Is it because you maintain the veneer of caring?  When in fact people confuse and bore you?  Especially when they are want to share with you all their tawdry history?  So you raise your glass at the prospect of having Lori tell you something in private, only to respond with a confused and shocked look in panel two… are you reacting to the fact that Lori has “known Chris for several years,” or that she feels like she has “made a mistake?” that is the greatest “oh crap” look I have ever seen…

But Lori, let’s get real here…  Are you and Chris “Friends with Benefits” or are you merely “Safari Buddies?”  We need to define terms here…  And how could he not fall in love with you?  You of the raven hair and impossibly small waist…

This has GOT to be a first!  I don’t think I have ever seen Mark with an adult beverage…  And I will give Chris credit, if it’s due him, he really knows how to entertain!  What a spread- fine dining al fresco with the Springbok noshing on the foliage in the foreground…

Given Chris’ 180-degree turn of attitude, he seems to almost be setting Mark up… Leaving him alone with Lori!  Has Mark even bothered to tell Lori that he is married?  Well, that would just spoil the fun, I suppose…  I do like this, though, much better than Mark getting into trouble in his own back yard (albeit a BIG  back yard) and having Cherry come to the rescue…

OK, a couple of thoughts:  first, this installment almost seems out of sequence…  The conversation would have been had right after the “Mark saves Taurus from the marauding Hippo” scene… but apparently they are want to re-live Mark’s heroics and cleverness long after they happened…  and second, who is “leading” this safari?  Apparently it is Chris Dyer… my assumption that Lori Tompkins was behind this- sort of a bucket list thing- was wrong…  So in addition to having a chronic gambling problem and being in hawk up to his eyeballs, Chris Dyer is also experienced in the ways of the Savanna?  I am starting to hear his voice- Afrikaans…  Deep South African roots.  White supremacist.  Oh, this is getting interesting…  He isn’t in love with Lori, he sees her as a “Mark,”  ha!  Get it??

Nice Aryan buzz-cut, Chris…  sort of a Dolph Lundren special… And again with the gambling references- “I would’ve laid odds…”  Do chronic gamblers really think like that and speak these tired, hackneyed phrases?  I think they do…

Our party does not waste any time…  last we knew it was night-time, a full moon and Chris Dyer was professing his longings for Lori Tompkins.  But now the truck is packed and Mark and Lori are once again commanding the best views while Chris simpers and molders riding shotgun with Taurus, or one of the other (at least) 3 porters, since these vehicles don’t drive themselves!!  I wonder if one of them is named George?

And, true to form, Mark remains oblivious to the “drama” that unfolds and involves him…  Good to know that Mark’s obtuse nature and relative position on the autism spectrum remains unchallenged…

And how it sucks to be one of the cloven hooved denizens of the African savanna…  You are born to run, to become some apex predator’s meal, only to be converted to carrion and picked over by hyena and vulture…  not very dignified, now is it?  I am guessing wildebeest… aka the Gnu…

James Allen has them.  Elrod did not.  Still adjusting to this new world where people have hearts and such… And also where people, even the men are not afraid to show them, or a world where men bleach their hair and leave their big, thick, dense black eyebrows untouched…  or is it the other way around?  Does Chris Dyer color his brows and leave his blonde mane au naturale?

Again, I say, it’s just plain weird, if not cruel, to lead a man on…  to bring him on safari only to break his heart…  I mean, how long have these two known each other?  Do they have history?  Did they at one time play on a level field??  Are they sharing a tent but that’s all?  Lori Tompkins, you are an evil and wicked temptress!  But then the look on your face in panel two, out of view of your frustrated former lover, says it all…

When does a hobby become an obsession, an obsession become an addiction?   When you know that what you are doing is harming yourself and those around you and still you can’t stop…  Be careful, Lori.  Just like that lout that Meryl Streep was “with” in Out of Africa, Chris What’s-his-Name is probably harboring syphilis.   Then she met her “Mark Trail” (played by Robert Redford) and things got really complicated…

But what, if anything DO you feel, Lori?  It’s very strange that you are on Safari with a guy when the two of you are obviously NOT and the same page… about ANYTHING…

Nice to see the return of the random wildlife shot.  It cannot be easy to draw all those stripes on that zebra…

OK, let’s not get too excited about the fact that I might have guessed how this story was going to unfold…  but in the past there has been Catfish aiding and abetting Rod Bassy by strapping on the SCUBA tanks, the bear finding the maple-syrup-infused Indian artifacts, and now we have Chris (I have a gambling problem) Dyer going double-or-nothing by getting involved with a few locals in their poaching scheme to pay off the shylocks with whom he is in deep…  Oh, money, thou art a wicked temptress…

But Lori Tompkins, you brought Chris Dyer all the way to Africa to tell him that the two of you couldn’t be together?  Seems a bit, well, involved…  And you are one to talk, considering you are on the lam after embezzling school funds!  A dentist!  Ha!  My hind foot!

