Under the foreleg of an elephant

It had been strong gunlight the night before, the men of the village were also convinced that there were elephants somewhere nearby had to be, even if it was early in time.

What flickers there every now and then in the sky, silently, without any rumbling, after all, is the reflection of the ivory of the elephant bulls. But no traces had yet been found in the immediate vicinity; although there are reports from the oeloe, the upper reaches of the river, that the elephants had shown themselves earlier than usual this year.

In the early morning a small boy lifted a fishing trap, which the river bank was positioned several kilometres upstream from the village, and he walked home with the loot with a vengeance. But suddenly he dropped the fish and ran back to the village... on the path near in the river he had seen the smoking "calling card" of an elephant lie, the dung balls, the size of a baby's head, which the presence of the Great Ones of the forest betrayed. Still steaming! how close so he was the animal, perhaps passed a herd.

Now they warned each other, quickly all the fences of the construction sites were thoroughly inspected again. Against the wild pig, the greatest enemy of the native farmer, one can suffice with a dense, low hedge; and if a ditch is dug on the outside dug with steeply cut edges, the plantings are safe for the grunting rooter. But in the elephant's ways it is a matter of to make fences high and heavy. Now they made the rampart even thicker of heavy branches and stumps; these were the remains of what some months ago there was still heavy forest, cut down after the rainy season and in the dry monsoon burned off as much as possible, after which the humus-rich soil the grain of rice can receive.

An old, wiry woman who lived on the very edge of the kampong and who had come to stand outside the worldly fuss, had of the warning noticed nothing; she shuffled her daily walk to the edge of the forest to gather some wood, the lonely man could still carry that. There, immediately after their marriage, she and her husband also had a ladang had a rice field so fertile that they could cultivate it for three years in a row had had a good harvest. And they had had so much of it last year durian seeds were planted, that a heavy durian forest had grown up, so that the younger generation would have spared this land. Or the the first fruits had already fallen off? Then the grandchildren had to get one quickly build a hut and keep watch there, because everyone is crazy about durians, people and animals, and they bring in a lot of money at the market.

Truly, by that trunk, among the bushes that had sprung up everywhere, lay already a large, yellowing fruit; fortunately, it is not yet the elephant time was, the huge thorns, which gave the fruit its name borrows, are no objection for these animals.

Just as the old man's hand reached out for the desirable fruit, the air, past the tree, something like a lead-colored giant snake came down, and when she looked up, she saw the elephant's trunk mischievous eyes smiled falsely, and she saw another animal and another... she had walked calmly into the middle of a herd.

Not only mad fear, but also rage because the durian is killing her was contested, gave the old man the strength and inspiration to a grim, bellowing scream. The elephants shawm in shrill thunder back, so that the playing children in the kampong were startled and the the barking and bickering of the gladak farmers fell silent for a moment. But the nasty bellowing was too much for them, and they quietly hobbled away to quieter places places.

Old Karim, the great hunter of this region, inspected that day his arsenal. The gunpowder magazine was still well stocked; from the barrel of gunpowder, which was given to the administrative official by the district head was provided for the extermination of harmful animals, Karim was allotted no less than two bottles full, and he had they buried them carefully in the ground; that gunpowder was good and not expensive, because it came from the military stock, at the request of the controller; in the old days, when one had to try to get it done underhandedly, the natives were severely deposed by the Chinese or Malays traders. Things weren't going so well with his bullets. In the bag, hanging brown and smoked on the kitchen wall, Karim found only three bullets that fit in his muzzle loader; also a few iron nuts and bolts, which he had taken over from a water board worker when he had sold a young bear "in town" who was in a deer snare was lost. Those bolts were very good to make a to shoot a sleeping tiger in the heart, but for the They were no good at wearing an elephant's one-centimeter armor.

“Father,” said his son Oesoef, “you must meet the new gentleman of Tambang [16] ask for some more bullets, he still hopes that you will If you ever shoot an elephant, he will certainly give it to you.”

"Hi! You said something. We'll go to Tambang and sir warn that there are elephants, I had to promise him; I then I will certainly give you my pointed bullets, and perhaps the gentleman can come along now; If he can shoot a bull, I will get a good present.”

“Father, you have three bullets left, let us go and see for ourselves first; if you shoot a big bull, without sir, still the full value of the teeth for us alone.”

