“That’s just how I felt,” said Briscoe. “Hang me if I could make out whether it was a wild man or an ape.”
“It’s my opinion that it was the former,” said Brace, gazing back at the little embayment they had just passed.
The next few minutes were passed in silence which was at length broken by Brace.
“Look, there he is again,” he said; “he’s watching us from behind those bushes. Couldn’t be a wild man, though, could it?”
“Of course not,” said Lynton: “whoever saw a wild Indian go off on all-fours? It was a great monkey.”
“But there are no great monkeys in this part of the world,” said Brace. “One has to go to West Africa and Borneo for them. What do you say, Mr Briscoe?”
“The naturalists all say that there are no big apes in South America; but some travellers tell a different tale, and the Indians report that there are great half-human creatures that they are afraid of roaming about in the woods.”
“I suppose that must mean that there are some species of apes on this continent, but that no specimens have been captured,” said Brace.
“I’m going to make a note of what we’ve seen to-day,” said Briscoe, “for that chap was as big as an orang-outang, and quite as ugly.”
“Yes,” said Brace. “It looks as if we had made a discovery. I don’t see why there shouldn’t be big ones in these vast forests.”