"It is not practicable."
"You and Sally could 'plane it, accompanied by the necessary lady gorilla."
"No! It is too late in the day to start doing things by instalments, like that. We must all go together. If you've any respect for my feelings, George, give in like a good fellow."
"Very well!" I sighed. "It's your expedition—not mine. And perhaps you're right. . . ."
"You might admit it less grudgingly. . . . I don't want to seem a killjoy. . . ."
"Killjoy!" I exclaimed. "You don't think that I'm fooling with these gorillas for the joy of the thing. The novelty wore off months ago. It's simply a matter of patience, followed by hard work if you're lucky, and a fit of depression if you aren't. What glamour is there in sitting in a cage, muffled up in a monkey skin, with your hand on the gas tap—waiting for some fool gorilla to stray by? It's as bad as being a spider. If only we could go in for a little genuine hunting . . . a few hippo, or elephants. . . . But no! We should scare away these precious apes. Pampered brutes!"
"You're very bitter, George!"
"Naturally I am when you suggest that I want to finish this job because I like it."
"Come now! Even you have your moments of gayety. There's always some new thrill in the jungle. That snake, for instance. . . . One isn't always sitting and waiting. . . . Still, the point is that you agree with me in the main. Capturing gorillas is a long and tedious business. We shall never get enough. Therefore, let us take what we have before any more of them die."
So at last, after many hardships and adventures, we came to the beginning of the end.