‘We’ll put on another show for you to-morrow,’ Francis Macomber said.
‘You’re not coming,’ Wilson said.
‘You’re very mistaken,’ she told him. ‘And I want so to see you perform again. You were lovely this morning. That is if blowing things’ heads off is lovely.’
‘Here’s the lunch,’ said Wilson. ‘You’re very merry, aren’t you?’
‘Why not? I didn’t come out here to be dull.’
‘Well, it hasn’t been dull,’ Wilson said. He could see the boulders in the river and the high bank beyond with the trees and he remembered the morning.
‘Oh, no,’ she said. ‘It’s been charming. And to-morrow. You don’t know how I look forward to to-morrow.’
‘That’s eland he’s offering you,’ Wilson said.
‘They’re the big cowy things that jump like hares, aren’t they?’
‘I suppose that describes them,’ Wilson said.
‘It’s very good meat,’ Macomber said.
‘Did you shoot it, Francis?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’
‘They’re not dangerous, are they?’
‘Only if they fall on you,’ Wilson told her.
‘I’m so glad.’
‘Why not let up on the bitchery just a little, Margot,’ Macomber said, cutting the eland steak and putting some mashed potato, gravy and carrot on the down-turned fork that tined through the piece of meat.
‘I suppose I could,’ she said, ‘since you put it so prettily.’
‘To-night we’ll have champagne for the lion,’ Wilson said. ‘It’s a bit too hot at noon.’
‘Oh, the lion,’ Margot said. ‘I’d forgotten the lion!’
So, Robert Wilson thought to himself, she is giving him a ride, isn’t she? Or do you suppose that’s her idea of putting up a good show? How should a woman act when she discovers her husband is a bloody coward? She’s damned cruel but they’re all cruel. They govern, of course, and to govern one has to be cruel sometimes. Still, I’ve seen enough of their damn terrorism.
‘Have some more eland,’ he said to her politely.
That afternoon, late, Wilson and Macomber went out in the motor car with the native driver and the two gun-bearers. Mrs. Macomber stayed in the camp. It was too hot to go out, she said, and she was going with them in the early morning. As they drove off Wilson saw her standing under the big tree, looking pretty rather than beautiful in her faintly rosy khaki, her dark hair drawn back off her forehead and gathered in a knot low on her neck, her face as fresh, he thought, as though she were in England. She waved to them as the car went off through the swale of high grass and curved around through the trees into the small hills of orchard bush.
In the orchard bush they found a herd of impala, and leaving the car they stalked one old ram with long, widespread horns and Macomber killed it with a very creditable shot that knocked the buck down at a good two hundred yards and sent the herd off bounding wildly and leaping over one another’s backs in long, leg-drawn-up leaps as unbelievable and as floating as those one makes sometimes in dreams.
‘That was a good shot,’ Wilson said. ‘They’re a small target.’
‘Is it a worth-while head?’ Macomber asked.
‘It’s excellent,’ Wilson told him. ‘You shoot like that and you’ll have no trouble.’
‘Do you think we’ll find buffalo to-morrow?’
‘There’s a good chance of it. They feed out early in the morning and with luck we may catch them in the open.’
‘I’d like to clear away that lion business,’ Macomber said. ‘It’s not very pleasant to have your wife see you do something like that.’
I should think it would be even more unpleasant to do it, Wilson thought, wife or no wife, or to talk about it having done it. But he said, ‘I wouldn’t think about that any more. Anyone could be upset by his first lion. That’s all over.’
But that night after dinner and a whisky and soda by the fire before going to bed, as Francis Macomber lay on his cot with the mosquito bar over him and listened to the night noises it was not all over. It was neither all over nor was it beginning. It was there exactly as it happened with some parts of it indelibly emphasized and he was miserably ashamed at it. But more than shame he felt cold, hollow fear in him. The fear was still there like a cold slimy hollow in all the emptiness where once his confidence had been and it made him feel sick. It was still there with him now.
It had started the night before when he had wakened and heard the lion roaring somewhere up along the river. It was a deep sound and at the end there were sort of coughing grunts that made him seem just outside the tent, and when Francis Macomber woke in the night to hear it he was afraid. He could hear his wife breathing quietly, asleep. There was no one to tell he was afraid, nor to be afraid with him, and, lying alone, he did not know the Somali proverb that says a brave man is always frightened three times by a lion; when he first sees his track, when he first hears him roar and when he first confronts him. Then while they were eating breakfast by lantern light out in the dining-tent, before the sun was up, the lion roared again and Francis thought he was just at the edge of camp.
