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Now, then, how do we know that the Okapi has not been taken into one of those caverns opening on to the pool?" "Good; go on to the trickery." "The person who hid the boat, if it is hidden, would probably be on the watch to scare off any who tried to find out what had become of it. Well, then, if we admit that, it is easy to admit the rest that a good swimmer could play the trick played on us."
"And we must have a good supply of biltong before we enter the forest; but we cannot afford to take risks. Just examine the shore for a creek, and at dusk we will run across." The boys passed the afternoon searching the south bank for signs of a creek, and in the evening the Okapi shaped her course across to a likely spot they had marked out.
But, to their keen disappointment, no okapi made its appearance at the drinking-place that night.
With a couple of powerful strokes the swimmer had his hand on the Okapi. "O great one," he cried, "Muata is come to work and to watch to be your shield and your spear." Mr. Hume reached out a strong hand and pulled the chief on board. Muata gave a low cry, and with a frightened whimper the jackal shot out from the bank and lighted on the deck. Then the Okapi slid out silently into the river.
In the morning Compton was left behind in the clearing in charge of the packages, while the other two took the Okapi down to her berth, which was about half a mile down on the same side.
The boys were at the lockers in a flash, drew out a couple of lines, bent on a large hook, buoyed it, by the advice of Mr. Hume, between two floats, baited the hooks, and payed the line over the stem, while Muata dropped over a few more pellets. There was a flotilla of duck and geese following in the wake of the Okapi, and in less than a minute there were two bites.
We will go when it suits us." "I'm not so sure," said Mr. Hume, gravely. "But Muata is our friend." "Muata cannot do what he likes, and, if he could, you've got to remember this that Muata in the Okapi, dependent on us, is another person to Muata the chief in his own kraal." "I don't think he would be treacherous," said Venning. "He need not go so far as that to upset our plans.
I don't say that we shall make anything. The chances are, of course, that we may lose all before we are a month out, but it is always well to be business-like. There is gold in Central Africa. We may discover a gold reef. There are new animals in the forest. We may catch an okapi, and if we could land it in England it would fetch a large sum.
But Chee-Chee said, "Yes, there is one in the London Zoo." And another asked, "Have they an okapi?" But Chee-Chee said, "Yes. In Belgium, where my organ-grinder took me five years ago, they had an okapi in a big city they call Antwerp." And another asked, "Have they a pushmi-pullyu?" Then Chee-Chee said, "No. No White Man has ever seen a pushmi-pullyu. Let us give him that."
They ran the Okapi in among the islands which still stretched away as far as they could see, and made fast, to eat and to sleep. The noon heat woke them.
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