“No, Count. I stand to lose money.”
“And perhaps your life, for Europe will intervene,” the Count said significantly.
“I sincerely hope so,” Gaunt answered cheerfully. “I don’t think we shall do any good by this talk, for it can lead to nothing. We have come here with a deliberate purpose which we shall carry out to the best of our ability. Hello! The turbines have started. Don’t you think that we had better go on deck and see what is happening?”
And the governor-general was compelled to witness the welcome which the incoming liner, the Albertville, received, for she was treated in a similar way to her sister ship.
“It is a pity, for we are running rather short of provisions at Boma,” the governor-general remarked ruefully.
In his way the Count was something of a philosopher.
“I shall be glad to put our stores at your service,” Gaunt said politely; but the offer was as politely refused, and the governor-general departed in his launch.
At dinner that night they were all very serious, for they realized that in a very few hours the crisis would come.
“I think that we have been too successful; nothing has gone wrong. No lives lost, and the Congo is at our mercy,” Gaunt remarked.
“Yes, until a cruiser turns up,” Captain Armstrong answered drily.