"This is awful," said Delange, "these banks are enough to breed a pestilence."
"No," said the Captain, "this foul stench comes from that large boat you see coming down the river towards us. If I am not mistaken I shall find on board her some living arguments in support of what I have just been telling you about the slave trade and our powerlessness to put an end to it."
The officer, whilst saying this, got up and directed the engines to be stopped. A boat was at the same time lowered and pulled towards the stranger with an order for her to heave to.
No notice was taken of the command, and the boat, borne onwards by the strength of the rapid current and the favourable wind, continued on her course, the "Khedive" being unable to bar her passage. On the contrary, the Captain prudently got out of the way with his flotilla, but as soon as the sailing boat had passed he fired a gun as a second notice to stop, and this was at once answered by the lowering of her huge sail, those on board recognizing the fact that they were not strong enough to make any show of continued resistance.
"The sky is beautifully clear, and the moon will soon rise from behind that leafy screen of mimosas," said the Captain to his guests. "Would you like to come on board that boat with me? I have every reason to believe that we shall find something in her which will repay us for our trouble."
The offer was accepted, and, a few moments afterwards, a couple of boats were pulled alongside the starboard gangway of the steamer. Ten well-armed sailors took their place in the first, and in the other the Captain, Madame de Guéran, Miss Poles, and their three companions seated themselves.
Five minutes sufficed to reach the stranger. Contrary to expectation there was no attempt at a parley, nor was any opposition offered to this nocturnal visit. So far, indeed, was this from being the case that a line was thrown out to the boats to make them fast to the vessel's side.
The Egyptian officer, followed by his sailors and the European travellers, had scarcely climbed up the side, when the Captain, or reis, a man of about forty, in Mussulman costume, advanced towards them. He spoke in Turkish, and addressed himself to the Commander of the "Khedive," whose uniform bespoke his rank.
"As soon as I understood your orders," said he, in a low voice and with a smile on his thin parched lips, "I hastened to obey them. You have, no doubt, some despatches to give me for Khartoum, which I shall reach in two days if the wind continues favourably."
"You are not going to Khartoum, where you would get into trouble," replied the Commander of the "Khedive." "You reckon upon heaving to at some point along the banks where you can discharge your cargo of slaves, whom you will afterwards forward by land, westwards by Kordofan, or eastwards by Sennaar, to some market or other, either in the interior or on the coast."