There was a place where broken walls flanked a row of stones which
rose gradually upward, somewhat like a ladder placed halfway between
horizontal and vertical; that is, a man could step on one stone, then
up on the next, then the next, and so on, until he found himself quite
high in the air. The row ended on a flat floor open to the winds of
heaven, some twenty-odd feet from the ground; and here and there
around this flat place irregular rocky projections rose. I had seen
enough of this country by now to know that the projections must once
have been another wall, rising to enclose this flat floor. Why someone,
or something, had gone to so much trouble to make these ancient walls,
I could not imagine. At first I had thought it must have been a truly
gigantic being, to lift the huge stones. Now I had seen so many
inclosures roofed over (as we roof over our platforms with thick fronds
during the brief weeks of the winter) at a height of no more than nine
or ten feet, that I could not believe a giant had made them. Why should
he make a place in which he would have to lie down, never standing? But
on the other hand, that may have been the case. It was hardly the time
for philosophical speculations. I trotted up the stone ramp briskly and
cast my eyes about for a good shooting-nook.
Halfspoor was hot after me. He dropped to all fours and came up the
graduated stones as though he had been using such conveniences all his
life--and it was not truly so different from climbing a rocky hill,
except that this was smoother going. I dashed for a heap of rubble at
one corner. Leaping this, I crouched down as Halfspoor hit the top at
a run. I shot at him and my ill luck was still with me, for again my
shaft glanced off one of his frightful tusks. Surely an evil fog lay
over my eyes that day! He charged in my direction and I had time for
but one more swift arrow, which I had the good sense not to aim at
his head. It buried half its length rather low in his shoulder and he
squalled resentfully. Then I slipped over the edge and dropped to the
ground.
* * * * *
I had calculated the drop well. It was too much for his bulk. He loomed
above me, raging. I put an arrow in his cheek, and he bit down hard
and spat out the head and part of the shaft. I drew a good bead on his
eye but he turned much more quickly than I had anticipated and the
missile whined away in the sky. He headed back for the climbing stones.
I looked about me. There was a broken inclosure nearby in one wall of
which was an entrance like a cave mouth, perhaps seven feet high by two
broad: it seemed as good a place as any to dodge into, and I did. There
I awaited his coming, controlling my breathing as best I could in order
that my next shots would not be so shamefully wasted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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