Yes, Chris, your scheme may work out, but what about your impulsive nature?  What about your addictive personality?  Success here will only cause you to go after the next score, since the thrill of winning fades and you will need another fix!!

OK, unless of course you count the far left narrative panel, which will continue to move the story along MUCH FASTER than any stories of Mark Trail past…  I don’t know, I feel like I am sort of being jerked around… It was just morning for crying out loud, and the last image I have burned in my psyche is a flaming spear thrust into a gaping hippo’s mouth…  now I have to shift quickly to the comely Lori Tompkins leaning up against a tree in the Sub-Saharan Moonlight with the feckless and out of work Chris Dyer confessing his undying love for her…  I am getting a whiplash here!!

And Chris, I hope you are a good judge of human emotion, better than you are at keeping a job, because Lori, despite the fact that the two of you are traveling together on this exotic junket, presumably on her dime, wants nothing to do with you.  But can you blame her?  I mean, she’s met THE TRAIL… and there can be no going back now…  You know what they say… three’s a crowd…

As Mark Stand there, like a member of the Justice League (Superman?) or one of the “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,”  it’s already quit clear why providence has brought all these people together… To save a Porter named Taurus from an untimely death at the mouth of a Hippo…

Yes Chris, I imagine you WOULD bet money, if’n you only had some…  Remember?  You are UNEMPLOYED??  Such is the lot of the down on their luck, always looking to make a score to bring themselves back even!!  And Chris, that burning stick isn’t the only thing that Mark hasn’t “thrust” before in the presence of an angry beast, or even in the face of advances at home…

Well it’s a damn good thing that Mark Trail and his party don’t follow the OUTDOOR CODE!  Otherwise there would not be the always available flaming stick to ward off marauding Hippopotami…  But Really?  “Hey! Over Here!”??  This is an African Hippo, how would it understand English??

My hopes that somehow the red whistle would come into play are dashed!  The mystery of the red whistle remains intact.  Poor Mr. Hippo.  He’s going to have a nasty burn- worse than Pizza stuck to the roof of your mouth…  Oh well, soaking it in the river will take care of that.  I want to say that I am reminded of a Rudyard Kipling “Just So Story” about the Elephant’s Child by the “Great Gray Green Greasy Limpopo River all set about with Fever Trees…” Wait- that was an elephant story…  or the one about how the Rhinoceros got his skin- where the Farsi baked a cake and got the crumbs under the Rhino’s skin and caused him to roll around and scratch himself… But that’s a Rhino Story…  alas, no Hippo stories to recall…

Oh Dear…  That Bull (not Taurus) must have felt to need to protect his mate/ territory.  And I see now that Taurus has the same type of whistle around his neck that Kah-deen was wearing when we met him briefly at the airport baggage claim.  Interesting.  Is this to alert others of danger?  Well, get blowin’ Mate.  Oops wait we aren’t in Australia we are in Africa.

And who does Lori’s Hair in the bush?  She strikes a typical pose with her hands on her head and her eyes bugged out.  Nice flip-do… And what’s Mark doing in the background?  That has to be him cutting such a striking profile…

Are we talking fluff and fold here?  Is “Taurus” (Really?!?) offering to rinse out Mark’s “Unmentionables??”  And why is “Taurus” (Don’t worry I will stop putting quotes around his name in a minute…)  shouting at Mark?  Is that why his left hand is raised in a cupped fashion around the side of his mouth as he talks??

And in not “paying attention to his surroundings” (What- is this your first Safari, Taurus??)  He’s about to get attacked by a rogue Hippopotamus… I learned on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom that The Hippo is one of nature’s most fearsome creatures, whose tusks are razor sharp and can disembowel a man as quickly as it might look at him… despite not having very good vision, the “sight” of a man doing laundry has been known to enrage a territorial Hippo… OK, I just made that one up…

You know, it’s hard enough being a white guy these days, but an UNEMPLOYED white guy, traveling with your gainfully employed <girl>friend, presumably on HER dime… well, that makes it all the more difficult.  Of course Lori could have chosen her words a little more carefully…  She could have simply said that Chris does “import/export” or “in commodities” (like rhino horn??)

And it appears that this “conversation” between Mark and Lori has persisted well into the night.  Once camp is set up Mark goes back into interrogation mode, wondering whether Chris “helps” with Lori’s Dental Practice… “No, Mark, he wouldn’t be very good at that, what with his tendency to scowl and frown all the time… he would scare my patients away…”  So we will call him “unemployed.”  Like this is terribly different from Mark’s status?  Mark maintains the illusion of being “employed” but it’s really all a ruse…  I think Editor Bill Ellis is really a figment of Mark’s imagination and that his “trips” and his “adventures” are merely flights of fantasy…

And Mark, when are you going to divulge the fact that you are married and living rent-free in your father in law’s house?

