This conclusion,
which Jeekie zealously fostered behind his back, in fact did Alan a good
turn, since owing to it he obtained boatmen and servants at a season
when, had he been supposed to be but a private person, these would
scarcely have been forthcoming at any price. Hitherto his journey had
been one long record of mud, mosquitoes, and misery, but otherwise
devoid of incident, except the eating of one of his boatmen by a
crocodile which was a particularly "early riser," for it had pulled
the poor fellow out of the canoe in which he lay asleep at night. Now,
however, the real dangers were about to begin, since at this spot he
left the great river and started forward through the forest on foot with
Jeekie and the four bearers whom he had paid highly to accompany him.
He could not conceal from himself that the undertaking seemed somewhat
desperate. But of this he said nothing in the long letter he had written
to Barbara on the previous night, sighing as he sealed it, at the
thought that it might well be the last which would ever reach her from
him, even if the boatmen got safely back to Calabar and remembered to
put it in the post.
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