The darkness seemed to increase in depth, as it does just before the dawn: it was baffling in its intensity, and seemed to press close.
'Way enough!' sang out Toffy, for quite unexpectedly the little steamer, tied to a stake in midstream, loomed up suddenly before them. The men shipped their oars with precision, and Toffy caught hold one of the fender-ropes.
'Are you there?' he called up to the deck from the impenetrable darkness.
As he spoke Purvis appeared at the top of the little gangway, dressed in his clerkly suit and stiff hat.
'You are just in time,' he said in his thin, high voice, without a trace of excitement in it. 'When the light dawns they will find their boats, and even now we may have to run for it.'
'Get on board,' said Ross roughly, 'and don't waste time.'
'I can't sink my steamer,' said Purvis quietly, 'in this shallow part of the river, and I haven't the means of blowing her up; but I shall now go below and overturn the lamp in my cabin, and the boat and all that is in it will not be very long in being consumed.'
'Stop that lunatic!' yelled Ross, as Purvis turned to descend into the cabin. 'There 's a boat coming up—I can hear the oars distinctly behind us. We 'll be overtaken if there 's a minute's delay!'
Peter, who was next the gangway, sprang on board the boat and stumbled down the companion in the dark.
'Purvis!' he shouted, 'you 'll be shot in cold blood yet if you don't look out.'