Their one consolation was that an hour or two after their discovery of Mabele’s flight one of the sudden storms for which Lake Victoria is noted had arisen, accompanied by rolling thunder, lightning and a swishing downpour of rain. Later in the day, after the storm had departed and the waters of the lake had subsided, a native fisherman had brought in the stolen canoe which had been found overturned and floating a mile out from shore. It was their belief, therefore, that Mabele had been drowned. And as on their journey from that point to Masaka they had inquired of every native encountered if a man had been picked up in the lake or had been observed coming to shore, without result, they were confirmed in this belief.
“I don’t know about that,” said Mr. Hampton thoughtfully, in talking the matter over in a general conference later. “He may have managed to reach shore without being observed. And in that case he is on his way to his confederates with word of our coming to the disturbed regions with you, Ransome, as a spy and not merely a member of our exploring and picture-taking party. However, the boys feel so strongly that they want to proceed that I shall chance it. We must all be very much on our guard, however.”
“Bully for you, Dad,” said Jack, enthusiastically. “We can take care of ourselves, never fear. We’ve been in tight fixes before, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” sighed Mr. Hampton, half-humorously, as he regarded his strapping son and the two other boys with a twinkle blending affection and respect. “But every time you get there you add to my bowed shoulders and gray hairs.”
As Mr. Hampton was as straight and lithe as any of the boys, while his thick hair showed little signs of the advance of age, everybody laughed. A laugh in which he, too, joined.
“But what I’d like to know,” said Bob, after the laughter had subsided, “is what Mabele did with our radio set. He couldn’t have carried it far alone, and so far as we have been able to discover he had nobody with him.”
“It’s a puzzle,” said Frank. “But he must have hidden it, intending to return for it later, somewhere near Chief Ungaba’s village. At any rate, the report of his trackers that he was never observed to have that cumbersome piece of baggage with him is satisfactory in one respect. For it means that he was unable in all likelihood to communicate by radio with the enemy, supposing them to have a secret radio station as Mr. Ransome suspects.”