"We can't go after them," said Lionel. "They've got too big a start."
"We've got no boat to go in."
"I wish," said Lionel, "I wish these riverine negroes used canoes."
"They don't."
"No," said Lionel. "They don't. Well. It's no good moping."
"We could follow downstream," said Roger, "and perhaps catch them at Malakoto."
Lionel shook his head. "There are the swamps," he said. "And we've both got fever on us. I doubt if we could get through. We might."
"We shall have to try it in the end, if we are to get away at all."
"I was thinking that," said Lionel. "But when we try it, it will be the end of the dry season, when the swamps will be passable. The swamps now are as bad as they can be. Honestly, Roger, I don't think we could make Malakoto, carrying our own stores. It's ten days; and those others wouldn't stay at Malakoto, remember. They'd make for Kisa. No. Best give in. They've won the trick."
"And we're to lose all these stores; about a hundred pounds' worth of stores?"