That would, of all things, be the worst, especially if he
found--which would be just as likely as not--that he had the legs
of us.
"I believe the most certain way of all would be to search for her
in the boats. If we were to paint the gig black, so that it would
not attract attention, give a coating of grey paint to the oars,
and hire a black crew, we could coast along and stop at every
village, and search every bay, and row far enough up each river to
find some village or hut where we could learn whether the Phantom
has been in the habit of going up there. It would take some time,
of course, but it might be a good deal of time saved in the long
run. We could do a great deal of sailing. The gig stands well up to
canvas when the crew are sitting in the bottom, and we could fit
her out with a native rig.
"From here to Cape La Move, following the indentations, must be
somewhere between five and six hundred miles, perhaps more than
that. The breeze is regular, and with a sail we ought to make from
forty to fifty miles a day--say forty--so that in three weeks we
should thoroughly have searched the coast, even allowing for
putting in three or four times a day to make inquiries.
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