CHAPTER 3

 a funny thing, but if we had come upon a poisonous snake we would have killed it right away without a thought. Yet coming upon a creature like Gombi, more poisonous than a snake and a lot more criminal, seeing he had invented and made his own poison, we let him live and even took him as a guide—like fools. And next day, listening to his sign talk and making out that if we followed him and struck right through the woods he could lead us to another hunting ground, we followed him.

“First we struck a great acacia belt and then we came on nsambyas and plantains mixed with cottonwood. The big lianas began to swing themselves across the trees and ground lianas to trip us, but the worst was to come, and it came about six hours after we had entered the trees. We struck a long patch where the nipa palms grew, springing like rockets out of the mud, and where you couldn’t take a step without sinking over ankle, then over knee, then to the middle. When you pulled your foot out there was a pound of black mud sticking to it. But Gombi didn’t mind. He knew that place by instinct and piloted us along till he reached firm ground, stretching like a road across the bad places and on we went till we hit the same thing again.

“When we camped that night we had three of those long stretches behind us, crossed by roads that only Gombi knew. That was a nice position, wasn’t it, for a lot of sane men to get themselves into and instead of tying him up and making him lead us back we let him share our meat and listened to more of his sign talk, telling us that a few hours more march would bring us out next day where there were elephants to be found more than he could number.

“Next day when we woke up he was gone—clean gone. Tellemark and I had done sentry duty during the night, not trusting the boys, but we had heard nothing and seen nothing. He must have slipped away like a snake and it came to me, like a blow over the heart, that we were lost men. Instinct told me that this beast, intending to destroy us for some reason of his own, would do his work thoroughly, and I was right. We had a compass with us and after swallowing our food we started still west, guessing that the forest wouldn’t last forever in that direction. But what’s the good of a compass when it only leads you to a bog patch? We hadn’t been half an hour on the march when we hit one just as bad as the ones over which Gombi had piloted us; worse, for we couldn’t find a road across anywhere.

“There was a big fallen tree just there and I sat down on it. I was knocked out for the moment. I sat there pretending to be thinking, but I was thinking about nothing, except that we were done. That was against reason, for it was clear that by searching we might be able to find those three roads again that would lead us back east, and where there’s half a chance no man has a right to give in. But the truth was my imagination had been seized by Gombi. His picture stood before my mind as a thing that was all cunning and evil—that and the picture of ourselves in his toils.

“Then at last I got a clutch on myself and as I came out of the doldrums a big idea struck me, big enough to make me laugh, it seemed so luminous and good.

“‘What’s the matter?’ asked Tellemark.

“‘The nipa palms,’ said I. ‘They only grow in the boggy places and they’ll show us where the firm ground begins.’

“But see here,’ said Tellemark. ‘Those roads weren’t more than twenty feet wide and the palms seemed just as thick there.’

“‘Bother the roads,’ said I. ‘Those long mud stretches don’t run forever north and south. We’ve got to get round them not across them. Let’s strike on till we reach the palms and then strike north for choice till the palms give out.’

“He saw my meaning at once, and we started due east, returning on our tracks.

“We hadn’t gone more than a few hundred yards when suddenly one of the boys looked at his arm—something was sticking from it. It was one of those infernal knitting-needle arrows that had struck him and struck without causing the least pain. It had come from the thick growth to the right and Tellemark and I without stopping to look at the boy plunged right in, chasing here and there, beating the bush and firing our rifles on chance. Not a sign of anything. When we got back the chap was dead.

“It took about twelve seconds for that poison to do its work.