Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow [47]
�?" "What do you think?" he said. I couldn't bring myself to say much about it, but, hard as I fought my feelings, I couldn't submerge them--not on this particular day. I was visibly struggling with them. He said, "I captured Atti here." "Yes, with this same rig?" "And Gmilo captured Suffo." I said, "Take the advice of a �I know that I'm not much � But I think the world of you, Your Highness. Don't �" "Why, what is the matter with your chin, Mr. Henderson? It is moving up and down." I brought my upper teeth down on my lip. By and by I said, "Your Highness, excuse it. I'd rather cut my throat than demoralize you on a day like this. But does the thing have to be done from up here?" "It must." "Can't there be an innovation? I'd do anything, drug the animal � give him a Mickey �" "Thank you, Henderson," he said. I think his gentleness with me was more than I deserved. He didn't remind me in so many words that he was king of the Wariri. I soon reminded myself of this fact. He allowed me to be present--his companion. I must not interfere. "Oh, Your Majesty," I said. "Yes, Henderson, I know. You are a man of many qualities, I have observed," he said. "I thought maybe I fitted into one of your bad types," I said. At this he laughed somewhat. He was sitting cross-legged at the opening of the hut that faced the hopo and the cliff, and he began to enumerate, half musingly, "The agony, the appetite, the immune, the hollow, and all of that. No, I promise you, Henderson, that I have never classified you with a bad group. You are a compound. Maybe a large amount of agony. Maybe a small touch of the Lazarus. But I cannot fully subsume you. No rubric will fully hold you. Maybe because we are friends. One sees much more in a friend. Rubrics will not do with friends." "I had a little too much business with a certain type of creature for my own good," I said. "If I had it to do over again, it would be different." We sat on the shaky platform under the gold straw belfry of thatch. The light was finely grated on the floor. We crouched, waiting under the fibers and straw. The odor of plants came up on the air-blue heat in gusts, and because of my fever I had a feeling that I had found, in midair, a changing point between matter and light. I was watching it being carried from within and thought I saw crying and writhing outside. Not able to stand this sense of things, I got up and stepped on the pole the king was supposed to balance on. "What are you doing?" I was trying it out for him. I said, "I am checking on the Bunam." "You must not stand there, Henderson." My weight was bowing the wood, but there was no crackling, it was a very hard wood and I was satisfied by the test. I lifted myself back to the platform and we sat together, or crouched, outside the grass wall of the shelter on a narrow projection of the floor, almost within reach of the weighted trap which hung waiting. Opposite us was the cliff of gritty rock, and, following the line of it beyond the end of the hopo, over the heads of the waiting spearmen, I saw a sort of small stone building deep in the ravine. I hadn't noticed it before because in this ravine, or gorge, there was a small forest of cactuses which produced a red bud, or berry, or flower, and this partly blocked it from view. "Does somebody live there, below?" "No." "Is it abandoned? Used? In our part of the country, where farming has gone to hell, you come across old houses everywhere. But that's a crazy place for a residence," I said. The rope by which the cage or net was slung had been tied to the doorpost, and the king's head was resting against the knot. "It is not for living," he told me without glancing toward the building. A tomb? I thought. Whose tomb? "I think they are driving rapidly. Ah! Do you think you can see them? It is getting loud." He stood, and I did too, and shaded my eyes from the glare while I strained my forehead. "No, I don't see." "I neither, Henderson. This is the most hard part. I have waited all my life, and we are within the last hour." "Well, Your Highness," I said, "for you it should be easy. You have known these animals all your life. You are bred for this; you are a pro. If there's anything I love to see, it's a guy who's good at his work. Whether it's a rigger or steeplejack or window-washer or any person who has strong nerves and a skilled body