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肩書を与える: Heu-Heu Author: H Rider Haggard * A 事業/計画(する) Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0200191h.html Language: English Date first 地位,任命するd: Sep 2017 Most 最近の update: Sep 2017 事業/計画(する) Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed 版s which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is 含むd. We do NOT keep any eBooks in 同意/服従 with a particular paper 版. Copyright 法律s are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright 法律s for your country before downloading or redistributing this とじ込み/提出する. This eBook is made 利用できる at no cost and with almost no 制限s どれでも. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the 条件 of the 事業/計画(する) Gutenberg Australia Licence which may be 見解(をとる)d online.
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The author wishes to 明言する/公表する that this tale was written in its 現在の form some time before the 発見 in Rhodesia of the fossilized and immeasurably 古代の remains of the proto-human person who might 井戸/弁護士席 have been one of the Heuheua, the "Hairy 支持を得ようと努めるd-Folk," of which it tells through the mouth of Allan Quatermain.
1923.
一時期/支部 1
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THE STORM
Now I, the Editor, whose 義務 it has been as an executor or さもなければ, to give to the world so many histories of, or connected with, the adventures of my dear friend, the late Allan Quatermain, or Macumazahn, 選挙立会人-by-Night, as the natives in Africa used to call him, come to one of the most curious of them all. Here I should say at once that he told it to me many years ago at his house called "The Grange," in Yorkshire, where I was staying, but a little while before he 出発/死d with Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good upon his last 探検隊/遠征隊 into the heart of Africa, whence he returned no more.
At the time I made very copious 公式文書,認めるs of a history that struck me as strange and suggestive, but the fact is that afterwards I lost them and could never 信用 my memory to 再生する even their 実体 with the 正確 which I knew my 出発/死d friend would have 願望(する)d.
Only the other day, however, in turning out a box-room, I (機の)カム upon a 手渡す-捕らえる、獲得する which I 認めるd as one that I had used in the far past when I was practising, or trying to practise, at the 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業. With a 確かな emotion such as 追いつくs us when, after the lapse of many years, we are 直面するd by articles connected with the long-dead events of our 青年, I took it to a window and with some difficulty opened its rusted catch. In the 捕らえる、獲得する was a small collection of rubbish: papers connected with 事例/患者s on which once I had worked as "devil" for an 著名な and learned friend who afterwards became a 裁判官, a blue pencil with a broken point, and so 前へ/外へ.
I looked through the papers and 熟考する/考慮するd my own ごくわずかの 公式文書,認めるs made on points in 原因(となる)s which I had utterly forgotten, though doubtless these had been important enough to me at the time, and, with a sigh, tore them up and threw them on the 床に打ち倒す. Then I 逆転するd the 捕らえる、獲得する to knock out the dust. As I was doing this there slipped from an inner pocket, a very 厚い notebook with a shiny 黒人/ボイコット cover such as used to be bought for sixpence. I opened that 調書をとる/予約する and the first thing that my 注目する,もくろむ fell upon was this 長,率いるing:
"要約 of A. Q.'s Strange Story of the Monster-God, or Fetish, Heu-Heu, which He and the Hottentot Hans Discovered in Central South Africa."
即時に everything (機の)カム 支援する to me. I saw myself, a young man in those days, making those shorthand 公式文書,認めるs late one night in my bedroom at the Grange before the impression of old Allan's story had become 薄暗い in my mind, also continuing them on the train upon my 旅行 south on the morrow, and subsequently 拡大するing them in my 議会s at Elm 法廷,裁判所 in the 寺 whenever I 設立する time to spare.
I remembered, too, my annoyance when I discovered that this notebook was nowhere to be 設立する, although I was aware that I had put it away in some place that I thought 特に 安全な. I can still see myself 追跡(する)ing for it in the little 熟考する/考慮する of the house I had in a London 郊外 at the time, and at last giving up the 追求(する),探索(する) in despair. Then the years went on and many things happened, so that in the end both 公式文書,認めるs and the story they 輪郭(を描く)d were forgotten. Now they have appeared again from the dust-heap of the past, 生き返らせるing many memories, and I 始める,決める out the tale of this particular 一時期/支部 of the history of the adventurous life of my beloved friend, Allan Quatermain, who so long ago was gathered to the Shades that を待つ us all.
One night, after a day's 狙撃, we—that is, old Allan, Sir Henry Curtis, Captain Good, and I—were seated in the smoking room of Quatermain's house, the Grange, in Yorkshire, smoking and talking of many things.
I happened to について言及する that I had read a paragraph, copied from an American paper, which 明言する/公表するd that a 抱擁する reptile of an antediluvian 肉親,親類d had been seen by some hunters in a 押し寄せる/沼地 of the Zambesi, and asked Allan if he believed the story. He shook his 長,率いる and answered in a 用心深い fashion which 示唆するd to me, I remember, his 不本意 to give his 見解(をとる)s as to the continued 存在 of such creatures on the earth, that Africa is a big place and it was possible that in its 休会s 先史の animals or reptiles ぐずぐず残るd on.
"I know that this is the 事例/患者 with snakes," he continued hurriedly as though to 避ける the larger topic, "for once I (機の)カム across one as large as the biggest Anaconda that is told of in South America, where occasionally they are said to reach a length of sixty feet or more. Indeed, we killed it—or rather my Hottentot servant, Hans, did—after it had 鎮圧するd and swallowed one of our party. This snake was worshipped as a king of gods, and might have given rise to the tale of enormous reptiles. Also, to omit other experiences of which I prefer not to speak, I have seen an elephant so much above the ordinary in size that it might have belonged to a 先史の age. This elephant has been known for centuries and was 指名するd Jana.
"Did you kill it?" 問い合わせd Good, peering at him through his eyeglasses in his quick, inquisitive way.
Allan coloured beneath his tan and wrinkles, and said, rather はっきりと for him, who was so gentle and hard to irritate:
"Have you not learned, Good, that you should never ask a hunter, and above all a professional hunter, whether he did or did not kill a particular 長,率いる of game unless he volunteers the (警察などへの)密告,告訴(状)? However, if you want to know, I did not kill that elephant; it was Hans who killed it and その為に saved my life. I 行方不明になるd it with both バーレル/樽s at a distance of a few yards!"
"Oh, I say, Quatermain!" ejaculated the irrepressible Good. "Do you mean to tell us that you 行方不明になるd a 特に big elephant that was only a few yards off? You must have been in a pretty fright to do that."
"Have I not said that I 行方不明になるd it, Good? For the 残り/休憩(する), perhaps you are 権利, and I was 脅すd, for as you know, I never 始める,決める myself up as a person remarkable for courage. In the circumstances of the 遭遇(する) with this beast, Jana, any one might have been 脅すd; indeed, even you yourself, Good. Or, if you choose to be charitable, you may 結論する that there were other 推論する/理由s for that disgraceful—yes, disgraceful 展示 of which I cannot 耐える to think and much いっそう少なく to talk, seeing that in the end it brought about the death of old Hans —whom I loved."
Now Good was about to answer again, for argument was as the breath of his nostrils, but I saw Sir Henry stretch out his long 脚 and kick him on the 向こうずね, after which he was silent.
"To return," said Allan あわてて, as one does who 願望(する)s to escape from an unpleasant 支配する, "in the course of my life I did once 会合,会う, not with a 先史の reptile, but with a people who worshipped a Monster-god, or fetish, of which perhaps the origin may have been a 生き残り from the 古代の world."
He stopped with the 空気/公表する of one who meant to say no more, and I asked 熱望して: "What was it, Allan?"
"To answer that would 伴う/関わる a long story, my friend," he replied, "and one that, if I told it, Good, I am sure, would not believe; also, it is getting late and might bore you. Indeed, I could not finish it to-night."
"There are whisky, soda, and タバコ, and whatever Curtis and Good may do, here, 防備を堅める/強化するd by these, I remain between you and the door until you tell me that tale, Allan. You know it is rude to go to bed before your guests, so please get on with it at once," I 追加するd, laughing.
The old boy hummed and hawed and looked cross, but as we all sat 一連の会議、交渉/完成する him in an irritating silence which seemed to get upon his 神経s, he began at last:
井戸/弁護士席, if you will have it, many years ago, when by comparison I was a young man, I (軍の)野営地,陣営d one day 井戸/弁護士席 up の中で the slopes of the Drakensberg. I was going up Pretoria way with a 負担 of 貿易(する) goods which I hoped to 配置する/処分する/したい気持ちにさせる of の中で the natives beyond, and when I had done so to put in a month or two game-狙撃 に向かって the north. As it happened, when we were in an open space of ground between two of the 山のふもとの丘s of the Berg, we got caught in a most awful 雷雨, one of the worst that ever I experienced. If I remember 権利, it was about 中央の-January and you, my friend [this was 演説(する)/住所d to me], know what 誕生の 雷雨s can be at that hot time of the year. It seemed to come upon us from two 4半期/4分の1s of the sky, the fact 存在 that it was a twin 嵐/襲撃する of which the 構成要素 parts were travelling に向かって each other.
The 空気/公表する grew 厚い and dense; then (機の)カム the usual moaning, icy 勝利,勝つd followed by something like 不明瞭, although it was 早期に in the afternoon. On the 頂点(に達する)s of the mountains around us 雷s were already playing, but as yet I heard no 雷鳴, and there was no rain. In 新規加入 to the driver and voorlooper of the wagon I had with me Hans, of whom I was speaking just now, a little wrinkled Hottentot who, from my boyhood, had been the companion of my 旅行s and adventures. It was he who (機の)カム with me as my after-rider when as a very young man I …を伴ってd Piet Retief on that 致命的な 大使館 to Dingaan, the Zulu king, of whom 事実上 all except Hans and myself were 大虐殺d.
He was a curious, witty little fellow of uncertain age and of his sort one of the cleverest men in Africa. I never knew his equal in 資源 or in に引き続いて a spoor, but, like all Hottentots, he had his faults; thus, whenever he got the chance, he would drink like a fish and become a useless nuisance. He had his virtues, also, since he was faithful as a dog and—井戸/弁護士席, he loved me as a dog loves the master that has 後部d it from a blind puppy. For me he would do anything—嘘(をつく) or steal or commit 殺人, and think it no wrong, but rather a 宗教上の 義務. Yes, and any day he was 用意が出来ている to die for me, as in the end he did.
Allan paused, 表面上は to knock out his 麻薬を吸う, which was unnecessary, as he had only just filled it, but really, I think, to give himself a chance of turning に向かって the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 in 前線 of which he was standing, and thus to hide his 直面する. Presently he swung 一連の会議、交渉/完成する upon his heel in the light, quick fashion that was one of his 特徴, and went on:
I was walking in 前線 of the wagon, keeping a 警戒/見張り for bad places and 石/投石するs in what in those days was by 儀礼訪問d the road, though in fact it was nothing but a 跡をつける 新たな展開ing between the mountains, and just behind, in his usual place—for he always stuck to me like a 影をつくる/尾行する—was Hans. Presently I heard him cough in a hollow fashion, as was his custom when he 手配中の,お尋ね者 to call my attention to anything, and asked over my shoulder:
"What is it, Hans?"
"Nothing, Baas," he answered, "only that there is a big 嵐/襲撃する coming up. Two 嵐/襲撃するs, Baas, not one, and when they 会合,会う they will begin to fight and there will be plenty of spears 飛行機で行くing about in the sky, and then both those clouds will weep rain or perhaps あられ/賞賛する."
"Yes," I said, "there is, but as I don't see anywhere to 避難所, there is nothing to be done."
Hans (機の)カム up level with me and coughed again, twirling his dirty 陳謝 for a hat in his skinny fingers, その為に intimating that he had a suggestion to make.
"Many years ago, Baas," he said, pointing with his chin に向かって a 集まり of 宙返り/暴落するd 石/投石するs at the foot of a mountain slope about a mile to our left, "there used to be a big 洞穴 yonder, for once when I was a boy I 避難所d in it with some Bushmen. It was after the Zulus had cleaned out 誕生の and there was nothing to eat in the land, so that the people who were left fed upon one another."
"Then how did the Bushmen live, Hans?"
"On slugs and grasshoppers, for the most part, Baas, and buck when they were lucky enough to kill any with their 毒(薬)d arrows. Fried caterpillars are not bad, Baas, nor are locusts when you can get nothing else. I remember that I, who was 餓死するing, grew fat on them."
"You mean that we had better make for this 洞穴 of yours, Hans, if you are sure it's there?"
"Yes, Baas, 洞穴s can't run away, and though it is many years ago, I don't forget a place where I have lived for two months."
I looked at those 前進するing clouds and 反映するd. They were uncommonly 黒人/ボイコット and evidently there was going to be the devil of a 嵐/襲撃する. Moreover, the 状況/情勢 was not pleasant for we were crossing a patch of ironstone on which, as I knew from experience, 雷 always strikes, and a wagon and a team of oxen have an attraction for electric flashes.
While I was 反映するing a party of Kaffirs (機の)カム up from behind, running for all they were 価値(がある), no 疑問 to 捜し出す 避難所. They were dressed in their finery—evidently people going to or returning from a wedding-feast, young men and girls, most of them—and as they went by one of them shouted to me, whom evidently he knew, as did most of the natives in those parts, "Hurry, hurry, Macumazahn!" as you know the Zulus called me. "Hurry, this place is beloved of 雷s," and he pointed with his dancing stick first to the 前進するing tempest and then to the ground where the ironstone cropped up.
That decided me, and running 支援する to the wagon I told the voorlooper to follow Hans, and the driver to flog up the oxen. Then I 緊急発進するd in behind and off we went, turning to the left and 長,率いるing for the place at the foot of the slope where Hans said the 洞穴 was. Luckily the ground was 公正に/かなり flat and open—hard, too; moreover, although he had not been there for so many years, Hans's memory of the 位置/汚点/見つけ出す was perfect. Indeed, as he said, it was one of his 特徴 never to forget any place that he had once visited.
Thus, from the 運動ing box to which I had climbed, suddenly I saw him direct the voorlooper to 耐える はっきりと to the 権利 and could not imagine why, as the surface there seemed 類似の to that over which we were travelling. As we passed it, however, I perceived the 推論する/理由, for here was a ground spring which turned a large patch of an acre or more into a 押し寄せる/沼地, where certainly we should have been bogged. It was the same with other 障害s that I need not 詳細(に述べる).
By now a 広大な/多数の/重要な stillness pervaded the 空気/公表する and the gloom grew so 厚い that the 前線 oxen looked shadowy; also it became very 冷淡な. The 雷 continued to play upon the mountain crests, but still there was no 雷鳴. There was something 脅すing and unnatural in the 面 of nature; even the cattle felt it, for they 緊張するd at the yokes and went off very 急速な/放蕩な indeed, without the urgings of whips or shouts, as though they too knew they were 飛行機で行くing from 危険,危なくする. Doubtless they did, since instinct has its 発言する/表明するs which speak to everything that breathes. For my part, my 神経s became 影響する/感情d and I hoped 真面目に that we should soon reach that 洞穴.
Presently I hoped it still more, for at length those clouds met and from their 辛勝する/優位s as they kissed each other (機の)カム an awful burst of 解雇する/砲火/射撃 —perhaps it was a thunderbolt—that 急ぐd 負かす/撃墜する and struck the earth with a loud detonation. At any 率, it 原因(となる)d the ground to shake and me to wish that I were anywhere else, for it fell within fifty yards of the wagon, 正確に/まさに where we had been a minute or so before. 同時に there was a most awful 衝突,墜落 of 雷鳴, showing that the tempest now lay すぐに 総計費.
This was the 開始 of the ball; the first sudden burst of music. Then the dance began with sheets and forks of 炎上 for ダンサーs and the 広大な/多数の/重要な sky for the 床に打ち倒す upon which they 成し遂げるd.
It is difficult to 述べる such a hellish tempest because, as you, my friend, who have seen them, will know, they are beyond description. 雷s, everywhere 雷s; flash upon flash of them of all 形態/調整s—one, I remember, looked like a 栄冠を与える of 解雇する/砲火/射撃 encircling the brow of a 巨大(な) cloud. Moreover, they seemed to leap 上向きs from the earth 同様に as downwards from the heaven, to the accompaniment of one continuous roar of 雷鳴.
"Where the ジュース is your 洞穴?" I yelled into the ear of Hans, who had climbed on to the 運動ing box beside me.
He shrieked something in answer which I could not catch because of the tumult, and pointed to the base of the mountain slope, now about two hundred yards away.
The oxen skrecked and began to gallop, 原因(となる)ing the wagon to bump and sway so that I thought it would overset, and the voorlooper to leave 持つ/拘留する of the reim and run と一緒に of them for 恐れる lest he should be trodden to death, guiding them as best he could, which was not 井戸/弁護士席. Luckily, however, they ran in the 権利 direction.
On we tore, the driver plying his whip to keep the beasts straight, and as I could see from the 動議 of his lips, 断言するing his hardest in Dutch and Zulu, though not a word reached my ears. At length they were brought to a 停止(させる) by the 法外な slope of the mountain and proceeded to turn 一連の会議、交渉/完成する and tie themselves into a 肉親,親類d of knot after the fashion of 脅すd oxen that for any 推論する/理由 can no longer pull their 負担.
We leapt 負かす/撃墜する and began to outspan them, getting the yokes off as quickly as we could—no 平易な 職業, I can tell you, both because of the mess in which they were and for the 推論する/理由 that it must be carried out literally under 解雇する/砲火/射撃, since the flashes were 落ちるing all about us. Momentarily I 推定する/予想するd that one of them would catch the wagon and make an end of us and our story. Indeed, I was so 脅すd that I was sorely tempted to leave the oxen to their 運命/宿命 and bolt to the 洞穴, if 洞穴 there were—for I could see 非,不,無.
However, pride (機の)カム to my 援助(する), for if I ran away, how could I ever 推定する/予想する my Kaffirs to stand again in a difficulty? Be as much afraid as you like, but never show 恐れる before a native; if you do, your 影響(力) over him is gone. You are no longer the 広大な/多数の/重要な White 長,指導者 of higher 血 and 産む/飼育するing; you are just a ありふれた fellow like himself; inferior to himself, indeed, if he chances to be a 勇敢に立ち向かう 見本/標本 of a people の中で whom most of the men are 勇敢に立ち向かう.
So I pretended to take no 注意する of the 雷s, even when one struck a thorn tree not more than thirty paces away. I happened to be looking in that direction and saw the thorn in the ゆらめく, every bough of it. Next second all I saw was a column of dust; the thorn had gone and one of its 後援s 攻撃する,衝突する my hat.
With the others I tugged and kicked at the oxen, getting the thongs off the yoke-skeis as best I could, till at length all were loose and galloping away to 捜し出す 避難所 under overhanging 激しく揺するs or where they could in 一致 with their instincts. The last two, the 政治家 oxen—価値のある beasts—were 特に difficult to 解放する/自由な, as they were trying to follow their brethren and 緊張するd at the yokes so much that in the end I had to 削減(する) the rimpis, as I could not get them out of the notches of the yoke-skeis. Then they tore off after the others, but did not get far, poor brutes, for presently I saw both of them—they were running together—go 負かす/撃墜する as though they were 発射 through the heart. A flash had caught them; one of them never stirred again; the other lay on its 支援する kicking for a few seconds and then grew as still as its yoke-mate.
"And what did you say?" 問い合わせd Good in a reflective 発言する/表明する.
"What would you have said, Good?" asked Allan 厳しく, "if you had lost your best two oxen in such a fashion, and happened not to have a sixpence with which to buy others? 井戸/弁護士席, we all know your 命令(する) of strong language, so I do not think I need ask you to answer."
"I should have said——" began Good, を締めるing himself to the occasion, but Allan 削減(する) him short with a wave of his 手渡す.
"Something about Jupiter Tonans, no 疑問," he said.
Then he went on.
井戸/弁護士席, what I said was only overheard by the 記録,記録的な/記録するing angel, though perhaps Hans guessed it, for he 叫び声をあげるd at me:
"It might have been us, Baas. When the sky is angry, it will have something; better the oxen than us, Baas."
"The 洞穴, you idiot!" I roared. "Shut your mouth and take us to the 洞穴, if there is one, for here comes the あられ/賞賛する."
Hans grinned and nodded, then 急いでd by a large hailstone which 攻撃する,衝突する him on the 長,率いる, began to skip up the hill at a surprising 率, beckoning to the 残り/休憩(する) of us to follow. Presently we (機の)カム to a 宙返り/暴落するd pile of 激しく揺するs through which we dodged and 緊急発進するd in the gloom that now, when the あられ/賞賛する had begun to 落ちる, was denser than ever between the flashes. At the 支援する of the biggest of these 激しく揺するs Hans dived の中で some bushes, dragging me after him between two 石/投石するs that formed a 肉親,親類d of natural gateway to a cavity beyond.
"This is the place, Baas," he said, wiping the 血 that ran 負かす/撃墜する his forehead from a 削減(する) in the 長,率いる made by the hailstone.
As he spoke, a 特に vivid flash showed me that we were in the mouth of a cavern of unknown size. That it must be large, however, I guessed from the echoes of the 雷鳴 that followed the flash, which seemed to reverberate in that hollow place from unmeasured depths in the bowels of the mountain.
THE PICTURE IN THE CAVE
We did not reach the 洞穴 too soon, for as the boys 緊急発進するd into it after us the あられ/賞賛する began to come 負かす/撃墜する in earnest, and you fellows know, or at any 率 have heard, what African あられ/賞賛する can be, 特に の中で the mountains of the Berg. I have known it to go through sheets of galvanized アイロンをかける like ライフル銃/探して盗む 弾丸s, and really I believe that some of the 石/投石するs which fell on this occasion would have pierced two of them put together, for they were as big as flints and jagged at that. If anybody had been caught in that particular 嵐/襲撃する on the open veldt without a wagon to creep under or a saddle to put over his 長,率いる, I 疑問 whether he would have lived to see a (疑いを)晴らす sky again.
The driver, who was already almost weeping with 苦しめる over the loss of Kaptein and Deutchmann, as the two 政治家 oxen were 指名するd, grew almost crazed because he thought that the あられ/賞賛する would kill the others, and 現実に 手配中の,お尋ね者 to run out into it with the wild idea of herding them into some 避難所. I told him to sit still and not be a fool, since we could do nothing to help them. Hans, who had a habit of growing 宗教的な when there was 雷 about, 発言/述べるd sententiously that he had no 疑問 that the "広大な/多数の/重要な-広大な/多数の/重要な" in the sky would look after the cattle since my Reverend Father (who had 変えるd him to the peculiar 約束, or mixture of 約束s, which, with Hans, passed for Christianity) had told him that the cattle on a thousand hills were His especial 所有物/資産/財産, and, here in the Berg, were they not の中で the thousand hills? The Zulu driver who had not "設立する 宗教," but was just a raw savage, replied with point that if that were so the "広大な/多数の/重要な-広大な/多数の/重要な" might have 保護するd Kaptein and Deutchmann, which He had 明確に neglected to do. Then, after the fashion of some furious woman, by way of relieving his 神経s, he fell to 乱用ing Hans, whom he called "a yellow jackal," 追加するing that the tail of the worst of the oxen was of more value than his whole 団体/死体, and that he wished his worthless 肌 were catching the hailstones instead of their inestimable hides.
These 汚い 発言/述べるs about his personal 外見 irritated Hans, who drew up his lips as does an angry dog, and replied in suitable language, which 伴う/関わるd reflections upon that Zulu's family, and 特に on his mother. In short, had I not 介入するd there would have been a very pretty 列/漕ぐ/騒動 that might have ended in a blow from a kerry or a knife thrust. This, however, I did with vigour, 説 that he who spoke another word should be kicked out of the 洞穴 to keep company with the あられ/賞賛する and the 雷, after which peace was 回復するd.
That 嵐/襲撃する went on for a long while, for after it had seemed to go away it returned again, travelling in a circle as such tempests いつかs do, and when the あられ/賞賛する was finished, it was followed by 豪雨. The result was that by the time the 雷鳴 had 中止するd to roar and echo の中で the mountain-最高の,を越すs 不明瞭 was at 手渡す, so it became evident that we must stop where we were for the night, 特に as the boys, who had gone out to look for the oxen, 報告(する)/憶測d that they could not find them. This was not pleasant, as the 洞穴 was uncommonly 冷淡な and the wagon was too soaked with the rain to sleep in.
Here, however, once more Hans's memory (機の)カム in useful. Having borrowed my matches, he crept off 負かす/撃墜する the 洞穴 and presently returned, dragging a 量 of 支持を得ようと努めるd after him, dusty and worm-eaten-looking 支持を得ようと努めるd, but 乾燥した,日照りの and very suitable for 解雇する/砲火/射撃ing.
"Where did you get that?" I asked.
"Baas," he replied, "when I lived in this place with the Bushmen, long before those 黒人/ボイコット children," (this 侮辱 referred to the driver and the voorlooper, Mavoon and Induka by 指名する) "were begotten of their unknown fathers, I hid away a 広大な/多数の/重要な 在庫/株 of 支持を得ようと努めるd for the winter, or in 事例/患者 I should ever come 支援する here, and there it is still, covered with 石/投石するs and dust. The ants that run about the ground do the same thing, Baas, that their children may have food when they are dead. So now if those Kaffirs will help me to get the 支持を得ようと努めるd we may have a good 解雇する/砲火/射撃 and be warm."
Marvelling at the little Hottentot's foresight that was bred into his 血 by the necessities of a hundred 世代s of his forefathers, I bade the others to …を伴って him to the (武器などの)隠匿場所, which they did, glowering, with the result that presently we had a glorious 解雇する/砲火/射撃. Then I fetched some food, for luckily I had killed a Duiker buck that morning, the flesh of which we toasted on the embers, and with it a 瓶/封じ込める of Square-直面する from the wagon, so that soon we were eating a splendid dinner. I know that there are many who do not 認可する of giving spirits to natives, but for my part I have 設立する that when they are 冷気/寒がらせるd and tired a "こども" does them no 害(を与える) and wonderfully 改善するs their tempers. The trouble was to 妨げる Hans from getting more than one, to do which I made a bedfellow of that 瓶/封じ込める of Square-直面する.
When we were filled I lit my 麻薬を吸う and began to talk with Hans, whom the grog had made loquacious and therefore 利益/興味ing. He asked me how old the 洞穴 was, and I told him that it was as old as the mountains of the Berg. He answered that he had thought so because there were 足跡s stamped in the 激しく揺する 床に打ち倒す さらに先に 負かす/撃墜する it, and turned to 石/投石する, which were not made by any beasts that he had ever heard of or seen, which 足跡s he would show me on the morrow if I cared to look at them. その上の, that there were queer bones lying about, also turned to 石/投石する, that he thought must have belonged to 巨大(な)s. He believed that he could find some of these bones when the sun shone into the 洞穴 in the 早期に morning.
Then I explained to Hans and the Kaffirs how once, thousands of thousands of years ago, before there were any men in the world, 広大な/多数の/重要な creatures had lived there, 抱擁する elephants and reptiles as large as a hundred crocodiles made into one, and, as I had been told, enormous apes, much bigger than any gorilla. They were very 利益/興味d, and Hans said that it was やめる true about the apes, since he had seen a picture of one of them, or of a 巨大(な) that looked like an ape.
"Where?" I asked. "In a 調書をとる/予約する?"
"No, Baas, here in this 洞穴. The Bushman made it ten thousand years ago." By which he meant at some 不明確な/無期限の time in the past.
Now I bethought me of a fabulous creature called the Ngoloko which was said to 住む an undefined area of 押し寄せる/沼地s on the East Coast and どこかよそで. This animal, in which, I may 追加する, I did not in the least believe, for I 始める,決める it 負かす/撃墜する as a native bogey, was supposed to be at least eight feet high, to be covered with gray hair and to have a claw in the place of toes. My 長,指導者 当局 for it was a strange old Portuguese hunter whom I had once known, who swore that he had seen its 足跡s in the mud, also that it had killed one of his men and 新たな展開d the 長,率いる off his 団体/死体. I asked Hans if he had ever heard of it. He replied that he had, under another 指名する, that of Milhoy, I think, but that the devil painted in the 洞穴 was larger than that.
Now I thought that he was pitching me a yarn, as natives will, and said that if so he had better show me the picture forthwith.
"Best wait until the sun 向こうずねs in the morning, Baas," he replied, "for then the light will be good. Also this devil is not nice to look at at night."
"Show it me," I repeated with asperity; "we have lanterns from the wagon."
So, somewhat unwillingly, Hans led the way up the 洞穴 for fifty paces or more, for the place was very big, he carrying one lantern and I another, while the two Zulus followed with candles in their 手渡すs. As we went I saw that on the 塀で囲むs there were many Bushmen 絵s, also one or two of the carvings of this strange people. Some of these 絵s seemed やめる fresh, while others were faded or perhaps the ochre used by the 原始の artist had flaked off. They were of the usual character, 製図/抽選s of elands and other buck 存在 追跡(する)d by men who 発射 at them with arrows; also of elephants and a lion 非難する at some spearmen.
One, however, which oddly enough was the best 保存するd of any of the collection, excited me enormously. It 代表するd men whose 直面するs were painted white and who seemed to wear a 肉親,親類d of armour and queer pointed caps upon their 長,率いるs, of the sort that I believe are known as Phrygian, attacking a native kraal of which the reed 盗品故買者 was 明確に 示すd, as were the 一連の会議、交渉/完成する huts behind. Moreover, to the left some of these men were dragging away women to what from a 一連の wavy lines, looked like a rude 代表 of the sea.
I 星/主役にするd and gasped, for surely here before me was a picture of Phoenicians carrying out one of their women-追跡(する)ing (警察の)手入れ,急襲s, as 古代の writers tell us it was their habit to do. And if so, that picture must have been painted by a Bushman who lived at least two thousand years ago, and かもしれない more. The thing was amazing. Hans, however, did not seem to be 利益/興味d, but 押し進めるd on as though to finish a disagreeable 仕事, and I was 強いるd to follow him, 恐れるing lest I should be lost in the 休会s of that 広大な 洞穴.
Presently he (機の)カム to a crevice in the 味方する of the cavern which I should have passed unnoticed, as it was 正確に/まさに like many others.
"Here is the place, Baas," he said, "just as it used to be. Now follow me and be careful where you step, for there are 割れ目s in the 床に打ち倒す."
So I squeezed myself into the 開始 where, although I am not very large, there was barely room for me to pass. Within its lips was a 狭くする tunnel, either 削減(する) out by water or formed by the 急ぐ of 爆発性の gases hundreds of thousands of years ago—I think the latter, as the roof, which was not more than eight or nine feet from the 床に打ち倒す, had sharp points and roughnesses that showed no water-wear. But as I have not the faintest idea how these 広大な/多数の/重要な African 洞穴s were formed, I will not 試みる/企てる to discuss the 事柄. This 床に打ち倒す, however, was やめる smooth, as though for many 世代s it had been worn by the feet of men, which no 疑問 was the 事例/患者.
When we had crept ten or twelve paces 負かす/撃墜する the tunnel, Hans called to me to stand やめる still—not to move on any account. I obeyed him, wondering, and by the light of my lantern saw him 解除する his own, which had a 宙返り飛行 of hide fastened through the tin 注目する,もくろむ at the 最高の,を越す of it for convenience in hanging it up in the wagon, and 始める,決める it, or rather the hide 宙返り飛行, 一連の会議、交渉/完成する his neck, so that it hung upon his 支援する. Then he flattened himself against the 味方する of the cavern with his 直面する to the 塀で囲む as though he did not wish to see what was behind him, and 慎重に crept 今後 with sidelong steps, gripping the roughnesses in the 激しく揺する with his 手渡すs. When he had gone some twenty or thirty feet in this crab-like fashion, he turned and said:
"Now, Baas, you must do as I did."
"Why?" I asked.
"持つ/拘留する 負かす/撃墜する the lantern and you will see, Baas."
I did so, and perceived that a pace or two さらに先に on there was a 広大な/多数の/重要な chasm in the 床に打ち倒す of the tunnel of unknown depth, since the lamplight did not 侵入する to its 底(に届く). Also I 公式文書,認めるd that the ledge at the 味方する that formed the 橋(渡しをする) by which Hans had passed, was nowhere more than twelve インチs, and in some places いっそう少なく than six インチs wide.
"Is it 深い?" I asked.
By way of answer Hans 設立する a bit of broken 激しく揺する and threw it into the 湾. I listened, and it was やめる a long while before I heard it strike below.
"I told the Baas," said Hans in a superior トン, "that he had better wait until to-morrow when some light comes 負かす/撃墜する this 穴を開ける, but the Baas would not listen to me and doubtless he knows best. Now would the Baas like to go 支援する to bed, as I think wisest, and return to-morrow?"
If the truth were known there was nothing that I should have liked better, for the place was detestable. But I was in such a 激怒(する) with Hans for playing me this trick that even if I thought that I was going to break my neck I would not give him the 楽しみ of mocking me in his sly way.
"No," I answered 静かに, "I will go to bed when I have seen this picture you talk about, and not before."
Now Hans grew alarmed and begged me in good earnest not to try to cross the 湾, which reminded me ばく然と of the parable of Abraham and Dives in the Bible, with myself playing the part of Dives, except that I was not thirsty, and Hans did not in any way 似ている Abraham.
"I see how it is," I said, "there is not any picture and you are 簡単に playing one of your monkey tricks on me. 井戸/弁護士席, I'm coming to look, and if I find you have been telling lies I'll make you sorry for yourself."
"The picture is there or was when I was young," answered Hans sullenly, "and for the 残り/休憩(する), the Baas knows best. If he breaks every bone in his 団体/死体 presently, don't let him 非難する me, and I pray that he will tell the truth, all of it, to his Reverend Father in the sky who left him in my 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金, 説 that Hans begged him not to come but that because of his evil temper he would not listen. 一方/合間, the Baas had better take off his boots, since the feet of those Bushmen whose spooks I feel all about me have made the ledge very slippery."
In silence I sat 負かす/撃墜する and 除去するd my boots, thinking to myself that I would 喜んで give all my 貯金 that were on deposit in the bank at Durban, to be spared this ordeal. What a strange thing is the white man's pride, 特に if he be of the Anglo-Saxon 産む/飼育する, or what passes by that 指名する. There was no need for me to take this 危険, yet, rather than be 内密に mocked at by Hans and those Kaffirs, here I was about to do so just for pride's sake. In my heart I 悪口を言う/悪態d Hans and the 洞穴 and the 穴を開ける and the picture and the 雷雨 that brought me there, and everything else I could remember. Then, as it had no ひもで縛る like that of Hans, although it smelt horribly, I took the tin 宙返り飛行 of my lantern in my teeth because it seemed the only thing to do, put up a silent but most earnest 祈り, and started as though I liked the 職業.
To tell the truth, I remember little of that 旅行 except that it seemed to take about three hours instead of under a minute, and the 発言する/表明するs of woe and lamentation from the two Zulus behind, who 主張するd upon bidding me a tender 別れの(言葉,会) as I proceeded, まっただ中に other demonstrations of affection, calling me their father and their mother for four 世代s.
Somehow I wriggled myself along that accursed 山の尾根, 押すing my stomach as hard as I could against the 塀で囲む of the passage as though this 組織/臓器 所有するd some prehensile 質, and groping for knobs of 激しく揺する on which I broke two of my nails. However, I did get over all 権利, although just に向かって the end one of my feet slipped and I opened my mouth to say something, with the result that the lantern fell into the abyss, taking with it a loose 前線 tooth. But Hans stretched out his skinny 手渡す, and, meaning to catch me by the coat collar, got 持つ/拘留する of my left ear, and, thus painfully supported, I (機の)カム to 会社/堅い ground and 悪口を言う/悪態d him into heaps. Although some might have thought my language pointed, he did not resent it in the least, 存在 too delighted at my 安全な arrival.
"Never mind the tooth, Baas," he said. "It is best that it should be gone without knowing it, as it were, because you see you can now eat crusts and hard biltong again, which you have not been able to do for months. The lantern, however, is another 事柄, though perhaps we can get a new one at Pretoria or wherever we go."
回復するing myself, I peered over the 辛勝する/優位 of the abyss. There, far, far below, I saw my lantern, which was a sort that 燃やすs oil, ゆらめくing upon a bed of something white, for the コンテナ had burst and all the oil was on 解雇する/砲火/射撃.
"What is that white stuff 負かす/撃墜する there?" I asked. "Lime?"
"No, Baas, it is the broken bones of men. Once when I was young, with the help of the Bushmen I let myself 負かす/撃墜する by a rope that we 新たな展開d out of 急ぐs and buckskins, just to look, Baas. There is another 洞穴 underneath this one, Baas, but I didn't go into it because I was 脅すd."
"And how did all those bones come there, Hans? Why, there must be hundreds of them!"
"Yes, Baas, many hundreds, and they (機の)カム this way. Since the beginning of the world the Bushmen lived in this 洞穴 and 始める,決める a 罠(にかける) here by laying 支店s over the 穴を開ける and covering them with dust so that they looked like 激しく揺する, just as one makes a game 炭坑,オーケストラ席, Baas—yes, they did this until the last of them were killed not so long ago by the Boers and Zulus, whose sheep and beasts they stole. Then when their enemies attacked them, which was often, for it has always been 権利 to kill Bushmen—they would run 負かす/撃墜する the 洞穴 and into the cleft and creep along the 狭くする 辛勝する/優位 of 激しく揺する, which they could do with their 注目する,もくろむs shut. But the silly Kaffirs, or whoever it might be, running after them to kill them would 落ちる through the 支店s and get killed themselves. They must have done this やめる often, Baas, since there are such a lot of their skulls 負かす/撃墜する there, many of them やめる 黒人/ボイコット with age and turned to 石/投石する.
"One might have thought that the Kaffirs would have grown wiser, Hans."
"Yes, Baas, but the dead keep their 知恵 to themselves, for I believe that when all the 攻撃者s were in the passage, then other Bushmen, who had been hiding in the 洞穴, (機の)カム up behind and 発射 them with 毒(薬)d arrows and drove them on into the 穴を開ける so that 非,不,無 went 支援する; indeed, the Bushmen told me that this used to be their father's 計画(する). Also, if any did escape, in a 世代 or two all was forgotten, and the same thing happened again because, Baas, there are always plenty of fools in the world and the fool who comes after is just as big as the fool who went before. Death 流出/こぼすs the water of 知恵 upon the sand, Baas, and sand is thirsty stuff that soon grows 乾燥した,日照りの again. If it were not so, Baas, men would soon stop 落ちるing in love with women, and yet even 広大な/多数の/重要な ones—like you, Baas—落ちる in love."
Having 配達するd this thrust, ーするために 妨げる the 可能性 of answer Hans began to 雑談(する) with the driver and the voorlooper on the other 味方する of the 湾.
"Be quick and come over, you 勇敢に立ち向かう Zulus there," he said, "for you are keeping your 長,指導者 waiting and me also."
The Zulus, 持つ/拘留するing their candles 今後, peered into the 炭坑,オーケストラ席 below.
"Ow!" said one of them, "are we bats that we can 飛行機で行く over a 穴を開ける like that or 粗野な人間s that we can climb on a shelf no wider than a spear, or 飛行機で行くs that we can walk upon a 塀で囲む? Ow! we are not coming, we will wait here. That road is only for yellow monkeys like you or for those who have the white man's 魔法 like the Inkoos Macumazahn."
"No," replied Hans reflectively, "you are 非,不,無 of these creatures which are all of them good in their way. You are just a couple of low-born Kaffir cowards, 黒人/ボイコット 肌s blown up to look like men. I, the 'yellow jackal,' can walk the 湾, and the Baas can walk the 湾, but you, Windbags, cannot even float over it for 恐れる lest you should burst in the middle. 井戸/弁護士席, Windbags, float 支援する to the wagon and fetch the coil of small rope that is in the voorkissie, for we may want it."
One of them replied in a humbled 発言する/表明する that they did not take orders from him, a Hottentot, whereon I said:
"Go and fetch the rope and return at once."
So they went with a dejected 空気/公表する, for Hans's winged words had gone home, and again they learned that at the end he always got the best of a quarrel. The truth is that they were as 勇敢に立ち向かう as men can be, but no Zulu is any good 地下組織の and least of all in the dark in a place that he thinks haunted.
"Now, Baas," said Hans, "we will go and look at the picture—that is, unless you are やめる sure I am lying and that there is no picture, in which 事例/患者 it is not 価値(がある) while to take the trouble, and you had better sit here and 削減(する) your broken nails until Mavoon and Induka come 支援する with the rope."
"Oh, get on, you poisonous little vermin!" I said, exasperated by his jeers, 強調するing my words with a tremendous kick.
Here, however, I made a 広大な/多数の/重要な mistake, since I had forgotten that at the moment I 欠如(する)d boots, and either Hans carried a collection of hard articles in the seat of his filthy trousers or his posterior was of a singularly stonelike nature. In short, I 傷つける my toes most abominably and him not at all.
"Ah, Baas," said Hans with a 甘い smile, "you should remember what your Reverend Father taught me: always to put on your boots before you kick against the thorn pricks. I have a gimlet and some nails in my ピストル pocket, Baas, that I was using this morning to mend that box of yours."
Then he bolted incontinently lest I should 実験 on his 長,率いる and see if there were nails in that also, and as he had the only lantern, I was 強いるd to limp, or rather to hop, after him.
The passage, of which the 床に打ち倒す was still worn smooth by thousands of dead feet, went on straight for eight or ten paces and then bent to the 権利. When we (機の)カム to this 肘 in it I saw a light ahead of me which I could not understand till presently I 設立する myself standing in a 肉親,親類d of 炭坑,オーケストラ席 or funnel—it may have 手段d some thirty feet across—that rose from the level at which we stood, 権利 through the strata to the mountain-味方する eighty or a hundred feet above us. What had formed it thus I cannot conceive, but there it was—a funnel, as I have said, in 形態/調整 正確に/まさに like those that are used when beer is 注ぐd into バーレル/樽s or port ワイン into a decanter, the place on which we were, 存在, of course, its narrower end. The light that I had seen (機の)カム, therefore, from the sky, which, now that the tempest had passed away, was clean-washed and beautiful, sown with 星/主役にするs also, for at the moment a dense 黒人/ボイコット cloud remaining from the 嵐/襲撃する hid the moon, now just past its 十分な.
For a little way, perhaps five-and-twenty feet, the 味方するs of this tunnel were almost sheer, after which they sloped outwards steeply to the mouth of the 炭坑,オーケストラ席 in the mountain 側面に位置する. One other peculiarity I noticed—すなわち, that on the western 直面する of the tunnel which, as it chanced, was in 前線 of us as we stood, just where it began to 拡大する, 事業/計画(する)d a sloping 山の尾根 of 激しく揺する like to the roof of a lean-to shed, which 山の尾根 ran 権利 across this 直面する.
"井戸/弁護士席, Hans," I said, when I had 検査/視察するd this strange natural cavity, "where is your picture? I don't see it."
"Wacht een beetje," (that is, "Wait a bit,"), "Baas. The moon is climbing up that cloud; presently she will get to the 最高の,を越す of it and then you will see the picture, unless someone has rubbed it out since I was young."
I turned to look at the cloud and to 証言,証人/目撃する a sight of which I never have grown tired: the 反乱 of the glorious African moon out of her secret halls of blackness. Already silver rays of light were 狙撃 across the vastness of the firmament, 原因(となる)ing the 星/主役にするs to pale. Then suddenly her bent 辛勝する/優位 appeared and with 驚くべき/特命の/臨時の swiftness grew and grew till the whole splendid orb 現れるd from a bed of inky vapour and for a while 残り/休憩(する)d on its marge, perfect, wonderful! In an instant our 穴を開ける was filled with light so strong and (疑いを)晴らす that by it I could have read a letter.
For a few moments I stood thrilled with the beauty of the scene, and forgetting all else in its contemplation, till Hans said with a hoarse cackle:
"Now turn 一連の会議、交渉/完成する, Baas, and look at the pretty picture."
I did so, and followed the line of his outstretched 手渡す, which pointed to that 直面する of the 激しく揺する with the pent roof that looked に向かって the east. Next second—my friends, I am not 誇張するing—I nearly fell backwards. Have any of you fellows ever had a nightmare in which you dreamed you were in hell and suddenly met the devil tete-a-tete, all by your little selves? At any 率, I have, and there in 前線 of me was the devil, only much worse than fond fancy can paint him even with the 小衝突 of the acutest indigestion.
Imagine a monster 二塁打 life size—that is to say, eleven or twelve feet high—brilliantly portrayed in the best ochres of which these Bushmen have always had the secret, すなわち, white, red, 黒人/ボイコット, and yellow, and with 注目する,もくろむs formed 明らかに of polished lumps of 激しく揺する 水晶. Imagine this thing as a 抱擁する ape to which the biggest gorilla would be but a child, and yet not an ape but a man, and yet not a man, but a fiend.
It was covered with hair like an ape, long gray hair that grew in tufts. It had a 広大な/多数の/重要な, red, bushy 耐えるd like a man; its 四肢s were tremendous, the 武器 存在 of 異常な length like to the 武器 of a gorilla, but, 示す this, it had no fingers, only a 広大な/多数の/重要な claw where the thumb should be. The 残り/休憩(する) of the 手渡す was all grown together into one piece like a duck's foot, although what should have been the finger part was 柔軟な and could 支配する like fingers, as shall be seen.
At least, that is what the picture 示唆するd, though it occurred to me afterwards that it might 代表する the creature as wearing fingerless gloves such as men in this country use when cutting 盗品故買者s. The feet however, which were certainly shown as 明らかにする, were the same; I mean that there were no toes, only one terrible claw where the big toe should be. The carcass was enormous; supposing it to have been drawn from life, the 初めの, I should guess, would have 重さを計るd at least thirty 石/投石する; the chest was 広大な, 示すing strength, and the paunch beneath wrinkled and protuberant. But—and here (機の)カム one of the human touches—about its middle the thing wore a moocha or, rather, a hide tied 一連の会議、交渉/完成する it by the 脚 肌s, which hide seemed to have been dressed.
So much for the 団体/死体. Now for the 長,率いる and 直面する. These I know not how to 述べる, but I will try. The neck was as that of a bull, and perched horribly on the 最高の,を越す of it was やめる a small 長,率いる, which—notwithstanding the 広大な/多数の/重要な red 耐えるd whereof I have spoken that grew upon the chin, and a wide mouth from whose upper jaw 事業/計画(する)d yellow tusks like to those of a 粗野な人間 that hung over the lower lip—was curiously feminine in 外見; indeed, that of an old, old she-devil with an aquiline nose. The brow, however, was disproportionate to the 残り/休憩(する) of the 直面する, 存在 目だつ, 大規模な, and not unintellectual, while 始める,決める 深い in it and unnaturally far apart were those awful glaring 水晶 注目する,もくろむs.
That was not all, for the creature seemed to be laughing cruelly, and the 製図/抽選 showed by it laughed. One of its feet was 始める,決める upon the 団体/死体 of a man into which the 広大な/多数の/重要な claw was driven 深い. One of its 手渡すs held the 長,率いる of the man, that evidently it had just 新たな展開d from the 団体/死体. The other 手渡す しっかり掴むd by the hair a living naked girl 不正に drawn, as though this 詳細(に述べる) had not 利益/興味d the artist, whom 明らかに it was about to drag away.
"Isn't it a pretty picture, Baas?" sniggered Hans. "Now the Baas will not say that I tell lies, no, not for やめる a week."
THE OPENER-OF-ROADS
I 星/主役にするd and 星/主役にするd, then was 打ち勝つ with faintness and sat 負かす/撃墜する upon the ground.
I see you laughing at me, young man [this was 演説(する)/住所d to me, the recorder of the tale] who no 疑問 have already decided that this 製図/抽選 was the work of some imaginative Bushman who had gone mad and 始める,決める 負かす/撃墜する upon the 激しく揺する the hellish dream of a mind 病気d. Of course, that was the 結論 I (機の)カム to myself next morning, but at the time it did not strike me like that.
The place was lonesome and eerie, a horrible place with the 炭坑,オーケストラ席 十分な of bones 近づく by; ひどく silent also except for a distant hyena or jackal howling at the moon, and I had gone through some 裁判,公判s that day—the passage of the death-炭坑,オーケストラ席, for instance, which reminded me of the oubliettes in 古代の Norman 城s that I have read of 負かす/撃墜する which 囚人s were 投げつけるd to doom. Also, as you may have 観察するd, even in your short career, moonlight 異なるs from sunlight and we, or some of us, are much more 影響する/感情d by horrible things at night than we are by day. At any 率, I sat 負かす/撃墜する because I felt faint and thought that I was going to be ill.
"What is it, Baas?" queried the observant Hans, still mocking. "If you want to be sick, Baas, please don't mind me, for I'll turn my 支援する. I remember that I was sick myself when first I saw Heu-Heu—just there," he 追加するd reminiscently, pointing to a 確かな 位置/汚点/見つけ出す.
"Why do you call that thing 'Heu-Heu,' Hans?" I asked, trying to master the reflex 活動/戦闘 of my 内部の 手はず/準備.
"Because that is his nice 指名する, Baas, given him by his Mammie when he was little, perhaps."
(Here I nearly was sick, the idea of that creature with a mother almost finished me—like the sight and smell of a bit of fat bacon in a 強風 at sea.)
"How do you know that?" I gurgled.
"Because the Bushmen told me, Baas. They said that their fathers, a thousand years ago, knew this Heu-Heu far away, and that they left that part of the country because of him as they never slept 井戸/弁護士席 at night there, just like a Boer when another Boer comes and builds a house within six miles of him, Baas. I think they meant that they heard Heu-Heu when he talked, for they told me that their 広大な/多数の/重要な-広大な/多数の/重要な-grandfathers could hear him doing it and (警官の)巡回区域,受持ち区域ing his breast when he was miles away. But I daresay they lied, for I don't believe they really knew anything about Heu-Heu, or who painted his portrait on the 激しく揺する, Baas."
"No," I answered, "nor do I. 井戸/弁護士席, Hans, I think I have had enough of your friend Heu-Heu for this evening, and should like to go 支援する to bed."
"Yes, Baas, so should I, Baas. Still, take another good look at him before you leave. You don't see a picture like that every night, Baas, and you know you 手配中の,お尋ね者 to come."
Now I would have kicked Hans again, but luckily I remembered those nails in his pocket in time, so, after one ぐずぐず残る ちらりと見ること, I only rose and loftily 動議d to him to lead on.
This was the last that I saw of the likeness of Heu-Heu or Beelzebub, or whoever the monster may have been. Somehow, although I ーするつもりであるd to return to 診察する it more closely by the light of day, when morning (機の)カム I thought that I would not 危険 another 緊急発進する over that ledge but would be 満足させるd with the memory of first impressions. These they say, are always the best—like first kisses, as Hans 追加するd when I explained this to him.
Not that I could forget Heu-Heu; on the contrary, it is not too much to say that this devilish creature haunted me. I could not 解任する that picture as some mere flight of distorted savage imagination. From a hundred 特徴 I knew or thought I knew it, erroneously as I now believe, to be Bushmen's work and was 確かな that no Bushman, even if he had delirium tremens—not a (民事の)告訴 from which these people ever 苦しむd, because they 欠如(する)d the 適切な時期 of doing so, could have 発展させるd this monstrous 創造 out of his own soul—if a Bushman has a soul. No, Bushman or not, that artist was 製図/抽選 something that he had seen, or thought that he had seen.
Of this there were several 指示,表示する物s. Thus, on Heu-Heu's 権利 arm the 肘 共同の was much swollen as though he had once 苦しむd an 傷害 there. Again, the claw of one of his horrible 手渡すs—the left, I think—was broken and divided at the point. その上の, there was a wart or protuberance upon the brow, just beneath where the long アイロンをかける-gray tufts of hair parted in the middle and hung 負かす/撃墜する on each 味方する of the demoniacal, womanish 直面する. Now the painter must have remembered these blemishes and 始める,決める them 負かす/撃墜する faithfully, copying from some 初めの, real or imagined. Certainly, I 反映するd, he would not have invented them.
Where, then, did he get his model? I have について言及するd that I had heard rumours of creatures called Ngolokos, which I took it, if they 存在するd at all, were peculiarly terrific apes of an unknown variety. Heu-Heu, then, might be a most distinguished and 改善するd 見本/標本 of these apes. Yet that could scarcely be, for this beast was more man than monkey, notwithstanding his 抱擁する claws where the thumbs and big toes should be. Or perhaps I should say that he was more devil than either.
Another idea occurred to me: he might have been the god of these Bushmen, only I never heard that they had any god except their own stomaches. Afterwards I questioned Hans on this point but he replied that he did not know, as the Bushmen he lived with in the 洞穴 had never told him anything to that 影響. It was true, however, that they did not go to the place where the picture was except through 恐れる of enemies, and that when they did they would not look or speak about it more than they could help. Perhaps, he 示唆するd with his usual shrewdness, Heu-Heu might be the god of some other people with whom the Bushmen had nothing to do.
