That last mental image saved me! I sought out a suitable tree, leapt up at its lowest branch, caught hold of it, and raised my bruised and weary body to the first step upwards. I climbed slowly but alertly--and much to the alarm of a couple of monkeys perched in one of its topmost branches. They fled chattering along the pale green surface above. Half-way up, I cursed my torn and impeding gorilla skin, discarded it, and resumed the journey in a pair of "shorts" and a shirt. Below, everything was dark and gloomy and foreboding; but, above, the sun extended thin fingers of gold amidst the green leaves. "If I have to die," I thought, "let it be up here, where the air is pure and there is light." For over a hundred feet I continued that ascent to freedom, and then I stopped and listened to a peculiar fluttering noise on my left. I craned my neck and peered through the branches. The "thing" came into view--a great red ball, beneath which there billowed and waved the flags of America and England! "Balloon ahoy!" I shouted, deliriously. ("And they've caught another gorilla!" I thought, subconsciously.) There was no answer, and after giving still another futile shout, I began working my way from one tree to another until I came to the edge of a clearing containing one of our cages. By crawling out to the extremity of a huge horizontal branch, I was at last able to look below. "Hello, there!" I shouted. I saw the two blacks turn their faces skywards and, tearing off my vest, I waved it aloft. "Hel-lo-oh . . . !" came a voice which was apparently Gran'pa's. Without further palaver, I commenced my descent to _terra firma_. From bough to bough I dropped in quick succession, until, when I reached the last, I was only twenty feet above ground level. Having no desire to drop from this height into a tangle of underbrush, I worked my way out to the tip of the branch, hung for a moment on the end of the arch it so considerately made, and then let go. I fell on my feet as gracefully as an acrobat. "By George!" exclaimed Gran'pa, running up to me. "It's . . . George!" "What's left of him!" I breathed. "What on earth have you been doing now?" he asked. (A nice greeting, but characteristic of Gran'pa!) "It's a new game," I observed, quietly. "When _you_ get lost in that damned jungle it may occur to even you! I've been up there looking for the nearest balloon. Thank God I found it--even if it did happen to be yours!" I told him the tale of my adventures. "It was very foolish of you to come alone," he admonished. "And--where's your gorilla skin?" "Half-way up a tree--such as there's left of it. . . . You've caught another gorilla, I see." "Yes! A beauty! How did you get on with the other three?" "So--so! . . . One of them broke loose on the way back--and I had to shoot it." "But. . . ." "For heaven's sake, don't argue!" I said. "If I _hadn't_ shot the brute. . . . Well, as it was, Oakley very nearly crashed."