"If I hadn't given Yoka permission to overhaul the engines of the Zaire" said Sanders, "I'd start right away for the Isisi and interview Tobolaka. But by this time he'll have her cylinders open. By the way, I've remembered something," he said, suddenly.
He clapped his hands, and Hamilton's orderly came.
"Ahmet," said Sanders, "go quickly to Sergeant Abiboo and tell him to give food to the Isisi boatmen who came this morning. Also that he shall tell them to stay with us, for I have a 'book' to write to the king."
"On my life," said Ahmet conventionally, and went out.
"I will say what I have to say by letter," said the Commissioner, when the man had gone at a jog-trot across the compound; "and, since he has a swift canoe, he will receive evidence of my displeasure earlier than it would otherwise reach him."
Ahmet came back in five minutes, and with him Abiboo.
"Lord," said the latter, "I could not do as you wish, for the Isisi have gone."
"Gone!"
"Lord, that is so, for when the lady came back from the ship she went straight away to the canoe and——"
Sanders was on his feet, his face white.