FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>   >|  
er grip to be obtained. Other creatures had waited for the drying of the leaves beside themselves, and whenever they passed the white-grey branches of a wild fig tree, they were treated to a scolding from green parrots on the feed, and heard frequently the clapping report of the wood- pigeons as they brought their wings together, and the harsh cry of the toucans. Oh yes, there was life and there was death. Venning, going on ahead, saw below him in the fork of a tree the face of a monkey, with the eyes closed as if in sleep. He stopped to look, stooping his head, and his eyes caught a slight movement. Then he saw that the sleeping monkey was cradled in the coils of a python resting in the forks of the tree, its head raised a little, and its tail gripping a branch. The head of the monkey rested peacefully on one of the black and yellow coils, for death had come upon it swiftly. "What do you look at?" asked Muata, bending forward. "Shall I shoot? "So," muttered the chief. "It is the silent hunter. Let him be; let him be, and pass on. No other looks at man as he looks. It is his kill; pass on." They passed on, leaving the "silent hunter" with the monkey, that looked as if he slept, and silent and motionless he remained as each one paused to glance down, his dull, unwinking yellow eyes showing like coloured glass in the lifted head. "Look well," said Muata, warningly; "where there is one, there will be another near. The silent ones hunt in couples." "Would they attack men?" "Ask the 'little' people." "But they are no bigger than monkeys." "There is the monkey bigger than man, and he, too, must give way to the silent hunter." "What! Is the gorilla afraid of the python?" "Between the ape and the serpent there is always war. See where you place your foot then, for you travel the monkey-path, and we go hand and foot like monkeys. Look well where you place your hand, for a straight branch may be the body of the silent hunter." Venning went on with renewed caution, studying the branches above and below, for, lover as he was of all manner of live things, he had the common repugnance to the serpent-kind. But the trees were innocent of guile, and presently some other object claimed his absorbed attention, no less than an old man gorilla, who thrust his black head above a tree-top a little way off, and violently shook the branches. At the noise every one stopped and peered out. "Look!" he shouted.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
silent
 

monkey

 

hunter

 

branches

 

python

 
serpent
 
gorilla
 

yellow

 
Venning
 

stopped


branch

 

passed

 
monkeys
 

bigger

 
coloured
 

lifted

 
warningly
 
people
 

couples

 

attack


attention

 

absorbed

 

claimed

 

object

 

innocent

 

presently

 

thrust

 

peered

 

shouted

 

violently


travel

 
straight
 

Between

 

things

 

common

 
repugnance
 

manner

 
renewed
 

caution

 
studying

afraid
 

brought

 
pigeons
 
frequently
 

clapping

 

report

 
toucans
 

closed

 
waited
 

drying