It was now that M'Wané and his four companions--the three that had gone to Solitude Peak and the one who had been left at the Island--asked to be put ashore. They said they were not far from their own people, and were desirous of returning home. For all that, they were extremely sorry to leave their masters, the great white men who had overcome the Fire-gods.
When they left, there was much hand-shaking. Each man was presented with a rifle and several rounds of ammunition, in addition to that they received enough beads, brass rods, and cloth, to gladden the hearts of any savage who ever roamed the equatorial forests.
Throughout the night the canoes paddled to the north-west. All this time de Costa lay in the body of a canoe, groaning with ague and shivering from fever. It is a strange thing that in the close and humid atmosphere of the forest there is little malaria or malarial typhoid, which cause such havoc among the white men on the great rivers of the Congo Basin. For it is above the surface of the water that the mosquitoes swarm, which breed these fell diseases.
At daybreak they sighted Cæsar. They saw his canoe for no longer than an instant as it rounded a bend in the river. The natives plied their paddles with a will, and Crouch, in the vanguard of the pursuit held his rifle ready to fire.
All day long, beneath the blazing tropic sun, with the insects droning in their ears and the yellow seething water rushing onward to the sea, this strange race continued.
Three times did they catch sight of the fugitives; once in the morning, once at mid-day, and the last time when the afternoon was drawing to a close.
By then they were not five hundred yards in the rear. It seemed probable that the Portuguese would be overtaken before night. Throughout that day native settlements on either bank of the river had been frequent. They were but two hundred miles above the point where the Kasai joins the Congo, to the north of Stanley Pool.
At last they entered a broad reach, where the river was straight as a Roman road. On either side the jungle rose to the height of about two hundred feet--a tangled mass of vegetation, of creepers, vines, convolvuli, so densely interwoven as to give the effect of endless walls. Far in the distance, at the end of this long reach, they could see an island standing in mid-stream, as if it floated on the surface of the river.
Resolved to overtake the man before darkness set in and assisted his escape, they urged the canoes forward, until Cæsar recognised himself for lost. Two shots from Crouch, and Cæsar's canoe drew in to the bank of the island.
As they approached they saw the Portuguese lifted out of his canoe in the arms of his faithful Arabs, and deposited on the bank. Then the Arabs, taking their rifles in their hands, opened fire on their pursuers.