"Show up?" repeated Mr. Wallace. "Why, I'd turn over my bill book to him and never count it when he gave it back! He's a blamed sight more honest than most white men you'll meet down there. And nerve! He carried me five miles on his back once, in northern China, stopping occasionally to fight off a bunch of bandits. That's the kind of man John is."
"Funny accent he's got," said Critch. "I thought all coons talked like they do down south."
"You'll get over that pretty quick!" laughed the explorer heartily. "John can use West Coast, cockney, Spanish and half a dozen other accents accordin' to whom he's been mixing up with latest. When we strike the Congo he'll probably fall into French. Well, let's trot along to Piccadilly and get measured. It's gettin' on toward noon."
CHAPTER V
THE CONGO
The boys were now due to receive another surprise. When their taxi drew up they jumped out, fully expecting to see a wonderful store like those of New York. Instead they found themselves before a dingy little shop whose aspect gave them distinct disappointment.
"No," laughed Mr. Wallace as he dismissed the taxi, "it's all right! Doesn't look up to much but it sends out good stuff."
This was the gunshop and they found it very different inside. Mr. Wallace had no time to waste in having special guns made, so the clerks measured the boys' shoulders and arms and that was all there was to it, for the guns would be slightly altered and sent on board.
Now the party went to the Boma Trading Company's store. Here they found that the chop-boxes had all gone on board their ship. Mr. Wallace ordered three Borroughs and Wellcome medicine cases, specially made up for the West Coast. He also procured two hypodermic syringes and a small quantity of Pasteur serums.
"We'll probably never need them," he explained, as they left the store, "but in case our men strike a snake a quick hypodermic is the only thing to save them. Then we have poisoned arrows to consider also. If we happened to get into the pigmy country—which I hope we won't—it'll take a powerful anti-tetanic serum to kill their poisons."
After a lunch they returned to the Boma Company. The lists which Mr. Wallace had given the clerks had been filled and now each of them was measured for the clothes and personal equipment. This consumed an hour, after which they took another taxi and went to a camera supply house.