CHAPTER 53
The three poachers finally seemed to realize that they were utterly and completely defeated, and so they departed. It turned out, though, that they didn’t fully believe that we would be watching them, so they did try a couple more times, in different parts of the region, to continue their dastardly activities.
But, as we had clearly explained to them, no warnings were given on subsequent occasions. It was only after they were stampeded by Elephants once, and then by Rhinos and Crocodiles the next time that our resolve, watchfulness, and willingness to act was driven home to them to the extent necessary for them to finally give up the game for good.
They had escaped by the skin of their teeth. For had they continued any longer, they would have been inflicted with the worst punishment we had at our disposal, the deadliest animal in Africa — the Mosquito. To be probed and excavated and subjected to hematophagical operations by hundreds of thousands of mosquitoes is not only nobody’s idea of fun, it would also have meant certain death for them. So they got the point just in time. Had they not, they would have gotten several points, but then it would have been too late for them.
And so we felt satisfied. We had prevented the Belgians from committing genocide in the Congo and rid the continent of poachers.
Now it was time to go back — first in both time and space, to 2525 Tinga Tinga, Tanzania, to drop off those who wanted to return there, and then for Albert and Rovette & me and the rest of our gang to return to Zenia. That is to say, we were going back to where and when we had been, but forward in time 640 years, from 1885 t0 2525.
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