“Thicker than crows at home, sir. Then what do you say to monkeys?”
“That I should like to see them alive in the forest.”
“Well, there you have them, sir; and you could come across plenty, if you went far enough, big as boys.”
“Ah, now you are telling travellers’ tales, captain,” said Rodd.
“Nay, my lad, not I. I have seen them as big as boys, only not so tall, because their legs have all gone into arms. Little, short, crooked legs, they have got, as makes them squatty. But when they stand up their arms are so long that they nearly touch the ground. Big as boys? Why, they are bigger! I never saw boys with such big heads. And they all look as if they had been born old; wrinkled faces and long shaggy black hair.”
“Now, look here, captain, I don’t mind you joking me, but don’t play tricks with the Viscount here.”
“Not I, my lad. I am just telling you the honest truth, and you may believe me.”
“But where’s the river where these things are?”
“We shall come across one of them before long, sir,” said the skipper. “I expected to have found one that suited my book hours ago. I was very nearly going up that one just about dinner-time.”
“Oh, but that was only a little inlet,” said Rodd.