I then had arms and ammunition issued to the Germans, and leaving Bradley and
five men to guard the _U_-33, the balance of us went ashore. The first
thing we did was to taste the water of the little stream—which, to our delight,
we found sweet, pure and cold. This stream was entirely free from dangerous
reptiles, because, as I later discovered, they became immediately dormant when
subjected to a much lower temperature than 70 degrees Fahrenheit. They dislike
cold water and keep as far away from it as possible. There were countless
brook-trout here, and deep holes that invited us to bathe, and along the bank
of the stream were trees bearing a close resemblance to ash and beech and oak,
their characteristics evidently induced by the lower temperature of the air
above the cold water and by the fact that their roots were watered by the water
from the stream rather than from the warm springs which we afterward found in
such abundance elsewhere.
Our first concern was to fill the water tanks of the _U_-33 with fresh
water, and that having been accomplished, we set out to hunt for game and
explore inland for a short distance. Olson, von Schoenvorts, two Englishmen and
two Germans accompanied me, leaving ten to guard the ship and the girl. I had
intended leaving Nobs behind, but he got away and joined me and was so happy
over it that I hadn’t the heart to send him back. We followed the stream upward
through a beautiful country for about five miles, and then came upon its source
in a little boulder-strewn clearing. From among the rocks bubbled fully twenty
ice-cold springs. North of the clearing rose sandstone cliffs to a height of
some fifty to seventy-five feet, with tall trees growing at their base and
almost concealing them from our view. To the west the country was flat and
sparsely wooded, and here it was that we saw our first game—a large red deer.
It was grazing away from us and had not seen us when one of my men called my
attention to it. Motioning for silence and having the rest of the party lie
down, I crept toward the quarry, accompanied only by Whitely. We got within a
hundred yards of the deer when he suddenly raised his antlered head and pricked
up his great ears. We both fired at once and had the satisfaction of seeing the
buck drop; then we ran forward to finish him with our knives. The deer lay in a
small open space close to a clump of acacias, and we had advanced to within
several yards of our kill when we both halted suddenly and simultaneously.
Whitely looked at me, and I looked at Whitely, and then we both looked back in
the direction of the deer.
“Blime!” he said. “Wot is hit, sir?”
“It looks to me, Whitely, like an error,” I said; “some assistant god who had
been creating elephants must have been temporarily transferred to the
lizard-department.”
“Hi wouldn’t s’y that, sir,” said Whitely; “it sounds blasphemous.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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