The work proceeded without intermission during the whole of the day, and apparently without success, for the level of the water in the fort tank did not fall. But Elbel's activity was not stopped by the darkness. When morning dawned Jack saw that during the night an opening about five feet wide had been made in the wall, giving access to a passage-way of about the same height leading towards the fort and roughly covered with logs, no doubt as a protection against rifle fire. Only about twenty yards of this passage-way had been completed. The end towards the fort was closed by a light screen of timber resting on rollers, and sufficiently thick to be impervious to rifle fire, as Jack soon found by experiment. Evidently another trench was to be dug near the fort. To avoid the labour of building a second covering wall, Elbel had hit on the idea of a passage-way through which his men might reach the spot where he desired the new trench to be begun. Protected by the screen, they could dig a hole several feet deep, and then, too low to be hit by shots from the fort, could proceed with the trench in safety.
Jack wondered whether Elbel had not yet heard of the approach of the State forces. Such feverish activity was surely unnecessary when reinforcements were only a few days' march distant. It was Barney who suggested that Elbel had made such a mess of things hitherto that he was eager to do something, to gain a success of some kind, before the regular forces should arrive.
Under cover of the wooden screen the enemy, as Jack had expected, started to dig another trench parallel with the wall. They had no lack of labourers; as soon as one gang was tired another was ready to take its place; and the work was carried on very rapidly. With growing anxiety Jack watched the progress of the trench towards the gully. His conduit was only three feet from the surface of the ground. Judging by the fact that his marksmen never got an opportunity of taking aim at the diggers, the trench must be at least five feet deep; and if an opening were made into the gully the conduit was sure to be exposed. There was just one hope that they would fail. Jack remembered the outcrop of rock which had necessitated the laying of the pipes, for a length of some yards, several feet lower than the general level. If the enemy should happen to have struck this point there was a fair chance of the conduit escaping their search; for, coming upon the layer of rock, they would probably not guess that pipes were carried beneath it. To reassure himself, Jack called up Imbono and Mboyo and asked them if they could locate the spot where the rock occurred. Their impression agreed with his, that it must at any rate be very near the place where the enemy's trench would issue into the gully.
But Jack's anxiety was not relieved at the close of the day, for again the work was carried on all night. He thought of a sortie, but reflected that this would be taken by Elbel as an indication that he was hot on the scent. And while a sortie might inflict loss on the enemy, it would not prevent Elbel from resuming his excavations as soon as the garrison had retired again within their defences.
With great relief Jack at last heard the sound of pick-axes striking on rock. It seemed too good to be true that the enemy had come upon the exact dozen yards of rock where alone the conduit was in little danger of being laid bare. Yet this proved to be the case. In the morning Elbel drew off his workmen, apparently satisfied, before the trench had been actually completed to the gully, that he was on the wrong track. A great load was lifted from Jack's mind. If the secret of the water supply had been discovered, he knew that the end could only be a matter of a few days.
As soon as the enemy drew off, Jack's men issued forth, demolished the wall, and filled up the trench.
Three days passed in comparative inactivity. During these days Jack had much of his time taken up by Mr. Arlington, who required of him a history of all that had happened since the first meeting with Elbel. The traveller made copious jottings in his note-book. He asked the most minute questions about the rubber traffic and the methods of the State and the Concessions; he had long interviews with Imbono and Mboyo, and endured very patiently Lepoko's expanded versions of statements already garrulous; he took many photographs with his kodak of the people who had been maimed by the forest guards, and asked Jack to present him with a chicotte—one of those captured along with the Askari. He said very little, probably thinking the more. Certainly he let nothing escape his observation.
Meanwhile Mr. Dathan was making friends of all the children. Unable to endure the stuffiness of the hut, he had himself carried on a sheltered litter into the open, where, propped up on pillows, his burly form might be seen in the midst of a large circle of little black figures, who looked at him earnestly with their bright intelligent eyes and drank in the wonderful stories he told them. Many of their elders hovered on the fringe of the crowd; and when the lesson was finished, they went away and talked among themselves of Nzakomba[[3]] the great Spirit Father who, as the bont' ok'ota-a-a-li[[4]] said, had put it into the heart of Lokolobolo to defend and help them.
Before the dawn one morning Lingombela came into the fort. He reported that the new enemy had only just finished the portage of their canoes and stores. The steamer had been left below the rapids, and the white men were embarking on canoes. There were not enough to convey the whole expedition at one time, although some had been sent down the river to meet them. Two or three had been lost through attempting to save time by dragging them up the rapids. Lingombela had himself seen this, with Samba. Samba had no doubt already told what he had seen, but he did not know about the big gun which could fire as many shots as a hundred men, for the white men had not begun to practise at a mark in their camp above the rapids until Samba had left.
"But we have seen nothing of Samba; where is he?"