assuring them
that there was no great danger, and that he would take good care of us,
they consented to let us go, provided we did not extend our explorations
to any great distance. Tim would have liked to go also, but Uncle Paul
desired him to remain to assist him should his services be required.
Accordingly, each of us taking a long pole as a weapon of defence, as
well as to assist in making our way along the fallen logs and roots of
the trees, we set out. Kallolo led, I went next, and Arthur followed.
We carried also a long piece of rope, one end of which Kallolo held in
his hand, and the other was fastened round Arthur's waist, while I
secured myself by a separate piece to the middle. Should either of us
slip into the water, we could thus easily be hauled-out again.

I knew very well that our expedition would be a hazardous one, but I was
scarcely prepared, I confess, for the difficulties we encountered and
the fatigue we had to go through. Without Kallolo's guidance we should
certainly not have been able to accomplish it. Sometimes we had to leap
from root to root; at others, to walk along a fallen log, raised several
feet above the surface; and often we had to wade in the water up to our
knees, with the risk every moment of being soused overhead in it. Now
and then we had to climb a tree. We were keeping all the while on the
east side of the stream, as it was that on which we expected to find the
encampment. Kallolo advanced cautiously, giving us time to obtain a
firm footing before he again moved forward. Sometimes we were all three
walking together along a fallen trunk, then we had to cling to the huge
buttressed roots of a tree.

We had gone on in this way for a considerable time, when we saw before
us a wide space of water, which it would be necessary to cross ere we
could again reach another mass of trees, over whose boughs we hoped to
make our onward way. Kallolo sounded it with his pole. "We may, I
think, wade across it," he said; "though it may be better to swim, lest
we strike our feet against any stems remaining in the ground." We
agreed to follow him, though I confess I had no great fancy for swimming
through that ink-like water, and could not help fearing lest some
monster lying at the bottom might rise up and seize us. However, it had
to be done, unless we should make up our minds to return.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked.

"Yes, yes," answered Arthur.

Kallolo entered the water a