"What is it?" said the Baker, as Kitty clung to him.
And Smith tried to speak, but could not. He pointed down the river, A steamer was coming round the point! This was then their deliverance, and the very seal upon his luck.
"What is it?" cried Kitty. "Can you kill it, Baker?"
But he took her in his arms, and hugged her till she cried out.
"It's all right, Kitty," he said; "it's only a white man's fire canoe. Don't be scared."
And pulling out his revolver, he fired it into the air, dancing like a mad-man.
In twenty minutes, Smith, the Baker, and Mrs. Mandeville were on an exploration steamer which had come from King's Sound, and had tried their river.
They were received as if they had risen from the dead, for an account of their probable loss had been published in all the colonial papers. Smith found he knew the engineer, and in five minutes they were seated in the stuffy little cabin drinking bottled beer. Kitty, who was the admiration of the whole crew, refused it in terror. But she was glad to eat what they gave her.
"Where did you pick her up?" asked the captain.
"It's a long story," said Smith, and he gave them a rough outline of their adventures.