"He concludes by telling me that he has gone too far to put back, and that he has neither the courage nor the right to retrace his steps just at the moment when he is on the point of reaching his goal, and solving those problems which have so long been under investigation. Indeed, he is the first European who has passed beyond the Monbuttoo territory, and everything is conjecture in connection with the territories extending thence for some degrees south-east and south-west. If he succeeds, he says, in passing through certain districts, up to the present time supposed to be impassable, he does not despair of reaching the Blue Mountains, of which Baker speaks, of crossing the Albert Nyanza, and so reaching in succession the Victoria Nyanza, Kazé, and Zanzibar. If he is induced to penetrate still farther southwards, he will make for the Lake Tanganyika, explored by Livingstone; and if westward, for the banks of the Congo and the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, he bids me adieu, and asks me once more to forgive him." Madame de Guéran, who had maintained her composure wonderfully up to this point, now broke down, and could say no more. M. Périères went to her and said— "And you are going to tempt these unknown lands, as your husband has done?" "Yes," she replied, decisively. "Alone?" he asked. "With, Miss Poles, the guide who brought me M. de Guéran's letter, one or two Arab interpreters, and the caravan which they are about to organize." "And we?" "You cannot come with me." "Why not?" asked M. de Morin, getting up quickly from his seat, and taking her hand in his. CHAPTER XLVIII. Madame de Guéran was about to reply, but he did not give her time. "Yes," he went on at once to say, "why cannot we accompany you? Why cannot Périères and I, for I see by our friend's face that he shares my feelings on this subject, why cannot we attempt an enterprise which does not appear to you to be beyond your strength? After having brought us thus far, have you, indeed, any right to send us back and say to us, 'I can do without you; you may return whence you came? I have made a pleasure trip with you, and have reached a spot arrived at by a thousand others before us. The question now is one of journeying through countries visited by three or four Europeans at most, of going still further afield into the midst of unknown tribes, into places described by geographers as unexplored regions. The pleasure trip becomes one of danger; each step along my new road is a step towards death. But I do not consider you fit to accompany me; go back to Europe and your pleasures, and let me die alone!' And we, who worship the ground you tread upon, we, to whom you are all the world, we are to obey you? Never! I tell you it is an impossibility!" "De Morin is right," added Périères, laconically. His voice was perfectly calm, but, beneath the coldness of his tone, there lay an inflexible will and fiery enthusiasm. In his usual excitable manner, M. de Morin continued—