Part 2 (1/2)

The leader and organizer of this expedition was an Albanian He went under the Arabic name of Muhmud abu Shawarib His real nah a feere Bulgarians who had fled to Albania because of their Red Chinese sympathies

Noli had proold to support hilishman, John Cloamby, Lord Grandrith, were captured alive

”He talked only of gold?” I said

”Yes Was there anything else?”

Noli was not likely to proed youth, even if he believed that I possessed it They would think him crazy and would not follow hiht of the elixir, but I have encountered other ood reason, that I had an elixir and were prepared to do anything to get the secret from me

The Arab said, ”You can kill reat pain upon you until you tell hiold is hidden He is a very deter”

”That may be,” I said I stabbed him in the solar plexus Now I failed to have a sexual reaction, and I hoped that the aberration was, for soone I doubted it The truth was that I had only so

I booby-trapped the vehicle with soas tank-would go off if the cab doors or the hood were opened Then I went into the woods and up a tree and waited The sounds of battle had died out Presently, as I knew they would, the invaders came on the track of the vehicle Two jeeps drove up; behind theled a mob, the survivors of the battle with the Kenyans

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Enver Noli was a hugemoustaches that fell to his chest His nose was ireen coveralls and paratrooper's boots He held his kepi in one tremendous fist and whacked it across the palave an order, he bellowed

A soldier ran out from the main body of the troops and warily approached the vehicle When he looked into the cab, he saw the wires I had gone to some pains to hide He reported this to Enver, who stood up in the jeep, which was about seventy feet from the half-track The soldier raised the hood to check the renade exploded and then the three shells The vehicle and the soldier disappeared in smoke and flame Noli was knocked off the jeep, but he bounded up and ran aith the rest Unfortunately, nobody was hit by the shells or splashed by the gas I did shoot two during the noise and panic

Noli stopped running and ot theuns and fifteen rifles into the woods While the bullets were flying aroundoff chunks of bark, I shot two more Arabs Immediately after, I descended the tree and ran off in the direction opposite the invaders and then curved around until I was so between the Kenyans and newco held by the jackals, hyenas, and vultures

The two hills yielded more dead The wounded had either been taken away or put out of their pain The carrion eaters were busy here, too

The village was entirely burned down, and of the survivors there was no sign I knew they were hiding in the forest They had fled to the forest h not until after great losses I had been the one who had led theainst the Arab invaders and then led them across the country to terrorize the slavers so ain dared enter Bandili country I had led thereat raid into Gekoyo Now they were hiding again, and if they caht, they would do it without reat father, the elephant who charges, for the Bandili Noas truly exiled This was no temporary loss It was forever

I wept then I had loved these people as roup of hulish I had had true friends ae was the only one of the ten Bandili villages that had betrayedand the old too feeble and too few

Moreover, the Kenyan governer live in this country Not in the open, at least

I esture I waved e and then at those hidden in the forest It was the only good-bye I could give, and doubtless no one saw it

Then I turned and began to trot across the savanna, towards the hills to the west

My destination was the e that lay far beyond the hills, approximately a hundred and fifty ht The false dawn, the wolf's tail, was graying the savanna when I began to think about holing up for part of the day The acacia trees in the distance looked like black cutouts of the ht and swung it away, and day padded in A lion roared in the distance The air was cool,trotted out of the tall grass, his tail held stiffly up The sun glea easily with the savanna on ht I carried the rifle in rasses h to be a lion or a h the cover about thirty yards away

The rifle soared up out of my hand, torn away by a blow like that from a crocodile's tail It spun off, and then the sound of the shot came from the hills

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My arh the rifle, but I did not find that out irass and rolled towards it Dirt and grass flew up so close they fell over outs of earth and flocks of tiny pieces of grass, each followed by a shot ringing across the savanna

I jurowl, and a big yellowish brown body one, and I had the grass to myself except for the brief company of two bullets which cropped stalks only a few inches from me I dived once more, and I stayed where I was

Several minutes passed My arm lost its nu on , though slowly It was iress More bullets slashed the grass

When I had crossed about 35 yards, I was at the edge of the grass I leaped up and ran away, still crouching There were no ht that the sharpshooter was a member of the Kenyans or of the band of the Albanian, Noli A third party had dealt himself in

I heard a roar behind and looked overafter hborhood or why he was chasing me He must have been very near but soafter me I knew every lion for 40 miles in any direction froer and should not have been here out of his own territory

He was the largest lion I'd ever seen He weighed 650 or more pounds, and his mane was so thick that I knew at once that he had not been in the bush for long He looked as if he had been bred for the purpose of eating me He also looked as if he had not eaten lately; his ribs were getting close to the outside air

I'm not often amazed, but this was one of the tiht at rapher records Usually, a er to avoid a battle as I arapher records, though there have never been any of the face-to-face encounters shown in those very bad and lying ot into the situations those actors did, my boould have been scooped out or my back muscles plucked out orfor the lion withthat happened toldof my rifle had been no lucky shot

The knife was jerked out of ht bird, it flew up and away I heard the distant report of the rifle before the knife struck the ground

My moment of shock almost cost me my life The lion launched hiot to one side just in ti the skin ofonto the lion's back when he is in full charge requires very swift and unhesitatinga little, esti the trajectory and speed of the final leap by too little or too much-it's over for the man I had jumped to one side while he was still on the downcurve of the arc of his leap and storabbed thewith the beast and also up into the air Usually, I had to use one hand because my knife was in the other, but this time I had both free And so I had a better hold and was on its back even more quickly than usual

He reared up and then fell to one side I ith hiain I had s, and when he rose I had ether

His roaring had been loud Now, froot the force to double the noise He rolled again- spread out like a turtle under an elephant's hoof-but I s locked around his belly His hind feet et thes

Then, as we lay in the dirt, slowly, slowly, his bones creaking, his head went down under the pressure of my arms I realize that this is difficult to believe A lion has truly enorth in those ree or kind Not in s, anyway, and this was not the first tih the other had not been as huge as this one

It was not easy For a long ti much more softly now, resisted my utmost efforts, and his neck refused to bend any ain like a wooden shi+p in a heavy sea My head was buried in the mane as I sweated and strove The hairs stuck in reen-yellow lion odor was strong, and, beneath it, was the stench of awareness of death Not fear of death, awareness of its inevitability The end had come for him, and he knew it Everybody born in Africa-antelope, lion, black man, Arab, Berber-knohen the tiacy from this ancient land, the birthplace of mankind and of many many species of beast

Mother Africa lets her child knohen he is about ready to fertilize her soil with the body she gave him Everybody knows this except the descendants of Europeans-myself excepted

As I felt the neck ain in strength for the saasm I don't knohen athered themselves for the explosion But my penis was jam and beginning to jerk

At that ave way As thethe fur andof air, kicked, and hi out from under him I scooped up some of the lion sperm in the dust and sed it This was a custo It is supposed to bestow the potency of the male lion upon the eater I believe it does; no amount of European education has convinced -feline taste and odor of it It is, , African in its essence There is everything in it Let him ould envision the soul of this ancient continent, eat lion sper a kill of a beast of prey, I stand with one foot on the carcass and give a great yell of triumph This, too, I learned froe that I was a target for a sharpshooter, chopped off that cry

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