It was midday when they reached their old camp at Hippo Pool, and Harden and Crouch disembarked, to see if they could find traces of Cæsar's escape on the line of their former portage.
They met with instant success. Some one had passed within the course of the last few hours.
In consequence, the loads were disembarked. Three canoes were sunk, and the remaining three lifted high and dry upon the bank. It was whilst this work was in progress that Crouch, to his infinite delight, discovered his case of glass eyes, which he had left in camp on the morning of their adventure at Leopard Marsh.
They were obliged to halt for a few hours for food. They had brought with them a week's rations for their men: plantain flour, soaked manioc and ears of corn. It was two o'clock when the caravan began to move through the jungle towards the Kasai. They eventually reached one of their old camps by Observation Pool. Their progress was necessarily slow. The slaves were in no fit condition to do a forced march through the jungle; and that night it was decided that Edward and Max and the Fans should push on ahead, in an endeavour to overtake the fugitives, and failing that to bring back the Loango boys to help. Crouch was to follow with the caravan with what dispatch he could.
In two days, the advanced party reached the place where the creek turned to the south. Cæsar's tracks still followed the old route direct to Date Palm Island.
On the fifth day of their journey from Hippo Pool, they came upon a place where Cæsar had turned to the north. Edward was an experienced tracker, but it did not require the eye of an expert to see that human beings had turned from the portage and followed an elephant track to the Kasai. For a moment, Harden was undecided how to act. If he continued on his way to Date Palm Island, some days might be wasted before he again picked up the trail. In the end he decided to send Max and the three Fans to the north, and go himself with M'Wané to the Island. There he would load up the canoe, send half the boys down-stream on the look-out for Max, and bring the others back to the portage to assist the slaves.
The following morning he shook hands with his nephew, and continued on the old route with which he was now familiar. He had not gone far, however, before he noticed bloodstains on the leaves of the undergrowth; and presently, to his utmost surprise, he came across one of the Loango boys wounded by a bullet in the leg, and crawling painfully on hands and knees towards the river.
This boy said that he had been hunting in the jungle--for they were short of food on the Island--when he had come across a caravan consisting of six Arabs and a white man. They were carrying a canoe half-filled with supplies, and a great box which appeared to be excessively heavy. The white man who led the way, seemed to be very weak, for he staggered as he walked. Indeed, it is impossible to imagine the hardships that the tall Portuguese underwent upon that last and fateful journey. So anxious was he to save his rubies, to gain the sea-coast in safety, that he had not brought with him sufficient supplies. In consequence, he and his men were starving and, as we shall see, they had an even more deadly foe to reckon with.
M'Wané, picking up the wounded boy in his arms, carried him like a baby throughout the rest of the journey to Date Palm Island. There the man's wound was attended to, and he was placed in a canoe which was ready loaded two hours after Edward had reached the river.
Once more Harden set forth upon his old track, leaving instructions that the canoe was to drop down-stream on the afternoon of the following day. The Loango boys from the Island, though they had complained of being short of food, were in fine condition; and the party came up with Crouch at the end of the second day. Thence they made better headway and, following Cæsar's trail, arrived eventually at the river, where they found not only Max and the Fans, but the party from the Island.