"Haggard, H Rider- Hunter Quatermain's Story" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haggard H. Rider)

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said at last, with a shake of his grizzled
head, "I am very sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot do it. It is
this way. At the request of Sir Henry and Captain Good I have written
down a true and plain account of King Solomon's Mines and how we found
them, so you will soon be able to learn all about that wonderful
adventure for yourselves; but until then I will say nothing about it,
not from any wish to disappoint your curiosity, or to make myself
important, but simply because the whole story partakes so much of the
marvellous, that I am afraid to tell it in a piecemeal, hasty fashion,
for fear I should be set down as one of those common fellows of whom
there are so many in my profession, who are not ashamed to narrate
things they have not seen, and even to tell wonderful stories about
wild animals they have never killed. And I think that my companions in
adventure, Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, will bear me out in what
I say."

"Yes, Quatermain, I think you are quite right," said Sir Henry.
"Precisely the same considerations have forced Good and myself to hold
our tongues. We did not wish to be bracketed with--well, with other
famous travellers."

There was a murmur of disappointment at these announcements.

"I believe you are all hoaxing us," said the young lady next Mr.
Quatermain, rather sharply.

"Believe me," answered the old hunter, with a quaint courtesy and a
little bow of his grizzled head; "though I have lived all my life in
the wilderness, and amongst savages, I have neither the heart, nor the
want of manners, to wish to deceive one so lovely."

Whereat the young lady, who was pretty, looked appeased.

"This is very dreadful," I broke in. "We ask for bread and you give us
a stone, Mr. Quatermain. The least that you can do is to tell us the
story of the tusks opposite and the buffalo horns underneath. We won't
let you off with less."

"I am but a poor story-teller," put in the old hunter, "but if you
will forgive my want of skill, I shall be happy to tell you, not the
story of the tusks, for that is part of the history of our journey to
King Solomon's Mines, but that of the buffalo horns beneath them,
which is now ten years old."

"Bravo, Quatermain!" said Sir Henry. "We shall all be delighted. Fire
away! Fill up your glass first."

The little man did as he was bid, took a sip of claret, and began:--
"About ten years ago I was hunting up in the far interior of Africa,