“So you never can tell what they may do. You may pass one without the least intention of harming it, but it may blindly rush you, and, if you don’t stop it with a bullet, you are likely to be killed. “Buffaloes are much the same, but they are less erratic. You can more easily figure on what they will do. Elephants and lions will seldom charge, unless you persistently hunt them. They prefer to run along and mind their own affairs. Rhinos and buffaloes do not. But we’ll see what happens when we get to the jungle, boys.” “Oh, I do hope we can get some good pictures!” exclaimed Blake, and Joe echoed the desire. The voyage passed off without incident. They made a stop of a few days in Naples, and inspected some of the Italian moving picture studios. Of late, several Italian firms had entered the business, making elaborate films of historical subjects, and Joe and Blake were interested in noting their methods. “But they all have to come to the United States for one thing,” said Blake, after a tour of one of the largest factories. “What’s that?” asked Joe. “The perforations in the edges of the film, by which it is moved in the camera or projector. They all have to conform to the standard adopted by Thomas A. Edison, when he first turned out a moving picture.” This is a well-known fact; all films, whether domestic or foreign, have the same number of perforations per inch, on each side of the film, as that adopted by the celebrated inventor of West Orange, New Jersey, several years ago. It is a tribute to an American genius, and the boys, though so far from home, felt a sense of nearness as they wandered through the Italian studio and saw the Edison standard perforation gauge being used. From Naples they took another German line steamer for Suez, thence to go to Mombasa. Now they began to get sight of foreigners other than Europeans, for there were both African and East Indians aboard, and there were many interesting sights. Nothing of importance occurred until reaching Suez, and there more foreign types were noticed. And it was here that they received their first bad news. They were just about to embark for the last stage of their journey, to Mombasa, when Joe and Blake came aboard with a copy of an English paper printed there. They were idly scanning the news, hoping to see something from their own land, when Joe uttered a cry, as he stared at a certain paragraph. “What is it?” asked Blake. “Bad news,” replied his chum. “I wonder if we can keep this from Dad?” He pointed to few lines, which read: