Rapids. A hundred miles of water like it was coming out of a fire hose. And after that, why, the rivers even got a different name. It's called the Bora. That goes to show ya. They didn't even know it was the same river until this fella Spengler got...

He got down it, I remember.

Well, yes, Miss, in a dugout canoe. He had a half a dozen Swahili paddlers. Map makin' he was. That was his map you was looking at.

Mr. Allnut?...What did you say is in these boxes with the red lines on them?

Well them? That's blastin' gelatine, Miss.

Is it dangerous?

Bless you, no, Miss. That's safety stuff, that is. You can get it wet and it don't do it any harm. You set fire to it and it just burns. You can hit it with a hammer and it won't go off - at least I don't think it will. It takes a detonator to set it off. I'll put it over the side, though, if it worries you.

No, we may want it. Mr. Allnut?...What are these long, round, torpedo-like things?

Oh them? Them's oxygen and hydrogen cylinders, Miss.

Mr. Allnut?

I'm still right here, Miss. There ain't much of any other place I could be on a thirty-foot boat, ha, ha, ha.

You're a machinist, aren't you? I mean, wasn't that your position at the mine?

Yes, a kind of a fixer. A jack of all trades, a master of none, like they say.

Could you make a torpedo?

How's that, Miss?

Could you make a torpedo?

A torpedo?...You don't really know what you're askin'. You see, there ain't nothin' so complicated as the inside of a torpedo. It's got gyroscopes, compressed air chambers, compensating cylinders...

But all those things, those gyroscopes and things, they're only to make it go, aren't they?

Yeah. Yeah, go and hit what it's aimed at.

Well, we've got The African Queen.

How's that, Miss?

If we were to fill those cylinders with that blasting gelatine and then fix them so that they would stick out over the end of the boat, and then run the boat against the side of a ship, they would go off just like a torpedo, wouldn't they?...We could, what do you call it, get a good head of steam up, and then point the launch toward a ship and just before she hits, we could dive off. Couldn't we?

There's only one little thing wrong with your idea. There ain't nothin' to torpedo.

Oh yes there is.

There's what?

Something to torpedo.

What's that?

The Louisa.

The Louisa! Oh now, don't talk silly, Miss. You can't do that. Honest you can't. I told you before, we can't get down the Ulanga!

Spengler did.

In a canoe, Miss.

If a German did it, we can do it, too.

Not in no launch, Miss.

How do you know? You've never tried it.

I never tried shooting myself in the head, neither. The trouble with you, Miss, is, you, you don't know anything about boats!

In other words, you are refusing to help your country in her hour of need, Mr. Allnut?

All right, Miss, have it your own way. But don't blame me for what happened.