Another question—when was this work 遂行する/発効させるd? 借りがあるing to its 避難所d position the colours were still 公正に/かなり 有望な, but it must have been a long while ago. Hans said that the Bushmen told him that they did not know who painted it or what it 代表するd, but that it was "old, old, old!" which might mean anything or nothing, since to a people without 令状ing five or six 世代s become remote antiquity. One thing was 確かな , however, that another of the 絵s in the 洞穴 was undoubtedly old, that of the Phoenicians (警察の)手入れ,急襲ing a kraal of which I have spoken, which can scarcely have been 遂行する/発効させるd since the time of Christ. Of this I am sure, for I 診察するd it carefully on the に引き続いて morning and it was not more faded than that of the Monster. その上の, in this picture a piece of the 激しく揺する had 規模d off just above the left 膝, and I had noticed that the surface thus exposed seemed as much 天候d as that of the surrounding 激しく揺する outside the 限界s of the 絵.
On the other 手渡す, it must be remembered that the Phoenician picture was under cover, while that of Heu-Heu was exposed to the 空気/公表する and would therefore age more 速く.
井戸/弁護士席, all that night I dreamed of this horrid Heu-Heu, dreamed that he was alive and challenging me to fight him, dreamed that someone was calling to me to 救助(する) her—it was certainly her—not him—from the 力/強力にする of the beast; dreamed that I did fight him and that he got me 負かす/撃墜する and was about to 新たな展開 my を回避する as he had done to the man in the picture, when something happened—I do not know what—and I woke up covered with perspiration and in a most pitiable fright.
Now at the time I visited this 洞穴 I was not far from the 国境s of Zululand on one of my 貿易(する)ing 探検隊/遠征隊s, the wagon 存在 laden with 一面に覆う/毛布s, beads, アイロンをかける マリファナs, knives, 売春婦s, and such other articles as the simple savage loves, or in those days loved to 支払う/賃金 for in cattle. Before the 嵐/襲撃する overtook us, however, I was 熟視する/熟考するing leaving the Zulus alone on this trip and trying to break new ground somewhere north of Pretoria の中で いっそう少なく sophisticated natives who might put a higher value on my wares. After seeing Heu-Heu, as it chanced, I changed my mind for two 推論する/理由s. The first of these was that the 雷 had killed my two best oxen and I thought that I could 取って代わる these without cash 支出 in Zululand, where 負債s were 借りがあるing to me that I might collect in 肉親,親類d. The second was connected with that confounded and obsessing Heu-Heu. I felt 納得させるd that only one man in the world could tell me about this monster, if, indeed, there were anything to tell, すなわち, old Zikali, the wizard of the 黒人/ボイコット Kloof, the Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born, as Chaka, the 広大な/多数の/重要な Zulu king, 指名するd him.
I think that I have told you all about Zikali before, but in 事例/患者 I have not, I will say that he was the greatest witch doctor who ever lived in Zululand and the most terrible. No one knew when he was born, but undoubtedly he was very 古代の and under his native 指名する of "Opener-of-Roads" had been known and dreaded in the land for some 世代s. For many years, since my boyhood, indeed, he and I had been friends in a fashion, though of course I was aware that from the first he was using me for his own ends, as, indeed, became very (疑いを)晴らす before all was done and he had 勝利d over and brought about the 落ちる of the Zulu 王室の House, which he hated.
However, Zikali, like a wise merchant, always paid those who served him with a generous 手渡す, in one coin or another, as he paid those he hated. My coin was (警察などへの)密告,告訴(状), either historical or 関心ing the hidden secrets of the strange land of Africa, of which, for all our knowledge, we white men really understand so little. If any one could give (警察などへの)密告,告訴(状) about the picture in the 洞穴 and its origin, it would be Zikali, and therefore to Zikali I would go. Curiosity about such 事柄s, as perhaps you have guessed, was always one of my besetting sins.
We had 広大な/多数の/重要な trouble in 回復するing our remaining fourteen oxen since some of them had wandered far to find cover from the 嵐/襲撃する. At last, however, they were 設立する uninjured except for some bruises from the hailstones, for it is wonderful, if they are left alone, how cattle manage to 保護する themselves against the 軍隊s of nature. In Africa, however, they seldom take 避難所 beneath trees during a 雷雨, as is their habit here in England, perhaps because, such tempests 存在 so たびたび(訪れる), they have 相続するd from their progenitors an 直感的に knowledge that 雷 strikes trees and kills anything that happens to be underneath them. At least, that is my experience.
井戸/弁護士席, we inspanned and trekked away from that remarkable 洞穴. Many years afterwards, by the way, when Hans was dead, I tried to find it again and could not. I thought that I reached the same mountain slope in which it was, but I suppose that I must have been mistaken, since in that neighbourhood there are multitudes of such slopes and on the one that I identified I could discover no trace of the 洞穴.
Perhaps this was because there had been a 地滑り and, with the funnel-like 軸 in the mountain 味方する 負かす/撃墜する which the moonlight 注ぐd on to the picture of Heu-Heu, the orifice that, it will be remembered, was very small, had been covered up with 激しく揺するs. Or it may be that I was searching the wrong slope, not having taken my bearings 十分に when I visited the place at a time of tempest and hurry.
その上の, I was 圧力(をかける)d and, 願望(する)ing to reach a 確かな outspan before night fell, could only give about an hour to the 追求(する),探索(する) and when it failed was 強いるd to get on. Nor have I ever met any one who was 熟知させるd with this 洞穴, so I suppose that it must have been known to the Bushmen and Hans only, dead now all of them, which is a pity because of the wonderful 絵s that it 含む/封じ込めるs or 含む/封じ込めるd.
You will remember I told you that just before the 嵐/襲撃する broke we were overtaken by a party of Kaffirs going to or returning from some feast. When we had gone about half a mile we 設立する one of those Kaffirs again やめる dead, but whether he (the 団体/死体 was that of a young man) had been killed by the 雷 or by the あられ/賞賛する, I was not sure. Evidently his companions were so 脅すd that they had left him where he lay, 提案するing, I suppose, to return and bury him later. So you will see that when it gave us 避難所, this 洞穴 did us a good turn.
Now I will skip all the 詳細(に述べる)s of my trek into Zululand, which was as are other treks, only slower, because it was a hard 職業 to get that ひどく laden wagon along with but fourteen oxen. Once, indeed, we stuck in a river, the White Umfolozi, やめる 近づく to the Nongela 激しく揺する or Cliff which frowns above a pool of the river. I shall never forget that 事故 because it 原因(となる)d me to be the unwilling 証言,証人/目撃する of a very dreadful sight.
Whilst we were 急速な/放蕩な in the drift a party of men appeared upon the brow of this Nongela 激しく揺する, about two hundred and fifty yards away, dragging with them two young women. 熟考する/考慮するing them through my glasses, I (機の)カム to the 結論 from the way they moved their 長,率いるs and 星/主役にするd wildly about them, that these young women were blind or had been blinded. As I looked at them, wondering what to do, the men 掴むd the women by the 武器 and 投げつけるd them over the 辛勝する/優位 of the cliff. With a piteous wail the poor creatures rolled 負かす/撃墜する the stratified 激しく揺する into the 深い pool below and there the crocodiles got them, for distinctly I saw the 急ぐ of the reptiles. Indeed, in this pool they were always on the look-out, as it was a favourite place of 死刑執行 under the Zulu kings.
When their horrible 商売/仕事 was finished the party of "slayers"—there were about fifteen of them—(機の)カム 負かす/撃墜する to the ford to interview us. At first I thought there might be trouble, and to tell the truth, should not have been sorry, for the sight of this butchery had made me furious and 無謀な. As soon as they 設立する out, however, that the wagon belonged to me, Macumazahn, they were all amiability, and wading into the water, 取り組むd on to the wheels, with the result that by their help we (機の)カム 安全な to the さらに先に bank.
There I asked their leader who the two 殺人d girls might be. He replied that they were the daughters of Panda, the King. I did not question this 声明 although, knowing Panda's kindly character, I 疑問d very much whether they were 現実に his children. Then I asked why they were blind, and what 罪,犯罪 they had committed. The captain replied that they had been blinded by the order of Prince Cetywayo, who even then was the real 支配者 of Zululand, because "they had looked where they should not."
その上の 調査 elicited the fact that these unhappy girls had fallen in love with two young men, and run away with them against the King's orders, or Cetywayo's, which was the same thing. The party were overtaken before they could reach the 誕生の 国境, where they would have been 安全な; the young men were killed at once and the girls brought up for judgment, with the result that I have 述べるd. Such was the end of their honeymoon!
Moreover, the captain 知らせるd me cheerfully that a 団体/死体 of 兵士s had been sent out to kill the fathers and mothers of the young men and all who could be 設立する in their kraals. This 肉親,親類d of 解放する/自由な love must be put a stop to, he said, as there had been too much of it going on; indeed, he did not know what had come to the young people in Zululand, who had grown very 独立した・無所属 of late, 汚染するd, no 疑問, by the example of the Zulus in 誕生の, where the white men 許すd them to do what they liked without 罰.
Then with a sigh over the degeneracy of the times, this crusted old 保守的な took a pinch of 消す, bade me a hearty 別れの(言葉,会), and 出発/死d, singing a little song which I think he must have invented, as it was about the love of children for their parents. If it had been 安全な I should have liked to let him have a 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金 of 発射 behind to take away as a souvenir, but it was not. Also, after all, he was but an (n)役員/(a)執行力のある officer, a 製品 of the アイロンをかける system of Zululand in the day of the kings.
井戸/弁護士席, I trekked on, 貿易(する)ing as I went, and getting paid in cows and heifers, which I sent 支援する to 誕生の, but could come by no oxen that were fit for the yoke, and much いっそう少なく any that had been broken in, since in those days such were almost unknown in Zululand. However, I did hear of some that had been left behind by a white 仲買人 because they were sick or footsore, I forget which, who took young cattle in 交流 for them. These were said now to be fat again, but no one seemed to know 正確に/まさに where they were. One friendly 長,指導者 told me, however, that the "Opener-of-Roads," that is, old Zikali, might be able to do so, as he knew everything and the oxen had been 貿易(する)d away in his 地区.
Now by this time, although I was still obsessed about Heu-Heu, I had almost made up my mind to abandon the idea of visiting Zikali on this trip, because I had noticed that whenever I did so, always I became 伴う/関わるd in arduous and unpleasant adventures as an 即座の consequence. 存在, however, 不正に in need of more oxen, for, not to について言及する the two that were dead, others of my team seemed never to have 回復するd from the 影響s of the hailstorm and one or two showed 調印するs of sickness, this news 原因(となる)d me to 逆戻りする to my 初めの 計画(する). So after 協議 with Hans, who also thought it the best thing to be done, I 長,率いるd for the 黒人/ボイコット Kloof, which was only two short days' trek away.
Arriving at the mouth of that hateful and forbidding 湾 on the afternoon of the second day, I outspanned by the spring and, leaving the cattle in 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金 of Mavoon and Induka, walked up it …を伴ってd by Hans.
The place, of course, was just as it had always been, and yet, as it ever did, struck me with a fresh sense of novelty and amazement. In all Africa I scarcely know a gorge that is so eerie and depressing. Those 非常に高い cliffsides that look as though they are about to 落ちる in upon the traveller, the stunted, melancholy aloe 工場/植物s which grow の中で the 激しく揺するs; the pale vegetation; the jackals and hyaenas that start away at the sound of 発言する/表明するs or echoing footsteps; the dense dark 影をつくる/尾行するs; the whispering 勝利,勝つd that seem to wail about one even when the 空気/公表する is still over-長,率いる, draughts, I suppose, that are 製図/抽選 backwards and 今後s through the gulley; all of these are peculiar to it. The 古代のs used to 宣言する that particular localities had their own genii or spirits, but whether these were believed to be 発展させるd by the locality or to come thither because it ふさわしい their character and nature, I do not know.
In the 黒人/ボイコット Kloof and some other 位置/汚点/見つけ出すs to which I have wandered, I have often thought of this fable and almost 設立する myself 受託するing it as true. But, then, what 肉親,親類d of a spirit would it be that chose to 住む this dreadful gorge? I think some embodiment—no, that word is a contradiction—some impalpable essence of 悲劇, some doomed soul whereof the 長,率いる was 屈服するd and the wings were leaded with a 負わせる of ineffable and unrepented 罪,犯罪.
井戸/弁護士席, what need was there to 飛行機で行く to fable and imagine such an invisible inhabitant when Zikali, the Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born, was, and for uncounted years had been, the Dweller in this tomb-like 湾? Surely he was 悲劇 personified, and that hoary 長,率いる of his was 栄冠を与えるd with ineffable and unrepented 罪,犯罪. How many had this hideous dwarf brought 負かす/撃墜する to doom and how many were yet 運命にあるd to 死なせる/死ぬ in the snares that year by year he wove for them? And yet this sinner had been sinned against and did but 支払う/賃金 支援する his sufferings in 肉親,親類d, he whose wives and children had been 殺人d and whose tribe had been stamped flat beneath the cruel feet of Chaka, whose House he hated and lived on to destroy. Even for Zikali allowances could be made; he was not altogether bad. Is any man altogether bad, I wonder.
Musing thus, I tramped on up the gorge, followed by the dejected Hans, whom the place always depressed, even more than it did myself.
"Baas," he said presently, in a hollow whisper, for here he did not dare to speak aloud, "Baas, do you think that the Opener-of-Roads was once Heu-Heu himself who has now shrunk to a dwarf with age, or at any 率, that Heu-Heu's spirit lives in him?"
"No, I don't," I answered, "for he has fingers and toes like the 残り/休憩(する) of us, but I do think that if there is any Heu-Heu he may be able to tell us where to find him."
"Then, Baas, I hope that he has forgotten, or that Heu-Heu has gone to heaven where the 解雇する/砲火/射撃s go on 燃やすing of themselves without the need for 支持を得ようと努めるd. For, Baas, I do not want to 会合,会う Heu-Heu; the thought of him turns my stomach 冷淡な."
"No, you would rather go to Durban and 会合,会う a gin 瓶/封じ込める that would turn your stomach warm, Hans, and your 長,率いる, too, and land you in the Trunk for seven days," I replied, 改善するing the occasion.
Then we turned the corner and (機の)カム upon Zikali's kraal. As usual, I appeared to be 推定する/予想するd, for one of his 広大な/多数の/重要な silent 団体/死体 servants was waiting, who saluted me with uplifted spear. I suppose that Zikali must have had a look-out man 駅/配置するd somewhere who watched the plain beneath and told him who was approaching. Or かもしれない he had other methods of 得るing (警察などへの)密告,告訴(状). At any 率, he always knew of my advent and often enough why I (機の)カム and whence, as, indeed, he did on this occasion.
"The Father of Spirits を待つs you, Lord Macumazahn," said the 団体/死体 servant. "He 企て,努力,提案s the little yellow man who is 指名するd Light-in-不明瞭, to …を伴って you and will see you at once."
I nodded and the man led me to the gate of the 盗品故買者 that surrounded Zikali's 広大な/多数の/重要な hut, on which he tapped with the 扱う of his spear. It was opened, by whom I did not see, and we entered, whereon someone slipped out of the 影をつくる/尾行するs and の近くにd the gate behind us, then 消えるd. There in 前線 of the door of his hut, with a 解雇する/砲火/射撃 燃やすing before him, crouched the dwarf wrapped in a fur kaross, his 抱擁する 長,率いる, on either 味方する of which the gray locks fell 負かす/撃墜する much as they did in the picture of Heu-Heu, bent 今後, and the light of the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 into which he was 星/主役にするing 向こうずねing in his cavernous 注目する,もくろむs. We 前進するd across the shiny beaten 床に打ち倒す of the 中庭 and stood in 前線 of him, but for half a minute or more he took no notice of our presence. At length, without looking up, he spoke in that hollow, resounding 発言する/表明する which was unlike to any other I ever heard, 説:
"Why do you always come so late, Macumazahn, when the sun is off the hut and it grows 冷淡な in the 影をつくる/尾行するs? You know I hate the 冷淡な, as the 老年の always do, and I was minded not to receive you."
"Because I could not get here before, Zikali," I answered.
"Then you might have waited until to-morrow morning unless, perhaps, you thought that I should die in the night, which I shall not do. No, nor for many nights. 井戸/弁護士席, here you are, little white Wanderer who hops from place to place like a flea."
"Yes, here I am," I replied, nettled, "to visit you who do not wander but sit in one 位置/汚点/見つけ出す like a toad in a 石/投石する, Zikali."
"売春婦, 売春婦, 売春婦!" he laughed—that wonderful laugh of his which echoed from the 激しく揺するs and always made me feel 冷淡な 負かす/撃墜する the 支援する, "売春婦, 売春婦, 売春婦! how 平易な it is to make you angry. Keep your temper, Macumazahn, lest it should run away with you as your oxen did before the 嵐/襲撃する in the mountains the other day. What do you want? You only come here when you want something from him whom once you 指名するd the Old Cheat. So I don't wander, don't I, but sit like a toad in a 石/投石する? How do you know that? Is it only the 団体/死体 that wanders? Cannot the spirit wander also, far, oh, far, even to the 'Heaven Above' いつかs, and perhaps to that land which is under the earth, the place where they say the dead are to be 設立する again? 井戸/弁護士席, what do you want? Stay, and I will tell you, who explain yourself so 不正に, who, although you think that you speak Zulu like a native, have never really learned it 適切に because to do that you must think in it and not in your own stupid tongue, that has no words for many things. Man, my 薬/医学s."
A 人物/姿/数字 darted out of the hut, 始める,決める 負かす/撃墜する a cat-肌 捕らえる、獲得する before him, and was gone again. Zikali 急落(する),激減(する)d his claw-like 手渡す into the 捕らえる、獲得する and drew out a number of knuckle bones, polished, but yellow with age, which he threw carelessly on to the ground in 前線 of him, then ちらりと見ることd at them.
"Ha," he said, "something about cattle, I see; yes, you want to get oxen, broken oxen, not wild ones, and think that I can tell you where to do it cheap. By the way, what 現在の have you brought for me? Is it a 続けざまに猛撃する of your white man's 消す?" (As a 事柄 of fact, it was a 4半期/4分の1 of a 続けざまに猛撃する.) "Now am I 権利 about the oxen?"
"Yes," I replied, rather amazed.
"That astonishes you. It is wonderful, isn't it, that the poor Old Cheat should know what you want? 井戸/弁護士席, I'll tell you how it is done. You lost two oxen by 雷, did you not? You therefore, 自然に would want others, 特に as some of those which remain"—here he ちらりと見ることd at the bones once more—"were 傷つける, yes, by hailstones, very large hailstones, and others are showing 調印するs of sickness, red-water, I think. Therefore, it isn't strange that the poor Old Cheat should guess that you needed oxen, is it? Only a silly Zulu would put such a thing 負かす/撃墜する to 魔法. About the 消す, too, which I see you have taken from your pocket—a very little 小包, by the way. You've brought me 消す before, 港/避難所't you? Therefore, it isn't strange that I should guess that you would do so again, is it? No 魔法 there."
"非,不,無, Zikali, but how did you learn of the 雷 殺人,大当り the cattle and of the hailstorm?"
"How did I learn that the 雷 killed your 政治家-oxen, Kaptein and Deutchmann? Why, are you not a very 広大な/多数の/重要な man in whom all are 利益/興味d, and is it wonderful that I should be told of 事故s that happen a hundred miles or so away? You met a party going to a wedding, did you not, just before the 嵐/襲撃する, and 設立する one of them dead afterwards? By the way, he wasn't killed either by 雷 or by あられ/賞賛する. The flash fell 近づく and stunned him, but really he died of the 冷淡な during the night. I thought that you might like to know that, as you are curious on the point. Of course, those Kaffirs would have told me about it, would they not? No 魔法, again you see. That's how we poor witch doctors 伸び(る) repute, just by keeping our 注目する,もくろむs and ears open. When you are old you might 始める,決める up in the 貿易(する) yourself, Macumazahn, since you do the same thing, even at night, they say."
Now while he went on mocking me he had gathered up the bones out of the dust and suddenly threw them again with a curious spiral 新たな展開 that 原因(となる)d them to 落ちる in a little heap, perched on one another. He looked at them, and said:
"Why, what do these silly things remind me of? They are some of the 道具s of my 貿易(する), you know, Macumazahn, used to impress the fools that come to see us witch doctors, who think that they will tell us secrets, and to take off their attention while we read their hearts. Somehow or other they remind me of 激しく揺するs piled one on another as on a mountain slope, and look! there is a hollow in the middle like the mouth of a 洞穴.
"Did you chance to take 避難 from that 嵐/襲撃する in a 洞穴, Macumazahn? Oh, you did! 井戸/弁護士席, see how cleverly I guessed it. No 魔法 there again, only just a guess. Isn't it likely that you would go to a 洞穴 to escape from such a tempest, leaving the wagon outside? Look at that bone there, lying a little distance off the others, that's what made me think of the wagon 存在 outside. But the question is, what did you see in the 洞穴? Anything out of the way, I wonder? The bones can't tell me that, can they? I must guess that somehow else, mustn't I? 井戸/弁護士席, I'll try to do so, just to give you, the wise white man, another lesson in the manner that we poor rascals of witch doctors do our work and take in fools. But won't you tell me, Macumazahn?"
"No, I won't," I answered crossly, who knew that the old dwarf was making a butt of me.
"Then I suppose that I must try to discover for myself, but how, how? Come here, you little yellow monkey of a man, and sit between me and the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 so that its light 向こうずねs through you, for then perchance I may be able to see something of what is going on in that 厚い 長,率いる of yours, Light-in-不明瞭, as you are called, and get some light in my 不明瞭."
Hans 前進するd unwillingly enough and squatted 負かす/撃墜する at the 位置/汚点/見つけ出す that Zikali 示すd with his bony finger, 存在 very careful that 非,不,無 of the 魔法 bones should touch any 部分 of his anatomy, for 恐れる lest they should bewitch him, I suppose. There he sat, 持つ/拘留するing his ragged felt hat upon the 炭坑,オーケストラ席 of his stomach as though to 区 off the gimlet-like ちらりと見ることs of Zikali's 燃やすing 注目する,もくろむs.
"売春婦-売春婦! Yellow Man," said the dwarf after a few seconds of 査察, which 原因(となる)d Hans to wriggle uncomfortably and even to colour beneath his wrinkled 肌, like a young woman 存在 熟考する/考慮するd by her 見込みのある husband, who 願望(する)s to ascertain whether she will or will not do for a fifth wife. "売春婦-売春婦! it seems to me that you knew this 洞穴 before you went there in the 嵐/襲撃する, but of course I should guess that, for how さもなければ would you have 設立する it in such a hurry; also that it had something to do with Bushmen, as most 洞穴s have in this land.
"The question is, what was in it? No, don't tell me. I want to find out for myself. It is strange that the thought comes to me of pictures. No, it isn't strange, since the Bushmen often used to paint pictures in 洞穴s. Now, you shouldn't nod your 長,率いる, Yellow Man, because it makes the riddle too 平易な. Just 星/主役にする at me and think of nothing at all. Pictures, lots of them, but one 主要な/長/主犯 picture, I think; something that was difficult to come at. Yes, dangerous, even. Was it perchance a picture of yourself that a Bushman drew long ago when you were young and handsome, Yellow Man?
"There, again you are shaking your 長,率いる. Keep it やめる still, will you, so that the thoughts in it don't ripple like water beneath a 勝利,勝つd. At least it was a picture of something hideous, but much bigger than you. Ah! it grows and grows. I am getting it now. Macumazahn, come and stand by me, and you, Yellow Man, turn your 支援する so that you 直面する the 解雇する/砲火/射撃. Bah! it 燃やすs 不正に, does it not, and the 空気/公表する is so 冷淡な, so 冷淡な! I must make it brighter.
"Are you there, Macumazahn? Yes. Now look at this stuff of 地雷; see what a 罰金 炎 it 原因(となる)s," and putting his 手渡す into the 捕らえる、獲得する, he drew out some 肉親,親類d of 砕く, only a little of it, which he threw on to the embers. Then he stretched his skinny fingers over them as though for warmth, and slowly 解除するd his 武器 high into the 空気/公表する. It is a fact that after him the 炎上s sprang up to a 高さ of three or four feet. He dropped his 武器 again and the 炎上s sank 負かす/撃墜する. He 解除するd them once more and once more they rose, only this time much higher. A third time he repeated this 業績/成果, and now the sheet of 炎上 sprang fully fifteen feet into the 空気/公表する and so remained 燃やすing 刻々と, like the 炎上 of a lamp.
"Look at that 解雇する/砲火/射撃, Macumazahn, and you also, Yellow Man," he said, in a strange new 発言する/表明する, a sort of dreamy far-off 発言する/表明する, "and tell me if you see anything in it, for I can't—I can't."
I looked, and for a moment perceived nothing. Then some 形態/調整 began to grow upon the 炎ing background. It wavered; it changed; it became 直す/買収する,八百長をするd and 限定された, yes, (疑いを)晴らす and real. There before me, etched in 炎上, I saw Heu-Heu—Heu-Heu as he had been in the 絵 on the 洞穴 塀で囲む, only, as it seemed to me, alive, for his 注目する,もくろむs blinked—Heu-Heu, looking like a devil in hell. I gasped but stood 会社/堅い. As for Hans, he ejaculated in his vile Dutch:
"Allemaghte! Da is die leeliker auld deil!" (that is, "Almighty! There is the ugly old devil!") and having said this, rolled over on to his 支援する and lay still, frozen with terror.
"売春婦, 売春婦, 売春婦!" laughed Zikali. "売春婦, 売春婦, 売春婦!" and from a dozen places the 塀で囲むs of the kloof echoed 支援する, "売春婦, 売春婦, 売春婦!"
THE LEGEND OF HEU-HEU
Zikali stopped laughing and 熟視する/熟考するd us with his hollow 注目する,もくろむs.
"Who was it who first said that all men are fools?" he asked. "I do not know, but I think it must have been a woman, a pretty woman who played with them and 設立する that it was so. If so, she was wise, as all women are in their 狭くする way, which the 説 shows, since they are left out of it. 井戸/弁護士席, I will 追加する to the proverb; all men are cowards also in one 事柄 or another, though in the 残り/休憩(する) they may be 勇敢に立ち向かう enough. その上の, they are all the same, for what is the difference between you, Macumazahn, wise White Man who have dared death a hundred times, and yonder little yellow ape?" Here he pointed to Hans lying upon his 支援する, with rolling 注目する,もくろむs and muttering 祈りs to a variety of gods between his chattering teeth. "Both of you are afraid, one as much as the other; the only difference 存在 that the White Lord tries to 隠す his 恐れる, whilst the Yellow Monkey chatters it out, as monkeys do.
"Why are you so 脅すd? Just because by a ありふれた trick I show to your 注目する,もくろむs a picture of that which is in the minds of both of you. 示す you again, not by 魔法 but by a ありふれた trick which any child could learn, if somebody taught it to him. I hope that you will not behave like this when you see Heu-Heu himself, for if you do I shall be disappointed in you and soon there will be two more skulls in that 洞穴 of his. But then, perhaps, you will be 勇敢に立ち向かう; yes, I think so, I think so, since never would you like to die remembering how long and loud I should laugh when I heard of it."
Thus the old wizard rambled on, as was his fashion when he wished to 連合させる his acrid mockery with the 願望(する) to 伸び(る) space for thought, till presently he grew silent and took some of the 消す which I had brought him, for he had been engaged in 開始 the packet while he talked, all the while continuing to watch us as though he would search out our very souls.
Now, because I thought that I must say something, if only to show that he had not 脅すd me with his accursed manifestations, or whatever they were, I answered:
"You are 権利, Zikali, when you say that all men are fools, seeing that you are the first and biggest fool の中で them."
"I have often thought it, Macumazahn, for 推論する/理由s that I keep to myself. But why do you say so? Let me hear, who would learn whether yours are the same as my own."
"First, because you talk as though there were such a creature as Heu-Heu, which, as you know 井戸/弁護士席, does not live and never did; and secondly, because you speak as though Hans and I would 会合,会う it 直面する to 直面する, which we shall never do. So 中止する from such nonsense and show us how to make pictures in the 解雇する/砲火/射撃—an art, you tell us, any child could learn."
"If they are taught, Macumazahn, if they are taught how. But were I to do this, I should indeed be the first of fools. Do you think that I wish to 設立する two 競争相手 cheats—you see, between ourselves, I give myself my 権利 指名する—in the land to 貿易(する) against me? No, no, let each keep the knowledge he has 伸び(る)d for himself, for if it becomes ありふれた to all, who will 支払う/賃金 for it? But why do you believe that you will never stand 直面する to 直面する with Heu-Heu except in pictures on 激しく揺する or 解雇する/砲火/射撃?"
"Because he doesn't 存在する," I answered with irritation; "and if he does, I suppose his home is a long way off and I cannot trek without fresh oxen."
"Ah!" said Zikali, "that reminds me of how you 避難d in the 洞穴 from the 嵐/襲撃する and the 残り/休憩(する) said that you 手配中の,お尋ね者 more oxen. So, knowing that you would be in as 広大な/多数の/重要な a hurry to get to Heu-Heu as a young man is to find his first wife, I made ready. The story you heard was やめる true. A white 仲買人 did leave a very 罰金 team of footsore oxen in this neighbourhood, salted, every one of them, which after three moons' 残り/休憩(する), are now fat and sound. I will have them driven up to-morrow morning and take care of yours while you are away."
"I have no money to 支払う/賃金 for more oxen," I said.
"Is not the 約束 of Macumazahn better than any money, even the red English gold? Does not the whole land know it? Moreover," he 追加するd slowly, "when you return from visiting Heu-Heu you ought to have plenty of money—or, rather, of diamonds, which is the same thing—and perhaps of ivory, though of that I am not so sure. No, I am not sure whether you will be able to carry the ivory. If I do not speak truth I will 支払う/賃金 for the oxen myself."
Now at the word "diamonds" I pricked up my ears, for just then all Africa was beginning to talk about these 石/投石するs; even Hans rose from the ground and began once more to take 利益/興味 in earthly things.
"That's a fair 申し込む/申し出," I said, "but stop blowing dust," (i.e. talking nonsense) "and tell me straight out what you mean before it grows dark. I hate this kloof in the dark. Who is Heu-Heu? And if he or it lives, or lived, where is Heu-Heu, dead or alive? Also, supposing that there was or is a Heu-Heu, why do you, Zikali, wish me to find him, as I perceive you do, who always have a 推論する/理由 for what you wish?"
"I will answer the last question first, Macumazahn, who, as you say, always have a 推論する/理由 for what I want you or others to do."
Here he stopped and clapped his 手渡すs, whereon 即時に one of his 広大な/多数の/重要な serving men appeared from the hut behind, to whom he gave some order. The man darted away and presently was 支援する with more of the 肌 捕らえる、獲得するs such as witch doctors use to carry their 薬/医学s. Zikali opened one of these and showed me that it was almost empty, there 存在 in it but a pinch of brown 砕く.
"This stuff, Macumazahn," he said, "is the most wonderful of all 麻薬s, even more wonderful than the herb called taduki that can open the paths of the past, with which herb you will become 熟知させるd one day. By means of it—I speak not of taduki, but of the 砕く in the 捕らえる、獲得する—I do most of my tricks. For instance, it was with a dust of it that I was able to show you and the little yellow man the picture of Heu-Heu in the 炎上s just now."
"You mean that it is a 毒(薬), I suppose."
"Oh, yes, の中で other things, by 追加するing another 砕く it can be made into a very deadly 毒(薬); so deadly that as little of it as will 嘘(をつく) upon the point of a thorn will kill the strongest man and leave no trace. But it has other 所有物/資産/財産s also that have to do with the mind and the spirit; never mind what they are; if I tried to tell you, you would not understand. 井戸/弁護士席, the Tree of 見通しs from the leaves of which this 薬/医学 is ground grows only in the garden of Heu-Heu and nowhere else in Africa, and I got my last 供給(する) of it thence many years ago, long before you were born, indeed, Macumazahn; never mind how.
"Now I must have more, of those leaves, or what these Zulus call my 魔法, which wise white men like you know to be but my tricks, will fail me, and the world will say that the Opener-of-Roads has lost his strength and turn to 捜し出す wiser doctors."
"Then why do you not send and get some, Zikali?"
"Whom can I send that would dare to enter the land of Heu-Heu and 略奪する his garden? No one but yourself, Macumazahn. Ah! I read your mind. You are wondering now if that be so, why I do not order that the leaves should be brought to me from the place of Heu-Heu. For this 推論する/理由, Macumazahn. The dwellers there may not leave their hidden land; it is against their 法律. Moreover, if they might they would not part even with a handful of that 麻薬, except at a 広大な/多数の/重要な price. Once, a hundred years ago," (by which, I suppose, he meant a long time), "I paid such a price and bought a 量 of the stuff of which you see the last in that 捕らえる、獲得する. But that is an old story with which I will not trouble you. Oh! many went and but two returned, and they mad, as those are apt to be who have looked on Heu-Heu and left him living. If ever you see Heu-Heu, Macumazahn, be sure to destroy him and all that is his, lest his 悪口を言う/悪態 should follow you for the 残り/休憩(する) of your days. Fallen, he will be 権力のない, but standing, his hate is very strong and reaches far, or that of his priests does, which is the same thing."
"Rubbish!" I said. "If there is any Heu-Heu, he is but a big ape, and living or dead, I am not afraid of any ape."
"I am glad to hear that, Macumazahn, and hope that you will always be of the same mind. Doubtless it is only his picture painted on 激しく揺する or in the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 that 脅すs you, just as a dream is more terrible than anything real. Some day you shall tell me which was the worse, Heu-Heu's picture or Heu-Heu himself. But you asked me other questions. The first of them was, Who is Heu-Heu?
"井戸/弁護士席, I do not know. The legend tells that once, in the beginning, there was a people white, or almost white, who lived far away to the north. This people, says the old tale, were 支配するd over by a 巨大(な), very cruel and very terrible; a 広大な/多数の/重要な wizard also, or cheat, as you would call him. So cruel and terrible was he, indeed, that his people rose against him, and strong as he might be, 軍隊d him to 飛行機で行く southwards with some who clung to him or could not escape him.
"So south he (機の)カム with them, thousands of miles, until he 設立する a secret place that ふさわしい him to dwell in. That place is beneath the 影をつくる/尾行する of a mountain of a sort that I have heard spouted out 解雇する/砲火/射撃 when the world was young, which even now smokes from time to time. Here this people, who are 指名するd Walloo, built them a town after their northern fashion out of the 黒人/ボイコット 石/投石する which flowed from the mountain in past ages. But their king, the 巨大(な) wizard, continued his cruelties to them 軍隊ing them to 労働 night and day at his city and 広大な/多数の/重要な House and a 洞穴 in which he was worshipped as a god, till at last they could 耐える no more and 殺人d him by night.
"Before he died, however, which he took long to do because of his 魔法, he mocked them, telling them that not thus would they be rid of him since he would come 支援する in a worse 形態/調整 than before and still 支配する over them from 世代 to 世代. Moreover, he prophesied 災害 to them and laid this 悪口を言う/悪態 upon them, that if they strove to leave the land that he had chosen, and to cross the (犯罪の)一味 of mountains by which it is enclosed, they should die, every one of them. This, indeed, happened, or so I have heard, since if even one of them travels 負かす/撃墜する the river, by which alone that country can be approached from the 砂漠, and 始める,決めるs foot in the 砂漠, he dies, いつかs by sudden sickness, or いつかs by the teeth of lions and other wild beasts that live in the 広大な/多数の/重要な 押し寄せる/沼地 where the river enters the 砂漠, whither the elephants and other game come to drink from hundreds of miles around."
"Perhaps fever kills them," I 示唆するd.
"Maybe so, or 毒(薬), or a 悪口を言う/悪態. At least, soon or late they die, and therefore it comes about that now 非,不,無 of them leaves that land."
"And what happened to the Walloos after they had finished off this 肉親,親類d king of theirs?" I asked, for Zikali's romantic fable 利益/興味d me. Of course, I knew that it was a fable, but in such tales, magnified by native rumour, there is いつかs a 穀物 of truth. Also Africa is a 広大な/多数の/重要な country, and in it there are very queer places and peoples.
"Something very bad happened, Macumazahn, for scarcely was their king dead when the mountain began to belch out 解雇する/砲火/射撃 and hot ashes, which killed many of them and 原因(となる)d the 残り/休憩(する) to 飛行機で行く in boats across the lake that makes an island of the mountain, to the forest lands that 嘘(をつく) around. There they live to this day upon the banks of the river which flows through the forest, the same that passes through the gorge of the mountains into the 押し寄せる/沼地, and there loses itself in the 砂漠 sands. So, at least, my messengers told me a hundred years ago, when they brought me the 薬/医学 that grows in Heu-Heu's garden."
"I suppose that they were afraid to go 支援する to their town after the 爆発 was over," I said.
"Yes, they were afraid, at which you will not wonder when you see it, for when the mountain blew up the gases killed very many of them and what is more, turned them to 石/投石する. Aye, there they sit, Macumazahn, to this day, turned to 石/投石する, and with them their dogs and cattle."
Now at this amazing tale I burst out laughing, and even Hans grinned.
"I have 公式文書,認めるd, Macumazahn," said Zikali, "that in the beginning it is you who always laugh at me, while in the end it is I who laugh at you, and so I believe it will be in this 事例/患者 also. I tell you that there those people sit turned to 石/投石する, and if it is not so, you need not 支払う/賃金 me for the oxen that I bought from the white man even should you come 支援する with your pockets 十分な of diamonds."
Now I bethought me of what happened at Pompeii, and 中止するd to laugh. After all, the thing was possible.
"That is one 推論する/理由 why they did not return to their town, even when the mountain went to sleep again, but there was another, Macumazahn, that was stronger still. Soon they 設立する that it was haunted."
"Haunted! By what? By the 石/投石する men?"
"No, they are 静かな enough, though what their spirits may be I cannot tell you. Haunted by their king who they had killed, turned into a gigantic ape, turned into Heu-Heu."
Now at this 声明 I did not laugh, although at first sight it seemed much more absurd than that of the dead people who had been petrified. For this 推論する/理由: as I knew 井戸/弁護士席, it is the commonest of beliefs の中で savages, and 特に those of Central Africa, that dead 長,指導者s, 顕著に if they have been tyrants during their life, are metamorphosed into some terrible animal, which thenceforward 迫害するs them from 世代 to 世代. The animal may be a rogue elephant or a man-殺人,大当り lion, or perhaps a very poisonous snake. But whatever 形態/調整 it takes, it always has this characteristic, that it does not die and cannot be killed—at any 率, by any of those whom it afflicts. Indeed, in my own experience I have come across sundry examples of this belief の中で natives. Therefore, it did not strike me as strange that these people should imagine their country to be 悪口を言う/悪態d by the spirit of a 伝説の tyrant turned into a monster.
Only in the monster itself I put no 約束. If it 存在するd at all probably it would 解決する itself into a large ape, or perhaps a gorilla living upon an island in the lake where it had become marooned, or drifted upon a tree in a flood.
"And what does this spirit do?" I asked Zikali incredulously. "Throw nuts or 石/投石するs at people?"
"No, Macumazahn. によれば what I have been told, it does much more. At times it crosses to the 本土/大陸—some say on a スピードを出す/記録につける, some say by swimming, some say as spirits can. There, if it 会合,会うs any one, it 新たな展開s off his or her 長,率いる," (here I bethought me of the picture in the 洞穴), "for no man can fight against its strength, or woman either, because if she be old and ugly, it serves her in the same fashion, but if she be young and 井戸/弁護士席 favoured, then it carries her away. The island is said to be 十分な of such women who cultivate the garden of Heu-Heu. Moreover, it is 報告(する)/憶測d that they have children who cross the lake and live in the forest—terrible, hairy creatures that are half human, for they can make 解雇する/砲火/射撃 and use clubs and 屈服するs and arrows. These savage people are 指名するd Heuheua. They dwell in the forests, and between them and the Walloos there is perpetual war."
"Anything else?" I asked.
"Yes, one thing. At a 確かな time of the year the Walloos must take their fairest and best-born maiden and tie her to an 任命するd 激しく揺する upon the shore of the island upon a night of 十分な moon. Then they go away and leave her alone, returning at sunrise."
"And what do they find?"
"One of two things, Macumazahn; either that the maiden has gone, in which 事例/患者 they are 井戸/弁護士席 pleased, except those of them to whom she is 関係のある, or that she has been torn to pieces, having been 拒絶するd by Heu-Heu, in which 事例/患者 they weep and groan, not for her but for themselves."
"Why do they rejoice, and why do they weep, Zikali?"
"For this 推論する/理由. If the maiden has been taken, Heu-Heu, or his servants, the Heuheua, will spare them and his priests for that year. Moreover, their 刈るs will 栄える and they be 解放する/自由な from sickness. If she has been killed, he or his servants haunt them, snatching away other women, and they will have bad 収穫s; also fever and other ills 落ちる upon them. Therefore, the 申し込む/申し出ing of the Maiden is their 広大な/多数の/重要な 儀式, which, should she be taken, is followed by the Feast of Rejoicing, and should she be 拒絶するd and 殺害された, by the 急速な/放蕩な of Lamentation and the sacrifice of her parents or others."
"A pleasant 宗教, Zikali. Tell me, is it one that pleases these Walloos?"
"Does any 宗教 please any man, Macumazahn, and do 涙/ほころびs, want, sickness, bereavement, and death please those who are born into the world? For example, like the 残り/休憩(する) of us, you white people 苦しむ these things, or so I have heard; also you have your own Heu-Heu or devil who (人命などを)奪う,主張するs such sacrifices and yet avenges himself upon you. You are not pleased with him, still you go on making your sacrifices of war and 血 and all wickedness in return for what he did to you, その為に binding yourselves to him afresh and 確認するing his 力/強力にする over you, and as you do, so do we all. Yet if you and the 残り/休憩(する) of us would but stand up against him, perhaps his strength might be broken, or he might be 殺害された. Why, then, do we continue to sacrifice our maidens of virtue, truth, and 潔白 to him, and how are we better than those who worship Heu-Heu, who do so to save their lives?"
I considered his argument, which was subtle for a savage, however old and 教えるd, to have 発展させるd from his 限られた/立憲的な 適切な時期s of 観察, and answered rather 謙虚に:
"I do not suppose that we are better at all." Then to change the 支配する to something more practical, I 追加するd, "But what about those diamonds?"
"The diamonds! Oho! the diamonds, which, by the way, I believe are one of the offerings that you white people make to your own Heu-Heu. 井戸/弁護士席, these people seem to have plenty of them. Of course, they are useless to them, as they do not 貿易(する). Still, the women know that they are pretty, and fasten them about themselves in little 逮捕するs of hair after polishing them upon 石/投石する, because they do not know how to make 穴を開けるs in them, 存在 so hard, and cannot 始める,決める them in metals. Also they stick them in the clay of their eating dishes before these are 乾燥した,日照りのd, making pretty patterns with them. It seems that these 石/投石するs and others that are red, are washed 負かす/撃墜する by the river from some 砂漠 across which it flows above, through a tunnel in the mountains, I believe. At any 率, they find them in plenty in the gravel on its banks, which they 始める,決める the children to 精査する in a closely woven sieve of human hair, or in some such fashion. Stay, I will show you what they are like, for my messengers brought me a fistful or two many years ago," and he clapped his 手渡すs.
即時に, as before, one of his servants appeared, to whom he gave 確かな 指示/教授/教育s. The man went, and presently returned with a little packet of 古代の, wrinkled 肌 that looked like a bit of an old glove. This he untied and gave to me. Within were a 量 of small 石/投石するs that looked and felt like diamonds, very good diamonds, as I 裁判官d from their colour, though 非,不,無 of them were large. Also の中で them was a ぱらぱら雨ing of other 石/投石するs that might have been rubies, though of this I could not be sure. At a guess I should have 概算の the value of the 小包 at 200 or 300 続けざまに猛撃するs. When I had 診察するd them, I 申し込む/申し出d them 支援する to Zikali, but he waved his 手渡す and said:
"Keep them, Macumazahn, keep them. They are no good to me, and when you come to the land of Heu-Heu, compare them with those you will find there, just to show yourself that in this 事柄 I do not 嘘(をつく)."
"When I come to the land of Heu-Heu!" I exclaimed indignantly. "Where, then, is this land, and how am I to reach it?"
"That I 提案する to tell you to-morrow, Macumazahn, not to-night, since it would be useless to waste time and breath upon the 商売/仕事 until I know two things: first, whether you will go there, and secondly, whether the Walloos will receive you if you do go."
"When I have heard the answer to the second question, we will talk of the first, Zikali. But why do you try to make a fool of me? These Walloos and the savage Heuheuas with whom they fight, I understand, dwell far away. How, then, can you have the answer by to-morrow?"
"There are ways, there are ways," he answered dreamily, then seemed to go into a 肉親,親類d of doze with his 広大な/多数の/重要な 長,率いる sunk upon his breast.
I 星/主役にするd at him for a while, till, growing 疲れた/うんざりした of the 占領/職業, I looked about me and 公式文書,認めるd that of a sudden it was growing dusk. Whilst I did so I began to hear screechings in the 空気/公表する: sharp, thin screechings such as are made by ネズミs.
"Look, Baas," whispered Hans in a 脅すd 発言する/表明する, "his spirits come," and he pointed 上向きs.
I did look, and far above, as though they were descending from the sky, saw some wide-winged, flittering 形態/調整s, three of them. They descended in circles very 速く, and I perceived that they were bats, enormous and evil-looking bats. Now they were wheeling about us so closely that twice their outstretched wings touched my 直面する, sending a horrid thrill through me; and each time that a creature passed, it screeched in my ear, setting my teeth on 辛勝する/優位.
Hans tried to (警官の)巡回区域,受持ち区域 away one of them from 調査/捜査するing him, whereon it clung to his 手渡す and bit his finger, or so I 裁判官d from the yell he gave, after which he dragged his hat 負かす/撃墜する over his 長,率いる and 急落(する),激減(する)d his 手渡すs into his pockets. Then the bats concentrated their attention upon Zikali. 一連の会議、交渉/完成する and 一連の会議、交渉/完成する him they went in a dizzy whirl which grew closer and closer, till at last two of them settled on his shoulders just by his ears, and began to twitter in them, while the third hung itself on to his chin and thrust its hideous 長,率いる against his lips.
At this point in the 訴訟/進行s Zikali seemed to wake up, for his 注目する,もくろむs opened and grew 有望な, also with his skinny 手渡すs he 一打/打撃d the bats upon his shoulders as though they were pet birds. More, he seemed to speak with the creature that hung to his chin, talking in a language which I could not understand, while it twittered 支援する the answers in its 予定する-pencil 公式文書,認めるs. Then suddenly he waved his 武器 and all three of them took flight again, wheeling outwards and 上向きs, till presently they 消えるd in the gloom.
"I tame bats and these are やめる fond of me," he said by way of explanation, then 追加するd, "Come 支援する to-morrow morning, Macumazahn, and perhaps I shall be able to tell you whether the Walloos wish for a visit from you, and if so, to show you a road to their country."
So we went, glad enough to get away, since the Opener-of-Roads, with his peculiar talk and manifestations, as I believe they call them in spiritualistic circles, was a person who soon got upon one's 神経s, 特に at nightfall. As we つまずくd 負かす/撃墜する that hateful gorge in the gloom, Hans asked:
"What were those things that hung to Zikali's shoulders and chin?"
"Bats, very large bats. What else?" I answered.
"I think a 広大な/多数の/重要な 取引,協定 else, Baas. I think that they are his familiars whom he is sending to those Walloos, just as he said."
"Do you believe in the Walloos and the Heuheua then, Hans? I don't."
"Yes, I do, Baas, and what is more, I believe that we shall visit them, because Zikali means that we should, and who is there that can fight against the will of the Opener-of-Roads?"
ALLAN MAKES A PROMISE
I never could sleep 井戸/弁護士席 in the neighbourhood of the 黒人/ボイコット Kloof. It always seemed to me to give out evil and 乱すing emanations, nor was this night any exception to the 支配する. For hour after hour, cogitating the old wizard's marvellous tale of the Walloos and Heu-Heu, their devil-ghost, I lay in the 中央 of the 激しい silence of that lonely place which was broken only by the 時折の 叫び声をあげる of a night-強硬派, or perhaps of the prey that it gripped, or the echoing bark of some 粗野な人間 の中で the 激しく揺するs.
The story was foolishness. And yet—and yet there were so many strange peoples hidden away in the 広大な 休会s of Africa, and some of them had these 極端に queer beliefs or superstitions. Indeed, I began to wonder whether it is not possible for these superstitions, 固執するd in through ages, to produce something 固める/コンクリート, at any 率 to the minds of those whom they 影響する/感情.
Also there were 半端物 circumstances connected with this tale or romance that might, in a way, be called corroborative. For instance, the picture of Heu-Heu in the 洞穴 which Zikali, by his infernal arts or tricks, 再生するd in the 炎上 of 解雇する/砲火/射撃; for instance, the diamonds and rubies, or 水晶s and spinels, whichever they might be, that at 現在の reposed in the pocket of my 狙撃 coat. These, 推定するing them to be the former, must have come from some very far-off or hidden 位置/汚点/見つけ出す, since I had never seen or heard of such in any place that I had visited, as they were 完全に unlike those which, at that time, they were beginning to find at Kimberley, 存在, for one thing, much more water-worn.
Still, the presence of diamonds in a 確かな 地区 had nothing to do with the possible 存在 of a Heu-Heu. Therefore, they 証明するd nothing, one way or the other.
And if there were a Heu-Heu, did I wish to 会合,会う him 直面する to 直面する? In one sense, not at all, but in another, very much indeed. My curiosity was always 広大な/多数の/重要な, and it would be wonderful to behold that which no white man's 注目する,もくろむs had ever seen, and still more wonderful also to struggle with and kill such a monster. A 見通し rose before my 注目する,もくろむs of Heu-Heu stuffed in the British Museum with a large painted 掲示 underneath:
発射 in Central Africa by Allan Quatermain, Esq.
Why, then I, the most humble and unknown of persons, would become famous and have my likeness published in the Graphic, and probably the Illustrated London News also, perhaps with my foot 始める,決める upon the breast of the prostrate Heu-Heu.
That, indeed, would be glory! Only Heu-Heu looked a very 汚い 顧客, and the story might have a wrong ending; his foot might be 始める,決める upon my breast, and he might be 新たな展開ing off my 長,率いる, as in the 洞穴 picture. 井戸/弁護士席, in that 事例/患者 the illustrated papers would publish nothing about it.
Then there was the story of the town 十分な of petrified men and animals. This must either be true or 誤った, since it 欠如(する)d ghostly 関わりあい/含蓄s. Although I had never heard of anything of the sort, there might be such a place, and if so, it would be splendid to be its discoverer.
Oh, of what was I thinking? Zikali's yarn must be nonsense, and 階級 fiction. Yet it reminded me of something I had once heard in my 青年, which for a long while I could not 解任する. At last, in a flash, it (機の)カム 支援する to me. My old father, who was a learned scholar, had a 調書をとる/予約する of Grecian legends, and one of these about a lady called Andromeda, the daughter of a king who, in obedience to popular 圧力 and ーするために 回避する calamities from his country, tied her up to a 激しく揺する, to be carried off by a monster that rose out of the sea. Then a magically 補佐官d hero of the 指名する of Perseus arrived at the 批判的な moment, killed the monster and took away the lady to be his wife.
Why, this Heu-Heu story was the same thing over again. The maiden was tied to a 激しく揺する; the monster (機の)カム out of the sea, or rather, the lake, and carried her off, whereby calamities were duly 回避するd. So 類似の was it, indeed, that I began to wonder whether it were not an echo of the 古代の myth that somehow had 設立する its way into Africa. Only hitherto there had been no Perseus in Heuheua Land. That 役割, 明らかに, was reserved for me. And if so, what should I do with the maiden? 回復する her to a 感謝する family, I suppose, for certainly I had no 意向 of marrying her. Oh, I was growing silly with thinking! I would go to sleep; I would, I wo——
A minute or two later, or so it seemed, I woke up thinking, not of Andromeda, but of the prophet Samuel, and for a while wondered what on earth could have put this 厳格な,質素な patriarch and priest into my 長,率いる. Then, 存在 a 広大な/多数の/重要な student of the Old Testament, I remembered that 独裁的な seer's indignation when he heard the lowing of the oxen which Saul spared from the general "eating up" of the Amalekites, as the Zulus would 述べる it, by divine 命令(する). (What was the use of cutting the throats of all that good 在庫/株, 本人自身で, I could never understand.)
井戸/弁護士席, in my ears also was the lowing of oxen, which, of course, formed the connecting link. I marvelled what they could be, for our own were grazing at a little distance, and poked my 長,率いる out under the wagon-hood to perceive a really beautiful team of trek cattle, eighteen of them, for there were two spare beasts, which had just been driven up to my (軍の)野営地,陣営 by two strange Kaffirs. Then, of course, I remembered about the oxen which Zikali had 約束d to sell me upon 平易な 条件, or under 確かな circumstances to give me, and thought to myself that in this 事柄, at any 率, he had 証明するd a wizard of his word.
Slipping on my trousers, I descended from the wagon to 診察する them, and with the most 満足な results. They had やめる 回復するd from their poverty and footsoreness that had 原因(となる)d their former owner to leave them behind in Zikali's 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金, and were now as fat as butter, looking as though they would pull anything anywhere. Indeed, even the 批判的な Hans 表明するd his unqualified 是認 of the beasts which, as he pointed out from さまざまな 指示,表示する物s, really seemed to be "salted," and inoculated also, some of them, as could be seen from the loss of the ends of their tails.
