"She's making out again. Perhaps she put in to speak a native village, and maybe they have not seen us; we are low in the water."
"They'll see us soon enough. Tell me when she passes the island we just left."
"She's making across. No, she's turning. Ah, now she's pointing straight for us. I can see several people in her bows."
"Now turn your glasses on the islands ahead."
Venning turned round, and looked up-stream.
"Is the launch nearer than the islands?"
"I can see a stork standing on the edge of the water. The first of the islands is nearest." He turned again to watch the launch. "There is more smoke—they are stoking up."
The launch was unquestionably coming up hand over hand, and it was not long before Venning could see the foam at her bows, and the flag of the Congo Free State flying at her stern. Then he saw a ball of smoke.
"She is firing!" he yelled.
Compton never took his eyes off the little cluster of reeds ahead that marked the first of the thousand islands.