hint at what was in
+      both our minds, namely, that misfortunate had overtaken the poor
+      Hottentot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Mashune,&rsquo; I said at last, &lsquo;go down to the water and bring me of those
+      green herbs that grow there. I am hungered, and must eat something.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nay, my father; surely the ghosts are there; they come out of the water
+      at night, and sit upon the banks to dry themselves. An Isanusi[*] told it
+      me.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] <i>Isanusi</i>, witch-finder.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mashune was, I think, one of the bravest men I ever knew in the daytime,
+      but he had a more than civilized dread of the supernatural.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Must I go myself, thou fool?&rsquo; I said, sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nay, Macumazahn, if thy heart yearns for strange things like a sick
+      woman, I go, even if the ghosts devour me.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And accordingly he went, and soon returned with a large bundle of
+      watercresses, of which I ate greedily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Art thou not hungry?&rsquo; I asked the great Zulu presently, as he sat eyeing
+      me eating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Never was I hungrier, my father.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Then eat,&rsquo; and I pointed to the watercresses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nay, Macumazahn, I cannot eat those herbs.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;If thou dost not eat thou wilt starve: eat, Mashune.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He stared at the watercresses doubtfully for a while, and at last seized
+      a handful and crammed them into his mouth, crying out as he did so, &lsquo;Oh,
+      why was I born that I should live to feed on green weeds like an ox?
+      Surely if my mother could have known it she would have killed me when I
+      was born!&rsquo; and so he went on lamenting between each fistful of
+      watercresses till all were finished, when he declared that he was full
+      indeed of stuff, but it lay very cold on his stomach, &lsquo;like snow upon a
+      mountain.&rsquo; At any other time I should have laughed, for it must be
+      admitted he had a ludicrous way of putting things. Zulus do not like green
+      food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just after Mashune had finished his watercress, we heard the loud &lsquo;woof!
+      woof!&rsquo; of a lion, who was evidently promenading much nearer to our little
+      skerm than was pleasant. Indeed, on looking into the darkness and
+      listening intently, I could hear his snoring breath, and catch the light
+      of his great yellow eyes. We shouted loudly, and Mashune threw some sticks
+      on the fire to frighten him, which apparently had the desired effect, for
+      we saw no more of him for a while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just after we had had this fright from the lion, the moon rose in her
+      fullest splendour, throwing a robe of silver light over all the earth. I
+      have rarely seen a more beautiful moonrise. I remember that sitting in the
+      skerm I could with ease read faint pencil notes in my pocket-book. As soon
+      as the moon was up game began to trek down to the water just below us. I
+      could, from where I sat, see all sorts of them passing along a little
+      ridge that ran to our right, on their way to the drinking place. Indeed,
+      one buck&mdash;a large eland&mdash;came within twenty yards of the skerm,
+      and stood at gaze, staring at it suspiciously, his beautiful head and
+      twisted horns standing out clearly against the sky. I had, I recollect,
+      every mind to have a pull at him on the chance of providing ourselves with
+      a good supply of beef; but remembering that we had but two cartridges
+      left, and the extreme uncertainty of a shot by moonlight, I at length
+      decided to refrain. The eland presently moved on to the water, and a
+      minute or two afterwards there arose a great sound of splashing, followed
+      by the quick fall of galloping hoofs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;What&rsquo;s that, Mashune?&rsquo; I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That dam lion; buck smell him,&rsquo; replied the Zulu in English, of which he
+      had a very superficial knowledge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Scarcely were the words out of his mouth before we heard a sort of whine
+      over the other side of the pool, which was instantly answered by a loud
+      coughing roar close to us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;By Jove!&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;there are two of them. They have lost the buck; we
+      must look out they don&rsquo;t catch us.&rsquo; And again we made up the fire, and
+      shouted, with the result that the lions moved off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Mashune,&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;do you watch till the moon gets over that tree, when
+      it will be the middle of the night. Then wake me. Watch well, now, or the
+      lions will be picking those worthless bones of yours before you are three
+      hours older. I must rest a little, or I shall die.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Koos!&rsquo; (chief), answered the Zulu. &lsquo;Sleep, my father, sleep in peace; my
+      eyes shall be open as the stars; and like the stars watch over you.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Although I was so weak, I could not at once follow his advice. To begin
+      with, my head ached with fever, and I was torn with anxiety as to the fate
+      of the Hottentot Hans; and, indeed, as to our own fate, left with sore
+      feet, empty stomachs, and two cartridges, to find our way to Bamangwato,
+      forty miles off. Then the mere sensation of knowing that there are one or
+      more hungry lions prowling round you somewhere in the dark is disquieting,
+      however well one may be used to it, and, by keeping the attention on the
+      stretch, tends to prevent one from sleeping. In addition to all these
+      troubles, too, I was, I remember, seized with a dreadful longing for a
+      pipe of tobacco, whereas, under the circumstances, I might as well have
+      longed for the moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At last, however, I fell into an uneasy sleep as full of bad dreams as a
+      prickly pear is of points, one of which, I recollect, was that I was
+      setting my naked foot upon a cobra which rose upon its tail and hissed my
+      name, &lsquo;Macumazahn,&rsquo; into my ear. Indeed, the cobra hissed with such
+      persistency that at last I roused myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;<i>Macumazahn, nanzia, nanzia!</i>&rsquo; (there, there!) whispered Mashune&rsquo;s
+      voice into my drowsy ears. Raising myself, I opened my eyes, and I saw
+      Mashune kneeling by my side and pointing towards the water. Following the
+      line of his outstretched hand, my eyes fell upon a sight that made me
+      jump, old hunter as I was even in those days. About twenty paces from the
+      little skerm was a large ant-heap, and on the summit of the ant-heap, her
+      four feet rather close together, so as to find standing space, stood the
+      massive form of a big lioness. Her head was towards the skerm, and in the
+      bright moonlight I saw her lower it and lick her paws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mashune thrust the Martini rifle into my hands, whispering that it was
+      loaded. I lifted it and covered the lioness, but found that even in that
+      light I could not make out the foresight of the Martini. As it would be
+      madness to fire without doing so, for the result would probably be that I
+      should wound the lioness, if, indeed, I did not miss her altogether, I
+      lowered the rifle; and, hastily tearing a fragment of paper from one of
+      the leaves of my pocket-book, which I had been consulting just before I
+      went to sleep, I proceeded to fix it on to the front sight. But all this
+      took a little time, and before the paper was satisfactorily arranged,
+      Mashune again gripped me by the arm, and pointed to a dark heap under the
