The three lengths of cable sent them by Mr. Hampton had been fastened to a strong tree at the water’s edge. The other ends had been made fast in similar fashion. So low had the cables been tied that the ends were only a few feet above water, while the middle portion sagged into the stream. From side to side of the raft, front, rear and in the middle, had been tied stout lengths of rope, passing over the cable. Tied to the forward end, moreover, was a strong line lighter in weight than the cables, with which Mr. Hampton’s party could pull the raft ahead. Other means of propulsion were long stout poles.
Wielding these, Bob and Matse poled out into the stream. They found they touched bottom for a considerable distance. And all went well until they neared the middle of the channel, when the water deepened to the point where poling became an impossibility. Then laying the poles aside, the two raftsmen seized the cable in their hands and what with the tugs they gave it combined with the steady pull from shore, they managed to negotiate the channel without too much difficulty. Whereupon, once more finding themselves in shallower water they again fell to poling and so at length reached the bank in safety.
While bearers were unloading the raft, Bob pointed out to Mr. Hampton an additional safeguard. The rope with which those on shore had pulled the raft ahead seemed to him too light in weight. No heavier rope, however, was available to be attached in its place. But another rope of the same weight was added. Then Jack was signalled to pull the raft back to the island by means of another light rope attached to the rear.
Trip after trip until four had been made the rude ferry was pulled back and forth across the channel without mishap. When all the goods carried down stream on that wild ride had been recovered, the afternoon was well advanced. And Mr. Hampton announced they would camp where they were until the following day.
“Good enough,” said Niellsen, “that will give me a chance to photograph the rapids and the water falls.”
“Oh, you found a fall?” said Frank.
Niellsen laughed. “I got cut up pretty badly scrambling through the rocks and briers to the top of that bluff,” he said, pointing to the promontory a half mile distant, around which swept the river. “But I was rewarded when I got there by sight of a water falls that must be all of seven hundred feet. The river narrows to less than a hundred yards in width, and a tremendous volume of water pours over the lip of the falls. I had only a pocket camera with me. Now I want to go back with a motion picture camera, and get some good film of it. You lads probably want to go along and take a look at what you missed seeing close at hand.”
“Close at hand, is right,” commented Frank. “A little more and we would have been part of it.”
CHAPTER XVI
A CHANGE IN PLANS
The next day Mr. Hampton called the boys and Niellsen into conference regarding their future course. They had put the country of the Kikuyus quite definitely behind them in their passage of the marshy region and now of this river, of which they did not know the name, although Mr. Hampton believed it to be probably a branch of the Terywell.