Again he stopped not more than fifteen yards away.
Still Malaouen said, "Not yet." Good gracious! what is to become of us, if our guns miss fire, or if we only wound the huge beast?
Again the gorilla made an advance upon us. Now he was not twelve yards off. I could see plainly his ferocious face. It was distorted with rage; his huge teeth were ground against each other, so that we could hear the sound; the skin of the forehead was drawn forward and back rapidly, which made his hair move up and down, and gave a truly devilish expression to the hideous face. Once more he gave out a roar, which seemed to shake the woods like thunder; I could really feel the earth trembling under my feet. The gorilla, looking us in the eyes, and beating his breast, advanced again.
"Don't fire too soon," said Malaouen; "if you do not kill him, he will kill you."
This time he came within eight yards of us before he stopped. I was breathing fast with excitement as I watched the huge beast.
Malaouen said only, "Steady," as the gorilla came up. When he stopped, Malaouen said, "Now!" And before he could utter the roar for which he was opening his mouth, three musket-balls were in his body. He fell dead, almost without a struggle.
He was a monstrous beast indeed, though not amongst the tallest. His height was five feet six inches. His arms had a spread of seven feet two inches. His broad brawny chest measured fifty inches round. The big toe of his foot measured five inches and three quarters in circumference. His arms seemed like immense bunches of muscle only; and his legs and claw-like feet were so well fitted for grabbing and holding that I could see how easy it was for the negroes to believe that these animals, when they conceal themselves in trees and watch for prey, can seize and pull up with their feet any living thing, leopard, ox, or man, that passes beneath.
The face of this gorilla was intensely black. The vast chest, which proved his great power, was bare, and covered with a parchment-like skin. His body was covered with grey hair.
While the animal approached us in its fierce way, walking on its hind legs and facing us as few animals dare face man, it really seemed to me to be a horrid likeness of man.