Having sent them to graze in 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金 of the Kaffirs who had brought them, for I did not wish them to mix with my own beasts, which showed 調印するs of sickness, I breakfasted in excellent spirits, as wherever I might go I was now 始める,決める up with draught beasts, and then bethought me of my 請け負うing to revisit Zikali. Hans tried to excuse himself from …を伴ってing me, 説 that he 手配中の,お尋ね者 to 熟考する/考慮する the new oxen which those strange Zulus might steal, etc.; the fact 存在, of course, that he was afraid of the old wizard, and would not go 近づく him again unless he were 強いるd. However, I made him come, since his memory was first 率, and four ears were better than two when Zikali was 関心d.
Off we trudged up the kloof, and as before, without 延期する, were 認める within the 盗品故買者 surrounding the witch doctor's hut, to find the Opener-of-Roads seated in 前線 of it, as usual with a 解雇する/砲火/射撃 燃やすing before him. However hot the 天候, he always kept that 解雇する/砲火/射撃 going.
"What do you think of the oxen, Macumazahn?" he asked 突然の.
I replied with 警告を与える that I would tell him after I had 証明するd them.
"Cunning as ever," said Zikali. "井戸/弁護士席, you must make the best of them, Macumazahn, and as I told you, you can 支払う/賃金 me when you get 支援する."
"Get 支援する from where?" I asked.
"From wherever you are going, which at 現在の you do not know."
"No, I don't, Zikali," I said, and was silent.
He also was silent for a long while, so long that at last he outwore my patience, and I 問い合わせd sarcastically whether he had heard from his friend Heu-Heu, by bat-地位,任命する.
"Yes, yes, I have heard, or think that I have heard—not by bats, but perchance by dreams or 見通しs. Oho! Macumazahn, I have caught you again. Why do you always walk into my snare so easily? You see some bats, which in truth, as I told you, are but creatures that I have tamed by feeding them for many years, flitter about me and 飛行機で行く away, and you half believe that I have sent them a thousand miles to carry a message and bring 支援する an answer, which is impossible.
"Now I will tell the truth. Not thus do I communicate with those who are afar. Nay, I send out my thought and it 飛行機で行くs everywhere to the ends of the earth, so that the whole earth might read it if it could. Yet perchance it is attuned to one mind only の中で the millions, by which it can be caught and 解釈する/通訳するd. But for the vulgar—yes, and even for the wise White Man who cannot understand—there remains the symbol of the bats and their message. Why will you always 捜し出す the 援助(する) of 魔法 to explain natural things, Macumazahn?"
Now I 反映するd that my idea of nature and Zikali's 異なるd, but knowing that he was mocking me after his custom, and 拒絶する/低下するing to enter into argument as though it were beneath me, I said:
"All this is so plain that I wonder you waste breath in setting it out. I only 願望(する)d to know if you have any answer to your message, however it was sent, and if so—what answer."
"Yes, Macumazahn, as it happens I have; it (機の)カム to me just as I was waking this morning. This is its 実体; that the 長,指導者 of the Walloos, with whom my heart talked, and, as he believes, most of his people, will be very glad to welcome you in their land, though, as he believes again, the priests of Heu-Heu, who worship him as a god and are sworn to his service, will not be glad. Should you choose to come, the 長,指導者 will give you all that you 願望(する) of the river diamonds or aught else that he 所有するs, and you can carry away with you, also, the 薬/医学 that I 願望(する). その上の, he will 保護する you from dangers so far as he is able. Yet for these gifts he 要求するs 支払い(額)."
"What 支払い(額), Zikali?"
"The 倒す of Heu-Heu at your 手渡すs."
"And if I cannot 倒す Heu-Heu, Zikali?"
"Then certainly you will be overthrown and the 取引 will 落ちる to the ground."
"Is it so? 井戸/弁護士席, if I go, shall I be killed, Zikali?"
"Who am I that I should dispense life or death, Macumazahn? Yet," he 追加するd slowly, separating his words by 審議する/熟考する pinches of 消す—"yet I do not think that you will be killed. If I did I should not 信用 you to 支払う/賃金 me for those oxen on your return. Also I believe that you have much work left to do in the world—my work, some of it, Macumazahn, that could not be carried out without you. This 存在 so, the last thing I should wish would be to send you to your death."
I 反映するd that probably this was true, since always the old wizard was hinting of some 広大な/多数の/重要な 未来 企業 in which we should be mixed up together; also I knew that he had a regard for me in his own strange way, and therefore wished me no evil. Moreover, of a sudden a 広大な/多数の/重要な longing 掴むd me to 請け負う this adventure in which perchance I might see remarkable new things—I who was 疲れた/うんざりしたing of the old ones. However, I hid this, if anything could be hid from Zikali, and asked in a 事務的な fashion:
"Where do you want me to go, how far off is it, and if I went, how should I get there?"
"Now we begin to 扱う our assegais, Macumazahn," (by which he meant that we were coming to 商売/仕事). "Hearken, and I will tell you."
Tell me he did indeed for over an hour, but I will not trouble you fellows with all that he said, since geographical 詳細(に述べる)s are wearisome and I want to get on with my story. You, my friend [this was 演説(する)/住所d to me, the Editor], are only stopping here over to-morrow night, and it will take me all that time to finish it—that is, if you wish to hear the end.
It is enough to say, therefore, that I had to trek about three hundred miles north, cross the Zambesi, and then trek another three hundred miles west. After this I must travel nor'west for a rather 不明確な/無期限の distance till I (機の)カム to a gorge in 確かな hills. Here I must leave the wagon, if by this time I had any wagon, and tramp for two days through a waterless patch of 砂漠 till I (機の)カム to a 押し寄せる/沼地-like oasis. Here the river of which Zikali had spoken lost itself in the sands of the 砂漠, whence I could see on a (疑いを)晴らす day the smoke of the 火山 of which he had also spoken. Crossing the 押し寄せる/沼地, or making my way 一連の会議、交渉/完成する it, I must steer for this slope, till at length I (機の)カム to a second gorge in the mountains, through which the river ran from Heuheua Land out into the 砂漠. There, によれば Zikali, I should find a party of Walloos waiting for me with canoes or boats, who would take me on into their country, where things would go as they were 運命/宿命d.
Before you leave, my friend, I will give you a 地図/計画する[*] of the 大勝する, which I drew after travelling it, in 事例/患者 you or anybody else should like to form a company and go to look for diamonds and fossilized men in Heuheua Land, 規定するing, however, that you do not ask me to take 株 in the 投機・賭ける.
[*] If Allan ever gave me this 地図/計画する, of which, after the lapse of so many years, I am not sure, I have put it away so carefully that it is 完全に lost, nor do I 提案する to 追跡(する) for it まっただ中に the 蓄積するd correspondence of some five-and-thirty years. Moreover, if it were 設立する and published, it might lead to foolish 憶測 and probable loss of money の中で maiden ladies, the clergy, and other venturesome persons.—Editor.
"So that's the trek," I said, when at last Zikali had finished. "井戸/弁護士席, I tell you straight out that I am not going to make it through unknown country. How could I ever find my way without a guide? I'm off to Pretoria with your oxen or without them."
"Is it so, Macumazahn? I begin to think that I am very clever. I thought that you would talk like that and therefore have made ready by finding a man who will lead you straight to the House of Heu-Heu. Indeed, he is here, and I will send for him," and he 召喚するd a servant in his usual way and gave an order.
"Whence does he come, who is he, and how long has he been here?" I asked.
"I don't やめる know who he is, Macumazahn, for he does not talk much about himself, but I understand that he comes from the neighbourhood of Heuheua Land, or out of it, for aught I know, and he has been here long enough for me to be able to teach him something of our Zulu language, though that does not 事柄 much since you know Arabic 井戸/弁護士席, do you not?"
"I can talk it, Zikali, and so can Hans, a little."
"井戸/弁護士席, that is his tongue, Macumazahn, or so I believe, which will make things easier. I may tell you at once that he is a strange sort of man, not in the least like any one you would 推定する/予想する, but of that you will 裁判官 for yourself."
I made no answer, but Hans whispered to me that doubtless he was one of the children of the Heu-Heu and just like a 広大な/多数の/重要な monkey. Although he spoke in a low 発言する/表明する, and at a distance Zikali seemed to overhear him, for he 発言/述べるd:
"Then you will feel as though you had 設立する a new brother, is it not so, Light-in-不明瞭?" which, if I have not said so before, was a 肩書を与える that Hans had earned upon a 確かな honourable occasion.
Thereon Hans grew silent, since he dared not show his 憤慨 of this comparison of himself to a monkey to the mighty Opener-of-Roads. I, too, was silent, 存在 占領するd with my own reflections, for now, in a flash, as it were, I saw the whole trick laid 明らかにする of its mysterious and pseudo-magical trappings. A messenger from some strange and distant country had come to Zikali, 需要・要求するing his help for 推論する/理由s that I did not know.
This he had 決定するd to give through me, whom he thought ふさわしい to the 目的. Hence his 賄賂 of the oxen, the news of which he had 伝えるd to me while I was still far off, having in some way become 熟知させるd with my 窮地. Indeed, it looked as though everything had been part of a 計画(する), though of course this was not possible, since Zikali could not have arranged that I should take 避難所 in a particular 洞穴 during a 雷雨.
The sum of it was, however, that I should serve his turn, though what 正確に/まさに that might be I did not know. He said that he 手配中の,お尋ね者 to 得る the leaves of a 確かな tree, which perhaps was true, but I felt sure that there was more behind.
かもしれない his curiosity was excited and he 願望(する)d (警察などへの)密告,告訴(状) about a distant, secret people, since for knowledge of every 肉親,親類d he had a perfect lust. Or perhaps in some occult fashion this Heu-Heu, if there were a Heu-Heu, might be a 競争相手 who stood between him and his 計画(する)s, and therefore was one to be 除去するd.
許すing ninety per cent. of Zikali's supernatural 力/強力にするs to be pure humbug, without 疑問 the remaining ten per cent. were 本物の. Certainly he lived and moved and had his 存在 upon a different 計画(する) from that of ordinary mortals, and was in touch with things and 力/強力にするs of which we are ignorant. Also as I have 推論する/理由 to know, though I do not trouble you with instances, he was in touch with others of the same class or 階層制度 throughout Africa—yes, thousands of miles distant—of whom some may have been his friends and some his enemies but all were mighty in their way.
While I was 反映するing thus and old Zikali was reading my thoughts—as I am sure he did, for I saw him smile in his grim manner and nod his 広大な/多数の/重要な 長,率いる as though in 是認 of my acumen—the servant returned from somewhere, 勧めるing in a tall 人物/姿/数字 picturesquely draped in a fur kaross that covered his 長,率いる 同様に as his 団体/死体. Arrived in 前線 of us, this person threw off the kaross and 屈服するd in salutation, first to Zikali and then to myself. Indeed, so 広大な/多数の/重要な was his politeness that he even honoured Hans in the same way, but with a slighter 屈服する.
I looked at him in amazement, 同様に I might, since before me stood the most beautiful man that I had ever seen. He was tall, something over six feet high, and superbly 形態/調整d, having a 深い chest, a sinewy form, and 手渡すs and feet that would have done credit to a Greek statue. His 直面する, too, was wonderful, if rather sombre, perfectly chiselled and almost white in colour, with 広大な/多数の/重要な dark 注目する,もくろむs, and there was something about it that 示唆するd high and 古代の 血. He looked, indeed, as though he had just stepped straight out of the bygone ages. He might have been an inhabitant of the lost continent of Atlantis or a sun-燃やすd old Greek, for his hair, which was chestnut brown, curled tightly, even where it hung 負かす/撃墜する upon his shoulders, though 非,不,無 grew upon his chin or about the curved lips. Perhaps he was shaven. In short, he was a glorious 見本/標本 of mankind, 異なるing from any other I had seen.
His 衣装, too, was striking and peculiar, although dilapidated; indeed, it might have been ライフル銃/探して盗むd from the 団体/死体 of an Egyptian Pharaoh. It consisted of a linen 式服 that seemed to be 新たな展開d about him, which was broidered at the 辛勝する/優位s with faded purple, a tall and 乱打するd linen headdress 形態/調整d like the lower half of a soda-water 瓶/封じ込める 逆転するd and coming to a point, a leather apron 狭くする at the 最高の,を越す but broadening に向かって the 膝s, also broidered, and sandals of the same 構成要素.
I 星/主役にするd at him amazed, wondering whether he belonged to some people unknown to me, or was another of Zikali's illusions, and so did Hans, for his muddy little 注目する,もくろむs nearly fell out of his 長,率いる and he asked me in a whisper:
"Is he a man, Baas, or a spirit?"
For the 残り/休憩(する) the stranger wore a plain torque or necklet 明らかに of gold, and about him was girdled a cross-hilted sword with an ivory 扱う and a red sheath.
For a while this remarkable person stood before us, his 手渡すs 倍のd and his 長,率いる bent in a humble fashion, though it was really I who should have been humble, 借りがあるing to the physical contrast between us. 明らかに he did not think it proper to speak first, while Zikali squatted there grimly, not helping me at all. At last, seeing that something must be done, I rose from the stool upon which I was seated and held out my 手渡す. After a moment's hesitation the splendid stranger took it, but not to shake in the usual fashion, for he bent his 長,率いる and gently touched my fingers with his lips, as though he were a French courtier and I a pretty lady. I 屈服するd again with the best grace I could 命令(する), then putting my 手渡す in my trouser pocket, said, "How do you do?" and as he did not seem to understand, repeated it in the Zulu word, "Sakubona." This also failing, I 迎える/歓迎するd him in the 指名する of the Prophet in my best Arabic.
Here I struck oil, as an American friend of 地雷 指名するd Brother John used to say, for he replied in the same tongue, or something like it. Speaking in a soft and pleasing 発言する/表明する, but without alluding to the Prophet, he 演説(する)/住所d me as "広大な/多数の/重要な Lord Macumazahn, whose fame and prowess echo across the earth," and a lot of other nonsense, with which I could see that Zikali had stuffed him, that may be omitted.
"Thank you," I 削減(する) in, "thank you, Mr.——?" and I paused.
"My 指名する is Issicore," he said.
"And a very nice 指名する, too, though I never heard one like it," I replied. "井戸/弁護士席, Issicore, what can I do for you?" An 不十分な 発言/述べる, I 収容する/認める, but I 手配中の,お尋ね者 to come to the facts.
"Everything," he answered fervently, 圧力(をかける)ing his 手渡すs to his breast. "You can save from death a most beautiful lady who will love you."
"Will she?" I exclaimed. "Then I will have nothing to do with that 商売/仕事, which always leads to trouble."
Here Zikali broke in for the first time, speaking very slowly to Issicore in Zulu, which I remembered he said he had been teaching him, and 説:
"The Lord Macumazahn is already 十分な of woman's love and has no room for more. Speak not to him of love, O Issicore, lest you should 怒り/怒る the ghost of one who haunts this 位置/汚点/見つけ出す, a 確かな 王室の Mameena whom once he knew too 井戸/弁護士席."
Now I turned upon Zikali, 約束ing to give him a piece of my mind, when Issicore, smiling a little, repeated:
"Who will love you—as a brother."
"That's better," I said, "though I don't know that I want to take on a sister at my time of life, but I suppose you mean that she will be much 強いるd?"
"That is so, O Lord. Also the reward will be 広大な/多数の/重要な."
"Ah!" I replied, really 利益/興味d. "Now be so good as to tell me 正確に/まさに what you want."
井戸/弁護士席, to 削減(する) a long story short, with variations he repeated Zikali's tale. I was to travel to his remote land, bring about the 破壊 of a nebulous monster, or fetish, or system of 宗教, and in 支払い(額) to be given as many diamonds as I could carry.
"But why can't you get rid of your own devil?" I asked. "You look a 軍人 and are big and strong."
"Lord," he replied gently, spreading out his 手渡すs in an 控訴,上告ing fashion, "I am strong and I 信用 that I am 勇敢に立ち向かう, but it cannot be. No man of my people can 勝つ/広く一帯に広がる against the god of my people, if so he may be called. Even to revile him 率直に would bring a 悪口を言う/悪態 upon us; moreover, his priests would 殺人 us——"
"So he has priests?" I interrupted.
"Yes, Lord, the god has priests sworn to his service, evil men as he is evil. O Lord, come, I beseech you, and save Sabeela the beautiful."
"Why are you so 利益/興味d in this lady?" I asked.
"Lord, because she loves me—not as a brother—and I love her. She, the 広大な/多数の/重要な Lady of my land and my cousin, is my betrothed and, if the god is not overthrown, as the fairest of all our maidens she will be taken by the god." Here emotion seemed to 打ち勝つ him, very real emotion, which touched me, for he 屈服するd his 長,率いる and I saw 涙/ほころびs trickle 負かす/撃墜する from his dark 注目する,もくろむs.
"Hearken, Lord," he went on, "there is an 古代の prophecy in my land that this god of ours, whose hideous 形態/調整 hides the spirit of a long-dead 長,指導者, can only be destroyed by one of another race who can see in the night, some man of 広大な/多数の/重要な valour 運命にあるd to be born in 予定 season. Now through our dream-doctors I 原因(となる)d enquiry to be made of this Master of Spirits, who is 指名するd Zikali, for I was in despair and knew what must happen at the 任命するd time. From him I learned that there lived in the south such a man as is spoken of in the prophecy and that his 指名する meant 選挙立会人-by-Night. Then I dared the 旅行 and the 悪口を言う/悪態 and (機の)カム to 捜し出す you, and lo! I have 設立する you."
"Yes," I answered, "you have 設立する one whose native 指名する means 選挙立会人-by-Night, but who cannot see in the dark better than any one else, and is not a hero or very 勇敢に立ち向かう, but only a 仲買人 and a hunter of wild beasts. Yet I tell you, Issicore, that I do not wish to 干渉する with your gods and priests and 部族の 事柄s, or to give 戦う/戦い to some 広大な/多数の/重要な ape, if it 存在するs, on the chance of 収入 a pocketful of 有望な 石/投石するs should I live to take them away, and of getting a bundle of leaves that this doctor 願望(する)s. You had better 捜し出す some other white man with 注目する,もくろむs like a cat's and more strength and courage, Issicore."
"How can I see another when, without 疑問, you are the one 任命するd, Lord? If you will not come, then I return to die with Sabeela, and all is finished."
He paused a few moments, and continued, "Lord, I can 申し込む/申し出 you little, but is not a good 行為 its own reward, and will not the memory of it 料金d your heart through life and death? Because you are noble I beseech you to come, not for what you may 伸び(る), but just because you are noble and will save others from cruelty and wrong. I have spoken—choose."
"Why did you not bring Zikali his accursed leaves yourself?" I asked furiously.
"Lord, I could not come to the place where that tree grows in the garden of Heu-Heu; nor, indeed, did I know that this Master of Spirits needed that 薬/医学. Lord, be noble によれば your nature, which is known afar."
Now I tell you fellows when I heard this I felt flattered. We all think that we are noble at times, but there are precious few who tell us so, and therefore the thing (機の)カム as a pleasant surprise from this extraordinarily dignified, handsome and, if it would appear in his own fashion, 井戸/弁護士席-educated son of Ham—if he were a son of Ham. To my mind, he looked more like a prince in disguise, somebody of unknown but 高度に distinguished race who had walked out of a fairy 調書をとる/予約する. But when I (機の)カム to think of it, that was 正確に/まさに what he said he was. Anyway, he was a most 差別するing person with a singular insight into character. (It did not occur to me at the moment that Zikali was also a 差別するing person with an insight into character which had induced him to bring us two together for secret 目的s of his own. Or that, ーするために impress me, he had stuffed Issicore with the story of a predestined white man, told of in prophecy, who could see in the dark, as, without 疑問, he had done.)
Also the adventure 提案するd was of an order so wild and unusual that it drew me like a magnet. Supposing that I lived to old age, could I, Allan Quatermain, 耐える to look 支援する and remember that I had turned 負かす/撃墜する an 適切な時期 of that sort and was 出発/死ing into the 墓/厳粛/彫る/重大な without knowing if there was or was not a Heu-Heu who snatched away lovely Andromedas—I mean Sabeelas—off 激しく揺するs, and 連合させるd in his hideous personality the 質s of a god or fetish, a ghost, a devil, and a 最高の-gorilla?
Could I bury my two humble talents of adventure and straight 狙撃 in that fashion? Really, I thought not, for if I did, how could I 直面する my own 良心 in those last failing years? And yet there was so much to be said on the other 味方する into which I need not enter. In the end, 存在 unable to (不足などを)補う my mind, I fell into 証拠不十分 and 決定するd to 言及する the 事柄 to 運命/宿命. Yes, I 決定するd to 投げ上げる/ボディチェックする up, using Hans for the spinning coin.
"Hans," I said in Dutch, a tongue which neither of the other two understood, "shall we travel to this man's country, or shall we stay in our own? You have heard all; speak and I will 受託する your judgment. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Baas," said Hans, twirling his hat in his 空いている fashion, "I understand that the Baas, as is usual when he is in a 深い 炭坑,オーケストラ席, 捜し出すs the 知恵 of Hans to get him out—of Hans who has brought him up from a child and taught him most of what he knows; of Hans upon whom his Reverend Father, the Predikant, used to lean as upon a staff, that is, after he had made him into a good Christian. But the 事柄 is important, and before I give my judgment that will settle it one way or another, I would ask a few questions."
Then he wheeled 一連の会議、交渉/完成する, and, 演説(する)/住所ing the 患者 Issicore in his vile Arabic, said:
"Long Baas with a 麻薬中毒の nose, tell me, do you know the way 支援する to this country of yours, and if so, how much of it can be travelled in a wagon?"
"I do," answered Issicore, "and all of it can be travelled in a wagon until the first 範囲 of hills is reached. Also along it there is plenty of game and water, except in the 砂漠 of which you have been told. The 旅行 should take about three moons, though, myself alone, I 遂行するd it in two."
"Good, and if my Baas, Macumazahn, comes to your country, how will he be received?"
"井戸/弁護士席 by most of the people, but not 井戸/弁護士席 by the priests of Heu-Heu, if they think he comes to 害(を与える) the god, and certainly not 井戸/弁護士席 by the Hairy Folk who live in the forest, who are called the Children of the god. With these he must be 用意が出来ている to war, though the prophecy says that he will 征服する/打ち勝つ all of them."
"Is there plenty to eat in your country, and is there タバコ, and something better than water to drink, Long Baas?"
"There is plenty of all these things. There is wealth of every 肉親,親類d, O Counsellor of the White Lord, and all of them shall be his and yours, though," he 追加するd with meaning, "those who have to 取引,協定 with the priests of the god and the Hairy Folk would do 井戸/弁護士席 to drink water, lest they should be 設立する asleep."
"Have you guns there?" Hans asked, pointing to my ライフル銃/探して盗む.
"No, our 武器s are swords and spears, and the Hairy Folk shoot with arrows from 屈服するs."
Hans 中止するd from his questions and began to yawn as though he were tired, as he did so, 星/主役にするing up at the sky where some vultures were wheeling.
"Baas," he said, "how many vultures do you see up there? Is it seven or eight? I have not counted them but I think there are seven."
"No, Hans, there are eight; one, the highest, was hid behind a cloud."
"You are やめる sure that there are eight, Baas?"
"やめる," I answered 怒って. "Why do you ask such silly questions when you can count for yourself?"
Hans yawned again and said, "Then we will go with this 罰金, hook-nosed Baas to the country of Heu-Heu. That is settled."
"What the ジュース do you mean, Hans? What on earth has the number of vultures got to do with the 事柄?"
"Everything, Baas. You see, the 重荷(を負わせる) of this choice was too 激しい for my shoulders, so I 解除するd my 注目する,もくろむs and put up a 祈り to your Reverend Father to help me, and in doing so saw the vultures. Then your Reverend Father in the heaven above seemed to say to me, 'If there are an even number of vultures, Hans, then go; if an 半端物 number, then stop where you are. But, Hans, do not count the vultures. Make my son, the Baas Allan, count them, for then he will not be able to 不平(をいう) at you if things turn out 不正に whether you go or whether you stay behind, and say that you counted wrong or cheated.' And now, Baas, I have had enough of this, and should like to return to our outspan and 診察する those new oxen."
I looked at Hans, speechless with indignation. In my cowardice I had left it to his cunning and experience to decide this 事柄, 事実上 投げ上げる/ボディチェックするing up, as I have said. And what had the little rascal done? He had concocted one of his yarns about my poor old father and 投げ上げる/ボディチェックするd up in his turn, going 半端物 or even on the number of the vultures which he made me count! So angry was I that I 解除するd my foot with meaning, whereon Hans, who had been 推定する/予想するing something of the sort, bolted, and I did not see him again until I got 支援する to the (軍の)野営地,陣営.
"Oho! Oho!" laughed Zikali, "Oho!" while the dignified Issicore 熟考する/考慮するd the scene with 穏やかな astonishment.
Then I turned on Zikali, 説, "A cheat I have called you before, and a cheat I call you again, with all your nonsense about bat-messengers and the tale you have taught to this man as to a prophecy of his people, and the 残り/休憩(する). There is the bat who brought the message, or the dream, or the 見通し, or whatever you like to call it, and all the while he was hidden beneath your eaves," and I pointed to Issicore. "And now I have been tricked into 説 that I will go upon this fool's errand, and as I do not turn my 支援する upon my word, go I must."
"Have you, Macumazahn?" asked Zikali innocently. "You talked with Light-in-不明瞭 in Dutch, which neither I nor this man understood, and therefore we did not know what you said. But, as out of the honesty of your heart you have told us, we understand now, and of course we know, as everyone knows, that your word once spoken is 価値(がある) all the writings of the white men put together, and that only death or sickness will 妨げる you from …を伴ってing Issicore to his own country. Oho 売春婦! It has all come about as I would have it, for 推論する/理由s with which I will not trouble you, Macumazahn."
Now I saw that I was doubly tricked, 攻撃する,衝突する, as it were, with the 権利 バーレル/樽 by Hans and with the left by Zikali. To tell the truth, I had やめる forgotten that he did not understand Dutch, although I remembered it when I began to use that tongue, and that therefore it did not in the least 事柄 what I had said 個人として to Hans. But if Zikali did not understand Dutch, of which after all I am not so sure, at any 率 he understood human nature, and could read thoughts, for he went on:
"Do not boil within yourself, like a マリファナ with a 石/投石する on its lid, Macumazahn, because your crafty foot has slipped and you have repeated 公然と in one tongue what you had already said 内密に in another, and therefore made a 約束 to both of us. For all the while, Macumazahn, you had made that 約束 and your white heart would not have 苦しむd you to swallow it again just because we could not hear it with our ears. No, that 広大な/多数の/重要な white heart of yours would have risen in your throat and shut it 急速な/放蕩な. So kick away the 燃やすing sticks from beneath the water of your 怒り/怒る and let it 中止する from boiling, and go 前へ/外へ as you have 約束d, to see wonderful things and do wonderful 行為s and snatch the pure and innocent out of the 手渡すs of evil gods or men."
"Yes, and 燃やす my fingers, scooping your porridge out of the 炎ing マリファナ, Zikali," I said with a snort.
"Perhaps, Macumazahn, perhaps, for if I had no porridge to be saved, should I have taken all this trouble? But what does that 事柄 to you, to the 勇敢に立ち向かう White Lord who 捜し出すs the truth as a thrown spear 捜し出すs the heart of the 敵? You will find plenty of truth yonder, Macumazahn, new truth, and what does it 事柄 if the spear is a little red after it has reached the heart of things? It can be cleaned again, Macumazahn, it can be cleaned, and まっただ中に many other services, you will have done one to your old friend, Zikali the Cheat."
Here Allan ちらりと見ることd at the clock and stopped.
"I say—do you know what time it is?" he said. "Twenty minutes past one—by the 長,率いる of Chaka. If you fellows want to finish the story to-night, you can do so for yourselves (許可,名誉などを)与えるing to taste. I'm off, or out 狙撃 to-morrow I shan't 攻撃する,衝突する a haystack sitting."
THE BLACK RIVER
On the に引き続いて evening, pleasantly tired after a 資本/首都 day's 狙撃 and a good dinner, once more the four of us—Curtis, Good, myself (the Editor) and old Allan—were gathered 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 in his comfortable den at "The Grange."
"Now then, Allan," I said, "get on with your tale."
"What tale?" he asked, pretending to forget, for he was always a bad starter where his own reminiscences were 関心d.
"That about the monkey-man and the fellow who looked like Apollo," answered Good. "I dreamt about it all night, and that I 救助(する)d the lady—a dark girl dressed in blue—and that just as I was about to receive a 井戸/弁護士席-earned kiss of thanks, she changed her mind and turned into 石/投石する."
"Which is just what she would have done if she had any sense in her 長,率いる and you were 関心d, Good," said Allan 厳しく, 追加するing, "Perhaps it was your dream that made you shoot more vilely than usual to-day. I saw you 行方不明になる eight cock pheasants in succession at that last corner."
"And I saw you kill eighteen in succession at the first," replied Good cheerily, "so you see the 普通の/平均(する) was all 権利. Now then, get on with the romance. I like romance in the evening after a dose of the hard facts of life in the 形態/調整 of impossible cock pheasants."
"Romance!" began Allan indignantly. "Am I romantic? Pray do not 混乱させる me with yourself, Good."
Here I 介入するd imploring him not to waste time in arguing with Good, who was unworthy of his notice, and at last, mollified, he began.
Now I am in a hurry and want to be done with this 職業 that 乾燥した,日照りのs up my throat—who, having lived so much alone, am not used to talking like a 政治家,政治屋—and makes me drink more whisky and water than I ought. You are in a hurry, too, all of you, 特に Good, who wants to get to the end of the story in order that he may argue about it and try to show that he would have managed much better, and you, my friend, because you have to leave to-morrow morning 早期に and must see to your packing before you get to bed. Therefore, I am going to skip a lot, all about our 旅行, for instance, although, in fact, it was one of the most 利益/興味ing treks I ever made, and for much of the way through a country that was やめる new to me, about which one might 令状 a 調書をとる/予約する.
I will 簡単に say, therefore, that in 予定 course after some necessary 延期する to re-pack the wagon, leaving behind all articles that were not 手配中の,お尋ね者 in Zikali's 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金, we trekked from the 黒人/ボイコット Kloof. The oxen that I had bought—on credit—from Zikali were in the yokes, and we drove with us his two extra beasts as 井戸/弁護士席 as four of the best of my old team to serve as spares.
Also I took, in 新規加入 to my own driver and voorlooper, Mavoon and Induka, two other Zulus, Zikali's servants, who I knew would be faithful because they 恐れるd their terrible master, although I knew also that they would 秘かに調査する upon me and, if ever they returned alive, make 報告(する)/憶測 of everything to him.
井戸/弁護士席, leaving out all the 詳細(に述べる)s of this remarkable trek in which we met with no fighting, 災害s, or 広大な/多数の/重要な troubles and always had plenty to eat, game 存在 非常に/多数の throughout, I will (問題を)取り上げる the tale on our arrival, 安全な and sound, at the first line of hills that I show upon the 地図/計画する, of which Zikali had spoken as 国境ing the 砂漠. Here we were 強いるd to leave the wagon, for it was impossible to get it over the hills or through the 砂漠 beyond.
This, fortunately, we were able to do at a little village of peaceable folk who lived in a charming and 井戸/弁護士席-watered 状況/情勢, and, having no 近づく 隣人s, were able to cultivate their lands unmolested. I placed it in the 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金 of Mavoon and Induka, whom I could 信用 and who would not run away, also the oxen, of which, by good fortune, we had only lost three. With them, as Issicore 宣言するd that we must go on alone, I left Zikali's servants, knowing that they would keep an 注目する,もくろむ on my men, and my men on them, and 約束d the headman of the village a good 現在の if we 設立する everything 安全な on our return.
He said that he would do his best, but 追加するd impressively—he was a melancholy person—that if we were going to the country of Heu-Heu we never should return, as it was a land of devils. In that event he asked what was to happen to the wagon and goods. I replied that I had given orders that if I did not 再現する within a year, it was to trek 支援する to whence we (機の)カム and 発表する that we were gone, but that he need not be afraid as, 存在 a 広大な/多数の/重要な magician, I knew that we should be 支援する long before that time.
He shrugged his shoulders, looking doubtfully at Issicore, and there the conversation ended. However, I 説得するd him to lend us three of his people to guide us across the mountains and to carry water through the 砂漠 on the understanding that they should be 許すd to return as soon as we sighted the 押し寄せる/沼地. Nothing would induce them to go nearer to the country of Heu-Heu.
So in 予定 course off we started, leaving Mavoon and Induka almost in 涙/ほころびs, for the gloom of the headman had spread to them and they too believed that they would see us no more. Hans, it is true, they never would have 行方不明になるd, since they hated him as he hated them, but in my 事例/患者 the 事柄 was different because they loved me in their own way.
Our baggage was light: ライフル銃/探して盗むs (I took a 二塁打-barrelled 表明する), as much 弾薬/武器 as we could manage, some 薬/医学s, 一面に覆う/毛布s, etc., a few spare 着せる/賦与するs and boots for myself, a couple of revolvers and as many 大型船s of one sort or another as possible to carry water, 含むing two paraffin tins slung at either end of a piece of 支持を得ようと努めるd after the fashion of a milkman's yoke. Also we had タバコ, a good 供給(する) of matches, candles, and a bundle of 乾燥した,日照りのd biltong to eat in 事例/患者 we 設立する no game. It doesn't sound much, but before we got across that 砂漠 I felt inclined to throw away half of it; indeed, I don't think we could have got the stuff over the mountain pass, which 証明するd to be precipitous, without the 援助 of the three water-持参人払いのs.
It took us twelve hours to reach and cross that mountain's crest, just beneath which we (軍の)野営地,陣営d, and another six to descend the other 味方する next day. At its foot was thin, tussocky grass with 時折の thorn trees growing in a barren veldt that by degrees 合併するd into 砂漠. By the last water we (軍の)野営地,陣営d for the second night; then, having filled up all our 大型船s, started out into the arid, sandy wilderness.
Now, you fellows know what an African 砂漠 is, for we went through a worse one than this on our 旅行 to Solomon's 地雷s. Still, the particular 見本/標本 I am speaking of was pretty bad. To begin with, the heat was tremendous. Then, in parts, it consisted of rolling slopes or waves of sand, up which we must 緊急発進する and 負かす/撃墜する which we must slide—a most exhausting 過程. その上の, there grew in it a variety of 厚い-leaved 工場/植物 with sharp spines that, if touched, 原因(となる)d a painful soreness, which abominable and useless growths made it impossible to travel at night, or even if the light were low, when they could not be seen and 避けるd.
We spent three days crossing that wretched 砂漠, that had another peculiarity. Here and there in its waste, columns of 石/投石するs, polished by blowing sand, stood up like obelisks, いつかs in one piece, monoliths, and いつかs in several, piled on each other. I suppose that they were the remains of strata: hard 核心s that had resisted the 活動/戦闘 of 勝利,勝つd and water, which in the course of thousands or millions of years had worn away the softer 激しく揺する, grinding it to dust.
Those obelisk-like columns gave a very strange 外見 to that wilderness, 示唆するing the idea of monuments; also, incidentally, they were useful, since it was by them that our water-耐えるing guides, who were accustomed to haunt the place to kill ostriches or to steal their eggs, steered their path. Of these ostriches we saw a good number, which showed that the 砂漠 could not be so very wide, since in it there seemed to be nothing for them to live on, unless they ate the prickly 工場/植物s. There was no other life in the place.
Fortunately, by dint of economy and self-否定, our water held out, until on the afternoon of the third day, as we trudged along parched and 疲れた/うんざりした, from the crest of one of the sand waves we saw far off a patch of dense green that 示すd the end, or, rather, the beginning, of the 押し寄せる/沼地. Now our 協定 with the guides was that when they (機の)カム in sight of this 押し寄せる/沼地 they should return, for which 目的 we had saved some of the water for them to drink on their homeward 旅行.
After a 簡潔な/要約する 協議, however, they 決定するd to come on with us, and when I asked why, wheeled 一連の会議、交渉/完成する and pointed to dense clouds that were 集会 in the heavens behind us. These clouds, they explained, foretold a sand tempest in which no man could live in the 砂漠. Therefore they 勧めるd us 今後 at all 速度(を上げる); indeed, exhausted as we were, we covered the last three miles between us and the 辛勝する/優位 of the 押し寄せる/沼地 at a run. As we reached the reeds the 嵐/襲撃する burst, but still we 急落(する),激減(する)d 今後 through them, till we (機の)カム to a 位置/汚点/見つけ出す where they grew 密集して and where, by digging 炭坑,オーケストラ席s in the mud with our 手渡すs, we could get water which, 厚い as it was, we drank greedily. Here we crouched for hours while the 嵐/襲撃する 激怒(する)d.
It was a terrific sight, for now the 直面する of the 砂漠 behind was hidden by clouds of driven sand, which even の中で the reeds fell upon us thickly, so that occasionally we had to rise to shake its 負わせる off us. Had we still been in the 砂漠, we should have been buried alive. As it was we escaped, though half choked and with our 肌s fretted by the wear of the 粒子s of sand.
So we squatted all night till before 夜明け the 嵐/襲撃する 中止するd and the sun rose in a perfectly (疑いを)晴らす sky. Having drunk more water, of which we seemed to need enormous 量s, we struggled 支援する to the 辛勝する/優位 of the 押し寄せる/沼地 and from the crest of a sand wave looked about us. Issicore stretched out his arm に向かって the north and touched me on the shoulder. I looked, and far away, staining the delicate blue of the heavens, perceived a dark, mushroom-形態/調整d patch of vapour.
"It is a cloud," I said. "Let us go 支援する to the reeds; the 嵐/襲撃する is returning."
"No, Lord," he answered, "it is the smoke from the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 Mountain of my country."
I 熟考する/考慮するd it and said nothing, 反映するing, however, that in this particular, at any 率, Zikali had not lied. If so, was it not possible that he had spoken truth about other 事柄s also? If there 存在するd a 火山 as yet unreported by any explorer, might there not also be a buried city filled with petrified people, and even a Heu-Heu? No, in Heu-Heu I could not believe.
Here, after they had filled themselves and their gourds with water, the three natives from the village left us, 説 that they would go no さらに先に and that they could now 出発/死 安全に as the sandstorm would not return for some weeks. They 追加するd that our 魔法 must be very strong, since had we 延期するd even for a few hours we should certainly all have been killed.
So they 出発/死d, and we (軍の)野営地,陣営d by the reeds, hoping to 残り/休憩(する) after our exhausting 旅行. In this, however, we were disappointed, for as soon as the sun went 負かす/撃墜する we became aware that this 広大な area of swampy land was the haunt of countless game that (機の)カム thither, I suppose, from all the country 一連の会議、交渉/完成する ーするために drink and to fill themselves with its succulent growths.
By the light of the moon I saw 広大な/多数の/重要な herds of elephants appearing out of the 影をつくる/尾行するs and marching majestically に向かって the water. Also there were 軍隊/機動隊s of buffalo, some of which broke out of the reeds showing that they had hidden there during the day, and almost every 肉親,親類d of antelope in plenty, while in the morass itself we could hear sea cows wallowing and grunting, and 広大な/多数の/重要な splashes which I suppose were 原因(となる)d by 脅すd crocodiles leaping into pools.
Nor was this all, since so much animal life upon which they could prey attracted many lions that coughed and roared and slew によれば their nature. Whenever one of them sprang on to some helpless buck, a 殺到 of all the game in the neighbourhood would follow. The noise they made 衝突,墜落ing through the reeds was terrific, so much so that sleep was impossible. Moreover, there was always a 可能性 that the lions might be tempted to try a change of diet and eat us, 特に as we had no bushes with which to form a boma, or 盗品故買者. So we made a big 解雇する/砲火/射撃 of 乾燥した,日照りの, last year's reeds, of which, fortunately, there were many standing 近づく, and kept watch.
Once or twice I saw the long 形態/調整 of a lion pass us, but I did not 解雇する/砲火/射撃 for 恐れる lest I should 負傷させる the beast only and perhaps 原因(となる) it to 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金. In short, the place was a veritable sportsman's 楽園, and yet やめる useless from a hunter's point of 見解(をとる), since, if he killed elephants, it would be impossible to carry the ivory across the 砂漠, and only a boy 願望(する)s to 虐殺(する) game ーするために leave it to rot. At 夜明け, it is true, I did shoot a reed buck for food, which was the only 発射 I 解雇する/砲火/射撃d.
As まっただ中に all this hubbub the idea of sleep must be abandoned, I took the 適切な時期 to question Issicore about his country and what lay before us there. During our 旅行 I had not talked much to him on the 事柄, since he seemed very silent and reserved, all his energies 存在 concentrated upon 押し進めるing 今後 as quickly as possible; also, there was no 反対する in doing so while we were still far away. Now, however, I thought that the time had come for a talk.
In answer to my queries, he said that if we travelled hard, by marching 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the 狭くする western end of the 押し寄せる/沼地, in three days we should arrive at the mouth of the gorge 負かす/撃墜する which the river ran that flowed through the mountains surrounding his country. These mountains, I should 追加する, we had sighted as a 黒人/ボイコット line in the distance almost as soon as we entered the 砂漠, which showed that they were high. Here, if we reached it without 事故, he hoped to find a boat waiting in which we could be paddled to his town, though why anybody should be 推定する/予想するing us I could not elicit from him.
Leaving that question 未解決の, I asked him about this town and its inhabitants. He replied that it was large and 含む/封じ込めるd a 広大な/多数の/重要な number of people, though not so many as it used to do in bygone 世代s. The race was dwindling, partly from intermarriage and partly because of the terror in which they lived, that made the women unwilling to 耐える children lest these should be snatched away by the Hairy Folk who dwelt in the surrounding forest, or perhaps sacrificed to the god himself. I 問い合わせd whether he really believed that there was such a god, and he replied with earnestness that certainly he did, as once he had seen him, though from some way off, and he was so awful that description was impossible. I must 裁判官 of him for myself when we met—an occasion that I began to wish might be 避けるd.
I cross-診察するd him 断固としてやる about this god, but with small result, for the 支配する seemed to be one on which he did not care to dwell. I gathered, however, that he, Issicore, had been in a canoe when he saw Heu-Heu on a 激しく揺する at 夜明け, surrounded by women, upon the occasion of some sacrifice, and that he had not looked much at him because he was afraid to do so. He 公式文書,認めるd, however, that he was taller than a man and walked stiffly. He 追加するd that Heu-Heu never (機の)カム to the 本土/大陸, though his priests did.
Then, dropping the 支配する of Heu-Heu, he went on to tell me of the system of 政府 amongst the Walloos, which, it appeared, was an hereditary chieftainship that could be held either by men or women. The 現在の 長,指導者, an old man, like the people was 指名するd Walloo, as indeed were all the 長,指導者s of the tribe in succession, for "Walloo" was really a 肩書を与える which he thought had come with them from whatever land they 住むd in the dark, forgotten ages. He had but one child living, a daughter, the lady Sabeela, of whom he had spoken to me at the hut of the Opener-of-Roads, she who was doomed to sacrifice. He, Issicore, was her second cousin, 存在 descended from the brother of her grandfather, and therefore of the pure Walloo 血.
"Then if this lady died, I suppose you would be the 長,指導者, Issicore?" I said.
"Yes, Lord, by 降下/家系," he answered; "yet perhaps not so. There is another 力/強力にする in the land greater than that of the kings or 長,指導者s—the 力/強力にする of the priests of Heu-Heu. It is their 目的, Lord, should Sabeela die, to 掴む the chieftainship for themselves. A 確かな Dacha, who is also of the pure Walloo 血, is the 長,指導者 priest, and he has sons to follow him."
"Then it is to this Dacha's 利益/興味 that Sabeela should die?"
"It is to his 利益/興味, Lord, that she should die and I also, or, better still, both of us together, for then his part would be (疑いを)晴らす."
"But what of her father, the Walloo? He cannot 願望(する) the death of his only child."
"Nay, Lord, he loves her much and 願望(する)s that she should marry me. But, as I have said, he is an old man and terror-haunted. He 恐れるs the god, who already has taken one of his daughters; he 恐れるs the priests, who are the oracles of the god, and, it is said, 殺人d his son as they have striven to 殺人 me. Therefore, 存在 frozen by 恐れる, he is 権力のない, and without his leadership 非,不,無 can 行為/法令/行動する, since all must be done in the 指名する of the Walloo and by his 当局. Yet it was he also who sent me to 捜し出す for help from the 広大な/多数の/重要な wizard of the South with whom he and his fathers have had 取引 in bygone years. Yes, because of the 古代の prophecy that the god could only be overthrown and the tyranny of the priests be broken by a white man from the South, he sent me, who am the betrothed of his daughter, 内密に and without the knowledge of Dacha, and because of Sabeela I dared the 悪口を言う/悪態 and went, for which 行為 perchance I must 支払う/賃金 dearly. He it is also who watches for my return."
"And if he 存在するs, which you have not 証明するd to me, how am I to kill this god, Issicore? By 狙撃 him?"
"I do not know, Lord. It is believed that he cannot be 害(を与える)d by 武器s, over whom only 解雇する/砲火/射撃 and water have 力/強力にする, since legend tells that he (機の)カム out of the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 and certainly he lives surrounded by water. The prophecy does not say how he will be killed by the stranger from the South."
Now, listening to this weird talk in that wild-beast-peopled wilderness from the mouth of a man who evidently was very 脅すd, and 疲れた/うんざりしたd as I was, I 自白する that I grew 脅すd also, and wished most heartily that I had never been beguiled into this adventure. Probably the terrible god, of whom I could learn no 詳細(に述べる)s, question as I would, was nothing but an 発明 of the priests, or perhaps one of their number disguised. But, however this might be, no 疑問 I was travelling to a fetish-ridden land in which witchcraft and 殺人 were はびこる; in short, one of Satan's peculiar 所有/入手s. Yes, I, Allan Quatermain, was brought here to play the part of a modern Hercules and clean out this Augean stable of 流血/虐殺 and superstitions, to say nothing of fighting the lion in the 形態/調整 of Heu-Heu, always supposing that there was a Heu-Heu, a creature taller than a man that "walked stiffly," whom Issicore believed he had once seen from a distance at 夜明け.
However, I was in for it, and to show 恐れる would be as useless as it was undignified, since, unless I turned and ran 支援する into the 砂漠, which my pride would never 苦しむ me to do, I could see no escape. Having put my 手渡す to the plough I must finish the furrow. So I sat silent, making no comment upon Issicore's rather nebulous (警察などへの)密告,告訴(状). Only after a while I asked him casually when this sacrifice was to take place, to which he replied with evident agitation:
"On the night of the 十分な 収穫 moon, which is this moon, fourteen days from now; wherefore we must hurry, since at best it will take us five days to reach the town of Walloo, three in travelling 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the 押し寄せる/沼地 and two upon the river. Do not 延期する, Lord, I pray you do not 延期する, lest we should be too late and find Sabeela gone."
"No," I answered, "I shall not be late, and I can 保証する you, my friend Issicore, that the sooner I am through with this 商売/仕事 one way or another, the better I shall be pleased. And now that all those beasts in the 押し寄せる/沼地 seem to have grown a little quieter I will try to go to sleep."
Happily I was successful in this 成果/努力 and 得るd several hours' sound 残り/休憩(する), which I needed sorely, before the sun appeared and Hans woke me. I rose, and, taking my ライフル銃/探して盗む, 発射 a fat reed-buck, which I selected out of a number which stood やめる の近くに by, a young 女性(の) off which we breakfasted, for, as you know, if the meat of antelopes is cooked before it grows 冷淡な it is often as tender as though it had been hung for a week. The 半端物 thing was that the sound of the 発射 did not seem to 乱す the other beasts at all; evidently they had never heard anything of the sort before, and thought that their companion was just lying 負かす/撃墜する.
An hour later we started on our long tramp 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the 辛勝する/優位 of that 押し寄せる/沼地. I did not like to march before for 恐れる lest we should get into 複雑化s with the herds of elephants and other animals that were trekking out of it in all directions with the light, though where they went to 料金d I am sure I do not know. In all my life I never saw such 量s of game as had collected in this place, which probably furnished the only water for many miles 一連の会議、交渉/完成する.
However, as I have said, it was of no use to us, and therefore our 反対する was to keep as (疑いを)晴らす of it as possible. Even then we つまずくd 権利 on to a sleeping white rhinoceros with the longest horn that ever I saw. It must have 手段d nearly six feet, and anywhere else would have been a 広大な/多数の/重要な prize. Fortunately the 勝利,勝つd was blowing from it to us, so it did not smell us and 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金d off in another direction, for, as you know, the rhinoceros is almost blind.
Now I am not going to give all the 詳細(に述べる)s of that interminable trudge through sand, for in the mud of the 押し寄せる/沼地 we could not walk at all. During the day we were scorched by the heat and at night we were tormented by mosquitoes and 乱すd by the noise of the game and the roaring of lions, which fortunately, 存在 so 十分な fed, never (性的に)いたずらするd us. By the third night, 耐えるing always to the 権利, we had come やめる の近くに to the mountain 範囲, which, although it was not so very lofty, seemed to be 絶対 precipitous, 直面するd, indeed, by sheer cliffs that rose to a 高さ of from five to eight hundred feet. To what 驚くべき/特命の/臨時の 地質学の 条件s these 黒人/ボイコット cliffs and the 砂漠 by which they were surrounded 借りがある their origin, I am sure I do not know, but there they were, and no 疑問 are.
Before sunset on this third day, by Issicore's direction, we collected a 抱擁する pile of 乾燥した,日照りのd reeds, which we 始める,決める upon the crest of a sand 塚, and after dark 解雇する/砲火/射撃d them, so that for a 4半期/4分の1 of an hour or so they 燃やすd in a 有望な column of 炎上. Issicore gave no explanation of this 訴訟/進行, but as Hans 発言/述べるd, doubtless it was a signal to his friends. Next morning, at his request, we started on before the 夜明け, taking our chances of 会合 with elephants or buffaloes, and at sunrise 設立する ourselves 権利 under the cliffs.
An hour later, に引き続いて a little bay in them where there was no 押し寄せる/沼地, because here the ground rose, of a sudden we turned a corner and perceived a tall, white-式服d man with a big spear standing upon a 激しく揺する, evidently keeping a look-out. As soon as he saw us he leapt 負かす/撃墜する from his 激しく揺する with the agility of a klip-springer and (機の)カム に向かって us.
After one curious ちらりと見ること at me he went straight to Issicore, knelt 負かす/撃墜する and, taking his 手渡す, 圧力(をかける)d it to his forehead, which showed me that our guide was a venerated person. Then they conversed together in low トンs, after which Issicore (機の)カム to me and said that so far all was 井戸/弁護士席, as our 解雇する/砲火/射撃 had been seen and a big canoe を待つd us. We went on, guided by the 歩哨, and after one turn suddenly (機の)カム on やめる a large river, which had been hidden by the reeds. To the left appeared this 深い, slow-flowing river; to the 権利, within a hundred paces, indeed, it changed into 押し寄せる/沼地 or morass, of which the pools were fringed with very tall and beautiful papyrus 工場/植物s, such open water as there was 存在 almost covered by every 肉親,親類d of wild fowl that rose in flocks with a deafening clamour. This stream, the 黒人/ボイコット River, as the Walloos called it, was 国境d on either 味方する by precipices through which I suppose it had 削減(する) its way in the course of millenniums, so high and 差し迫った that they seemed almost to 会合,会う above, leaving the surface of the water nearly dark. It was a stream 暗い/優うつな as the Roman Styx, and, ちらりと見ることing at it, I half 推定する/予想するd to see Charon and his boat approaching to 列/漕ぐ/騒動 us to the Infernal fields. Indeed, into my mind there floated a memory of the poet's lines, which I hope I 引用する 正確に:
In Kubla 旅宿泊所 a river ran Through caverns measureless to man, 負かす/撃墜する to a sunless sea.
I 自白する honestly that the 面 of the place filled me with 恐れる: it was forbidding—indeed, unholy—and I marvelled what 肉親,親類d of a sunless sea lay beyond this hell gate. Had I been alone, or with Hans only, I 収容する/認める that I should have turned tail and marched 支援する 一連の会議、交渉/完成する that 押し寄せる/沼地, upon which, at any 率, the sun shone, and, if I could, across the 砂漠 beyond to where I had left the wagon. But in the presence of the stately Issicore and his myrmidon, this I could not do because of my white man's pride. No, I must go on to the end, whatever it might be.
If I was 脅すd, Hans was much more so, for his teeth began to chatter with terror.
"Oh, Baas," he said, "if this is the door, what will the house beyond be like?"
"That we shall learn in 予定 course," I answered, "so there is no good in thinking about it."
"Follow me, Lord," said Issicore, after some その上の talk with his companion.
I did so, …を伴ってd by Hans, who stuck to me as closely as possible. We 前進するd 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the 激しく揺する and discovered a little indent in the bank of the river where a 広大な/多数の/重要な canoe, hollowed 明らかに from a 選び出す/独身 抱擁する tree, or rather its prow, was drawn up on the sandy shore. In this canoe sat sixteen rowers or paddle-men—I remember there were sixteen of them because at the time Hans 発言/述べるd that the number was the same as that of a wagon team and subsequently called these paddlers "water oxen."
