No sooner were Max and Ibrahim away from the camp than they felt like boys.
They were their own masters, and not only that, but they had two Arabs with them as stewards and porters.
Provisions for two weeks were packed into convenient form, and the four started.
Ibrahim insisted on Max taking the lead, the very thing not to do, for Max was venturesome, and when freed from restraint a perfect madcap. However, Ibrahim believed in him most implicitly, and it was agreed that Max should be captain.
The madcap had seen, some hours journey back, a boat, and to it they went.
A native, who was fishing, objected to them having it, but a few beads and a china doll were considered a princely recompense, and Max became the owner of the boat.
He asked the native where the river led to, and was told that in the great quagmire was a fire that had been burning for hundreds of moons, and it took all the water to keep the fire down; if the water stopped the whole world would be burned up, and, added the native, naïvely:
“Even Klatch would be burned.”
And the terrible climax made the naked savage look so frightened that Max burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
“Did you ever see the fire?” asked Ibrahim.