The Gorilla Hunters | Page 8

"Well," said I, apologetically, "I won't press you to go hunting again;
I'll be content to follow."
"Press me, my dear Ralph!" exclaimed Peterkin hastily, fearing that he
had hurt my feelings; "why, man, I do but jest with you--you are so
horridly literal. I'm overjoyed to be pressed to go on the maddest
wild-goose chase that ever was invented. My greatest delight would be
to go gorilla-hunting down Fleet Street, if you were so disposed.--But
to be serious, Jack, do you think we shall be in time for the
elephant-hunt to-morrow?"
"Ay, in capital time, if you don't knock up."
"What! I knock up! I've a good mind to knock you down for suggesting
such an egregious impossibility."
"That's an impossibility anyhow, Peterkin, because I'm down already,"
said Jack, yawning lazily and stretching out his limbs in a more
comfortable and degage manner.
Peterkin seemed to ponder as he smoked his pipe for some time in
silence.
"Ralph," said he, looking up suddenly, "I don't feel a bit sleepy, and yet
I'm tired enough."
"You are smoking too much, perhaps," I suggested.

"It's not that," cried Jack; "he has eaten too much supper."
"Base insinuation!" retorted Peterkin.
"Then it must be the monkey. That's it. Roast monkey does not agree
with you."
"Do you know, I shouldn't wonder if you were right; and it's a pity, too,
for we shall have to live a good deal on such fare, I believe. However, I
suppose we shall get used to it.--But I say, boys, isn't it jolly to be out
here living like savages? I declare it seems to me like a dream or a
romance.--Just look, Ralph, at the strange wild creepers that are
festooned overhead, and the great tropical leaves behind us, and the
clear sky above, with the moon--ah! the moon; yes, that's one
comfort--the moon is unchanged. The same moon that smiles down
upon us through a tangled mesh-work of palm-leaves and wild vines
and monkeys' tails, is peeping down the chimney-pots of London and
Edinburgh and Dublin!"
"Why, Peterkin, you must have studied hard in early life to be so good
a geographer."
"Rather," observed Peterkin.
"Yes; and look at the strange character of the tree-stems," said I,
unwilling to allow the subject to drop. "See those huge palmettoes
like--like--"
"Overgrown cabbages," suggested Peterkin; and he continued,
"Observe the quaint originality of form in the body and limbs of that
bloated old spider that is crawling up your leg, Ralph!"
I started involuntarily, for there is no creature of which I have a greater
abhorrence than a spider.
"Where is it? oh! I see," and the next moment I secured my prize and
placed it with loathing, but interest, in my entomological box.

At that moment a hideous roar rang through the woods, seemingly
close behind us. We all started to our feet, and seizing our rifles, which
lay beside us ready loaded, cocked them and drew close together round
the fire.
"This won't do, lads," said Jack, after a few minutes' breathless
suspense, during which the only sound we could hear was the beating
of our own hearts; "we have allowed the fire to get too low, and we've
forgotten to adopt our friend the trader's advice, and make two fires."
So saying, Jack laid down his rifle, and kicking the logs with his heavy
boot, sent up such a cloud of bright sparks as must certainly have
scared the wild animal, whatever it was, away; for we heard no more of
it that night.
"You're right, Jack," remarked Peterkin; "so let us get up a blaze as fast
as we can, and I'll take the first watch, not being sleepy. Come along."
In a few minutes we cut down with our axes a sufficient quantity of dry
wood to keep two large fires going all night; we then kindled our
second fire at a few yards distant from the first, and made our camp
between them. This precaution we took in order to scare away the wild
animals whose cries we heard occasionally during the night. Peterkin,
having proposed to take the first watch--for we had to watch by turns
all the night through--lighted his pipe and sat down before the cheerful
fire with his back against the stem of a palm-tree, and his rifle lying
close to his hand, to be ready in case of a surprise. There were many
natives wandering about in that neighbourhood, some of whom might
be ignorant of our having arrived at their village on a peaceful errand.
If these should have chanced to come upon us suddenly, there was no
saying what they might do in their surprise and alarm, so it behoved us
to be on our guard.
Jack and I unrolled the light blankets that we