'I suppose there'll be a village where we can get food,' said Norah.
'In any case,' added Dick, 'there's really no choice. We can do ten miles at the most. I'd better tell them to get on with it.'
Much firewood was shot into the furnace and much steam hissed out into the air, before the engines clanked regretfully into life. Alibaba took his place at the wheel, and, dragging like a wounded buck that has outdistanced the hunter, the Mimi drew inshore. Across her bows loomed a rocky promontory that dropped in sheer cliff to the water. Alibaba swung her wide to miss the piled boulders, which had crumbled from its face to form a breakwater to the bay and a council chamber for the grave, black, diving birds who, bolt upright, stretched their necks in the sun.
The view that was revealed as the steamer heeled slowly round the bar and the divers with raucous cries flapped heavily into the air, presented an appearance of habitation that momentarily relieved the wayfarers.
At the feet of the densely wooded hills that sloped from the sheer cliffs of the encircling mountains, a square red brick tower proclaimed the constructive instinct of white men. Its style revealed the faith of the Catholic Fathers, who, since the days of the slave trade, have proselytised the lake shores.
Help seemed at hand, though the travellers' relief was marred by the falsehood of their position. Then, as the steamer drew painfully abreast of the tower, they recognised the handicraft of a Presence alike indifferent to hopes of human aid and feelings of delicacy. The assurance of Alibaba that 'missionary he finish die long time' was not required to identify the technique of death and desolation.
The windows of the tower gaped blankly, the round Spanish tiles were broken or missing, trees and creepers had obliterated all trace of the dwelling of kindly men. Not even the squalor of a native village struggled with the silent supremacy of nature. The ruined church tower stood alone to establish a passing triumph of faith. Other buildings that may have once existed had failed to resist the pressure of the forest. Even in the bright sunshine, Norah felt the wing of tragedy over the deserted station, and she wished Alibaba endowed with enough imagination to have avoided this haunted valley for their night's sojourn.
But that astute seafarer had not, as it proved, underrated the endurance of his engines. Already panting had degenerated into hiccoughing. Slower and slower the Mimi trailed her wounded way towards the land, heading for the northern arm of the bay, where a swift little river pouring yellow into the lake promised anchorage inshore.
When she was within a hundred yards of its mouth, the end came. The engines raced ear-shatteringly. A grinding noise succeeded, and a cloud of steam masking the hurrying black forms of the firemen. Then a dead silence and the Mimi rolled lifelessly lakewards, carried out by the yellow current."