Pete uttered a low groan, but followed in a despairing way, while we went on for another quarter of an hour, with the water deeper and deeper, and at last, to our great delight, my uncle said:
“There, the water is rippling up in my beard, so it is time to go back.”
“Hah!” ejaculated Pete, and then he groaned, for Cross said:
“Not so deep now as it was ten minutes ago, sir.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, sir. I know by my stick. I keep my hand so that it touches the water, and I’ve had to move it twice in the last five minutes. It’s not so deep now by three inches.”
“Go on, then,” said my uncle, and we followed, to find the water getting shallower rapidly now. Ten minutes later it was below my waist, and in another ten minutes not above mid-thigh; but it had evidently widened out, for our voices seemed to go off far away into the distance, and my uncle suddenly said:
“Why, Nat, the river must have widened out into a regular lake. How shall we find the place where it narrows again?”
“Foller that there sound, sir, I think,” said Cross.
“What sound?” I said.