Five minutes later the boat was in the middle of the stream, while the Utopians, who had been left standing at the gate, were running up and down the river bank in a state of wild excitement.
But darkness and the swift current of the river soon lost them to view.
Van's father, though his left leg was missing from the knee down, was quite spry, and he insisted that he should have charge of the boat during the night.
He was allowed to have his own way, and when the sun arose the next morning they were nearly a hundred miles from the African Utopia.
The current of the river was swift and steady, and when two days had slipped by the boat entered a large body of water, which the elder Vincent said was Lake Tanganyika.
We will not dwell on the voyage down the lake, but suffice it to say that it was really the body of water they supposed it to be, and in due time they arrived at the town of Ujiji, which was the nearest to anything like civilization they had seen since they started on their journey, barring the African Utopia, of course.
They were lucky enough to meet a party of Englishmen at this place, who were just about to start for Zanzibar.
One of them happened to be an acquaintance of Jack Howard's, and that made things satisfactory between the two parties, so they formed into one and set out for the coast.