Kingozi saw a tall figure without a coat, dressed in brown shirt, riding breeches, and puttees. The Nubian had retrieved1 a spilled sun helmet even before the stranger had scrambled2 erect3, so the head and face were invisible. Kingozi's countenance4 did not change, but a faint contempt appeared in his eyes. The first impression conveyed by the numbers of the tin boxes and their bearers and escort had been deepened. Why? Because the riding breeches were of that exaggerated cut sometimes actually to be seen outside tailor's advertisements. They were gathered trimly around an effeminately slender waist, and then ballooned out to an absurd width, only to contract again skin tight around the knees.
"_M'buzi!_" grunted5 Kingozi, applying to the stranger the superlative of Swahili contempt. He did not know he spoke6 aloud; for it is not well for one white man to criticise7 another to a native. But Mali-ya-bwana replied.
"_Bibi_," he corrected.
Kingozi stared. "By Jove, you're right!" he exclaimed in English. "It _is_ a woman!" He burst into an unexpected laugh. "It isn't balloon breeches; it's _hips!_" he cried. This correction seemed to him singularly humorous. He approached her, laughing.
It was evidently an angry woman, to judge by her gestures and the deprecating attitude of the Nubian. Kingozi surmised9 that she probably did not fancy being dumped down incontinently before an angry rhinoceros11. After a moment, however, her attitude lost its rigidity12, she gestured toward the dead monster, evidently commending the savage13. He shook his head and motioned in Kingozi's direction. The woman turned, showing an astonished face.
Kingozi was now close up. He saw before him a personality. Physically14 she was beautiful or not, according as one accepted conventional standards. The dress she wore revealed fully15 the fact that she had a tall, well-knit figure of long, full curves; a thoroughly16 feminine figure in conformation, and yet one that looked competent to transcend17 the usual feminine incompetencies. So far she measured to a high but customary standard. But her face was as exotic as an orchid18. It was long, narrow, and pale with three accents to redeem19 it from what that ordinarily implies--lips of a brilliant carmine20, eyes of a deep sea-green, and eyebrows21 high, arched, clean cut, narrow as though drawn22 by a camel's-hair brush. Indeed, in civilization no one would have believed them to have been otherwise produced. In spite of the awkward sun helmet she carried her head imperiously.
"If you _will_ ride in a hammock, you ought to teach your men to shoot," was Kingozi's greeting. "It's absurd to go barging through a rhino10 country like this. You look strong and healthy. Why don't you walk?"
Her crest23 reared and her nostrils24 expanded haughtily25. For a half-minute she stared at him, her sea-green eyes darkening to greater depths. This did not disturb Kingozi in the least: indeed he did not see it. His eyes were taking in the surroundings.
The dead rhinoceros lay a scant26 fifteen paces distant; loads were scattered27 everywhere; the _askaris_, their ancient muskets28 reloaded, had drawn near in curiosity. From the thorn trees across the tiny grass opening porters were descending29, very gingerly, and with lamentations. It is comparatively easy to ascend32 a thorn tree with the fear of death snapping at your heels: to descend30 in cold blood is another matter.
"Why don't you do your work!" he addressed the soldiers. "Do you want to catch _kiboko_?"
The startled _askaris_ scuttled33 away about their business, which was, at this moment, to herd35 and hustle36 the reluctant porters back to their job. Kingozi, his head and jaw37 thrust forward, stared after them, his eyes-- indeed, his whole personality--projecting aggressive force. The men hurried to their positions, their loud laughter stilled, glancing fearfully and furtively38 over their shoulders, whipped by the baleful glare with which Kingozi silently battered39 them.
Only when the last man had picked up his load did Kingozi turn again to the woman. Although her bosom40 still heaved with emotion, it was a suppressed emotion. He met a face slightly and inscrutably smiling.
"You take it upon yourself to manage my safari41?" she said. "You think I cannot manage my men? It is kind of you."
Her English was faultless, but some slight unusual spacing of the words, some ultra-clarity of pronunciation, rather than a recognizable accent, made evident that the language was not her own.
"Your _askaris_ are slack," said Kingozi briefly42.
"And how of these?" she demanded imperiously, sweeping43 with an almost theatrical44 gesture the miserable-looking group of hammock bearers.
"They are at fault," replied Kingozi indifferently, "but after all they are common porters. You can't expect gun-bearer service or _askari_ service from common porters, now can you?"
He looked at her directly, his clear, steady eyes conveying nothing but a mild interest in the obvious. In contrast to his detached almost indifferent calm, the woman was an embodiment of emotions. Head erect, red lips compressed, breast heaving, she surveyed him through narrowed lids.
"So?" she contented45 herself with saying.
"It's the nature of the beast to run crazy," pursued Kingozi tranquilly46. "You really can't blame them."
"Then am I to be thrown down, like a sack, when it pleases them to run?" she demanded tensely. "Really, you are incredible."
"I should expect it. The real point is that you have no business to ride in a hammock through a rhino country."
The woman's control slipped a very little.
"Who are you to teach me my business?"
For the first time Kingozi's careless, candid47 stare narrowed to a focus.
"You have not told me what your business is," he replied with an edge of intention in his tones. Their glances crossed like rapiers for the flash of an instant.