As we approached they 解除するd their paddles in salute, 明らかに of Issicore, since of me and my companion, except by swift, surreptitious ちらりと見ることs, they took no notice.
With a 肉親,親類d of silent, unobtrusive haste Issicore 原因(となる)d our small baggage, which consisted 主として of cartridge 捕らえる、獲得するs, to be stowed away in the prow of the canoe that for a few feet was hollowed out in such a fashion that it made a 肉親,親類d of cupboard roofed with solid 支持を得ようと努めるd, and showed us where to sit. Next he entered it himself, while the 警戒/見張り man ran 負かす/撃墜する the canoe and took 持つ/拘留する of the steering oar.
Then at a word all the paddlers 支援する-watered and the (手先の)技術 slid off the sandy beach into the river which was 十分な to the banks, almost in flood indeed. It seemed that here the rain had been nearly incessant for some months and the lowering sky showed that ere long there was much more to come.
THE WALLOO
In perfect stillness, except for the sound of the dipping of the paddles in the water, we glided away very 速く up the placid river. I think that nothing upon this strange 旅行, or at any 率 during the first part of it, struck me more than its quietness. The water was still, flowing 平和的に between its rocky 塀で囲むs に向かって the 砂漠 in which it would be lost, just as the life of some good man flows に向かって death. The rocky precipices on either 味方する were still; they were so 法外な that on them nothing which breathed could find a 地盤, except bats, perhaps, that do not 動かす in the daytime. The riband of grey sky above us was still, though occasionally a draught of 空気/公表する blew between the cliffs with a moaning noise, such as one might imagine to be 原因(となる)d by the passing 勝利,勝つd of spiritual wings. But stillest of all were those rowers who for hour after hour 労働d at their 仕事 in silence, and with a curious intentness, or, if speak they must, did so only in a whisper.
徐々に an impression of nightmare stole over me; I felt as though I were a sleeper taking part in the 演劇 of a dream. Perhaps, in fact, this was so, since I was very tired, having 残り/休憩(する)d but little for a good many nights and 労働d hard during the day trudging through the sand with a 激しい ライフル銃/探して盗む and a 負担 of cartridges upon my 支援する. So really I may have been in a doze, such as is easily induced in any circumstances by the sound of lapping water. If so, it was not a pleasant dream, for the titanic surroundings in which I 設立する myself and the dread 可能性s of the whole 企業 抑圧するd my spirit with a sensation of 出発 from the familiar things of life into something unholy and unknown.
Soon the cliffs grew so high and the light so faint that I could only just see the 厳しい, handsome 直面するs of the rowers appearing as they bent 今後 to their ordered 一打/打撃, and 消えるing into the gloom as they leant 支援する after it was 遂行するd. The very regularity of the 成果/努力 produced a 肉親,親類d of mesmeric 影響 which was unpleasant. The 直面するs looked to me like those of ghosts peeping at one through 割れ目s of the curtains 一連の会議、交渉/完成する a bed, then 消えるing, continually to return and peep again.
I suppose that at last I went to sleep in good earnest. It was a haunted sleep, however, for I dreamed that I was entering into some 薄暗い Hades where all realities had been 取って代わるd by 影をつくる/尾行するs, strengthless but alarming.
At length I was awakened by the 発言する/表明する of Issicore, 説 that we had come to the place where we must 残り/休憩(する) for the night, as it was impossible to travel in the dark and the rowers were 疲れた/うんざりした. Here the cliffs 広げるd out a little, leaving a (土地などの)細長い一片 of shore upon either 味方する of the river, upon which we landed. By the last light that struggled to us from the line of sky above we ate such food as we had, 補足(する)d by 薄焼きパン/素焼陶器s of a sort that were carried in the canoe, for no 解雇する/砲火/射撃 was lighted. Before we had finished, dense 不明瞭 fell upon us, for the moonbeams were not strong enough to 侵入する into that place, so that there was nothing to be done except 嘘(をつく) 負かす/撃墜する upon the sand and sleep with the wailing of the night 空気/公表する between the cliffs for lullaby.
The night passed somehow. It seemed so long that I began to think or dream that I must be dead and waiting for my next incarnation, and when occasionally I half woke up, was only 安心させるd by 審理,公聴会 Hans at my 味方する muttering 祈りs in his sleep to my old father, of which the 実体 was that he should be 供給するd with a half-gallon 瓶/封じ込める of gin! At last a 星/主役にする that shone in the 黒人/ボイコット riband far above 消えるd and the riband turned blue, or, rather, grey, which showed that it was 夜明け. We rose and つまずくd into the canoe, for it was impossible to see where to place our feet, and started. Within a few hundred yards of our sleeping place suddenly the cliffs that hemmed in the river 広げるd out, so that now they rose at a distance of a mile or more from either bank of flat, water-levelled land.
These banks, which here were 法外な, were 着せる/賦与するd with 広大な/多数の/重要な, dark-coloured, spreading trees of which the boughs 事業/計画(する)d far over the water and 削減(する) off the light almost as much as the precipices had done lower 負かす/撃墜する the stream. Thus we travelled in gloom, 特に as the sun was not yet up. Presently through this gloom, to which my trained 注目する,もくろむs had grown accustomed, I thought that I caught sight of tall, dark-hued 人物/姿/数字s moving between the trees. いつかs these 人物/姿/数字s seemed to stand upright and walk upon their feet, and いつかs to run 速く upon all fours.
"Look, Hans," I whispered—everyone whispered in that place—"there are 粗野な人間s!"
"粗野な人間s, Baas!" he answered. "Were ever 粗野な人間s such a size? No, they are devils."
Now from behind me Issicore also whispered:
"They are the Hairy Men who dwell in the forest, Lord. Be silent, I pray you, lest they should attack us."
Then he began to 協議する with the rowers in low トンs, 明らかに as to whether we should go on or turn 支援する. Finally we went on, paddling at a 二塁打 pace. A moment later a sound arose in that 薄暗い forest, a sound of indescribable weirdness that was half an animal grunt and half a human cry, which to my ears 形態/調整d itself into the syllables, "Heu-Heu!" In an instant it was taken up upon all 味方するs, and from everywhere (機の)カム this wail of "Heu-Heu!" which was so horrid to hear that my hair stood up even straighter than usual. Listening to it, I understood whence (機の)カム the 指名する of the god I had travelled so far to visit.
Nor was this all, for there followed 激しい splashes in the water, like to those made by 急落(する),激減(する)ing crocodiles, and in the 深い 影をつくる/尾行する beneath the spreading trees I saw hideous 長,率いるs swimming に向かって us.
"The Hairy Folk have smelt us," whispered Issicore again, in a 発言する/表明する that I thought perturbed. "Do nothing, Lord; they are very curious. Perhaps when they have looked they will go away."
"And if they don't?" I asked—a question to which he returned no answer.
The canoe was steered over に向かって the left bank and driven 今後 at 広大な/多数の/重要な 速度(を上げる) with all the strength of the rowers. Now in the space of open water, upon which the light began to 向こうずね more 堅固に, I saw a beast-like, bearded 長,率いる that yet undoubtedly was human, yellow-注目する,もくろむd, 厚い-lipped, with strong, gleaming teeth, coming に向かって us at the 速度(を上げる) of a very strong swimmer, for it had entered the water above us and was travelling 石油精製. It reached us, 解除するd up a powerful arm that was 完全に covered with brown hair like to that of a monkey, caught 持つ/拘留する of the gunwale of the boat just opposite to where I sat, and 後部d its shoulders out of the water, その為に showing me that its 広大な/多数の/重要な 団体/死体 was for the most part also covered with long hair.
Now its other 手渡す was also on the gunwale, and it stood in the water, 残り/休憩(する)ing on its 武器, the hideous 長,率いる so の近くに to me that its stinking breath blew into my 直面する. Yes, there it stood and jabbered at me. I 自白する that I was terrified who never before had seen a creature like this. Still, for a while I sat 静かな.
Then of a sudden I felt that I could 耐える no more, who believed that the brute was about to get into the boat, or perhaps to drag me out of it. I lost 支配(する)/統制する of myself, and 製図/抽選 my 激しい 追跡(する)ing-knife—the one you see on the 塀で囲む there, friends—I struck at the 手渡す that was nearest. The blow fell upon the fingers and 削減(する) one of them 権利 off so that it fell into the canoe. With an appalling yell the man or beast let go and 急落(する),激減(する)d into the water, where I saw him waving his bleeding 手渡す above his 長,率いる.
Issicore began to say something to me in 脅すd トンs, but just then Hans ejaculated:
"Allemaghter! here's another!" and a second 抱擁する 長,率いる and 団体/死体 後部d itself up, this time on his 味方する.
"Do nothing!" I heard Issicore exclaim. But the 外見 of the creature was too much for Hans, who drew his revolver and 解雇する/砲火/射撃d two 発射s in 早い succession into its 団体/死体. It also 宙返り/暴落するd 支援する into the water, where it began to wallow, 叫び声をあげるing, but in a thinner 発言する/表明する. I thought, and rightly, that it must be 女性(の).
Before the echo of the 発射s had died away there rose another hideous chorus of Heu-Heus and other cries, all of them savage and terrible. From both banks more of the creatures precipitated themselves into the water, but luckily not to attack us because they were too much 占領するd with the 苦境 of their companion. They congregated 一連の会議、交渉/完成する her and dragged her to the shore. Yes, I saw them 解除する the 団体/死体 out of the stream, for by this time I was sure from its hanging 武器 and 脚s that it was dead, an 行為/法令/行動する which showed me that although they had the 形態/調整 and the covering of beasts, in fact they were human.
"Elephants will do as much," interrupted Curtis.
"Yes," said Allan, "that is true. いつかs they will; I have seen it twice. But everything about the behaviour of those Hairy Men was human. For instance, their wailing over the dead, which was dreadful and reminded me of the tales of banshees. Moreover, I had not far to look for proof. At my feet lay the finger that I had 削減(する) off. It was a human finger, only very 厚い, short, and covered with hair, having the nail worn 負かす/撃墜する, too, doubtless in climbing trees and grubbing for roots."
Even then with a shock I realized that I had つまずくd on the 行方不明の Link, or something that 似ているd it very 堅固に. Here in this unknown 位置/汚点/見つけ出す still 生き残るd a people such as were our forefathers hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago. Also I 反映するd that I せねばならない be proud, for I had made a 広大な/多数の/重要な 発見, although, to tell the truth, just then I should have been やめる willing to 辞職する its glory to someone else.
After this I began to 反映する upon other things, for a large jagged 石/投石する whizzed within an インチ of my 長,率いる, and presently was followed by a rude arrow tipped with fish bone that stuck in the 味方する of the canoe.
まっただ中に a にわか雨 of these ミサイルs, which fortunately, beyond a bruise or two, did us no 害(を与える), we 長,率いるd out into 中央の-stream again where they could not reach us, and as no more of the Hairy People swam from the banks to 削減(する) us off, soon were 追求するing our way in peace. For once, however, the imperturbable Issicore was much 乱すd. He (機の)カム 今後 and sat by me and said:
"A very evil thing has happened, Lord. You have 宣言するd war upon the Hairy Men and the Hairy Men never forget. It will be war to the end."
"I can't help it," I answered feebly, for I was sick with the sight and sound of those creatures. "Are there many of them, and are they all over your country?"
"A good many, perhaps a thousand or more, Lord, but they only live in the forests. You must never go into the forest, Lord, at any 率, not alone; or on to the island where Heu-Heu lives, for he is their king and keeps some of them about him."
"I have no 現在の 意向 of doing so," I answered.
Now, as we went, the cliffs receded さらに先に and さらに先に from the river, till at length they 中止するd altogether. We were through the lip of the mountains, if I may so call it, and had entered a stretch of 無傷の virgin forest, a veritable sea of 広大な/多数の/重要な trees that 占領するd the rich land of the plain and grew to an enormous size and tallness. Moreover, before us appeared 明確に the 反対/詐欺 of the 火山, 幅の広い but of no 広大な/多数の/重要な 高さ, over which hung the mushroom-形態/調整d cloud of smoke.
All day long we travelled up this tranquil river, rejoicing in the comparative brightness in its centre, although, of course, the trees upon either 辛勝する/優位 overhung it much.
Late in the afternoon a bend of the banks brought us within sight of a 広大な/多数の/重要な sheet of water from which 明らかに the river 問題/発行するd, although, as I learned afterwards, it flowed into it upon the other 味方する, from I know not whence. This lake—for it was a big lake many miles in circumference—surrounded an island of かなりの size, in the centre of which rose the 火山, now a mere grey-hued mountain that looked やめる 害のない, although over it hung that ominous cloud of smoke which, oddly enough, one could not see 問題/発行するing from its crest. I suppose that it must have gone up in steam and condensed into smoke above. At the foot of the mountain, upon a plain between it and the lake, with the help of my glasses I could see what looked like buildings of some size, 建設するd of 黒人/ボイコット 石/投石する or 溶岩.
"They are 廃虚s," said Issicore, who had 観察するd that I was 診察するing them. "Once the 広大な/多数の/重要な city of my forefathers stood yonder until the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 from the mountain destroyed it."
"Then does nobody live on the island now?" I asked.
"The priests of Heu-Heu live there, Lord. Also Heu-Heu himself lives there in a 広大な/多数の/重要な 洞穴 upon the さらに先に 味方する of the mountain, or so it is said, for 非,不,無 of us has ever visited that 洞穴, and with him some of the Hairy People who are his servants. My grandfather did so, however, and saw him there. Indeed, as I have told you, once I saw him myself; but what he looked like you must not ask me, Lord, for I do not remember," he 追加するd あわてて. "In 前線 of the 洞穴 is his garden, where grows the 魔法 tree of which the Master of Spirits yonder in the South 願望(する)s leaves to mix with his 薬/医学s; the tree that gives dreams with long life and 見通し."
"Does Heu-Heu eat of this tree?" I asked.
"I do not know, but I know that he eats the flesh of beasts, because of these we must make offerings to him, and いつかs of men, or so it is said. 近づく the foot of the garden 燃やす the eternal 解雇する/砲火/射撃s, and between them is the 激しく揺する upon which the offerings are made."
Now I thought to myself I should much like to see this place of which it was evident that Issicore knew or would tell very little, where there was a 広大な/多数の/重要な 洞穴 in which dwelt a という評判の demon with his slaves and hierophants; and where too grew a tree supposed to be magical, 側面に位置するd by eternal 解雇する/砲火/射撃s. What were these eternal 解雇する/砲火/射撃s, I wondered. I could only suppose that they had something to do with the 火山.
As it happened, however, whilst I was 準備するing to question Issicore upon the 支配する, we passed 一連の会議、交渉/完成する a tree-覆う? headland, for here the river had 広げるd into a 肉親,親類d of estuary, and on the shore of the bay beyond it discovered a town of かなりの size, covering several hundred acres of ground. The houses of this town, most of which stood in their own gardens, though some of the smaller ones were arranged in streets, had an Eastern 外見, inasmuch as they were low and flat-roofed.
Only there was this difference: Eastern houses of the 原始の sort as a 支配する are whitewashed, but these were all 黒人/ボイコット, 存在 built of 溶岩, as I discovered afterwards. All 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the town also, except on the lake 味方する, ran a high 塀で囲む likewise of 黒人/ボイコット 石/投石する, the presence of which excited my curiosity and 原因(となる)d me to 問い合わせ its 反対する.
"It is to defend us from the Hairy Folk who attack by night," answered Issicore. "In the daylight they never come, and therefore our fields beyond are not 塀で囲むd," and he pointed to a 広大な/多数の/重要な stretch of cultivated land that I suppose had been (疑いを)晴らすd of trees, which 延長するd for miles into the surrounding forest.
Then he went on to explain that they 労働d there while the sun was up and at nightfall returned to the town, except 確かな of them who slept in forts or blockhouses to guard the 刈るs and cattle kraals.
Now I looked at this place and thought to myself that never in my life had I seen one more 暗い/優うつな, 特に in the late afternoon under a sullen, rain-laden sky. The 黒人/ボイコット houses, the high 黒人/ボイコット 塀で囲むs that reminded me of a 刑務所,拘置所, the 黒人/ボイコット waters of the lake, the 見通し on to the 黒人/ボイコット 火山 and the 黒人/ボイコット 集まり of the forest behind, all 与える/捧げるd to this 影響.
"Oh, Baas, if I lived here I should soon go mad!" said Hans, and upon my word, I agreed with him.
Now we paddled に向かって the shore, and presently ran と一緒に a little jetty formed of 石/投石するs loosely thrown together, on which we landed. Evidently our approach had been 観察するd, for a number of people—forty or fifty of them, perhaps—were collected at the shore end of the jetty を待つing us. A ちらりと見ること showed me that although of 変化させるing ages and both sexes, in type they all 似ているd our guide, Issicore. That is to say, they were tall, 井戸/弁護士席-形態/調整d, light-coloured and 極端に handsome, also 着せる/賦与するd in white 式服s, while some of the men wore hats of the Pharaonic type that I have 述べるd. The women's headdress, however, consisted of a の近くに-fitting linen cap with lappets hanging 負かす/撃墜する on either 味方する, and was extraordinarily becoming to their 厳しい cast of beauty. From what race could this people have sprung, I wondered. I had not the faintest idea; to me they looked like the 生き残りs of some 古代の civilization.
行為/行うd by Issicore, we 前進するd, carrying our scanty baggage, a forlorn and 乱打するd little company. As we drew 近づく, the (人が)群がる separated into two lines, men to the 権利 and women to the left, like the congregation in a very high church, and stood やめる silent, watching us intently with their large, melancholy 注目する,もくろむs. Never a word did they say as we passed between them, only watched and watched till I felt やめる nervous. They did not even 申し込む/申し出 any 迎える/歓迎するing to Issicore, although it seemed to me that he had earned one after his long and dangerous 旅行.
I 観察するd, however, although at the time I took little notice of the 事柄, and afterwards forgot all about it until Hans brought the circumstance 支援する to my mind, that a 確かな dark man of 厳格な,質素な countenance, 着せる/賦与するd rather 異なって from the 残り/休憩(する), approached Issicore, 演説(する)/住所d him, and thrust something into his 手渡す. Issicore ちらりと見ることd at this 反対する, whatever it might be, and distinctly I saw him tremble and turn pale. Then he hid it away, 説 nothing.
Turning to the 権利, we marched along a roadway that 国境d the lake, which was 建設するd about twelve feet above its level, perhaps to serve as a 保護 against inundation, till we (機の)カム to a 塀で囲む in which was a door built of solid 妨げるs of 支持を得ようと努めるd. This door opened as we approached, and, passing it, we 設立する ourselves in a large garden cultivated with taste and refinement, for in it were beds of flowers, the only cheerful thing I ever saw in this town that, it appeared, was 指名するd Walloo after the tribe or its 支配者. At the end of the garden stood a long, solid, flat-roofed house built of the 勝つ/広く一帯に広がるing 溶岩 激しく揺する.
Entering, we 設立する ourselves in a spacious room which, as dusk was 集会, was lit with cresset-like lamps of elegant 形態/調整 placed upon pedestals 削減(する) from 広大な/多数の/重要な tusks of ivory.
In the centre of this room were two large 議長,司会を務めるs made of ebony and ivory with high 支援するs and footstools, and in these 議長,司会を務めるs sat a man and a woman who were 井戸/弁護士席 価値(がある) seeing. The man was old, for his silver hair hung 負かす/撃墜する upon his shoulders, and his 罰金, sad 直面する was 深く,強烈に wrinkled.
At a ちらりと見ること I saw that he must be the king or 長,指導者, because of his dignified if somewhat senile 外見. Moreover, his 式服s, with their purple 国境s, had a 王室の look, and about his neck he wore a 激しい chain of what seemed to be gold, while in his 手渡す was a 黒人/ボイコット staff tipped with gold, no 疑問 his sceptre. For the 残り/休憩(する), his 注目する,もくろむs had a rather 脅すd 空気/公表する, and his whole 面 gave an idea of 証拠不十分 and 不決断.
The woman sat in the other 議長,司会を務める with the light from one of the lamps 向こうずねing 十分な upon her, and I knew at once that she must be the Lady Sabeela, the love of Issicore. No wonder that he loved her, for she was beautiful exceedingly; tall, 井戸/弁護士席 developed, straight as a reed, 広大な/多数の/重要な-注目する,もくろむd, with chiselled features that were yet 一連の会議、交渉/完成するd and womanly, and wonderfully small 手渡すs and feet. She, too, wore purple-国境d 式服s. About her waist hung a girdle thickly sewn with red 石/投石するs that I took to be rubies, and upon her shapely 長,率いる, serving as a fillet for her abundant hair, which flowed 負かす/撃墜する her in long waving 立ち往生させるs of a rich and ruddy hue of brown or chestnut, was a simple golden 禁止(する)d. Except for a red flower on her breast she wore no other ornament, perhaps because she knew that 非,不,無 was needed.
Leaving us by the door of the 議会, Issicore 前進するd and knelt before the old man, who first touched him with his staff and then laid a 手渡す upon his 長,率いる. Presently he rose, went to the lady and knelt before her also, whereon she stretched out her fingers for him to kiss, while a look of sudden hope and joy, which even at that distance I could distinguish, gathered on her 直面する. He whispered to her for a while, then turned and began to speak 真面目に to her father. At length he crossed the room, (機の)カム to me and led me 今後, followed by Hans at my heels.
"O Lord Macumazahn," he said, "here sit the Walloo, the Prince of my people, and his daughter, the Lady Sabeela. O Prince my cousin, this is the white noble famous for his 技術 and courage, whom the Wizard of the South made known to me and who at my 祈り, out of the goodness of his heart, has come to help us in our 危険,危なくする."
"I thank him," said the Walloo in the same dialect of Arabic that was used by Issicore. "I thank him in my own 指名する, in that of my daughter who now alone is left to me, and in the 指名する of my people."
Here he rose from his seat and 屈服するd to me with a strange and foreign 儀礼 such as I had not known in Africa, while the lady also rose and 屈服するd, or rather curtseyed. Seating himself again, he said:
"Without 疑問 you are 疲れた/うんざりした and would 残り/休憩(する) and eat, after which perchance we may talk."
Then we were led away through a door at the end of the 広大な/多数の/重要な room into another room that evidently had been 用意が出来ている for me. Also there was a place beyond for Hans, a 肉親,親類d of alcove. Here water, which I noticed had been warmed—an unusual thing in Africa—was brought in a large earthenware 大型船 by two 静かな women of middle age, and with it an undershirt of beautiful 罰金 linen which was laid upon a bed, or cushioned couch, that was arranged upon the 床に打ち倒す and covered by fur rugs.
I washed myself, 注ぐing the warm water into a 石/投石する 水盤/入り江 that was 始める,決める upon a stand, and put on the shirt, also the change of 着せる/賦与するs that I had with me, and, with the help of Hans and a pair of pocket scissors, trimmed my 耐えるd and hair. Scarcely had I finished when the women 再現するd, bringing food on 木造の platters—roast lamb, it seemed to be—and with it drink in jars of earthenware that were of elegant 形態/調整 and 砕くd all over with the little rough diamonds of which Zikali had given me 見本/標本s, that evidently had been 始める,決める in it in patterns before the clay 乾燥した,日照りのd. This drink, by the way was a 肉親,親類d of native beer, 甘い to the taste but pleasant and rather strong, so that I had to be careful lest Hans should take too much of it.
After we had finished our meal, which was very welcome, for we had eaten no 適切に cooked food since we left the wagon, Issicore arrived and took us 支援する to the large room, where we 設立する the Walloo and his daughter seated as before, with several old men squatting about them on the ground. A stool having been 始める,決める for me the talk began.
I need not enter into all its 詳細(に述べる)s, since in 実体 they 始める,決める out what I had already heard from Issicore; すなわち, that there dwelt Something or Somebody on the island in the lake who 要求するd 毎年 the sacrifice of a beautiful virgin. This was 需要・要求するd through the 長,率いる priest of a college, also 設立するd on the island which 定評のある the 存在, real or imaginary, that lived there as its god or fetish. その上の, that creature (if he 存在するd) was said to be the king of all the Hairy Folk who 住むd the forest. Lastly, there was a legend that he was the reincarnation of some 古代の 君主 of the Walloo folk, who had come to a bad end at the 手渡すs of his indignant 支配するs at some date undefined. Walloo, it seemed, was their 訂正する 指名する, that of Heuheua 適用するing only to the Hairy Men of the 支持を得ようと努めるd.
This story I 解任するd at once, 存在 やめる 納得させるd that it was only a variant of a very ありふれた African fable. Doubtless Heu-Heu, if there really were a Heu-Heu, was the 支配者 of the savage hairy aboriginals of the place that once in the far past had been 征服する/打ち勝つd by the 侵略するing Walloo, who 注ぐd into the country from the north or west, 存在 themselves the 生存者s of some civilized but forgotten people. This 結論, I may 追加する, I never 設立する any 推論する/理由 to 疑問. Africa is a very 古代の land, and in it once lived many races that have 消えるd, or 生き残る only in a debased 条件, dwindling from 世代 to 世代 until the day of their 絶滅 comes.
Here I may 明言する/公表する 簡潔に the final opinions at which I have arrived about this people.
Almost certainly these Walloos were such a dying race, あられ/賞賛するing, as 指名するs の中で them seemed to 示唆する from some 地域 in West Africa, where their forefathers had been 高度に civilized. Thus, although they could not 令状, they had traditions of 令状ing and even inscriptions graven upon 石/投石するs, of which I saw several in a character that I did not know, though to me it had the look of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Also they still had knowledge of 確かな cultured arts such as the weaving of 罰金 linen, the carving of 支持を得ようと努めるd and marble, the making of pottery, and the smelting of metals with which their land abounded, 含むing gold that they 設立する in little nuggets in the gravel of the streams.
Most of these (手先の)技術s, however, were dying out except those that were necessary to life, such as the moulding of pottery and the building of houses and 塀で囲むs, and 特に 農業, in which they were very proficient. When I saw them all the higher arts were practised only by the very old men. As they never intermarried with any other 血, their hereditary beauty, which was truly remarkable, remained to them, but 借りがあるing to the 原因(となる)s I have について言及するd already, the 在庫/株 was dwindling, the total 全住民 存在 now not more than half of what it was within the memory of the fathers of their oldest men. Their melancholy, which now had become 憲法の, doubtless was induced by their 暗い/優うつな surroundings and the knowledge that as a race they were doomed to 死なせる/死ぬ at the 手渡すs of the savage aboriginals who once had been their slaves.
Lastly, although they 保持するd traces of some higher 宗教, since they made 祈り to a 広大な/多数の/重要な Spirit, they were fetish-ridden and believed that they could continue to 存在する only by making sacrifice to a devil who, if they neglected to do so, would 鎮圧する them with misfortunes and give them over to 破壊 at the 手渡すs of the dreadful Forest-dwellers. Therefore they, or a section of them, became the priests of this devil called Heu-Heu, and その為に kept peace between them and the Hairy Men.
Nor was this the end of their troubles, since, as Issicore had told me, these priests, after the fashion of priests all the world over, now aspired to the 絶対の 支配する of the race, and for this 推論する/理由 plotted the 絶滅 of the hereditary 長,指導者 and all his family.
Such, in 実体, was the lugubrious story that the unhappy Walloo 注ぐd into my ears that night, ending it in these words:
"Now you will understand, O Lord Macumazahn, why in our extremity and in obedience to the 古代の prophecy, which has come 負かす/撃墜する to us from our fathers, we communicated with the 広大な/多数の/重要な Wizard of the South, with whom we had been in touch in 古代の days, praying him to send us the helper of the prophecy. Behold, he has sent you and now I implore you to save my daughter from the 運命/宿命 that を待つs her. I understand that you will 要求する 支払い(額) in white and red 石/投石するs, also in gold and ivory. Take as much as you want. Of the 石/投石するs there are jars 十分な hidden away and the 盗品故買者s of some of my 中庭s at the 支援する of this house are made of tusks of ivory, though it is 黒人/ボイコット with age, and I know not how you would carry it hence. Also there is a 量 of gold melted into 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業s, which my grandfather 原因(となる)d to be collected, whereof we make little use except now and again for women's ornaments, but that, too, would be 激しい to carry across the 砂漠. Still, it is all yours. Take it. Take everything you wish, only save my daughter."
"We will talk of the reward afterwards," I said, for my heart was touched at the sight of the old man's grief. "一方/合間, let me hear what can be done."
"Lord, I do not know," he answered, wringing his 手渡すs. "The third night from this is that of 十分な moon, the 十分な moon which 示すs the beginning of 収穫. On that night we must carry my daughter, on whom the lot has fallen, to the island in the lake where stands the smoking mountain and 貯蔵所d her to the 中心存在 upon the 激しく揺する of 申し込む/申し出ing that is 始める,決める between the two undying 解雇する/砲火/射撃s. There we must leave her, and at the 夜明け, so it is said, Heu-Heu himself 掴むs her and carries her into his cavern, where she 消えるs for ever. Or, if he does not come, his priests do, to drag her to the god, and we see her no more."
"Then why do you take her to the island? Why do you not call your people together and fight and kill this god or his priest?"
"Lord, because not one man の中で us, save perhaps Issicore yonder, who can do nothing alone, would 解除する a 手渡す to save her. They believe that if they did the mountain would break into 炎上s, as happened in the bygone ages, turning all upon whom the ashes fell into 石/投石する; also, that the waters would rise and destroy the 刈るs, so that we must die of 餓死, and that any who escaped the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 and the water and the want would 死なせる/死ぬ at the 手渡すs of the cruel 支持を得ようと努めるd-devils. Therefore, if I ask the Walloos to save the maiden from Heu-Heu, they will kill me and give her up in 一致 with the 法律."
"I understand," I said, and was silent.
"Lord," went on the old Walloo presently, "here with me you are 安全な, for 非,不,無 of my people will 害(を与える) you or those with you. But I learn from Issicore that you have stabbed a Hairy Man with a knife, and that your servant slew one of their women with the strange 武器s that you carry. Therefore, from the 支持を得ようと努めるd-devils you are not 安全な, for, if they can, they will kill you both and feast upon your 団体/死体s."
"That's cheerful," I thought to myself, but made no その上の answer, for I did not know what to say.
Just then the Walloo rose from his 議長,司会を務める, 説 that he must go to pray to the spirits of his ancestors to help him, but that we would talk again upon the morrow. After this he bade us good-night and 出発/死d without another word, followed by the old men, who all this while had sat silent, only nodding their 長,率いるs from time to time like porcelain images of Chinese 蜜柑s.
THE HOLY ISLE
When the door had の近くにd behind him, I turned to Issicore and asked him straight out if he had any 計画(する) to 示唆する. He shook his noble-looking 長,率いる and answered, "非,不,無," as it was impossible to resist both the will of the people and the 法律 of the priests.
"Then what is the use of your having brought me all this way?" I 問い合わせd with indignation. "Cannot you think of some 計画/陰謀? For instance, would it not be possible for you and this lady to 飛行機で行く with us 負かす/撃墜する the river and escape to a land which is not 十分な of demons?"
"It would not be possible," he answered in a melancholy 発言する/表明する. "Day and night we are watched and would be 掴むd before we had travelled a mile. Moreover, could she leave her father, and could I leave all my relations to be 殺人d in 支払い(額) for our sacrilege?"
"Have you no thought in your mind at all?" I asked again. "Is there nothing that would save the Lady Sabeela?"
"Nothing, Lord, except the end of Heu-Heu and his priests. It is to you, 広大な/多数の/重要な Lord, that we look to find a way to destroy them, as the prophecy 宣言するs will be done by the White Deliverer from the South."
"Oh, dash the prophecy! I never knew prophecies to help anybody yet," I ejaculated in English, as I 熟視する/熟考するd that beautiful but helpless pair. Then I 追加するd in Arabic, "I am tired and am going to bed. I hope that I shall find more 知恵 in my dreams than I do in you, Issicore," I 追加するd, 星/主役にするing at the man in whom I seemed to (悪事,秘密などを)発見する some subtle change, some 接近 of fatalistic helplessness, even of despair.
Now Sabeela, seeing that I was angry, broke in:
"O Lord, be not wrath, for we are but 飛行機で行くs in the spider's web, and the threads of that web are the priests of Heu-Heu, and the 地位,任命するs to which it is 直す/買収する,八百長をするd are the beliefs of my people, and Heu-Heu himself is the spider, and in my breast his claws are 直す/買収する,八百長をするd."
Now, listening to her allegory, I thought to myself that a better one might have been drawn from a snake and a bird, for really, like the 残り/休憩(する) of them, this poor girl seemed to be mesmerized with terror and to have made up her mind to sit still waiting to be struck by the 毒(薬)d fangs.
"Lord," she went on, "we have done all we could. Did not Issicore make a 広大な/多数の/重要な 旅行 to find you? Yes, did he not even dare the 悪口を言う/悪態 which 落ちるs upon the 長,率いるs of those who try to leave our country, and travel south to 捜し出す the counsel of the 広大な/多数の/重要な Wizard, who once sent messengers here to 得る the leaves of the tree that grows in Heu-Heu's garden, the tree that makes men drunk and gives them 見通しs?"
"Yes," I answered, "he did that, Lady, and might I say to you that his health seems 非,不,無 the worse. Those 悪口を言う/悪態s of which you speak have not yet 傷つける him."
"It is true they have not 傷つける his 団体/死体—yet," she said in a musing 発言する/表明する, as though a new thought had struck her.
"井戸/弁護士席, if that is true, Sabeela, may it not be true also that all this talk about the 力/強力にする of Heu-Heu is nonsense? Tell me, have you ever spoken with or seen Heu-Heu?"
"No, Lord, no, though unless you can save me I shall soon see him."
"井戸/弁護士席, and has any one else?"
"No, Lord, no one has ever spoken with him, except, of course, his priests, such as my distant cousin, Dacha, who is the 長,率いる of them, but whom I used to know before he was chosen by Heu-Heu to be one of their company."
"Oh! So no one has seen him? Then he must be a very secret 肉親,親類d of god who does not take 演習, but lives, I understand, in a 洞穴 with priests."
"I did not say that no one had ever seen Heu-Heu, Lord. Many say that they have seen him, as Issicore has done, when he (機の)カム out of the 洞穴 on a Night of 申し込む/申し出ing, but of what they saw it is death to speak. Ask me and Issicore no more of Heu-Heu, Lord I pray you, lest the 悪口を言う/悪態 should 落ちる. It is not lawful that we should tell you of him, whose secrets are sacred even to his priests," she 追加するd with agitation.
Then in despair I gave up asking questions about Heu-Heu and 問い合わせd how many priests he had.
"About twenty, I believe, Lord," she answered, 中止するing from 回避s, "not counting their wives and families, and it is said that they do not live with Heu-Heu in the 洞穴, but in houses outside of it."
"And what do they do when they are not worshipping Heu-Heu, Sabeela?"
"Oh, they cultivate the land and they 支配する the Wild People of the 支持を得ようと努めるd, who, it is believed, are all Heu-Heu's children. Also they come here and 秘かに調査する on us."
"Do they indeed?" I 発言/述べるd. "And is it true that they hope to 支配する over you Walloos also?"
"Yes, I believe that it is true. At least, should my father die and I die, it is said that Dacha means to make war upon the Walloos and take the chieftainship, setting aside or 殺人,大当り my cousin and betrothed Issicore. For Dacha was always one who 願望(する)d to be first."
"So you used to know Dacha pretty 井戸/弁護士席, Lady?"
"Yes, Lord, when I was やめる young before he became a priest. Also," she 追加するd, colouring, "I have seen him since he became a priest."
"And what did he say to you?"
"He said that if I would take him for a husband perhaps I should escape from Heu-Heu."
"And what did you answer, Lady?"
"Lord, I answered that I would rather go to Heu-Heu."
"Why?"
"Because Dacha, it is 報告(する)/憶測d, has many wives already. Also I hate him. Also from Heu-Heu at the last I can always escape."
"How?"
"By death, Lord. We have swift 毒(薬) in this country, and I carry some of it hidden in my hair," she 追加するd with 強調.
"やめる so. I understand. But, Lady Sabeela, as you have been so good as to ask my advice about these 事柄s, I will give you some. It is that you should not taste that 毒(薬) till all else has failed and there is no escape. While we breathe there is hope, and all that seems lost still may be won, but the dead do not live again, Lady Sabeela."
"I hear and will obey you, Lord," she answered, weeping. "Yet sleep is better than Dacha or Heu-Heu."
"And life is better than all three of them put together," I replied, "特に life with love."
Then I 屈服するd myself off to bed, followed by Hans, also 屈服するing—like a monkey for pennies on a バーレル/樽-組織/臓器. At the door I looked 支援する, and saw these two poor people in each other's 武器, thinking, doubtless, that we were already out of sight of them. Yes, her 長,率いる was upon Issicore's shoulder, and from the convulsive 動議s of her form I guessed that she was sobbing, while he tried to console her in the 古代の, world-wide fashion. I only hope that she got more 慰安 from Issicore than I did. To me he now seemed to be but a singularly unresourceful member of a played-out race, though it is true that he had courage, since さもなければ he would not have 試みる/企てるd the 旅行 to Zululand. Also, as I have said, やめる suddenly he had changed in some subtle fashion.
When we were in our own room with the door bolted (it had no windows, light and ventilation 存在 供給するd by 穴を開けるs in the roof) I gave Hans some タバコ and bade him sit 負かす/撃墜する on the other 味方する of the lamp, where he squatted upon the 床に打ち倒す like a toad.
"Now, Hans," I said, "tell me all the truth of this 商売/仕事 and what we are to do to help this pretty lady and the old 長,指導者, her father."
Hans looked at the roof and looked at the 塀で囲む; then he spat upon the 床に打ち倒す, for which I reproved him.
"Baas," he said at length, "I think the best thing we can do is to find out where those 有望な 石/投石するs are, fill our pockets with them, and escape from this country which is 十分な of fools and devils. I am sure that Beautiful One would be better off with the priest Dacha, or even with Heu-Heu, than with Issicore, who now has become but a carved and painted lump of 支持を得ようと努めるd made to look like a man."
"かもしれない, Hans, but the tastes of women are curious, and she likes this lump of 支持を得ようと努めるd, who, after all, is 勇敢に立ち向かう, except where ghosts and spirits are 関心d. さもなければ he would not have 旅行d so far for her sake. Moreover, we have a 取引 to keep. What should we say to the Opener-of-Roads if we returned, having run away and without his 薬/医学? No, Hans, we must play out this game."
"Yes, Baas, I thought that the Baas would say that because of his foolishness. Had I been alone, by now, or a little later, I should have been in that canoe going 負かす/撃墜する-stream. However, the Baas has settled that we must save the lady and give her to the Lump of 支持を得ようと努めるd for a wife. So now I think I will go to sleep, and to-morrow or the next day the Baas can save her. I don't think very much of the beer in this country, Baas—it is too 甘い; and all these handsome fools who talk about devils and priests 疲れた/うんざりした me. Also, it is a bad 気候 and very damp. I think it is going to rain again, Baas."
Having nothing else at 手渡す, I threw my タバコ-pouch at Hans's 長,率いる. He caught it deftly, and in an absent-minded fashion, put it into his own pocket.
"If the Baas really wishes to know what I think," he said, yawning, "it is that the 薬/医学 man 指名するd Dacha wants the pretty lady for himself; also to 支配する alone over all these dull people. As for Heu-Heu, I don't know anything about him, but perhaps he is one of those Hairy Men who (機の)カム here at the beginning of the world. I think that the best thing we can do, Baas, would be to take a boat to-morrow morning and go to that island, where we can find out the truth for ourselves. Perhaps the Lump of 支持を得ようと努めるd and some of his men can 列/漕ぐ/騒動 us there. And now I have nothing more to say, so, if the Baas does not mind, I will go to sleep. Keep your ピストル ready, Baas, in 事例/患者 any of the Hairy People wish to call upon us—just to talk about the one I 発射."
Then he retired to a corner, rolling himself up in a 肌 rug, and presently was snoring, though, as I knew 井戸/弁護士席 enough, with one 注目する,もくろむ open all the time. No Hairy Man, or any one else, would have come 近づく that place without Hans 審理,公聴会 him, for his sleep was like to that of a dog who watches his master.
As I 用意が出来ている to follow his example, I 反映するd that his 発言/述べるs, casual as they seemed, were 十分な of 知恵. These folk were superstition-riddled fools and useless; probably the only ones that had wits の中で them became priests. But the Hairy aboriginals were an ugly fact, as the priests knew, since 明らかに they had 得るd 支配する over them. For the 残り/休憩(する), the only thing to do was to visit the 宗教上の Island and find out the truth for ourselves, as Hans had said. It would be dangerous, no 疑問, but at the least it would also be exciting.
Next morning I rose after an excellent night's 残り/休憩(する) and 設立する my way into the garden, where I amused myself by 診察するing the shrubs and flowers, some of which were strange to me. Also I 熟考する/考慮するd the sky, which was 激しい and lowering, and seemed 十分な of rain. I could 熟考する/考慮する nothing else because the high 塀で囲む 削減(する) off the 見解(をとる) upon every 味方する so that little was to be seen except the 最高の,を越す of the 火山, which rose from the lake at a distance of several miles, for it was a large sheet of water. Presently the door of the garden opened and Issicore appeared, looking 疲れた/うんざりした and somewhat bewildered. It occurred to me that he had been sitting up late with Sabeela. As they were to be parted so soon, 自然に they would see as much as they could of each other. Or for aught I knew, he might have been praying to his ancestral spirits and trying to make up his mind what to do, no 疑問 a difficult 過程 under the circumstances. I went to the point at once.
"Issicore," I said, "as soon as possible after breakfast, will you have a canoe ready to take me and Hans to the island in the lake?"
"To the island in the lake, Lord!" he exclaimed, amazed. "Why, it is 宗教上の!"
"I daresay, but I am 宗教上の also, so that if I go there it will be holier."
Then he 前進するd all 肉親,親類d of 反対s, and even brought out the Walloo and his grey-長,率いるs to 増強する his arguments. Hans and Sabeela also joined the party; the latter, I 公式文書,認めるd, looking even more beautiful by day than she did in the lamplight. Sabeela, indeed, 証明するd my only 同盟(する), for presently, when the others had talked themselves hoarse, she said:
"The White Lord has been brought hither that we, who are bewildered and foolish, may drink of the cup of his 知恵. If his 知恵 企て,努力,提案s him visit the 宗教上の 小島, let him do so, my father."
As no one seemed to be 納得させるd, I stood silent, not knowing what more to say. Then Hans took up his parable, speaking in his bad coast-Arabic:
"Baas, Issicore, although he is so big and strong, and all these others are afraid of Heu-Heu and his priests. But we, who are good Christians, are not afraid of any devils because we know how to を取り引きする them. Also we can paddle, therefore let the 長,指導者 give us やめる a small canoe and show us which way to 列/漕ぐ/騒動, and we will go to the island by ourselves."
In 冒険的な parlance, this 発射 攻撃する,衝突する the bull in the 注目する,もくろむ, and Issicore, who, as I have said, was a 勇敢に立ち向かう man at 底(に届く), 解雇する/砲火/射撃d up and answered:
"Am I a coward that I should listen to such words from your servant, Lord Macumazahn? I and some others whom I can find will 列/漕ぐ/騒動 you to the island, though on it we will not 始める,決める our foot because it is not lawful for us to do so. Only, Lord, if you come 支援する no more, 非難する me not."
"Then that is settled," I replied 静かに, "and now, if we may, let us eat, for I am hungry."
About two hours later we started from the quay, taking with us all our small 所有/入手s, 負かす/撃墜する to some spare 砕く in flasks which we had brought to reload 解雇する/砲火/射撃d cartridge 事例/患者s, for Hans 辞退するd to leave anything behind with no one to watch it. The canoe which was given to us was much smaller than that in which we had come up the river, though, like it, hollowed from a 選び出す/独身 スピードを出す/記録につける; and its 乗組員 consisted of Issicore, who steered, and four other Walloos, who paddled, stout and 決定するd-looking fellows, all of them. The island was about five miles away, but we made a wide 回路・連盟 to the south, I suppose in the hope of 避けるing 観察, and therefore it took us the best part of two hours to reach its southern shore.
As we approached I 診察するd the place carefully through my glasses, and 観察するd that it was much larger than I had thought—several miles in circumference, indeed, for in 新規加入 to the central 火山の 反対/詐欺 there was a 広大な/多数の/重要な stretch of low-lying land all 一連の会議、交渉/完成する its base, which land seemed not to rise more than a foot or two above the level of the lake. In character, except on these flats by the lake, it was stony and barren, 存在, in fact, strewn with lumps of 溶岩 排除する/(飛行機などから)緊急脱出するd from the 火山 during the last 爆発.
Issicore 知らせるd me, however, that the northern part of the island where the priests lived, which had not been touched by the 溶岩 stream, was very fertile. I should 追加する that the 噴火口,クレーター of the 火山 seemed to 耐える out his 声明 as to the direction of the flow, since on the south it was blown away to a 広大な/多数の/重要な depth, 反して the northern segment rose in a high and perfect 塀で囲む of 激しく揺する.
The day was very misty—a circumstance which favoured our approach—and the sky, which, as I have said, was 黒人/ボイコット and 妊娠している with coming rain, seemed almost to touch the crest of the mountain. These 条件s, until we were やめる の近くに, 妨げるd us from seeing that a stream of glowing 溶岩, not very 幅の広い, was 注ぐing 負かす/撃墜する the mountain-味方する. When they discovered this, the Walloos grew much alarmed, and Issicore told me that such a thing had not been known "for a hundred years," and that he thought it portended something unusual, as the mountain was supposed to be "asleep."
"It is awake enough to smoke, anyway," I answered, and continued my examination.
の中で the 石/投石するs, and いつかs half-buried by them, I saw what appeared to be the remains of those buildings of which I have spoken. There, Issicore said, had once been part of the city of his forefathers, 追加するing that, as he had been told, in some of them the said forefathers were still to be seen turned to 石/投石する, which, you will remember, 正確に/まさに bore out Zikali's story.
Anything more desolate and depressing than the 面 of this place seen on that grey day and beneath the brooding sky cannot be imagined. Still I 燃やすd to 診察する it, for this tale of fossilized people excited me, who have always loved the remains of antiquity and strange sights.
Forgetting all about Heu-Heu and his priests for the moment, I told the Walloos to paddle to the shore, and, after a moment of mute 抗議する, they obeyed, running into a little bay. Hans and I stepped easily on to the 激しく揺するs and, carrying our 捕らえる、獲得するs and ライフル銃/探して盗むs, started on our search. First, however, we arranged with Issicore that he should を待つ our return and then 列/漕ぐ/騒動 us 支援する 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the island so that we might have a 見解(をとる) of the priests' 解決/入植地. With a sigh he 約束d to do so, and at once paddled out to about a hundred yards from the shore, where the canoe was 錨,総合司会者d by means of a pierced 石/投石する tied to a cord.
Off went Hans and I に向かって the nearest group of 廃虚s. As we approached them, Hans said:
"Look out, Baas! There's a dog between those 激しく揺するs."
I 星/主役にするd at the 位置/汚点/見つけ出す he 示すd, and there, sure enough, saw a large grey dog with a pointed muzzle, which seemed to be 急速な/放蕩な asleep. We drew nearer, and as it did not 動かす, Hans threw a 石/投石する and 攻撃する,衝突する it on the 支援する. Still it did not 動かす, so we went up and 診察するd it.
"It is a 石/投石する dog," I said. "The people who lived here must have made statues," for as yet I did not believe the stories I had heard about petrified creatures, which, after all, must be very 伝説の.
"If so, Baas, they put bones into their carvings. Look," and he touched one of the dog's 前線 paws which was broken off. There, in the middle of it, appeared the bone fossilized. Then I understood.
The animal had been 逃げるing away to the shore when the poisonous gases overcame it at the time of the 爆発. After this, I suppose, some rain of petrifying fluid had fallen on it and turned it into 石/投石する. It was a marvellous thing, but I could not 疑問 the 証拠 of my own 注目する,もくろむs. All the tale was true, and I had made a 広大な/多数の/重要な 発見.
We hurried on to the houses, which, of course, now were roofless, and in some instances choked with 溶岩, though the outer 塀で囲むs, 存在 堅固に built of 激しく揺する, still stood. On 確かな of these 塀で囲むs were the faint remains of frescoes; one of people sitting at a feast, another of a 追跡(する)ing scene, and so 前へ/外へ.
We passed on to a second group of buildings standing at some distance against the 側面に位置する of the mountain and more or いっそう少なく 保護するd by an overhanging ledge or shelf of 石/投石する. These appeared to have been a palace or a 寺, for they were large, with 石/投石する columns that supported the roofs. We went on through the 広大な/多数の/重要な hall to the rooms behind, and in the furthermost, which was under the ledge of 激しく揺する and probably had been used as a 蓄える/店 議会, we saw an 驚くべき/特命の/臨時の sight.
There, 密談する/(身体を)寄せ集めるd together, and in some instances clasping each other, were a number of people, twenty or thirty of them—men, women, and children—all turned to 石/投石する. Doubtless the petrifying fluid had flowed into the 議会 through the 割れ目s in the 激しく揺する above and done its office on them. They were naked, every one, which 示唆するd that their 着せる/賦与するing had either been burnt off them or had rotted away before the 過程 was 完全にする. The former hypothesis seemed to be borne out by the fact that 非,不,無 of them had any hair left upon their 長,率いるs. The features were not 平易な to distinguish, but the general type of the 団体/死体s was certainly very 類似の to that of the Walloos.
Speechless with amazement, we 現れるd from that death 議会 and wandered about the place. Here and there we 設立する the 団体/死体s of others who had 死なせる/死ぬd in the 広大な/多数の/重要な 大災害 and once (機の)カム across an arm 事業/計画(する)ing from a 集まり of 溶岩, which seemed to show that many more were buried underneath. Also we 設立する a number of fossilized goats in a kraal. What a place to dig in! I thought to myself. Given some spades, 選ぶs, and 爆破ing-砕く, what might one not find in these 廃虚s?
All the 遺物s of a past civilization, perhaps—its inscriptions, its jewellery, the statues of its gods; even, perhaps, its 国内の furniture buried beneath the 溶岩 and the dust, though probably this had rotted. Here, certainly, was another Pompeii, and perhaps beneath that another Herculaneum.
Whilst I mused thus over glories passed away and wondered when they had passed, Hans dug me in the ribs and, in his horrible Boer Dutch, ejaculated a 選び出す/独身 word, "Kek!" which, as perhaps you know, means "Look!" at the same time nodding に向かって the lake.
I did look, and saw our canoe paddling off for all it was 価値(がある), going "hell for leather," as my old father used to say, に向かって the Walloo shore.
"Now why is it doing that?" I asked.
"I 推定する/予想する because something is behind it, Baas," he replied with 辞職, then sat 負かす/撃墜する on a 激しく揺する, pulled out his 麻薬を吸う, filled it, and lit a match.
As usual, Hans was 権利, for presently from 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the curve of the island there appeared two other canoes, very large canoes, 列/漕ぐ/騒動ing after ours with 広大な/多数の/重要な energy and 決意, and, as I guessed, with malignant 意図.
"I think those priests have seen our boat and mean to catch it, if they can," 発言/述べるd Hans, spitting reflectively, "though as Issicore has got a long start, perhaps they won't. And now, Baas, what are we to do? We can't live here with dead men, and 石/投石する goat is not good to eat."
I considered the 状況/情勢, and my heart sank into my boots, for the position seemed desperate. A moment before I had been filled with enthusiasm over this 廃虚d city and its fossilized remains. Now I hated the very thought of them, and wished that they were at the 底(に届く) of the lake. Thus do circumstances alter 事例/患者s, and our poor variable human moods. Then an idea (機の)カム to me, and I said boldly:
"Do! Why, there is only one thing to do. We must go to call on Heu-Heu, or his priests."
"Yes, Baas. But the Baas remembers the picture in the 洞穴 on the Berg. If it is a true picture, Heu-Heu knows how to 新たな展開 off men's 長,率いるs!"
"I don't believe there is a Heu-Heu," I said stoutly. "You will have noticed, Hans, that we have heard all sorts of stories about Heu-Heu, but that no one seems to have seen him 明確に enough to give us an 正確な description of what he is like or what he does—not even Zikali. He showed us a picture of the beast on his 解雇する/砲火/射撃, but after all it was only what we had seen on the 塀で囲む of the 洞穴, and I think that he got it out of our own minds. At any 率, it is just 同様に to die quickly without a 長,率いる, as slowly with an empty stomach, since I am sure those Walloos will never come 支援する to look for us."
"Yes, Baas, I think so, too. Issicore used to have courage, but he seems to have changed, as though something had happened to him since he got 支援する into his own country. And now, if the Baas is ready, I think we had better be trekking, unless, indeed, he would like to look at a few more 石/投石する men first. It is beginning to rain, Baas, and we have been much longer here than the Baas thinks, since it is a slow 商売/仕事 はうing about these old houses. Therefore, if we are to get to the other 味方する of the island before nightfall, it is time to go."
