"Days--weeks, my boy, before we come to the fringe of our field. The
river is more than half the length of the Continent; its length is
half the distance by sea from Southampton to the Cape, and, next to
the Amazon, it pours a greater body of water into the sea than any
river in the world."

"Africa," said Compton, "seems to be the driest and the wettest, in
parts, of any country; and all its great rivers, except the Nile,
run to waste."

"They'll keep," said Mr. Hume. "When the old world gets tired, worn
out, and over-populated, it will find use for these big, silent,
deserted rivers, that would carry the ships of the world on their
yellow waters."



CHAPTER IV

THE STORY OF MUATA

They went from the wide estuary into the true river, with a width
that opened out at times to twenty miles; and while the white men
sweltered on the sticky decks, the rescued man grew in strength.
When they reached Stanley Pool his skin was like satin again, with a
polish on it from the palm-oil he rubbed in continually.

And when he found his strength he found use for his tongue, and in
the speech he made to his rescuers. Mr. Hume caught the meaning of a
few words of Bantu, Compton detected a phrase or two in Arabic, and