“Say that again,” he whispered huskily.
“Say what agen?”
“Did Pete Burge jump in to save my life?”
“Course he did—like a man.”
“Oh!” gasped Nic, turning to look Pete wonderingly in the face.
“Silence there!” roared the overseer savagely. “Do you think you’ve come out here for a holiday, you insolent dogs?”
At the last words the three animals behind the speaker took it to themselves, and began to bark.
“Down! Quiet!” roared the overseer, and the barking of the dogs and his loud command came echoing back from a wood of great overhanging trees, as the boat now passed a curve of the river.
Nic glanced at the overseer, then to right and left of him, before letting his eyes drop on the swiftly-flowing river, to try and think out clearly the answers to a couple of questions which seemed to be buzzing in his brain: “Where are we going? How is this to end?”
But there was no answer. All seemed black ahead as the rapidly-coming night.