so awfully stupid
that I didn't pay much attention to them. I explained that those
marks,"--pointing to the drawing--"represented doors; yet the silly ass
couldn't understand how the servants got from their room to the kitchen,
nor how they brought our meals from the kitchen to the living-room
without going outside and walking round the house. And he couldn't
understand how you and I got from our rooms to the living-room without
going outside."

"That's too bad," said I. "It seems to reflect upon your powers of
description, doesn't it, Billy?"

"It does, rather," admitted the boy, "yet I did my best to make him
understand. But he didn't seem able to grasp that we were supposed to
be looking down upon the bungalow, with the roof off. He persisted in
thinking that we were looking square at it, and that the rooms in the
rear were _above_ those in the front of the house."

"Stupid fellow!" I commented. "And was the house the only thing he
manifested curiosity about?"

"Oh no," answered Billy; "there were lots of other things he asked
about. He wanted to know where we got Kit from, and how it is that he
is so tame with us, and so savage with everybody else. He asked if we
weren't afraid that some day he would turn upon us and do us an injury.
He said that if he was boss he'd shoot the beast right away; and he
grumbled a bit because you wouldn't give him and Svorenssen any firearms
to defend themselves with, not only from the leopard but also from the
natives, whom, he said, he didn't trust a little bit, and who might come
across any night and massacre us all in our sleep. Then he wanted to
know how we are going to get the cutter into the water when she is ready
for launching; and then--let me see--oh, yes, we got on about the
natives again--and the apes. He said it was all very well for us who
could bolt ourselves securely in the house at night; but what about him
and Svorenssen if an ape should come across and surprise them in their
tent some night? How were they to defend themselves without weapons of
any kind? I laughed at that, and told him that there was so little
likelihood of anything of that sort happening that we never closed our
doors or windows, except when it rained. But he said that didn't
matter; we could defend ourselves if such a thing happened, because we
had plenty of arms; and they ought to have some too. He said that, what
with the leopard, the apes, and the savages, life was none too