Part 1 (1/2)

The Ivory Child

by H Rider Haggard

CHAPTER I

ALLAN GIVES A SHOOTING LESSON

Now I, Allan Quatermain, coest of all the adventures which have befallen me in the course of a life that so far can scarcely be called tas it tells of the war against the Black Kendah people and the dead of Jana, their elephant God Often since then I have wondered if this creature was or was not anything antic beast of the forest It seems improbable, even ie of this matter for hiion of the White Kendah and their pretensions to a certain degree of ic I will make only one remark: If it existed at all, it was by no le instance, Hart and Mart were convinced by divination that I, and I only, could kill Jana, which hy they invited me to Kendahland Yet in the end it was Hans who killed him

Jana nearly killed me!

Now to my tale

In another history, called ”The Holy Flower,” I have told how I caentleman of the na accident, and partly to try to dispose of a unique orchid for a friend of eetah by the natives, as popularly supposed to be mad, but, in fact, was very sane indeed So sane was he that he pursued what seemed to be an absolutely desperate quest for over twenty years, until, with soht it to a curiously successful issue But all this tale is told in ”The Holy Flower,” and I only allude to it here, that is at present, to explain how I caland

While in this country I stayed for a few days with Scroope, or, rather, with his fiancee and her people, at a fine house in Essex (I called it Essex to avoid the place being identified, but really it was one of the neighbouring counties) During my visit I was taken to see a ateway towers, that had been wonderfully well restored and turned into a nall,” the seat of a baron of that nanall, who, according to all accounts, seemed a kind of Adreat scholar--he had taken a double first at college; a great athlete--he had been captain of the Oxford boat at the University race; a very pro speaker who had already made his ers and other large game in India; a poet who had published a successful voluood solider until he left the Service; and lastly, a , in addition to his estates, several coal land

”Dear me!” I said when the list was finished, ”he seeold spoons in his : ”Perhaps he will be unlucky in love”

”That's just where he islady to who--it was Scroope's fiancee, Miss Manners--”for he is engaged to a lady that, I aland, and they absolutely adore each other”

”Dear ot up its sleeve for Lord Ragnall and his perfect lady-love?”

I was doomed to find out one day

So it ca, I was asked if I would like to see the wonders of Ragnall Castle, I answered ”Yes”

Really, however, I wanted to have a look at Lord Ragnall himself, if possible, for the account of his ination of a poor colonist likehis eyes upon a kind of hule angel--at least, of the ht get a glied, whose name, I understood, was the Hon Miss Hol would please me ly through the fine, frosty air, for thethe castle, Mr Scroope was told that Lord Ragnall, who somewhere in the park, but that, of course, he could show his friend over the place So ent in, the three of us, for Miss Manners, to whom Scroope was to be e The porter at the gateway towers took us to the main door of the castle and handed us over to anotherto me that he was his lordshi+p's personal attendant

I remember the name, because it seemed to e In truth, his appearance was that of a duke in disguise, as I iine dukes to be, for I never set eyes on one His dress--he wore a blackcut-away coat--was faultless

His e of irony, but with a hint of haughty pride in the background He was handsome also, with a fine nose and a hawk-like eye, while a touch of baldness added to the general effect His agebetween thirty-five and forty, and the way he deprived , showed, I thought, resolution of character Probably, I reflected to ht dae the pictures and other objects of art with the stick, and not seeing his way how to asksuspicion, has hit upon the expedient of taking e inforht in this sur froht be one of the dangerous class of who in the papers, namely, a ”hanarchist” I write the word as he pronounced it, for here co This man, so flawless, so well instructed in so away His h's were uncertain Three of theht, but the fourth, let us say, would be conspicuous either by its utter absence or by its unwanted appearance He could speak, when describing the Ragnall pictures, in rotund and flowing periods that would scarcely have disgraced the pen of Gibbon Then suddenly that ”h” would appear or disappear, and the illusion was over It was like a sudden shock of cold water down the back I never discovered the origin of his family; it was a ue about it himself; but if an earl of Norman blood had married a handsoine that Saht have been a child of the union

For the rest he was a good h respect

On this occasion he conducted us round the castle, or, rather, itsus many treasures and, I should think, at least two hundred pictures by eave hi a peculiar, if soan to wish that it were a little less full in detail, since on a Decee apartments felt uncommonly cold Scroope and Miss Manners seemed to keep warm, perhaps with the inward fires of mutual ade, a terees produced its natural effect upon e to the little gallery through a warnall's study Halting for a moment by one of the fires, I observed a picture on the wall, over which a curtain was drawn, and asked Mr