AS BY MAGIC.
"And it's in the house," observed Evan grimly. "A full-grown beast
will weigh three hundred pounds, and he'd leave plenty of sign when
he walked. There are no tracks leading away from here. Murray and I
looked."
Arthur was ashen as he stared at us. I felt rather shaky myself. The
thought of a creature like that in the same house, with Alicia exposed
to its insane rage at any moment it might choose to emerge from its
hiding place, was appalling.
The two ladies were in the large front room. I went in and remained
with them, my rifle in my hand, while Arthur and Evan went over the
house again. They had the dogs with them, and they went into every room
and every corner, ready at any instant to face what is possibly the
most terrible of all wild beasts at close quarters.
A full-grown gorilla has easily the strength of six or eight men, and
in a confined space firearms would be almost useless. I heard the dogs
pattering all through the house, sniffing eagerly everywhere they were
taken, but finding nothing. Again they seemed excited at the door of
the storeroom, and again they gave up the search after they had entered.
Arthur rejoined me and Alicia with discouragement on every feature.
"He isn't here," he said wearily, "and he is here. He was here and he
wasn't here. I don't know where he is!"
Evan slumped into a chair, though it was noticeable that he kept his
rifle in his hands. Through the window came the menacing rumble of the
drums from all sides.
"I think," said Alicia, with a ghastly attempt at a smile, "I think a
fit of hysterics would be a relief."
She looked as if she meant it. All of us looked thoroughly on edge.
To have hostile drums beating all about you and to realize that a
hundred and fifty miles of jungle lie between you and the nearest help
is bad enough in itself. When you add to that the consciousness of
having hidden in the same house with you a beast almost human in its
cunning and fiendish in its hatred, with the face of the devil and the
strength of seven men, hysterics seem excusable. She did not give way,
however, though we all felt on the verge of hysteria from the strain.
That day was one of the most terrible I have ever spent. It was not
that anything happened to make it terrible. The strain came from the
fact that nothing happened. If the beast were hidden about the house,
it did not show itself, but we did not hear a board creak or a curtain
swish against the window without turning with a start, prepared to face
anything and to fire vengefully into a hideous, furry form.
The bush outside the casa seemed to take on a threatening aspect. The
house was built on a small elevation and we looked for miles over the
tops of trees, broken here and there by gaps which meant the existence
of clearings and open fields. The treetops were dancing from the heat.
The sun beat down with fierce intensity. Blasts of hot, humid wind blew
upon us and scorched us, but we paid no attention. And always, from the
mysterious, unknown and unknowable bush all around us, drums beat and
beat and beat tirelessly and ominously.
When one of us went back to get food for the rest, he went with an
automatic held ready in his hand, and the other two were prepared
at any instant to hear a shot or the snarl that would mean the
reappearance of the gorilla. We were doubly besieged, by the natives
without and by the gorilla within. For fear of the natives in the bush,
we kept to the house. For fear of the gorilla in the house, we kept to
the one room.
Toward evening insensibly we relaxed. No one could keep to such an
intensity of attention as we had maintained during the day. We ate a
sketchy meal at nightfall and dragged two cots into one of the rooms
adjoining the large front one in which we had stayed all day. We
explored the room thoroughly, and Alicia and Mrs. Braymore went in to
lie down.
None of us thought of taking off our clothes. We three men prepared
for a night-long vigil. One of us would keep thoroughly awake, and the
other two would snatch such sleep as they could.
Long hours passed. We felt sure that some time during the night the
beast would make his appearance. I sat alertly by a window, a dog at my
feet, listening to the night sounds outside and the ceaseless drumming
that meant the juju councils were debating whether the blacks were
sufficiently worked up to attempt an attack.
Arthur and Evan reclined in their chairs and tried to doze, but there
was little rest for any of us. We could think of nothing but the animal
we felt sure would make some attempt upon us during the night.
At one o'clock Evan took my place by the window with the dog at his
feet. I sat in one of the easier chairs and tried to relax, but it
was impossible. I was suddenly conscious of the overpowering heat and
humidity. I was bathed in perspiration.
"I've got to have a drink," I said abruptly. "I need it."
Arthur looked up wearily.
