ater still rising.

All at once I caught at my father's arm.

"What's that?" I whispered, in awe-stricken tones, for there was a
curious quivering thrill in the timbers of the house, and it felt to me
as if it was at last yielding to the presence of the water, and
preparing to break up and float away.

My father did not answer for a few moments, and I knew that he was
listening intently.

"I am not sure," he said at last. "I think--and hope--that it was
something heavy swept against the house, and that it has passed on."

The alarm died out, and we sat either in silence or talking together of
the state of affairs at the settlement, and the possibility of help
coming in the shape of boats at daybreak, when Pomp's sharp voice
suddenly rang out--

"Hi! Who did dat? Who pour cole water on nigger leg?"

In spite of the cold and misery and peril of my position, I could not
help laughing heartily as I heard Hannibal speaking angrily.

Pomp retorted just as sharply, but though his father spoke in their West
African tongue the boy replied in his broken English, to which he was
daily becoming more accustomed, while his father acquired it far more
slowly.

"How I know?" cried Pomp, irritably. "I tought Mass' George play trick.
Hi! Mass' George, you dah?"

"Yes," I said. "What is it?"

"You got anyfing to eat? I so dreffle hungry."

"No, Pomp," I replied, sadly; "nothing at all."

"You been sleep, sah?" he continued, turning to my father.

"No, my lad, no," replied my father, good-humouredly, and I heard the
boy yawn loudly.

There was no need to measure the water now, or to be in doubt as to
whether it was rising, for it had wetted our feet as we sat astride, or
eased the position by sitting in the ordinary way. But the stars still
shone, and the night dragged its slow way on.

"Will morning never come?" I said, despairingly to my father at last.
"Oh, I am so--so sleepy."

He took my hand and pressed it. "Try and bear it all like a man, my
boy," he whispered. "There is a woman with us, and you have not heard
her make a single complaint."

"No; it was very selfish and cowardly of me, father," I whispered back,
"and I will try."

I did, and I conquered, for I know that not a single complaint
afterwards escaped my lips.

And higher still rose the black, gold-spangled water over our ankles,
creeping chilly and numbing up our legs, and we knew that before long
the effort would have to be made to r