They may be far and difficult to find." "They have watched us all the way," said Muata, calmly; "and it was in my heart that they had fallen upon the young chiefs in the night." "Glad we didn't know," said Compton, thoughtfully.
Muata went off on his self-appointed task, and the white men felt, as they saw him disappear, how impossible it was for them to cope with the mystery of the forest.

They were even more helpless than castaways at sea without a compass; for at sea in the day there is the clear sweep to the horizon miles away, while in the forest all they could be certain of was a little circle with a radius of less than fifty yards.

Beyond that was the unknown, because unseen--a vague blur of trees that might be sheltering wild animals or savage men.

And what made their helplessness the more felt, was the knowledge that Muata knew so much, and that others--the mysterious pigmies--knew still more.

If there had been open glades, stretches of greensward, rippling brooks, or even a hard clean carpet such as is found under a pine forest, they would have been undismayed; but this gloomy, shrouded fastness, without glimpse of sunbeams, was becoming a nightmare.
Yet it would never do to become a prey to depression, for there is no danger so fatal to the explorer as low spirits, the forerunner of sickness.
By common consent they fought against a strong fit of the blues.