And so they set out together the next morning. But the troop was startled in a strange way, only after three days of following the tracks followed, deep into the mountains, Karim and his son heard the familiar roars of joy and falling trees... the overture to almost every hunting adventure in which man and elephant play a role. They stalked the troop, not to shoot immediately; a native hunter knows very well well what chances he runs if he uses his front loader as openly attacking. They were looking for a heavy, climbable tree out and waited, spying on a safe branch. They struck it, the troop passed a short distance below them, they counted six cows and a mature but young bull with little ivory; pleasant flapping their ears and making deep, internal noises, the group strolled along slowly forward. When the forest was quiet again, the hunters let themselves slide down; Karim was very disappointed, such a bull was not worth the effort worth.

"We will cut off their path again Usoef, perhaps we have not seen the whole troop.”

They quickly moved on in a long, roundabout way to get ahead of the herd. The animals walked down a spur of the mountain, along a fairly deep ravine. It was obvious to descend into this ravine, the climb the opposite slope again and continue towards the other side to follow parallel to the one in which the herd was walking; they could there walk faster without startling the elephants.

But the descent into the ravine had to be done as quietly as possible, it could be that the herd was still nearby.

Like shadows the men glided down the slope on their nimble, bare feet off, every dead branch had to be avoided, only non-swaying trees served as support during the descent. The bed of the ravine, where a stream splashed over heavy boulders, there was heavy bamboo at that spot overgrown. They rested for a moment in the shade, and they took a deep breath hand the cool water to the gasping mouth. Both were silent, the water clattered from stone to stone and the sound reverberated in the dense leaf of the curved bamboo tops that closed off the sky.

But what was that? A rustling in the bamboo against the soon to be climbing slope, the silence broke; there moved an animal, that apparently stood motionless waiting to understand the meaning of the light to understand sounds from across the ravine, but now again was reassured.

Then a thunderous, crackling shot rattled through the dark silence, a bamboo broken with tremendous force.

“Yes, Allah!” groaned Usuf softly; he saw that his father had turned pale, grabbed his rifle and beckoned him to join him behind a large boulder to hide. So they waited. The noise grew louder, the bamboos splashed, and then ten yards away they saw a gigantic elephant, with heavy yellow teeth, ambling towards the water, a lone wolf, expelled from the troop by the new, young leader. Escape was impossible; besides, Karim soon got over the first shock above and he saw his chance.

An experienced European hunter would be completely dominated by the fearful Question: Am I under the wind? But native hunters realize not, what an important factor this is, and they pay attention to it in the apparently completely windless forest does not, because they do not know hoc the smell of an elephant is nice. Karim only speculated on the bad eyes of the animal, and he could do this now in peace, because the airflow in the ravine happened to be favorable. When the solitaire was to drink, Karim moved along the large stone block; he aimed long, on one of the animal's wrists; to be tested with a shot from hitting his muzzle loader in the brain would waste gunpowder and for them be life-threatening; the wrist is more vulnerable, and if only managed to cripple an elephant so much that he could hardly walk can drag on, then one can punch him in the wrist again and again shoot until he becomes easy prey.

The muzzleloader thundered, and silently the terrified giant sank down; but immediately he rose again and fled; not quickly, however, because one leg was dragging. The hunters looked at each other beamingly, but they did not speak, this cruel game had to be carefully repeated, it was going so well.

In two days, Karim shot his three bullets into the same wrist. But yet the animal dragged itself down the mountain, climbing was not for it more possible.

And when he still didn't stay down, Karim had to decide to to bring in Mr. van Tambang. He had now been given claims on this elephant with his beautiful teeth; he could safely leave him, he couldn't go very far anymore, and others would have pushed him so deep into the bosch cannot be found.

They returned to the kampong, and two days later the gentleman S. op Tambang a visit from Karim, the hunter.

“When Usoef and I were in the forest, we met him. I thought about you and gave him three shots in the wrist, and then I left you going to warn you immediately. If you could go now, and I can come along your car, then we can drive to Kampoeng Ramboetan, and tomorrow we will bring I will take you along a forest path to the elephant in the fastest way. He can “almost unable to walk anymore.”

“Where is Usuf?”

“He got a fever last night, we came home late because I was so quick possibly wanted to be with you. I think that the fatigue and the fear of his first encounter with an elephant did it for him. I have “You left him at home, but you will certainly take someone else with you?”

