Jack Meredith was dilettante, light-hearted, and unsatisfactory.

It was impossible to arouse any enthusiasm in him--to make him take it seriously.

Guy Oscard was gravely indifferent.

He wanted to get rid of a certain space of time, and the African forest, containing as it did the only excitement that his large heart knew, was as good a place as any.

The Simiacine was, in his mind, relegated to a distant place behind weeks of sport and adventure such as his soul loved.