midday before
He was not quick at such things , but at that moment he felt strangely certain that Victor Durnovo was hoping that Meredith was dead . `` I hope it is n't , '' he answered , and without another word he strode away down the little pathway from the summit into the clouds , loading his rifle as he went . Durnovo and his men , working among the Simiacine bushes , heard from time to time a signal shot as the two Englishmen groped their way towards each other through the everlasting night of the African forest . It was midday before the new-comers were espied making their way painfully up the slope , and Joseph 's welcome was not so much in Durnovo 's handshake , in Guy Oscard 's silent approval , as in the row of grinning , good-natured black faces behind Durnovo 's back . That night laughter was heard in the men 's camp for the first time for many weeks -- nay , several months . According to the account that Joseph gave to his dusky admirers , he had been on terms of the closest familiarity with the wives , and families of all who had such at Loango or on the Coast . He knew the mother of one , had met the sweetheart of another , and confessed that it was only due to the fact that he was not `` a marryin ' man '' that he had not stayed at Loango for the rest of his life .