On the 23rd November the wind began steadily from the north. I was
nearly ready. Every vessel had been thoroughly repaired, but many were
so rotten that the caulking was considered by the English shipwrights as
quite unreliable for a long voyage. I had dragged the iron diahbeeah out
of the water, and had substituted new plates in many places where the
metal was honeycombed with rust. The plate that had been pierced by the
tusks of the hippopotamus was removed, as it proved to be very
defective, and could be broken through with the blow of a heavy hammer,
therefore it was not astonishing that it had been easily penetrated by
the sharp ivory of so powerful an animal.
When the diahbeeah was re-launched, I had her thoroughly painted inside
and out. In the mean time, I had formed a Robinson-Crusoe-like house,
comprising two small rooms, open on the river-side, but secured at night
and morning by simple Venetian blinds. The three sides were closed with
planks. I had paved the floor with the cast-iron plates of the steamer's
engine room, thus it was both level and proof against the white ants.
The two rooms were separated by a partition with a doorway, but no door.
I had not resided in a house since I first occupied the diahbeeah, ten
months ago, as the vessel was more convenient.
On the 29th November, at about four A.M., I was awakened by a noise in
the adjoining room. My bedstead was exactly opposite the partition
doorway; that of my wife was on the other side of the room. At first I
thought the sound proceeded from rats scampering over the tin boxes; but
upon listening attentively, I distinctly heard the lid of a metal box
opened by some person, and again carefully closed.
After a few moments, I heard another box open, and a sound as though
some one was searching among the contents.
Unfortunately my bedstead was the most horrible creaker, in which it was
impossible to turn without producing a noise that would create an alarm,
should a thief be on the alert.
I always slept with a pistol under my pillow, therefore, I gently
grasped the revolver in my hand, and endeavoured quietly to get out of
my noisy bed.
The wretched piece of furniture gave the most alarming creak; this was
immediately succeeded by a sound in the next room of the sudden closing
of a box, and the movement of some person. I could not be sure that it
was not Lady Baker, who had perhaps required something from a box, and
did not wish to disturb me. This was not likely, and I felt that no time
must be lost, as my bedstead had given the alarm. I therefore sprang out
of bed and rushed through the open doorway, just in time to see some
person jump through the Venetian blinds on the river side of the house.
To cry out "Who's there?" and to fire a shot was the work of an instant,
and jumping after him in pursuit I found myself in darkness, and no one
visible outside my house. Where was the sentry? Nowhere!
At the cry of "Guard!" not a soul appeared; the sentry was not to be
found. At length, after a search, he turned up in the wrong place,
looking confused, and confessed that he had been asleep, but awakened by
the sound of a shot. By this time a number of non-commissioned officers
had arrived, who had been alarmed by the pistol-shot and the cry of
"Guard!" The sentry was put under arrest. A search was made everywhere,
but no trace of the thief could be found. On making an examination of
the premises, we found a dirty shirt that the thief had in his hurry
left behind him; this was evidently intended to receive the spoil in
lieu of a bag. I could not find the trace of a bullet-mark either upon
the planks or upon the Venetian blinds, therefore, I considered that the
thief must have been hit, or if missed, the ball must have passed out as
he pushed the blinds aside when in the act of springing through.
I suspected the sentry, who was an Egyptian belonging to the "Forty
Thieves." He was stripped and examined, but there was no wound. All the
shirts were alike, therefore the shirt in my possession was no clue. My
wife had been startled, but she quickly recovered herself; the sentry
was flogged, and there the matter ended; we had no London detectives.
CHAPTER VI.
THE START.
December 11. - The first division of the fleet, composed of eight
vessels, had started, according to my previous arrangement, on 1st inst.
Every third or fourth day another division followed the advance, until
on the 11th I brought up the rear, and completed the departure with
twenty-six vessels, including the No. 10 steamer and my diahbeeah. The
wind was fair from the north.
The extensive and neat station of Tewfikeeyah was completely dismantled.
The iron magazines and their contents were now safely stowed in the
various ships, and were already on their voyage towards Gondokoro. The
horses were shipped and the stables had been pulled down, and the wood
cut up for fuel. The long rows of white tents had vanished, and little
remained of the station except a few rows of deserted huts. It seemed
extraordinary that so large a place could be packed up and stowed away
among the fifty-nine vessels of the fleet.
The English shipwrights had constructed three very useful boats, each
exactly the same size, about 16 ft.
