“We’ve passed the worst,” said Shaddy; and after glancing at him quickly, to see if he meant it or was only speaking to give him encouragement, Rob sat looking round at the watery waste, for as far as his eyes could penetrate there was no sight of dry land. Everywhere the trees stood deep in water, that was still as the surface of a lake through which a swift river ran, with its course tracked by rapid and eddy, and dotted still with the vegetation torn out from the banks.
As the boy turned to the great tree beside him he could not keep back a shudder, for the monstrous serpent was in restless motion, seeking for some means of escape; and though there was no probability of its reaching their resting-place, the idea would come that if the writhing creature did drop from the tree, overbalancing itself in its efforts to escape, it might make a frantic struggle and reach theirs.
As he thought this he caught sight of the guide watching him.
“What is it, my lad?” he whispered; and the lad, after a little hesitation, confided in the old sailor, who chuckled softly. “You needn’t be alarmed about that,” he said. “If such a thing did happen your lion would be upon his head in a moment, and in a few minutes there’d be no lion and no snake, only the mud stirred up in the water to show which way they’d gone.”
“The water is sinking, Naylor,” cried Brazier just then, in an excited tone.
“Yes, sir, but very slowly.”
“How long will it take to go down?”
“Days, sir. This place will not be dry for a week.”
“Then what about food and a place to rest?”
“We’ve got enough to last us two days with great care,” said the man slowly, “and we shan’t want for water nor shelter from the sun. Rest we must get as we can up here, and thankfully too, sir, for our lives are safe. As to what’s to come after two days I don’t know. There is, I say, no knowing what may happen out here in two days.”