The very last of the few - Wegenercom

The very last of the few
The main object of Tony’s fantasies of Africa was
elephants. As it turned out, however, it was a totally
different species that was to become his fi rst African “big
game trophy”.
Shortly after his arrival, Tony was introduced to one
of the famous big game hunters of the time, Otto
Krohnert , who had moved to Spanish Guinea from his
homeland Namibia to hunt elephant. In between his
elephant safaris, Krohnert offered his service in helping
local pygmy villages fi ght off bands of marauding
gorillas . The animals would come in large numbers and
ravish the pygmies’ yucca plantations – creating anxiety
and fear among the pygmies themselves. In those
days, in the early fi fties, gorillas were numerous in the
vast and impenetrable rainforests on both sides of the
Equator .
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In a moment’s overweening self-confi dence, Tony
happened to mention that he knew all about gorillas
(from books, as it were), which immediately caused
Krohnert to assign him to the task of eliminating some
of the aggressive animals − much to the shock of the
totally green hunter.
Late that same evening, armed with an old Mauser
calibre 10.75 x 68, borrowed from a friend, Tony
positioned himself at the edge of one of the pygmies’
plantations. With his heart thumping in his chest he
waited for dawn. He could hear a band of gorillas quite
close by but he wanted to wait until full daylight before
he made his move.
As it is often the case in hunting, an unexpected turn of
events occurred. Voices from a group of women from a