by the flickering light of their
torches. The silence also was profound, for the buzzing _chirr_ of the
insect-life of the place had long since ceased, and only the occasional
crackle of dry leaves or twigs betrayed the fact that the great solitude
held other denizens than themselves. At length, however, when their
watches marked the hour of seven a.m. they became aware of a dim,
ghostly light filtering down upon them from above and stealthily
revealing the presence of tree-trunk, twisted creepers, and tangled
underscrub at gradually widening distances from them. Whereupon they
charged and lighted their pipes afresh, extinguished their torches, and,
after allowing themselves a few minutes longer to enable their eyes to
become accustomed to the dim, sombre twilight that alone pervaded those
illimitable forest aisles, set out upon a course which they agreed would
ultimately lead them back to the river.

Their course was anything but a straight one, for they were obliged to
wind hither and thither between and around enormous masses of tangled,
impenetrable undergrowth; and there were many occasions when they were
compelled to go some little distance in a direction the very opposite of
that which they wished to follow, ere they could again hit off a
practicable path leading northward. Yet notwithstanding this, they
began to feel some disappointment and recurrence of anxiety when, at
eleven o'clock in the forenoon, they still seemed as far off as ever
from finding the river. There was nothing for it, however, but to press
forward as they were going; and this they did, in somewhat noisy
fashion--for there seemed to them to be no very especial reason for
silence--until there suddenly broke upon their ears a deep, hollow,
drumming sound, speedily followed by a series of loud, fierce roars.
The sounds emanated from somewhere close at hand, and after a moment's
instinctive pause to listen, they all with one accord hastened forward
to investigate, with the result that they suddenly found themselves
emerging from the cramped and gloomy environment of the forest depths
into a comparatively open arena, roughly circular in shape, and nearly a
mile in diameter, thickly carpeted with rich, lush grass, and but
sparsely dotted with trees.

As the wanderers entered this space, they saw, about a dozen yards away,
a very fine gorilla, upreared, with his back toward them, fiercely
beating his chest with his huge fists, and giving vent t