So I Say Good-Bye To Mr. Cockshut, And Go Back To The
Post With Dr. Pelessier, And He Sees
Me on board, and to my immense
relief he stays on board a good hour and a half, talking to
Other
people, so it is not on my head if he is up all night.
June 25th. - Eclaireur has to wait for the Administrator until ten,
because he has not done his mails. At ten he comes on board like an
amiable tornado, for he himself is going to Cape Lopez. I am
grieved to see them carrying on board, too, a French official very
ill with fever. He is the engineer of the canoniere and they are
taking him down to Cape Lopez, where they hope to get a ship to take
him up to Gaboon, and to the hospital on the Minerve. I heard
subsequently that the poor fellow died about forty hours after
leaving Njole at Achyouka in Kama country.
We get away at last, and run rapidly down river, helped by the
terrific current. The Eclaireur has to call at Talagouga for planks
from M. Gacon's sawmill. As soon as we are past the tail of
Talagouga Island, the Eclaireur ties her whistle string to a
stanchion, and goes off into a series of screaming fits, as only she
can. What she wants is to get M. Forget or M. Gacon, or better
still both, out in their canoes with the wood waiting for her,
because "she cannot anchor in the depth," "nor can she turn round,"
and "backing plays the mischief with any ship's engines," and "she
can't hold her own against the current," and - then Captain Verdier
says things I won't repeat, and throws his weight passionately on
the whistle string, for we are in sight of the narrow gorge of
Talagouga, with the Mission Station apparently slumbering in the
sun.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 139 of 705
Words from 38018 to 38334
of 194943
