uld have gone on, had not Jack checked them by
saying--

"I suspect we are not very well fitted to instruct the unenlightened
mind," ("Ho--hi!" sighed Makarooroo, gathering himself up and settling
down to listen), "and it seems to me that you'll have to try again,
Peterkin, some other mode of explanation."

"Very good, by all means," said our friend.--"Now, Mak, look here. You
want to go _there_" (pointing to the coast with his left hand), "and we
want to go there" (pointing to the interior with his right hand). "Now
if we both agree to go there," (pointing straight before him with his
nose), "_that_ will be a cumprumoise. D'ye understand?"

"Ho yis, massa, me compiperhend now."

"Exactly so," said I; "that's just it. There is a branch of this river
that takes a great bend away to the north before it turns towards the
sea, is there not? I think I have heard yourself say so before now."

"Yis, massa, hall right."

"Well, let us go by that branch. We shall be a good deal longer on the
route, but we shall be always nearing the end of our journey, and at the
same time shall pass through a good deal of new country, in which we may
hope to see much game."

"Good," said Jack; "you have wisdom with you for once, Ralph--it seems
feasible.--What say you, Mak? I think it a capital plan."

"Yis, massa, it am a copitle plan, sure 'nuff."

The plan being thus arranged and agreed to, we set about the execution
of it at once, and ere long our two canoes were floating side by side
down the smooth current of the river.

The route which we had chosen led us, as I had before suspected, into
the neighbourhood of the gorilla country, and I was much gratified to
learn from Mbango, who had travelled over an immense portion of
south-western Africa, that it was not improbable we should meet with
several of those monstrous apes before finally turning off towards the
coast. I say that I was much gratified to learn this; but I little
imagined that I was at that time hastening towards a conflict that
well-nigh proved fatal to me, and the bare remembrance of which still
makes me shudder.

It occurred several weeks after the events just related. We had gone
ashore for the purpose of hunting, our supply of provisions chancing at
that time to be rather low. Feeling a desire to wander through the
woods in solitude for a short time, I separated from my companions. I
soon came to regret this deeply, for about an hour afterwards I ca