There was a silence, the great African silence that drives educated men mad, and fills the imagination of the poor heathen with wild tales of devils and spirits.
Then Jack Meredith spoke, without moving.
"I'm your man," he said, "with a few more details." Victor Durnovo was lying back at full length on the hard dry mud, his arms beneath his head.

Without altering his position he gave the details, speaking slowly and much more quietly.

It seemed as if he spoke the result of long pent-up thought.
"We shall want," he said, "two thousand pounds to start it.

For we must have an armed force of our own.

We have to penetrate through a cannibal country, of the fiercest devils in Africa.