Part 70 (2/2)
Perhaps the reason why my past history did not flash revieas thatbut elephant!--little bloodshot eyes aflareat tusks upthrown--a trunk upraised to brain ed to tread me down and knead me into purple mud! I kept the last shot with a coolness I believe was really numbness--then felt his hot breath like a blast on ain!
He screaht over me--toppled from the knees--and fell like a landslide, pushed forward as he tu sidewise by the living tide on either flank I tried to spring back, but his falling trunk struck round, and I lay still between theht and left for so many minutes that it seemed all the universe was elephants--bulls, cows and calves all truet away--away--anywhere at all so be it was not where they then were
Blood poured on me from the dead brute's throat--warm, slippery, sticky stuff; but I lay still I did notup at theto slay, had savedmen summon all their calf-philosophy I wondered what the difference was between that brute and ; that I should be congratulated; that I should have been pitied, had the touch-and-go reversed itself and he killedto do with shape, or weight, or size, but I could not give it a naer on it
My reverie, or reaction, or whatever it as broken by Fred's voice, flustered and out of breath, coreat pace
”I tell you the poor chap's dead as a door-nail! He's under that great bull, I tell you! He's si I hat a green-horn--what a careless, fat-headed tomfool to leave him alone like that! He was the least experienced of all of us, and we let hi, drawn and quartered! I shall never forgive myself! As for you, Will, it wasn't half asht to have called a halt away back there until ere all three in touch! I'll never forgive myself--never!”
I crawled out then from between the tusks, and shook myself, much more dazed than I expected, and full of an unaccountable desire to vomit
”damn your soul!” Fred fairly yelled atme in that way! Why aren't you dead? Look out! What's the matter with the man? The poor chap's hurt--I kneas!”
But that inexplicable desire to eround could no longer be resisted, that was all The aftermath of deadly fear is fear's corollary Each bears fruit after its kind
To ht down five and six respectively That leton” We sent Kazimoto back alone to try to persuade some of our porters to co him promise them all the hearts, and as many tail-hairs as they chose to pull out to keep witches aith Then, since s, Fred o and lay Schillingschen's ghost! If that was Schillingschen shooting in the forest, we've a little account with hi!”
We advanced into the forest and toiled up-hill along the tracks the sta elephants had made, amid flies indescribable, and al -place of flies, until I threw an to suffer in addition from bites I could not feel before, and froan to bleed fro as if they grew there
Will clie tree, at imminent risk of pythons and rotten branches, and descried open country on our right front We e of the others' wake, and after ed on rolling rocky country under a ledge that overhung a thousand feet sheer above us on the side of Elgon To our right was all green grass, sloping away from us
There was a cae of the forest--a whiteto dry in the wind under a branch--two tents for natives--and a pile of bags and boxes orderly arranged We could see a , or writing, or soschen We hurried Fred presently broke into a run; then, half-asha
When we ca chess all by hi board open on his knees He did not look up, although by that tian to walk quietly, signaling to the ca We followed hi Fred tip-toed, and I felt like giggling, or yelling--like doing anything ridiculous
He who played chess yawned suddenly, and closed the chess-board with a snap He got up lazily, s cat, faced Fred, and laughed outright
”Glad to see you all! Did you get many elephants?” he asked
”Monty, you old pirate--I kneas you!” said Fred, holding a hand out
Monty took it, and forced him into the chair he had just vacated
”You daly
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THEY TOIL NOT, NEITHER DO THEY SPIN