Read Online 09 Lion Adventure by Willard Price - Free Book Online Page B

think too much of Dugan - but at least he knows how to fire a gun. After all, he’s a professional hunter. I should have kept him on the job. I was a fool to take on a couple of boys to do a man’s work.’
    ‘But listen,’ Hal said patiently. ‘You are perfectly right about one thing - Dugan knows how to fire a gun.
    Doesn’t it occur to you that he may have killed that lion on purpose?’
    ‘Why should he do that?’ m
    ‘To make you think we did it. And apparently he succeeded. You yourself warned us that he would try to do for us. And now when he is doing just that you allow him to get away with it. We let him put one over on us. You are quite right - we are just boys and not very smart. But you, Tanga, you are a man - I never would have thought he could make a fool of you.’
    The words went home. Tanga writhed in his chair.
    ‘I don’t know - I just don’t know,’ he said confusedly. ‘Anyhow I’ll have to tell King Ku.’
    ‘Go ahead and tell him,’ Hal said. ‘There’s one good thing about Ku. He’s enough of a devil to understand the devil in Dugan.’

Chapter 10
The tourists and the lion
    Once again in their basket, the watchmen in the sky had the thrill of being able to see the world and yet not be a part of it.
    They were on a planet of their own. Or they were men from Mars in a flying saucer investigating the Earth.
    Every detail below stood out sharply - the campground, the roof of the station, the men at work on the tracks, the grassy plain and the woods beyond; to the west, Kilimanjaro raising its snowy head far above the clouds; to the north, the village of Gula on its hilltop; and not far west of it, Mombo village, so plainly visible that you could count the dogs.
    In some ways, the balloon had it all over the plane. In a balloon you simply stood still in the sky and had a chance to look. In a plane you shot along at a speed of anywhere from a hundred miles an hour up to heaven knows what and if you saw anything that interested you it was gone before you could get your eyes fixed on it.
    In the Jules Verne they were only a hundred feet up with a close view of everything. In a small plane they would be riding a mile high, or seven miles high in a |et
    Much of the time there would be a carpet of clouds beneath you hiding the earth. Even if the air were clear
    the far-away features of the land below would be little more than a blur.
    And you would be peering out of a tight little window filmed over with dust or mist, or smudged with grease where the heads of passengers had rested against it. In a few minutes you would give up trying to see anything and would bury yourself in a magazine.
    Standing free in an open basket, not cooped in by walls and windows, with a sweeping view on all sides, the idea of reading a magazine was the last thing that would cross your mind.
    The train from Mombasa rolled in. Two women stepped out of the train and stood uncertainly on the station platform. Their voices which could not have been heard a hundred feet away on the ground rose easily a hundred feet to the perch in the sky.
    Bless my soul,’ said one. ‘What a godforsaken place.’
    ‘Wonder how we get a taxi,’ said the other.
    They approached an African dozing on a bench.
    ‘Pardon me, how do we get to Kitani Safari Lodge?’
    The man opened sleepy eyes and waved his hand as if brushing away flies.
    ‘He doesn’t understand us. Dear me, what can we do?’
    Hal leaned over the edge of the basket. ‘I beg your pardon - can I help you?’
    The women stared at each other.
    ‘Who said that? Did you hear it?’
    ‘Someone speaking English.’
    They looked at the African on the bench. He was asleep. They looked all around.
    ‘I could swear—’
    ‘Don’t swear, lady,’ Hal said. ‘Look up.’
    They looked up and gave vent to their astonishment in a little scream.
    ‘Patricia, do you see what I see? A balloon. Of all things!’
    ‘It can’t be real.’
    ‘What are you doing up there, young