till and silent. Not a beast seemed to be
stirring, while even aboard the boats all had settled down to rest.
Johnnie, the stoker and driver, sat in the engine-well wiping his black
hands after an inspection of the machinery, while the Fanti crew lay
curled up in the bottom of the boats, two in each one, content with the
world, waiting quietly for their evening meal. And now it was ready.
With a broad grin Johnnie announced that the water boiled, while Dick,
who had been superintending a dish of bacon which he had placed at the
furnace door, sang out that it was done to a turn.

"Then I will make the coffee," cried Mr Pepson. "Meinheer, see that
the cloth is laid; and, Dick, steady with the bacon. We will start fair
together."

The cloth consisted of a sheet of newspaper, a very ancient London
daily, which the Dutchman spread out on the deck. Plates were of
enamelled iron--the class of ware to stand half a dozen campaigns--while
mugs were of the same hardy material, and were apt to be used for soup
or coffee, water or good wine, just as circumstances dictated. It was
all very jolly. This _al fresco_ picnic delighted Dick, and he set-to
at the meal with gusto, apologising for his appetite.

"Id is goot! Id will make you grow sdoud, mine friend," grunted
Meinheer, in the midst of consuming a rasher. "Id will make you grow so
big zad ze natives will zink you a gread man. See how zey dread me,
Meinheer Van Somering!"

He looked down at his ample proportions with evident satisfaction, and
then completed his attack upon the rasher.

"Do-nighd all will be quied, mine friends," he went on. "I shall be on
guard, and zese natives will not come. Perhaps lader zey will ask who
we are. I will speak wiz zem. There will be no difficulty. Anozer
rasher, Meinheer Dick."

They ate till they were satisfied, for there was no reason to be careful
with the rations, as they had an ample supply. The repast was ended
with a second cup of steaming coffee, when the burly Dutchman produced a
pipe of dimensions as ample as his own, and with a bowl which took quite
a quantity of tobacco to fill it. Mr Pepson lighted up a cigar, while
Dick produced a briar pipe. Then for some minutes there was silence
between them, while the darkness deepened, and the cigar and the pipes
shone redder and redder.

At length it was dark, so dark on the surface of the river that nothing
was visible, and Dick could hardly see the figures of his