Stories by English Authors: Africa (Selected by Scribners)
General
Stories by English Authors: Africa (Selected by Scribners)
Africa -- Fiction; Short stories, English
Langley dropped like a stone, in a dead faint; so Whitson dragged him
outside, and, leaving him to recover in the open air, returned to the
cave. He then seized the pick and began digging, unearthing some new
horror at every stroke. A glittering object caught his eye; he picked
this up and found it to be the steel buckle of a woman’s belt. He
glanced toward the cleft in the rock where the lumps of flesh were
hanging, and caught his breath short. Going outside he made another
torch, which he lit; and then he returned and carefully examined the
loosened surface. Another glittering object caught his eye. This, when
examined, proved to be an old silver watch, the appearance of which
seemed familiar. He forced open the case, and saw, roughly scratched
on the inside, the letter D. He now recognised it; he remembered having
once fixed a glass in this very watch for Dollond, about a month before
the latter’s disappearance. Continuing his search Whitson found the iron
heel-plate of a boot, and a small bunch of keys.
Whitson drew his revolver, and picking up the torch went into the
terminal chamber. Four shots, fired in quick succession, reverberated
immediately afterward through the cavern.
Whitson then went outside to Langley, whom he found sitting down near
the fire, looking if possible, more ghastly than before. The presence of
Whitson seemed, however, to act on him as a kind of tonic, and he soon
pulled himself together sufficiently to assist in piling a quantity of
fuel upon the already sinking fire, which soon blazed brightly, lighting
up the mouth of the cavern and the space in front of it. One of the
bodies of the men who had been shot was lying on its side, with the face
toward the fire. Whitson examined the mouth, pushing back the upper
lip with a piece of stick. He found that the shape of the mouth and the
development of the teeth were the same as Ghamba’s. The other bodies
were lying on their faces, so he did not trouble to examine them.
Whitson then told Langley to follow him, and the two walked down the
foot-path toward where they had left Ghamba. Him they found lying
motionless in the position in which he had been left about an hour
previously. They removed the sack and the gag and untied his feet, first
taking the precaution to fasten the belt by one end to his bound hands,
Whitson holding the other. They then signed to him to proceed toward the
cave, and this he silently did, without making any resistance. He looked
calmly at the three dead bodies, but said not a word. Langley held him,
while Whitson again tied his feet together with the belt, and then they
placed him with his back against a rock, facing the fire, which
was still blazing brightly. His lips were drawn back in a ghastly,
mirthless, grin, and the tusks were revealed from point to insertion.
Langley questioned Ghamba, but he would not speak. After several
attempts to force him to answer had been vainly made, Whitson said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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