On the second day of their march in the forest Alan chanced to see such a tree fall, and the sight was one that he never could forget.  As it happened, owing to the vast spread of its branches which had killed out all rivals beneath, for in its day it had been a very successful tree embued with an excellent constitution by its parent, it stood somewhat alone, so that from several hundred yards away as these six human beings crept towards it like ants towards a sapling in a cornfield, its mighty girth and bulk set upon a little mound and the luxuriant greenness of its far-reaching boughs made a kind of landmark.  Then in the hot noon when no breath of wind stirred, suddenly the end came.  Suddenly that mighty bole seemed to crumble; suddenly those far-reaching arms were thrown together as their support failed, gripping at each other like living things, flogging the air, screaming in their last agony, and with an awful wailing groan sinking, a tumbled ruin, to the earth.

Silence again, and in the midst of the silence Jeekie’s cheerful voice.

“Old tree go flop!  Glad he no flop on us, thanks be to Little Bonsa.  Get on, you lazy nigger dog.  Who pay you stand there and snivel?  Get on or I blow out your stupid skull,” and he brought the muzzle of the full-cocked, double-barrelled gun into sharp contact with that part of the terrified porter’s anatomy.

Such was the forest.  Of their march through it for the first four days, there is nothing to tell.  Its depths seemed to be devoid of life, although occasionally they heard the screaming of parrots in the treetops a couple of hundred feet above, or caught sight of the dim shapes of monkeys swinging themselves from bough to bough.  That was in the daytime, when, although they could not see it, they knew that the sun was shining somewhere.  But at night they heard nothing, since beasts of prey do not come where there is no food.  What puzzled Alan was that all through these impenetrable recesses there ran a distinct road which they followed.  To the right and left rose a wall of creepers, but between them ran this road, an ancient road, for nothing grew on it, and it only turned aside to avoid the biggest of the trees which must have stood there from time immemorial, such a tree as that which he had seen fall; indeed it was one of those round which the road ran.

He asked Jeekie who made the road.

“People who come out Noah’s Ark,” answered Jeekie, “I think they run up here to get out of way of water, and sent them two elephants ahead to make path.  Or perhaps dwarf people make it.  Or perhaps those who go up to Asiki-land to do sacrifice like old Jews.”

“You mean you don’t know,” said Alan.

“No, of course don’t know.  Who know about forest path made before beginning of world.  You ask question, Major, I answer.  More lively answer than to shake head and roll eyes like them silly fool porters.”