— Commissioning you to write a bit of music, what would you say to that sir?
— Oh well that of course yes, yes that’s what I…
— Think you could write me some zebra music, Mister Bast?
— Yes I, some, some what?
— Zebra music Mister Bast, zebra music. Just take a minute to fill you in here, friend of mine and I have gone to no damned little expense to put together a little film, fellows you see up here mainly… and he herded the stares of the wall gallery indiscriminately together with a sweep of his arm, — and zebras, damned lot of zebras in fact, whole idea is to wake up some people down in Washington to the idea of stocking our public lands with something more suitable than a lot of trailers and beer cans.
— With, with zebras…?
— For a start, for a start yes, and all these fellows of course, all antelopes, don’t look related do they but they’re all antelopes. Now the whole…
— It sounds very, yes it sounds very interesting but first could I ask one question about…
— Him over by the door yes, didn’t mean him of course, certainly no antelope is he but we’d want to bring him along pretty quickly too. Nothing like wild pig to liven things up a little, and then of course you begin to bring in your beasts of prey…
— No I meant what would happen…
— What do you think would happen, can’t just throw your balance of nature off and leave it off now, can you.
— No I just meant about these bonds, I mean what’s going to happen to…
— What, this Eagle outfit? Don’t ask me sir, why their creditors haven’t thrown them into bankruptcy and picked up whatever they could on the dollar before this, now as I say we’ve got this whole…
— Yes but what would happen then, would they…
— To this Eagle outfit? Courts would probably just wash out their whole common and preferred equity and hand it over to a receiver to reorganize, as I say we’ve got this whole film put together now, not quite the finished thing of course but pretty close to it, a jump cut I think they call it, runs about two hours and twenty minutes and we think a little…
— Of, of zebras?
— Plenty of movement yes, last trip over Stamper found a nigger boy right there in Malindi who knew how to run a camera and we packed him up country with us, couldn’t get him near lion though, brought down a nice Cape Buffalo but we couldn’t get him near that either so we’re pretty heavy on the zebra side, beautiful things, great sense of freedom and dignity you see in all these fellows… and, as he gestured again, the entire mass of tweed and chair rolled back and a drawer came open. — Give you an idea have a look at him, yes hold it up to the light there, of course you don’t get the sense of movement you get in the film and that’s where Stamper and I think a little music would make it look a little more professional but that gives you an idea. Fine looking fellow isn’t he?
— Yes he’s, is this Mister Stamper?
— No no on the left there, the zebra, that’s just one of our nigger boys with it, the zebra there, hole hardly shows does it. Got him right behind the head there at four hundred yards, gives you some idea of this grace and dignity you’d want to capture in your music… his fingers were drumming on the teak, — plenty of movement…
— Well two hours and, it might get a little repetitive if…
— Good point Bast, good point… and the contents of the box of slide transparencies cascaded between them, — got some film we haven’t even used in this, we just had a few shots from it printed up here to keep track of things, give you an idea, antelope mainly, kudu over there and hartebeest, fellow right behind me here. We didn’t use this film though because this nigger boy forgot to turn something on the camera and we got some damned odd colors but a little of it here and there might give it all a little more artistic feeling, use your music to tie it in and it would look like we’d done it on purpose, all these damned colors, what do you think.
— Yes it sounds interesting it, but could I ask you one more thing about…
— Of course, yes, probably be able to add another good forty minutes or so and give your music a chance to change the pace a little, see what you mean yes, take the dik-dik here, might have a little fun with the dik-dik…
— No what I mean was what would happen if that happened and a receiver took over the company, what…
— Company? What company.
— This, this Eagle Mills, if you had a bond would it…
— What, this Eagle outfit? Just reorganize it if they want to keep things running, probably put out a new issue of common and convertible preferred hand out a few shares of each for every bond, the rate they’ve been losing money up there they must have generated one hell of a tax loss carry-forward position but that’s no damned use all by itself is it, now here he is, little fellow running out ahead there, see him? Of course you’ll never see a purple dik-dik but there’s no damned law against a little artistic license is there.
— Yes, no I mean no but then if you did have some of these bonds would you be able to get any money from…
— What, these? Eagle? Just depends if the man who came off with the biggest bite had the sense to convert all his preferred to common and pick up some more common if he needed it to step in and take over certainly shouldn’t be hard, local people up there sitting on most of this paper would probably hold onto their preferred because of the dividend position wouldn’t care a damn that they couldn’t vote it, what got them into trouble in the first place of course sooner or later you’ll want to see the whole film itself but you might take these along for what you’d call inspiration I suppose?
— Yes I do have to leave, I just had one more question about…
— No no no sit still, sit still, we’ve already gone to a good deal of expense on this and a little more won’t hurt, of course it’s not hurting Stamper anyway because it all comes right off taxes as an educational expense project, educate these Parks people and a few of these big conservationist lobbies and environmentalists and clean up this tourist glut that’s turning these great public lands and wilderness areas into rubbish heaps and outdoor latrines like camping in a lot of damned parking lots, turn a few wild pigs loose in these National Parks we’ll clear things up in no time.
— Yes I, yes I did just want to ask if…
— Just told you Bast, can’t throw your balance of nature off and leave it off now can you, get these zebras and the rest of these fellows in there without something to hunt them and they’d all go berserk. Ever see zebras grazing with lion in the grass a few hundred yards away? Know damned well they’re there and know damned well why they’re there but you don’t see them pack up and run do you? Don’t see an apple tree pack up and run when you come to pick an apple do you?
— Well no, no I never…
— Know damned well you don’t, whole problem facing us now is the rate Africa’s developing it’s going to be nothing but a lot of niggers driving around in hats and neckties no place left for the game at all, pushing these fellows right off their own land like a lot of damned Indians if we don’t set them up over here pretty quick there won’t be any place left to hunt them at all. That answer your question?
— Yes well, no not exactly you see I just wondered if when you say someone would come in and take over, how they…
— You still on this Eagle outfit? Just walk in and take over.
— But then what would they, I mean would the people who had these bonds be able to…
— Loosen up their cash position a little, lease-back arrangements and that kind of thing, and clean up their net properties accounts, probably things in it they’ve forgotten they own. Grandeur Bast, that’s the quality you want to get across in your music here, restore these great public lands to their natural grandeur, stock the National Parks with some of these fellows we’ll clean out all these trailers and tin cans and these damned filthy kids with their hair and drugs and beads and motorcycles of course Stamper’s idea is a damned sight simpler, says why not just go in and hunt them. Use tranquillizers and pellet guns but they don’t have the instinct for survival that a good healthy animal’s got, lie down in the dirt and sing you a song and there’s no damned challenge in that…