Killers Kraal | Page 9

eyes. Rick said:
"The Abama chief speaks plainly as a warrior should. I will speak as
plainly. I will take Sheena to the coast with me, but only when she asks
me to do so. Meanwhile, I wish to be your friend. Freely, I give you
this gun, and I will teach you to shoot with it, even though the first
bullet you fire finds my heart."
"Aie!" exclaimed the chief and his dark eyes came alight with a gleam
of appreciation. "You are a man, Bwana, a fit mate for Sheena!" Then

he added with a deep chuckle, "But if you wait for her to do the asking,
as you say you will, I think we will be friends for a long time. Oh yes,
we will be too old to fight then!"
"Maybe you're not far out at that!" Rick muttered with a wry grin, and
then went to make up his pack.
IV
FROM a projecting point of rock which dominated a broad expanse of
tumbled uplands that had known the rack and twist of volcanic
convulsion, Sheena watched Rick and Ekoti weaving their way
between huge boulders and clumps of thorny mimosa bush. They were
deep in the Kalunda country now, but far off still the head of the
Buffalo Mountain stood against the sky in lines of vapory blue. In the
middle distance there were strange formations of crumbling sandstone,
banded with the spectral white of quartz, queer piles designed by the
gods in sardonic mood. To the north there was a great fault through
which the river wiggled, its banks lined with thickets of thorny bamboo
more inpenetrable than any barbed-wire entanglement. Beyond rose the
banks of the ever-green jungle, tall resin trees linked by fantastic
creepers or spiky rattans.
Only once before had Sheena ventured into this country. In this valley,
she knew, lived the dwarf-people, the Kobi, wooly-haired and entirely
naked. But they were meat-eaters, man-eaters, who hunted with tiny,
poison-tipped arrows. She judged that the young men of the Abama
clans, treking for Massumba would swing wide of this stretch of jungle
on that account, and this meant that, by following the river, she could
be at Massumba at least two marches ahead of them. But it would be
necessary for Rick and Ekoti to camp here and build a light raft.
With this settled in her mind, the Jungle Queen's attention was drawn to
Rick's battered topee bobbing above a patch of bush, and her eyes were
clouded by a troubled look. Though, for the past two days, she had set a
hard pace, her attempt to discourage him seemed to hold forth little
hope of success. On the contrary, he had clung to her heels with the
tenacity of a cheetah on the trail of a wounded buck, showing powers

of endurance and a jungle-craft not inferior to her own. His persistence
annoyed her, and yet she was not insensible to the high tribute this
determined pursuit paid to her womanhood, nor to the faint stirring of
pleasure that came with the thought.
"It was cruel to taunt him, little one," she murmured to Chim as he
bounded to the rock beside her. "And it was foolish, because I cannot
send him back alone now."
As the pair came into plain view she waved to them, indicating the trail
she would take down to the river, and then made her way steeply
through the pale green of the stunted mimosa. Following a game trail
she came to an open sandy patch, glistening with mica in the sun. Here
the river rippled over a pebbly bed and curved into the bank to form a
large water-hole. Bamboo grew everywhere, their white-ringed, green
stems protected by great shields of bark around the base. They arched
gracefully over the pool, their leaves quivering in the air and veiling the
light. Two elephants stood on the far side, a mother and her calf,
flapping their ears and waving trunks and tails to keep off the flies.
Here and there great, solid marula trees rose above the tangled mass of
greenery. and some of their trunks, at her own height above the ground,
were all scratched and furrowed with cruel rents; for these were the
trees used by the big jungle cats to stretch their paws and to sharpen
their merciless claws after their long sleep through the heat of the day.
The elephants went rumbling into the forest as soon as they got her
wind, and black monkeys went running up the opposite bank with their
tails straight up in the air as Chim came bounding into the glade,
grimacing ferociously and snarling a challenge to all.
"Quiet, little one!" she chided. "You are very brave, I know. But it is
bad to frighten such