+      shade of a small mimosa tree which grew not more than ten paces from the
+      skerm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Well, what is it?&rsquo; I whispered; &lsquo;I can see nothing.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;It is another lion,&rsquo; he answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nonsense! thy heart is dead with fear, thou seest double;&rsquo; and I bent
+      forward over the edge of the surrounding fence, and stared at the heap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even as I said the words, the dark mass rose and stalked out into the
+      moonlight. It was a magnificent, black-maned lion, one of the largest I
+      had ever seen. When he had gone two or three steps he caught sight of me,
+      halted, and stood there gazing straight towards us;&mdash;he was so close
+      that I could see the firelight reflected in his wicked, greenish eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Shoot, shoot!&rsquo; said Mashune. &lsquo;The devil is coming&mdash;he is going to
+      spring!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I raised the rifle, and got the bit of paper on the foresight, straight
+      on to a little path of white hair just where the throat is set into the
+      chest and shoulders. As I did so, the lion glanced back over his shoulder,
+      as, according to my experience, a lion nearly always does before he
+      springs. Then he dropped his body a little, and I saw his big paws spread
+      out upon the ground as he put his weight on them to gather purchase. In
+      haste I pressed the trigger of the Martini, and not a moment too soon;
+      for, as I did so, he was in the act of springing. The report of the rifle
+      rang out sharp and clear on the intense silence of the night, and in
+      another second the great brute had landed on his head within four feet of
+      us, and rolling over and over towards us, was sending the bushes which
+      composed our little fence flying with convulsive strokes of his great
+      paws. We sprang out of the other side of the &lsquo;skerm,&rsquo; and he rolled on to
+      it and into it and then right through the fire. Next he raised himself and
+      sat upon his haunches like a great dog, and began to roar. Heavens! how he
+      roared! I never heard anything like it before or since. He kept filling
+      his lungs with air, and then emitting it in the most heart-shaking volumes
+      of sound. Suddenly, in the middle of one of the loudest roars, he rolled
+      over on to his side and lay still, and I knew that he was dead. A lion
+      generally dies upon his side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With a sigh of relief I looked up towards his mate upon the ant-heap. She
+      was standing there apparently petrified with astonishment, looking over
+      her shoulder, and lashing her tail; but to our intense joy, when the dying
+      beast ceased roaring, she turned, and, with one enormous bound, vanished
+      into the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we advanced cautiously towards the prostrate brute, Mashune droning
+      an improvised Zulu song as he went, about how Macumazahn, the hunter of
+      hunters, whose eyes are open by night as well as by day, put his hand down
+      the lion&rsquo;s stomach when it came to devour him and pulled out his heart by
+      the roots, &amp;c., &amp;c., by way of expressing his satisfaction, in his
+      hyperbolical Zulu way, at the turn events had taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was no need for caution; the lion was as dead as though he had
+      already been stuffed with straw. The Martini bullet had entered within an
+      inch of the white spot I had aimed at, and travelled right through him,
+      passing out at the right buttock, near the root of the tail. The Martini
+      has wonderful driving power, though the shock it gives to the system is,
+      comparatively speaking, slight, owing to the smallness of the hole it
+      makes. But fortunately the lion is an easy beast to kill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I passed the rest of that night in a profound slumber, my head reposing
+      upon the deceased lion&rsquo;s flank, a position that had, I thought, a
+      beautiful touch of irony about it, though the smell of his singed hair was
+      disagreeable. When I woke again the faint primrose lights of dawn were
+      flushing in the eastern sky. For a moment I could not understand the chill
+      sense of anxiety that lay like a lump of ice at my heart, till the feel
+      and smell of the skin of the dead lion beneath my head recalled the
+      circumstances in which we were placed. I rose, and eagerly looked round to
+      see if I could discover any signs of Hans, who, if he had escaped
+      accident, would surely return to us at dawn, but there were none. Then
+      hope grew faint, and I felt that it was not well with the poor fellow.
+      Setting Mashune to build up the fire I hastily removed the hide from the
+      flank of the lion, which was indeed a splendid beast, and cutting off some
+      lumps of flesh, we toasted and ate them greedily. Lions&rsquo; flesh, strange as
+      it may seem, is very good eating, and tastes more like veal than anything
+      else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the time we had finished our much-needed meal the sun was getting up,
+      and after a drink of water and a wash at the pool, we started to try and
+      find Hans, leaving the dead lion to the tender mercies of the hyænas. Both
+      Mashune and myself were, by constant practice, pretty good hands at
+      tracking, and we had not much difficulty in following the Hottentot&rsquo;s
+      spoor, faint as it was. We had gone on in this way for half-an-hour or so,
+      and were, perhaps, a mile or more from the site of our camping-place, when
+      we discovered the spoor of a solitary bull buffalo mixed up with the spoor
+      of Hans, and were able, from various indications, to make out that he had
+      been tracking the buffalo. At length we reached a little glade in which
+      there grew a stunted old mimosa thorn, with a peculiar and overhanging
+      formation of root, under which a porcupine, or an ant-bear, or some such
+      animal, had hollowed out a wide-lipped hole. About ten or fifteen paces
+      from this thorn-tree there was a thick patch of bush.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;See, Macumazahn! see!&rsquo; said Mashune, excitedly, as we drew near the
+      thorn; &lsquo;the buffalo has charged him. Look, here he stood to fire at him;
+      see how firmly he planted his feet upon the earth; there is the mark of
+      his crooked toe (Hans had one bent toe). Look! here the bull came like a
+      boulder down the hill, his hoofs turning up the earth like a hoe. Hans had
+      hit him: he bled as he came; there are the blood spots. It is all written
+      down there, my father&mdash;there upon the earth.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; I said; &lsquo;yes; but <i>where is Hans?</i>&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even as I said it Mashune clutched my arm, and pointed to the stunted
+      thorn just by us. Even now, gentlemen, it makes me feel sick when I think
+      of what I saw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For fixed in a stout fork of the tree some eight feet from the ground was
+      Hans himself, or rather his dead body, evidently tossed there by the
+      furious buffalo. One leg was twisted round the fork, probably in a dying
+      convulsion. In the side, just beneath the ribs, was a great hole, from
+      which the entrails protruded. But this was not all. The other leg hung
+      down to within five feet of the ground. The skin and most of the flesh
+      were gone from it. For a moment we stood aghast, and gazed at this
+      horrifying sight. Then I understood what had happened. The buffalo, with
+      that devilish cruelty which distinguishes the animal, had, after his enemy
+      was dead, stood underneath his body, and licked the flesh off the pendant
+      leg with his file-like tongue. I had heard of such a thing before, but had
+      always treated the stories as hunters&rsquo; yarns; but I had no doubt about it
+      now. Poor Hans&rsquo; skeleton foot and ankle were an ample proof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We stood aghast under the tree, and stared and stared at this awful
+      sight, when suddenly our cogitations were interrupted in a painful manner.
