Looking
at this prostrate trunk, I saw first two lurid and fiery eyes that
glowed red in the shadow; and then, almost in the same instant, made
out what looked like the head of a fiend enclosed in a wreath of the
delicate green ferns. I can't describe it, I can only repeat that it
looked like the head of a very large fiend with a pallid face, huge
overhanging eyebrows and great yellow tushes on either side of the
mouth.
Before I had even time to get the rifle up, with one terrific roar the
brute was on us. I saw its enormous grey shape on the top of the
trunk, I saw it pass me like a flash, running upright as a man does,
but with the head held forward, and noted that the arm nearest to me
was swinging as though broken. Then as I turned I heard a scream of
terror and perceived that it had gripped the poor Mazitu, Jerry, who
walked last but one of our line which was ended by Mavovo. Yes, it had
gripped him and was carrying him off, clasped to its breast with its
sound arm. When I say that Jerry, although a full-grown man and rather
inclined to stoutness, looked like a child in that fell embrace, it
will give some idea of the creature's size.
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