The only thing missing from Mark’s exclamation is “OH BOY!” Settle down, big guy.  Stay cool.  Take your pictures, listen and learn.

Look at the SIZE of the Cargo Truck in the caravan.  Looks like the NAZI truck from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” that Indiana Jones hijacked…

I trust that it is Lori who is “Glad…” and not Chris.  He is probably still sullen and sulking about this recent turn of events…

And Where have we seen this before?  Oh I don’t know… maybe everywhere Mark goes…  Women want him, Men are threatened by him.    Mark Loosens his collar and it’s all over…

And what do you know?!?  Chris speaks!!   Mark, have you ever heard of the phrase, “Oh, no thank you?”  It comes in handy every now and then, but of course we need to move this story along. Watching Mark mope over a book he is only pretending to read is not very exciting, now is it??

Spoiler alert- “Chris” is the leader of a Poaching Ring…  I will bet hard currency on that one.

Again, his name is music to his ears…  “Why, Yes, I am!”

And a quick search of the Google reveals that Lori Tompkins is in Africa to start a new life, after embezzling over $100K from the Salisbury, (CT) Central School… She’s just been released, and is no doubt violating the terms of her Parole/ Probation by leaving the country…

It would seem, though, that Chris is a mute.  Hasn’t said a word yet.  But he sure looks snappy in his Safari Jacket complete with waist band and epaulets…

But Mark, you give up so quickly.  You came to Africa to hang with Jacob Hickman and you are simply taking a porter’s word that he is missing?  No inkling or desire to follow up on that?  Where is your natural curiosity, your obtuse nature that allows you to walk onto private property to snoop around??

And Mark where exactly are you going with that “It seems I’m stuck here for a while!” line?  It smacks of desperation, or at least a come-hither line that might get you invited somewhere other than this hotel with fine dining…

Of all the <hotels with fine dining> in all the world, you had to walk into this one, Mark Trail… With a book, no less.  Have we ever seen Mark crack the binding on a book before??  We have to assume that he reads, given that he writes for a living, but still…

And never mind that fact that Mark’s notoriety knows (literally) no bounds.  Here he is in Africa and he can’t seem to go unnoticed/ unrecognized.  The fact that it’s a loverly lass is something we have all come to expect over the years, right?

But what does this mean?  Mark has had showings?  Does that suggest that there is a coffee table book with his name on it??  “The World You Would not Know…” by Mark Trail… Maybe tomorrow Chris gets to speak!

Never mind that Jacob Hickman has been killed by poachers, now Mark is STUCK in Africa.  On expense account, no less…  Mark looks so SAD…  the game is over before it started… but worry not, friends, no injustice can go un-righted…  not in the Trailverse!  Not when Mark has traveled across space and time to get a story!

Funny how Kah-deen knew that Mark was coming in… even what flight!  Jacob must have run a very transparent operation- probably had a Google Calendar with open access…

How’s the coffee, Mark?  I bet it’s a little stronger than that dishwater you get at Lost Forest… Might put a little hair on your chest, of which we learned last month you have none!

Music to his ears, his own name is…  And thank goodness Mark is back to speaking out loud and not THINKING all those THOUGHTS to himself.  I feel better already.

Mark wasn’t difficult to spot.  Ivy league all the way… dresses and carries himself like an off-duty pilot I once knew.

Mark, I had not noticed before, but is that a gun?  A Rifle?  What exactly do you think you’ll be doing on this trip?  Snapping pictures and writing words, to be be sure… but hunting?  Is that for personal protection?  Poor Man. I believe these are the first people of color he has ever encountered… no wonder he is confused.

Is that Kaden as in Ka’-Den or Kah-Deen’?  I chooses the latter…  more exotic.  More in keeping with the mystery of the Dark Continent…  Kaden looks like he grew up wrestling Rhino.  Or judging by the whistle around his neck, refereeing matches…

And of course there’s “a problem.”  Where Trail goes trouble follows!

I have to hand it to James Allen.  We are boldly going where Dodd and Elrod were loath to travel…

He will arrive on a noisy silver bird.  He will stand out from the crowd.  He will emanate his own light while carrying his own luggage…  His name is Mark Trail.

But seriously…  How are we to regard the people in the first panel?  The Gentleman in the foreground, judging by his style of turban, has also come from a great distance- Like Northern India or Pakistan…  and what is the lady balancing on her head? A giant platter of hay?  For whom or what??  And center stage rear is a person astride a donkey, with another in tow…  Then there’s the guy in the airport… Hmmm… today I shall wear my best vest and fez… no shirt, just vest…  to meet my party at the airport… Is there a Shriner’s convention in town?