The fellow's a fool,' said Dick. 'He doesn't know his job! Why not rig a sail, man?'
Without replying Alibaba licked his finger and held it above his head. Mildly he remarked that the dead calm would hold till the rains broke. It might be weeks.
With much head-shaking he rejected a suggestion of Norah's, opining that an attempt to tow the steamer behind her dinghy would end after an hour in mutiny. 'Black fellow he say "too much work no good"' was his comment.
A second fact had to be faced. Not only was the vessel stranded, but no rescue could be expected from Kigoma or elsewhere for many days. The Mimi was not due at Kigoma for forty hours, and a further delay of two or three days would not be sufficiently unusual to excite attention. When she was a week overdue, alarm would be felt. But even so, there was no British boat on the lake to send. Kigoma would have to get in touch with Albertville across the water and ask the loan of one of the three Belgian steamers. If the Belgians were willing and a boat was available, she would have to cross the lake and make slow progress close inshore, visiting each bay and natural harbour, until she caught sight of the derelict.
Alibaba's estimate that relief could not be expected for at least twelve days did not strike Norah as pessimistic.
'This'll learn me,' said Dick, 'to trespass into the Stone Age!' He stared disconsolately across the blue water. A thought struck him: 'What about a dhow? Surely there are Arab dhows on the lake?'
Again Alibaba shook his head with the deprecatory tolerance of an Anglican divine. Before the English took the land from the Gerimani[[1]] there had been much trade, and fleets of dhows. But now ... in any case the calm before the rains would keep dhows beached in their harbours. And why should a dhow visit this deserted bay?
[[1]] Germans.
Norah, who did not share Dick's depression and at first looked on the breakdown as an exciting adventure, cast her eyes to the land, from which, it seemed, must come their help. Would it not be easy to despatch one of the crew to the nearest village bidding them send a runner to the first white settlement with news of the plight of the Mimi and her passengers?
There were no villages, said Alibaba reluctantly, no natives, no settlements. Sleeping sickness had wiped the coast clear of life. In the old days smoke from the fires of fishing villages had shown blue on the shore, but at present... He waved his hand in the direction of the ruined tower, and Norah felt she understood something of that tragedy.