+      The thick bush about fifteen paces off burst asunder with a crashing
+      sound, and uttering a series of ferocious pig-like grunts, the bull
+      buffalo himself came charging out straight at us. Even as he came I saw
+      the blood mark on his side where poor Hans&rsquo; bullet had struck him, and
+      also, as is often the case with particularly savage buffaloes, that his
+      flanks had recently been terribly torn in an encounter with a lion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On he came, his head well up (a buffalo does not generally lower his head
+      till he does so to strike); those great black horns&mdash;as I look at
+      them before me, gentlemen, I seem to see them come charging at me as I did
+      ten years ago, silhouetted against the green bush behind;&mdash;on, on!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With a shout Mashune bolted off sideways towards the bush. I had
+      instinctively lifted my eight-bore, which I had in my hand. It would have
+      been useless to fire at the buffalo&rsquo;s head, for the dense horns must have
+      turned the bullet; but as Mashune bolted, the bull slewed a little, with
+      the momentary idea of following him, and as this gave me a ghost of a
+      chance, I let drive my only cartridge at his shoulder. The bullet struck
+      the shoulder-blade and smashed it up, and then travelled on under the skin
+      into his flank; but it did not stop him, though for a second he staggered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Throwing myself on to the ground with the energy of despair, I rolled
+      under the shelter of the projecting root of the thorn, crushing myself as
+      far into the mouth of the ant-bear hole as I could. In a single instant
+      the buffalo was after me. Kneeling down on his uninjured knee&mdash;for
+      one leg, that of which I had broken the shoulder, was swinging helplessly
+      to and fro&mdash;he set to work to try and hook me out of the hole with
+      his crooked horn. At first he struck at me furiously, and it was one of
+      the blows against the base of the tree which splintered the tip of the
+      horn in the way that you see. Then he grew more cunning, and pushed his
+      head as far under the root as possible, made long semicircular sweeps at
+      me, grunting furiously, and blowing saliva and hot steamy breath all over
+      me. I was just out of reach of the horn, though every stroke, by widening
+      the hole and making more room for his head, brought it closer to me, but
+      every now and again I received heavy blows in the ribs from his muzzle.
+      Feeling that I was being knocked silly, I made an effort and seizing his
+      rough tongue, which was hanging from his jaws, I twisted it with all my
+      force. The great brute bellowed with pain and fury, and jerked himself
+      backwards so strongly, that he dragged me some inches further from the
+      mouth of the hole, and again made a sweep at me, catching me this time
+      round the shoulder-joint in the hook of his horn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I felt that it was all up now, and began to holloa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;He has got me!&rsquo; I shouted in mortal terror. &lsquo;<i>Gwasa, Mashune, gwasa!</i>&rsquo; 
+      (&lsquo;Stab, Mashune, stab!&rsquo;).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One hoist of the great head, and out of the hole I came like a periwinkle
+      out of his shell. But even as I did so, I caught sight of Mashune&rsquo;s
+      stalwart form advancing with his &lsquo;bangwan,&rsquo; or broad stabbing assegai,
+      raised above his head. In another quarter of a second I had fallen from
+      the horn, and heard the blow of the spear, followed by the indescribable
+      sound of steel shearing its way through flesh. I had fallen on my back,
+      and, looking up, I saw that the gallant Mashune had driven the assegai a
+      foot or more into the carcass of the buffalo, and was turning to fly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! it was too late. Bellowing madly, and spouting blood from mouth and
+      nostrils, the devilish brute was on him, and had thrown him up like a
+      feather, and then gored him twice as he lay. I struggled up with some wild
+      idea of affording help, but before I had gone a step the buffalo gave one
+      long sighing bellow, and rolled over dead by the side of his victim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mashune was still living, but a single glance at him told me that his
+      hour had come. The buffalo&rsquo;s horn had driven a great hole in his right
+      lung, and inflicted other injuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knelt down beside him in the uttermost distress, and took his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Is he dead, Macumazahn?&rsquo; he whispered. &lsquo;My eyes are blind; I cannot
+      see.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Yes, he is dead.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Did the black devil hurt thee, Macumazahn?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;No, my poor fellow, I am not much hurt.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Ow! I am glad.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then came a long silence, broken only by the sound of the air whistling
+      through the hole in his lung as he breathed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Macumazahn, art thou there? I cannot feel thee.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I am here, Mashune.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I die, Macumazahn&mdash;the world flies round and round. I go&mdash;I go
+      out into the dark! Surely, my father, at times in days to come&mdash;thou
+      wilt think of Mashune who stood by thy side&mdash;when thou killest
+      elephants, as we used&mdash;as we used&mdash;&mdash;&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They were his last words, his brave spirit passed with him. I dragged his
+      body to the hole under the tree, and pushed it in, placing his broad
+      assegai by him, according to the custom of his people, that he might not
+      go defenceless on his long journey; and then, ladies&mdash;I am not
+      ashamed to confess&mdash;I stood alone there before it, and wept like a
+      woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,990 @@
+Project Gutenberg Etext of Hunter Quatermain's Story, by Haggard
+#15 in our series by H. Rider Haggard
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+Title:  Hunter Quatermain's Story
+
+Author:  H. Rider Haggard
+
+July, 2001  [Etext #2728]
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+Project Gutenberg Etext of Hunter Quatermain's Story, by Haggard
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+
+
+HUNTER QUATERMAIN'S STORY
+
+by H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+
+
+Sir Henry Curtis, as everybody acquainted with him knows, is one of
+the most hospitable men on earth. It was in the course of the
+enjoyment of his hospitality at his place in Yorkshire the other day
+that I heard the hunting story which I am now about to transcribe.
+Many of those who read it will no doubt have heard some of the strange
+rumours that are flying about to the effect that Sir Henry Curtis and
+his friend Captain Good, R.N., recently found a vast treasure of
+diamonds out in the heart of Africa, supposed to have been hidden by
+the Egyptians, or King Solomon, or some other antique people. I first
+saw the matter alluded to in a paragraph in one of the society papers
+the day before I started for Yorkshire to pay my visit to Curtis, and
+arrived, needless to say, burning with curiosity; for there is
+something very fascinating to the mind in the idea of hidden treasure.