So off we went, keeping to the western 味方する of the 火山, since there it did not seem to 事業/計画(する) so far into the flat lands. A while later we turned 一連の会議、交渉/完成する and looked at the lake. There in the far distance our canoe appeared a mere speck, with two other specks, those of the pursuers, の近くに upon its heels. As we watched, out of the もやs on the Walloo shore (機の)カム yet other specks, which were doubtless Walloo boats paddling to the 救助(する), for the priests' canoes gave up the chase and turned homewards.
"Issicore will have a very nice story to tell to the Lady Sabeela," said Hans; "but perhaps she will not kiss him after she has heard it."
"He was やめる wise to go. What good could he have done by staying?" I answered, as we trudged on, 追加するing, "Still, you are 権利, Hans, Issicore has changed."
It was a hard walk over rough ground, at least at first, for so soon as we got 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the shoulder of the 火山 the character of the country altered and we 設立する ourselves in fertile, cultivated land that appeared to be irrigated.
"These fields must 嘘(をつく) very low, Baas," said Hans, "since さもなければ how do they get the lake water on to them?"
"I don't know," I replied crossly, for I was thinking of the sky water, which was beginning to descend in a 安定した 霧雨 upon ourselves. But all the same, the 発言/述べる stuck in my mind and was useful afterwards. On we marched, till at length we entered a grove of palm trees that was 横断するd by a road.
Presently we (機の)カム to the end of the road and 設立する ourselves in a village of 井戸/弁護士席-built 石/投石する houses, with one very large house in the middle of it, of which the 支援する was 始める,決める almost against the foot of the mountain. As there was nothing else to be done, we walked on into the village, at first without 存在 観察するd, for everybody was under cover because of the rain. Soon, however, dogs began to bark, and a woman, looking out of the doorway of one of the houses, caught sight of us and 叫び声をあげるd. A minute later men with shaven 長,率いるs and wearing white, priestly-looking 式服s, appeared and ran に向かって us 繁栄するing big spears.
"Hans," I said, "keep your ライフル銃/探して盗む ready, but don't shoot unless you are 強いるd. In this 事例/患者, words may serve us better than 弾丸s."
"Yes, Baas, though I don't believe that either will serve us much."
Then he sat 負かす/撃墜する on the trunk of a fallen tree that lay by the 道端, and waited, and I followed his example, taking the 適切な時期 to light my 麻薬を吸う.
THE FEAST
When they were within a few paces of us the men 停止(させる)d, 明らかに astonished at our 外見, which certainly did not compare favourably with their own, for they were all of the splendid Walloo type. Evidently what astonished them still more was the match with which I was lighting my 麻薬を吸う, and indeed the 麻薬を吸う itself, for although these people grew タバコ, they only took it in the form of 消す.
That match went out and I struck another, and at the sight of the sudden 外見 of 解雇する/砲火/射撃 they stepped 支援する a pace or two. At length one of them, pointing to the 燃やすing match, asked in the same tongue that was used by the Walloos:
"What is that, O Stranger?"
"魔法 解雇する/砲火/射撃," I answered, 追加するing by an inspiration, "which I am bringing as a 現在の to the 広大な/多数の/重要な god Heu-Heu."
This (警察などへの)密告,告訴(状) seemed to mollify them, for, lowering their spears, they turned to speak to another man who at this moment arrived upon the scene. He was a stout, 罰金-looking man of かなりの presence, with a 麻薬中毒の nose and flashing 黒人/ボイコット 注目する,もくろむs. Also he wore a priestly cap upon his 長,率いる and his white 式服s were broidered.
"Very big fellow, this, Baas," Hans whispered to me, and I nodded, 観察するing as I did so that the other priests 屈服するd as they 演説(する)/住所d him.
"Dacha in person," thought I to myself, and sure enough Dacha it was.
He 前進するd and, looking at the wax match, said:
"Where does the 魔法 解雇する/砲火/射撃 of which you speak live, Stranger?"
"In this 事例/患者 covered with 宗教上の secret 令状ing," I replied, 持つ/拘留するing before his 注目する,もくろむs a box labelled "Wax Vestas, Made in England," and 追加するing solemnly, "Woe be to him that touches it or him that 耐えるs it without understanding, for it will surely leap 前へ/外へ and 消費する that foolish man, O Dacha."
Now Dacha followed the example of his companions and stepped 支援する a little way, 発言/述べるing:
"How do you know my 指名する, and who sends this 現在の of self-conceiving 解雇する/砲火/射撃 to Heu-Heu?"
"Is not the 指名する of Dacha known to the ends of the earth?" I asked—a 発言/述べる which seemed to please him very much; "yes, as far as his (一定の)期間s can travel, which is the sky and 支援する again. As to who sends the 魔法 解雇する/砲火/射撃, it is a 広大な/多数の/重要な one, a wizard of the best, if not やめる so good as Dacha, who is 指名するd Zikali, who is 指名するd the 'Opener-of-Roads,' who is 指名するd 'the Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born.'"
"We have heard of him," said Dacha. "His messengers were here in our father's day. And what does Zikali want of us, O Stranger?"
"He wants leaves of a 確かな tree that grows in Heu-Heu's garden, that is called the Tree of 見通しs, that he may mix them with his 薬/医学s."
Dacha nodded and so did the other priests. Evidently they knew all about the Tree of 見通しs, as I, or rather Zikali, had 指名するd it.
"Then why did he not come for them himself?"
"Because he is old and infirm. Because he is 拘留するd by 広大な/多数の/重要な 事件/事情/状勢s. Because it was easier for him to send me, who, 存在 a lover of that which is 宗教上の, was anxious to do homage to Heu-Heu and to make the 知識 of the 広大な/多数の/重要な Dacha."
"I understand," the priest replied, 高度に gratified, as his 直面する shewed. "But how are you 指名するd, O Messenger of Zikali?"
"I am 指名するd 'Blowing-勝利,勝つd,' because I pass where I would, 非,不,無 seeing me come or go, and therefore am the best and swiftest of messengers. And this little one, this small but 広大な/多数の/重要な-souled one with me"—here I pointed to the smirking Hans, who by now was やめる alive to the humours of the 状況/情勢 and to its advantages from our point of 見解(をとる) —"is 指名するd 'Lord-of-the-解雇する/砲火/射撃' and 'Light-in-不明瞭'" (this was true enough and worked in very 井戸/弁護士席) "because it is he who is 後見人 of the 魔法 解雇する/砲火/射撃," (also true, for he had half a dozen spare boxes in his pockets that he had stolen at one time or another) "of which, if he is 感情を害する/違反するd, he can make enough to 燃やす up all this island and everyone thereon; yes, more than is hidden in the womb of that mountain."
"Can he, by Heu-Heu!" said Dacha, regarding Hans with 広大な/多数の/重要な 尊敬(する)・点.
"Certainly he can. Mighty though I be, I must be careful not to 怒り/怒る him lest myself I should be burnt to cinders."
At this moment a 疑問 seemed to strike Dacha, for he asked:
"Tell me, O Blowing-勝利,勝つd and O Lord-of-解雇する/砲火/射撃, how you (機の)カム to this island? We 観察するd a canoe 乗組員を乗せた with some of our 反抗的な 支配するs who serve that old usurper the Walloo, which is 存在 追跡(する)d that they may be killed for the sacrilege in approaching this 宗教上の place. Were you perchance in that canoe?"
"We were," I answered boldly. "When we arrived at yonder town I met a lady, a very beautiful lady, 指名するd Sabeela, and asked her where dwelt the 広大な/多数の/重要な Dacha. She said here—more, that she knew you and that you were the most beautiful and noblest of men, 同様に as the wisest. She said also that with some of her servants, 含むing a stupid fellow called Issicore, of whom she never can be rid wherever she goes, she herself would paddle us to the island on the chance of seeing your 直面する again." (I may explain to you fellows that this 嘘(をつく) was perfectly 安全な, as I knew Issicore and his people had escaped.) "So she brought us here and landed us that we might look at the 廃虚d city before coming on to see you. But then your people 概略で 追跡(する)d her away, so that we were 強いるd to walk to your town. That is all."
Now Dacha became agitated. "I pray Heu-Heu," he said, "that those fools may not have caught and killed her with the others."
"I pray so also, since she is too fair to die," I answered, "who would be a lovely wife for any man. But stay, I will tell you what has chanced. Lord-of-the-解雇する/砲火/射撃, make 解雇する/砲火/射撃."
Hans produced a match and lit it on the seat of his trousers, which was the only part of him that was not damp. He held it in his joined 手渡すs and I 星/主役にするd at the 炎上, muttering. Then he whispered:
"Be quick, Baas, it is 燃やすing my fingers!"
"All is 井戸/弁護士席," I said solemnly. "The canoe with Sabeela the Beautiful escaped your people, since other canoes, seven—no, eight of them," I 訂正するd, 熟考する/考慮するing the ashes of the match, also the blister on Hans's finger, "(機の)カム out from the town and drove yours away just as they were 追いつくing the Lady Sabeela."
This was a most fortunate 一打/打撃, for at that moment a messenger arrived and gave Dacha 正確に/まさに the same 知能, which he punctuated with many 屈服するs.
"Wonderful!" said the priest. "Wonderful! Here we have magicians indeed!" and he 星/主役にするd at us with much awe. Then again a 疑問 struck him.
"Lord," he said, "Heu-Heu is the 支配者 of the savage Hairy People who live in the 支持を得ようと努めるd and are 指名するd Heuheuas after him. Now a tale has reached us that one of these people has been mysteriously killed with a noise by some strangers. Had you aught to do with her death, Lord?"
"Yes," I answered. "She annoyed the Lord-of-the-解雇する/砲火/射撃 with her attentions, so he slew her, as was 権利 and proper. I 削減(する) off the finger of another who wished to shake 手渡すs with me when I had told him to go away."
"But how did he 殺す her, Lord?"
Now I may explain that there was one inhabitant of this place that 迎える/歓迎するd us with no 真心 at all, すなわち a large and 特に ferocious dog, that all this while had been growling 一連の会議、交渉/完成する us and finally had got 持つ/拘留する of Hans's coat, which it held between its teeth, still growling.
"Scheet! Hans, scheet seen dood!" ("Shoot! Hans, shoot him dead!") I whispered, and Hans, who was always quick to catch an idea, put his 手渡す into his pocket where he kept his ピストル, and 圧力(をかける)ing the muzzle against the brute's 長,率いる, 解雇する/砲火/射撃d through the cloth, with the result that this dog went wherever bad dogs go.
Then there was びっくり仰天. Indeed, one of the priests fell 負かす/撃墜する with 恐れる and the others turned tail, all of them except Dacha, who stood his ground.
"A little of the 魔法 解雇する/砲火/射撃!" I 発言/述べるd airily, "and there is plenty more where that (機の)カム from," at the same time, as though by 事故, slapping Hans's pocket, which I saw was smouldering. "And now, noble Dacha, it is setting in wet and we are hungry. Be pleased to give us 避難所 and food."
"Certainly, Lord, certainly!" he exclaimed, and started off with us, keeping me 井戸/弁護士席 between himself and Hans, while the others, who had returned, followed with the dead dog.
Presently, 回復するing from his 恐れる, he asked me whether the Lady Sabeela had said anything more about him.
"Only one thing," I answered: "that it was a pity that a maiden should be 強いるd to marry a god when there were such men as you in the world."
Here I stopped and watched the 影響 of my 発射 out of the corner of my 注目する,もくろむ.
His coarse but handsome 直面する grew cunning, and he smacked his lips.
"Yes, Lord, yes," he said hurriedly. "But who knows? Things are not always what they seem, Lord, and I have 公式文書,認めるd that いつかs the faithful servant tithes the master's 申し込む/申し出ing."
"By Jingo! I've got it!" thought I to myself. "You, my friend, are Heu-Heu, or at any 率 his 商売/仕事 part." But aloud, ちらりと見ることing at the redoubtable Hans, I only 発言/述べるd something to the 影響 that Dacha's 力/強力にするs of 観察 were keen and that, like the Lord-of-the-解雇する/砲火/射撃 himself, as he said truly, things were not always what they seemed.
We crossed a 明らかにする 壇・綱領・公約 of 激しく揺する, to the 権利 of which, beyond a space of garden, I 観察するd the mouth of a large 洞穴. At the 辛勝する/優位 of this 壇・綱領・公約 a strange sight was to be seen, for here, just on the 国境s of the lake, at a distance of about twenty paces from each other, 燃やすd two columns of 炎上 which hitherto had been hidden from us by the 嘘(をつく) of the ground and trees, between which columns was a 中心存在 or 地位,任命する of 石/投石する.
"The 'eternal 解雇する/砲火/射撃s,'" thought I to myself, and then 問い合わせd casually what they were.
"They are 炎上s which have always 燃やすd in that place from the beginning; we do not know why," Dacha replied indifferently. "No rain puts them out."
"Ah!" I 反映するd, "natural gas coming from the 火山, such as I have heard of in Canada."
Then we turned to the 権利 along the outer 塀で囲む of the garden I have について言及するd, and (機の)カム to some 罰金 houses, that, to my fancy, had a 肉親,親類d of collegiate 外見, all one-storied and built against the 激しく揺する of the mountain. As a 事柄 of fact, I was 権利, for these were the dwellings of the priests of Heu-Heu and their 非常に/多数の 女性(の) 所持品. These priests, I should say, had their 特権s, for 反して the people on the 本土/大陸 for the most part married only one wife, they were polygamous, the ladies 存在 供給(する)d to them through spiritual 圧力 put upon the unfortunate Walloos, or, if that failed, by the simple and 古代の expedient of kidnapping. Once, however, they had arrived upon the island and thus became 献身的な to the god, they 消えるd so far as their kinsfolk were 関心d, and never afterwards were they 許すd to cross the water or even to 試みる/企てる any communication with them. In short, those who became alive in Heu-Heu, became also dead to the world.
Hans and I were led to the largest of this group of houses, that abutting すぐに on to the garden 塀で囲む, the inhabitants of which 明らかに had already been advised of our coming by messenger, since we 設立する them in a bustle of 準備. Thus I saw handsome, white-式服d women flitting about and heard hurried orders 存在 given. We were taken to a room where a driftwood 解雇する/砲火/射撃 had been lighted on the hearth because the night was damp and 冷気/寒がらせる, at which we warmed and 乾燥した,日照りのd ourselves after we had washed. A while later a priest 召喚するd us to eat and then retired outside the door を待つing our convenience.
"Hans," I said, "all has gone 井戸/弁護士席 so far; we are 受託するd as the friends of Heu-Heu, not as his enemies."
"Yes, Baas, thanks to the cleverness of the Baas about the matches and the 残り/休憩(する). But what has the Baas in his mind?"
"This, Hans; that all must continue to go 井戸/弁護士席, for remember what is our 義務, すなわち, to save the lady Sabeela, if we can, as we have sworn to do. Now if we are to bring this about we must keep our 注目する,もくろむs open and our wits sharp. Hans, I daresay that they have strange アルコール飲料s in this place which will be 申し込む/申し出d to us to make us talk. But while we are here we must drink nothing but water. Do you understand, Hans?"
"Yes, Baas, I understand."
"And do you 断言する, Hans?"
Hans rubbed his middle reflectively, and replied:
"My stomach is 冷淡な, Baas, and I should like a glass of something more warming than water after all this damp and the sight of those 石/投石する men. Yet, Baas, I 断言する. Yes, I 断言する by your Reverend Father that I will only drink water, or coffee if they make it, which, of course, they don't."
"That is all 権利, Hans. You know that if you break your 誓い my Reverend Father will certainly come even with you, and so shall I in this world or the next."
"Yes, Baas. But will the Baas please remember that a gin 瓶/封じ込める is not the only bait that the devil 始める,決めるs upon his hook. Different men have different tastes, Baas. Now if some pretty lady were to come and tell the Baas that he was oh! so beautiful and that she loved him, oh! ever so much, someone like that Mameena, for instance, of whom old Zikali is always talking as having been a friend of yours, will the Baas 断言する by his Reverend Father——"
"中止する from folly and be silent," I said majestically. "Is this the time and place to chatter of pretty women?"
にもかかわらず, in myself I 高く評価する/(相場などが)上がるd the shrewdness of Hans's repartee, and as a 事柄 of fact an 試みる/企てる was made to play off that trick on me, though if I am to get to the end of this story, I shall have no time to tell you about it.
Our compact 調印(する)d, we went through the door and 設立する the priest waiting outside. He led us 負かす/撃墜する a passage into a 罰金 hall plentifully lit with lamps for now the night had fallen. Here several (米)棚上げする/(英)提議するs were spread, but we were taken to one at the 長,率いる of the hall where we were welcomed by Dacha dressed in grand 式服s, and some other priests; also by women, all of them handsome and beautifully arrayed in their wild fashion, whom I took to be the wives of these worthies. One of them, I noticed, had a singular resemblance to the Lady Sabeela, although she appeared to be her 年上の by some years.
We sat 負かす/撃墜する at the (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する in curious, carved 議長,司会を務めるs, and I 設立する myself between Dacha and this lady, whose 指名する, I discovered, was Dramana. The feast began, and I may say at once that it was a very 罰金 feast, for it appeared that we had arrived upon a day of festival. Indeed, I had not eaten such a meal for years.
Of course, it was 野蛮な in its way. Thus the food was served in 広大な/多数の/重要な earthenware dishes, already 削減(する) up; there were no knives or forks, the fingers of the eaters taking their place, and the plates consisted of the 堅い green leaves of some 肉親,親類d of waterlily that grew in the lake, which were 除去するd after each course and 取って代わるd by fresh ones.
Of its sort, however, it was excellent and 含むd fish of a good flavour, kid cooked with spices, wild fowl, and a 肉親,親類d of pudding made of ground corn and sweetened with honey. Also, there was plenty of the strong native beer, which was 手渡すd 一連の会議、交渉/完成する in ornamented earthenware cups that were, however, inlaid not with small diamonds and rubies, but with pearls 設立する, I was 知らせるd, in the 爆撃するs of fresh-water mussels, and 始める,決める in the clay when damp.
These pearls were 不規律な in 形態/調整 and for the most part not large, but the 影響 of them thus 雇うd, was very pretty. Still, some 達成するd to a かなりの size, since Dramana and other women wore necklaces of them bored and strung upon fibres. Without going into その上の 詳細(に述べる)s, I may say that this feast and its 器具/備品 納得させるd me more than ever that these people had once belonged to some unknown but 高度に civilized race which was now dying out in its last home and 沈むing into 野蛮/未開 before it died.
In pursuance of our 協定 Hans, who squatted on a stool behind me, for he would not sit at the (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する, and I, 説 that we were bound by a 公約する to touch nothing else, drank water only, although I heard him groan each time the beer cups went 一連の会議、交渉/完成する. I may 追加する that this happened frequently, and the 量 of アルコール飲料 消費するd was かなりの, as became evident by the behaviour of the drinkers, many of whom grew more or いっそう少なく intoxicated, with the usual unpleasant results that I need not 述べる. Also they grew affectionate, for they threw their 武器 about the women and began to kiss them in a way which I considered 妥当でない. I 観察するd, however, that the lady called Dramana drank but little. Also, as she sat between me and an 極端に deaf priest who became sleepy in his cups, she was, of course, 解放する/自由なd from any such unwelcome attentions.
All these circumstances, and 特に the fact that Dacha was much 占領するd with a handsome 女性(の) on his left, gave Dramana and myself 適切な時期s of conversation which I think were welcome to her. After a few general 発言/述べるs, presently she said in a low 発言する/表明する:
"I hear, Lord, that you have seen Sabeela, the daughter of the Walloo, 長,指導者 of the 本土/大陸. Tell me of her, for she is my sister on whom I have not looked for a long while, for we never visit the 本土/大陸, and those who dwell there never visit us—unless they are 強いるd," she 追加するd 意味ありげに.
"She is beautiful but lives in 広大な/多数の/重要な terror because she, who 願望(する)s to be married to a man, must be married to a god," I answered.
"She does 井戸/弁護士席 to be afraid, Lord, for by you sits that god," and with a shiver of disgust and the slightest possible 動議 of her 長,率いる, she 示すd Dacha, who had become やめる drunken and at the moment was engaged in embracing the lady on his left, who also seemed to be somewhat the worse for アル中患者 wear, or to put it plainly, "half seas over."
"Nay," I answered, "the god I mean is called Heu-Heu, not Dacha."
"Heu-Heu, Lord! You will learn all about Heu-Heu before the night is over. It is Dacha whom she must marry."
"But Dacha is your husband, lady."
"Dacha is the husband of many, Lord," and she ちらりと見ることd at several of the most handsome women 現在の, "for the god is 自由主義の to his high priest. Since I was bound between the eternal 解雇する/砲火/射撃s there have been eight such marriages, though some of the brides have been 手渡すd on to others or sacrificed for 罪,犯罪s against the god, or 試みる/企てるing to escape, or for other 推論する/理由s.
"Lord," she went on, dropping her 発言する/表明する till I could scarcely catch what she said, although my 審理,公聴会 is keen, "be 警告するd by me. Unless you are indeed a god greater than Heu-Heu, and your companion also, whatever you may see or hear, 解除する neither 発言する/表明する nor 手渡す. If you do, you will be rent to pieces without helping any one and perhaps bring about the death of many, my own の中で them. Hush! Speak of something else. He is beginning to watch us. Yet, O Lord, help me if you can. Yes, save me and my sister if you can."
I ちらりと見ることd 一連の会議、交渉/完成する. Dacha, who had 中止するd embracing the lady, was looking at us suspiciously, as though he had caught some word. Perhaps Hans thought so 同様に, for he managed to make a 広大な/多数の/重要な clatter, either by 宙返り/暴落するing off his stool or dropping his drinking cup, I know not which, that drew away Dacha's half-drunken attention from us and 妨げるd him from 審理,公聴会 anything.
"You see to find the Lady Dramana pleasant, O Lord Blowing-勝利,勝つd," sneered Dacha. "井戸/弁護士席, I am not jealous and I would give such guests of the best I have, 特に when the god is going to be so good to me. Also the Lady Dramana knows better than to tell secrets and what happens here to those who do. So talk to her as much as you like, little Blowing-勝利,勝つd, before you blow yourself away," and he leered at me in a manner that made me feel very uncomfortable.
"I was asking the Lady Dramana about the sacred tree of which the 広大な/多数の/重要な wizard, Zikali, 願望(する)s some of the leaves for his 薬/医学," I said, pretending not to understand.
"Oh!" he answered, with a change of manner which 示唆するd that his 疑惑s were in course of 存在 dissipated, "oh, were you? I thought you were asking of other things. 井戸/弁護士席, there is no secret about that, and she shall show it to you to-morrow, if you like; also anything else you wish, for I and my brethren will be さもなければ engaged. 一方/合間, here comes the Cup of Illusions that is brewed from the fruit of the tree of which you must taste though you be a water-drinker, yes, and the yellow dwarf, Lord-of-the-解雇する/砲火/射撃, also, for in it we 誓約(する) the god into whose presence we must enter very soon."
I answered hurriedly that I was 疲れた/うんざりした and would not trouble the god by 支払う/賃金ing my 尊敬(する)・点s to him at 現在の.
"All who come here must pass the god, Lord Blowing-勝利,勝つd," he answered, glaring at me, and 追加するing: "Either they must pass the god living, or, if they prefer it, they may pass him dead. Did not Zikali tell you that, O Blowing-勝利,勝つd? Choose, then. Will you wait upon the god living, or will you wait upon him dead?"
Now I thought it was time to 主張する myself, and looking this ill-条件d brute in the 注目する,もくろむs, I said slowly:
"Who is this that 会談 to me of death, not knowing perchance that I am a lord of death? Does he 捜し出す such a 運命/宿命 as that which befell the hound without your doors? Learn, O Priest of Heu-Heu, that it is dangerous to use ill-omened words to me or to the Lord-of-the-解雇する/砲火/射撃, lest we should answer them with 雷s."
I suppose that these 発言/述べるs, or something in my 注目する,もくろむ, impressed him. At any 率, his manner became humble, almost servile indeed, 特に as Hans had risen and stood at my 味方する, 持つ/拘留するing in his 延長するd 手渡す the box of matches, at which all 星/主役にするd suspiciously. 井戸/弁護士席 they might have 星/主役にするd, had they known that his other 手渡す, innocently buried in his pocket, しっかり掴むd the butt of an excellent Colt revolver. I should have told you, by the way, that as we could not bring them with us to the feast we had left our ライフル銃/探して盗むs hidden in our beds, 負担d and 十分な clocked, so that they would be sure to go off if any どろぼう began to finger them.
"容赦, Lord, 容赦," said Dacha. "Could I wish to 侮辱 one so powerful? If I said aught to 感情を害する/違反する, why, this beer is strong."
I 屈服するd benignantly, but remembered the old Latin 説 to the 影響 that drink digs out the truth. Then, by way of changing the 支配する, he pointed to the end of the room. Here appeared two pretty women dressed in exceedingly light attire and with 花冠s upon their 長,率いるs, who bore between them a large bowl of アルコール飲料 in which floated red flowers. (The whole scene, I should say, much 似ているd some picture I had seen of an 古代の Roman—or perhaps it was Egyptian feast taken from a fresco.) They brought the bowl to Dacha, and with a 同時の movement of their graceful forms 解除するd it up, whereon all of the company who were not too drunk rose, 屈服するd に向かって the bowl and twice cried out together:
"The Cup of Illusions! The Cup of Illusions!"
"Drink," said Dacha to me. "Drink to the glory of Heu-Heu." Then 観察するing that I hesitated, he 追加するd: "Nay, I will drink first to show that it is not 毒(薬)d," and muttering, "O Spirit of Heu-Heu, descend upon thy priest!" drink he did, a かなりの 量.
Then the women brought the bowl, which reminded me of the loving-cup at a Lord 市長's feast, and held it to my lips. I took a pull at it, making 動議s of my throat as though it were a long one, though in reality I only swallowed a sip. Next it was 手渡すd to Hans to whom I murmured one Boer Dutch word over my shoulder. It was "Beetje," which means "little," and as I turned my 長,率いる to watch him, I think he took the advice.
After this the bowl, in which, I should 追加する, the アルコール飲料 was of a greenish colour and tasted something like Chartreuse, was taken from one to another till all 現在の had drunk of it, the girls who bore it finishing up the little that was left.
This I saw, but after it I did not see much else for a while, for, small as had been my draught, the stuff went to my 長,率いる and seemed to cloud my brain. Moreover, all 肉親,親類d of queer 見通しs, some of them not too 望ましい, sprang up in my mind, and with them a sense of vastness that was peopled by innumerable forms; beautiful forms, grotesque forms, forms of folk that I had known, now long dead, forms of others whom I had never seen, all of whom had this peculiarity, that they seemed to be 星/主役にするing at me with a strange intentness. Also these forms grouped themselves together and began to 制定する 演劇s of one 肉親,親類d or another, 演劇s of war and love and death that had all the vividness of a nightmare.
Presently, however, these illusions passed away and I remained filled with a 広大な/多数の/重要な 静める and a wonderful sense of 井戸/弁護士席-存在, also with my 力/強力にするs of 観察 (判決などを)下すd most 激烈な/緊急の.
Looking about me, I 公式文書,認めるd that all who had drunk seemed to be を受けるing 類似の experiences. At first they showed 調印するs of excitement; then they grew very still and sat like statues with their 注目する,もくろむs 直す/買収する,八百長をするd on vacancy, speaking not a word, moving not a muscle.
This 明言する/公表する lasted やめる a long time, till at length those who had drunk first appeared to awake, for they began to talk to each other in low トンs. I 公式文書,認めるd that every 調印する of drunkenness had 消えるd; one and all they looked as sober as a whole (法廷の)裁判 of 裁判官s; moreover, their 直面するs had grown solemn and their 注目する,もくろむs seemed to be filled with some 冷淡な and fateful 目的.
THE SACRIFICE
After a solemn pause, Dacha rose and said in an icy 発言する/表明する:
"I hear the god calling us. Let us pass into the presence of the god and make 申し込む/申し出ing of the 年一回の sacrifice."
Then a 行列 was formed. Dacha and Dramana went first, Hans and I followed next, and after us (機の)カム all who had been at the feast, to a total of about fifty people.
"Baas," whispered Hans, "after I had drunk that stuff, which was so nice and warming that I wished you had let me have more of it, your Reverend Father (機の)カム and talked to me."
"And what did he say to you, Hans?"
"He said, Baas, that we were going into very queer company and had better keep our 注目する,もくろむs skinned. Also that it would be wise not to 干渉する in 事柄s that did not 関心 us."
I 反映するd to myself that within an hour I had received advice of the same sort from a 純粋に terrestrial source, which was an 半端物 coincidence, unless indeed Hans had overheard or 吸収するd it subconsciously. To him I only 観察するd, however, that such 委任統治(領)s must be obeyed, and that whatever chanced he would do 井戸/弁護士席 to sit やめる still, keeping his ピストル ready, but only use it in 事例/患者 of 絶対の necessity to save ourselves from death.
The 行列 left the hall by a 支援する 入り口 behind the (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する at which we had sat, and entered a 肉親,親類d of tunnel that was lit with lamps, though whether this was hollowed in the 激しく揺する or built of 封鎖するs of 石/投石する I am not sure. After walking for about fifty paces 負かす/撃墜する this tunnel, suddenly we 設立する ourselves in a 広大な/多数の/重要な cavern, also dimly lit with lamps, mere 位置/汚点/見つけ出すs of light in the surrounding blackness.
Here all the priests, 含むing Dacha, left us; at least, peering about, I could not see any of them. The women alone remained in the 洞穴, where they knelt 負かす/撃墜する singly and at a distance from each other like scattered worshippers in a dimly lit cathedral when no service is in 進歩.
Dramana, to whose 告発(する),告訴(する)/料金 we seemed to have been consigned, led us to a 石/投石する (法廷の)裁判 upon which she took her seat with us. I 公式文書,認めるd that she did not ひさまづく and worship like the others. For a while we remained thus in silence, 星/主役にするing at the blackness in 前線 where no lamps 燃やすd. It was an eerie 商売/仕事 in such surroundings that I 自白する began to get upon my 神経s. At length I could 耐える it no longer, and in a whisper asked Dramana whether anything was about to happen, and if so, what.
"The sacrifice is about to happen," she whispered 支援する. "Be silent, for here the ears of the god are everywhere."
I obeyed, thinking it safer, and another ten minutes or so went by in an intolerable stillness.
"When does the play begin, Baas?" muttered Hans in my ear. (Once I had taken him to a theatre in Durban to 改善する his mind, and he thought that this was another, as indeed it was, if of an unusual sort.)
I kicked him on the 向こうずねs to keep him 静かな, and just then at a distance I heard the sound of 詠唱するing. It was a weird and melancholy music that seemed to swing backwards and 今後s between two 禁止(する)d of singers, each strophe and antistrophe, if those are the 権利 words, ending in a 肉親,親類d of wail or cry of despair which turned my 血 冷淡な. When this had gone on for a little while, I thought that I saw 人物/姿/数字s moving through the gloom in 前線 of us. So did Hans, for he whispered:
"The Hairy People are here, Baas."
"Can you see them?" I asked in the same low 発言する/表明する.
"I think so, Baas. At any 率, I can smell them."
"Then keep your ピストル ready," I answered.
A moment later I saw a lighted たいまつ floating in the 空気/公表する in 前線 of us, though the 持参人払いの of it I could not see. The たいまつ was bent downwards, and I heard the sound of kindling taking 解雇する/砲火/射撃. A little 炎上 sprang up 明らかにする/漏らすing a pile of スピードを出す/記録につけるs arranged for 燃やすing, and beyond it the tall form of Dacha wearing a strange headdress and white, priestlike 式服s, different from those in which he had been 覆う? at the feast. Between his 手渡すs, which he held in 前線 of him, was a white human skull 逆転するd, I mean that its upper part was に向かって the 床に打ち倒す.
"燃やす, Dust of Illusion, 燃やす," he cried, "and show us our 願望(する)s," and out of the skull he emptied a 量 of 砕く on to the pile of 支持を得ようと努めるd.
A dense, 侵入するing smoke arose which seemed to fill the 洞穴, 広大な though it was, and blot out everything. It passed away and was followed by a 炎 of brilliant 炎上 that lit up all the place and 明らかにする/漏らすd a terrific spectacle.
Behind the 解雇する/砲火/射撃, at a distance of ten paces or so, was an awful 反対する, an appalling 黒人/ボイコット 人物/姿/数字 at least twelve feet in 高さ, a 人物/姿/数字 of Heu-Heu as we had seen him 描写するd in the 洞穴 of the Berg, only there his likeness was far too flattering. For this was the very image of the devil as he might have been imagined by a mad 修道士, and from his 注目する,もくろむs 発射 a red light.
As I have said before, the 人物/姿/数字 was like to that of a 抱擁する gorilla and yet no ape but a man, and yet no man but a fiend. There was the long gray hair growing in tufts about the 団体/死体. There was the 広大な/多数の/重要な, red, bushy 耐えるd. There were the enormous 四肢s and the long 武器 and the 手渡すs with claws on them where the thumbs should be, and the webbed fingers. The bull neck on the 最高の,を越す of which sat the small 長,率いる that somehow 似ているd an old woman's with a 麻薬中毒の nose; the 抱擁する mouth from which the 粗野な人間-like tusks protruded, the 一連の会議、交渉/完成する, 大規模な, able-looking brow, the deepest glaring 注目する,もくろむs, now alight with red 解雇する/砲火/射撃, the cruel smile—all were there 強めるd. There, too, was the 形態/調整 of a dead man into the breast of which the clawed foot was driven, and in the left 手渡す the 長,率いる that had been 新たな展開d from the man's 団体/死体.
Oh! evidently the painter of the picture in the Berg can have been no Bushman as once I had supposed, but some priest of Heu-Heu whom 運命/宿命 or chance had brought thither in past ages, and who had 描写するd it to be the 反対する of his 私的な worship. When I saw the thing I gasped aloud and felt as though I should 落ちる to the ground through 恐れる, so hellish was it. But Hans gripped my arm and said:
"Baas, be not afraid. It is not alive; it is but a thing of 石/投石する and paint with 解雇する/砲火/射撃 始める,決める within."
I 星/主役にするd again; he was 権利.
Heu-Heu was but an idol! Heu-Heu did not live except in the hearts of his worshippers!
Only out of what 悪魔の(ような) mind had this image sprung?
I sighed with 救済 as this knowledge (機の)カム home to me, and began to 観察する 詳細(に述べる)s. There were plenty to be seen. For instance, on either 味方する of the statue stood a line of the hideous Hairy Folk, men to the 権利 and women to the left, with white cloths tied about their middles. In 前線 of this line behind their high priest, Dacha, were the other priests, Heu-Heu's clergy, and on a raised (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する behind them just at the foot of the base of the statue, which I now saw stood upon a 肉親,親類d of pedestal so as to make it more 支配的な, lay a dead 団体/死体, that of one of the Hairy women, as the (疑いを)晴らす light of the 炎上 明らかにする/漏らすd.
"Baas," said Hans again, "I believe that is the gorilla-woman I 発射 in the river. I seem to know her pretty 直面する."
"If so, I hope we shall not join her on that (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する presently," I answered.
After this suddenly I went mad; everybody went mad. I suppose that the vapour from that accursed 砕く had got into our brains. Had not Dacha called it the "Dust of Illusions"? Certainly, of illusions there were plenty, most of them bad, like those of a nightmare.
Still, before they 所有するd me 完全に, I had the sense to understand what was happening to me and to 支配する 持つ/拘留する of Hans, who I saw was going mad also, and 命令(する) him to sit 静かな. Then (機の)カム the illusions which really I can't 述べる to you. You fellows have read of the 影響s of あへん smoking; 井戸/弁護士席, it was that 肉親,親類d of thing, only worse.
I dreamed that Heu-Heu got off his pedestal and (機の)カム dancing 負かす/撃墜する the hall, also that he bent over me and kissed me on the forehead. In fact, I think it was Dramana who kissed me, for she, too, had gone mad. Everything that I had done bad in my life re-制定するd itself in my mind and, all put together, seemed to make me a sinner indeed, because you see the good was 完全に omitted. The Hairy Folk began an infernal dance before the statue; the women 一連の会議、交渉/完成する us raved and shouted with 驚くべき/特命の/臨時の 表現s upon their 直面するs; the priests waved their 武器 and 始める,決める up yells of adoration as did those of Baal in the Old Testament. In short, literally there was the devil to 支払う/賃金.
Yet strangely enough it was all wildly, deliriously exciting and really I seemed to enjoy it. It shows how wicked we must be at 底(に届く). A sight of hell while you remain on the terra firma of our earth is not uninteresting, even though you be 一時的に 影響する/感情d by its atmosphere.
Presently the nightmare (機の)カム to an end, suddenly as it had 開始するd, and I woke to find my 長,率いる on Dramana's shoulder, or hers on 地雷, I forget which, with Hans engaged in kissing my boot under the impression that it was the chaste brow of some 黒人/ボイコット maiden whom he had known about thirty years before. I kicked him on his 無視する,冷たく断わる nose, whereon he rose and わびるd, 発言/述べるing that this was the strongest dacca—the hemp which the natives smoke with intoxicating 影響s—that he had ever tasted.
"Yes," I answered, "and now I understand where Zikali's 魔法 comes from. No wonder he wants more of the leaves of that tree and thought it 価値(がある) while to send us so far to get them."
Then I 中止するd talking, for something in the atmosphere of the place 吸収するd my attention. A sudden 冷気/寒がらせる seemed to have fallen upon it and its occupants who, in strange contrast to their 最近の 超過s, now appeared to be 所有するd by the very spirit of Mrs. Grundy. There they stood, exuding piety at every pore and gazing with rapt countenance at the hideous image of their god. Only to me those countenances had grown very cruel. It was as though they を待つd the consummation of some dreadful 演劇 with a 肉親,親類d of 冷淡な joy, which, of course, may have been an 影響 of their unholy intoxication. It was the scene at the feast repeated but with a difference. There they had been drunken with アルコール飲料 and sobered by the potent stuff they had swallowed after it; now they had been made drunken with ガス/煙s and were sobered by I knew not what. Their master Satan, perhaps!
The 解雇する/砲火/射撃 still burnt brightly though it gave off no more of these ガス/煙s, 存在 fed I suppose with natural 燃料, and by the light of it I saw that Dacha was 演説(する)/住所ing the image with 情熱的な gestures. What he said I do not know, for my ears were still buzzing and of it I could hear nothing. But presently he turned and pointed to us and then began to beckon.
"What is it he wants us to do?" I asked of Dramana who now was seated at my 味方する, a perfect model of propriety.
"He says that you must come up and make your 申し込む/申し出ing to the god."
"What 申し込む/申し出ing?" I asked, thinking that perhaps it would be of a painful nature.
"The 申し込む/申し出ing of the sacred 解雇する/砲火/射撃 that the Lord of 解雇する/砲火/射撃," and she pointed to Hans, "耐えるs about with him."
I was puzzled for a moment till Hans 発言/述べるd:
"I think she means the matches, Baas."
Then I understood, and bade him produce a new box of Best Wax Vestas and 持つ/拘留する it out in his 手渡す. Thus 武装した we 前進するd and, passing 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the 解雇する/砲火/射撃, 屈服するd, as the Bible potentate whom the Prophet cured 取引d he should be 許すd to do in the House of Rimmon, to the beastly effigy of Heu-Heu. Then in obedience to the muttered directions of Dacha, Hans solemnly deposited the box of matches upon the 石/投石する (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する, after which we were 許すd to 退却/保養地.
Anything more ridiculous than this scene it is impossible to imagine. I suppose that its 激しい absurdity was 原因(となる)d, or at any 率 accentuated by its startling and indeed horrible contrasts. There was the 非常に高い and demoniacal idol; there were the rogue priests, their 直面するs alight with a 猛烈な/残忍な fanaticism; there, looking only half human, were the long lines of savage Hairy Folk; there was the 燃やすing 解雇する/砲火/射撃 反映するing itself to the farthest 休会s of the cavern and showing the forms of the scattered worshippers.
Finally there was myself, a bronzed and tattered individual, and the dirty, abject-looking Hans 持つ/拘留するing in his 手渡す that absurd box of matches which finally he deposited in the exact middle of the 石/投石する (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する about six インチs from the swollen 団体/死体 of the aboriginal whom he had 発射 in the river. In those 広大な surroundings this box looked so lonely and so small that the sight of it moved me to 内部の convulsions. Shaking with hysterical laughter I returned to my seat as quickly as I could, dragging Hans after me, for I saw that his 事例/患者 was the same, although fortunately it is not the custom of Hottentots to burst into open merriment.
"What will Heu-Heu do with the matches, Baas?" asked Hans. "Surely there must be plenty of 解雇する/砲火/射撃 where he is, Baas."
"Yes, lots," I replied with energy, "but perhaps of another sort."
Then I 観察するd that Dacha was pointing to the 権利 and that the 注目する,もくろむs of all 現在の were 直す/買収する,八百長をするd in that direction.
"The sacrifice comes," murmured Dramana, and as she spoke a woman appeared, a tall woman covered with a white 式服 or 隠す, who was led 今後 by two of the Hairy People. She was brought to the 前線 of the (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する on which lay the 団体/死体 and the matches, and there stood やめる still.
"Who is this?" I asked.
"Last year's bride, with whom the priest has done and passes on into the keeping of the god," answered Dramana with a stony smile.
"Do you mean that they are going to kill the poor thing?" I said, horrified.
"The god is about to take her into his keeping," she replied enigmatically.
At this moment one of the savage attendants snatched away the 隠す which draped the 犠牲者, 明らかにする/漏らすing a very beautiful woman 覆う? in a white kirtle which was 削減(する) low upon her breast and reached to her 膝s. Tall and stately, she stood やめる still before us, her 黒人/ボイコット hair streaming 負かす/撃墜する upon her shoulders. Then, as though at some signal, all the women in the audience stood up and 叫び声をあげるd:
"結婚する her to the god! 結婚する her to the god and let us drink of the cup that through her 部隊s us to the god!"
Two of the Hairy Folk drew 近づく to the girl, each of whom had something in his 手渡す, though what it was at the moment I could not see, and stood still, as though waiting for a 調印する. Then followed a pause during which I ちらりと見ることd about me at the 直面するs of the women, made hideous by the unholy passions that 激怒(する)d within them, who stood with outstretched 武器 pointing at the 犠牲者. They looked horrible, and I hated them, all except Dramana, who, I 公式文書,認めるd with 救済, had not cried aloud and did not stretch out her 手渡すs like the 残り/休憩(する).
What was I about to see? Some dreadful 行為/法令/行動する of voodooism such as negroes practise in Haiti and on the West Coast? Perhaps. If so, I could not 耐える it. Whatever the 危険 might be I could not 耐える it; almost automatically my 手渡す しっかり掴むd the 在庫/株 of my revolver.
Dacha seemed as though he were about to say something, a word of doom mayhap. I 手段d the distance between me and himself with my 注目する,もくろむs, calculating where I should 目的(とする) to put a 弾丸 through his large 長,率いる and give the god a sacrifice which it did not 推定する/予想する. Indeed, had he spoken such a word, without 疑問 I should have done it, for as you fellows know I am handy with a ピストル, and probably, as a result, never have lived to tell you this story.
As this juncture, however, the 犠牲者 waved her 武器 and said in a loud, (疑いを)晴らす 発言する/表明する:
"I (人命などを)奪う,主張する the 古代の 権利 to make my 祈り to the god before I am given to the god."
"Speak on," said Dacha, "and be swift."
She turned and curtseyed to the hideous idol, then wheeled about again and 演説(する)/住所d it in form although really she was speaking to the audience.
"O Fiend Heu-Heu," she said in a 発言する/表明する filled with awful 軽蔑(する) and bitterness, "whom my people worship to their 廃虚, I who was stolen from my people come to thee because I would have 非,不,無 of yonder high-priest and therefore must 支払う/賃金 the price in 血. So be it, but ere I come I have something to tell these priests who grow fat in wickedness. Hearken! A spirit is in me, giving me sight. I see this place a sea of water, I see 炎上s bursting through the water, turning thy hideous effigy to dust and 燃やすing up thy evil servants, so that not one of them remains. The Prophecy! The Prophecy! Let all who hear me bethink them of the 古代の prophecy, for at length its hour is 実行するd!"
Then she 星/主役にするd に向かって Hans and myself, waving her 武器, and I thought was about to 演説(する)/住所 us. If so, she changed her mind and did not.
So far the priests and the congregation had listened in the silence of amazement, or perhaps of 恐れる. Now, however, a howl of furious execration broke from them, and when it died 負かす/撃墜する I heard Dacha shouting:
"Let this blaspheming witch be 殺害された. Let the sacrifice be 遂行するd!"
The two savages stepped に向かって her, and now I saw that what they held in their 手渡すs were coils of rope with which doubtless she was to be bound. If so, she was too swift for them, for with a 広大な/多数の/重要な bound she sprang upon the (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する where lay the 団体/死体 of the Hairy woman and the box of matches. Next instant I saw a knife flashing in her 手渡す; I suppose it had been 隠すd somewhere in her dress. She 解除するd it and 急落(する),激減(する)d it to her heart, crying as she did so:
"My 血 be on you, Priests of Heu-Heu!"
Then she fell 負かす/撃墜する there upon the (米)棚上げする/(英)提議する and was still.
In the hush that followed I heard Hans say:
"That was a 勇敢に立ち向かう lady, Baas, and doubtless all she said will come true. May I shoot that priest, Baas, or will you?"
"No," I began, but before I could get out another word my 発言する/表明する was 圧倒するd by a tumult of shouts:
"The god has been robbed of his sacrifice and is hungry. Let the strangers be 申し込む/申し出d to the god."
These and other like things said the shouts.
Dacha looked に向かって us, hesitating, and I saw that it was time to 行為/法令/行動する. Rising, I called out:
"Know, O Dacha, that before one 手渡す is laid upon us I will make you as my companion, Lord-of-the-解雇する/砲火/射撃, made the dog without your doors."
Evidently Dacha believed me, for he grew 静かな humble. "Have no 恐れる, Lords," he said. "Are you not our honoured guests and the messengers of a 広大な/多数の/重要な One? Go in peace and safety."
Then at his 命令(する) or 調印する the brightly 燃やすing 解雇する/砲火/射撃 was scattered, so that the 洞穴 grew almost dark, 特に as some of the lights had gone out.
"Follow me 速く—速く," said Dramana, and taking my 手渡す she led me away through the gloom.
Presently we 設立する ourselves in the passage, though for aught I know it was another passage; at any 率, it led to the hall where we had feasted. This was now empty, although in it lights still 燃やすd. Crossing it, Dramana 行為/行うd us 支援する to the house, where a 迅速な examination shewed us that our ライフル銃/探して盗むs were just as we had left them; nothing had been touched. Here, seeing that we were やめる alone, for all had gone to the sacrifice, I spoke to her.
"Lady Dramana," I said, "does my heart tell me truly or do I only dream that you 願望(する) to 出発/死 from out of the 影をつくる/尾行する of Heu-Heu?"
She ちらりと見ることd about her 慎重に, then answered in a low 発言する/表明する: "Lord, there is nothing that I 願望(する) so much—unless perchance it be death," she 追加するd with a sigh. "Hearken! Seven years ago I was bound upon the 激しく揺する of 申し込む/申し出ing, where my sister will stand to-morrow, having been chosen by the god and 献身的な to him by the mad terror of my people, which means, Lord, that I had been chosen by Dacha and 献身的な to Dacha."
"Why, then, do you still live?" I asked, "seeing that she who was chosen last year must be sacrificed this year?"
"Lord, am I not the daughter of the Walloo, the 支配者 of the people of the 本土/大陸, and might not the 肩書を与える to that 支配する be acquired through me while I breathe? It is not the best of 肩書を与えるs, it is true, because I was born of a lesser wife of my father, the Walloo, 反して my sister Sabeela is born of the 広大な/多数の/重要な wife. Still, at a pinch, it might serve. That is why I still live."
"What then is Dacha's 計画(する), Lady Dramana?
"It stands thus, Lord. Hitherto for many 世代s, it is said since the 広大な/多数の/重要な 解雇する/砲火/射撃 燃やすd upon the island and destroyed the city, there have been two 政府s in this land: that of the priests of Heu-Heu, who 治める/統治する the minds of its people, also the wild 支持を得ようと努めるd Folk, and that of the Walloos, who 治める/統治する their 団体/死体s and are kings by 古代の 権利. Now Dacha, who, when he is not lost in drink or other follies, is farseeing and ambitious, 目的s to 支配する both minds and 団体/死体s and it may be to bring in new 血 from outside our country and once more to build up a 広大な/多数の/重要な people, such as tradition tells we were in the beginning, when we (機の)カム here from the north or from the west. He does but wait until he has married my sister, the lawful heiress to the Walloo, my father, who by now must be an old and feeble man, to strike his blow, and in her 指名する to 掴む the 政府 and 力/強力にする.
"The priests, as you have seen, are but few and cannot do this of their own strength, but they 命令(する) all the savage folk who are called the Children of Heu-Heu. Now these people are very angry because the other day one of their women was killed upon the river, she who lay on the altar before the god, and this they think was done by the Walloo, not understanding that it was your servant, the yellow man there, who slew her. Or if they understand, they believe that he did so by the order of Issicore who, we hear, is betrothed to my sister Sabeela.
"Therefore they wish to make a 広大な/多数の/重要な war upon the Walloo under the 指導/手引 of the priests of Heu-Heu, whom they call their Father, because his image is like to them. Already their mankind are 集会 on the island, 列/漕ぐ/騒動ing themselves hither upon スピードを出す/記録につけるs or bundles of reeds, and by to-morrow night all will be collected. Then, after what is called the 宗教上の Marriage, when my sister Sabeela has been brought as an 申し込む/申し出ing by the Walloo and bound to the 中心存在 between the Everlasting 解雇する/砲火/射撃s, led by Dacha they will attack the city on the 本土/大陸, which they dare not do alone. It will 降伏する to them, and Dacha will kill my old father and the lord Issicore who stands next to him, and any of the 古代の 血 who 粘着する to him, and 原因(となる) himself to be 宣言するd Walloo. After this his 目的 is to 毒(薬) the Forest Folk as he 井戸/弁護士席 knows how to do and as I have told you, perhaps to bring new 血 into the land which is rich and wide, and 設立する a kingdom."
"A big 計画/陰謀," I said, not without 賞賛, for on 審理,公聴会 it, to tell the truth, I began to conceive a 確かな 尊敬(する)・点 for that villain Dacha, who, at any 率, had ideas and 現在のd a striking contrast to the helpless and superstition-ridden inhabitants of the 本土/大陸.
"But, Lady," I went on, "what is to happen to me and to my companion who is 指名するd Lord-of-the-解雇する/砲火/射撃?"
"I do not know, Lord, who have had little talk with Dacha since you (機の)カム, or with any to whom he 明らかにする/漏らすs his secrets. I think, however, that he is afraid of you, believing you to be magicians, or in league with the greatest of magicians, the prophet Zikali, who dwells in the south, with whom the priests of Heu-Heu communicate from time to time. Also it is probable that he 持つ/拘留するs that you may be able to help him to build up a nation and that therefore he would wish to keep you in his service in this country, only 殺人,大当り you if you try to escape. On the other 手渡す, when the 支持を得ようと努めるd Folk come to understand that it was really you, or one of you, who killed the woman, they may clamour for your lives. Then, if he thinks it wisest to please them, at the 広大な/多数の/重要な feast which is called the finishing of the 宗教上の Marriage, you may be tied upon the altar as a Sacrifice while the 血 is drained from you, to be drunk by the priests with the lips of Heu-Heu. Perhaps that 事柄 will be settled at the 会議 of the Priests to-morrow, Lord."
"Thank you," I said, "never mind the 詳細(に述べる)s."
"一方/合間," she went on, "for the 現在の you are 安全な. Indeed I, who by my 階級 am the Mistress of 世帯s, have been 命令(する)d to honour you in every way, and to-morrow, when the priests are engaged in 準備s for the 宗教上の Marriage, to show you all that you would see, also to 供給する you with boughs from the Tree of Illusions which Zikali the prophet 願望(する)s."
"Thank you," I said again, "we shall be most happy to take a walk with you, even if it rains, as I think from the sounds upon the roof it is doing at 現在の. 一方/合間, I understand that you wish to get out of this place and to save your sister. 井戸/弁護士席, I may 同様に tell you at once, Lady Dramana, that my companion, who chooses to assume the 形態/調整 of a yellow dwarf, and I, who choose to be as I am, are in fact 広大な/多数の/重要な magicians with much more 力/強力にする than we seem to 所有する. Therefore, it is やめる possible that we may be able to help you in all ways, and to do other things more remarkable. Yet we may need your 援助(する), since 一般に that which is mighty 作品 through that which is small, and what I want to know is whether we can count upon it."
"To the death, Lord," she answered.
"So be it, Dramana, for know that if you fail us certainly you will die."
THE SLUICE GATE
All that night it 注ぐd, not 単に in the usual 熱帯の 激流, but 前向きに/確かに in waterspouts. Seldom in my life have I heard such rain as that which fell upon the roof of the house where we were, which must have been wonderfully 井戸/弁護士席 built, for さもなければ it would have given away. When we rose in the morning and went to the door to look out, all the place was swimming and a solid 塀で囲む of water seemed to stretch from heaven to earth.
