Leopard Hunts in Darkness - Smith Wilbur (книга бесплатный формат .TXT) 📗
"I can claim no credit for this," said Peter Fungabera.
"The good doctor is responsible for this little entertainment." He smiled at Tungata. "It is many days since last we spoke, and frankly, your time is up. So is mine. I must have your agreement today or else it does not matter. After today you are expendable, Comrade Zebiwe." Tungata was strapped to a sturdy chair of red Rhodesian teak. The mesh cage stood on the table before him.
"You were once in the Game Department," Peter Fun, gab era went on.
"So you will recognize this reptile as bit is gabonica, the Gaboon adder. It is one of the most venomous of African snakes, its toxicity exceeded only by the mamba.
However, its sting is more agonizing than either mamba or cobra. It is said that the pain drives men mad before they die. "stick He touched the cage with the tip of his swagger and the adder struck at him. The coils propelled the monstrous head across the cage in a liquid blur of movement, half its gross body serialized by the power of the strike; the jaws gaped to expose the butter-yellow lining of the throat, and the long recurved fangs were gleaming white as polished porcelain, as it crashed into the wire mesh with a force that shook the table. Even Peter Fungabera. jumped back involuntarily, and then chuckled apologetically.
"I cannot stand snakes," he explained. "They make my flesh crawl.
What about you, Comrade Minister?"
"Whatever you are planning, it is a bluff, Tungata answered. His voice was weaker now. Since their last meeting, he had spent many days at the wall in the sun.
His body seemed to have shrunk until it was too small for his head. His skin had a grey tone, and looked dusty and dry. "You cannot afford to let that thing sting me. I expect you have removed the poi " sacs." won "Doctor." Peter FuRgabera turned to the regimental doctor who sat at the far end of the table. He rose immediately and left the room.
"We were quite fortunate to find a specimen of the Gaboon," Peter Fungabera went on conversationally. "They are really rather rare, as you know." The doctor returned. He now wore thick gloves that reached to his elbows, and carried a large striped bush rat the size of a kitten. The rat squealed piercingly and struggled in his gloved hands.
Gingerly the doctor opened the door in the top of the mesh cage, dropped the rat through it and immediately snapped the sprung door closed. The " little animal scampered around the cage, testing the mesh walls with its nose and whiskers until suddenly it saw the adder in the corner. It leaped high an,l landed on stiff legs and then retreated into the opposite corner and crouched there, staring across the cage.
The adder began to uncoil, its scales glowing with al unearthly loveliness as it slid silently over the sanded floor.
towards the cornered rat. An unnatural stillness overcame the small animal. Its nose no longer twitched and wriggled.
It sank down on its belly, fluffed out its fur and watched with mesmeric fascination as repulsive death slid inexorably towards it.
Two feet from the rat the adder stopped, its neck arched into a taut "S" and then, so swiftly that the eye could not record it, it struck.
The rat was hurled back against the mesh, and immediately the adder withdrew, its coils flowing back upon itself Now there were tiny droplets of blood on the rat's russet fur, and its body began to pulsate rapidly. The limbs twitched and jumped without coordination and then, abruptly, it squealed, a shrill cry of unbearable agony, and rolled over on its back in the final convulsion of death.
The doctor lifted the carcass out of the cage with a pair of wooden tongs and carried it from the room.
"Of course," said Peter Fungabera. "You have many times the body mass of that rodent. With you it would take much longer." The doctor had returned and with him were the guard captain and two troopers.
"As I said, the doctor has designed the apparatus. I think he has done excellent work, given the limited materials and shortage of time." They lifted Tungata's chair and placed him closer to the cage. One of the troopers carried another smaller mesh cage. It was shaped like an oversized fencing helmet, and it fitted over Tungata's head, closing snugly around his throat. From the front of the encompassing helmet protruded a mesh tube that resembled the thickened and shortened trunk of a deformed elephant.
The two troopers stood behind Tungata's chair and forced him forward until the open tube of mesh aligned WIth the door of the adder's cage. Dexterously the Shana doctor clipped the tube of Tungata's helmet and the cage together.
"When the door of the cage is raised, you and the Gaboon will be sharing the same livin space." Tungata stared down the mesh tube to the door at its extremity.
"But we can stop this at any time you say the word."
"Your father was a dung-eating Shana hyena," said Tungata softly.
"We will induce the adder to leave its cage and join you in yours by applying heat to the far wall. I do advise you to be sensible, Comrade. Take us to bid Lobengula's tomb."
"The king's tomb is sacred-" Tungata broke off. He was weaker than he had realized. It had slipped out. Up to now he had stubbornly denied the existence of the tomb.
"Good," said Peter happily. "At least we have now agreed that there is a tomb. Now agree to take us there, and this will all end. A safe flight to another land, for you and the woman--2
"I spit on you, Fungabera, and I spit on the diseased whore that was your mother."
"Open the cage, "ordered Fungabera.
It rattled up in its runners and Tungata stared down the tube as though down the barrel of a rifle. The adder was coiled on the far side of the cage, staring back at him with those bright black eyes.
