CHAPTER XXVII.
WE DISCOVER HUMAN FOOT-PRINTS.—WE SPY OUT THE ENEMY.—A FEMALE GORILLA.—MATERNAL FONDNESS.
One morning, just at daylight, Querlaouen and I, without saying a word to Gambo and Malaouen, scaled our palisade with the ladder and went to look after the traps we had made for the monkeys, in order to see if we had caught some more.
We were going silently into the forest, and as noiselessly as we could, in the hope of seeing an antelope or wild boar, or some other kind of wild animal on our way. At last we reached the banks of a little stream, situated, as I judged, about six or seven miles from our camp, when lo! Malaouen and I saw what threw us into a great state of excitement.
Human foot-prints!
Yes, there was no mistake about it; there were eight foot-prints in the mud on the banks of the creek, and these were the marks of four men who had been there. They were fresh tracks.
Who were they?
Were they warlike Bakalais of the Ashankolo country? Were they enemies or friends?
WE DISCOVER FOOT-PRINTS.
Querlaouen and I looked in each other’s face without saying a word, and by instinct both of us looked most carefully at our guns, and we began to mistrust every tree around us, for some one might be hiding behind them, and getting ready to send a bearded spear through us.
