"All safe, thank God;" and Mr. Hume hurried forward, with his eyes beaming. "Thank God."
"It is as I thought. Here is the hind leg of a monkey, with some of the hair still attached;" and Venning held up a disgusting-looking object.
Mr. Hume looked at the dead animal, the broken hut, and back at
Compton.
"We shot it last night, and its mate in the afternoon."
Then he pulled Venning to his feet and shook him. "Believe he's gone off his head."
"I've not," said Venning; and he held out a blood-stained hand to Mr. Hume, who took it with a great happy laugh. "Have you seen a beast like that before, Muata?"
"Any one would think," said Compton, "that nothing had happened— that we had not been lost, and that he had not brought us into this mess."
"Steady," said Mr. Hume, with a smile.
"Dick is right, sir. If it had not been for him, I should have been dead. I am a little bit excited now; but I will tell you all soon. Well, Muata?"
"Wow!" exclaimed the chief, who had been talking with the river-man. "One of these I have seen, and he also. It was a great thing to kill two; of all things that walk they are the fiercest."