“True, but we haven’t one, and no tools with which to even make a raft. We’ll have to keep on hoofing it, as the saying goes.”
They had brought with them the remains of the baked curassow and on this they now proceeded to make a dinner. Both longed for some bread and vegetables. They were afraid to touch the berries and other things growing around them for fear of being poisoned.
By throwing some brushwood into the stream they soon made certain of the direction of the current and this accomplished set off once more, after washing down the fowl meat with the coolest drink of water they could find. Fortunately the bank of the stream was tolerably clear of bushes so they made much more rapid progress than before.
“I have an idea,” said Frank, as they moved around a bend into which a mass of driftwood had collected. “Do you see yonder tree trunk, caught in the mud? Why can’t we shove that out into the water and take a ride? It will rest us, and I think the trunk will move just about as fast as we can walk, when once it gets started.”
“I’m willing to try it,” answered Mark, and they set to work to dislodge the tree, which looked as if it had been in the water for some time. Once loose they sprang “aboard,” as Frank called it, and shoved into the stream proper. Caught by the current the tree trunk swung along the surface of the watercourse more rapidly than they had anticipated.
“This is something like,” cried Frank, seating himself on one of the upmost branches. “It’s every bit as good as a canoe.”
“If it don’t take a notion to turn over and dump us into the stream,” answered Mark. “It seems to me it’s a little shaky.”
Nevertheless, he, too, was satisfied and sitting side by side they allowed the tree to carry them down the river. Soon several miles were covered and then they noticed that the watercourse was growing narrower and that the current was correspondingly stronger.
“My, but we are flying along now,” remarked Frank.
“Perhaps we had better try to steer the tree into shore,” returned Mark. “I don’t like this increase in speed. We may be drifting toward some rapids or a waterfall.”