+When I reached the Hall, I at once asked Curtis about it, and he did
+not deny the truth of the story; but on my pressing him to tell it he
+would not, nor would Captain Good, who was also staying in the house.
+
+"You would not believe me if I did," Sir Henry said, with one of the
+hearty laughs which seem to come right out of his great lungs. "You
+must wait till Hunter Quatermain comes; he will arrive here from
+Africa to-night, and I am not going to say a word about the matter, or
+Good either, until he turns up. Quatermain was with us all through; he
+has known about the business for years and years, and if it had not
+been for him we should not have been here to-day. I am going to meet
+him presently."
+
+I could not get a word more out of him, nor could anybody else, though
+we were all dying of curiosity, especially some of the ladies. I shall
+never forget how they looked in the drawing-room before dinner when
+Captain Good produced a great rough diamond, weighing fifty carats or
+more, and told them that he had many larger than that. If ever I saw
+curiosity and envy printed on fair faces, I saw them then.
+
+It was just at this moment that the door was opened, and Mr. Allan
+Quatermain announced, whereupon Good put the diamond into his pocket,
+and sprang at a little man who limped shyly into the room, convoyed by
+Sir Henry Curtis himself.
+
+"Here he is, Good, safe and sound," said Sir Henry, gleefully. "Ladies
+and gentlemen, let me introduce you to one of the oldest hunters and
+the very best shot in Africa, who has killed more elephants and lions
+than any other man alive."
+
+Everybody turned and stared politely at the curious-looking little
+lame man, and though his size was insignificant, he was quite worth
+staring at. He had short grizzled hair, which stood about an inch
+above his head like the bristles of a brush, gentle brown eyes, that
+seemed to notice everything, and a withered face, tanned to the colour
+of mahogany from exposure to the weather. He spoke, too, when he
+returned Good's enthusiastic greeting, with a curious little accent,
+which made his speech noticeable.
+
+It so happened that I sat next to Mr. Allan Quatermain at dinner, and,
+of course, did my best to draw him; but he was not to be drawn. He
+admitted that he had recently been a long journey into the interior of
+Africa with Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and that they had found
+treasure, and then politely turned the subject and began to ask me
+questions about England, where he had never been before--that is,
+since he came to years of discretion. Of course, I did not find this
+very interesting, and so cast about for some means to bring the
+conversation round again.
+
+Now, we were dining in an oak-panelled vestibule, and on the wall
+opposite to me were fixed two gigantic elephant tusks, and under them
+a pair of buffalo horns, very rough and knotted, showing that they
+came off an old bull, and having the tip of one horn split and
+chipped. I noticed that Hunter Quatermain's eyes kept glancing at
+these trophies, and took an occasion to ask him if he knew anything
+about them.
+
+"I ought to," he answered, with a little laugh; "the elephant to which
+those tusks belonged tore one of our party right in two about eighteen
+months ago, and as for the buffalo horns, they were nearly my death,
+and were the end of a servant of mine to whom I was much attached. I
+gave them to Sir Henry when he left Natal some months ago;" and Mr.
+Quatermain sighed and turned to answer a question from the lady whom
+he had taken down to dinner, and who, needless to say, was also
+employed in trying to pump him about the diamonds.
+
+Indeed, all round the table there was a simmer of scarcely suppressed
+excitement, which, when the servants had left the room, could no
+longer be restrained.
+
+"Now, Mr. Quatermain," said the lady next him, "we have been kept in
+an agony of suspense by Sir Henry and Captain Good, who have
+persistently refused to tell us a word of this story about the hidden
+treasure till you came, and we simply can bear it no longer; so,
+please, begin at once."
+
+"Yes," said everybody, "go on, please."
+
+Hunter Quatermain glanced round the table apprehensively; he did not
+seem to appreciate finding himself the object of so much curiosity.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," he said at last, with a shake of his grizzled
+head, "I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot do it. It is
+this way. At the request of Sir Henry and Captain Good I have written
+down a true and plain account of King Solomon's Mines and how we found
+them, so you will soon be able to learn all about that wonderful
+adventure for yourselves; but until then I will say nothing about it,
+not from any wish to disappoint your curiosity, or to make myself
+important, but simply because the whole story partakes so much of the
+marvellous, that I am afraid to tell it in a piecemeal, hasty fashion,
+for fear I should be set down as one of those common fellows of whom
+there are so many in my profession, who are not ashamed to narrate
+things they have not seen, and even to tell wonderful stories about
+wild animals they have never killed. And I think that my companions in
+adventure, Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, will bear me out in what
+I say."
+
+"Yes, Quatermain, I think you are quite right," said Sir Henry.
+"Precisely the same considerations have forced Good and myself to hold
+our tongues. We did not wish to be bracketed with--well, with other
+famous travellers."
+
+There was a murmur of disappointment at these announcements.
+
+"I believe you are all hoaxing us," said the young lady next Mr.
+Quatermain, rather sharply.
+
+"Believe me," answered the old hunter, with a quaint courtesy and a
+little bow of his grizzled head; "though I have lived all my life in
+the wilderness, and amongst savages, I have neither the heart, nor the
+want of manners, to wish to deceive one so lovely."
+
+Whereat the young lady, who was pretty, looked appeased.
+
+"This is very dreadful," I broke in. "We ask for bread and you give us
+a stone, Mr. Quatermain. The least that you can do is to tell us the
+story of the tusks opposite and the buffalo horns underneath. We won't
+let you off with less."
+
+"I am but a poor story-teller," put in the old hunter, "but if you
+will forgive my want of skill, I shall be happy to tell you, not the
+story of the tusks, for that is part of the history of our journey to
+King Solomon's Mines, but that of the buffalo horns beneath them,
+which is now ten years old."
+
+"Bravo, Quatermain!" said Sir Henry. "We shall all be delighted. Fire
+away! Fill up your glass first."
+
+The little man did as he was bid, took a sip of claret, and began:--
+"About ten years ago I was hunting up in the far interior of Africa,
+at a place called Gatgarra, not a great way from the Chobe River. I
+had with me four native servants, namely, a driver and voorlooper, or
+leader, who were natives of Matabeleland, a Hottentot named Hans, who
+had once been the slave of a Transvaal Boer, and a Zulu hunter, who
+for five years had accompanied me upon my trips, and whose name was
+Mashune. Now near Gatgarra I found a fine piece of healthy, park-like
+country, where the grass was very good, considering the time of year;
+and here I made a little camp or head-quarter settlement, from whence
+I went expeditions on all sides in search of game, especially
+elephant. My luck, however, was bad; I got but little ivory. I was
+therefore very glad when some natives brought me news that a large
+herd of elephants were feeding in a valley about thirty miles away. At
+first I thought of trekking down to the valley, waggon and all, but
+gave up the idea on hearing that it was infested with the deadly
+'tsetse' fly, which is certain death to all animals, except men,
+donkeys, and wild game. So I reluctantly determined to leave the
+waggon in the charge of the Matabele leader and driver, and to start
+on a trip into the thorn country, accompanied only by the Hottentot
+Hans, and Mashune.
