The skipper set all hands to work to rig up a tarpaulin to keep the water out; we really stuffed a big dock leaf in, and the “Theodore” continued her voyage right through a terribly dangerous passage at the western end of the Twisty Straits, opposite the Desolate Dead Man’s Teeth, and she passed The Narrows, the most dangerous place on the whole river, where there is only just room for one vessel to pass through at a time.
She continued round the next bend in great style, passing under[Pg 19] the Buccaneers’ Gallows, another most desperate place, and came out in the beautiful clear water, where she went along finely.
Then we had to go home, and the last we saw of her she was going round a big bend as fast as anything, and the man on the look-out was singing out,
“All clear ahead!” and the skipper was singing out,
“Keep her as she goes!” and the man at the wheel was singing out,
“Aye, aye, sir! as she goes it is.”
We went down the next day, but saw nothing of her, though we went ever so far along the river.
She may now be on the high seas, with a skipper shouting all the time,