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Read Ebook: The Story of Gombi by Stacpoole H De Vere Henry De Vere
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Ebook has 71 lines and 8309 words, and 2 pages
"I drew my head close to Tellemark's and whispered, 'Is that the sound of a bow?'
"'Yes,' he whispered.
"'Shall we fire?' I asked him, and he whispered back, 'No, we'd stampede the boys--chap's shooting on chance: Don't move.'
"I took his meaning. Gombi had marked us down. Afraid of firing when there was light enough to chase him by, he was shooting blind in the hope of bagging some of us--maybe getting the lot. He'd hit nothing as yet evidently.
"I lay still and said my prayers and the thing went on. Five or six times that bow went; then it stopped. A minute passed, ten minutes.
"I whispered to Tellemark, 'He's gone,' and the whisper came back, 'Not he--changing his position.'
"I felt things running down my face--sweat drops. Far away off in the woods came a cry; it was the cry of a hyena; then silence shut down again. Not a sound, till suddenly--but farther away now--came the noise of the bow.
"'Thr-rub-b!' and after it, right over my head, something passed through the air.
'Whitt!' An arrow had missed me by inches. I whispered to Tellemark. 'Shall we fire?' and the whisper came back, 'No. Don't know where he is. Flash would give him our position--stampede boys. Chance it.'
"It went on. No more arrows came near. Then it stopped. The beast was evidently changing his position again. A minute passed and then suddenly out of the dark there came a muffled crash followed by a squeal and silence. I listened, the sweat running into my eyes, and there came a new sound close beside me. It was from Tellemark. He seemed in convulsions. I thought one of the poisoned arrows must have got him, he was shaking and choking. I clutched him by the shoulder but he shook himself free.
"I'm all right,' he whispered. 'I'm only laughing--oh, Lord, can't you see, that chap's fallen into an elephant trap.' Then he went off again. It wasn't laughter so much as hysterics, sheer hysterics from the snapping of the tension and the relief.
"Tellemark had an ear that could tell the meaning of any sound, and by the sound he had heard he could tell the truth as plainly as though he had seen Gombi treading on the bush covering of an elephant trap and its collapse. Now that he had told me, I could see it too. After a while, when he had quieted down, I asked him should we rouse the boys and get the beast out, and he whispered 'No, can't do it in the dark. Leave him till morning and get to sleep.'
"I heard him give a few more chuckles as he turned about, then I heard him breathing quietly and next minute I was asleep myself. I slept for hours and when I awoke it was just before dawn. Tellemark had stirred me up. 'Smell that?' he whispered.
"I did. Then the truth broke upon me and I lay there in the dark thinking of Gombi's work and waiting for day to show how many he had got. Then as the day broke I could see, lying there among the others who were soundly asleep, the swollen bodies of three of the boys, each with an arrow sticking somewhere in him. The bite of the arrows hadn't been enough to wake them.
"'We've got to get those chaps away before the others see them,' said Tellemark. We did--into the woods far to leeward. When we returned, we could see in the stronger light arrows sticking here and there in the trees, arrows that had missed their mark. We broke them off carefully, and flung them away lest the boys should see them. Then we located the pit with its broken cover. Then, and not till then, we kicked the boys awake and before they had time to look round told them Gombi was in the pit.
"Tellemark had peeped down and seen that it was unstaked, and then began a powwow as to how we should get the creature out.
"All sorts of suggestions came from the boys, one fellow wanted to catch a wild cat and lower it tied by the tail, the cat would catch Gombi and we'd drag both up. Not a bad idea either, only we hadn't a wild cat. Then I solved the business by jumping down myself. He showed no fight and we had him out in a tick and he bothered the world no more.
"That's all; we got back to camp all right, only we forgot the tusks in our excitement, nearly three hundred pounds of ivory.
"Those slippers," finished the collector of trophies, "are made of Gombi's skin. Allenby, of Bond Street, made them for me."
It remains only to ask and answer the debated question--does the gun like the fishing rod breed liars?
At the great sale after Sir Patrick's death I bought those slippers for four and sixpence and sent them to a high authority, with a simple question and a stamped telegraph form. The reply came promptly next day. "Absolutely not. Lamb skin."
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