most
sheltered nooks--the darkest, coolest shadows; the one hour out of the
twenty-four when absolute, unbroken silence reigns throughout the
African forest.

Under Daphne's leadership we struck off on a westerly course through the
green shadows of the forest, and toiled laboriously forward until the
dusky twilight warned us of the necessity for seeking a resting-place
wherein to pass the coming night. This was found at length in the
centre of a wide clearing or break in the forest; and Smellie and I, at
Daphne's expressively--conveyed pantomimic suggestion, forthwith set
about gathering the wherewithal to build a fire, whilst the damsel
herself undertook the task of providing a supper for the party. Our
task was barely completed when her dusky ladyship returned with three
grey parrots and a pair of green pigeons, as well as a large gourd of
water, from which we eventually managed to make a very satisfying
supper. A circle of fires was then built about our camping-place, and
we flung ourselves down in the long grass to sleep, two at least of the
party being, as I can vouch, thoroughly done up.

We managed to get perhaps a couple of hours of sleep, and then our rest
was completely destroyed for the remainder of the night by a well-
sustained attack on the part of countless ticks, ants, and other
inquisitive insects, which persisted in perambulating our bodies and
busily taking sample bites out of our skins in an evident effort to
ascertain the locality of the tenderest portions of our anatomy.

Next morning I discovered with the greatest concern that Smellie was
downright ill, so much so that it soon became evident it would be quite
impossible for us to prosecute our journey, for that day at least.
Daphne's distress at this unfortunate state of affairs was very keen,
but she was a pre-eminently sensible little body, seeing almost at a
glance what was wanted; and promptly diverting her sympathies into a
practical channel, she at once set off in search of a more suitable
abiding place than the one we had occupied through the night. This she
at length found in an open glade at no great distance; and thither we
promptly removed our patient, the rapidly-increasing seriousness of his
symptoms admonishing us that there was little room for delay.

Our new camping-place was a lovely spot, being an open amphitheatre of
about ten acres in extent surrounded on all sides by the forest, and
having a tiny rivulet of pure sparkl