Читать книгу Caesar & Hussein - Patrick O’Brian - Страница 15

Then the door of the courtyard opened and the brown men with their poles came in. They carried me through into the house along several passages and at length into a great hall down the sides of which many cages with animals were placed, and one of the animals saw me — it was a panther.

He roared and I roared back at him, and then a brown bear joined in, and in a few moments the whole place was in an uproar. But above all I heard the mocking bellow of an alligator.

They carried me to an empty cage and pushed me through the door, untying the net through the bars. I was between a bear on one side and a grey ape on the other, both of which renewed their noise immediately. I was almost too dispirited to answer, but I showed what I thought of them quite plainly.

Soon, however, the noises died down, and retiring to a heap of straw I slept, for I was quite worn out.

On the next morning I awoke with a start, expecting to see the sun as usual coming through the open door of my cave, but there was no light at all in the cold grey room, and I despaired of ever seeing the sun and feeling the cool wind again.

To pass the time I began pacing up and down my cage, up and down with just the same number of steps, and the monotonous regularity of the bars in front of me whichever way I turned appalled me.

My impotence and wretchedness filled me with a mad unreasoning rage, and I tore round and round the cage roaring like a mad beast.

The other occupants of the room were all aroused by the din which I made, and together we created a horrible uproar which, however, soon subsided, and I resumed my pacing up and down.

I noticed that the ape in the cage next to me was climbing up and down a rope and swinging to and fro. I stopped and watched him for a while. First he climbed up the rope, poked his hand out between the bars, and took some straw from a box which was balanced on the top of the cage. Then he came down again and put his handful on a heap which he had already collected. He did this several times until he had gathered enough to make a comfortable bed into which he burrowed, only to come out again in about five minutes and move the whole lot to another corner.

My attention was soon drawn from the ape as a man came in pushing a little cart in front of him, on which were some large pieces of meat.

When the man entered all the animals began to get very excited. They ran up and down and roared and growled. I saw the man take one of the pieces of meat and put it on an iron hook and thrust it into the panther’s cage, then he shook it off. Then he passed down the line of cages, feeding all the animals. He began to get nearer to me, and I saw the bear in an absolute frenzy of anticipation. The man opened a little door in my cage and thrust in a piece of meat.

I hurled myself at the bars trying to get at him. The meat was hardly eatable, it smelt strongly of man and had hardly any blood in it.

The man passed on to the ape and gave him some food, then going back to the end of the hall he opened a little door in the back of the panther’s cage by pulling a little rope in front. The panther went out at the back.

Having done this to nearly all the cages he came to the bear, who went out as if used to it; and soon his cage was clean. The man passed by me and went out at the end of the room, returning shortly with a little cart with bowls of water. When he gave me mine I hurled myself so violently against the bars that I knocked it into his face, and he hurriedly passed on to the ape.

Later the man brought in a great deal more straw, which he put into the cages. I could not see where the animals went, and most of them seemed to have so little spirit that none of them attempted to escape.

Three days passed and precisely the same thing happened. On the second day I ate my meat, which was not really so bad, but in the meanwhile my cage was becoming almost unbearable. On the third day, however, three of the white men came in and looked at all the animals, and when they came to me I recognised the man who had shot me, and I growled and spat at him through the bars. Then they all made a noise somewhat like that of a hyena just before a meal.

One of them called for the man who fed the animals, and they chatted together for some time, at the end of which he went out and soon returned with a little cart.

Then the young man — whom I shall call my master from now on — came up to my cage and made encouraging noises. But I was suspicious and growled unceasingly.

But he moved about in an even sort of way and didn’t jerk about and alarm me. Then he opened the back of the cage and I slipped out and found myself in a pleasant open space about twenty-five feet square, which was completely enclosed by iron bars which prevented escape. It was carpeted by grass and had a large broken tree in the middle. I hadn’t seen the sky for some days and I was remarkably pleased to be in the open with the sun shining on me again. Then in the longer grass at the end of the paddock I saw a very large rat, which I killed at once. It was much nicer than the bloodless meat which the men gave me.

Soon I heard a noise behind me and, turning, I saw the door rise. I was determined not to go back to the smelly cage, so I remained where I was. Soon the direction of the wind changed and I noticed a somewhat familiar scent which was that of an elephant. The scent became stronger, and an elephant with a man on its back came walking along the path in front of the open cages.

I thought of my first elephant, and perceiving that discretion was the better part of valour, I darted through the door, which banged behind me. Once in the cage I roared my defiance at elephants and the world in general. Then I remembered that the elephants were tame and obeyed the men, and this must have been a tame one.

I looked round the cage and saw to my relief that it had been cleaned; some fresh water was in my trough and some straw had been thrown into one corner.

In the front of the cage, just between the bars, was a large piece of meat, and I saw that the bear was straining to get his paws through the bars to get my meat. Thinking that if I didn’t get it at once I shouldn’t get it at all, I took it to the back of the cage. It was very juicy and obviously was fairly fresh. Leaving the bear in a furious rage, with one paw firmly wedged between the bars of his cage, I consumed it slowly.

After eating half of the meat I washed and regained my sleek appearance. Then I lay curled up in the straw till night came, when I was awakened by the sound of footsteps.

I jumped up and saw my master approaching from the entrance; he was carrying a basket in his hands, and I thought that I smelt some animal.

He walked straight down the rows of cages until he came opposite to me, when he stopped and began to advance slowly. I growled.

He advanced to the front of the cage, making soothing noises. I retreated as far as possible feeling very apprehensive, and for a few moments he continued his silly noises. Then he took from the basket the carcase of a jack rabbit and threw it to me.

The sudden movement which he made in throwing it made me start; however, he made no other movement, and I think if I had not just had a large meal I would have taken it, but as it was I left it lying and snarled and spat at him.

Soon he left to my great relief, for my nerves were all on edge. After he had gone I ate the rabbit, which was very nice and did not smell of man as much as the ordinary food.

Then having licked myself all over very thoroughly, I paced up and down my cage for the best part of an hour. Then I lay down in the straw and slept for a while, only to be awakened by a sharp pain in the tail.

Jumping up, I saw that the ape had seized my tail and was pulling it. I jerked it away with a roar.

I mention this as an example of things which I had to put up with.

At length night fell and I slept well.