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leafv branch and only a crude wooden spear.
He was almost upon me, his red rimmed eyes blazing, his white tusks
gleaming. He loomed as large as an elephant to my excited
imagination. He put his head down, another thunderous roar
rumbled from his cavernous chest, and then he charged.
As the basto bore down upon me my only thought was to divert his
attention from Duare until she should be safely out of his reach. It all
happened so quickly that I imagine I had no time to think of my own
almost certain fate.
The brute was so close to me when he started his charge that he
attained no great speed. He came straight toward me with head
lowered, and so mighty and awe inspiring was he that I did not even
consider attempting to stop him with my puny weapons.
Instead, all my thoughts centered upon one objective --to save myself
from being impaled upon those horns.
I grasped them, one with each hand, as the basto struck me, and,
thanks to my unusual strength, I succeeded in breaking the force of
the impact as well as diverting the horns from my vitals.
The instant that he felt my weight the brute ripped upward with his
head in an effort to gore and toss me, and in the latter he succeeded
beyond anything that I might have expected and, I imagine, beyond
what he intended.
With almost the force of an explosion I was hurtled upward to crash
through the foliage and the branches of the tree above, dropping my
weapons as I went. Fortunately my head came in contact with no large
limb, and so I retained consciousness through it all. I also retained
my presence of mind and, clutching frantically, I succeeded in
grasping a branch across which my body had fallen. From there I
dragged myself to the safety of a larger limb.
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r r
My first thought was of Duare. Was she safe? Had she been able to
climb out of danger before the basto disposed of me and was upon
her, or had he reached and gored her?
My fears were almost immediately allayed by the sound of her voice.
"Oh, Carson, Carson! Are you hurt?" she cried. The anguish of her
tones was ample reward for any hurts I might have sustained.
"I think not," I replied; "just shaken up a bit. Are you all right? Where
are you?"
"Here, in the next tree. Oh, I thought he had killed you!"
I was testing out my joints and feeling of myself for possible injuries;
but I discovered nothing more serious than bruises, and scratches,
and of these I had plenty.
As I was examining myself, Duare made her way along interlocking
branches and presently she was at my side. "You're bleeding," she
exclaimed. "You are hurt."
"These are nothing but scratches," I assured her; "only my pride is
hurt."
"You have nothing to be ashamed of; you should be very proud of
what you did. I saw. I glanced behind me as I got to my feet, and I saw
you standing right in the path of that terrible beast so that it would
not reach me."
"Perhaps," I suggested, "I was too terrified to run--just paralyzed by
fears."
She smiled and shook her head. "I know better than that; I know you
too well."
"Any risk would be worth taking if it won your approval."
She was silent for a moment, looking down at the basto. The brute
was pawing the ground and bellowing. Occasionally it would pause
and look up at us.
"We could get away from it by going through the trees," suggested
Duare. "They grow very close together here."
"And abandon my new weapons?" I demanded.
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"He'll probably go away in a few minutes, as soon as he realizes we
are not coming down."
But he didn't go away in a few minutes. He bellowed and pawed and
gored the ground for half an hour, and then he lay down beneath the
tree.
"That fellow's an optimist," I remarked. "He thinks that if he waits
long enough we'll probably come down of our own volition."
Duare laughed. "Maybe he thinks we'll die of old age and fall down."
"That's a joke on him; he doesn't know that we have been inoculated
with the serum of longevity."
"In the meantime, the joke is on us; and I am getting hungry."
"Look, Duare!" I whispered, as I caught sight of something dimly
visible through the tangled undergrowth beyond the basto.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I don't know, but it's something large."
"It is creeping silently through the brush, Carson. Do you suppose it is
something that has caught our scent, some other terrible beast of
prey?"
"Well we are up a tree, I reassured her.
"Yes, and many of these creatures climb trees. I wish you had your
weapons."
"If that basto would look the other way for a minute, I'd go down and
get them."
"No, you mustn't do that--one or the other of them would get you."
"Here it comes now, Duare! Look!"
It's a tharban," she whispered.
Chapter 7 - Bull Against Lion
THE EVIL FACE of the fierce carnivore was protruding from the
underbrush a short distance beyond and behind the basto. The latter
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did not see it, nor did his nostrils catch the scent of the great cat-like
creature.
"It's not looking at us," I said; "it's watching the basto."
"Do you suppose--" commenced Duare, and then her words were
drowned by the most blood-curdling scream I have ever heard.
It came from the savage throat of the tharban at the instant it sprang [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]