Yes, the gentleman from Tambang thought so too. He also knew that a native hunter reluctant to go on an adventure alone with a white man. He feels responsibility, and one can never know what might happen.

“We will take Mandoer Amat with us, Karim, so he can also help us out cooking; he can do anything, even though he is an old man.”

Karim and Oesoef led the troop through the difficult terrain followed; for S. he now chose the route via Rambutan, much longer if one had to walk, but by car a significant reduction.

The night was spent in Rambutan. In the early morning hours, the first heavy rain of the season, the prelude to the long rainy season. When the sun rose, the raindrops sparkled on the leaves, a lovely, fresh morning, a good start. S. took his heavy Mauser carbine on the shoulder, Amat and Karim each had a load of clothes, food, some plates and cooking utensils.

The path along the river led through a young forest, which at regular intervals times was crossed by elephants; in the last week, so had the villagers were told that no more troop had shown up here.

On S., who had only been to Sumatra for a short time, and had never been after elephants been, the impressions which an elephant area has on it were sharply worked in a newcomer makes. The tangle of wide, beautiful paths in the rough of the wilderness; the improbably heavy, broken trees; the remains of torn strips of tree bark, which are eaten while walking and the indicate the direction of the eater; the incredible height of chafing spots on slanting trees, it's all so different from the usual peace in the forest, so great that it feels like something, that must have happened in times long past, something that one will never experience it myself. But then there is the evidence of the real, of what recently happened, the dung balls. And here, in this terrain, they were in kinds, large and small, of older and younger formation. A recent visit was evidenced by the dung balls in which paddy grains had sprung up as if on a nursery bed, it was clear, that an attack had been made on the rice barns near the kampong. Sometimes these are completely destroyed, sometimes neatly pumped out again through a hole, that an elephant bumps into one of the bamboo walls. There are elephants that make it a special sport; once a bull made a mistake; a woman, who was working in her kitchen, suddenly saw a heavy to push an elephant's tooth through the wall.

The gentleman from Tambang looked surprised at the spherical to look at rice growing beds.

“You may find this strange, but look at this,” said Karim.

In a place where a troop had apparently rested, there was a pile of manure of old date; from the ball remains young mangoes shot up, and from that place, into the forest, there was a trail of young mango trees everywhere.

“But Karim, how is it possible that there is so much manure?”

“Yes sir, it is always like that. The elephants have such big bodies, that they contain enormous quantities of leaf and bark and fruit have to eat, and the fibers do not digest and remain for a long time. We will have a look along the way to see if there are any colored dung balls; we can often tell which leaves they have eaten.”

They now left the younger forest and entered the primeval forest. The gentleman Van Tambang inhaled the forest air deeply; he enjoyed the forest, of the stories of the old hunter with his venerable face and his bright, clever eyes.

“Let us sit for a moment on this fallen tree trunk and tell me more “tell us in detail what you know about our elephant.”

"I can't tell you anything more than I've already done. Oh yes, I told you still don't see the marks of his teeth in the tebing? Near the place where he broke out of the bamboo forest was on the side of the ravine a small landslide, so that a perpendicular piece of wall had been created, we say a tebing. After he ran away from my first shot, we discovered in that tebing the traces of one of his teeth, I could I can easily fit my forearm into the hole, his teeth are so heavy.”

“Why do elephants dig such holes in the ground?”

“We say that they practice pushing like that, they do it too during the mating season, they are very wild, maybe they do it in angry moods; surely you've seen it often from bulls, how they turn the ground with their horns.”

Karim grabbed his foot, a jumping leech had landed on the walk fixed between his toes.

“Look,” he said, “do you see that over there?”

In front of S.'s feet, among the leaves on the ground, stood two leeches upright, still thin, so hungry and yearning for human blood; the foot firmly sucked, the rest of the black line waving, waving, wildly searching for the right direction to the fel coveted prey. One suddenly knew, and in a few steps had he bit the edge of the shoe. More came, hastily, from several sides, different in color and thickness, all looking like yearning to suck ten times thicker human blood.

“Karim, you know so much, what do those animals eat when they don't have to get human blood; almost all the jungles must be full of it are and how few people come there. After all, they never sit on wild animals?”

“No, toean. We say that they eat air and humus; but it is It's amazing how they find us; they don't even have eyes or a nose. The older and more fertile the forest, the more patjets.”

