"Have you found out anything?" asked Crouch.
M'Wané shook his head.
"I have seen no one," said he. "I know nothing. To speak the truth, I am afraid."
In the half-light of morning, the party left the stockade. Their canoe was moored to the bank of the river, in the place where they had left it on the afternoon of the day before. They clambered into their places: Max and his uncle to the stern seat, and Crouch to his old place in the bows. Then the canoe shot out into mid-stream, and it was not until a month later that any one of them looked again upon the mysterious settlement of Makanda.
[CHAPTER IX--A THIEF BY NIGHT]
It will be remembered that it had taken two and a half days to make the journey to Makanda from Hippo Pool. They returned in seven and a half hours, and even then the natives did little work with their paddles.
The fact was that, from the granite hills that almost surrounded the station of the Portuguese, a number of small tributaries joined the Hidden River. In consequence, a great volume of water flowed down to Hippo Pool. The current became stronger every mile, since the banks grew nearer together, and several jungle streams joined forces with the river. The largest of these was the tributary which flowed into Hippo Pool, along which had lain the latter part of the portage they had made from Date Palm Island on the Kasai. Harden named this stream Observation Creek, for a reason which we are just about to explain.
They camped on the east bank of Hippo Pool, at a place selected by Crouch. Two courses lay open to them: they had either to remain here indefinitely, or, leaving their canoe on the Hidden River, to return to Date Palm Island by the route of their former portage. Never for a moment had they had any intention of returning to the Kasai until they had discovered something more definite concerning the mystery of Makanda. That night, seated around their camp-fire, by the waters of Hippo Pool, they held a council of war.
With this place as their base, they were resolved to operate against Cæsar's position farther up the river. That afternoon, M'Wané had climbed to the top of a gigantic cocoanut-tree, some little distance from the right bank of Observation Creek. Thence he had surveyed the surrounding country, and it was largely on the information supplied by M'Wané that Edward Harden drew up the sketch-map which proved so useful to them throughout the eventful days that followed.
