He was about to give the order to start when it suddenly occurred to him that it would be well to assure himself first that the coast was clear. So far he had seen no natives either on river or on land since he left Elbel, save those of his own party and the band coming up with ammunition. The riverine villages had all been deserted, and the tributary down which he had travelled was at all times little frequented. But it seemed very unlikely that many more days should pass without his seeing a stranger, and when he began to think on these lines, he wondered whether perhaps Elbel himself might not have occasion for sending messengers down stream, and whether the party they had met conveying stores to Elbel's force might not be returning. Having escaped by such wonderful good fortune, it would be sheer folly to throw away his chances of getting back to Ilombekabasi by any want of caution. Accordingly he sent Makoko up the river and Samba down the river to do a little preliminary scouting.
About midday Samba came running back in a state of great excitement. He had run so fast that his legs were trembling, and sweat poured from his body. Not an hour's paddling distant, he had seen a smoke-boat and a large number of canoes coming up the river. He had never seen so many boats before, and they were crowded with men. And on the smoke-boat there were white men.
"At last!" ejaculated Jack. This, he supposed, was the Captain Van Vorst, of whom Elbel had spoken, coming up with regular troops of the State. Whoever was in command, the flotilla could portend no good to Jack or Ilombekabasi, and he saw at once that he must give up the idea of using the Askaris' canoe. He could certainly travel faster than the expedition, which must go at the pace of its slowest cargo boats; but scouting or foraging parties of the enemy might push on ahead and sight him on one of the long stretches of the river; and his men could be descried from a long distance as they made the portage. Pursuit and capture would then be almost certain.
His mind was instantly made up. His journey to the fort must be a land march, and it must be begun in all haste. He quickly gave his orders. The canoes were unloaded, and the stores and ammunition given to the Askari to carry. The vessels were then scuttled and sunk, and the whole party plunged into the forest, after a time taking a course almost the same as that which Samba had followed on his solitary journey. But before they had gone far, Jack, not disposed to leave the neighbourhood without getting more exact particulars of the advancing host, went back with Samba, leaving the rest of the party to continue their march.
Samba rapidly wormed his way through the forest back to the river bank. They reached a position, whence, unseen themselves, they could command a long reach of the river. There they waited.
Soon they heard the regular beat of the steamer's paddles; then the songs of the canoe-boys. By and by a steam launch came into view round a bend of the river. It was crowded. Far away as it was as yet, Jack could easily distinguish the white-clad figures of three Europeans on deck, amid a crowd of negroes in the tunic, pantaloons, and fez of the State troops. Clearly it was as he had feared. The Concession had followed the usual course, when the rapacity of its officials had provoked a revolt too formidable to be coped with by its own forces, and had called in the aid of the regular army. As canoe after canoe appeared in the wake of the steamer, Jack could not help a feeling of dismay at the size of the force arrayed against him. His spirits sank lower and lower as he watched. By the time the steamer came abreast of his hiding-place, the flotilla filled the whole of the stretch of river open to his view. In the still air, amid the songs and chatter of the natives, he could hear the laughter of the Europeans as they passed. He knew that only a portion of the men in this armada were fighting men; the rest were paddlers and carriers, not part of the combatant force. But a rough attempt to count the men bearing rifles gave him at least three hundred, and he started as he saw in one canoe what was clearly the shield of a machine gun. Captain Van Vorst, if it was he, undoubtedly meant business. Before the last canoe had passed their hiding-place Jack and Samba started to overtake their party. The former was deep in thought.
"We must reach the fort before them," he said.
"They go very slow," was Samba's reply.
"Yes, and the carrying of all their stores and canoes up the rapids will take many days. But we must hurry as fast as we can."
"Much chicotte for the paddlers," said Samba, with a grin.