+
+"Accordingly on the following morning we started, and on the evening
+of the next day reached the spot where the elephants were reported to
+be. But here again we were met by ill luck. That the elephants had
+been there was evident enough, for their spoor was plentiful, and so
+were other traces of their presence in the shape of mimosa trees torn
+out of the ground, and placed topsy-turvy on their flat crowns, in
+order to enable the great beasts to feed on their sweet roots; but the
+elephants themselves were conspicuous by their absence. They had
+elected to move on. This being so, there was only one thing to do, and
+that was to move after them, which we did, and a pretty hunt they led
+us. For a fortnight or more we dodged about after those elephants,
+coming up with them on two occasions, and a splendid herd they were--
+only, however, to lose them again. At length we came up with them a
+third time, and I managed to shoot one bull, and then they started off
+again, where it was useless to try and follow them. After this I gave
+it up in disgust, and we made the best of our way back to the camp,
+not in the sweetest of tempers, carrying the tusks of the elephant I
+had shot.
+
+
+
+"It was on the afternoon of the fifth day of our tramp that we reached
+the little koppie overlooking the spot where the waggon stood, and I
+confess that I climbed it with a pleasurable sense of home-coming, for
+his waggon is the hunter's home, as much as his house is that of the
+civilized person. I reached the top of the koppie, and looked in the
+direction where the friendly white tent of the waggon should be, but
+there was no waggon, only a black burnt plain stretching away as far
+as the eye could reach. I rubbed my eyes, looked again, and made out
+on the spot of the camp, not my waggon, but some charred beams of
+wood. Half wild with grief and anxiety, followed by Hans and Mashune,
+I ran at full speed down the slope of the koppie, and across the space
+of plain below to the spring of water, where my camp had been. I was
+soon there, only to find that my worst suspicions were confirmed.
+
+"The waggon and all its contents, including my spare guns and
+ammunition, had been destroyed by a grass fire.
+
+"Now before I started, I had left orders with the driver to burn off
+the grass round the camp, in order to guard against accidents of this
+nature, and here was the reward of my folly: a very proper
+illustration of the necessity, especially where natives are concerned,
+of doing a thing one's self if one wants it done at all. Evidently the
+lazy rascals had not burnt round the waggon; most probably, indeed,
+they had themselves carelessly fired the tall and resinous tambouki
+grass near by; the wind had driven the flames on to the waggon tent,
+and there was quickly an end of the matter. As for the driver and
+leader, I know not what became of them: probably fearing my anger,
+they bolted, taking the oxen with them. I have never seen them from
+that hour to this.
+
+"I sat down on the black veldt by the spring, and gazed at the charred
+axles and disselboom of my waggon, and I can assure you, ladies and
+gentlemen, I felt inclined to weep. As for Mashune and Hans they
+cursed away vigorously, one in Zulu and the other in Dutch. Ours was a
+pretty position. We were nearly 300 miles away from Bamangwato, the
+capital of Khama's country, which was the nearest spot where we could
+get any help, and our ammunition, spare guns, clothing, food, and
+everything else, were all totally destroyed. I had just what I stood
+in, which was a flannel shirt, a pair of 'veldt-schoons,' or shoes of
+raw hide, my eight-bore rifle, and a few cartridges. Hans and Mashune
+had also each a Martini rifle and some cartridges, not many. And it
+was with this equipment that we had to undertake a journey of 300
+miles through a desolate and almost uninhabited region. I can assure
+you that I have rarely been in a worse position, and I have been in
+some queer ones. However, these things are the natural incidents of a
+hunter's life, and the only thing to do was to make the best of them.
+
+"Accordingly, after passing a comfortless night by the remains of my
+waggon, we started next morning on our long journey towards
+civilization. Now if I were to set to work to tell you all the
+troubles and incidents of that dreadful journey I should keep you
+listening here till midnight; so I will, with your permission, pass on
+to the particular adventure of which the pair of buffalo horns
+opposite are the melancholy memento.
+
+"We had been travelling for about a month, living and getting along as
+best we could, when one evening we camped some forty miles from
+Bamangwato. By this time we were indeed in a melancholy plight,
+footsore, half starved, and utterly worn out; and, in addition, I was
+suffering from a sharp attack of fever, which half blinded me and made
+me weak as a babe. Our ammunition, too, was exhausted; I had only one
+cartridge left for my eight-bore rifle, and Hans and Mashune, who were
+armed with Martini Henrys, had three between them. It was about an
+hour from sundown when we halted and lit a fire--for luckily we had
+still a few matches. It was a charming spot to camp, I remember. Just
+off the game track we were following was a little hollow, fringed
+about with flat-crowned mimosa trees, and at the bottom of the hollow,
+a spring of clear water welled up out of the earth, and formed a pool,
+round the edges of which grew an abundance of watercresses of an
+exactly similar kind to those which were handed round the table just
+now. Now we had no food of any kind left, having that morning devoured
+the last remains of a little orib� antelope, which I had shot two days
+previously. Accordingly Hans, who was a better shot than Mashune, took
+two of the three remaining Martini cartridges, and started out to see
+if he could not kill a buck for supper. I was too weak to go myself.
+
+"Meanwhile Mashune employed himself in dragging together some dead
+boughs from the mimosa trees to make a sort of 'skerm,' or shelter for
+us to sleep in, about forty yards from the edge of the pool of water.
+We had been greatly troubled with lions in the course of our long
+tramp, and only on the previous night have very nearly been attacked
+by them, which made me nervous, especially in my weak state. Just as
+we had finished the skerm, or rather something which did duty for one,
+Mashune and I heard a shot apparently fired about a mile away.
+
+"'Hark to it!' sung out Mashune in Zulu, more, I fancy, by way of
+keeping his spirits up than for any other reason--for he was a sort of
+black Mark Tapley, and very cheerful under difficulties. 'Hark to the
+wonderful sound with which the "Maboona" (the Boers) shook our fathers
+to the ground at the Battle of the Blood River. We are hungry now, my
+father; our stomachs are small and withered up like a dried ox's
+paunch, but they will soon be full of good meat. Hans is a Hottentot,
+and an "umfagozan," that is, a low fellow, but he shoots straight--ah!
