Somewhat reassured I waded forward a few paces and loosed the canoe which was tied by the prow.  Then I scrambled into it, and laying down the rifle, took one of the paddles and began to push out of the creek.  Just then the lightning flared once more, and by it I caught sight of the Motombo’s face that was now within a few feet of my own.  It seemed to be resting almost on his knees, and its appearance was dreadful.  In the centre of the forehead was a blue mark where the bullet had entered, for I had made no mistake in that matter.  The deep-set round eyes were open and, all their fire gone, seemed to stare at me from beneath the overhanging brows.  The massive jaw had fallen and the red tongue hung out upon the pendulous lip.  The leather-like skin of the bloated cheeks had assumed an ashen hue still streaked and mottled with brown.

Oh! the thing was horrible, and sometimes when I am out of sorts, it haunts me to this day.  Yet that creature’s blood does not lie heavy on my mind, of it my conscience is not afraid.  His end was necessary to save the innocent and I am sure that it was well deserved.  For he was a devil, akin to the great god ape I had slain in the forest, to whom, by the way, he bore a most remarkable resemblance in death.  Indeed if their heads had been laid side by side at a little distance, it would not have been too easy to tell them apart with their projecting brows, beardless, retreating chins and yellow tushes at the corners of the mouth.

Presently I was clear of the cave.  Still for a while I lay to at one side of it against the towering cliff, both to listen in case what I had done should be discovered, and for fear lest the lightning which was still bright, although the storm centre was rapidly passing away, should reveal me to any watchers.

For quite ten minutes I hid thus, and then, determining to risk it, paddled softly towards the opposite bank keeping, however, a little to the west of the cave and taking my line by a certain very tall tree which, as I had noted, towered up against the sky at the back of the graveyard.

As it happened my calculations were accurate and in the end I directed the bow of the canoe into the rushes behind which I had left my companions.  Just then the moon began to struggle out through the thinning rain-clouds, and by its light they saw me, and I saw what for a moment I took to be the gorilla-god himself waddling forward to seize the boat.  There was the dreadful brute exactly as he had appeared in the forest, except that it seemed a little smaller.

Then I remembered and laughed and that laugh did me a world of good.

“Is that you, Baas?” said a muffled voice, speaking apparently from the middle of the gorilla.  “Are you safe, Baas?”

“Of course,” I answered, “or how should I be here?” adding cheerfully, “Are you comfortable in that nice warm skin on this wet night, Hans?”

“Oh!  Baas,” answered the voice, “tell me what happened.  Even in this stink I burn to know.”