In the intervals between the almost incessant peals of thunder Joe Cross
informed the lads that the storm had been coming on for the last three
hours, faint and distant at first, the merest mutterings, and gradually
increasing till it was the terrific tempest now raging.
"They must have had it horrid, sir, somewhere, only I don't suppose
there's no people. What we had before was nothing to it."
"There," cried the doctor, "something must be done to the boat in the
way of making it thoroughly secure."
"Can't be no securer, sir. We've got her moored head and stern to a
tree, and two grapnels down as well."
"Capital," cried the doctor. "Well thought of! But we must have the
sail and some of the canvas that we have got here spread over the boat
to keep the water out."
"That's done, sir, as far as the stuff would go, and now I want what we
have got up here, before the rain comes."
"Down with it at once," said the doctor; and in an incredibly short
space of time the tent was struck, what they had ashore was transferred
to the boat, and she was covered in as much as was possible.
And none too soon, for the party had only just embarked when a few heavy
drops of rain came pattering down upon the tightened canvas, soon
increasing to quite a deluge, but, with the peculiarity of a tropic
storm, just when it was beginning to try the canvas and threatening to
soak the interior of the boat, it ceased almost instantaneously, and
they sat listening to the rushing sound of the rain as it swept over the
forest, rapidly growing more distant till it died away.
"Gone!" cried Rodd excitedly. "We didn't want any more troubles, and it
would have been dreadful to have been wet through again."
"Don't be too hopeful, my boy," said Uncle Paul. "That may only be the
advance guard of a far worse storm. It seems too much to think this is
the end."
"It might be all, sir," said Joe Cross, "for it's been an awful bad 'un,
going on for hours in the distance."
"Then we shall be having the water rise again," cried Uncle Paul.
"Yes, sir; that's what I thought," replied the man, "and why I moored
the boat so fast."
"Quite right," cried the doctor, "for likely enough we shall be having
the water coming down from far away, and we must hold on here at any
cost, or we shall be lost again."
"What time do you suppose it is, Joe?" asked Rodd.
"Wants about a couple of hours to daylight, sir."
"Morning!" cried the lads together. "Ah, then it will be easier to
bear!"
During the rest of the darkness it was evident that the storm had passed
over them. There were a few distant mutterings of thunder and little
flickerings of lightning which grew fainter and fainter, to die away in
the west.
The sailors crept out from beneath their awning on to the sand, and were
able to announce that the river had only risen a few inches, and the
rain that had fallen had rapidly soaked in and drained off, while a
pleasant cool air swept briskly over them from the east, heralding a
fresh bright dawn, which came at last with all the promise of a glorious
day.
With some difficulty a fire was started, but once begun the men soon
contrived to get up sufficient for the hurried breakfast; the canvas was
struck where necessary, and the rest spread to dry in the coming
sunshine; and then all being ready for their next start, the doctor
consulted with the coxswain, who after a little pressing gave his
opinion as to what would be the best course to take.
"You see, sir," he said, "I have been thinking that I could get us back
to our last camping-place; I mean, before we came here."
"Well, that's what we all thought before, Joe," cried Rodd pettishly.
"Wait, Rodney, my boy, and let Cross finish," said the doctor.
"I've about done, sir," said the man. "What Mr Rodd says is quite
true, but he aren't quite got what I mean. You see, sir, when we come
up here with the Spanish skipper aboard I sat astarn steering, and when
we went away again I had hold of the tiller once more, same as before."
"Well, we know that," said Rodd shortly. "Be silent, Rodney!" cried the
doctor. "Go on, Cross."
"Well, sir, when we come I was looking this 'ere way; when we started
back I was looking t'other way. Now it seems to me, now we are going to
start again, if instead of sitting astarn and looking straight forward,
if I was to go and sit right in the bows and left somebody else to steer
while I looked over his head, I should be looking up both sides of the
river just as it was when we were coming, and I should see the landmarks
again as I saw them when we were coming here, and consekently I should
know my way better, and I don't think I should miss the next
landing-place again."
"Yes, I see what you mean," cried Rodd excitedly. "Why, to be sure,
Joe! Don't you see, uncle?"
"Yes," cried the doctor. "Quite right, Cross. We will start at once,
going as slowly as we can, and we will, all but the steersman, ride
backwards, keep a sharp look-out, and help.--What's the matter, Morny?"
