Caesar & Hussein: Two Classic Novels from the Author of MASTER AND COMMANDER. Patrick O’Brian

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СКАЧАТЬ close in round the remnants of my feast.

       Seven

      Some weeks passed quite peacefully after my elephant adventure before anything noteworthy happened. I was living in my cave at the time and feeding to a large extent upon the villagers’ herds.

      They increased their guard, but the men were afraid of me, and most of them ran on seeing me; also, they had no sense of smell, and as they themselves smelt quite strongly I had a great advantage over them.

      But they were able on their part to pick up stones and make them fly in rather a puzzling manner, though the worst of all were the arrows which I often broke off short, and the points remained in me and rankled.

      At last it appeared that the head man of the village became so angry at losing his cattle that he sent for the white men who lived in a small town twenty miles south. He had asked them to kill a tiger, for none of them had seen me for any length of time. So when the beaters and elephants came upon me in a lot of elephant grass they were evidently surprised to find me so large (as I had been growing very fast and was as large as a very big tiger).

      On seeing the elephants I was much alarmed, but seeing there was no possible means of escape I charged the nearest, hoping to take him by surprise.

      I sprang high on to his shoulder, and there I saw the little brown man who had tracked me nearly a month ago. He struck at me with an iron rod, but missed, and I knocked him off the elephant’s back.

      Then I heard a terrific bang, and turning I saw another man in a kind of hut, and in his hands was one of the shiny sticks with which I had been hurt before.

      This man was quite white, rather like a dead man, and behind him was another, pointing his stick at me.

      I sprang at him. I saw the flash and heard the deafening boom again. Then something hit me on the top of my head, and the world seemed to spin round and I heard the trumpeting of the elephant very faintly, and then I remember nothing more.

      When my sense returned I was stretched on the ground, and there was a circle of white men standing around me. One said: ‘A queer sort of tiger, isn’t it?’

      ‘I think it’s a sort of overgrown snow-leopard myself,’ replied the young man who had shot me.

      Then I moved and they were much alarmed. ‘Look out — the thing's only stunned,’ said one.

      ‘Get those bear nets — take it alive,’ rejoined another.

      I half rose — giddy and sick, but a man behind me brought down the heavy end of a stick on my head, and I lost consciousness again in a world of stars.

      When I came round again I was enveloped in yards and yards of stout net tied at the top with a rope. I kicked and bit at the nets, but it was of no use, so I stopped.

      Some men approached me with long poles. I struggled to get at them, but they were not in the least alarmed. And coming nearer they thrust the poles under the net, and each man taking hold of one pole-end they carried me roaring and struggling towards the place where the elephants were standing.

      This caused me considerable alarm, but the elephants, who actually appeared to be obeying the men, took very little notice of me, except one of the little elephants who was trumpeting.

      I was conveyed to a small thing that resembled a box mounted on circular discs which went round, and I afterwards found out it was a cart.

      After a while I lay still, and after that I smelt some bullocks, which the men were driving towards me. Soon the cart began to move, to my surprise, for I saw no legs on it. However, the mystery was soon solved, for I twisted round and saw that the bullocks were dragging it along.

      We soon came to a village, and hundreds of people came out to look at me. They retired hurriedly when I roared.

      Soon they became bolder, and one young man got a long stick and poked me with it, and another threw a stone at me.

      Presently, however, one of the white men came out of a hut and drove them away.

      Then the journey recommenced, and I was jolted over about ten miles before we came to a halt again.

      Night was approaching, and I was beginning to wonder if we would ever stop when one of the men who was leading the bullocks trod on a dust snake and expired on the spot, to my great glee.

      The party stopped, and as night was falling they drew up all the carts in a wide circle, in the centre of which the elephants and bullocks were put, evidently for protection against tigers or panthers, which were very abundant in this region.

      Over my cart they fastened several logs, so that it was impossible for me to get out. However, I tried till morning, flinging myself against the sides and the logs, and I roared myself hoarse, so that the ten men who were posted by the cart appeared somewhat concerned for their own safety.

      Once I cracked a board in the side of the cart and the effect was magical. Men left me in a body, going to the tents and huts which they had erected, and they set up a chattering which would have done credit to the largest band of monkeys.

      Finally they came back with more pieces of wood with which they strengthened the sides of the cart.

      When they had done this they retired still chattering.

      When morning came I was very hot and tired, and when the cart began to move again I felt very bruised and battered, and as we journeyed until midday I was feeling remarkably savage when eventually we stopped in the street of a large village.

      Here the party scattered, and I was driven with the elephants to the house of one of the white men, where many people came out to look at me. Soon the men with the poles reappeared, and after untying the logs they got me out. After carrying me past the house they went into a large courtyard, where they dropped me heavily and banged a huge door.

      This courtyard was paved with stones and it had walls on every side rising twenty feet. One of the walls was also the side of the house, and had holes in it, at all of which were faces of people looking at me.

      I struggled with the nets for quite three-quarters of an hour with no success before I saw the gate open, and the young man whom I had attacked on the back of the elephant came in with a long stick at the end of which was a knife, which he stretched forward and with which after a few moments he managed to cut the ropes, after which he retired hurriedly.

      In about five minutes I disentangled myself. After pacing round and round the enclosure I tried to jump the walls, but it was impossible; so after knocking myself about a good deal I stopped, feeling extremely angry.

      Soon I saw some men at one of the holes and they were holding a small pig which squealed, which they lowered down with a rope, and it ran round and round my enclosure.

      I killed it almost at once, and taking it to a dark corner I consumed it, as I had had no food for two days. After which I snatched a little sleep and then felt calmer.

      I was soon awakened by the chattering of some monkeys on the walls, after which night fell and I dozed off.

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