She turned to the hammock bearers.
"Lie down!" she commanded. Then to the impassive Nubian, "The _kiboko!_ I suppose," she observed politely to Kingozi, "that you will admit these men should be punished, and that you will permit me to do so?"
"Surely they should be punished; that goes without saying."
"Give them thirty apiece," she ordered the Nubian.
"That is too many," interposed Kingozi. "Six is a great plenty for such people. It is their nature to run away."
"Thirty," she repeated to the Nubian, without a glance in the white man's direction.
The huge negro produced the rhinoceros-hide whip, and went to his task. To lay thirty lashes48 on sixteen backs and to do justice to the occasion is a great task. The Nubian's face streamed sweat when he had finished. The bearers, who had taken the punishment in silence, arose, saluted49, and begun to skylark among themselves, which was their way of working off emotion.
"_Askaris!_" summoned the woman.
"Lay down your guns! Lie down!"
A mild wonder appeared in Kingozi's gray eyes.
"Do you _kiboko_ your _askaris?_" he asked.
She jerked her head in his direction.
"Do you presume to question my actions?"
"By no means; I am interested in methods."
She paid him no more attention. Kingozi waited patiently until this second bout34 of punishment was over. The _askaris_ lay quietly face down until their mistress gave the word, then leaped to their feet, saluted smartly, seized their guns, and marched jauntily51 to their appointed positions. The woman watched them for a moment, and turned back to Kingozi.
Her mood had completely changed. The orgy of punishment had cleared away the nervous effects of the fright she had undergone.
"So; that is done," she said. "I have travelled much in Africa. I what you call know my way about. See how my men fall into line. It will be so at camp. _Presto!_ Quick! The tents will be up, the fires made."
Her lips smiled at him, but her sea-green eyes remained steady and inscrutable.
"They seem smart enough," acknowledged Kingozi without interest. "Have you ever tried them out?"
"Tried them out?" she repeated. "I do not understand."
"You never know what hold you really have until you get in a tight place."
"And if I get in a 'tight place,'" she rejoined haughtily, "I shall get out again--without help from negroes--or anybody."
"Quite so," conceded Kingozi equably. His attitude and the tone of his voice were indifferent, but the merest flicker52 of the tail of his eye touched the dead rhino. His expression remained quite bland53. She saw this. The pallor of her cheek did not warm, but her strangely expressive54 eyes changed.
"_Bandika!_" she cried sharply. The men began to take up their loads.
"I will wish you a good afternoon," observed Kingozi as though taking his leave from an afternoon tea. "By the way, do you happen to care for information about the next water, or do you know all that?" "Thank you, I know all that," she replied curtly55.
The _askaris_ began to shout the order for the advance, "_Nenda! nenda!_" the men to swing forward. Kingozi stared after them, watching with a professional eye the way they walked, the make-up of their loads, the nature of their equipment; marking the lame31 ones, or the weak ones, or the ones recently sick. His eye fell on the figure of the strange woman. She was striding along easily, the hammock deserted56, with a free swing of the hips8, an easy, slouch of the relaxed knees that indicated the accustomed walker. Kingozi smiled.
"'I know all that,'" he repeated. "Now I wonder if you do, or if some idea of silly pride makes you say so." He was talking aloud, in English. Mali- ya-bwana stood attentive57, waiting for something he could understand. Kingozi's eye fell on the dead rhinoceros.
"There is good meat; tell the men they can come out to get what they wish of it. There will be lions here to-night."
"Yes, _bwana_."
"If she 'knew all that,'" observed Kingozi, "she knew more than I did. Small chance. Still, if she has information or guides, she may know the next water. But how? Why?"
He shifted his rifle to the crook58 of his arm.
"That _bibi_ is a great _memsahib_," he told Mali-ya-bwana. "And this evening we will go to see her. Be you ready to go also."
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1
retrieved
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| v.取回( retrieve的过去式和过去分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息） | |
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scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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criticise
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| v.批评，评论；非难 | |
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hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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surmised
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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rhino
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| n.犀牛，钱, 现金 | |
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rhinoceros
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| n.犀牛 | |
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rigidity
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| adj.钢性，坚硬 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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transcend
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| vt.超出，超越(理性等)的范围 | |
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orchid
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| n.兰花，淡紫色 | |
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redeem
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| v.买回，赎回，挽回，恢复，履行（诺言等） | |
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carmine
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| n.深红色，洋红色 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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24
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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haughtily
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| adv. 傲慢地, 高傲地 | |
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scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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29
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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32
ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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33
scuttled
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| v.使船沉没( scuttle的过去式和过去分词 )；快跑，急走 | |
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bout
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| n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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hustle
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| v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌) | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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39
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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40
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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41
safari
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| n.远征旅行(探险、考察)；探险队，狩猎队 | |
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42
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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43
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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44
theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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45
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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46
tranquilly
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| adv. 宁静地 | |
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47
candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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48
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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49
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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50
trotting
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| 小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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51
jauntily
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| adv.心满意足地；洋洋得意地；高兴地；活泼地 | |
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52
flicker
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| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
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53
bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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54
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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55
curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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56
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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57
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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58
crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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