“I don’t know what to do for the best,” said the lad to himself. “One moment I feel one way; the next something seems to tug at me the other. I wish I could come to a decision that I knew was for the best.”
He had his wish, for he had hardly had the desire when as the boat glided on through the profound darkness it came in contact with something hard with a heavy shock.
For the moment all was excitement. To the men it seemed as if the cutter was rising up to ride over some huge tree-trunk that was floating across the centre of the stream—some obstruction that had been washed out of the bank during a flood and whose roots still clung to the place of its growth.
“Boat-hook,” said Murray, in a low business-like tone. “Steady, lads. Try if you can shove her off.”
Then like a flash the lad grasped the reality of their position, for voices rose from the right bank of the river, to be answered from the left, and as the occupants of the boat came to the same conclusion, that the great trunk against which the boat had struck must have been placed there by their enemies, so many flashes of light streaked the darkness, followed by loud reports, and then came a fierce yell of despair or pain and a loud adjuration full of rage.
“Shove all you know with that boat-hook,” whispered Murray, “and strain all with those oars. Do you hear? Back-water!”
There was no question about the men hearing, for every one was striving his best in a fierce struggle to get free from a tangle of sharp water-washed boughs; but the boat, after running stem on to the floating trunk and making as if to climb over the impediment, had swung round almost parallel; the water pressed heavily all along its side, and then seemed to be engaged in heaving it over, so that when Murray thrust one hand down over to his left he found that the stream was rippling within an inch of the gunwale, and in another few moments would have been over the side.
It was a question of decisive action, and Murray shouted—
“Trim the boat starboard, all!”
That saved them for the moment, but at terrible risk, for it spoke loudly to the enemy of their position, and in rapid succession almost simultaneously three more streaks of light came from the right bank of the river with their reports.