For the young Frenchman had suddenly started up in the boat, to stand
peering in the direction that they were about to take, and held up his
hand as if to command silence.
"What's that?" cried Rodd, leaping up too.
"What?" asked the doctor.
"Sounds like distant roaring of some kind of wild beast, sir," said one
of the men.
"That it aren't, messmate," said Joe, who had also risen to his feet,
and stood with his hand behind his ear. "It's another storm coming.
Nay, it aren't. It's all bright and clear that way. Why, it's water,
gentlemen, coming with a rush from just the way we want to go."
"Impossible!" cried the doctor. "Why, it would be against the stream."
"I don't care, sir, begging your pardon. I've been in the Trent and the
Severn and the Wye. It was only when I was a boy, but I recollect right
enough. It's what they used to call a bore, with a great wave of water
coming up the river like a flood and washing all before it."
"Had we better land?" cried the doctor.
"And lose our boat, sir? No. Be smart, my lads. It can't be very far
away. All eight of you, oars out, and we must keep our head to it so as
we can ride over the big wave and let it pass under us. I don't suppose
there will be much of it. It's a sort of flood water coming down from
yonder after the storm, and it will soon be over. Don't you worry about
it, gentlemen. It will be nothing to a big wave at sea."
The men made ready with all the discipline of a trained crew, and heads
were turned in the direction of the increasing sound, while it seemed
hard to believe, in the midst of the brilliant sunshine, with the smooth
river gliding onwards as if to meet the supposed wave, that there could
be anything wrong.
The expected danger had seemed to be close at hand, but it had been far
more distant than the party had supposed, for the roar went on steadily
increasing, but with no other suggestion of peril save the noise, though
that was enough to make the stoutest-hearted there quail.
It seemed an age, but was certainly less than an hour, before the dull
heavy roar began to be mingled with a strange crashing and breaking
sound which puzzled all, till the coxswain, who was standing up in the
bows, boat-hook in hand, announced that it was the breaking of trees and
crashing together of their branches as they were being torn up by the
roots.
"Impossible!" said the doctor impatiently.
"Nay, sir, it aren't," said the man. "I don't mean the big trees, but
the little 'uns along the banks; and it's getting close here, sir. It's
a big flood, that's what it is, coming down from the mountains, for
there must be some inland. There! Look yonder. Can't you see the
trees beginning to wave? It's just as if a lake had broke loose and was
coming sweeping over the country. You, Harry Briggs, hold fast to that
tiller. You others, look at your work, and pull. Turn your heads, you
lubbers! I'll do all the looking out. And when I say row, every
mother's son of you pull for his life."
Joe Cross's words were beginning to sound indistinct before he had
finished, half-smothered as they were by the increasing roar, as from
far down the river a dark line of something could be seen rising some
six or eight feet like a huge bank extending right across the river and
apparently into the forest on both sides.
For as far as eye could reach the trees seemed to be in a strange state
of agitation, the lower branches bending towards the party in the boat,
as if beneath the blast of a tremendous gale.
"Sit fast, boys, every one!" yelled Joe; but he stood upright himself,
and the next minute with a wild rush a great bank of water was upon
them, seeming to come with a leap and dash, to plunge beneath the boat's
bows as if to toss her on high and roll her over and over in the flood.
But as it struck them the trained men sat for a moment or two, till in
little more than a whisper above the roar of water, Joe Cross's voice
was heard to give the order "Pull," when seven balanced oars dipped
together, and the bows began to sink.
The men got well hold of the water, and after three or four rapid tugs
the boat sat level once more upon the surface of the flood, obeyed her
helm, and though being carried rapidly along stern on, she shipped very
little water, and in a very few minutes the greater peril was passed.
The crashing roar and rush of the water was almost deafening, but Joe
retained his upright position and signalled with one hand to the
steersman, while he followed suit to the rowers, who kept up a steady
pull against the furious stream, with the result that now the boat sped
on stern foremost at the same rate as the flood.
But the frail craft was exposed to endless risks as the water rushed
along between the two great walls of verdure which marked out the
devious winding course of the river. Time after time they were within
an ace of being swept amidst the boughs of some towering tree; at others
they were brushing over the tops of the shrub-like growth; and yet
amidst the many dangers the crew never flinched, but kept on for hour
after hour, head to stream, with the boat always being borne onward
along straight reaches and round winding curves which looped and almost
doubled back, till at last the violence of the flood grew less, leaving
them more and more behind, till the greatest danger was over and the
speed at which they glided was reduced to nearly half that of the first
rush of the flood.
