In Search of the Okapi | Page 2

animal, except it is for the pot, or unless it wants me for dinner. No; mine is another search. It is connected with my father."
"Yes," said Venning, quietly; for his friend had suddenly grown grave.
"When I was a little chap, about seventeen years ago, my mother received a letter dated from the 'great forest.'"
"It contained only these words, 'Good-bye.' With it there was a letter in Arabic, written by my father's headman. That letter was seven months on its travels, and since then no other word have I heard."
Venning muttered something in sympathy.
"My mother," continued the other, "died five years ago, without having learnt the meaning of the message in Arabic. She had a wish that no one but I should read the letter, and often she told me that if it contained any instructions or directions, I was to carry them out. Well, I have interpreted the Arabic signs."
"Yes, Dick; and----"
"And I can't quite make out the meaning. There is a reference to the journal my father kept, with the statement that it was safely hidden; but then follows a reference to a Garden of Rest, to certain people who protected him, and to a slave-trader who did him an injury. These references to me are a mystery; but what is clear is his desire to have his journal recovered from the Arab slave-dealer, described merely as 'The Wolf.'"
"And that is why you wish to go to Central Africa?"
"That is why, Venning. I must recover my father's journal if it exists; I must, if it is not too late, find out how he died; I must find out who are the wild people, and what is the Garden of Rest."
"The Garden of Rest! That sounds peaceful, but it is very vague, Dick, as a direction. A garden in a forest hundreds of miles in length will take some finding."
"I have a clue."
"So."
"There is mention of the 'gates' to the garden, whose summits 'are in the clouds'--twin mountains, I take it."
"Even so, Dick, I think I should have more chance of finding my new animal than you would have of hitting off your garden."
"Well, you know now why I have been studying Arabic. I have a little money, and no ties."
"Like me. By Jove! why shouldn't we go out together?"
"Because we have some sense, I suppose," said Compton, coolly. "Have you ever roughed it?"
"I have slept out in the New Forest--often."
"Oh, that's picnicking, with the bark of the fox in place of the lion's roar, and good food in place of 'hard tack,' and perhaps the attentions of a suspicious keeper instead of a surprise attack by wild men of the woods. An explorer needs experience."
"Yes, and he must buy his own experience; but tell me how he can, unless he makes a beginning."
"Now we come to the point, Venning. He should begin with some one who already has experience."
"I see. And you will wait till some seasoned explorer kindly asks you to join him? You'll have to wait a precious long time."
"I'm not so sure," said Dick Compton, with a knowing smile.
"Have you found your explorer, Dick?" shouted Venning, eagerly.
Compton produced a leather purse and extracted a slip of paper cut from an advertisement column, and passed it to his friend.
"By Jove! eh, that's splendid!" spluttered Venning, in his excitement as he glanced at the paper.
"Read it over."
Venning read the notice--
"A GENTLEMAN, who is an experienced traveler, being about to enter upon an expedition into Central Africa, would like to make arrangements with two young men of education and of means to bear a share of the expenses to accompany him.--Apply, for further particulars, to D. H., No. 109 Box, Office of this paper."
"Let us write at once to D. H.," he said eagerly.
"I have seen him."
Venning took a deep breath and stared at his friend.
"I saw him this very morning," said Compton, quietly.
"And----------"
"He said you were too young! Eh? Go on--go on!"
"And I told him I thought I could find a friend who would join me."
"You mean to say that he agreed to take you?" cried Venning, jumping up.
Compton nodded.
"Oh, splendid! And you will take me to him? You're a brick. What is he like, eh? Is he old or young, eh?"
Compton kept cool outwardly, but he could not subdue the glitter of his dark eyes, or keep the colour out of his cheeks.
"He is about five feet four. I can look over his head."
"Oh!"
"There are grey hairs in his beard."
"Quite old; old and little! What bad luck! He will have to look up to us."
"Well, you know, he can't help being small, can he?"
"I suppose, like most little men, he is as vain as he can stick, bumptious, and fidgety," said Venning, despondently.
"He struck me as being very quiet. At any rate, you can judge for yourself,