rs of
lonely vigil. He expected to make the rounds just about once in so
often, and have a few words with the man at the wheel. Felipe had
declared that it was his intention to keep busy himself through the
night, since he dared not trust the wheel in the hands of an
inexperienced pilot while darkness lasted.

In the morning he could give directions, and allow an assistant to do
the work, while he secured some rest.

There was no moon after early in the evening, when the young queen of
the night disappeared in the west, leaving the bright stars to control
the skies.

The boat continued to make good headway against the current, though at
this season of the year the Magdalena is bank full with the summer
rains, which fall almost every afternoon in a deluge.

A searchlight sent a dazzling shaft of light far ahead on the troubled
surface of the booming flood. This was an absolute necessity, for
otherwise it would have been too dangerous bucking against that tide;
laden as the river was with floating tree trunks of gigantic size, that
had been swept from their resting-places in the lowlands above.

Once Frank had seen a wild animal crouched on one of these great
logs. The boat passed so very close to the floating refuge of the beast
that ere darkness claimed the strange craft with its stranger cargo,
Frank had been able to see the tawny hide of the crouching beast, and
note the quick, jerky motion of its long tail.

Upon hurrying to the pilot house and making inquiries of Felipe he
learned that, just as he suspected, the animal was a jaguar, the most
feared inhabitant of the tropical forests away off at the headwaters of
the Magdalena and Orinoco rivers.

There was a spice of peril hovering over the progress of the little boat
during every hour of that night. It might come in the sudden leap of a
wild animal, that judged any port would be better than a floating
log. Then there was a chance of their running afoul of a monster
derelict, in the shape of a drifting snag, that might punch a hole in
their bow, and bring about trouble.

On top of all was this unseen peril from the revolutionists, who were
making the Magdalena country the center of their renewed activity, for
some reason or other, and had their minds set on securing the first
aeroplane ever known to be in Colombia.

The time passed away. When three hours had really gone, and all seemed
well, Frank awoke his chum. Generous to a fault, he might have held ou