"I think there will be a flood after this, Baas," 発言/述べるd Hans.
"I think so, too," I answered, "and if we were not here I wish that it might be 深い enough to 溺死する every human brute upon this island."
"It cannot do that, Baas, because at the worst they would climb up the mountain, though it might get into the 洞穴 and give Heu-Heu a washing —which he needs."
"If it got into the 洞穴, it would probably get into the mountain 同様に," I began—then stopped, for an idea occurred to me.
I had noticed that this 洞穴 sloped downwards somewhat steeply, I mean into the base of the mountain and に向かって its centre. Probably, in its origin it was a vent blown through the 激しく揺する at some time in the past when the 火山 was very active, which, for aught I knew, remained unblocked, or only わずかに 封鎖するd. Suppose now that a 広大な/多数の/重要な 容積/容量 of water ran 負かす/撃墜する that 洞穴 and 消えるd into the 内部の of the mountain, was it not probable that something unusual would happen? The 火山 was still alive—this I knew from the smoke that hung above it, also by the stream of red-hot 溶岩 that we had seen trickling 負かす/撃墜する its southern 直面する—and 解雇する/砲火/射撃 and water do not agree 井戸/弁護士席 together. They make steam, and steam 拡大するs. This thought took such a 執拗な 持つ/拘留する on me that I began to wonder whether it did not partake of the nature of an inspiration. However, I said nothing of it to Hans, who, 存在 a savage, did not understand such 事柄s.
A little later food was brought to us by one of the serving priests. With it (機の)カム a message from Dacha to the 影響 that he grieved he could not wait on us that day as he had many 事柄s to which he must …に出席する, but that the Lady Dramana would do so すぐに and show us all there was to be seen, if the rain permitted.
In 予定 course she arrived—alone, as I had hoped she would—and at once began to talk of the 降雨 of the previous night, which she said was such as had never been known in their country. She 追加するd that all the priests had been out that morning, dragging the 広大な/多数の/重要な 石/投石する sluice gate into its place so as to keep out the water of the lake, lest the arable land should be flooded and the 刈るs destroyed.
I told her that I was much 利益/興味d in such 事柄s, and asked questions about this sluice which she could not answer as she knew little of its working. She said, however, that she would show it to me so that I might 熟考する/考慮する the system.
I thanked her and 問い合わせd whether the lake had risen much. She answered, Not yet, but that probably it would do so during the day and the に引き続いて night when it became filled with the water brought 負かす/撃墜する by the flooded river which ran into it from the country to the north. At any 率, this was 恐れるd, and it had been thought best to 始める,決める the sluice in place, a difficult 仕事 because of its 負わせる. Indeed, a woman who had gone to help out of curiosity had been caught by a lever —I understood that was what she meant—and killed. She still lay by the sluice, since it was not lawful for the priests of Heu-Heu or their servants to touch a dead 団体/死体 between the Feast of Illusions, which had been held on the previous night, and the Feast of Marriage, which would be held on the night of the morrow, when, she 追加するd 意味ありげに, they often touched plenty.
"It is a Feast of 血, then?" I said.
"Yes, Lord, a Feast of 血, and I pray that it may not be of your 血 also."
"Have no 恐れる of that," I answered airily, though in truth I felt much depressed. Then I asked her to tell me 正確に/まさに what was going to happen as to the 配達/演説/出産 of the "宗教上の Bride."
"This, Lord," she said. "Before midnight, when the moon should be at its fullest, a canoe comes, bringing the bride from the City of the Walloos. Priests receive her and tie her to the 中心存在 that stands on the 激しく揺する of Offerings between the Everlasting 解雇する/砲火/射撃s. Then the canoe goes and waits at a distance. The priests go also and leave the bride alone. I know it all, Lord, for I have been that bride. So she stands until the first ray of the rising sun strikes upon her. Then from the mouth of the 洞穴 comes out the high priest dressed in 肌s to 似ている the image of the god, and followed by women and some of the Hairy savage folk shouting in 勝利. He looses the bride, and they 耐える her in the 洞穴, and there, Lord, she 消えるs."
"Do you think that she will be brought at all, Dramana?"
"Certainly she will be brought, since if my father, the Walloo, or Issicore, or any 辞退するd to send her, they would be killed by their own people, who believe that then 災害 would 追いつく them. Unless you can save her by your arts, Lord, my sister Sabeela must become the wife of Heu-Heu, which means the wife of Dacha."
"I will think the 事柄 over," I said. "But if I (不足などを)補う my mind to help, am I 権利 in understanding that you also 願望(する) to escape from this island?"
"Lord, I have told you so already, and I will only 追加する this. Dacha hates me and when I have served his 目的 and he has in his 手渡すs Sabeela, the true heiress to the chieftainship over our people unless first I tread her road, certainly it will be my lot to stand where that poor woman stood last night, who slew herself to escape worse things. Oh, Lord, save me if you can!"
"I will save you—if I can," I replied, and I meant it—almost as much as I meant to save myself.
Then I impressed upon her that she must obey me in all things without question, and this she swore to do. Also I asked her if she could 供給する us with a canoe.
"It is impossible," she replied. "Dacha is clever; he has bethought him that you might 出発/死 in a canoe. Therefore, every one of them has been moved 一連の会議、交渉/完成する to the other 味方する of the island where they are kept under watch of the Savage Folk. That is why he gives you leave to roam about the place, because he knows that you cannot leave it, unless you have wings, for the lake is too wide for any man to swim, and if it were not, the Walloo shore is haunted by crocodiles."
Now, my friends, as you may guess, this was a blow indeed. However, I kept my countenance and said that as this was the 事例/患者 something else must be arranged, only asking casually if there were any crocodiles about this part of the island coast. She answered that there were 非,不,無, because, as she supposed, the 炎上s of the Everlasting 解雇する/砲火/射撃s, or some smell from the smoke of the mountain, 脅すd them away.
Next, as the 激流s of rain had 中止するd, at any 率 for a while, I 示唆するd that we should go out, and we did so. Also I did not mind much about the 天候, as to 保護する us from it she had brought with her for our use and her own three of the strangest waterproofs that ever I saw. These consisted of two 巨大(な) leaves from some 肉親,親類d of waterlily that grew on the 国境s of the lake, sewn together, with a 穴を開ける at the 最高の,を越す of the leaves, where the stalk comes, for the wearer's 長,率いる to go through, and two 開始s left for his 武器. For the 残り/休憩(する) no mackintosh ever turned wet so 井戸/弁護士席 as did these leaves, the only drawback about them, as I was 知らせるd, 存在 that they must be 新たにするd once in every three days.
Arrayed in these queer 衣料品s we went out in rain that here we should call 公正に/かなり 激しい, though it was but the merest 霧雨 compared to what had gone before. This rain I may explain, had 広大な/多数の/重要な advantages so far as we were 関心d, seeing that in it not even the most curious woman put her nose outside her own door. So it (機の)カム about that we were able to 診察する the village of the priests of Heu-Heu やめる unobserved and at our leisure.
This 解決/入植地 was small since there were never more than fifty priests in the college, if so it may be called, to whom, of course, must be 追加するd their wives and women, on an 普通の/平均(する), perhaps, of three or four per man.
The 半端物 thing was that there seemed to be no children and no old people. Either offspring did not arrive and folk died young upon the island, or in both 事例/患者s they were made away with, perhaps as sacrifices to Heu-Heu. I am sorry to say that in the 圧力 of 広大な/多数の/重要な dangers I do not remember making any 調査 upon the point, or if I did I cannot 解任する the answer given. It was only afterwards that I 反映するd upon this strange circumstance. The fact remains that on the island there were no young and no 老年の. Another possible explanation, by the way, is that both may have been 輸出(する)d to the 本土/大陸.
Here I will 追加する that with the exception of Dramana and a few discarded wives who may have been doomed to sacrifice, the women were fiercer bigots and more cruel votaries of Heu-Heu than were the men themselves. So, indeed, I had 観察するd when I sat の中で them at the Feast of Illusions in the 洞穴.
For the 残り/休憩(する) they all lived in dwellings such as that which was given to us, and were waited upon by servants or slaves from the savage race that was called Heuheua. Low as these Heuheua were and disgusting as might be their 外見, like our South African Bushmen, they were clever in their way, and, when trained, could do many things. Also they were faithful to the 命令(する)s of their god Heu-Heu, or rather to those of his priests, though they hated the Walloos, from whom these priests sprang, and 行うd continual war against them.
Soon we had left the houses and were の中で the cultivated lands, all of which Dramana 知らせるd us were worked by the Heuheua slaves. These 労働d here in ギャング(団)s for a year at a time, and then were returned to their women in the forests on the 本土/大陸, for, except as servants, 非,不,無 of them were 許すd upon the island. Those lands were extraordinarily fertile, as was shewn by the 刈るs on them, which, although much beaten 負かす/撃墜する by the 豪雨, were now ready for 収穫. They were enclosed by a 肉親,親類d of sea 塀で囲む built of 封鎖するs of 溶岩 and must at some time have been 埋め立てるd from the muddy shallows of the lake, which accounted for their richness. Everywhere about them ran irrigation channels that were used in the 乾燥した,日照りの (種を)蒔くing season and controlled by the sluice gate that has been について言及するd. That is all I have to say about the gardens, except that the 存在 of this irrigation system is to my mind another proof that these Walloos sprang 初めは from some 高度に civilized race. Their fields 延長するd to that extremity of the island which was nearest to the Walloo coast, and I know not how far in the other direction, for I did not go there.
Standing upon this point we saw in the distance a number of moving specks upon the water. I asked Dramana if they were hippopotami, and she answered:
"No, Lord, they are the Hairy Folk who, in obedience to the 召喚するs of the god, cross the lake upon bundles of reeds that they may be ready to fight in the coming war against the Walloo. Already there are hundreds of them gathered upon the さらに先に 味方する of the mountain, and by to-night all their able-団体/死体d men will have come, leaving only the 女性(の)s, the 老年の, and the children hidden away in the depths of the forests. On the third day from now they will paddle 支援する across the lake, led by the priests under the 命令(する) of Dacha, and attack Walloo."
"A 広大な/多数の/重要な 取引,協定 may happen in three days," I said, and dropped the 支配する.
We walked 支援する に向かって the village and the 洞穴 mouth by the sea 塀で囲む, upon the 最高の,を越す of which ran a path, and thus at last (機の)カム to the 激しく揺する of 申し込む/申し出ing, upon each 味方する of which 燃やすd the two curious columns of 炎上 that, I took it, were fed with natural gas 生成するd in the womb of the 火山. They were not very large 解雇する/砲火/射撃s—at any 率, when I saw them—the 炎上 may have been about eight or ten feet high, no more. But there they 燃やすd, and had done so, Dramana said, from the beginning of things. Between them, at a little distance, stood a 地位,任命する of 石/投石する with (犯罪の)一味s also of 石/投石する, to which the bride was bound. I 公式文書,認めるd that from these (犯罪の)一味s hung new ropes placed there to serve as the 社債s of Sabeela during the coming night.
Having seen all there was to see on this 激しく揺する of 申し込む/申し出ing, 含むing the steps by which the 犠牲者 was landed, we went on to a long shed with a 法外な reed roof, which 含む/封じ込めるd the 機械/機構, if so I can call it, that 規制するd the irrigation sluice. It had a 激しい 木造の door which Dramana 打ち明けるd with an 半端物-形態/調整d 石/投石する 重要な that she produced from a 捕らえる、獲得する she was wearing. This 重要な, she told us, had been given to her by Dacha with strict orders that she was to return it after we had 診察するd the place, should we wish to do so.
As it happened there was a good 取引,協定 to 診察する. 近づく one end of the shed the main irrigation canal, which may have been twelve feet wide, passed beneath it. Here, under the centre of the roof, was a 炭坑,オーケストラ席 of which the water that stood in it 妨げるd us from seeing the depth. On either 味方する of this 炭坑,オーケストラ席 were perpendicular grooves 削減(する) in the solid 激しく揺する, very 深い grooves that were 正確に/まさに filled by a 抱擁する 厚板 of dressed 石/投石する six or seven インチs 厚い. When this 石/投石する, or the upper part of it, was 解除するd out of the 激しく揺する 床に打ち倒す of the channel, where 普通は it stood in its niche, forming part of the bed of the channel, it 完全に 削減(する) off the 流入 of water from the lake, and was, moreover, tall enough to stop any possible 付加 流入 at a time of flood.
Perhaps I can make the thing (疑いを)晴らす in this way. When Good and I were last in London together we went to Madame Tussaud's and saw the famous guillotine that was used in the French 革命. The knife of that guillotine, you will remember, was raised between uprights, and when brought into 活動/戦闘, let 落ちる again to the 底(に届く) of the apparatus, 厳しいing the neck of the 犠牲者 in its course. Now imagine that those uprights were the 激しく揺する 塀で囲むs of the 炭坑,オーケストラ席, and that the knife, instead of 存在 but a 狭くする thing, were a 広大な/多数の/重要な sheet of steel, or rather 石/投石する. Then, when it was drawn to the 最高の,を越す of the uprights from the niche at the 底(に届く), it would 完全に fill the space to the 長,率いる of the grooves, and 非,不,無 of the water that 普通は passed over it could flow between the uprights, or rather 塀で囲むs, because the sheet of 石/投石する 閉めだした its passage. Now do you understand?
As Good, who was stupid about such 事柄s, looked doubtful, Allan went on:
"Perhaps a better illustration would be that of a portcullis; even you, Good, have seen a portcullis, which, by the way, must mean a door in a groove. Imagine a subterranean or rather subaqueous, portcullis that, when it was 願望(する)d to shut it, rose in its grooves from below instead of 落ちるing from above, and you will have an exact idea of the water door of the priests of Heu-Heu. I'd draw it for you if it wasn't so late."
"I see now," said Good, "and I suppose they 負傷させる the thing up with a windlass."
"Why not say with a donkey engine at once, Good? Windlasses had not occurred to the Walloos. No, they 行為/法令/行動するd on a simpler and more 古代の 計画(する). They 解除するd it with a lever. 近づく the 最高の,を越す of this 厚板 of 激しく揺する, or water door, was 演習d a 穴を開ける. Through this 穴を開ける passed a bolt of 石/投石する, of which the ends went into the 削減(する)-out base of the lever, thus forming a 肉親,親類d of hinge. The lever itself was a 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業 of 石/投石する—evidently they would not 信用 to 支持を得ようと努めるd which rots—大規模な and about twenty feet long, so as to 得る the best possible 購入(する). When the door was やめる 負かす/撃墜する in its niche at the 底(に届く) of the bed of the channel, the end of the lever 自然に rose high into the 空気/公表する, almost to the 最高の,を越す of the pitched roof of the shed, indeed."
When it was 願望(する)d to raise the door so as to 規制する the 量 of water passing into the irrigation channel beyond, or to 削減(する) if off altogether in 事例/患者 of flood, the lever was pulled 負かす/撃墜する by ropes that were tied to its end by the strength of a number of men and that end was passed into, or rather under, one or other of half a dozen hooks of 石/投石する hollowed into a 直面する of solid 激しく揺する. Here, of course, it remained immovable until it was 解放(する)d, again by the 部隊d strength of a number of men, and flew 支援する to the roof, letting the portcullis 厚板 減少(する) into its bed or groove at the 底(に届く) of the channel, thus admitting the lake water.
On the 現在の occasion, as a 広大な/多数の/重要な flood was 心配するd, this 厚板 was raised to its 十分な extent, and when I saw it, the 最高の,を越す of it stood five or six feet above the level of the water, while the end of the 扱う of the lever was made 急速な/放蕩な beneath the lowest hook of 激しく揺する within a foot of the 床に打ち倒す.
Hans and I 診察するd this 原始の but 効果的な apparatus for 妨げるing inundations very carefully. Supposing, thought I, that any one 手配中の,お尋ね者 to 解放(する) that lever so that the door fell and water 急ぐd in over it, how could it be done? Answer: it could only be done by the 使用/適用 of the 部隊d 軍隊 of a 広大な/多数の/重要な number of men 圧力(をかける)ing on the end of the lever till it was 押し進めるd (疑いを)晴らす of the point of the hook, when 自然に it would 飛行機で行く 上向きs and the door would 落ちる. Or, secondly, by breaking the lever in two, when, of course, the same thing would happen. Now two men, that is Hans and myself, could not かもしれない 解放(する) this beam of 石/投石する from its hook; indeed, I 疑問 whether ten men could have done it. Nor could two men かもしれない break that beam of 石/投石する. Perhaps, if they had suitable marble saws, such as 労働者s in 石/投石する use, and plenty of time, they might 削減(する) it in two, although it seemed to be made of a 肉親,親類d of 激しく揺する that was as hard as アイロンをかける. But we had no saw. Therefore, so far as we were 関心d the 仕事 was impossible; that idea must be 解任するd.
Still, there is a way out of most difficulties if only it can be 攻撃する,衝突する upon. My own mental 資源s were exhausted, it is true, but Hans remained, and かもしれない he might have some suggestion of value to make. He was a curious creature, Hans, and often his concentrated 原始の instincts led him more 直接/まっすぐに to the 示す than did all my civilized reasonings.
So speaking without 強調 in Dutch, for I did not wish Dramana to guess my 内部の excitement, I put the problem to Hans in these words:
"Supposing and you and I, Hans, with 非,不,無 to help, except perhaps this woman, 設立する it necessary to break that 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業 of 石/投石する and 原因(となる) the water gate to 落ちる, so as to let in the lake flood over it, how could we do it with such means as we have in this place?"
Hans 星/主役にするd about him, twiddling his hat in his usual vacuous fashion, and 発言/述べるd:
"I don't know, Baas."
"Then find out, for I want to learn if your 結論s agree with my own," I answered.
"I think that if they agree with the Baas's, they will agree with nothing at all," said Hans, 配達するing this shrewd and perfectly 正確な 発射 with such a 木造の 表現 of utter stupidity that I could have kicked him.
Next, without more words, he 除去するd himself from my neighbourhood and began to 診察する the lever in a casual fashion, 特に the hook of 激しく揺する which held it in its place. Presently he 発言/述べるd in Arabic, so that Dramana might understand, that he 手配中の,お尋ね者 to see how 深い the 炭坑,オーケストラ席 was, which we could not do from the 床に打ち倒す of the shed, and 即時に climbed up the slope of the beam-like lever with all the agility of a monkey, and sat himself, cross-legged, on the 最高の,を越す of it, just below the 石/投石する hinge that I have 述べるd. Here he remained for a while, 明らかに 星/主役にするing into the 不明瞭 of the 穴を開ける or 炭坑,オーケストラ席 on the さらに先に 味方する of the 石/投石する 厚板, where, of course, it was almost empty, as the door 削減(する) off the water from the irrigation channel on the island 味方する.
"That 穴を開ける is too dark to see into," he said, presently, and 群れているd 負かす/撃墜する the 軸 again. Then he called my attention to the 団体/死体 of the dead woman who Dramana had told us was struck by the lever and killed while it was 存在 dragged into place, which lay almost out of sight in the 影をつくる/尾行する by the 塀で囲む of the shed. We went to look at her. She was a tall woman, handsome, like all these people, and young. Outwardly she showed no 調印するs of 傷害, for her long white 式服 was unstained. I suppose that she had been 鎮圧するd between the lever and the hook, or perhaps struck in the 味方する of the 長,率いる as it was 存在 swung into place. Whilst we were 診察するing the 死体 of this unfortunate, Hans said to me, still speaking in Dutch:
"Does the Baas remember that we have two 続けざまに猛撃する tins of the best ライフル銃/探して盗む 砕く in our 捕らえる、獲得する and that he scolded me because I did not take them out when we left the house of the Walloo, 説 that it was foolish to bring them with us as they would be やめる useless to us on the island?"
I replied that I had some recollection of the 出来事/事件, and that, as a 事柄 of fact, they had been 激しい to carry. Then Hans proceeded to 始める,決める a riddle in his irritating and sententious way, asking:
"Who does the Baas think knows most about things that are to happen—the Baas or the Baas's Reverend Father in Heaven?"
"My father, I 推定する, Hans," I replied airily.
"The Baas is 権利. The Baas's father in the sky knows much more than the Baas, but いつかs I think that Hans knows better than either, at any 率, here on the earth."
I 星/主役にするd at the little wretch, (判決などを)下すd speechless by his irreverent impudence, but he went on unabashed:
"I did not forget to leave that 砕く behind, Baas; I brought it with me thinking that it might be useful, because with 砕く you can 爆発する men and other things. Also, I did not wish it to stay where we might never see it again."
"井戸/弁護士席, what about the 砕く?" I asked.
"Nothing much, Baas. At least, only this. These Walloo do not bore 石/投石するs very 井戸/弁護士席; they make the 穴を開けるs too big for what has to go through them. That in the water gate is so large that there would be room to put two 続けざまに猛撃する flasks of 砕く beneath the pin, so that the 緊張する 解除するs it up to the 最高の,を越す of the 穴を開ける."
"And what would be the use of putting two flasks of 砕く in such a place?" I 問い合わせd carelessly, for at the moment I was thinking about the dead woman.
"非,不,無 at all, Baas; 非,不,無 at all. Only I thought the Baas asked me how we could loose that 石/投石する arm. If two 続けざまに猛撃するs of 砕く were put into the 穴を開ける, covered with a little mud, and 解雇する/砲火/射撃d, I think that they would blow out the bit of 激しく揺する at the 最高の,を越す of the 穴を開ける, or break the pin, or both. Then, as there would be nothing to 持つ/拘留する it, the 石/投石する door would 落ちる 負かす/撃墜する and the lake would come in and water the fields of the priests of Heu-Heu, if in his 知恵 and 親切 the Baas thinks they want it at 収穫 time, and after so much rain."
"You little wretch," I said; "you infernal, clever little wretch! Hang me if I don't think you have got 持つ/拘留する of the 権利 end of the stick this time. Only the 商売/仕事 will take a lot of thinking out and 協定."
"Yes, Baas, and we had better do that in the house, which, as the Baas knows, is やめる の近くに, only about a hundred paces away. Let us get out of this place, Baas, before the lady begins to smell ネズミs; only, as you go, take a good squint at that 穴を開ける in the 最高の,を越す of the 石/投石する door and the 激しく揺する pin that goes through it."
Then Hans, who all this while had been 星/主役にするing at the 団体/死体 of the woman and 明らかに talking about her, 屈服するd に向かって it, 発言/述べるing in Arabic, "Allah, I mean Heu-Heu, receive her into his bosom," and 退却/保養地d reverentially.
So we went away, but I, ぐずぐず残る behind, 診察するd the 穴を開ける and the pin very carefully.
Hans was やめる 権利: there was just room left in the former to 融通する two tin flasks of 砕く, also, there were not more than three インチs of 激しく揺する on the topside of the 穴を開ける. Surely two 続けざまに猛撃するs of 砕く would 十分である to blow out this (犯罪の)一味 of 石/投石する and perhaps to 粉々にする the pin 同様に.
THE PLOT
We left the shed and, after she had locked its door very carefully and returned the 石/投石する 重要な to her pouch, were taken by Dramana to see the famous Tree of Illusions, of which the juice and leaves, if 砕くd and burnt, could produce such strange dreams and intoxicating 影響s. It grew in a large 塀で囲むd space that was called Heu-Heu's Garden, though nothing else was 工場/植物d there. Dramana 保証するd us indeed that this tree had a poisonous 影響 upon all other vegetation.
Passing the 塀で囲む by a door of which she also produced some 肉親,親類d of 重要な out of her 捕らえる、獲得する, we 設立する ourselves standing in 前線 of the famous tree, if so it can be called, for its growth was shrub-like and its topmost twigs were not more than twenty feet above the ground. On the other 手渡す, it covered a 広大な/多数の/重要な area and had a trunk two or three feet 厚い from which 事業/計画(する)d a 広大な number of 支店s whereof the extremities lay upon the 国/地域, and I think rooted there, after the manner of wild figs, though of this I am not 確かな .
It was an unholy 製品 of nature, inasmuch as it had no real foliage, only dark green, euphorbia-like and flesh fingers—indeed, I think it must have been some variety of euphorbia. At the extremities of these green fingers appeared purple-coloured blooms with a most evil smell that reminded me of the odour of something dead; also 負かす/撃墜する their 味方するs—for, like the orange, the tree appeared to have the 所有物/資産/財産 of flowering and fruiting at the same time—were yellow seed 大型船s about the size of those of a prickly pear. Except that the trunk was covered with corrugated gray bark and that the finger-like leaves were 十分な of resinous white milk like those of other euphorbias, there is nothing more to say about it. I should 追加する, however, that Dramana told us no other 見本/標本 存在するd, either on the 本土/大陸 or the island, and that to 試みる/企てる its propagation どこかよそで was a 資本/首都 offence. In short, the Tree of Illusions was a monopoly of the priests.
Hans 始める,決める to work and 削減(する) a large faggot of the leaves, or fingers, which he tied up with a piece of string he had in his pocket, to be 伝えるd to Zikali, though there seemed to be such a small prospect of their ever reaching him. It was not an agreeable 職業, for when it was 削減(する) the white juice of the tree spurted out, and if it fell upon the flesh, 燃やすd like caustic.
I was glad when it (機の)カム to an end because of the stench of the flowers, but before I left I took the 適切な時期, when Dramana was not looking, of 選ぶing some of the ripest of the fruits and putting them in my pocket, with the idea of 工場/植物ing the seeds should we ever escape from that country. I am sorry to say, however, that I never did so, as the sharp spines that grew upon the fruits wore a 穴を開ける in the lining of my pocket, which already was thin from use, and they 宙返り/暴落するd out unobserved. Evidently the Tree of Illusions did not ーするつもりである to be 再生するd どこかよそで; at least, that was Hans's explanation.
On our way 支援する to the house we had to pass 一連の会議、交渉/完成する a 溶岩 玉石 on the lake 味方する of the sluice shed, crossing by a little 橋(渡しをする) the water channel that ran beneath it, 近づく to a flight of 上陸 steps that were used by fishermen. I 診察するd this channel which pierced the sea 塀で囲む and here, outside the sluice gate, was about twenty feet wide. At the 味方する of it, built into the 塀で囲む, was a 厚板 of 石/投石する on which were 示すs, 削減(する) there, no 疑問, to 示す the 高さ of the water level and the 率 at which it rose. I noticed that the topmost of these 示すs was already covered, and that during the little while I stood and watched, it 消えるd altogether, showing that the water was rising 速く.
Seeing that I was 利益/興味d, Dramana 発言/述べるd that the priests said that tradition never told of the water having reached that topmost 示す before, even during the greatest rains. She 追加するd that she supposed it had done so now 借りがあるing to the 前例のない wetness of the summer and 広大な/多数の/重要な tempests さらに先に up the river that fed the lake, of which we were experiencing the last.
"It is fortunate that you have such a strong door to keep out the water," I said.
"Yes, Lord," she answered, "since if it broke all this 味方する of the island would be flooded. If you look you will see that already the lake stands higher than the cultivated lands and even than the mouth of the 洞穴 of Heu-Heu. It is told in tradition that when first, hundreds of years ago, these lands were 埋め立てるd from the mud of the lake and the 塀で囲む was built to 保護する them, the priests of Heu-Heu 信用d to the rain for their 刈るs. Then (機の)カム many 乾燥した,日照りの seasons, and they 削減(する) a way through the 塀で囲む and let in water to irrigate them, making the sluice gate that you have seen to keep it out if it rose too high. An old priest of that time said that this was madness and would one day 証明する their 破壊, but they laughed at him and made the sluice. He was wrong also, since thenceforward their 刈るs were 二塁打d, and the gate is so 井戸/弁護士席-fashioned that no floods, however 広大な/多数の/重要な, have ever passed through or over it; nor can they do so, because the 最高の,を越す of the 石/投石する gate rises to the 高さ of a child above the level of the water 塀で囲む which separates the lake from the 埋め立てるd land."
"The lake might come over the crest of the 塀で囲む," I 示唆するd.
"No, Lord. If you look you will see that the 塀で囲む is raised far above its level, to a 高さ that no flood could ever reach."
"Then safety depends upon the gate, Dramana?"
"Yes, Lord. If the flood were high enough, which it never has been within the memory of man, the safety of the town would depend upon the gate, and that of the 洞穴 of Heu-Heu also. Before the mountain broke into 炎上 and destroyed the city of our ancestors, the new mouth was made on the level, for 以前は, it is said, it was entered from the slope above. Moreover, there is no danger, because if any 事故 happened and the flood broke through, all could 逃げる up the mountain. Only then the cultivated land would be 廃虚d for a time and there might be scarcity, during which people must 得る corn from the 本土/大陸 or draw it from that which is 蓄える/店d in 炭坑,オーケストラ席s in the hillside, to be used in 事例/患者 of war or 包囲."
I thanked her for her explanation of these 利益/興味ing hydraulic problems, and after another ちらりと見ること at the 規模 激しく揺する, on which the 示すs had now 消えるd 完全に, showing me that the lake was still rising 速く, we went to the house to 残り/休憩(する) and eat.
Here Dramana left us, 説 that she would return at sundown. I begged her to do so without fail. This I did for her own sake, a fact that I did not explain. 本人自身で, I was indifferent as to whether she (機の)カム 支援する or not, having learned all she could teach us, but as I was planning 大災害, I was anxious, should it come, to give her any chance of escape that might 申し込む/申し出 for ourselves. After all, she had been a good friend to us and was one who hated Dacha and Heu-Heu and loved her sister Sabeela.
Hans led her to the door and in an ぎこちない fashion made much ado in helping her to put on her leaf raincoat, which she had discarded and was carrying. For now suddenly the rain, which had almost 中止するd while we walked, had begun to 落ちる again in 激流s.
When we had eaten and were left alone within の近くにd doors, Hans and I took counsel together.
"What is to be done, Hans?" I asked, wishing to hear his 見解(をとる)s.
"This, I think, Baas," he answered. "When it draws 近づく to midnight we must go to hide 近づく the steps, there by the 激しく揺する of Offerings, not the smaller ones 近づく the sluice gate. Then when the canoe comes and lands the Lady Sabeela to be married, as soon as she has been taken and tied to the 地位,任命する we must swim out to it, get 船内に, and go 支援する to Walloo-town."
"But that would not save the Lady Sabeela, Hans."
"No, Baas, I was not troubling my 長,率いる about the Lady Sabeela who I hope will be happy with Heu-Heu, but it would save us, though perhaps we shall have to leave some of our things behind. If Issicore and the 残り/休憩(する) wish to save Lady Sabeela, they had better 中止する from 存在 cowards who are afraid of a 石/投石する statue and a handful of priests, and do so for themselves."
"Listen, Hans," I said. "We (機の)カム here to get a bundle of stinking leaves for Zikali and to save the Lady Sabeela who is the 犠牲者 of folly and wickedness. The first we have got, the second remains to be done. I mean to save that unfortunate woman, or to die in the 試みる/企てる."
"Yes, Baas. I thought the Baas would say that, since we are all fools in our different ways, and how can any one dig out of his heart the folly that his mother put there before he was born? Therefore, since the Baas is a fool, or in love with Lady Sabeela because she is so pretty—I don't know which—we must make another 計画(する) and try to get ourselves killed in carrying it out."
"What 計画(する)?" I asked, 無視(する)ing his 天然のまま satire.
"I don't know, Baas," he said, 星/主役にするing at the roof. "If I had something to drink, I might be able to think of one, as all this wet has filled my 長,率いる with 霧, just as my stomach is 十分な of water. Still, Baas, do I understand the Baas to say that if that 石/投石する gate were broken the lake would flow in and flood this place, also the 洞穴 of Heu-Heu, where all the priests and their wives will be gathered worshipping him?"
"Yes, Hans, so I believe, and very quickly. As soon as the water began to run it would 涙/ほころび away the 塀で囲む on either 味方する of the sluice and enter in a mighty flood; 特に now as the rain is again 落ちるing ひどく."
"Then, Baas, we must let the 石/投石する 落ちる, and as we are not strong enough to do it ourselves, we must ask this to help us," and he produced from his 捕らえる、獲得する the two 続けざまに猛撃するs of 砕く done up in stout flasks of soldered tin as it had left the 製造者 in England. "As I am called Lord-of-the-解雇する/砲火/射撃, the priests of Heu-Heu will think it やめる natural," he 追加するd with a grin.
"Yes, Hans," I said, nodding, "but the question is—how?"
"I think like this, Baas. We must pack these two tins tight into that 穴を開ける in the 激しく揺する door beneath the pin with the help of little 石/投石するs, and cover them over thickly with mud to give the 砕く time to work before the tins are blown out of the 穴を開ける. But first we must bore 穴を開けるs in the tins and make slow matches and put the ends of them into the 穴を開けるs. Only how are we to make these slow matches?"
I looked about me. There on a shelf in the room stood the clay lamps with which it was lighted at night, and by them lay a coil of the wick which these people used, made of 罰金 and 乾燥した,日照りの plaited 急ぐs, many feet of it.
"There's the very stuff!" I said.
We got it 負かす/撃墜する, we soaked it in a mixture of the native oil, mixed with gunpowder that I 抽出するd from a cartridge, and behold! in half an hour we had two splendid slow matches that by 実験 I reckoned would take やめる five minutes to 燃やす before the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 reached the 砕く. That was all we could do for the moment.
"Now, Baas," said Hans, when we had finished our 準備s and hidden the matches away to 乾燥した,日照りの, "all this is very nice, but supposing that the 石/投石する 落ちるs and the water runs in and everything goes softly, how are we to get off the island? If we 溺死する the priests of Heu-Heu—though I do not think we shall 溺死する them because they will bolt up the mountain-味方する like 激しく揺する rabbits—we 溺死する ourselves also, and travel in their company to the Place of 解雇する/砲火/射撃s of which your Reverend Father was so fond of talking. It will be very nice to try to 溺死する the priests of Heu-Heu, Baas, but we shall be no better off, nor will the Lady Sabeela if we leave her tied to that 地位,任命する."
"We shall not leave her, Hans, that is if things go as I hope; we shall leave someone else."
Hans saw light and his 直面する brightened.
"Oh, Baas, now I understand! You mean that you will tie to the 地位,任命する the Lady Dramana, who is older and not やめる so nice-looking as the Lady Sabeela, which is why you told her she must stay with us all the time after she comes 支援する? That is やめる a good 計画(する), 特に as it will save us trouble with her afterwards. Only, Baas, it will be necessary to give her a little knock on the 長,率いる first lest she should make a noise and betray us in her selfishness."
"Hans, you are a brute to think that I mean anything of the sort," I said indignantly.
"Yes, Baas, of course I am a brute who think of you and myself before I do of others. But then who will the Baas leave? Surely he does not mean to leave me dressed up in a bride's 式服?" he 追加するd in 本物の alarm.
"Hans, you are a fool 同様に as a brute, for, silly as you may be, how could I get on without you? I do not mean to leave any one living. I mean to leave that dead woman in the gate house."
He 星/主役にするd at me in evident 賞賛 and answered:
"The Baas is growing やめる clever. For once he has thought of something that I have not thought of first. It is a good 計画(する)—if we can carry her there without any one seeing us, and the Lady Sabeela does not betray us by making a noise, laughing and crying both together like stupid women do. But suppose that it all happens, there will be four of us, and how are we to get into that canoe, Baas, if those 臆病な/卑劣な Walloos wait so long?"
"Thus, Hans. When the canoe lands the Lady Sabeela and she has been tied to the 地位,任命する, if Dramana speaks truth, it waits for the 夜明け at a little distance. While it is waiting you must swim out to it, taking your ピストル with you, which you will 持つ/拘留する above your 長,率いる with one 手渡す to keep the cartridges 乾燥した,日照りの, but leaving everything else behind. Then you must get into the boat, telling the Walloo and Issicore, or whoever is there, who you are. Later, when all is 静かな, the Lady Dramana and I will carry the dead woman to the 地位,任命する and tie her there in place of Sabeela. After this you will bring the canoe to the 上陸 steps—the small 上陸 steps by the big 玉石 which we saw 近づく to the sluice mouth on the lake 塀で囲む, those that Dramana told us were used by fishermen, because it is not lawful for them to 始める,決める foot upon the 激しく揺する of Offerings. You remember them?"
"Yes, Baas. You mean the ones at the end of a little pier which Dramana also said was built to keep mud from the lake from drifting into the sluice mouth and 封鎖するing it."
"When I see you coming, Hans, I shall 解雇する/砲火/射撃 the slow matches and we will run 負かす/撃墜する to the pier and get into the canoe. I hope that the priests and their women in the 洞穴, which is at a distance, will not hear the 砕く 爆発する beneath that shed, and that when they come out of the 洞穴 they will find the water running in and 押し寄せる/沼地ing them. This might give them something else to do besides 追求するing us, as doubtless they would さもなければ, for I am sure they have canoes hidden away somewhere 近づく by, although Dramana may not know where they are. Now do you understand?"
"Oh, yes, Baas. As I said, the Baas has grown やめる clever all of a sudden. I think it must be that ワイン of Dreams he drank last night that has woke up his mind. But the Baas has 行方不明になるd one thing. Supposing that I get into the canoe 安全に, how am I to make those people 列/漕ぐ/騒動 in to the 上陸 steps and take you off? Probably they will be afraid, Baas, or say that it is against their custom, or that Heu-Heu will catch them if they do, or something of the sort."
"You will talk to them gently, Hans, and if they will not listen, then you will talk to them with your ピストル. Yes, if necessary, you will shoot one or more of them, Hans, after which I think the 残り/休憩(する) will obey you. But I hope that this will not be necessary, since if Issicore is there, certainly he will 願望(する) to 勝利,勝つ 支援する Sabeela from Heu-Heu. Now we have settled everything, and I am going to sleep for a while, with the slow matches under me to 乾燥した,日照りの them, as I advise you to do also. We had little 残り/休憩(する) last night, and to-night we shall have 非,不,無 at all, so we may 同様に take some while we can. But first bring that mat and tie up the twigs from the stinking tree for Zikali, on whom be every 肉親,親類d of 悪口を言う/悪態 for sending us on this 職業."
"Settled everything!" I repeated to myself with inward sarcasm as I lay 負かす/撃墜する and shut my 注目する,もくろむs. In truth, nothing at all was ever いっそう少なく settled, since success in such a desperate adventure depended upon a string of hypotheses long enough to reach from where we were to Capetown. Our 事例/患者 was an excellent example of the old proverb:
If ifs and ands made マリファナs and pans, There'd be no work for tinkers' 手渡すs.
If the canoe (機の)カム; if it waited off the 激しく揺する; if Hans could swim out to it without 存在 観察するd and get 船内に; if he could 説得する those fetish-ridden Walloos to come to take us off; if we could carry out our little game about the 砕く undetected; if the 砕く went off all 権利 and broke up the sluice-扱う as per our 計画(する); if we could 解放する/自由な Sabeela from the 地位,任命する; if she did not play the fool in some 女性(の) fashion; if blackguards of sorts did not manage to 削減(する) our throats during all these 操作/手術s, and a 得点する/非難する/20 of other "ifs," why, then our マリファナs and pans would be satisfactorily 製造(する)d and perhaps the priests of Heu-Heu would be satisfactorily 脅すd away or 溺死するd. As it was, it looked to me as though, so far from not getting any 残り/休憩(する) that night, we should slumber more soundly than ever we did before—in the last long sleep of all.
井戸/弁護士席, it could not be helped, so I just fell 支援する upon my favourite fatalism, said my 祈りs and went off to sleep, which, thank God, I can do at any time and under almost any circumstances. Had it not been for that gift I should have been dead long ago.
When I woke up it was dark, and I 設立する Dramana standing over me; indeed, it was her 入ること/参加(者) that roused me. I looked at my watch and discovered to my surprise that it was past ten o'clock at night.
"Why did you not wake me before?" I said to Hans.
"What was the use, Baas, seeing that there was nothing to be done and it is dull to be idle without a 減少(する) to drink?"
That's what he said, but the fact was that he had been 急速な/放蕩な asleep himself. 井戸/弁護士席, I was thankful, as thus we got rid of many 疲れた/うんざりした hours of waiting.
Suddenly I made up my mind to tell Dramana everything, and did so. There was something about this woman that made me 信用 her; also, 明白に, she was mad with 願望(する) to escape from Dacha, whom she hated and who hated her and had 決定するd to 殺人 her as soon as he had 得るd 所有/入手 of Sabeela.
She listened and 星/主役にするd at me, amazed at the boldness of my 計画(する)s.
"It may all end 井戸/弁護士席," she said, "though there is the 魔法 of the priests to be 恐れるd which may tell them things that their 注目する,もくろむs do not see."
"I will 危険 the 魔法," I said.
"There is also another thing," she went on. "We cannot get into the place where the 石/投石する gate is which you would destroy. As I was bidden, when I went 支援する to the 洞穴, I gave up the 捕らえる、獲得する in which I carried the 重要な and that of Heu-Heu's Garden to Dacha, and he has put it away, I know not where. The door is very strong, Lord, and cannot be broken 負かす/撃墜する, and if I went to ask Dacha for the 重要な again he would guess all, 特に as the water is rising more 急速な/放蕩な than it ever rose before in the memory of man, and priests have been to make sure that the 石/投石する gate is 直す/買収する,八百長をするd so that it cannot be moved—yes, and bound 負かす/撃墜する the 扱う with ropes."
Now I sat still, not knowing what to say, for I had overlooked this 事柄 of the 重要な. While I did so I heard Hans chuckling idiotically.
"What are you laughing at, you little donkey?" I asked. "Is it a time to laugh when all our 計画(する)s have come to nothing?"
"No, Baas, or rather, yes, Baas. You see, Baas, I guessed that something of this sort might happen, so, just in 事例/患者 it should, I took the 重要な out of the Lady Dramana's 捕らえる、獲得する and put in a 石/投石する of about the same 負わせる in place of it. Here it is," and from his pocket he produced that ponderous and archaic lock-開始 器具.
"That was wise. Only you say, Dramana, that the priests have been to the shed. How did they get in without the 重要な?" I asked.
"Lord, there are two 重要なs. He who is called the 選挙立会人 of the Gate has one of his own. によれば his 誓い he carries it about him all day at his girdle and sleeps with it at night. The 重要な I had was that of the high priest, who uses it, and others that he may look into all things when he pleases, though this he does seldom, if ever."
"So far so good, then, Dramana. Have you aught to tell us?"
"Yes, Lord. You will do 井戸/弁護士席 to escape from this island to-night, if you can, since at to-day's 会議 an oracle has gone 前へ/外へ from Heu-Heu that you and your companion are to be sacrificed at the bridal feast to-morrow. It is an 申し込む/申し出ing to the 支持を得ようと努めるd-dwellers, who now know that the woman was killed by you on the river and say that if you are 許すd to live they will not fight against the Walloos. I think also that I am to be sacrificed with you."
"Are we indeed?" I said, 反映するing to myself that any scruples I might have had as to 試みる/企てるing to 溺死する out these fanatical brutes were now extinct for 推論する/理由s which やめる 満足させるd my 良心. I did not ーするつもりである to be sacrificed if I could help it, then or at any 未来 time, and evidently the best way to 妨げる this would be to give the 見込みのある sacrificers a dose of their own 薬/医学. From that moment I became as ruthless as Hans himself.
Now I understood why we were 存在 扱う/治療するd with so much 儀礼 and 許すd to see everything we wished. It was to なぎ our 疑惑s. What did it 事柄 how much we learned, if within a few hours we were to be sent to a land whence we could communicate it to no one else?
I asked more 特に about this oracle, but only got answers from Dramana that I could not understand. It appeared, however, that as she said, it had undoubtedly been 問題/発行するd in reply to 祈りs from the savage Hairy Folk, who 需要・要求するd satisfaction for the death of their countrywoman on the river, and 脅すd 反乱 if it were not 認めるd. This explained everything, and really the 詳細(に述べる)s did not 事柄.
Having collected all the (警察などへの)密告,告訴(状) I could, we sat 負かす/撃墜する to supper, during which Dramana told us incidentally that it had been arranged that our 武器, which were known "to spit out 解雇する/砲火/射撃," should be stolen from us while we slept before 夜明け, so as to make us helpless when we were 掴むd.
So it (機の)カム to this: if we were to 行為/法令/行動する at all, it must be at once.
I ate as much as I was able, because food gives strength, and Hans did the same. Indeed, I am sure that he would have made an excellent meal even in sight of the noose which his neck was about to 占領する. Eat and drink, for to-morrow we die, would have been Hans's favourite motto if he had known it, as perhaps he did. Indeed, we did drink also of some of the native アルコール飲料 which Dramana had brought with her, since I thought that a 穏健な 量 of alcohol would do us both good, 特に Hans, who had the prospect of a 冷淡な swim before him. すぐに I had swallowed the stuff I regretted it, since it occurred to me that it might be drugged. However, it was not; Dramana had seen to that.
When we had finished our food we packed up our small 所持品 in the most convenient way we could. One half of these I gave to Dramana to carry, as she was a strong woman, and, of course, as he had to swim, Hans could be 重荷(を負わせる)d with nothing except his ピストル and the bundle of twigs from the Tree of Illusions, which we thought might help both to support and to 隠す him in the water.
Then about eleven o'clock we started, throwing over our 長,率いるs goatskin rugs that had served for coverings on our beds, to make us 似ている those animals if that were possible.
THE TERRIBLE NIGHT
Leaving the house very softly, we 設立する that the 豪雨 had dwindled to a 肉親,親類d of 激しい 霧雨 which thickened the 空気/公表する, while on the surface of the lake and the low-lying cultivated land there hung a 激しい もや. This, of course, was very favourable to us, since even if there were 選挙立会人s about they could not see us unless we つまずくd 権利 into them.
As a 事柄 of fact I think that there was 非,不,無, all the 全住民 of the place 存在 collected at the 儀式 in the 洞穴. We neither saw nor heard anybody; not even a dog barked, for these animals, of which there were few on the island, were sleeping in the houses out of the wet and 冷淡な. Above the もや, however, the 広大な/多数の/重要な 十分な moon shone in a (疑いを)晴らす sky which 示唆するd that the 天候 was mending, as in fact 証明するd to be the 事例/患者, the tempest of rain, which we learned afterwards had 激怒(する)d for months with some intervals of 罰金 天候, having worn itself out at last.
We reached the sluice house, and to our surprise 設立する that the door was 打ち明けるd. Supposing that it had been left thus through carelessness by the 検査/視察するing priests, we entered softly and の近くにd it behind us. Then I lit a candle, some of which I always carried with me, and held it up that we might look about us. Next moment I stepped 支援する horror-struck, for there on the 対処するing of the water 軸 sat a man with a 広大な/多数の/重要な spear in his 手渡す.
Whilst I wondered what to do, 星/主役にするing at this man, who seemed to be half asleep and even more 脅すd than I was myself, with the greater quickness of the savage, Hans 行為/法令/行動するd. He sprang at the fellow as a ヒョウ springs. I think he drew his knife, but I am not sure. At any 率, I heard a blow and then the light of the candle shone upon the 単独のs of the man's feet as he 消えるd backwards into the 炭坑,オーケストラ席 of water. What happened to him there I do not know; so far as we were 関心d he 消えるd for ever.
"How is this? You told us no one would be here," I said to Dramana savagely, for I 嫌疑者,容疑者/疑うd a 罠(にかける).
She fell upon her 膝s, thinking, probably, that I was going to kill her with the man's spear which I had 選ぶd up, and answered:
"Lord, I do not know. I suppose that the priests grew 怪しげな and 始める,決める one of their number to watch. Or it may have been because of the 広大な/多数の/重要な flood which is rising 急速な/放蕩な."
Believing her explanations, I told her to rise, and we 始める,決める to work. Having fastened the door from within, Hans climbed up the lever, and by the light of the candle, which could not betray us, as there were no windows to the shed, 直す/買収する,八百長をするd the two flasks of 砕く in the 穴を開ける in the 石/投石する gate すぐに beneath the pin of the lever. Then, as we had arranged, he wedged them tight with pebbles that we had brought with us.
This done, I procured a 量 of the sticky clay with which the 塀で囲むs of the shed were plastered, taking it from a 位置/汚点/見つけ出す where the damp had come through and made it moist. This clay we stuck all over the flasks and the 石/投石するs to a thickness of several インチs. Only すぐに beneath the pin we left an 開始, hoping その為に to concentrate the 軍隊 of the 爆発 on it and on the upper 縁 of the 穴を開ける that was bored through the sluice gate. The slow matches, which now were 乾燥した,日照りの, we 挿入するd in the 穴を開けるs we had made in the flasks, bringing them out through the clay encased in two long, hollow reeds that we had drawn from the roof of our house where we 宿泊するd, hoping thus to keep the damp away from them.
Thus arranged, their ends hung to within six feet of the ground, where they could easily be lighted, even in a hurry.
By now it was a 4半期/4分の1 past eleven, and the most terrible and dangerous part of our 仕事 must be 直面するd. 解除するing the 死体 of the dead woman who had been killed, 推定では, by a blow from the lever that morning, Hans and I—Dramana would not touch her—bore her out of the shed. Followed by Dramana with all our goods, for we dared not leave them behind, as our 退却/保養地 might be 削減(する) off, we carried her with infinite 労働, for she was very 激しい, some fifty yards to a 位置/汚点/見つけ出す I had 公式文書,認めるd during our examination in the morning at the 辛勝する/優位 of the 激しく揺する of 申し込む/申し出ing, which 位置/汚点/見つけ出す, fortunately, rose to a 高さ of six feet or rather いっそう少なく above the level of the surrounding ground. Here there was a little hollow in the 激しく揺する 直面する washed out by the 活動/戦闘 of water; a small, roofless cavity large enough to 避難所 the three of us and the 死体 同様に.
In this place we hid, for there, fortunately, the 形態/調整 of the surrounding 激しく揺する 削減(する) off the glare from the two eternal 解雇する/砲火/射撃s, which in so much wet seemed to be 燃やすing dully and with a good 取引,協定 of smoke, the nearer of them at a distance of not more than a dozen paces from us. The 地位,任命する to which the 犠牲者 was to be tied was perhaps the length of a cricket pitch away.
In this hiding 穴を開ける we could scarcely be discovered unless by ill fortune someone walked 権利 on to the 最高の,を越す of us or approached from behind. We crouched 負かす/撃墜する and waited. A while later, すぐに before midnight, in the 広大な/多数の/重要な stillness we heard a sound of paddles on the lake. The canoe was coming! A minute afterwards we distinguished the 発言する/表明するs of men talking やめる の近くに to us.
解除するing my 長,率いる, I peered very 慎重に over the 最高の,を越す of the 激しく揺する. A large canoe was approaching the 上陸 steps, or rather, where these had been, for now, except the topmost, they were under water because of the flood. On the 激しく揺する itself four priests, 覆う? in white and wearing 隠すs over their 直面するs with eyeholes 削減(する) in them, which made them look like 修道士s in old pictures of the Spanish Inquisition, were marching に向かって these steps. As they reached them, so did the canoe. Next, from its prow was thrust a tall woman, 完全に draped in a white cloak that covered both 長,率いる and 団体/死体, who from her 高さ might very 井戸/弁護士席 be Sabeela.
The priests received her without a word, for all this 演劇 was 制定するd in utter silence, and half led, half carried her to the 石/投石する 地位,任命する between the 解雇する/砲火/射撃s, where, so far as I could see through the もや—that night I blessed the もや, as we do in church in one of the psalms—no, it is the もや that blesses the Lord, but it does not 事柄—they bound her to the 地位,任命する. Then, still in utter silence, they turned and marched away 負かす/撃墜する the sloping 激しく揺する to the mouth of the 洞穴, where they 消えるd. The canoe also paddled backwards a few yards—not far, I 裁判官d from the number of 一打/打撃s taken—and there floated 静かに.
So far all had happened as Dramana told us that it must. In a whisper I asked her if the priests would return. She answered no; no one would come on to the 激しく揺する till sunrise, when Heu-Heu, …を伴ってd by women, would 問題/発行する from the 洞穴 to take his bride. She swore that this was true, since it was the greatest of 罪,犯罪s for any one to look upon the 宗教上の Bride between the time that she was bound to the 激しく揺する and the 外見 of the sun above the horizon.
"Then the sooner we get to 商売/仕事 the better," I said, setting my teeth, and without stopping to ask her what she meant by 説 that Heu-Heu would come with the women, when, as we knew 井戸/弁護士席, there was no such person.
"Come on, Hans, while the もや still lies 厚い; it may 解除する at any moment," I 追加するd.
速く, 猛烈に, we clambered on to the 激しく揺する, dragging the dead woman after us. Staggering 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the nearer 解雇する/砲火/射撃 with our awful 重荷(を負わせる), we arrived with it behind the 地位,任命する—it seemed to take an age. Here by the mercy of Providence the smoky reek from the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 propelled by a slight breath of 空気/公表する, 連合させるd with the hanging 霧 to make us almost invisible. On the さらに先に 味方する of the 地位,任命する stood Sabeela, bound, her 長,率いる dropping 今後 as though she were fainting. Hans swore that it was Sabeela because he knew her "by her smell," which was just like him, but I could not be sure, 存在 いっそう少なく gifted in that way. However, I 危険d it and spoke to her, though doubtfully, for I did not like the look of her. To tell the truth, I rather 恐れるd lest she should have 行為/法令/行動するd on her 脅し that as a last 資源 she would take the 毒(薬) which she said she carried hidden in her hair.
