The Bridge in the Jungle Read Free Page A

here knowing about it. Tell me that. But he is so mean, the old man is, and so dirty in his soul, that's what he is. If I wasn't here looking out for his property, I can swear he wouldn't have a single cow left. But he himself is afraid to live here in the wilderness, because he is yellow, that's what he is.'
    'He must have money.'
    'Money, my eye. Who says money? I mean he hasn't much cash. It's all landed property and livestock. Only, you know, the trouble is there is nothing safe here any longer, no property, and cattle still less so. It's all on account of those bum agraristas, you know. Anyhow, I absolutely agree with you that you can easily shoot a hundred alligators here. Whole herds you can shoot if you go after them. There are old bulls among them that are stronger than the heaviest steer, and they are tough guys too, those giant alligator bulls. If one of them gets you, man, there isn't anything left of you to tell the tale. But, come to think of it, why don't we first go after a tasty antelope? '
    'Are there many antelope here too?' I asked.
    'Many isn't the right word, if you ask an old-timer. You just go into the bush over there. After walking say three hundred feet, you just take down your gun and shoot straight ahead of you. Then you walk again a hundred feet or so in the same direction and there you'll find your antelope stone dead on the ground, and more often than not you'll find two just waiting to be carried away. That's how it is here. I'll tell you what we can do. Stay here with me for a few days. Your alligators, down the river or up it, won't run away. They will wait with pleasure a few days longer for you to come along and get them. What day is it today? Thursday. Fine. You couldn't have selected a better day. My woman will be off tomorrow with the kids for a visit to her folks. I'll take them to the depot. Day after I'll be back again. From that day on we'll be all by ourselves here, and we can do and live as we like. The whole outfit and all the house will be ours. One of the girls of the neighbourhood will come over and do all the cooking and the housekeeping.'

3
    On Saturday morning Sleigh returned. In the meantime I had been fishing, with not much result.
    'Tonight there will be a dance,' Sleigh said. 'The party is to be on the other side of the river, on that square by the pump. It's the pump-master who has ordered music.'
    'Out of his own pocket?'
    'Of course. You see, it's this way: he has also ordered two cases of bottled beer and four cases of soda and lemonade from the general store at the depot. That's how he will get his money back for the music.'
    'How many musicians?'
    'One fiddler and one with a guitar.'
    'That music can't cost much.'
    'Certainly not. But he won't get rich on the beer and soda either. He'll make a little profit all right, which he deserves since he takes the risk of bringing the music out here.'
    The Indian girl Sleigh had talked about had come already and was busy about the house. Although she was hardly out of her baby shirt herself, she had with her a baby of her own.
    'The guy she got the brat from has left her,' Sleigh said.
    She was not a pretty girl; in fact, she was ugly.
    'It seems to me,' I said, 'that man saw her only at night or when he was drunk, so when he saw her for the first time by daylight or after he had sobered up, he got so sick that he couldn't help but run as far as his feet would carry him. Somehow, I think that girl should be grateful to the night when it happened. Without that dark night she might never have had a baby. Now, since she has one, it's not unlikely that another guy might get interested in her, believing her possessed of rare qualities which can't be seen from the outside.'
    Sleigh eyed me for a while with a quizzical look, as if he had to think out what I had just said. When he got the point or at least thought that he had caught up with it, he nodded and said: 'There is something in what you say. She certainly has had her fun.