King Solomon's Mines

it, if ever I come to the end of the trip! I have done a good many things in my life, which seems a long one to me, owing to my having begun work so young, perhaps. At an age when other bo

ld come out safe at the end, pile and all. But then I am a timid man, and dislike violence; moreover, I am almost sick of adventure. I wonder why I am going to write this book: it i

ir Henry Curtis and Cap

e some poison in a lion's teeth, otherwise how is it that when your wounds are healed they break out again, generally, mark you, at the same time of year that you got your mauling? It is a hard thing when one has shot sixty-five lions or mo

him out of mischief for a week or so. Hospital work must sometimes pall and grow rather dull, for even of cutting up dead bodies there may come satiety, and

ng that there is no woman in it-except Foulata. Stop, though! there is Gagaoola, if she was a woman, and not a fiend. But she was a hundred at

"sutjes, sutjes," as the Boers say-I am sure I don't know how they spell it-softly does it. A strong team will com

ite the right way to begin a book. And, besides, am I a gentleman? What is a gentleman? I don't quite know, and yet I have had to do with niggers-no, I will scratch out that word "niggers," for I do no

my hand in innocent blood, but only in self-defence. The Almighty gave us our lives, and I suppose He meant us to defend them, at least I have always acted on that, and I hope it will not be brought up against me when my clock strikes. There, there, it is a cruel and a wicked world

ivory as I had, together with my wagon and oxen, discharged my hunters, and took the post-cart to the Cape. After spending a week in Cape Town, finding that they overcharged me at the hotel, and having seen everything there was to see, including the botanical gardens, which seem to me likely to confer a great benefit on the country, and t

nes, though I knew a modern Dane who did me out of ten pounds; but I remember once seeing a picture of some of those gentry, who, I take it, were a kind of white Zulus. They were drinking out of big horns, and their long hair hung down their backs. As I looked at my friend standing there by the companion-ladder, I thought that if he only let his grow a little, put one of those chain shirts o

of my life, and they have always proved themselves the best and bravest and nicest fellows I ever met, though sadly given, some of them, to the use of profane language. I asked a page or two back, what is a gentleman? I'll answer the question now: A Royal Naval offic

ur of a commander's rank, because it was impossible that he should be promoted. This is what people who serve the Queen have to expect: to be shot out into the cold world to find a living just when they are beginning real

he always wore an eye-glass in his right eye. It seemed to grow there, for it had no string, and he never took it out except to wipe it. At first I thought he used to sleep in it, but afterwards I found that this was a mistake. H

d, she is a flat-bottomed punt, and going up light as she was, she rolled very heavily. It almost seemed as though she would go right over, but she never did. It was quite impossible to walk about, so I stood near t

id a somewhat testy voice at my shoulder. Looking round I saw the

at makes you th

d really rolled to the degree that thing pointed to, then she would never have rolled again, th

n to an officer of the Royal Navy when he gets on to that subject. I only know one worse thing,

d together, and I sat opposite to them. The captain and I soon fell into talk about shooting and what not; he asking me many questi

you've reached the right man for that; Hunter Quatermain

ting quite quiet listening

in a low deep voice, a very suitable voice, it seemed to me, to come out

that

remark, but I heard him mutt

ld deck cabin, and a very good cabin it is. It had been two cabins, but when Sir Garnet Wolseley or one of those big swells went down the coast in the Dunkeld, they knocked away the partition a

isky and lit the lamp, "the year before last about this time, you were,

should be so well acquainted with my movements, which were

ere you not?" put in Capta

ds, made a camp outside the settlemen

leaning on the table. He now looked up, fixing his large grey eyes

o meet a man call

g on to the interior. I had a letter from a lawyer a few months back, asking me if I

ion of trekking if possible as far as Inyati, the extreme trading post in the Matabele country, where he would sell his wagon and proceed on foot. You also said that he did sell his wagon, for six months afterwards you saw the wagon in th

es

ame a

can guess nothing more of the reasons of my-of Mr. Neville's journ

and stopped. The subject was on

od looked at each other,

our assistance. The agent who forwarded me your letter told me that I might rely on it implicitly, as you

ater to hide my confusion, for I am

lle was m

brother was a much smaller man and had a dark beard, but now that I thought of it, he possessed e

we were ever a month away from each other. But just about five years ago a misfortune befell us, as som

e looking-glass, which was fixed opposite us to starboard, was for a moment nearly over our heads, and

off making his will until it was too late. The result was that my brother, who had not been brought up to any profession, was left without a penny. Of course it would have been my duty to provide for him, but at the time the quarrel between us was so bitter that I d

tain. "Mr. Quatermain will, I am s

myself on my discretion, for which, as

of Neville, started off for South Africa in the wild hope of making a fortune. This I learned afterwards. Some three years passed, and I heard nothing of my brother, though I wrote

aid I, thinking

fortune to know that my brother George, the only relation I

jerked out Captain Good, gl

enquiries on foot, and your letter was one of the results. So far as it went it was satisfactory, for it showed that till lately George was alive, but it d

Lords of the Admiralty to starve on half pay. And now perhaps, sir, you

ather confused; we have always understood that they were da