“Not yet,” answered the professor. “Our friend ’Msusa was so busy explaining and apologising for the attack upon us that I have not yet had the chance. But I will, though, at once.”
And then ensued another long palaver between von Schalckenberg and the savage, its excessive length being due, as the former explained, to the difficulty experienced by the principals in understanding each other. At length, however, ’Msusa turned to his friends and explained the situation to them, with the result that the four white men were ultimately invited to enter the village, partake of refreshments, and remain there for the night, upon the understanding that a guide to the river would be furnished to them the next morning.
“All right,” agreed Sir Reginald. “We will go to their village and sample their hospitality. But as to remaining with them for the night, I must confess I do not at all like the idea. Our friends aboard the Flying Fish will already have suffered several hours of cruel anxiety on our account, and I am unwilling to prolong that anxiety a moment longer than is necessary. Why will they not let us have a guide forthwith? Surely the river cannot be so very far away!”
Von Schalckenberg tried ’Msusa again, but without success.
“The fellow speaks such a barbarous dialect that I find it almost impossible to understand him,” explained the professor; “but he informs me that, for some reason or other, it is out of the question for us to go forward to-day.”
“Hm!” commented Sir Reginald. “Do you think, Professor, that these people are to be trusted; or is there some deep scheme to get us into their power behind this reluctance to help us to go forward this evening?”
“I don’t know,” answered the professor. “’Msusa speaks fairly enough, but one can never tell. Treachery, so far from being a crime, almost amounts to a virtue, under certain circumstances, with all these African savages; and I must confess that I have noticed one or two little things that, to me, seemed to bear rather a sinister significance. But what can we do? We cannot take ’Msusa by the scruff of the neck and insist upon his becoming our guide to the river.”
“Can we not?” cut in Lethbridge, dryly. “I am by no means so sure of that. But an idea has just occurred to me. Mildmay will have been on the look-out for some sign of us, at least from breakfast-time to-day, and, if I know anything of him, he is still looking out, and will continue to do so until darkness sets in—perhaps even later. Now, my idea is this—and I am sorry that it did not occur to me earlier in the day. Here are we, four lost men, in a fine open space, with ample room to light four fires at a considerable distance apart. The evening is fine; there is no wind; and the smoke from those fires would rise to a considerable height into the air. Now, if Mildmay should happen to notice four distinct columns of smoke rising above the tree-tops—”
“Of course,” interrupted von Schalckenberg, “he would at once connect them with us, and would come in the Flying Fish to investigate. It shall be done at once.”
And, turning away, he forthwith entered into energetic conversation with ’Msusa, which ultimately resulted in that savage giving certain instructions to his friends, who, after a tremendous amount of palaver, interspersed with frequent references from ’Msusa to the professor, at length set to work to gather four large piles of branches, dry leaves, and other combustibles, which they proceeded to arrange on spots indicated by von Schalckenberg. As soon as the piles were of sufficient size to yield a good dense body of smoke they were simultaneously ignited by the four white men—by the simple agency of an ordinary match, to the intense astonishment and admiration of the blacks—and then the quartette sat down patiently to await events, while ’Msusa and his friends, incited thereto by the professor, continued to pile upon the fires further quantities of grass, green branches, and other things calculated to produce the maximum quantity of smoke. The result was that in a few minutes four distinct columns of brownish-grey smoke were going up straight into the sky, some hundreds of feet above the tops of the highest trees, and finally spreading out and mingling into one great cloud that would be distinctly visible, in that atmosphere, anywhere within a distance of twenty miles.