Caesar & Hussein: Two Classic Novels from the Author of MASTER AND COMMANDER. Patrick O’Brian

who was saying, ‘I tell you the beast is not safe. It will be escaping some day and eating somebody.’

      Then I jumped down from the tree to meet my mistress, who always made a fuss of me. The old man let out a bellow like a bull buffalo in pain and disappeared with remarkable speed, leaving a cloud of dust.

      My mistress appeared a little flustered at first by her guest’s curious behaviour, but just then my master reappeared, and they talked together, and then they both laughed, and my master and I went to the horse, which was getting impatient, and then we went out on to the plain.

      This time, however, luck seemed to have deserted us, for in a whole day we sighted only one antelope, and I bungled the stalking of it so badly that it was able to get down-wind of me, and it was off at once.

      I thought that I could run it down and set off after it, but I failed dismally, and after I had gone nearly a mile at top speed, and in the end had lost it, I turned and went back to my master, who consoled me with a large piece of the meat which he was eating from a bag.

      It had an extraordinary taste, rather interesting, but like no animal that I had ever killed, and there was no blood in it at all. I afterwards found out that men have a curious way of putting their meat over a fire and destroying its delightful original flavour by many quaint devices. Why they did this I could never discover.

      Then after the midday siesta we searched for game and followed up many trails but with no success. At last we heard a frightful noise coming from behind a small hill about half a mile distant.

      We reached it in a few minutes. Meanwhile the extraordinary noises increased in volume. They mystified and frightened me, and I was wondering what strange beast this might be which howled so horribly, when suddenly we came upon a white man squatting in front of a box which gave out these terrible roars and whines. The beast was evidently imprisoned within it.

      The man was not in the least disconcerted by our sudden appearance and continued to belch out smoke from his mouth at intervals. Then he said to my master in a curious kind of voice: ‘Say Bo — taking the cat out for a run?’

      My master laughed and they talked for a little while.

      Then he tethered the horse, and together they went over to a kind of cart which was standing about twenty feet away.

      Up to this time I had been so utterly petrified with amazement that I had stood perfectly still by the horse, but then the animal in the box gave a particularly violent and high-pitched howl which hurt my ears, so I roared at it to silence it.

      My master laughed and then said to the man: ‘I’m afraid Cæsar has no ear for radio music.’

      Then the stranger came over to the box and either killed the beast within it or something.

      Then my master and the stranger began to do something to the cart. At first I thought that the man had lost the bullock for his cart, but when it suddenly gave out a menacing roar I altered my opinion and roared back at it, thoroughly frightening the horse, who plunged and kicked till my master came over and calmed him.

      Soon after this we left the man to his roarings and howling companion and went homeward. Before we had got far, however, I heard the cart give a violent roar which I answered, but it easily outroared me, and it never seemed to pause for breath. When I began another roar my master stopped me by saying, ‘Perhaps motor-cars don’t agree with you, Cæsar – but you needn’t tell the whole world about it.’

       Fifteen

      For the next months we did a lot of hunting with various success, mostly the smaller antelopes, who sometimes came quite near the house.

      Once I killed a small Nilgai or blue bull, after a struggle in which I got rather nastily gored, but my master intervened and shot the creature with his revolver.

      During this time I saw quite a lot of his children. They grew rapidly, and I liked them almost as if they were my own cubs. But one day I missed them, all except the smallest, and then I remembered having seen them start on a journey.

      My master seemed rather silent and sad after they had gone, and when my mistress and the youngest went a week after he became quite melancholy, and spent most of his time with the horse and with me, sometimes going great distances up to the mountains, where I caught some fine ibex and bharals and we saw some red pandas.

      My master always appeared very surprised at the way I could follow even the fastest in this very rocky and dangerous country, but I thought it was scarcely surprising. Most of my food during my life had been derived from mountain goats and wild sheep, so that I was adept at hunting them.

      Speaking of red pandas, I have seen many more of them than of my own type, which is so much larger than they are.

      Besides, who would have a silly red coat instead of a clean white one, with such fine black ears?

      My indignation was great when my master caught and tried to tame a nasty smelly red panda, spending quite a lot of time with it instead of with me.

      However, one day it poked its head through the bars and made foolish noises at me, trying to make friends, no doubt. But, to punish its impudence, I bit its head right off, and so stopped its idiotic chauntering.

      My master was very angry and took no notice of me for three days, but I had the satisfaction of knowing that he could no longer like the red panda.

      As I have said, my mother was a very large snow-leopard, and this accounts for the fact that I was growing so very large. Also, my legs, unlike those of most great pandas, were growing quite long, and I could run very fast.

      About this time the spring was coming on and my summer coat was growing. I noticed a lot of blackish spots on my new fur which I thought greatly enhanced my appearance.

      A week after I killed the red panda my master took me out hunting again. This time we went on for four days right up to the foothills of the great range of mountains, which I had seen from my cave and which was about eighty miles to the west.

      After we had stayed there for two days, hunting sha and bharal, we ascended half-way up the nearest of the mountains. It was hardly a mountain, but really only a large foothill, being the top of a long ridge, which extended right and left, before we came to the real heights. We left the horse tethered near the tent in which my master always slept.

      On reaching that part of the mountain where the snow always lay I killed an ibex, which my master skinned and cut up, putting the very best pieces into his knapsack and giving me the rest. Then we went still higher up, and I noticed my master was breathing with difficulty. So we stopped, and after looking all round at the vast extent of land below us, we began to descend. I stayed behind, finishing the last pieces of the ibex, and after a few minutes my master turned and called me.

      He did not appear to be able to see me until I moved, and for the first time I saw the use of my white coat, which made me quite invisible against the snow. After about two hours we reached the horse, which was feeding on some of the scanty grass which was the vegetation. He was pleased to see us, and, as he had broken his rope, he trotted up to my master, who patted his neck, and I felt rather jealous but did not show it.

      When night fell my master made a fire and cooked the pieces of ibex in a pot full of melted snow.

      Then next morning he put the tent down and we all ascended the mountain side. The horse was a lot of trouble, but at last we got about half-way up. He put the tent up again behind a huge boulder where there was no snow. It was hard for him to fix the tent pegs, but at last he found a patch of ground with a little grass on it.

      Soon he had a fire on the bare rock, where he cooked some more of the ibex, some of which he gave to me.

      Later