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This book is set before and during WWI in Africa. Rose and her priest brother are sent to Christianize the natives. At the time, central Africa was occupied by the Germans, of which Rose and Samuel highly detested. Samuel dies early on in the book and Rose is devastated. Through her brother’s death Rose becomes highly patriotic and wants to help with her blow for the British Empire. Allnutt comes along and helps her bury him. To get her away from her brother’s grave he invites her on his boat the African Queen. The boat is very rickety and full of high explosives, mainly blasting gelatin. Allnutt tells her of the Köigin Luise (Louisa), a police steamer which the German government maintains. Rose suddenly gets the idea of torpedoing it. With all the explosives, she figures, they could create torpedoes. Allnutt says it’s crazy and tells her of rapids and other dangers that they could come upon. She persuades him to go and he agrees reluctantly. He thinks that once she sees a real rapid she will change her mind. He shows her how to steer the boat. Allnutt remembers about Shona, a German camp that they would have to pass through, and he decides that they won’t go on. To pay him back, while he is sleeping, Rose dumps out every bottle in every case of gin on the boat.
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