Читать книгу Caesar & Hussein - Patrick O’Brian - Страница 18

So far I have only mentioned the pleasant side of my life in captivity, but there was quite another side.

Can you imagine the utter dreariness of the long hours between the times when my master came and fed me and the night? If so, you will be able to understand my intense hatred for all men, except my master and a few others.

Men had taken me from my home, from the jungle with its infinite variety of life and colour, and had put me in a cage with bars and a cold stone floor. A paddock or small plot of withered grass was my jungle and the barred cage was my lair.

For a flowing stream to drink from I had a small stone trough, and instead of the pleasure of tracking, stalking and then killing my prey, I was given at a regular time every day a smelly, stale and bony lump of flesh with no blood in it.

That which I missed most of all was the killing of my own food. It is true that I was always given enough. But what could compensate for the thrill of the charge, and then the last wild gallop before I reached its neck and it fell dead? What could rival the warm blood and juicy meat of which I was particularly fond?

However, on the whole I was not too unhappy, and the ball which had been hung up was a great consolation, and in a few weeks I knew every curl that it would make.

My dislike of the brown man who cleaned the other cages grew in intensity as time wore on.

One day after my master had fed me and cleaned my cage this little hyena of a man came with a long slender stick of bamboo and tormented me with it. In vain I tried to catch it and crush it to pieces, for I could not move with any rapidity in the tiny space I had, and he lashed me again and again with it, laughing all the time. I hated that mocking laugh, which was as if a hyena had got into a man’s body.

At another time he snatched my pig from my cage, having driven me into a corner with a spiked iron rod. As I have said, my master brought me a pig every seven days, and I looked forward to this as they were always very fresh and tender. Besides, I had always been very partial to pig.

At another time he purposely upset my water, so that it ran out of the cage. He always did these things after my master had gone, so as not to be found out. I was always hoping that my master would come back and catch him.

As the months drew into a year I became very attached to my master, who seemed to understand me and I him. He also seemed to know how I felt and behaved accordingly. For instance, if I was feeling poorly he would sit down and stroke me quietly behind the ears and talk to me; or if I was full of spirits we sometimes pretended to fight. It began by my refusing to give up the ball with which we often played, and then he pretended to be very angry and rolled me over on my back; and I roared and snarled as if I would eat him, while he rolled me over and over as if I was a little cub. As for hurting him, I would have perished before doing so.

He taught me to obey him and, among other things, to carry and fetch, and to even leave my food when he told me. I could not understand why he made me do this, but there was a reason.

One day he brought into my cage a steel chain and a collar of thick leather. The leather collar had a leather buckle which fixed it to the chain. He opened it and calling me to him fastened it round my neck, and we went out into the paddock where he fastened the chain to it.

At first I disliked it, but within two weeks I had become quite accustomed to it. He also trained me to stay still and not move until he called me.

One day when he had finished the cleaning of my cage he fastened the chain on as usual, but instead of going out into the paddock, to my great surprise he opened the cage door and led me out. At first I did not like to come, but when he said ‘Come on, Cæsar,’ and tugged the chain, I jumped down to the floor by his side.

How curious it was to feel different ground under one’s feet, for in one year I had grown to know every stone in the floor in my cage and almost every blade of grass in the paddock.

My master led me down the passage between the cages, and out at the entrance and through two rooms, and out into a large enclosure in which there was a large stretch of green, very short-cropped grass. The walls of this paddock were made of brick, and they were about ten feet high. At the foot of each of these walls there was a space in which the earth had been turned up and flowers were growing in orderly rows.

I wondered how they got there, and I came to the conclusion that the ants must have put them there, for the ants are very fond of going about together in lines. Also I had seen when turning over an ant-hill in search of a rat that the ants had several of the small things from which the plants grow stored up.

I did not have much time to wonder, however, before my master said, ‘Here, Cæsar — meet my wife,’ and turning I saw a female who evidently was my master’s mate. I growled at her.

But he stopped me and said, ‘Down, old boy.’

The female was without fear, and put her hand on my head, and at once I felt that she was friendly towards me. My master said, ‘This is your mistress, Cæsar,’ so hereafter I shall call her my mistress. Then my master took the chain from my collar and the ball from his pocket, with which we had a fine game in which they threw it from one to the other and I tried to catch it.

After we had finished my mistress sat down and made a great fuss of me. I saw that my master was pleased so I permitted her to stroke me to her heart’s content. Besides, it saved me the trouble of a wash. Soon he put the chain on me again and we went back to the cage.

After he had gone the native whom I hated came with his bamboo rod. Inserting this through the bars he suddenly hit me on the nose. The blow stung and I roared. This is what he wanted, and, laughing, he struck at me again.

Leaping to the back of the cage I observed that my master had left his hat on the floor. The man had not seen this, however, and continued to torment me, while I hoped against hope that my master would come back for it.

Soon I saw the door open as he entered and, roaring, I hurled myself against the bars to attract his attention. Just then the wretched man gave me a particularly vicious crack.

In a few strides he reached the man, and seizing him by the shoulder, he said in a quiet tone: ‘What is the meaning of this?’

The man said something which I did not catch. My master with great speed drew back his fist and dealt the man a blow on the jaw, knocking him off his feet into a corner. I thought that my master would now kill him, but he let the man lie. Then he came into my cage, and after giving me the cane, which I tore to fragments, and stroking me, he took his hat and left.

Soon after this two natives came and took my tormentor away, who was almost stupefied but had just enough energy to shake his fist at me as he was taken away.

Next day another native cleaned the cages out, but he kept clear of me, to my very great content.