+he certainly shoots straight. Be of a good heart, my father, there
+will soon be meat upon the fire, and we shall rise up men.'
+
+"And so he went on talking nonsense till I told him to stop, because
+he made my head ache with his empty words.
+
+"Shortly after we heard the shot the sun sank in his red splendour,
+and there fell upon earth and sky the great hush of the African
+wilderness. The lions were not up as yet, they would probably wait for
+the moon, and the birds and beasts were all at rest. I cannot describe
+the intensity of the quiet of the night: to me in my weak state, and
+fretting as I was over the non-return of the Hottentot Hans, it seemed
+almost ominous--as though Nature were brooding over some tragedy which
+was being enacted in her sight.
+
+"It was quiet--quiet as death, and lonely as the grave.
+
+"'Mashune,' I said at last, 'where is Hans? my heart is heavy for
+him.'
+
+"'Nay, my father, I know not; mayhap he is weary, and sleeps, or
+mayhap he has lost his way.'
+
+"'Mashune, art thou a boy to talk folly to me?' I answered. 'Tell me,
+in all the years thou hast hunted by my side, didst thou ever know a
+Hottentot to lose his path or to sleep upon the way to camp?'
+
+"'Nay, Macumazahn' (that, ladies, is my native name, and means the man
+who 'gets up by night,' or who 'is always awake'), 'I know not where
+he is.'
+
+"But though we talked thus, we neither of us liked to hint at what was
+in both our minds, namely, that misfortunate had overtaken the poor
+Hottentot.
+
+"'Mashune,' I said at last, 'go down to the water and bring me of
+those green herbs that grow there. I am hungered, and must eat
+something.'
+
+"'Nay, my father; surely the ghosts are there; they come out of the
+water at night, and sit upon the banks to dry themselves. An
+Isanusi[*] told it me.'
+
+[*] /Isanusi/, witch-finder.
+
+"Mashune was, I think, one of the bravest men I ever knew in the
+daytime, but he had a more than civilized dread of the supernatural.
+
+"'Must I go myself, thou fool?' I said, sternly.
+
+"'Nay, Macumazahn, if thy heart yearns for strange things like a sick
+woman, I go, even if the ghosts devour me.'
+
+"And accordingly he went, and soon returned with a large bundle of
+watercresses, of which I ate greedily.
+
+"'Art thou not hungry?' I asked the great Zulu presently, as he sat
+eyeing me eating.
+
+"'Never was I hungrier, my father.'
+
+"'Then eat,' and I pointed to the watercresses.
+
+"'Nay, Macumazahn, I cannot eat those herbs.'
+
+"'If thou dost not eat thou wilt starve: eat, Mashune.'
+
+"He stared at the watercresses doubtfully for a while, and at last
+seized a handful and crammed them into his mouth, crying out as he did
+so, 'Oh, why was I born that I should live to feed on green weeds like
+an ox? Surely if my mother could have known it she would have killed
+me when I was born!' and so he went on lamenting between each fistful
+of watercresses till all were finished, when he declared that he was
+full indeed of stuff, but it lay very cold on his stomach, 'like snow
+upon a mountain.' At any other time I should have laughed, for it must
+be admitted he had a ludicrous way of putting things. Zulus do not
+like green food.
+
+"Just after Mashune had finished his watercress, we heard the loud
+'woof! woof!' of a lion, who was evidently promenading much nearer to
+our little skerm than was pleasant. Indeed, on looking into the
+darkness and listening intently, I could hear his snoring breath, and
+catch the light of his great yellow eyes. We shouted loudly, and
+Mashune threw some sticks on the fire to frighten him, which
+apparently had the desired effect, for we saw no more of him for a
+while.
+
+"Just after we had had this fright from the lion, the moon rose in her
+fullest splendour, throwing a robe of silver light over all the earth.
+I have rarely seen a more beautiful moonrise. I remember that sitting
+in the skerm I could with ease read faint pencil notes in my pocket-
+book. As soon as the moon was up game began to trek down to the water
+just below us. I could, from where I sat, see all sorts of them
+passing along a little ridge that ran to our right, on their way to
+the drinking place. Indeed, one buck--a large eland--came within
+twenty yards of the skerm, and stood at gaze, staring at it
+suspiciously, his beautiful head and twisted horns standing out
+clearly against the sky. I had, I recollect, every mind to have a pull
+at him on the chance of providing ourselves with a good supply of
+beef; but remembering that we had but two cartridges left, and the
+extreme uncertainty of a shot by moonlight, I at length decided to
+refrain. The eland presently moved on to the water, and a minute or
+two afterwards there arose a great sound of splashing, followed by the
+quick fall of galloping hoofs.
+
+"'What's that, Mashune?' I asked.
+
+"'That dam lion; buck smell him,' replied the Zulu in English, of
+which he had a very superficial knowledge.
+
+"Scarcely were the words out of his mouth before we heard a sort of
+whine over the other side of the pool, which was instantly answered by
+a loud coughing roar close to us.
+
+"'By Jove!' I said, 'there are two of them. They have lost the buck;
+we must look out they don't catch us.' And again we made up the fire,
+and shouted, with the result that the lions moved off.
+
+"'Mashune,' I said, 'do you watch till the moon gets over that tree,
+when it will be the middle of the night. Then wake me. Watch well,
+now, or the lions will be picking those worthless bones of yours
+before you are three hours older. I must rest a little, or I shall
+die.'
+
+"'Koos!' (chief), answered the Zulu. 'Sleep, my father, sleep in
+peace; my eyes shall be open as the stars; and like the stars watch
+over you.'
+
+"Although I was so weak, I could not at once follow his advice. To
+begin with, my head ached with fever, and I was torn with anxiety as
+to the fate of the Hottentot Hans; and, indeed, as to our own fate,
+left with sore feet, empty stomachs, and two cartridges, to find our
+way to Bamangwato, forty miles off. Then the mere sensation of knowing
+that there are one or more hungry lions prowling round you somewhere
+in the dark is disquieting, however well one may be used to it, and,
+by keeping the attention on the stretch, tends to prevent one from
+sleeping. In addition to all these troubles, too, I was, I remember,
+seized with a dreadful longing for a pipe of tobacco, whereas, under
+the circumstances, I might as well have longed for the moon.
