mighty fast here."

Rob seized an oar, and Brazier followed suit, at the same time glancing
toward their last night's halting-place to see if their men were within
reach to come and row and enable him to make an effort to obtain some of
the green, bulbous-looking stems and flowers of the lovely parasite
which had taken his attention. But they were as unobtainable as if they
were a hundred miles away, for it would have taken them days to cut a
way to opposite where the boat was now being held against the swift
stream, and even when they had reached the spot it would have been
impossible to force her in through the tangled growth to the shore.

"Now together, gentlemen!" growled Shaddy. "Keep stroke, please. Pull
hard."

They were already tugging so hard that the perspiration was starting out
upon Rob's brow, and in that short row, with Shaddy supplementing their
efforts by paddling with all his might, they had a fair sample of the
tremendous power of the stream.

"At last!" said Shaddy as they regained their old quarters, where Joe
and the four men had stood watching them. "It will give my chaps a
pretty good warming if we come back this way. Strikes me that we four
had better practise pulling together, so as to be able to give them a
rest now and then when the stream's very much against us."

"By all means," said Brazier.

"You see, men ain't steam-engines, sir, and we might be where there was
no place for landing. O' course we could always hitch on to the trees,
but that makes poor mooring, and we should be better able to make our
way. There's hardly a chance of getting into slack water in a river
like this: it all goes along with a rush."

"But I must get that plant, Naylor," said Brazier. "If you'll believe
me, sir," was the reply, "you needn't worry about that one. I'm going
to take you where you'll find thousands."

"Like that?"

"Ay, and other sorts too. Seems to me, sir, we want to catch a monkey
and teach him how to use a knife. He'd be the sort of chap to run up
the trees." Rob laughed at the idea, and said it was not possible.
"Well, sir," said Shaddy, "you may believe it or no, but an old friend
of mine 'sured me that the Malay chaps do teach a big monkey they've got
out there to slip up the cocoa-nut trees and twist the big nuts round
and round till they drop off. He said it was a fact, and I don't see
why not."

"We'll try and dispense with the monkey," said Brazier; and trusting to