“I am an Englishman,” he had concluded, “working in the interests of my government. I may be mistaken, therefore, in believing that those interests are best for the progress of civilization in these wilds. That is for others to decide. But, at least, I want you boys to believe that we honestly are endeavoring to do our best for the natives. And I can’t say as much for the former officials of German East Africa whom I suspect of being behind this trouble in the Congo. If the trouble becomes serious, we shall have to go to the aid of Belgium, and that is the reason I want to go in and see how matters stand for myself. You people will be able to protect me from detection, unless Mabele eludes my trackers and escapes us to carry word to the conspirators that I am not what I seem. In that case, of course, the danger to you all will become real. Otherwise, you will be merely explorers, picturing wild game and scenery in the real heart of Africa.”
“I want to be of aid,” Mr. Hampton had said, “yet I do not want to bring the boys into danger, nor imperil the trophies of our expedition. All that we have taken to date, of course, both film records of primitive and wild game life and trophies of the hunt, are either already at Nairobi or will be despatched thither from here. So they will be safe enough. But further records might be destroyed should we be attacked in the Mountains of the Moon. As I say, I do not want to imperil either the results of the expedition or the lives of the boys. If at Masaka we find that Mabele has escaped us and has the chance to carry word to his conspirators of your real identity, Ransome, I shall probably deem it wise to turn back.”
“If you do so, under those circumstances, I shan’t blame you,” Ransome had said. “But,” he had added confidently, “I am quite certain Mabele cannot escape us. I have him, so to speak, in my clutch all the time, and am permitting him at large merely that he may lead us to his employers, the men higher up.”
“It is, of course, quite possible,” Mr. Hampton had added, after a thoughtful pause, “that Mabele did not gain sufficient knowledge of your identity from my remarks to the boys which I feel assured he overheard, that night in the tent, to make him dangerous to you and us.”
“Possible, but not probable,” Mr. Ransome had said. “Otherwise, why did he steal your radio immediately afterwards, except to thwart further communication between us? And why is he striking straight for the disturbed area?”
CHAPTER XXIV
PLANS TO CAPTURE THE PROPHET
At Masaka, a small trading center on the western shore of Lake Victoria, they met with disappointment. For the two native trackers put on the trail of Mabele by Mr. Ransome appeared the first night after their arrival with the news that their quarry had managed to elude them.
They had seen him enter a lake village one night, where he found shelter in a native hut. And believing him safe for the night, they themselves had done likewise, for they had spent several strenuous days sticking to his trail through broken country of hill and marsh and were exhausted.
Arising early the next day, however, they had discovered on investigation that Mabele had slipped away. And cautious inquiry developed that a native canoe also was missing. Putting two and two together, they had come to the conclusion that Mabele had taken to the lake. Although they believed they had kept out of his sight all the way and had given him no suspicion of their presence, yet it was likely he suspected he was being trailed and had taken to the lake to shake off pursuit.
Their one consolation was that an hour or two after their discovery of Mabele’s flight one of the sudden storms for which Lake Victoria is noted had arisen, accompanied by rolling thunder, lightning and a swishing downpour of rain. Later in the day, after the storm had departed and the waters of the lake had subsided, a native fisherman had brought in the stolen canoe which had been found overturned and floating a mile out from shore. It was their belief, therefore, that Mabele had been drowned. And as on their journey from that point to Masaka they had inquired of every native encountered if a man had been picked up in the lake or had been observed coming to shore, without result, they were confirmed in this belief.