+
+
+"At last, however, I fell into an uneasy sleep as full of bad dreams
+as a prickly pear is of points, one of which, I recollect, was that I
+was setting my naked foot upon a cobra which rose upon its tail and
+hissed my name, 'Macumazahn,' into my ear. Indeed, the cobra hissed
+with such persistency that at last I roused myself.
+
+"'/Macumazahn, nanzia, nanzia!/' (there, there!) whispered Mashune's
+voice into my drowsy ears. Raising myself, I opened my eyes, and I saw
+Mashune kneeling by my side and pointing towards the water. Following
+the line of his outstretched hand, my eyes fell upon a sight that made
+me jump, old hunter as I was even in those days. About twenty paces
+from the little skerm was a large ant-heap, and on the summit of the
+ant-heap, her four feet rather close together, so as to find standing
+space, stood the massive form of a big lioness. Her head was towards
+the skerm, and in the bright moonlight I saw her lower it and lick her
+paws.
+
+"Mashune thrust the Martini rifle into my hands, whispering that it
+was loaded. I lifted it and covered the lioness, but found that even
+in that light I could not make out the foresight of the Martini. As it
+would be madness to fire without doing so, for the result would
+probably be that I should wound the lioness, if, indeed, I did not
+miss her altogether, I lowered the rifle; and, hastily tearing a
+fragment of paper from one of the leaves of my pocket-book, which I
+had been consulting just before I went to sleep, I proceeded to fix it
+on to the front sight. But all this took a little time, and before the
+paper was satisfactorily arranged, Mashune again gripped me by the
+arm, and pointed to a dark heap under the shade of a small mimosa tree
+which grew not more than ten paces from the skerm.
+
+"'Well, what is it?' I whispered; 'I can see nothing.'
+
+"'It is another lion,' he answered.
+
+"'Nonsense! thy heart is dead with fear, thou seest double;' and I
+bent forward over the edge of the surrounding fence, and stared at the
+heap.
+
+"Even as I said the words, the dark mass rose and stalked out into the
+moonlight. It was a magnificent, black-maned lion, one of the largest
+I had ever seen. When he had gone two or three steps he caught sight
+of me, halted, and stood there gazing straight towards us;--he was so
+close that I could see the firelight reflected in his wicked, greenish
+eyes.
+
+"'Shoot, shoot!' said Mashune. 'The devil is coming--he is going to
+spring!'
+
+"I raised the rifle, and got the bit of paper on the foresight,
+straight on to a little path of white hair just where the throat is
+set into the chest and shoulders. As I did so, the lion glanced back
+over his shoulder, as, according to my experience, a lion nearly
+always does before he springs. Then he dropped his body a little, and
+I saw his big paws spread out upon the ground as he put his weight on
+them to gather purchase. In haste I pressed the trigger of the
+Martini, and not a moment too soon; for, as I did so, he was in the
+act of springing. The report of the rifle rang out sharp and clear on
+the intense silence of the night, and in another second the great
+brute had landed on his head within four feet of us, and rolling over
+and over towards us, was sending the bushes which composed our little
+fence flying with convulsive strokes of his great paws. We sprang out
+of the other side of the 'skerm,' and he rolled on to it and into it
+and then right through the fire. Next he raised himself and sat upon
+his haunches like a great dog, and began to roar. Heavens! how he
+roared! I never heard anything like it before or since. He kept
+filling his lungs with air, and then emitting it in the most heart-
+shaking volumes of sound. Suddenly, in the middle of one of the
+loudest roars, he rolled over on to his side and lay still, and I knew
+that he was dead. A lion generally dies upon his side.
+
+"With a sigh of relief I looked up towards his mate upon the ant-heap.
+She was standing there apparently petrified with astonishment, looking
+over her shoulder, and lashing her tail; but to our intense joy, when
+the dying beast ceased roaring, she turned, and, with one enormous
+bound, vanished into the night.
+
+"Then we advanced cautiously towards the prostrate brute, Mashune
+droning an improvised Zulu song as he went, about how Macumazahn, the
+hunter of hunters, whose eyes are open by night as well as by day, put
+his hand down the lion's stomach when it came to devour him and pulled
+out his heart by the roots, &c., &c., by way of expressing his
+satisfaction, in his hyperbolical Zulu way, at the turn events had
+taken.
+
+"There was no need for caution; the lion was as dead as though he had
+already been stuffed with straw. The Martini bullet had entered within
+an inch of the white spot I had aimed at, and travelled right through
+him, passing out at the right buttock, near the root of the tail. The
+Martini has wonderful driving power, though the shock it gives to the
+system is, comparatively speaking, slight, owing to the smallness of
+the hole it makes. But fortunately the lion is an easy beast to kill.
+
+"I passed the rest of that night in a profound slumber, my head
+reposing upon the deceased lion's flank, a position that had, I
+thought, a beautiful touch of irony about it, though the smell of his
+singed hair was disagreeable. When I woke again the faint primrose
+lights of dawn were flushing in the eastern sky. For a moment I could
+not understand the chill sense of anxiety that lay like a lump of ice
+at my heart, till the feel and smell of the skin of the dead lion
+beneath my head recalled the circumstances in which we were placed. I
+rose, and eagerly looked round to see if I could discover any signs of
+Hans, who, if he had escaped accident, would surely return to us at
+dawn, but there were none. Then hope grew faint, and I felt that it
+was not well with the poor fellow. Setting Mashune to build up the
+fire I hastily removed the hide from the flank of the lion, which was
+indeed a splendid beast, and cutting off some lumps of flesh, we
+toasted and ate them greedily. Lions' flesh, strange as it may seem,
+is very good eating, and tastes more like veal than anything else.
+
+"By the time we had finished our much-needed meal the sun was getting
+up, and after a drink of water and a wash at the pool, we started to
+try and find Hans, leaving the dead lion to the tender mercies of the
+hy�nas. Both Mashune and myself were, by constant practice, pretty
+good hands at tracking, and we had not much difficulty in following
+the Hottentot's spoor, faint as it was. We had gone on in this way for
+half-an-hour or so, and were, perhaps, a mile or more from the site of
+our camping-place, when we discovered the spoor of a solitary bull
+buffalo mixed up with the spoor of Hans, and were able, from various
+indications, to make out that he had been tracking the buffalo. At
+length we reached a little glade in which there grew a stunted old
+mimosa thorn, with a peculiar and overhanging formation of root, under
+which a porcupine, or an ant-bear, or some such animal, had hollowed
+out a wide-lipped hole. About ten or fifteen paces from this thorn-
+tree there was a thick patch of bush.
