The Gorilla Hunters | Page 3

How

could I write to you when you parted from me without giving me your
address? It was a mere chance my finding you out even now. I was
taking a quiet cup of coffee in the commercial room of a hotel not far
distant, when I overheard a stranger speaking of his friend `Ralph
Rover, the philosopher,' so I plunged at him promiscuously, and made
him give me your address. But I've corresponded with Jack ever since
we parted on the pier at Dover."
"What! Jack--Jack Martin?" I exclaimed, as a warm gush of feeling
filled my heart at the sound of his well-remembered name. "Is Jack
alive?"
"Alive! I should think so. If possible, he's more alive than ever; for I
should suppose he must be full-grown now, which he was not when we
last met. He and I have corresponded regularly. He lives in the north of
England, and by good luck happens to be just now within thirty miles
of this town. You don't mean to say, Ralph, that you have never met!"
"Never. The very same mistake that happened with you occurred
between him and me. We parted vowing to correspond as long as we
should live, and three hours after I remembered that we had neglected
to exchange our addresses, so that we could not correspond. I have
often, often made inquiries both for you and him, but have always
failed. I never heard of Jack from the time we parted at Dover till
to-day."
"Then no doubt you thought us both dead, and yet you did not go into
mourning for either of us! O Ralph, Ralph, I had entertained too good
an opinion of you."
"But tell me about Jack," said I, impatient to hear more concerning my
dear old comrade.
"Not just now, my boy; more of him in a few minutes. First let us
return to the point. What was it? Oh! a--about my being a celebrated
hunter. A very Nimrod--at least a miniature copy. Well, Ralph, since
we last met I have been all over the world, right round and round it. I'm
a lieutenant in the navy now--at least I was a week ago. I've been

fighting with the Kaffirs and the Chinamen, and been punishing the
rascally sepoys in India, and been hunting elephants in Ceylon and
tiger-shooting in the jungles, and harpooning whales in the polar seas,
and shooting lions at the Cape; oh, you've no notion where all I've been.
It's a perfect marvel I've turned up here alive. But there's one beast I've
not yet seen, and I'm resolved to see him and shoot him too--"
"But," said I, interrupting, "what mean you by saying that you were a
lieutenant in the navy a week ago?"
"I mean that I've given it up. I'm tired of the sea. I only value it as a
means of getting from one country to another. The land, the land for me!
You must know that an old uncle, a rich old uncle of mine, whom I
never saw, died lately and left me his whole fortune. Of course he died
in India. All old uncles who die suddenly and leave unexpected
fortunes to unsuspecting nephews are old Indian uncles, and mine was
no exception to the general rule. So I'm independent, like you, Ralph,
only I've got three or four thousand a year instead of hundreds, I
believe; but I'm not sure and don't care--and I'm determined now to go
on a long hunting expedition. What think ye of all that, my boy?"
"In truth," said I, "it would puzzle me to say what I think, I am so filled
with surprise by all you tell me. But you forget that you have not yet
told me to which part of the world you mean to go, and what sort of
beast it is you are so determined to see and shoot if you can."
"If I can!" echoed Peterkin, with a contemptuous curl of the lip. "Did
not I tell you that I was a celebrated hunter? Without meaning to boast,
I may tell you that there is no peradventure in my shooting. If I only get
there and see the brute within long range, I'll--ha! won't I!"
"Get where, and see what?"
"Get to Africa and see the gorilla!" cried Peterkin, while a glow of
enthusiasm lighted up his eyes. "You've heard of the gorilla, Ralph, of
course--the great ape--the enormous puggy--the huge baboon--the man
monkey, that we've been hearing so much of for some years back, and
that the niggers on the African coast used to dilate about till they

caused the very hair of my head to stand upon end? I'm determined to
shoot a gorilla, or prove him to be a myth. And I mean