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With ready revolver to compel obedience, she let them up one by one, searching
them carefully for concealed weapons as they stood with hands elevated above
their heads. Once satisfied that they were unarmed, she set them to work cutting
the cable which held the Kincaid to her anchorage, for her bold plan was nothing
less than to set the steamer adrift and float with her out into the open sea, there
to trust to the mercy of the elements, which she was confident would be no more
merciless than Nikolas Rokoff should he again capture her.
There was, too, the chance that the Kincaid might be sighted by some passing
ship, and as she was well stocked with provisions and water--the men had
assured her of this fact--and as the season of storm was well over, she had every
reason to hope for the eventual success of her plan.
The night was deeply overcast, heavy clouds riding low above the jungle and the
water--only to the west, where the broad ocean spread beyond the river's mouth,
was there a suggestion of lessening gloom.
It was a perfect night for the purposes of the work in hand.
Her enemies could not see the activity aboard the ship nor mark her course as
the swift current bore her outward into the ocean. Before daylight broke the ebb-
tide would have carried the Kincaid well into the Benguela current which flows
northward along the coast of Africa, and, as a south wind was prevailing, Jane
hoped to be out of sight of the mouth of the Ugambi before Rokoff could become
aware of the departure of the steamer.
Standing over the labouring seamen, the young woman breathed a sigh of relief
as the last strand of the cable parted and she knew that the vessel was on its way
out of the maw of the savage Ugambi.
With her two prisoners still beneath the coercing influence of her rifle, she
ordered them upon deck with the intention of again imprisoning them in the
forecastle; but at length she permitted herself to be influenced by their promises
of loyalty and the arguments which they put forth that they could be of service to
her, and permitted them to remain above.
For a few minutes the Kincaid drifted rapidly with the current, and then, with a
grinding jar, she stopped in midstream. The ship had run upon a low-lying bar
that splits the channel about a quarter of a mile from the sea.
For a moment she hung there, and then, swinging round until her bow pointed
toward the shore, she broke adrift once more.
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