er! Well, this history would never
have been written and there would have been some more bones in the
graveyard of the Kalubis, that is all!

For a moment I waited, expecting to see the women attendants dart from
the doorways in the sides of the cave, and to hear them sound a shrill
alarm. None appeared, and I guessed that the rattle of the thunder had
swallowed up the crack of the rifle, a noise, be it remembered, that
none of them had ever heard. For an unknown number of years this ancient
creature, I suppose, had squatted day and night upon that platform,
whence, I daresay, it was difficult for him to move. So after they had
wrapped his furs round him at sunset and made up the fires to keep him
warm, why should his women come to disturb him unless he called them
with his horn? Probably it was not even lawful that they should do so.

Somewhat reassured I waded forward a few paces and loosed the canoe
which was tied by the prow. Then I scrambled into it, and laying down
the rifle, took one of the paddles and began to push out of the creek.
Just then the lightning flared once more, and by it I caught sight of
the Motombo's face that was now within a few feet of my own. It seemed
to be resting almost on his knees, and its appearance was dreadful. In
the centre of the forehead was a blue mark where the bullet had entered,
for I had made no mistake in that matter. The deep-set round eyes were
open and, all their fire gone, seemed to stare at me from beneath the
overhanging brows. The massive jaw had fallen and the red tongue hung
out upon the pendulous lip. The leather-like skin of the bloated cheeks
had assumed an ashen hue still streaked and mottled with brown.

Oh! the thing was horrible, and sometimes when I am out of sorts, it
haunts me to this day. Yet that creature's blood does not lie heavy on
my mind, of it my conscience is not afraid. His end was necessary to
save the innocent and I am sure that it was well deserved. For he was a
devil, akin to the great god ape I had slain in the forest, to whom, by
the way, he bore a most remarkable resemblance in death. Indeed if their
heads had been laid side by side at a little distance, it would not have
been too easy to tell them apart with their projecting brows, beardless,
retreating chins and yellow tushes at the corners of the mouth.

Presently I was clear of the cave. Still for a while I lay to at one
side of it against the towering cliff, both to listen in case wha