Part 59 (1/2)
”Thanks!” said Fred dryly
”Aren't youout of the shadows
”I've made the dicker--found a man who'd been on the reeable to loan us two canoes in place of deeding you the woman I took your name in vain, Fred, and consented to that while your back was turned--kick all you like--the deed is done! Four of his savages co 'ereed they're to eat just as often as we do They paddle the canoes back hoh with them Are you all ready? Then all aboard! Let's hurry!”
CHAPTER TWELVE
”MANY THAT ARE FIRST SHALL BE LAST; AND THE LAST FIRST--”
When the last of the luck has deserted and the least of the chances has waned, When there's nowhere to run to and even the pluck in the sriry and cold, And your faith in the coret for the known and the old, Then you're facing, my son, what the Fathers from Abraham down to to-day Have looked on alone, and stood up to alone, and each in his several way O'ercame (or he shouldn't be Father) So ye shall o'ercoood-will to your naive!
Ye shall learn in that hour that the plunder ye won by profession is nought-- And false was the aiht-- The codes and the creeds that ye cherished were shadows of clouds in the wind, (And ye can not recall for their counsel lost leaders ye dallied behind!) Ye shall stand in that hour and discover by agony's guttering flame How the fruits of self-will, and the lees of ambition and bitterness all are the same, Until, stripped of desire, ye shall know that was death Then the proof that ye live Shall be knowledge new-born that the naked--the fools and the felons, can give!
Then the suns and the stars in their courses shall speedily swing to your aid, And nothing shall hinder you further, and nothing shall e your joy, and no ht shall shi+ne clear in your vision where wrong was before
Then the stones in the road shall be restful that used to be traps for your feet, Then the crowd shall be kind that was cruel before, and your solitude sweet That ant to be glooer the pain of desire, but the will--and the wit--and the vision, to give!
The canoes were the usual crazy affairs, longer and rather wider than the average The bottom portion of each was , and chipped very roughly into shape The sides were laboriously hewn planks, stitched into place with thread made from papyrus
So the with us, , with the four men lent us by the chief, an allowance of twelve to each canoe If we had had loads as well it would have been a probleet the whole party away; but as Lady Saffren Waldon had left us nothing but three cooking-pots, we just contrived to crowd the last e of the first canoe with Brown of Lu Coutlass with the other canoe to Will and reed it was most convenient to keep the Greek and the rifle separated by a stretch of water
There is one inevitable, invariable way of starting on a journey by canoe in Africa Somebody pushes off The naked paddlers, seated at intervals down either side, strain their toes against a thwart or a rib The leading paddler yells, and off you go with a swing and a rhythainst the boat's side at the end of each stroke Fifty--sixty--seventy--perhaps a hundred strokes they take at top speed, and the passenger settles down to enjoy hi motion in the world
Then suddenly they stop, and all begin arguing at top of their lungs
Unless the passenger is a man of swift decision and fire, likely to end in overturned canoes and an adventure ae broke no precedents We started off in fine style, feeling like old-ti in state; and within tenpaddles ourselves to poke and beat ourone another while the canoes rocked and took in water through the loosely laid on planks
The fiber stitching began to give out very soon after that, because when not in use the canoes were always hauled out somewhere and the dried-out fiber cracked and broke We had all to sit to one side while so Later, when a wind came up and the quick short sea arose peculiar to lakes, ere very glad we had done that job so early
It was only the first ested enjoy in any case, our ownhot dhow Then, hippoto be wholeso to be boiledplace)
They had obbled it The result was a craving for sleep, noisily seconded by the chief's fourat all, and in enoran with a keen determination to overhaul the dhow, that dwindled as we had ti e should do with two such women in case we should capture them, and hoe should prevent Coutlass in that case froe
”Why don't we leave 'em to make their own explanations?” I proposed at last ”We can clais at any tiestion took ti we fretted at every rest the paddlers took--drove the on the slippery shoulders of partly sub turns ourselves to relieve the wearyharder than the rest of us It would have been a bad night's work if we had overhauled the dhow and loosed hie!” he kept shouting to the night at large ”Lying in the ar kissed, simply to rob him--Coutlass--me! Think of it! Only think of it She lay in the hook of ht of hoin back the favor of the other she-hellion! And I was deceived by such a cabbage! Wait though! nobody ever turned a trick on Georges Coutlass more than once!
Wait till we catch theet Kamarajes either, or that bastard de Sousa, also pretending they were friends of mine! Heiah! Hurry! Drive the paddles in, you lazy black e than any other one thing that tipped the scales of indecision and called us off the chase A little before , at about that darkest hour, when the stars have seen the co sun but the world is not yet aware of it, Fred called to us to turn in toward a barren-looking hill of granite that rose almost sheer out of the water but at one corner offered a shelving landing place