“It’s 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.