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By Root 2889 0

interfere," I yelled, and shook the Bunam's man up and down by the hair. "_He__ is the killer. That man inside is dead because of him." But I had stopped choking the Bunam's wizard. I swung his whitened body by the head. No sound came forth. "You no kill him," said Romilayu earnestly, "Bunam no chase us." "There's murder in my heart, Romilayu," I said. "You be my friend, sah?" "I'll break some of his bones, then. I'll make a deal with you," I said. "You have a right to make a claim on me. Yes, you're my friend. But what about Dahfu? Wasn't he my friend, too? All right, I won't break bones. I'll beat him." But I didn't beat him, either. I flung the man into the room we had been locked in, and the two amazons with him. Romilayu took away their spears, and we bolted the door. We then went into the other chamber. The moon had now risen and every object was visible. Romilayu picked up the basket of yams, while I walked over to the king. "Now we go, sah?" I looked under the cowl. The face was swelled and lumpy, very much distorted. Owing to the effects of the heat, despite the love I felt for him I was obliged to turn away. "Good-by, King," I said. I left him. But then I had an impulse as we were going. The tethered cub was spitting at us and I picked him up. "Whut you do?" "This animal is coming with us," I said.

XXII

Romilayu started to protest, but I held the creature to me, hearing its tiny snarl and pricked in the chest by its claws. "The king would want me to take it along," I said. "Look, he's got to survive in some form. Can't you see?" The moonlit horizon was extremely clear. It had the effect of making me feel logical. Light was released over us from the summits of the mountains. Thirty miles of terrain opened before us, the path of our flight. I suppose that Romilayu could have pointed out to me that this animal was the child of my enemy who had deprived me of Dahfu. "Well, so look," I said, "I didn't kill that guy. So if I spared him � Romilayu, let's not stand here and gab. I can't leave the animal behind and I won't. Look," I said, "I can carry it in my helmet. I don't need it at night." As a matter of fact the night breeze was doing my fever good. Romilayu gave in to me, and we started our flight, leaping through the shadows of the moon up the side of the ravine. We put the hopo between ourselves and the town, and headed into the mountains, on a straight course for Baventai. I ran behind with the cub, and all that night we did double time, so that by sunrise we had about twenty miles behind us. Without Romilayu I couldn't have lasted two of the ten days that it took to reach Baventai. He knew where the water was and which roots and insects we could eat. After the yams gave out, as they did on the fourth day, we had to forage for grubs and worms. "You could be a survival instructor for the Air Force," I told him. "You'd be a jewel to them," I also said to him. "So at last I'm living on locusts, like Saint John. 'The voice of one that crieth in the wilderness.' " But we had this lion, which had to be fed and cared for. I doubt whether any such handicap was ever seen before. I had to mince grubs and worms with the knife in my palm and make a paste, and I fed the little creature by hand. During the day, when I had to have the helmet, I carried the cub under my arm, and sometimes I led him on the leash. He slept in the helmet, too, with my wallet and passport, teething on the leather and in the end devouring most of it. I then carried my documents and the four one-thousand-dollar bills inside my jockey shorts. From gaunt cheeks, my whiskers grew in various colors, and during most of the trek I was demented and raving. I would sit and play with the cub, whom I named Dahfu, while Romilayu foraged. I was too simple in the head to help him. Nevertheless, in many essential matters my mind was very clear and even fine or delicate. As I ate the cocoons and the larvae and ants, crouching in the jockey shorts with the lion lying under me for shade, I spoke oracles and sang--yes, I remembered many songs from nursery and school,