MICHAEL CRICHTON

much noise as possible, to frighten the intruders off. Finally he began the ho-hohosound once more.The male stared at Elliot, expecting that this display would send him running.When it did not, the male leapt to his feet, Pounded his chest, and roared witheven greater fury.And then he charged.With a howling scream he came crashing forward at frightening speed, directlytoward Elliot. Elliot heard Ross gasp behind him. He wanted to turn and run, hisevery bodily instinct screamed that he should run, but he forced himself to standabsolutely still—and to look down at the ground.Staring at his feet while he listened to the gorilla crashing through the tall grasstoward him, he had the sudden sensation that all his abstract book knowledgewas wrong, that everything that scientists around the world thought about gorillaswas wrong. He had a mental image of the huge head and the deep chest and thelong arms swinging wide as the powerful animal rushed toward an easy kill, astationary target foolish enough to believe all the academic misinformationsanctified by print.The gorilla (who must have been quite close) made a snorting noise, and Elliotcould see his heavy shadow on. the grass near his feet. But he did not look upuntil the shadow moved away.When Elliot raised his head, he saw the male gorilla retreating backward,toward the far edge of the clearing. There the male turned, and scratched hishead in a puzzled way, as if wondering why his terrifying: display had not drivenoff the intruders. He slapped the ground a final time, and then he and the rest ofthe troop melted away into the tall grass. It was silent in the clearing until Rosscollapsed into Elliot’s arms.“Well,” Munro said as he came up, “it seems you know a thing or two aboutgorillas after all.” Munro patted Ross’s arm. “It’s all right. They don’t do anythingunless you run away. Then they bite you on the ass. That’s the mark forcowardice in these regions—because it means you ran away.”Ross was sobbing quietly, and Elliot discovered that his own knees wereshaky; he went to sit down. It had all happened so fast that it was a few momentsbefore he realized that these gorillas had behaved in exactly the textbookmanner, which included not making any verbalizations even remotely likespeech.163