Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1888-10-25
MAIWA'S REVENGE
~ 4. RIDER HAGGARD.

"sDo these elephants sleepp whispered to
the astonished Gobo.
eyes, Macumazahn, they Sleep
"'Nay, Gobo, they are dead
''Deads How can they be deadi Who
killed themF
"'What do people call me, Color
'''They call you Macumazahn.'
"sAnd what does MacumazaLn meanF
"sIt means the man who keeps his eyes
open, the man who gets up in tho night.
"'Yes, and | am that man. Look, you idle,
lazy towards While you slept last night |
rose, and alone hunted those great elephants
and slew them by the moonlight To each of
them l gave one bullet and only one and it
fell dead Look and | advanced into the
glade, here is my spoor, and here is the spoor
of the great bull charging after me, and there
is the tree that | took refuge behind. See,
the elephant shattered it in bis charge Oh
you towards, you who would give up the
chase while the blood spoor steamed beneath
your nostrils See what did single handed
while you slept, and be ashamedp
"sOu,' said the man, 'ou. Koos, koos, y
umcoolr chief, mighty chiefD, and then
they held their tongues, and, going up to
three dead beasts, gazed upon them in
silence.
''But after that those men looked upon me
with awe as being almost more than mortal
No mere man, they said, could have slain
those three elephants alone in the night time.
i never had any further trouble with them.
/ believe that if | had told them to jump
over precipice and that they would take no
harm, they would have believed me.
'Wel, | went up and examined the bulls
Oh how ha1 I nj
never shall see again 1t took us all day to
cut them out, and when they reached Della
goa bay, as they did ultimately, though not
in my keeping, the single tusk Of the big bull
scaled 100 pounds and the four other tusks
#For the satisfaction Of any who may be so dis
believing as to take tins view of Mr.. Quatermains
story, the editor may state that a gentleman
with whom he is acquainted and whose yeracity
he believes to be beyond doubt, not long ago de-
scrbed to him how he CHANGED TO kill four Afri-
can elephants with four consecutive bullets Two
of these elephants were charging him snultane-
ously, and out Of the four, three were killed with
the head shot, very uncommon thing in the
case of the African elephant.-EDIToR.
averaged 9a15 pounds-a most wonderful, in
deed an almost unprecedented lot of ivory.*
Unfortunately, was forced to saw the big
tusk in two, otherwise we could not have
carried it,"
sob, Quatermain. you barbarian" |
broke in here, ''the idea of spelling such a
tuskl Why, would have kept it whole if |
had been obliged to drag it myself"
"Oh, yes, young man, he answered, sit is
all very well for you to talk like that, but il
you had found yourself in the pc ition which
it was my privilege to occupy few hours
afterwards, it is my belief that you would
have thrown the tusks away altogether and
taken to your heels"
''Oh, said Good $50 that isn't the end of
the yarnl A very good yarn, Quatermain,
by the way-I couldn't have made up bet
ter one MYSELF
The old gentleman looked at Good severely,
for it irritated him to be chaffed about his
stories.
81 don't know what you mean, Good. /
don't see that there is any comparison be-
tween true story of adventure and the pre-
posterous tales which you invent about ibex
hanging by their horns. No, it is not the
end of the story; the most exciting part is
TO come. But have talked enough for to-
night; and if you go on in that way, Good,
it will be some time before | begin again"
Sorry spoke. Pm sure" said Good, hum
bly,. Lets have a split to show that there
is no i'll feeling" And they did