We ran to him.
"Here it is, Baas," he said, and pointed to something in a tiny bush-
fringed inlet, that at first sight looked like a heap of dead reeds.
We tore away at the reeds, and there, sure enough, was a canoe of
sufficient size to hold twelve or fourteen people, and in it a number
of paddles.
Another two minutes and we were rowing across that lake.
We came safely to the other side, where we found a little landing-
stage made of poles sunk into the lake. We tied up the canoe, or
rather I did, for nobody else remembered to take that precaution, and
presently were on a path which led through the cultivated fields to
the house. Here I insisted upon going first with the rifle, in case we
should be suddenly attacked. The silence and the absence of any human
beings suggested to me that this might very well happen, since it
would be strange if we had not been seen crossing the lake.
Afterwards I discovered why the place seemed so deserted. It was owing
to two reasons. First, it was now noontime, an hour at which these
poor slaves retired to their huts to eat and sleep through the heat of
the day.
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