"Now you have to tell me something else. I heard last night, when I was just was awake, a sound coming from a tree right next to the house where we were sleeping, came; it looked like a little owl.”

“Oh, sir, did you hear that?” Karim was startled.

“Yeah, what about that?”

“Oh, that's nothing for you, but we don't like it, and some say that it brings bad luck if the owl is so close to a calls home. She was once a sister of the moon, and when she sees it, she keeps shouting. But those are stupid things for white people stories, isn't it?... But would you like to see for yourself how let it be, if the sun is like that” - and he pointed out the position of the sun three o'clock - "we can be there just about".

It was eleven o'clock. The terrain was already starting to get steeper; the elephant tracks had turned off, the men now walked in pristine jungle, only the almost invisible path of forest product seekers, that they followed, spoke of disturbing the eternal rest. But many no use was made of it; now and then Karim, who was in the front, stood walked, long machete in hand, quietly for a moment so as not to make a mistake; Here and there trees had fallen across the path and a new one had to be built path to be found. This was not difficult, in the jungle the ground is usually covered with lower plants and shrubs, for heavy storage the shade of trees is too predominant; only there, where fallen trees have made a hole in the green roof, the sun calls to close storage in life, there are fallen seeds and by birds transferred fruit seeds have a good chance. Above, in tree hollows and in the axils of branches, the birds do their unintentional work everywhere. And it is especially the seeds of ficus fruits that they collect there bring the fertile fertilizer. If this takes effect, some species will send their roots to the ground, and they will soon become pillars; other wrap the hospitable tree with it, and the castle for all mother trees is that sooner or later they will be suffocated and destroyed go. This is how proud, upright giants are created, ficus trees whose crown covers a quarter of a hectare, but also that wonderful à jour trunks, a network of roots with a core of rotting wood, the remnant of the old mother tree, which could not support the parasite shake off.

“Look, sir, how this great tree has been strangled; we say of someone who does not repay borrowed money and thereby destroys his benefactor makes unhappy: he borrows like the ficus.” Thus Karim pointed out to the toean of Tambang the giants of the forest; but the delicate aromas of orchids and of tree blossoms, which covered the ground here and there, escaped him; nor did it strike him, the everyday man in the forest, how so now and then a migration of birds broke the solemn silence, the whistling and chirping of birds of all kinds and sizes, which themselves expressed surprise at seeing themselves united for a purpose that is hidden from man.

Every now and then a hornbill flew high over the dense treetops; he was not seen with his elongated neck and the red beak crown, but the whoosh-whoosh of the wingbeat dominated the forest whole; even an oewir-oewir, the eternally chirping cicada, that only his song whines to end, groping for the good show, to start again, even he was impressed and waited, until that a wonderful, rhythmic sound from on high had faded away.

“What is that, Karim?”

From the other side of the deep ravine along which the path led, came a new sound. Ouch, oooh..., it echoed, first slowly, then faster and faster, and suddenly, quite unexpectedly, a purely human voice sounded, shouting "wow!!"; then a whole orchestra cheerfully, and the concert ended with a hasty bumps, which were already getting weaker.

“Those are siamangs, sir. Don't you know them?”

“No, I have always been in Java, I have never heard this there, and this is my first day in the rimba.”

“Look,” said Karim, “there they are, they must have seen us.”

In the crown of one of the largest trees on the opposite side, sat and hung and waved a dozen black gibbons, those large tailless monkeys, whose embryological development so closely resembles that of the human being.

“Do those monkeys make that kind of noise? Monkeys?”

“Yes sir, only the smaller monkeys without tails, the oengkos, scream also like that, but that is a much higher sound and not as beautiful.”

“But that one sound, just like a human voice, do they do that too?”

“Yes, that is another one than the one who starts the shouting; this is done by one of the largest; they expand the skin under the chin like a bellows; as If we catch them young, they become very tame and they prefer to hang on you body; when they grow up they make that sound too and you hear it throughout the village. But now we can't stand still any longer, sir, otherwise it will be too late.”

“Karim, do you also love it in the jungle?”

“Oh, sir, I've been in the woods all my life.”

“Yes, but don't you have the feeling that it really doesn't matter anywhere? wonderful, as beautiful as it is here?”

Karim smiled and looked a little surprised.

