I knew
that in six days we should be able to reach a district where porters
were plentiful, and whence we could easily get the ivory conveyed to
Delagoa Bay."
"And did you land it up safe?" I asked.
"Well no," said Quatermain, "we lost about a third of it in crossing a
river. A flood came down suddenly just as the men were crossing and many
of them had to throw down their tusks to save their lives. We had no
means of dragging it up, and so we were obliged to leave it, which
was very sad. However, we sold what remained for nearly seven thousand
pounds, so we did not do so badly. I don't mean that I got seven
thousand pounds out of it, because, you see, I insisted upon Every
taking a half share. Poor fellow, he had earned it, if ever a man did.
He set up a store in the old colony on the proceeds and did uncommonly
well."
"And what did you do with the lion trap?" asked Sir Henry.
"Oh, I brought that away with me also, and when I reached Durban I put
it in my house. But really I could not bear to sit opposite to it at
nights as I smoked. Visions of that poor woman and the hand of her dead
child would rise up in my mind, and also of all the horrors of which it
had been the instrument. I began to dream at last that it held me by the
leg. This was too much for my nerves, so I just packed it up and shipped
it to its maker in England, whose name was stamped upon the steel,
sending him a letter at the same time to tell him to what purpose the
infernal machine had been put.
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