The reaction from anxiety had been too much for Dick's self-control. He was bubbling over with excitement.
'Sorry, darling.' He kissed her on the cheek. 'Well, Alibaba says there's a Belgian poste, which is Bulamatadi for Boma, opposite here and about twenty miles north. The lake is under forty miles across here, so we'll be over to-morrow night and drinking beer with the Chef du Poste the next day. A happy issue to all our afflictions, what?' Dick's spirits easily went up or down, and he rattled on. 'Alibaba is picking four of the best oars among the thieves, and there'll be just room for Changalilo and the baggage. We'd better take a goat, too. He'll do as a mascot, if we don't have to eat him.'
'What about the others?' asked Norah, who had not Dick's happy absorption in self.
'What about them?' he stared at her for a moment, 'why they'll be all right. They'll stay here till we get word through to Kigoma.'
Leg-stretching ashore ended in sleeping there. Norah was reluctant to leave the ship, but Dick's enthusiasm swept her objections aside.
'It's safe enough if we're careful,' he said. 'The "palp"[[4]] never goes far from water and shade.' He pointed to a strip of bare rocky ground that lay at the back of the amphitheatre of the bay. Above it rose a sheer red cliff. For a quarter of a mile there was neither water nor tree. 'At night,' he continued, 'out there there's no fear of fly. Here there's the certainty of a stench of oil and crew. Not to mention the roll. Besides, I want to repack my kit.'
[[4]] Glossina palpalis—the sleeping sickness fly.
Changalilo quickly loaded the baggage into the dinghy, leaving, at Dick's instructions, the heavy ammunition chest on board to cross intact next day. The loaded magazine of Dick's Mauser was enough for emergencies on shore.
There was some difficulty in finding oarsmen. The crew had settled down to a gamble on the forecastle, slapping on the deck the dice made of cowrie shells filed smooth on one side, and betting which way they would turn.
When at last the boat was ready to start, Norah remembered the oxen. Even if their fate was slaughter, till the day arrived their life would be more endurable on shore, where the hands could build a lion-proof kraal.