He spoke the Bushman 'click' too, but seldom had
anything to do with the 'wild men,' as he called them. Now he stood
listening to Hector's shouts to the baboons, and as he listened a look
of the most abject terror came into his face, and he stood livid and
trembling, staring in the direction of the beasts. Again Hector called;
and then a shrill scream burst from the Hottentot's lips: 'No! no!' he
shrieked. 'He is calling them back!' he gibbered, turning to us; 'they
will tear us to pieces!!'

"The Bushmen were cowering in fear too; and still Hector, heedless of
us all, called to the baboons; and their grunts came back in reply. And
now the brutes were turning back towards us, and a thrill of fear came
to me too, for there were at least a hundred of them, and a combined
attack would have made short work of us, notwithstanding our
Winchesters. I unslung mine; but John was before me a shot rang out,
and the big leader flung up its long arms and fell dead. The troop
halted, and then, before I could shoot, Hector sprang to where we knelt
aiming and ordered us imperiously and passionately to stop. 'You
fools!' he shrieked, 'you have spoiled all! How can I ever gain their
confidence, how can I ever learn their speech and gain the proof of all
that Darwin taught, if you murder them? Already from these Bushmen I
have learnt much, and can make these wild men [he used the native
expression quite naturally] understand, but much more is needed. Put up
your guns: they shall come back!' Whilst we paused irresolute the
baboons, picking up their fallen leader, made off across the mountain,
in silence and with never a response to Hector's calls.

"From that time our leader's conduct became even stranger in fact he
was as a man obsessed. He rarely spoke to us, but spent his whole time
with the Bushmen, wandering away into the mountains and the thick
jungle bordering the river, refusing our company, and no longer even
carrying a rifle in a country at that time teeming with wild animals.
His sole desire was to come into contact with the baboons, but for some
days we saw nothing of them. He offered the Bushmen all sorts of
rewards if they could capture and bring in a young one, but they had
wild tales of raids by these strange beasts; of native women and
children carried off by them, and becoming wild like their captors. At
length, however, Hector's promises had effect: one evening the two
Bushmen returned to camp dragging between them a h