"It strikes me, sir, that we shall be grilling in a fetid atmosphere before many hours are past," observed Devoran. "Why couldn’t Karl von Harburg stick to the sea?" "There’s nothing like variety," replied Captain Restronguet complacently. "After we’ve settled with the ’Vorwartz’ we may have a little shooting; lions and rhinos are fairly plentiful, to say nothing of smaller fry. But I do not think we need entertain fears of the climate. It is only at night that the pestilential mists are really dangerous. Every day just before sunset, we will submerge the ’Aphrodite,’ since there is reason to suppose there are deep holes in the bed of the river for this to be done even if the normal depth is insufficient. We shall not thus be inhaling the noxious gases, nor be exposed to the attacks of mosquitoes and other germ-bearing insects; whilst river-water passed through our condensers will be perfectly drinkable." According to the rosy views held by the captain of the "Aphrodite" the new phase of the cruise was to be a sort of picnic; but he had reckoned without his host. On arriving off the First Bluff Point, on the western side of the main outlet of the Zambezi, it was found that there was such a heavy tumble on the bar that to attempt to cross it would be an impossible task. The detector showed that the "Vorwartz" was maintaining her distance; evidently she was in luck, and had negotiated the difficult entrance in the nick of time. For twenty-eight days the "Aphrodite" lay in sight of the clump of high, straight trees, that lay very close together, giving the point the appearance of a cliff, to which the name of First Bluff Point owes its origin. Meanwhile the news of the great disaster to H.M.S. "Topaze" had been sent by wireless to Cape Town by the captain of the "Pique," and in a very short space of time the Admiralty were in possession of the salient facts of the latest outrage by Karl von Harburg. There was a panic amongst the merchantmen in East African waters; the scanty harbours of that coast were filled with ships whose skippers feared to put to sea. Even the mail-boats took particular care to give the supposed cruising-ground of the "Vorwartz" a wide berth; while the liners running between London and Liverpool and Australia and New Zealand abandoned the Cape route and stuck to that via Cape Horn.