"Not at all, my lad; for the first two hundred miles of the course we should not be out of sight of land half of the time, or only for a few hours at a time. Now look at the chart, all of you. Here we are at the mouth of the Sarawak River. About a hundred miles west of that is Cape Datu, the most western point of Borneo. Then for two hundred miles there is a chain of islands extending to the north-west, which is our course. These are the Natuna Islands; the largest one takes the same name, and is forty miles long. There are several other small islands north of this one, and if the weather came on very bad we could make a lee under one of them."
"Channel, sir!" shouted Clingman.
"I think you have got an idea of the whole thing, and we have a couple of days to think of it," said the captain, as he rose from his seat. "I will leave the chart here, and you can all study it."
Scott went forward to the wheel. He had caused a red rag to be tied to the top of a screw-pine while the sampan was looking for a channel through the lake, and Clingman had stopped the boat abreast of it. The captain took the helm himself; and he had carefully observed various marks, and obtained the bearings of the mountain, and other prominent objects which might assist him in taking the steamer through the shallow lake. He started her at once, and rang the speed-bell confidently, as though he had been through the lake a dozen times before.
It was sunset when the boat entered the narrow river, and they were called to supper. Clinch was placed at the wheel. It was a good moon, and the boat continued on her course till she came to the Dyak village where they had visited the long-house. She had been seen or heard as she approached; and the whole village was on the shore, including Mr. Eng.
"We are not going to lie up to-night," said Captain Scott when asked to land. "We are somewhat in a hurry to get back to Kuching, and we shall run down to Simujan this evening."
"I am going in the morning, Captain," added the agent.
"I will tow you down, and you can sleep on board if you wish."
"Thank you; my men will come down with the sampans to-morrow, and I gladly accept your offer," replied Mr. Eng. "But I must first go over to the pangah."
"To what? Will it take long?" inquired the captain.