e you
done?"

"It is of no use to make excuses," the lad said to himself; "I have
failed."

He was bending very low now with his elbows resting upon his knees, and
the only comfort he could find was in the thought that if Dick Roberts
had been sent instead, he could have done no better, when he roused
himself with the thought that he must not run any more risks; he must
reach the place where the boat had been left the previous day, and he
was now face to face with the thought that he might over-run the spot
during the dark hours, or, when full daylight came, be in the troublous
position of incertitude as to whether they had rowed too far or not far
enough.

The daylight at last, and the cane brake alive with the cries of the
various strange occupants of its wilds. A light mist was floating
overhead, the leaves were drenched with dew, and when the pale mist
began to grow opalescent, shot as it were with purple, ruby and gold,
everything was so beautiful that the lad's spirits rose with a bound.

"I did my best," he said to himself, "and though I shall get a good
bullying for not doing more, old Anderson will come round and make me
tell everything I have gone through, and then nod his head and say that
I could have done no more."

There was a good deal too in the way of making the subject appear more
cheerful, for the men were pulling at their oars easily and looked full
of contentment, in spite of a few bruises, blood-smears and bandages,
ready, too, to smile at him, when he fully expected to encounter surly
glances full of reproach, while as soon as a question arose for
discussion they plunged into it full of eagerness and excitement.

The first boat-keeper was thoroughly decisive about the spot where the
boat had been left.

"Further on yet, sir," he declared. "I can recollect going along here
yesterday."

"No, you don't," said Tom May surlily. "You don't know nothing about
it, lad."

"Not know? That I do, messmate! Why, I'm sure on it."

"On'y a-guessing, sir. Don't you believe a word he says."

"Oh, come, mate," said Lang, the other boatman; "he's right enough. We
ought to know better than you, because we stopped with the boat."

"Well, that's why you don't know, my lad," said the big sailor. "All
you did was to stop and sit cutting sticks or pegs. We others know
better because we landed and went with the first luff right inland."

"What of that?" said Lang. "You didn't go about the river h