Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-01-31

think for a time | must have taken
leave of my senses. 1 was ready to
yomit for the sickness that was upon
me, and 1 beat my hands raw upon
the iron bars or clasped them over my
full thing that was doing behind them
remember praying aloud that it
might soon be over with, so only those
screams might be stopped.
1t seemed as though it had gone on
for hours, when some men rushed in
with q lantern and long, sharp irons.
A hundred voices cried: Here he is,
over here!' and they ran around out
side the cage and threw the light of
the lantern on place where a heap Of
gray, gOld-laced clothes writhed and
twisted beneath three great bulks OF
fulvous hide ard bristling black name.
The irOnSe were useless. The three
furies dragged their prey out of their
reach and crouched over it again and
recommended. No one dared go into
the cage, and still the man lived and
struggled and screamed
| saw Toppan'S finger go to his
mouth, and through that medley OF
dreadful noises there issued a sound
that, sick as | was, made me shrink
anew and close my eyes and teeth
and Shudder as though some cold
slime had been poured through the
hollow of my bones where the mar
row should be. 1t was as the noise Of
fine whiplash, mingled with the
whirr of locust magnified hundred
times, and ended in an abrupt clacl-
ing noise thrice repeated.
At once l Remembered where [ had
heard it before, because, having once
heard the hiss of an aroused and an.
cry serpent, no child of Eve can ever
forget it,
The sound that now came from be,
tween TOppan's teeth and that fille8
the arena from wall to wall was the
sound that l had heard once before in
the Paris Jardin des PIantes at feed
ing time-the sound made by the great
constructors, when their huge bodies
are Topped and coiled like a reata for
the throw that never misses. thar
never relaXes, and that no beast of the
field is built strong enough to with
stand. All the filthy wickedness and
malice of the centuries
since the enemy first entered into that
shape that crawls. was concentrated
in that hoarse, whistling hiss-a hiss
that was cold and piercing like an
icicle-made sound. 1t was no sound.
but had in it some sort of penetrating
quality that cut through the waves of
horrid sounds above us, as the snake
carved Prov of Viking galley might
cut its way through the tumbling ed
dies of tide rip.
At the second repetition the lions
paused. None better than they knew
what was the meaning of that hiss.
They had heard it before in their ma
tive hunting grounds in the earlier
days of summer, when the first heat
lay close over the iungles like the hol-
low of the palm Of an angry god. Or,
if they themselves had not heard it,
their sires before them had, and the
fear of the thing bred into their bones
leaped to life at the sound
and gripped them and held them close.
When for a third time the sound
sung and shrilled in their ears, their
heads drew between their shoulders,
their great eyes grew small and gilt
tering. the hackles rose and stiffenede
on their backs, their tails dropped, and
they backed slowly to the further side
Of the cage and cowed there, whining
and beaten.
Toppan wiped the sweat from the,
inside Of his hands and went into the.
cage with the keepers ard gathered up,
the painting, broken body, with it's
twitching fingers and white face and
carried it out. AS they lifted it the
handful Of medals dropped from the
shredded, gray coat and ratified down
upon the floor. In the silence that had
now succeeded, it was about the only
sound one heard.
AS we sat that evening on the porch
Of Toppan's house, in fashionable
suburb Of the city, he said for a third
time: 81 had that trick from MpOng-
wee headman," and added: at was
while I was at Victoria Falls. waiting
to cross the Kalahari desert"
Then he continued, his eyes growing
keener and his manner changing:
''There is some interesting work to De
done in that quarter by some one
You see, the Kalaharf runs Ike this"
he drew the lines on the ground with
his cane-"coming down in something
like this shape from the Orange river
to about the twentieth parallel south
The aDeroid gives it's average eleva-
ton about 600 feet I didn't cross 1T
at the time, because we had sickness
and the porters cut. But made lot
of geological observations. and from
these I have built up a theory that
the Kalahari is no desert at all, but a
big, well-watered plateau, with higher
ground on the east and west.
"The tribes, too, thereabout, calico
the place Linoka-Noka, and that's the
Bantu for rivers upon rivers. They're
nasty. too, these Bantu, and gave us a
lot Of trouble. They have "A way of
splitting little poisoned thorns into you
and your tongue swells up
and turns blue and your teeth fall out
and"
His wife Victoria came out on tie
porch in evening dress.
sEAh, Vic" said Toppan, jumping up,
with a very sweet smile, eve were
just talking about your paper-germaD
next Tuesday, and I think we might
have some very pretty favors made
out Of white tissue paper-roses and