pole out into the current, and drift down until steam was up. Should the steamer be the first point of attack, I was to push out into the middle of the stream, and, possible, wait there until the chief and men joined me, either in canoes or by swimming; but I was on no account to risk the capture of the steamer by the Arabs—not even in an attempt to save the chief. If I could not beat off the enemy, or should the chief be killed, I was to steam off down river. In the event of my being surrounded and unable to escape, I was to proclaim a sauve qui peut, and sink the steamer in the deep swirl that spun over from the bluff on the south shore two miles below the Fall.
"Aided by the full light of the tropic moon, then some nine days old, I cleared the poor little launch for action. As silently as possible, we loosed the lids of cartridge cases, loaded guns, and pulled up ramparts of bales and boxes. Swinging the boat round till the moon shone full on the gauge glass, I ran the water into the boiler, and laid the fire. All being ready, the launch was warped down some ten yards to where a shelf of rock sloped sheer off into deep water; so that, as she lay, she had only two feet on the shore side, and about eight feet on the other. I had kept the men on the dark side of the steamer, where the sun-deck cast a deep shadow; so that, from a distance, only the sentry standing up above was visible.
"Everything was now finished, but the arrangements for sinking the boat in case of need, and of these the men must be kept in ignorance. The fireman and greaser lay down in the stoke-hole with a can of paraffine for a pillow, and cotton-waste, matches, &c., close at hand. Two other men and the boy tied themselves into a knot under an old blanket in the fore part of the launch. One sentry was posted on shore, by the anchor, and the other remained on the sun-deck above.
"As soon as I was alone in the stern of the boat, I lifted the centre floor-boards, and piled them on one side. From underneath I drew up a sledge-hammer and a small anvil. Selecting a plate on an outside strake,[1] I arranged the floor-boards so as to leave it clear, and laid the hammer and anvil close beside it. The anvil was about as much as I could lift, and I shuddered as I thought of the fierce struggle with the dark waters, should I find it necessary to heave it through the ⅛-inch plates of the poor little launch. The hammer was laid ready, in case the anvil did no more than spring the rivets.
"I lifted the centre floor-boards."
"The mosquitos were fearful; so, having done everything I could possibly think of, by way of preparing to give the Arabs 'pertikler perdition,' should they come to court it, I tied up a mosquito net and lay down on the bales and boxes beneath it, to follow the famous example of Mr. Micawber. I had hitherto been too busy to notice the sentries; but, knowing the nature of the beast, I now turned my gaze in the direction of the man on shore. To my horror, I observed that he was evidently asleep in a position that only a black man
- ↑ The lines of plates in a ship's hull are called strakes. An outside strake is one whose edges overlap the strakes on either side of it.