"Toean, it has always been like this, I don't know anything else but the rimba is the rimba. But I would die if I had to live in a city, that's where you buy all your food.”

Now the white man smiled, but he felt that Karim was finding him difficult could grasp; for him, the newcomer, this day was a revelation, he was completely captivated by the wonderful allure of the jungle.

But they had to go on, he took a deep breath, go on! There they were waiting new emotions. After a few hours they saw light between the trees, they now moved through younger forest, a flat terrain, where a few years ago the ladangs were from a small settlement on the upper reaches of the river.

“Now be careful,” said Karim, “we are not far from the place where I have left him, he cannot possibly be far away.”

Karim had not counted on the toughness of his elephant. However, they found the spot where he had tortured the poor animal with his third bullet, also remains of bark and branches, and dung balls, but no elephant. The the area was once again a place of regular elephant feasting, There were open spaces everywhere, and here and there were muddy puddles, it Apparently it had been raining for days here in the mountains. Karim was disappointed.

“Sir, stay here with Amat, I will find his trail.”

“Let's eat something first, Karim, we still have some rice left this morning.”

“Thank you sir, I have to find him quickly, you can eat together,” and silently the good man crept away, with the inseparable machete as his only weapon.

Amat and his master examined the food carrier and found enough their liking; a half-decayed tree trunk, a sad remnant of the original forest, served as a bench and table.

They spoke softly, it was quite possible that the solitaire was nearby was.

The young forest was in no way like the primeval forest that lay behind It was dull here; where the ground hadn't been ploughed by elephants walked on, everything was heavily overgrown with undergrowth and all kinds of growth. Wild bananas had also sprung up in the bright sunlight, and large shrubs of djilatang, the tree-nettle; for man the contact of bare skin with its leaves is fatal, but insects quietly eat round holes in it; one would say that by preference, there There are few other leaves in the wilderness that are so common interest of the insects. And everywhere there were poear's grown up, those ginger-like plants with their remarkable flowers, from some species on long stems, others flat on the ground, red and red and yellow stars; and the long petioles with the dark, shiny leaves, which are so well suited for roofing bivouacs for a few days, shot up steeply, sometimes ten meters high.

A single Calanthe was a jewel in the green chaos; they had I also saw this terrestrial orchid in the forest, but that species has insignificant flowers, which do not actually open; this one here bore a beautiful cluster of white flowers on a long stem, shooting up between its matt green, broad leaves.

"We'll take them with us, sir, I used to be a djongos for a lady in Batavia, who had a whole row of these flowers in the front porch, and I split the roots and we got more and more flowers, and Mrs. made beautiful bouquets from them.”

Amat stood up and walked to the calanthe, but a cracking sound came from dry wood froze him to a halt.

It was just Karim. "So?"

Karim was visibly excited. “Come with me quickly, sir,” he whispered. he, "he could still walk quite well but not climb, and that's why he could do not climb the mountain ridge that runs down to the river around this flat terrain; over here!”

“Have you seen him?”

Karim just nodded, he was so visibly impressed that the white hunter a slight shiver ran down his spine. The further they came, the more the whole area became clear because of the enclosed to be solitary, "grazed off", broken young trees and tendrils everywhere of bark, which he had wastedly left behind. Especially semantoeng trees (ficus alba), which tapirs are also so fond of, had chosen the elephant; devastation all around.

“Did that elephant do all that by himself?”

Karim nodded again and indicated to the gentleman from Tambang that he should not to speak and walk carefully. They crept along.

The burning afternoon sun burned brightly in this low forest; the newcomer I found it stiflingly warm, but inside there was also a fire going fires, the thrill and the fear of hunting the biggest wild, which almost no one can escape.

Suddenly the signal came.

In the oppressive silence, wood creaked and a tree crashed down, a few a hundred meters ahead of them. Karim suddenly stopped and grabbed his toean by the arm. He smiled wryly; even for him, the old hunter, This familiar sound was still unsettling. People count on it, they wait, waits, and hopes, and when it comes suddenly, when He announces Himself in its tremendous power, then the blood stands still for a moment.

S. took the loaded rifle from his shoulder. He too was overwhelmed by the shock, but now the sporting fire flared up, and Karim had to stop him as he shot forward.

Slowly and carefully they continued, Amat was allowed to stay behind, on The good man was not capable of such a thing.

