On a sudden the mother gave a tremendous cry, and before I knew it she had disappeared through the forest. I would not have missed this scene for a great deal, and I wish that you had all been with me to see it, for I know that perhaps such scenes may never be seen again by a civilized man; I knew that it had never been seen before. The gorilla will one day disappear. A day will come when he who writes these pages will have been long dead and forgotten, but perhaps the record of what he has seen may, like the record of Hanno, fall into the hands of some one, and it will be read like a strange tale. I have brought away, altogether, thirty-one gorilla skins and skeletons; I have captured more than a dozen live gorillas, young ones, of course, and, altogether, I must have seen at different times during my twelve years’ explorations more than three hundred of them. [Illustration: [Fleuron]] CHAPTER XXVIII. HOW WE WERE RECEIVED AT CAMP.—THREATENED WITH STARVATION.—A NIGHT IN CAMP.—MALAOUEN’S STORY. We left the gorilla scene I have just described to you in the preceding chapter, and made for our camp. As we came in sight of it Querlaouen gave the peculiar whistle agreed upon to announce our arrival, and soon after we saw the head of Gambo and Malaouen peeping out above the fence, also the heads of the two boys Njali and Nola. The ladder was handed down to us; soon we were inside, and, before I knew it, Malaouen was hugging me as hard as he could; when he had done, and before I had time to breathe and free myself from his embrace entirely, I was hugged by friend Gambo. The boys jumped around, and there was tremendous excitement in the camp. The poor fellows had been very anxious, and did not know what had become of us. When night came they became very uneasy; perhaps we had been killed by the Ashankolo Bakalai, or by some wild beasts. Gambo, looking with pride into Malaouen’s face, said, “Did I not tell you that they would come back all safe?” They were washed with the chalk of the Alumbi, covered with their fetiches, and had gone through all sorts of heathen ceremonies to find out whether we were safe. The little wooden idol of Gambo had also been consulted. Gambo is a celebrated doctor who can tell future events; and, as a proof, he pointed us to his friend, shouting, “Did I not tell you that they would return safely?” Both Gambo and Malaouen had been looking at us with keen eyes upon our arrival, to know if we had come with a well-provided larder, and seemed somewhat disappointed when they saw us empty-handed, for they had fancied us coming back with a fat monkey or a nice gazelle.