They
think me great doctor and they believe. Perhaps they die if they go on.
If so, I tell them that because they want show white feather, and they
think me greater doctor still. Oh! they come, they come, no fear, or
else Jeekie know reason why. Now, here coffee, Major. Drink him hot
before you go take tub, but keep in shallow water, because crocodile he
very early riser."
Alan laughed, and departed to "take tub." Notwithstanding the mosquitoes
that buzzed round him in clouds, the water was cool and pleasant by
comparison with the hot, sticky air, and the feel of it seemed to rid
him of the languor resulting from his disturbed night.
A month had passed since he had left Old Calabar, and owing to the
incessant rains the journeying had been hard. Indeed the white men there
thought that he was mad to attempt to go up the river at this season.
Of course he had said nothing to them of the objects of his expedition,
hinting only that he wished to explore and shoot, and perhaps prospect
for mines. But knowing as they did, that he was an Engineer officer with
a good record and much African experience, they soon made up their minds
that he had been sent by Government upon some secret mission that for
reasons of his own he preferred to keep to himself.
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