e stood motionless beside a
tree. For an instant the countless jungle sounds were hushed in a
breathless stillness; then, low and sweet, sounded a moaning wail which
swelled into deep full tones. It vibrated an instant, filling all the
forest with its richness, and slowly died away. Again and again it floated
over the tree tops and we listened strangely moved, for it was like the
music of an exquisite contralto voice. At last it ceased but, ere the
echoes had reached the valley, the jungle was ringing with an unlovely
siren screech.

The spell was broken and we moved on, alert and tense. The trees stretched
upward full one hundred and fifty feet, their tops spread out in a leafy
roof. Long ropelike vines festooned the upper branches and a luxuriant
growth of parasitic vegetation clothed the giant trunks in a swaying mass
of living green. Far above the taller trees a gaunt gray monarch of the
forest towered in splendid isolation. In its topmost branches we could just
discern a dozen balls of yellow fur from which proceeded discordant
squeals.

It was long range for a shotgun but the rifles were all in camp. I fired a
charge of B.B.'s at the lowest monkey and as the gun roared out the tree
tops suddenly sprang into life. They were filled with running, leaping,
hairy forms swinging at incredible speed from branch to branch; not a
dozen, but a score of monkeys, yellow, brown, and gray.

The one at which I had shot seemed unaffected and threw itself full twenty
feet to a horizontal limb, below and to the right. I fired again and he
stopped, ran a few steps forward and swung to the underside of the branch.
At the third charge he hung suspended by one arm and dropped heavily to the
ground stone dead.

We tossed him into the dry creek bed and dashed up the hill where the
branches were still swaying as the monkeys traveled through the tree tops.
They had a long start and it was a hopeless chase. At every step our
clothes were caught by the clinging thorns, our hands were torn, and our
faces scratched and bleeding. In ten minutes they had disappeared and we
turned about to find the dead animal. Suddenly Yvette saw a splash of
leaves in the top of a tree below us and a big brown monkey swung out on a
pendent vine. I fired instantly and the animal hung suspended, whirled
slowly around and dropped to the ground. Before I had reloaded my gun it
gathered itself together and dashed off through the woods on three legs
faster than a