Chapter 5
Elaine called out for Mbowe after she and Suleen had put back on their panties, shorts, halters, and footwear. When Mbowe appeared at the edge of the clearing, he told them he had heard the rifle shot and "Bwana's" remarks, and he said he could lead them by a shortcut up to where the rest of the safari was, if the two didn't mind climbing a few short, moderately steep slopes and going through one or two "tricky" patches of bamboo forest.
Suleen and Elaine were both pleased. They were more than willing to follow a rough route up to the others to save time, since neither wanted to catch any hell from Hammersmith for not being there to express admiration of his virility and awe at his kill.
Hammersmith's kill, it turned out, was a large black-backed male gorilla. Hammersmith was standing proudly beside the animal in the middle of a sparse stand of trees a hundred yards or so beyond the edge of the bamboo forest the safari had passed through. He watched Suleen and Elaine approach; and after Suleen told him she and Elaine had fallen back to the tail of the safari and had stopped for a few minutes in the bamboo forest to pee, he nodded generously and, smiling boyishly, recounted his adventure.
Just after coming out of the bamboo forest, he had spotted nearly a dozen gorillas-including infants, females, juveniles, black backs, and the lone old silverback who was head of the group-sleeping in their crude nests among the stand of scrubby high-elevation trees. Calling for quiet from those behind him, he had courageously stole across the stretch of open ground toward the trees to investigate more closely.
One light sleeper among the gorillas had heard a twig break under Hammersmith's foot as he had drawn near, and the gorilla had rolled onto his feet and stretched up erect and beat his chest violently with both his great, hairy fists to intimidate Hammersmith.
"I put a bullet square into his heart before he could get any ideas about going on a rampage and murdering any of us," Hammersmith said. "I know rogue gorillas can be plenty dangerous, so I just did what I had to do."
"What happened to all the other gorillas?" Elaine asked.
"Oh, them. The rifle shot scared hell out of them, and they all ran off as fast as they could go. And, boy, you should've seen them move."
Elaine's husband Bill Landarr, a tall, thin man in his mid-forties who had the sort of mature good looks that were highlighted rather than undermined by the peppering of gray in his short black hair, strolled up and draped his arm across Elaine's shoulders.
Grinning at his wife and at Suleen, and even at Hammersmith, Landarr said, "Mr. G.'s mistake was in trying to put the fear of the Lord in our protector here with that chest-beating shtick. For my money, if gorillas had any brains they'd give up that old habit and switch to grenades."
Hammersmith narrowed his eyes at Landarr. "Is that some kind of crack or something?"
Landarr chuckled and turned away, drawing his wife away along with him.
"There's always guys that have to make cracks," Hammersmith muttered, shaking his head.
"Are we going to stop here till tomorrow, Daddy?" Suleen asked.
"Yes, baby. I want the head of this monster for a trophy-that's the main thing-and I also want his-" At that moment there came the whoosh and thuck of a long red-and-green-striped spear that stuck almost vertically in the ground right between Hammersmith, Suleen, and Elaine. Hammersmith's face paled; and for one long moment there was dead silence in the stand of trees.
"Goddamn, what the-" Hammersmith began.
He was interrupted by a thunderous cry from one of the porters, who were milling about nearby: "UWELE"
And the terrible, deafening cry, which sounded to Suleen like the call of doom and which made her sweat and shiver at the same time, was echoed by one after another of the rest of the porters: "UWELE!" "UWELE!" "UWELE"
Watching the porters with growing anger-and with growing nervousness because of their obvious fear-Hammersmith set his lips in a harsh, straight line and waited for a chance to speak. He noticed Mbowe, the chief porter, among the bunch of headless black chickens (as he thought of them), and at last he was able to call out, "C'mere, Mbowe!"
Mbowe came at a run. "Bwana, Bwana, they say they run away! All of 'em run away!" he shouted. "They too much afraid! Uwele! Uwele!"
Hammersmith eyed all the other porters with increased contempt. "Do they know they can be shot if they run off from a safari!" he growled. And I'd damn sure like to be the one to shoot 'em all, too, he thought. "My God, can't you do anything about them? Can't you make them get hold-"
"They afraid, Bwana!" Mbowe said, still shouting even though he had come to a stop right in front of Hammersmith. "Uwele! Uwele! They afraid of Uwele!" He sounded as if he were trying to explain something, rather hysterically, to an uncommonly backward child.
"For God's sake, man, what the hell is all this Uwele stuff? Will you calm down and try to make some sense?"
"Uwele! People live in mountain! Cave people!"
"Cave people! What are you talking about, Mbowe?"
"You kill gorilla man, Bwana! Uwele know! Uwele say no good! Uwele say gorilla man have spirits! Uwele say no good kill gorilla-"
Just then, a short, very thin arrow hissed past Hammersmith and pierced part way into Suleen's right breast. Hammersmith gaped at the arrow and at the blood welling from the wound; and Suleen immediately became shaky on her feet. Then Hammersmith gasped as Suleen emitted a tiny moan and collapsed.
"Uwele! Uwele!" Mbowe shouted, spinning around and looking off in every direction in search of the enemy. "They all around, Bwana!"
Hammersmith heard the drumbeat frenzy of the other porters scattering as fast as their feet would carry them.
"My baby!" he cried out, and dropped to his knees beside Suleen. "Oh, no-"
Then his voice was cut off, and he stared in horror at the little arrow that had penetrated his upper arm.
"They all around!"
And everything was darkness.