"What!" exclaimed Mrs. St. John in amazement. "Take him along? Why, George William Wallace, what do you mean?"
"What on earth d'you suppose I mean?" chuckled her brother. "Why shouldn't Burt take his vacation with me if he wants to? Don't you think I am competent to take care of him?"
Burt was quivering with eagerness and his mother hesitated as she caught the anxious light in his eyes. He stood waiting in silence, however.
"George," replied his mother at last, "are you serious about this? Do you really mean—"
"Of course I do!" laughed the explorer confidently. "If I know anything about it, Burt'd come back twice as much a man as he is now. Besides we ought to pull out ahead of the game, because I'm going after ivory."
"Wait till Tom comes home," declared Burt's mother with decision. "We'll talk it over at dinner. You'll have a hard task to convince me that there's any sense in such a scheme, George!"
As her brother was quite aware of that fact he forbore to press the subject just then. A little later Mr. St. John came home from the works and at the dinner table his wife brought up the subject herself.
"Tom, this foolish brother of mine wants to take Burton away to Africa with him next month! Did you ever hear of anything so silly?"
"Don't know about that," replied Mr. St. John, to his son's intense surprise. "It depends on what part of Africa, Etta. You must remember that the world's not so small as it used to be. You can jump on a boat in New York and go to Africa or China or Russia and never have to bother your head about a thing. What's the proposition, George?"
"I've been thinking that it would do Burt a lot of good to go with me to the Congo," answered the explorer. "The sea voyage would set him up in fine shape, and we would keep out of the low lands, you know."