But sticking to
business I merely asked:
"What sign?"
"Baas, this sign: That web is the Motombo's cave. The big spider is
the Motombo. The white moth is us, Baas, who are caught in the web and
going to be eaten."
"Very pretty, Hans," I said, "but what is the fish that came up and
swallowed the spider so that the moth fell on the wood and floated
away?"
"Baas, /you/ are the fish, who come up softly, softly out of the water
in the dark, and shoot the Motombo with the little rifle, and then the
rest of us, who are the moth, fall into the canoe and float away.
There is a storm about to break, Baas, and who will see you swim the
stream in the storm and the night?"
"The crocodiles," I suggested.
"Baas, I didn't see a crocodile eat the fish. I think the fish is
laughing down there with the fat spider in its stomach. Also when
there is a storm crocodiles go to bed because they are afraid lest the
lightning should kill them for their sins."
Now I remembered that I had often heard, and indeed to some extent
noted, that these great reptiles do vanish in disturbed weather,
probably because their food hides away.
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