Читать книгу Caesar & Hussein - Patrick O’Brian - Страница 21

Looking up I saw him standing about twenty yards away, looking at me steadily.

I thought: ‘Why should I give up my kill to this man?’ Then a remembrance of all his past kindness made me hesitate to disobey; but a smell of warm blood was wafted up from the antelope and almost killed my better feeling.

Then the habit of implicit obedience which I had formed came uppermost, and I picked up the animal and going to him laid it at his feet. He did not do much; he just said ‘Good, Cæsar,’ and patted me on the head, but I felt amply repaid for my sacrifice.

After this he picked up the antelope and went back to the horse which had been tied to a tree. Having slung it on to the horse’s back, he mounted, and we went back to the house. When he had put the horse back into its stable we went back to my cage, and my master gave me a large piece of the antelope’s shoulder, and I remembered that I always used to begin my meal at the shoulder of my prey instead of at the haunch, as I had seen some animals doing.

After I had eaten every scrap I paced up and down my cage pondering over the curious chain of events which had made up my life so far, and I wondered why I did not escape when I had the chance. In a way I was glad that I had not, but on the other hand I thought how pleasant it would be if I were back again in my old cave where I was born and going wherever I wished and feeding at my own time. But on reflection I thought it would be even better if my master were with me.

My thoughts occupied me until nightfall, when my tail was suddenly seized by the ape, who had thrust his hand through the bars of both his cage and mine and got a grip on my tail when I turned during my walking up and down. I tried to jerk it away, but the ape had a firm hold, so I whisked round and before he could withdraw, my teeth had sunk to the bone in his arm.

Pandemonium ensued, and the ape raced round and round his cage chattering and shrieking. After about ten minutes he burrowed into a large box of straw at the back of his cage, from which he did not emerge for a whole day, but gave out dismal howls and moans which interrupted my sleep somewhat.

In a few days’ time he was moved up the row away from me, and a cage with a little mongoose, who took no notice of me, was put in his place.

In about a week’s time my master took me out again. This time, however, we met a native who fled towards the village. I set off after him with a roar, but the combined strength of my master and the horse pulled me up. My master appeared very angry, and I sulked for a short while, but I soon recovered my spirits, observing to myself that one man did not matter, and anyway he would not have tasted nice. I suppose my master felt bound to protect his own kind, but at the time it seemed rather unreasonable to me.

We went on and on, past the place where I killed the antelope and about ten miles south-east until we came to a place which my master and the horse seemed to know. Here we stopped, and as we were all a little fatigued we had a short rest.

Then my master took the horse to a small hut which was hidden among some trees and shut him in. I suppose this was as a protection against wild animals; then he led me by my chain and we went down to a small pool, where I saw some fairly fresh pig-marks. Here my master looked round for some time and at last found some of the more obvious tracks, and I wished that I could have communicated with him in some way to make him understand the bent pieces of grass, a little splash of mud on a stone and, above all, the faint smell of pig in the air, so that he could translate all the signs that pointed to the fact that pigs had been there a little while ago.

But it was no good. All my growls and scratchings he mistook for signs of pleasure, so soon I gave it up.

When he had found several footprints my master took me to them and, selecting a very large one, said: ‘Fetch him, Cæsar!’ I felt a slight sinking of the heart as I saw that it was that of a remarkably large boar, probably the chief of the sounder. But nevertheless I followed the trail along a stretch of very difficult country, all stony with only a sprinkling of grass here and there.

My master followed, still holding the chain, but soon he took it off. He made such a noise in walking and he smelt so strongly that I was afraid we would never get near enough to catch any of them.

However, things turned out better than I had hoped, for after not more than ten minutes of stony ground we reached a lot of long green grass which held the scent, and I could see that the grass had been crushed in places.

Now I went very slowly, for as the scent was very fresh here I felt that we might come on them suddenly. We crept on through the grass, my master crawling with his hands like a rational beast, and we soon found the pigs in a grove of bamboo, eating the tender shoots.

The great boar was feeding with the rest, and as the sentinel pig had not seen us, I hoped to be able to dash in and kill the boar in the confusion.

Then my master sneezed, and in an instant the fat sows and the tender sucking pigs were in full flight. Only the boar stayed to block my path, to let the others escape. He did not think that I was after him, for who would prefer a tough boar to a fat and tender sow?

However, I charged in directly and got my shoulder laid open for my folly, and remembering the tiger whom I had seen killed before, I contented myself with circling round and looking for an opening. I rather wished that my master had had better eyes when he picked out this pig’s footprints, but for all that it promised to be a grand fight.

Suddenly I saw an opening as the boar had turned a little too slowly, and I darted in, rolling him over and tearing his flank in my endeavour to pin him down. But in a flash he had whipped round his head and with his tusk had cut into the pad of my right forepaw. Then as I released my hold he rolled over and got on his feet again, aiming a wicked thrust at my unprotected stomach.

With a roar I sprang out of range, and as he was carried on a little way by the impetuosity of his thrust, I leaped in and gave him a blow which smashed his skull in, and he fell kicking feebly. But he was dead almost as soon as he touched the ground.

I am glad that I was able to finish him when I did, for as I was lamed by the cut in my paw I could not have lasted very much longer.

As soon as the boar fell my master came from his hiding-place and walked towards the boar, saying, ‘Leave it, Cæsar — good boy.’

This time I did not hesitate, and left it at once, and went over to him, looking up for approval.

On seeing my blood he knelt down on the grass and took up my injured paw, talking kindly all the time. The place was bleeding fast and hurting abominably, so he tore a large piece from his clothes and wrapped it round the wound. I tried to walk on the paw, but the pain made me desist. Meanwhile my master was covering the hog with a heap of stones. Evidently he did not mean to carry it with him.

Then he set off towards the hut where we had left the horse, and I walked slowly on three legs, and he tried to help me along, but the march back to the hut was the slowest and most painful that I have ever made.

At last we reached it, just after the sun had set.

A panther was prowling around, attracted no doubt by the scent of the horse, which I could hear snorting angrily. The panther cleared off, however, at our approach. The horse, being down-wind of us, caught our scent, and I heard him whinnying with pleasure.

On reaching the hut my master went in, and after searching round for a little while, he brought out a metal box, from which he took a blue bottle containing some brown fluid, which he poured on to my wound.

It stung horribly. At first I thought that he was playing a trick on me, but the thought was foolish, so I dismissed it from my mind at once. Having done this he bound it up again and reentered the hut and brought out the chain, with which he tied me up to a post, and then he went back to the hut saying, ‘On guard, Cæsar.’