"But the first to turn up at the factory after you'd left me there was not one of our own people, but a caller. He was the agent in charge of the German factory at Mokki. He turned up in a dug-out, and he gave us to understand that he was the most frightened man in Africa. He said his voyage down the creeks was one series of miraculous escapes. He said he'd come to take shelter under the British flag; but when he found that by an oversight we hadn't got such a piece of furniture about the place, and when he saw the holes in the walls and the roof and the--the--what there was lying about under that blazing sun in the clearing, he was quite of opinion that he hadn't run far enough." "The blighted Dutchman," said Captain Image contemptuously. "Well, you see," said the head of O'Neill and Craven confidentially, "a chance like that suited me uncommonly well. To let you into a secret of our Liverpool office, I had reckoned on increasing the output of all our factories, and found I was doing it even more than I had calculated upon. Consequently when there was a big price bid for palm oil and kernels for autumn delivery, I sold heavily." "And now the King of Okky has put ju-ju on you, stopped the roads, and there you are caught short, me lad--I beg pardon, Miss Kate, I should have said." "Of course it only worried me for the moment. These tight places are never really tight if you take the trouble to think out a way through to the other side. In this case it's shown itself to be delightfully simple. I've bought out the German." Captain Image grunted. "Then I wish you'd asked me for advice first. But perhaps you haven't clinched the deal, and can back out of it still. If you'll take the tip from an old Coaster like me, you have nothing to do with it. His old Dutch factory's only worth scrap price." "That's all I've given for it." "And when you do get the oil out of it that's stored there, if it hasn't been looted whilst he's been away pleasuring down the creeks in his canoe, where are you? No better than here. Your trade will be dead. The King of Okky's stopped all the roads." "Now, I'm just going to give you a little geographical surprise. Have you got a map?" Captain Image indicated the drawers beneath the chart table. "Coast charts, of course, which include the river mouths, but I should pile up the old packet in a week if I relied on them. I'm my own pilot for the most part, Miss Kate, and that's why with God's Providence and a sound use of drugs I've managed to work successfully on the coast all these years." "Well, if you haven't got a map of the back country here in your stock, I carry a very accurate one in my head, and if you'll give me a paper and a pencil, I'll draw out something that will surprise you."