Another hour passed, and they were still gliding on, and now as they
were swept into a wider reach, it was plain to see how the whole forest
was flooded on either side, apparently to the depth of some six or eight
feet, as near as the coxswain could judge.
Four times over he had drawn attention to the fact that they were
passing the entrances to similar rivers to that down which they sped,
one of them being remarkable for the fact that a portion of their stream
set right into it, while from the others it glided out in the opposite
way. Soon afterwards, with a little clever scheming, the boat was
guided into an eddy where the water swirled round comparatively slack;
and here her head was turned and she resumed her strange journey onward
in the normal way.
The men's labour too now had pretty well ceased, only a dip or two of
the oars being required occasionally to keep the boat's head straight
and make her answer her helm.
And now conversation became more general. The danger being evidently
over, one man hazarded a joke, something about a near shave, while
another said it was a pity because they would have all this 'ere work to
go over again.
Joe Cross heard the remark, and this started him talking, as he laid
down his boat-hook and wiped his streaming face.
"Yes, Mr Rodd," he said, "you wanted to come farther up the river, and
here you have had it. Well, I suppose when the flood's spread all over
it will do same as they always does, begin to drain off again and carry
us back. But I am afraid, Dr Robson, sir, that I must give up what I
undertook to do."
"What?" cried the doctor.
"Ride back'ards, sir, and find the way out of this wet cat's-cradle of a
place. I am very sorry, sir."
"Sorry!" cried the doctor cheerily. "My good fellow, what you have done
during the last few hours has earned the lasting gratitude of us all."
"Has it, sir?" said the man, staring. "Why?"
"Haven't you saved all our lives," cried the doctor, "by your clever
management of the boat?"
"Oh, that's what you mean, sir! But you must play fair, sir. You
mustn't blame me for that. Part on it's my being on board a man-of-war;
part on it's due to Captain Chubb. So you must thank him."
The doctor smiled, and noting this absence of anxiety, Rodd broke out
with--
"I say, uncle, Morny's starving. Isn't it time we had something to
eat?"
"Oh, Rodd!" cried Morny.
"Yes, of course," replied the doctor. "See what you can do, cook, at
once. But surely, Cross, some of the men might lay in their oars?"
"Yes, sir, and if it goes on like this I don't see that we need let this
flood keep on carrying us farther away. There's a nice wind, and not so
much washed-out wood afloat. I am thinking I might have the sail
hoisted and begin to sail back. But my word, look here: how we are
widening out, sir! Look ahead yonder. It's getting 'most like a lake.
Perhaps it is one."
"No," cried Rodd; "it's the river still. Look yonder at the forest
right along the bank."
"Yes, sir, but I was looking at the forest on both sides here where we
are. Why, we are running into another river. It aren't a lake, but
it's ten times as big as this one that we've been spinning along, and--
Well! it's a rum 'un! No; it's unpossible."
"What's impossible?" cried Rodd sharply, and all gazed at the sailor,
who sat looking forward, holding on by one ear and scratching the other.
"Why, this 'ere, Mr Rodd, sir. Just you look, Dr Robson, and see what
you think on it."
"Of what, my man?"
"Why, this 'ere, sir, what I am asking you of. Can't you see, Mr Rodd,
sir?"
"I can see that we are gliding out of a muddy stream covered with green
twigs and great tufts of jungle grass, into a big river flowing right
across us and all thick with what seems to be a different-coloured mud."
"That's right, sir; and didn't you see that splash, just as far off as
you could look?"
"No, Joe."
"Would you mind lending me that there glass of yourn, sir?" said Joe to
the doctor, who passed the little field-glass to the man, whose hands
trembled as he focussed it to suit his eye, and he once more stood up in
the boat and swept the water as far as he could see.
"Thank you, sir," he said, handing it back. "Perhaps you would like to
have a look yourself. But it's all right, gentlemen, and my lads.
Them's crocs out yonder, and we have been washed out into the big river
again with no more trouble; and if we don't see our brig and our
schooner again before many hours, why, my name aren't Joe!"