This was agreed to. A steam launch was sent back to Zanzibar to advise the consuls as to their movements.
They were going on a punitive expedition now--that was the message--they were to be found near to the mouth of the river, and should a torpedo boat or destroyer come in as well as the large man o' war which had been signalled, the former were to come to the river's mouth, the latter to lie at Zanzibar to defend it.
The weather was now splendid, and the sea smooth and blue like the sky itself. Just a snow-flake of a cloud here and there, and that was all.
So quickly did these three grand ships dash through the water that they reached their destination in little over a day's time.
They kept well out to sea however. Had they gone close enough to the shore to be seen by a sentinel from Lamoo, no doubt the Sultan would have been apprised of their arrival, and suspecting that something had gone wrong would have adopted some means or other of warning his ships.
With steam up they lay at a little distance north of the river, for if some tell-tale dhow had met them to the south, it was within the bounds of possibility that the master thereof might have reported their presence.
But only one dhow appeared, and she was requisitioned, much to her disgust. She was two-masted and very fleet. Her men were taken on board the battleship to be well tended and cared for. Then the dhow was manned with enough Kroomen to sail her, and to his great delight Kep himself, once more got up as an Arab, was put in charge.
This clever lad had spent nearly all his spare time since he joined the Service in learning the duties of a midshipman, and so hard a student had he been, that already he could have done all that was required of such an officer.
He was now to cruise in his dhow near to the mouth of the river, and on the appearance of the midget fleet coming east again make all sail far enough to signal to the warships.
It was a glorious thing, Kep thought, to tread the decks of his own ship. For the time being he felt a real captain and monarch of all he surveyed. It would be only for a short time, but Kep would have liked to be skipper of this dhow for a year he thought. The owner of the craft, had a most superbly furnished poop saloon. The dhow was one of the largest of its class, and its owner evidently a man of wealth.