ild fruits which the two lads had noted from the boat; and there was
the puma, whose society Rob felt a strong desire to cultivate.

Then, too, there was something startling in being suddenly robbed of all
power to act and being swept at a headlong speed along a rapid, for
aught they knew, toward some terrible waterfall, over which they would
be hurled. So that it was with no little satisfaction that they saw
Shaddy seize the boat-hook and, after urging the crew to do their best
to pull the boat toward the trees, stand up in the bows and wait his
turn.

The crew worked hard, and kept the boat's head up stream, and by degrees
they contrived to get it closer to the side, while Shaddy made three
attempts to catch hold of a branch. In each case the bough snapped off,
but at the fourth try the bough bent and held, though so great was the
shock that when the hook caught, the strong-armed man was nearly drawn
over the bows into the river, and would have been but for one of the
boatmen's help.

It was a sharp tussle for a few moments, and then two of the men caught
hold of hanging branches as the boat swung within reach. The next
minute a rope was passed round a branch, and the boat was safely moored.

"Mind looking to see whether I've got any arms, Mr Rob?" said Shaddy.
"Feels as if they were both jerked out of their sockets."

"Are you hurt much?" asked the boys in a breath.

"Pootty tidy, young gents; but I ain't going to holler about it.
There's no time. I don't mind going fast, you know, either in a boat or
on horseback, but I do hate for the boat or the horse to take the bit in
its teeth and bolt as this did just now."

"What do you propose doing, Naylor?" said Brazier. "It is impossible to
get back, and yet I should have liked a few hours more at that
clearing."

"And them you shall have, sir, somehow. I'm not the man to be beaten by
a boat without making a bit of a fight for it first. Let's get my
breath and my arms--ah! they're coming back now. I can begin to feel
'em a bit."

He sat rubbing his biceps, laughing at the boys, Brazier looking up and
down-stream uneasily the while.

"Do you know exactly where this river runs, Naylor?" he said at last.

"Well, not exactly, sir. I know it goes right through the sort of
country you want to see, and that was enough for me; but I've a notion
that it goes up to the nor'-west, winding and twisting about till it
runs in one spot pootty nigh to the big river