+
+"'See, Macumazahn! see!' said Mashune, excitedly, as we drew near the
+thorn; 'the buffalo has charged him. Look, here he stood to fire at
+him; see how firmly he planted his feet upon the earth; there is the
+mark of his crooked toe (Hans had one bent toe). Look! here the bull
+came like a boulder down the hill, his hoofs turning up the earth like
+a hoe. Hans had hit him: he bled as he came; there are the blood
+spots. It is all written down there, my father--there upon the earth.'
+
+"'Yes,' I said; 'yes; but /where is Hans?/'
+
+"Even as I said it Mashune clutched my arm, and pointed to the stunted
+thorn just by us. Even now, gentlemen, it makes me feel sick when I
+think of what I saw.
+
+"For fixed in a stout fork of the tree some eight feet from the ground
+was Hans himself, or rather his dead body, evidently tossed there by
+the furious buffalo. One leg was twisted round the fork, probably in a
+dying convulsion. In the side, just beneath the ribs, was a great
+hole, from which the entrails protruded. But this was not all. The
+other leg hung down to within five feet of the ground. The skin and
+most of the flesh were gone from it. For a moment we stood aghast, and
+gazed at this horrifying sight. Then I understood what had happened.
+The buffalo, with that devilish cruelty which distinguishes the
+animal, had, after his enemy was dead, stood underneath his body, and
+licked the flesh off the pendant leg with his file-like tongue. I had
+heard of such a thing before, but had always treated the stories as
+hunters' yarns; but I had no doubt about it now. Poor Hans' skeleton
+foot and ankle were an ample proof.
+
+"We stood aghast under the tree, and stared and stared at this awful
+sight, when suddenly our cogitations were interrupted in a painful
+manner. The thick bush about fifteen paces off burst asunder with a
+crashing sound, and uttering a series of ferocious pig-like grunts,
+the bull buffalo himself came charging out straight at us. Even as he
+came I saw the blood mark on his side where poor Hans' bullet had
+struck him, and also, as is often the case with particularly savage
+buffaloes, that his flanks had recently been terribly torn in an
+encounter with a lion.
+
+"On he came, his head well up (a buffalo does not generally lower his
+head till he does so to strike); those great black horns--as I look at
+them before me, gentlemen, I seem to see them come charging at me as I
+did ten years ago, silhouetted against the green bush behind;--on,
+on!"
+
+"With a shout Mashune bolted off sideways towards the bush. I had
+instinctively lifted my eight-bore, which I had in my hand. It would
+have been useless to fire at the buffalo's head, for the dense horns
+must have turned the bullet; but as Mashune bolted, the bull slewed a
+little, with the momentary idea of following him, and as this gave me
+a ghost of a chance, I let drive my only cartridge at his shoulder.
+The bullet struck the shoulder-blade and smashed it up, and then
+travelled on under the skin into his flank; but it did not stop him,
+though for a second he staggered.
+
+"Throwing myself on to the ground with the energy of despair, I rolled
+under the shelter of the projecting root of the thorn, crushing myself
+as far into the mouth of the ant-bear hole as I could. In a single
+instant the buffalo was after me. Kneeling down on his uninjured knee
+--for one leg, that of which I had broken the shoulder, was swinging
+helplessly to and fro--he set to work to try and hook me out of the
+hole with his crooked horn. At first he struck at me furiously, and it
+was one of the blows against the base of the tree which splintered the
+tip of the horn in the way that you see. Then he grew more cunning,
+and pushed his head as far under the root as possible, made long
+semicircular sweeps at me, grunting furiously, and blowing saliva and
+hot steamy breath all over me. I was just out of reach of the horn,
+though every stroke, by widening the hole and making more room for his
+head, brought it closer to me, but every now and again I received
+heavy blows in the ribs from his muzzle. Feeling that I was being
+knocked silly, I made an effort and seizing his rough tongue, which
+was hanging from his jaws, I twisted it with all my force. The great
+brute bellowed with pain and fury, and jerked himself backwards so
+strongly, that he dragged me some inches further from the mouth of the
+hole, and again made a sweep at me, catching me this time round the
+shoulder-joint in the hook of his horn.
+
+"I felt that it was all up now, and began to holloa.
+
+"'He has got me!' I shouted in mortal terror. '/Gwasa, Mashune,
+gwasa!/' ('Stab, Mashune, stab!').
+
+"One hoist of the great head, and out of the hole I came like a
+periwinkle out of his shell. But even as I did so, I caught sight of
+Mashune's stalwart form advancing with his 'bangwan,' or broad
+stabbing assegai, raised above his head. In another quarter of a
+second I had fallen from the horn, and heard the blow of the spear,
+followed by the indescribable sound of steel shearing its way through
+flesh. I had fallen on my back, and, looking up, I saw that the
+gallant Mashune had driven the assegai a foot or more into the carcass
+of the buffalo, and was turning to fly.
+
+"Alas! it was too late. Bellowing madly, and spouting blood from mouth
+and nostrils, the devilish brute was on him, and had thrown him up
+like a feather, and then gored him twice as he lay. I struggled up
+with some wild idea of affording help, but before I had gone a step
+the buffalo gave one long sighing bellow, and rolled over dead by the
+side of his victim.
+
+"Mashune was still living, but a single glance at him told me that his
+hour had come. The buffalo's horn had driven a great hole in his right
+lung, and inflicted other injuries.
+
+"I knelt down beside him in the uttermost distress, and took his hand.
+
+"'Is he dead, Macumazahn?' he whispered. 'My eyes are blind; I cannot
+see.'
+
+"'Yes, he is dead.'
+
+"'Did the black devil hurt thee, Macumazahn?'
+
+"'No, my poor fellow, I am not much hurt.'
+
+"'Ow! I am glad.'
+
+"Then came a long silence, broken only by the sound of the air
+whistling through the hole in his lung as he breathed.
+
+"'Macumazahn, art thou there? I cannot feel thee.'
+
+"'I am here, Mashune.'
+
+"'I die, Macumazahn--the world flies round and round. I go--I go out
+into the dark! Surely, my father, at times in days to come--thou wilt
+think of Mashune who stood by thy side--when thou killest elephants,
+as we used--as we used----'
+
+"They were his last words, his brave spirit passed with him. I dragged
+his body to the hole under the tree, and pushed it in, placing his
+broad assegai by him, according to the custom of his people, that he
+might not go defenceless on his long journey; and then, ladies--I am not
+ashamed to confess--I stood alone there before it, and wept like a woman."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Hunter Quatermain's Story, by Haggard
+
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