A squadron of corvettes and sloops o' war put their glasses on us lazily
as we neared Momba; but with our Dutch bow and stern, our stumpy spars,
no self-respecting war-ship was bothering the _Triton_. They let us pass
without so much as a hail.
Captain Blaise planned to cross Momba Bar that night, all the more
surely to cross because the watchers ashore, seeing us hang on and off
in the late afternoon, would probably report that we were waiting for
morning. So we hauled her to in the dusk where, were it light, we would
have seen, under its three fathom of water, Momba Bar lying white and
smooth and quiet as a sanded deck as we passed on. With the wind coming
low and light from the land that was; but were it a high wind and from
the sea, there would be no going over that bar at night or any other
time.
We slipped silently up the inside, the northerly passage, to the lagoon,
and crept up the lagoon just as silently, but even as we were mooring
the _Bess_ in a nook at the head of the lagoon, a tall Arab was
alongside. With him Captain Blaise and I went ashore in the ship's
long-boat, and to avoid suspicion we took no arms. An hour of camp-fires
and shadows under the trees we wasted then with this sharp trader
Hassan. No printed calicoes, or brass rings, or looking-glasses for him,
nor rum, he being a true believer. Nothing of that; but of gold paid
into hand, and plenty of it there must be. And Captain Blaise, to allay
suspicion, discussed matters hotly. Finally he agreed to the Arab's
terms, and Hassan salaamed, and out under the open sky we went again.
"A proper villain, Guy, is that fellow. Did you ever see so wonderfully
cunning a smile? And in the morning I am to give him a draft on Rimmle!
Sometimes I think there must be something infantile about me, strangers
do pick me up for such an innocent at times. But in the morning, my
shrewd Hassan--"