urney or so
over land we can save time, and will reach a small hamlet where canoes
are to be had. The way, to be sure, is through rather a wild country;
but that to us is an advantage, as we shall be the more likely to meet
with game. I find, also, that the king has determined to follow the
same route with his warriors in pursuit of the enemy, so that thus far
we may travel together. At the hamlet we will diverge to the
north-east, while we, if all goes well, embarking in our canoe, will
proceed toward the west coast, where, if we do not overtake them on the
way, we shall be certain to find them on our arrival. Okandaga has
often longed to go to the mission station there, and as she knows it is
in vain to urge Mbango to return to his destroyed village, she will
doubtless advise him to go to the coast."

"What you say seems highly probable," said I; "and I think the best
thing you can do is to go to the king at once and talk him over."

"Trust Jack for that," added Peterkin, who was at that moment deeply
engaged with what he called the drumstick of a roast monkey. "Jack
would talk over any creature with life, so persuasive is his eloquence.
I say, Ralph," he added, holding the half-picked drumstick at arm's
length, and regarding it with a critical gaze, "I wonder, now, how the
drumstick of an ostrich would taste. Good, I have no doubt, though
rather large for one man's dinner."

"It would be almost equal to gorilla ham, I should fancy," said Jack, as
he left the hut on his errand to the king.

"O you cannibal, to think of such a thing!" cried Peterkin, throwing the
bone of his drumstick after our retreating comrade.--"But 'tis always
thus," he added, with a sigh: "man preys upon man, monkey upon monkey.
Yet I had hoped better things of Jack. I had believed him to be at
least a refined species of gorilla. I say, Ralph, what makes you look
so lugubrious?"

"The difficulties, I suppose, that beset our path," said I sadly; for,
to say truth, I did not feel in a jesting humour just then. I was
forced, however, in spite of myself, to laugh at the expression of
mingled disgust and surprise that overspread the mobile countenance of
my friend on hearing my reply.

"`The difficulties,'" echoed he, "`that beset our path!' Really, Ralph,
life will become insupportable to me if you and Jack go on in this
fashion. A man of nerve and sanguine temperament might stand it, but to
one like me, of a naturally timid and lea