A FRIGHTFUL PERIL.
Meanwhile the fugitives, unconscious that a sleuth-hound was on their
track, hurried forward and came to a point where the river spread out
broadly over sandy flats.
"This is the ford," cried Me Dain.
"Why was it given up?" asked Jack.
"Because it was too dangerous, sahib," replied the Burman. "Many men,
many women have been seized by alligators at this ford. So the
villagers made a bridge at the narrow place higher up."
"Well, we shall have to face it," said Jack. "How deep is it in the
middle?"
"To the waist when the water is low," replied Me Dain.
"H'm, that's awkward," remarked Jim Dent, "for the water certainly
isn't low to-day. There's been rain among the hills. You can tell by
the colour. It may mean swimming in the middle."
"I'll try it first," cried Jack, "and I'll sing out to you how I find
it. Here goes!" He was about to spring into the river, when Jim Dent
called to him to stop.
"No, no," said Jim. "That won't do, Jack. We might lose you that way,
and we should prefer a good deal to lose a pony."
"Sure thing," said Buck, as Jim looked at him.
"Now," went on Dent, "here's our best plan. We'll go in in a bunch
with a pony each side of the party. Then, if some of these ugly brutes
come up to see who's crossing their river, they're more likely to grab
a pony, and if we lose them, why we must."
"It will be a frightful loss," said Jack.
"It lies between that and being scuppered ourselves," said Dent.
"Yes, yes, Jim, of course," cried Jack. "Your plan is the best."
It was carried out at once. The four men went into the ford in a
bunch, with a pony up stream and a pony down stream. Jack was leading
the up-stream pony, Buck the down-stream animal, while Jim and the
Burman were between them. The crossing was a broad one, near upon a
hundred yards, for the river had spread out on a sandy flat, and they
were thirty or forty yards into the stream before they were more than
thigh-deep. Then the water suddenly deepened a full twelve inches, and
they were up to their waists. The stream, even on the flat here, was
fairly swift, and they could only wade forward slowly.
"Slow job this," remarked Buck. "Water's tougher stuff than you think
to get through. I feel as if I was wading through treacle."
"Yes, doesn't it clog your movements," agreed Jack, "but I should
think we're a good half-way over."
"Deep part got to come yet, sahib," said Me Dain. "We have come
through easy part of ford."
Just at this moment Jim's voice broke in; his tones were low and
fiercely earnest.
"Push ahead, boys," he said. "Do your best. Strike it faster,
everybody."
"What is it, Jim?" The question broke from Jack's lips, but a glance
up stream answered it before Jim could speak in reply. A hundred yards
above the ford a small sand-bank rose above the water. On this bank
lay, to all appearance, three logs washed thither by the current. But
now, oh horror, Jack saw these logs move and raise themselves. They
were huge alligators sunning themselves and waiting for prey. It was
clear that the vast saurians had noted the movement on the surface of
the river. One by one they slid down the sand and vanished into the
stream.
"They are coming, sahibs, they are coming!" cried Me Dain, and his
brown face was hideously ashen with terror.
"Strike it faster, everybody," growled Jim, and the party pushed
forward at their utmost speed through the stream.
"Gosh!" panted Buck. "It's getting deeper and deeper. That's dead
against us."
"Let us go back, sahibs," cried Me Dain, beside himself in terror of
the awful reptiles now coming down stream upon them with frightful
rapidity. "Let us go back. Better to face dacoits than alligators."
"Easy does it, Me Dain," said Jack. "Peg along and do your best. It's
facing death either way. Let's have a go at the other bank."
[Illustration: THE DANGER AT THE FORD.]
"That's the way to talk, Jack," said Jim, through the teeth set in
his white, grim face. "We've got to go through with it now. And hark,
listen to that!"
There was the crack of a musket on the shore behind them, and a ball
whistled over their heads and splashed into the water before them.
Jack glanced back and saw a blue-clothed figure on the river bank.
"They're coming," he said. "One of them's trying to pot us now.
Impossible to turn back."
"Gosh! it's deepening again," growled Buck.
So it was. The stream ran nearly shoulder deep, and the other bank was
still a good forty yards away. Jack pushed on as fast as he could,
urging the pony forward. His breath came fast, and his heart thumped
like a trip-hammer. The situation was inconceivably desperate.
Somewhere through the hidden depths of the rushing stream, three
monstrous and frightful reptiles, fearfully dangerous and terrible
creatures in their own element, were darting swiftly towards them, and
behind them the dacoits now lined the shore and prevented return into
shallower waters which might promise safety from the huge saurians.
Suddenly the pony which Jack led gave a great leap, and pawed the
water madly with its fore-feet, and uttered a loud snort of agonised
terror. Jack held him tight and looked over his withers. Nor could the
brave lad keep back a cry of alarm at the frightful thing he saw
there.