I had intended to hire a man here to help to carry our things. Much
of our journeying, you see, must be done on foot."

Baso, to his great joy, thus became one of the party.

We pass over the next few days, which were spent in arranging and
packing their provisions, etcetera, in such a way that each member of
the party should carry on his shoulders a load proportioned to his
strength. In this arrangement the professor, much against his will, was
compelled to accept the lightest load in consideration of his liability
to dart off in pursuit of creeping things and "bootterflies" at a
moment's notice. The least damageable articles were also assigned to
him in consideration of his tendency at all times to tumble into bogs
and stumble over fallen trees, and lose himself, and otherwise get into
difficulties.

We also pass over part of the journey from the coast, and plunge with
our travellers at once into the interior of Sumatra.

One evening towards sunset they reached the brow of an eminence which,
being rocky, was free from much wood, and permitted of a wide view of
the surrounding country. It was covered densely with virgin forest, and
they ascended the eminence in order that the hermit, who had been there
before, might discover a forest road which led to a village some miles
off, where they intended to put up for the night. Having ascertained
his exact position, Van der Kemp led his followers down to this
footpath, which led through the dense forest.

The trees by which they were surrounded were varied and magnificent--
some of them rising clear up seventy and eighty feet without a branch,
many of them had superb leafy crowns, under any one of which hundreds of
men might have found shelter. Others had trunks and limbs warped and
intertwined with a wild entanglement of huge creepers, which hung in
festoons and loops as if doing their best to strangle their supports,
themselves being also encumbered, or adorned, with ferns and orchids,
and delicate twining epiphytes. A forest of smaller trees grew beneath
this shade, and still lower down were thorny shrubs, rattan-palms,
broad-leaved bushes, and a mass of tropical herbage which would have
been absolutely impenetrable but for the native road or footpath along
which they travelled.

"A most suitable abode for tigers, I should think," remarked Nigel to
the hermit, who walked in front of him--for they marched in single file.
"Are there any in these parts?"

"Ay,