"We all need a drink," he said. "It's in the back of the house, isn't
it?"
We looked at each other uncertainly.
"I'll go," said Arthur quietly.
I interposed. "We'll both go. Here, in the light, Evan can see to shoot
if necessary. We'll use a flash lamp."
It was curious that neither of us cared to walk through three rooms
and a hallway inside a house we had been in for days. That animal had
fretted our nerves badly.
Slowly and cautiously we made our way through the dark rooms, searching
before us with the flash light. I can't speak for Arthur, but my breath
was coming quickly, and I heartily regretted having expressed a wish
for a drink. I would not back out now, though.
We went cautiously and slowly out to the rear of the house. I was in
the act of reaching for the siphon of seltzer when we heard the dog
scream in pain and a shout from Evan. We rushed madly for the front,
our hearts in our mouths, and cursing our absence at such a critical
time. When we burst into the room, Evan was dashing out on the veranda,
and Alicia was in the act of emerging from the room into which she and
Mrs. Braymore had retired. Alicia had an automatic in her hand and,
though her face was full of dread, she was evidently prepared to face
anything.
Arthur and myself were quickly by Evan's side and found him staring
about the darkness, his rifle half raised.
"What is it?" Arthur demanded quickly.
Evan's breath was coming in gasps. "I heard you two moving," he said
sharply, as one whose nerves are strained to the breaking point. "I
heard a noise from your direction. I turned to look at the door and
caught a movement at the window by my side. I jerked back and the dog
screamed. A long, hairy arm had reached in the window and seized him.
He was drawn through the window before I could lift my rifle, and the
arm vanished. It's the gorilla!"
We listened, but the house was still. A faint moan came from the
courtyard, and I flashed the lamp down. The dog, flung bodily from the
porch, stirred feebly and stiffened. Its neck was broken. There on the
shadowed veranda, with the bright African moon shining pitilessly down
upon the hot, dank, fevered earth, the three of us swore nervously
while we stood with our rifles pointing in as many directions, hoping,
even praying for that monstrous ape to rush upon us.
"He must have gone somewhere!" said Arthur despairingly. "Where _did_
the beast go?"
"Into the house, no," said Evan crisply. "Under the house, perhaps. The
roof, perhaps. We'll see."
My legs crawled as I descended the stairs to the ground. The house was
raised from the ground on piles, and I could look clear underneath it.
The moon was shining down whitely, and I saw the pillars silhouetted
against the brightness on the other side. Half a dozen steps convinced
me that the animal was not beneath. It would have shown as a dark
outline. I tried to see up, over the roof, but could not. The roof
slanted just a little and I could not see the center. The house being
on an elevation, moreover, prevented me from backing off and getting a
clear view of the top. I called up to the other two on the porch.
"He's not under the house, but I can't see the roof. He must be there."
The tree trunks of the forest all about us echoed my words strangely.
I could see dim white blurs where the faces of the two brothers showed
their position. One of them moved oddly, and in a moment I saw that
Evan was swinging himself up the pillar before him. He grasped the edge
of the roof and drew himself up. In a second he dropped down again. He
spoke quietly enough to Arthur, but I heard his voice.
"He's there, squatting on the ridge pole. Lord! What a monster he is!"
"We must get the women out of the house," said Arthur sharply. "He may
tear up the roof and come inside. Alicia!"
She had heard and came quickly out, Mrs. Braymore following her. We
built a small fire to keep insects away from them, and sat them on
chairs while we patroled the area about the house. The drums still beat
on all sides of us, but they had been relegated to a minor position
now. We subconsciously counted on their remaining a potential menace
only, until they stopped or drew nearer. The moon made the whole world
bright and shining. We could see clearly and distinctly. Nothing the
size of a rabbit could escape across that stretch of sward without our
observing it.
Alicia and Mrs. Braymore watched the fringe of jungle while we posted
ourselves so that not even a cat could escape from the house without
being seen. I leaned on my rifle near the two ladies, my eyes fixed on
the edge of the roof, straining to catch a glimpse of the beast that
squatted up there. When I thought of it, it seemed stupid of us not to
have suspected that as a hiding place before. True, it was in clear
view of the sky, but a beast cunning enough to creep about the casa at
midnight as he had done, might possess the intelligence to reason that
there was the ideal hiding place for him.