The solitary thought himself alone and safe. The poor devil suffered, but He was still enjoying his meal. He stood at the foot of the mountainside, the edge of the jungle as well; from one of the large trees hung a liana down, a rattan, he pulled it down further with his trunk and feasted on the young shoots, as if there were no rattan ears existed; this tasted better to him than the bark of the freshly felled boy boom.

Thus the two men saw him with his gigantic teeth, not thirty meters away from them.

But neither of them had learned anything from the struggle against the greatest of all four-legged creatures; he caught their scent and turned suddenly towards them. Karim shot off somewhere in the thicket, but his tuan saw his chance and calmly aimed at the mighty head, when the bull came towards them, limping at a trot; without blaring sounds, but purposeful; the solitaire came to take revenge.

When he was within ten yards, the Mauser crackled a sharp whiplash through the forest; the gray-black giant body plunged into the knees, in the middle of a puddle of mud. The happy hunter did what so many newcomers before him have done what so many will still regret: he flew towards his prey in a fierce hunting fever.

He was never able to say how it actually happened, he saw a monster rose up in front of him like lightning and felt something in the neck soft, that was big and cold. Only later did he understand that it was the hug was of a trunk and he remembered a heard a terrible scream, which did not come from the lone came,... then a heavy blow...

When S. knew he was still alive, he felt that he was lying on his back in sticky, deep mud, and that a terrible weight on his right thigh pressed; and when he opened his eyes he looked straight into a pair of false eyes, a long tooth almost touched his face. He saw now also, that the elephant had placed its right foreleg on its thigh. Now the animal dragged its leg back and forth, over and over the half crushed thigh. What did the animal want? If it had that muddy leg but not on his face! Indeed, that seemed the goal; sliding slowly, across the chest, the menacing column approached the face of the victim, and now he pressed the whole head into the mud...

At such moments a person sometimes suddenly becomes strangely clear, his nerves bring him into an excitement, which detaches him from the material.

The victim suddenly felt like laughing, after all: what would happen now? happen? He thought of a coconut under a steam hammer, would it Is this thing going to explode now? "Crack!" or "bang!"

But the mud had a springy effect; he thought he could hear a slight cracking sound. feel, but immediately after that the terrible weight was back on its place chest, and when he could open the muddy eyes again, he saw that the elephant was still in the same position. The leg now slid over his chest; the animal wasn't putting its full weight on it, it was swinging but kept going back and forth with it as if indecisive. But it became terrible, the hunter was certain that his thigh had long been was broken, that now all his ribs snapped off. If only the animal would make it an end to it! But now the tormenting paw moved to the the victim's stomach area, and flattened him, so that the internal man was squeezed out in all directions...

Strange, he became aware of his existence again, and knew that he was quite was not dead.

But now he felt a pull on his feet... a new torture, he could not bear it anymore and closed his eyes.

But the pulling continued, gently, carefully; what a devil Was the animal playing any pranks on him now?

“Toean! Toean!” whispered a frightened voice.

“Karim?” he heard a hoarse voice ask.

“Yes Allah, toean! Are you still alive?”

“But where is the elephant?”

“Next to you, sir, death!”

He only regained consciousness in the hospital on his own undertaking; and beside his bed, against the wall, stood two giant elephant tusks.

Only weeks later were Karim and Amat allowed to tell him how they had been carefully transported on a quickly made stretcher; two They had been with the unconscious man in the forest for two nights and two days spent, and they had a little canopy of leaves above them at night made him and burned great fires of dead branches to keep the tigers out to keep the neighborhood.

I saw one of the teeth later at the house of Mr. van Tambang, when a handsome doctor had arranged all the bones and small bones so well that he could stand and walk again; the other hung on the wall in Karim's house.

"What possessed that elephant? I don't know yet; Karim says that the animal could not stand on that one leg, the wounded one; but my doctor thinks that I hit that edge part of the brain that his legs, or that one wounded leg, controlled, and that death first after a few minutes; I don't know anything about that and the The whole affair seems to me to have lasted about half an hour, but it It must be so; and just at the moment the animal began to "If he were to roll, he must have fallen over."

“You certainly had a tough first lesson!”

“I have that. But what I have also experienced is the loyalty of my comrades, the loyalty of a man to a man, the highest good; and that “all the misery is worth it to me.”