"Well, we was cruisin' around the Guinea coast, and one day I went on shore to look about and got separated from the other fellows, and all to once got so tangled up in the jungle that I didn't know which way to go nor nothing."
"That's interesting," said Percival.
"Then all of a sudden about forty black niggers jumped out of the jungle and gave chase, for I didn't stop to calc'late which way I orter go when I seed them, but just laid a course what would take me away from 'em the quickest.
"I just put through the jungle as tight as I could jump, and suddenly come face to face with a scrouching lion as big as a elephant, all ready to pounce upon me, and there I was between two fires.
"You might say three, because I was on the edge of a swamp and there was a big alligator with his mouth wide open, ready to swaller me the minute I got into the swamp."
Percival gave Jack a knowing wink and said:
"Well, that was a dilemma. What did you do?"
"Well, I just didn't know what to do, 'cause whichever way I went there was danger. The lion and the 'gator was in front an' the savage niggers behind, and it was as bad to stand still as to run and no port in a storm."
"Well?" and Dick gave Jack a wink.
"I just didn't do nothin', 'cause good luck did it for me. The niggers run plump into the jaws of the lion or smack into the 'gator, an' in a brace o' shakes one an' t'other was so stuffed full o' meat that they had no appetite for me, an' I just laid a course down the river an' found my mates in a jiffy."