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Updated: July 22, 2025
Every kind of thorn-bush lay in wait for my skin, creepers tripped me up, high trees shut out the light, and I was in constant fear lest a black mamba might appear out of the tangle. It grew very hot, and the screes above the thicket were blistering to the touch. My tongue, too, stuck to the roof of my mouth with thirst.
"Did you ever upset in crossing here?" he asked. "Of course not!" replied the boatman, with a look of offended dignity. "Ha! then," continued Mamba, who quickly recovered his equanimity, "then you don't know what it is to feel the teeth of a crocodile?" "No, I don't, and hope I never shall. Did you?" "Oh yes," returned Mamba, "I have felt them."
I had no more pity for him than I would have had for a black mamba that had killed my friend and was now caught to a cleft tree. Nor, oddly enough, had Wake. If we had shot Ivery outright at St Anton, I am certain that Wake would have called us murderers. Now he was in complete agreement.
"Have you forgotten, Mamba, the law of your land that the criminal who looks upon the Queen is from that moment entitled to claim freedom? Ranavalona is to pass along this road in less than half-an-hour." Of course Mark said this in remarkably bad Malagasy, but Mamba understood.
At the same moment poor Mamba lost control of himself. He sprang to her side, put an arm round her waist, and shouted "This shall not be! I, too, am a praying man. Ye shall not touch her!" He glared fiercely round, and, for a moment, the soldiers did not dare to approach him, although he was totally unarmed. But they sprang on him from behind, and he was quickly overpowered by numbers.
To the great satisfaction of his friends the three pieces of skin were ejected, and Mamba, being pronounced innocent, had his fetters removed and was set free.
Meanwhile Mr Ellis made inquiries, visited the friend to whom he had been referred, and found that not only was Mamba a good and true man, but that many of his family "feared the Lord greatly." When, therefore, his anxious visitor returned very early the following morning, he was ready for him. "I am assured that you are a Christian, Mamba," he said, "as well as many of your kindred."
Then he let the old treasure go, and joyfully accepted the new, which, he said, he was going to carry back to his mother who greatly longed for it. Before retiring with it, however, he mentioned his friend the wood-cutter, whom Mr Ellis remembered well, and gladly gave another Testament to be taken back to him. Then, uttering expressions of fervent gratitude, Mamba left the house.
But in this Mamba was mistaken, as the sequel will show. Meanwhile Mark hurried back to the palace and told Rakota what had occurred. The Prince was not surprised. He had mingled much with the Christians, and knew well the spirit by which they were animated.
It was dark when Mamba arrived, and rather late; but he was too anxious to transact his "business" to wait till morning. Having ascertained where the missionary lived, he went there direct, and was ushered into his sitting-room. "You wish to converse with me," said Mr Ellis, in a kind voice, and in the native tongue, as he placed a chair for his visitor who, however, preferred to stand.
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