"Lie still, Mr. Denbigh," said Captain Pennington. "You'll be fit all in good time."
"All right," agreed the sub. He was not in a fit state to do otherwise. "Where is the Pelikan now?"
The skipper of the Myra lowered his voice.
"Properly trapped. She cannot go another fifty yards up the river. We've spoilt her little game."
"Good business," murmured Denbigh, and turning on his side he fell asleep.
His escape was little short of miraculous. It was owing to the fact that he wore his solar topee fastened by a strong "chin-stay". The air-space between the double thickness of the sun-helmet possessed sufficient buoyancy to bring him to the surface, after being twice taken down by the whirlpool.
A few minutes previous to the disaster, the bore had exhausted itself at a point ten miles up the river, and the "rebound" had made itself felt just at the time when Denbigh made his second involuntary dive. The sudden slackening of the full force of the flood-tide had caused the whirlpool to cease, with the result that the sub floated unconscious on the surface of the river, when he was picked up by the Pelikan's whaler. O'Hara, Captain Pennington, and Armstrong had been more fortunate, for they had been swept clear of the influence of the eddy.
The result of Armstrong's plot had rather exceeded his expectations. The Myra lay athwart the channel, with less than twelve feet of water over her at high tide. Until the Mohoro River cut itself a new bed round the submerged wreck—which might take twenty-four hours or as many days—the Pelikan would be unable to proceed. Even if the obstruction did not exist, the raider was unable to proceed owing to the loss of her propeller blades.
The whole of the stores removed from the Pelikan to the Myra, as well as those originally in the tramp's holds, were hopelessly lost, including the bulk of the ammunition and arms intended for the German colonial troops. There were several hundred reservists still on board, with no facilities for their transfer up-country. Even had there been boats available for them all, the voyage up the Mohoro was fraught with danger.
On the other hand, to remain in the Pelikan was to court disease and famine, even should the raider escape detection by the British cruisers.