Page:The land of many names (1926).pdf/56

 :

Ay, that I have. And I’ve got the whole business all thought out, from start to finish. Aha, old fellow! I’m going there all right, and no shilly-shallying, either. Here’s my knife. A fine one, too. And now I’ll have to bag a rifle from somewhere



A knife? A rifle? What for?



Hm, what for? For wild animals and human beings, too. My good chap, I’m not going to stop on the outside of it; I’m going straight for the interior. That’s where the big forests are, and it’s the cities I want to keep clear of. I shan’t stop in them



Big forests? Cities?



Why, of course, savages and wild beasts. It’s a barbarous country. No European’s foot has ever trod there. That’s where the wild tribes are, but that’s where the wealth is too



I can’t get the hang of what you’re saying. I thought that I should take a nice bit of land somewhere there and set up a farm.



Ha, ha! a farm! Carting dung and drudging in the fields. I’m taking a shorter cut than that, old fellow.