"You jolly well won't, then," replied Hythe emphatically. "At least unless you wish to pay an indefinite visit to Davy Jones. Why, man, you are as warm as you can possibly be. Have a hot bath, if you like. I will, with plenty of disinfectant in it."
By this time the "Aphrodite," her draught aft considerately lessened, was afloat and resuming her voyage. Kenwyn had had his hot bath and foolishly sat in the fairly strong breeze to cool himself afterwards.
Before night he was lying unconscious in his bunk, prostrate with blackwater fever.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE "PRIDE OF RHODESIA."
Kenwyn's serious illness was a source of anxiety and perplexity to his chief. Captain Restronguet was loath to leave him ashore in an unhealthy district where medical comforts were of a most primitive nature, while to keep the patient on board was undoubtedly detrimental to the health of the rest of the crew and consequently a stumbling-block to the success of the expedition.
Finally he compromised the difficulty. Kenwyn was to be isolated from the rest of the crew, Mylor and Lancarrow volunteering to act as nurses, until the "Aphrodite" entered the gorge through which the Zambezi flows. Here the patient was to be landed, placed in a tent and left in charge of the two men till the "Aphrodite's" return.
Just below the town of Kaira, where the Shiré River joins the Zambezi, definite news came to hand concerning the "Vorwartz." A large canoe, laden with millet, arrived the same day as the "Aphrodite." Her crew reported, through a Portuguese interpreter who spoke indifferent English, that they had passed a strange-looking vessel, somewhat resembling the "Aphrodite," four days up the river, and that it was hard aground at the mouth of a tributary known as the Zampa.
This report was confirmed by the detector which gave the "Vorwartz's" position as sixty-three miles to the north-west. Captain Restronguet noticed that he was gaining rapidly on his rival, and had been unable to account for the rapid decrease in the intervening distance unless Karl von Harburg had lighted upon an isolated spot that seemed to suit his requirements.
At Kaira Captain Restronguet was able to procure an old though fairly reliable Portuguese map of the course of the river, and on this the position of the rival submarine was carefully noted. If she succeeded in floating and proceeding up the Zampa River it was evident that the "Vorwartz" would soon be in British territory--the colony of Rhodesia.