"Sabeela, do not start or cry out. Sabeela, it is we, the Lord 選挙立会人-by-Night and he who is 指名するd Light-in-不明瞭, come to save you," I said, and waited anxiously, wondering whether I should ever hear an answer.
Presently I gave a sigh of 救済, for she moved her 長,率いる わずかに and murmured:
"I dream! I dream!"
"Nay," I answered, "you do not dream, or if you do, 中止する from dreaming, lest we should all sleep for ever."
Then I crept 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the 地位,任命する and bade her tell me where was the knot by which the rope about her was fastened. She nodded downwards with her 長,率いる; with her 手渡すs she could not point, because they were tied, and muttered in a shaken 発言する/表明する:
"At my feet, Lord."
I knelt 負かす/撃墜する and 設立する the knot, since if I 削減(する) the rope we should have nothing with which to tie the 団体/死体 to the 地位,任命する. Fortunately, it was not drawn tight because this was thought unnecessary, as no 宗教上の Bride had ever been known to 試みる/企てる to escape. Therefore, although my 手渡すs were 冷淡な, I was able to loose it without much difficulty. A minute later Sabeela was 解放する/自由な and I had 削減(する) the lashings which bound her 武器. Next (機の)カム a more difficult 事柄, that of setting the dead woman in her place, for, 存在 dead, all her 負わせる (機の)カム upon the rope. However, Hans and I managed it somehow, having first thrown Sabeela's cloak and 隠す over her icy form and 直面する.
"Hope Heu-Heu will think her nice!" whispered Hans as we cast an anxious look at our handiwork.
Then, all 存在 done, we 退却/保養地d as we had come, bending low to keep our 団体/死体s in the 層 of the もや which now was thinning and hung only about three feet above the ground like an autumn 霧 on an England 沼. We reached our 穴を開ける, Hans bundling Sabeela over its 辛勝する/優位 無作法に, so that she fell on to the 支援する of her sister, Dramana, who crouched in it terrified. Never, I think, did two tragically separated relations have a stranger 会合. I was the last of our party, and as I was 事情に応じて変わる into the hollow I took a good look 一連の会議、交渉/完成する.
This is what I saw. Out of the mouth of the 洞穴 現れるd two priests. They ran 速く up the gentle slope of 激しく揺する till they reached the two columns of 燃やすing natural gas or 石油 or whatever it was, one of them 停止(させる)ing by each column. Here they wheeled 一連の会議、交渉/完成する and through the 穴を開けるs in their masks or 隠すs 星/主役にするd at the 犠牲者 bound to the 地位,任命する. 明らかに what they saw 満足させるd them, for after one ちらりと見ること they wheeled about and ran 支援する to the 洞穴 as 速く as they had come, but in a methodical manner which showed no surprise or emotion.
"What does this mean, Dramana?" I exclaimed. "You told me that it was against the 法律 for any one to look upon the 宗教上の Bride until the moment of sunrise."
"I don't know, Lord," she answered. "Certainly it is against the 法律. I suppose that the diviners must have felt that something was wrong and sent out messengers to 報告(する)/憶測. As I have told you, the priests of Heu-Heu are masters of 魔法, Lord."
"Then they are bad masters, for they have 設立する out nothing," I 発言/述べるd indifferently.
But in my heart I was more thankful than words can tell that I had 固執するd in the idea of 攻撃するing the dead woman to the 地位,任命する in place of Sabeela. Whilst we were dragging her from the shed, and again when we were 解除するing her out of the 穴を開ける on to the 激しく揺する, Hans had 示唆するd that this was unnecessary, since Dramana had 公約するd that no man ever looked upon the 宗教上の Bride between her arrival upon the 激しく揺する and the moment of sunrise, and that all we needed to do was to loose Sabeela.
Fortunately some providence 警告するd me against giving way. Had I done so all would have been discovered and humanly speaking we must have 死なせる/死ぬd. Probably this would have happened even had I not remembered to run 支援する and 選ぶ up the pieces of cord that I had 削減(する) from Sabeela's wrists and left lying on the 激しく揺する, since the messengers might have seen them and guessed a trick. As it was, so far we were 安全な.
"Now, Hans," I said, "the time has come for you to swim to the canoe, which you must do quickly, for the もや seems to be melting beneath the moon and さもなければ you may be seen."
"No, Baas, I shall not be seen, for I shall put that bundle from the Tree of Dreams on my 長,率いる, which will make me look like floating 少しのd, Baas. But would not the Baas like, perhaps, to go himself? He swims better than I do and does not mind 冷淡な so much; also he is clever and the Walloo fools in the boat will listen to him more than they will to me; and if it comes to 狙撃, he is a better 発射. I think, too, that I can look after the Lady Sabeela and the other lady and know how to 解雇する/砲火/射撃 a slow match 同様に as he can."
"No," I answered, "it is too late to change our 計画(する)s, though I wish I were going to get into that boat instead of you, for I should feel happier there."
"Very good, Baas. The Baas knows best," he replied resignedly. Then, やめる indifferent to 条約s, Hans stripped himself, placing his dirty 着せる/賦与するs inside the mat in which was wrapped the bundle of twigs from the Tree of Illusions, because, as he said, it would be nice to have 乾燥した,日照りの things to put on when he reached the boat, or the next world, he did not know which.
These 準備s made, having fastened the bundle on to his 長,率いる by the help of the 社債s which we had 削減(する) off Sabeela's 手渡すs, that I tied for him beneath his armpits, he started, shivering, a hideous, shrivelled, yellow 反対する. First, however, he kissed my 手渡す and asked me whether I had any message for my Reverend Father in the Place of 解雇する/砲火/射撃s, where, he 発言/述べるd, it would be, at any 率, warmer than it was here. Also he 宣言するd that he thought that the Lady Sabeela was not 価値(がある) all the trouble we were taking about her, 特に as she was going to marry someone else. Lastly he said with 強調 that if ever we got out of this country, he ーするつもりであるd to get drunk for two whole days at the first town we (機の)カム to where gin could be brought—a 約束, I remember, that he kept very faithfully. Then he こそこそ動くd 負かす/撃墜する the 味方する of the 激しく揺する and 持つ/拘留するing his revolver and little buckskin cartridge 事例/患者 above his 長,率いる, glided into the water as silently as does an カワウソ.
By now, as I have said, the もや was varnishing 速く, perhaps before a draught of 空気/公表する which drew out of the east, as I have noticed it often does in those parts of Africa between midnight and sunrise, even on still nights. On the 直面する of the water it still hung, however, so that through it I could only discover the faint 輪郭(を描く) of the canoe about a hundred yards away.
Presently, with a (警官の)巡回区域,受持ち区域ing heart, I 観察するd that something was happening there, since the canoe seemed to turn 一連の会議、交渉/完成する and I thought that I heard astonished 発言する/表明するs speaking in it, and saw people standing up. Then there was a splash and once more all became still and silent. Evidently Hans reached the boat 安全に, though whether he had entered it I could not tell. I could only wonder and hope.
As we could do no good by remaining in our 現在の most dangerous position, I 始める,決める out to return to the sluice shed where other 事柄s 圧力(をかける)d, carrying all our gear as before, but, thank goodness! without the encumbrance of the 死体. Sabeela seemed to be still half dazed, so at 現在の I did not try to question her. Dramana took her left arm and I her 権利 and, supporting her thus, we ran, 二塁打d up, 支援する to the shed and entered it in safety. Leaving the two women here, I went out on to the little pier and crouched at the 最高の,を越す of the fishermen's steps, watching and waiting for the coming of Hans with the canoe to take us off, for, as you may remember, the 協定 was that I was not to 解雇する/砲火/射撃 the slow matches until it had arrived.
No canoe appeared. During all the long hours—they seemed an eternity —before the breaking of the 夜明け did I wait and watch, returning now and again to the shed to make sure that Dramana and Sabeela were 安全な. On one of these visits I learned that both her father, the Walloo, and Issicore were in the canoe, which made its 非,不,無-arrival not to be explained, that is, if Hans reached it 安全に. But if he had not, or perhaps had been killed or met with some other 事故 in 試みる/企てるing to board it, then the explanation was 平易な enough, as her 乗組員 would not know our 苦境 or that we were waiting to be 救助(する)d. Lastly they might have 辞退するd to make the 試みる/企てる—for 宗教的な 推論する/理由s.
The problem was agonizing. Before long there would be light and without 疑問 we should be discovered and killed, perhaps by 拷問. On the other 手渡す, if I 解雇する/砲火/射撃d the 砕く the noise of the 爆発 would probably be heard, in which 事例/患者 also we should be discovered. Yet there was an argument for doing this, since then, if things went 井戸/弁護士席, the water would 急ぐ in and give those priests something to think about that would take their minds off 追跡(する)ing for and 逮捕(する)ing us.
I looked about me. The canoe was invisible in the もや. It might be there or it might be gone, only if it were gone and Hans were still alive, I was 確かな that, as arranged, to advise me he would have 解雇する/砲火/射撃d his ピストル, which, to keep the cartridges 乾燥した,日照りの, he had carried above his 長,率いる in his left 手渡す. Indeed, I thought it probable that, rather than 砂漠 me thus, he would have swum 支援する to the island, so that we might see the 商売/仕事 through together. The longer I pondered all these and other 可能性s, the more 混乱させるd I grew and the more despairing. Evidently something had happened, but what—what?
The water continued to rise; now all the steps were covered and it was within an インチ or two of the surface of the pier on which I must crouch. It was a mighty flood that looked as though presently it would begin to flow over the 最高の,を越す of the sea 塀で囲む, in which 事例/患者 the sluice shed would undoubtedly be inundated and made uninhabitable.
As I think I told you, a few yards to our 権利, rising above the 最高の,を越す of the sea 塀で囲む to a 高さ of seven or eight feet, was a 広大な/多数の/重要な 激しく揺する that had the 外見 of a 玉石 排除する/(飛行機などから)緊急脱出するd at some time from the 噴火口,クレーター of the 火山, which 激しく揺する would be 平易な to climb and was large enough to 融通する the three of us. Moreover, no flood could reach its 最高の,を越す, since to do so it must cover the land beyond to a depth of many feet. Considering it and everything else, suddenly I (機の)カム to a 結論, so suddenly indeed and so fixedly that I felt as though it were 奮起させるd by some outside 影響(力).
I would bring the women out and make them 嘘(をつく) 負かす/撃墜する upon the 最高の,を越す of that 玉石, 信用ing to Dramana's dark cloak to hide them from 観察 even in that brilliant moonlight. Then I would return to the shed and 始める,決める light to the match, and, after I had done this, join them upon the 激しく揺する whence we could see all that happened, and watch for the canoe, though of this I had begun to despair.
Abandoning all 疑問s and hesitations, I 始める,決める to work to carry out this 計画/陰謀 with 冷淡な yet frantic energy. I fetched the two sisters, who, imagining that 救済 was in sight, (機の)カム readily enough, made them clamber up the 激しく揺する and 嘘(をつく) 負かす/撃墜する there on their 直面するs, throwing Dramana's large dark cloak over both of them and our 所持品. Then I went 支援する to the shed, struck a light, and 適用するd it to the ends of the slow matches, that began to smoulder 井戸/弁護士席 and 明確に. 急ぐing from the shed, I locked the 激しい door and sped 支援する to the 激しく揺する, which I climbed.
Five minutes passed, and just as I was beginning to think that the matches had failed in some way, I heard a 激しい thud. It was not very loud; indeed, at a distance of even fifty yards I 疑問d whether any one would have noticed it unless his attention were on the 緊張する. That shed was 井戸/弁護士席 built and roofed and smothered sounds. Also this one had nothing of the 割れ目 of a ライフル銃/探して盗む about it, but rather 似ているd that which is 原因(となる)d by something 激しい 落ちるing to the ground.
After this for a while nothing particular happened. Presently, however, looking 負かす/撃墜する from my 激しく揺する I saw that the water in the sluice, which, 存在 保持するd by the 石/投石する door in the shed, hitherto had been still, was now running like a mill race, and with a thrill of 勝利 learned that I had 後継するd.
The sluice was 負かす/撃墜する and the flood was 急ぐing over it!
Watching intently, a minute or so later I 観察するd a 石/投石する 落ちる from the 対処するing of the channel, for it was 十分な to the brim, then another, and another, till presently the whole work seemed to melt away. Where it had been was now a 広大な/多数の/重要な and ever-growing gap in the sea 塀で囲む through which the swollen waters of the lake 注ぐd ceaselessly and ますます. Next instant the shed 消えるd like a card house, its 創立/基礎s 存在 washed out, and I perceived that over its 場所/位置, and beyond it, a veritable river, on the 直面する of which floated 部分s of its roof, was 急速な/放蕩な inundating the low-lying lands behind that had been 保護するd by the 塀で囲む.
I looked at the east; it was lightening, for now the blackness of the sky where it seemed to 会合,会う the 広大な/多数の/重要な lake, had turned to grey. The 夜明け was at 手渡す.
With a 安定した roar, through the gap in the sea 塀で囲む which grew wider every moment, the waters 急ぐd in, remorseless, inexhaustible; the 面 of them was terrifying. Now our 激しく揺する was a little island surrounded by a sea, and now in the east appeared the first ray from the unrisen sun stabbing the rain-washed sky like a 巨大(な) spear. It was a wondrous spectacle and, thinking that probably it was the last I should ever 証言,証人/目撃する upon earth, I 観察するd it with 広大な/多数の/重要な 利益/興味.
By this time the women at my 味方する were sobbing with terror, believing that they were going to be 溺死するd. As I was of the same opinion, for I felt our 激しく揺する trembling beneath us as though it were about to turn over or, washed from its 創立/基礎s, to 沈む into some bottomless 湾, and could do nothing to help them, I pretended to take no notice of their terror, but only 星/主役にするd に向かって the east.
It was just then that, 現れるing out of the もや on the 直面する of the waters within a few yards of us, I saw the canoe. Hear the sound of the paddles I could not, because of the roar of the 急ぐing water. In it at the 厳しい, with his ピストル held to the 長,率いる of the steersman, stood Hans.
I rose up, and he saw me. Then I made 調印するs to him which way he should come, keeping the canoe straight over the crest of the broken 塀で囲む where the water was shallow. It was a dangerous 商売/仕事, for every moment I thought it would overset or be sucked into the 激流 beyond, where the sluice channel had been; but those Walloos were clever with their paddles, and Hans's ピストル gave them much 激励.
Now the prow of the canoe grated against the 激しく揺する, and Hans, who had 緊急発進するd 今後, threw me a rope. I held it with one 手渡す and with the other thrust 負かす/撃墜する the 縮むing women. He 掴むd them and bundled them into the canoe like 解雇(する)s of corn. Next I threw in our gear and then sprang wildly myself, for I felt our 石/投石する turning. I half fell into the water, but Hans and someone else gripped me and I was dragged in over the gunwale. Another instant and the 激しく揺する had 消えるd beneath the yellow, yeasty flood!
The canoe oscillated and began to spin 一連の会議、交渉/完成する; happily it was large and strong, with at least a 得点する/非難する/20 of rowers, 存在 hollowed from a 選び出す/独身, 抱擁する tree. Hans shrieked directions and the paddlers paddled as never they had done before. For やめる a minute our 運命/宿命 hung doubtful, for the 激流 was sucking at us and we did not seem to 伸び(る) an インチ. At last, however, we moved 今後 a little, に向かって the 激しく揺する of Sacrifice this time, and with sixty seconds were 安全な and out of the reach of the landward 急ぐ of the water.
"Why did you not come before, Hans?" I asked.
"Oh, Baas, because these fools would not move until they saw the first light, and when the Walloo and Issicore 手配中の,お尋ね者 to, told them that they would kill them. They said it was against their 法律, Baas."
"悪口を言う/悪態 them all for ten 世代s!" I exclaimed, then was silent, for what was the use of arguing with such a superstition-ridden 始める,決める?
Superstition is still king of most of the world, though often it calls itself 宗教. These Walloos thought themselves very 宗教的な indeed.
Thus ended that terrible night.
THE END OF HEU-HEU
Opposite to the 激しく揺する of 申し込む/申し出ing the canoe (機の)カム to a 行き詰まり やめる の近くに to the 辛勝する/優位 of the 激しく揺する. I 問い合わせd why, and the old Walloo, who sat in the middle of the boat draped in wondrous and 皇室の 衣料品s and a headdress, that, having worked itself to one 味方する in the course of our struggles, made him look as though he were drunk, answered feebly:
"Because it is our 法律, Lord. Our 法律 企て,努力,提案s us wait till the sun appears and the glory of Heu-Heu comes 前へ/外へ to take the 宗教上の Bride."
"井戸/弁護士席," I answered, "as the 宗教上の Bride is sitting in this boat with her 長,率いる upon my 膝" (this was true, because Sabeela had 主張するd upon sticking to me as the only person upon whom she could rely, and so, for the 事柄 of that, had Dramana, for her 長,率いる was on my other 膝), "I should recommend the glory of Heu-Heu, whatever that may be, not to come here to look for her. Unless, indeed, it wants a 穴を開ける as big as my 握りこぶし blown through it," I 追加するd with 強調, (電話線からの)盗聴 my 二塁打-barrelled 表明する which was by my 味方する, 安全な in its waterproof 事例/患者.
"Yet we must wait, Lord," answered the Walloo 謙虚に, "for I see that there is still a 宗教上の Bride tied to the 地位,任命する, and until she is loosed our 法律 says that we may not go away."
"Yes," I exclaimed, "the holiest of all brides, for she is 石/投石する dead and all the dead are 宗教上の. 井戸/弁護士席, wait if you like, for I want to see what happens, and I think they can't get at us here."
So we hung upon our oars, or rather paddles, and waited, till presently the 縁 of the red sun appeared and 明らかにする/漏らすd the strangest of scenes. The water of the lake, swollen by weeks of continuous rain and the 最近の tempest, flowing in with a 安定した 急ぐ that somehow reminded me of the ordered 前進する of an infinite army, through the 広大な/多数の/重要な gap in the lake 塀で囲む that was broadening minute by minute beneath its devouring bite—is there anything so mighty as water in the world, I wonder—had now flooded most of the cultivated land to a depth of several feet.
As yet, however, it had not reached the houses built against the mountain, in one of which we had been 宿泊するd. Nor had it 洪水d the 広大な/多数の/重要な 激しく揺する of 申し込む/申し出ing, which, you will remember, stood about the 高さ of a man above the level of the plain, 存在 in fact a large 厚板 of 強固にする/合併する/制圧するd 溶岩 that once had flowed from the 噴火口,クレーター into the lake in a glacier-like stream of 限られた/立憲的な breadth. It is true that the circumstance that the 激しく揺する sloped downwards to the 洞穴 mouth seemed to 否定する that theory, but this I せいにする to some その後の subsidence at its base, such as often happens in 火山の areas where hidden 軍隊s are at work beneath the surface of the earth.
井戸/弁護士席, I repeat, the 激しく揺する was not yet flooded, and so it (機の)カム about that, at the proper moment, as had happened on this day, perhaps for hundreds of years, Heu-Heu 現れるd from the 洞穴 "to (人命などを)奪う,主張する his 宗教上の Bride."
"How could he do that?" asked Good triumphantly, thinking, I suppose that he had caught Allan tripping. "You said that Heu-Heu was a statue, so how could he come out of the 洞穴?"
"Does not it occur to you, Good," asked Allan, "that a statue is いつかs carried? However, in this 事例/患者 it was not so, for Heu-Heu himself walked out of that 洞穴, followed by a number of women, with some of the Hairy Folk behind them, and looking at him as he stalked along, hideous and gigantic, I understood two things. The first of these was, how it (機の)カム about that Sabeela had 公約するd to me that many had seen Heu-Heu with their 注目する,もくろむs, as Issicore also 宣言するd he had done himself, 'walking stiffly.' The second, why it was a 法律 that the canoe which brought the 宗教上の Bride should wait until she was 除去するd at 夜明け; すなわち in order that those in it might behold Heu-Heu and go 支援する to their land to 証言する to his bodily 存在, even if they were not 許すd to give 詳細(に述べる)s as to his 外見, because to speak of this would, they believed, bring a '悪口を言う/悪態' upon them."
"But there wasn't a Heu-Heu," 反対するd Good again.
"Good," said Allan, "really you are what Hans called me—やめる clever. With 驚くべき/特命の/臨時の acumen you have arrived at the truth. There wasn't a Heu-Heu. But, Good, if you live long enough," he went on with a gentle sarcasm which showed that he was annoyed, "yes, if you live long enough, you will learn that this world is 十分な of deceptions, and that the Tree of Illusions does not, or rather did not, grow only in Heu-Heu's Garden. As you say, no Heu-Heu 存在するd, but there did 存在する an excellent copy of him made up with a 技術 worthy of a high-class pantomime artist; so excellent indeed that from fifty yards or so away, it was impossible to tell the difference between it and the 広大な/多数の/重要な 初めの as 描写するd in the 洞穴."
There in all his hairy, grinning horror, "walking stiffly," marched Heu-Heu, eleven or twelve feet high. Or to come to the facts, there marched Dacha on stilts, artistically draped in dyed 肌s and wearing on the 最高の,を越す of or over his 長,率いる a wickerwork and canvas or cloth mask beautifully painted to 似ている the features of his amiable god.
The pious 乗組員 of our boat saw him, and 屈服するd their classic 長,率いるs in reverence to the divinity. Even Issicore 屈服するd, a 業績/成果 that I 観察するd 原因(となる)d Dramana, yes, and the loving Sabeela herself, to favour him with ちらりと見ることs of indignation, not unmixed with contempt. At least this was certainly the 事例/患者 with Dramana, who had lived behind the scenes, but Sabeela may have been moved by other reflections. Perhaps she still believed that there was a Heu-Heu, and that Issicore would have done better to show himself いっそう少なく 充てるd to these 宗教的な observances and いっそう少なく willing to 降伏する her to the god's divine attentions. You may all have noticed that however piously 性質の/したい気がして, there is a point at which the 大多数 of women become very practical indeed.
一方/合間 Heu-Heu stalked 今後 with a gait that might very literally be called stilted, and the bevy of white-式服d ladies followed after him 明らかに singing a bridal song, while behind these, "moping and mowing," (機の)カム their hairy attendants. By the 援助(する) of my glasses, however, I could see that these ladies, at any 率, were not enjoying the entertainment, whatever may have been the 事例/患者 with Dacha inside his paste boards. They 星/主役にするd at the rising water and one of them turned to run but was dragged 支援する into place by her companions, for probably on this solemn occasion flight was a 資本/首都 offence. So on they (機の)カム till they reached the 地位,任命する to which we had tied the dead woman, whereon によれば custom, the bridesmaids skipped up to 解放(する) her, while the Hairy Folk 範囲d themselves behind.
Next moment I saw the first of these bridesmaids suddenly stand still and 星/主役にする; then she emitted a yell so terrific that it echoed all over the lake like the 爆破 of a train. The others 星/主役にするd also and in their turn began to yell. Then Heu-Heu himself ambled 一連の会議、交渉/完成する and 明らかに had a look, a good look, for by now someone had torn away the 隠す which I had thrown over the 死体's 長,率いる. He did not look long, for next moment he was legging, or rather stilting, 支援する to the 洞穴 as 急速な/放蕩な as he could go.
This was too much for me. By my 味方する was my 二塁打-barrelled 表明する ライフル銃/探して盗む 負担d with 拡大するing 弾丸s. I drew it from its 事例/患者, 解除するd it, and got a bead on to Heu-Heu just above where I guessed the 長,率いる of the man within to be, for I did not want to kill the brute but only to 脅す him. By now the light was good and so was my 目的(とする), for a moment later the 拡大するing 弾丸 攻撃する,衝突する in the 任命するd 位置/汚点/見つけ出す and (疑いを)晴らすd away all that 最高の,を越す 妨害する of wicker and 粗野な人間 肌s, or whatever it may have been. Never before was there such a sudden disrobement of an ecclesiastical 高官 draped in all his trappings.
Everything seemed to come off at once, as did Dacha from his stilts, for he went a most 皇室の crowner that must have flattened his 麻薬中毒の nose upon that 溶岩 激しく揺する. There he lay a moment, then, leaving his stilts behind him, he rose and fled after the 叫び声をあげるing women and their ape-like attendants 支援する into the 洞穴.
"Now," I 発言/述べるd oracularly to the old Walloo and the others who were terrified at the 報告(する)/憶測 of the ライフル銃/探して盗む, "now, my friends, you see what your god is made of."
The Walloo 試みる/企てるd no reply, 明らかに he was too astonished—disillusionment is often painful, you know—but one of his company who seemed to be a 肉親,親類d of 公式の/役人 timekeeper, said that the sun 存在 up and the 宗教上の Bridal 存在 遂行するd, though strangely, it was lawful for them to return home.
"No, you don't," I answered. "I have waited here a long time for you and now you shall wait a little while for me, as I want to see what happens."
The timekeeper, however, a man of 決まりきった仕事, if one devoid of curiosity, dipped his paddle into the water as a signal to the other rowers to do likewise, whereon Hans 攻撃する,衝突する him hard over the fingers with the butt of his revolver, and then held its バーレル/樽 to his 長,率いる.
This argument 納得させるd him that obedience was best, and he drew in the paddle, as did the others, making polite 陳謝s to Hans.
So we remained where we were and watched.
There was lots to see, for by now the water was beginning to run over the 激しく揺する. It reached the eternal 解雇する/砲火/射撃s with the result that they 中止するd to be eternal, for they went out in clouds of smoke and steam. Three minutes later it was 注ぐing in a cataract 負かす/撃墜する the slope into the mouth of the 洞穴. Before I could count a hundred, people began to come out of that 洞穴 in the greatest of hurries, as wasps do if you 動かす up their nest with a stick. の中で them I recognised Dacha, who had a very good idea of looking after himself.
He and the first of those who followed, wading through the water, got (疑いを)晴らす and began to 緊急発進する up the 山腹 behind. But the 残り/休憩(する) were not so fortunate, for by now the stream was several feet 深い and they could not fight it. For a moment they appeared struggling まっただ中に the 泡,激怒すること and 泡s. Then they were swept 支援する into the mouth of the 洞穴 and gathered to the breast of Heu-Heu for the last time. Next, as though at a signal, all the houses, 含むing that in which we had been 宿泊するd, 崩壊するd away together. They just 崩壊(する)d and 消えるd.
Everything seemed finished and I wondered whether I would put a 弾丸 into Dacha, who now was standing on a 山の尾根 of 激しく揺する and wringing his 手渡すs as he watched the 破壊 of his 寺, his god, his town, his women, and his servants. 結論するing that I would not, for something seemed to tell me to leave this wicked rascal to 運命, I was about to give the order to paddle away when Hans called to me to look at the mountain 最高の,を越す.
I did so, and 観察するd that from it was 急ぐing a 広大な/多数の/重要な cloud of steam, such as comes from a 鉄道 engine when it is standing still with too much heat in its boiler, but multiplied a millionfold. Moreover, as the engine 叫び声をあげるs in such circumstances, so did the mountain 叫び声をあげる, or rather roar, emitting a 容積/容量 of sound that was awful to hear.
"What's up now, Hans?" I shouted.
"Don't know, Baas. Think that water and 解雇する/砲火/射撃 are having a talk together inside that mountain, Baas, and 説 they hate each other, just like 不正に married man and woman who quarrel in a small hut, Baas, and can't get out. Hiss, spit, go woman; pop, bang, go man——" Here he paused from his nonsense, 星/主役にするing at the mountain 最高の,を越す with all his 注目する,もくろむs, then repeated in a slow 発言する/表明する, "Yes, pop, bang, go man! Just look at him, Baas!"
At this moment, with an amazing noise like to that of a magnified thunderclap, the 火山 seemed to 分裂(する) in two and the crest of it to 飛行機で行く off into space.
"Baas," said Hans, "I am called Lord-of-the-解雇する/砲火/射撃, am I not? 井戸/弁護士席, I am not Lord of that 解雇する/砲火/射撃 and I think that the さらに先に off we get from it, the safer we shall be. Allemagter! Look there," and he pointed to a 抱擁する 集まり of 炎上ing 溶岩 which appeared to descend from the clouds and 急落(する),激減(する) into the lake about a couple of hundred yards away, sending up a fountain of steam and 泡,激怒すること, like a torpedo when it bursts.
"Paddle for your lives!" I shouted to the Walloos, who began to get the canoe about in a very 広大な/多数の/重要な hurry.
As she (機の)カム 一連の会議、交渉/完成する—it seemed to take an age—I saw a strange and in a way a terrible sight. Dacha had left his ledge and was running 負かす/撃墜する into the lake, followed by a stream of molten 溶岩, dancing while he ran, as though with 苦痛, probably because the stream had scorched him. He 急落(する),激減(する)d into the water, and just then a 広大な/多数の/重要な wave formed, driven outwards doubtless by some subterranean 爆発. It 急ぐd に向かって us, and on its very crest was Dacha.
"I think that priest wants us to give him a 列/漕ぐ/騒動, Baas," said Hans. "He has had enough of his happy island home, and wishes to live on the 本土/大陸."
"Does he?" I replied. "井戸/弁護士席, there is no room in the canoe," and I drew my ピストル.
The wave bore Dacha やめる の近くに to us. He 後部d himself in the water, or more probably was 解除するd up by the 圧力 underneath, so that almost he appeared to be standing on the crest of the wave. He saw us, he shouted 悪口を言う/悪態s upon us and shook his 握りこぶしs, 明らかに at Sabeela and Issicore. It was a horrible sight.
Hans, however, was not 影響する/感情d, for by way of reply he pointed first to me, then to Sabeela and lastly to himself, after which, such was his unconquerable vulgarity, he put his thumb to his nose and as schoolboys say "cocked a snook" at the struggling high priest.
The wave became a hollow and Dacha disappeared "to look for Heu-Heu," as Hans 発言/述べるd. That was the end of this cruel but able man.
"I am glad," said Hans after reflection, "that the Predikant Dacha should have learned who sent him 負かす/撃墜する to Heu-Heu before he went there, which he knew 井戸/弁護士席 enough or he would not have been so cross, Baas. Has it occurred to the Baas what clever people we are, all of whose 計画(する)s have 後継するd so nicely? At one time I thought that things were going wrong. It was after I 緊急発進するd into this canoe and those fools would not move to fetch you and the women, because they said it was against their 法律. While I was putting on my 着せる/賦与するs, which got here やめる 乾燥した,日照りの because I was so careful, Baas, for I had asked them to paddle to fetch you while I was still naked and been told that they would not, I wondered whether I should try to make them do so by 狙撃 one of them. Only I thought that I had better wait a while, Baas, and see what happened, because if I 発射 one, the others might have become more stupid and obstinate than before, and perhaps have paddled away after they had killed me. So I waited, which the Baas will 収容する/認める was the best thing to do, and everything (機の)カム 権利 in the end, having doubtless been arranged by your Reverend Father, watching us in the sky."
"Yes, Hans, but if you had made up your mind さもなければ, whom would you have 発射?" I asked. "The Walloo?"
"No, Baas, because he is old and stupid as a dead フクロウ. I should have 発射 Issicore because he tires me so much and I should like to save the Lady Sabeela from 存在 made 疲れた/うんざりした for many years. What is the good of a man, Baas, who, when he thinks his girl is 存在 given over to a devil, sits in a boat and groans and says that 古代の 法律s must not be broken lest a 悪口を言う/悪態 should follow? He did that, Baas, when I asked him to order the men to 列/漕ぐ/騒動 to the steps."
"I don't know, Hans. It is a 事柄 for them to settle between them, isn't it?"
"Yes, Baas, and when the lady has got her mind again and at last that hour comes, as it always does when there is something to 支払う/賃金, Baas, I shall be sorry for Issicore, for I don't think he will look so pretty when she has done with him. No, I think that when he says 'Kiss! Kiss!' she will answer, 'Smack! Smack!' on both 味方するs of his 長,率いる, Baas. Look, she has turned her 支援する on him already. 井戸/弁護士席, Baas, it doesn't 事柄 to me, or to you either, who have the Lady Dramana there to を取り引きする. She isn't turning her 支援する, Baas, she is eating you up with her 注目する,もくろむs and 説 in her heart that at last she has 設立する a Heu-Heu 価値(がある) something, even though he be small and withered and ugly, with hair that sticks up. It is what is in a man that 事柄s, Baas, not what he looks like outside, as women often used to say to me when I was young, Baas."
Here with an exclamation that I need not repeat, for 非,不,無 of us really like to have our personal 外見 反映するd upon by a candid friend, however faithful, I 解除するd the butt of my ライフル銃/探して盗む, 目的ing to 減少(する) it gently on Hans's toes. At that point, however, my attention was コースを変えるd from this rubbish, which was Hans's way of showing his joy at our escape, by another 炎ing 玉石 which fell やめる 近づく to the canoe, and すぐに afterwards by the terrific spectacle of the final 解散 of the 火山.
I don't know 正確に/まさに what happened, but sheets of wavering 炎上 and clouds of steam 上がるd high into the heavens. These were …を伴ってd by earth-shaking rumblings and awful 爆発s that resounded like the loudest 雷鳴, each of them followed by the ejection of にわか雨s of 炎ing 石/投石するs and the 急ぐing out of 激流s of molten 溶岩 which ran into the lake, making it hiss and boil. After this (機の)カム 高潮,津波s that 原因(となる)d our canoe to 激しく揺する perilously, dense clouds of ashes and a 肉親,親類d of hot rain which darkened the 空気/公表する so much that for a while we could see nothing, no, not for a yard before our noses. Altogether, it was a most terrifying 展示 of the 軍隊s of nature which, by some 関係 of ideas, made me think of the Day of Judgment.
"Heu-Heu avenges himself upon us!" wailed the old Walloo, "because we have robbed him of his 宗教上の Bride."
Here his speech (機の)カム to an end, for a good 推論する/理由, since a large hot 石/投石する fell upon his 長,率いる, and, as Hans who was next to him explained through the 霧, "squashed him like a beetle."
When from the 激しい抗議 of his 信奉者s Sabeela realized that her father was dead, for he never moved or spoke again, she seemed to wake up in good earnest, just as though she felt that the mantle of 当局 had fallen upon her.
"Throw that hot coal out of the boat," she said, "lest it 燃やす through the 底(に届く) and we 沈む."
With the help of a paddle Issicore obeyed her, and, the 団体/死体 of the Walloo having been covered up with a cloak, we 列/漕ぐ/騒動d on 猛烈に. By good fortune about this time a strong 勝利,勝つd began to blow from the shore に向かって the island which kept 支援する or drove away the hot rain and pumice dust, so that we could once more see about us. Now our only danger was from the 激しく揺するs, such as that which had killed the Walloo, that fell into the water all around, sending up spouts of 泡,激怒すること. It was just as though we were under 激しい 砲撃, but happily no more of them 攻撃する,衝突する the canoe, and as we got さらに先に off the island the 危険 became いっそう少なく. As we 設立する afterwards, however, some of them were thrown as far as the 本土/大陸.
Still, there was one more 危険,危なくする to be passed, for suddenly we ran into a whole (n)艦隊/(a)素早い of rude canoes, or rather bundles of reed and brushwood, or いつかs スピードを出す/記録につけるs sharpened at both ends by 解雇する/砲火/射撃, on each of which one of the Hairy savages sat astride directing it with a 二塁打-bladed paddle.
I 推定する that these people must have been a 次第で変わる/派遣部隊 of the aboriginal 支持を得ようと努めるd-folk who had started for the island in obedience to the 召喚するs of Heu-Heu, where, as I have told, a 広大な/多数の/重要な number of them were already gathered 準備の to attacking the town of Walloo. Or they may have been escaping from the island; really I do not know. One thing was (疑いを)晴らす; however low they may have been in the 規模 of humanity, they were sharp enough to connect us with the awful, natural 大災害 that was happening, for squeaking and jabbering like so many 広大な/多数の/重要な apes, they pointed to that 見通し of hell, the 炎上ing 火山 now 沈むing to 解散, and to us.
Then with their horrible yells of Heu-Heu! Heu-Heu! they 始める,決める to work to attack us.
There was only one thing to be done—射撃を開始する on them, which Hans and I did with 影響, and 一方/合間 try to escape by our superior 速度(を上げる). I am bound to say that those hideous and 哀れな creatures showed the greatest courage, for undeterred by the sight of the death of their companions whom our 弾丸s struck, they tried to の近くに upon us with the 反対する, no 疑問, of oversetting the canoe and 溺死するing us all.
Hans and I 解雇する/砲火/射撃d as 速く as possible, but we could を取り引きする only a tithe of them, so that 速度(を上げる) and manoeuvring were our 主要な/長/主犯 hope. Sabeela stood up in the boat and cried directions to the paddlers, while Hans and I 発射, first with the ライフル銃/探して盗むs and then with our revolvers.
Still, one 抱擁する gorilla-like fellow, whose hair grew 負かす/撃墜する to his beetling eyebrows, got 持つ/拘留する of the gunwale and began to pull the canoe over. We could not shoot him because both ライフル銃/探して盗むs and revolvers were empty; nor did our blows make him 緩和する his 支配する. The canoe 激しく揺するd from 味方する to 味方する ますます, and began to take in water.
Just as I 恐れるd that the end had come, for more hairy men were almost on to us, Sabeela saved the 状況/情勢 in a bold and desperate fashion. By her 味方する lay the 幅の広い spear of that priest whom Hans had killed in the sluice shed, knocking him backwards into the water 炭坑,オーケストラ席. She 掴むd it and with amazing strength stabbed the 広大な/多数の/重要な beast-like creature who had 持つ/拘留する of the canoe and was putting all his 負わせる on it to 軍隊 the gunwale under water. He let go and sank. By skilful steering we 避けるd the others, and in three minutes were (疑いを)晴らす of them, since they could not keep pace with us on their rude (手先の)技術.
"Plenty to do to-night, Baas!" soliloquized Hans, wiping his brow. "Perhaps if a crocodile does not swallow us between here and the shore, or these fools do not sacrifice us to the ghost of Heu-Heu, or we are not killed by 雷, the Baas will let me drink some of that native beer when we get 支援する to the town. All this 解雇する/砲火/射撃 about has made me very thirsty."
井戸/弁護士席, we arrived there at last—a 世代 seemed to have passed since I left that quay, which we 設立する (人が)群がるd with the entire terror-stricken 全住民 of the place. They received the 団体/死体 of the Walloo in respectful silence, but it seemed to me without any particular grief. Indeed, these people appeared to have outworn the acuter human emotions. All such extremes, I suppose, had been smoothed away from their characters by time, and by the degrading 活動/戦闘 of the vile fetishism under which they lived. In short, they had become mere handsome, human automata who walked about with their ears cocked listening for the 発言する/表明する of the god and catching it in every natural sound. To tell the truth, however 利益/興味ing may have been their origin, in their decadence they filled me with contempt.
The reappearance of Sabeela astonished them very much but seemed to 原因(となる) no delight.
"She is the god's wife," I heard one of them say. "It is because she has run away from the god that all these misfortunes have happened." She heard it also and 一連の会議、交渉/完成するd on them with spirit, having by now やめる 回復するd her 神経, or so it seemed, which is more than could be said of Issicore, who, although he should have been wild with joy, remained depressed and almost silent.
"What misfortunes?" she asked. "My father is dead, it is true, killed by a hot 石/投石する that fell upon him and I weep for him. Still, he was a very old man who must soon have passed away. For the 残り/休憩(する), is it a misfortune that through the courage and 力/強力にする of these strangers I, his daughter and heiress, have been 解放する/自由なd from the clutches of Dacha? I tell you that Dacha was the god; Heu-Heu whom you worship was but a painted idol. If you do not believe it, ask the White Lord here, and ask my sister Dramana whom you seem to have forgotten, who in past years was given to him as a 宗教上の Bride. Is it a misfortune that Dacha and his priests have been destroyed, and with him the most of the savage hairy 支持を得ようと努めるd-folk, our enemies? Is it a misfortune that the hateful smoking mountain should have melted away in 解雇する/砲火/射撃, as it is doing now, and with it the 洞穴 of mysteries, out of which (機の)カム so many oracles of terror, thus 実行するing the prophecy that we should be 配達するd from our 重荷(を負わせる)s by a white lord from the south?"
At these vigorous words the 脅すd (人が)群がる grew silent and hung their 長,率いるs. Sabeela looked about her for a little while, then went on:
"Issicore, my betrothed, come 今後 and tell the people you rejoice that these things have happened. To save me from Heu-Heu, at my 祈り you travelled far to ask succour of the 広大な/多数の/重要な Magician of the South. He has sent the succour and I have been saved. Yet you helped to 列/漕ぐ/騒動 the boat which took me to the sacrifice. For that I do not 非難する you, because you must do so, 存在 of the 階級 you are, or be 悪口を言う/悪態d under the 古代の 法律. Now I have been saved, though not by you, who, thinking the White Lord dead upon the 宗教上の 小島, 同意d to my 降伏する to the god, and the 法律 is at an end with the 破壊 of Heu-Heu and his priests, 殺害された by the 知恵 and might of that White Lord and his companion. Tell them, therefore, how 大いに you rejoice that you have not 旅行d in vain, and they did not listen in vain to your 嘆願(書) for help; that I stand before them here also 解放する/自由な and undefiled, and that henceforth the land is rid of the 悪口を言う/悪態 of Heu-Heu. Yes, tell the people these things and give thanks to the noble-hearted strangers who brought them to pass and saved me with Dramana my sister."
Now, tired out as I was, I watched Issicore not without excitement, for I was curious to hear what he had to say. 井戸/弁護士席, after a pause, he (機の)カム 今後 and answered in a hesitating 発言する/表明する:
"I do rejoice, Beloved, that you have returned 安全な, though I hoped when I led the White Lord from the South, that he would have saved you in some fashion other than by working sacrilege and 殺人,大当り the priests of the god with 解雇する/砲火/射撃 and water, men who from the beginning have been known to be divine. You, the Lady Sabeela, 宣言する that Heu-Heu is dead, but how know we that he is dead? He is a spirit, and can a spirit die? Was it a dead god who threw the 石/投石する that killed the Walloo, and will he not perhaps throw other 石/投石するs that will kill us, and 特に you, Lady, who have stood upon the 激しく揺する of Offerings, wearing the 式服 of the 宗教上の Bride?"
"Baas," 問い合わせd Hans reflectively, in the silence which followed these timorous queries, "do you think that Issicore is really a man, or is he in truth but made of 支持を得ようと努めるd and painted to look like one, as Dacha was painted to look like Heu-Heu?"
"I thought that he was a man yonder in the 黒人/ボイコット Kloof, Hans," I answered, "but then he was long way off Heu-Heu. Now I am not so sure. But perhaps he is only very 脅すd and will come to himself by and by."
一方/合間 Sabeela was looking her 極端に handsome lover up and 負かす/撃墜する; up and 負かす/撃墜する she looked him, and never a word did she say—at least, to him. Presently, however, she spoke to the (人が)群がる in a 命令(する)ing 発言する/表明する, thus:
"Take notice that my father 存在 dead, I am now the Walloo, and one to be obeyed. Go about your 仕事s 恐れるing nothing, since Heu-Heu is no more and the most of the Hairy Folk are 殺害された. I 出発/死 to 残り/休憩(する), taking with me these, my guests and deliverers," and she pointed to me and Hans. "Afterwards I will talk with you, and with you also, my lord Issicore. 耐える the late Walloo, my father, to the burial place of the Walloos."
Then she turned and, followed by us and the members of her 世帯, went to her home.
Here she bade us 別れの(言葉,会) for a while, since we were all half dead with 疲労,(軍の)雑役 and sorely needed 残り/休憩(する). As we parted, she took my 手渡す and kissed it, thanking me with 涙/ほころびs 井戸/弁護士席ing from her beautiful 注目する,もくろむs for all that I had done, and Dramana did likewise.
"How comes it, Baas," said Hans as we ate food and drank of the native beer before we lay 負かす/撃墜する to sleep, "that those ladies did not kiss my 手渡す, seeing that I too have done something to help them?"
"Because they were too tired, Hans," I answered, "and made one kiss serve for both of us."
"I see, Baas, but I 推定する/予想する that to-morrow they will still be too tired to kiss poor old Hans."
Then he filled the cup out of which he had been drinking with the last of the アルコール飲料 from the jar and emptied it at a swallow. "There, Baas," he said; "that's only 権利; you may take all the kisses, so long as I get the beer."
Exhausted as I was I could not help laughing, although to tell the truth, I should have liked another glass myself. Then I 宙返り/暴落するd on to the couch and 即時に went to sleep.
It is a fact that we slept all the 残り/休憩(する) of that day and all the に引き続いて night, waking only when the first rays of the sun shone into our room through the window place. At least, I did, for when I opened my 注目する,もくろむs, feeling a different creature and blessing Heaven for its gift of sleep to man, Hans was already up and engaged in きれいにする the ライフル銃/探して盗むs and revolvers.
I looked at the ugly little Hottentot, 反映するing how wonderful it was that so much courage, cunning, and fidelity should be packed away within his yellow 肌 and 事業/計画(する)ing skull. Had it not been for Hans, without a 疑問 I should now be dead, and the women also. It was he who had conceived the idea of letting 負かす/撃墜する the sluice gate by 爆発するing gunpowder beneath the pin of the lever. I had racked my brain for expedients, but this, the only one possible, escaped me. How tremendous had been the results of that inspiration—all of them 予定 to Hans.
Although 確かな ideas had occurred to me, the most that I had hoped to do was to flood the low-lying lands, and perhaps the 洞穴, ーするために コースを変える the attention of the priests while we were 試みる/企てるing escape. As it was we had loosed the 軍隊s of nature with the most fearful results. The water had run 負かす/撃墜する the vent-穴を開けるs of the eternal 解雇する/砲火/射撃s and into the bowels of the 火山, there to 生成する steam in enormous 容積/容量s, of which the 拘留するd strength had been so 広大な/多数の/重要な that it had rent the mountain like a rotten rag and destroyed the home of Heu-Heu for ever, and with it all his votaries.
It was a fearful event in which I thought I saw the mind of Providence 事実上の/代理 through Hans. Yes, the cunning of the Hottentot had been used by the 力/強力にするs above to sweep from the earth a vile tyranny and to destroy a 血-soaked idol and its worshippers.
Without a 疑問—or so I believe in my simple 約束—this had been designed from the beginning. When some escaped 信奉者 of Heu-Heu painted the picture in the Bushmen's 洞穴, probably hundreds of years ago, it was already designed. So was Zikali's 願望(する) for a 確かな 薬/医学, or his insatiable かわき for knowledge, or whatever it was that 原因(となる)d him to 説得する me to 請け負う this 使節団, and so was all the 残り/休憩(する) of the story.
Again, with what wonderful judgment Hans had 行為/法令/行動するd after his 勇敢に立ち向かう swim to the canoe!
Had he tried to 軍隊 those fetish-ridden cravens to come to our 救助(する) at once, as I directed him to do, the probability was that, 恐れるing to break their silly 法律, they would have resisted, or perhaps have 列/漕ぐ/騒動d 権利 away, leaving us to our 運命/宿命, after knocking him on the 長,率いる with a paddle. But he had the patience to wait, although, as he told me afterwards, his heart was torn in two with 苦悩 for my sake. Balancing everything in his artful and experienced mind he had 設立する patience to wait until the 条件s of their "法律" were 実行するd, when they (機の)カム willingly enough.
From Hans my thoughts turned to Issicore. How was it that this man's character had changed so 完全に since he arrived in his native country? His 旅行 to 捜し出す 援助(する) made alone over hundreds of miles, was a really remarkable 業績/成果, showing 広大な/多数の/重要な courage and 決意. Also as a guide, although silent and abstracted, he had never 欠如(する)d for 資源 or energy. But from the day that he arrived home, morally he had gone to pieces. It was with the greatest difficulty that he could be 説得するd to 列/漕ぐ/騒動 us to the island, where at the first 調印する of danger he had left us to our 運命/宿命 and fled away.
Again, he had meekly helped to 行為/行う Sabeela, whom, when he was at the 黒人/ボイコット Kloof evidently he loved to desperation, to her doom without 解除するing a finger to save her from a hideous 運命. Lastly, only a few hours ago, he had made a pusillanimous and contemptible speech, which I could see shocked and disgusted his betrothed, who, for her part, after her 救助(する) and the death of her father, seemed to have 伸び(る)d the courage that he had lost, and more.
It was inexplicable, at any 率 to me, and in my bewilderment I referred the problem to Hans.
He listened while I 始める,決める out the 事例/患者 as it appeared to me, then answered:
"The Baas does not keep his 注目する,もくろむs open—at any 率, in the daytime, when he thinks everything is 安全な. If he did, he would understand why Issicore has become soft as a heated 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業 of アイロンをかける. What makes men soft, Baas?"
"Love," I 示唆するd.
"Yes. At times love makes some men soft—I mean men like the Baas. And what else, Baas?"
"Drink," I answered savagely, getting it 支援する on Hans.
"Yes, at times drink makes some men soft. Men like me, Baas, who know that now and again it is wise to 中止する from 存在 wise, lest Heaven should grow jealous of our 知恵 and want to 株 it. But what makes all men soft?"
"I don't know."
"Then once more I must teach the Baas, as his Reverend Father, the Predikant, told me to do when I saw that the Baas had used up all his wits, 説 to me before he died, 'Hans, whenever you perceive that my son Allan, who does not always look where he is going, walks into water and gets out of his depth, swim in and pull him out, Hans.'"
"You little liar!" I ejaculated, but taking no notice, Hans went on:
"Baas, it is 恐れる that makes all men soft. Issicore is bending about like a heated ramrod because within him 燃やすs the 解雇する/砲火/射撃 of 恐れる."
"恐れる of what, Hans?"
"As I have said, if the Baas had kept his 注目する,もくろむs open, he would know. Did not the Baas notice a tall, dark-直面するd priest before whom the (人が)群がる parted, who (機の)カム up to Issicore when first we landed on the quay here?"
"Yes, I saw such a man. He 屈服するd politely and I thought was 迎える/歓迎するing Issicore and making him some 現在の."
"And did the Baas see what 肉親,親類d of a 現在の he made him and hear his words of 知恵? The Baas shakes his 長,率いる. 井戸/弁護士席, I did. The 現在の he gave to Issicore was a little skull carved out of 黒人/ボイコット ivory or 爆撃する, or it may have been of polished 溶岩 激しく揺する. And the words of welcome were, 'The gift of Heu-Heu to the lord Issicore, that gift which Heu-Heu sends to all who break the 法律 and dare to leave the Land of the Walloos.' Those were the words, for standing 近づく by, I heard them, though I kept them from the Baas, waiting to see what would happen afterwards.
"Then the priest went away, and what Issicore did with the little 黒人/ボイコット skull I do not know. Perhaps he wears it 一連の会議、交渉/完成する his neck, as he hasn't got a watch chain, just as the Baas used to wear things that ladies had given him, or their pictures in a little silver brandy flask."
"井戸/弁護士席, and what about this skull, Hans? What does it mean?"
"Baas, I made 調査s of an old man in that canoe, to pass the time away, Baas, as Issicore was at the other end and could not hear me. It means death, Baas. Does not the Baas remember how we were told at the 黒人/ボイコット Kloof that those who dared to leave the Land of Heu-Heu were always smitten with some sickness and died? 井戸/弁護士席, Baas, Issicore got out all 権利 and left the sickness behind him, I 推定する/予想する because the priests did not know that he was going. But he made a mistake, Baas, that of coming 支援する again, 存在 drawn by his love of Sabeela, just as a fish is drawn by the bait on the hook, Baas. And now the hook is 急速な/放蕩な in his mouth, for the priests knew of his return 井戸/弁護士席 enough, Baas, and of course were waiting for him."
"What do you mean, Hans? How can the priests 傷つける Issicore, 特に when they are all dead?"
"Yes, Baas, they are all dead and can 害(を与える) no one, but Issicore is 権利 when he says that Heu-Heu is not dead, because the devil never dies, Baas. His priests are dead, but Heu-Heu could kill the old Walloo, and so he can kill Issicore. There is a 広大な/多数の/重要な 取引,協定 in this fetish 商売/仕事, Baas, that good Christians like you and I do not understand. It won't work on Christians, Baas, which is why Heu-Heu can't kill us, but those who worship the 黒人/ボイコット One, at last the 黒人/ボイコット One takes by the throat."
I thought to myself that here Hans, although he did not know it, was enunciating one of the profoundest and most 根底となる of truths, since those who 屈服する the 膝 to Baal are Baal's servants and live under his 法律, even to the death, and what is Baal but Heu-Heu, or Satan? The fruit is always the same, by whatever 指名する the tree may be called. However, I did not enter upon this argument with Hans, whom it would have bewildered, but only asked him what he meant and what he imagined was going to happen to Issicore. He answered:
"I mean just what I have said, Baas; I mean that Issicore is going to die. That old man told me that those who 'receive the 黒人/ボイコット Skull,' always die within the month, and often more quickly. From the look of him, I should think that Issicore will not last more than a week. Although so handsome, he is really very dull, Baas, so it does not much 事柄, 特に as the Lady Sabeela will get over it やめる soon. That is why Issicore has changed, Baas. It is because the 恐れる of death is upon him. In the same way Sabeela has changed because the 恐れる of death and what to her, perhaps, is worse, has passed away."