‘Sounds like an old-timer,’ Robert Wilson said, looking up from his kippers and coffee. ‘Listen to him cough.’
‘Is he very close?’
‘A mile or so up the stream.’
‘Will we see him?’
‘We’ll have a look.’
‘Does his roaring carry that far? It sounds as though he were right in camp.’
‘Carries a hell of a long way,’ said Robert Wilson. ‘It’s strange the way it carries. Hope he’s a shootable cat. The boys said there was a very big one about here.’
‘If I get a shot, where should I hit him,’ Macomber asked, ‘to stop him?’
‘In the shoulders,’ Wilson said. ‘In the neck if you can make it. Shoot for bone. Break him down.’
‘I hope I can place it properly,’ Macomber said.
‘You shoot very well,’ Wilson told him. ‘Take your time. Make sure of him. The first one in is the one that counts.’
‘What range will it be?’
‘Can’t tell. Lion has something to say about that. Don’t shoot unless it’s close enough so you can make sure.’
‘At under a hundred yards?’ Macomber asked.
Wilson looked at him quickly.
‘Hundred’s about right. Might have to take him a bit under. Shouldn’t chance a shot at much over that. A hundred’s a decent range. You can hit him whenever you want at that. Here comes the Memsahib.’
‘Good morning,’ she said. ‘Are we going after that lion?’
‘As soon as you deal with your breakfast,’ Wilson said. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Marvellous,’ she said. ‘I’m very excited.’
‘I’ll just go and see that everything is ready,’ Wilson went off. As he left the lion roared again.
‘Noisy beggar,’ Wilson said. ‘We’ll put a stop to that.’
‘What’s the matter, Francis?’ his wife asked him.
‘Nothing,’ Macomber said.
‘Yes, there is,’ she said. ‘What are you upset about?’
‘Nothing,’ he said.
‘Tell me,’ she looked at him. ‘Don’t you feel well?’
‘It’s that damned roaring,’ he said. ‘It’s been going on all night, you know.’
‘Why didn’t you wake me,’ she said. ‘I’d love to have heard it.’
‘I’ve got to kill the damned thing,’ Macomber said, miserably.
‘Well, that’s what you’re out here for, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. But I’m nervous. Hearing the thing roar gets on my nerves.’
‘Well then, as Wilson said, kill him and stop his roaring.’
‘Yes, darling,’ said Francis Macomber. ‘It sounds easy, doesn’t it?’
‘You’re not afraid, are you?’
‘Of course not. But I’m nervous from hearing him roar all night.’
‘You’ll kill him marvellously,’ she said. ‘I know you will. I’m awfully anxious to see it.’
‘Finish your breakfast and we’ll be starting.’
‘It’s not light yet,’ she said. ‘This is a ridiculous hour.’
Just then the lion roared in a deep-chested moaning, suddenly guttural, ascending vibration that seemed to shake the air and ended in a sigh and a heavy, deep-chested grunt.
‘He sounds almost here,’ Macomber’s wife said.
‘My God,’ said Macomber. ‘I hate that damned noise.’
‘It’s very impressive.’
‘Impressive. It’s frightful.’
Robert Wilson came up then carrying his short, ugly, shockingly big-bored .505 Gibbs and grinning.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Your gun-bearer has your Springfield and the big gun. Everything’s in the car. Have you solids?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m ready,’ Mrs. Macomber said.
‘Must make him stop that racket,’ Wilson said. ‘You get in front. The Memsahib can sit back here with me.’
They climbed into the motor car and, in the grey first daylight, moved off up the river through the trees. Macomber opened the breech of his rifle and saw he had metal-cased bullets, shut the bolt and put the rifle on safety. He saw his hand was trembling. He felt in his pocket for more cartridges and moved his fingers over the cartridges in the loops of his tunic front. He turned back to where Wilson sat in the rear seat of the doorless, box-bodied motor car beside his wife, them both grinning with excitement, and Wilson leaned forward and whispered.
‘See the birds dropping. Means the old boy has left his kill.’
On the far bank of the stream Macomber could see, above the trees, vultures circling and plummeting down.
‘Chances are he’ll come to drink along here,’ Wilson whispered. ‘Before he goes to lay up. Keep an eye out.’
They were driving slowly along the high bank of the stream which here cut deeply to its boulder-filled bed, and they wound in and out through big trees as they drove. Macomber was watching the opposite bank when he felt Wilson take hold
