From Paddington Station we brought him home by taxi, put him to bed and then fought despairingly against the volley of questions which Molly had ready for us.
"What's happened, Daddy?" she asked, a little wide-eyed at the vision of trussed humanity.
"Oh! . . . A slight accident. Mr. Stringer has broken a rib or two, and we're letting him stay here until he's well again."
"I know where you've been!" she said, when she had absorbed this item of news.
"Who told you?"
"I did, George!" answered Gran'pa. "Will you get it into your head that Molly is part and parcel of this expedition."
"If you mean that she's coming gorilla-hunting with us . . ." I began, excitedly.
"She'll come to Gaboon, anyway," he said, quietly.
"It's absurd. The idea of a child of twelve . . ."
"Daddy! You are mean!" she cried. "I shan't stop at home. If you leave me I . . . I shall run away . . . and I won't go to school. . . ."