"Bosh!" I exclaimed, but internally I had my 疑問s. I knew something of this fetish 商売/仕事, although I believed it to be the greatest of rubbish, I was sure that it is 極端に dangerous rubbish. The secret soul of man, 特に of savage, or 原始の and untaught man, or the sub-conscious self, or whatever you choose to call it, is a terrible (独立の)存在 when brought into 活動/戦闘 by the hereditary superstitions that are born in his 血. In nine 事例/患者s out of ten, if the 犠牲者 of those superstitions is told with the accustomed 儀式s by the oracle of the god or devil from which they flow, that he will die, he does die. Nothing kills him, but he commits a 肉親,親類d of moral 自殺. As Hans had said—恐れる makes him soft. Then some 肉親,親類d of nervous 病気 侵入するs his system and at the 任命するd hour withers up his physical life and 原因(となる)s him to pass away.
Such, as it 証明するd, was to be the 運命/宿命 of that Apollo-like person, the unhappy Issicore.
SABEELA'S FAREWELL
Now of this story there is little left to tell, and as it is very late and I see that you are all yawning, my friends [this was not true, for we were 深く,強烈に 利益/興味d, 特に over the moral or spiritual problem of Issicore], I will 削減(する) that little as short as I can. It shall be a mere footnote.
After we had eaten that morning, we went to see Sabeela, whom we 設立する very agitated. This was natural enough, considering all she had gone through, as after mental 緊張する and the passing of 広大な/多数の/重要な 危険,危なくするs, a nervous reaction invariably follows. Also, in a sudden and terrible fashion, she had lost her father, to whom she was 大(公)使館員d. But the real 原因(となる) of her 苦しめる was different.
Issicore, it seemed, had been taken very ill. Nobody knew what was the 事柄 with him, but Sabeela was 説得するd that he had been 毒(薬)d. She begged me to visit him at once and cure him—a request that made me indignant. I explained to her that I was no 当局 on their native 毒(薬)s, if he 苦しむd from anything of the sort, and had few 薬/医学s with me, the only one of which that dealt with 毒(薬)s was an antidote to snake bites. However, as she was very insistent, I said that I would go and see what I could do, which would probably be nothing.
So, together with Hans, I was 行為/行うd by some of the old headmen, or 議員s of the Walloo, such people as in Zululand we should call Indunas, to the house of Issicore, a rather 罰金 building of its sort at the other end of the town. We walked by the road that ran along the 辛勝する/優位 of the lake, which gave us an 適切な時期 to 観察する the island, or rather what had been the island.
Now it was nothing but a low, dark 集まり, over which hung dense clouds of steam. When the 勝利,勝つd stirred these clouds, I saw that beneath them were red streams of 溶岩 that ran into the lake. There were no more 爆発s and the 火山 appeared to have 消えるd away. Much dust was still 落ちるing. It lay 厚い upon the roadway and all the trees and other vegetation were covered with it, turning the landscape to a hue of ashen grey. さもなければ no 損失 had been done on the 本土/大陸, except that here and there 玉石s had fallen and some of the lower-lying fields were inundated by the 広大な/多数の/重要な flood, which was now abating, although the river still 洪水d its banks.
We reached the house of Issicore and were shown into his 議会, where he lay upon a couch of 肌s, …に出席するd by some women who, I understood, were his 親族s. When Hans and I entered, these women 屈服するd and went out, leaving us alone with the 患者. A ちらりと見ること told me that he was a dying man. His 罰金 注目する,もくろむs were 直す/買収する,八百長をするd on vacancy; he breathed in gasps; his fingers clasped and unclasped themselves automatically, and from time to time he was taken with violent shiverings. These I thought must be 予定 to some form of fever until I had 実験(する)d his 気温 with the 温度計 I had in my little 薬/医学 事例/患者 and 設立する that it was two degrees below normal. On 存在 questioned, he said that he had no 苦痛 and 苦しむd only from 広大な/多数の/重要な 証拠不十分 and from a whirling of the 長,率いる, by which I suppose meant giddiness.
I asked him to what he せいにするd his 条件. He answered:
"To the 悪口を言う/悪態 of Heu-Heu, Lord Macumazahn. Heu-Heu is 殺人,大当り me."
I 問い合わせd why, for to argue about the folly of the 商売/仕事 was futile, and he replied:
"For two 推論する/理由s, Lord: first, because I left the land without his leave, and secondly, because I 列/漕ぐ/騒動d you and the yellow man called Light-in-不明瞭 to the 宗教上の 小島, to visit which unsummoned is the greatest of 罪,犯罪s. For this 原因(となる) I must die more quickly than さもなければ I should have done, but in any 事例/患者 my doom was 確かな , because I left the land to 捜し出す help for Sabeela. Here is the proof of it," and from somewhere about his person he produced the little 黒人/ボイコット Death's 長,率いる which Hans had 述べるd to me. Then, without 許すing me to touch the horrid thing, he hid it away again.
I tried to laugh him out of this idea, but he only smiled sadly and said:
"I know that you must have thought me a coward, Lord, because of the way I have borne myself since we reached this town of Walloo, but it was the 悪口を言う/悪態 of Heu-Heu working within me that changed my spirit. I pray you to explain this to Sabeela, whom I love, but who I think also believes me a coward, for yesterday I read it in her 注目する,もくろむs. Now while I have still strength I would speak to you. First, I thank you and the yellow man, Light-in-不明瞭, who by courage or by 魔法—I know not which—have saved Sabeela from Heu-Heu, and have destroyed his House and his priests and, I am told, his image. Heu-Heu, it is true, lives on since he cannot die, but henceforward here he is without a home or a 形態/調整 or a worshipper, and therefore his 力/強力にする over the souls and 団体/死体s of men is gone, and の中で the Walloos, in time his worship will die out. Perhaps no more of my people will 死なせる/死ぬ by the 悪口を言う/悪態 of Heu-Heu, Lord."
"But why should you die, Issicore?"
"Because the 悪口を言う/悪態 fell on me first, Lord, while Heu-Heu 統治するd over the Walloos, as he has done from the beginning, he who was once their earthly king."
I began to 戦闘 this nonsense, but he waved his 手渡す in 抗議する, and went on:
"Lord, my time is short and I would say something to you. Soon I shall be no more and forgotten, even by Sabeela, whose husband I had hoped to become. I pray, therefore, that you will marry Sabeela."
Here I gasped, but held my peace till he had finished.
"Already I have 原因(となる)d her to be 知らせるd that such is my last wish. Also I have 原因(となる)d all the 年上のs of the Walloos to be 知らせるd, and at a 会合 held this morning they decided that this marriage would be 権利 and wise, and have sent a messenger to tell me to die as quickly as I can, in order that it may be arranged at once."
"広大な/多数の/重要な Heavens!" I exclaimed, but again he 動議d to me to be silent, and went on:
"Lord, although she is not of your race, Sabeela is very beautiful, very wise also, and with you for her husband she may be able once more to build up the Walloos into a 広大な/多数の/重要な people, as tradition says they were in the old days before there fell upon them the 悪口を言う/悪態 of Heu-Heu, which is now broken. For you, too, are wise and bold, and know many things which we do not know, and the people will serve you as a god and perhaps come to worship you in place of Heu-Heu, so that you 設立する a mighty 王朝. At first this thought may seem strange to you, but soon you will come to see that it is 広大な/多数の/重要な and good. Moreover, even if you were unwilling, things must come about as I have said."
"Why?" I asked, unable to 含む/封じ込める myself any longer.
"Because, Lord, here in this land you must spend the 残り/休憩(する) of your life, for in it now you are a 囚人, nor with all your courage can you escape, since 非,不,無 will 列/漕ぐ/騒動 you 負かす/撃墜する the river, nor can you 軍隊 a way, for it will be watched. Moreover, when you return to the house of the Walloo you will find that your cartridges have been taken, so that except for a few that you have about you, you are weaponless. Therefore, as here you must live, it is better that you should do so with Sabeela rather than with any other woman, since she is the fairest and the cleverest of them all. Also by 権利 of 血 she is the 支配者, and through her you will become Walloo, as I should have done によれば our custom."
At this point he の近くにd his 注目する,もくろむs and for a while appeared to become senseless. Presently he opened them again and, 星/主役にするing at me, 解除するd his feeble 手渡すs and cried:
"迎える/歓迎するing to the Walloo! Long life and glory to the Walloo!"
Nor was this all, for, to my horror, from the other 味方する of the partition that divided the house I heard the women whom I have について言及するd echo the salutation:
"迎える/歓迎するing to the Walloo! Long life and glory to the Walloo!"
Then again Issicore became senseless; at least, nothing I said seemed to reached his understanding. So after waiting for a time Hans and I went away, thinking that all was over. This, however, was not so, since he lived till nightfall and, I was told, 回復するd his senses for some hours before the end, during which time Sabeela visited him, …を伴ってd by 確かな of the 著名なs or 年上のs. It was then, as I suppose, that this ill-運命/宿命d but most unselfish Issicore, the handsomest man whom ever I beheld, to his own satisfaction, if not to 地雷, settled everything for what he conceived to be the 福利事業 of his country and his ladylove.
"井戸/弁護士席, Baas," said Hans when we were outside the house, "I suppose we had better go home. It is your home now, isn't it, Baas? No, Baas, it is no use looking at that river, for you see these Walloos are so 肉親,親類d that they have already 供給するd you with a 長,指導者's 護衛する."
I looked. It was true enough. In place of the one man who had guided us to the house there were now twenty 広大な/多数の/重要な fellows 武装した with spears who saluted me in a most reverential manner and 主張するd upon sticking の近くに to my heels, I 推定する in 事例/患者 I should try to take to them. So 支援する we went, the guard of twenty marching in a soldierlike fashion すぐに behind, while Hans declaimed at me:
"It is just what I 推定する/予想するd, Baas, for of course if a man is very fond of women, in his inside, Baas, they know it and like him—no need to tell them in so many words, Baas—and 存在 肉親,親類d-hearted, are やめる ready to be fond of him. That is what has happened here, Baas. From the moment that the lady Sabeela saw you, she didn't care a pinch of 消す for Issicore, although he was so good-looking and had walked such a long way to help her. No, Baas, she perceived something in you which she couldn't find in two yards and a bit of Issicore, who after all was an empty 肉親,親類d of 派手に宣伝する, Baas, and only made a noise when you 攻撃する,衝突する him—a little noise for a small tap, Baas, and a big noise for a bang. Moreover, whatever he was, he is done now, so it is no use wasting time talking about him.
"井戸/弁護士席, this won't be such a bad country to live in now that the most of those Heuheua are dead—look! there are some of their 団体/死体s lying on the shore—and no 疑問 the beer can be brewed stronger, and there is タバコ. So it will be all 権利 till we get tired of it, Baas, after which, perhaps, we shall be able to run away. Still, I am glad 非,不,無 of them wish to marry me, Baas, and make me work like a whole team of oxen to drag them out of their mudholes."
Thus he went on 注ぐing out his bosh by the yard, and literally I was so 鎮圧するd that I couldn't find a word in answer. Truly, it is the 予期しない that always happens. During the last few days I had foreseen many dangers and dealt with some. But this was one of which I had never dreamed. What a 運命/宿命! To be kept a 囚人 in a 肉親,親類d of gilded cage and made to 労働 for my living too, like a 成し遂げるing monkey. 井戸/弁護士席, I would find a way between the 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業s or my 指名する wasn't Allan Quatermain. Only what way? At the time I could see 非,不,無, for those 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業s seemed to be 厚い and strong. Moreover, there were those gentlemen with the spears behind.
In 予定 course we arrived at the Walloo's house without 出来事/事件 and went straight to our room where, after 調査 in a corner, Hans called out:
"Issicore was やめる 権利, Baas. All the cartridges have gone and the ライフル銃/探して盗むs also. Now we have only got our ピストルs and twenty-four 一連の会議、交渉/完成するs of 弾薬/武器 between us."
I looked. It was so! Then I 星/主役にするd out of the window-place, and behold! there in the garden were the twenty men already engaged in 場内取引員/株価 out ground for the erection of a guard-hut.
"They mean to settle there, so as to be nice and handy in 事例/患者 the Baas wants them—or they want the Baas," said Hans 意味ありげに, 追加するing, "I believe that wherever he goes the Walloo always has an 護衛する of twenty men!"
Now for the next few days I saw nothing of Sabeela, or of Dramana either, since they were engaged in the ceremonious obsequies, first of the Walloo and next of the unlucky Issicore, to which for some 宗教的な 推論する/理由 or other, I was not 招待するd.
確かな headmen or Indunas, however, were always waiting to pounce on me. Whenever I put my nose out-of-doors they appeared, 屈服するing 謙虚に, and proceeded to take the occasion to 教える me in the history and customs of the Walloo people, till I thought that my boyhood had returned and I was once more reading "Sandford and Merton" and acquiring knowledge through the art of conversation. Those old gentlemen bored me stiff. I tried to get rid of them by taking long walks at a 広大な/多数の/重要な pace, but they 答える/応じるd nobly, 存在 ready to trot by my 味方する till they dropped, talking, talking, talking. Moreover, if I could outwalk those 古代の 議員s, the guard of twenty who formed a 肉親,親類d of chorus on these 探検隊/遠征隊s, were excellent 手渡すs with their 脚s, as an Irishman might say, and never turned a hair. いつかs they turned me, however, if they thought I was going where I should not, since then half of them would dart ahead and politely 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業 the way.
At length, on the third or fourth day, all the 儀式s were finished and I was 召喚するd into Sabeela's presence.
As Hans said afterwards, it was all very 罰金. Indeed, I thought it pathetic with its somewhat tawdry 条件s of 古代の, almost forgotten 儀式の 相続するd from a 高度に civilized race that was now 沈むing into 野蛮/未開. There was the Lady Sabeela, very beautiful to see, for she was a lovely woman and grandly dressed in a half-wild fashion, who played the part of a queen and not without dignity, as perhaps her ancestresses had done thousands of years before on some greater 行う/開催する/段階. Here too were her white-haired attendants or Indunas, the same who bored me out walking, 代表するing the 議員s and high 公式の/役人s of forgotten ages.
Yet the Queen was no longer a queen; she was 合併するing into the savage chieftainess, as the 議員s were into the chattering 暴徒 that surrounds such a person in a thousand kraals or towns of Africa. The 訴訟/進行s, too, were very long, for each of these 議員s or 年上のs made a speech in which he repeated all that the others had said before, narrating with variations everything that happened in the land since I had 始める,決める foot within it, together with fancy accounts of what Hans and I had done upon the island.
From these speeches, however, I learned one thing, すなわち, that most of the wild Hairy Folk, who were 指名するd Heuheua, had 死なせる/死ぬd in the 広大な/多数の/重要な 大災害 of the blowing up of the mountain, only a few, together with the old men, the children and the 女性(の)s, 存在 left to carry on the race. Therefore, they said, the Walloos were 安全な from attack, at any 率, for a couple of 世代s to come, as might be learned from the wailings which arose in the forest at night—that, as a 事柄 of fact, I had heard myself—pathetic and horrible sounds of almost animal grief. This, said these merciless 下落するs, gave the Walloos a 広大な/多数の/重要な 適切な時期, for now was the time to 追跡(する) 負かす/撃墜する and kill the 支持を得ようと努めるd-folk to the last woman and child—a 仕事 which they considered I was eminently fitted to carry out!
When they had all spoken, Sabeela's turn (機の)カム. She rose from her 王位-like 議長,司会を務める and 演説(する)/住所d us with real eloquence. First of all she pointed out that she was a woman 苦しむing from a 二塁打 grief—the death of her father and that of the man to whom she had been affianced, losses that made her heart 激しい. Then, very touchingly, she thanked Hans and myself for all we had done to save her. But for us, she said, either she would now have been dead or nothing but a degraded slave in the house of Heu-Heu, which we had destroyed together with Heu-Heu himself, with the result that she and the land were 解放する/自由な once more. Next she 発表するd in words which evidently had been 用意が出来ている, that this was no time for her to think of past 悲しみs or love, who now must look to the 未来. For a man like myself there was but one fitting reward, and that was the 支配する over the Walloo people, and with it the gift of her own person.
Therefore, by the wish of her 議員s, she had 法令d that we were to be 結婚する on the fourth morning from that of the 現在の day, after which, by 権利 of marriage, I was 公然と to be 宣言するd the Walloo. 一方/合間, she 召喚するd me to her 味方する (where an empty 議長,司会を務める had been 始める,決める in 準備 for this event) that we might 交流 the kiss of betrothal.
Now, as may be imagined, I hung 支援する; indeed, never have I felt more 堅固に 直す/買収する,八百長をするd to a seat than at that fearsome moment. I did not know what to say, and my tongue seemed glued to the roof of my mouth. So I just sat still with all those old donkeys 星/主役にするing at me, Sabeela watching me out of the corners of her 注目する,もくろむs and waiting. The silence grew painful, and in its 中央 Hans coughed in his husky fashion, then 配達するd himself thus.
"Get up, Baas," he whispered, "and go through with it. It isn't half as bad as it looks, and indeed, some people would like it very much. It is better to kiss a pretty lady than to have your throat 削減(する), Baas, for that is what I think will happen if you don't, because a woman whom you don't kiss, after she has asked you in public, always turns 汚い, Baas."
I felt that there was 軍隊 in this argument, and, to 削減(する) a long story short, I went up into that 議長,司会を務める and did—井戸/弁護士席—all that was 要求するd. Lord! what a fool I felt while those idiots 元気づけるd and Hans below grinned at me like a whole cageful of 粗野な人間s. However, it was but 儀式の, a mere 形式順守, just touching the brow of the fair Sabeela with my lips and receiving an acknowledgment in 肉親,親類d.
After this we sat a while 味方する by 味方する listening to those old Walloo 議員s 詠唱するing a ridiculous song, something about the marriage of a hero to a goddess, which I 推定する they must have composed for the occasion. Under cover of the noise, which was 広大な/多数の/重要な, for they had excellent 肺s, Sabeela spoke to me in a low 発言する/表明する and without turning her 直面する or looking at me.
"Lord," she said, "try to look いっそう少なく unhappy, lest these people should 嫌疑者,容疑者/疑う something and listen to what we are 説. The 法律 is that we should 会合,会う no more till the marriage day, but I must see you alone to-night. Have no 恐れる," she 追加するd with a rather sarcastic smile, "for, although I must be alone, you can bring your companion with you, since what I have to say 関心s you both. 会合,会う me in the passage that runs from this 議会 to your own, at midnight when all sleep. It has no window places and its 塀で囲むs are 厚い, so that there we can be neither seen nor heard. Be careful to bolt the door behind you, as I will that of this 議会. Do you understand?"
Clapping my 手渡すs hilariously to show my delight in the musical 業績/成果, I whispered 支援する that I did.
"Good. When the singing comes to an end, 発表する that you have a request to make of me. Ask that to-morrow you may be given a canoe and paddlers to 列/漕ぐ/騒動 to the island to learn what has happened there and to discover whether any of the 支持を得ようと努めるd-folk are still alive upon its shores. Say that if so 対策 must be taken to make an end of them, lest they should escape. Now speak no more."
At length the song was finished, and with it the 儀式. To show that this was over, Sabeela rose from her 議長,司会を務める and curtseyed to me, whereon I also rose and returned the compliment with my best 屈服する. Thus, then, we bade a public 別れの(言葉,会) of each other until the happy marriage morn. Before we parted, however, I asked as a favour in a loud 発言する/表明する that I might be permitted to visit the island, or, at any 率, to 列/漕ぐ/騒動 一連の会議、交渉/完成する it, giving the 推論する/理由s she had 示唆するd. To this she answered, "Let it be as my Lord wishes," and before any one could raise 反対s, withdrew herself, followed by some serving woman and by Dramana, who I thought did not seem too pleased at the turn events had taken.
I pass on to that midnight interview. At the 任命するd time, or rather a little before it, I went into the passage …を伴ってd by Hans, who was most unwilling to come for 推論する/理由s which he gave in a Dutch proverb to the 影響 of our own; that two's company and three's 非,不,無. Here we stood in the dark and waited. A few minutes later the door at the far end of it opened—it was a very long passage—and walking 負かす/撃墜する it appeared Sabeela, 覆う? in white and 耐えるing in her 手渡す a naked lamp. Somehow in this garb and in these surroundings, thus illumined, she looked more beautiful than I had ever seen her, almost spirit-like indeed. We met, and without any 迎える/歓迎するing she said to me:
"Lord 選挙立会人-by-Night, I find you watching by night (許可,名誉などを)与えるing to my 祈り. It may have seemed a strange 祈り to you, but hearken to its 推論する/理由. I cannot think that you believe me to 願望(する) this marriage, which I know to be hateful to you, seeing that I am of another race to yourself and that you only look upon me as a half-savage woman whom it has been your fortune to save from shame or death. Nay, 否定する me not, I beseech you, since at times the truth is good. Because it is so good I will 追加する to it, telling you the 推論する/理由 why I also do not 願望(する) this marriage, or rather the greatest 推論する/理由; すなわち, that I loved Issicore, who from childhood had been my playmate until he became more than playmate."
"Yes," I interrupted, "and I know that he loved you. Only then why was it that on his deathbed he himself 勧めるd on this 事柄?"
"Because, Lord, Issicore had a noble heart. He thought you the greatest man whom he had ever known, half a god indeed, for he told me so. He held also that you would make me happy and 支配する this country 井戸/弁護士席, 解除するing it up again out of its long sleep. Lastly, he knew that if you did not marry me, you and your companion would be 殺人d. If he 裁判官d wrongly in these 事柄s, it must be remembered, moreover, that his mind was blotted with the 毒(薬) that had been given to him, for myself I am sure that he did not die of 恐れる alone."
"I understand. All honour be to him," I said.
"I thank you. Now, Lord, know that, although I am ignorant I believe that we live again beyond the gate of Death. Perhaps that 約束 has come 負かす/撃墜する to me from my forefathers when they worshipped other gods besides the devil Heu-Heu; at least, it is 地雷. My hope is, therefore, that when I have passed that gate, which perhaps will be before so very long, on its さらに先に 味方する I shall once more find Issicore—Issicore as he was before the 悪口を言う/悪態 of Heu-Heu fell upon him and he drank the 毒(薬) of the priests—and for this 推論する/理由 I 願望(する) to 結婚する no other man."
"All honour be to you also," I murmured.
"Again, I thank you, Lord. Now let us turn to other 事柄s. To-morrow after midday a canoe will be ready, and in it you will find your 武器s that have been stolen and all that is yours. It will be 乗組員を乗せた by four rowers; men known to be 秘かに調査するs of the priests of Heu-Heu, 駅/配置するd here upon the 本土/大陸 to watch the Walloos, who in time would themselves have become priests. Therefore, now that Heu-Heu has fallen they are doomed to die, not at once but after a while, perhaps, as it will seem, by sickness or 事故, because if they live, the Walloo 議員s 恐れる lest they should re-設立する the 支配する of Heu-Heu. They know this 井戸/弁護士席, and therefore they 願望(する) above all things to escape the land while their life is yet in them."
"Have you seen these men, Sabeela?"
"Nay, but Dramana has seen them. Now, Lord, I will tell you something, if you have not guessed it for yourself, though I do this not without shame. Dramana does not 願望(する) our marriage, Lord. You saved Dramana 同様に as myself, and Dramana, like Issicore, has come to look on you as half a god. Need I say more, save that, of course, for this 推論する/理由 she does 願望(する) your escape, since she would rather that you went 解放する/自由な and were lost to both of us than that you should 企て,努力,提案 here and marry me. Have I said enough?"
"Plenty," I answered, knowing that she spoke truth.
"Then what is there to 追加する, save that I 信用 all will go 井戸/弁護士席, and that by the 夜明け of the day that follows this, you and the yellow man, your servant, will be 安全に out of this accursed land. If that comes about, as I believe it will, for after the dusk has fallen and before the moon rises those who guide the canoe will bring it, not to the quay, but into the mouth of the river 負かす/撃墜する which you must paddle by the moonlight; then I pray of you at times in your own country to think of Sabeela, the broken-hearted chieftainess of a doomed people, as day by day, when she rises and lays herself 負かす/撃墜する to sleep, she will think of you who saved her and all of us from 廃虚. My Lord, 別れの(言葉,会), and to you, Light-in-不明瞭, also 別れの(言葉,会)."
Then she took my 手渡す, kissed it, and, without another word, glided away as she had come.
This was the last that ever I saw or heard of Sabeela the Beautiful. I wonder whether she lived long. Somehow I do not think so; that night I seemed to see death in her 注目する,もくろむs.
THE RACE FOR LIFE
Now, like a Scotch parson, I have come to "lastly"—that 奮起させるing word at which the sleepiest congregation awakes. The morning に引き続いて this strange midnight 会合, Hans and I spent in our room, for it appeared to be the 古代の Walloo etiquette that, save by special 許可, the 見込みのある bridegroom should not go out for several days before the marriage, I suppose because of some 原始の idea that his affections might be コースを変えるd by the sight of 外国人 beauty.
At midday we ate, or, so far as I was 関心d, pretended to eat, for 苦悩 took away my appetite. A little while afterwards, to my 激しい 救済, the captain of our 刑務所,拘置所-warders, for that is what they were, appeared and said that he was 命令(する)d to 行為/行う us to the canoe which was to paddle us to 検査/視察する what remained of the island. I replied that we would graciously 同意 to go. So taking all our small 所有/入手s with us, 含むing a bundle 含む/封じ込めるing our spare 着せる/賦与するs and the twigs from the Tree of Illusions, we 出発/死d and were 護衛するd to the quay by our guards, of whose 直面するs I was heartily tired. Here we 設立する a small canoe を待つing us, 乗組員を乗せた by four secret-直面するd men, strong fellows all of them, who raised their paddles in salute. 明らかに the place had been (疑いを)晴らすd of loiterers, since there was only one other person 現在の, a woman wrapped in a long cloak that hid her 直面する.
As we were about to enter the canoe this woman approached us and 解除するd her 長,率いる. She was Dramana.
"Lord," she said, "I have been sent by my sister, the new Walloo, to tell you that you will find the アイロンをかける tubes which spit out 解雇する/砲火/射撃 and all that belongs to them under a mat in the prow of the canoe. Also she 企て,努力,提案s me wish you a 繁栄する 旅行 to the island that aforetime was 指名するd 宗教上の, which island she wishes never to see again."
I thanked her and bade her 伝える my 迎える/歓迎するing to the Walloo, my bride to be, 追加するing in a loud 発言する/表明する, that I hoped ere long to be able to do this in person when her "隠す fell 負かす/撃墜する."
Then I turned to enter the canoe.
"Lord," said Dramana with a convulsive movement of her 手渡すs, "I make a 祈り to you. It is that you will take me with you to look my last upon that 小島 where I dwelt so long a slave, which I 願望(する) to see once more—now that I am 解放する/自由な."
Instinctively I felt that a 危機 had arisen which 需要・要求するd 会社/堅い and even 残虐な 治療.
"Nay, Dramana," I answered, "it is always unlucky for an escaped slave to revisit his 刑務所,拘置所, lest once more its 妨げる/法廷,弁護士業s should の近くに about that slave."
"Lord," she said, "the loosed 囚人 is いつかs dazed by freedom, so that the heart cries again for its 捕らわれた. Lord, I am a good slave and a loving. Will you not take me with you?"
"Nay, Dramana," I answered as I sprang into the canoe. "This boat is fully 負担d. It would not be for your 福利事業 or for 地雷. 別れの(言葉,会)!"
She gazed at me 真面目に with a pitiful countenance that grew wrathful by degrees, as might 井戸/弁護士席 happen in the 事例/患者 of a woman 軽蔑(する)d: then, muttering something about 存在 "cast off," burst into angry 涙/ほころびs and turned away. For my part I 動議d to the oarsmen to loose the (手先の)技術 and 出発/死d, feeling like a どろぼう and 反逆者. Yet I was not to 非難する, for what else could I do? Dramana, it is true, had been a good friend to us, and I liked her. But we had repaid her help by saving her from Heu-Heu, and for the 残り/休憩(する), one must draw the line somewhere. If once she had entered that canoe, metaphorically speaking, she would never have got out of it again.
Presently we were out on the open lake where the wavelets danced and the sun shone brightly, and glad I was to be (疑いを)晴らす of all those painful 複雑化s and once more in the company of pure and natural things. We paddled away to the island and made the land, or rather drew 近づく to it, at the 位置/汚点/見つけ出す where the 古代の city had stood in which we had 設立する the petrified men and animals. But we did not 始める,決める foot on it, for everywhere little streams of glowing 溶岩 trickled 負かす/撃墜する into the lake and the 廃虚s had 消えるd beneath a sea of ashes. I do not think that any one will ever again behold those strange 遺物s of a past I know not how remote.
Turning, we paddled on slowly 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the island till we (機の)カム to the place where the 激しく揺する of 申し込む/申し出ing had been, upon which I had experienced so terrible an adventure. It had 消えるd, and with it the 洞穴 mouth, the garden of Heu-Heu, its Tree of Illusions, and all the rich cultivated land. The waters of the lake, turbid and steaming, now (警官の)巡回区域,受持ち区域 against the 直面する of a stony hillock which was all that remained of the 宗教上の 小島. The 大災害 was 完全にする; the 火山 was but a lump of 溶岩 from the dying heart of which its life-血 of 炎上 still palpitated in red and ebbing streams. I wonder whether its smothered 解雇する/砲火/射撃s will ever 勃発する again どこかよそで. For aught I know they may have done so already somewhere on the 本土/大陸.
By the time that we had 完全にするd our 旅行 一連の会議、交渉/完成する the place on which no living creature now was left, though once or twice we saw the bloated 団体/死体 of a Heuheua savage bobbing about in the water, the sun was setting, and it was dark before we were again off the town of the Walloos. While any light remained by which we could be seen, we 長,率いるd straight for the 上陸 place, that which we had left when we started for the island.
The moment that its last rays faded, however, there was a whispered 会議/協議会 between our four paddlemen, the ex-neophytes of Heu-Heu. Then the direction of the canoe was altered, and instead of making for the main land, we 列/漕ぐ/騒動d on 平行の with it till we (機の)カム to the mouth of the 黒人/ボイコット River. It was so dark that I could not discern the exact time at which we left the lake and entered the stream; indeed, I did not know that we were in it until the 増加するd 現在の told me so. This 現在の was now running very 堅固に after the 広大な/多数の/重要な flood and bore us along at a good pace. My 恐れる was lest in the gloom we should be dashed against 激しく揺するs on the banks, or caught by the overhanging 支店s of trees or strike a 行き詰まり,妨げる, but those four men seemed to know every yard of the river and managed to keep us in its centre, probably by に引き続いて the 現在の where it ran most 速く.
So we went on, not paddling very 急速な/放蕩な for 恐れる of 事故s, until the moon rose, which, as she was only a few days past her 十分な, gave us かなりの light even in that dark place. So soon as her rays reached us our paddlers gave way with a will, and we 発射 負かす/撃墜する the flooded stream as a 広大な/多数の/重要な 速度(を上げる).
"I think we are all 権利 now, Baas," said Hans, "for with so good a start those Walloos could scarcely catch us, even if they try. We are lucky, too, for you have left behind you two ladies who between them would have torn you into pieces, and I have left a place where the fools who live in it 疲れた/うんざりしたd me so much that I should soon have died."
He paused for a moment, then 追加するd in a horrified 発言する/表明する:
"Allemagter! we are not so lucky after all; we have forgotten something."
"What?" I asked anxiously.
"Why, Baas, those red and white 石/投石するs we (機の)カム to fetch, of which, before Heu-Heu dropped a red-hot 激しく揺する upon his 長,率いる, that old kraansick." (that is, mad) "Walloo, 約束d us as many as we wished. Sabeela would have filled the boat with them if we had only asked her, and we should never have had to work any more, but could have sat in 罰金 houses and drunk the best gin from morning to night."
At these words I felt 前向きに/確かに sick. It was too true. Amongst other 圧力(をかける)ing 事柄s, 関心ing life, death, marriage, and liberty, I had forgotten utterly all about the diamonds and gold. Still when I (機の)カム to think of it, although perhaps Hans might have done so, in 見解(をとる) of the manner of our parting, I did not やめる see how I could have asked Sabeela for them. It would have been an anticlimax and might have left a 汚い taste in her mouth. How could she continue to look upon a man as—井戸/弁護士席, something やめる out of the ordinary, who called her 支援する to remind her that there was a little pecuniary 事柄 to be settled and a 料金 to be paid for services (判決などを)下すd? その上の, the sight of us 耐えるing 解雇(する)s of treasure might have excited 疑惑; unless, indeed, Sabeela had 原因(となる)d them to be placed in the boat as she did in the 事例/患者 of the guns. Also they would have been 激しい and inconvenient to carry, as I explained to Hans. Yet I did feel sick, for once more my hopes of wealth, or, at any 率, of a solid competence for the 残り/休憩(する) of my days, had 消えるd into thin 空気/公表する.
"Life is more than gold," I said sententiously to Hans, "and 広大な/多数の/重要な honour is better than both."
It sounded like something out of the 調書をとる/予約する of Proverbs, but somehow I had not got it やめる 権利 though I 反映するd that fortunately Hans would not know the difference. However, he knew more than I thought, for he answered:
"Yes, Baas, your Reverend Father used to talk like that. Also he said that it was better to live on watercresses with an 平易な mind, however angry they might make your stomach, than to dwell in a big hut with a couple of cross women, which is what would have happened to you, Baas, if you had stopped at Walloo. Besides, we are やめる 安全な now, even if we 港/避難所't got the gold and diamonds, which, as you say, are 激しい things, so 安全な that I think I shall go to sleep, Baas. Allemagter! Baas, what's that?"
"Only those poor hairy women howling over their dead in the forest," I answered rather carelessly, for their cries, which were very 苦しめるing in the silence of the river, still echoed in my ears. Also I was still thinking of the lost diamonds.
"I wish it were, Baas. They might howl till their 長,率いるs fell off for all I care. But it isn't. It's paddles. The Walloos are 追跡(する)ing us, Baas. Listen!"
I did listen, and to my horror heard the 正規の/正選手 一打/打撃 of paddles striking the water at a distance behind us, a 広大な/多数の/重要な number of them, fifty I should say. One of the big canoes must be on our 跡をつける.
"Oh, Baas!" said Hans, "it is your fault again. Without 疑問 that lady Dramana loves you so much that she can't (不足などを)補う her mind to part with you and has ordered out a big canoe to fetch you 支援する. Unless, indeed," he 追加するd with an 接近 of hopefulness, "it is the Lady Sabeela sending a 別れの(言葉,会) gift of jewels after us, having remembered that we should like some to make us think of her afterwards."
"It is those confounded Walloos sending a gift of spears," I answered gloomily, 追加するing, "Get the ライフル銃/探して盗むs ready, Hans, for I'm not going to be taken alive."
Whatever the 原因(となる), it was (疑いを)晴らす that we were 存在 追求するd, and in my heart I did wonder whether Dramana had anything to do with it. No 疑問 I had 扱う/治療するd her rudely because I could not help it, also Dramana had been 不正に trained の中で those rascally priests. But I hoped, and still hope, that she was innocent of this treachery. The truth of the 事柄 I never learned.
Our 乗組員 of escaping priestly 秘かに調査するs had also heard the paddles, for I saw the 脅すd look they gave to each other and the 猛烈な/残忍な energy with which they bent themselves to their work. Good heavens! how they paddled, who knew that their lives hung upon the 問題/発行する. For hour after hour away we flew 負かす/撃墜する that flooded, 急ぐing river, while behind us, 製図/抽選 nearer minute by minute, sounded the (警官の)巡回区域,受持ち区域 of those insistent paddles. Our canoe was swift, but how could we hope to escape from one driven by fifty men when we had but four?
It was just as we passed the place where we had slept on our inward 旅行—for now we had left the forest behind and were between the cliffs, travelling やめる twice as 急速な/放蕩な as we had done up stream—that I caught sight of the 追求するing boat, perhaps half a mile behind us, and saw that it was one of the largest of the Walloo (n)艦隊/(a)素早い. After this, 借りがあるing to the position of the moon, that in this 狭くする place left the surface of the water やめる dark, I saw it no more for several hours. But I heard it 製図/抽選 nearer, ever nearer, like some sure and deadly bloodhound に引き続いて on the spoor of a 逃げるing slave.
Our men began to tire. Hans and I took the paddles of two of them to give the pair a 残り/休憩(する) and time to eat; then for a (一定の)期間 the paddles of the other two, while they did likewise. This, however, 原因(となる)d us to lose way, since we were not 専門家s at the game, though here after the flood the river 急ぐd so 急速な/放蕩な that our 欠如(する) of 技術 made little difference.
At length the daylight (機の)カム and gathered till at last the 微光 of it reached us in our cleft, and by that faint, uncertain light I saw the 追求するing canoe not a hundred yards behind. In its way it was a very weird and impressive spectacle. There were the precipitous, 非常に高い cliffs, between or rather above which appeared a line of blue sky. There was the darksome, flood-filled, 泡,激怒することing river, and there on its surface was our tiny boat propelled by four 疲れた/うんざりした and perspiring men, while behind (機の)カム the 広大な/多数の/重要な war canoe whose presence could just be (悪事,秘密などを)発見するd in a 薄暗い 輪郭(を描く) and by the white of the water where its oarsmen smote it into froth.
"They are coming up 急速な/放蕩な, Baas, and we still have a long way to go. Soon they will catch us, Baas," said Hans.
"Then we must try to stop them for a while," I answered grimly. "Give me the 表明する ライフル銃/探して盗む, Hans, and do you take the Winchester."
Then, lying 負かす/撃墜する in the canoe and 残り/休憩(する)ing the ライフル銃/探して盗むs on its 厳しい, we waited our 適切な時期. Presently we (機の)カム to a place where at some time there had been a cliff-slide, for here the 破片 of it 狭くするd the river, turning it, now that it was so 十分な, into something like a 激流. At this 位置/汚点/見つけ出す, also, because of the enlargement of the cleft, more light reached us, so that we could see our pursuers, who were about fifty yards away, not 明確に indeed, but 井戸/弁護士席 enough for our 目的.
"目的(とする) low and pump it into them, Hans," I said, and next instant 発射する/解雇するd both バーレル/樽s of the 表明する at the 真っ先の rowers.
Hans followed 控訴, but, as the Winchester held five cartridges, went on 解雇する/砲火/射撃ing after I had 中止するd.
The result was instantaneous. Some men sank 負かす/撃墜する, some paddles fell into the water—I could not tell how many—and a 広大な/多数の/重要な cry arose from the smitten or their companions. He who steered or captained the canoe from the prow 明らかに was の中で the 攻撃する,衝突する. She veered 一連の会議、交渉/完成する and for a while was broadside on to the 現在の, exposing her 底(に届く) and 脅すing to turn over. Into this, having 負担d, I sent two 拡大するing 弾丸s, hoping to spring a 漏れる in her, though I was not 確かな if I should 後継する, as the 支持を得ようと努めるd of these canoes is 厚い. I think I did, however, since even when she had got on her course again she (機の)カム more slowly, and I thought that once I saw a man 保釈(金)ing.
On we went, making the most of the advantage that this check gave to us. But by now our men were very tired and their 手渡すs were raw from blisters, so that only the terror of death 軍隊d them to continue paddling. Indeed, at the last our 進歩 grew very slow, and in fact was 予定 more to the 現在の than to our own 成果/努力s. Therefore the に引き続いて canoe, which as was customary in Walloo boats of that size, probably carried spare paddle men, once more 伸び(る)d upon us.
Hereabouts the river 負傷させる between its cliffs so that we only got sight of it from time to time. Whenever we did so I took the Winchester and 解雇する/砲火/射撃d, no 疑問 (打撃,刑罰などを)与えるing some 損失 and checking its 前進する.
At length the winding 中止するd and we reached the last stretch, a (疑いを)晴らす run of a mile or so before the river ended in the 押し寄せる/沼地 that I have 述べるd.
By this time pursuers and 追求するd, both of us, were going but slowly, drifting rather than paddling, since all were exhausted. Whenever I could get a sight I 解雇する/砲火/射撃d away, but still with a sullen 決意 and in utter silence our 加害者s (機の)カム up, till now they were scarcely twenty paces from us, and some of them threw spears, one of which stuck in the 底(に届く) of our canoe, just 行方不明の my foot. At this 位置/汚点/見つけ出す the cliffs drew so 近づく together at the 最高の,を越す that I 中止するd 狙撃, as I could not see to 目的(とする), and, having no cartridges to waste, decided to keep those that remained for the 緊急 of the last attack.
Now we were in the ultimate reach of the river, and now at last we grounded upon the first mudbank of the 押し寄せる/沼地. Those who remained 損なわれない of the に引き続いて Walloos made a final 成果/努力 to 追いつく us; by the strong light that flowed from the open land beyond us I could see their glaring eyeballs and their tongues hanging from their jaws with exhaustion. I yelled an order.
"掴む everything we have and run for it!" I cried, grabbing at my ライフル銃/探して盗む and such other articles as were within reach, 含むing the remaining cartridges.
The others did likewise—I do not think that anything was left in that canoe except the paddles. Then I leapt on to the shore and ran to the 権利, に引き続いて the 辛勝する/優位 of the 押し寄せる/沼地, the 残り/休憩(する) coming after me. Fifty yards or more away I sank 負かす/撃墜する upon a little 山の尾根 from sheer exhaustion and because my cramped 脚s would no longer carry me, and watched to see what would happen. Indeed, I was so worn out that I felt I would rather die where I was than try to 逃げる さらに先に.
We grouped ourselves together, を待つing the 危機, for I thought that surely we should be attacked. But we were not. At the mudbank the 追求するing Walloos 中止するd from their 成果/努力s. For a little while they sat dejectedly in their (手先の)技術 till they had 回復するd breath.
Then for the first time those mute 追跡(する)ing-hounds gave tongue, for they shouted maledictions on us, and 特に on our four paddlers, the neophytes of Heu-Heu, telling these that although to follow them さらに先に was not lawful, they would die, as Issicore died who left the land. One of our men, stung into repartee, 報復するd in words to the 影響 that some of them had died in 試みる/企てるing to keep us in the land, as they would find if they counted their oarsmen.
To this obvious truth the pursuers made no answer, nor did they 知らせる us who sent them on the chase. 安全な・保証するing our small canoe, they laid in it 確かな dead men who had fallen beneath the 弾丸s of Hans and myself, and 出発/死d slowly up stream, 牽引するing it after them. This was the last that I saw of their handsome, fanatical 直面するs and of their confounded country in which I went so 近づく to death, or to becoming a 囚人 for life, that might have been worse.
"Baas," said Hans, lighting his 麻薬を吸う, "that was a 広大な/多数の/重要な 旅行 and one which it will be nice to think about, now that it is over, though I wish that we had killed more of those Walloo men-stealers."
"I don't, Hans; I hated 存在 強いるd to shoot them," I answered; "nor do I wish to think any more of that race for our lives, unless it comes 支援する in a nightmare when I can't help doing so."
"Don't you, Baas? I find such thoughts pleasant when the danger is past and we who might have been dead are alive, and the others who were alive are dead and telling the tale to Heu-Heu."
"Each to his taste; yours isn't 地雷," I muttered.
Hans puffed at his 麻薬を吸う for a while, and went on:
"It's funny, Baas, that those carles did not get out of their canoe and come to kill us with their spears. I suppose they were afraid of the ライフル銃/探して盗むs."
"No, Hans," I answered, "they are 勇敢に立ち向かう men who would not have stopped because of the 弾丸s. They were afraid of more than these: they 恐れるd the 悪口を言う/悪態 which says that those who leave their land will die and go to hell. Heu-Heu has done us a good turn there, Hans."
"Yes, Baas, no 疑問 he has become a Christian in the Place of 解雇する/砲火/射撃s and is 返すing good for evil, turning the other cheek, Baas. I felt like that myself when I thought those Walloos were going to catch us, but now I feel やめる different. Baas, you remember how your Reverend Father used to say that if you love Heaven, Heaven looks after you and pulls you out of every 肉親,親類d of mudhole. That's why I'm sitting here smoking, Baas, instead of making meat for crocodiles. If it wasn't for our forgetting about those jewels, it has looked after us very 井戸/弁護士席, but there are so many up there that perhaps Heaven forgot them also."
"No, Hans," I said, "Heaven remembered that if we had tried to carry 捕らえる、獲得するs of 石/投石するs out of that boat, 同様に as Zikali's 薬/医学 and the 残り/休憩(する), the Walloos would have caught us before we got away. They were やめる の近くに, Hans."
"Yes, Baas, I see, and that was very nice of Heaven. And now, Baas, I think we had better be moving. Those Walloos might forget about the 悪口を言う/悪態 for a little while and come 支援する to look for us. Heaven is a queer thing, Baas. いつかs it changes its 直面する all of a sudden and grows angry—just like the lady Dramana did when you said that you wouldn't take her with you in the canoe yesterday."
Allan paused to help himself to a little weak whisky and water, then said in his jerky fashion:
"井戸/弁護士席, that's the end of the story, of which I am glad, whatever you may be, for my throat is 乾燥した,日照りの with talking. We got 支援する to the wagon all 権利 after sundry difficulties and a tiring march across the 砂漠, and it was time we did so, for when we arrived we had only three ライフル銃/探して盗む cartridges left between us. You see we were 強いるd to 解雇する/砲火/射撃 such a lot at the Heuheua, when they attacked us on the lake, and afterwards at those Walloos to 妨げる them from catching us that night. However, there were more in the wagon, and I 発射 four elephants with them going home. They had very large tusks, which afterwards I sold for about enough to cover the expenses of the 旅行."
"Did old Zikali make you 支払う/賃金 for those oxen?" I asked.
"No, he did not, because I told him that if he tried it on I would not give him his bundle of mouti that we 削減(する) from the Tree of Illusions and carried 安全に all that way. So as he was very keen on the 薬/医学, he made me a 現在の of the oxen. Also I 設立する my own there grown fat and strong again. It was a curious thing, but the old scoundrel seemed to know most of what had happened to us before ever I told him a word. Perhaps he learned it all from one of those acolytes of Heu-Heu who fled with us because they 恐れるd that they would be 殺人d if they stayed in their own land. I forgot to tell you that these men—most uncommunicative persons—melted away upon our homeward 旅行. Suddenly they were 行方不明の. I 推定する that they 出発/死d to 始める,決める up as witch doctors on their own account. If so, very かもしれない one or more of them may have come into touch with Zikali, the 長,率いる of the (手先の)技術 in that part of Africa, and before I reached the 黒人/ボイコット Kloof.
"The first thing he asked me was: 'Why did you not bring any gold and diamonds away with you? Had you done so, you might have become rich who now remain poor, Macumazahn.'
"'Because I forgot to ask for them,' I said.
"'Yes, I know you forgot to ask for them. You were thinking so much of the 苦痛 of 説 goodbye to that beautiful lady whose 指名する I have not learned that you forgot to ask for them. It is just like you, Macumazahn. Oho! Oho! it is just like you.'
"Then he 星/主役にするd at his 解雇する/砲火/射撃 for a while, in 前線, of which, as usual, he was sitting, and 追加するd: 'Yet somehow I think that diamonds will make you rich one day, when there is no woman left to say good-bye to, Macumazahn.'
"It was a good 発射 of his, for, as you fellows know, that (機の)カム about at King Solomon's 地雷s, didn't it? when there was 'no woman left to say good-bye to.'"
Here Good turned his 長,率いる away, and Allen went on hurriedly, I think because he remembered Foulata, and saw that his thoughtless 発言/述べる had given 苦痛.
"Zikali was very 利益/興味d in all our story and made me stop at the 黒人/ボイコット Kloof for some days to tell him every 詳細(に述べる).
"'I knew that Heu-Heu was an idol,' he said, 'though I 手配中の,お尋ね者 you to find it out for yourself, and therefore told you nothing about it, just as I knew that handsome man, Issicore, would die. But I didn't tell him anything about that either, because, if I had, you see he might have died before he had shown you the way to his country, and then I shouldn't have got my mouti, which is necessary to me, for without it how should I paint more pictures on my 解雇する/砲火/射撃? 井戸/弁護士席, you brought me a good bundle of leaves which will last my time, and as the Tree of Illusions is 燃やすd and there is no other left in the world, there will be no more of it. I am glad that it is 燃やすd, for I do not wish that any wizard should arise in the land who will be as 広大な/多数の/重要な as was Zikali, Opener-of-Roads. While that tree grew the high priest of Heu-Heu was almost as 広大な/多数の/重要な, but now he is dead and his tree is 燃やすd, and I, Zikali, 統治する alone. That is what I 願望(する)d, Macumazahn, and that is why I sent you to Heuheua Land.'
"'You cunning old villain!' I exclaimed.
"'Yes, Macumazahn, I am cunning just as you are simple, and my heart is 黒人/ボイコット like my 肌, just as yours is white like your 肌. That is why I am 広大な/多数の/重要な, Macumazahn, and (権力などを)行使する 力/強力にする over thousands and 遂行する my 願望(する)s, 反して you are small and have no 力/強力にする and will die with all your 願望(する)s unaccomplished. Yet, in the end, who knows, who knows? Perhaps in the land beyond it may be さもなければ. Heu-Heu was 広大な/多数の/重要な also and where is Heu-Heu to-day?'
"'There never was a Heu-Heu,' I said.
"'No, Macumazahn, there never was a Heu-Heu, but there were priests of Heu-Heu. Is it not so with many of the gods men 始める,決める up? They are not and never were, but their priests are and shake the spear of 力/強力にする and pierce the hearts of men with terrors. What, then, does it 事柄 about the gods whom no man sees, when the priest is there shaking the spear of 力/強力にする and piercing the hearts of their worshippers? The god is the priest or the priest is the god—have it which way you like, Macumazahn.'
"'Not always, Zikali.' Then, as I did not wish to enter into argument with him on such a 支配する, I asked, 'Who carved the statue of Heu-Heu in the 洞穴 of Illusions? The Walloos did not know.'
"'Nor do I, Macumazahn,' he answered. 'The world is very old and there have been peoples in it of whom we have heard nothing, or so my Spirit tells me. Without 疑問 one of those peoples carved it thousands of years ago, an 侵略するing people, the last of their race, who had been driven out どこかよそで and coming south, those who were left of them, hid themselves away from their enemies in this secret place まっただ中に a horde of savages so hideous that it was 報告(する)/憶測d to be haunted by demons. There, in a 洞穴 in the 中央 of a lake where they could not be come at, they carved an image of their god, or perhaps of the god of the savages, whom it seems that it 似ているd.
"'Mayhap the savages took their 指名する from Heu-Heu, or mayhap Heu-Heu took his 指名する from them. Who can tell? At any 率, when men 捜し出す a god, Macumazahn, they make one like themselves, only larger, uglier, and more evil, at least in this land, for what they do どこかよそで I know not. Also, often they say that this god was once their king, since at the 底(に届く) all worship their ancestors who gave them life, if they worship anything at all, and often, too, because they gave them life, they think that they must have been devils. 広大な/多数の/重要な ancestors were the first gods, Macumazahn, and if they had not been evil they would never have been 広大な/多数の/重要な. Look at Chaka, the Lion of the Zulus. He is called 広大な/多数の/重要な because he was so wicked and cruel, and so it was and is with others if they 後継する, though, if they fail, men speak さもなければ of them.'
"'That is not a pretty 約束, Zikali,' I said.
"'No, Macumazahn, but then little in the world is pretty, except the world itself. The Heuheua are not pretty, or rather were not, for I think that you killed most of them when you blew up the mountain, which is a good thing. Heu-Heu was not pretty, nor were his priests. Only the Walloos, and 特に their women, remain pretty because of the old 血 that runs in them, the high old 血 that Heu-Heu sucked from their veins.'
"'井戸/弁護士席, Heu-Heu has gone, Zikali, and now what will become of the Walloos?'
"'I cannot say, Macumazahn, but I 推定する/予想する they will follow Heu-Heu, who has taken 持つ/拘留する of their souls and will drag them after him. If so, it does not 事柄, since they are but the rotting stump of a tree that once was tall and fair. The dust of Time hides many such stumps, Macumazahn. But what of that? Other 罰金 trees are growing which also will become stumps in their season, and so on for ever."
"Thus Zikali held 前へ/外へ, though of what he said I forget much. I daresay that he spoke truth, but I remember that his melancholy and 悲観的な talk depressed me, and that I 削減(する) it as short as I could. Also it did not really explain anything, since he could not tell me who the Walloos or the Hairy Folk were, or why they worshipped Heu-Heu, or what was their beginning, or what would be their end.
"All these things remained and remain lost in mystery, since I have never heard anything more of them, and if any その後の travellers have visited the 地区 where they live, which is not probable, they did not 後継する in 上がるing the river, or if they did, they never descended it again. So if you want to know more of the story, you must go and find it out for yourselves. Only, as I think I said, I won't go with you."
"井戸/弁護士席," said Captain Good, "it is a wonderful yarn. Hang me, if I could have told it better myself!"
"No, Good," answered Allan, as he lit a 手渡す candle, "I am やめる sure that you could not, because, you see, facts are one thing and what you call 'yarns' are another. Good-night to you all, good-night."
Then he went off to bed.
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