When the Lion Feeds by Wilbur Smith

Author:Wilbur Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Sagas, Historical, Action & Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9780312940669
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 1978-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

When The Lion Feeds

No, why be mean, ten Malay girls. I’ll have them dance for me, that’ll pass the time. I’ll promise them a sovereign each to bolster their enthusiasm.

He continued the search, but there was nothing else. Gumboots, socks, well-cut trousers, shirt torn I’m afraid, overalls, a tin hat, and that’s all. With his possessions laid out carefully beside him and his cell explored he had to start thinking. First he thought about his thirst. The mud in which he lay was too thick to yield water. He tried straining it through his shirt without success, and then he thought about air. It seemed quite A fresh and he decided that sufficient was filtering in from the loosely packed rock around him to keep him alive.

To keep him alive, alive until the thirst killed. Until he died curled up like a foetus in the warm womb of the earth. He laughed, a worm in a dark warm womb. He laughed again and recognized it as the beginnings of panick!

he thrust his fist into his mouth to stop himself, biting down hard on his knuckles. It was very quiet, the rock had stopped moving. How long will it take? Tell me, Doctor. How long have I got? I Well, you are sweating. You’ll lose moisture quite rapidly. I’d say about four days, he answered himself. What about hunger, Doctor? Oh, no, don’t worry about that, you, will be hungry, of course, but the thirst will kill you And typhoid, or is it typhus, I can never remember.

What about that, Doctor? If there were dead men trapped in here with you there’d be a good chance, but you’re alone, you know Do you think I’ll go mad, Doctor, not immediately, of course, but in a few days? Yes, you’ll go mad. I’ve never been mad before, not that I know of anyway, but I think it will help to go mad now, don’t you? If you mean, will it make it easier, well, I don’t know!

now you’re being obscure, but I follow you. You mean in that sleep of madness what dreams will come?

You mean, will madness be more real than reality? You mean, will dying mad be worse than dying thirsty? But then I may beat the madness. This cocoPan might buckle under the strain, after all there must be thousands of tons of rock bearing down on it. That’s quite clever, you know, Doctor; as a medical man you should appreciate it.

Mother Earth was saved but, alas, the child was stillborn, she bore down too hard. Sean had spoken aloud, and now he felt foolish. He picked up a piece of stone and tapped the cocopan with it. It sounds firm enough. A most pleasing noise, really. He beat harder on the metal body, one, two, three, one, two, three, then dropped the stone. Soft as an echo, distant as the moon, he heard his taps repeated. His whole body stiffened at the sound, and he started to shiver with excitement.

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