Page:Once a Week Volume 8.djvu/101

. 17, 1863.] seemed to feel a power within them to become accustomed to it, and to dilate their pupils sufficiently to magnify the few attenuated rays which had floated into and lost themselves in that leafy-roofed dungeon until they should be made to illuminate its depths and unfold its secrets.

The pause which my guide now made was longer that the first one, but to me it was not so painful. The oppression was necessarily great, but my nerves were strung more perfectly to endure it, and my expectation was higher, more assured, and calm.

The Fan looked round to see where I was. The movement gave me pleasure, because I was then certain that my progress was so completely noiseless that even the quick ear of my savage friend had failed to detect the crushing of a withered stick or leaf beneath me. As the black turned his face to me his eyes were the only features that were distinctly visible. They appeared to be lighted up by a lurid fire within them, and when his head was sufficiently brought round to look upon me fully, his eyes glared brightly and fiercely as those of a royal Bengal tiger. Mine must have looked similarly upon him, for he made a gesture of surprise with hand and countenance, then grinned, showing his brilliant white teeth from ear to ear, and formed an O with his mouth, which I interpreted as an intimation that a gorilla, if not a whole family of those delicate monsters, was within view, and bringing forward his rifle so as to see that the cap was right, he resumed his cautious advance. Turning a little to the left he made room for me to draw up alongside of him, and I then discovered that we had reached the inner edge of the brushwood, and that a clear space, forming a small amphitheatre in the forest, was before us. An enormous tree which seemed to have overshadowed and destroyed every plant and shrub within its range, occupied the centre, and formed the dense canopy of this open. A slight gesture from the black hunter directed my attention to the foot of the giant of the woods, but he at the same time placed one hand above his eyes, thereby intimating to me that I must shade mine before looking, lest the glare of them in the darkness should attract the attention of our game. Laying myself along my double-barreled rifle, I shaded my eyes with both my hands and looked towards the great tree. Sitting on the ground, cross-legged, with his back against the trunk, his hands lying carelessly at his sides with the palms turned up, and his head sunk down between his shoulders in a dozing, if not sleeping state, was a huge male gorilla. His profile was towards us. At the opposite side of the amphitheatre, the tree sometimes concealing them from our view, were a female and a young male feeding, and gathering some kind of nuts which the female occasionally carried and threw on the ground close to her dozing lord and master. I watched their proceedings for some time with intense interest. At length the Fan made a sign of interrogation, which recalled me to a sense of our position. We were too far from our dangerous game to risk a shot at him, which, if it only wounded without killing, would bring not only himself but possibly his wife and young hopeful upon us before we could draw another trigger. If we startled him only, without hitting him, he might plunge into the jungle and escape. We could not lie there all day looking at him without doing anything, and we dare not attempt to hold council with one another, as the lowest whisper would reach either the sleeping or the waking members of the family.

A few moments of irresolution terminated in my laying my rifle and taking a long and steady aim at the side of paterfamilias. It was difficult to cover my object, for a flickering exhalation was rising from the entire surface of the earth, through which the gorilla seemed to be in perpetual motion, in and out of the sight of my rifle, up and down, flashing and waving, rising and falling, until I lost all confidence in my power of taking aim so near the ground, and, being a crack shot under ordinary circumstances, I had just resolved to risk everything by standing up and taking an open shot at him from the shoulder, when a turn was given to my thoughts (and I must confess I got rather a turn myself) by the sudden appearance of a new sportsman in the form of a black python, some thirty feet in length, which was coiled round a small tree close to me, but which my rapt attention to my game had prevented me from observing previously. The python had unwound a few coils, and having thus freed about ten or twelve feet of his body to enable him to examine me and my proceedings more closely, he was hanging within a yard of my face, his long, black, forked tongue darting from his mouth, waving and retiring again with the rapidity of lightning, and his glittering eyes glancing from me to the rifle as though he wondered what sort of an animal it was, and whether it might prove to be a more dainty morsel than I myself might be. I had a Persian scimitar as keen as a razor in my hunting belt. The snake in his wavings to and fro brought his neck at times within a foot of my shoulder. I slid my right hand down to feel for the handle of my sword, keeping my eyes fixed upon the python. I grasped and was drawing the weapon, wondering whether the snake or I would strike first, when both of us were startled by a terrific shriek, or rather a series of shrieks, as if a strong rough woman were rending the air in mingled rage and pain.

The python vanished as my sword flew out.

The shrieks were uttered by the female gorilla, who had gone some distance into the wood whilst I was engaged, first with trying to aim at the male, and afterwards with watching the terrible reptile. She had either disturbed a lion who was sleeping away the effects of a hearty supper, or had met him on his way to the cool depths of the forest, and had nearly afforded him a morning repast. She sprang into the nearest tree, uttering at the same time those startling human cries which had frightened away the python and nearly unnerved me. As to my guide, he had not seen my danger, and he was still watching the male gorilla, patiently awaiting my decision and expecting every instant the report of my rifle. The shrieks had startled him a little, not so much however as they had affected me; for he had heard the like before, and he knew they would be uttered the moment that either a shot should be fired or the