“What’s that, Shadrach?” said Brazier; “going to hoist the sail?”
“Ay, sir. No Tessa to tow us now.”
“True. What do you mean to do first?”
“Ask you to resist all temptations to stop at what you calls likely bits, sir, and wait till we get up a hundred mile or so, when I’ll take you into waters which will be exactly what you want.”
“Very good; I leave myself then in your hands.”
“Just to start you, sir. After that it’s you as takes the helm.”
As their guide said, the wind was fair as soon as they had rowed round a bend of the great, smooth river; the sail was hoisted, the oars laid in, and the Indian rowers too, for as soon as they had ceased pulling they lay down forward to sleep, and that night the boat was moored to a tree on the eastern side of the stream, far-away from the haunts of civilised man, while Rob lay sleepless, listening to the strange and weird sounds which rose from the apparently impenetrable forest on the far-away western shore.