Caesar & Hussein: Two Classic Novels from the Author of MASTER AND COMMANDER

Later in the day a diversion occurred in the form of a small grey monkey who had come in from one of the paddocks when the cages were being cleaned.

He had remained in the cage of a very old panther, who did not find him for some time. The monkey squeezed through the bars at the top of the cage and raced up and down the top of the other cages, until he came to the tank where a huge tame alligator was kept, almost opposite to me, where he missed his footing and fell. The alligator, who had been as still as a log all day, suddenly reared out of the water and caught the unfortunate monkey in mid-air.

It took several minutes for the pandemonium to die down again. Later on in the day I caught a large rat which was amongst my straw.

Ten (#ulink_eef2c0af-f3b7-5fbd-a794-e94b2ecbe311)

Six uneventful months passed, during which my master and I got to know each other very well. I for my part understood that he did not mean to hit me nor shoot me, and he was always very kind and fed me and cleaned my cage.

One day he came into my cage as usual and opened the door at the back. I went out, but instead of hearing the door close I turned round and saw to my surprise that he had followed me. In his hand was a large ball. ‘Here, Cæsar,’ he said (he always called me Cæsar). Thinking for a moment that it was alive, I pounced on it and caught it in my teeth. He seemed pleased, but when I began to worry it he made a noise and patted his knee.

He seemed to want something, but I could not quite understand what he meant, though I saw dimly that it was to do with the ball. He bent down and flicked his fingers, then in a flash I understood that he wanted the ball. Picking it up I took it to him and put it at his feet. He seemed pleased, and scratched me behind the ears, which I liked.

He took the ball again and rolled it to one corner of the enclosure, saying at the time, ‘Fetch it, Cæsar.’

Seeing that he wanted me to get it again, I went and fetched it, but I thought that he was rather foolish to throw it away if he really wanted to keep it. Then after we had done this for ten times he observed that I was getting tired of it, and he went in to clean the cage while I lay in the sun pretending to be asleep, but really watching a large lizard creeping along in the grass. Its beady little black eyes were taking in everything. As soon as it came near enough I suddenly shot out my paw, but of course I was not nearly quick enough, and almost too quickly for my eye to follow, the lizard had darted across the enclosure and out between the bars, leaving only a little dust and its tail behind it.

I went back into the cage and saw that my master was tying the ball so that it was suspended about three feet from the floor. After he had gone I happened to bang against it, and seeing it swing as if it were alive, I turned to look at it and it hit me on the nose. I struck at it but it swung just out of my reach. I kept on patting it for some time, then I went to sleep for a while, but some mosquitoes woke me up. Feeling bored I patted at the ball again, just to see it swing, and back it came, and I pretended it was a living animal and growled at it.

On the back swing it seemed to be running away and I patted it again, this time from the side, and it went round on a circular course, like a bird; in fact, I was having quite a game with it when my master came back with my food and water, which was rather late. He also had a specially tasty little piece of meat, which I took from his hand as usual. Nearly every day for some months he had brought me some special thing, and on every seventh day a pig — a whole pig.

I started playing with the ball again, and I was amazed to find how fat and out of condition I was. In fact, after about half an hour’s exercise I was quite tired and perspiring freely. However, it did me good, for I slept better that night than on any other occasion.

Next morning I was a little stiff, but with a fine appetite. Soon my master came and we went out into the paddock together. He had another ball, which he threw to me as before. In a short time we were having quite a game with it. He pretended to throw it one way and threw it another. I pretended to be very angry and growled. In the end I unfortunately bit the ball in two. So he went in to clean my cage.

While he was doing this a small bird settled on the ground near me, and I tried to catch it but I was too slow. Then I saw how fat I was really getting, and I decided to exercise my body more by means of the ball. So when I got into my cage about half an hour later I knocked the ball about quite energetically, and by midday I had invented a game. I stood on the side of a crack in the stone floor of my cage and the ball hung just over it, and if on the back swing it got past me, it had escaped — if not, I had caught it.

During the next three weeks I learned how to bring the ball when I was told. We had long games with the ball sometimes, and I became very adept at catching it. As the days wore on I began to look forward to the time when he came to feed me, and I was quite anxious if he was late; and I also became so used to my cage and ready-killed food that I hardly believed that I was the same panda, who could pull down a water buffalo and think nothing of it. I do not believe that if at the time I had been set free I could have supported myself comfortably.

One day when I was in my paddock, as the door had been left open all day, the air suddenly became colder and the sky dark, and I had a horrible feeling that something terrible was going to happen. The other animals who were also in their paddocks (as their cages were being cleaned) seemed very frightened. The bear next to me started running round and round uttering a curious whimpering noise, and on the other side the ape was leaping about and chattering as if demented. Everything was as still as death, not a breeze enough to move the aspen trees on the path outside, and not a sound other than that of the animals. Then all at once the sun seemed to go out like a dead firefly and a chill that sent a shiver down my back came with its going. Now all the animals were quiet and not even a gnat buzzed, and in the distance I heard a dog howling. One would have thought that the world was dead.

In a few minutes my master came out, and after looking up to the sky for a few moments he came over to me and put his hand over my eyes and stroked me. I was badly frightened and trembling, so I snuggled my head under his arms, and he said in an even voice: ‘Keep calm, old boy — it’s only an eclipse.’

I did not know what he meant, but anyhow it was very soothing. In a few minutes after that the sun seemed to light up again.

Eleven (#ulink_eb51d52d-733f-51af-923c-cb21f88273ec)

So far I have only mentioned the pleasant side of my life in captivity, but there was quite another side.