"Do you think there is any real danger from the natives?" Alicia
inquired hesitatingly.
"When natives do inexplicable things, it is usually juju," I said
grimly. "And where there is juju there is usually danger. There is one
thing that can be said, though. While a native is making a noise, he is
rarely dangerous in bulk. As Evan pointed out, they may simply exhaust
themselves in yelling and dancing. I do not think it would be wise to
count on that, however."
"Wouldn't it be the wisest thing to do, to simply try to make our way
secretly through the jungle to the nearest fort?"
"It would be impossible," I told her frankly. "You don't know African
undergrowth. We might make four or five miles a day, with luck. And at
any moment in the twenty-four the natives might trail us. We'd have to
make a new trail, or use the native ones. Making a new trail, we'd be
followed and probably speared, besides the fact that our animal friend
would be haunting the treetops overhead, waiting for a moment when one
of us would be off our guard."
Alicia shuddered. "But would you three try that if we weren't here?"
she insisted.
"I think we'd wade into one of those juju councils," I remarked
vindictively. "I know I'd gladly join such a party. We'd probably
appear as suddenly as we could and start shooting. We might stampede
them, and a show of boldness would be our best play in any event. Of
course, if they rushed us, we'd be out of luck."
"You mean----?"
"There would be four or five hundred of them, and we might get ten
or perhaps fifteen apiece. They'd overwhelm us if they tried, but
the psychology would probably make us win out. The fact that we were
hunting them, instead of their hunting us, would frighten them."
"Couldn't you do that now?"
I shook my head. "Not with our friend the gorilla about. And we
wouldn't expose you two to the possibility of our failing. There'd be
nothing left for you but your own pistols."
Alicia relapsed into silence. I saw her brow knitted as she tried
desperately to work out some plan by which we might fight the
incredible circumstances in which we found ourselves. Overhead,
the broad moon sailed serenely across the sky, shedding its rays
impartially down upon us, upon the shaggy, beastly ape squatting like
some demoniacal creature upon the ridgepole of the roof, and upon
yelling, capering blacks about the great fires they would have lit for
their juju ceremonies.
Behind us, the busy, secretive life of the bush went on--all the
feedings and drinkings and matings and killings, all the comedies and
all the tragedies of the jungle. Things went on, sublimely indifferent
to our petty frights and fancies. The jungle attended to its business,
ignoring alike our strained attitudes as we sat in the moonlight and
waited for the sun to rise that we might slay a malignant ape, and the
yelling of self-hypnotism of the blacks as they danced about their juju
fires, working themselves into a frenzy of hatred against the white man.
At last the moon dipped down toward the west, and the stars that had
watched our vigil in mild, blinking surprise grew pale at the signs
of dawn. The sky grew gray, then white. A high pallid veil hid the
deep-blue arch of the night, and turned slowly to golden yellow as the
sun rolled up.
The mist curled aloft from the treetops as the first rays of the
morning swept across the land. We became aware that we had been cold
and that we now were warm. We waited eagerly until we should see the
roof of the casa, and be able to pick off with our rifles the beast
that lurked there.
Morning had barely come when Evan clambered cautiously to the roof of
the servants' quarters behind the house itself. We had left several of
the dogs shut up in the house during the night. We knew that if the
beast came down into the place, they would make an outcry before all
were killed, at least. They had made no sound, but now one or two of
them came out on the veranda, wagging their tails amiably.
Evan clambered to the roof of the servants' quarters, and Arthur passed
up his rifle. Evan stood erect and raised the weapon. Then he stopped.
From the ground, we saw him looking blankly at the roof of the house.
From where he stood, he could see it clearly. His expression was at
once amazed and apprehensive.
The beast had not left the house, or we would have seen it. It had not
crossed the clearing. It had not entered the house, because the dogs
were unalarmed. It had not in any discoverable fashion escaped from its
position astride the ridge pole, but Evan told us and we immediately
verified the fact that it was no longer on the roof. It had not escaped
to the jungle. It had not secreted itself in the house; yet the
monstrous ape had vanished!