The day book. [volume], April 01, 1914, NOON EDITION, Image 20

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
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if all in his life worth having was fad
ing away from him.
"Is there no compensation?" she
sobbed, full of womanly pity and love.
"When you havegone away
none,"' he answered simply.
She lifted her face. Her eyes met
his own.
"I shall not go away," she said, and
buried her face upon his shoulder.
o-
ADVENTURING WITH A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE
(This is the third of a series of narratives related to Fred L. Boalt, our
special correspondent, by Aleck McNab, a soldier of fortune, now living in
Seattle, Wash.)
BY FRED L. BOALT
Seattle, Wash., April 1. "I saw a
fight last night (said Aleck McNab).
The victor strode away beating his
chest with a hairy fist. He reminded
me of my friend, the Missing Link.
"I doubt If you have ever seen a
gorilla.
"I shot a gorilla once, in self-defense.
He stood 6 feet 4 and weighed
450 pounds.
"Many's the time I've met them in
the forest, striding man-fashion on
their hind legs, with their wife bring
ing up the rear. Maybe there will be
a baby or two. Oh, the man-gorilla
is the lord of his family. A moral
chap, he takes one wife and keeps
her a lifetime.
"And under his left annus tucked
a stout cudgel when attack is feared.
At other times he gives the stick to
the wife to carry. And if she loiters
on the way, or is inattentive to her
babies, he will turn on her and box
her ears. You know married men
who are like that.
"But I was going to tell you about
a fight. I was with Maj. Powell-Cotton's
research expedition in Central
Africa in 1907. We were seeking
specimens for the Kensington mu
seum, London. We had come to the
Zambesi river.
"I was sitting by the bank with my
back to the bole of a tree, resting.
Looking across the river, I saw, op
posite and sitting exactly as I was, a
gorilla, his cudgel across his knees.
"I threw up my rifle to take a shot,
but Ma j-Po well-Cotton said:
" 'Don't shooij Watch.'
"We watched. The gorilla seemed
half asleep, "but his half-shut eyes
were on the river. The surface of
the water rippled. We saw the nose
of an alligator. The jungle is cruel,
my friend, and only the fit survive.
"The alligator was hungry, though
no such motive inspired that ex-
cellent actor, the Missing Link, who
lives on berries, as he watched the
enemy through half-shut eyes.
"When the alligator was close to
the shore, the cudgel slipped from
the gorilla's knees and he leaped.
"Twisting in mid-air, he came
down in shallow water astride the al
ligator's back. With hind legs grip
ping the 'gator as a jockey grips his
mount, the gorilla mark you, he
was bigger than Jack Johnson and
many times more muscular leaned
forward above those awful jaws,
caught them in his hands and
wrenched them wide apart. We could
hear the snapping of bones across the
river.
"The gorilla dragged the 'gator,
hors de combat, but not dead, to the
bank, seized his cudgel, and belabor
ed that tough and armored head until -life
was extinct.
"When the alligator was dead, the
gorilla called his wife and baby, who
had been hiding in the bush, spoke
to them, tucked his cudgel under his
arm, and with his family at his heels,
strode off through the forest.
"As he walked, he beat his great
chest with hairy paws. The booming
blows reached us, more and more
faintly, long after the Missing Link
was lost to view m the forest gloom."
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