For
example, once an old fakir, whom I had cured of a badly ulcerated
limb, came up just as I was starting on a shooting expedition.
"'Do not go out today,' he said. 'I foresee evil for you. I saw
you last night brought back badly wounded.'
"'But if I don't go your dream will come wrong,' I said.
"He shook his head.
"'You will go in spite of what I say,' he said; 'and you will
suffer, and others too;' and he looked at a group of shikaris, who
were standing together, ready to make a start.
"'How many men are there?' he said.
"'Why, six of course,' I replied.
"'I see only three,' he said, 'and three dull spots. One of those
I see is holding his matchlock on his shoulder, another is examining
his priming, the third is sitting down by the tire. Those three will
come back at the end of the day; the other three will not return
alive.'
"I felt rather uncomfortable, but I wasn't, as I said to myself--
I was a good deal younger then, my dear--such a fool as to be
deterred from what promised to be a good day's sport by such nonsense
as this; and I went.
"We were going after a rogue elephant that had been doing a lot of
damage among the natives' plantations. We found him, and a savage
brute he turned out to be. He moved just as I fired, and though I
hit him, it was not on the fatal spot, and he charged right down
among us. He caught the very three men the fakir said were doomed,
and dashed the life out of them; then he came at me.
Pages:
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175