"You cannot think of making use of anything that has been touched by that odious creature," said he to Miss Poles.
"That is true," was the disgusted reply. "She has profaned it, and I give it up."
And, so saying, she marched out of the place, with her chin in the air, and without deigning to say good-by to the chief or his wives. Our curiosity, too, was more than satisfied, and consequently we lost no time in rejoining our huffy companion.
CHAPTER XX.
April 6th.—We are going straight through the Bongo territory without troubling ourselves about the neighbouring tribes. If we were differently circumstanced, and had not an object in view which we must reach as soon as possible, we should have halted for a few weeks at Sabbi, instead of only having made, a couple of days ago, a short stay there, as in that case we might have seen something of the Mittoos, who, we are told, are quite as remarkable as the Bongos.
Every day, in spite of our unceasing watchfulness, we have to record fresh desertions, caused by the increasing fear of the tribes in the South. It is a fact, also, that the inhabitants of the various seribas through which we pass, take care to enlarge upon the subject, because none of them, neither the traders, their soldiers, nor their servants, believe that we are undertaking so long a journey for the sole purpose of getting on the track of one of our friends. "It is all an excuse," they say. "The Franks are going southwards, as their fellow-countrymen, the brothers Poncet, formerly did, to collect ivory and come into competition with us."
These people dare not attack us openly, because our force is a respectable one, and they know that we are, as it were, under the protection of the principal inhabitants of Khartoum, with whom they are inseparably connected commercially, but they do their best to injure us indirectly by diminishing our escort and inducing our bearers to leave us. As far as our bodily wants are concerned, we are treated well, thanks to our letters of credit, and, above all, to our rifles; morally, we are no longer welcomed at these last commercial depôts, as we were in the earlier ones. But the country is safe, provisions are abundant, and we have still bearers enough to carry them. If the effective strength of the caravan proper has now been decreased by about thirty individuals, we do not suffer from the loss, because from one stage to another we find Bongos both ready and willing to fill up the vacant places. Unfortunately, they are only attached to us provisionally, and they cannot, by any amount of persuasion, be induced to pass beyond their own frontier.
The rainy season has now fairly set in, but, nevertheless, we have frequent intervals of fine weather and a tolerably equable temperature. The thermometer, which stands during the day at from thirty-five to forty degrees in the shade, goes down at night to between sixteen and eighteen, but that is a variation to which we are accustomed.
We suffer principally from the heavy showers which overtake us on the march, when it is impossible to change our clothes. The negroes, owing to their semi-nudity, take these shower-baths very stoically and often enjoy them, but our costume precludes us from sharing in these sentiments.
Madame de Guéran has lately been suffering from a succession of attacks of fever, and at first bore them courageously without a murmur or calling in our doctor, but Miss Poles, ever at her side, attentive to her slightest need, and truly good in spite of her little weaknesses, discovered how far from well our beloved Baroness was, and made her take quinine. Consequently, Madame de Guéran is already much better, and, after having been carried for two days in her palanquin, she is to-day once more on horseback.