Free 10 Gorilla Adventure by Willard Price Page B

Roger.
    Hal was amused by his young brother’s courage. ‘Well, if you can, go to it.’
    Roger called Joro. ‘I want to speak to the chief - privately - in his own house. Will you interpret?’
    Joro smiled and nodded. He did not think it strange for this fourteen-year-old boy to expect a private conference with a village chief. Roger had already won the respect of the crew by his single-handed capture of the gorilla and the white python.
    Joro introduced Roger to the chief, who looked at him curiously and a little impatiently because he did not care to be bothered by a boy when there were important matters waiting for his attention. He reluctantly consented and the three entered his house and closed the door.
    ‘Now, what is it?’ demanded the young headman. ‘I can’t give you much time.’
    Some fifteen minutes later they emerged from the house, the chief carrying a blanket. He came within ten feet of Tieg and threw the blanket at his feet.
    ‘You will remove your clothes,’ he ordered. ‘You will wear this instead.’
    Tieg glared at him. ‘I will do no such thing.’
    Hal said, ‘Mr Tieg, please do as he says.’
    Sulkily, Tieg drew the blanket around himself and slipped off his rags beneath it.
    ‘Now,’ said the new chief, ‘you will carry your clothes and put them on that scarecrow.’
    Tieg threaded his way through the crowd of feeding baboons and the people followed to watch him clothe the figure in the field.
    Immediately there was a commotion among the baboons. They stopped feeding and began to give signals of acute distress. Their sense of smell, more acute than man’s, was all the more tortured by this frightful stink that the civet used so effectively against all enemies from baboon to elephant.
    Chattering angrily, the baboons made off into the forest.
    The villagers roared with laughter and relief. Their new chief was pretty smart, after all.
    ‘Where did you pick up this smell?’ Roger asked Tieg. Tieg described the spot, the hollow stump, and the odoriferous cat.
    ‘Yes, yes,’ said the headman. ‘I know the place. And I know the ways of the spotted cat. The smell will not last for ever. When it is gone we can go back to the spotted cat for more.’
    The people were dancing in honour of their new chief, young in years, old in wisdom. The village medicine man led them in a chant praising their new leader who on his very first day rid them of the baboons that had troubled them for years. Truly, a great man.
    Roger was satisfied to leave it that way. He didn’t want the credit. Not that he didn’t like credit, but he thought it must be tough for a young fellow to take over the control of a village after it had been so well ruled for many years by his father. At such a moment the new man needed all the credit he could get.
    But how about Nero, the man whose gang had that day killed sixty gorillas in order to steal their babies?
    Hal expressed his disappointment that the fellow had not shown up. ‘I’d like to have told him what I think of him,’ he said to the ex-chief.
    ‘He was here,’ the old man said. ‘But when he saw you he went away.’
    ‘Why didn’t you tell me he was here?’
    ‘Because I didn’t want any fighting on this day when my son became chief.’
    Hal could understand that. ‘Perhaps you were right,’ he said. ‘But I’ll get him yet.’
    ‘Unless he gets you first,’ said the old man. ‘He won’t hesitate to do to you what he did to our sixty friends in the forest. Watch out for him.’
    Upon returning to camp, the first order of business was to feed Lady Luck, Snow White, and the two babies.
    The youngsters still clung to Roger’s shoulders.
    ‘There’s a cage about the right size for them on that Powerwagon,’ Hal said.
    But when the two little orphans were put into the cage they immediately began to wail.
    ‘They want their mother,’ Hal said. ‘And that’s you.’
    ‘You mean to imply that I’m an ape?’ Roger said.
    Hal looked him over