Innocent, blowing out his cheeks in exasperation, said, ‘Bushmeat is valuable, people are hungry. They hope to catch antelope, but really such snares are, how do you say …’

‘Indiscriminate,’ said Amelia.

‘Take her word for it,’ said Xander.

‘Literally.’

Innocent smiled.

Caleb was still smarting. His eyes, catching mine, blazed. ‘Hold on,’ he said. ‘These poachers are about to disappear, setting snares all over the place, snares that might well kill the animals we’re all so keen to see, and we’re just going to let them?’

I could tell where he was going with this, and he did.

‘I mean, Patience here has put her finger on it. They’re banking on us fleeing, not following them ourselves. You said Marcel was the best tracker in the Congo, after you, am I right?’

Innocent kept his composure. ‘Yes!’ he sang. ‘Very good tracker, but –’

‘But what?’ said Caleb. ‘We’ve given them enough of a head start. We should track them down, find out where they camp, give the rangers something better than “we met some poachers, sang songs, and ran away” to work on.’ He looked around the group, alighting on Amelia. ‘You agree, yes?’

If I’d asked her the same question the answer would have been something like, ‘No, idiot,’ though if she’d been in an expansive mood she might have added, ‘Never mind Marcel’s tracking skills – to suggest that two tour guides, a little girl and four kids from the English home counties should chase an armed Congolese militia through a jungle they live, hunt and kill in makes zero sense.’ But I hadn’t asked her. Caleb, with his stupid crew cut, lime-green boots and puffed-up chest had. And her response wasn’t no; it was yes.

Innocent smiled harder. ‘Number-one job is to protect clients. I will radio in coordinates. There is a chance –’

‘No, there isn’t,’ said Caleb. ‘Unless we go after them straight away, they’re gone. Never mind antelope – right now they could be butchering the very chimps we were watching.’

The funny thing was, I could tell Caleb didn’t really care about the chimpanzees, the antelope or anything much at all, beyond himself, by which I mean a combination of putting me in my place and impressing Amelia. I knew that and yet I couldn’t call him on it. In fact it seemed I had to do the opposite. ‘He’s right,’ I heard myself say. ‘We should retrace our steps, follow them, do something to stop them.’

Patience was staring at me hopefully. My heart beat louder in my ears because of it.

‘Something like what?’ asked Xander, incredulous.

‘I don’t know,’ I admitted. ‘As Caleb says, we could at least give their exact location to the rangers.’

‘Let Marcel do it. He’s the tracker. We don’t all need to go.’

Xander had a point, but I guessed Caleb’s reaction before it came.

‘That’s fine, good idea. You guys go back with Innocent. Marcel and I can track the poachers.’

Innocent laughed gently and said, ‘No, no, no.’