"We must chance that," said Ferrier. "I think we had better start at once. There are no rapids in this part of the river; our real trouble will begin when we come above the pool. If we stay here till the morning, we may be set upon before we are well away, whereas by starting now we shall be past the village by the time it is dark, and when they see us fairly off they may chuck up the sponge."
"All right. Is there anything else to be done?"
"We'll rope the rafts together, but we must be ready to cut the hawser if there's any need. I'll go in the first raft, of course. Perhaps Coja had better come with me to try his hand at steering, if you don't mind taking Said Mohammed. Your raft ought to come along in the wake of mine without any difficulty; but have your pole ready to push off if we strike a shoal."
"What's the rate of the current, do you think?"
"Three to four miles an hour, at a guess. Better let the women go now."
John withdrew the askaris who had been keeping guard, and the women, on being told that they might go, fled away up the hill like a flock of sheep. All the men of the safari then took their places on the rafts; these were roped together; the framework was lashed on the unprotected sides; the mooring ropes were released, and the strange overladen craft, sinking so low that the logs were covered with water, took the current and began to float down. Luckily the bales of provisions had been placed above the ammunition boxes and other baggage, which would not suffer from a wetting.
The actual start was hidden from the enemy by the projecting knoll; but as the rafts swept round the curve their appearance was hailed with loud shouts from the hill-top, where the women had now joined the warriors. The left bank was here too precipitous and too densely wooded to permit the enemy to approach near enough to do any damage; and as the voyagers came into the straight reach that ran by the foot of the hill on which the village was perched, they saw the yelling horde rush over the brow.
"Going to meet us on the level," shouted Ferrier from his place behind the breastwork of the foremost raft. "Keep the men crouching behind the palisade."
[CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FOURTH--Ferrier takes the Lead]
The river varied in breadth at this part of its course from sixty to eighty yards. The steersmen, Coja in the first, Said Mohammed in the second, kept the rafts in midstream, and they glided on the full current with a steadiness that augured well for the voyage. In less than half-an-hour they were level with the village. Then a shot rang out from the right bank. Clearly Juma had been on the watch. The shot fell short, and the sound of it caused great consternation among the villagers, who had taken up a position a few hundred yards down-stream on a stretch of treeless land on the left bank, raised a few feet above the level of the river. They had evidently been as yet unaware of the proximity of their allies. But their apprehension was immediately changed to wild excitement as they saw Juma, accompanied by his band, appear on a similar eminence on the opposite bank. They shouted with delight, leaping, brandishing spears, little suspecting the trick which the Swahilis had played on them.