Can you imagine the utter dreariness of the long hours between the times when my master came and fed me and the night? If so, you will be able to understand my intense hatred for all men, except my master and a few others.

Men had taken me from my home, from the jungle with its infinite variety of life and colour, and had put me in a cage with bars and a cold stone floor. A paddock or small plot of withered grass was my jungle and the barred cage was my lair.

For a flowing stream to drink from I had a small stone trough, and instead of the pleasure of tracking, stalking and then killing my prey, I was given at a regular time every day a smelly, stale and bony lump of flesh with no blood in it.

That which I missed most of all was the killing of my own food. It is true that I was always given enough. But what could compensate for the thrill of the charge, and then the last wild gallop before I reached its neck and it fell dead? What could rival the warm blood and juicy meat of which I was particularly fond?

However, on the whole I was not too unhappy, and the ball which had been hung up was a great consolation, and in a few weeks I knew every curl that it would make.

My dislike of the brown man who cleaned the other cages grew in intensity as time wore on.

One day after my master had fed me and cleaned my cage this little hyena of a man came with a long slender stick of bamboo and tormented me with it. In vain I tried to catch it and crush it to pieces, for I could not move with any rapidity in the tiny space I had, and he lashed me again and again with it, laughing all the time. I hated that mocking laugh, which was as if a hyena had got into a man’s body.

At another time he snatched my pig from my cage, having driven me into a corner with a spiked iron rod. As I have said, my master brought me a pig every seven days, and I looked forward to this as they were always very fresh and tender. Besides, I had always been very partial to pig.

At another time he purposely upset my water, so that it ran out of the cage. He always did these things after my master had gone, so as not to be found out. I was always hoping that my master would come back and catch him.

As the months drew into a year I became very attached to my master, who seemed to understand me and I him. He also seemed to know how I felt and behaved accordingly. For instance, if I was feeling poorly he would sit down and stroke me quietly behind the ears and talk to me; or if I was full of spirits we sometimes pretended to fight. It began by my refusing to give up the ball with which we often played, and then he pretended to be very angry and rolled me over on my back; and I roared and snarled as if I would eat him, while he rolled me over and over as if I was a little cub. As for hurting him, I would have perished before doing so.

He taught me to obey him and, among other things, to carry and fetch, and to even leave my food when he told me. I could not understand why he made me do this, but there was a reason.

One day he brought into my cage a steel chain and a collar of thick leather. The leather collar had a leather buckle which fixed it to the chain. He opened it and calling me to him fastened it round my neck, and we went out into the paddock where he fastened the chain to it.

At first I disliked it, but within two weeks I had become quite accustomed to it. He also trained me to stay still and not move until he called me.

One day when he had finished the cleaning of my cage he fastened the chain on as usual, but instead of going out into the paddock, to my great surprise he opened the cage door and led me out. At first I did not like to come, but when he said ‘Come on, Cæsar,’ and tugged the chain, I jumped down to the floor by his side.

How curious it was to feel different ground under one’s feet, for in one year I had grown to know every stone in the floor in my cage and almost every blade of grass in the paddock.

My master led me down the passage between the cages, and out at the entrance and through two rooms, and out into a large enclosure in which there was a large stretch of green, very short-cropped grass. The walls of this paddock were made of brick, and they were about ten feet high. At the foot of each of these walls there was a space in which the earth had been turned up and flowers were growing in orderly rows.

I wondered how they got there, and I came to the conclusion that the ants must have put them there, for the ants are very fond of going about together in lines. Also I had seen when turning over an ant-hill in search of a rat that the ants had several of the small things from which the plants grow stored up.

I did not have much time to wonder, however, before my master said, ‘Here, Cæsar — meet my wife,’ and turning I saw a female who evidently was my master’s mate. I growled at her.

But he stopped me and said, ‘Down, old boy.’

The female was without fear, and put her hand on my head, and at once I felt that she was friendly towards me. My master said, ‘This is your mistress, Cæsar,’ so hereafter I shall call her my mistress. Then my master took the chain from my collar and the ball from his pocket, with which we had a fine game in which they threw it from one to the other and I tried to catch it.

After we had finished my mistress sat down and made a great fuss of me. I saw that my master was pleased so I permitted her to stroke me to her heart’s content. Besides, it saved me the trouble of a wash. Soon he put the chain on me again and we went back to the cage.

After he had gone the native whom I hated came with his bamboo rod. Inserting this through the bars he suddenly hit me on the nose. The blow stung and I roared. This is what he wanted, and, laughing, he struck at me again.

Leaping to the back of the cage I observed that my master had left his hat on the floor. The man had not seen this, however, and continued to torment me, while I hoped against hope that my master would come back for it.

Soon I saw the door open as he entered and, roaring, I hurled myself against the bars to attract his attention. Just then the wretched man gave me a particularly vicious crack.

In a few strides he reached the man, and seizing him by the shoulder, he said in a quiet tone: ‘What is the meaning of this?’

The man said something which I did not catch. My master with great speed drew back his fist and dealt the man a blow on the jaw, knocking him off his feet into a corner. I thought that my master would now kill him, but he let the man lie. Then he came into my cage, and after giving me the cane, which I tore to fragments, and stroking me, he took his hat and left.

Soon after this two natives came and took my tormentor away, who was almost stupefied but had just enough energy to shake his fist at me as he was taken away.

Next day another native cleaned the cages out, but he kept clear of me, to my very great content.

Twelve (#ulink_6977ebf6-f42e-548a-a670-55c8a7025fbf)

A few days later my master took me into the garden again, where I saw his two young children, which were quite like him, only very small. They smelt the same. I was very proud that he should trust me so much and determined not to hurt them, for evidently he liked them, though they would have made a tender and juicy meal.