t. Tall palms surrounded us, throwing their broad leaves
overhead and partially concealing the starlit sky. Thick tough limbs of
creeping plants and wild vines twisted and twined round everything and
over everything, giving to the woods an appearance of tangled
impenetrability; but the beautiful leaves of some, and the delicate
tendrils of others, half concealed the sturdy limbs of the trees, and
threw over the whole a certain air of wild grace, as might a
semi-transparent and beautiful robe if thrown around the form of a
savage.

The effect of a strong fire in the woods at night is to give to
surrounding space an appearance of ebony blackness, against which dark
ground the gnarled stems and branches and pendent foliage appear as if
traced out in light and lovely colours, which are suffused with a rich
warm tone from the blaze.

We were now in the wilds of Africa, although, as I have said, I found it
difficult to believe the fact. Jack and I wore loose brown shooting
coats and pantaloons; but we had made up our minds to give up waistcoats
and neckcloths, so that our scarlet flannel shirts with turned-down
collars gave to us quite a picturesque and brigand-like appearance as we
encircled the blaze--Peterkin smoking vigorously, for he had acquired
that bad and very absurd habit at sea. Jack smoked too, but he was not
so inveterate as Peterkin.

Jack was essentially moderate in his nature. He did nothing violently
or in a hurry; but this does not imply that he was slow or lazy. He was
leisurely in disposition, and circumstances seldom required him to be
otherwise. When Peterkin or I had to lift heavy weights, we were
obliged to exert our utmost strength and agitate our whole frames; but
Jack was so powerful that a comparatively slight effort was all that he
was usually obliged to make. Again, when we two were in a hurry we
walked quickly, but Jack's long limbs enabled him to keep up with us
without effort. Nevertheless there were times when he was called upon
to act quickly and with energy. On those occasions he was as active as
Peterkin himself, but his movements were tremendous. It was, I may
almost say, awful to behold Jack when acting under powerful excitement.
He was indeed a splendid fellow, and not by any means deserving of the
name of gorilla, which Peterkin had bestowed on him.

But to continue my description of our costume. We all wore homespun
grey trousers of strong material. Peterkin and Jack