“What do you look at?” asked Muata, bending forward.

“Shall I shoot?

“So,” muttered the chief.  “It is the silent hunter.  Let him be; let him be, and pass on.  No other looks at man as he looks.  It is his kill; pass on.”

They passed on, leaving the “silent hunter” with the monkey, that looked as if he slept, and silent and motionless he remained as each one paused to glance down, his dull, unwinking yellow eyes showing like coloured glass in the lifted head.

“Look well,” said Muata, warningly; “where there is one, there will be another near.  The silent ones hunt in couples.”

“Would they attack men?”

“Ask the ‘little’ people.”

“But they are no bigger than monkeys.”

“There is the monkey bigger than man, and he, too, must give way to the silent hunter.”

“What!  Is the gorilla afraid of the python?”

“Between the ape and the serpent there is always war.  See where you place your foot then, for you travel the monkey-path, and we go hand and foot like monkeys.  Look well where you place your hand, for a straight branch may be the body of the silent hunter.”

Venning went on with renewed caution, studying the branches above and below, for, lover as he was of all manner of live things, he had the common repugnance to the serpent-kind.  But the trees were innocent of guile, and presently some other object claimed his absorbed attention, no less than an old man gorilla, who thrust his black head above a tree-top a little way off, and violently shook the branches.  At the noise every one stopped and peered out.

“Look!” he shouted.

“By Jove, a gorilla!” cried Compton, from the rear.

The great head was thrust forward, with its low black forehead and blacker muzzle; then they saw the whites of the eyelids as the fierce creature swiftly raised and lowered its brows; then the gleam of the great tusks as the mouth opened to emit a tremendous roar.  The branches cracked under its grip as it shook them again before disappearing.  Mr. Hume unslung his rifle and planted himself firmly, for, from the sound, it seemed as if the great ape were coming straight for them.  But the noise of its progress ceased, and, after a long wait, the march was resumed.  They kept a very keen outlook, and at times stopped to listen, but apparently the gorilla had vanished.  Yet many were the startled looks whenever the least sound broke on their ears, for the face of the great ape, suddenly thrust into view, was a terrifying object.

“Halloa!” said Venning, pulling up, “the path seems to end here.  See, the branch is broken off; and there is no swing-bridge.  Yet the track did go straight on, for you can see the old marks across there.”

“Wow!” said Muata, as his dark eyes swiftly took in the details.

“If I climbed up that branch, I think I could get into the other tree, and you could then use the rope.”