Always the same place, the same jumping-off point. The seventh entrance led to the most profound wilderness. It was from the seventh entrance that we heard the rumor that De Groot, the elephant poacher, had been killed by the wild forest people.
White men have no business there.
An emissary arrived with a request from the Minister of the Interior. He had gone to the Congo to get ivory. The missionaries had sent a formal protest. His reputation had recently jumped the ocean, thanks to an article in the Sunday supplement where the poacher had been represented in the most glowing terms as a benefactor of the native people. De Groot was, in fact, a scoundrel.