"Tell me, Joe, have I been asleep and dreaming?"
"I hope so," said the young Italian, pressing his hand.
"Then you are not dead?"
"Do I look like it? No; but I thought you were. Why, Rob, old chap, we
only got back to you just in time."
"But I thought--we thought that--"
Rob ceased speaking, and Giovanni, who looked brown, strong, and well,
finished his companion's sentence after turning to where the two
famine-pinched feeble men lay listening for an explanation of the events
of the past.
"You thought I had been drowned, and that the men had carried off the
boat while you were all looking for me?"
Rob's eyes said, "Yes," as plainly as eyes could speak. "Of course you
would," said Joe, laughing merrily. "You couldn't help thinking so; but
I wasn't drowned, and the men didn't steal the boat. What say, Shaddy?"
For there was a husky whisper from where the old sailor lay--a ghost of
his former self.
"Say?" whispered the guide sourly,--"that we can see all that."
"Tell us how it was," said Rob, holding out his hand, which Joe grasped
and held, but he did not speak for a few minutes on account of a choking
sensation in his breast as the sun glanced in through the ends of the
awning, after streaming down like a silver shower through the leaves of
the huge tree beneath which the boat was moored, while the swift river,
once more back within its bounds, rippled and sang, and played against
the sides.
"The men told me," said Joe at last, with a slight Italian accent in the
words, now that he was moved by his emotion--"they told me all about
what horror and agony you showed as you all went off to rescue me, while
there I was perched up in the branches of the great tree, expecting
every moment that it would be rolled over by the river, unless I could
creep up to the next bough and the next, all wet and muddy as they were,
and I knew that I could not keep on long at that. But all at once, to
my horror, we began to glide down--oh, so swiftly, but even then I felt
hopeful, for the tree did not turn, and I was far above the water as we
went on swifter and swifter, till all at once I caught sight of the
boat, moored some distance onward, with the four men in it sitting with
their backs to me. I made up my mind to leap into the water and swim to
them, but the next minute I knew that it would be impossible, and that
the branches would stop me, entangle me, and that I should be drowned.
Then the tree began to go faster and drift out toward the middle, but it
was caught by an eddy and swept in again toward the shore, so that I
felt I should be carried near to the boat, and I shouted to them then to
throw me a rope."
"No good to try and throw a rope," growled Shaddy faintly.
"Go on, my lad," whispered Brazier, for Joe had stopped.
"They saw me for the first time, and gave a shout, but they all stood up
directly, horrified, for the fierce stream now bore me swiftly on right
down upon them, and before we could all realise it the boughs were under
and over the boat, and it was carried away from where it was moored.
And there it was just beneath me, with the boughs going more and more
over and under it, and our speed increasing till I began to wonder
whether we should roll right over and force it down, or the lower boughs
lift and raise it right up. Then there was another thing to consider--
whether I ought to try and drop down into the boat, or they ought to
climb up to me."
"Ah!" ejaculated Rob, heaving a long sigh and then breathing hard.
"And all this time," continued Joe, "we were being swept down the stream
at a tremendous rate, too frightened to do anything, making up our mind
one way one minute, altering it the next; while, to my great delight,
the tree kept in just the same position, which, I have since supposed,
must have been because the roots were so laden with earth and stones
that it served as a balance to the boughs.
"We went on down like this for hours, expecting every minute would be
our last, for so sure as the tree touched bottom or side it must have
been rolled over by the swift current, but the water was so deep that we
kept on, and, at last gaining courage, I lowered myself a little and got
upon another bough, which was very near to the boat, and there I stood
upright.
"`Shall I jump?' I said, and they stood up ready to catch me, but I
hesitated for a few moments before making a spring, which would take me
through some thin twigs between us.
"In my hurry and excitement, I jumped with all my force, but caught one
foot against a little branch, and was jerked forward so violently into
the boat that in their efforts to save me they made her give a great
lurch, and she began to rock violently, and nearly sent two of them
overboard. The next minute we saw that she had been driven clear of the
boughs which held her and was floating away, but at the same moment the
branches above us began to descend slowly, for the tree was rolling
over, the buoyancy of the boat wedged in among the branches having kept
it stationary so long.
"Our position was now terribly dangerous, for the size and force of the
boughs were sufficient, with the impetus they now had from being in
motion, to drive us right under, an accident which meant death if we
could not escape, but in their desperation the men seized the oars, and
by pushing against the tree thrust the boat so far toward the clear
water that we were only brushed by the outer twigs and thinnest parts as
we were caught by the swift stream and went on down at a tremendous
rate.
"It was not until night was drawing near that we thought of making fast
to a tree at the side where we could rest for the time and then start
back in the morning to reach you again as soon as we possibly could, for
I knew you would be fancying still that I was dead, and that the men had
forsaken you. So we had a meal, and I set the watches, meaning to see
to the men taking their turn. Then, feeling tired out, I lay down for a
few minutes to rest, but--I dropped asleep."
"'Course you did," said Shaddy sourly.
"And when I awoke in a fright the sun was shining, the men were all
asleep at the bottom of the boat, and we were spinning down the river as
hard as we could go."
"Sarved you all right if you'd been upset," growled Shaddy. "That would
have woke some of you up."
"Don't scold me, Shaddy," said the lad humbly. "I know I ought not to
have gone to sleep, but I thought I could trust the men."
"Thought you could trust them?" cried the old sailor. "Why, you
couldn't even trust yourself!"
"No," said Joe humbly.
"Why, Mr Brazier, the pains I've took to make a seaman of that young
chap, no one knows. I only wonder as they weren't all wrecked and
drowned," protested Shaddy.
"Let him go on, Naylor."
"Ay, go on, Mr Jovanni. If there's anything more you ought to be
ashamed on, speak it out and get it over. You'll be better after."
"Isn't he hard upon me, Rob?" said Joe, smiling.
"Yes, but it all turned out for the best," said his companion.
"I didn't think so then," continued Joe, "when I began to find that we
must have been gliding down the river fast all that night, and what I
had begun to find out then I knew more and more as we tried to work our
way back. We couldn't pole because the water was too deep, and we had
to work our way along by the trees, sometimes getting a little way up
the river and then making a slip and being swept down again for far
enough, till I gave it up in despair. The men worked till they could
work no longer. And all the time you were left alone without the guns
and fishing tackle and food, and it used to make me mad to have to use
any of the stores; so I made them fish all I could, and I did a little
shooting, so that we didn't use much."
"Oh, come," said Shaddy in a more agreeable tone, "that's the best thing
we've heard you say yet, Mr Jovanni. That's where my teaching comes
out, but don't you never say a word to me again about your seamanship!"
"But you are keeping him from telling us how he came and saved us just
as he did in the nick of time, Shaddy," said Rob.
"All right, sir, all right! won't say another word," cried the old
sailor querulously, "only don't let him get bragging no more about his
seamanship and management of a crew."
"I never will, Shaddy, and I hope I shall never be placed in such a
predicament again."
"How did you manage to get up the river?" asked Rob.
"Oh, that was easy enough as soon as the flood came; we should never
have got to you without; but as soon as the land was all flooded, I
found that we could get right away from the swift stream and keep along
at a distance, poling generally. Then we were able to take short cuts
across the bends. We did get caught now and then and swept back a bit,
but every day we made a good many miles, and at last as we were rowing
steadily on over the flooded land, which is a good deal more open below,
we neared the opening, and thought it was a good deal altered; but the
men said I was wrong. I felt sure that I was right, and had just come
to the conclusion that you must all have been swept away and drowned,
when I heard the hail, and you are all safe once more."