Far below the travellers, at the foot of steep cliffs, clothed here and there with forest, but in many places bare, flowed the Black Drin. It seemed to Maurice to belie its name, for its waters were of a yellowish brown. They drove on rapidly, sometimes losing sight of the river, but catching glimpses of villages and cultivated fields in the distance.
In a few minutes they entered a narrow gorge which, as Giorgio explained, led straight down to the river. A fast run brought them to the brink of the stream. To the Albanian’s amazement and alarm George ran the car straight into the water. He was rather uneasy himself when he found how the additional weight of a third person depressed the car. The stream was shallow and sluggish, and he had to bring the car very near to the middle of the current before he was satisfied that it would float without risk to the wheels. If they should strike with any force upon a rock in the bed of the river they might buckle, or the tyres might be punctured, and then it would be good-bye to any chance of finishing their journey.
Owing to the make of the car, it was impossible to employ the rods that supported it when the gyroscopes were not working to fend off obstacles in the channel. All that George could do was to keep a sharp look-out over the edge of the wind-screen, and steer what appeared to be the safest course.
“I suppose the channel deepens as we proceed, and we shan’t be in such danger,” he said.
Maurice asked a question of Giorgio.
“Yes, excellence,” replied the man. “The river becomes deeper after the rapids are passed, and deeper still when it joins the White Drin and flows towards the sea.”
“Rapids, are there!” cried George, when the man’s reply was translated. “I hope they’re not bad ones.”
“The water is very swift there,” Giorgio replied to a question from Maurice. “And many rocks stand out of it. Assuredly you will not think of running through the rapids, excellence?”
George declared that he certainly would run the rapids, unless they were very bad. What else could be done? The bank of the river on either side appeared too high and rugged even for a climber to scale.