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.