‘Are you OK, Mr Caleb?’ he asked.

‘Why wouldn’t I be?’ Caleb took another swing at the branch and a yellow bite mark appeared in it.

‘Sharp knife,’ said Innocent. ‘Take care.’

‘I know what I’m doing,’ said Caleb, sending another chipping into the air.

Innocent smiled at him and was retreating, his arm affectionately around Patience’s shoulders, when Caleb abruptly stopped chopping and said, ‘Hang on a minute.’

‘Yes.’

‘What’s with all this sitting around? When do we set off?’

‘We rest here today and head home tomorrow.’ Innocent’s gentle voice made this sound more like a suggestion than a statement.

Caleb rounded on it immediately, ‘I didn’t mean when do we go home, I meant when do we see the gorillas?’

‘The gorillas,’ said Innocent.

‘Yeah.’

‘After the scare of yesterday and last night’s difficulty, I think we take everyone back to Kinshasa, for safety. It’s best,’ he said quietly.

‘No chance!’ There was an edge to Caleb’s laughter. ‘I didn’t come all this way not to see gorillas, Innocent. Creep back home? You’re going to have to do better than that.’

Hearing the commotion, Xander and Amelia joined us.

‘Another time maybe,’ said Innocent. Smiling at Patience he went on, ‘Everyone tired, I think.’

Xander nodded but Amelia, failing to read the situation, said, ‘Actually I slept very well, thank you.’

‘Good girl,’ said Caleb. ‘I knew you’d be up for it.’

If I’d ever called Amelia a ‘good girl’, she’d have ripped my arm off and beaten me to death with the bloody end of it, but unbelievably she let this go with, ‘All I meant was that I’m not sleepy.’

‘And you want to see the gorillas, yes?’ Caleb asked.

‘Gorillas, yes. But not guerrillas. Primates not poachers.’

‘Of course,’ said Caleb. ‘But we pinpointed yesterday’s poachers for the rangers –’ he made it sound like he’d done it himself – ‘so they’ll be out of the equation, and anyway the mountain gorillas are in a completely different part of the national park. The chances of coming across two sets of poachers in one trip has to be infinitesimal.’

‘That’s not actually the way statistics work in this context,’ Amelia couldn’t help explaining. That was more like it! But annoyingly she went on, ‘It doesn’t matter though. I’d still like to see them.’

A scraggy-necked chicken, which had been pecking at the dirt a few metres off, now wandered in among us. Caleb addressed Innocent: ‘We signed up for chimpanzees and mountain gorillas. You’re not going to let a minor scare like yesterday derail things, are you?’

While Innocent searched for a way to answer him Caleb waved at the chicken with the flat of his machete blade. Dust rose from the bird’s wings as it flapped-skittered away.

‘We could always come back,’ said Xander, more to help Innocent out than because he believed it. Hearing the hollowness in his own words he dug deeper. ‘You know, later in the trip. We’ve got another three weeks.’